Once Upon a Time As Terry:

* When Terry married his wife, she had two kids

* He was in the air conditioning business, but one day he found himself laid off

* In Florida during March there is not much demand for air conditioning workers

* Terry was able to get a helpers position at an air conditioning company

* After Terry got this job the owner of that company took a shine to him

* He encouraged Terry to go out on his own

* Terry ventured off to his own air conditioning business

* The beginning was difficult, but this business helped him to get out of that difficult place

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* When people would call wanting their air conditioning to be fixed, they would want it to happen according to their schedule, so it was difficult to work with that much variety

* Inspired by the police, they put in place a sort of dispatcher routine

* When someone would get to a job, they would diagnose it and then use a two-way radio to ask permission to work on it. If there was nowhere else he was needed he could work on it, but if he was needed elsewhere then he would have to go and work on it another time

* There were people who would go and get parts and there were people who would come behind those who diagnosed the problem to fix it

* Large companies like PG&E and Comcast know that their customers aren’t going anywhere, so they don’t adopt as good of a customer service routine as Terry did

* For example, with Terry he had a system set up so that the one who came to diagnose the problem would ask the customers what time would work best for them for someone to come back and fix the problem. That way the customers had time to go grocery shopping or pick up their kids or something like that

* In addition, Terry’s company always calls back after a job to ask how they did

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* After Terry sold his air conditioning business he went into the travelling business

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* Sometimes we forget to add a little extra value to a job; a small thing that wouldn’t cost much could make the difference between a sale and no sale

* Find out what you do best and do that, and then hire the right people to do the things you don’t do

* People will show up with the ability to help, but our businesses are unique and like our baby so sometimes it’s difficult to allow people to help

* Manage by objectives. If you micromanage that will lead to you doing all the work

* Kids are the best sales people in the world because they keep asking “why?”

* Throw away the concept of time management: learning to manage your time is much better than being a time manager

* How are you using each of the hours in a week?

* Moving your time blocks around is a great thing to do in order to adjust

On the Fence?

* Eliminate fear through goal-setting

* What are you going to do today? Right now?

* Set your objectives first then put a purpose behind it

* If you don’t have a “why” it doesn’t matter

* Terry is offering one hour of his time to help with time management with goal setting!

* You will walk away with a new recipe on how to become successful with your 168 hours in a week!\

* Email Terry at [email protected] and send a request to set a time!

Connect with Terry:

* His website:

* Linkedin:

*

Justin Deese is the CEO of the Blue Collar Success Group

Once Upon a Time as Justin:

* Justin started in the entrepreneur space before his first son was born, but only by about six months

* Justin wanted his wife to stay at home with the kids, but Justin’s income wasn’t enough to support them, so they started a side hustle that evolved into more of a business over time

* The appliance business they started was simply them installing appliances for various clients

* Eventually, in order to have more time to relax, Justin looked for a business coach to help them manage their business and make things more efficient

* They wanted the freedom to be flexible

* The business had grown a lot, but they were missing a lot of the basics

* Once they got a handle on the business, so that they owned the business rather than them being owned by the business, Justin and his family moved to Florida

* It morphed into a plumbing business and over time Justin started coaching in the plumbing and electrical business

* Justin and his wife were very burned out at the beginning, so finding a coach was like their cry for help

* At first, Justin’s dad gave him The E Myth book to help them, and after Justin found more and more information from that that he could use he sought coaching from E Myth

* After they went through the coaching Justin decided to become a certified E Myth coach so he could help more people like how he was helped

* One of the big “ah hah” moments while Justin was going through coaching was asking himself the question “what is it that you want?”

* The more they worked on what their vision of their lives and businesses were the easier all of it became

* It’s amazing how giving clarity to your team members impacts their lives

* It gave them all clarity and direction

* One of the biggest things they implemented was one-on-one coaching every two weeks

* An open line of communication for employees to talk to the boss without fear of repercussion was one of the best systems Justin put in place

* Even if you don’t have a team you still need to know where you’re going

* Justin’s partner in the Blue Collar Success Group formed the business about three years before Justin got involve

* Justin decided to do a couple webinars with him and after some time they decided that it would be a good for if they were partners in the business

* The Blue Collar Success group is helping business grow and expand in a physical location

* Even in a physical location digital marketing and online work is essential

* Thanks to online reviews and online services the world of running a business is changing quickly

* It’s a new age and if we don’t utilize the new tools we can’t keep up

* Find a digital marketing firm to help you achieve your goals

* Google changes so fast that it’s very difficult for one person to keep up

* Facebook is still pretty powerful, so usually your typical customers will be on Facebook

* Add value to your customers

* Don’t always just try to sell; add value and meaning

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* For example: educate a customer instead of just trying to sell

* One on one coaching is a large investment, but there are a lot of mastermind groups out there that will get you to be around a group of people who are like minded with you

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* When you put something on your calendar it helps to keep you accountable

* Getting good with his calendar helped Justin to make time to plan for the future

Emily is a lawyer, a mom, a bulletproof coach, founder of Ask a Lawyer Now, and a TedX Speaker

Once Upon a Time As Emily:

* For Emily, the kids came first

* The business was like an accidental third kid

* Emily’s dream job was to be a deputy district attorney

* She was the deputy district attorney of LA for ten years

* If you’re going to law school, do not have only one thing you want to do since some aspects are very difficult

* Emily used to be really insecure of who she was as a person before she got that job

* She was with her husband while she was in law school

* After Emily and her husband were married for five years Emily got pregnant, so she was well into her law career

* She wasn’t paying enough attention to her body to realize that there was something wrong with the pregnancy

* Emily took a step back after that since her intense focus on work caused her to stop paying attention to her body

* After a bunch of health problems and trouble at work she quit her job

* Emily started to coach people with mostly law

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* Take that calling you have and run with it. Figure it out!

* One of Emily’s coworkers went through cancer treatment while Emily was going through her first back surgery, so they talked while they were recovering. Emily’s friend had an intense goal to get back to work as soon as possible, even though she was sick and recovering. This made Emily really evaluate herself and her ego. Her ego was keeping her in that job; it does feel cool to have a badge and to carry a gun occasionally

* She had to realize that she was enough

* When a drive and a passion becomes out identity we cross a dangerous line

* When you think you’re special and you keep chasing that it keeps dysfunction in careers going

* Emily likes to be productive and she wanted to keep doing work after she quit her job

* Emily and her husband sort of just lived life without really looking at finances

* After Emily decided to quit her job she had to start budgeting and hacking away at her student loans

* Emily had a lot of little things that she liked to do; she had a blog and a YouTube channel

* She couldn’t just do a bunch of little things. She needed to focus on the things that would make her money

* After Emily quit her job in January she had a Ted Talk scheduled for April, so she gave herself a deadline to get her website up by then

* Emily can get distracted from her schedule, so she schedules fun into it

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* Finding ways to infuse fun daily has been amazing

* When she was in her job she was always rushing her kids so she could do her work on time. Now she’s able to have those little moments with her kids when everyone isn’t rushed

* All the good stuff happen in the little, quiet unplanned moments

* She has been a more present parent; she can be free on the weekends so her friends can have a play date at home and she can take them to school

* Not everyone is able or ready to find an expensive lawyer. Ask a lawyer helps to give good advice on finding the right lawyer for you without having to spend buckets of money in the process

* There are a lot of possibilities out there but people don’t know where to find out about it. Ask A Lawyer helps you to find what you need

On the Fence?

* Talk to one person you trust. You don’t need the opinions of everyone you know, and you need to trust your gut

* What does your life look like if you say yes to the opportunity that’s knocking?

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Ray is the founder of Game Changing Dads

Once Upon a Time as Ray:

* Game Changing Dads was created last year, but Ray has been an entrepreneur for 30 years!

* The business (or one of his businesses) happened before the kids

* When Ray was 18 he started his own landscaping business

* That first business lasted for nearly 17 years

* At the age of 22 Ray bought his first duplex and rented out the bottom

* He sold his first business when he was in his early thirties

* Ray has a 3 year old, 7 year old, and 10 year old

* After 08 Ray started fresh by starting a vending company

* That gave them the ability to stay at home and raise their family

* Ray has been coaching hockey and business for years

* Looking back at his father spending more time with his business than his kids, Ray wanted to make sure he was there with his kids

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* Game Changing Dads is a way to coach dads to love and support their family and community

* Ray’s heart breaks for the kids that have parents working all hours of the week

* Money definitely helps, but to have time with your kids is worth more than any money

* The biggest difficulty Ray has seen in dads is identifying roadblocks

* When it comes down to what really is going on behind the scenes, there could be weight issues, working too much, or old arguments

* The men have to be transparent for it to work

* At the age of 12 Ray had sexual things going on with a coach which made Ray’s relationships more difficult

* A lot of times parents had established roadblocks; if my parents did it, why cant I?

* It usually takes a month or two for the dads to really express their feelings

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* Ray is a huge fan of sharing any business opportunity with your kids

* It doesn’t matter how old your kids are, they watch what you do and they look up to you

* Your kids will just keep trying new things because they haven’t learned failure

On the Fence?

* You just turned 90 and you look back, what do you say?

* Do you regret not getting off that fence and becoming an entrepreneur?

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Connect with Ray:

His website:

Facebook:

LinkedIn:

Once Upon a Time as Kelly:

* Kelly has been an entrepreneur for her whole life; she sold doll waterbeds as a child

* She has also always been interested in computers and got her degree in IT

* After she finished school Kelly got married and they sat down and discussed the whole business thing

* They were able to live off the husband’s income as Kelly got things going

* After a while they had their daughter, who is now 9 years old

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* Usually at the beginning new business owners think that EVERYONE needs a messenger bot, but that’s not the case

* No matter what fancy thing you’re doing on the outside, at the end of the day look back at who you’re trying to help

* Kelly usually approaches business relationships with a get to the point attitude

* Messenger makes that easy to work with

* Facebook messenger is essentially Face Tweet

* It has the quickness of Twitter

* Kelly has three girls and one boy

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* She started off her business as a freelancer and doer

* She quickly needed help so she hired a graphic designer, and over time she has needed more and more help

* Her children really determined how involved in her business she was

* Now Kelly is more focused on being a strategist while letting a team execute

* Kelly is very much a perfectionist, although she realized overtime that that was more of a crutch

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* If you’re a freelance copy writer then market as someone who could write for Facebook Messenger!

* You don’t have to replace email marketing, they work together

* One of my clients, after showing a $2,000 product, 7 people out of a 40,000 person email list bought while 3 people bought in messenger out of 400

* In addition to those differences, the messenger process is so much more personal

* There is actual interaction

* Facebook Messenger is amazing. You can do almost everything you could want, much more so than through email

On the Fence?

* There is no such thing as a secure job, and in a way being an entrepreneur is even more secure than an average job

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* Being able to keep going after the no’s you’ll get is how to be successful

 

 

Once Upon a Time as Megan

* Founder of Second Chance Counseling Service

* The kids definitely came first

* It wasn’t until recently that they delved into the world of entrepreneurship

* Megan made significant life changes in order to spend more time with her kids before they leave the nest

* The thought of being an entrepreneur terrified Megan, but she developed the itch for it and ended up doing it

* Her husband works full time so she wasn’t forced into her business, but she still wanted to help people with addiction and resulting problems

* Megan is the kind of person who doesn’t quit, so she was nervous about starting her business because she knew she would be stuck with it

* A day in the life of Megan depends on a lot of things. She talks with customers and puts her kids in the shower and she cooks and plenty of other things

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* You have to be able to flex your style, communication, and just your day

* Megan’s clients are anyone that has a substance abuse problem

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* Messing up is human nature. People will relapse and there will be bad days, but you have to look at each day as a new day and you have to commit to doing x y and z each day

* Addiction can happen to anyone at anytime

* No one makes you do anything. We are in charge of what we do

* You can’t change someone else, they have to want to change themselves

* Even with kids, they are still their own person. Parents only have so much leverage

* As parents, we feel personally responsible for what happens with our kids

* It’s important to know about your kids’ friends. Their friends have a huge impact

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* A lot of parents feel that they should be like a best friend, but a parent should be there as a parent and a supporter and a guide

* Even though you may not be their best friend, they can still come to you about things

* Don’t react to what your kids say, just listen and respond

* In Megan’s business, each client will be matched with a therapist that can help the best

* There is no shame in admitting you have a problem

* Megan and her family have been living in an RV for the past two years as they travel the country

* They stay in a place for a month so they can experience a culture

* Megan is teaching her children to have experiences over money. They can’t have a dozen pairs of shoes on an RV

* If you need help, there are people living out there that want to help for good, loving reasons

* As a people, we’ve gotten away from being caring and compassionate in favor of materialism and wealth

Connect with Megan:

* Her website:

 

Once Upon a Time as Michelle:

* For Michelle, the kids definitely came first

* They lived on a 73 acre ranch in Texas for a long time

* However, divorce struck

* Michelle needed an income and she needed it fast. She had kids at home, so she needed to have an income from home

* She decided to take a Facebook advertising course, and she loved it!

* More and more people hired Michelle to help them advertise through Facebook

* Wait and listen to see if any certain path lights you up

* Michelle has two kids that are now 14 and 16, and she has been a single parent for the last six years

* It’s been difficult for her to draw a boundary between working and spending time with her kids

* Since Michelle started her business she is much more supported; she has a team under her now

* When she first started, she had a lot of fear around trying to prove herself

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* Most of Michelle’s work is on the launch. The eyes are on her to make or break it, so there is a lot of stress

* There is a confidence that comes across along the way

* She wants to stay doing the things that she enjoys the most, and outsource the rest

* There is a big benefit to working with an advertiser with a specialty

* Making her team has been a process of trial and error. She needed to be patient and build her team with the right people

* Check out the book Who to help with your hiring!

* You cannot manage a business through email. Look into a project management system

* Michelle had a limiting belief that if she works harder and more often things will work out

* Actually, time away is key

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Connect with Michelle:

* Her website:

* Linkedin:

* Facebook:

 

If you want to hear my first conversation with Jessica, check out conversation 121!

* Jessica is the founder of Interview Connections, which is the leading guest booking agency for podcasters and guest experts, and she’s been in business for about four years

* In the beginning Jessica was essentially just a virtual assistant, but as she was growing she realized that she needed to add more people to her team so the business could grow

* The first person she added to her team was a virtual assistant that had some experience in the things Jessica wanted to do

* From there she got more virtual assistants and guest bookers

* When you’re growing a virtual team there are limits to how you can manage them

* There is a limited amount of training that you can do

* As the quality of her business increased having virtual assistants and contract workers became more and more difficult

* Jessica wanted to have a physical team in an office with her that she could work with in person

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* The culture of the business is cultivated from the dreams and desires from the person at the top

* There is, of course, no one way to run a business

* It’s whatever is right for you

* Jessica needed the fuel and the energy from a team of employees

* At one point Jessica reached 12 independent contractors working for her part-time

* Now she only has five booking agents and one full-time employee that oversees all the booking

* In the first couple weeks, since there were so many new employees, some people were working on just chairs and Jessica had to go to the apple store every other day

* Now, Jessica has a nine to five job. She has employees that are scheduled from nine to five, so she needs to be there

* Before, she had contract workers that worked at all hours, so she could work whenever

* To help with affording everything she needs, Jessica cut lots of little expenses that were small and felt like a good idea at the time

* It’s not just booking, it’s the interaction and the experience that you have with the client

* Jessica keeps things simple when first meeting a potential client. It allows her to work more closely with clients

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* As she was transferring to physical employees Jessica told clients that her prices were going up. That weeded out some people for sure

* It’s very important that you work with clients that are the best for you, and vise versa

* Don’t stress! You do not need to have everything sorted out by minute one

* Your ideal client will evolve as you do

* Keep working and tweaking who your ideal client is

* This will make or break your success

* It’s easy to just do what works for other people

* What works for someone else might not work for your business or your market

* If you try it and it doesn’t work just move on to the next thing

Connect with Jessica:

* Her website:

* Twitter:

* Interview Connections:

 

Once Upon a Time as Lisen:

* She knew that she could not thrive in the typical corporate world

* As a result of that and having children, Lisen decided to take her capital elsewhere and become an entrepreneur

* If you want to be able to find a way to integrate your kids into your career, Lisa’s book Work, Pause, Thrive is the book for you

* Even though 11% of women Lisen interviewed actually planned to pause their career for parenthood, 72% actually did

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* A lot of people liked co-working spaces so they can be able to leave the house to work away from the distraction of children

* Mothers are the most productive people, and we know why!

* Lisen has helped to create a team of mostly women to help women to be more influential in the creative world

* Lisen has three kids, but she is lucky because they are all 18 and above

* She wants to make sure that the next generation isn’t confined by typical corporate jobs

* In this country women get very little maternity leave

* Lisen works with companies to show them how offering paid maternity leave is very profitable for them

* She wants to invite them to offer maternity leave, not force them

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On the Fence?

* Lisen has interviewed many couples who have been very supportive of each other

* She has seen that a lot of couples spiral with each other and their careers: one works in the corporate world while the other is an entrepreneur. If the entrepreneur is successful, the other joins!

* Find someone to spiral away with!

Connect with Lisen:

* Her website:

* Linkedin:

* Twitter:

Once Upon a Time as Tom and Ariana:

* For them, the business came first. Tom was a crazy entrepreneur, and he brought his wife into that world as well

* Tom was the dreamer, and Ariana was the reality-checker

* Their first business was real estate; Ariana came in about three-quarters in

* After she became pregnant, Tom decided he wanted to open a wine and liquor store

* This adventure had to be planned and researched, all while they had a newborn

* After college, Tom realized that he didn’t want to end up working for someone else

* Everything he worked on was a step to get there

* When they decided to have a child it put some pressure on Tom to step things up so they could have the life they want

* How could Tom and Ariana have a real estate business, a wine and liquor store, and a newborn baby?

* The real estate business had been running for years before the baby which made it require less maintenance

* They started the liquor store with the knowledge that they would not be spending too much time in the actual store

* However, in the first week Ariana worked at the store with the baby during the day, and then after work Tom would work the evening shift

* Each of them understood their roles, which made running the businesses easier

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* A lot of people struggle because they just go go go, but if it’s not leading to what they don’t want to do that’s when they get burned out and overwhelmed

* If you look at the most successful people, they understand where they want to go to and they make choices every day on what they say yes to and what they say no to, and the ones that struggle say yes to everything even if it’s not in line with what they want to do

* What kind of day to day practices help build the big picture into what it is?

* Tom and Ariana use a project management tool so they can keep track of what each of them should be doing in the business and in their personal lives

* There are two of them that need to keep track of what they need to do to get where they want to go, so they need to communicate and plan together

* They help each other not lose sight of the end goal, and they help each other to not get sidetracked

* If life comes up and gets in the way you can look at what you have to do and prioritize

* They have goals that are near and far: ten year goals down to one year goals

* As they became parents they had to adjust and plan as needed

* Click here to learn more about agile!

* Each week Tom and Ariana assess the week from each of their points of view and see what they can do to improve and see what they did well

On The Fence?

* Get clear on where you want to go

* Take time, especially if you’re in a relationship, to have conversations about goals and what you want

* Many people struggle because the idea is only one portion of a successful business

* Start with a one page business plan and focus on the simple things

Connect with them!

* Facebook:

* Their website: