Profit Is A Choice

Today, we are going to just put it on the table. Burnout, frustration, lack of inspiration, need of support. Do these words and phrases resonate at all? If so, hang around as each of these elements are discussed on the podcast today.

• Inspiration

• Excitement

• Color

• Joy

• We all go through times of feeling like we are working in and with the mundane. But often joy and inspiration can come in the smallest and quietest of moments. Michele (3:00) 

   

• What if we could be inspired by a single flower? What if we could be inspired to use a prior used item in a different way? What if we tried a new color palette? What if we found a way to make use of more with less? Michele (4:34) 

   

• What matters is our attitude and mind. Michele (5:14) 

   

• Inspiration is all around us. It is in a baby’s smile or giggle, sunrise, sunset, flowers blooming, rocks forming, water running. It is in our child’s art project, in best friends chatting on the back porch. It is in a soccer game or a movie. We just need to be open to looking for it and not expecting it to show up like it always has. Michele (9:47) 

   

   

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com

• LinkedIn: Michele Williams

• Work With Me

WITH Melanie Lockert

Joining me today is Melanie Lockert. Melanie is the author of the book, Dear Debt, based on her long-standing blog. She is also the podcast host of Mental Health and Wealth. Melanie was successful in paying off $81,000 in student loan debt and she has chronicled her journey on her blog and in her book. Today our focus will be all about debt and how to manage it.

• Stages of debt

• Money mindset

• Self-worth vs. Net-worth

• Spending triggers

• Suddenly, I felt basically like a broke college student all over again. The blog was really me trying to take back control over my life, because I felt out of control in the way that it affected my mental health. Melanie Lockert (3:45) 

   

• I realized that I had given up my own control of my money, for the payoff of pleasing other people are doing what was expected. Michele (7:19) 

   

• It's so interesting what happens when you put a crazy goal like that online. Soon I had these supporters cheering me on and then I realized six months to a year later that I can turn my blogging skills into freelance opportunities as a writer for other blogs and for other finance companies. Melanie Lockert (17:02) 

   

• Profit First is creating a rhythm of creating and managing profit within the company, so that the company can be sustainable. Michele (41:24)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com

• LinkedIn: Michele Williams

• Email: [email protected] 

• Website: www.mentalhealthandwealth.com

• Website: www.lolaretreat.com

• Website: www.deardebt.com

• Website: www.melanielockert.com

• Instagram: @melanielockert

• Twitter: @melanielockert

• Work with Me

• Dear Debt by Melanie Lockert

• Mental Health and Wealth Podcast hosted by Melanie Lockert

WITH Pamela Durkin

Joining me today is Pamela Durkin. Pamela has spent over 30 years in the high-end design business serving both residential and commercial clients. She continues to practice design and also teaches other designers how to be magnetic and attract the best clients through her In Demand Designer Program. We are talking today about networking, ideal clients, and how to make an impression from the beginning.

• Process building

• Magnetic Marketing

• Profitability

• Networking

• After having my first child went back to work for about a year. And to be honest with you, it was heart-wrenching and exhausting, and unfulfilling to the 100th degree. And that's that was the moment that I decided, you know, something here's got to change, and I've got to go out on my own. Pamela Durkin (8:26) 

   

• It's super important for us to realize to really find the part of our career that makes our hearts sing. Michele (9:33) 

   

• The goal here is for each person to understand how they're made, what their strengths are their values, what they love to do, what they enjoy doing, what their team is specialized in, and then be able to take that and serve their clients, which then ultimately serves them. Michele (11:49) 

   

• I want to continue on my own and ultimately decided to just go ahead and stay on my own and really started to get involved with organizations in the area. Pamela Durkin (23:27) 

   

• What I love is that you're showing the clients, how they're going to be treated before they're hired before they hire you. And that's a hard thing to do. Pamela Durkin (39:42) 

   

• Time is definitely a currency. And it's not one that we get back. We do get our money back, but we don't get our time back. Michele (49:34) 

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com

• LinkedIn: Michele Williams

• Email: [email protected]

• Website: www.pamela-durkin.com

• Instagram: @pameladurkin

• Facebook: Pamela Durkin Designs

• Work with Me

• The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks

• Elevate by Pamela Durkin

Today we are going to talk about leadership. As many of us are growing our teams, we should consider how our role, and perhaps that of some of our team, is shifting into more of a leadership focus and not simply executing details.

• Leadership

• Influence

• Intention

• We all have the ability to influence someone–but what makes great leadership great is the ability to influence others for good. Michele (2:41) 

   

• Imagine if we all considered who we are influencing daily. We are leading based on our character, our abilities or competence, our actions, and our connections–who we know and what we know. Michele (3:44) 

   

• As leaders, our teammates need to believe in us, next the goal is for them to believe in the goals we are trying to accomplish. They must know that we will do our best to lead them well. Michele (5:44) 

   

• Creating the vision is great–but holding to it and seeing it come to fruition is key. Moving forward with intention towards the larger goal and influencing your team to come with you–even when they cannot see what you see–but their trust is in YOUR ability to see. Michele (10:12) 

   

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com

• LinkedIn: Michele Williams

• Work With Me

• The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann

• The Go-Giver Leader by Bob Burg and John David Mann

• Developing the Leader within You by John C. Maxwell

• How Successful People Lead by John C. Maxwell

WITH Melanie Lockert

Joining me today is Melanie Lockert. Melanie is the author of the book, Dear Debt, based on her long-standing blog. She is also the podcast host of Mental Health and Wealth. Melanie was successful in paying off $81,000 in student loan debt and she has chronicled her journey on her blog and in her book. Today our focus will be all about debt and how to manage it.

• Stages of debt

• Money mindset

• Self-worth vs. Net-worth

• Spending triggers

• Suddenly, I felt basically like a broke college student all over again. The blog was really me trying to take back control over my life, because I felt out of control in the way that it affected my mental health. Melanie Lockert (3:45) 

   

• I realized that I had given up my own control of my money, for the payoff of pleasing other people are doing what was expected. Michele (7:19) 

   

• It's so interesting what happens when you put a crazy goal like that online. Soon I had these supporters cheering me on and then I realized six months to a year later that I can turn my blogging skills into freelance opportunities as a writer for other blogs and for other finance companies. Melanie Lockert (17:02) 

   

• Profit First is creating a rhythm of creating and managing profit within the company, so that the company can be sustainable. Michele (41:24)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com

• LinkedIn: Michele Williams

• Email: [email protected] 

• Website: www.mentalhealthandwealth.com

• Website: www.lolaretreat.com

• Website: www.deardebt.com

• Website: www.melanielockert.com

• Instagram: @melanielockert

• Twitter: @melanielockert

• Work with Me

• Dear Debt by Melanie Lockert

• Mental Health and Wealth Podcast hosted by Melanie Lockert

WITH Katie Menon

Joining me today is Katie Menon of Stephenson House in Edmonton, Canada. Katie has had impressive growth and has been willing to take some risks to do things, perhaps, before their time. Listen in as she shares her business trajectory.

• Risk

• Growth

• Team

• Business Journey

• It's more common nowadays that people are coming to career paths in multiple ways. Starting a business later in life or not following in your family footsteps and inheriting a family business but starting your own instead. Katie Menon (6:49) 

   

• What's also interesting is the idea of triage, which is what happens in the ER, you're looking at all these things happening at one time; what's most important now? What's the next right thing to do? How do you keep calm when everything around you is going out ahead? There are so many lessons to learn. When you walk into a job site or a construction site where things are happening, and lots is going on, and you've got to immediately take all that information and parse it out and kind of form a plan of action or calm down somebody on the other side. Michele (9:23) 

   

• I think the concept of going into another winter, as the fall was, approaching was still so much uncertainty around COVID. People not being able to get away to Hawaii or Mexico or Florida. They were saying, let's go, this is the perfect opportunity to, not stare at that living room wall any longer. Katie Menon (20:23) 

   

• There's something really exciting about bringing on team members. But there's also something really weighty about bringing on team members. Michele (25:10) 

   

• Once you catch sight of what's possible, wow, that's where the dreaming really starts to happen. Michele (31:25)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com

• LinkedIn: Michele Williams

• Email: [email protected]

• Website: www.stephensonhouse.co

• Instagram: @stephenson.house

• Work with Me

• How to Build a Design Business that Fits Your Strengths - Ep 184 with Carol Lang

WITH Katie O’Brien

On the podcast today is Katie O’Brien. Katie is a brand and website designer for the interior design industry. We are going to talk about the 5 website essentials that are needed, how to tell if you have outgrown your website, and the most common portfolio mistakes that people make. Enjoy!

• Strategy 

• Flow 

• Ease 

• Photography 

• I love Katie, how you created the life that you want. The life you and your husband talked about creating, and then built your business around that life. Michele (6:32) 

   

• I had a mindset problem in the beginning because I thought, who would pay me and when I looked up website designers and developers their businesses had beautiful websites. I had that imposter syndrome thinking that could never be me; I could never have that business. Katie O’Brien (10:52) 

   

• Finally, during a call with my coach I made the decision. I'm going to rebrand, I'm going to change all my copy, all my marketing, and I'm not going to take any new clients. I'm going to focus on interior design websites and projects only. Katie O’Brien (14:09) 

   

• One of my favorites to see on a website is what design problem did you solve. Michele (37:23)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com

• LinkedIn: Michele Williams

• Email: [email protected]

• Website: katieobrien.com

• Instagram: @katieobrienwebdesign

• Facebook: Katie O'Brien Web Design

• Pinterest: Katie O’Brien Web Design

• Work with Me

Have you created a Profit First strategy and implemented it – then left it alone? Are you still confident in the percentages you have allocated? Is your system and process growing with the evolving financials and needs of your company? If you are not sure, then this is the podcast for you. Let’s talk about how to review your profit first strategy and how to tweak it to make it work for your business today.

Scott Beebe is the founder and head coach of My Business on Purpose and he's the host of the My Business on Purpose podcast. He loves to liberate small business owners from the chaos of working in their business and helps to get their lives back by assisting them in articulating and implementing intentional vision mission values, systems and processes.

• Preparation

• Vision

• Direction

• Monday is my favorite day of the week, we literally wake up every day with one ambition. And that is to take these heroic small business owners that we have the distinct honor of being able to influence and liberate them from their chaos. Scott BeeBe (3:25) 

   

• My big push in the interior design industry and in the creative industries is for people to understand that they can understand their financials, and they can manage their financials and that they can have their financials and their company work for them instead of them working for the company. Michele (5:11) 

   

• What's unique to you, write those things down, because that's how we make a solid decision and consistent decision every single time. Scott BeeBe (18:36) 

   

• If I would say anything about what this entire podcast says to me, and the discussion that we're having, is that this is about intentionality and ownership, owning the mission, owning the vision, owning the forecasting, owning the budget, owning the hiring process, and being very intentional with all of it. Michele (42:20)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com

• LinkedIn: Michele Williams

• Website: www.mybusinessonpurpose.com

• Website: www.letyourbusinessburn.com

• Facebook: My Business on Purpose

• Vision Story Template - Download Now!

• PIAC EP. 009 - Listen Now!

• Profit First by Mike Michalowicz

• Business Done Differently by Jesse Cole

• Finding Your Yellow Tux by Jesse Cole

• Let Your Business Burn by Scott Beebe

• Correct Your Cash Flow - Download Now!

• Master Your Profit™ - Enroll Now!

For years I have been asked to write a book. And while I have co-authored a book and enjoyed that process, I felt like there was something else I was supposed to put out into the world. Today I want to introduce you to Metrique Solutions. A software application that will help you make financial decisions in your business in just minutes a month. On this episode I will share with you the origin of Metrique Solutions along with the problems it solves. I am excited – so let’s get to it.