What If Authenticity Beats Experience In Business?

1 00:00:00,479 - > 00:00:02,000 SPEAKER_02: Business ownership at 18. 2 00:00:03,120 - > 00:00:06,480 Not working for a business, not managing a department, but 3 00:00:06,480 - > 00:00:07,360 owning a business. 4 00:00:08,240 - > 00:00:12,080 Hiring people, making payrolls, being responsible for 5 00:00:12,080 - > 00:00:15,119 livelihoods when you're barely old enough to vote. 6 00:00:16,000 - > 00:00:18,480 Most people would run from that scenario. 7 00:00:19,039 - > 00:00:21,679 Shelby McFarland, she leaned into it. 8 00:00:22,399 - > 00:00:25,839 At 18, she coded a window tip and signshop. 9 00:00:26,079 - > 00:00:29,440 She managed employees who've been in the workforce since 10 00:00:29,440 - > 00:00:30,640 before she was born. 11 00:00:31,440 - > 00:00:37,359 She learned what it really took to earn their respect and how to 12 00:00:37,359 - > 00:00:40,560 react when the debt was stagged against her. 13 00:00:40,880 - > 00:00:44,799 And those lessons, they became the foundation for everything 14 00:00:44,799 - > 00:00:45,920 she's built since. 15 00:00:46,799 - > 00:00:50,560 I'm Steve Goodson, and this is Consulting from the Couch. 16 00:00:50,880 - > 00:00:54,960 A podcast about leaders, what makes them tick, what drives 17 00:00:54,960 - > 00:00:57,039 them, and the challenges they face. 18 00:00:57,840 - > 00:01:01,600 Today's conversation is about starting before you're ready, 19 00:01:02,399 - > 00:01:06,159 building something meaningful from scratch, and leading with 20 00:01:06,159 - > 00:01:10,959 heart in a world that sometimes mistakes kindness for weakness. 21 00:01:11,680 - > 00:01:12,799 Let's get going. 22 00:01:16,879 - > 00:01:19,280 Shelby, welcome to the virtual couch. 23 00:01:20,400 - > 00:01:20,959 SPEAKER_01: Thank you. 24 00:01:21,120 - > 00:01:21,599 Thank you. 25 00:01:22,159 - > 00:01:25,840 SPEAKER_02: So let's start where most entrepreneurship stories 26 00:01:25,840 - > 00:01:27,120 don't usually start. 27 00:01:27,439 - > 00:01:28,719 At age 18. 28 00:01:28,959 - > 00:01:32,079 You weren't just man yeah, yeah, you weren't just managing 29 00:01:32,079 - > 00:01:32,319 people. 30 00:01:32,480 - > 00:01:34,239 You weren't just leading a team. 31 00:01:34,400 - > 00:01:36,000 You were a business owner. 32 00:01:36,239 - > 00:01:39,439 You co-owned a window tent and sign shop. 33 00:01:39,599 - > 00:01:44,159 So take me back to that moment and tell me about how that kind 34 00:01:44,159 - > 00:01:45,599 of even happened. 35 00:01:46,319 - > 00:01:51,040 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I had a full ride to college and I 36 00:01:51,040 - > 00:01:55,920 decided to give that up and pursue what I thought was making 37 00:01:55,920 - > 00:01:56,239 money. 38 00:01:56,400 - > 00:01:58,000 I was like, I don't want to go to college. 39 00:01:58,159 - > 00:02:00,719 I want to just go straight into the workforce and make money. 40 00:02:00,879 - > 00:02:04,239 Yeah, it wasn't that easy, but anyway, so that was the choice 41 00:02:04,400 - > 00:02:05,359 and the path I took. 42 00:02:05,519 - > 00:02:09,439 And then I connected with that partner at the time, and that 43 00:02:09,439 - > 00:02:12,800 was his dream was to have a window tint and sign shop. 44 00:02:12,960 - > 00:02:14,639 So I was like, cool, let's do it. 45 00:02:14,719 - > 00:02:16,240 Like I didn't have a dream of my own. 46 00:02:16,400 - > 00:02:19,039 So I supported him and what he did, you know. 47 00:02:19,360 - > 00:02:23,759 And so I was like, okay, and I just jumped in head first and 48 00:02:23,919 - > 00:02:27,199 well, body first, all of it, the whole thing, the feet, the head, 49 00:02:27,280 - > 00:02:28,479 the arms, everything. 50 00:02:28,719 - > 00:02:30,800 And so we just kind of did it. 51 00:02:30,879 - > 00:02:34,000 And there was no business plan, there was no marketing plan, 52 00:02:34,159 - > 00:02:35,680 there wasn't there was no plan at all. 53 00:02:35,840 - > 00:02:38,639 It was just, hey, let's buy some window tent and let's start 54 00:02:38,639 - > 00:02:40,400 going to people's houses and doing it. 55 00:02:40,639 - > 00:02:44,400 And then that just kind of grew into a big monster within the 56 00:02:44,400 - > 00:02:46,719 first year, more so than what we ever thought. 57 00:02:46,960 - > 00:02:51,280 But it was exciting, but also really scary at the same time. 58 00:02:51,439 - > 00:02:54,719 But I'm really proud of, you know, who I was at 18 that did 59 00:02:54,719 - > 00:02:54,800 it. 60 00:02:55,120 - > 00:02:55,919 SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, absolutely. 61 00:02:56,000 - > 00:03:00,240 So 18, you're not just learning, you're not just learning to lead 62 00:03:00,319 - > 00:03:02,639 because you had employees, but you're learning to run a 63 00:03:02,639 - > 00:03:03,039 business. 64 00:03:03,280 - > 00:03:08,080 You're dealing with payroll, customers, operations, all the 65 00:03:08,080 - > 00:03:10,159 stuff that comes along with running the business. 66 00:03:10,319 - > 00:03:14,560 And you're doing it with employees who probably some of 67 00:03:14,560 - > 00:03:17,280 them may be around your age, but there may have been some that 68 00:03:17,280 - > 00:03:19,120 were significantly older than you. 69 00:03:20,000 - > 00:03:20,719 Couple questions. 70 00:03:20,800 - > 00:03:22,719 So, what was that first day like? 71 00:03:22,960 - > 00:03:25,840 And you know, do you remember like walking in as an owner and 72 00:03:25,840 - > 00:03:28,639 looking around thinking, what have I gotten myself into? 73 00:03:29,840 - > 00:03:31,280 SPEAKER_01: I still think that. 74 00:03:33,840 - > 00:03:39,759 Um so yeah, so I think having employees older than me, I just 75 00:03:39,759 - > 00:03:42,639 kind of got used to that because I've always been more mature for 76 00:03:42,639 - > 00:03:45,840 my age than what I really am, like age-wise or whatever. 77 00:03:46,080 - > 00:03:50,319 So my partner was also older, so that kind of helped a little 78 00:03:50,319 - > 00:03:50,479 bit. 79 00:03:50,639 - > 00:03:53,520 But then I kind of have a demanding presence about myself, 80 00:03:53,680 - > 00:03:56,719 so it was kind of easy to like take that leadership role. 81 00:03:56,879 - > 00:03:59,360 And I don't mean that in a bad way, it's just like I'm very 82 00:03:59,360 - > 00:04:02,719 authoritative, as in like, okay, let's you do that, you do this, 83 00:04:02,800 - > 00:04:04,639 I'll do that, you know, all that kind of stuff. 84 00:04:04,879 - > 00:04:08,960 So I'm pretty simple and easy to get along with, but also I know 85 00:04:08,960 - > 00:04:12,800 how to take people's strengths and make the business work, you 86 00:04:12,800 - > 00:04:13,840 know, everyone together. 87 00:04:14,240 - > 00:04:17,519 So I just kind of like went in with this, and we with that 88 00:04:17,519 - > 00:04:20,319 attitude of, so what if I'm younger than them? 89 00:04:20,480 - > 00:04:23,439 Like, I've always been the youngest everywhere, ever, like 90 00:04:23,519 - > 00:04:24,079 my whole career. 91 00:04:24,160 - > 00:04:27,040 I've always been the youngest in my leads group, any kind of 92 00:04:27,040 - > 00:04:29,680 board that I've ever been a part of, the civic organizations, 93 00:04:29,759 - > 00:04:31,199 I've always been the youngest. 94 00:04:31,360 - > 00:04:34,639 And so I was just like, Well, I don't let that, you know, 95 00:04:35,439 - > 00:04:36,560 interfere with other things. 96 00:04:36,639 - > 00:04:38,560 Why would I let that interfere with my business? 97 00:04:38,800 - > 00:04:42,240 And I don't know, when you treat people right and you treat them 98 00:04:42,240 - > 00:04:43,920 with respect, they respect you. 99 00:04:44,000 - > 00:04:46,319 And I think that was like a really big thing that I learned 100 00:04:46,319 - > 00:04:49,439 at a young age was I can't treat them like crap because then 101 00:04:49,439 - > 00:04:50,480 they're not gonna respect me. 102 00:04:50,560 - > 00:04:52,079 You know, I have to earn that respect. 103 00:04:52,160 - > 00:04:55,439 Yeah, but the first day it was just me and him, but it was 104 00:04:55,439 - > 00:04:59,040 about a year in whenever we started hiring, and it happened 105 00:04:59,040 - > 00:05:03,360 to be friends, and I wasn't really for that, but it was just 106 00:05:03,360 - > 00:05:06,879 kind of what happened, and so it was hard to transition from oh, 107 00:05:06,959 - > 00:05:10,319 we're friends to now no, you have to like listen to like what 108 00:05:10,319 - > 00:05:10,720 I say. 109 00:05:10,959 - > 00:05:13,120 SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so that's so that's a great lead in. 110 00:05:13,199 - > 00:05:17,279 So, you know, I worked in the utility industry for 35 years, 111 00:05:17,360 - > 00:05:21,199 and I watched leaders myself as a leader, you know, kind of 112 00:05:21,199 - > 00:05:24,399 progress, you know, up through the ranks, you know, some some 113 00:05:24,480 - > 00:05:26,879 slow, some some faster than others. 114 00:05:27,360 - > 00:05:31,279 You didn't you just jumped in 18 and learning by the fire. 115 00:05:31,439 - > 00:05:33,519 So you mentioned hiring friends. 116 00:05:33,680 - > 00:05:36,399 Don't know if this is gonna be part of your answer, but what 117 00:05:36,399 - > 00:05:39,759 was the hardest part of those early days? 118 00:05:40,879 - > 00:05:43,920 SPEAKER_01: Oh, I would say just figuring everything out. 119 00:05:44,079 - > 00:05:47,199 Like I have it set out in probably the next five years. 120 00:05:47,360 - > 00:05:50,959 I want to come up with like this program for new business owners, 121 00:05:51,120 - > 00:05:51,360 right? 122 00:05:51,519 - > 00:05:55,360 It's like there is not anything out there that has an outline of 123 00:05:55,519 - > 00:05:57,439 you need to do this, this, this, this, and this. 124 00:05:57,519 - > 00:06:01,120 It's just a bunch of okay, you need to hire a lawyer, a CPA, a 125 00:06:01,120 - > 00:06:02,800 bookkeeper, a marketing agency. 126 00:06:02,959 - > 00:06:05,600 Like, there's just all these things of like, oh, I have to do 127 00:06:05,600 - > 00:06:06,639 this, but not really. 128 00:06:06,800 - > 00:06:08,639 I mean, you can learn how to do things on your own. 129 00:06:08,720 - > 00:06:12,959 I did our taxes for the probably the first three years, and I 130 00:06:12,959 - > 00:06:15,439 don't recommend, like I now I don't recommend that. 131 00:06:15,600 - > 00:06:18,639 But like back then I was like, okay, let's just like figure it 132 00:06:18,639 - > 00:06:18,879 out. 133 00:06:19,040 - > 00:06:21,759 And I think that that was the hardest part is going, well, 134 00:06:21,839 - > 00:06:22,560 what do I do next? 135 00:06:22,720 - > 00:06:23,839 Okay, well, how do I do this? 136 00:06:23,920 - > 00:06:27,120 You know, it was a bunch of like trial and error, especially now 137 00:06:27,120 - > 00:06:28,800 that I'm in the marketing field. 138 00:06:29,120 - > 00:06:31,759 I didn't realize how much I was learning back then about 139 00:06:31,759 - > 00:06:34,560 marketing the old school way, you know, yellow pages and 140 00:06:34,560 - > 00:06:35,199 things like that. 141 00:06:35,439 - > 00:06:38,160 And so I think that's definitely the hardest thing that I had to 142 00:06:38,160 - > 00:06:40,160 face was just figuring out what's next. 143 00:06:40,399 - > 00:06:42,480 Have we got all the legal documents done? 144 00:06:42,639 - > 00:06:44,240 Have I done the taxes right? 145 00:06:44,480 - > 00:06:45,680 Have I paid the taxes? 146 00:06:45,839 - > 00:06:47,519 How do I save for taxes? 147 00:06:47,680 - > 00:06:50,480 You know, things like that that you just don't learn unless I 148 00:06:50,480 - > 00:06:51,360 guess you go to college. 149 00:06:51,439 - > 00:06:52,560 I'm not really sure where you learn that. 150 00:06:53,040 - > 00:06:53,360 SPEAKER_02: I don't know. 151 00:06:53,519 - > 00:06:54,079 Yeah, yeah. 152 00:06:54,560 - > 00:06:55,120 I don't know. 153 00:06:55,279 - > 00:06:58,720 That's that's the that's all the the non-fun stuff, right? 154 00:06:58,879 - > 00:07:02,399 That you uh that's that all the stuff that that you have to do. 155 00:07:02,639 - > 00:07:05,839 You said something interesting you said about earning respect 156 00:07:06,000 - > 00:07:09,120 with the employees, and so I want to talk, just ask a 157 00:07:09,120 - > 00:07:09,759 question about that. 158 00:07:09,839 - > 00:07:13,600 So 18 years old, not 19 potentially, I guess, when you 159 00:07:13,600 - > 00:07:18,160 hire employees after that first year, you uh but you're also and 160 00:07:18,160 - > 00:07:19,920 they're friends, some of them are friends. 161 00:07:20,160 - > 00:07:23,439 Um youngest person in the room, you're also signing their 162 00:07:23,439 - > 00:07:23,920 checks. 163 00:07:24,240 - > 00:07:27,439 So, what is what does that conversation look like from the 164 00:07:27,759 - > 00:07:34,240 the perspective of earning respect, friends, boss, the 165 00:07:34,240 - > 00:07:37,360 whole rigmarole that's associated with that? 166 00:07:38,240 - > 00:07:40,720 SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm not gonna sit here and lie to you. 167 00:07:40,879 - > 00:07:42,639 Like, I did not handle it very well. 168 00:07:42,800 - > 00:07:46,639 I was very young, looking back, obviously immature compared to 169 00:07:46,639 - > 00:07:48,319 the leader I am today. 170 00:07:48,480 - > 00:07:52,079 So I don't think I handled things very well every time. 171 00:07:52,319 - > 00:07:56,160 I think that there was times that I would get those lines 172 00:07:56,160 - > 00:08:00,000 mixed up of like, okay, well, now I'm like raising my voice at 173 00:08:00,000 - > 00:08:03,120 this person because they're also friends because we just hung out 174 00:08:03,120 - > 00:08:05,040 all weekend and I'm kind of tired of them. 175 00:08:05,199 - > 00:08:07,920 Well, then now I'm going to work with them on Monday, you know. 176 00:08:08,240 - > 00:08:11,839 But then, you know, I don't really have a great answer for 177 00:08:11,839 - > 00:08:14,319 that because it was just all such a big learning curve. 178 00:08:14,399 - > 00:08:14,560 Yeah. 179 00:08:14,720 - > 00:08:16,480 And I didn't do very well at it. 180 00:08:16,639 - > 00:08:20,000 I'm glad I didn't do well now because now I'm like really 181 00:08:20,000 - > 00:08:20,639 great at it. 182 00:08:20,720 - > 00:08:23,519 And of course, we're still growing as leaders and all that. 183 00:08:23,920 - > 00:08:27,279 But the bad things I did then, I learned and I'm like, okay, 184 00:08:27,360 - > 00:08:28,639 we're not gonna do that again, you know. 185 00:08:29,439 - > 00:08:31,920 SPEAKER_02: Yeah, learn learn from your mistakes and learn 186 00:08:31,920 - > 00:08:32,240 from that. 187 00:08:32,399 - > 00:08:35,360 So you mentioned your business partner, he a former business 188 00:08:35,360 - > 00:08:36,399 part partner now. 189 00:08:36,559 - > 00:08:38,960 You said you said he was a little bit older. 190 00:08:39,360 - > 00:08:41,600 I I I th I I think you said he. 191 00:08:41,840 - > 00:08:45,200 But is there something particular had he been in 192 00:08:45,200 - > 00:08:49,120 business before, had he owned a business, or was there something 193 00:08:49,120 - > 00:08:55,360 potential potentially that you learned from him and him being a 194 00:08:55,360 - > 00:08:56,159 business owner? 195 00:08:56,399 - > 00:08:59,759 And the second part of that question, going in business at 196 00:08:59,759 - > 00:09:02,720 18 years old by yourself is hard enough, but then having a 197 00:09:02,720 - > 00:09:06,799 partner that you've got to kind of make joint decisions with and 198 00:09:06,799 - > 00:09:07,759 and thing things like that. 199 00:09:07,919 - > 00:09:12,399 So talk a little bit about those those dynamics, uh, if you don't 200 00:09:12,399 - > 00:09:12,720 mind. 201 00:09:13,279 - > 00:09:13,919 SPEAKER_01: Yeah. 202 00:09:14,320 - > 00:09:19,200 So he was we were married, so we got married young. 203 00:09:19,519 - > 00:09:24,000 And I would say that going in business with your spouse is not 204 00:09:24,000 - > 00:09:25,360 the most ideal thing. 205 00:09:25,519 - > 00:09:29,919 Yeah, and I never recommend it unless you were just so solid in 206 00:09:29,919 - > 00:09:32,960 your relationship that you were like, okay, we can do this. 207 00:09:33,120 - > 00:09:36,879 Like, it is not a recommendation of mine to do that because you 208 00:09:38,000 - > 00:09:40,879 get things mixed up, you know, emotions get high. 209 00:09:41,120 - > 00:09:45,039 Women, we have lots of hormone issues, we get emotional, we get 210 00:09:45,039 - > 00:09:46,720 offended, you know, all the things. 211 00:09:46,879 - > 00:09:50,240 Guys, they'll get disrespected, but if they don't really 212 00:09:50,240 - > 00:09:52,720 understand how to separate it, so it's just a whole thing. 213 00:09:52,960 - > 00:09:57,600 So I would say that you know, having a partner was hard for me 214 00:09:57,919 - > 00:10:02,000 because it wasn't a great marriage, and so then we had to 215 00:10:02,000 - > 00:10:05,279 then separate that to like go to business and make sure we're 216 00:10:05,279 - > 00:10:07,360 making money and paying our bills and that kind of stuff. 217 00:10:07,519 - > 00:10:09,679 And I wanted it to be successful, like that was 218 00:10:09,679 - > 00:10:12,240 something like no matter what was happening personally, I 219 00:10:12,240 - > 00:10:15,120 wanted the business to be successful because I put so much 220 00:10:15,120 - > 00:10:15,679 into it. 221 00:10:15,919 - > 00:10:19,840 And I learned a lot of things what not to do when from his 222 00:10:19,840 - > 00:10:23,120 ownership because he's never he never owned a business before. 223 00:10:23,440 - > 00:10:27,440 And it was one of those things where he was disrespectful to 224 00:10:27,440 - > 00:10:31,360 clients, he was not very great with communication with our 225 00:10:31,360 - > 00:10:31,919 employees. 226 00:10:32,080 - > 00:10:34,320 Like there was a lot of gaps that I had to fill. 227 00:10:34,480 - > 00:10:38,399 And then that made my job as like the marketer really hard 228 00:10:38,639 - > 00:10:41,840 because if these people are coming in mad and he's 229 00:10:41,840 - > 00:10:44,559 disrespecting them, well, then I'm having to step in and go, 230 00:10:44,639 - > 00:10:46,080 hey, listen, I'm sorry. 231 00:10:46,240 - > 00:10:47,759 You know, how do you like do that? 232 00:10:47,840 - > 00:10:50,559 Like, how do you say I'm sorry that he's acting this way? 233 00:10:50,720 - > 00:10:55,039 But then also I have to respect his position, you know, and so 234 00:10:55,039 - > 00:10:59,919 that was that was challenging, but I am grateful for learning 235 00:10:59,919 - > 00:11:03,200 the skills that I did because I learned how to tint cars, 236 00:11:03,440 - > 00:11:06,720 learned how to tint windows, and we started the science shop 237 00:11:06,720 - > 00:11:09,120 together, and I'm still doing that to this day. 238 00:11:09,279 - > 00:11:11,679 Of course, I've got a team of people now, which is great. 239 00:11:11,759 - > 00:11:16,159 It's not just me, but it was it was cool to learn skills, even 240 00:11:16,159 - > 00:11:17,519 like working on a car. 241 00:11:17,679 - > 00:11:20,159 I don't know, things that we did to cars, like we would take 242 00:11:20,159 - > 00:11:22,559 emblems off and you know, just random things. 243 00:11:22,720 - > 00:11:26,240 So I'm grateful for the skills that I learned during that time, 244 00:11:26,399 - > 00:11:31,679 and then also the things of what not to do in leadership to be 245 00:11:31,919 - > 00:11:32,720 just one. 246 00:11:33,440 - > 00:11:35,519 SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that that's that's understandable. 247 00:11:35,759 - > 00:11:40,320 So, but 18 to 22 window tent and sign shop. 248 00:11:40,559 - > 00:11:46,639 During that time, were did someone directly challenge your 249 00:11:46,639 - > 00:11:47,840 authority at any point? 250 00:11:48,000 - > 00:11:50,399 I'm I'm sure in four, I'm sure in four years. 251 00:11:50,720 - > 00:11:54,559 And you know how did how did you handle that? 252 00:11:54,720 - > 00:11:59,679 I mean, you know, you you lost the room or you lost an employee 253 00:11:59,759 - > 00:12:01,279 or or or something. 254 00:12:01,600 - > 00:12:04,559 Talk about that and talk about that situ. 255 00:12:04,960 - > 00:12:08,559 Uh maybe probably several, but just talk about one that might 256 00:12:08,559 - > 00:12:09,759 stand out to you. 257 00:12:10,320 - > 00:12:14,960 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so you know, whenever you're in business with 258 00:12:14,960 - > 00:12:17,759 a partner, a romantic partner, you know, there are those lines 259 00:12:17,840 - > 00:12:18,960 like I was talking about. 260 00:12:19,120 - > 00:12:23,440 And I think the fact that him disrespecting me in front of our 261 00:12:23,440 - > 00:12:28,080 employees got into their head to disrespect me as well. 262 00:12:28,399 - > 00:12:33,279 And so when there were any kind of, you know, tiffs about, oh, I 263 00:12:33,279 - > 00:12:36,320 don't want to do that today, or why are you, you know, stacking 264 00:12:36,320 - > 00:12:38,399 so many cars in here, you know, or whatever. 265 00:12:38,480 - > 00:12:40,159 Like I would, you know, I'm the scheduler. 266 00:12:40,240 - > 00:12:43,519 And I knew what their capacity was, I knew what their ability 267 00:12:43,519 - > 00:12:46,559 was, and I knew how many we could push out every day, but 268 00:12:46,559 - > 00:12:48,799 sometimes they came to work and they didn't want to work, and 269 00:12:48,799 - > 00:12:49,600 that's not my problem. 270 00:12:49,679 - > 00:12:51,039 Like you come to work to work. 271 00:12:51,120 - > 00:12:53,759 I mean, I don't care if you're lazy or not, you know. 272 00:12:54,000 - > 00:12:58,960 And so I think that when there were those times that I was 273 00:12:58,960 - > 00:13:02,559 disrespected by employees, I didn't have someone to take my 274 00:13:02,559 - > 00:13:02,879 back. 275 00:13:03,039 - > 00:13:06,960 And again, being as young as I was, I didn't really understand 276 00:13:06,960 - > 00:13:10,879 what was happening, and I didn't really know how to respond to 277 00:13:10,879 - > 00:13:11,120 that. 278 00:13:11,279 - > 00:13:14,000 So I don't really have a great, like, hey, this is how I 279 00:13:14,000 - > 00:13:14,799 overcame that. 280 00:13:14,960 - > 00:13:15,679 I really didn't. 281 00:13:15,759 - > 00:13:18,799 It was something I had to deal with because I didn't have that 282 00:13:18,799 - > 00:13:22,240 support from the other partner in those situations. 283 00:13:22,559 - > 00:13:25,200 SPEAKER_02: So, what it sounds like though to me is that during 284 00:13:25,200 - > 00:13:28,879 this time you were growing up and you were learning some hard 285 00:13:28,879 - > 00:13:29,440 lessons. 286 00:13:29,679 - > 00:13:32,399 You were learning lessons that you were learning lessons about 287 00:13:32,399 - > 00:13:35,279 people, you were learning lessons about trust, you were 288 00:13:35,279 - > 00:13:41,039 learning lessons honestly, about leadership and and whether good 289 00:13:41,039 - > 00:13:44,080 or bad, you were learning let you were learning those lessons 290 00:13:44,080 - > 00:13:49,440 a lot of times about things what not to do, what how how not not 291 00:13:49,600 - > 00:13:50,399 not to react. 292 00:13:50,639 - > 00:13:54,000 So you're getting a crash course in business and leadership 293 00:13:54,000 - > 00:13:55,039 during during this time. 294 00:13:55,279 - > 00:13:59,600 So looking back on that, if you could go back and tell your 295 00:13:59,600 - > 00:14:04,320 18-year-old self something now when you were starting that 296 00:14:04,320 - > 00:14:07,200 business, anything you would tell tell yourself then? 297 00:14:08,000 - > 00:14:08,960 SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah. 298 00:14:09,279 - > 00:14:15,840 I would just encourage her to be more vocal, be more confident, 299 00:14:16,159 - > 00:14:20,480 know that she is more than what she is in that moment. 300 00:14:20,639 - > 00:14:23,120 Like her future is so bright, you know. 301 00:14:23,279 - > 00:14:26,080 I was so tired of hearing that as a kid of like, oh, your 302 00:14:26,080 - > 00:14:27,120 future's so bright. 303 00:14:27,279 - > 00:14:29,679 But now looking back, I'm like, oh, I get it now. 304 00:14:29,759 - > 00:14:32,399 Like I told my kid that, like, oh, your future's so bright, you 305 00:14:32,399 - > 00:14:32,559 know. 306 00:14:32,799 - > 00:14:35,440 But now that I know what my future is, I'm like, oh, well, 307 00:14:35,519 - > 00:14:36,080 it was bright. 308 00:14:36,240 - > 00:14:37,039 Okay, thank you. 309 00:14:37,200 - > 00:14:40,320 Um, so I think that I would definitely go back and tell her, 310 00:14:40,480 - > 00:14:43,440 you know, be more confident, be sure of yourself. 311 00:14:43,600 - > 00:14:46,879 I was not sure of myself whatsoever whatsoever at that 312 00:14:46,879 - > 00:14:51,679 age, and just know that I deserve to be in the role that I 313 00:14:51,679 - > 00:14:52,159 was in. 314 00:14:52,320 - > 00:14:54,720 And that was something I didn't know back then, too. 315 00:14:54,879 - > 00:14:57,840 So I think it would just be a lot of encouragement and also to 316 00:14:57,840 - > 00:15:01,600 get out of that situation a lot sooner than what I had allowed 317 00:15:01,600 - > 00:15:02,559 myself to be in. 318 00:15:02,879 - > 00:15:06,320 SPEAKER_02: So we get placed in situations for reasons, and that 319 00:15:06,320 - > 00:15:11,200 was that was why I mean 18 to 22, four four formative years 320 00:15:11,200 - > 00:15:12,320 where you learned a lot. 321 00:15:12,559 - > 00:15:15,440 And you and you were placed in that position for a reason. 322 00:15:15,600 - > 00:15:19,519 And and so at 22, you decide, hey, I'm I'm gonna do something 323 00:15:19,519 - > 00:15:20,000 different. 324 00:15:20,240 - > 00:15:22,639 You're gonna start the marketing broker. 325 00:15:22,960 - > 00:15:27,519 So kind of kind of sort of kind of might know what prompted that 326 00:15:27,519 - > 00:15:31,200 transition, but but talk a little bit about that and talk 327 00:15:31,200 - > 00:15:36,639 about just the fact that you're 22, second career already at 22, 328 00:15:37,200 - > 00:15:39,759 and time to start something different. 329 00:15:40,559 - > 00:15:43,759 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I had to get out of that relationship, 330 00:15:43,919 - > 00:15:47,759 and it took a while, but I finally got the courage to 331 00:15:47,759 - > 00:15:48,159 leave. 332 00:15:48,399 - > 00:15:53,039 I remember I had a 500 square foot apartment and an air 333 00:15:53,039 - > 00:15:55,440 mattress that had a freaking hole in it. 334 00:15:55,679 - > 00:15:58,559 And so every morning at two o'clock, I would reach back and 335 00:15:58,559 - > 00:16:02,320 go, okay, blow it up again, and then I'd go back to sleep. 336 00:16:02,720 - > 00:16:07,600 But career-wise, I had a lot of people ask me about social media 337 00:16:07,840 - > 00:16:12,320 because I had created like our business as a whole online was 338 00:16:12,320 - > 00:16:12,960 so great. 339 00:16:13,200 - > 00:16:16,639 And so then Facebook, like during that whole time I had 340 00:16:16,639 - > 00:16:20,000 that business, Facebook had opened up business pages, and so 341 00:16:20,000 - > 00:16:23,039 I had to teach myself, okay, how do I do business pages? 342 00:16:23,120 - > 00:16:24,080 How do I do Instagram? 343 00:16:24,240 - > 00:16:24,960 All the things. 344 00:16:25,200 - > 00:16:28,399 And so I had friends that were like, hey, can you help me set 345 00:16:28,399 - > 00:16:28,720 up my stuff? 346 00:16:28,879 - > 00:16:29,919 And I mean, I would do it for free. 347 00:16:30,080 - > 00:16:31,360 Like, sure, yeah, I'll help you. 348 00:16:31,440 - > 00:16:34,000 And then, and then I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, I 349 00:16:34,000 - > 00:16:35,440 could do this and like get paid for it. 350 00:16:35,519 - > 00:16:38,559 Like, I'm this is the part that I enjoy the most about business 351 00:16:38,639 - > 00:16:39,279 was marketing. 352 00:16:39,440 - > 00:16:42,080 Like, that's how I knew I even liked marketing, was like, well, 353 00:16:42,159 - > 00:16:44,320 this is a part of like I knew I hated finances. 354 00:16:44,399 - > 00:16:47,519 Like, ask my bookkeeper now, thank God for him, because I do 355 00:16:47,519 - > 00:16:48,320 not do well. 356 00:16:48,559 - > 00:16:51,679 But I knew the creative side, getting the business, selling, 357 00:16:51,759 - > 00:16:54,639 that kind of stuff was what I really enjoyed about business. 358 00:16:54,879 - > 00:16:58,159 And so I opened up one of the first five agencies here in 359 00:16:58,159 - > 00:17:02,639 Arkansas that provide social media management for customers 360 00:17:02,639 - > 00:17:08,400 or like businesses, and so that was in 2016, and I was it was a 361 00:17:08,400 - > 00:17:12,160 hard start because people didn't understand social media then. 362 00:17:12,480 - > 00:17:16,000 Um, and so it was just like more of an education, but then on a 363 00:17:16,000 - > 00:17:19,359 personal side, like I had been trapped for four years, so I was 364 00:17:19,359 - > 00:17:23,119 partying, I was doing stupid stuff, I was dating around, like 365 00:17:23,200 - > 00:17:27,119 it was just like I look back and I see my OG clients today, and I 366 00:17:27,119 - > 00:17:27,759 still have some of them. 367 00:17:27,839 - > 00:17:30,960 I call them my OGs, like the ones that like somehow trusted 368 00:17:30,960 - > 00:17:31,759 me back then. 369 00:17:32,160 - > 00:17:34,400 But I'm like, why did you even like trust me? 370 00:17:34,480 - > 00:17:36,640 And they're like, Well, we knew that you were smart, and I'm 371 00:17:36,640 - > 00:17:38,160 like, I mean, that's great, thank you. 372 00:17:38,240 - > 00:17:41,440 You know, if it wasn't for those five to six people, I wouldn't 373 00:17:41,440 - > 00:17:44,160 have been able to continue my business and know what it, you 374 00:17:44,160 - > 00:17:46,960 know, know what I could do in it and how it would build and all 375 00:17:46,960 - > 00:17:48,079 that 10 years later. 376 00:17:48,240 - > 00:17:52,079 So yeah, I definitely thought marketing was easy, but then I 377 00:17:52,079 - > 00:17:55,519 still had to be a business owner and manage my own time and sales 378 00:17:55,519 - > 00:17:56,240 and things like that. 379 00:17:56,480 - > 00:17:59,440 SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I mean that's a that's a remarkable, 380 00:17:59,599 - > 00:18:01,519 powerful, you know, testament. 381 00:18:01,680 - > 00:18:04,880 The four years that you went through came out the other side, 382 00:18:05,039 - > 00:18:08,000 this just the things you learned from the marketing aspect. 383 00:18:08,160 - > 00:18:10,400 Not you know, you learned the marketing things, but you 384 00:18:10,400 - > 00:18:11,359 learned about the business. 385 00:18:11,599 - > 00:18:14,480 You learned about, you know, you learned about leadership, you 386 00:18:14,480 - > 00:18:16,799 learned about being a boss, the marketing boss. 387 00:18:17,119 - > 00:18:19,359 SPEAKER_04: You learned, you know, just so many lessons 388 00:18:19,359 - > 00:18:19,920 learned. 389 00:18:23,680 - > 00:18:26,480 So you're building this the marketing broker. 390 00:18:27,200 - > 00:18:29,680 SPEAKER_02: You're recruiting your first team members. 391 00:18:30,319 - > 00:18:35,839 So, how was building a team as a 22-year-old different than 392 00:18:36,079 - > 00:18:39,519 managing or building a team when you were 18? 393 00:18:39,680 - > 00:18:43,119 Did you approach it differently, different leadership style? 394 00:18:43,359 - > 00:18:45,119 So talk a little bit about that. 395 00:18:46,160 - > 00:18:49,599 SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I'm reinventing myself, 22 years 396 00:18:49,599 - > 00:18:52,640 old, trying to figure out who Shelby is as a person. 397 00:18:52,880 - > 00:18:55,440 I kind of knew who I was as a business owner and business 398 00:18:55,440 - > 00:18:57,759 leader, but I didn't really know who I was personally. 399 00:18:57,920 - > 00:18:59,839 So I'm trying to figure that out. 400 00:19:00,319 - > 00:19:04,559 But I did the solo thing for about two years, so that would 401 00:19:04,559 - > 00:19:05,839 put me at 24. 402 00:19:06,240 - > 00:19:09,279 And then I saw one of my competitors. 403 00:19:09,440 - > 00:19:12,480 They had posted on, which by the way is super toxic, everyone 404 00:19:12,480 - > 00:19:12,799 watching. 405 00:19:12,880 - > 00:19:15,200 Do not look at your competitors, do not compare yourself. 406 00:19:15,440 - > 00:19:18,880 So, anyways, I looked at one of my competitors online and I 407 00:19:18,880 - > 00:19:21,759 noticed that they had added all these people to their team. 408 00:19:21,839 - > 00:19:24,640 And I was like, oh my God, everyone's like engaging with 409 00:19:24,640 - > 00:19:26,319 it, you know, like, oh, good job. 410 00:19:26,559 - > 00:19:28,079 This person looks so successful. 411 00:19:28,240 - > 00:19:31,200 I was like, wow, they added like five people to their team. 412 00:19:31,359 - > 00:19:33,200 Now they're gonna be like this big business. 413 00:19:33,359 - > 00:19:36,400 Like, how am I gonna keep up with this as like a solo person 414 00:19:36,400 - > 00:19:37,039 over here? 415 00:19:37,279 - > 00:19:39,759 And so I just went out and was like, screw it. 416 00:19:39,839 - > 00:19:41,039 I mean, I can do that, right? 417 00:19:41,119 - > 00:19:42,079 I can add people. 418 00:19:42,240 - > 00:19:46,000 And so I go and I hire, I think it was four people at the time, 419 00:19:46,160 - > 00:19:50,079 and I'm sitting around a table and for our first meeting, and I 420 00:19:50,079 - > 00:19:53,440 look at like think to myself, well, what are these people 421 00:19:53,440 - > 00:19:54,640 gonna do exactly? 422 00:19:54,880 - > 00:19:56,640 I had not thought any of this through. 423 00:19:56,720 - > 00:19:59,920 I mean, I was just like, get people in the room, I want you 424 00:19:59,920 - > 00:20:03,359 to work for me, like we're gonna be a powerhouse, like we got 425 00:20:03,359 - > 00:20:07,440 this, but there was no like outline of these are your duties 426 00:20:07,519 - > 00:20:10,400 and this is the processes, and this is how we're gonna grow our 427 00:20:10,400 - > 00:20:10,799 business. 428 00:20:10,960 - > 00:20:14,720 And and I mean, humble, very humbled to have to say this is 429 00:20:14,880 - > 00:20:17,839 like a month later, I had to let all of them go. 430 00:20:18,079 - > 00:20:19,519 I had no idea what I was doing. 431 00:20:19,680 - > 00:20:23,920 I lost money, I just paid them, but I didn't I didn't do the 432 00:20:23,920 - > 00:20:25,440 correct things on the back end. 433 00:20:25,680 - > 00:20:29,279 I knew where I wanted to go, but I had gotten ahead of myself in 434 00:20:29,279 - > 00:20:29,839 that way. 435 00:20:30,079 - > 00:20:34,000 And I typically tend to do that, but now I'm like trained where 436 00:20:34,000 - > 00:20:36,400 I'm like, okay, I've got you know, people, I've got a 437 00:20:36,400 - > 00:20:39,759 business coach and stuff that I actually consult with before 438 00:20:39,759 - > 00:20:43,200 making decisions because I now know that I don't need to do 439 00:20:43,200 - > 00:20:43,839 that kind of thing. 440 00:20:44,240 - > 00:20:47,039 And so having my business coach, I hired him right after that, 441 00:20:47,200 - > 00:20:48,400 told him the whole situation. 442 00:20:48,559 - > 00:20:51,039 And so then we start putting processes together. 443 00:20:51,119 - > 00:20:52,960 And he's like, you know what, it's just gonna take time. 444 00:20:53,039 - > 00:20:56,559 And I had to realize, like, I'm not that other company. 445 00:20:56,720 - > 00:20:57,359 I am me. 446 00:20:57,519 - > 00:20:58,559 What's working for me? 447 00:20:58,720 - > 00:21:02,160 What's working for my clients, and how am I gonna be able to 448 00:21:02,160 - > 00:21:06,160 see myself grow, but not necessarily in the same way they 449 00:21:06,160 - > 00:21:06,400 are. 450 00:21:06,640 - > 00:21:10,559 And I took a couple years to really focus on myself and 451 00:21:10,799 - > 00:21:13,519 understand, like, okay, this is where I'm gonna be at as a 452 00:21:13,519 - > 00:21:14,079 business owner. 453 00:21:14,240 - > 00:21:15,119 Then COVID hit. 454 00:21:15,200 - > 00:21:16,160 Then I had a baby. 455 00:21:16,240 - > 00:21:17,519 Yes, I had a COVID baby. 456 00:21:17,599 - > 00:21:18,720 I was one of those people. 457 00:21:19,039 - > 00:21:23,039 And so, you know, having a baby and like doing all that, and now 458 00:21:23,039 - > 00:21:24,559 I have an amazing team. 459 00:21:24,720 - > 00:21:28,559 So, you know, fast forward 10 years later and finally 460 00:21:28,559 - > 00:21:31,440 understanding, oh, well, this is a process, and these are the 461 00:21:31,440 - > 00:21:34,079 team members, and this is what each person does, and this is 462 00:21:34,079 - > 00:21:35,039 how we communicate. 463 00:21:35,200 - > 00:21:37,200 And it's been a learning curve. 464 00:21:37,359 - > 00:21:40,640 I I didn't just jump in at 22 and be like, okay, yeah, let's 465 00:21:40,640 - > 00:21:42,640 hire all these people, and I was super successful. 466 00:21:42,799 - > 00:21:45,440 It was like you mentioned earlier, I learned the lesson 467 00:21:45,519 - > 00:21:47,119 and I always learned it the hard way. 468 00:21:47,279 - > 00:21:48,079 I don't know why. 469 00:21:48,319 - > 00:21:50,960 SPEAKER_02: You know, and I would say probably maybe, and 470 00:21:50,960 - > 00:21:54,000 you might you might agree with this, might disagree, but I 471 00:21:54,000 - > 00:21:57,440 think as a as a business owner, I've worked for a business for 472 00:21:57,440 - > 00:21:59,599 so long and then I retired, and now I'm trying to do this. 473 00:22:00,319 - > 00:22:04,160 But being a business owner, one of the the biggest things you 474 00:22:04,160 - > 00:22:05,440 have to learn is patience. 475 00:22:05,759 - > 00:22:08,559 You have to learn it's a slow grind, right? 476 00:22:08,799 - > 00:22:11,680 It's not it's not just gonna happen immediately. 477 00:22:11,839 - > 00:22:16,960 I mean if it does more power to you and you found that pot of 478 00:22:16,960 - > 00:22:17,359 gold. 479 00:22:17,680 - > 00:22:21,440 But you know, one of the interesting things is it is is 480 00:22:21,440 - > 00:22:25,039 being patient and understanding that and and that that was a 481 00:22:25,039 - > 00:22:26,160 great little tidbit. 482 00:22:26,240 - > 00:22:28,640 Don't don't look at what your other what the competitors are 483 00:22:28,640 - > 00:22:28,960 doing. 484 00:22:29,200 - > 00:22:32,079 Focus on what you're doing and stay true, stay true to that. 485 00:22:32,559 - > 00:22:36,160 And that that kind of leads to the to the next question. 486 00:22:36,400 - > 00:22:39,359 You know, so so you went through that process, you hired the 487 00:22:39,359 - > 00:22:40,640 folks, you let them go. 488 00:22:41,039 - > 00:22:44,559 It was a slow build, but eventually you did start adding 489 00:22:44,559 - > 00:22:45,200 team members. 490 00:22:46,000 - > 00:22:48,319 And you started adding folks that were, I'm assuming, 491 00:22:48,559 - > 00:22:51,279 passionate about marketing, passionate about communication. 492 00:22:51,759 - > 00:22:55,039 You know, and passion is one thing, but I want to talk about 493 00:22:55,119 - > 00:22:56,559 I'm a really big culture guy. 494 00:22:56,799 - > 00:23:00,160 I think culture is culture is is everything. 495 00:23:01,119 - > 00:23:03,599 And I believe culture doesn't happen accidentally. 496 00:23:03,920 - > 00:23:05,519 I think it's intentional. 497 00:23:05,839 - > 00:23:10,319 So through all this, you're making intentional decisions, 498 00:23:10,559 - > 00:23:15,519 but walk me through how you built culture at the marketing 499 00:23:15,519 - > 00:23:20,319 broker and now again drawing on past experiences. 500 00:23:21,519 - > 00:23:25,039 SPEAKER_01: So I think culture it goes further than just the 501 00:23:25,039 - > 00:23:26,400 people that work for us, too. 502 00:23:26,720 - > 00:23:30,240 I think that the clients I bring in, you know, a lot of people 503 00:23:30,240 - > 00:23:33,839 just stop culture at like, oh well, this is what happens in 504 00:23:33,839 - > 00:23:34,559 the office. 505 00:23:34,880 - > 00:23:38,720 No, like your culture is how you sell yourself, it's how you get 506 00:23:38,720 - > 00:23:41,119 the clients, you know, and they have to see who you are. 507 00:23:41,279 - > 00:23:46,000 And, you know, I really try to be the most authentic person as 508 00:23:46,000 - > 00:23:46,400 I can. 509 00:23:46,480 - > 00:23:49,279 If you follow me on social media, you know, I'm all about 510 00:23:49,440 - > 00:23:52,559 let's post about, you know, my daughter, my work, if something 511 00:23:52,559 - > 00:23:53,279 didn't happen. 512 00:23:53,440 - > 00:23:56,799 I put the wrong QR code on a freaking huge piece of 513 00:23:56,799 - > 00:24:00,000 perforated vinyl, and it was the funniest thing I'd ever done. 514 00:24:00,079 - > 00:24:03,039 Like I posted about it because I was like, I just went into this 515 00:24:03,039 - > 00:24:04,480 beautiful perforated vinyl. 516 00:24:04,640 - > 00:24:07,440 The QR code goes to someone that lives in a different state. 517 00:24:07,599 - > 00:24:10,240 You know, it was just like, you know, just like showing those 518 00:24:10,319 - > 00:24:11,920 what those things about business. 519 00:24:12,160 - > 00:24:16,240 But like my culture inside, I want, you know, my girls know 520 00:24:16,240 - > 00:24:18,400 that they can come and communicate with me about 521 00:24:18,400 - > 00:24:19,039 anything. 522 00:24:19,279 - > 00:24:22,640 If they have things that's going on personally, I make sure that 523 00:24:22,640 - > 00:24:24,720 if it's something I can do to help them out. 524 00:24:24,880 - > 00:24:28,240 I'm not a leader that's like, oh, that's their task and 525 00:24:28,240 - > 00:24:30,160 they're the only ones that can get that done. 526 00:24:30,319 - > 00:24:31,359 Like, absolutely not. 527 00:24:31,519 - > 00:24:32,880 I've done this for 10 years. 528 00:24:32,960 - > 00:24:34,640 Like, tell me what you need me to do. 529 00:24:34,720 - > 00:24:36,000 How can I help you? 530 00:24:36,079 - > 00:24:38,880 You know, if your workload is a little bit too much, okay, well, 531 00:24:38,960 - > 00:24:41,519 how can we kind of spend your time a little differently, you 532 00:24:41,519 - > 00:24:41,759 know? 533 00:24:41,920 - > 00:24:46,079 And also just kind of receiving feedback as I give feedback. 534 00:24:46,240 - > 00:24:48,160 I think that's very important as a leader, too. 535 00:24:48,240 - > 00:24:51,839 Like, we have to open that door and understand that we don't, 536 00:24:51,920 - > 00:24:53,440 we're not gonna like what we hear. 537 00:24:53,599 - > 00:24:56,799 We may not like it, but it's gonna help us be a better person 538 00:24:56,799 - > 00:24:59,200 and also be a better leader moving forward. 539 00:24:59,440 - > 00:25:03,920 And culture-wise, I'm very proud of what I have built in the 540 00:25:03,920 - > 00:25:06,960 business because everyone's friendly with each other. 541 00:25:07,200 - > 00:25:10,480 My clients know, like, hey, you know, they'll text me at night, 542 00:25:10,559 - > 00:25:13,440 but they also know that I, you know, will respond in the 543 00:25:13,440 - > 00:25:14,160 morning time. 544 00:25:14,319 - > 00:25:17,519 And so it's just under or setting those expectations out, 545 00:25:17,599 - > 00:25:19,599 I think, is a really big thing about culture too. 546 00:25:19,680 - > 00:25:22,319 Like, what kind of expectations do you want on yourself, your 547 00:25:22,319 - > 00:25:23,279 team, and your clients? 548 00:25:23,440 - > 00:25:24,720 Like, what does that look like? 549 00:25:24,880 - > 00:25:27,839 And being able to clearly put those out there where everybody 550 00:25:27,839 - > 00:25:31,039 can communicate back and forth and know that you know they're 551 00:25:31,039 - > 00:25:32,000 all on the same page. 552 00:25:32,240 - > 00:25:35,119 SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I, you know, I I think too, from a from 553 00:25:35,119 - > 00:25:40,960 a leader standpoint, I I always thought that it was my job to 554 00:25:41,279 - > 00:25:44,880 position the folks that and I and I always said people said 555 00:25:45,519 - > 00:25:48,400 mincing words, but I thought I thought it was it was very 556 00:25:48,400 - > 00:25:52,319 important to me, you know, whether I had 10 or 15 employees 557 00:25:52,319 - > 00:25:56,880 that re reported to me, I supervised whatever title, 558 00:25:57,119 - > 00:26:01,599 however you want to say it, I always said that they worked 559 00:26:01,599 - > 00:26:02,079 with me. 560 00:26:03,039 - > 00:26:05,519 I never said they worked for me, I always said they worked with 561 00:26:05,519 - > 00:26:05,680 me. 562 00:26:05,839 - > 00:26:09,279 But I always thought that the folks that worked with me, it 563 00:26:09,279 - > 00:26:13,200 was my responsibility to position them to succeed. 564 00:26:13,680 - > 00:26:18,079 To to to put them to put them in the best position and to do 565 00:26:18,079 - > 00:26:26,559 whatever I could my efforts to to make them have a good day, to 566 00:26:26,720 - > 00:26:30,960 to to enjoy what they're doing, but most of all succeed. 567 00:26:31,200 - > 00:26:35,039 And so whatever I had to do to to and like you said, hopping in 568 00:26:35,119 - > 00:26:37,759 and hey, you know, you look like you you looked a little 569 00:26:37,759 - > 00:26:39,200 frazzled, you know, what's going on? 570 00:26:39,359 - > 00:26:41,200 You know, what's you know, how can I help? 571 00:26:41,279 - > 00:26:42,000 What can I do? 572 00:26:42,079 - > 00:26:47,119 And and and that's that's uh that's servant leadership, and 573 00:26:47,119 - > 00:26:49,759 and and and it's and it's something that's probably 574 00:26:49,759 - > 00:26:52,000 lacking a lot, you know, today. 575 00:26:52,480 - > 00:26:56,240 So let me tell you the really the the thing that caught my 576 00:26:56,559 - > 00:27:03,200 about your story though is the concept of heart-led marketing. 577 00:27:03,519 - > 00:27:07,039 And in a world, you know, in a world where we have data-driven, 578 00:27:07,200 - > 00:27:11,680 metric-focused, ROI-obsessed things, you're you're talking 579 00:27:11,680 - > 00:27:12,240 about heart. 580 00:27:12,319 - > 00:27:14,400 And I know that those other things are important to you. 581 00:27:14,480 - > 00:27:16,160 As a marketer, they have to be. 582 00:27:16,480 - > 00:27:18,559 But you talk about heart. 583 00:27:18,720 - > 00:27:22,240 So and some people may hear that and think mushy, you know, 584 00:27:22,319 - > 00:27:24,160 softy, filly, mushy, filly. 585 00:27:24,480 - > 00:27:26,480 But I don't think that's what you mean by that. 586 00:27:26,960 - > 00:27:31,759 Explain what heart-led marketing is and and why it matters. 587 00:27:32,559 - > 00:27:34,400 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, heart-led marketing. 588 00:27:34,480 - > 00:27:36,720 I guess I've never thought about it being mushy, but that's 589 00:27:36,720 - > 00:27:37,119 funny. 590 00:27:37,920 - > 00:27:42,400 So I I correlate that with authenticity. 591 00:27:42,640 - > 00:27:45,119 And again, that's my brand, that's who I am. 592 00:27:45,279 - > 00:27:48,640 The person I'm talking to you, like who I am talking to you, is 593 00:27:48,640 - > 00:27:51,279 the same one that my daughter's gonna get after she gets home 594 00:27:51,279 - > 00:27:52,000 from school today. 595 00:27:52,160 - > 00:27:55,359 It's the same one that my partner gets when he gets off 596 00:27:55,359 - > 00:27:55,599 work. 597 00:27:55,680 - > 00:27:58,079 You know, it's just the same one I show up for my best friend. 598 00:27:58,240 - > 00:28:00,319 I'll probably say a few more coastwords around my best 599 00:28:00,319 - > 00:28:01,279 friend, but you know what I mean. 600 00:28:01,359 - > 00:28:04,240 Like it's the same type of person. 601 00:28:04,400 - > 00:28:04,960 Yeah. 602 00:28:05,200 - > 00:28:08,640 Um, and so I think that it's very important as business 603 00:28:08,640 - > 00:28:09,440 owners. 604 00:28:09,759 - > 00:28:11,200 Let's talk about our brand. 605 00:28:11,359 - > 00:28:12,400 We are a brand. 606 00:28:12,720 - > 00:28:15,920 You have your business, but you personally, as a business owner, 607 00:28:16,079 - > 00:28:17,359 have a brand as well. 608 00:28:17,519 - > 00:28:20,319 So you need to lead with your heart in that brand. 609 00:28:20,480 - > 00:28:24,319 You need to share your passions, you need to be yourself around 610 00:28:24,319 - > 00:28:27,680 people so they know what to expect when they do business 611 00:28:27,680 - > 00:28:28,240 with you. 612 00:28:28,400 - > 00:28:31,920 But then, on a business standpoint, heart-led marketing 613 00:28:31,920 - > 00:28:35,119 is show your employees, celebrate them online. 614 00:28:35,519 - > 00:28:39,039 Anything you're posting on social, I want to see as much as 615 00:28:39,039 - > 00:28:42,559 I can of the business behind the scenes, the products, the 616 00:28:42,559 - > 00:28:42,799 people. 617 00:28:42,960 - > 00:28:47,440 That stuff is more important because you are selling to cut 618 00:28:47,440 - > 00:28:49,920 to people, you're a person selling to people. 619 00:28:50,079 - > 00:28:55,359 So if we are only doing things that are numbers driven, then we 620 00:28:55,359 - > 00:28:56,480 kind of become a robot. 621 00:28:56,640 - > 00:28:57,599 We don't want to be AI. 622 00:28:57,759 - > 00:28:59,039 AI is like its own thing. 623 00:28:59,200 - > 00:29:01,839 I love AI, but like we'll let it do it. 624 00:29:02,000 - > 00:29:05,200 And I want us to be people selling to people. 625 00:29:05,440 - > 00:29:08,319 And with my customers, that's that's our strategy. 626 00:29:08,480 - > 00:29:11,440 I'm like, okay, well, we need to come take pictures, we need to 627 00:29:11,440 - > 00:29:14,319 do videos, we need to make sure we are putting those personal 628 00:29:14,319 - > 00:29:18,799 touches on social media because we are bombarded with ads every 629 00:29:18,799 - > 00:29:20,240 day as consumers. 630 00:29:20,400 - > 00:29:22,799 So, how are we separating ourselves? 631 00:29:22,960 - > 00:29:26,240 And if you are dealing with people and selling to them, they 632 00:29:26,240 - > 00:29:28,559 want to know who they're dealing with before they even call you. 633 00:29:28,720 - > 00:29:31,119 They want to see your face, they want to know who you are, they 634 00:29:31,200 - > 00:29:34,160 want to see your employees, and then they'll call you. 635 00:29:34,400 - > 00:29:34,720 SPEAKER_02: Yeah. 636 00:29:35,039 - > 00:29:38,559 So something you said in that that resonated with me a lot, 637 00:29:38,799 - > 00:29:43,039 but you talked about authenticity and being 638 00:29:43,039 - > 00:29:43,599 authentic. 639 00:29:43,680 - > 00:29:47,359 And and you know, I was blessed, a lot of people, you know, 640 00:29:47,599 - > 00:29:51,200 communications, marketing in the in the electric utility world, 641 00:29:51,440 - > 00:29:55,759 it's not it's not glamorous, it's not sexy, it's straight, 642 00:29:55,839 - > 00:29:56,880 you know, it's straightforward. 643 00:29:56,960 - > 00:29:59,920 And and and and even beyond that, I work for an electric 644 00:29:59,920 - > 00:30:05,680 cooperative, which is even more rooted in homegrown your your 645 00:30:05,839 - > 00:30:09,279 your local electric a lot of times they serve a lot of rural 646 00:30:09,279 - > 00:30:11,359 communities and whatnot. 647 00:30:11,599 - > 00:30:16,000 But the the one thing that I feel very fortunate about was 648 00:30:16,319 - > 00:30:20,640 that that space, that especially at co-ops, it's all about 649 00:30:20,640 - > 00:30:22,880 servant leadership and it's not a buzzword. 650 00:30:23,039 - > 00:30:25,359 And you know, it's part of the business model, you know, it's 651 00:30:25,359 - > 00:30:26,559 part of our business model. 652 00:30:26,799 - > 00:30:29,200 And the other thing that I really learned about that was 653 00:30:29,200 - > 00:30:31,920 that good leaders, the best leaders, they don't lead with 654 00:30:31,920 - > 00:30:33,759 authority, they lead with authenticity. 655 00:30:34,160 - > 00:30:35,920 And and that's that's the key. 656 00:30:36,160 - > 00:30:42,160 When you genuinely care about people first, you know, things 657 00:30:42,799 - > 00:30:44,000 things just fall in place. 658 00:30:44,160 - > 00:30:47,119 They they just they just seem to just fall in place. 659 00:30:47,279 - > 00:30:51,599 And so what you're describing is is is kind of what is you know, 660 00:30:51,680 - > 00:30:56,559 it's kind of what I live for 35 years, and and and so again, so 661 00:30:56,720 - > 00:30:58,880 you know, very, very intriguing. 662 00:30:59,200 - > 00:31:02,079 Now, this is one thing, shifting gears a little bit. 663 00:31:02,319 - > 00:31:06,640 So, as part of being the marketing boss and the C CEO, 664 00:31:06,720 - > 00:31:09,519 you're juggling something that a lot of leaders face. 665 00:31:10,000 - > 00:31:10,640 You're a mom. 666 00:31:11,039 - > 00:31:12,000 Mom and CEO. 667 00:31:12,319 - > 00:31:13,920 That's two full-time jobs. 668 00:31:14,160 - > 00:31:17,519 One of your signature speaking topics is mom and CEO. 669 00:31:17,680 - > 00:31:20,400 So I'm just curious, how do you navigate that? 670 00:31:20,480 - > 00:31:25,519 And more importantly, what's been being a mother taught you 671 00:31:26,240 - > 00:31:30,400 about leadership that you might not have learned from running a 672 00:31:30,400 - > 00:31:31,119 business? 673 00:31:32,160 - > 00:31:33,680 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so let's start there. 674 00:31:33,839 - > 00:31:38,720 So I got pregnant during COVID, and that was a big shock because 675 00:31:38,720 - > 00:31:40,880 it was a miracle, honestly, at that point. 676 00:31:40,960 - > 00:31:43,839 I'd always been told I wasn't gonna have a kid, anyways. 677 00:31:44,079 - > 00:31:46,319 So I was like, wow, okay, here we go. 678 00:31:46,400 - > 00:31:47,440 We're gonna have a baby. 679 00:31:47,519 - > 00:31:48,319 That's cool. 680 00:31:48,480 - > 00:31:52,559 And but if you think about it, my firstborn, I've always joked 681 00:31:52,559 - > 00:31:56,079 about my firstborn as turning 10 this year, you know, because 682 00:31:56,079 - > 00:31:56,960 it's my business. 683 00:31:57,039 - > 00:31:58,880 Like, that is my firstborn baby. 684 00:31:59,039 - > 00:32:02,400 I like nurtured it, I made sure it grew, you know, we're in the 685 00:32:02,400 - > 00:32:04,799 stages now that we're growing even more. 686 00:32:05,039 - > 00:32:08,240 So I joke with Kinzie and say she's my secondborn, she doesn't 687 00:32:08,240 - > 00:32:09,680 really like it, but it's funny. 688 00:32:10,000 - > 00:32:16,160 But being like a mom has taught me so many things that I didn't 689 00:32:16,160 - > 00:32:17,759 know I wasn't ever gonna know. 690 00:32:17,920 - > 00:32:18,720 Does that make sense? 691 00:32:18,880 - > 00:32:22,240 Like if I had never been, yeah, if I had never been a mom, I 692 00:32:22,240 - > 00:32:25,359 would have been like so selfish, way because I was very selfish 693 00:32:25,359 - > 00:32:26,559 before having a kid. 694 00:32:26,880 - > 00:32:28,319 I worked a lot. 695 00:32:28,480 - > 00:32:32,160 Now I still work a lot, but back then I was putting in 70 to 80 696 00:32:32,160 - > 00:32:32,720 hours a week. 697 00:32:32,799 - > 00:32:34,559 I was always at networking events. 698 00:32:34,720 - > 00:32:37,839 Me and her dad were married at the time, and so I didn't put 699 00:32:37,839 - > 00:32:40,559 time into our personal relationship, which definitely 700 00:32:40,559 - > 00:32:42,400 didn't do it very much justice. 701 00:32:42,559 - > 00:32:43,440 I mean, obviously. 702 00:32:43,680 - > 00:32:46,799 And so I was more obsessed with working and chasing money. 703 00:32:46,960 - > 00:32:50,079 God, that's all I cared about was like, how much money can I 704 00:32:50,079 - > 00:32:50,240 make? 705 00:32:50,400 - > 00:32:51,279 What's the next move? 706 00:32:51,440 - > 00:32:52,880 How can I get to the next cell? 707 00:32:53,039 - > 00:32:55,039 I never celebrated the wins, you know. 708 00:32:55,200 - > 00:32:58,799 And so with Kinsey, it taught me to slow down. 709 00:32:59,039 - > 00:33:02,079 I thought I was gonna be this great mom that was gonna work 710 00:33:02,079 - > 00:33:06,240 full-time, own a business, have employees, and be a mom 711 00:33:06,240 - > 00:33:06,880 full-time. 712 00:33:07,039 - > 00:33:09,680 Like I was gonna be this boss of a woman. 713 00:33:09,839 - > 00:33:12,799 And let me tell you, I got about eight months into that and I was 714 00:33:12,799 - > 00:33:14,240 like, that's a cute idea. 715 00:33:14,480 - > 00:33:17,039 But I was not made to be a full-time mother. 716 00:33:17,119 - > 00:33:18,720 I was not made built for this. 717 00:33:18,880 - > 00:33:19,920 This was not my thing. 718 00:33:20,079 - > 00:33:22,400 Like I was, you know, very focused on business. 719 00:33:22,559 - > 00:33:25,680 And one of my friends told me, they said, you know, well, why 720 00:33:25,680 - > 00:33:26,960 don't you want to put her in daycare? 721 00:33:27,039 - > 00:33:30,160 And I was like, well, because I'm controlling and I want to 722 00:33:30,160 - > 00:33:33,359 make sure my kid eats what I give her, that she's learning 723 00:33:33,359 - > 00:33:34,880 the things I'm teaching her, you know. 724 00:33:35,039 - > 00:33:38,799 In that moment, I was just very controlling over what happened 725 00:33:38,799 - > 00:33:40,880 to my kid because I didn't want to mess up. 726 00:33:41,119 - > 00:33:44,319 And she said, Well, you know, we're all gifted with different 727 00:33:44,319 - > 00:33:44,720 things. 728 00:33:44,880 - > 00:33:50,400 Why don't you allow a teacher or a daycare worker to use their 729 00:33:50,400 - > 00:33:52,240 gifts to teach your child? 730 00:33:52,559 - > 00:33:55,440 I was like, dang, like that was really powerful to me because 731 00:33:55,440 - > 00:33:59,440 I'm like, I expect people to hire me because I'm an expert in 732 00:33:59,440 - > 00:33:59,839 marketing. 733 00:34:00,400 - > 00:34:03,440 Why would not, why would I not allow someone else to teach my 734 00:34:03,440 - > 00:34:04,880 kid and like take care of her? 735 00:34:05,119 - > 00:34:09,360 So once I finally did that and let go of knowing that, okay, 736 00:34:09,440 - > 00:34:11,519 because I felt like a failure, you know, in that moment. 737 00:34:11,679 - > 00:34:16,880 I was like, well, what can I do to help her, but also still feel 738 00:34:16,880 - > 00:34:18,000 a little bit in control. 739 00:34:18,159 - > 00:34:19,599 So she went to daycare. 740 00:34:19,760 - > 00:34:21,119 Now she's almost in kindergarten. 741 00:34:21,199 - > 00:34:22,480 She'll start kindergarten this year. 742 00:34:22,559 - > 00:34:25,199 So she's thriving in life and way smarter than what I could 743 00:34:25,199 - > 00:34:27,280 have ever done full time with her. 744 00:34:27,679 - > 00:34:33,280 But as a leader, being a mother has taught me to slow down, to 745 00:34:33,280 - > 00:34:34,880 celebrate the small wins. 746 00:34:35,119 - > 00:34:38,000 I mean, just like watching her walk, you know, rolling over, 747 00:34:38,079 - > 00:34:38,639 things like that. 748 00:34:38,800 - > 00:34:40,880 Like, I need to celebrate the small wins. 749 00:34:41,039 - > 00:34:43,679 And as you said earlier, patience. 750 00:34:43,920 - > 00:34:47,519 That is a huge thing that I deal with, and I am not great at it. 751 00:34:47,679 - > 00:34:49,199 I am, I'm still not great at it. 752 00:34:49,360 - > 00:34:50,000 I don't care. 753 00:34:50,239 - > 00:34:51,119 It is, it is. 754 00:34:51,199 - > 00:34:54,079 It's it's hard being patient when, you know, I'm like, well, 755 00:34:54,159 - > 00:34:55,920 okay, can you please just put your jacket on? 756 00:34:56,000 - > 00:34:57,519 Like, bro, put your jacket on. 757 00:34:57,679 - > 00:34:59,519 Every morning I'm like, put your jacket on. 758 00:34:59,599 - > 00:35:00,320 Just do it, you know. 759 00:35:00,400 - > 00:35:01,599 Why can't I do it for you? 760 00:35:01,679 - > 00:35:04,559 But I've got to teach her to be independent and like do things 761 00:35:04,559 - > 00:35:05,599 on her own, you know. 762 00:35:05,760 - > 00:35:08,480 So I think those are the three big things that has taught me 763 00:35:08,480 - > 00:35:09,440 from being a mother. 764 00:35:09,679 - > 00:35:13,280 And I don't really, I don't use the word balance, I use the harm 765 00:35:13,360 - > 00:35:14,480 the word harmony. 766 00:35:14,719 - > 00:35:19,039 So my life is hard, you know, I harmonize the things of being a 767 00:35:19,039 - > 00:35:21,280 mother as well as being a business owner. 768 00:35:21,440 - > 00:35:24,400 Sometimes she gets more, sometimes it gets more. 769 00:35:24,719 - > 00:35:26,800 And they both just have to understand. 770 00:35:26,960 - > 00:35:30,559 Like my team understands that if I've got things to do at the 771 00:35:30,559 - > 00:35:32,960 school or a field trip or something like that, I'm not 772 00:35:32,960 - > 00:35:35,280 gonna be able to talk to them for a couple hours. 773 00:35:35,440 - > 00:35:39,199 But then she also understands if she's home from school and mom 774 00:35:39,440 - > 00:35:42,880 has five meetings back to back to back that I've got to do and 775 00:35:42,880 - > 00:35:44,000 be on the call for. 776 00:35:44,239 - > 00:35:48,000 She's so great about playing on her own, and you know, I'll have 777 00:35:48,000 - > 00:35:50,400 lunch with her and you know, things like that. 778 00:35:50,639 - > 00:35:53,360 So it's just finding that harmony between the two. 779 00:35:53,519 - > 00:35:55,280 I mean, it's a daily, daily struggle. 780 00:35:55,599 - > 00:35:59,519 SPEAKER_02: Well, and you know, and kudos to you because a lot 781 00:35:59,519 - > 00:36:03,280 of people think, and I mean, let's just be honest, especially 782 00:36:03,280 - > 00:36:05,599 women leaders, they think you have to choose. 783 00:36:05,840 - > 00:36:07,039 They think you have to choose. 784 00:36:07,280 - > 00:36:11,440 They think you you have to choose one or the other, but and 785 00:36:11,440 - > 00:36:13,920 that you can't be fully present in both roles. 786 00:36:14,079 - > 00:36:17,920 But I think you know, you challenged that assumption that 787 00:36:17,920 - > 00:36:18,400 assumption. 788 00:36:18,559 - > 00:36:21,199 You you you figured it out. 789 00:36:21,360 - > 00:36:24,559 And and and I think you you know you made a great point. 790 00:36:24,719 - > 00:36:30,239 You you know your staff, the folks that work with you, are 791 00:36:30,239 - > 00:36:32,480 gonna understand that there are gonna be times that you're just 792 00:36:32,480 - > 00:36:33,360 gonna be out of pocket. 793 00:36:33,599 - > 00:36:38,480 There may be a music recital, there may be a an award ceremony 794 00:36:38,480 - > 00:36:40,960 or something, you know, once you well, once they start school. 795 00:36:41,199 - > 00:36:44,639 And at the same time, you know, and at and at the same time, you 796 00:36:44,639 - > 00:36:49,440 know, the presence of mind of of being home and you may have to 797 00:36:49,440 - > 00:36:52,639 potentially take a call from a client, or you may it may be the 798 00:36:52,639 - > 00:36:55,440 only time the client can talk, and and you're there to work 799 00:36:55,440 - > 00:36:56,320 with the client. 800 00:36:56,639 - > 00:37:00,400 So really the key is is is finding that balance. 801 00:37:00,639 - > 00:37:04,079 And a lot of folks, and again, just being honest, a lot of 802 00:37:04,079 - > 00:37:06,400 folks, especially women, feel like they have to choose. 803 00:37:06,559 - > 00:37:08,159 And you've found a way to do both. 804 00:37:08,239 - > 00:37:10,880 So I think, you know, I think that's you know, that's amazing. 805 00:37:11,360 - > 00:37:13,599 SPEAKER_04: So, you know, it's a kudos to you. 806 00:37:17,440 - > 00:37:21,360 So let's talk a little bit about failure. 807 00:37:22,000 - > 00:37:24,079 SPEAKER_02: And you've talked a little, you've talked a little 808 00:37:24,079 - > 00:37:28,239 bit about it because I truly believe, and it's it's a hard 809 00:37:28,239 - > 00:37:32,000 lesson when it's happening and when it's going on, but I truly 810 00:37:32,000 - > 00:37:35,840 believe that a lot of really good things can come from 811 00:37:35,840 - > 00:37:36,719 failing, right? 812 00:37:36,960 - > 00:37:40,559 We don't want to make it a habit, a habit, but you know, we 813 00:37:40,559 - > 00:37:44,719 do, but we do need to understand that one of the greatest 814 00:37:44,719 - > 00:37:46,719 teachers in life could be failure. 815 00:37:46,960 - > 00:37:50,400 You went through these two ventures, you mentioned failure 816 00:37:50,400 - > 00:37:53,840 in the window intent business, you mentioned some failure some 817 00:37:53,840 - > 00:37:57,360 failures in the marketing broker business, you know, hiring the 818 00:37:57,360 - > 00:38:00,400 employees and then having having to lay them off or firing, you 819 00:38:00,400 - > 00:38:02,079 know, making hard, hard decisions. 820 00:38:02,719 - > 00:38:07,840 So tell me about a potential, and you may have mentioned it if 821 00:38:08,000 - > 00:38:10,079 you have, you can, you know, just repeat it. 822 00:38:10,800 - > 00:38:15,599 A leadership failure that may that's really shaped you, and 823 00:38:15,599 - > 00:38:19,440 and something that's that's changed how you might approach 824 00:38:19,440 - > 00:38:22,239 lead leadership or being an entrepreneur. 825 00:38:25,679 - > 00:38:27,760 SPEAKER_01: Gosh, I've had so many leadership failures. 826 00:38:28,000 - > 00:38:29,599 SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we all we all do. 827 00:38:30,880 - > 00:38:33,679 SPEAKER_01: Like I feel like the hiring that would have been a 828 00:38:33,679 - > 00:38:34,400 really big one. 829 00:38:34,960 - > 00:38:39,119 You know, hiring at the wrong time and learning that lesson in 830 00:38:39,119 - > 00:38:39,920 a hard way. 831 00:38:40,159 - > 00:38:40,400 SPEAKER_03: Yeah. 832 00:38:40,639 - > 00:38:43,280 SPEAKER_01: Because I wasn't, but I think the things I learned 833 00:38:43,280 - > 00:38:45,920 mo most about that was about myself. 834 00:38:46,159 - > 00:38:51,599 I was not ready to be a leader, I was not ready to be in charge 835 00:38:51,599 - > 00:38:55,039 of people and their families and paying and all that kind of 836 00:38:55,039 - > 00:38:55,440 stuff. 837 00:38:55,760 - > 00:39:00,000 Before that, I had jumped into this is a good lesson. 838 00:39:00,239 - > 00:39:03,039 I had jumped into networking when I first started this 839 00:39:03,039 - > 00:39:06,559 business because I'm trying to like create my own reputation in 840 00:39:06,559 - > 00:39:10,559 a small town versus having the one that I had with him, you 841 00:39:10,559 - > 00:39:12,400 know, with the window tint stuff. 842 00:39:12,559 - > 00:39:16,800 So I jumped into networking, I went and got on boards, I was 843 00:39:16,800 - > 00:39:20,559 like president of everything, I was in all these organizations, 844 00:39:21,199 - > 00:39:25,039 and I thought that that was gonna give me enough clout and 845 00:39:25,119 - > 00:39:28,159 you know, help me get out of this little hole that I had been 846 00:39:28,159 - > 00:39:29,760 in with him for so long. 847 00:39:30,000 - > 00:39:34,239 And instead, it hurt me as a leader because I was just 848 00:39:34,239 - > 00:39:37,920 chasing after validation and chasing after what people 849 00:39:37,920 - > 00:39:40,880 thought of me versus is this really helping me? 850 00:39:41,039 - > 00:39:42,719 Is this really helping my business? 851 00:39:42,880 - > 00:39:48,320 And when I evaluated my time at that time, I had spent 40 hours 852 00:39:48,320 - > 00:39:52,079 over a one-month period volunteering, as in like on the 853 00:39:52,079 - > 00:39:55,199 boards, organizations, you know, networking, things like that. 854 00:39:55,519 - > 00:39:58,960 And at that moment, I charged $100 an hour. 855 00:39:59,119 - > 00:40:01,679 So I lost$400 that month. 856 00:40:01,840 - > 00:40:03,440 No,$4,000 that month. 857 00:40:03,519 - > 00:40:06,559 See, I don't do math, I don't do finances, I do me neither. 858 00:40:07,440 - > 00:40:12,880 I lost$4,000 that month just because I was trying to get the 859 00:40:12,880 - > 00:40:14,400 approval of other people. 860 00:40:14,800 - > 00:40:17,519 And I do say that that was a failure. 861 00:40:17,599 - > 00:40:20,880 I do say that that was a learning curve of how do I spend 862 00:40:20,880 - > 00:40:25,440 my time and what do I need to do moving forward to make sure that 863 00:40:25,440 - > 00:40:27,599 I'm growing as a person and a leader. 864 00:40:27,840 - > 00:40:31,280 And so I took those hours and started doing listening to 865 00:40:31,280 - > 00:40:34,320 podcasts and reading books and taking time for myself and 866 00:40:34,320 - > 00:40:38,400 developing myself versus just being out there and running my 867 00:40:38,400 - > 00:40:40,960 battery low, you know, running my social battery low, because 868 00:40:40,960 - > 00:40:43,679 then I'm not showing up for anybody at that point. 869 00:40:44,000 - > 00:40:44,639 SPEAKER_02: Yeah. 870 00:40:45,280 - > 00:40:48,159 So the marketing broker. 871 00:40:48,800 - > 00:40:50,000 It's an amazing story. 872 00:40:50,079 - > 00:40:54,800 So you serve both startups, you serve Fortune 500 companies. 873 00:40:54,960 - > 00:40:57,519 And that's a that's a wide that's a widespread. 874 00:40:58,480 - > 00:41:02,320 A lot of agencies, I I've never been owned an agency, but I've 875 00:41:02,320 - > 00:41:05,760 dealt with my my position for for for years. 876 00:41:06,400 - > 00:41:10,800 We had a had agencies of record and and and work with agencies. 877 00:41:11,039 - > 00:41:13,280 A lot of agencies tend to pick a lane, right? 878 00:41:13,360 - > 00:41:16,960 They're either gonna go after the the the small local 879 00:41:16,960 - > 00:41:21,119 businesses, the mom and pops, or you know, or maybe mid mid-sized 880 00:41:21,119 - > 00:41:24,159 businesses, or they're gonna go out go after the big fish. 881 00:41:24,480 - > 00:41:26,159 You're doing both, which I think is cool. 882 00:41:26,320 - > 00:41:28,559 I think that's awesome, because I think there's a lot of lessons 883 00:41:28,559 - > 00:41:31,440 that can be learned from that you can take from the Fortune 884 00:41:31,440 - > 00:41:34,639 500 folks and and apply to the smaller business. 885 00:41:34,880 - > 00:41:37,360 But I think there's probably, in my opinion, just my opinion, I 886 00:41:37,360 - > 00:41:40,239 think there's even more lessons you can take from the small 887 00:41:40,239 - > 00:41:43,599 businesses and how you market from a small business to the 888 00:41:43,599 - > 00:41:44,800 Fortune 500 folks. 889 00:41:44,880 - > 00:41:46,239 But that's just that's just me. 890 00:41:46,480 - > 00:41:53,519 But how do you so how do you scale that serving a local 891 00:41:53,519 - > 00:41:58,880 startup to a large business without losing that heart-led 892 00:41:59,199 - > 00:42:00,960 marketing that makes that difference? 893 00:42:01,199 - > 00:42:02,559 Talk about that a little bit. 894 00:42:03,039 - > 00:42:05,039 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, small businesses are my babies. 895 00:42:05,280 - > 00:42:08,400 I mean, that's what I started out with, and I would say even 896 00:42:08,400 - > 00:42:12,480 if I like niched, I guess, would be small businesses, but I have 897 00:42:12,480 - > 00:42:16,400 become lucky or blessed enough to have Fortune 500 companies 898 00:42:16,400 - > 00:42:21,039 that are like, yeah, come in, be our CMO, like see what you can 899 00:42:21,039 - > 00:42:23,519 do for us, and then I'll work with their marketing team. 900 00:42:23,679 - > 00:42:25,920 So that's kind of how I lead in that way. 901 00:42:26,079 - > 00:42:28,960 So I'm more of like a leader strategist and that kind of 902 00:42:28,960 - > 00:42:32,159 stuff for those people versus using my own team to do the 903 00:42:32,159 - > 00:42:34,800 marketing like we do for the smaller businesses. 904 00:42:35,199 - > 00:42:38,159 So with the small businesses, you do learn a lot more. 905 00:42:38,320 - > 00:42:42,800 I mean, we have learned things from roofing to learning things 906 00:42:42,800 - > 00:42:43,920 about hog trapping. 907 00:42:44,000 - > 00:42:46,960 Like, I've got a hog trap company right now, you know, and 908 00:42:46,960 - > 00:42:49,760 it's one of these things where you get to learn about the 909 00:42:49,760 - > 00:42:50,320 person too. 910 00:42:50,480 - > 00:42:51,599 Like, what's their passion? 911 00:42:51,760 - > 00:42:52,880 How do they get into this? 912 00:42:53,039 - > 00:42:54,159 Why do they get into this? 913 00:42:54,320 - > 00:42:57,679 Like, that's what I really love about the smaller businesses is 914 00:42:57,679 - > 00:43:01,599 understanding the owner and hearing their story and and 915 00:43:01,599 - > 00:43:04,639 knowing that like I'm gonna be a part of their success one day, 916 00:43:04,800 - > 00:43:06,960 especially the ones that just started up, right? 917 00:43:07,119 - > 00:43:12,079 And they have a smaller budget, so I have kind of gone away from 918 00:43:12,079 - > 00:43:15,519 like the startups to more like the three to five years. 919 00:43:15,679 - > 00:43:18,320 They've been in business a little bit, they understand 920 00:43:18,320 - > 00:43:20,880 marketing, maybe they've done it on their own and they're ready 921 00:43:20,880 - > 00:43:21,920 to hire somebody. 922 00:43:22,079 - > 00:43:25,760 And so that's kind of where I'm growing into that to the Fortune 923 00:43:25,760 - > 00:43:26,320 500. 924 00:43:26,480 - > 00:43:29,199 So that way, you know, those startups are they just their 925 00:43:29,199 - > 00:43:32,480 budgets are so small that I'm like, listen, buy my book, buy 926 00:43:32,480 - > 00:43:34,000 my course, figure it out. 927 00:43:34,159 - > 00:43:35,280 You can do this on your own. 928 00:43:35,440 - > 00:43:38,639 You have the time, you know, I encourage them, coach them, that 929 00:43:38,639 - > 00:43:39,519 kind of stuff. 930 00:43:39,760 - > 00:43:43,199 But yeah, the lessons from them are a lot harder than the bigger 931 00:43:43,199 - > 00:43:47,599 ones because the bigger companies leading with heart led 932 00:43:47,599 - > 00:43:51,199 marketing is harder because they're usually owned by 933 00:43:51,199 - > 00:43:53,840 investors and investors like money, and that's all they care 934 00:43:53,840 - > 00:43:54,639 about are numbers. 935 00:43:54,800 - > 00:43:58,400 And I'm over here, like, well, we can do that, but we're not 936 00:43:58,400 - > 00:43:59,760 gonna grow the business online. 937 00:44:00,239 - > 00:44:02,079 If we're not showing up as who we are. 938 00:44:02,320 - > 00:44:05,679 And so there's a lot of pushback in there because they don't 939 00:44:05,679 - > 00:44:08,800 understand that and they want to be like this big company and 940 00:44:08,800 - > 00:44:09,440 look really big. 941 00:44:09,519 - > 00:44:12,719 And I'm like, you can be successful in a large company, 942 00:44:12,880 - > 00:44:16,480 but you can also relate to people that are walking down the 943 00:44:16,480 - > 00:44:19,360 street and see that, oh, that employee works at this company. 944 00:44:19,440 - > 00:44:22,400 I'm gonna say hey, or you know what, I recognize him from 945 00:44:22,400 - > 00:44:22,719 something. 946 00:44:22,800 - > 00:44:25,119 SPEAKER_02: So the heart-led marketing in that way is a lot 947 00:44:25,119 - > 00:44:27,360 different because there's a little bit more pushback in the 948 00:44:28,800 - > 00:44:32,559 yeah, and that so you know, again, tying it back to my 949 00:44:32,559 - > 00:44:38,079 experience, both for the marketing broker and for these 950 00:44:38,079 - > 00:44:42,480 smaller businesses that you're dealing with, that's actually a 951 00:44:42,480 - > 00:44:44,000 competitive advantage. 952 00:44:44,239 - > 00:44:49,280 So, so so, you know, for myself, I didn't work for a big 953 00:44:49,280 - > 00:44:50,559 investor-owned utility. 954 00:44:50,639 - > 00:44:53,519 I didn't have to to, you know, we weren't answering to 955 00:44:54,320 - > 00:44:57,039 stockholders that were in New York or wherever they were. 956 00:44:57,119 - > 00:45:01,039 We weren't trying to manipulate stock pricing, you know, on the 957 00:45:01,039 - > 00:45:01,840 stock market. 958 00:45:02,320 - > 00:45:04,800 And we had something, honestly, that mut that money couldn't 959 00:45:04,800 - > 00:45:05,039 buy. 960 00:45:05,199 - > 00:45:07,039 We knew the folks that we served. 961 00:45:07,199 - > 00:45:09,920 We call them members, co-op calls them, you know, co-ops 962 00:45:09,920 - > 00:45:10,800 call them members. 963 00:45:11,039 - > 00:45:14,639 We genuinely knew our members, and we genuinely, you know, we 964 00:45:14,639 - > 00:45:16,000 showed up, we cared. 965 00:45:16,480 - > 00:45:18,159 And that's a competitive advantage. 966 00:45:18,239 - > 00:45:21,920 And and you can't, no matter, you know, bigger and always 967 00:45:21,920 - > 00:45:22,320 better. 968 00:45:22,480 - > 00:45:26,000 And that's just something that being bigger, you just you just 969 00:45:26,000 - > 00:45:26,880 can't replicate. 970 00:45:27,760 - > 00:45:31,199 It's just not you can't, it's part of the secret sauce. 971 00:45:31,760 - > 00:45:36,480 And and you know, I was just thinking back about when you 972 00:45:36,480 - > 00:45:40,239 would go, you might go and you might be competing with an 973 00:45:40,239 - > 00:45:43,760 agency out of say Dallas, because that's that that's a 974 00:45:43,760 - > 00:45:47,519 large metropolitan area near you, or you may be competing, 975 00:45:47,679 - > 00:45:51,039 you know, somewhere from Chicago or something like that, and you 976 00:45:51,039 - > 00:45:53,840 know, they're coming in all slick, dressed up, and you're 977 00:45:53,840 - > 00:45:56,239 coming in, you're you're coming in your genuine self. 978 00:45:56,480 - > 00:46:00,159 And not that you're not that you're not fixed up and no, I 979 00:46:00,159 - > 00:46:00,639 get it, yeah. 980 00:46:01,119 - > 00:46:04,559 And you're right, but you've got a competitive advantage that 981 00:46:04,559 - > 00:46:06,880 that those big guys just just can't get. 982 00:46:07,039 - > 00:46:09,760 And that's you know, and that's they're all the clock. 983 00:46:12,239 - > 00:46:14,320 That's exactly so. 984 00:46:14,400 - > 00:46:17,440 One thing else I've noticed about your approach, both in the 985 00:46:17,440 - > 00:46:20,719 book, and I've and I've actually started reading the book and in 986 00:46:20,719 - > 00:46:24,960 how you talk about your work is radical transparency. 987 00:46:25,519 - > 00:46:28,320 You're honest about mistakes, you don't pretend to have it all 988 00:46:28,320 - > 00:46:28,960 figured out. 989 00:46:29,119 - > 00:46:34,239 I don't if anybody has it all figured out, yeah, yeah, they're 990 00:46:34,239 - > 00:46:34,639 bluffing. 991 00:46:35,039 - > 00:46:36,559 SPEAKER_03: I don't know, make a comment, let us know. 992 00:46:36,800 - > 00:46:37,920 You can do the next one. 993 00:46:38,239 - > 00:46:40,400 SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they're bluff, they're bluffing for one thing. 994 00:46:40,480 - > 00:46:44,639 But anyway, uh that's a that's unusual in business where where 995 00:46:44,639 - > 00:46:47,760 everyone wants to project, you know, this perfection. 996 00:46:48,239 - > 00:46:53,360 So why is transparency important to you as a leader? 997 00:46:54,480 - > 00:46:57,840 SPEAKER_01: So as a leader, like with my people, I'm I make 998 00:46:57,840 - > 00:46:59,199 mistakes every day almost. 999 00:46:59,280 - > 00:47:02,159 You know, if I'm like, if my marketing assistant is asking, 1000 00:47:02,239 - > 00:47:03,920 in fact, this happened two days ago. 1001 00:47:04,159 - > 00:47:06,800 She was on Slack and was like, hey, I need, you know, I was 1002 00:47:06,880 - > 00:47:08,239 like, hey, I need you to do this. 1003 00:47:08,400 - > 00:47:11,280 And she goes, Oh, well, I would, but you for you didn't send me 1004 00:47:11,280 - > 00:47:11,440 that. 1005 00:47:11,519 - > 00:47:13,119 And I'm like, I am so sorry. 1006 00:47:13,199 - > 00:47:13,679 You're right. 1007 00:47:13,760 - > 00:47:14,719 I did not send you that. 1008 00:47:14,880 - > 00:47:16,880 Okay, you know, and then I'm going and I'm sending. 1009 00:47:17,039 - > 00:47:20,719 And so I have to be able to own up to things because if I'm not 1010 00:47:20,719 - > 00:47:23,760 owning up to things, why do I expect them to own up to things? 1011 00:47:23,920 - > 00:47:24,159 Right. 1012 00:47:24,320 - > 00:47:27,679 And same thing with my kid as a mother, and this will all come 1013 00:47:27,679 - > 00:47:28,800 full circle, I promise. 1014 00:47:28,960 - > 00:47:32,159 As a mother, I like to make sure that she understands, like, 1015 00:47:32,320 - > 00:47:35,039 listen, I did not do well in that moment. 1016 00:47:35,199 - > 00:47:37,119 It's normally me in traffic. 1017 00:47:37,280 - > 00:47:40,639 If I'm driving, that kid is laughing because I'm like pissed 1018 00:47:40,639 - > 00:47:43,119 off that people are not driving the way they need to be driving. 1019 00:47:43,280 - > 00:47:45,519 And then we get to where we're going, and I'm like, you know 1020 00:47:45,519 - > 00:47:46,079 what, baby? 1021 00:47:46,159 - > 00:47:46,719 I'm so sorry. 1022 00:47:46,880 - > 00:47:47,840 That was not appropriate. 1023 00:47:47,920 - > 00:47:49,679 I should not have acted that way, you know. 1024 00:47:49,840 - > 00:47:52,880 And so she understands, like, okay, mom shouldn't have done 1025 00:47:52,880 - > 00:47:53,039 that. 1026 00:47:53,119 - > 00:47:54,719 Maybe I shouldn't do that in the future. 1027 00:47:55,039 - > 00:48:00,800 But in marketing, especially in this industry, my competitors 1028 00:48:00,800 - > 00:48:05,199 are notorious for going, I can get you on Google in 30 days, or 1029 00:48:05,199 - > 00:48:07,440 I can get you to the first page in 90 days. 1030 00:48:07,519 - > 00:48:11,039 You know, it's like they put all these expectations out there and 1031 00:48:11,039 - > 00:48:15,760 they sell this glittery box of what secrets that they have, you 1032 00:48:15,760 - > 00:48:19,679 know, or this big quote unquote SEO stuff that should be costing 1033 00:48:19,679 - > 00:48:22,800 $3,000 a month, which is insane, by the way. 1034 00:48:23,039 - > 00:48:26,880 And so they're selling these things to these small businesses 1035 00:48:26,880 - > 00:48:30,239 or businesses in general, and they aren't following through. 1036 00:48:30,400 - > 00:48:32,639 They're like, hey, listen, I didn't really do that. 1037 00:48:32,719 - > 00:48:34,880 But then they've got these people locked into a contract. 1038 00:48:34,960 - > 00:48:37,760 So these people are paying them monthly and they're not really 1039 00:48:37,760 - > 00:48:38,719 doing anything for them. 1040 00:48:38,800 - > 00:48:42,000 They're not actually holding up their end of the expectations 1041 00:48:42,000 - > 00:48:44,239 that they set from the very beginning. 1042 00:48:44,480 - > 00:48:48,320 And so that is my advantage as a transparent person, is or 1043 00:48:48,480 - > 00:48:51,599 leader, is when I'm going into those meetings, I'm like, 1044 00:48:51,760 - > 00:48:53,599 listen, this is gonna take time. 1045 00:48:53,760 - > 00:48:55,360 Organic growth is gonna take time. 1046 00:48:55,519 - > 00:48:58,960 If you don't have money to spend extra on like meta ads or 1047 00:48:58,960 - > 00:49:02,719 geofencing ads or Google ads, then it's not gonna be fast. 1048 00:49:02,800 - > 00:49:06,480 Like this is a slow burn type of process to make sure that you 1049 00:49:06,480 - > 00:49:08,559 know you get the results that you're wanting. 1050 00:49:08,719 - > 00:49:11,760 And that's why it's important to me because you know, sometimes 1051 00:49:11,760 - > 00:49:15,599 I've been so transparent in competing with other people that 1052 00:49:15,679 - > 00:49:18,400 that are selling the glittery box, and I don't get that 1053 00:49:18,400 - > 00:49:21,679 account, but they holler at me a year later when their contract's 1054 00:49:21,679 - > 00:49:24,159 up and they're like, I'm so sorry I didn't go with you. 1055 00:49:24,320 - > 00:49:26,239 And I thought that that was a bad thing at first. 1056 00:49:26,320 - > 00:49:29,760 I was I'm losing these like bids because I'm like, hey, listen, 1057 00:49:29,920 - > 00:49:32,639 this is a reality, this is what's gonna go on, and this is 1058 00:49:32,639 - > 00:49:34,079 what you can expect from me. 1059 00:49:34,239 - > 00:49:38,000 And they buy into the other person learning that lesson the 1060 00:49:38,000 - > 00:49:39,599 hard way at the other end of it. 1061 00:49:39,840 - > 00:49:42,480 SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we we used to have a phrase where we used to 1062 00:49:42,480 - > 00:49:44,800 always say, underpromise, over deliver. 1063 00:49:45,039 - > 00:49:48,559 And and and and if you can do that, then you'll position 1064 00:49:48,559 - > 00:49:51,519 yourself in a you know in a good space. 1065 00:49:54,719 - > 00:49:57,840 SPEAKER_04: So let's shift gears real quick and let's talk about 1066 00:49:57,840 - > 00:49:58,480 the book. 1067 00:50:00,079 - > 00:50:01,440 SPEAKER_02: Market Like a Boss. 1068 00:50:01,679 - > 00:50:04,960 Love the title, think it's awesome, think it's think it's 1069 00:50:04,960 - > 00:50:05,519 amazing. 1070 00:50:05,840 - > 00:50:09,760 How I turned a small startup into a thriving business using 1071 00:50:09,760 - > 00:50:11,920 grassroots hustle and strategy. 1072 00:50:12,400 - > 00:50:14,880 The subtitle tells a story all by itself. 1073 00:50:14,960 - > 00:50:18,559 You know, when you say small startup, in essence, you're 1074 00:50:18,559 - > 00:50:20,400 talking about the marketing broker, right? 1075 00:50:20,639 - > 00:50:24,000 And and and and you know, so tell tell me about the decision 1076 00:50:24,000 - > 00:50:29,360 to write the book and what made you say I need to share what 1077 00:50:29,360 - > 00:50:30,639 I've learned. 1078 00:50:31,440 - > 00:50:34,159 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I love that I still get chills when 1079 00:50:34,159 - > 00:50:35,119 people talk about my book. 1080 00:50:35,280 - > 00:50:37,760 Like I'm such a nerd, and I like see it on the screen. 1081 00:50:37,840 - > 00:50:40,960 I'm like, ah, there it is, you know, and it's been out for like 1082 00:50:41,039 - > 00:50:42,639 you know, six months or so. 1083 00:50:42,880 - > 00:50:47,199 But I have always loved writing, I've done it my whole life, and 1084 00:50:47,199 - > 00:50:49,599 I have always sought out to be an author. 1085 00:50:49,679 - > 00:50:50,320 I don't know why. 1086 00:50:50,480 - > 00:50:51,679 That's always been a goal of mine. 1087 00:50:51,760 - > 00:50:54,719 I want to write, I want to like share stories, I want to like 1088 00:50:54,800 - > 00:50:58,159 teach people, and education is a really big part of what I do as 1089 00:50:58,159 - > 00:51:00,000 well with all my podcasts that I do. 1090 00:51:00,159 - > 00:51:04,320 Um, I also have a boss marketing community that I have, but this 1091 00:51:04,559 - > 00:51:10,320 book has allowed me to share specific things that I have 1092 00:51:10,480 - > 00:51:12,719 taught people over the course of 10 years. 1093 00:51:12,880 - > 00:51:16,639 So this book isn't perfect for those startups that can't hire 1094 00:51:16,639 - > 00:51:17,440 an agency yet. 1095 00:51:17,519 - > 00:51:21,519 They're gonna learn how to market themselves without having 1096 00:51:21,519 - > 00:51:23,360 to hire somebody, if that makes sense. 1097 00:51:23,519 - > 00:51:28,159 And I share things in there that's like hilarious stories 1098 00:51:28,320 - > 00:51:31,599 of, you know, a guy that cussed me out, but then was wondering 1099 00:51:31,599 - > 00:51:33,519 why he wasn't getting business. 1100 00:51:33,760 - > 00:51:36,000 Well, if you're talking to them like you're talking to me, then 1101 00:51:36,000 - > 00:51:38,159 that's you know, probably the reason why you're not getting 1102 00:51:38,159 - > 00:51:38,960 business, you know. 1103 00:51:39,119 - > 00:51:43,280 So it's a really great read for those that are looking to learn 1104 00:51:43,280 - > 00:51:47,360 more about marketing and learning from my mistakes and my 1105 00:51:47,360 - > 00:51:48,079 failures. 1106 00:51:48,239 - > 00:51:51,679 There are wins in there, there are failures in there, but I 1107 00:51:51,679 - > 00:51:55,119 wanted to write the book to be able to share that, as well as 1108 00:51:55,280 - > 00:51:58,719 if you're a business owner listening to this, like writing 1109 00:51:58,719 - > 00:52:01,599 a book validates you like having a website. 1110 00:52:01,760 - > 00:52:05,599 It's something that people are looking at and it will help you 1111 00:52:05,599 - > 00:52:07,119 in your marketing moving forward. 1112 00:52:07,199 - > 00:52:09,280 It'll help you in your sales moving forward. 1113 00:52:09,519 - > 00:52:12,800 And it was something I wanted to do to get to that next step of 1114 00:52:12,800 - > 00:52:15,119 speaking at conferences and things like that. 1115 00:52:15,360 - > 00:52:20,079 I make the joke of, you know, I knew everything before I wrote 1116 00:52:20,079 - > 00:52:23,360 the book, but now that I wrote the book, somehow people know 1117 00:52:23,360 - > 00:52:25,679 that I know everything or you know, the things that are in 1118 00:52:25,679 - > 00:52:25,760 there. 1119 00:52:26,159 - > 00:52:28,960 SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, no, yeah, no, I know exactly what you're 1120 00:52:28,960 - > 00:52:29,280 saying. 1121 00:52:29,440 - > 00:52:33,760 So one of the things that that reviewers keep mentioning is how 1122 00:52:33,760 - > 00:52:38,159 practical the book is and and and the you know and the read. 1123 00:52:38,320 - > 00:52:42,639 It's not theory, it's strategy from the trenches, real life 1124 00:52:42,639 - > 00:52:45,360 scenarios from someone who's been there since they're 18 1125 00:52:45,360 - > 00:52:45,920 years old. 1126 00:52:46,159 - > 00:52:49,280 So when you were writing, so when you were writing this, how 1127 00:52:49,280 - > 00:52:52,800 did you decide what to include, what not to include? 1128 00:52:53,280 - > 00:52:56,639 Because you know, between the tent shop and the marketing 1129 00:52:56,639 - > 00:52:58,880 broker, you've got a lot of experience to draw from. 1130 00:52:58,960 - > 00:53:02,719 So how did you whittle it down so it's not like a like it's not 1131 00:53:02,800 - > 00:53:04,320 you know 900 pages? 1132 00:53:04,559 - > 00:53:05,360 Yeah, a novel. 1133 00:53:06,559 - > 00:53:09,920 SPEAKER_01: So with this book, I wanted to be just skill-based. 1134 00:53:10,079 - > 00:53:13,760 I wanted to teach people real life tactics of how to market 1135 00:53:13,760 - > 00:53:14,159 themselves. 1136 00:53:14,320 - > 00:53:18,480 So we it's 10 chapters of how bosses market themselves. 1137 00:53:18,559 - > 00:53:21,199 So each chapter has the word boss in it, and I'll come back 1138 00:53:21,199 - > 00:53:22,159 to that in a second. 1139 00:53:22,320 - > 00:53:25,199 But my next book that I'm already starting on is called 1140 00:53:25,199 - > 00:53:26,400 Hustle Like a Boss. 1141 00:53:26,639 - > 00:53:30,320 So that's gonna be more of leadership, entrepreneurship 1142 00:53:30,480 - > 00:53:31,920 from the age of 18. 1143 00:53:32,079 - > 00:53:35,840 So that'll be more based about like how to own, like how to 1144 00:53:35,840 - > 00:53:38,320 lead in a business, how to change yourself, how to 1145 00:53:38,320 - > 00:53:41,840 understand your Enneagram, how to understand your human design. 1146 00:53:42,000 - > 00:53:43,840 How can those like come into play? 1147 00:53:44,000 - > 00:53:47,440 Because those are very important to me now as a leader and how I 1148 00:53:47,440 - > 00:53:49,599 help my staff and help my clients. 1149 00:53:49,760 - > 00:53:54,639 But BOSS is an acronym, stands for bold, opportunistic, strong, 1150 00:53:54,880 - > 00:53:56,239 and service-minded. 1151 00:53:56,480 - > 00:54:00,159 I came up with that at 24 years old when I hired my business 1152 00:54:00,159 - > 00:54:00,559 coach. 1153 00:54:00,719 - > 00:54:03,920 He was like, we need to come up with an acronym so that way you 1154 00:54:03,920 - > 00:54:05,760 can always focus on that. 1155 00:54:05,920 - > 00:54:08,639 If you're going through a failure, come back to that BOSS 1156 00:54:08,800 - > 00:54:09,360 acronym. 1157 00:54:09,519 - > 00:54:12,719 If you're going through a win, come back to that BOSS acronym. 1158 00:54:12,880 - > 00:54:16,559 If you need inspiration, have it in front of you at all times. 1159 00:54:16,719 - > 00:54:20,159 And I wanted to share that with people of like, listen, adapt 1160 00:54:20,159 - > 00:54:22,320 this acronym to your own life. 1161 00:54:22,480 - > 00:54:25,440 I want you to be able to apply it to your own life. 1162 00:54:25,679 - > 00:54:27,280 Be bold in what you do. 1163 00:54:27,360 - > 00:54:29,039 I want you to find opportunities. 1164 00:54:29,119 - > 00:54:32,400 I want you to be strong and know that you deserve to be where 1165 00:54:32,400 - > 00:54:36,159 you're at in your career, in your business, in your house, in 1166 00:54:36,159 - > 00:54:36,719 your life. 1167 00:54:36,880 - > 00:54:39,360 And then also being service-minded, as we talked 1168 00:54:39,360 - > 00:54:39,840 about earlier. 1169 00:54:40,000 - > 00:54:43,519 We have to have that servant mind and leadership so that way 1170 00:54:43,519 - > 00:54:45,519 we can continue to be successful. 1171 00:54:45,840 - > 00:54:46,719 SPEAKER_02: That's awesome. 1172 00:54:46,960 - > 00:54:50,000 Last question as it relates as it relates to the book. 1173 00:54:50,320 - > 00:54:53,039 In there, you talk about, and this, and I and I say last 1174 00:54:53,039 - > 00:54:55,840 question because this may be this may be a long answer. 1175 00:54:56,000 - > 00:54:56,159 SPEAKER_03: Okay. 1176 00:54:56,719 - > 00:54:59,039 SPEAKER_02: Three critical elements confidence, 1177 00:54:59,199 - > 00:55:01,840 consistency, and credibility, the three C's. 1178 00:55:02,159 - > 00:55:06,400 So talk about those a little bit as it comes to being a leader, 1179 00:55:06,559 - > 00:55:12,960 to being an entrepreneur, and and and how those play a role in 1180 00:55:13,599 - > 00:55:15,760 confidence in what you're doing. 1181 00:55:16,079 - > 00:55:19,599 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, confidence is key. 1182 00:55:19,760 - > 00:55:23,360 When I was younger, I faked the confidence very, very well. 1183 00:55:23,599 - > 00:55:24,239 It was one of those. 1184 00:55:24,719 - > 00:55:25,599 SPEAKER_02: Fake it till you make it, right? 1185 00:55:25,760 - > 00:55:26,559 Fake it till you make it. 1186 00:55:26,800 - > 00:55:27,519 SPEAKER_01: Fake until you make it. 1187 00:55:27,679 - > 00:55:30,639 That was before the authenticity thing came into play with my 1188 00:55:30,639 - > 00:55:30,960 life. 1189 00:55:31,280 - > 00:55:35,440 Um, but yeah, I confidence is important in sales and in 1190 00:55:35,440 - > 00:55:36,639 marketing and in leadership. 1191 00:55:36,800 - > 00:55:38,079 Let's use some examples. 1192 00:55:38,239 - > 00:55:42,800 Like, I would go into a client or potential client meeting and 1193 00:55:42,800 - > 00:55:44,320 I would have like an off day. 1194 00:55:44,400 - > 00:55:46,079 You know, we all have those off days. 1195 00:55:46,239 - > 00:55:47,519 Well, I wouldn't be as confident. 1196 00:55:47,679 - > 00:55:51,039 And I would notice a shift in those meetings where they picked 1197 00:55:51,039 - > 00:55:53,519 up on that energy of like, oh, she's something's weird. 1198 00:55:53,599 - > 00:55:54,320 Like, what's going on? 1199 00:55:54,400 - > 00:55:55,840 We don't want to give off those vibes. 1200 00:55:56,000 - > 00:56:00,320 So I want you to continue to be confident and know that you 1201 00:56:00,320 - > 00:56:02,079 deserve to be in that meeting. 1202 00:56:02,239 - > 00:56:05,440 There's some meetings that I didn't think I was deserving of 1203 00:56:05,440 - > 00:56:05,920 being in. 1204 00:56:06,079 - > 00:56:08,079 Like, God, I'm 25 years old. 1205 00:56:08,239 - > 00:56:09,519 Like, how did I get here? 1206 00:56:09,679 - > 00:56:10,960 This person hired me for this. 1207 00:56:11,039 - > 00:56:12,239 Like, how do they hear about me? 1208 00:56:12,320 - > 00:56:13,360 Like, I don't deserve this. 1209 00:56:13,519 - > 00:56:14,639 Like, yes, you do. 1210 00:56:14,800 - > 00:56:16,000 You deserve to be there. 1211 00:56:16,079 - > 00:56:18,480 And you have to understand that you deserve to be there. 1212 00:56:18,719 - > 00:56:21,920 Because when you do understand that, that confidence comes out 1213 00:56:22,079 - > 00:56:24,480 and you're gonna sell a whole lot better. 1214 00:56:24,719 - > 00:56:28,159 And if we think about confidence in our leadership, if I'm not 1215 00:56:28,159 - > 00:56:32,079 confident in how I'm leading my team every Monday at nine 1216 00:56:32,079 - > 00:56:35,280 o'clock on our team meetings, they're gonna be like, Do I 1217 00:56:35,280 - > 00:56:36,000 wanna work here? 1218 00:56:36,159 - > 00:56:37,280 Like, what's going on? 1219 00:56:37,440 - > 00:56:40,559 Like, she's not really sure if we're gonna reach those goals. 1220 00:56:40,639 - > 00:56:42,800 So, are we gonna reach those goals, you know? 1221 00:56:43,039 - > 00:56:46,079 And so that's very important to me is showing up and being 1222 00:56:46,079 - > 00:56:46,719 confident. 1223 00:56:46,960 - > 00:56:49,679 And I'm not saying you're gonna be confident all the time. 1224 00:56:49,840 - > 00:56:51,280 I'm not confident all the time. 1225 00:56:51,440 - > 00:56:54,079 I have my moments where I'm like, God, this is just not my 1226 00:56:54,079 - > 00:56:54,400 day. 1227 00:56:54,480 - > 00:56:57,519 I don't like what I'm wearing, I don't like how my hair looks, I 1228 00:56:57,519 - > 00:56:58,719 don't like any of this. 1229 00:56:58,960 - > 00:57:02,239 So I kind of take a step back and go back to that acronym of 1230 00:57:02,239 - > 00:57:04,320 boss of like, okay, I need to be bold. 1231 00:57:04,480 - > 00:57:06,239 Bold is the number one for a reason. 1232 00:57:06,320 - > 00:57:09,440 So how can I be bold in a moment where I don't feel confident? 1233 00:57:10,000 - > 00:57:13,760 Um, the consistency is what I preach on. 1234 00:57:14,000 - > 00:57:18,079 If you listen to my podcast or follow me on social, like I am 1235 00:57:18,079 - > 00:57:19,360 all about consistency. 1236 00:57:19,519 - > 00:57:20,800 And there's a few ways. 1237 00:57:21,039 - > 00:57:26,000 If you are consistent in your personal life, working out, 1238 00:57:26,239 - > 00:57:30,079 finding ways to be mentally healthy, maybe go into therapy, 1239 00:57:30,239 - > 00:57:33,679 maybe it's you take a walk every day, whatever it is, you need to 1240 00:57:33,679 - > 00:57:37,039 show up consistently for yourself and to prove to 1241 00:57:37,039 - > 00:57:41,760 yourself that you are gonna be a great leader or you are a great 1242 00:57:41,760 - > 00:57:46,480 leader, because that will then show up in consistency in your 1243 00:57:46,480 - > 00:57:47,119 leadership. 1244 00:57:47,280 - > 00:57:51,280 If you can't make a promise to yourself every day of, okay, let 1245 00:57:51,280 - > 00:57:52,559 me say my personal thing. 1246 00:57:52,719 - > 00:57:56,480 If I don't work out every day, walking Peloton, maybe I'm doing 1247 00:57:56,480 - > 00:57:59,360 some strength training, whatever it is, maybe it's literally me 1248 00:57:59,360 - > 00:58:01,519 doing a couple of crunches and going peace. 1249 00:58:01,599 - > 00:58:03,039 That was my workout for today. 1250 00:58:03,199 - > 00:58:08,559 Like I show up for myself every day because if I don't, then I 1251 00:58:08,559 - > 00:58:12,320 see that that energy flows into my leadership and I may not show 1252 00:58:12,320 - > 00:58:14,320 up every day for my staff when they need me. 1253 00:58:14,480 - > 00:58:18,079 I may not show up every day for my clients when they need me. 1254 00:58:18,480 - > 00:58:21,679 And that's very important to me is showing up and being 1255 00:58:21,679 - > 00:58:22,239 consistent. 1256 00:58:22,400 - > 00:58:25,519 And when we're talking digital marketing-wise, we have to show 1257 00:58:25,519 - > 00:58:26,000 up online. 1258 00:58:26,239 - > 00:58:29,440 If we're not showing up online for our for our clients or 1259 00:58:29,440 - > 00:58:33,039 potential customers, how can we prove that we're gonna also show 1260 00:58:33,039 - > 00:58:33,679 up for them? 1261 00:58:33,840 - > 00:58:36,800 Like you can't, like, we need to make sure we have that 1262 00:58:36,800 - > 00:58:40,719 consistency there, and then I think those two things lead into 1263 00:58:40,719 - > 00:58:45,360 the credibility, the credibility aspect of everything of how have 1264 00:58:45,360 - > 00:58:47,519 you shown up for people in the past? 1265 00:58:47,760 - > 00:58:51,840 How have you shown your leadership in the past to where 1266 00:58:52,079 - > 00:58:53,679 you now have a credibility? 1267 00:58:53,840 - > 00:58:57,280 Before I walk into a meeting, that person has already talked 1268 00:58:57,280 - > 00:59:00,719 to somebody because I'm 100% referral-based when it comes to 1269 00:59:00,719 - > 00:59:02,000 my business side of things. 1270 00:59:02,239 - > 00:59:04,400 They have already talked to somebody, and so that 1271 00:59:04,400 - > 00:59:08,079 credibility and the way that I treated that person has already 1272 00:59:08,079 - > 00:59:10,239 sold this person before I walked in there. 1273 00:59:10,400 - > 00:59:11,440 I think it's important. 1274 00:59:11,679 - > 00:59:12,559 SPEAKER_02: That's awesome. 1275 00:59:12,719 - > 00:59:16,400 So, last last comment about the book is I think one of the 1276 00:59:16,400 - > 00:59:21,199 reviewers that I was that I was looking at the review said, and 1277 00:59:21,199 - > 00:59:24,559 I think this is the ultimate compliment for the book, but you 1278 00:59:24,559 - > 00:59:27,760 know, besides it being a practical, they said that it was 1279 00:59:27,760 - > 00:59:32,239 the perfect book for the entrepreneur wearing every hat. 1280 00:59:32,400 - > 00:59:33,840 And I think I think that's great. 1281 00:59:33,920 - > 00:59:38,719 I mean, you've written a book for for someone who i is having 1282 00:59:38,719 - > 00:59:39,599 to do it all. 1283 00:59:39,760 - > 00:59:45,199 And and you know, I think when we when when we share from 1284 00:59:45,440 - > 00:59:50,320 experiences, it it it it's it's genuine, it's authentic. 1285 00:59:50,639 - > 00:59:54,800 And obviously, you were that entrepreneur wearing every hat 1286 00:59:54,800 - > 00:59:56,000 when you were 18 years old. 1287 00:59:56,079 - > 00:59:57,360 So I think that's awesome. 1288 00:59:57,599 - > 01:00:00,559 So last got got a couple questions left. 1289 01:00:00,639 - > 01:00:03,920 The the last one, and then I've got some we do something called 1290 01:00:03,920 - > 01:00:05,199 ra rapid fire. 1291 01:00:05,360 - > 01:00:08,159 Fun questions, serious questions were the first thing. 1292 01:00:08,239 - > 01:00:12,639 But before I I ask you that, if someone's watching the show or 1293 01:00:12,800 - > 01:00:15,760 gonna listen to the show and they're thinking about starting 1294 01:00:15,760 - > 01:00:18,719 a business, they may be 18, 20, 22 years old, whatever. 1295 01:00:18,800 - > 01:00:19,519 They're scared. 1296 01:00:19,679 - > 01:00:20,000 unknown: Yeah. 1297 01:00:20,480 - > 01:00:21,360 SPEAKER_02: What would you tell them? 1298 01:00:21,599 - > 01:00:24,719 And what's the so what would you tell them and what's the one 1299 01:00:24,719 - > 01:00:27,280 thing that they need to understand before taking that 1300 01:00:27,280 - > 01:00:27,920 leap? 1301 01:00:30,079 - > 01:00:31,760 SPEAKER_01: First of all, just freaking do it. 1302 01:00:32,000 - > 01:00:33,519 Then, period, do it. 1303 01:00:33,840 - > 01:00:38,000 You have a burning fire already, and if you even have the thought 1304 01:00:38,000 - > 01:00:41,199 of, I think I want to own a business, then you're made for 1305 01:00:41,199 - > 01:00:43,599 it because people that aren't made for it don't just think 1306 01:00:43,599 - > 01:00:43,840 about it. 1307 01:00:44,159 - > 01:00:45,039 SPEAKER_02: Don't think about it. 1308 01:00:45,280 - > 01:00:49,360 SPEAKER_01: And I think that the number one tip for that is to 1309 01:00:49,360 - > 01:00:54,000 know that okay, set expectations out correctly for yourself. 1310 01:00:54,159 - > 01:00:56,880 You may want to own a business because you don't want to work 1311 01:00:56,880 - > 01:00:57,920 for somebody, okay? 1312 01:00:58,079 - > 01:01:01,679 I get that, but also understand you will be working for hundreds 1313 01:01:01,679 - > 01:01:02,000 of people. 1314 01:01:02,159 - > 01:01:04,719 In fact, I work for hundreds of people because those are my 1315 01:01:04,719 - > 01:01:06,559 customers, those are my clients. 1316 01:01:06,719 - > 01:01:09,360 So you're technically still gonna be working for somebody. 1317 01:01:09,519 - > 01:01:12,320 And then also, if you say, I want to start a business because 1318 01:01:12,320 - > 01:01:15,440 I want to make a lot of money, absolutely, totally get it. 1319 01:01:15,599 - > 01:01:18,079 Let's make some money, but it's gonna take a hot second. 1320 01:01:18,239 - > 01:01:20,639 You've got to build up that credibility, you've got to build 1321 01:01:20,639 - > 01:01:22,480 up that presence within yourselves. 1322 01:01:22,639 - > 01:01:26,400 And so the last thing that people start businesses over is 1323 01:01:26,559 - > 01:01:28,559 well, I want to do anything with my time. 1324 01:01:28,639 - > 01:01:30,400 I want to not work from nine to five. 1325 01:01:30,480 - > 01:01:32,239 I want to work whenever I want to work. 1326 01:01:32,480 - > 01:01:36,800 Let me tell you, I work more than any of my friends that have 1327 01:01:36,880 - > 01:01:39,519 an eight to five job or nine to five job. 1328 01:01:39,679 - > 01:01:41,840 I'm putting in more hours because you know what? 1329 01:01:41,920 - > 01:01:43,440 When you go to bed, you're thinking about it. 1330 01:01:43,519 - > 01:01:46,000 When you wake up, you're thinking about it, you know, 1331 01:01:46,079 - > 01:01:46,719 that kind of stuff. 1332 01:01:46,800 - > 01:01:47,840 But absolutely. 1333 01:01:48,159 - > 01:01:50,000 SPEAKER_02: Be careful, be careful what you wish for. 1334 01:01:50,159 - > 01:01:52,800 Be careful that that that nine to five, that eight to five, 1335 01:01:52,880 - > 01:01:53,840 nine to five thing. 1336 01:01:54,000 - > 01:01:57,119 I want to work whenever, you know, I want to because it can 1337 01:01:57,119 - > 01:01:59,280 become it can become obsessive. 1338 01:02:02,559 - > 01:02:04,400 SPEAKER_04: So, rapid fire, real quick. 1339 01:02:04,559 - > 01:02:07,039 SPEAKER_02: First thing that comes that that come comes to 1340 01:02:07,039 - > 01:02:07,679 your mind. 1341 01:02:08,079 - > 01:02:09,519 Coffee or tea? 1342 01:02:09,840 - > 01:02:10,960 SPEAKER_01: Oh, coffee. 1343 01:02:11,199 - > 01:02:14,960 SPEAKER_02: If you could go back to your 18-year-old self one on 1344 01:02:14,960 - > 01:02:18,800 day one of the business ownership, what's the one thing 1345 01:02:18,800 - > 01:02:20,239 that you would tell her? 1346 01:02:21,119 - > 01:02:22,800 SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be hard. 1347 01:02:23,280 - > 01:02:25,440 SPEAKER_02: Morning person or night owl? 1348 01:02:26,000 - > 01:02:27,199 SPEAKER_01: Night owl. 1349 01:02:27,840 - > 01:02:28,639 SPEAKER_02: Me too. 1350 01:02:28,960 - > 01:02:31,519 Best business decision you ever made. 1351 01:02:32,480 - > 01:02:34,079 SPEAKER_00: Starting a business. 1352 01:02:34,800 - > 01:02:37,840 SPEAKER_02: Window tent or signs, which part of that first 1353 01:02:37,840 - > 01:02:39,760 business did you enjoy more? 1354 01:02:40,239 - > 01:02:42,159 SPEAKER_00: Definitely signs, still doing it. 1355 01:02:42,480 - > 01:02:46,320 SPEAKER_02: Biggest biggest leadership myth that needs to 1356 01:02:46,320 - > 01:02:46,639 die. 1357 01:02:48,079 - > 01:02:50,880 SPEAKER_01: Oh, you have to be a certain age to be a leader. 1358 01:02:51,519 - > 01:02:53,440 SPEAKER_02: What gets you out of bed in the morning? 1359 01:02:54,639 - > 01:02:56,159 SPEAKER_01: My besides your kid's daughter. 1360 01:02:56,480 - > 01:02:58,400 SPEAKER_02: I was gonna say besides besides your kid. 1361 01:02:58,639 - > 01:02:59,599 No, but that's fine. 1362 01:02:59,679 - > 01:03:00,159 That's fine. 1363 01:03:01,440 - > 01:03:03,920 No, that's that's fine because I totally understand. 1364 01:03:04,000 - > 01:03:06,000 I I have my kids are older. 1365 01:03:06,079 - > 01:03:09,199 I've got a 26-year-old and a 30-year-old, but I do have two 1366 01:03:09,199 - > 01:03:11,360 dogs, and they get me out of bed bed in the morning. 1367 01:03:11,440 - > 01:03:16,000 So one leadership habit you practice every day, every single 1368 01:03:16,000 - > 01:03:17,840 day without fail. 1369 01:03:19,440 - > 01:03:23,039 SPEAKER_00: Um following my calendar. 1370 01:03:23,199 - > 01:03:24,960 Okay, setting my time aside, yeah. 1371 01:03:25,199 - > 01:03:25,519 SPEAKER_02: Okay. 1372 01:03:25,679 - > 01:03:29,679 If you could have coffee with any business leader, living or 1373 01:03:29,679 - > 01:03:31,440 dead, who would it be? 1374 01:03:31,760 - > 01:03:32,880 SPEAKER_01: Ed Mallette. 1375 01:03:33,280 - > 01:03:34,079 SPEAKER_02: Ed Millette. 1376 01:03:34,159 - > 01:03:35,599 Tell me who Ed Millet is. 1377 01:03:35,920 - > 01:03:40,320 SPEAKER_01: Oh, he is a huge leadership, I guess, guru, and 1378 01:03:40,320 - > 01:03:41,360 he's kind of my idol. 1379 01:03:41,440 - > 01:03:43,199 I listen to his podcast every day. 1380 01:03:43,440 - > 01:03:44,000 So yeah. 1381 01:03:44,880 - > 01:03:45,519 SPEAKER_02: Most definitely. 1382 01:03:45,760 - > 01:03:46,000 Okay. 1383 01:03:46,239 - > 01:03:46,719 Last one. 1384 01:03:47,039 - > 01:03:48,559 Yeah, that's a good thing. 1385 01:03:48,719 - > 01:03:49,280 Last one. 1386 01:03:49,519 - > 01:03:54,639 Most underrated leadership skill that nobody talks about. 1387 01:03:57,920 - > 01:03:59,039 SPEAKER_00: Oh gosh. 1388 01:03:59,679 - > 01:04:01,920 SPEAKER_01: Most underrated leadership skill. 1389 01:04:03,840 - > 01:04:04,639 SPEAKER_02: I've got a lot of people. 1390 01:04:04,800 - > 01:04:07,599 SPEAKER_01: I think it would be yeah, I think it would be like 1391 01:04:07,920 - > 01:04:09,119 showing up for yourself. 1392 01:04:09,440 - > 01:04:10,800 How do you show up for yourself? 1393 01:04:11,039 - > 01:04:11,840 SPEAKER_02: That's a great one. 1394 01:04:11,920 - > 01:04:13,360 I would say listening. 1395 01:04:13,519 - > 01:04:17,280 I think people don't talk a lot about listening. 1396 01:04:17,360 - > 01:04:21,679 They think as leaders, it's what people follow you, they they 1397 01:04:21,760 - > 01:04:22,400 they hear you. 1398 01:04:22,480 - > 01:04:24,960 But I think listening, but I definitely agree with what 1399 01:04:24,960 - > 01:04:25,440 you're saying. 1400 01:04:25,599 - > 01:04:29,519 Showing up for yourself and making time and taking time for 1401 01:04:29,519 - > 01:04:32,559 yourself to keep that that sanity, right? 1402 01:04:32,800 - > 01:04:36,400 And I love I I love what you said, and we're delving from the 1403 01:04:36,400 - > 01:04:40,800 rapid fire, but I love what you said about working out, even if 1404 01:04:40,800 - > 01:04:44,320 it's doing a couple crunches, and and and and just telling, 1405 01:04:44,400 - > 01:04:46,960 hey, I did it, I'm done, let's you know, let's move on. 1406 01:04:47,119 - > 01:04:49,280 Because that's showing up for yourself and making time for 1407 01:04:49,280 - > 01:04:54,079 yourself, because in in in life, in business, especially with 1408 01:04:54,079 - > 01:04:56,960 what you do, you have no idea what's going to come up that 1409 01:04:56,960 - > 01:04:57,199 day. 1410 01:04:57,440 - > 01:05:01,119 And and it's a it's a that's a fun thing sometimes, but fun, 1411 01:05:01,280 - > 01:05:05,039 but sometimes it can be uh be it can be a little scary. 1412 01:05:05,199 - > 01:05:08,400 So I think I think showing up, showing up for yourself is a 1413 01:05:08,400 - > 01:05:09,039 great answer. 1414 01:05:09,199 - > 01:05:11,360 So Shelby, this has been fantastic. 1415 01:05:11,519 - > 01:05:12,400 It's been awesome. 1416 01:05:12,639 - > 01:05:14,000 Thank you for sharing your story. 1417 01:05:14,159 - > 01:05:15,360 Thank you for sharing your wisdom. 1418 01:05:15,440 - > 01:05:16,559 Thanks, thank you for the time. 1419 01:05:16,719 - > 01:05:18,400 And I'm gonna pop back over again. 1420 01:05:18,559 - > 01:05:22,079 If you're watching this and and you enjoyed it and you want to 1421 01:05:22,079 - > 01:05:24,800 learn more, obviously mark like a boss. 1422 01:05:24,960 - > 01:05:27,920 Shelby McFarland, CEO, the marketing broker. 1423 01:05:28,159 - > 01:05:30,239 There's her her email address. 1424 01:05:30,480 - > 01:05:32,800 You're you're brave to put I put your cell phone on there. 1425 01:05:32,880 - > 01:05:34,320 Maybe I'll mark it out or something. 1426 01:05:34,960 - > 01:05:35,519 No, it's fine. 1427 01:05:35,679 - > 01:05:40,000 But but got that on there, themarketingbroker.com, and and 1428 01:05:40,000 - > 01:05:43,280 there's some ways to follow you on Instagram, LinkedIn. 1429 01:05:43,440 - > 01:05:45,840 I know you're on LinkedIn because that's how we connected. 1430 01:05:45,920 - > 01:05:46,079 Yeah. 1431 01:05:46,239 - > 01:05:50,400 I'm assuming some some Instagram things and and I don't know if 1432 01:05:50,400 - > 01:05:53,119 you're on TikTok X and all that stuff. 1433 01:05:53,280 - > 01:05:54,559 Okay, so you're on all social media. 1434 01:05:54,800 - > 01:05:55,679 Which is understandable. 1435 01:05:55,760 - > 01:05:57,360 You're that's that's what you do. 1436 01:05:58,000 - > 01:06:03,760 So anyway, so Again, thank you so much and have a great day and 1437 01:06:03,760 - > 01:06:05,039 appreciate the time. 1438 01:06:05,440 - > 01:06:06,400 SPEAKER_03: Thank you. 1439 01:06:07,199 - > 01:06:10,639 SPEAKER_02: That was Shelley McFarland, CEO of the Marketing 1440 01:06:10,639 - > 01:06:14,000 Broker and Arthur of Market Like a Boss. 1441 01:06:14,239 - > 01:06:17,519 You know, during my work career, I learned that the best leaders 1442 01:06:17,519 - > 01:06:19,280 aren't the ones with all the answers. 1443 01:06:19,440 - > 01:06:22,639 They're the ones who ask the right questions and genuinely 1444 01:06:22,639 - > 01:06:23,920 care about their people. 1445 01:06:24,719 - > 01:06:27,360 Shelby owned her first business at 18. 1446 01:06:27,599 - > 01:06:31,119 At 22, she started the Marketing Broker, and today she's 1447 01:06:31,119 - > 01:06:35,280 competing with agencies 10 times her size, serving startups, 1448 01:06:35,440 - > 01:06:40,159 small businesses, and Fortune 500 companies, all while being a 1449 01:06:40,159 - > 01:06:43,920 mom and an advocate for women in leadership. 1450 01:06:44,239 - > 01:06:46,320 But here's what matters most. 1451 01:06:46,639 - > 01:06:52,239 She's doing it authentically, leading with heart, and it's 1452 01:06:52,239 - > 01:06:52,880 working. 1453 01:06:53,199 - > 01:06:56,480 If you're a young entrepreneur, worried that you're too 1454 01:06:56,480 - > 01:07:01,840 inexperienced, Shelby's story proves that authenticity matters 1455 01:07:01,840 - > 01:07:03,119 more than age. 1456 01:07:03,679 - > 01:07:07,199 If this resonates with you, share it with someone who needs 1457 01:07:07,199 - > 01:07:07,920 to hear it. 1458 01:07:08,079 - > 01:07:10,159 And please leave a review. 1459 01:07:10,480 - > 01:07:13,519 It can help others find these conversations. 1460 01:07:14,320 - > 01:07:18,639 This podcast is brought to you by BLC Consulting LLC. 1461 01:07:19,039 - > 01:07:22,480 We're a communications and organizational strategy group 1462 01:07:22,719 - > 01:07:25,119 working with service-related businesses. 1463 01:07:25,360 - > 01:07:30,639 You can learn more at LC Consulting LLC.com. 1464 01:07:31,039 - > 01:07:35,039 Until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and keep leading 1465 01:07:35,039 - > 01:07:35,679 with heart. 1466 01:07:35,920 - > 01:07:37,440 I'm Steve Goodson. 1467 01:07:37,599 - > 01:07:39,599 Thank you for joining me on the couch.