And welcome to another episode of Stuck in My Mind podcast. I am your host, w I z e. My next guest is a fellow podcaster. She's also, a business growth strategist. Welcome to the show, Donna Dube. Thank you. So happy to be here. Oh, the pleasure's all mine. So let there's just some bread into this. So, Donna, can you share a bit of about your personal journey into the world of entrepreneurship and what drove you to become a business
growth strategist? Yeah, for sure. So probably like many of your listeners, my journey was not straight and narrow, but windy and twisty. And so I actually started after high school, went and got my RN degree and was a nurse. So I worked in the ICU for a number of years. And one might wonder what does the ICU
have to do with entrepreneurship? And to some it's, there's not a lot of connections, but I do see connections behind the scenes because in the ICU, you you are busy looking after patient, but also family. And while I never thought of my patients as a project, to some extent there is, there's lots of moving pieces, lots of things that you have to keep track of. And so definitely that skill has helped me, as I came into the entrepreneurial world, but
I really enjoyed working in the ICU. I love the work, but I found once I had a family, the shift work, was not coinciding with me as well. And so we're looking for a change at that point. And so then I actually left there and, homeschooled my kids for quite a few years, again, another project. And then from there was looking to get back into the workspace once they got a little bit older and wondering where, where, what can I do? How can I do this? And at that time, the online world was
starting to become more popular. And so I moved into doing project management. So I would come into a business specifically for a certain project and help them run that. So looking at budget, looking at team, delegating, and ensuring that we can finish that project on time, on budget and successfully. And what I found from doing that was that there were so many business owners drowning. On the
outside, they looked great. Things look good on social media. Everything looks good, but they themselves were stuck working too many hours, not knowing what to do in terms of what their priorities were and wanting to grow to the next level, but just not sure where and how, because they were already at capacity with what they were doing. And so I really wanted to come a little bit deeper into those businesses and help the leader really lead and manage what they had started.
And so I went in and did a certification director of operations, which is really on the backend of businesses. And then I now work with those leaders to help them leverage what I say, three things, their time, their talent, and their tactics, so that they can grow their business in next level without working 20 4 7. I know for myself, when I started, I for sure was working 20 fourseven, right? I was accepting anything that was coming my way.
Boundaries, what were boundaries? I didn't have any boundaries. And well, I enjoyed my work. It was definitely having an effect on my family and my friends, right? People were saying, well, when can we get together for lunch? Oh, you know, I'm working. Family going, well, mom, when are you gonna shut down the laptop? Right? Mom, we used to do this. We can't do this anymore. Right? And at first, I'll be honest with you. I was a little stubborn about
it because I was enjoying what I was doing. And so I didn't really see any need to change. But it finally, my husband said, listen, something needs to change because if something doesn't change, we're going to break meaning as a family unit. Right? And that was sort of a wake up call, which I didn't enjoy, to be honest with you. I didn't want to hear those words. But it was true.
And so that's when I really had to take a step back and really do some reflecting and some strategizing and figure out how am I going to grow this business without me having to be in there 247? Because while I enjoyed my business, I certainly didn't wanna lose my family, and my husband was right. I was going to be on a one way track to burnout. I just didn't see it yet. Yeah.
So in in your experiences, what are some of the unique challenges that business owners face in in this digital landscape right now, especially those running online based businesses? Yes. Do we have enough time? Just a little couple of we have a little bit. We have some time. Yeah. You you don't have to give us all of them, but, yeah, of course. Yes. So definitely from the operations standpoint, I feel a lot of business owners can't step away from the day to
day. So like the child I fell in, we start our business with solopreneurs. We are doing everything right instead of CEO, we're chief everything officer, But as our business grows, we need to be able to learn to step back and let go of some of that. Whether we're going to hire some of that out to contractors, employees, whether we're going to automate some of it or whether we're going to stop some of it. Because to be honest with you, some of what we're doing isn't moving the needle
forward. Right? We're not actually seeing a return on investment, but we think we should do it. We don't take the time to actually critically look at the data and say, is this really helping me? Is am I getting that return on investment for the time I'm putting in? And so being able to really look at our business critically and be able to step back and be the true leader of our business rather than in our business as an employee makes a world of difference. And it's not easy to
do guaranteed. It's a journey, right? Every day it's a journey. But, the more we can work at that and have that as our goal, the better off we can be. Okay. Alright. And and the philosophy of doing less better is central to your approach. How did you come to realize the importance of quality over quantity in business?
Yes. Yeah. So, again, really, it was hit me in the face because, well, I enjoy doing some of the things I was doing, taking Canva images, playing with email sequences, you know, changing a landing page, updating the webpage. If I actually looked at what my billable hourly rate was as leader of the business, and I multiplied that by the amount of time I was spending doing those types of tasks that would cost me a lot of money.
And so I really had to look at it from that objective standpoint and say, you might like doing these things, but how much is this costing? And while I'm busy doing those things, I can't devote my time to those CEO level, those growth level tasks that I need to do as business leader to actually move my business forward. And so once I could get a hold of that and say, okay, if I can bring someone in to do these things at $25
an hour, that's cheaper than my billable rate. And now I can focus on those things that me as leader has to do. Right? Because I can't delegate those things, but these maintenance type tasks, I can delegate, automate, or stop. Okay. Yeah. And that's something I I've learned in within the last year and a half is to
automate stuff. I I've automated my my email now where I've I'm building my email list, and I'm sending out once a week, a weekly wrap up of what my YouTube channel's airing, what I have on my audio podcast and my blog posts and everything. So I've simplified it and and and included it and started, a email that I like I said, I send it out every week, and that was something I wasn't doing before because it was so time consuming having
them fill out all the. So when I automated shout out to my my friend, Phil Better, who who actually showed me how to do it, and it's been, it's been a blessing. It's helped me grow. It's it's helped. And in so many ways, it's a tool that I wasn't using when I first started podcasting. Mhmm. So now to use it now and and see the difference and and see the help that it's it's given me and and and doing a lot of things that that I decided to do with myself, it would be take
so much time. Yes. Yes. And now you can be consistently in front of your audience without that stress and headache. Like, oh, I can't, but it's take gonna take too much time. Right? I mean, this podcast is another good example of where as business leader, you can say, okay, I want to do a podcast. How many people have said, I want to do a podcast, but it's gonna take too much time?
Right? Sure. Some of us that might be an excuse, but when we actually look at it, we can set our team up and have processes so that we as business leaders don't need to be in every piece of getting a podcast out there. Right? Yes. You have to be here doing the interviewing. It's your podcast. You're the host. Right? But all the other pieces can be done either through automation or through team, right? Have a calendar link so I can book in
a time, make it nice and easy. We don't have to do it back and forth. Right? Can even have someone reviewing pictures for you. If that's not something you want to have on your plate. When the episode is done, you can have someone edit. You can have someone else make the post, send it out, get that automation in for your email, right? So you don't have to have your fingers and every piece of it.
It's still your podcast, but we have to look at our processes that way and say, what do I need to do in this as business leader and what can I automate and delegate so that I can take some of the pieces off my plate? Yeah. No. Absolutely. I've I've started using different tools to, since I'm live, I don't necessarily have to edit that. So that that solve that issue right there. There you go. Yes. So going live and doing the show live has saved me so much time as far
as editing. And then, there's tools out there that I've, pass magic is a great tool that I use that I that I upload my MP 3 to. Mhmm. It it transcribes the whole thing for me. It it gives me episode titles, blog posts, gives me threads that I can use to to use on on threads or tweets or Yeah. Gives me LinkedIn posts that I can use. This and these are the things that if I was to do it myself, it would take hours upon hours. Well, now I just upload this MP 3, 10, 15 minutes, probably less than
that. I have all the I have all that content to use. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Right? And, yes, it might cost a little to get into that tool, but again, you're investing in yourself and your business, right? So if you pay $30 a month for a tool that saves you 2 hours, it's worth it. It saves me. And, and the great thing was I got it at a great rate where, cause I, I probably release 5 audio podcast a month because I take the audio because I I do 3 live shows
every week. So I I choose the ones that I felt like, oh, this was a real get great episode. Let me release. And then it always gives me backups in case this time I don't record and I need to release something. But it's helped me so much in in so many different ways that and like I said, I got it at a great deal. I got it where I have, I I bought it at on AppSumo. I purchased it on AppSumo. Yeah. And I I got a a package for it. I get 200 minutes a month that I that I
can use, and I paid $79 for it. And I don't have now if I wanna add more credits to it, that's that's more more, of course. But I for 79 for $79, I get 200 minutes a month for the lifetime of I long have used cash magic. Yeah. Yeah. You can't beat it. Right. And with all of the AI coming, more opportunities like this are going to continue, right? It's going to get better and better as it goes. Yeah. You have to have that human touch in there, of course. But like
you say, it gives you the foundation. It gives you the basis. You can go in and tweak and change, you know, make what suits your voice. But that's much easier than standing at a staring at a blank page going, what am I gonna write this week?
Yeah. No. It it it really does. And like you said, I I go back, and I'll read it read it through, and I adjust what I wanna adjust, Whatever whatever threads I wanted to use in it and and change, and it it's give it's saves so much time and especially things that is it's doing things that, like, I I wasn't doing before. Before I was using Cast Magic, I didn't I didn't do a blog post for my for my podcast. And a lot of people were like, oh, why don't you do it? That's a
that's a important element of it. And and they're right. It's something that that gives you more content. It it gives you much more searchability and stuff like that for your podcast. And it it was something that alright. So since I've added started using Cast Magic, you can tell by the growth of my podcast that me investing in these tools has really helped me grow. Mhmm. Yes. Yes, for
sure. Right. And there's so many different ones out there. And I know sometimes for business owners, you know, it gets a little bit of a rabbit hole and you start looking and you think, oh, there's too many options. Right? And so my advice is always know what you're looking for before you start the search. So know I want a tool to do a, b, and c, right? And then just hone in on that. When you find one that's in the price range you
want to use, the reviews are where you want, give it a try, right? And if there's 3 other tools that are better, don't worry about it. Just go with what's working for now and doing what you need. Right? Because some of the tools have so many bells and whistles that we'd never use. And then we get overwhelmed trying to implement it because we're not sure about how to do all the things behind the scenes. Right? If you only need it for 2 things, use it for 2 things.
Yeah. I try to keep it simple. I try to use tools that I I that I know I'm gonna use. And okay. Good. It does what I need it to do. It gives me the description. It gives me everything I want. Yeah. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna I'm sure there's probably other programs out there you can I can use? But for me, this is a tool that I did my research on it. I looked at it. I I know someone who's using it. They told me, and I and I jumped right into it. Yeah.
Another thing for me was when I first started podcasting, I joined so many different Facebook groups and stuff like that to find the guest. Mhmm. I signed up for PodMatch. Yeah. It's been a great a great relationship. It's actually helped me again, really grow my podcast is now instead of me having to go out and search for guests and and go to Facebook groups and all these different places, I have people reaching out to me. And if they're a match, if they feel like how you were a match,
I I'll accept them. If I don't if there's something I'm I won't accept them. It's and it's a great it's a great tool because now the podcaster for me, for being an independent podcaster, you I don't I'm not my I'm not monetized. Mhmm. But PodMatch gives me an opportunity to actually make some money by interviewing certain guests. Yeah. It's an interesting model. I
really like it as well. It's a great it's a it's a great it's like, I've the money I've invested in into using Palma, I've probably quadrupled the like, so many so much more. Mhmm. Because every 3 months, I'm receiving a 100100 and something dollars every 3 months. Where and I'm spending $6 a month for my for what my part of my tier in pod matches. And that's that's a
great return on of in my investment. Excellent. So and like I said, he they're looking out for independent podcasters, people like myself who are doing this and aren't making any money. Yes. Yep. And I believe that's how we met each other. Yeah. So so as the host of the end of the CEO podcast, what actually inspired you to create a platform specifically aimed at empowering business owners? Mhmm.
Yes. So I think a couple of things, I was blogging prior to, the podcast and same as you, I was feeling the weight of what am I going to write this week? How am I going to get it out there? And so that was kind of weighing on me. And yes, I was thinking, okay, do I hire someone? Do I look for an AI tool? What do I do? And then I just really, I started guest podcasting by accident actually because a couple of business friends of mine had a podcast that we fit. And so I started
guesting. Oh, I kind of enjoyed the guesting. And so then I thought, no, I'm going to try to do a podcast. And so what I actually did was record just a few episodes myself. I hadn't had a name yet. I hadn't had any art. I didn't know anything. I just thought I know. I know the whole thing. Right? Yeah. Let me sit in front of my laptop with a microphone and see what kind of mess I can make. Right? And so, you know, after
doing that, yes, it was a little strange. I will admit it was a little strange, you know, looking at your laptop and talking to it with no one paying attention. That was a bit strange to get used to. But, yes, I just found, you know what? This is a workflow I can fit into my week easier than doing the blogging. And I too enjoyed listening to podcasts, right? For my walk, dropping the kids somewhere, waiting for the kids or something.
It's, you know, it's handy, it's convenient. And so while I still enjoy reading blogs, especially if I want a certain piece of information, right, because easier to find if I want to search for something, how to do something, it's right there on the blog. But I do enjoy the podcast as well. So that's what sort of inspired me to get started. And then I said, you know what? I have a voice. I have things I want to share with the world. And so let me try
podcasting and, and go for it. And I know I'm realistic. It's a long game. It's not, you know, start my podcast today and people find me tomorrow. Not nothing's like that anymore. Right. But again, I looked at it and said, this is something I'm willing to do. I have time built into my week every week to do my preparation, do my episodes. And yeah, so far it's been a fun journey. Oh, I, I, I love my journey. It's it's so
I had, I had originally bought me. I had really bought, I brought a podcast studio for a $160 from Amazon. Okay. I I was it came with a little mixer, a mic, some headphones Mhmm. And an adapter for my laptop. Yeah. And so I I didn't I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't have a clue because I'm not I wasn't a media person. I didn't I wasn't into all that, and I had the equipment sitting around for over a year. I bought it I purchased it in 2019. 2020 hits. We I I
get furloughed from my job because of the pandemic and everything. Yeah. And so I go, you know what? I'm just sitting here one day. I have my nephew on the phone, and and I didn't have the proper hookup. I didn't have the the phone jack that goes into the mixer. So I just held held the phone up to the mic and had the introductory episode, which was probably, like, 5 minutes long, whatever and everything. And I didn't have a thumbnail. I didn't have a description. I didn't have
Yeah. Title for I didn't have any of that. Yeah. And I I I just went and and up and I was like and my nephew's like, no. We gotta make it perfect. We gotta, like, like, the no. There's no perfect. We just gotta release it and and just release it and and then just keep continuing. Just keep going, and people are gonna see the growth. They're gonna see from Yes. Look where we at here to where I'm at now. Yes. Now, video and audio, I've learned different
I've improved on my mic quality. I've improved on video. I I've learned so much Mhmm. That now I'm charging for my services to help people start their own launch, their own podcast, avoid the situation, and avoid the the the pitfalls that I went through. Mhmm. Yeah. And it's so good. I think that the part I really enjoy about the podcast is that your audience gets to see you as a human. Right? With the good, the bad, and the in
between. Right? And so, you know, when those first episodes are kind of clunky or not the best audio or whatever, they get to see that. And I feel like it's so authentic and people know like, and trust you so much faster when you're just being real. And that's what it is. I'm here. Is this my camera? Oh, camera leaked out on me right quick, but I'm still here. No problem. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And so This is part of this is part of the this is
this happens. Yeah. When the difficulties happen, you gotta roll with the punches. It hey. We're live. Cannot undo it. But Yes. Hey. You gotta laugh. And and there's been times, I've had some funny moments on the show. Mhmm. I had a moment where my grandson cut off all the power on me. Oh. I'm in the middle of an interview, and I'm just we're having a great conversation, and everything goes blank. Like, everything just powers out. And I turned down, and I have this beautiful smile looking up at
me. And it's my grandson, Bryson. He goes, hey, pop pop. And I'm looking at him, and there's no power. He cut the power off for me. But it was funny because the person who was my guest, they're they're they're podcasters, so they kept going. They kept going and going. So it it was it was great. Yeah. Have those moments that it's life. And so sometimes when my guests, they have they'll have a dog or something come by, and they'll be like, oh, I'm so sorry. I'm like,
listen now. It happens. Life happens. This is life. Yes. There's no reason to get bent out of shape. It's a show. We're having a great conversation. Things happen. Yes. Yes. And I think that's that's the nice part and the the freedom of running our businesses, right, is that things things don't have to be perfect. Yeah. You might put something out there and, you know, the link isn't right or you get a spelling mistake. I mean, we can fix those things. Yes. Right?
Again, probably comes from my ICU background, but I always tell my clients there's not much that's happening in our online business that's life and death. That's an emergency. Yeah. Right? So if you're focusing on something and that phone beeps because your team wants you on Slack, it can wait. If your inbox has, you know, 20 messages, they can wait. Right? We have to look at what our priorities are and focus on those. Absolutely.
So it, can you elaborate on your mission to help business owners shift from overwhelm to confidence and work smarter, not harder? Mhmm. Yes. So again, it's about 6 game changing habits, that we need to employ as business leaders, as CEOs. And the first really is that mindset shift that even if I'm a solopreneur, I am the CEO of my business because I'm responsible for vision strategy. I'm responsible for where this is going in the next year, 3 years, 5 years,
Right? That's not going to come from any of my team. That's not going to come from anybody else, but me. And so even if you are a solopreneur, I want you to start thinking like you're the CEO, which means you need to have time each and every week dedicated to working on your business, not just in your business. And what I mean by that is that you need to have a dedicated, at least 1 hour. I like to call it the CEO power hour, where you have 1
hour each and every week. It's non negotiable. So you put it in your calendar, nothing changes, right? It doesn't matter this call, that call, you don't remove it. You, you attend that call as if it's the most important call of your week. And what we're going to do in that one hour is review, reflect, decide what our top three priorities are and make sure those are in our calendar. So we'll review and reflect what I didn't make the sales I want to make
last week. Right? So if we think about big, big businesses, we've got a CEO, we've got board of directors, and we've got a bunch of VPs, which are reporting to the CEO, right? VP of sales, VP of marketing, VP of operations. We don't have that in our small business, but we need to be looking as a bird's eye view at each of those different areas. So what am I doing for sales this week, this month? Am I actively promoting something? What am I doing
for marketing? How am I getting new people into my world? Is that working? Am I looking at the data? Am I looking at the metrics? Right? I'm doing this tactic. I'm spending time on it, or I'm paying my team to do it, but is it actually bringing people and the right aligned people? Yeah. And then what do I need to do? Three priorities to reach my goal. So what are my goals and what are the next steps I have to take
to get through those goals? So I like to take, you know, our 12 month goals and break them down because most of us can't envision and and follow through on big 12 month goals. We have to break them down. So break them down in 90 days and break them down into monthly goals. Now I can say, what do I need to do this week to reach that monthly goal? Much more manageable, much more bite sized, right? I can chew on that and
and know what I need to do. So really having that time to review and reflect if there's things you need from your team that week, because it's a crazy week and you need some more support, make sure you're communicating that with them. Or maybe there's something you need personally, even at home, that you need that week. Make sure you're communicating that. Right? That doctor's appointment that you keep meaning to book, let's get it
done. Oh, you want to take a day with your wife or your spouse or you want to go get a massage, whatever that is, but what you need personally to fill your cup, make sure that you have that in there and you have time for that because, you know, we can't keep running on the hamster wheel. And, and that's actually something me and the wife have discussed recently because prior to the pandemic, we would travel a lot. We would go do spend a lot of time and and and unwind and really what what
every 3 or 3 or 4 months, we would do something. Mhmm. We've kind of, gone away from that. Yeah. And so our goal for this year is to get back to that and really focus every 3 months. Let's get let's take a little if if it's a couple of days or whatever it is, let's take some time to go back to doing what we're doing where we enjoy going out and spending time and and really enjoying life. Because it just can't be about work, work, work, work,
work. Mhmm. Because you're gonna burn yourself out. You need to enjoy this moment in life because we why are we gonna we why are we gonna wait till we're older and retired to enjoy life? You should be enjoying life now. Yes, exactly. And when you look at the studies, why do people leave corporate or whatever position they're in to become an entrepreneur? They say for freedom. Yeah. Financial freedom. But the biggest reason is time freedom,
right? They want to be not stuck to a 9 to 5 in my cubicle or wherever your your workplace was and have that freedom to say, no tomorrow afternoon I'm doing x. Right? Yeah. And then we give that up if we work continuously. So that's the thing we wanted when we became an entrepreneur, but are we actually following through and doing it? I know for myself, I was not.
Yeah. No. It it really is something that we've me and me have have discussed just recently within the last couple of days as well that we really needed to get back to that to the to those moments where we can escape and unwind and unplug because Yes. You need to unplug. You need to not always be connected. And and when we go on vacation, we we we tend not to be on
our phones. We we may we make it out we make it our goal to really just go and enjoy what if it if it's a massage or mani pedi or or whatever it is. It's just an an escape for us to just not only is for yourself, but it's also building something with us. Like, it gives us that quality time to build and have those conversations that we might not be having because we are always working. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Right. And so many of us who have done that find after the fact we're so much
better. Our mind is sharper. We're more productive, right, than if we just grind and hustle continuously. We think we're being productive, but we're not. It's like multitasking. Right? We think we're being productive, but the element shows we're not. So there's a phrase you use, right? Escape the hustle and grind culture. Right? So you and you've associated that with your mention. Right? How how do you feel entrepreneurs can achieve this shift, right, and and then
and escape the rat race? Mhmm. Mhmm. Again, it's about stepping out of the weeds, right? If you have people who are working for you, do they know what things they have to do to be successful this week? Are they autonomous? Can they make decisions and take responsibility for that thing? Or does it have to come to you while Sally Sue makes this and then I check it? Well John does that and then I have to do this. Can you step away and actually have your team run
the parts of the business that they're responsible for? Because when you have that, that's when you can step away from the weeds and the daily grind, right? That's when you can put on the CEO hat and start thinking strategically at a different level. But if you have to be, you know, checking every email or checking every image and checking this, you haven't really let go and let your team be autonomous and and do it. Right? Are there going to be mistakes that happen? Sure.
We're all human. Right? But again, if your team member can do it 75 or 80% as well as you can, then you have to let them do it. Right? Because that allows you to put your mind in the frame where it needs to be on the vision and the strategy. Awesome. Awesome. Oh, well, I'm having a great time. This is great conversation. Yeah. Yeah. And I think another thing that really helps, at least for me, it did and certainly for a lot of my clients is looking at our calendar.
I like to call it the scheduling ninja and you can have this ninja working for you or against you. Of course I want it working for me. But basically what it is is set up a model calendar, an ideal calendar, for the stage of life that you're in right now. So you start with a blank calendar and you say okay do I have a morning routine? Is there something I like to do in the morning? Kids, grandkids, my own meditation, whatever that looks like for you, block that
time off in your calendar. Is there something I do in the evening? Maybe one day a week I have a date night or I go and play volleyball or whatever it is you do. Block that off. So you're blocking off those important things in life that you don't want to miss. And then from there, with the time that's left, you're going to say, okay, what is going to be my work hours? You're going to say, hold on just a minute. I run an online business. I don't have an open and a
closed time. Right? But I want you to think about it as if you do. Right? You have a time when your laptop is open and you're sitting at your desk, with the ability to work. Yeah. And there's a time when it's closed and your team and your clients aren't expected to find you nor are you expected to reply. Right? And so having that set time when these are my work hours, and again, they're gonna look different depending on your stage of business and your stage
in life. But I always believe that life first and fit your business around that, not the other way around. And so once you have your set hours, then within that, you're going to do a bit of time blocking. So I don't want you to block every minute because that gets too boxy and puts us in a, in a cage that we say time blocking doesn't work, But I want you
to block for the big areas. So for example, marketing, client delivery, getting new people into your world, sales, Those are all things that have to happen on a consistent basis in your business. And again, whatever part of that process you as CEO are responsible for, you need to have time blocked off to do that, right? So if you are doing sales calls, you need time in your
calendar for those. If you are responsible for some sort of the content in marketing, you need time to be able to create that, right? Just like doing the podcast interview, you need time in your schedule when people can book, right? And so having those set times out really makes a difference when we set up our week. We also know, oh, it's Tuesday morning, Tuesday morning, I sit down and I write my new content for my membership, whatever it is you have going on. Right? But
it sets that routine. Oh, it's Thursday morning. Thursdays, I see my 1 on 1 clients, 3 appointments back to back. Right? They have a set time. That's when they know they're meeting with you, and you also know that's what I'm doing on Thursday mornings. Right? Then the rest of the time can ebb and flow. It can be a little more free flowing, but those top priorities, those systems and processes that need to happen every week, rinse and repeat are there in your calendar.
And you said something very, systems. That's what we we we people need to learn how to implement is implement systems to make life much easier. Like you said, work smarter, not harder. Yeah. And it's a and it's something that I've had to learn as a podcaster that I I've I've needed to build a system. I needed to like, as far as my show goes, I have my calendar link. Mhmm. And then I have a process. I I get my quote the questions that I wanna ask my guest.
Just I have the setup. I I and and prior, like, prior to that, I didn't have a I just like, we just go. But now I have a setup. I have a system in place on how I do my show. Yes. And it makes a world of difference. Right? Because you know now what the plan is. You know, to be going, oh, am I gonna do this? Am I gonna do that? And
we can take those systems even bigger. So if you think about, you know, a certain offer that you have in your in your business, if it's your signature offer, you have certain assets that you use when you go to sell that, right? Whether that's emails, whether you do a webinar, whether you're, you know, on social doing lives, whatever that is, but you have certain assets that you use when you're promoting
that offer. So each time you go to promote that offer, you just have to tweak or change those assets slightly and use them again. You don't have to start over and say, oh, now I want to sell this. How? Right? You've already sold this thing before. How am I going to tweak it? How am I going to change it to make it even better? Very short amount of time needs to be spent doing that and then your team can then implement
and you can promote, right? So having those systems working for you, it's like the gears in a bicycle, right? They're turning for you so that you don't have to be reinventing the wheel every time you wanna do something in your business. Yeah. Absolutely. It's it's helped me grow. It's just how it's helped me grow so much from where I was originally. Because it it's actually helped me because when I first started, I was, just anybody I can
interview, I would I would interview in it. But then when I started really getting into it and and decide that who who I wanted to interview Mhmm. With the guest that I was that I was looking for, and it was coaches, entrepreneurs, growth mindset leaders, all the at because that's where I felt I wanted I wanted to go personally. Yeah. And if and I felt there was a lane that that needed to be shared out there. I need
that people need to hear this, that people did this. Even if you don't wanna go into business for yourself, there's still tools that you can use that can help you in your everyday life. Mhmm. Yes. Yes. So so it was important for me to really kind of figure out what my lane was gonna be. And if once I once I got offended because I've I I was telling everybody I was talking to someone, and I told them all the things that you know, you need to niche that down. And I said, no. How you gonna
tell me I need to niche that down? I like talking about all these different things. But what they were really saying is that you can't it's not like you can't talk about these all these things, but narrow it down. Break it down to something, like, you really do enjoy talking about, and that's very important to you and and focus on those. Mhmm. Oh, okay.
And just simplify it. Right? Yeah. And I think that's another thing that happens so often is that our as our business grows, it gets more complicated when it doesn't need to, right? We end up saying, Oh, we'll add another offer, we'll add another program, we'll add this, we'll add that, But really, if you think about it, every time you add another offer, another program, you need another marketing system, you need another client delivery system, right? And if you have the bandwidth to do that,
great. But for many of us, we're at a stage where we're adding another offer but we don't have those systems set up, that foundation set up in the first place to be able to then put that into place on rinse and repeat. So I always suggest to clients, what's your signature offer? How are you marketing that? How are you selling that? And do you have that mapped out for the year so that you have specified times when you're selling that signature offer 3 to 4 times a
year? That also helps with the revenue, the up and down, the feast or famine mode, right? Because if you have your signature offer and you know each time I sell it, I bring in x amount. Now you can start to forecast what that year is going to be like when you've mapped out when you're selling it.
Right? So as part of those 12 month goals, we want to be looking at what are we selling and what are we marketing each and every month so that we are bringing new people into our world and we are selling and promoting what we have to offer because this isn't a hobby. This is a business. Yeah. Oh man. This has been great. It's it's it's, it's been a great conversation. Time flies when you have when you're having such,
great time. But now is the time where you get the solo screen and you get to plug away, let everybody know where they find you, where they can find the podcast, everything. Good. Thank you. Yeah. So my website is ceoamplify. Ca, And there you can find a bunch of resources. If you go to the resources tab, there is a CEO, power hour download. So you can go grab that if you are listening and that power hour resonated with you, and that's something you would like to incorporate into
your business, then you can go ahead and grab that. And you can also find me on my podcast at same name, CEO Amplify. It's on Apple and Google and all the spots. So great. Thank you. Well, thank you for being a guest. This is this is fun. I I appreciate you coming by and, and and having this great conversation with me. I I love podcasting. I I love what I do. I I I enjoyed this conversation so much because I'm learning in the process as
well. So Mhmm. To to be able to to learn and then also help my audience grow and develop. And so it's a win win situation. So thank you very much. I greatly appreciate you. Yes. And without the podcast, where have we where would we have ever met? This is true. I've met I've met so many wonderful people Yeah. Podcasting. I've Yes. Lived lifelong friendships through podcasting. There's some people that I I haven't met in person, but I probably communicate with them every single
day. Mhmm. And so it's been a blessing to be able to do this. I'm I'm having a great time. It's I didn't know I had this this gift. I didn't know this was my purpose. I didn't know podcasting was something that I was gonna truly love. And to be able to to do a podcast where I can help impact one person's life. Yeah. It's important to me. It's really I received the message the other day. I I released a, a clip, a
reel Mhmm. On my previous episodes, and the clip resonated with a friend of mine who was struggling with something. Yeah. And they left a comment, and they're like, oh, man. I had to say this message. Thank you. And that that's what I love is being able to impact people without, like, you never know what they're going through. So Yes. Be able to release a reel and someone really take something from it. It's Yeah. I couldn't ask for anything
else. Yes. Yes. I remember once I was in a group and, you know, as we do sometimes as entrepreneurs, we're lamenting and lamenting about, oh, you know, this and a lady was talking about her podcast. She had started, I think she was about 3 or 4 months in and wasn't happy with the amount of downloads she was
getting. And the mentor on the call said, I want you to imagine you are on stage in a stadium and the number of downloads that you get from your podcast each week, those people are sitting in front of you, watching you and listening to you. They bought a ticket to come and hear what you had to say. And the lady was like, oh, so I could actually, you know, make a difference in their lives with my message?
Right? And it just hadn't clicked with her that fine maybe you have 20, 50, whatever number of downloads you have, but those people are coming to hear what you have to say and you can make a difference in their lives, right? And just putting it in context of her actually visualizing her self on the stage and people
actually coming to listen helped her so much. And I think sometimes we have to remember that that you never know what you put out there, how it's going to help or leave an impression on someone. 50 people in a room is a lot of people. Right. Right. 50 people in one room is a lot of people. So imagine speaking to that to those 50 people in that room. And that's how I looked at it. And and and at first, yeah, but I was I get a lot of downloads.
No. Yeah. But it took me being consistent. It took me niching down and focusing on what is what I wanted my podcast to be. Mhmm. And and it's grown. It's it's still growing. It's constantly growing. But, again, it's me being consistent with it. It's me wanting to improve, wanting to learn, implementing systems, in implementing, email strategy, implementing all these different schedule, and and I'm I'm booked. I just got my first someone just booked into July. So and if you Right? Yes.
So so it's it's it's amazing what systems and and and really learning how to manage everything. And it just helps so much. It's it's helped me grow so much. Yeah. And how you stuck with it. Right? Because the truth is if you had done it for a month or 2, and you're like, ah, this isn't getting anywhere and stop, which a lot of podcasters do and which we as entrepreneurs do a lot of times when we try something new, we have to stick with it to see that momentum.
Right? So you're like, okay. I've got a gift here. I need to be consistent and stick with this and it's gonna grow. Yeah. And it has and it it has. It's it's growing and it's still growing. And it's it's crazy because, I have pod fellow podcasters that they they do entertainment, and they do pop culture and everything, and their numbers just are crazy. Right. Yeah. And then I look at me, and I'm like, but then when I speak to them, they're like, man, I we wish we could
do what you're doing. Is this like, yeah, we're entertaining people, but you're making an impact. Mhmm. And that to me was like, oh, okay. I I understand now. I was like, you're focusing on the wrong thing. And and they're like, yeah, we entertain, yeah, we entertain these people. But when they when 2 fellow podcasters told me, but you make an impact. Mhmm. You touch people's lives. They're like, we wish we could do that. Yes. We entertain. They laugh with us, but you are changing people's
lives for what you want. And and I didn't and I didn't look at it like that. Right. Yeah. And and and when I start, I'm like, yeah. You're right. They're absolutely right. I'm like, what they're saying to me makes sense. It's like, yeah. I I would love to do the numbers they're doing, but I am making an impact. Mhmm. I'm touching people's lives. I'm I'm changing people's lives and altering the course of of where they're headed. Yeah. Who Yeah. And
that makes a bigger difference than the numbers. Yes. Right? Absolutely. Yeah. But this has been great. We even gave some actions, but thank you so much. This has been wonderful. Yes. Thank you. But don't leave just yet. Let me close out the show with chat a little bit more, but, thank you for being such a great guest. Thank you. Alright, everybody. Thank you to everybody who stopped in the in the chat. What's going on? To my man, Brian Snow, from Snowman Multimedia. Love you too,
brother. Facebook user, thank you. It's probably couple of people I I can think of, but, whoever it is, I'll go look at it later, and thank you. I'll send you a message. I greatly appreciate everybody who stops by and and leaves a comment. It means a lot. Big shout out to my RealWise fam, Papi j, Brandy j. Love you guys. Big shout out to the boss lady. Love you and appreciate all you do for me and the family. And as always, a big, big shout out to
all the essential workers out there. God bless you. I'll be safe. You know how your boy wise does it? Peace out.