The 6th Annual Financial Stress Index from FP Canada has just been released and surprise, surprise Canadians are more stressed about money - it is their number one stressor yet again. In this special edition of The Real Bottom Line I am joined by financial literacy champion Tracey Bissett and Financial Therapist Aseel El-Baba. We are going beyond the numbers and discuss real actionable strategies to reduce your stress around money. 

In this thought-provoking episode of "The Real Bottom Line", we delve deep into the critical role of a CEO and how transitioning into this role can help you amass wealth. Our discussion begins by defining wealth not just in terms of money but also time, freedom, and resources.

We illuminate how your growing business becomes your primary asset and how its increasing value directly impacts your wealth. Drawing references from Michael Gerber's book "The E-Myth", we explore the different hats a business owner wears and emphasize the significance of the "entrepreneur hat", akin to the CEO hat.

This episode further contrasts the roles of a "Rainmaker" and an "Architect", and argues the limitations of being solely a rainmaker for your business. We share insightful questions to help you identify where you stand on the spectrum of Rainmaker to Architect and offer actionable tips on transitioning towards being an Architect for increased business value.

By providing tangible steps such as documenting your sales processes, simplifying your service offerings, and involving a team member in your sales meetings, we guide you to transition from the limiting role of a technician and facilitate business growth.

Join us to learn how shifting your role can lead to wealth creation and remember, the real bottom line is the more you step into your CEO role, the wealthier you become. Email us at [email protected] to continue the conversation.

Terry Tucker is an inspiring human being. His beautiful soul shined through in this interview and it was like an aura that makes you want to be his friend.

Founder of Motivational Excellence, speaker and author, Terry is currently in his 11th year of battling cancer and he has had his foot and leg amputated in the last couple of years and currently has tumors in his lungs.

Terry uses this as his fuel to spread his 4 truths to the world.  

There is much to be learned from Terry and his journey – and I hope you will take the time to join us as I learn about his 4 truths

1. Control your mind or it will control you
2. Embrace the pain and discomfort we all experience and use it to make you a stronger and more determined individual
3. What you leave behind is what you weave in other people’s hearts
4. As long as you don’t quit, you can never be defeated.

Check him out at www.motivationalcheck.com

The Riches are in the Niches – as business owners we have probably heard this saying a number of times. My guest Mark Chyz, President of CM2 Media. He niches in a couple of ways, but one of the most interesting is by psychographic markers. He also keeps a list ranking his clients – a fascinating exercise. Some of the other roads we go down are:

• SEO vs SEM
• Why you should start with Strategy
• Cost of Client Acquisition
• Setting your marketing budget and how often
• How to interview for a marketing agency

Mark’s 11 years of being a business owner shine through this episode and I just love how he gets his confidence!

Have you ever been fearful of public speaking? Of taking the stage in front of an audience?

My guest, Corey Poirer is now known as That Speaker Guy – but he had a huge fear of both of those things. We talk about how his fear of having regrets, of looking back and wishing he had done something was great than those fears.

And that set the stage for some pretty interesting and philosophical topics like: 

• Who do you have to become to achieve your milestones
• What if the journey is the destination
• The power of passion and purpose. 

It is such a great discussion, I know your thinking will be sparked!

Building a business over 35 years and then recognizing a niche and then going for it – that is Larry Keating story.

In this episode, we talk about 

• How to stay excited about business
• Recognizing opportunities
• The importance of getting out of your comfort zone
• Hiring to keep people at least 2 years
• The importance of recognizing teachable versus non-teachable
• Personal blocks vs. World blocks
• We also got into the subject of confidence and over presenting.  I really enjoyed this conversation.

The importance of being true to yourself and energy is what Lisa Drader Murphy is all about. Lisa is the founder of LDM Group of Companies – which encompasses her namesake fashion line, Studio, Willow Vale Estate, and coming soon a fabric enterprise. 

Lisa is a force of nature, extremely focused, and a true businesswoman. She has always carved her own path and is unique in the fashion world – she designs, manufactures, and retails all her own products. The pandemic resulted in a hard stop for all her businesses and the first pivot was to manufacturing face masks – over 55,000 of them! We talked about the slow return to normal – and how that may have shifted.

We cover some really juicy topics like:

• When a good opportunity really isn’t
• The importance of observation
• Creating space for creativity

Enjoy the episode!

It was time to turn the tables!  In this episode, Andre Brisson is the host and I am the guest! 

After 100 episodes where I ask all the questions of my guests, we flipped the script so that you could learn more about me.  Andre was able to get some pretty interesting stories and philosophies out of me. My favorite story is one that I haven’t spoken of in years – and it is about my mother. I lost my mother to cancer just over 17 years ago. She was and is a driving force in my life. When I was around the age of 5 or 6, she was declared legally blind. But that did not stop her in the least. I think I have a lot of her characteristics – including the fact that the older I get, the more my filter is fading!  Enjoy this episode.

2 years and 13 days later, we are at Episode 100 of The Real Bottom Line. Along with co-host Donna Alteen, we are featuring clips from 12 previous guests:

• Ross Simmons
• Anthea Mumby
• Katelyn Bourgoin
• Diana Lidstone
• Shelagh Cummins
• Laural Carr
• Cynthia Mason
• John Swain
• Michael Devenney
• Monique Bryan
• Teresa Easler
• Paul Fitzgerald

The lessons from the past 100 episodes are almost too many to list - and were certainly super hard to narrow down! The big takeaway I had after reviewing a few hundred pages of transcripts is that as business owners we know more than we realize. It has been an absolute privilege to highlight the ones on this episode and the others along the way!

I truly appreciate all my guests – they have freely shared their stories and provided some amazing lessons – who have helped me learn and hopefully the audience as well.

In this episode, we have built the clips around

• Operations
• Marketing/Branding
• The Inside Game – mindset.

Donna and I provide some great commentary along the way! It’s a little longer than normal, but well worth the time!

And check out the gifts from the featured guests at https://www.blackstarwealth.com/100

I am too small….it won’t happen to me. Thoughts that a lot of small business owners have when they think about Cyber Security. You aren’t.

Cyber theft is big business and we cover a lot of ground in this interview.

• We talk about
• The dark web.
• The importance of cyber insurance and the way it works.
• The importance of ongoing training and awareness for all your staff
• What is your cyber security stack

Darryl Cresswell is the founder of MYDWARE a firm that specializes in helping small businesses prepare.

For listeners of this episode, he is offering a gift of a free security assessment. www.blackstarwealth.com/cyber to sign up.