Smart Man, Smarter Woman Podcast

Gold Nuggets in this Episode:

• Time is going faster for Juliet. Is it because she’s been stuck in the house with Steve for a year during lockdown?
• “No matter how much we know, we still fail sometimes.”
• “There is no such thing as a failure. There are victories and there are learnings. Sometimes what become victories later resulted from our greatest learnings.”
• “The only people who never fail are those that never do anything at all.”
• “Always show that thing that differentiates you from other companies, and in most cases other than your product, it’s usually you.”
• “You have something to tell people. You’re telling your story, your brand’s story, or your company’s story, and people get attached to that and they like to follow your journey.”
• “Pinterest is not social media. It is a visual search engine. It’s the third largest search engine after Google and YouTube.”
• “The number one mistake is not collecting people’s emails.”
• “Email marketing is the number one thing that companies can do that brings a lot of conversion.“
• “Whether you’re on social media, writing blog posts, email marketing, or anything that you’re doing, you always have to tell a story.”
• “Don’t be afraid. If you want to do this so badly, go for it. You will fail. Learn from those mistakes. Stand up again. Go, pivot, create something.”
• “Don’t worry about finding customers for your products. Find products for your customers.” - Seth Godin  

Our guest is Founder and CEO of Rectified, Inc., Sandy Dedeian.

Sandy has been an entrepreneur and marketer since 2004, and has followed an atypical career path. She has a unique mix of academic knowledge, traditional work experience, and crazy entrepreneurship. In 2007, she founded Rectified Inc. to help small and medium companies improve and perfect their marketing, and has since worked with SMEs in the Middle East, the UK, the US, and Canada.

Sandy holds a Bachelors of Business Administration from the American University of Beirut, a Masters in Management from the Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, and an MBA from HEC Montréal.

Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0

Gold Nuggets in this Episode:

• Steve didn’t ask how Juliet was doing. She’s going to tell us anyway because she prepared an answer.
• “I don’t think any business owner can really hit their goals unless they understand the financial position of the company.”
• “I don’t think you need to do your numbers yourself. I think it’s really important to get a qualified bookkeeper that you’re able to communicate with as well.”
• “The question of, ‘what do you see when you look at these numbers?’ Could start a wonderful conversation that could also lead to education.”
• “Let’s not just imagine it in our heads, but actually lay out a plan.”
• “Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, and cash is king.”
• “Entrepreneurs may not talk about it the way we do, they might not manage it efficiently or effectively, but the mere fact that they are still in business and have been able to manage cash flow over whatever length of time their business has been around, is a testament to their ability and their success.”
• “Give the financial side of the business as much attention as the other sides.”
• “Banks generally aren’t in the business of funding startups.”
• “If you have a banker and you’re unhappy, or you’re looking for a new one, it’s really important to talk to people you know.”
• “The banker is not your best friend.”
• “Nobody expects an entrepreneur to be perfect, but they do expect them to be transparent, knowledgeable, and to be enhancing their skills.”
• Tracey has a gift for listeners (linked below).
• Steve’s questions are famous.
• “When you understand your money, it changes the trajectory of your life.”
• “It’s really important to be kind to yourself.”
• “I believe that through knowledge and discipline, financial peace is possible for all of us.” - Dave Ramsey  

Our guest is Founder of Bissett Financial Fitness, Inc., Tracey Bissett.

Tracey has over 20 years of experience in financial services. Prior to Bissett Financial Fitness Inc, Tracey worked as an executive at TD Bank. Her experience and education make her uniquely qualified to coach on all aspects of money.

In 2020, Bissett Financial Fitness, Inc. launched the Young Money Scholarship Fund to assist post-secondary students with their finances.

Tracey holds an MBA from Dalhousie University, a Bachelor’s from Queen’s University, a Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Certificate from Centennial College, and a Higher Education Teaching Certificate from Harvard University.

Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0

Gold Nuggets in this Episode:

• “Time is the ultimate status symbol.”
• “Clients measure value differently. What we too often call customer experience, when we’re working on customer experience, we’re actually working on customer service.”
• “Service is designed to save clients time and effort. Experience is about creating time well spent.”
• “What do the best brands in the world have in common? People don’t buy from them, they buy into them.”
• “If anyone expects to recover, you must be staging an experience. Your in-store experience has to be worth me paying a ticket to get in.”
• “Even experiences are commoditised, so you have to keep refreshing them.”
• “Experience is time well designed, and experience is memory. If there’s no memory, you didn’t have an experience.”
• “Whatever business you think you’re in - you’re not in that business.”
• “There are two types of loyalty. There’s the loyalty of fear and obligation, and there’s the other kind of loyalty which is connection and identity.”
• There’s no Q&A round today.
• “Open, honest communication is the best foundation for any relationship. But remember that at the end of the day, it’s not what you say or what you do, but how you make people feel, that matters the most.” - Tony Shay

 Our guest is Founder of DMW Strategic Consulting, Dennis Moseley-Williams.

Dennis has been a globally sought-after motivational speaker on customer experience for over 20 years. He is the author of Serious Shift: How Experience Staging Can Save Your Practice, and he has a blog that is read by entrepreneurs and business owners globally.

Dennis is one of only two certified Experience Economy Experts in the financial services industry in the world.

Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0

Gold Nuggets in this Episode:

• Juliet will never get tired of being called the Smarter Woman.
• “With some entrepreneurs there’s this sort of internal process that goes on of wanting to be a ‘self-made person’. Often times this can lead to people feeling like they have to do everything themselves, but that is such a fallacy. No man is an island.”
• “When you find the right people at the right place and the right time, magic can happen.”
• “They think in order for you to be an entrepreneur, you need to have some fancy tech startup. Being an entrepreneur can just be you have an Etsy store and selling stuff.”
• “Be really conservative with your cash flow at the start.”
• “Do not make the assumption that your project will go viral.”
• “Pitching and finding potential investors is not an easy thing to do. It does, to an extent, depend on the networks of people that you have.”
• “Everybody sees the flashy headline. Nobody sees the two years of groundwork that it took to get to that point.”
• “Most start-ups fail.”
• “It’s okay to let an idea go. You can try new things.”
• “You can do anything - just not everything. Accept the help that people are willing to give if you’re just starting your entrepreneurial journey.”
• “Build something 100 people love, not something 1 Million people kind-of like.” - Brian Chesky

Our guest is Marketing Director of Atomic47 Labs, Nicholas Prouten.

Nick’s decade-long career has spanned across roles in Gaming, Entertainment, Cybersecurity, Real Estate, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrencies. He is an Ambassador for LODE, a precious-metal-backed cryptocurrency, and his goal is to bring back an honest monetary system.

Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0

Gold Nuggets in this Episode:

• “Keep saying ‘yes’ whether you know how to do it or you dont know how to do it. At some point you will make it if you just keep saying ‘yes’ and faking it.”
• “To be an entrepreneur, you’ve got to have that persistence, and you’ve got to have those multi-skills and be able to get through a lot of different things.”
• “Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. It does take a special kind of breed.”
• “A lot of people who hire designers, or any creatives in general - anything that you’re hiring somebody to create for you, is owned by them by what’s called creative ownership. It’s that creator’s intellectual property until the creator gives that company the creative ownership. An action item to help companies get around this is creating something as simple as a creative transfer agreement.”
• “There is a belief that once you pay for something like a logo that it is yours, but it is not by law.”
• “Being an entrepreneur, as lonely as it can be, make sure that you’re finding ways to connect and be inspired. If you’re having a hard day, just call someone.”
• “Be good to yourself. Rest. Take a day off every now and again.”
• “You see things and you say ‘why?’ I dream things that never were and say ‘why not?’” - George Bernard Shaw

Our guest is Central Branch Founder, Brady Dahmer.

Brady is a multiple award-winning designer and creative entrepreneur. With over 25 years of experience, Brady has held board positions in several arts foundations and events, developed courses, served as a faculty member of a national art school, worked with Fortune 500 Companies, entrepreneurs, revolutionary thinkers, and current and future leaders. He taught Design and Art Direction, and designed a curriculum, at The Art Institute, and ran the TYE international youth entrepreneurial program for high school students.

He is the author of ”I Wish We Knew That Before We Started...”

Brady holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Design and Advertising from Conestoga College.

Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0

Gold Nuggets in this Episode:

• Today is an almost perfect day for Juliet. Steve wants the credit, but only for the good days...
• “I believe that your business should support your life, not consume it.”
• “More often than not, you’re doing a lot of repetitive admin work.”
• “Start with a virtual assistant, but you want to be purposeful and keep that lane really small, and have it grow.”
• “Day 1, if you’re thinking of being an entrepreneur, start that team.”
• “You didn’t start a business to run a business.”
• “Your calendar is like your time bank account. If you don’t do things effectively with the hour, you’re going to lose the day.”
• “Your primary focus right now has been delivering the services and keeping the business, revenue, and profits, but there’s a second thing that most people neglect and don’t understand, and that’s the efficiency of growing the business and compressing the admin aspect of it so the creation continues to grow.”
• “Do anything you can to have a good laugh.”
• “You had jobs you didn’t like doing. You left them for a reason. So, this is supposed to be fun.”
• “Learning is only learning when you implement it. Slow down to speed up. Implement. Build your win team so you can get to what is next.”
• “Winning doesn’t always mean being first. Winning means you’re doing better than you’ve ever done before.” - Bonnie Blair

Our guest is Founder of Win the Hour, Win the Day, Kris Ward.

Kris is the leading authority on team building and productivity. After her husband’s cancer diagnosis, Kris stepped back from the day-to-day running of her business for 2 years. After her husband’s passing, she returned to the business full-time and found it growing despite her absence. Today, she coaches and teaches entrepreneurs how to grow their business so that they can become more successful with more freedom.

Kris has featured on multiple leading podcasts, radio shows, and TV shows, she is the best-selling author of “Win the Hour, Win the Day”, and the host of the Top 10 podcast, Win the Hour, Win the Day.

Kris holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Ryerson University.

Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0

Gold Nuggets in this Episode:

• “A business model is nothing but how an organization creates, captures, and delivers value. How they join together these different pieces in a business is the business model.”
• “Most entrepreneurs, what happens is they think there is a gap in the market, but they never look whether there is a market in that gap.”
• “Do business testing. Do a sample business testing to see if your assumptions are correct or not. And then, decide a business model based on that.”
• “90% of startups fail. Why? It’s because it’s all assumptions.”
• “A business coach should be looking at three things: giving the entrepreneur a third-party perspective, an accountability partner, and analyse the patterns within the organisation.”
• This is a podcast. Nobody can see Steve’s hand movements, but maybe listeners can hear the air moving to help them visualise it.
• “You have a natural HR inside you.”
• “If you have one business model and one revenue model, it can get outdated due to technology at any time. You need to keep innovating newer revenue models to have your business sustain.”
• “Think of the revenue model side. Technology is giving immense potential for you to have different revenue models.
• “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” - T.S. Elliott

Our guest is business coach, Joseph Sudhip.

Joseph was born and raised in India. With hard work and education as an emphasis for getting ahead, Joseph went on to pursue a Bachelor in Commerce and Law, an MBA in International Business, become a Certified Management Accountant, and got certified as a Registered Corporate Coach.

With extensive experience working in various industries with business owners and CEOs, Joseph decided to become a business coach, helping businesses grow and provide value as they succeed.

Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0

Gold Nuggets in this Episode:

• “Interestingly” is, in fact, a word. Juliet is interestingly excellent.
• “The only thing that people really respond to in the mail, is something you could eat.”
• “We guarantee our customers that we will delivery them a 10% success ratio.”
• “There’s a misconception among entrepreneurs that you only go out of business because there’s not enough business.”
• Cheryl’s Win-Win-Win philosophy: is this a Win for my customer? Will it be a Win for their target audience? Will it be a Win for Idea Factor?
• “The time that I was being the technician was zapping my energy to pour into it the entrepreneurship which was really where I belong.”
• “We have a process behind everything, not visible to our clients, but very visible to us. What’s happened since we’ve done that is we have a precision effort to every campaign that we launch.”
• “For years I often said certain things were difficult for me because I couldn’t tap into the Old Boys’ network.”
• “If you don’t understand your goal, you can’t create a path to get to it.”
• “I already know what my legacy is going to be, and it’s what I always wanted. That is to pass over the reigns of Idea Factor to another female entrepreneur. I’m excited that it’s not only a female entrepreneur, but also a woman of colour.”
• “Worry about being better, and bigger will take care of itself.” - Gary Comer

Our guest is Cheryl Cappellano, Founder and CEO of The Idea Factor, Inc.

Cheryl has over 20 years of experience in the industry, dedicating her time especially to cultivating relationships with customers. In 2011, 2012, and 2013, she was nominated as Royal Bank of Canada’s Female Entrepreneur of the Year, she was a Burlington Chamber of Commerce Finalist in Business Excellence in 2013 and 2017, won the Business Excellence Award in 2018, and she is a member of the World Wide Association of Female Professionals. She is a regular public speaker on topics ranging from marketing to advertising, and she shares her wealth of knowledge with others through her mentorship initiatives.

Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0

Gold Nuggets in this Episode:

• Steve hasn’t had much sleep, but with some extra caffeine, the show goes on!
• “It’s great that I have a business acumen, and it’s great that I love sales, but I have to have a plan.”
• “People think it’s so easy to go and sell your art, or your photography, without really sitting down and saying ‘what does that mean, and what is the plan to doing that, and how do you execute it?’ There’s a lot of steps in between the actual creation and the selling that go into play.”
• “The difference between the businesses that make it and the businesses that don’t, it isn’t the product or service that you sell, it isn’t the marketplace, and it isn’t the conditions, it is the resilience of the business owner to keep getting back up.”
• “Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. It does take a certain kind of mindset, and although it can be very rewarding, there are lots of sacrifices, and it isn’t for everyone.”
• “We need to look out for each other. We need to support each other. We need to help those who have difficulty helping themselves.”
• “Whatever you do as an entrepreneur, just make sure that you stay strong, you keep going, and know what your goal is. It’s easier to stay connected if you know what you’re reaching for.”
• “You do not take a photograph, you make it.” - Ansel Adams.

Our guest is Karlana Pedersen, Owner of Karlana Pedersen Art & Photography. Karlana is a business owner, entrepreneur, and visual artist, specialising in mixed-media art, digital illustration, and portrait photography. In 2015, she founded Karla Pedersen Visual Art & Phototgraphy, which has since become an exclusively online custom art service provider, divided into two distinct brands - Karlana.com, her digital art gallery, and Art Maiden ®, her new art licensing brand. She is a certified Nikon Professional, with the focus on both lifestyle, and fashion photography. She is also the co-host of the weekly How Do Artists Podcast, and Artwork Wednesday on Facebook Live.

Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0

Gold Nuggets in this Episode:

• “If you’re not out there getting in the media, getting on podcasts, getting quoted in the Star, somebody else in your industry is.”
• “If you don’t know the art of the pitch and you don’t understand what you’re doing you can burn more bridges than you can build.”
• “Whatever it is you do, you have expertise, you have knowledge that the mainstream doesn’t have.”
• “Every success builds on every other success.”
• “There are so many different forums now, there’s a billion different ways to find your comfort zone.”
• “Civility in the workplace can help you retain customers and employees. It literally has a financial impact of 30% on companies.”
• “The way we treat each other really matters.”
• “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” – Oscar Wilde.

Our guest is Tracy Lamourie, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Lamourie Media.

Tracy is an industry thought leader, international award-winning publicist, and she is a frequent guest on many TV and radio shows, and internationally recognized podcasts. In 2017, her work helped free an innocent man from death row.

She has been quoted in multiple international publications on human rights issues, public relations, leadership, entrepreneurship, and empowerment, and she is a regular contributor to Medium and Prosperi Press.

She was nominated for the 2020 Universal Women’s Network Woman of Inspiration Award, the 2020 RBC Women of Influence Award, and the 2020 Tallberg/Eliasson Global Leadership Prize.

Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0