Katie Hensel - Travel Made Joyful

We all dream of getting away.  What they means to you may be different from someone else.  We can all agree that travel is fun.

But where do you go, what do you do and, arguably most importantly, what do you eat?

Listen as well-travelled and addictively energetic entrepreneur Katie Hensel gives us some travel tips as she shares details of her new business, Travel Made Joyful.

Katie helps people figure out the details of travel, so that you don't need a vacation after planning your vacation.

Enjoy!

Visit Katie at: https://travelmadejoyful.com/

[00:00:00.890] - Speaker 1

You have found authentic Business Adventures, a business program that brings you the struggles, stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie. My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur, author, speaker and helpful coach to small business owners across the country. And today we are welcoming/preparing to learn from Katie Hensel, owner of Travel Made Joyful, which is the best way it should be. So Katie how are you doing today?

[00:00:26.080] - Speaker 2

I'm good. Thanks, James. I love the shout out too.

[00:00:31.130] - Speaker 1

So just so the crowd of viewers, listeners know, I've known you lots of years and you started out with Try for Kids and then can you tell us? I guess let's go way back and talk about the transition. What made you decide to shift gears? Because it's probably safe to say that these are not very related.

[00:00:56.710] - Speaker 2

Correct. I think, yeah, that's a safe bet. I started Try for Schools in 2011 and built that from an idea in my head to an organization that had three full time staff and had year round programming and events and those kinds of things and was doing a lot of good in our community in Dane County here. But I started to just think that, gosh, in order for this to be truly successful, I really need this to be able to live beyond me. And if I ever decided I wanted to do something different, I wanted to be able to make it so that it was something that was sustainable and would be able to live on. And so I kind of started putting a plan in place. We had a strategic planning committee that met and kind of started building in a lot of the processes that you'd need to make sure that a business could survive that founder syndrome that started in 2019 and then lo and behold, 2020 came around and we had a pandemic to deal with. So we were kind of trying to keep things going but also continuing to build on that foundation.

[00:02:06.370] - Speaker 2

And it was during that summer that I sort of realized a couple of things I got to do a lot of traveling, surprisingly during the pandemic, a lot of planning and things like that to make sure we could go places that were open safely. And I realized, gosh, not only do I really enjoy this, but I'm pretty good at it. We figured out how to offset a lot of our costs and things like that and I was just really enjoying the extra time with my kids and we also kind of realized that gosh, they're halfway to being out of the house at this point. And so I said, well, if I were to start a different career, I would really love to have it be a career that combined things that I really love to do, like travel and see new places with being able to spend a little bit more time with my kids while they want to be around me. And so we kind of thankfully try for schools, was able to navigate the Pandemic well and come out the other end. And so in September of 2021, I kind of started a transition, and we hired our new executive director, who's doing a fantastic job, and she made the leadership transition incredibly smooth, and that's going really well.

[00:03:19.060] - Speaker 2

So I realized, well, I now can feel free to kind of start something in this travel industry if I want to. That was kind of how things got started, and so it did feel a little bit like starting over, but it was a fun place to begin.

[00:03:37.510] - Speaker 1

Sure. That's when you start a new business, right? This kind of the honeymoon period when you first started, after you've been with it for a decade, you're kind of like, in that seven year itch period, I suppose, or something.

[00:03:49.960] - Speaker 2

Yeah. And everyone's like, well, what happened? Or what went wrong? And I was like, well, nothing really went wrong. But do you ever just decide you want to do something kind of new and different, and it's kind of one of those things, and you still want your baby to be in good hands, but you're like, okay, our life is too short to, I think, do the same thing all the time.

[00:04:13.380] - Speaker 1

I agree. Yeah, I agree. I guess from my point of view, with the business, starting a business, getting the business going, rolling with it for a few years, after a while, it's just like any other relationship where you're like, I want to see what else is out there.

[00:04:28.870] - Speaker 2

You hold on to the ones that you really need to hold on to. But it's good to see knowing what kinds of opportunities and things are available and knowing if it's a possibility for you. For me, it was something where I have a really supportive husband who had seen my body of work by all the trips I'd planned for us as a family. And I think coming out of the Pandemic, I sort of thought, I think people are going to want to travel again. I think there have been a lot of these big realizations over the last two years that we've got to make the most of the time we have. And when it's like, when something is taken away from you, you realize how much you really love it. When we couldn't travel, I think people are like, oh, man, my whole life could go by, and I'd never go to Paris or those kinds of things.

[00:05:18.710] - Speaker 1

It's interesting you say that, because there was a time that I felt I remember getting this feeling I was walking my dog, and I'm like, I feel like I'm in a prison. It's a very large prison, right, because it's essentially the size of the country.

[00:05:31.640] - Speaker 2

Right.

[00:05:32.200] - Speaker 1

Still, the fact that you can't go beyond those borders to see my sister in Canada or just wherever, like that. I'm like, oh, this sucks.

[00:05:40.740] - Speaker 2

Absolutely. I wonder how many people have those same thoughts. I definitely did too, where I was like, well, I wasn't thinking I wanted to go here right now, but now knowing I can't, I'm like, no, that.

[00:05:51.650] - Speaker 1

The options taken away. Sure. Interesting. So I'm going to put a link to the first interview I did with you about Try for Schools and I don't know how long ago that was. Three years ago, was it?

[00:06:06.680] - Speaker 2

Yeah, 2018. 2019.

[00:06:08.430] - Speaker 1

Four years ago. It's been a while. It's been a while back, and we could be in the studio with few.

[00:06:13.270] - Speaker 2

Things have happened since then.

[00:06:15.610] - Speaker 1

So I want to ask you just really briefly because we don't have to hold onto the Try for School thing, but that was nonprofit. So did you own it or do you sell it or what?

[00:06:27.800] - Speaker 2

Nonprofit is sort of like owned by the people. It's publicly part of the domain. So a lot of people ask that question, though. So really, I'm not an owner. I don't own shares or stake in anything, so there's nothing to sell. It's just like passing the torch HR-wise by hiring someone else and those kinds of things, but they're not bound to anything other than just like the Gosh rules of incorporation or articles of incorporation and bylaws so there's oversight that way with the board of directors. But yeah, it was pretty easy on the legal end.

[00:07:12.650] - Speaker 1

So no money changed hands? No, essentially it's a business. Even it's a nonprofit business. There's still blood, sweat and tears that went into that yes. Value to the brand. I mean, stuff, systems, all that jazz.

[00:07:26.920] - Speaker 2

Yeah. I feel like we had a pretty long transition. We hired Amanda in November, and until June, I had a goal of June 1 because that's when my kids get out of school and I really wanted to spend the summer being with my kids. It's been a dream of mine to be able to have one summer off with them. And so it was a seven month transition where it was kind of like the two of us side by side in a room or in meetings or a lot of meeting people and learning different processes going through. We got to go through almost an entire year's worth of preparation just so she could kind of shadow that process. And I think that was really helpful. And then in the years prior, I'd already been kind of brain dumping things into documents so there would be, like, processes that were documented and stuff. And I think having an operations director as well was helpful because there was somebody that knew a lot of those back end processes that could also help with that. We've got great part time staff that were also, like, running our events and programs.

[00:08:29.610] - Speaker 2

So, like, knowing that there was a really solid core of people involved I think helped make that a lot smoother and really allowed me, at this point, to be completely separate. I'm a donor and a parent and volunteer, but that's the extent of my involvement, at least for now.

[00:08:46.870] - Speaker 1

Got you. All right. Very cool. Then when you decided, hey, I'm going to back out or bow out of this try for school, saying, did you know that you wanted to start this business? Or did you have, like, hey, this is what I want to do. I want to start a business, or you're just like, you know what? I'm going to be done with this, and I'll figure out what I want to do later.

[00:09:05.840] - Speaker 2

Yeah, I definitely had an idea that this is what I wanted to be doing, but I really he wasn't sure to what end or what capacity my

Camilla Hallstrom - Zalstrom

You've built your website and gotten it to look superb with all of the best flows for your website visitors.

But now you need actual visitors to your website.  That means you need some SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.  The buzz phrase that means making your website easily found by the search engines, and therefore the people that use search engines.

But how do you do that?  Where do you start with your SEO?

Listen as Camilla, one of the founders of Zalstrom details how she started her SEO business and some tips on how you can boost your SEO rankings with your website.

Enjoy!

Visit Camilla at: https://zalstrom.com

[00:00:00.940] - Speaker 2

You have found Authentic Business Adventures the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We're locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. Downloadable audio episodes can be found on the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. I already told you that so we'll just keep rolling here. Today, we're welcoming/preparing to learn from Camilla Hallstrom, co-founder of Zalstrom. So, Camilla, how about you? Tell us, what is Zalstrom?

[00:00:29.000] - Speaker 1

Sure. Yeah. So we are a newly founded SEO agency. I'm located in Europe, but my co-founder is in New York, in the US. So we're based both in the US and in Europe, and our clients are too. We mainly work with B2B software companies as well as service based businesses. So we have a dual audience there. And yeah, so we just founded in August this year, so a couple of months ago and going strong.

[00:00:59.710] - Speaker 2

All right.

[00:01:00.470] - Speaker 1

How did you end up with someone from New York, here in Germany? How did you guys connect?

[00:01:07.140] - Speaker 1

Exactly. Yeah. It's a funny story. I'm originally from Finland and she's from the US. But we've been working together, she was my client. I was a freelancer and consultant before this within SEO and marketing. So she was a client and she had her own businesses, basically, and she's very well established. And so ultimately, we decided to just combine our powers and start our agency together.

[00:01:36.600] - Speaker 2

All right, very cool.

[00:01:38.160] - Speaker 1

So, she was a client of yours. Which one of you brought up the idea to start a business together?

[00:01:44.110] - Speaker 1

It was really her. She's quite well known in her niche and in her industry. I was very flattered by that and didn't see it coming, but it was very cool because I do feel like we can do a lot together. But it was really her. It wasn't my idea, but I was immediately jumped on board.

[00:02:04.900] - Speaker 2

And you had... Were you on your own? Did you have a business where you were doing work solo?

[00:02:12.240] - Speaker 1

Exactly, yes. I was doing work solo, mainly. I had a few freelancers I outsourced to, but it was really a freelancing plus consulting business, so a solopreneurship, if you will.

[00:02:25.020] - Speaker 2

Got it. All right. So bringing on a partner, bringing on a business partner can be tough. So you must have known her for a little while to make sure that everything was cool in that regard.

[00:02:36.040] - Speaker 1

Exactly. It helped that we had been working together for a few years already, that we really knew each other and how we work and everything. So that really helped.

[00:02:45.370] - Speaker 2

Got you. All right. So how do you market your business? Because essentially your business is helping other businesses market. So it's always interesting to talk to marketing companies and they're like, Well, how do you market your business? So what has worked for you guys?

[00:03:00.120] - Speaker 1

Exactly. Well, I said we just started a few months ago, and the idea is to start also using SEO and content marketing for our own business in January, February, next year. However, it's obviously a long term game. So if you're or us right now, it made more sense to, well, A, continue working with the clients I had from before, and B, so we did have clients from day one. And then B, cold pitching companies is also a strategy we're using just because there are more shorter term strategies, but we're definitely going to use our own strategies to build our company as well.

[00:03:36.650] - Speaker 2

Got you. So how long have you been in the B2B marketing space?

[00:03:41.300] - Speaker 1

Yeah, it's been like six years or almost. Yeah, I've been like, well, I was freelancing first as a content writer, and then from there I established my niche as B2B software business and service based businesses. So they can also be consultants or coaches and people or businesses like that. But yeah, it's really been almost six years now, a while.

[00:04:06.440] - Speaker 2

So what made you choose those specific businesses for your target?

[00:04:11.200] - Speaker 1

Well, mainly because that was the niche I was in. But originally it just happened that I started working with a software business. And through that, I really found it interesting, the whole business model. And it's interesting from an SEO perspective, just how you build SEO for those companies. And it's really through that avenue that I came into contact with software businesses. And then after I started working with a few service based businesses, I added that on as well as a target audience.

[00:04:45.990] - Speaker 2

Got you. All right. So SEO seems to be somewhat of a moving target because I guess when I was thinking around with websites in the, I would say, way late 90s, early 2000s, it was a way different game than it is now. Absolutely. I haven't even kept up with this game. It seems as the rules come out from the search engines, the players come out to try to manipulate those rules, and then it just things change. And it leaves, I guess, from my point of view, I feel like the search engines have a little bit of a hard time because you have the people that are very good at manipulating the rules of the game that aren't necessarily published but can be figured out more or less. Yeah, yeah. They get better at that. And businesses, just the typical mom and pop business, they're almost left in the dust because they may not have... I mean, one, they may not even have the awareness that SEO is a thing if they have a website. And then beyond that, they do have a website, they do know SEO is a thing. It's just one of those, Oh, my gosh.

[00:05:51.030] - Speaker 2

I got to constantly keep up with that on top of doing my day to day business, employees, selling, all that stuff. So tell me, where do you find, I guess, where do you find businesses typically hanging out? And what would you recommend businesses do to improve their SEO? Should I just throwing you a bag of money or two, right?

[00:06:10.580] - Speaker 1

Exactly. Yeah. So you're totally right that for small businesses, it is a problem because while SEO takes time to learn and to implement and you do have to usually have like, if you want to really scale, you have to have a team. That said, though, if we were talking about really small businesses like mom and pop and so forth, then there are definitely strategies they can use as well. However, what you're saying about awareness and there not maybe being awareness, that's true. And that's also why I love coming on air just talking about SEO and educating people a bit more because it is such a profitable channel for many businesses. But jumping back to what small businesses can do, they're definitely like... So SEO has definitely evolved, but the basis is always the same. And that Google, which is the biggest search engine, wants you to deliver good content to its users. So searchers on Google, right? And so basically what these small businesses can do is write content and publish content consistently on their blog. And it doesn't have to be a huge undertaking if they're doing other marketing as well. Let's say a small business has a YouTube channel where they post YouTube videos, they could take that YouTube video and repurpose it.

[00:07:36.420] - Speaker 1

They can't just publish the YouTube video and call it a day. They do need to include some text as well. But still, that's a very easy way to get started. I think it's a huge misconception that you need to be very technical to get any benefit from SEO. Yeah, sure. You can maybe scale to the size of Facebook or something, but you can still get all get clients through SEO by just publishing content on your website, basically.

[00:08:06.900] - Speaker 2

Sure. Well, I look at a website like Craigslist and I'm like, Well, a lot of people know about Craigslist, but I don't know if they're really doing a whole lot of SEO. So a business or a website like Facebook, I don't know if they have to do a whole lot with that CEO.

[00:08:20.990] - Speaker 1

No, they're so big, they don't have to.

[00:08:22.810] - Speaker 2

So much traffic already.

[00:08:24.140] - Speaker 1

Yeah, exactly.

[00:08:25.520] - Speaker 2

The Amazons of the world. But on the flip side, I guess, Amazons, when you look for something online, you can tell that Amazon is throwing a fair amount of money at advertising, so they continue to show up. Let's talk about the advertising. I mean, just paying the search engines for you to get on their first page or towards the top of the list versus sticking money and time into SEO. Have you seen pros, cons, benefits either way?

[00:08:54.710] - Speaker 1

Yeah, exactly. Ads are basically a whole different animal, if you will. They have different strategies than what we call organic SEO. So what I do, meaning ranking organically on Google. But paid ads, those are... I said they have different strategies. So I don't actually really work with paid ads at this point....

Jessica Fialkovich - Exit Factor

Just like a boat owner, of of the best day's of an entrepreneurs journey is when they sell their business.

But how do you prepare to sell, where do you go to sell and what steps do you need to take to actually sell?

Listen as Jessica Fialkovich of Exit Factor explains the details of preparing to sell your business so you can get out and enjoy some time knowing what you built will go on without you, so you can enjoy some time.  Maybe even on a boat.

Enjoy!

Visit Jessica at: https://www.exitfactor.com/

[00:00:00.090] - Speaker 1

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the Business program that brings you the struggles, stories, and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur, author, speaker, and helpful coach to small business owners across the country. Today we are welcoming/preparing to learn from Jessica Fialkovich, cofounder and president of Exit Factor. I'm excited to talk with Jessica because I've been talking to other business owners that are actually considering exiting and a few that are actually interested in purchasing, which it's a lot easier to exit if you have a buyer. So this is actually a very timely interview. So, Jessica, how is it going today?

[00:00:39.600] - Speaker 2

It's going great. I'm having a great day. I'm really excited to be here, James.

[00:00:43.400] - Speaker 1

Nice. So I'll let you start with just telling us what is the basis? What does exit factor do?

[00:00:48.500] - Speaker 2

Yeah, so great question. Exit Factor is an education and consulting company that helps business owners prepare their companies for sale so they can get more money in their exit and ultimately have a better deal.

[00:01:01.560] - Speaker 1

Nice. That sounds awesome. Everybody likes that.

[00:01:03.970] - Speaker 2

Yeah.

[00:01:04.480] - Speaker 1

And how long has Exit Factor been around?

[00:01:06.980] - Speaker 2

So Exit Factor has been around for three years, but I've actually been in the M and a space for small business for over a decade. So I also run a business brokerage firm and a mergers and acquisitions firm, which is what Exit Factor was born out of. Was that experience got you?

[00:01:24.080] - Speaker 1

So you were if I understand correctly, you were working for other people and decided to go off on your own. Is that the idea?

[00:01:30.700] - Speaker 2

No, actually, I've been I've been an entrepreneur since I was 24 years old.

[00:01:34.260] - Speaker 1

Oh, wow.

[00:01:35.010] - Speaker 3

Yeah.

[00:01:35.310] - Speaker 2

So I started and founded my own business brokerage firm as well. Built and grew that with my husband over the last ten years. And about three years ago, exit Factor started off as a division of our business brokerage company. And then as it started growing earlier this year, we peeled it off, made it its own company. We took on a new partner.

[00:01:55.730] - Speaker 1

Wow. All right. And what was the trigger to start Exit Factor?

[00:02:01.680] - Speaker 2

So on our business brokerage site, we do lots of deals, do hundreds of deals a year, and we deal with a lot of small business owners, small to mid sized business owners. And what I was starting to get frustrated with was that I saw a lot of clients that would come to us and we wouldn't be able to get them the full value of the company.

[00:02:19.150] - Speaker 3

Right.

[00:02:19.790] - Speaker 2

And it was really just because they weren't prepared properly. And when I say prepared, like, the business wasn't structured to be really desirable for sale for a lot of buyers that would generate, like, a competitive bidding process.

[00:02:33.920] - Speaker 1

Got you.

[00:02:34.840] - Speaker 2

And the way to do that, I was like, it's not some big secret we just don't talk about it. As entrepreneurs, we focus a lot on the startup phase and the growth phases of our company, but we don't focus on the exit phase. So it was really that problem that I wanted to solve. I wanted to get more businesses sold. Only about 20% or less of all small businesses are ever sold. The rest of them go out of business. So pretty startling statistics. And my mission, my passion, was to increase that percentage and ultimately deliver more value to the businesses that are able to sell.

[00:03:08.780] - Speaker 1

All right, so you exit factor essentially comes in before the actual sale or even offering, I suppose, get things in place that the owners are more owners rather than just selling a job kind of thing. Is that right?

[00:03:24.520] - Speaker 2

Yes, exactly. I mean, in an ideal world, our clients are starting to prepare their business for sale and prepare for their exit. Day one, right?

[00:03:32.580] - Speaker 1

All right.

[00:03:33.730] - Speaker 2

A friend, if you run a business every day like you're going to sell it, you're going to run a more profitable business, one that's easier to manage, one that honestly just more enjoyable.

[00:03:41.710] - Speaker 3

Right, sure.

[00:03:43.110] - Speaker 2

So ideally, they're working on this type of plan or strategy right in the beginning. But worst case scenario, one to three years in advance of a sale, if you know exactly when your sale is going to happen, which most owners don't, that's when we come in and we really work with the owners to optimize their evaluation.

[00:04:03.710] - Speaker 1

Got you. So what have been some of the mistakes, I guess more specifically than just working in it too much, I guess, that you see business owners doing on a routine basis.

[00:04:14.600] - Speaker 2

Yeah. The number one mistake is I see business owners not focus on earnings and profit enough.

[00:04:22.120] - Speaker 1

Oh, yeah.

[00:04:23.330] - Speaker 2

So I kind of mentioned the top. Like, we as entrepreneurs, and I'm guilty of this too, is like we're so focused in the startup and the growth and growth at all costs, and we think that a buyer is going to value that potential and all that money we've invested in the business. And the truth is, they don't. They're going to look at the bottom line. They look at the earnings of the company defined by a term called EBITA. And that's the number one mistake I see owners make, is like, hey, you have not shown that you've been profiting from this business at a high level, and now you want a fairly significant amount from it. And valuation is a complicated process, but half of valuation is based on the earnings of the company, not the revenue.

[00:05:09.230] - Speaker 1

Interesting. This reminds me of a phone call that I had years ago. I had a printer repair company, and I was looking to get into Toner Remanufacturing. Back when that was a thing you could competitively do as a small business. I was on the phone with this guy that was selling his Toner manufacturing company, and it was a three way call between his broker, myself and this guy. And it was a tiny company. I didn't even know if they're doing $300,000, but they had the equipment and the knowledge and all that kind of stuff, so I thought it would be an easy layout to get in there. And I'm just talking to him. He had sent me some numbers, and I quizzed him on some of the numbers because I'm like, I don't see any pay for you on here. And he was the guy. He was the only employee. So a strong argument could be made that I was buying a job, but my intention was to put an employee in his place.

[00:06:01.320] - Speaker 3

Right.

[00:06:01.720] - Speaker 1

And I didn't see any place to pay the employee. And he says, Well, I get a sandwich across the street every once in a while. And I'm like, Wait, what? And he's like, Well, I trade toner to the sandwich shop across the street, so every once in a while when I'm hungry, I can run across the street and get lunch. He had a retail space too. And I was like, Wait, you're paid in sub sandwiches? And I said that I hear the broker go I don't know if the broker didn't realize it, or the broker was hoping we would just not know or not care or not understand.

[00:06:42.990] - Speaker 2

Yeah.

[00:06:43.730] - Speaker 1

But I learned that this guy was getting money from another spot. I forget where. It doesn't matter.

[00:06:49.080] - Speaker 2

Yep.

[00:06:49.930] - Speaker 1

So the business, he had no intention to actually make it profitable. It was just something for him to do during the day. He's kind of getting sick of it.

[00:06:57.690] - Speaker 3

Yeah.

[00:06:58.310] - Speaker 1

I'm like, oh, my God, dude, you got nothing to sell. I would love to buy if you had something, but you kind of got nothing.

[00:07:06.550] - Speaker 2

Yeah.

[00:07:07.850] - Speaker 1

It's frustrating. So I can see how you can often be put in a difficult position, because I think some business owners think of their businesses like a little baby.

[00:07:16.880] - Speaker 2

Yeah, totally.

[00:07:18.000] - Speaker 1

And I'm like, I don't think you should think of it like a baby, because I'm looking to sell my baby soon.

[00:07:22.910] - Speaker 2

Yeah. In my book, I talk that's the metaphor I use, your business isn't your baby. But I think for a lot of business owners and I've been there myself too, where whether it's your baby or not, it feels like it becomes an extension of you.

[00:07:36.660] - Speaker 3

Right.

[00:07:37.060] - Speaker 2

It becomes part of your identity, and then sometimes it's hard to make those, I'd say, objective financial decisions that you have to make to transition it to what it really is, which is an asset that's supposed to produce income.

[00:07:51.870] - Speaker 3

Right.

[00:07:52.340] - Speaker 2

It's an income producing asset. That's what a business is.

[00:07:55.080] - Speaker 3

Right.

[00:07:56.810] - Speaker 1

...

DJ Neuville - Haul It All

One man's trash is another man's treasure goes the saying.  But often, you don't want to find the guy looking for your treasure.  That is when you call Haul It All.

DJ Neuville started his junk pickup and disposal business to help people get rid of the stuff that has become too burdensome to deal with.

Listen as DJ explains how he started Haul It All and how he has grown his business helping people get rid of their stuff.

The junk business is booming as it seems almost everyone has too much stuff.

Enjoy!

Visit DJ at: CallHaulItAll.com

[00:00:07.140] - Speaker 1

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggles, stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at drawincustomercom.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur, author, speaker, and helpful coach to small business owners across the country. And today we're welcoming/preparing to learn from DJ Neuville, the owner of Haul It All. So, DJ. How is it going today?

[00:00:29.980] - Speaker 2

Good.

[00:00:30.640] - Speaker 1

You got to tell us here. What is haul it all? Let's start there.

[00:00:34.310] - Speaker 2

We are a junk removal business. So we remove anything and everything that somebody does not want from their house. Business property managers, storage units, everything.

[00:00:45.690] - Speaker 1

All right?

[00:00:46.050] - Speaker 2

We haul it all away.

[00:00:46.920] - Speaker 1

So when you say all, you literally mean all.

[00:00:50.010] - Speaker 2

Is it everything?

[00:00:50.920] - Speaker 1

I got a busted up pool table. I got a grand piano. I have a dead cat, whatever.

[00:00:55.870] - Speaker 2

Yes. Everything? Yes. If we can't do it ourselves, we find someone that can do it.

[00:01:01.000] - Speaker 1

Wow. All right. And who a typical client? Is going to be somebody moving or someone that's been hoarding?

[00:01:08.660] - Speaker 2

I'd say kind of everything. Everybody. I mean, we get a lot of people that just have excess flow of garbage. They got the Amazon boxes.

[00:01:18.040] - Speaker 1

That was the nicest way I've heard a wording.

[00:01:21.710] - Speaker 2

Just holiday garbage or whatever that they can't fit in the garbage bin. They call us anything big or small furniture, that's the big time of year. People get new furniture, they call us, say, hey, I got my old couch. We come get it.

[00:01:35.440] - Speaker 1

All right, so let's figure out one. What do you do with the stuff? Somebody says, hey, I got this old beat up couch. Normally in college, I would swap we just go curb driving, looking for the better couch and just leave it at the curb, trade it. What do you guys end up doing with it?

[00:01:53.740] - Speaker 2

We try to keep everything we can out of the landfill. So ultimately we have to take quite a bit to the landfill. But we try to donate whatever we can. We donate to Goodwill, salvation army, got some other local church rescues that we donate to. Sometimes we'll sell a few things if we have to, whatever we can. And I'm up for every customer. We just try to recycle or keep whatever we can out of the landfill. And that's our goal.

[00:02:20.910] - Speaker 1

So the question that keeps coming up in my mind is why would anyone get into a business where you're dealing with essentially trash or someone's trash the whole trash treasure thing, right?

[00:02:33.090] - Speaker 2

Yeah.

[00:02:33.720] - Speaker 1

Why would you get in a business like that?

[00:02:35.910] - Speaker 2

I started it because I saw a need through selling real estate where people are just stressed out. And that's where a lot of our customers come from. They're going through process of selling a house. They got an accepted offer, and they got to close in a couple of weeks. And they got this stuff that's left that they don't want to deal with, and they don't have the time or the ability to take it to the dump themselves. And a lot of Realtors will just call us and say, hey, DJ, can you come this customer out and empty it? Yeah. All right. So I kind of saw that need for that. And there's always been junk callers, and I think there's kind of a big gap between the big companies of junk callers and your average guy who doesn't have a business, isn't have a license, is not insured, and you're not sure what's going to happen if that guy comes to my house. So I took it right in the middle of, okay, we're going to be a fully professional company. We're not going to have a huge overhead like a big company, and we're going to provide the same services as a big company.

[00:03:38.400] - Speaker 1

All right, so I mentioned a big overhead, correct me if I'm wrong here initially, is going to be a truck, right. Or something to haul this stuff with?

[00:03:46.110] - Speaker 2

Truck and the trailer.

[00:03:47.130] - Speaker 1

All right.

[00:03:48.560] - Speaker 2

We have a seven x 14 dump trailer that we use essentially like a 15 yard dumpster that comes with us.

[00:03:54.930] - Speaker 1

Wow.

[00:03:55.540] - Speaker 2

Yeah.

[00:03:56.160] - Speaker 1

All right.

[00:03:56.770] - Speaker 2

So we can literally haul anything and everything. Might take us more on one trip.

[00:04:01.600] - Speaker 1

Yeah.

[00:04:01.860] - Speaker 2

Depending on how much stuff you have.

[00:04:03.600] - Speaker 1

All right.

[00:04:04.630] - Speaker 2

But that helps us keep our costs effective, too. I mean, we can handle something as small as one couch, or we can handle ten couches.

[00:04:12.180] - Speaker 1

Wow, so many ten couches. That is cool. So do you have to have a warehouse or anything to store some of the stuff if you're trying to sell it or recycle it?

[00:04:22.300] - Speaker 2

We do. We do have a couple of just, like, storage facilities that we use currently. Eventually, that's part of our plan is to have a warehouse to kind of help with having more time to get rid of stuff.

[00:04:38.800] - Speaker 1

Got it.

[00:04:39.520] - Speaker 2

Yeah.

[00:04:40.050] - Speaker 1

So you're a real estate agent now, right?

[00:04:42.810] - Speaker 2

I am.

[00:04:44.060] - Speaker 1

So what made you decide to branch off into Holland trash? Essentially because I imagine there's some real estate agents that are going to say, hey, I want to call DJ, but I also know he's a real estate agent.

[00:04:55.950] - Speaker 2

Yeah. And I'm very upfront to my real estate clients, too, that, hey, I'm not here to steal your customer. I'm here to just help service your customer and pass on the same ideas that I have. Hey, I'm here. Let's make this closing easy or whatever, because a lot of times I found as a Realtor, you're getting last second headaches. Like, you go to do a walkthrough a day before closing and there's ten cans of paint that your buyer doesn't want and they're upset about, and now you have a seller that's like, well, I'm not going to deal with it.

[00:05:31.160] - Speaker 1

I didn't know that was a thing.

[00:05:32.500] - Speaker 2

This kind of closes the gap. Oh, yeah. People leave stuff behind houses all the time. No, I guess paints or whatever. Yeah.

[00:05:39.180] - Speaker 1

The last house that we bought, there was a ton of crap in the basement, and it was mostly paint from way back when.

[00:05:47.980] - Speaker 2

They all dried up or they're never going to use it.

[00:05:50.610] - Speaker 1

Yeah, it was a hot paint. And I'm like, nobody should have sold this. Nobody should have said, this is the color, right? Nobody yet here it was in the basement, and I was thinking, how do you get rid of paint? And you look it up and it's like, dump it out, dry it, and then it's a paint, and then you go, oh, my God.

[00:06:07.990] - Speaker 2

And especially when what I've kind of noticed is if you were buying a house, it's supposed to be a fun experience, a good experience. It's not always, but it's very stressful. But you as a buyer, you're usually pretty excited about moving into it, and one of the last things you want to deal with is other people's stuff. And a lot of times buyers will just say, well, I'll just take the house and I'll figure it out.

[00:06:30.760] - Speaker 1

Well, yeah, that's what we did. We didn't even know.

[00:06:33.160] - Speaker 2

Yeah, this kind of bridges that gap where, you know, for pretty low fees, sometimes it's just a really low fee of just coming to get a few things that are left and we help people out.

[00:06:45.130] - Speaker 1

All right.

[00:06:46.390] - Speaker 2

Keeps everybody happy.

[00:06:47.640] - Speaker 1

That's cool. I like it. Yeah. With my company, we answered phones for a mortgage company, and some of the calls that we would get from people are just like, you didn't think of this now, or, you just thought of this now. You're closing in 6 hours.

[00:07:02.060] - Speaker 2

Yeah.

[00:07:03.560] - Speaker 1

It seems like something that should have been figured out over the months, but whatever. We also have accountants that get called on April 14, april 15. Really? My taxes be like, hey, can you find my taxes? I think they do today. You think they're due today? Again, people procrastinate. So how do you market a business like this?

[00:07:29.290] - Speaker 2

Really? Referral and word of mouth is a huge portion that we do. We take a lot of pride that we ask every customer for a review, good or bad.

[00:07:38.190] - Speaker 1

Nice.

[00:07:39.260] - Speaker 2

And I just am very upfront about that, and that kind of helps us a lot. And then I do a lot of Facebook advertising all right. Through Facebook targeting of different areas that I want to target and different interests that people have.

[00:07:51....

Kevin Snow - Time On Target

Nothing happens until a sale is made.  But what processes do you use to get sales done in your business.

Kevin details how he helps companies use email, online and CRM software to help businesses grow and succeed.

Listen as Kevin Snow, cofounder of Time On Target details how to create an automated process to create and build an online pipeline to keep funneling leads to your business.

Enjoy!

Visit Kevin at: https://www.time-on-target.com/

[00:00:00.000] - Speaker 1

You have found Authentic Business Adventures the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur, author, speaker, and helpful coach to small business owners across the country. And today we're welcoming/preparing to learn from Kevin Snow, the founder and CEO of Time On Target. The interesting thing about Kevin and what he's got going on is it's essentially sales help. Is that right, Kevin?

[00:00:28.860] - Speaker 1

Yeah, sales, marketing, automation, sales process, all that.

[00:00:33.070] - Speaker 2

Fun stuff. Perfect. I'm excited to talk to you about this because it's funny. I was just talking with a client of mine yesterday, and we were talking about sales and all this stuff. She has a retail, I don't know, I guess health thing. But in the end, she was very afraid to do any sales shy of just waiting for people to walk through her door.

[00:00:54.650] - Speaker 1

So this is very timely. So let's get started and just you could tell people, what is Time On Target?

[00:01:01.570] - Speaker 1

Sure. So Time On Target is my company. We actually started it back in 2010. Oh, wow. Yeah. But the funny thing is when I started it was a speaking and training company. I was going around training different franchise owners how to launch new chapters for the networking organization I was a member of. And I was in speaking at conferences about sales and networking and businesses were hiring me to come teach their employees how to network more effectively. And it was really cool. But then I deployed and when I came back, I didn't have any speaking gigs and I didn't have anything in my pipeline. So I was like, oh, crap.

[00:01:47.140] - Speaker 1

Yeah, that's like, oh, bad. So I basically had discovered a big business flaw for my model, and that was that it couldn't survive me being gone. So we did this huge shift from speaking as a product to actually going out and helping companies launch sales teams. So we go into a lot of tech firms that were at a growth stage. They just hit their first plateau, growth plateau, and now they're looking at, all right, so how do we take that next step? How do we scale further? And usually for them, well, it was, all right, so how do we do better at sales? So we went in and we helped them figure out, all right, so what's your job description actually look like? What do you want them to do? Who are you trying to hire? Here's how you hire salespeople. So we teach them that, help them put on the onboarding process in place, training, mapping sales process, teach them how to manage salespeople. After six or nine months of this process, they had a full sales team and they were positioned to actually be able to run a program. And they basically had their playbook, which was a lot of fun and allowed me to really define how I wanted sales and how I thought sales should work and learn a bunch of new stuff.

[00:02:59.810] - Speaker 1

Then I got a ton of exposure into other business models. So it was really cool. I really loved it. But I started finding things I didn't like, so we kept niching down for what we did as a business. For example, hiring salespeople, if you're going to hire two or three at a time, that's a lot of initial interviews. And as an introvert, at the end of the week that we were doing interviews, I was like, Okay, I'm done. I'm just going to go hide in my bedroom, turn all the lights off, and recover. Because I was spent because it sucked. All that interaction would just literally suck the energy out of me. But I also learned I couldn't have more than one client going because that one client would... I had to spend so much time with the interviews and working with them going through that process. I couldn't support the other people effectively. So we started getting rid of things like that and training development and coaching on how to manage salespeople. And it kept getting down to where we're at today where it's really focused on helping people understand how to actually sell their stuff and how their clients make purchasing decisions and then integrating technology in so it's seamless and it's a good experience for their clients.

[00:04:07.420] - Speaker 1

But it's also easy for them to use as a business owner or if they actually have a sales team for their sales team to utilize and get value from as well. And that's usually a big part that's missing. And that's where we're at today.

[00:04:20.010] - Speaker 2

Nice. How did you get in the sales game initially?

[00:04:23.470] - Speaker 1

So that's another fun story because I'm actually supposed to be a high school agriculture teacher. Well, that's close. Yeah, totally related field. I'm supposed to be at high schools teaching Ag and coaching wrestling. So yeah, after college, I was interviewing for a multitude of jobs. I was interviewing for teaching jobs, but then I was also interviewing for other non teaching gigs. And I got offered for two jobs. One of them was a teaching job, which would have been $ 19,000 a year, plus the amount for coaching. And then I got offered this hybrid sales account management position with a telecom company that's base was $39,000. And plus then there was bonuses for commission for upselling and all that type of stuff. I'm like, I got a car to pay for. School loans starting in six months. Hi, mom, I'm moving to Minnesota. So I took the sales job and I had done sales jobs during college, during the summer and stuff. I had sold Kirby vacuum cleaners, cut coat cutlery. Oh, wow. Checking those boxes. Yeah, definitely. I'd done telemarketing. I had done some sales stuff. I went in there and that was my first real job after college was sales for a telecom company.

[00:05:42.810] - Speaker 2

Wow. And was that cold calling?

[00:05:45.580] - Speaker 1

No, it was account management. I was given a base. I was working with Fortune 500 accounts out of downtown Minneapolis. I had a book of accounts that I was supporting and then upselling into and migrating from one billing platform onto the new one and doing all kinds of contract work and support work. So it was a hybrid sales job. I don't think if it was a straight go sell stuff, I probably would have taken it at that time.

[00:06:14.450] - Speaker 2

Got you. All right. So why were you even looking for jobs outside of the whole egg teacher thing?

[00:06:21.590] - Speaker 1

It was just options. Back then, teaching paid even less than it does now. I had an understanding at that point that, hey, I need to pay bills. And do I necessarily want a job that I need to have another job on top of to make sure I could pay for stuff and pay off the school loans and all that stuff I had going on. So it was literally just I wanted to make sure I found something and wasn't one of those unemployed students after the summer I graduated.

[00:06:57.530] - Speaker 2

All right.

[00:06:58.800] - Speaker 1

Yeah. I had no real plans to move out of the state and move to Minnesota. But then I got the offer and it was a cool company. And the boss that I interviewed with seemed really cool. And so I was like, Let's try. I can always move back if it doesn't work. Yeah, right.

[00:07:16.020] - Speaker 2

So what made you... I guess, at what point did you leave that to start your own gig?

[00:07:20.430] - Speaker 1

What were some of the.

[00:07:21.170] - Speaker 2

Events that happened there?

[00:07:22.430] - Speaker 1

Yeah. So I was with them. I got fired less than a year later because I was just horrible, which was fine. I learned a ton. I learned a lot of stuff about me. At the time, I didn't realize I was learning it, but it allowed me to move from that position. Then I actually got a true sales position with Nextel, the walkie talkie phone people. Oh, yeah. Love them. You're looking at it? Yeah, push to talk. It was really cool. I started out really bumpy there, too, but then I figured out something for how I needed to sell because I am an introvert. I couldn't do all the standard sales techniques because it came out really wrong when I said it. It didn't come across as smooth and polished when all the extroverts said it. It came out just slimy and sleazy when an introvert says it.

[00:08:15.930] - Speaker 2

For whatever reason.

[00:08:17.400] - Speaker 1

Presumptive clothes, right? Yeah, presumptive clothes, take away. We're going to do the Ben Franklin clothes. Let's draw a line down the middle of the sheet and write out pros and cons and all that stuff. I'm like, Oh, I can't do that. But I discovered then that my sales superpower was the ability to listen and ask questions. And as a high C, that introvert, we're all about detail and we want to know why things work and how things work and all the stuff. We're that person that reads the five page email to get to all the stuff when really what we need is at the bottom, we'll read it all. But I discovered that was my superpower because I would go into these businesses and I got rid of the pitch deck and I started asking questions and started really learning about what was going on in their business and the issues they were having that was keeping them up at night and that they really wanted to change and the impact that changing those things would have. That was the big part....

Erin and Dimitri Vranas - Yips Yogurt Chips and Parthenon's Gyros

A few facts to bring to light how awesome this couple is:

Parthenon's Gyros hit 50 years this year.

On top of that, they created Yips Yogurt Chips, which alone would be an incredible feat.

Erin has enough energy to power a city.

Erin and Dimitri Vranas know a thing or two about being incredible entrepreneurs and they are a married couple that works well together.

Listen as they share their story of buying the family gyro business, growing it, surviving a pandemic along with some brutal protests in downtown Madison and how they came up with and implemented the idea for a healthy, portable snack that happens to be delicious.

Enjoy!

Visit Erin and Dimitri at: https://yipsyogurtchips.com/

[00:00:01]

You have found the Authentic

Business Adventures.

[00:00:03]

The business program that brings

[00:00:07]

the struggles, stories and triumphant

[00:00:09]

successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie.

[00:00:10]

My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,

[00:00:12]

author, speaker and helpful coach to small

business owners across the country.

[00:00:16]

And today we're welcoming/preparing to learn from

[00:00:19]

Erin and Dimitri,

the I would say owners, founders,

[00:00:23]

best people in the world for Parthenons

Gyros, as well as Yips Yogurt Chips.

[00:00:30]

So I'm excited to meet them.

You should be, too.

[00:00:32]

So, welcome.

How are you guys doing today?

[00:00:34]

Thank you.

Great.

[00:00:35]

Thanks for having us here.

Excited to be here.

[00:00:37]

I'm excited because, well,

one Gyros are awesome.

[00:00:41]

I think it's safe to say they're probably

[00:00:42]

a step above tacos,

but they don't get the you-rah-rah that tacos do.

[00:00:48]

So let's start with Parthenons,

[00:00:49]

because I think that's where

this whole story started, right?

[00:00:51]

It did.

[00:00:52]

So let's start there.

[00:00:53]

What do you want to start with?

[00:00:55]

How long have you guys owned Parthenon's?

Good question.

[00:00:58]

So we actually, Parthenon just

celebrated its 50th anniversary.

[00:01:02]

50th?

That's fifty, half a century.

[00:01:06]

You say it like that, you're like, whoa.

[00:01:07]

Yeah, it's a long time.

[00:01:09]

They eat that on the Mayflower?

[00:01:10]

We had a really fun celebration recently.

Nice.

[00:01:12]

Oh, my gosh.

[00:01:13]

It was a really great party.

Oh, very cool.

[00:01:16]

But it's been in our family

now for three generations.

[00:01:19]

All right.

[00:01:19]

Officially ours since 2017

with just the two of us.

[00:01:24]

And ever since then,

we've really made a lot of changes.

[00:01:28]

We did a complete gut remodel.

It gets gorgeous.

[00:01:31]

Now, of course,

we kept our classic traditional Euros,

[00:01:34]

and they're still made the same way

that they have been in the last 50 years.

[00:01:38]

Housemates, one of the last

places in the US.

[00:01:40]

To still make everything

in hand in house by hand.

[00:01:44]

All right, so we still grind our own lamb.

[00:01:46]

We grind our own beef,

we grind our own peppercorn.

[00:01:49]

We use oregano from Greece,

so it's just meat and spices.

[00:01:51]

Most places are from factories.

[00:01:53]

There's a lot of stuff in there.

[00:01:54]

Preservatives, fillers, chemicals.

[00:01:57]

Weird junk, which we're not into.

[00:01:59]

We're all about the natural stuff.

Got you.

[00:02:01]

So tell me just really quick.

[00:02:02]

This may be getting off

on a tangent a little bit.

[00:02:04]

We like tangents.

[00:02:05]

But when I go to your place,

I see the big meat thing that turns.

[00:02:10]

Yes.

What am I looking at there?

[00:02:11]

Yeah, that's the ground beef

and ground lamb with spices.

[00:02:14]

Okay.

That's it ground.

[00:02:16]

It is ground.

[00:02:16]

It's not just like a lamb

leg that they sell?

[00:02:18]

No, we grind it ourselves,

so we get the whole cuts.

[00:02:21]

We grind it.

[00:02:22]

So I always wondered because I'm like

that's kind of like a leg size, but no,

[00:02:28]

I had no idea what I was eating,

but I knew it was good.

[00:02:31]

So think about,

like a burger with ground beef.

[00:02:33]

This is ground beef and ground lamb.

[00:02:35]

And then ground peppercorn, oregano

from Greece,

[00:02:38]

just meat and spices and the whole thing,

and it cooks just the outer layer.

[00:02:42]

And that's what we slice off into a pita

with onions, tomatoes, and sauce.

[00:02:45]

And the sauce is our second secret of what

[00:02:47]

makes the best is that we

make our own Greek yogurt.

[00:02:51]

So you can kind of go into

that a little bit. So it's just milk and probiotic cultures.

[00:02:54]

We use five cultures.

Okay.

[00:02:56]

So it's actually good for you.

[00:02:58]

Our yogurt process is a very long process.

[00:03:01]

We do the entire fermentation,

the straining, all of that.

[00:03:04]

It's like a 60 hours process total.

[00:03:07]

And then at the very end of it,

[00:03:08]

we add cucumber, garlic,

and lemon to make our tzatziki sauce.

[00:03:11]

All right.

And then that's kind of where yips spiraled off.

All right.

[00:03:16]

Yeah.

Right.

[00:03:17]

So those are two things.

All right.

[00:03:19]

Gyro, I knew or I thought, was cucumber sauce

[00:03:22]

of some kind, but I had

no idea what that meant.

[00:03:24]

Yeah, a lot of them that you get

[00:03:26]

the tzatziki sauces, it's like

a sour cream base and other stuff.

[00:03:30]

But also other weird ingredients that are in there.

[00:03:33]

Well, ingredients,

we're big ingredient readers and.

[00:03:39]

Just natural food things that you're

going to find in your pantry.

[00:03:42]

It's really important to us.

[00:03:43]

So that's our thing is gyros and yogurt.

[00:03:45]

I don't know of any other restaurant

[00:03:46]

in the country, actually,

that makes their gyro and their yogurt.

[00:03:50]

Oh, okay.

So that's what kind of sets us apart.

[00:03:52]

We've been doing it for 50 years now,

and that's what kind of led into this, is

[00:03:59]

we're playing with taking either of those

and being able to package them in a way

[00:04:04]

that we can kind of reach more people

other than just local Madison.

[00:04:07]

Sure.

[00:04:08]

Well, it was also sort

of pandemic induced, in a way.

[00:04:13]

Originally, we were like,

let's create another product

[00:04:15]

for Parthenon, and then this crazy

pandemic came out of nowhere.

[00:04:20]

Yeah, I heard of that.

Yeah, right.

[00:04:22]

Do you remember that?

[00:04:25]

It hit us really hard.

[00:04:26]

I bet. At one point, we're like,

80% down, and it was really rough.

[00:04:31]

And so we started looking at what we're

[00:04:32]

good at. Gyros and yogurt. And at that one of our

friends had gotten a freeze dryer.

[00:04:39]

So we started experimenting,

and we got our own.

[00:04:41]

And these things, they're pricey,

but we're like, you know what?

[00:04:45]

If we make a product out of it, then we

can actually make something. Justify it.

[00:04:48]

Sure.

[00:04:50]

But then we really started

looking into the CPG business.

[00:04:53]

Consumer Packaged Goods that's CPG.

All right.

[00:04:55]

And we're like, wow,

this could actually be something.

[00:04:58]

And so we started experimenting

with our products.

[00:05:00]

And of course, the first thing that we

experimented with were our gyros.

[00:05:04]

And so we took the sliced gyro

meat and we freeze dried it.

[00:05:08]

And it was, like, the worst thing.

[00:05:12]

Just imagine eating chalky meat.

[00:05:14]

It was awful.

[00:05:15]

So that didn't work.

[00:05:17]

Like, okay, what's next?

[00:05:18]

We tried a bunch of different things,

but then we tried our yogurt and we're

[00:05:21]

like, wow, this actually has

a pretty cool potential.

[00:05:24]

So you freeze dried yogurt?

Yes.

[00:05:26]

So it's like dehydrating.

[00:05:28]

It's similar, but it actually removes

more moisture than dehydrating.

[00:05:32]

It doesn't use the heat.

[00:05:34]

Okay, so dehydrating usually will heat

[00:05:36]

things up, and it will

take away most moisture.

[00:05:39]

Let's just say 90%.

[00:05:41]

Yeah, a little home dehydrator.

[00:05:42]

You make beef jerk right

out of this stuff.

[00:05:43]

Exactly.

[00:05:44]

So the difference between drying let's

say beef jerky is beef jerky can bend it.

[00:05:48]

Right.

Which means there's moisture still in it.

[00:05:50]

But also because it heats it up,

it also kills off a lot of the nutrients

[00:05:53]

that are in it and the vitamins

and things like that.

[00:05:55]

Okay.

Freeze drying does the opposite.

[00:05:57]

It actually freezes it down.

[00:05:58]

The opposite, instead of heating up,

freezes it down to negative 40.

[00:06:01]

It removes most of the moisture,

let's say 99%.

[00:06:03]

But it does use a tiny, tiny amount

of heat so that it can sublimate.

[00:06:08]

So it goes from like an ice state into

gaseous state and uses a vacuum, too.

[00:06:13]

It's really neat.

It's really awesome.

[00:06:15]

It preserves the shape, the color,

the size, and it actually preserves

[00:06:19]

the nutrients and the

vitamins that are in it.

[00:06:21]

And because it removes more moisture,

that same beef jerky that's normally

[00:06:25]

dehydrated and could bend the freezed dried

one will not bend.

[00:06:28]

It will snap.

[00:06:29]

...

Adam Carroll - The Shred Method™

It may surprise you that there a huge number of people in our great population that have debt.  Some of this debt is staggering in it's size, especially in relation to the income that is in the process of paying it back.

Once you get deep in debt, it can be tough to get out.  But it is not an impossible task.

Listen as Adam Carroll, founder of The Shred Method™ explains some key tips to help both avoid debt and to get out of it.

He offers some financial advice that almost anyone can use.

Enjoy!

Visit Adam at: http://www.adamspeaks.com/

[00:00:00.000] - Speaker 1

You have found Authentic Business Adventures. The business program that

[00:00:03.510] - Speaker 2

brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur, speaker, helpful coach to small business owners across the country. And today we're welcoming/preparing to learn from Adam Carroll, who's also a speaker, a documentary filmmaker, as well as the founder of The Shred Method. And if I remember correctly, this is to help people get out of debt.

[00:00:29.700] - Speaker 1

Is that right, Adam? That's exactly right, James. I know we're going to have a lot to talk about because you and I are like simpatico here.

[00:00:37.470] - Speaker 2

I love it. So tell me, let's start out. I don't even know where to start out. The documentary filmmaker thing just sounds awesome. So let's start there.

[00:00:45.900] - Speaker 1

It is pretty awesome. It's a really interesting story, too, because I think it's like an entrepreneurial tale that has all sorts of different sidewinding paths that we took along the way. I have been a speaker on the college campus scene for a number of years. Oh, wow. And literally 15 years of going out and just teaching college students all over the country. I had it, James, that the student loan debt problem was getting bigger and bigger.

[00:01:16.370] - Speaker 1

I was hearing from students that would have, they'd say, Oh, I have 20,000. Then it was 40,000. Then it was 80 or 90,000. I heard kids have 125 grand for a bachelor's degree. I just kept thinking, This is insane that this is even going on. I had this wild idea which was based on every other business model that I'd had, which was write a book and go speak on the book. I was going to write a book called Broke, Busted and Disgusted, True Tales of student loan borrowers.

[00:01:46.690] - Speaker 2

And I was sharing this with a friend of mine, a younger guy, about 10 years younger than me, super creative. And he said, Adam, that would make an amazing documentary. I said, Yeah, you're right, Kelvin, but I don't know the first thing about documentaries. And he goes, Yeah, me neither. Let's do it. So we decided to crowdfund the documentary project, and we raised $67,000 in 45 days through IndieGoGo, which is like a Kickstarter channel, right? Kick starter IndieGoGo. And it was all basically through my network, who all willingly gave. And we had enough to fully produce, edit, and finish a full length feature documentary that lo and behold, we ended up selling to CNBC in 2017.

[00:02:36.470] - Speaker 2

Really?

[00:02:37.230] - Speaker 1

Yeah. So everyone said, Hey, there's no way you're going to make any money with an indie doc.

[00:02:43.300] - Speaker 2

I was just going to ask.

[00:02:45.430] - Speaker 1

Yeah, never. They would tell us there's no way this is a passion project. Just chalk it up to experience. You're never going to make any money. Then over the course of 36 months, we cleared several hundred thousand dollars in licensing fees and speaking fees and all that stuff with the document.

[00:03:04.300] - Speaker 2

So there's money in documentaries.

[00:03:07.410] - Speaker 1

There can be. There can be money in documentary. There can be. I would say that there is also this subset of documentary filmmakers that want to support every other documentarian out there. So just the fact that we were doing one, we were getting outreach from all sorts of people who had also been on IndieGoGo building documentaries telling us tips and strategies and what to do and what not to do. So even that was awesome because we got in with people who are doing documentaries on young doctors who are committing suicide and all sorts of these things.

[00:03:45.760] - Speaker 2

All right. Dang. That is impressive.

[00:03:50.160] - Speaker 1

How much time did that take? Was that just a part time side hustle thing, or is this like quit your job, devote all your life for the next seven years to this thing?

[00:04:01.370] - Speaker 1

Yeah, this is a really astute question because when we started, we thought, oh, we'll shoot at it, produce it, and we'll be done. And then I was listening to a podcast by this gentleman who was a screenwriter out of LA, and he was working on a book, a manuscript of his own. And his agent said, Hey, man, don't do this unless you're willing to spend two years doing it. And the gist of the podcast was that anytime we birth something into the world, and you've probably experienced this with the show and other projects you've worked on, that you think you're going to get a lot done in the first year. And then it's like, oh, this is an uphill battle because we're still in that launch phase. But by year two and certainly by year three, everything was on autopilot and it was just running. So was it a full time deal? If you asked my wife, she would say yes, it was probably a full time deal for me.

[00:04:55.000] - Speaker 2

All right.

[00:04:56.010] - Speaker 2

My business partner on the project who did all the video editing and he was the director of photography and all that, he would say it was a full time job while he was working on it. And it was a really, from my perspective, it was a great partnership because I was going out and drumming up relationships and business and eyeballs and all of that. And he was very detail oriented. He got all the music, all the intellectual property on the music bot and paid for it. He was doing everything necessary, set us up on Gum Road so people could download the film and watch it whenever. He was remarkable at that. I think we stayed in our own lanes in terms of our unique abilities for the project. Nice.

[00:05:41.330] - Speaker 2

That had to be a challenge right there. Documentary, I imagine there's a lot of moving parts.

[00:05:47.460] - Speaker 1

Oh, my gosh. People in there.

[00:05:48.470] - Speaker 2

But then those people have to get along.

[00:05:50.620] - Speaker 1

You can't even imagine, James. We had Teams of six or seven going at one time when we were doing the crowdfunding campaign. We had a social media team, if you will, like two or three people working with us on that. And we were paying them as we could. They were all contractors. But getting everyone wrangled because we were all pretty much virtual, getting everyone wrangled, getting on meetings, trying to organize that. It's project management, and it's a really valuable skill once you've gotten some practice on it to use it in real life. But it was such a blast. Looking back, that's just one of those things that I look back and go, we did that.

[00:06:29.850] - Speaker 2

That's cool. So have you gotten feedback from people on that? People saw it, or do they even know that you're part of it?

[00:06:37.750] - Speaker 1

Yeah. So what's crazy was I do a lot of work with credit unions in the state of Iowa and around the country for that matter. But the credit unions in the state of Iowa really rallied around this message and said, hey, we want to support you. So what does this look like? And I said, well, we'd really like to get sponsorship to put the movie in every high school in the state. And so there's 100 counties, I'm sorry, 99 counties in the state of Iowa. And there's probably, what, 280 or 300 high schools. And we ended up getting into about 240 high schools in the state of Iowa. And then it started expanding out from there. And the credit unions all stepped up and said, Hey, we'll sponsor the film being shown in every single high school.

[00:07:27.690] - Speaker 2

That's awesome.

[00:07:28.540] - Speaker 1

Yeah. It was really cool. I'm trying to remember your original question why I was.

[00:07:36.440] - Speaker 2

Going to the... The feedback that you got.

[00:07:38.500] - Speaker 1

From it. The feedback we got. We were getting emails from educators saying, this is incredibly eye opening. My kids, they're sobered by what you're sharing. They're asking really deep questions. They're taking... We had basically a viewer's guide, downloadable PDF document, and it was meant for students, teachers, and parents to have a more intelligent conversation around the cost of college.

[00:08:05.630] - Speaker 2

And.

[00:08:06.200] - Speaker 1

So the families were even emailing saying, Thank you so much for doing this documentary. We had no idea that this level of debt was out there. And what I found, ultimately, James, was the students that we were really trying to advocate for were the ones who were already deep in debt. They had gone into school, signed on the bottom line, didn't realize that over four years, the 40,000 they were borrowing was going to turn into 75 with interest. They didn't have any concept about what paying $75,000 back looks like. We wanted to give them that impression, and we did with the doc. It was just very validating. Everyone came back and said, This is so important. To this day, there are still high schools that air the doc in their financial literacy classes.

[00:08:56.240] - Speaker 2

When was your two year period when you recorded it and went through all that?

[00:09:01.290] - Speaker 1

We shot the majority of the film in 2015....

Tara Ingalls - Tingalls Graphic Design

There are an almost unlimited amount of places to get your logo, business cards, website or brochures designed.  There are about as many places to work to peddle your design skills as well.  The interesting thing with business is that it is the little things that often keep people coming back for more, whether as a client, or an employee.

Tara Ingalls started Tingalls Graphic Design over 20 years ago.  That alone is impressive.  But think of all that she has experienced during her ongoing entrepreneurship journey.  A few scattered years of recessions, a dried up employee market, a pandemic, 9/11, 2008 and a medley of competitors found through the internet.

Still, Tara presses on with a dynamic crew and a loyal client base.

Listen as Tara shares some of her experiences of owning her graphic design firm for over two decades, specifically how she not only survived, but thrived through that whole debacle we made it past.

This is the second interview I have done with Tara.  She is a business owner worth paying attention to and someone that is extremely fun to chat with.

Enjoy!

Visit Tara at: https://tingalls.com

[00:00:01]

You have found

[00:00:02]

Authentic Business Adventures, a business

program that brings you

[00:00:05]

the struggles, stories, and triumphant successes of business owners across the land.

[00:00:09]

Downloadable audio episodes

[00:00:11]

of the Authentic Business Adventures

program can be found on the podcast link.

[00:00:14]

found at drawincustomers.com. We are

[00:00:17]

locally underwritten

by the Bank of Sun Prairie.

[00:00:18]

My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,

[00:00:20]

author, speaker, and helpful coach to

small business owners across the country.

[00:00:24]

Today we're welcoming/ preparing to learn from

[00:00:26]

Tara Ingalls,

the owner of Tingalls Graphic Design.

[00:00:30]

Tara has been on the show, I don't know,

[00:00:33]

it seems like 500 years ago,

but it's probably three years ago.

[00:00:38]

We aged, at least.

[00:00:39]

So, Tara, how are you doing today?

I'm great.

[00:00:42]

Happy to be here.

Yeah.

[00:00:44]

So I'm excited.

[00:00:45]

Your business survives pandemic.

[00:00:47]

Survived and flourished, yeah. Right along.

[00:00:49]

High fives right there.

[00:00:51]

So when you were interviewed on here a few

years ago well, let's just back up a step.

[00:00:57]

How would the Pandemic treat you,

I guess business wise?

[00:01:01]

Yeah, so actually, it was just

interviewed by Park Bank.

[00:01:04]

We just switched banks and they wanted

[00:01:06]

to do a story on they do a story on new

businesses, and one of the questions they

[00:01:09]

asked was, what are you most

proud of in your business?

[00:01:12]

And actually, I would have to say the way

[00:01:15]

that our company survived

the Pandemic was definitely nice.

[00:01:17]

All right, so

we all went home on that Friday

[00:01:21]

with the potential that we might not come

back to work on Monday, or if we did,

[00:01:26]

we'd already talked to our It firm about

getting us remote.

[00:01:31]

And so we staged the comeback

on that Monday, the 16th I think it was,

[00:01:35]

and came out their computers

went home and everything.

[00:01:37]

And within minutes or hours,

we were up and running and on Zoom

[00:01:40]

together, talking about

projects and stuff.

[00:01:43]

So 2020 was my 20th years in business.

So.

[00:01:46]

Thanks a lot COVID.

20th.

[00:01:47]

20th.

Holy jolly.

[00:01:50]

I made it really easy for my husband.

We got married then.

[00:01:54]

That's what happened.

[00:01:56]

Yeah.

[00:01:58]

I had been speaking kind

of all up into the Pandemic.

[00:02:01]

I had actually just spoke

to Middleton Chamber two weeks prior

[00:02:03]

to the Pandemic, and we had a boatload

of business come in for that.

[00:02:07]

So we had business we had customers that

were relying on us to get that work done.

[00:02:14]

And we had to get up

and running pretty quickly.

[00:02:18]

So our IT guy got us all

up and running remotely.

[00:02:23]

And we only had one employee

that had connectivity issues.

[00:02:26]

But it was scary.

It was really scary.

[00:02:29]

We had no idea the first week,

we were like, what's going on?

[00:02:32]

Nobody knew what was going on.

[00:02:34]

And I kind of just embraced

[00:02:37]

my core values of kind of how we run

the business and how I am as a person.

[00:02:41]

And all I really cared about

was how people were doing.

[00:02:43]

I was, how are you mentally?

[00:02:45]

How are you physically?

[00:02:46]

What are your husband's doing?

[00:02:47]

How are your kids doing?

[00:02:49]

And that's really what we led

with everyday was kind of a check

[00:02:52]

in mentally and physically,

making sure everyone was safe.

[00:02:55]

And I think by that we just became closer

as a unit, closer as friends,

[00:03:01]

and just created sort of this

collaborative, supportive nature that when

[00:03:06]

we came back from the pandemic has just

sort of been there and really is what

[00:03:10]

drives I feel like productivity,

client relations, everything like that.

[00:03:15]

So I'm really proud of the culture

that we created during the pandemic.

[00:03:19]

We played spoons and we were doing all

[00:03:21]

that kind of stuff that we love

doing as part of our culture.

[00:03:24]

And when we got that ripped out

[00:03:25]

from underneath us, it was like, how are

we going to stay connected over screen?

[00:03:31]

And so

[00:03:32]

we found some like cards and community

things that you could do online.

[00:03:36]

We would play pictionary online and like

zoom was just sort of not its infancy.

[00:03:42]

It was around for a while,

[00:03:43]

but getting to know the whiteboarding and

the breakout rooms and all that stuff.

[00:03:47]

So just checking in every single day.

[00:03:49]

We did Zoom every day together

[00:03:51]

for at least a half an hour just to kind

of check in and see how things were going.

[00:03:55]

I was on every Zoom that I could possibly

get invited to, to learn about what does

[00:04:00]

this do, what is a pandemic, what is it,

what does it do to businesses?

[00:04:04]

And just kind of like the same 2008, 2009

[00:04:09]

recession that everyone

wouldn't we just stayed active.

[00:04:11]

We just stayed continuously

open to new business.

[00:04:14]

A lot of my competitors,

I was going out to their websites just

[00:04:18]

checking to see what are they

doing to help their customers.

[00:04:20]

And a lot of them just went dark.

[00:04:21]

They just didn't put anything on their

home page, nothing on their social media.

[00:04:26]

And so through that I think people just

[00:04:29]

they weren't getting

their answers questions.

[00:04:31]

They weren't getting their questions

[00:04:33]

answered, they weren't

getting any service.

[00:04:35]

And so we started talking to not only our

clients but new business saying, hey,

[00:04:40]

I need to let my clients know that we have

curbside, that we are revamping our

[00:04:45]

ordering if there was hospitality

or whatever and Tingalls.

[00:04:49]

We've done hundreds of brands and so

we have clients that went dark.

[00:04:52]

We have clients that were like,

no, we are first responders.

[00:04:55]

We are what are the frontliners

[00:04:56]

frontliners that we need

to get the word out and stuff.

[00:04:59]

And so we just sort of started

offering website edits for free.

[00:05:01]

We're like, hey, do you need edits?

[00:05:04]

Let's get your edits done.

[00:05:05]

We'll worry about billing later.

[00:05:07]

We offered website design,

no payments for 90 days.

[00:05:09]

We had a lot of new business come in.

[00:05:12]

Yeah, that year our squarespace

product just ballooned.

[00:05:18]

I think we did over 100

websites that first year.

[00:05:21]

Two, three, four months.

[00:05:23]

Helping people get up and get going.

[00:05:26]

Oh yeah, it was a very weird booming time.

[00:05:31]

We did fine financially, as a business,

we grew 2021, kind of went down a little

[00:05:37]

bit, and now I feel like we're

kind of ramping back up.

[00:05:40]

I don't know.

It's hard to really attribute it really

[00:05:43]

to anyone other than just

solidifying ourselves as our team.

[00:05:48]

The PPP loans that came through were

really financially helpful

[00:05:51]

to the business,

to the employees that we have on staff.

[00:05:55]

So, yeah, so that's what happened.

Nice.

[00:05:57]

You touched on a lot of stuff there.

[00:05:59]

First, I want to say it's super awesome

[00:06:02]

that you play cards against

humanity with your crew.

[00:06:04]

I know that the one we found online was

[00:06:07]

a little more PC than buying a store,

but it's still pretty awesome.

[00:06:12]

I mean, playing games in general,

[00:06:13]

team building is a huge

component of my company.

[00:06:16]

I'm a very lighthearted person.

[00:06:18]

I feel like the more fun you can have

at work, the more you're going to want

[00:06:22]

to go and the more you're

going to want to stay.

[00:06:24]

And our spoons tournament that we do twice

[00:06:27]

a year, we do one for March Madness was

actually going to happen two weeks after

[00:06:30]

the Pandemic, and people were like,

you can still have it.

[00:06:32]

And we're like, no,

we're not going to have it.

[00:06:36]

So we're bringing Spooky

spoons back for Halloween.

[00:06:38]

We have to do it the week before.

[00:06:41]

...

Drew White - Create Tailwind

We have all had to borrow money at one time or another.  Maybe for a house, a car or to grow our business.  Dealing with lenders can be tough and you leave the decision of you getting cash in your pocket to people that may not have your best interests in mind.

So what is a fiscally savvy individual to do?

Listen as Drew White, of Infinite Banking Concepts, teaches us how he helps people be their own bank, through the power of a specially designed life insurance product.

Enjoy!

Visit Drew: https://ibcdrew.com

[00:00:00.000] - Speaker 1

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We're locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur, speaker, and helpful coach to small business owners across the country. And today we're welcoming/preparing to learn from Drew White, the founder of IBC. Drew was working with Create Tailwind. So, Drew, how are you doing today?

[00:00:26.770] - Speaker 1

James, thanks for having me, man. I'm doing good. Busy day, a lot of life changes, but I'm having a great day.

[00:00:32.570] - Speaker 2

Sweet. Did you say a lot of life changes?

[00:00:34.670] - Speaker 1

A lot of life changes, yeah.

[00:00:35.950] - Speaker 2

Just today.

[00:00:37.350] - Speaker 1

Well, I mean, just things up coming at the family. All right. I'm trying to get prepared. Get prepared. Nice.

[00:00:42.510] - Speaker 2

All good stuff, I imagine or hope?

[00:00:44.320] - Speaker 1

All good stuff. Yeah, we're going to head off in an RV adventure full time.

[00:00:49.450] - Speaker 2

That's the whole family?

[00:00:51.060] - Speaker 1

Whole family. 6 to 12 months. We got about two weeks as of this recording left till we go. So we're just trying to get it done. All right. So you have kids, I imagine?

[00:01:03.840] - Speaker 1

Yeah. We got a five and an eight year old and a dog.

[00:01:07.560] - Speaker 2

Yeah. Wife, dog, five year old, eight year old, you and I imagine whatever equipment you need to make sure you can do your job on the road.

[00:01:17.670] - Speaker 1

Yeah. We got to get a satellite for the WiFi, but we heard campgrounds don't have good WiFi.

[00:01:25.330] - Speaker 2

Right.

[00:01:26.210] - Speaker 1

Yeah.

[00:01:26.720] - Speaker 2

They get that one pipe coming in, they share it with 500 people.

[00:01:29.430] - Speaker 1

Yeah, exactly.

[00:01:30.820] - Speaker 2

Everybody's trying to watch Netflix on a rainy day.

[00:01:32.650] - Speaker 1

Stream Netflix on those apparently.

[00:01:35.290] - Speaker 2

Got you. Interesting. All right, so where are you headed to first?

[00:01:39.230] - Speaker 1

Probably actually Missouri just to visit some friends. And then we said we got to make this fun for the kids. And someone told us Santa Claus, Indiana has a place called Holiday World, and it's like adventure, amusement park. So we're like, we'll stay there two weeks, make sure the kids realize this is going to be fun. Oh, wow. All right. Go see friends for a few days, and then we're going to head straight there. Actually, the real answer is the first place we're going to camp is right outside our city of Omaha to make sure we can handle it.

[00:02:09.430] - Speaker 2

The first night, you're like, Nope, we're going home.

[00:02:14.700] - Speaker 1

We were like, We're moving back home. Okay, so we couldn't handle five days.

[00:02:19.050] - Speaker 2

That is funny. The first day. You don't have to deal with the first day with the kids saying that we're there yet.

[00:02:24.030] - Speaker 1

Yes, exactly. It's a short trip. We set up a practice. And honestly, I need a lot of practice backing the camper in. So that's where I'm pretty weak.

[00:02:32.890] - Speaker 2

I have to admit, I've never stayed in a camper, or at least not many times, never in my own. But one of the most exciting things or most entertaining things when I was a kid, because we would always stay in a tent, was we would sit in the tent with the door open and we would just watch the campers back up.

[00:02:50.290] - Speaker 2

Because as a kid, you didn't have a whole lot to do in some of these places just seemed like golf courses. They didn't have any play equipment. It was just a big grassy field. So you could see all the campers trying to back up. So you'd get there Friday afternoon and you just eat your hot dog or brat whatever. You're watching campers back up, hit trees, yell at wives and husbands and want to disown their family as they're backing up.

[00:03:16.070] - Speaker 1

My friends that I'll be the talk of the campground. Everybody's going to be watching me, which is like, that's not helping me. It's just putting more pressure on them. It's like, yeah, everybody's going to be watching you back in, buddy, because they're going to laugh and be like, he's a newbie.

[00:03:30.190] - Speaker 2

Oh, funny. It's interesting, because when I was a kid, that was a long time ago, this was pre backup camera. Now, I think with backup cameras, it's probably easy.

[00:03:40.840] - Speaker 1

I need to get one. I don't have one on ours.

[00:03:43.530] - Speaker 2

Oh, dude, that's the best $15 you'll spend. We got one on the truck, but nothing on the camper. So we need one on the camper.

[00:03:49.800] - Speaker 2

So it's a trailer?

[00:03:51.260] - Speaker 1

Yeah, it's a fifth wheel.

[00:03:53.380] - Speaker 2

I don't think it would hurt.

[00:03:56.170] - Speaker 1

Yeah, it's probably smart.

[00:03:57.870] - Speaker 2

I don't think it hurt. But at any rate, tell us about the Create Tailwind and what you have going on.

[00:04:03.680] - Speaker 1

Yeah. So we teach something called the Infinite Banking Concept. And it's really using, I would say, a unique vehicle, specifically designed, whole life insurance through a mutual insurance company. And really, the premise of it is using it like a bank for your family or for your business. And so we work a lot with business owners, a lot with real estate investors, show them how to use it really pretty much like you would a bank, almost replacing a checking savings account. All right. It benefits to that. And that's really what we focus on teaching people. It's really our main thing. And the guy that really founded our company used to be a financial advisor and didn't really enjoy that world. It wasn't for him and found his way to this and really liked teaching people this and the freedom that... And there's a lot of freedom with it and a lot of variability, just different ways that you can use the system. They were focused on helping people create financial freedom as well using this.

[00:05:03.910] - Speaker 2

All right. So I got a ton of questions that I want to ask you.

[00:05:08.010] - Speaker 1

Oh, yeah.

[00:05:08.910] - Speaker 2

Well, let's get started with just the entry level. How did you get into this?

[00:05:13.660] - Speaker 1

Yeah. So I might have to back up a ways, but I was a Pediatric Oncology Nurse for 10 years. Wow. And so I start my story there because I graduated with $150,000 plus of student loan debt.

[00:05:29.310] - Speaker 2

Oh.

[00:05:29.780] - Speaker 1

Yeah. I didn't really know anything about money, obviously, because that was probably a terrible financial decision. And so I was making about 40,000 a year around there, probably a little less, to be honest. And I remember my dad, he had no financial background, was a pastor, but he was worried about me. So he sits me down and he teaches me some Dave Ramsey budgeting comms. I'm not as big of a Dave guy anymore, but it kickstarted me. And so he sits me down and I realized like, half my income is going to these student loans that I took. What am I doing? So I do credit Dave with really lighting my financial fire, if you will. And so that sent me on a path about 10 years of just really finding out that I was entrepreneurial, finding out that I was willing to try stuff. And I figured out I'm very family oriented. And so I realized I don't really want to do this nursing thing forever because you got to work weekends and holidays and the paid is not that great. I did like the job. And so I tried different things. I tried flipping mobile homes.

[00:06:33.380] - Speaker 1

I tried some day trading and just some other things like that. And you always knew I had... So I got on debt quickly and a bunch of nurses would always ask me for help with finances. And I was like, I didn't really want to go to be a financial adviser. So I was like, Well, I'll just help them on the side here and there. And then randomly through a podcast, I heard these guys talking about this concept called becoming your own banker or banking concept. And so I was like, That's interesting. Read up on it, met with them, thought, I don't know. I've always been taught whole life insurance is a bad thing. I'm not really open to this. And then I wrote, I read on it. I ended up halfway through it. I closed this book and I turned to my wife and I was like, This is what I want to do with our money. But I also want to teach people. I don't know why. I just know it. And then I haven't really looked back since then. And I even just about a year and a half ago, let my nursing license expire.

[00:07:23.180] - Speaker 2

Wow. All right. Let's go back because you touched on some very interesting things.

[00:07:29.650] - Speaker 1

Did.

[00:07:30.540] - Speaker 2

You say flipping mobile homes?

[00:07:34.430] - Speaker 1

I knew that's where.

[00:07:36.190] - Speaker 2

You had it. Buying and selling.

[00:07:38.550] - Speaker 1

That's why I was like, oh, mobile home. Yes, flipped mobile homes. So what I would do is I would find them cheap,...

Glenna Shannahan - Madison Bridge Club

What do Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and Glenna Shannahan have in common?  They all play bridge.  Glenna just happens to be a bit better at it.

Glenna is the owner of Madison Bridge Club, a business that operates on the south side of Madison, Wisconsin for clients to learn and play the game of bridge.

Listen as Glenna explains the game of bridge, how to play and how she has trained thousands of clients over the course of decades.

Enjoy!

Visit Glenna at: https://www.bridgewebs.com/madison/

[00:00:04.280]

You've found

Authentic Business Adventures,

[00:00:06.360]

the business program that brings you

the struggle stories and triumphant

[00:00:09.720]

successes of business

owners across the land.

[00:00:12.120]

We're locally underwritten

by the Bank of Sun Prairie.

[00:00:14.560]

Downloadable audio episodes can be found

at the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com.

[00:00:19.840]

And today we're welcoming/

preparing to learn from Glenna Shanahan.

[00:00:24.400]

And this is interesting here,

world class bridge player,

[00:00:28.200]

what it says here, and the owner

of the Bridge Club of Madison.

[00:00:32.280]

And before Glenna gets talking here,

I just want to point out we are

[00:00:36.840]

in a building that has a bunch of tables

for people to learn how to play bridge

[00:00:41.960]

and to actually play bridge,

which I had no idea that existed.

[00:00:45.840]

Really? I had no idea.

[00:00:47.360]

No idea.

[00:00:48.880]

When I had the address and I'm driving

up here, I didn't know what to expect.

[00:00:52.680]

It was just back room somewhere.

[00:00:54.040]

But this is a building,

standalone only thing.

[00:00:57.720]

So if you're into bridge, great.

[00:01:00.720]

If you're not quite into bridge,

you will be soon.

[00:01:03.640]

Glenna, how are you doing today?

Great, thank you.

[00:01:06.200]

And you?

I'm doing very well.

[00:01:07.720]

I'm excited for a couple of reasons.

[00:01:10.760]

One, I've heard people talk about bridge,

but I guess I have never played bridge,

[00:01:15.560]

so I'm probably one

of the people that do that.

[00:01:18.120]

Well, come on in and prepare

to be a student here.

[00:01:21.440]

I would like that.

[00:01:22.920]

I like new students.

Yeah, right.

[00:01:25.080]

How long have you had this?

[00:01:26.400]

We've had it well,

three of us bought it 29 years ago.

[00:01:29.960]

Okay.

29.

[00:01:33.400]

It'll be 30 in a couple of months.

[00:01:34.640]

Wow.

[00:01:36.400]

We ran it for 27 years,

[00:01:38.520]

but one of the partners had cancer

and needed to get out of the business

[00:01:45.000]

So I took it over, because

bridge is really my passion.

[00:01:48.760]

All right.

How did you get into bridge?

[00:01:51.440]

Well, that not a very interesting story,

[00:01:53.440]

but I used to play tennis and golf

if I could, five days a week.

[00:01:59.520]

But my third pregnancy was very toxic

[00:02:02.000]

and I had to give that up and lamenting

how lonely and bored I was going to be.

[00:02:07.640]

And a girlfriend said, oh, come to my

house and I'll teach you to play bridge.

[00:02:11.480]

And I said, a card game.

[00:02:13.680]

She said, yeah, you might like it.

[00:02:15.920]

I said, I don't think so.

[00:02:17.160]

She said, Just come try it.

[00:02:18.680]

So we went over and sent her kitchen

and she taught us how to play bridge.

[00:02:22.400]

And as soon as the baby was born,

I was back playing tennis and golf.

[00:02:26.520]

But then a girl I really liked

and respected called me up and said,

[00:02:30.800]

glenn, I'd really like you to learn to

play bridge and become my bridge partner.

[00:02:34.800]

And I was so flattered that she would ask.

[00:02:37.560]

I called up a bridge teacher and she said,

[00:02:39.600]

well, if you can find me eight

people, I'll teach a class.

[00:02:42.440]

Well I found her 24.

[00:02:43.880]

24 people.

[00:02:45.200]

Holy cow.

[00:02:46.280]

And it was really interesting.

[00:02:48.320]

She said to me one day,

I kind of feel sorry for you,

[00:02:50.720]

Glenna it because you're going

to become addicted to the game.

[00:02:53.320]

And I said, oh, no.

Never.

[00:02:55.880]

And I did.

Here we are.

[00:02:57.800]

Here we are.

Dang.

[00:02:59.240]

All right, so toxic

pregnancy led to all this?

[00:03:03.160]

Yes.

[00:03:03.680]

You never know what's

going to be good, right?

[00:03:05.640]

Well, for many years I

did all three things.

[00:03:08.360]

Wow.

All right, I was busy.

[00:03:10.720]

Okay.

Never bored.

[00:03:12.640]

Right.

[00:03:13.840]

All right, so what do we

have on the table here?

[00:03:17.240]

Well, I'd like to explain how this card

game is different than most others.

[00:03:21.240]

Yeah.

Most other card games you're playing

[00:03:23.240]

with your friends and it's three or

four people sitting around the table.

[00:03:26.360]

I guess in some card games

there are seven or eight.

[00:03:28.400]

Like we play hearts,

we have a whole crowd.

[00:03:31.040]

But in bridge,

[00:03:32.640]

there's four people at a table and you

come to bridge with a partner.

[00:03:36.120]

And it's not by me, it's all by compass.

[00:03:39.000]

North, south are partners

and Eastwester partners, all right?

[00:03:42.520]

And we have like 17 vocabulary words.

[00:03:46.840]

We have four numbers, seven numbers

and four suits if you're playing in a suit

[00:03:53.280]

contract and if you're

playing in no trumps.

[00:03:56.080]

So I need to explain the difference

in those two, if you don't mind.

[00:03:59.360]

No, you spoke a different

language to me just there.

[00:04:02.880]

Bridge is like a foreign language.

[00:04:05.240]

That's the first thing people should know.

Okay.

[00:04:08.080]

All the games we played today basically

stemmed from China 2000 years ago.

[00:04:13.480]

And they didn't have cards,

[00:04:15.240]

but they used coins and metal

and bones and sticks and whatever.

[00:04:19.760]

And in the 9th century,

[00:04:24.280]

they actually played a game

similar to what we played today.

[00:04:28.040]

And in the 1350s, the Egyptian Vagabonds

took it to England.

[00:04:32.840]

And that's why the names of some

of these things are European names.

[00:04:37.000]

So it really takes a few weeks

for people to get comfortable enough.

[00:04:42.040]

And when I teach bridge,

[00:04:43.480]

I tell them it's like peeling

an onion to learn to play bridge.

[00:04:47.800]

Your mind can only absorb so

many new things at a given time.

[00:04:51.680]

So what I do is the first week introduce

[00:04:54.680]

the game and all the mechanics of it,

bidding boxes, boards,

[00:04:59.120]

table guide cards and explain

to them what these are used for.

[00:05:02.760]

And then the next week we tackle no trump.

[00:05:05.480]

And no trump means that if you're playing,

the highest card played on the table wins

[00:05:10.720]

the trick, and you win that trick,

you lead to the next trick.

[00:05:14.280]

And so there's no triumphant.

[00:05:16.360]

Just sometimes the two

of clubs take a trick.

[00:05:18.880]

And in social bridge,

[00:05:20.240]

they'll often have a prize

for whoever takes a trick that day

[00:05:23.520]

to a club just gets the lowest

cardinate that contract, all right?

[00:05:27.560]

In suit contracts when

you run out of a suit.

[00:05:30.920]

And if you have trump,

you can win the trick by playing a trump.

[00:05:35.520]

All right?

[00:05:36.120]

So that's the difference

between no trump and suits.

[00:05:38.560]

Got you.

[00:05:42.960]

We play boards.

[00:05:44.320]

This is a duplicate board.

[00:05:46.320]

And I teach with duplicate boards because

[00:05:48.600]

all it is is a means for me

to carry hands around it.

[00:05:52.520]

Different tables can play the same hands.

[00:05:54.640]

So it's a means of communication.

Got you.

[00:05:57.680]

I suppose it's easier to teach instead

[00:05:59.280]

of just the students end up with random

cards and you have to right.

[00:06:02.960]

For a two hour class.

[00:06:04.280]

The first hour, I introduce the topic.

[00:06:08.040]

We go through some

exercises so they see it.

[00:06:10.520]

And in the last hour,

[00:06:11.600]

we actually play four hands that deal

just with the topic that we learned.

[00:06:15.880]

All right.

And so what I tell people,

[00:06:18.320]

it's kind of hard to ask them to trust me

at week one because they don't know me.

[00:06:23.600]

But learning to play bridge is like

[00:06:25.560]

planning a European vacation because it

takes months to put it all together.

[00:06:31.160]

That's one aspect.

[00:06:32.280]

The second aspect is the joy of it.

[00:06:34.160]

And the third aspect is coming home

and enjoying it and rethinking about it.

[00:06:37.680]

The bridge is sort of the same way.

[00:06:39.200]

The first four weeks,

[00:06:40.600]

you just have to take me at face value

and learn what I ask you to learn.

[00:06:45.360]

And then at the end, we put it together.

[00:06:48.800]

So there's three aspects

to learning bridge.

[00:06:51.440]

There's the bidding, the play of the hand,

and then the defense of the hand.

[00:06:55.400]

Oh, okay.

Defense.

[00:06:56.880]

Okay.

[00:06:57.960]

And they're all simple.

[00:06:59.280]

They are very simple to learn.

[00:07:01.320]

But the problem becomes that you have

to have a partner and you and your partner

[00:07:07.160]

have to have the same thought

...