Authentic Business Adventures Podcast

Victoria Thomas - Kelly-Moss Road and Race

When someone tells you that money can't buy happiness, understand that they probably are not looking in the right places.  For many people, myself included, going around a race track is a lot of fun.  The adage for racing goes, "Speed costs money.  How fast do you want to go."  Which is a very long way to say that Kelly-Moss Road and Race is in the fun business.

But it is a business first, so they need to know how the numbers all work.  Victoria Thomas is the CFO at Kelly-Moss and she is the numbers guru.  After starting and running her own accounting firm geared towards helping businesses become profitable, she joined the crew at Kelly-Moss.

Listen as Victoria explains all that Kelly-Moss Road and Race has done over their 30+ years and how they help build winning cars, as well as the driver's that are having so much fun in them.

Enjoy!

Visit Victoria at: https://www.kellymoss.com/

[00:00:11]

You have found Authentic Business Adventures

[00:00:11]

The business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land.

[00:00:10]

My name is James Kademan,

[00:00:13]

and we are with Victoria Thomas

over at Kellymoss Motorsports.

[00:00:17]

I'm super excited.

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This is locally underwritten

by the Bank of Sun Prairie.

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And got to tell you,

Victoria, this is amazing.

[00:00:25]

Not a bad place to hang out, is it?

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I cannot look anywhere and not say, oh,

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this is amazing. So how about we just

start with what is Kellymoss Motorsport?

[00:00:35]

Sure.

[00:00:36]

At Kellymoss,

we are currently campaigning 26 race cars

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in four different series

all over the United States.

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Usually we include Canada,

but not quite yet.

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They're locked up a little bit.

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We campaigned the cars in different

race series for our drivers.

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And in addition, within these walls,

we have about 120 Porsche car built.

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Holy, 120.

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Holy cow.

See, you can hear them.

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Yeah.

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There's action going

on happening right this minute.

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You know, it's funny.

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I was thinking as I was walking

around the parking lot.

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I'm like, this is a fun business,

but in the end, it's still business.

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Yes.

It doesn't matter how much fun it is.

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Stuff.

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There's still money coming in,

money going out, employees.

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Action happening.

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So what do you do at Kellymoss here?

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So I am the CFO and one

of the owners here at Kellymoss.

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Nice.

My role is primarily fiscal.

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I'm involved in all things money.

All right.

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Important part.

Yeah.

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Exactly.

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So my husband does design and engineering,

and he oversees the projects.

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And so he's the one that the customers

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love because he comes up

with all the fun ideas.

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Oh, nice.

And then I send them the bills.

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Victoria.

Right.

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Exactly.

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Interesting. So how long

have you guys been around?

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So Kellymoss has been around since 1988.

Wow.

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Okay.

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And running Porsche race

cars that entire time.

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And I have been with the

company for ten years.

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All right.

And I primarily came in to help them.

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I owned an accounting firm,

and my job was to help them determine

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the profitability of each

of their departments.

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All right.

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So here at Kellymoss, we have our race

shop where we just service race cars.

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We have the track events where we take our

team out and service clients on the track.

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In addition to that, we have a body shop.

Right.

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And we have

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our street shop where if you had a Camry,

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in theory, you could get your oil changed.

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But typically, it's not daily

drivers that we service if you walk through.

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So they just had wanted

to determine the profitability.

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And it was a mutual love affair.

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And here I am, ten years later.

Nice.

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All right.

So did you determine is race more

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profitable or body or

the Camry oil changes?

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I would guess not so much.

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Actually, the street shop is

great in terms of just speaking

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to the business owners that are out there

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oftentimes, what you find is the stuff

that you might be less excited about.

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People in theory, would enjoy the racing

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and the huge multi

million dollar projects.

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Our street shop is our steady cash flow.

Week over week.

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Our project builds happen.

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The billings happen once a month,

so they're great for my cash flow.

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I'm a big fan of our street shop,

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and we've got a great guy, Patrick,

now running it doing a fantastic job.

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So my determination, actually was that our

track events were at best, break even.

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But everybody loved the Association with

the company because we were Champions.

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All right.

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We have worked now into a model where we

are making profit on our track event.

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But originally, it was

your typical loss leader.

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So essentially,

more for marketing or branding.

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Yeah.

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And it was why people knew us

and why people fell in love with us.

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And let's be honest,

if we take a car out to the racetrack,

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there's a pretty good chance that there's

going to be some damage that needs to be

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repaired, which will feed into some

of our other departments.

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Got you, fair.

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I want to talk about employees because

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with any business, employees

are going to come into play.

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And with something like this,

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you're talking high end cars, talking

racing where a tiny mistake can be

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make a very bad day.

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So how do you find employees?

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How do you train employees?

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Just walk us through that whole thing.

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So we have 60 employees that dwell here

in this building, and then we have another

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30 sub contracted employees

that meet us at the racetrack.

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So 90 altogether.

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And we bring in talent

from all over the world.

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Really? We do.

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Our job is to be the best of the best,

and we need to employ the best people.

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So really often we're talking about word

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of mouth referrals have to have

an incredible amount of experience.

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You have to be very level headed.

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You have to be incredibly meticulous,

and you have to fit into this culture.

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So we are very intense and at the same

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time, sort of casual in terms

of we're kind of a big family here.

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And the culture is

something that we protect.

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Absolutely.

So you have to be able to fit in.

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I love that you mentioned culture because

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I didn't realize when I first started

my business that that was a thing.

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And then as employees came on,

I learned that if you don't culture,

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your culture, essentially culture is going

to exist of some kind or another,

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probably more than the negative if

you don't do anything about it.

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Yeah.

Absolutely.

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So that's cool.

That's very impressive.

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And the culture thing is sort of a long

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term vision that you need to instill

because it's really easy,

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particularly when you're growing

to just throw a body at a position.

[00:06:04]

Definitely.

And it's just short sighted.

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You really need to as the leaders of the

company, our job is to find the best fit.

[00:06:14]

And my job is to support

all the staff here.

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I want them to be happy I

want them to be productive.

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If we take care of them,

they'll take care of the clients.

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That sounds awesome.

Yeah.

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That sounds cool.

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Actually, I wonder,

do you find a lot of local talent,

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or do you have to go and try to get people

to move across the country or the world?

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Yeah. Across the country or the world?

Exactly.

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That because I imagine there's only so

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many technicians that know how

to work on a Porsche transmission.

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Correct.

I mean, we were the very first team

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that had our hands on the nine nine, twos

when they rolled into the United States.

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So we have to have people that have a deep

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understanding because we race

Wisconsin seems like an odd place

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for a race team that's going all

over the United States and Canada.

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But quite honestly, when you look at where

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the tracks all are,

we're fairly centrally located.

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So a lot of our team lives in other parts

of the country and just fly to the event.

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Oh, nice.

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We've been Rhode, America.

I don't know.

[00:07:14]

Hour and a half

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farms.

Are you guys on there?

[00:07:19]

We do a little testing there.

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Okay. And then do you go to Indianapolis?

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I imagine we do.

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And Sebring, Florida, Laguna,

California, mid Ohio.

...

Pam and Paul - Tintwork

Pam and Paul of Tintwork are automotive window tint experts.  They also happen to be marketing and software experts as well.  This is a great combination, since many people that want to start window tinting companies are struggling with brining in clients.

So what is an automotive window tint entrepreneur supposed to do in order to bring business in the door, or even on-site?

Enter Tintwork.  With Tintwork, jobs come to the entrepreneur without lifting a finger.  They just need to do what they do best.

Listen as Pam and Paul explain the automotive window tinting industry and what it takes to be successful.

Enjoy!

Visit Pam and Paul at: TintWork.com

[00:00:03]

You have found

Authentic Business Adventures,

[00:00:05]

the business program that brings you

the struggles stories and triumphant

[00:00:08]

successes of business

owners across the land.

[00:00:11]

Past episodes

of the Authentic Business Adventures

[00:00:13]

podcast can be found on the podcast link

found at drawincustomers.com.

[00:00:17]

We're locally underwritten

by the Bank of Sun Prairie.

[00:00:20]

My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,

[00:00:22]

author, speaker and helpful coach to small

business owners across the country.

[00:00:26]

Today we're welcoming/preparing

[00:00:28]

to learn from Pam and Paul Alix

at Tintwork over in California.

[00:00:33]

So Pam and Paul, how are

you guys doing today?

[00:00:36]

Good, great.

Thanks for having us.

[00:00:39]

Thank you.

[00:00:39]

I'm excited, I met you guys at this auto

glass trade show where windshields and tint

[00:00:45]

were just flying around like mad.

Yeah.

[00:00:50]

So you guys have a tint business

[00:00:52]

in California, which I imagine has to be

a hotbed for people interested in tinting

[00:00:57]

their windows to keep the sun out and the,

I suppose, the prying eyes out.

[00:01:01]

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

[00:01:02]

It's a very busy industry out here.

[00:01:05]

We can never get enough help.

[00:01:07]

You know, there's never enough

tinters to beat the demand out here.

[00:01:10]

Yeah.

So is tinting, tinting windows

[00:01:14]

is it a relatively new thing like

[00:01:16]

in the past decade or two, or has

that been going on since..

[00:01:22]

I've been tinting for 33

years already.

[00:01:24]

Have you really? I've been tinting forever.

[00:01:27]

So, tinting been around a long time.

[00:01:29]

Every time they produce new cars,

every time they have cars with no tint I

[00:01:33]

mean is it'll never run out unless we

just get rid of all the cars.

[00:01:38]

I don't see it happening to soon.

That isn't going no where no time soon.

[00:01:41]

We not going back to buggies, no.

[00:01:44]

Horses are too grumpy in the teleportation

thing I'm working on.

[00:01:48]

It's not going to happen.

[00:01:50]

Yeah, interesting.

Interesting.

[00:01:52]

So tell me, when did you guys

start this business. Tintwork?

[00:01:56]

Well, we've had several different

[00:01:59]

businesses, so. Oh really? Ok. Yeah, so Tintwork started about three years ago. Ok.

[00:02:05]

And it's it's an app and the Tintwork is

a network of professional window tint

[00:02:10]

installers that all share

work with each other.

[00:02:13]

Oh, very cool.

So, that spawned from our individual

[00:02:18]

tint businesses because Paul's

been doing it forever.

[00:02:21]

All right.

So we have Tint LA and Add Outlook,

[00:02:24]

Window Tinting Services,

Santa Clarita Window Tinting.

[00:02:27]

We even have Tint Vegas.

[00:02:28]

So we have all these locations

of mobile window tinting.

[00:02:32]

And it got to the point where we're like,

wow, we need help, you know?

[00:02:35]

All right.

Like, let's start an app.

[00:02:37]

And I'm like, well,

I don't think anybody's going to download

[00:02:40]

an app just to, like,

get their car tinted and then not use

[00:02:44]

the app for three years, you know,

I mean, until they change it.

[00:02:46]

I said, but if we do kind of like Uber

for the window tinting industry, now,

[00:02:52]

you're on to something, you know,

so we just started bouncing ideas off of each other.

[00:02:57]

We're like, you know, we get so much work,

there doesn't need to be any competition.

[00:03:02]

Why don't we just share

the work with each other?

[00:03:04]

Because some days our friends were crazy

busy and we were dead and vice versa.

[00:03:08]

Other days were like turning

down customers left and right.

[00:03:11]

And, you know, somebody is like,

I was dead yesterday.

[00:03:14]

But the thing is,

you have to change the mindset of old, oh,

[00:03:18]

guys, that's in the window tinting

business, you know.

[00:03:20]

You know, they had a shop.

[00:03:21]

They won't if they don't get

the work they don't want to send it no where else.

[00:03:24]

Sure. You got so so we just

trying to bring new technology

[00:03:30]

in and starting off in California.

[00:03:33]

Then we hit Vegas and we trying

to franchise around the United States,

[00:03:38]

but with the mindset of making money

without you even doing the work.

[00:03:44]

And so so we're we're in a slow process.

[00:03:47]

But so far we've been

successful out of here.

[00:03:52]

Yeah.

Out in L.A. So this is doing really well.

[00:03:55]

So you so how many tint shops did you have

or do you have right now?

[00:04:02]

Well, we have we have like we have

like satellite locations now.

[00:04:06]

We had a tint shop.

[00:04:08]

A physical tint shop.

Yeah.

[00:04:09]

In El Monte.

But the thing what happened,

[00:04:11]

people start calling and saying,

can you come to my house?

[00:04:14]

Can you come can you come to my job?

[00:04:16]

Can you come to my office?

Like wait a minute here.

[00:04:18]

We wasted money at the shop.

[00:04:20]

The shop is good

[00:04:22]

because you can you can you can monitor,

you know, the dust and everything.

[00:04:27]

But we have a technique.

[00:04:29]

I have a technique because I'm

a professional mobile window tinter

[00:04:32]

that you can use and still

have the same quality work.

[00:04:36]

And that's that's that's my goal is

[00:04:39]

to teach tinters how to have the same

quality work as you do in a shop.

[00:04:43]

All right.

It's the way to do that.

[00:04:46]

OK. You see, you can create you

can create the car itself as a shop.

[00:04:50]

All right, so so that's that's

that's what we try to do.

[00:04:54]

We try to get to right now.

We'll be there soon.

[00:04:57]

All right.

It's interesting because I live

[00:04:59]

in Wisconsin where weather's a little

bit different in California.

[00:05:03]

Yeah.

Eleven and a half months out of the year,

[00:05:06]

there's about a two week period

where we're like, this is nice.

[00:05:10]

Yeah.

[00:05:12]

Seasons, winter seasons.

[00:05:14]

And then reality kicks

in and it's thirty below.

[00:05:16]

And you don't want to be tinting outside.

No, not at all.

[00:05:18]

You don't want to be doing anything

outside. You can, but you know you can.

[00:05:22]

in that kind of weather

cut the heat on in a car.

[00:05:24]

You can cut.

Yeah.

[00:05:26]

You can cut the heat on in the car and

it's a technique

[00:05:28]

you can use just tinting inside the car.

[00:05:30]

You don't have to really get out the car.

Wow.

[00:05:33]

OK, that's that has skill. Other than when

[00:05:36]

you just shrink in the back window,

but everything else can be in the car.

[00:05:39]

And that's what I figured

out by doing trucks.

[00:05:42]

I can take a roll of film, get in now,

cut the heat off and I could hit the whole

[00:05:46]

truck along as everyone

to flatten and get out.

[00:05:48]

And the one is done.

All done is done.

[00:05:50]

Well, you have to do stuff to be

able to know it can happen.

[00:05:56]

They they they stuck in a certain pattern

so they don't try that different.

[00:06:01]

We would never have the California roll.

[00:06:04]

We wouldn't have Absaroka roll

back window to shrink it down.

[00:06:06]

If somebody's going to try

[00:06:09]

to cut into strips

first for a back window.

[00:06:12]

Oh, I remember.

[00:06:13]

Those are the purple

in the bubbles.

[00:06:15]

Exactly.

[00:06:16]

So so if somebody says wait a minute

let me try to shrink this

[00:06:19]

in here and it worked

and they molded and it works.

[00:06:22]

So you have to continue on being innovative.

[00:06:26]

All right.

Oh yeah.

[00:06:27]

Paul's fearless.

Yeah.

[00:06:29]

This is also tried, but I thought if I

mess up a car, I just pay for a customer.

[00:06:34]

You go

[00:06:36]

get the back with a break the back one.

[00:06:38]

OK, I'll get a new one back one, you know,

because I got the money to do it right.

[00:06:41]

But I can understand people who don't have

[00:06:43]

the money to actually experiment,

you know, but I imagine that's rare.

[00:06:47]

Breaking a window when

you're tenten though.

[00:06:49]

You well you can't do it.

You can't do it.

[00:06:51]

I have to do it.

Before I broke up I broke the window on a.

[00:06:56]

On a BMW in a one at a time

when I was heating it up.

[00:06:59]

Oh, God, it is.

[00:07:02]

It's broken.

Come on.

[00:07:04]

Oh, no.

[00:07:06]

That's the same temperature.

[00:07:07]

Do you want me?

[00:07:10]

I said, don't worry, Carmen.

[00:07:11]

Last guy, he came to put it in.

[00:07:13]

I took care of the customer,

[00:07:14]

gave a customer some extra

and the customers was happy.

[00:07:16]

Yeah.

All right.

[00:07:18]

...

Adam Frydenlund - AF Construction

The challenges of starting any business can be tough.  Starting a construction or remodeling company adds it's own challenges.  From needing the skills with the hammer as well as the skills to give quotes and estimates accurately can make the barrier to entry a little taller.  At least, if you want to make money doing it.

Add in the challenges with labor, the hidden places behind walls that make your estimate a little low and the customers that are not fans of doing dishes in their bathtub while their cabinets are on backorder.

Listen as Adam details his story from just starting out to building his remodeling and construction business.

Enjoy!

Visit Adam at: https://www.afconstructionllc.com/

[00:00:06]

You have found authentic

[00:00:08]

Business Adventures business program

that brings you the struggle stories

[00:00:11]

and triumphs and successes of business owners

[00:00:13]

across the land.

My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,

[00:00:16]

author, speaker and helpful coach to small

business owners across the country.

[00:00:20]

We are underwritten locally

by the Bank of Sun Prairie.

[00:00:22]

And today I'm excited because we have Adam

[00:00:25]

from AF Construction,

and Adam is going to tell us about all

[00:00:28]

the fun that happens when you start

build and grow a construction company.

[00:00:32]

Adam, how are you doing today?

I'm good.

[00:00:34]

Thanks.

So let's start out with the beginning.

[00:00:36]

Here.

[00:00:36]

How long has AF construction been

around? Since 2005. 2005?

[00:00:41]

Okay.

So you've seen some stuff.

[00:00:43]

All right.

[00:00:43]

That means 2008, that whole crash where

a lot of companies didn't make it.

[00:00:48]

I guess as far as that goes.

[00:00:50]

Yeah, I was pretty small at that point,

[00:00:53]

so it was a little bit easier

to navigate through that mess.

[00:00:57]

All right.

[00:00:58]

Being in Madison area, it kind of

protected in like a bubble.

[00:01:04]

It didn't really impact

right away of that debacle.

[00:01:14]

It didn't really put too

much pressure on us.

[00:01:17]

But we noticed if you were specific

[00:01:20]

in what trade you were in,

you would be more affected.

[00:01:24]

So that allowed me to just become

a little bit more versatile.

[00:01:29]

Okay.

And do more things.

[00:01:32]

And if I didn't know it,

I was willing to learn how to do it.

[00:01:36]

Fair.

Totally fair.

[00:01:37]

So prior to you starting your business,

what were you doing before?

[00:01:42]

So I grew up in the trades with

my dad, and we did flooring.

[00:01:49]

So I grew up doing flooring

with him for many years.

[00:01:52]

Okay.

Carpet, wood, tile?

[00:01:54]

Everything.

[00:01:56]

So we would go in and do that.

[00:01:58]

And then after high school,

[00:02:00]

I started getting a little bit more

anxious and wanting to learn more.

[00:02:05]

So I kind of

switched from working with my dad and went

[00:02:11]

to work for a remodeling

company for about five years.

[00:02:14]

And that's where I learned the bulk

of my remodeling skills. Gotcha

[00:02:18]

okay.

And at what point did you decide -

[00:02:20]

hey, I'm going to go off on my own

versus continuing to be an employee.

[00:02:24]

Well, being that I was self employed

for flooring, it was a lot easier for me

[00:02:29]

to make an income,

whereas when I went to work for somebody

[00:02:33]

else, I was kind of at their

price line, price point.

[00:02:40]

I knew where I was,

and I actually came down a little bit

[00:02:45]

in wages and then just tried

to make it work, and it gets tough.

[00:02:49]

So I had to make a change.

[00:02:52]

I wanted to go back to school.

Okay.

[00:02:54]

For construction? For real estate.

Okay.

[00:02:57]

So I went back to school for real estate,

and I tried to go full time.

[00:03:00]

But when you're full time,

you can't really pay bills.

[00:03:04]

No, not unless you sell something.

[00:03:06]

So then it kind of put the College back

on the back burner for a little bit.

[00:03:12]

And then

[00:03:13]

I just decided to go off on my own.

[00:03:17]

I knew enough and started with one client.

All right.

[00:03:21]

So when you started AF construction,

[00:03:24]

were you married at the time?

No.

[00:03:26]

Okay. So were you dating your wife now?

No.

[00:03:29]

Okay.

[00:03:30]

Well, that makes it easy, so you

didn't say, "hey, funny story.

[00:03:33]

I quit my job," or anything.

You just did it.

[00:03:35]

I was able to just do it.

[00:03:37]

Okay. Was there any fear or challenge or

unknowns that you were concerned with?

[00:03:42]

There's always fear at that point,

I was still pretty young, so

[00:03:47]

if I needed to, I could go back

to my parents' house and stay with them.

[00:03:50]

Oh, there you go.

[00:03:52]

But I always wanted to live on my own.

[00:03:55]

It's like freedom.

[00:03:56]

Hey, I don't live with my parents anymore.

Nice.

[00:04:00]

So, you start your business.

[00:04:02]

And at what point did you start marketing

[00:04:04]

and how did you do it when

you first started in 2005?

[00:04:07]

I never really marketed myself

at the beginning stages of my company.

[00:04:14]

A lot of it,

[00:04:15]

well, almost 100% of it was referral base.

Okay.

[00:04:19]

So friends and family, stuff like that.

[00:04:22]

It started off with friends and family.

[00:04:25]

And then from there,

it just kind of slowly went on.

[00:04:29]

But I also had a big circle of people

[00:04:31]

that I knew from my previous

business, where I worked.

[00:04:36]

And it was a big enough circle that I

could jump in with some of those guys

[00:04:41]

because some of those guys did branch

off and go back to work for themselves.

[00:04:46]

Okay.

So I could go to work for them as well.

[00:04:49]

Gotcha.

[00:04:49]

And once I got a little bit more

confident, I started reaching out to other

[00:04:55]

builders and kind of got into the

framing trade for a little bit.

[00:04:59]

All right.

So just offering to do the framing

[00:05:02]

for them so they could - Framing

and whatever I could get my hands on.

[00:05:05]

Okay.

So they could sub out to you.

[00:05:07]

You'd have work, and it's all good.

Cool.

[00:05:10]

So when you first started your business,

you're building it like that.

[00:05:13]

Was it tougher doing work for friends

and family or other coworkers and stuff

[00:05:18]

like that because you had

a relationship with them already.

[00:05:20]

So if there was a challenge in the job,

[00:05:23]

there may be a challenge in the friendship

[00:05:25]

or the relationship or

something like that earlier on.

[00:05:28]

I never really had that problem because

[00:05:32]

I was pretty easy going,

just wanted to get it done.

[00:05:35]

So I probably kept a lot

of things to myself.

[00:05:39]

All right.

[00:05:40]

This job is going terrible, but

fair now, construction.

[00:05:45]

From what I understand initially, like,

you can be a guy with a van or whatever.

[00:05:50]

You got a hammer and some tools.

Not a big deal.

[00:05:52]

But eventually you have to grow

to the point where you got trailer,

[00:05:56]

you have employees, and there's

capital that you have to spend.

[00:06:00]

Yes.

So what point did you start growing where

[00:06:02]

you really started sticking

money in the business?

[00:06:05]

Well, in business.

[00:06:06]

You always want to chase the money.

[00:06:08]

And if you want more money,

you have to have other people help you.

[00:06:13]

So I would say

[00:06:16]

it's kind of doing that before 2005.

[00:06:23]

But when I went to 2005,

[00:06:25]

I had friends that were my age

that were in the trades as well.

[00:06:29]

So I was able to bring them in,

and that kind of helped push us into a new

[00:06:34]

category so that we could get bigger jobs,

such as building complete houses.

[00:06:39]

Oh, nice.

Okay.

[00:06:40]

Do you remember the first house you built?

Yes.

[00:06:44]

All right.

Was it in?

[00:06:45]

I don't know, somewhere around here?

Yeah.

[00:06:46]

In the Madison area.

[00:06:48]

All right. And was it one that you built

for you or one that you built for someone?

[00:06:52]

I built it for another builder.

[00:06:53]

Got you framed it.

[00:06:56]

That one we didn't sign.

We just framed it.

[00:06:58]

Okay.

All right.

[00:07:00]

I imagine that had to be a huge learning

[00:07:01]

experience, starting

from scratch like that.

[00:07:04]

It was a little nerve wracking,

but with a couple of other friends

[00:07:08]

that have been in the trades, too,

working for other companies,

[00:07:11]

we're all able to bounce our

ideas off of each other.

[00:07:14]

Okay.

So that's helpful.

[00:07:15]

All right.

And was there ever a time when they're

[00:07:18]

like, hey, Adam, you're

doing that all wrong.

[00:07:22]

Everybody has their moment.

Okay.

[00:07:24]

All right.

[00:07:26]

I've always tried to listen

to everybody's opinion and then

[00:07:32]

make the final decision,

which I think is the best.

[00:07:35]

Sure.

[00:07:35]

Because ultimately, it always

comes down to the customer.

[00:07:38]

So a lot of people that work for me are

[00:07:41]

always thinking, like,

yeah, I'm really picky.

[00:07:44]

But you kind of have to.

[00:07:46]

You're doing service

for other people, right?

[00:07:50]

Yeah.

[00:07:51]

Anytime you outsource, it's got to be

better than if you did it yourself.

...

John Warrilow - Built To Sell

Just about every business owner I have ever spoken to, when asked why they started their business, has the word 'freedom' somewhere in their answer.  Scheduling freedom, income freedom and the freedom to do what you want, when you want.

Fast forward to the reality for many business owners and they are free to be at work as much as they can, their wallet hopes everything they need is free and they are free to do whatever they want - as long as that is going to run their business.

Then they dream of selling this prison.

It's tough to find buyers of self-made prisons these days.

John Warrilow, the author of Built To Sell, has a better idea.  Build your business to the point that you are not needed, so you have the option to sell it when you wish and you can sell it for a dollar amount that makes freedom much more real.

Listen as John details the ways to prepare your business for sale.  This is advice every business owner should hear, whether they intend to sell soon or not.

Enjoy!

Visit John at: https://builttosell.com/

[00:00:05]

You have found Authentic Business Adventures

[00:00:03]

The business program that brings you the

[00:00:03]

struggle stories and successes of business owners across the land.

[00:00:09]

Past episodes

[00:00:10]

of the Authentic Business Adventures

podcast can be found in the podcast link at

[00:00:13]

drawincustomers.com

[00:00:16]

We are locally underwritten

by the Bank of Sun Prairie.

[00:00:18]

My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,

[00:00:20]

author, speaker, and helpful coach to

small business owners across the country.

[00:00:24]

Today we are welcoming/preparing to learn

from John Warrillow, who is super awesome.

[00:00:29]

He's the author of Built To Sell,

which you've probably seen. Host

[00:00:32]

of the Built to Sell podcast, and founder

of the Value Builder System.

[00:00:36]

So, John, how are you doing today?

[00:00:38]

I'm great. James, how are you?

[00:00:40]

I am excited because one I'm

familiar with your book.

[00:00:44]

I have to apologize because I was not

[00:00:46]

familiar to your podcast

until you reached out.

[00:00:48]

But the Value Builder system,

[00:00:50]

I just recently learned that I actually

hired a coach that used that software.

[00:00:56]

That's awesome.

It was incredible.

[00:00:58]

So we have a lot to talk about, I guess

as far as that goes, sounds great.

[00:01:01]

So let's go back way back in time and just

tell us, how did you end up in this whole

[00:01:07]

helping people sell their business

or value their business world?

[00:01:11]

Yeah, it goes back a while.

[00:01:13]

20 years ago, I used to run a market

research company, and I built it up to

[00:01:18]

maybe five or 6 million in sales,

probably 25, 30 employees kind of thing.

[00:01:22]

And it was profitable.

[00:01:24]

We had month to month, maybe 20%

to 30% profit margins each month.

[00:01:28]

So it was a good business.

[00:01:29]

We had great clients with Bank

of America, Microsoft.

[00:01:32]

These are all clients for us.

[00:01:34]

And so I decided I want to sell it.

[00:01:36]

And I went to see a guy in Toronto.

[00:01:39]

And I said, what do you think it's worth?

[00:01:41]

Kind of rubbing my hands together,

waiting for the number.

[00:01:44]

It kind of depends on the answer

to a couple of questions.

[00:01:49]

He said, You're in the research business.

So who does the research?

[00:01:51]

And I'm like,

I'm involved in some of the research.

[00:01:54]

It's big clients.

I can't step away.

[00:01:55]

And he's like, okay, who does the selling?

[00:01:57]

And I'm like, yeah, I'm involved.

It's Bank of America.

[00:02:01]

Of course.

I've got to do some of the selling.

[00:02:02]

He's like, all right,

let me get this straight.

[00:02:04]

You've got a research company.

You're doing the selling.

[00:02:06]

You're doing the research.

[00:02:08]

I could feel that the hair on the back

[00:02:11]

of my neck going up, and he's like,

I can't sell your company.

[00:02:14]

There's nothing to sell.

It's worthless.

[00:02:16]

Ouch.

And I started to rebut him, right.

[00:02:18]

Like, I'm like, you got to be kidding me.

[00:02:21]

Like, Microsoft, Bank of America.

[00:02:24]

They don't care about a client list.

[00:02:26]

They care about a business

that they can run without you.

[00:02:29]

And as long as you're in the middle,

it's worthless to them.

[00:02:32]

Right.

[00:02:33]

And, man, I'll tell you what.

[00:02:35]

I left that meeting feeling

like about this tall.

[00:02:43]

I left that meeting and spent two or three

years really transforming that business.

[00:02:48]

We built a subscription model.

[00:02:51]

We hired sales people.

[00:02:52]

We got me out of doing a lot of the work.

And ultimately,

[00:02:54]

it was acquired by a publicly traded

New York Stock Exchange listed company.

[00:02:57]

So it had a happy ending.

Okay.

[00:02:59]

And that really sort of started my journey

[00:03:02]

into helping other owners,

who may have experienced something similar

[00:03:06]

where they're told, hey, their business

isn't worth what they thought it was.

[00:03:09]

Or maybe they want it to be

worth more than it is.

[00:03:11]

Right.

[00:03:12]

Kind of how to basically think about

improving the value of your company.

[00:03:15]

So that's kind of what I do.

[00:03:16]

Very cool.

[00:03:18]

So once you sold your company, I imagine,

to a company that size, you probably did.

[00:03:23]

Okay.

Stepping out of that role.

[00:03:26]

We moved to Europe.

[00:03:28]

Nice.

[00:03:30]

Three years in a little village called

[00:03:33]

Exxon Provost, where we raised

our kids and lived like Expats.

[00:03:39]

It was the most incredible

time of our lives.

[00:03:41]

Right.

[00:03:44]

The thing about the school system is

[00:03:46]

in France is that you have six weeks on,

two weeks off throughout the whole year.

[00:03:50]

Okay.

[00:03:51]

So they take two weeks at the end

of October for a vacation called Tucson.

[00:03:55]

And then they have another two weeks

of Christmas, two weeks in February.

[00:03:58]

They don't have as long a summer break.

[00:04:00]

But they have these many breaks.

[00:04:01]

And so we just made it our mission to get

[00:04:03]

in the car every six weeks and go

to another part of Europe.

[00:04:06]

So we went to Spain and Italy and Sweden

[00:04:09]

and Denmark and all

over England and Wales.

[00:04:12]

It's just the most incredible

time of our lives.

[00:04:14]

Oh, my gosh.

[00:04:15]

That's awesome.

[00:04:17]

How old were your kids at that time?

[00:04:19]

Kids were young, so they were

six and four at the time.

[00:04:24]

And then we were there three years.

[00:04:25]

So when we came back, there were

nine and six, something like that.

[00:04:29]

Nine and seven.

Yeah.

[00:04:30]

That's fun.

[00:04:31]

And I think to go back to what

we're talking about today

[00:04:35]

that's I think one of the true

[00:04:38]

blessings of running your own company gosh

knows there's enough problems, right?

[00:04:44]

Like, enough headaches.

[00:04:45]

But one of the great benefits is that you

can take a step off the career ladder.

[00:04:51]

It's not going to work at Microsoft or

Proctor and Gamble,

[00:04:53]

where you've got to get to the next rung

on the ladder because there's a guy behind

[00:04:57]

you or a Gal behind you

who wants your spot, right?

[00:04:59]

Unless you keep going up,

you kind of get kicked out.

[00:05:03]

And if you take a pause and say,

[00:05:05]

I want to take a sabbatical,

I want to leave for a year.

[00:05:07]

I want to leave for two years.

[00:05:08]

That's basic career suicide

in Procter and gamble.

[00:05:12]

And yet, as an entrepreneur,

your skills are timeless.

[00:05:15]

They are transferable.

[00:05:16]

If you can start a business in 2021,

you can start one in 2031.

[00:05:20]

Like, it's the same skill set.

[00:05:22]

I think that's really important.

[00:05:24]

And it's one of the tremendous luxuries

of being an entrepreneur is you get

[00:05:27]

to take a year off or two years off to go

do something for you,

[00:05:32]

your skill set and your career

trajectory doesn't have to suffer.

[00:05:37]

Very true.

Yeah.

[00:05:38]

It's interesting.

After I sold my first business,

[00:05:41]

I still had two businesses, but they were

not nearly as involved as that first one.

[00:05:47]

And I took that time to write my first

[00:05:50]

book, which just kind

of accidentally happened.

[00:05:53]

It wasn't like, hey, I'm going

to sell my business and write a book.

[00:05:56]

It was just like, what do I do now?

[00:06:00]

I'm a young guy.

That's one of those.

[00:06:02]

Like, okay, I sold the business.

[00:06:04]

It's not somebody else's

blessing and cursed.

[00:06:09]

What am I going to do today?

[00:06:12]

It's the whole Midwest work

ethic or something like that.

[00:06:14]

I couldn't just go to a beach.

[00:06:17]

I don't know if we had

a beach to go to, but anyway,

[00:06:21]

we got to do something.

Yes.

[00:06:23]

I was in the same boat

when we were in Europe.

[00:06:26]

By the third year.

I was kind of, like,

[00:06:28]

kind of getting a little bit antsy,

like, I need to do something

[00:06:32]

for the book.

[00:06:34]

I've written the book Built to Sell.

[00:06:36]

And so in the back of the book we put

[00:06:38]

together, we said,

Go to buildtell dot com.

[00:06:40]

...

Howard Tiersky - From , The Digital Transformation Company

Every business that is interested in growing needs to know how to market.  This includes the small businesses as well as the Fortune 500 companies.  Nothing gets done until a sale is made, and if buyers don't know you exist, it is tough to get them to buy from you.

Howard Tiersky, author of the Wall Street Journal Bestseller, Winning Digital Customers, outlines the steps necessary to build your brand online.

Online is where almost everyone seems to be spending a lot of their time now, so marketing online is a great move.

Listen as Howard details his entrepreneurial journey as he worked for and now with some large companies as he started and built his digital marketing business, From.

Enjoy!

Visit Howard at: https://www.from.digital/

[00:00:03]

You have found Authentic

Business Adventures.

[00:00:09]

This is the program that brings you the struggle, stories, and triumphs and successes of business owners across the land.

[00:00:11]

We are locally underwritten

by the Bank of Sun Prairie.

[00:00:14]

My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur

[00:00:17]

author, speaker and helpful coach to small

business owners across the country.

[00:00:19]

Today we're welcoming/preparing to learn

[00:00:22]

from Howard Tiersky, speaker,

Wall Street Journal best selling author,

[00:00:27]

transformation consultant and CEO of

FROM the Digital Transformation Agency.

[00:00:32]

So, Howard, my good man,

how are you doing today?

[00:00:35]

I'm great. How are you?

I'm doing very well.

[00:00:37]

I'm doing very well.

Thank you.

[00:00:38]

I'm excited to speak with you,

[00:00:40]

because you are essentially

a digital transformation artist,

[00:00:43]

it seems like in the world of business.

[00:00:46]

At least an engineer.

[00:00:47]

At least an engineer. Good

enough, makes it sound.

[00:00:50]

But you're right.

[00:00:52]

It is part art and part science.

There's no question.

[00:00:55]

Yeah.

So let's start from the beginning.

[00:00:58]

How did you end up in this space? Right.

[00:01:02]

I don't know.

I might have stood in the wrong line.

[00:01:05]

The Internet's not going away.

No, you're right.

[00:01:08]

How did I end up in this space?

[00:01:10]

What really happened to me was

I have a background in education

[00:01:14]

and my early career was in theater and

the performing arts.

[00:01:17]

Oh, really?

Okay.

[00:01:18]

And I was involved in graphic design,

computer graphic design.

[00:01:22]

This is back in the early 90s,

[00:01:24]

and I was doing that in part for things I

was doing in performing arts

[00:01:28]

and promotional materials

and also in part as a day job.

[00:01:31]

That was sort of how I was earning

[00:01:32]

my living while I was also involved

in my pursuits in the performing arts.

[00:01:36]

And I wound up working for a large

[00:01:39]

consulting firm doing graphic design work,

initially sort of for their own internal

[00:01:44]

purposes: proposals and other

marketing materials.

[00:01:47]

But I started then getting involved

[00:01:50]

in things that they were doing for clients

and, well, fast forward to the Internet.

[00:01:55]

I should say I started doing digital

"stuff" like desktop video, kiosks,

[00:02:00]

things like that before there was

really a commercialized Internet.

[00:02:04]

So, then when that became a thing,

I was sort of the person they were like,

[00:02:08]

"who in our company knows anything

about anything like this."

[00:02:12]

And I was the closest person they had.

[00:02:14]

And it wasn't that I knew that much about

the Internet, but it involved Photoshop.

[00:02:19]

So there I was there.

[00:02:22]

But anyway, so that was, of course,

you're talking about '94 or something like

[00:02:27]

that. A long, long time

ago in the early days.

[00:02:29]

But before I knew it,

I was running around meeting with their

[00:02:32]

clients, large Fortune 500 companies

talking about digital and the Internet

[00:02:35]

and why a big company might want

to have a website, things like that.

[00:02:41]

And really, it was just kind

of a natural progression from there.

[00:02:43]

I wound up really enjoying the work,

doing that type of stuff and actually use

[00:02:48]

a lot of the same things that I loved

about the performing arts,

[00:02:51]

storytelling and creating something

that was visually interesting and engaging

[00:02:55]

with an audience and combining technology

and creativity and things like that.

[00:03:00]

So leading a team.

[00:03:01]

So I wanted to really just

sort of follow in that path.

[00:03:04]

And as you say, of course,

[00:03:05]

the world of digital has been a great

place to be in terms of opportunity.

[00:03:09]

And I just was very fortunate.

[00:03:11]

I guess I jokingly said I stood

in the wrong line, but actually

[00:03:15]

unwittingly was in the right

place at the right time,

[00:03:18]

really.

Because it would have been hard to have

[00:03:20]

intentionally architected a deal

where you just came into a company and

[00:03:23]

the next thing,

they were taking you around to their

[00:03:25]

biggest clients and positioning

you as an expert.

[00:03:27]

And of course,

I had to quickly become an expert.

[00:03:29]

But back then, it was easy to become

[00:03:30]

an expert because there was only

six months of the internet.

[00:03:33]

So how much did you have to learn?

[00:03:35]

There was only so much to know,

and then you could just grow from there.

[00:03:39]

Nobody necessarily knew

that you were wrong, I suppose.

[00:03:43]

Right.

Well, that's true, too.

[00:03:45]

As long as you know more than the other

person, I suppose you're an expert,

[00:03:48]

right.

So in the early days,

[00:03:49]

it was something that was just it would be

like, maybe today think like, Blockchain.

[00:03:54]

If a big company is like, "okay, we've

heard of this thing called Blockchain.

[00:03:58]

We honestly don't really

know exactly what it is.

[00:04:01]

We've seen some examples of it.

We know it's something to do

[00:04:03]

with currency, but not only that,

but tell me more about it."

[00:04:07]

That's kind of where people's minds

were back about, say, the web.

[00:04:11]

Back when I was starting,

it was this sort of vague,

[00:04:13]

"yeah, I heard of that kind of thing."

[00:04:15]

So as you say, you don't need to know

[00:04:16]

a lot about Blockchain to be the one who

knows the most in the room - in most rooms anyway.

[00:04:21]

Yeah.

It's interesting.

[00:04:22]

I can remember the Internet came about

between my senior year and freshman

[00:04:28]

sophomore year in college,

and it was just this weird,

[00:04:31]

like, "What can you do with it?

[00:04:34]

Anything you want to know is

on there, like, anything?"

[00:04:37]

And still we spent our time on chat

rooms and stuff like that.

[00:04:41]

Funny.

[00:04:43]

Something like the Internet has so much

[00:04:45]

power and so much knowledge in there, and

you just didn't even know where to begin.

[00:04:51]

You were given infinite

intelligence, essentially.

[00:04:53]

And you didn't even know where to start.

Yeah.

[00:04:55]

Although it was a lot

less infinite back then.

[00:04:57]

Yeah, I suppose.

[00:04:58]

And harder to find things, really.

[00:05:00]

But still, you're right.

[00:05:02]

Of course, all of a sudden it was this.

"Wow.

[00:05:04]

Imagine what we could do with this."

[00:05:06]

But at the same time, it wasn't

always obvious what to do with it.

[00:05:09]

No, not at all.

[00:05:11]

When I was at Ernst & Young,

[00:05:12]

which is a huge consulting, accounting, tax firm,

[00:05:15]

and we were working on the first

website for Ernst & Young.

[00:05:17]

The question is, "Well, who is going to use this?

[00:05:20]

What's this for?"

[00:05:21]

It's not the kind of company that people

are - it's not like our clients,

[00:05:24]

boards of directors of large companies, are

[00:05:26]

going to go on to the Internet

to look for an accounting firm.

[00:05:29]

So, like, why are we doing this?

[00:05:30]

And originally, it wasn't

really clear who would use it.

[00:05:34]

In fact, we thought that maybe the first

[00:05:36]

group that would use it

would be job seekers.

[00:05:38]

That was probably like the initial because

[00:05:41]

they were younger and they

were more on the Internet.

[00:05:43]

They were at universities,

much more so than our clients were.

[00:05:46]

I think it was years before clients were

[00:05:48]

really using that as a means

of doing much of anything back then.

[00:05:53]

Yeah.

It's not always obvious.

[00:05:55]

It's interesting.

[00:05:57]

I can remember having that conversation

[00:05:58]

with people where you tell them, hey,

you need a website and they say,

[00:06:02]

"Why?" You think, well, because people

will be on the Internet. Right.

[00:06:08]

"Who's going to be on the Internet?"

[00:06:09]

And you think, well, everybody should be.

[00:06:12]

But realistically who at this moment

is? A lot of people had it through AOL.

[00:06:18]

Some people would have it

at their office, but not at home.

[00:06:21]

Sure.

Yeah.

[00:06:23]

But you can argue, on one hand,

that's all ancient history.

[00:06:26]

But it's an interesting study because

[00:06:28]

we're in the same situation

today in some ways.

[00:06:31]

Right.

[00:06:31]

Which is to say,

the future always seems murky.

[00:06:34]

And then you have the present.

[00:06:36]

And it's like,...

Vivian Probst - Author, Linguist and Business Consultant

Like most entrepreneurs, Vivian Probst is busy.  She consults for many clients on affordable housing, is a linguist with her WEnglish forms of English that works to remove the male dominance in the English language.  On top of all of that, she has written many books, some in both versions of English!

Also like most entrepreneurs, Vivian had some challenges.  For example, Vivian explains how she was making good money and spending it faster than it was coming in.  This, of course, brought some challenges that she has since overcome and learned how to help others overcome.

Listen as Vivian shares her entrepreneurial journey and details how she makes the time to share her gifts by writing and publishing her books, despite a busy career.

Enjoy!

Visit Vivian at: https://www.vivianprobst.com/

[00:00:06]

My name is James Kademan, entrepeneur,

[00:00:08]

author, speaker and helpful coach to small

business owners across the country.

[00:00:11]

And today I am excited because we have

Vivian Probst here in the studio.

[00:00:17]

Vivian is an author of a few books,

as well as taking on essentially

[00:00:21]

the English language, as well as, consulting

for, I want to say, low income.

[00:00:27]

But you get different phrase,

affordable housing.

[00:00:30]

There's a lot of stuff going on.

[00:00:31]

So let's welcome Vivian here.

Thank you so much.

[00:00:34]

It's great to be with you again.

This is fun.

[00:00:36]

So I interviewed you a long time ago.

[00:00:39]

We were trying to figure

out when it's been a while.

[00:00:41]

Yeah.

[00:00:42]

You let's start out with the books

that you have going on.

[00:00:44]

OK, you have another one coming out.

[00:00:46]

You've already released one.

Yeah.

[00:00:47]

Can you just tell us about the process,

[00:00:50]

what the books are about

and you just take it for you?

[00:00:52]

Absolutely.

[00:00:52]

This is a five volume series I've

been working on for 20 years.

[00:00:56]

And that either means, gee,

Vivian, what's taking you so long?

[00:01:02]

Or I've been doing other

things which I have.

[00:01:05]

I've had this consulting business

[00:01:07]

and we work with affordable

housing all over the country.

[00:01:12]

It's just a great program.

[00:01:14]

So I'm a national trainer to that.

[00:01:16]

So that keeps me busy.

All right.

[00:01:19]

This has woven itself into my life.

[00:01:21]

And it was just

[00:01:23]

20-20 was a year to celebrate the 100th

anniversary of women's right to vote.

[00:01:29]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:01:30]

So my books, I decided that year

that this year they're coming out.

[00:01:36]

They're written.

All right.

[00:01:37]

They're not edited.

[00:01:39]

I've got this one now is done.

[00:01:40]

And then I have the second one.

[00:01:42]

And I think your viewers will be able

[00:01:43]

to see the cover of that one

and three more to work on.

[00:01:46]

And I want them out this year.

[00:01:48]

So, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:01:49]

So are the books fiction or nonfiction?

[00:01:52]

Oh, they're they're fiction.

[00:01:54]

OK, they're fiction except...All right.

[00:01:57]

That I wrote them,

[00:01:59]

each of them sort of showed up when

I was dealing with a life challenge.

[00:02:03]

Oh.

For instance, book one.

[00:02:07]

The main character who is comes

across throughout all five, by the way,

[00:02:12]

there's overlay of romance, there is

overlay of mystery. Ok. There overlays,

[00:02:19]

but the real reason I started writing is

[00:02:21]

because I was frustrated

by what I wasn't accomplishing.

[00:02:25]

I mean, it sounds like, oh, Vivian,

you have your own company and oh,

[00:02:30]

my goodness, you've been doing

this all over the country and wow.

[00:02:33]

And but I had some real issues

to deal with just internally.

[00:02:37]

Well, yeah, internally.

[00:02:38]

And they showed up externally.

All right.

[00:02:40]

One

[00:02:41]

showed up because I was making a very,

[00:02:45]

very comfortable living, but I

couldn't hold on to any of my money.

[00:02:51]

Oh, and, you know,

I'm willing to tell the world about

[00:02:55]

that because writing this story

fixed that problem for me.

[00:02:59]

Oh, all right.

Oh, it started out as a dream simply.

[00:03:04]

You know, sometimes

[00:03:06]

you just beg for an answer,

you know? And I was laying in bed one

[00:03:10]

night and I'm like, good grief, Vivian,

you're making all this money

[00:03:15]

and look at your credit cards,

what's going on here? So I just

[00:03:20]

I don't know if I said it out loud or

what, but I kind of just said, OK,

[00:03:23]

whatever is going on here,

I want to know the answer.

[00:03:26]

All right.

So is this a.

[00:03:30]

Buying cars or fun stuff,

or was it just just, oh, whatever,

[00:03:34]

it's going away or whatever

I could think of stuff.

[00:03:38]

OK,

[00:03:39]

and clothing, OK was a big

piece and furniture.

[00:03:46]

All right.

So stuff you couldn't necessarily turn around. Jewelry.

[00:03:49]

And

I just felt like I had to exemplify

[00:03:54]

the best of everything,

no matter what it cost.

[00:03:56]

All right.

[00:03:57]

The need to look like I

had really arrived, OK?

[00:04:03]

It was an image that I

had I had put on myself.

[00:04:06]

All right.

[00:04:06]

So I go to bed this night and March 10th

of 2000, so you can see this precise.

[00:04:12]

Yeah, it is.

[00:04:13]

I wrote it down because the next

morning I woke up, I had a dream.

[00:04:16]

And

[00:04:18]

the dream is in this book,

but it's only a piece of it.

[00:04:21]

All right.

And so

[00:04:24]

in the dream, I'm in a dungeon,

medieval dungeon.

[00:04:28]

I'm chained, which really.

[00:04:30]

So you can't go shopping if

you're chained in a dungeon.

[00:04:33]

So, yeah.

So so not a whole lot of online.

[00:04:38]

So.

[00:04:42]

I decided not to use myself as

the character, so I created a character

[00:04:46]

who isn't me, but she just had my major

issues and she's in this dungeon.

[00:04:52]

And the first character that shows up

[00:04:56]

is the spirit of her financial woes.

[00:04:59]

Oh, and he tells her,

your issue is not with money,

[00:05:06]

you know.

So what was I going to do? I woke up

[00:05:08]

from that and I told my husband,

I have to know the rest of the story.

[00:05:13]

That's helpful.

Sure.

[00:05:14]

But it doesn't get me where I want to go.

All right.

[00:05:17]

So

[00:05:19]

I've always wanted to write and I've

written for our industry,

[00:05:24]

but I've never really

tried to invent a story like this series.

[00:05:29]

So I did.

[00:05:31]

And OK,

[00:05:35]

if anyone here wants to see what

[00:05:39]

my writing life is like and that of lots

of other fiction writers,

[00:05:44]

the movie The Man Who Invented Christmas,

OK, it's about Charles Dickens.

[00:05:51]

Oh.

And how he wrote his stories.

[00:05:55]

And you see that the characters show up

[00:06:00]

and they talk and they

tell him what to write.

[00:06:04]

And if he refuses,

they get they get up and leave.

[00:06:09]

Oh, well, you know, I mean,

[00:06:11]

it's a great depiction

of what it was like to write the series.

[00:06:16]

And so all I did was listen to what

was going on, listen to the characters

[00:06:25]

and life wrote the story.

All right.

[00:06:30]

Through me, I mean.

[00:06:33]

Stephen King

[00:06:35]

says stories pretty much right themselves,

right, and they do, especially fiction.

[00:06:41]

I love fiction because you can make up

anything and doesn't have to be true.

[00:06:45]

Oh, totally.

Yeah.

[00:06:46]

Yeah.

You can just do whatever you want.

[00:06:48]

Mm hmm.

[00:06:49]

And so I finished that first

book in six weeks.

[00:06:54]

I was six weeks.

Yeah.

[00:06:55]

Well, that's pretty cool.

See, it's not a thick book,

[00:06:58]

but there were three characters

who show up their messengers.

[00:07:02]

They each have a message for my main

character, Avery, Victoria Spencer.

[00:07:07]

Oh, well, they have a message for her.

[00:07:12]

And I just went off in my mind

a little bit because

[00:07:17]

because when I name the character,

I had no idea that if you put those names

[00:07:24]

all together in a row,

you get a very victorious pen, sir.

[00:07:30]

Wow.

I'm a linguist, I guess.

[00:07:32]

And I.

[00:07:33]

I love English and I love

working with English.

[00:07:37]

But anyway,

[00:07:38]

so she went on her her journey and she met

up with these characters

[00:07:43]

and got her issues resolved,

OK, which resolved my issues.

[00:07:49]

So it's like watching a movie.

[00:07:52]

If you could put

[00:07:54]

money in a machine and tell the machine,

answer my questions or take care

[00:08:01]

of my issues in a story form,

you know, that's fun.

[00:08:06]

Yeah.

Wouldn't that just be it?

[00:08:09]

Mm hmm.

So that's what happened to me.

[00:08:11]

So every time I went through

five challenges over.

[00:08:15]

Well, I'm sure I'm sure

there are more than that.

[00:08:18]

But there were five

that turned in big ones.

[00:08:20]

Yeah.

[00:08:21]

I had one lady say, OK, are you

done with all your issues now?

[00:08:26]

Are you.

No, no, no, no.

[00:08:28]

But those are the ones I've written about.

[00:08:31]

And so I think writing stories and making

them fiction is a really good way to get

[00:08:39]

through issues and not

get bogged down in them.

[00:08:44]

...

Matt Moseman - Node U Design and Develop LLC

Manufacturing has come a long way since the dawn of stone tools and hammers.  The machines that are building the products we all use need to be ever improving in their efficiency and quality control.  But as a manufacturing company, how do you make that happen?

Enter Matt Moseman, owner of Node U Design.  Matt has developed sophisticated, tiny circuit boards, or nodes, that can be programmed and installed throughout the manufacturing plant to keep tolerances tight, and allow the machines to work at the optimum speeds to ensure the highest level of quality and productivity.

Listen as Matt explains how he came up with the idea of this business, how he has grown it, and the challenges he has faced as he has worked to improve his business, as he works to improve the manufacturing industry.  One node at a time.

Enjoy!

Visit Matt at: https://www.nodeudesign.com/

[00:00:02]

You have found Authentic Business Adventures,

this is a program that brings you

[00:00:05]

the struggles stories and triumphant

successes of business owners across the land.

[00:00:09]

You can find us locally

at the Sun Prairie Media Center

[00:00:12]

and of course, at drawincustomers.com/podcast.

[00:00:15]

My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,

[00:00:17]

author, speaker and helpful coach to small

business owners across the country.

[00:00:21]

Today we're welcoming/preparing to

learn from Matt Moseman of Develop LLC.

[00:00:27]

And oh my gosh, I forgot the other one.

[00:00:31]

NodeUDesign, NodeUDesign.

[00:00:32]

I knew there was a big U in there.

[00:00:33]

So, Matt, how are you doing today?

Excellent.

[00:00:35]

Thanks for the invite.

I just I don't know any paper in front

[00:00:38]

of me I'd I to do this off memory,

so I apologize for that.

[00:00:40]

Let's start with Develop LLC.

Perfect.

[00:00:42]

What is Develop LCC? Develop LLC.

[00:00:45]

or Develop is just a product

development and automation company.

[00:00:48]

All right.

[00:00:49]

I started off with helping people or

businesses get their idea to market.

[00:00:53]

All right.

That's really the the main vision of it.

[00:00:55]

So it kind of started off in one space.

[00:00:58]

And as businesses go,

[00:00:59]

it's evolved into many other. That it's

the name of the game, man, every business

[00:01:02]

seems to evolve, especially

in the past year or two.

[00:01:04]

Exactly.

[00:01:05]

So tell me, how did you get

interested in that or even into that?

[00:01:09]

Because I imagine there's a lot

[00:01:10]

of technical skill needed and there may

be a lot of capital as far as equipment.

[00:01:15]

So product development, I guess,

[00:01:17]

is just been a passion of mine,

went to school for mechanical engineering

[00:01:22]

and then just got into the product

space of it, I guess.

[00:01:25]

And that just kind of been

what's been driving me on it.

[00:01:28]

But as far as capital,

[00:01:30]

it started off in my parents basement

as a small little machine that.

[00:01:34]

All right.

Just bought and like we were kind

[00:01:36]

of talking earlier, what it really started

with was making these inconstinence devices

[00:01:40]

for urinary and bowel issues

just kind of something random.

[00:01:43]

But that was the first client.

How do they find you?

[00:01:47]

I was at just a standard dinner event and

that was a person I sat next to.

[00:01:53]

They're just like, hey, do you know anyone

that knows how to make these things?

[00:01:56]

Yeah, it turns out I do.

Exactly.

[00:01:59]

All right. So did you have to go to school

[00:02:01]

for this, or is this something you

learned just from experimentation?

[00:02:05]

You know, it's kind of everybody thinks

[00:02:07]

you need to go to school

for a lot of these things.

[00:02:09]

And I'd say, yes, school,

[00:02:11]

I learned a lot, but a lot

of it's been experimentation.

[00:02:13]

So I went for mechanical engineering

[00:02:16]

and then went in the industry

for a little bit.

[00:02:18]

And then I was back for actually

a masters in new product management.

[00:02:21]

So focusing on portfolio management

is the way I like to look at it.

[00:02:24]

Ok, a lot of people manage

a portfolio of stocks,

[00:02:27]

let's say, I like to look at products

[00:02:29]

and see how we can drive

dollars with products.

[00:02:32]

All right.

[00:02:33]

The majority of the products that you

take care of are, I guess, help develop,

[00:02:37]

are the outside clients products? Or do you

have any of your own that you've helped

[00:02:42]

develop or invent,

I suppose would be at that point?

[00:02:44]

Yeah, that's actually a really good

question, because what happens

[00:02:47]

in the consulting space,

it's big ups and downs.

[00:02:50]

So when we're working with clients,

[00:02:53]

obviously our internal

projects don't get hit a lot.

[00:02:55]

But you hit the valleys

and that's where NodeUDesign.

[00:02:57]

The other business came from.

Is we leveraged, because we have a team.

[00:03:01]

And so we need projects that when we're

[00:03:03]

slower, we can leverage those assets,

if you will, or that skill.

[00:03:07]

Nobody wants to just be sitting around waiting

[00:03:08]

for the next project to come in or say,

sign the next contract.

[00:03:11]

So literally, we just use that team

to help launch the next product.

[00:03:15]

All right.

So when a client comes to you,

[00:03:18]

are they looking to build, let's say,

something like a pen

[00:03:21]

or a table or is it a computer camera

speaker or something like that?

[00:03:26]

Yeah.

What we try and focus on now is products

[00:03:29]

that have mechanical

and electrical in them.

[00:03:31]

So not just where we once started,

[00:03:33]

where it was just mechanical

housings or mechanical fixtures.

[00:03:37]

Now we've gotten into it.

[00:03:38]

It needs to really have electronics

[00:03:40]

and need a housing around it or just based

on having more than one set

[00:03:44]

of engineering, because that's the real

value we've added to our clients.

[00:03:47]

Because you can do both.

Exactly.

[00:03:48]

A lot of times they would have to add is

[00:03:50]

like the act is like the general

for like building a house.

[00:03:54]

They'd have to find somebody that could

[00:03:55]

sub their mechanical find somebody

that could sub their electrical,

[00:03:58]

somebody that could then

do their their software.

[00:04:01]

They come to us and get one full product.

Wow.

[00:04:05]

I imagine that's just easier when you have

[00:04:07]

an in-house team that can do that. Exactly.

Because I imagine otherwise there's going

[00:04:10]

to be some finger pointing,

just like when you build a house.

[00:04:13]

Oh yeah.

[00:04:14]

It's that's kind of the name of the game

is nobody wants to take accountability.

[00:04:17]

So we kind of come in and say, what's

really your your goal of this product?

[00:04:21]

Where do you want to go?

And we take a lot of upfront time to lay

[00:04:25]

that out before we even start,

because that's how we found that hitting

[00:04:27]

their goals at the fastest pace

and under budget is really key.

[00:04:31]

So figuring out the project

all with one process.

[00:04:35]

All right.

Basically,

[00:04:36]

some people want to be very involved

and some people want to fill out those

[00:04:40]

initial metrics and then

call me when it's done.

[00:04:43]

All right. So when a client comes

[00:04:45]

to you, where are they in the process as

far as development? Are they reaching out

[00:04:50]

to you to just see if it's even a viable

product or even possible to make? Or is this

[00:04:55]

something where are they

further along than that?

[00:04:58]

We've seen every spectrum.

[00:05:00]

Is this possible to make I have a patent

[00:05:02]

on this, I need to find somebody

to help me prototype it.

[00:05:05]

All right.

[00:05:07]

I've gone to this other consultant or this

[00:05:09]

team, and I've got a prototype

that is not at all what I dreamed of.

[00:05:13]

Oh, I'm off space.

[00:05:14]

Can you help us with that?

[00:05:15]

OK, or, you know, anywhere in the middle.

[00:05:19]

Interesting.

All right.

[00:05:21]

Because I imagine talking to someone like

you were having to build something,

[00:05:24]

it's probably not the cheapest

thing in the world.

[00:05:27]

You don't have to talk about actual

[00:05:28]

dollars, but you're not doing favors

for them where it's like

[00:05:31]

for 50 bucks in a beer,

I'll do this or something like that.

[00:05:34]

Like there's going to be a lot involved.

[00:05:36]

And as far as designing and image,

the mechanical stuff, gears, machinery,

[00:05:39]

knowledge is the circuit board

stuff that looks like magic to me.

[00:05:43]

So I don't even know how that happens.

[00:05:45]

Getting the software onto those circuit

[00:05:47]

boards, that's even

that's beyond Harry Potter.

[00:05:49]

To me, that's just.

[00:05:52]

Crazy to think about all that has

[00:05:54]

to happen and just the educated

person that has to make it happen.

[00:05:59]

So someone, a client has to be fairly

[00:06:02]

committed to making something

like this work? Yeah, definitely.

[00:06:07]

And really laying out where those costs

[00:06:09]

are going to be, because we want to we

want to get our customers to market

[00:06:13]

at the end of the day, like,

you know, we want to make sure that they

[00:06:17]

are a client, that we can help

and help within their budget....

Robert Zabbia - Zabbia Agency

The insurance world is an often competitive and misunderstood world.  We as drivers, homeowners, business owners and the like are essentially paying for promises we hope we do not have to ask our insurance company to keep.

So how do you grow an insurance agency when, in order to do so, you may need to have some difficult conversations with potential clients?  Asking someone to pay you to cover them in case they smash up their car, or worse, can lead to some tough questions.

Listen as Robert Zabbia describes how he has built his insurance empire.

Enjoy!

Visit Robert at: https://zabbiaagency.com/

[00:00:06]

You have found

Authentic Business Adventures,

[00:00:08]

the business program that brings you

the struggle

[00:00:10]

stories and triumphs successes

of business owners across the land.

[00:00:14]

Past episodes

of the Authentic Business Adventures

[00:00:16]

program can be fun on the podcast

link at DrawInCustomers.com.

[00:00:20]

My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,

[00:00:22]

author, speaker and helpful coach to small

business owners across the country.

[00:00:26]

And today we're welcoming/

preparing to learn from Robert Zabbia.

[00:00:31]

Robert has had his own insurance

agency for looks like over 25 years.

[00:00:36]

Is that right, Robert?

Yeah, I can't believe it's that long.

[00:00:39]

That's a long time to do anything.

[00:00:41]

Yeah.

So.

[00:00:42]

And it looks like you.

Do you I guess what interested me most

[00:00:46]

about you is that you have

a lot of other stuff going on.

[00:00:49]

Yeah, too much.

[00:00:50]

Besides just the insurance agency.

[00:00:52]

So let's start.

Let's start.

[00:00:54]

Twenty five years or so ago when you got

[00:00:56]

into the insurance business,

is typically this not something where

[00:01:00]

people are 10 years old dreaming

of being an insurance agent?

[00:01:03]

No, especially when your

dad's an insurance agent

[00:01:05]

and he comes home cursing every day.

[00:01:06]

Oh, yeah that's even worse.

[00:01:09]

So how did you end up in this industry?

[00:01:11]

Well, when I graduated college,

[00:01:13]

I was in the automotive business

and I graduated college.

[00:01:16]

So I went I stayed in the automotive

business because I'm into cars.

[00:01:19]

And

[00:01:20]

so I was selling computer systems to auto

[00:01:23]

parts stores and inventory management,

that kind of stuff.

[00:01:27]

And, you know, I was a senior

guy there after five years.

[00:01:30]

It's one of those kind of companies,

a nice revolving door.

[00:01:32]

So, yeah.

So most most of my friends went on to work

[00:01:35]

for Microsoft, IBM, you know,

all kinds of companies.

[00:01:39]

It was like a launching point

for a lot a lot of people.

[00:01:42]

And, you know, so I was talking to my dad

about,

[00:01:45]

you know, the opportunity that I was

looking at to make a move because I've

[00:01:48]

been there for a while and it

was kind of getting old.

[00:01:51]

And he said, well, Allstate has this new

thing where I can sell you the agency.

[00:01:57]

So I never really wanted to get

[00:01:58]

into insurance because I didn't want

to be an insurance agent, you know?

[00:02:02]

So,

[00:02:03]

you know, and again,

listening to the complaints that he had,

[00:02:06]

you know, being a one man band,

you know, the idea of running an agency is

[00:02:10]

what kind of drew me,

drew my attention to it.

[00:02:13]

All right.

So that's why I you know, I made the move.

[00:02:17]

I ended up going to work for him.

[00:02:19]

And after a year, actually,

Allstate hired me to become my own agent.

[00:02:24]

So I stopped working for my dad.

[00:02:25]

I open up my own agency

and eventually I bought my dad out.

[00:02:29]

You know, he continued to run his we ran.

[00:02:31]

We ran them together.

He ran his agency.

[00:02:34]

I ran mine.

And then he was ready to get out.

[00:02:36]

So I bought him out.

[00:02:37]

Wow.

[00:02:38]

So initially,

not only were you in the insurance world,

[00:02:41]

which you were not a big fan of,

but you also had to work with.

[00:02:44]

Well, for your dad.

[00:02:46]

Yeah, I worked my dad for a year.

Yeah.

[00:02:48]

So that alone had to be a challenge.

Yeah.

[00:02:50]

It was good though.

I mean, you know, being out,

[00:02:51]

I think if I went right out of college

to work for him, I think it would have

[00:02:55]

been different than me going out

and being successful on my own.

[00:02:59]

I own my own house.

At that point, I was doing really well.

[00:03:03]

Yeah.

You know, so I think I kind of earned his

[00:03:05]

respect that he wasn't just you know,

I had the marketing and sales background.

[00:03:10]

You know, he was an entrepreneur.

[00:03:12]

You owned a Coca-Cola route.

[00:03:13]

You know, he was yeah.

[00:03:14]

He he sold that and then he came

[00:03:16]

into Allstate, you know, so he was always,

you know, but he was self-taught,

[00:03:20]

you know, he didn't he

didn't get a college degree,

[00:03:24]

you know, and he just knew

insurance really well.

[00:03:26]

So it was a good mix because he knew

[00:03:28]

the insurance side and and I

knew sales and marketing.

[00:03:30]

So it was a good fit

for us to work together.

[00:03:33]

And I think by being on my own,

I kind of respected him more,

[00:03:36]

knowing everything that he had to do

on his own without a formal education.

[00:03:40]

All right.

Very cool.

[00:03:42]

So when you had your own thing

[00:03:45]

and I guess for a few years, it sounds

like you guys competitors to a point?

[00:03:48]

No, well, we shared an office, so.

[00:03:51]

Yeah, so I had my own agency,

but we shared an office.

[00:03:53]

I mean, he had you know,

[00:03:55]

when I went to work for him,

my job was to bring in new business.

[00:03:58]

You know, I only worked on,

[00:04:02]

you know, on working on the new people

[00:04:04]

coming in, whereas he worked

on his existing clients,

[00:04:08]

you know, in a lot of his

business was referral.

[00:04:10]

You know, he was doing it

for twenty years himself.

[00:04:14]

So, you know, so basically I was out

[00:04:17]

networking and telemarketing

and doing all those things.

[00:04:20]

And he was just out writing me,

just doing referrals.

[00:04:23]

So

[00:04:26]

so it was good.

[00:04:27]

And, you know, and then,

you know, we hired staff.

[00:04:30]

We continue to grow,

[00:04:33]

you know, so we we just

kept going on from there.

[00:04:35]

And so we went from basically

it was three of us.

[00:04:38]

When we opened up the office,

it was my dad, myself, and we hired

[00:04:41]

like an office manager,

customer service person.

[00:04:44]

And now I've got thirteen

people working here.

[00:04:47]

Wow.

Yeah.

[00:04:49]

It's a big size for an agency.

Yeah.

[00:04:51]

Yeah we yeah.

[00:04:52]

We grew up quick.

That's cool.

[00:04:54]

And my dad had a good size agency on his

[00:04:56]

own and then when we merged the two

we really

[00:05:00]

accelerated that.

All right, nice.

[00:05:02]

So in 25 years, what has

changed in the insurance world?

[00:05:06]

Oh, everything. Everything?

[00:05:08]

Everything, yeah. Back then,

people would walk in,

[00:05:11]

they'd have their copies of their

policies and say, hey, can you beat this?

[00:05:15]

You know, it was it was very much more

personal, whereas now people are just

[00:05:19]

going online, getting quotes and having

no idea of what they're doing.

[00:05:23]

It's so much easier for people

to change insurance.

[00:05:27]

So the relationship part

of it is much more important.

[00:05:30]

All right.

Three of my people, their only job is just

[00:05:32]

to reach out to our current customers

and make sure they're happy.

[00:05:35]

You know, three of them.

Yeah, three of them.

[00:05:38]

Well, that's all they call our customers.

[00:05:41]

The policies come up for renewal.

[00:05:44]

They you know, they do all those kind

[00:05:45]

of things, which is not common

in the insurance business.

[00:05:47]

But that's why our retention is so high,

[00:05:51]

because people don't know

what their insurance is like.

[00:05:53]

They think it's just a matter of,

say, 15 percent or more.

[00:05:56]

But it's not it's know.

[00:05:58]

Yeah, you say 15 percent or more

[00:05:59]

by cutting your coverage,

20 percent or more.

[00:06:03]

That's interesting.

[00:06:05]

Yeah, I would say that I don't know how

many businesses, let alone industries,

[00:06:10]

where follow up is a routine,

a routine thing just to make sure.

[00:06:14]

Hey, are you doing OK?

Yeah.

[00:06:16]

You know, I know a lot

of it's electronic now.

[00:06:18]

I mean, we have the email drips that go

[00:06:21]

out, so it's not as much

dialing out as it used to be.

[00:06:24]

So it's a lot of emails,

[00:06:26]

a lot of you know, even texting

is becoming a big part of it now.

[00:06:30]

So we're using it.

[00:06:31]

We're leveraging the technology.

[00:06:33]

And we only call the people

that we we feel are the highest.

[00:06:37]

You know, like if we see somebody rate

goes up a high percentage,

[00:06:40]

we'll reach out to them because

usually something changed.

[00:06:42]

So we'll reach out to see

what changed that that drove.

[00:06:45]

That sometimes is just a rate increase

and we have to work through it.

[00:06:49]

But rates have been pretty stable

over the past couple of years.

...

Yakov Smart - Connect and Profit

Marketing is a funny thing.  As business owners, we know that we need to market.  On the flip side, who has the time to really invest in doing all that we should, or need, to do in order to get our name out there?  Nevermind that most business owners just don't know where they should be marketing their business.  What is a business owner to do?

Yakov Smart has a marketing system that just may work for businesses that can benefit from getting influencers in the LinkedIn world to do a little marketing FOR them.

Just as Yakov jumped on this podcast to let you know he exists, you can connect and be known by other influencers that are in the circles you want to sell to.

It almost seems to easy, right?

Listen as Yakov explains his marketing system, the success he has personally had with it, as well as some steps for you, the entrepreneur, to take to market your business in a similar fashion.

Enjoy!

Visit Yakov at: ConnectAndProfit.co

Lannia Stenz - Gilda's Club of Madison

A funny thing happened in 2020.  Well, not so much funny as forcibly life altering.  Especially if you run a non-profit that helps victims of cancer.

Lannia Stenz is the CEO of Gilda's Club of Madison.  Listen as she tells us how Gilda's Club has made it through challenge after challenge, from floods to pandemics, and still come out with the strength, resolve and willingness to help cancer patients.  Lannia has some great stories about overcoming obstacles and enjoying the process.  Well, most of the process.

Enjoy!

Visit Lannia at: https://www.gildasclubmadison.org/