Small Business, Big Engine

In this episode of Small Business, Big Engine, Grant sits down with Flora Voelcker, founder of Voelcker Design, a creative studio helping entrepreneurs and small businesses build premium, trust-driven brands that command higher prices.

Flora’s philosophy is simple but powerful: people buy from brands they trust, and trust starts with how you present yourself online. Yet too many small businesses underestimate their first impression. They might have great products or services, but a generic website or dated visuals can instantly lower perceived value. Flora believes that strong design isn’t about being flashy or trendy — it’s about communicating credibility, emotion, and confidence from the first glance.

Flora shares her journey from Berlin to Cape Town, how freedom and creativity motivated her to start a business, and what she learned building an international client base across Germany, Switzerland, the UK, and the U.S. She opens up about discovering the gap between design and marketing, and how combining both disciplines became her studio’s unique advantage.

Inside the conversation, Flora and Grant discuss:

• The connection between design, trust, and pricing power

• Why most small businesses still treat design as an afterthought

• How to tell when your brand visuals are holding you back

• The right time for a rebrand versus incremental updates

• How to navigate client conversations when you need to challenge their visuals

• The importance of repelling the wrong clients to attract the right ones

• The rise of AI in design and why human creativity still matters

Flora also talks about premium positioning — how raising prices actually attracts more serious clients, not fewer — and why brands that look and feel trustworthy can sell with less friction.

Whether you’re a designer, freelancer, or business owner trying to elevate your brand image, this episode will challenge how you think about the role of design in business growth. It’s a reminder that design is not decoration — it’s strategy in visual form.

Connect with Flora:

• Website: voelckerdesign.com

• LinkedIn: Flora Voelcker

Follow Small Business, Big Engine:

• Website: singlestack.io/podcast

• Instagram: @grantmfisher

• LinkedIn: Grant Fisher

B2B buyers live on LinkedIn. SteadyRev founder Austin Futers shows how to capture a true founder voice, choose the right post mix, repair low reach, and connect comments to real sales outcomes. We cover network hygiene, when to use video vs text, authentic relationship building, and whether Sales Navigator is worth it.

What we talked about:

• How to build a founder-led LinkedIn content system from one monthly interview

• The current post mix that works: 1–2 videos weekly, strong text posts, smart carousels

• Fixing low reach by cleaning irrelevant connections and tightening ICP

• Commenting and DMs that open deals without spam

• When Premium or Sales Navigator pays off, and when to skip it

• Simple RevOps habits that convert LinkedIn attention into pipeline

Connect with Austin:

• Austin Futers on LinkedIn

• SteadyRev

If your direct-to-consumer (DTC) playbook is starting to stall, this episode is your wake-up call. Chuck Heckman, co-founder of OneBillion Agency, joins Grant Fisher to unpack what it really takes for DTC brands to scale into retail, and how to win once you get there.

With decades of experience leading global campaigns for brands like Verizon, P&G, Heineken, and Clorox, Chuck brings a deep understanding of both digital and in-store growth. He explains why customer acquisition costs (CAC) are climbing, why “CAC inflation” is killing profitability, and why omni-channel brands consistently enjoy higher lifetime value (LTV) than pure DTC models.

From shopper marketing and retail media to distinctive brand assets and buyer psychology, Chuck lays out the Billion Dollar Brand Playbook: a proven roadmap that helps emerging brands go from one or two retail partners to category dominance.

• The DTC Ceiling: Why the tactics that built your online success will not work at the shelf.

• CAC Inflation Explained: The real reasons digital acquisition costs are climbing across every platform.

• The Retail Mindset Shift: How to go from hyper-targeted digital ads to mass reach and frequency.

• Distinctive Assets and Category Positioning: Why blending in kills recall—and how to stand out without confusing customers.

• When to Rebrand vs. When to Refine: How to know when small tweaks aren’t enough.

• Revenue and Margin Reality: What founders overlook when they first enter retail.

• Small Brand Advantage: The creative agility and consistency lessons smaller teams can borrow from Fortune 100 players.

• The Future of Retail: What’s replacing the social-media gold rush and how in-store experiences are making a comeback.

Chuck Heckman is the Co-Founder of OneBillion Agency, an omni-channel brand and media strategy firm helping DTC brands transition and scale into CPG retail. He has led strategy for world-class brands including adidas, Heineken, Hilton, P&G, and Verizon, and brings a rare mix of agency expertise and C-suite leadership experience.

Connect with Chuck on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/heckchuckman
Explore OneBillion Agency: onebillion.agency
Check out Posted.Careers, his startup connecting marketing, HR, and creative professionals: posted.careers

Running ads feels risky for many small businesses—but it doesn’t have to. In today’s episode of Small Business, Big Engine, I sit down with Paul Parnell, founder of Level Up Roofer Marketing (and Heat Vision Media). Paul helps roofing and home service businesses move beyond wasted ad spend by focusing on smart funnels, real lead qualification, and operational scaling. He also talks about how he blends his film and media background into marketing, and how he builds businesses around his family mission.

What We Cover

• Why Paul chose roofing as a niche, and how he expanded into related home services
• How his ad strategy includes weekly optimizations, negative keyword pruning, lead qualification, and appointment booking
• His proprietary tool Job Rescue AI that captures website visitors who don’t fill out forms
• The metric “Profit Per Sales Hour” and how he uses it to compare lead sources
• When ads don’t work — issues like low average order value or insufficient ad budget
• How he builds his team using contractors and partners
• How he markets his own business (cold email, LinkedIn content, outreach)
• How his companies—Level Up and Heat Vision—complement each other
• Paul’s growth goals, and how he centers family and mission in his work

Connect With Paul Parnell & His Brands

• LinkedIn (Paul Parnell): https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulparnell LinkedIn
• Level Up Roofer Marketing (LinkedIn Page): https://www.linkedin.com/company/level-up-roofer-marketing LinkedIn
• Heat Vision Media (Website): https://www.heatvisionmedia.com/ Heat Vision Media

Why do so many small business owners drown in documents, spreadsheets, and endless emails? According to Therman Trotman, also known as Mr. SharePoint, it is not a technology problem. It is a leadership problem.

In this episode of Small Business, Big Engine, host Grant Fisher sits down with Therman, founder of SharePoint Help Desk, to unpack how small businesses can stop running on chaos and start creating real systems of productivity using the tools they already own.

Therman did not plan to build a business around SharePoint. In fact, he stumbled into it by accident. What began as a simple automation for scheduling meetings turned into a career helping organizations unlock the hidden potential of Microsoft 365. Today, he is passionate about showing leaders how to create one-stop workspaces, simplify their operations, and get their teams actually excited about using SharePoint.

This conversation dives deep into:

• Why “too many documents” signals a leadership problem, not just a tech problem

• The surprising power of SharePoint lists, sites, and libraries (and why they beat Word and Excel for business processes)

• How small business leaders can stop thinking “email first” and start thinking “hub first”

• The common mistakes organizations make with Microsoft 365 and how to fix them

• Why adoption is not about technology at all but about people and relationships

• How branding your internal tools (instead of calling them “SharePoint”) can drive adoption

• Simple mindset shifts that help teams embrace new systems instead of resisting them

Therman brings energy, real-world examples, and his signature analogies (like why using a spreadsheet instead of SharePoint is like eating cereal with a fork) to make system design simple and accessible for any business owner.

If you have ever been frustrated by SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, or the chaos of endless files, this episode will change the way you think about productivity.

• Connect with Therman Trotman on LinkedIn: Therman’s LinkedIn

• Learn more about SharePoint Help Desk: TalkSharePoint.com

• Follow Grant Fisher on LinkedIn: Grant’s LinkedIn

• Explore more episodes of Small Business, Big Engine: Podcast Homepage

Resources and Links

Welcome back to Small Business, Big Engine. In this episode, I’m joined by Randy Lyman — a physicist, exited founder, and the author of The Third Element. Randy has built multiple eight figure businesses in highly technical fields, but what he discovered along the way is surprising. The real driver behind his success was not just strategy, systems, or hard work. It was emotional intelligence.

Randy’s story takes us from his early days running a business out of his garage in the 1980s, through rapid financial growth, to a turning point where he realized something was missing. Despite the money and success, he wasn’t fulfilled. It was only when he began to explore his own emotional and spiritual growth that his businesses started multiplying. By integrating emotional intelligence into his leadership, Randy saw his companies grow to 30 times their size. More importantly, he found deeper connection with his teams and a stronger sense of purpose.

In this conversation, we unpack what emotional intelligence really means for small business leaders, why it is the missing skill for so many entrepreneurs, and how you can apply it directly to your own business. Randy shares personal stories, practical tools, and powerful frameworks that will help you become a more effective leader while also building teams that thrive.

What We Cover in This Episode

• The story of how Randy grew multiple eight figure businesses, then realized he needed more than strategy and systems to keep going.
• The moment in 1989 when he began doing inner work and how that completely changed his leadership.
• Why so many entrepreneurs and leaders overlook emotional intelligence and the cultural conditioning that holds them back.
• How to recognize early warning signs that a lack of emotional intelligence is hurting your team.
• What it looks like to create a culture of belonging where people feel seen, valued, and motivated.
• Randy’s concept of The Third Element and why emotions are the missing piece in most leadership frameworks.
• Practical tools like journaling, breathing, and collaborative decision making that any leader can implement this week.
• The role of vulnerability in leadership and why showing up authentically earns you more respect, not less.
• Success stories of how integrating emotional intelligence improved collaboration, reduced mistakes, and helped companies launch new products faster.
• Randy’s advice for business owners who are in survival mode and feel like they don’t have time for emotional intelligence.

About Randy’s Book

Randy’s new book, The Third Element: The Missing Key to Activating the Law of Attraction, explores the vital role emotions play in our personal and professional success. He combines his background as a physicist and engineer with decades of business leadership and personal growth to show how balancing thoughts, actions, and emotions creates powerful results.

The book is filled with personal stories, clear explanations, and practical exercises. If you want to understand how to integrate emotional intelligence into your life and leadership, this is a great place to start.

👉 Get your copy of The Third Element on Amazon here: Buy on Amazon

Who This Episode Is For

• Small business owners who want to lead better, build stronger teams, and get better results.
• Entrepreneurs who feel stuck, burned out, or disconnected despite outward success.
• Leaders who are curious about emotional intelligence but are unsure how to apply it practically.
• Anyone who wants to build a business culture where people feel like they belong and want to contribute.

Resources and Links

• Randy Lyman’s Website: randylyman.com
• Randy on LinkedIn: LinkedIn Profile
• The Third Element on Amazon: Buy Here

One of the hardest lessons for small business owners to learn is that not every client is the right client. Saying yes to the wrong people can drain your time, hurt your team, and even push away the people you most want to serve. In this episode of Small Business, Big Engine, Grant Fisher sits down with RJon Robins, Co-Founder and President of How to Manage a Small Law Firm, to talk about what it really takes to grow a business you love, one that brings in the right customers, produces real profit, and doesn’t demand every ounce of your energy.

RJon has spent more than two decades helping entrepreneurs build businesses that actually work. While his company specializes in law firms, his insights apply across every industry. As he says in this interview, “98.75% of every business is the same.” Whether you own a restaurant, run a creative studio, or manage a professional services firm, the same seven parts determine your success: marketing, sales, production, people, physical plant, financial controls, and the owner’s mindset.

In this conversation, you’ll hear RJon explain:

• Why the biggest mistake owners make is believing their business is “different”
• The seven parts of every successful business, and why ignoring just one creates problems
• How to shift from working in the business to working on it
• The difference between the Doctrine of Sacrifice and the Doctrine of Profit
• Why half the job of marketing is to repel the wrong prospects
• How to analyze your best clients to find more people like them
• The overlooked role of price elasticity in profitability
• Why raising your prices should always come with raising value
• The psychology of pricing, and why you show up better when clients pay more

Key Takeaways from This Episode

1. Your business isn’t unique. The same seven parts apply to everyone.
2. Owners work on the business, not in it. Be clear about what hat you’re wearing.
3. Profit comes from exchange. Stop glorifying sacrifice.
4. Marketing should repel as much as it attracts. Protect your time and theirs.
5. Study your best clients. Their answers will design your marketing strategy.
6. Raise prices the right way. Always add value and test elasticity.
7. Higher prices elevate performance. You show up stronger when you charge more.

About RJon Robins

RJon Robins is the Co-Founder and President of How to Manage a Small Law Firm, one of the fastest-growing companies in the legal services industry. Since 1999, he has helped thousands of entrepreneurs transform their law firms into profitable businesses. His frameworks apply far beyond the legal field, offering insights for any owner who wants to build a business that works without consuming their life.

RJon’s upcoming book, Truth Teller, will be released by Morgan James Publishing. You can learn more and pre-order at truthteller.com.

Find more at:

• HowToManage.com
• RJonRobins.com

About Small Business, Big Engine

Small Business, Big Engine is hosted by Grant Fisher, a senior product designer and founder of SingleStack. Each week Grant talks with entrepreneurs, owners, and operators across industries to uncover the systems, mindsets, and marketing strategies that fuel growth. From visibility engines to profitability levers, the show brings you candid conversations and practical takeaways to help you strengthen your business engine.

If you run a creative studio and feel like you're doing everything right, making great work, keeping clients happy, grinding every day, but growth still feels out of reach… You're not alone.

In this episode of Small Business, Big Engine, I sit down with Joel Pilger, a creative entrepreneur and advisor who’s helped hundreds of studios around the world reposition and grow. Joel spent 20 years scaling his own shop, Impossible Pictures, before turning his focus to helping other creative founders figure out what’s keeping them stuck and how to move forward with clarity.

We dig deep into the real reasons creative studios stall out... and spoiler alert, it’s almost never about the quality of the work. Instead, Joel breaks down what he’s seen again and again: when studios stop growing, it usually comes down to poor positioning, unclear vision, burnout, or a sales pipeline that lives and dies by word of mouth.

Whether you’re a freelancer trying to level up or a studio owner with a team and overhead, this conversation will shift how you think about your business. Joel brings hard-earned wisdom and practical advice that creative founders can actually use to get out of survival mode and build something sustainable.

What we cover in this episode:

• Why doing great work isn’t enough anymore

• The most common mindset mistakes studio owners make

• The difference between creative entrepreneurs and traditional entrepreneurs

• Why positioning matters more than ever in today’s saturated market

• How to future-proof your creative studio in a fast-changing industry

• What Joel calls “the three seasons” of a creative business

• How to escape the feast-or-famine sales cycle

• Why most founders wait too long to delegate sales and production

• Joel’s “saleskeeping” habits that lead to consistent leads and deals

• How to move from services to outcomes, and why that changes everything

• You’re not in the services business, you’re in the outcomes business. If you’re still positioning your studio as an “animation shop” or “design studio,” you’re probably blending in with everyone else. Joel explains how to reposition around the result you create, not the tools you use.

• Reinvention isn’t optional... it’s the business model. The industry moves fast. What was cutting-edge five years ago is now a commodity. Joel shares why the best studios are always evolving and how to know when it’s time to pivot.

• If you want to scale, you have to stop doing everything. Joel talks about the “three-legged stool” of a creative business: creative, production, and sales; and why no one person can carry all three for long.

• Sales is not a one-person job. Most studio owners think sales means cold-calling or being pushy. Joel reframes it as a relationship-driven process built on consistency, trust, and focus, and he shares how to start building a system even if you’re a team of one.

About Joel Pilger:

Joel is the founder of Impossible Pictures and a trusted advisor to creative studios worldwide. Through his private community Forum and podcast The Fabulist, Joel helps studio owners rethink how they position themselves, build stronger businesses, and grow without losing their creative spark. He’s worked with top studios like Laundry, Sarofsky, and Ordinary Folk, as well as plenty of up-and-coming teams still finding their footing.

• Learn more about Joel: https://joelpilger.com
• Listen to The Fabulist: [Available wherever you get your podcasts]
• Connect with Joel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelpilger

If you've read this far, do me a favor and leave a 5 star review to help us grow the show. Thanks!

Is it possible to build a thriving video production company without owning a single piece of equipment? Jerry Koedding says yes, and he's been doing it for over a decade.

In this episode of Small Business, Big Engine, I sit down with Jerry Koedding, founder and Head of Production at Wave Films, a lean, Singapore-based production company that has built an entire business around talent, relationships, and strategic partnerships—instead of gear, studio space, or traditional overhead.

Jerry shares how he fell into filmmaking without any formal training, why he left a corporate job to pursue the unknown, and how he's built a profitable and scalable production company in one of the most expensive cities in the world, all without owning cameras, editing suites, or even an office.

If you're a creative entrepreneur, service-based business owner, or production team looking to scale smarter, this conversation is packed with insights.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• How to run a capital-efficient production company by focusing on producing, not gear

• Why Wave Films operates with just four core team members and how that creates flexibility

• The secret to managing large freelance creative networks across Asia and beyond

• How Jerry handles project-based talent selection, avoiding one-size-fits-all in creative hiring

• Why Wave Films partners with other production companies instead of competing with them

• The advantage of being a “general contractor” for film and media projects

• How hospitality and client experience play a larger role than people realize in production

• What it takes to build trust and reputation when your business depends entirely on word of mouth

• Why Singapore is a global opportunity hub for international video production

• Lessons Jerry would give to his younger self and anyone just entering the creative services industry

About Jerry Koedding:

Originally from Germany and based in Singapore, Jerry Koedding is the founder and Head of Production at Wave Films, a boutique production company that offers full-service creative execution through a vast network of freelancers and partners across Asia. With no formal training in film, Jerry has relied on his business background, creative instincts, and unmatched relationship-building skills to grow a nimble production powerhouse that serves brands, agencies, networks, and even other production houses.

Wave Films specializes in content production for commercials, documentaries, TV shows, and social campaigns, and is known for delivering high-quality work without the traditional infrastructure.

Jerry’s philosophy is simple: Stay lean. Hire smart. Treat production like hospitality. And never stop building relationships.

Resources & Links:

• Wave Films Website

• Follow Wave Films on Instagram

• Connect with Jerry on LinkedIn

• Explore Wave Films Projects

Like this episode?
Leave a review, share it with a friend, or tag us on social media. Your support helps more small business owners discover what’s possible when you think differently about growth.

🎙️ Small Business, Big Engine is hosted by Grant Fisher and features real conversations with founders, marketers, and creative entrepreneurs who are building stronger businesses by focusing on the engine, not just the aesthetics.

What would you do if your family suddenly lost your main revenue stream?

That’s the question Amy Chinian faced during the 2008 recession. With five kids under the age of eight, zero income, and over a million dollars in debt, Amy had to figure out a way to survive. Her solution? Head lice.

In this episode of Small Business, Big Engine, Amy shares how she turned a red picnic basket full of lice treatment products into My Hair Helpers, a thriving, multi-location service business with a national e-commerce arm and a growing nonprofit. But her story goes way beyond lice. This is about building something meaningful out of necessity, serving others in a highly stigmatized industry, and scaling a brand without compromising values.

Amy walks us through:

• How she taught herself lice removal from scratch with no formal training

• Why starting tiny was the key to surviving financially and emotionally

• How she landed her first customers and grew entirely through word-of-mouth

• The moment she knew she needed to scale, and how she found people she could trust

• Why she refused outside investors and built everything with her own cash flow

• What makes her proprietary products different (and why she avoids chemicals)

• How she approaches hiring, training, and quality control across six physical locations

• Her strategy for dominating Google search and building a strong local presence

• How she handles competition, even when it comes from former employees

• Why customer reviews are the lifeblood of her brand

• The surprising power of empathy in a stigmatized industry

Amy also shares how her faith and mission drive the business. She talks about Lice Free Forever, her nonprofit that provides free treatment for families who can’t afford help, and why she believes giving back is just as important as growth.

If you’re building a service-based business, running a small team, or just trying to figure out how to keep going when things get tough, this episode is packed with honest, hard-earned insight. Amy doesn’t sugarcoat the challenges—but she makes a strong case for staying lean, listening to your customers, and doing the work with integrity.

This episode is for you if you’ve ever wondered:

• How do I build a business when I have no money?

• Can I grow a local service brand without going into debt?

• What if I’m in a niche that’s “embarrassing” or hard to market?

• How do I scale without giving up ownership or control?

• How do I create trust in a business people don’t like to talk about?

Amy Chinian built something powerful out of a problem most people would rather avoid!

Resources & Links:

• Visit My Hair Helpers: https://www.myhairhelpers.com

• Follow Amy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-chinian-90697b22

• Learn more about Lice Free Forever Charity: https://www.myhairhelpers.com/charity