Profit Is A Choice

On the podcast with me today is Jill Palleschi of Jula Paper Co. Jill created Jula Paper Co out of a passion for design and a love of celebrations, both big and small. Jill believes that branding should be accessible to everyone and she supports business owners at all levels as they create brands representative of their business. Listen in as we discuss the story of our brand, how to not be trendy but to create a long-lasting brand, and what to do if you cannot afford a custom brand when first starting your business.

And just like that we are beginning year 5 of the podcast. Thank you to everyone who has listened, contributed, provided feedback and been part of this podcasting journey in any way. Cheers to wrapping up year 4 and to beginning year 5. The best gift you could give me would be to leave a review of the podcast on your favorite listening platform. Now, let's recap a year of learning!

WITH Andrew Allemann

With me on the podcast today is Andrew Allemann. Andrew is a podcasting expert and founder of PodcastGuests.com. This is a service used by over 30,000 people to find guests for podcasts and for experts to get booked on podcasts. Today we will talk about the profitability of other people's traffic which is increased by being on a podcast.

• One-sheet

• Education

• Connection

• Preparation

• I wanted to bring people together to talk about what makes what makes profit in the company and profit being so much more than just money like profitability of recognition profitability of getting your voice heard. Michele (04:23)

• You can really build a lot of relationships through podcasting, and grow your audience like you do through both this show, and being a guest on other shows. It's a great way to grow your audience as well. Andrew Allemann (5:44)

• Podcasting gave me an opportunity to get up there and talk about myself and my products and services. But also, to broaden the horizon of the people that were coming in to my realm of influence. Michele (11:14)

• If you provide good education to that audience, if you entertain or educate them, that's going to naturally get them interested in learning more about you. Andrew Allemann (24:10)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com

• LinkedIn: Michele Williams

• Email: [email protected]

• Website: podcastguests.com

• Facebook: Podcast Guests

• Twitter: @podcastguests

• Work with Me

• PodcastGuests.com Guide

WITH Wendy Barlin

Wendy Barlin is on the podcast with me today. Wendy has worked with business owners for over 25 years to guide them with business development, tax and cash flow strategies. Her direct and clear communication style, helps business owners understand a topic that often brings much fear and trepidation. So – let's talk taxes.

• Keep your receipts

• Risk management

• Ordinary and necessary

• Reasonable salary

• Most accountants don't want to teach; they don't have the patience, they don't have the personality, they don't enjoy it. I love to teach. And I enjoy it. Wendy Barlin (07:42)

• At some point, we've got to keep something that proves the legitimacy of the purchase, especially for meals. And I think that's probably more than anything else. Michele (17:08)

• We don't have to be afraid of paying taxes, like part of paying taxes is saying that you're a profitable company in the first place. So, we need to make peace with that. Michele (20:13)

• Tax law is very gray. And so, for everybody, we need to look in the mirror and say, I am a big risk taker, and I am willing to roll the dice to save money on taxes. And other people will say to me, Wendy, I never want to get a letter. I don't care if I overpay, Wendy Barlin (21:29)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com

• LinkedIn: Michele Williams

• Email: [email protected]

• Website: WendyBarlin.com

• Facebook: About Profit

• LinkedIn:Wendy Barlin

• Instagram: @wendybarlincpa

• Work with Me

Today we are airing an episode that we launched in 2020. Many of us are seeing changes in buying patterns, budgets, and selections. While the details are different from where we were in early 2020, the rethinking our business part is the same. In this podcast we will examine how to dissect our businesses so that we can analyze them and perhaps put them back together again in a different way. Really knowing the pieces and parts, as well as what we're great at, or core competency, helps us to determine the best ways that we can show up and then serve our ideal client. Let's focus on how to be nimble in an ever-changing world. How to grow and scale while maintaining our flexibility, which is not always easy. That will allow us to maneuver through any change. I hope you enjoy.

• Building blocks

• New picture

• WHY

• Pivot

• Many of us have discovered things about our business that maybe we didn't recognize before; we have new insights now. - Michele (02:08)

• We can't just always do business as usual. - Michele (10:30)

• Your why, values. mission, vision…All of those are building blocks and we're putting them together in a multitude of ways. - Michele (13:01)

• There is no reason that we should be building businesses that we're not 100% in love with. - Michele (19:52)

• The goal here is to reclaim our time and maximize our money while providing the best product and service out there. - Michele (24:36)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Profit First by Mike Michalowicz

• Work with Me

WITH Jeremy Miner

With us on the podcast today is Jeremy Miner. Jeremy is the Chairman of 7th Level, a Global Sales Training company. Jeremy shares that "The single most effective way to sell anything to anyone in 2022, is to be a problem finder and a problem solver... NOT a product pusher." We will discuss this and why the old ways of selling no longer work well.

• Emotion vs logic

• Selling is change

• Change is uncomfortable

• If you want to be great at persuasion, at selling, you have to start looking and viewing your business or sales as collaborative; it's you working with the prospect to help them find problems they didn't even know they had. Jeremy Miner (3:10)

• Michael Port in his book, Book Solid, makes the comment that sales isn't about coercion or twisting somebody's arm, it's about meeting them where they are. Michele (11:06)

• You're not selling them the thing. It's not the sofa, you're not selling them the bar down in the basement, you're not selling them the new kitchen stuff, that's not what you're selling. You're selling them the results of what that's going to do for them. Really what you're selling is you're helping them solve any emotional need. Jeremy Miner (29:25)

• Part of sales as well is I believe, is telling them I understand that this change is going to cause uncomfortableness and unsettledness. And I've walked this before and I've helped other people manage this change. We're here to help you manage the change. Michele (33:15)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com

• LinkedIn: Michele Williams

• Email: [email protected]

• Website: 7thlevelhq.com

• Facebook: Jeremy Lee Miner

• LinkedIn: Jeremy Lee Minor

• Instagram: @jeremyleeminer

• Work with Me

• SalesRevolution.pro

WITH Erin Ollila

With me today is Erin Ollila. Erin is a copy coach and conversion copyrighter and so much more. Erin believes in the power of words and how a message can inform – and even transform – its intended audience. Today we will be talking about the intersection of SEO, messaging and copyrighting for your marketing materials. Get ready to take notes!

• Messaging

• Customer Journey

• Audience

• Voice of Customer Research

• I speak in words and not numbers. But when we look at how we approach our marketing for our business, even though it's copy related, there's so many ways that numbers actually play like such a valuable role in decision making. Erin Ollila (1:28)

• Sometimes we tend to think in silos, let's do our copywriting. Now, let's do our messaging or do our messaging and then do our copywriting. Now let's do our marketing, as opposed to really thinking about holistically and strategically how all of these places intersect. Michele (29:45)

• It's not a once and done, it's a once and then monitor, because I know that my copy has shifted and changed over the years, with the times with what I offer with what I do with what my client needs. Michele (35:18)

• We don't need to start from scratch, some business owners might find that their message has completely changed. And some might just need to do some tweaking to make things clearer. But what this comes down to is knowing our audience. Erin Ollila (39:09)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com

• LinkedIn: Michele Williams

• Email: [email protected]

• Website: erinollila.com

• Facebook: Erin Ollila Creative

• LinkedIn: Erin Ollila

• Work with Me

• Talk Copy to Me Podcast with Erin Ollila

Let's talk more about burnout. Last month we looked at being burned out and looking for inspiration in different ways. But this month, I want to talk about being exhausted – in all the ways: mentally, physically, emotionally, and even spiritually. And – what we can do about it. Enjoy the podcast.

• Exhaustion

• Sleep

• Rest

• Exhaustion can happen even when we are doing what we love. Michele (1:48)

• First, recognize that you're tired, like, I know, sometimes I'll say it, I just push, push, push, push. Michele (5:33)

• Please give yourself grace. Many of my clients have shared lately how busy their teams have been. We all tried to adjust to the influx of requests by working harder, longer, hiring more people to meet demand. Michele (8:47)

• Running a business is hard work. It just is. I am speaking to you as much as I am myself. Build in time to rest. To relax. To reset. When you do this on an ongoing basis, you will feel better and lead more effectively, and your business will move forward with more peace. Michele (9:30)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com

• LinkedIn: Michele Williams

• Work With Me

WITH Adi Klevit

Adi Klevit, Founder and CEO of Business Success Consulting Group is with me today sharing from her twenty-five years of knowledge and experience as a trained Industrial Engineer, management consultant and business executive to bring order and efficiency to organizations. We will discuss how processes improve efficiency and performance. Listen in for insight on bringing order to the chaos in your life and business.

• Systems

• Why behind the process

• Flexibility

• Client journey

• I think that it's a matter of creating processes that are flexible enough in order to give a framework but also allow you to be creative. Adi Klevit (13:19)

• The more that I document the process, the more I realized there are other people that I can hire. I mean, truly, I think that is one of the things that keeps us from hiring is because nothing's documented. Michele (17:27)

• I would challenge our listeners to think about what you do for business development and try to figure out how you do it and if there is a common denominator, and that common denominator is a process. Adi Klevit (25:21)

• The goal is to create processes that are as easy and as streamlined as possible to get the outcome that we desire, within the timeframe that we desire not to make us feel important, because we have a 15-page dossier on something that we could have captured in, you know, three or four sentences. Michele (30:54)

• The first thing that needs to happen is a change of mind. It has to have agreement from the leadership team from the top, from the owner. Adi Klevit (35:05)

• Every single thing in my business is still not 100% documented, because my business is constantly growing and changing. However, we try to write as much as we can, while we're changing. We have things set up in Asana, we've got, a document set up and Airtable and processes there. We've got them in different places that make sense for each activity that we're doing. But it is a constant ongoing, and part of the company that we just have to do. Michele (46:04)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com

• LinkedIn: Michele Williams

• Email: [email protected]

• Website: https://bizsuccesscg.com/

• Facebook: Biz Success CG

• Twitter: @bizsuccesscg

• LinkedIn: Business Success Consulting Group

• Work with Me

• How to Get Your Processes Implemented and Followed by the Team in Five Steps by Adi Klevit

WITH Owen McGab Enaohwo

With me on the podcast today is Owen McNab Enaohwo. Owen is the CEO and Co-founder of SweetProcess, an easy-to-use software that enables company executives and their employees to collaborate together to quickly document and/or improve their standard operating procedures, processes, and policies. We will dig in to where to start, how to monitor and improve processes and how to engage your team in the collaboration.

• Recurring tasks

• Continuous improvement

• Minimum viable procedure

• Collaborative approach

• Because we're at home, I think companies are even more open to the idea to outsource and to work collaboratively. Or even if you're not outsourcing, we're not necessarily beside each other anymore in the same way. So, we have to find some way to get that information. Michele (8:17)

• People think that you have to have all the instructions and everything. I'll say, get rid of that thought, because the most important thing is to have the mindset that it is going to be a continuous improvement thing. You're going to collaborate with your employees, or your staff, or your contractors who are working with you to build this. Owen McGab Enaohwo (11:06)

• I have documented the minimum viable procedure or version 1.0 of this task. Now let's go ahead and collaborate to fill out the details. With software like Sweet Process, we enable that collaboration back and forth. What happens is you can have your employees passively go into the software and start adding to the process. Owen McGab Enaohwo (12:34)

• If we think about it, in all of our businesses that do design, what is the minimum design that we need to do to meet the need of the client? Everything else is a layering process. Michele (17:19)

• Whomever you hand that process off to, will become the owner of that work, and hopefully, improve that process and change that process, which means that the process that I handed off might not be the process I get back in two or three years, it's going to be much improved. But I am trying to reduce my brain space so that I can work on something else. Michele (21:36)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com

• LinkedIn: Michele Williams

• Email: [email protected]

• Website: sweetprocess.com

• LinkedIn: Owen McGab Enaohwo

• Work with Me

• The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss

• 5 Barriers to Scaling Your Interior Design Business Ep 105 with Michele Williams

• 52 Standard Operating Procedure Templates