Bill Nussey - Freeing Energy

The times, they are a changing.  What worked for so long before we are learning, really didn't work all that well.  At least, not without consequences.

This goes for business as well as energy.  My guest today is Bill Nussey, a serial entrepreneur that has started, built and sold companies with enough success to allow him to share his resources to make the world a better place.

In Bill's case, he is making the world a better place by studying and sharing his knowledge of the business of renewable energy.

The conversation with Bill was so intriguing since he looks at energy from both a green environmental impact perspective as well as a green cash money view.

We're all green until it costs more money or time, right?

Listen as Bill explains his entrepreneurial journey, including an IPO, and explains the value of intelligently designing and building a renewable energy infrastructure and how it can make economic sense.

Enjoy!

Visit Bill at: https://www.freeingenergy.com/

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You have found Authentic Business Adventures.

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A business program that brings you the struggles,

[00:00:07]

stories, and triumphant successes

of business owners across the land.

[00:00:11]

We are locally underwritten

by the Bank of Sun Prairie.

[00:00:13]

Today we are welcoming/

preparing to learn from Bill Nussey,

[00:00:17]

a career tech CEO and author

of Freeing Energy.

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I got to say Bill has got a Ted Talk,

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which is cool though I

guess he let me know.

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It's still outdated and he's just

got a lot of stuff going on.

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So I'm excited to interview Bill and I

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guess for the world to get

to know what he's got going on.

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So Bill, how are things going today?

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James yeah, I'm excited to be here.

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I love what you're doing with the show.

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I shifted my whole career over to clean

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energy a couple of years ago and honestly

this is probably the biggest week

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for everyone in that industry

in the last ten years.

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The government just passed this giant law

that's going to make it one of the best

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businesses you could possibly

be in for the next 20 years.

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It's an exciting time for business

people in this space.

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So I know this much,

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I guess as far as what that bill includes,

so you are probably way more into it.

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So can you tell me specifically

what's included in the bill?

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Just myself and the other listeners?

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Yeah,

there's all kinds of debates about how we

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should power our cars,

power our grid and the fact is that we

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have been powering these for decades,

century really with fossil fuels.

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It works great.

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We built an entire one of the greatest

nations on earth with it.

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People started realizing 34 years ago

that well, the consequences of burning

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fossil fuels has issues

for the environment and so there's been

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this giant battle politically

over the last 30 years.

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What do we do about that?

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Some people say hey,

it's not that big a deal.

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Other people say it's destroying

the future and they don't get anywhere.

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Well someone, amazingly

Congress managed to do something,

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they shoved it through,

the Democrats did and they passed a law

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that's going to create huge incentives

for businesses to make investments in this

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in every area of renewable

and clean energy.

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And that's the what I love about this is

things that people talk about carbon.

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Right.

That's really important.

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I love about it, in addition to that is

that this is going to create

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millions of jobs all over,

not just in concentrated places where we

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have oil or where the wind blows

the strongest all over the country.

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It's going to create thousands,

tens of thousands of new businesses so

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people that want to take care

of themselves and have their own control,

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their own future, this is going to make it

easier, faster and more lucrative to get

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into this industry than

it's ever been before.

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Nice.

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The cool thing is this is in my view I'm

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not a policy expert,

but I sort of live, really.

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I pretend to be one on podcast.

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This is a business centric plan.

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Let's just write checks and give

it to the local government.

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This is let's get businesses,

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let's motivate businesses

to get into this business.

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And they're doing it through the mechanism

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used almost everywhere

in this is tax breaks.

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If you build something or you make some

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energy, you're going to get a tax break

and you could have a big discussion.

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I've done months of research, talk to

experts on fossil fuels, get tax breaks.

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Solar gets tax breaks.

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So we can debate how much.

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Suffice it to say that if

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solar and wind got tax breaks of X,

now they're getting three or four X.

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Interesting.

Okay.

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And I would say that kind

of equalizes it with fossil fuels.

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But someone who does this for a living

might argue with my generalization there.

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But it's a big step and it's going

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to create tons of business opportunities,

which is what I love.

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You know, it's interesting.

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I'm based out of Wisconsin.

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My wife drives a Prius,

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and she's going to pay more for her Prius

because it's a hybrid than a person

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with a non hybrid car has to pay

every year when she renews.

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Really interesting, honestly, is extra

$50 a year or something like that.

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And I love to see both

sides of every story.

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And the answer for that is here

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in Georgia, where I live, the electric

vehicles, of which I drive one.

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You pay a larger tax and like, what?

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How can you charge me more?

We're clean.

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Well, it turns out that the government

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actually keeps the highways maintained

by taxing a little bit of gasoline.

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So if you buy less gasoline or no

gasoline, in the case of an EV,

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the government doesn't get as much

money to maintain the highways.

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Interesting.

All right.

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That's what I love about this is if you

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dig down on really anything in the world,

but in this case, this energy thing,

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sometimes it's not as

crazy as it looks.

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I would counter that a little bit

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with the Prius because when I drive

that thing, the mileage is not that great,

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but I put it in power

mode have fun with that thing.

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As much fun as you can have with the

Prius, which is actually kind of a lot.

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Yeah, you get fixated

on that little screen.

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I had a Prius for years and shows you

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like, what's making the drive train

turn and you're watching this.

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It's like watching Tetris or something.

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It's fun.

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This is the new world.

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And three years ago, no one

thought they'd drive an EV.

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And right now no one can get an EV because

they're back order for three months.

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And it's honestly,

it's about to be a lot worse.

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Oh, is it?

Really?

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Interesting.

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While we're talking about the Congress

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and all that kind of stuff,

one of the concerns that I have

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is that if I were to start a business

in this, let's just say I start,

[00:05:32]

I don't know, wind farm company

or something like that.

[00:05:34]

I don't know if that's a thing,

but let's just say I do.

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That it is.

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And then

Congress changes shifts and they're like,

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hey, funny story, we're no longer

going to give these incentives.

[00:05:45]

And now my business that was making

bank throwing up windmills everywhere.

[00:05:50]

Now there's less customers

and all this kind of stuff.

[00:05:53]

Now my business doesn't have anything

to fall back on because I feel like

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there's an ebb and a flow

where people are like.

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You raw rah environmental stuff and then

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the next group of rulemakers

come in and say.

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Nah.

We like the way it was before.

[00:06:09]

I hear you.

It's like a pendulum, right?

[00:06:12]

The cynical view is that the United States

[00:06:14]

can't make policy past the next

presidential election cycle.

[00:06:20]

And we have been in a whipsaw.

[00:06:22]

And I'd say there's a pretty good chance,

I mean, who knows,

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you probably follow this up closer than

me, but there's a pretty good chance we

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will swing the other way

in the next two or three years.

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But here's the thing.

[00:06:33]

One of the reasons I like this new law

[00:06:36]

is the number of people,

regardless of how they vote,

[00:06:41]

that are going to get upset if you take

money out of their pocket is pretty large.

[00:06:48]

The original grandfather of all these laws

was something called investment tax

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Credit, which was put

out under George Bush.

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Okay, this is back when Republicans

...

AJ Aluthwala - KallistoArt

Remember back in the day when all you needed was a yellow pages ad and a landline phone?

Maybe you don't, which is fine.  Because now we have the internet and the internet is filled with websites.  Which means that your business needs a website in order to be found.

But how do you create a website?

Listen as AJ form KallistoArt details how he cofounded and helped build a web design, SEO and mobile app company.  Having started in 2006, he has seen the evolution of the internet and kept his company at the cutting edge.

Enjoy!

Visit AJ at https://kallistoart.com/

[00:00:01]

You have found

Authentic Business Adventures, a business

[00:00:04]

program that brings you the struggles, stories, and triumphant successes of business owners across land.

[00:00:09]

Downloadable audio episodes

[00:00:11]

of the Authentic Business Adventures

podcast 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.

[00:00:19]

My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,

[00:00:21]

author, speaker and helpful coach to small

business owners across the country.

[00:00:24]

And today we are welcoming/preparing to learn from AJ Aluthwala,

co founder of Kallisto Art.

[00:00:31]

AJ, how are you doing today?

[00:00:33]

Doing fantastic James,

thanks for having me.

[00:00:36]

I am excited because you have a good thing

[00:00:39]

going in the marketing world, I guess,

and even beyond the app world.

[00:00:42]

So how about we start with you telling

the crew what is Kallisto Art?

[00:00:47]

Yeah, Kallisto Art is an outfit which can

create you a website,

[00:00:54]

create you a mobile app,

create you a web app,

[00:00:58]

and also work on your search engine

optimization to make your phone ring.

[00:01:02]

Nice.

I love when people's phone rings.

[00:01:05]

Yeah.

[00:01:08]

Businesses needs it.

That's all good.

[00:01:10]

So tell me, let's start

with the website creation.

[00:01:13]

How long have you been around

building websites, James?

[00:01:17]

We've been doing this

for the last 16 years.

[00:01:19]

So we started the company in 2006.

[00:01:22]

It was almost just a hobby at the time.

[00:01:27]

I was at Wichita State

pursuing my MBA and then I buddied up with

[00:01:36]

Ravi and we thought that we should

start a company because we got asked

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by lot of friends and family whether

they wanted a website created.

[00:01:50]

They asked us whether we can create

[00:01:52]

something for them and it was like, yeah,

sure, we just created almost for free

[00:01:57]

at the time because it was really

kind of a pit project for us.

[00:02:01]

But as time went by,

we realized that there's a real need

[00:02:06]

for it and that's how

Kallisto Art came into play.

[00:02:10]

Nice.

[00:02:11]

So back in the 16 years ago,

let me think, there was no WordPress.

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We're talking dreamweaver or just HTML.

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It was HTML coding.

[00:02:24]

There was Dream Weaver too with some

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of the Flash stuff, but

there was front page

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so HTML coding,

hard coding and so the maintainability

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of those sites were just disastrous

because they would consume a lot of time.

[00:02:46]

But if you think about it,

[00:02:48]

back in the day, if you kind of go back

in time in the 90s having a website was

[00:02:54]

just like for bragging rights,

oh, I got a website.

[00:02:59]

It was really not a leads gen thing.

[00:03:02]

It wasn't doing any of that.

[00:03:04]

It was more like I have a website or

I paid a guy to get myself a website.

[00:03:09]

Right.

[00:03:09]

And then in the early 2000s this changed

a little bit with everything going

[00:03:15]

on with the.com

then people recognize the need to have

[00:03:22]

a solid website and there was

a purpose to it as well.

[00:03:26]

Right?

So there was a certain level of legion

[00:03:29]

which was happening out of that and people

were still kind of dancing around it just

[00:03:35]

like how people are dancing

around cryptocurrency, right?

[00:03:40]

Because you don't really know what's

[00:03:43]

you think that you need it,

but you're not sure.

[00:03:47]

And then once you get one,

you won't touch it.

[00:03:52]

For the next ten years,

it's going to just sit there.

[00:03:56]

It's going to act as your online billboard

and you don't have to really mess with it.

[00:04:00]

And it just stays there.

[00:04:03]

And we came in right

in the middle in 2006.

[00:04:07]

So I think late 2000,

that's when people truly start

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recognizing, okay, there's actually

power to having a website.

[00:04:19]

I mean, at the time, I remember

[00:04:21]

right around 2007, eight time period,

we were creating ecommerce sites too.

[00:04:29]

Ecommerce around.

[00:04:32]

I remember we created a website called

[00:04:34]

Outman Supply, which was an ecommerce site

to sell Coleman camping products.

[00:04:43]

Oh, nice.

[00:04:44]

So there was a distributor who wanted

their own website to sell it online.

[00:04:49]

That business is no longer

it's not there anymore.

[00:04:55]

But that's one website I just remember

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from 16 years ago or 15 years ago that we

created, which was an ecommerce site.

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Nice.

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You're jogging me back memory wise because

I'm thinking, what was my first website?

[00:05:09]

Because I started my first

business in 2006.

[00:05:13]

I remember building my own website.

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I used Dreamweaver and photoshop.

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And then I remember when

[00:05:20]

smartphones came out and you essentially

had to have two websites

[00:05:25]

because responsive website

like that wasn't even a word.

[00:05:29]

And so then you're building and then any

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screen that you looked at,

stuff just looks funky.

[00:05:34]

Unless it was the exact screen

that you built that website on.

[00:05:37]

Right.

Stuff blocks would turn out all weird.

[00:05:40]

You'd end up with sentences that would end

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up on the way left side

of the screen, right?

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It's just a weird, weird time.

[00:05:47]

All the sentences would like sometimes

[00:05:50]

they will just flip sidewise

vertically and horizontally.

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Yeah, I remember those days.

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But we've come a long journey.

[00:06:01]

We just grew from being two person gig.

[00:06:07]

Two.

[00:06:08]

We have a good sized team now.

[00:06:12]

We have project managers on staff.

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We have a separate search

engine optimization department.

[00:06:20]

Then we have around.

[00:06:25]

Seven.

We have full time around 25 on the other

[00:06:30]

side of the world

from Sri Lanka who are working for us.

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And then we have kind of built a pool

[00:06:39]

of around 100 people who we

can grab from as resources.

[00:06:43]

Again, in Sri Lanka,

when it comes to working on apps,

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they don't really work on websites

because it's a little different.

[00:06:50]

But to do some technical heavy lifting

[00:06:53]

on the apps and web apps,

we use OC resources.

[00:06:59]

And we just had another

guy from Venezuela.

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One of our SEO guys is in Tarot.

[00:07:08]

My assistant is in Venezuela too.

[00:07:11]

So they are all over the place and we

work across multiple time zones.

[00:07:17]

And that has back in the day,

everyone came to an office, right?

[00:07:24]

But for us, even before COVID,

[00:07:28]

we were a full virtual company

because that worked for what we do.

[00:07:33]

The beauty of our business is we can

be wherever and do work for whomever.

[00:07:40]

A nice convenience that allowed us to do

work with people around the world.

[00:07:47]

A little bit of freedom there.

That's cool.

[00:07:49]

Yeah.

[00:07:50]

Tell me chronologically,

you are going to school.

[00:07:56]

Who's your partner?

I'm sorry.

[00:07:58]

Robbie.

Robbie.

[00:08:00]

To meet Robbie, the two of you are like,

hey, let's start this web design company.

[00:08:04]

I imagine at first it's just the two

of you putting together websites, right?

[00:08:09]

Yeah.

[00:08:10]

So, again, I actually knew Ravi

[00:08:15]

from Sri Lanka because he's from Sri Lanka

as well, so I knew him from my college

[00:08:20]

days at which the state

I did my graduate work.

[00:08:24]

So he was already in Canada.

[00:08:27]

So we talked about doing some work

[00:08:30]

together, and it was, again,

like a back burner project at the time.

[00:08:38]

Just as, okay, if something shows up,

we will do their website.

[00:08:42]

And then we didn't really go out

and do a lot of outreach work as well.

[00:08:48]

When things showed up,

we did it because we were both busy.

[00:08:52]

I was in school, Ravi was working full

[00:08:54]

time at another place,

and slowly but surely,

[00:09:05]

we came together as a kind of a full

time gig and full time outfit.

[00:09:11]

And we were just doing

websites for a very long time.

[00:09:17]

And it's during the last,

I would say five years

[00:09:23]

when we started working on mobile apps

and web apps,

[00:09:29]

and I would say search

engine optimization as well.

[00:09:32]

Got you.

[00:09:33]

Website was our main bread

and butter for a very long time.

[00:09:36]

All right, when did you

add your first employee?

[00:09:40]

We added our first employee, obviously.

We were employees, right.

[00:09:45]

So I guess second and third and fourth.

...

David Pawlan - Aloa.co

Software is great.  It can do all sorts of magical things, most of the time.

But what if you want software built for your business?  In the past you would do one of three things, 1) Learn ot code yourself, 2) Hire a coder as an employee, or 3) Outsource the coding to a subcontractor person or company.

As an entrepreneur, writing your own code can be fulfilling, but extremely time consuming.  Especially if you need to learn how to code, before you actually write any code.  That leaves hiring someone, either as an employee or contractor.

Let's add in the challenge of software being an evolving medium.  Like constructing anything new, the idea will change as things are being built.  New ideas will be added, and things will inevitably break.

To solve all of this, you need the right coder to create your vision.  How do you find the right coder?

This is where David, cofounder of Aloa.co comes in.  Aloa.co connects small businesses with vetted coders.  This alleviates the issues of coders stopping  projects with no warning, and pricing disputes.

Listen as David explains how Aloa.co can take your software idea and help make it a viable product, whether just for your business, or for your industry as another means of revenue.

Enjoy!

Visit David at Aloa.co

[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. Audio episodes of the podcast can be downloaded at the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We're 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 David Pawlan, the founder of Aloa.co. David, how are you doing today?

[00:00:32.060] - Speaker 2

I'm doing well. Appreciate you having me.

[00:00:34.890] - Speaker 1

Yeah, I'm excited to have you on the show. How about for starters, you just tell the audience what is Aloa.co?

[00:00:41.100] - Speaker 2

Yeah, definitely. So we are software outsourcing infrastructure as a service. I think the easy way to explain it. So Google, Amazon, Facebook, they all will outsource their software development overseas. They don't necessarily tell you that they do it, but they use companies like Accenture Deloitte to facilitate that process because they don't want to necessarily prepare and build out that hiring infrastructure and processes behind the scenes to ensure predictability and success in that relationship. And so we're following that model, building out that infrastructure to then service startup, small businesses, and just companies and helping facilitate their software experience. So we'll match them to one of 12 firms in our network, highly vetted firms and then have tools, resources, and infrastructure to facilitate that relationship so they don't have to make those first time mistakes in their software journey.

[00:01:38.580] - Speaker 1

Got you. All right. So I've interviewed quite a few people that have software of some kind. Some of them are an entire business model, and some they just built some proprietary back end stuff. And I think it's safe to say that I don't know of anyone that said it went smoothly. So it seems to me one of those things like, I know what I want, but I don't necessarily know personally how to build it. So I got to find someone to and whether they hire someone or outsource it. It always seems to be just either disconnect or grossing expenses or whatever. So can you talk about that a little bit?

[00:02:15.250] - Speaker 2

Definitely. So that's actually pretty much why we got into this space. So we actually started Aloa while we were in college and we were just building out apps doing student tech consulting, and we were looking to expand our development team. And so we worked with a team overseas and had a really good relationship. And so we said, Wow, that's wonderful. Let's keep doing this. And so we then did it once more after that and had a horrible experience, one of those horror stories. So then we said, Okay, let's give it another shot. Did it again, had another horror story. And then we started talking to people and every single person we spoke to said, Software is horrible. Outsourcing is the worst. It's a terrible industry. Don't do it. You're going to get screwed over. You're going to lose money, etc. And to us, that was a really exciting prompt. And that was the light bulb going off. Software is one of the most remote industries in the world, yet for some reason, it consistently has one of the worst reputations, software outsourcing specifically. And so that's really why we got obsessed with this space, really trying to figure out how to create a world where anyone can innovate freely, where anyone, startups, small businesses, larger series A B companies, whether you're technical or not, everyone has the same opportunities and landscape to develop software and have a successful experience.

[00:03:39.760] - Speaker 2

So they can keep focusing on their business, let us take care of the rest behind the scenes to facilitate that relationship.

[00:03:47.630] - Speaker 1

All right, that's cool. I can tell you from my experience, I have a flower ordering website. It's just hanging out there. I was hanging out there because I hired a guy to do the developer development. I don't know, he applied himself for maybe two months and then life happened, whatever, family, different day job, whatever. In his defense, I was a back burner side hustle thing. Totally. Motorcycle buddy, whatever. But it's one of those, maybe should have actually gotten somebody committed to do this. Even though he said he was committed, it clearly wasn't because I was a couple of years now. I guess I see people trying to pay their nephew or something to put their website together in their basement or trying to get by. I don't even know if it's necessarily cheaper. I feel like I've been burned so many times that how do you get around that whole... I guess what I'm trying to figure out is how to ask the question of I don't even want to go down the software road because I've been burned so much, so often spent so much money. I'm like, Maybe it's just not worth dabbling in.

[00:05:04.650] - Speaker 1

So we're going down. So how do you get over that hurdle with clients?

[00:05:08.790] - Speaker 2

Yeah. So first of the story that you told, it sounds like the treadmill effect, which is a common problem that you'll see in software where, imagine if your developers are running on a treadmill and the way you keep them motivated is dangling money in front of their face to keep paying them to do the job. Well, if you're a side hustle, if you're a background project, if you're a low budget client, it's hard to maintain that incentivisation throughout the entire process when you're not able to keep dangling the incentive in front of their face to keep them running. So it's a common problem that is seen a lot. And I think at a high level, one of the most fun parts, in my opinion, of my job and what I do and in working with entrepreneurs is I always first start just try to figure out how to guide a potential client or a lead in everything that they can do before they ever need to spend money on software. My first take is always trying to convince them to not spend any money with us, which I think catches people off guard to start off with.

[00:06:21.100] - Speaker 2

But it's a fun conversation because at the end of the day, you need to really approach things strategically. And no code tools are really strong and really effective these days, especially as there's been a lot more of investment and R&D pouring into it. And so there's a lot of things that you can do with no code. And where people go wrong is they think that inherently they have to build something. When a lot of these individuals who have the smaller budgets or are more testing got an idea, it's more about the MVP, the minimum viable product, that initial product that's going to get off the ground that people can test and iterate, rather than throwing your life savings into building something that you don't even have the proof of concept that people are actually going to use it.

[00:07:05.410] - Speaker 2

So step one is going to be first making sure that now is really the right time to invest in technology. But step two is then, okay, let's say they say, Great. No, totally makes sense, but we've done our research, we need to build this out. Here's the data. Wonderful. That's really where our services will come in and the way that we've structured things. When you look at any type of working relationship, it can really be broken down into two buckets. It's who you work with and how you work with them. The who you work with, that's an easier one to solve. It's finding individuals to work with. And there's a lot of services out there that support that landscape. The issue, though, is that with software, a lot of people will only look for a developer. They'll say, I need someone who knows how to code in Node js, and they'll look for someone who knows how to code in Node. Js. The problem with that is, let's take architecture, building houses is the analogy. If you need someone to build you a bridge and you go find an architect and go, Hello architect, you know how to build houses with brick and wood.

[00:08:16.470] - Speaker 2

I need you to build me a bridge, but also with brick and wood. You know how to work with brick and wood. Go do that. Well, sure, they can figure it out, but they're used to building houses, not bridges. And so they're probably going to make a lot of mistakes, even though they have vast experience in working with brick and wood. And so the same principle holds true....

Zeb Anderson - LegalQ

Every business will eventually need the help of an attorney.  Whether working with an attorney to create a client contract, or to go over a lease that took a forest to print, legal jargon surrounds the business world.

But how can a business owner find the right attorney?  Many attorneys may be great on paper, but the attorney/client relationship is typically very important to making sure things get done and are understood by all parties.  Utilizing an attorney that you don't feel comfortable with can be devastatingly expensive.  Attorney's are a part of your professional team, and you want a solid player for this position.

This is where Zeb Anderson, cofounder of LegalQ comes in.  Zeb helped create a marketplace for entrepreneurs to find attorneys and get a feel for how they work, at no initial cost to the entrepreneur.  If the brief meeting goes well, the relationship moves forward.

Listen as Zeb explains how LegalQ came about and how it can help entrepreneurs looking for all manner of legal help.

Enjoy!

Visit Zeb at: https://legalq.io/

[00:00:02.740] - 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. Downloadable audio episodes of the Authentic Business Adventures podcast can be found on the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. My name is James Kademan, author, speaker, and helpful coach to small business owners across the country. And today we're welcoming preparing to learn from Zeb Anderson, the co founder and CEO of Legal Q. Zeb, how are you doing today?

[00:00:35.120] - Speaker 1

I'm doing great, James. Thanks for having me and excited to chat.

[00:00:38.690] - Speaker 2

I'm very excited because the legal world, whether you like it or not, you got to deal with it as a business owner. Let's start with what is Legal Q?

[00:00:48.940] - Speaker 1

Legal Q is an app and a platform for attorneys to use. Basically, we wanted to have the idea to make getting access to attorneys simpler. And we came up with the product to basically give people a free 15 minute consultation and you can put in your state, your area of law that you're looking to get a question answered from. And we connect you to an attorney and the attorneys on the platform as well basically use it to help out people and if they do a good job, might have a client out of it.

[00:01:24.790] - Speaker 2

Nice. Very cool. So typically when I come across companies like this that are solving a problem, the founders or someone had a problem that this product solves and they couldn't find a solution. So is this something that you or one of the other co founders ran into?

[00:01:42.970] - Speaker 1

It's a great question. I think that's where the best companies come from, is when you have your own or see a problem and solve for it by making a product. To that end, I am an attorney for my sins, but I started thinking about this when I worked at Medtronic, which was a big Medtech company, or is a big Medtech company.

[00:02:07.540] - Speaker 2

Yeah, huge.

[00:02:09.490] - Speaker 1

One of the roles I had there was using data to try to go direct in emerging markets. So getting from us to the hospital without going through two to three middlemen in the process and say you need a pace maker, but if it's 50,000 X of what Medtronic sells it for, then it's prohibitively expensive and actually some people can't get access to these therapies by that process. And so during that time, started thinking, what other industries have that middleman problem? And legal is one of them. It definitely is way too hard today to find an attorney. If you just think in the past year or two, if you've had a legal question, right? It's anything and everything. I have a neighbor's tree that's hanging over my yard. I want to cut it down, but I don't know the property rights and all the things for that. All these questions today, you Google it, you maybe get a law firm, but you're at the mercy of whoever has the best SEO or SEM at the top of Google. You call them, you're on hold for a couple of hours, whatever the process is. It's a terrible one.

[00:03:18.300] - Speaker 1

So we just wanted to simplify that and just get people broader access to the legal industry. And I think this is by far the simplest process to do so. And that's the problem we're solving for. And we want to just make it an easy process, something that historically has been way too hard. And we can talk about some of those reasons why the legal industry is behind the times and the technology, but sometimes it takes a global pandemic and it's a start up to kick them in the pants a little bit to keep it moving.

[00:03:54.990] - Speaker 2

Yeah. For those listening that don't know, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, Zeb, but I believe from the attorney friends that I have, they can't directly call on someone to try to sell them, essentially, on being their attorney. They can market with the billboards that you see anytime you go through a big town, even a little town, sometimes you see all the billboards, injured in an accident or whatever. They're everywhere. So you can contact them, but they can't contact you directly, which leaves them a little different than a typical business that would have salespeople and all that jazz.

[00:04:30.860] - Speaker 1

Yeah, it's a good insight, James. And it's different state by state. But for the most states, that is the case. And it's funny. So we talked to a lot of marketing people for law firms and just helping them understand their journey and their pain points. And we were talking to a marketing manager, and she was saying the advertisements for the billboards is... They don't ever know how effective those are, but the reason that she uses them is because the founder of the firm drives by all these every day and wants to see the billboards for the firm.

[00:05:12.060] - Speaker 2

Oh.

[00:05:12.340] - Speaker 1

Funny.

[00:05:13.140] - Speaker 2

Little ego boost, right?

[00:05:14.540] - Speaker 1

Little ego boost. Yeah. Hey, that's whatever works for you. But yeah, it is prohibitively, I don't know, onerous to market as an attorney.

[00:05:25.300] - Speaker 2

Yeah, which I get because you don't want someone to get into a car accident and then have 500 attorneys calling them while they're in the hospital.

[00:05:33.190] - Speaker 1

Totally.

[00:05:33.880] - Speaker 2

I get it.

[00:05:35.970] - Speaker 1

It.

[00:05:37.030] - Speaker 2

Just makes the sales process or connecting with an attorney a little bit more difficult. Not to say that anytime somebody reaches out to you to try to sell you something, they're the ones. But a lot of times they'll at least get you looking. So you have to consider a yes or no to that. You want to use this person that's calling on you. Now you got to do the digging and figure out, like you said, like, hey, who's got the best SEO. I suppose in any given town, there's 7 billion attorneys.

[00:06:05.370] - Speaker 1

Or whatever. Yeah, there's a lot.

[00:06:07.390] - Speaker 2

They all do specialties.

[00:06:09.650] - Speaker 1

Yeah, 100 %. And there's actually 1.3 million attorneys in the States today.

[00:06:15.210] - Speaker 2

1.3 million.

[00:06:16.340] - Speaker 1

Yeah, it's crazy.

[00:06:17.850] - Speaker 2

That's one out of every, what, 300 people?

[00:06:21.740] - Speaker 1

It's around there. Yeah. Okay. It's crazy. But we target... This is ome... I don't know if a lot of people know this, so everybody thinks that a JD is a ticket to fame and fortune, right? Everybody's driving great cars, the best.

[00:06:40.710] - Speaker 2

Suits, all these things. Tell me, a JD.

[00:06:43.400] - Speaker 1

I'm sorry. The license that you need to practice law or the degree you need to practice.

[00:06:48.710] - Speaker 2

Sure. You need the Yacht as soon as you graduate, right?

[00:06:52.350] - Speaker 1

Yeah, right. Get you the keys. There's a group called NALP which looks at the attorney's salaries. And what they found was, if you're in the top one or two to three % of your class, you're working at a big law firm and you're making three, four, or 500K a year, life is great. But then in the middle, there's this big drop off between that and around 70K. Then there's another big jump between about 45K and 75K a year that 40 % of attorneys in America make.

[00:07:28.520] - Speaker 2

Which is 40 %?

[00:07:30.670] - Speaker 1

Which isn't exactly nothing to sniff at, but at the same point, if it takes you 200 grand in student loans to.

[00:07:37.470] - Speaker 2

Get to that point... Right. That's what I was thinking. You got to pay for the education.

[00:07:41.280] - Speaker 1

Yeah. Actually, a lot of attorneys are struggling. You don't see that a lot. And I think the law and order and the fancy lawyer shows don't help that case a little bit. But at the same point, there should be a better way to do it.

[00:08:01.170] - Speaker 2

Interesting. Okay. So essentially what Legal Q does is solve the problem of people that need attorneys finding attorneys. T hen once you find them or essentially find their phone number or their email address, then you still got to figure out, well, is this a good fit?

[00:08:18.740] - Speaker 1

Exactly. Yeah. How we facilitate that is with that 15 minute consultation, you can do a text voice or video chat directly with the attorney and just make it simple. If you like them, great. You can continue to use them. If you don't, you can get another opinion and think about it in a different way. We can't solve everything overnight. You're still going to pay whatever long term engagement of the attorney is, but we can help make it more efficient on the front end for both sides

Kayla Storlid - Nature Nanny

It seems we are all just busy doing what we do, and sometimes we forget to take a moment to enjoy the nature that surrounds us.  The nature that deep down inside, we are actually a part of.

Being in nature, surrounded by trees and plants and breathing the air that doesn't have the tinge of industrial progress, has been scientifically proven to be beneficial. Nature never intended us to stare at screens, Whether for work or to kill zombies.

But where do you go, and how do you really explore nature?

This is where Kayla Storlid, the founder of Nature Nanny comes along.  Kayla is a serial entrepreneur that went to her, and your, roots to bring us a business that can help us reconnect to nature.  With therapy walks for adults and children, Kayla helps bring the natural healing to light.

Listen as Kayla explains her process and how she has found a great, natural way to help people of all ages enjoy the great outdoors.

Enjoy!

Visit Kayla at: https://www.naturenanny.com/

[00:00:04.340] - 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 excited to learn from Kayla Storlid, the founder, owner, let's call it, of Nature Nanny. So Kayla, how are you doing today?

[00:00:30.140] - Speaker 1

I'm good. How are you doing today?

[00:00:31.830] - Speaker 1

I'm doing awesome. And I'm excited because you've been on the show two other times before. Yes. Different businesses each. Yes. A cleaning business you had for, I don't know, 500 years.

[00:00:43.530] - Speaker 2

Yeah, feels like it

[00:00:44.530] - Speaker 1

Something like that. And the other one, whatever, life goes on. Now you got Nature Nanny. Nature Nanny, I got to say, sounds like the most fun between the three. Yeah. So how about you? Tell us, what is Nature Nanny?

[00:00:57.170] - Speaker 2

Let's start there. Okay. So Nature Nanny is a service that helps get children, adults, and organizations into nature either by doing guided hikes or guided forest therapy walks. So parents can schedule just online and either schedule for one or two children or up to four for increments of time, one hour, an hour and a half, two hours. Or adults can also go on private guided hikes or hikes with their friends. And then organizations can do team building. And there's two options. One is just a guided hike where we're just walking and talking and enjoying nature. And the other option is a guided forest therapy walk, which is where you open your senses. You focus on things like you do invitations. So the group will come together, we'll pick invitations. And an invitation might be look and see what's moving.

[00:01:56.730] - Speaker 1

In the forest.

[00:01:57.960] - Speaker 2

Exactly. So then we'd break away and go off on your own and just really focus on what's moving. If I were to do that with children, I would make it a lot more fun. Look for what's moving and then try to move your body in that way because they're more wiggly. And it's about opening the senses. So you would focus on sight, taste, sound, touch, and then what of your heart sense? What is your heart sensing? And it's meant to really bring you into the present moment. But the whole goal of Nature Nanny is just to reconnect people of all ages with nature to experience the many health benefits because research has shown that spending time in nature can reduce stress, it improves sleep, it reduces anxiety, it improves confidence, and the list of health benefits just go on and on.

[00:02:55.610] - Speaker 1

All right. That sounds super cool. So is the idea that people come to you once in a while or that they come to you routinely, once a week or once a month? I don't know.

[00:03:08.490] - Speaker 2

It's really up to whatever the person's needs are. So for instance, if it's a busy parent who just really wants to get their kids off the screen and maybe needs to grab lunch with a girlfriend, or get some grocery shopping done, or do some errands, they can schedule as much as they want. So if they wanted to get their kid out every day for an hour just to have a little parent time to themselves. They could do that, or they could schedule once a year. All right.

[00:03:40.430] - Speaker 1

Hence the nanny portion there, where you're essentially babysitting the kids, I guess, just on a hike. Yeah. Interesting. Tell me, where did the inspiration for this come from?

[00:03:51.340] - Speaker 2

So after I sold my cleaning business, I tried a couple of different things just because I'd done the same work for 20 years, and I'd always dreamed about trying different stuff and seeing what I really liked. And so I stumbled on caregiving. A friend I went to kindergarten with, I bumped into him and his mom needed some help with organizing. And I was like, Well, I can do that, no problem. And so I helped her with a lot of organizing. And then she was progressing with dementia, so she needed care as well. So I was going there five to six times a week for a couple of hours a day, just preparing food, helping her with her medication, paying her bills, going on walks with her and such. And then when I owned the card beanie business, one of the people that I knew needed childcare for his kiddos. And I was like, I love kids, so hey, why not? So that started the nannying thing. I was doing the caregiving for a senior, and then I started watching two boys. They were nine and 12 at the time. I just noticed this profound shift.

[00:05:08.010] - Speaker 2

We made a goal of trying to get out hiking every day. They lived really close to Pheasant Branch in Middleton. So beautiful. When we went into nature, all three of us, there was just such a profound shift in our nature of just feeling more relaxed, more calm, more happy, more joyful that I was like, There's something really onto this. So while I was nannying those two boys, I had checked out a book at the library at one of our visits to the library, and it was called Forest Bathing. Forest Bathing? Yeah. Oh, really? Okay. So that's what forest therapy started. So in 1980s in Japan, their population started getting very ill and they didn't know why. So the government wanted to do a bunch of research to find out what's happening, why are people getting sick? And they had just moved from being a really rural community, working more outside and in the fields and agriculture, to the tech boom. So now they were all moving to big cities and they were on screens and they were stuck inside all day. So the government decided to fund some research on what would happen if people started spending hours at a time in nature.

[00:06:23.230] - Speaker 2

And they found astonishing scientific evidence that spending time in nature is so good for you. And the one fact that is just incredible is the trees have their own immune system. And they give off these chemicals called photosyndines. I never can say it right. It's like photosyndines or something like that. Anyways, it's this chemical and it's their immune system. So if, let's say, a predator is coming, they admit this chemical to tell the other trees and such that it's coming and to protect themselves. And when we spend time in nature, all the plants actually give it off, but the trees are just the largest. We breathe them in. And when we breathe them in, we have a cell in our body called the natural killer cell or the NK cell. And they found that if you spent like 4 hours in the forest, that natural killer cell, which attacks cancer and tumors and all kinds of nasty stuff in your body, is elevated for up to 30 days.

[00:07:27.090] - Speaker 1

Holy.

[00:07:27.430] - Speaker 2

Cow.

[00:07:27.820] - Speaker 1

So go camping once a month.

[00:07:30.350] - Speaker 2

Go all the time. Just live in the backyard.

[00:07:33.580] - Speaker 1

All right. Interesting. So the Japanese government does this research and they find this out. And then they say, Hey, everybody, we're just kidding about the technology thing. Everybody moved back out in the country.

[00:07:45.920] - Speaker 2

No, the culture shifted to more that in their free time, they were spending time in nature. And they also have a tradition of flower arrangements. So that's another part of it. But there's a lot of people that spend time hiking in the forest. Wow.

[00:08:04.160] - Speaker 1

All right. Who knew? Who knew? So this is... I mean, '80s is not that long ago, right? We were alive in the 80s, so it can't be that.

[00:08:14.790] - Speaker 2

Long ago. No. And there's so few people that actually know about it. I always loved nature since I was a kid. In my free time, I always hiked. That's just what I did. Once I read the research, I started being really aware of how different I felt before and after. Like we were talking about before the show, I have a pinched nerve, and it just throws my nervous system, every system out of whack. And so I was noticing that if I went and stuck my feet in really cold water, if I could find a river or a creek or a spring, the pain would go away and it would stay away for a couple of hours. It would return, but whatever it did, it shifted in my body. And I was like, Whoa, there's something really powerful to this.

[00:09:06.530] - Speaker 1

And it wasn't something crazy like you're sticking your feet in ice cold water where it's just a different pain so your brain can only concentrate on one pain at a time.

[00:09:13.790] - Speaker 2

Well, sometimes I do stick my feet in spring water, which is absolutely freezing. And I've gotten really good at it. I can leave them in there for 10 minutes. Do you really? Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah....

Dr. Marty Greer - Checkout Veterinary

Dr. Marty Greer returns after our first interview with her almost one year ago, when she first started Checkout Veterinary Clinic in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.  The worlds first drive-thru veterinary clinic.

We met with Dr. Greer today to find out how this new concept has been working and what has changed with her veterinary business in the past year.  The pandemic subsided, new pets were housed all over the country, creating more demand for veterinarians.

Listen as Dr. Greer explains how her veterinary clinic has grown and learn from her revolutionary way to take care of our pets.

Enjoy!

Visit Dr. Greer here: https://www.checkoutvet.com/

[00:00:06]

You have found Authentic Business

[00:00:07]

Adventures,

the business program that brings you

[00:00:11]

the struggles

stories and triumphant successes of business

[00:00:13]

owners across the land.

[00:00:13]

We are locally underwritten

by the Bank of Sun Prairie.

[00:00:16]

My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,

[00:00:17]

author, speaker, and hopeful coach to small

business owners across the country.

[00:00:21]

Today we're welcoming/preparing,

to learn from

[00:00:24]

Dr. Marty Greer, the owner

of Checkout Veterinary.

[00:00:28]

And I got to say, even though

it's equity, this is pretty cool.

[00:00:31]

Thanks.

[00:00:31]

It's essentially a drive through

or drive in veterinary clinic.

[00:00:35]

Either way, it works.

[00:00:37]

How about you tell us about this?

Sure.

[00:00:39]

So we developed this concept about six or

[00:00:42]

seven years ago, I was at a veterinary

meeting and listening to the accountant

[00:00:47]

that was presenting to us talk about

veterinary clinics and economics of them

[00:00:53]

and over building too many facilities and

decided that at that point that a wellness

[00:00:59]

center would make a lot of sense,

just basic wellness care.

[00:01:02]

But to the convenience

of the client and the pet.

[00:01:05]

So we really haven't changed how we

[00:01:07]

deliver veterinary services since James

Harriett started practicing in the wow.

[00:01:12]

Okay.

[00:01:13]

At that point, people had horses and cows,

and then they had dogs and cats,

[00:01:17]

and the dogs and cats would be brought

to the surgery to the veterinary clinic

[00:01:20]

and would have the procedures and care

provided there. And it made sense to me

[00:01:25]

to start looking at it from the client's

perspective instead of the veterinarian

[00:01:29]

perspective and to say,

what is it that would appeal to a client

[00:01:32]

and appeal to the pets to make veterinary

care more comfortable, easier,

[00:01:36]

more convenient, more accessible

than what we have now?

[00:01:40]

Nice.

So you have four bays here.

[00:01:43]

We do.

Which is amazing. And I guess how about

[00:01:47]

you tell me the idea

of how the floor works?

[00:01:49]

Sure.

[00:01:50]

So we have the opportunity to expand to

four more bays when we get busy enough.

[00:01:53]

Wow.

We positioned the building on the property

[00:01:56]

so that we can build another

four bays out that direction.

[00:01:59]

Because I anticipate that we're

going to need more space.

[00:02:02]

So the flow works that you

can call for an appointment.

[00:02:05]

You can email for an appointment.

[00:02:07]

You can text us for an appointment or

you can come in without an appointment.

[00:02:10]

And when you arrive, we have

people pull up to the doors.

[00:02:13]

We have one side that people pull into,

and then they pull into the garage,

[00:02:17]

and then they will pull all the way

through at the end of their appointment.

[00:02:20]

So there's no backing up.

Okay.

[00:02:21]

We don't want anybody backing

into important parts of the building.

[00:02:27]

Exactly.

[00:02:28]

So one way through,

like an oil change, like a car wash.

[00:02:32]

The American public has kind of fallen

[00:02:34]

in love with doing

business in their vehicle.

[00:02:37]

Sure.

[00:02:37]

They go to Walgreens

for their prescription.

[00:02:39]

They go to Walmart and Target and sit

[00:02:41]

in the parking lot, and people

come out with their packages.

[00:02:44]

They go to McDonald's.

They go to the bank.

[00:02:46]

They go to wherever and we don't even get

[00:02:48]

out of our cars for a lot

of things anymore.

[00:02:50]

Right.

[00:02:51]

So instead of expecting people to make

an appointment, come to the veterinary

[00:02:56]

clinic, walk into the building,

have to stand in the lobby,

[00:03:00]

be accepted into exam room down the hall,

past the Rottweiler that's lunging at your

[00:03:04]

cat and worry about the concerns

with anxiety and stress and other things.

[00:03:10]

People just pull directly

into the garage Bay.

[00:03:12]

They're private Bay.

[00:03:13]

So there's only one client, one set

of pets in the exam room at a time.

[00:03:18]

So the garage Bay is

essentially the exam room.

[00:03:21]

I was just going to ask you that.

Okay.

[00:03:22]

So you don't necessarily transport

the pet to another room.

[00:03:25]

You can do it all here.

[00:03:26]

If it's a cat or a small dog,

we have an examiner because I'm concerned

[00:03:29]

about them being difficult

to manage in a large space.

[00:03:33]

So we have an adjacent exam room that has

[00:03:36]

glass windows so that you can

see directly into the exam room.

[00:03:39]

So if you wish to stay in your vehicle

[00:03:41]

and you have a cat or a small dog and we

want to go into the exam room,

[00:03:44]

you can stay in your vehicle and see

what's going on or stay with your vehicle

[00:03:47]

and see what's going on in the exam room

or if it's a large dog,

[00:03:51]

then we have an exam table in each garage

Bay so they can come out or for some pets,

[00:03:55]

they're most comfortable

staying in their own vehicle.

[00:03:58]

So if the minivan and SUV one of those

kinds of vehicles and the pet is anxious,

[00:04:03]

nervous doesn't really like the whole

idea of getting out of the car.

[00:04:06]

They can stay right in the vehicle.

[00:04:08]

And we have pets that do that.

[00:04:09]

We have even Labradors

that are like, you know what?

[00:04:12]

I'm just going to stay

right here on the seat.

[00:04:15]

Wow.

You do whatever you need to do with me,

[00:04:17]

but I'm not leaving the security of being

in my minivan, so it works really well.

[00:04:23]

That is pretty cool.

Yeah, it's really cool.

[00:04:24]

We have a sensor on the asphalt so

that when you pull up,

[00:04:27]

the garage door goes up automatically,

just like when you go to the Subaru

[00:04:32]

dealership, you pull in, the door goes up,

and then we put the doors down and then we

[00:04:37]

secure them so that the

door doesn't go up.

[00:04:39]

If somebody from next door

drives across, it got you.

[00:04:42]

And then you can just stay

right in the exam room

[00:04:45]

so in the summertime,

we just use the regular weather.

[00:04:48]

In the wintertime, we have overhead heat

[00:04:52]

like you would at a car wash or

oil change facility.

[00:04:56]

So it's comfortable in the vehicle.

[00:04:58]

It's comfortable in the garage Bay,

so we can turn the vehicle off.

[00:05:03]

If you have kids with you,

the kids can stay in their car seats or

[00:05:06]

they can get out and run

around the garage bay.

[00:05:08]

Right.

[00:05:09]

Because we don't have to worry

about them touching all this stuff.

[00:05:12]

Parents are like, don't do that.

Be quiet.

[00:05:14]

Don't touch that.

Come back over here.

[00:05:16]

And so the kids are pretty much okay with,

[00:05:19]

like, there's really not much

they can do in the garage Bay.

[00:05:22]

So they're in here with whatever

number of pets they bring.

[00:05:25]

And we do have people that bring one pet.

[00:05:27]

But we have people that bring

twelve pets, I bet.

[00:05:29]

Yeah, they love it.

[00:05:31]

So they bring the whole family,

[00:05:33]

they load everybody up,

they come in, they unload here.

[00:05:35]

We take care of all their care.

We weigh them in here,

[00:05:37]

we do their blood work,

we do their vaccinations, their exams.

[00:05:41]

Everything gets done right in the garage

bay where they're comfortable.

[00:05:46]

It's really cool.

[00:05:47]

And this is big.

[00:05:49]

I mean, you probably know the distance

[00:05:50]

here, but there's no

vehicle that's over there.

[00:05:53]

It's too many vans long.

[00:05:55]

Too many vans long.

[00:05:58]

I actually have two clients

in here with their vehicles.

[00:06:01]

And you could fit them

both in the garage space.

[00:06:04]

So it's large enough for the dog trucks.

[00:06:06]

The doors are high enough for sprinters,

[00:06:08]

because a lot of my dog people

have a sprinter with high roof.

[00:06:13]

I have guys with dog trucks that have

[00:06:15]

a trailer on the back so

we can pretty much fit.

[00:06:18]

Just about anybody in the head is cool.

[00:06:21]

So tell me when you thought of this.

[00:06:24]

Well, I believe this is the first one.

That's the idea.

[00:06:26]

It is.

So have you told other vets about this?

[00:06:30]

Actually, I have.

Okay.

[00:06:32]

So we built the facility in the Myra

[00:06:34]

that we have in 2008, and at that point,

we built a large clinic.

[00:06:39]

And then we had a garage, one garage bay,

[00:06:42]

and then another building

that was adjacent to it.

[00:06:44]

So it was a walk through garage that was

for our staff, for their lunch room

...

Hallie Ringland - New U

Your overall wellness is extremely important.  Your health, both physical and mental, lays the foundation for how you are able to enjoy your life.

But we don't always know how to achieve the highest level of wellness, and often we know what we should do, we just don't do it.  It is these times when it makes the most sense to connect with someone to help guide you.

Hallie Ringland is the owner of New U, a company that helps individuals and businesses achieve the wellness they need.

Listen as Hallie details some very important aspects of wellness, and things you can do to improve your wellness today.

Enjoy!

Visit Hallie at: https://newutoday.com/

Ashao Freesky - Double Your Time Off

It seems that almost every business owner is after two things, 1) Freedom and 2) Money to enjoy that freedom.  It also seems that almost every entrepreneur starts out with these in mind, then gets caught up in the prison they built.  They work at all hours, not always getting anything to grow the business done.

They get stuck in the cycle of spinning plates, with no end in sight.

Ashao Freesky knows how this works first hand, and he has devised plans to help entrepreneurs get out of the ruts they find themselves in and get back wot earning their freedom and money, just as they originally intended.

Listen as Ashao gives some great tips on building your business as a tool to help you live the life you always wanted.

Enjoy!

Visit Ashao here: https://doubleyourtimeoff.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. Downloadable audio episodes of the Authentic Business Adventures program can be found in the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. That is a mouthful. Holy cow. 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 are welcoming/preparing to Learn from Ashao Freesky, the owner of Double Your Time Off. Com, which I'm pretty sure that sounds awesome. So, Ashao, how would you take it from here? What is Double Your Time Off?

[00:00:44.470] - Speaker 2

Hey, James, thanks so much for having me on the show. Double Your Time Off is really rooted in the struggles I had as an entrepreneur to really get myself organized in a way that I could get what needed to get done in as efficient of a manner as possible so that I wasn't just filling up my full week and full day with nothing but work. I think a lot of us entrepreneurs tend to just work as much as we can. And for the parents out there, I had a daughter. I have two kids now. And when I had my daughter, I really realized that I was putting so much focus on business that I was missing out on her childhood. And that didn't sit well with me. I didn't want to be an absent father and it really forced me to find some other methods and how to create systems and effective habits in my business that allow me to cut down my work hours and actually get more done than I did when I was working seven days a week.

[00:01:57.400] - Speaker 1

Nice. Very cool. It's interesting. I had a son and that, I guess as my wife was pregnant, I was trying to map out, I guess we were trying to map out how we were going to get stuff done, taking care of him and all that jazz. And yeah, it's interesting when it was just her and I, I was working all the time. And it forces you to just think, Wait a second, what's the goal here? Why are we busting so much tail here? What are we trying to accomplish? That's interesting that the kid was the...

[00:02:31.820] - Speaker 2

The catalyst.

[00:02:32.670] - Speaker 1

Factor, I guess, the driver of all this.

[00:02:37.230] - Speaker 2

Yeah, absolutely. I remember just working and getting up and up, going to work, and then being gone all day, coming back. My daughter had maybe a couple of hours with her before she had to go to sleep. My wife would tell me, Oh, this happened. This happened. And I was just projecting out of the future and seeing, okay, if I'm on this trajectory for 5, 10, 15 years, what is that going to be the outcome? And it's actually an exercise I like to do a lot is if I were to continue down this path, 5, 10, 15 years down the road, what are going to be the outcome? And it wasn't pretty. And I knew that there had to be a different way.

[00:03:27.070] - Speaker 1

Fair. Totally fair. So what type of business were you in before?

[00:03:32.890] - Speaker 2

Well, I've run multiple different businesses. I've run an online retailer, run a membership site, and done some marketing consulting. That was the most recent thing I was doing before this iteration of the business. I was helping financial advisors with their marketing. It was good. I like helping business owners, but it wasn't quite what was really lit me up. I knew there was some a change that had to happen, but I didn't know exactly what it was. After taking some time away from work and just giving it some thought, I realized that I wasn't bringing my full gifts and the things that I'm really passionate about to the table in the work I was doing. That really comes down to system design and behavior design, some of the things that might sound a little dry to some people, but to me, it's something that I absolutely love is how to create, how to design systems in a way that makes our lives as easy as possible. And how do we get ourselves to do the things that we know we should do or want to do, but for some reason just can't get ourselves to do it.

[00:04:58.900] - Speaker 2

And so it really aligned with my passion to help myself and to help other parents reclaim those magic moments with their kids.

[00:05:09.940] - Speaker 1

Yeah. Systems can make or break a company and they're a huge deal. It's interesting how many business owners that I run into that they got their systems all up here. You asked them to write them down and they're like, Ah. It's going to take some time.

[00:05:29.100] - Speaker 1

It's interesting. It reminds me of the book, The E myth. I remember I had a... Oh, man, this was my first business, printer repair company. I had a one person show graphic designer say, James, you should read The E myth. And I thought, this is just me not asking enough questions. I thought that The E myth, I thought E stood for entrepreneur, and I thought it was going to say, Don't start a business.

[00:05:53.990] - Speaker 2

And.

[00:05:54.920] - Speaker 1

So I didn't read the book. I just avoided it until it finally got recommended enough times I read it. It was essentially just saying systematize everything.

[00:06:03.210] - Speaker 2

Which I'm.

[00:06:03.800] - Speaker 1

Like, oh, I should have read that about 10 years ago. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, super cool. So does that mean that you got out of the other business and move towards something closer to what you're passionate about?

[00:06:16.270] - Speaker 2

It was more that the business morphed and I let go of my other clients and I'm now picking on new clients for this different iteration of the business.

[00:06:28.650] - Speaker 1

Got it. All right. So what you're promising, I guess, with the name Double Your Time Off, I imagine some people are like, Wait, what? Because if I had a website that said Double Your Returns or something like that, people would be like, Where are the strings? So how do you get people to believe that you can help them with this?

[00:06:50.340] - Speaker 2

Well, it's really a matter of awareness and really realizing how much time we are spending on different parts of our business. Just one, for example, just email. On average, people who have a smartphone spend three to five hours a day in email.

[00:07:16.900] - Speaker 1

Wow.

[00:07:17.820] - Speaker 2

And you don't even realize that's five days a week. So it comes out to maybe 20 hours a week, absurd amounts of time just an email.

[00:07:29.850] - Speaker 1

And.

[00:07:30.300] - Speaker 2

It's really completely unnecessary.

[00:07:35.820] - Speaker 2

A lot of people have, check an email. Oh, I don't know what to do about it. Market is unread or leave it in the inbox, go to the next one. Check email on the phone, I get a chance. I used to do this all the time. Instead of having, again, this is my recurring theme. Instead of having a systematic process that you have implemented where you only touch the email once you open the email, what needs to be done? Is it an action? Do I archive it? Do I need to reply? But you don't. Market is unread. You don't just leave it in the inbox. That's the whole can of worms. That's just one example of how much time we spend just on email. That's not even all the activities that we're doing that we shouldn't be doing. Maybe low level activities that really should be handed off to a team member, systematized and delegated. I think it really comes down to awareness and realizing that we spend, especially in the smartphone age, we have these things on us all the time, and we don't even realize that we are working when we could be focused on something else like family.

[00:08:54.340] - Speaker 2

And so the diverted energy, multitasking, jumping from one thing into another, it really drains a ton of time.

[00:09:02.220] - Speaker 1

I like it. It's interesting. I was helping a client, and for whatever reason, I was on site and they opened up their email inbox and they had, I don't know, it was like 27,000 emails and it just in their inbox. So they just... There's no organization, no system at all. I was just like, How do you know what you've done and what you haven't done? And she's just like, They'll email back. Oh, my gosh. It was insane. I just felt, and I can tell that she did, too. She didn't like opening up her email inbox because it was instantly overwhelmed. Because how could you possibly just sit down and take care of 27,000 emails and it's your select all, delete, start over or something like that?

[00:09:54.880] - Speaker 2

It.

[00:09:55.310] - Speaker 1

Was interesting how, I guess to your point, if they get a system for something like that, then on top of them saving time, they're also probably saving some energy and not feeling overwhelmed in a situation like that.

[00:10:10.770] - Speaker 2

Yeah. And you touched on something that's actually really important and really overlooked, which is energy. T hat's actually one of the three core pillars in my program,...

Sarah Noel Block - Tiny Marketing

Marketing has changed over the past few years.  We've gone from a few channels to market on to thousands of opportunities.  With the advent of social media, you can have an audience that can actually engage with your marketing.

But just because you can or it is easy (ish), doesn't mean you don't need help, guidance or just to outsource it altogether.

But how do you know if you're doing it well?  How do you find the best marketing company for your business?

Listen as Sarah Noel Block, the owner of Tiny Marketing, explains her recipe for success in the content marketing business.

Enjoy!

Visit Sarah at: https://www.sarahnoelblock.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. Downloadable audio episodes can be found on the podcast link found at drawincustomers.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 Sarah Noel Block, the owner of Tiny Marketing. So, Sarah, how are you doing today?

[00:00:31.030] - Speaker 1

I am good. How about you?

[00:00:33.290] - Speaker 2

I'm doing well. I'm better now that I got a cool person on the podcast here.

[00:00:37.880] - Speaker 1

Well, I'm happy to be here.

[00:00:40.090] - Speaker 2

All good. So how would you tell us what is Tiny Marketing?

[00:00:43.620] - Speaker 1

I too work with small teams. I work with small marketing departments, probably a little bit larger companies, but small marketing departments to help them with their content marketing and building out effective and efficient strategies and systems. It's manageable even when you have a one person marketing department, for example.

[00:01:03.740] - Speaker 2

All right. And how long has your company been around?

[00:01:07.850] - Speaker 1

So I've been doing it full time for two years, but it was a side gig that I was building for 10 years.

[00:01:16.560] - Speaker 2

Oh, wow. Okay.

[00:01:17.710] - Speaker 1

That's been a little while. Yeah, because I'm a chicken and it took me that long to be like, you know what? I can do this.

[00:01:25.120] - Speaker 2

Nice. What was the moment or the situation that happened that made you decide to actually flip and go full time with this?

[00:01:32.630] - Speaker 1

Well, it was 2020, so I'm sure you can guess what instigated it. Something happened. Yes, something happened in 2020. I had a great job and we were an essential company, so I was super busy. But it was all of that time to myself working from home and being with my family and that freedom that I didn't have before working full time for a company that made me realize I want to take this full time. I have the resources and the client list building up to be able to do that. So I took the leap and it worked out.

[00:02:16.990] - Speaker 2

Nice. So are you married? Yes. All right. So you went to your husband, you're like, Hey, funny story. I'm going to quit my job, start my own gig.

[00:02:27.020] - Speaker 1

Kind of opposite, actually.

[00:02:29.520] - Speaker 2

Oh, interesting. Okay.

[00:02:31.110] - Speaker 1

Yeah. No, my husband, he's the one who's like, you have a large list that's happening with your side job. And I was working every single night, every single weekend, to be able to build it while I was working full time. He said, just do it. Just quit your job and do it. So I was like, Okay. It took me a couple of months for it to finally say okay. It took me a couple of months to finally say okay. It took me a couple of months after he said that to say, Okay, but I did.

[00:03:03.550] - Speaker 2

All right. And no regrets?

[00:03:06.190] - Speaker 1

No regrets. I feel like my business has been built in a sustainable way where I don't have any of those roller coaster moments where it's like, Oh, no. Where's my money going to come from? There's a lot of retainers and consistent clientele and referrals that have kept it completely consistent for two years.

[00:03:28.510] - Speaker 2

Nice. Was it challenging to reach out to some of the new clients or some of the people that you had in your list saying, hey, I'm full time now. Let's hit this really hard thing?

[00:03:38.930] - Speaker 1

Well, actually, I built up my client list that were signed contracts before I left my job.

[00:03:47.460] - Speaker 2

Oh, nice.

[00:03:48.140] - Speaker 1

Okay. Yeah. So I had mentally prepared, and I actually talked to my boss, who's a good friend of mine now, and told him I'm planning on taking my business full time. And they actually came on as a contract as well.

[00:04:02.300] - Speaker 2

Nice.

[00:04:03.390] - Speaker 1

With the clients that I was able to add up and then my former company coming on as a client, it was a no brainer. My salary was already made up from that before I left.

[00:04:15.190] - Speaker 2

Oh, very cool. Very cool. So it's arguably on the verge of somewhat no risk or low risk.

[00:04:22.060] - Speaker 1

At least. Yeah, it was very low risk. I'm a low risk person. It was very low risk when I decided to do it.

[00:04:29.000] - Speaker 2

So over the past couple of years, how has your business gone compared to how you believe that it was going to go?

[00:04:36.180] - Speaker 1

Yeah, I was hoping for consistency when I started it, and that was my highest hope, is consistency. But when I started within the first quarter, we doubled, and within a year, we tripled. Good problem. Yeah. This year, we're looking to grow even more. So it's it worked out better than I thought it had, and it's more sustainable than I thought it would be. I was really scared because it's a lot of risk. I have two mortgages. I was telling you, I have a cabin and a house and I have two kids. Well, my husband had gotten a promotion right before I took this full time, but before that, I was also making more money than him, so there was a lot of risk. All right. That was the scariest part, but it ended up working out.

[00:05:36.550] - Speaker 2

Nice. So do you have employees or do you subcontract.

[00:05:40.290] - Speaker 1

To help? I subcontract.

[00:05:42.090] - Speaker 2

Okay.

[00:05:42.750] - Speaker 1

Yeah, I stay as lean as possible.

[00:05:45.040] - Speaker 2

Got you.

[00:05:45.870] - Speaker 1

I have a core team, though.

[00:05:47.680] - Speaker 2

How hard is it to find subcontractors, good subcontractors to help? I think.

[00:05:53.220] - Speaker 1

I've gotten super lucky. It takes a while for me to bring someone on as a core member of my team that I always go to. But we do a few test projects before I take it too seriously. And I rely heavily on referrals. My first team members were referrals. And from there, we started the test project and slowly bringing them in. And now we have five core members that work on all of our clients. And then we have additional writers that are in different niches that we work within. But a lot of them that I work with for the last year or so, some more.

[00:06:39.630] - Speaker 2

All right. Well, that's super cool. So it's interesting is when we search for employees or other people to talk to, business owners that I talked to are looking for subcontractors, they developed somewhat of a system to find these people based on the mistakes or the challenges that they've had looking for these people. So it sounds like you didn't have to go through much of that.

[00:07:03.040] - Speaker 1

I started off with referrals. So I started off with a leg up because I was getting referrals from other people who were doing exactly what I was doing. So it made it easier. But I did make a lot of mistakes along the way. There were some contractors I brought on there. I was like, That was a mess. And I learned it. I knew exactly what I did wrong. Usually it was pretty much every single time I was like, That was a hot mess. It was because I didn't do the test project. And I was like, In a desperate way. I was like, I need someone now. When you're operating from a place of desperation, nothing good comes from it.

[00:07:46.330] - Speaker 2

I've been there.

[00:07:49.430] - Speaker 2

Sometimes you just want a body, assuming they can do the job.

[00:07:52.450] - Speaker 1

Yes. And it doesn't work. It doesn't work. You have to be way ahead of it.

[00:07:57.220] - Speaker 2

Fair. Totally fair. So when you're getting referrals from essentially your competition, is that how it works thing?

[00:08:06.600] - Speaker 1

Yeah, I guess so. I don't think any of us think of the other person as competition. Most of us are working in different niches. I work primarily in B2B and mostly with real estate companies that work with real estate investors. Got you. We all have different niches, but it's a real community. The content marketing space is a community, and we're all doing something slightly different. One person might be doing strategy, one person might be doing execution. But yeah, it's my competitors that are the ones giving me referrals.

[00:08:44.790] - Speaker 2

All right. Well, that works out. That's very cool. It's interesting. I was in the printer repair, copy repair business. I started that in 2006 and I always joke to people that I think it would be safer to sell crack than to be in that industry because it was so cutthroat.

[00:09:03.480] - Speaker 1

It's.

[00:09:05.160] - Speaker 2

Interesting to hear that.

[00:09:07.830] - Speaker 1

I believe that. I worked in... Some of my clients are in construction, and a lot of my former full time experience was with construction and building materials companies. And that's how it was, too. It was really good....

Jerome Myers - Dreamcatchers and The Myers Development Group

Like many real estate investment professionals, Jerome found himself at a crossroads.  Should he keep going down the corporate path, or venture off into something more, or different, such as real estate investing?  Like many people, he had to weight the pros and cons of each.

Luckily for us, Jerome chose the red pill, to live the risk and venture out into the real estate investing world, specifically into multifamily units.

Listen as Jerome details his journey and how he now helps people do what he has done, that is to create generational wealth with real estate investing.

Enjoy!

Visit Jerome at: https://www.jeromemyers.co/

[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. Downloadable audio episodes of the Authentic Business Adventures program can be found at drawincustomers.com and hit that podcast link. We're 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 Jerome Myer's, owner of the Myer's Method. So, Jerome, how are you doing today?

[00:00:33.990] - Speaker 1

Amazing. James, how are you, my brother?

[00:00:36.100] - Speaker 2

Man, I'm doing better. When people answer like that, I love it.

[00:00:39.970] - Speaker 1

It's so good to be with you. Thanks for having me.

[00:00:42.580] - Speaker 2

Yeah, thanks for being on the show. You got to tell me, what is the Myer's Method?

[00:00:48.310] - Speaker 1

Yeah. So there's a couple of different little model things we have going on. So Myer's Method is really our approach to buying multifamily properties. And so it's a four step process that we use in order to find fun, fix and then flip deals so that people who are out there, who are interested in getting into this space, have a proven system that they can utilize in order to be successful in those transactions. I think a lot of us, we just think real estate is buying a widget and then selling that widget for more. And what I found is you actually got to run a business in order to make money in multifamily. For me, that has been pretty helpful because when I got into the space, I didn't have a method. I was just goofing around, trying to explore and figure it out through podcast and YouTube.

[00:01:41.050] - Speaker 2

All right. And how did you get into the real estate business?

[00:01:45.550] - Speaker 1

Long convoluted story, but the interest started when I was a sophomore in college. Me and my buddy, Doran, were sitting on the stoop, and we were doing a little bit of math. I was paying 395. I had two roommates on the same thing. He lived in an apartment downstairs and similar situation happening. But when we multiplied it across the complex, the guy that owned the property was making about $700,000 a year and we never saw him or talked to him. And for me, I was like, who? He's figured out how to decouple his time for money. Now, I didn't know him. I never saw him. I never talked to him. So I couldn't go ask him, Hey, how did you do that? And I'm the son of a soldier and a stay at home mom, so we didn't have people with multimillion dollar real estate portfolio who's coming over to the house. I had a little conundrum there. How could I get the information I needed in order to be successful at this thing that I knew I was interested in but didn't know a whole lot about or have any real exposure to?

[00:02:44.740] - Speaker 2

All right. How did you end up doing that?

[00:02:49.390] - Speaker 1

Well, I did what everybody else does. I got good grades and then I got a good job and I started on the American dream. After over a decade in industry, I realized I didn't like where I was heading. I was looking in the mirror, I didn't really enjoy myself. I was being asked to do things that I didn't agree with. I exited corporate America after building a pretty big division for Fortune 550. I said, Well, I got some experience, I got some credentials now. I got some credit. I got some money. Let me go to the bank and see if I can borrow some money to go buy one of these apartment buildings. It can't be that hard. I bought multiple houses at that point. When I walked in, they said, Why would we give you a million dollars? I was baffled because I thought they were in the business of loan and money. What I realized is they are in the business of loaning money to proven operators with great business plans. I was neither. I thought I had a business plan, but I didn't know what I was doing. I had no experience in actually executing that type of business plan on that size property.

[00:04:00.550] - Speaker 1

I was high risk and they were not totally uninterested in lending. At first I thought it was just that bank so I went to another one and then another. By the time I got to the 10th one, I realized I was the one who didn't really understand what was going on. I pivoted, started doing some fixin' and flips, and I got connected with the guy who was going to do a deal that I tried to do earlier on my own. We partnered on that deal. Because my name ended up in the paper from that one, things changed. Banks were more interested in having conversations with me. We continued to go down this path of growing a portfolio and helping other people figure out how to get this thing done as well.

[00:04:44.520] - Speaker 2

All right. How big of a property are we talking? Your first one that you try to get.

[00:04:49.140] - Speaker 1

The first one was 23 units. So it was 23 units with the purchase price of about 1.3 million.

[00:04:56.850] - Speaker 2

Okay, that's a big first bite, I guess is where that goes.

[00:05:02.460] - Speaker 1

Well, for some people, they would say it's really small. And so it's just a function of what your frame is. There's a lot of educators in the real estate space who will tell you, Hey, don't buy property on 100 units. For most markets, that's going to be something that's north of eight million at this point. And they say you can do that with no money, no credit, no experience of your own. And to your point, I think it's really difficult to go from owning a single family home to an eight million dollars property and run that successfully. And so what we teach through our methodology is to get people to do those smaller bites. And so we look to get people to do a deal between half a million and 1.5 million on their first go around with a group of their friends, and that will give them some track record. We call it getting tuna in the boat. I don't know if any of your listeners have been deep sea fishing or not, but when we go out deep sea fishing, when we come back in, there's people lined up on the dock and they want to see what we caught.

[00:06:00.890] - Speaker 1

And so the skipper and the first mate, they lay all the fish out and everybody's like, oh, man, I got a pretty good take. And for those captains that consistently bring boats back with people with fish, their boat stays full. The ones that come back empty don't. And so that's the same thing with your investing strategy or your investing experience. We want people to go out, find a great deal, make money with that deal, come back, show people they made that money so that more people will go out. E ventually, they get a bigger boat and maybe they don't go fishing for tuna. Maybe they go fishing for sard fish and then marlins and then whales and then sharks. You continue to get bigger and bigger fish in the boat and you also have a bigger boat that's actually equipped to take on that. I like to pick with people and say, Hey, don't go out there and try to capture Moby Dick on your first fishing expedition because it could sink your boat.

[00:07:01.270] - Speaker 2

Yeah. Build upon your success instead of trying to get the biggest one right away. This reminds me of a guy that I met because I had a buddy that or have a buddy that pours basements. And he was called out to a guy that had an old college house that he's renting out, first rental that he had, then it's cinder block basement, a lot of rain, cinder block basement wall caves in. So he called my buddy out there, just contact of contact thing. My buddy's like, There's no way I'm taking this job. But I want to look at it. So we go out there and we can see the driveway caved into this house. There's a shared driveway between these two old houses, typical college house, just dive. This guy was first rental and he's like, I don't know what I got to do. My buddy's like, You got to get your tenants into the hotel because your tenants pay you monthly rent for a place to live. They can't live here until you get this fixed. And he's like, I got to pay for their hotel? And so it's funny because it seems to me like he didn't realize the promises that were being made that he had to keep.

[00:08:06.180] - Speaker 2

So I think if someone getting a 23 unit off the bat first promise, they are property rich but way cash poor if they had to lay down down payment for that place. And if they have a bad day, fire, flood, whatever, they're in a world of hurt, terrible place to be in.

[00:08:23.570] - Speaker 1

Plus, most of those projects you're going to get into early in your career are going to be construction projects. And so if you don't know how to budget properly, it's not like a rehab where you're buying one of each of the things. In concept, you're going to buy 23 of the things. And so if your number is off by $1,000 on something you're buying 23 times, it can add up quickly. And that's if it's only a thousand. Imagine if you're off by 5,000.

[00:08:55.230] - Speaker 2

Interesting. So what made you decide to go down the corporate avenue and g