April 12, 2024 • 1684 mins
In episode 3, Alysha candidly shares her journey as an entrepreneur, diving deep into the highs and lows of navigating sales and finances. From the excitement of starting a business to the challenges of becoming a CEO, Alysha discusses the critical role of sales in business success and the importance of understanding money cycles. Through personal anecdotes and valuable lessons learned, Alysha provides actionable insights on managing money struggles and celebrating money wins. Tune in to gain valuable perspectives and practical advice for your entrepreneurial journey.
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Credits: Hosted by: Alysha M. Campbell Produced & Edited by: Alexa Brooks Major Artwork by: Bella Yee
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Episode Transcript
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Alysha M. Campbell (00:12):
Hey everyone.
Welcome back to another episodeof Confessions of a Founder.
I'm your host, Alysha M.
Campbell, Founder andCEO of CultureShift HR.
Uh, I'm so excited, as always!
I think every episode I'm excited to behere and talking about CultureShift HR,
maybe talking about the journey and allof the stuff in between and to be in a
(00:35):
space to actually talk about a journey.
And the reason is becausewhen you actually think about
it, you know, millions ofbusinesses are started in a year.
So many individuals wake up one day andsay, "Hey, I want to start a business,"
and either start it right away or maybemake plans to start it in the future.
And then either things start andthen don't have a very happy ending,
(00:56):
unfortunately, or things progress,but then, you know, they reach kind
of superstardom and then you got,like, the next Google and then you're
like buying everything from them.
So, I am so excited to be able to be ina space where, uh, given that I started
my business in 2018 now being, you know,the first quarter of 2024 being able to
(01:17):
talk about a journey, being able to talkabout, you know, the ups and downs, the
in-betweens, the highs, the lows, um,and all of those things that happen and
the transformation of not just startinga business, but actually becoming a CEO.
So, I'm always going to be excited.
I was funny.
I was thinking about it this morning asI was getting ready to record and, um,
you know, the day–it's Monday– and, youknow, Mondays, I think I'm becoming one
(01:41):
of those people where Mondays are like,"Ugh," and I mean, Monday always gets
the worst rap, but I think when I thinkabout Mondays, it's kind of like that
momentum to get started, you know, andgetting back into the swing of things.
And then I realized I wasrecording my podcast today.
I was like, "Ah, I'm like, so excited!"
So, I'm really excited.
(02:01):
And now it makes me happy aboutMondays because I'll record either
on the weekend or on a Monday andit just makes today so much better.
So here we are.
I'm, I'm very happy.
Um, So today's episode is actually aroundsales and, you know, having, you know,
sales is such a big concern and sucha big obstacle for a lot of founders.
(02:26):
And when you think about sales, the nextthing that comes into mind is money.
Money struggles, money wins and, and asI, as we said, everything in between.
And, um, when I think about kind ofour previous episode where we talked
about wearing many hats, one of thethings that I, you know, as a CEO,
especially as I began, began to growmy team, the function of sales really
(02:48):
never has left me, um-- left me fully.
And we're going to talk about myjourney in sales and getting help and
support and all that good stuff but,as CEO, sales is probably on your mind
more often than not, when it comes towhen you think about your business.
For me, I would say my number onething that I think about is the team.
You know, is everybody functioning okay?
Does everyone have what they need?
Is everybody set up for success?
(03:09):
What roadblocks can I removefrom my team, et cetera?
And the second is sales.
You know, thinking abouthow do we get more sales?
How do we, um, you know,get it to new markets?
Reach out to new consumers,customers, clients?
Then that funnels into brandingwhich funnels into marketing...
All that kind of great stuff.
So, we're going to talk about sales andwe're going to talk about specifically
when it comes to sales, money, um,money, money, money, money, money.
(03:33):
And the reason is because moneyis actually what defines a-- one
of the key elements, I shouldsay, is what defines a business.
You know, if you're not making money,you're kind of just doing a hobby.
No offense, no one who's like outthere trying, but it's really at
that point until you make your firstsale and you have money coming in
and you're actually transactions.
It's having transactions.
It's a hobby or it's, youknow, not up on its feet yet.
(03:55):
And that's, important to knowbecause people will do a lot of
things and be like, "Yeah, it'sa business," but you know, do you
know your ideal customer profile?
Are you aligning your sales objectivesto your marketing and branding?
Are you in the right target market?
Have you identified, you know, whatyour key products are in the language
for your audience and kind of allthose things that go in between.
If you haven't answered thosequestions and really begun to push
(04:16):
forward in that arena, then you'renot technically selling anything.
So, to wind it back a little bitand to kind of talk around, um, my
experience with money, money strugglesand money wins is that it's– if you
listen to the first few episodeswhen I started going full-time in my
business, I was very honest when Isaid I had no clue what I was doing.
(04:41):
When you transition from aconsultant to running a business
full-time, it is a different beast.
I'm talking about it being very...
You have to be very open.
You have to be very flexible.
You have to be in differentspaces to do all the things.
So when you're, so what I mean bythat is when you're a consultant,
a client says, "Hey, Alysha, I wantyou to create a workshop training."
(05:02):
Great.
I create the workshoptraining, deliver it.
I get paid.
Done.
You know, I have maybe a small invoiceplatform, I have something set up
maybe on my PayPal or a Stripe account,and I do the transaction, I perform
the service, and I move on my way.
And that's kind of howI was as a consultant.
I didn't really think about thebigger ecosystem of my business.
(05:23):
But, when I became a CEO and I'm like,"Okay, like we're going to do this
thing and we're going to make it work."
You have 10 times the thingson your plate than what you had
on your plate as a consultant.
So, going from, "Oh, you know, I'm justgonna, you know, email a couple people."
No, you're now actually doing an emailcampaign with, like, a 3-step follow up.
From, "Oh, you know, I'm just gonna sendout this invoice a day late because,
(05:44):
uh, I'm just too tired tonight."
"No, I'm actually going to send thisinvoice tomorrow 2 weeks early to make
sure that I actually get paid on timeso that I can actually pay myself and
pay my staff via the payroll system."
Um, "Oh, you know, I'm just going to,you know, lose receipts when I have
business expenses because it doesn't evenreally matter anyways," to, "Actually,
(06:05):
everything needs to be photographedand recorded to make sure that I
have those receipts for my accountantso we are good come tax season."
You can clearly see the key differencesfrom consultant versus, a CEO.
And the thing is, especially when you'rea solopreneur or like a CEO, but you
don't, you maybe don't have a team
you have to keep allthese things top of mind.
(06:27):
So you're thinking about platforms,you're thinking about back-end operations.
And, when it comes to money, that'sthe biggest thing you want to track.
That's the biggest thing you wantto, keep on top of, because that
means you are getting paid on time.
That means that you are stayingon top of your revenue funnel.
That means you're saying on top of yoursales forecasts, what's coming in, what's
(06:47):
going out, the timeline of those things.
And that can totallydisrupt your business model.
Um, a lot of businesses have ebbs andflows, usually the beginning of the year
is a slow season.
Is a slow start to the year.
So, you'll see a lot of sales activityin Q4 to make sure that Q1 doesn't dry
up and you're kind of starting that salescycle all over again come January 3rd.
(07:10):
These are things that as a CEO, youneed to see from like a 30,000 foot
view and be mindful of as you go throughdifferent cycles in your business.
So, when it came to CultureShiftHR, when it came to getting
sales, I was not good at it.
And I would say I'm probablystill not good at sales.
And you might be saying, "Well,Alysha, you have, um, or, you
(07:32):
know, you are operating in avery healthy six-figure business.
How do you not know sales?"
And I would say, "You know what?
That's a really great question youshould be asking," and I would say
it's not that I don't know sales.
I'm very familiar with what the salespipeline looks like for CultureShift.
We are a very referralheavy business model.
We also have an RFP pipeline that weaggressively attack every month to
(07:56):
submit RFPs for different DEI projects.
We also have partners that will pass ondifferent opportunities to us as well.
Our marketing initiatives that we have onsocial also bring in leads and different
referrals and things of that nature.
So I am very, you know, mindfulof the different pipes that
go into the sales funnel.
But, what I will say is thatsales is not an exact science.
(08:18):
You can have a formula,you can have a, "Oh, okay,
I know if I post this much, I'mgoing to get this much views.
I'm going to get this much leadsand this much traction, et cetera."
Like, you can figuratively saywhat it is that you're doing,
but it doesn't always work.
There's, you know, you have to bemindful of so many things when it
comes to sales and, you know, the moneymachine that it allows you to generate.
(08:40):
You have to think about your competitors.
You have to think about themarket that you're playing in.
You have to think about your consumers.
You have to think about theseason and the seasonality of the
business that is taking place inthe moments that you're marketing.
And so all of these things arecoming together, um, all in one
conversation in your brain asyou're thinking about, "Okay,
am I going to be able topay my staff this month?
(09:00):
Am I going to be able to bringon a new hire knowing that we're
going to be getting some newclients in the upcoming weeks?"
All of these things are going to becoming through your head and, you know,
creating space in regards to being ableto, you know, think about your business
and being able to build your business.
And I say "build" intentionallybecause you can't build
(09:21):
your business without money.
You need money to buy the platforms.
You need money to pay yourconsultants, to pay your staff.
You need money to pay yourself.
You need money to begin to upgrade thetype of quality and level of which you
are producing a product or a service.
And that really, really matters.
Are you putting those funds and thoserevenues back into the business?
(09:42):
Are you getting a better platformto then highlight and support
your marketing initiatives better?
Are you creating higher level contentfor your marketing initiatives
to make sure you stand out?
All of these things matter and thosethings cannot happen without money.
So, if we go back when I went, um, into,well, I guess we can start from 2018.
(10:04):
When I started CultureShift, I hadmy first client for probably about
a year and a half, give or take.
And the reason was I was still workingfull-time and this client was all
I could really manage at the time.
And I didn't have the capacityto manage the client work in
the hours that I was doing it.
Plus, you know, go out andmarket and, and get some, some
(10:25):
other larger, larger clients.
Um, the money at the time was good,so I didn't feel like I needed more.
At the time it was kind of more ofa, you know, building it and kind
of it being, um, a side hustle.
But, you know, it was very mindfulthat, okay, as even as I'm bringing
in this extra money, I need to accountfor it in my taxes, in my budgeting.
You know, if I want to build aproper website or hire someone to
(10:47):
build a proper website for me, Ihave to have the funds to do so.
So that was really interesting
just being like, "Ooh, yay, it's payday!"
To, actually no.
How are you going to reinvestthis money into your business?
How are you going to now use these fundsto make sure that you get more money?
Through through other clients.
So, going from those days to todaywhere, you know, we have the systems,
(11:09):
the platforms, the people, and creatingmore of a–I would say–an automation
of our sales pipeline in our salesecosystem, it's really interesting
um, because, as I said earlier, atCultureShift, I would say 85 to 90
percent of our business is referrals.
So, as much as we market and we've um,done sales outreaches and email campaigns
(11:30):
and hired sales consultants for LinkedInand email campaigns and marketing on
LinkedIn and all these great things.
We realized that a lot of our saleswas coming in through referrals when
it kind of dawned us that that's wherewe should be putting our attention.
That's where we should be puttingour efforts to amplify the
amount of referrals that we got.
So when we, when we realized that itwas taking something that was random
(11:53):
and that was just coming to us atvarious points in the month or in
the quarter and really beginning tosystematize it as best as possible.
Cause, I mean, people are only goingto refer you if they have a need and if
that need is aligned with what you do.
So, it's not a foolproof system,but if you can align to getting more
(12:14):
of your clients that already loveyou, that already want the services
that you offer that are already, youknow, knowing and really providing
a good testimony of your work.
It's really a great way tobuild and scale your business.
Um, as we, you know, as we'vegrown over the years, money will
come in and out and ebb and flow.
And that's something that youwould think is common knowledge
(12:36):
when you are starting a businessor operating a business over time.
But it is so important to know your moneycycles because as quickly as someone
can say, "Yeah, I want to work with you.
Let's get it going!"
Is as quickly as they can say,"Okay, we changed our mind."
So, always having some type of contingencyplan, having a business savings with
at least 3 months of expenses that cantake care of a quarter or more of your
(13:02):
business expenses should things happenis always, always important and something
that I've continued to rely on heavilyand continue to use in my business to
make sure that, you know, if monthsare short, if things, you know, get a
little bit slow, we're not in panic mode.
We have the resourcesand the supply to do it.
Now, that did not get built overnight,that took months to build, where as
(13:24):
we're getting, as, you know, moneyis coming in, 10 percent of every
contract or every, or every, and, youknow, service we provided would go
directly into the business savings.
We didn't touch it, I didn't look at it,it was like, as if it didn't exist, and
slowly that account gets, you know, builtup, and of course, when we got maybe
some of the bigger projects, then I wouldtake a larger chunk to kind of like, make
sure, we put it over into that account.
(13:45):
So, those things are so important, um, tothink about when you're thinking about,
you know, money wins and money problems isbecause again, as easy as it can come in
is as easy as it can go out or even stopso, always being mindful of those things.
When it came to CultureShift,because a lot of our business was via
word-of-mouth, it was so importantto get out there as much as possible.
(14:07):
When I say "get out there", formyself, um, I use a lot of social
media, specifically on LinkedIn.
So, highlighting the servicesCultureShift provides, highlighting
testimony, testimonials, highlighting,um, you know, exciting products
or services that we're offering.
Just constantly being people's faceson what we do and why we do it,
which is really, really important.
(14:28):
And you have to think about it, right?
Because the average attention spanof a consumer is seven seconds.
That means you have seven secondsto grab somebody's attention and for
them to make an active decision ifthey want to engage with you online
or if they just want to pass you by.
So the more that you know, you'regetting eyeballs on your, on your,
you know, marketing on your branding,all of that key stuff, the more.
(14:51):
Influence you're going to have when theseindividuals actually have a need and
actually have, you know, um, you know,need support in the area that you provide.
That's, that's definitely key.
I would say the biggest strugglethough, is keeping sales consistent.
As I mentioned before, um, Iwas really, and I still am a
key part of the sales pipeline.
(15:11):
Many individuals, if not all, my clientswant to work specifically with me.
So I, you know, take, Ioutsource a lot of my back end.
"Back end" is another word for operations.
If, if you're not familiar with theterm, but operations so that I can
specifically just focus on sales.
So, um, I have someone who handles mymarketing, who handles my systems, who
handles, you know, some administrativework, who handles any branding and
(15:34):
partnerships and things of that nature
because if my brain isn't just on salesand I'm getting distracted with 10 other
things, it's going to be the least thingthat I do because it's not always fun.
Let's, let's be honest.
So, by having all those things takencare of and when a, when a lead
comes in and says, "Hey, we wantto hire CultureShift for a talk,"
I can answer that lead within 30seconds, get them on a call within
(15:56):
the afternoon and book it by tomorrow.
The speed to market when itcomes to, you know, your sales
funnel is so, so, so important.
So, when I think about the opportunitythat sales and money brings to the
business obviously the more sales thatyou bring in, the more money is going to
come in and the more this and the moreof that and everybody's celebrating.
(16:16):
Yes; however, we want to be mindfulthat when they say more money
more problems, that's not a joke.
Because, great, you have more money,but when you're having more money that
means you're probably selling more ofyour services which, again, means you
probably only have so much of yourown capacity to fulfill that service.
So, then, you have to thinkabout, "Who else can I hire?
(16:38):
What other support can I utilize?"
And that's when the money that maybewas a $10,000 contract becomes a $5,000
contract because you now have to hirea consultant to come in and do the work
or to support you in doing the work.
And, so, the more money you make,the more, hopefully not a lot, but
usually there's an increase or aninflux of expenses depending on your
(17:00):
business, depending on your, um,team, capacity, all those key things.
I know when I went from just itbeing me to actually hiring full-time
staff and expanding my consultingteam, the expenses went up.
It would came to a point where youcan't use the freebie platforms for
your marketing and social media.
We run five different brands acrossthe CultureShift HR kind of, um,
(17:23):
umbrella, you know, a free socialmedia platform that allows you
to post 2 brands on one channel,
that's not really going to give us alot of reach and a lot of opportunity.
And it gives us a very broken system.
So yes, I do have to pay for a platformthat allows me to have unlimited
channels and brands and all that stuffso that we can actually market properly.
You know, I think at the beginning youcan do a lot and get really far with the
(17:46):
freebies and, like, the free templates andthe free access, but at a point, if you
really want to scale, if you really wantto, you know, go beyond what you're doing,
you're going to need theinfrastructure and the operational
systems to take you there.
And that costs money!
So, when you think about, you know,"Well, Alysha as businesses grow,
(18:07):
why does more money go out the door?"
It's because it costs more to domore things to have a higher quality.
But, I will say, it is worth it inthe end, especially if this is a
business that you actually want togrow and actually want to scale.
Um, and not just, you know,keep as, as a side gig.
I think for us, the biggestlesson that I've learned is that
(18:28):
when times are good, it's good.
Meaning that, you know, you'vegot high revenue coming in.
Um, you know, things, thingsare getting paid on time.
Be mindful of what the opposite can be.
What do I mean by that?
So, last year we had unfortunately,we had one client that went, um,
unfortunately their business wentinsolvable, they went bankrupt.
(18:51):
There was another word I waslooking for, but I can't say it
so I'm just going to say bankrupt.
We had another, we had a clientthat unfortunately after, you
know, over a decade in business,successful business went bankrupt.
Insolvent!
That's the word.
It went insolvent and was not ableto pay out, um, our, our contract.
We were in a 1-year agreement and thework that we were doing was quite intense.
(19:15):
And there was getting a time where, youknow, they weren't, things were kind of
slowing down, people were leaving, and,you know, people were keeping me updated,
but it felt very positive of "Alysha,we're going to keep the work going.
The work needs to happen."
Great, that's all I needed to hear.
So we're doing the work in the background.
Things are happening.
And then we got the email that they'reshutting down their operational team,
(19:37):
you know, laying off 90 percent ofstaff and that this was the last
invoice that we're going to pay.
Now you would think, when yourcontract, okay, there's usually a
contingency involved when, you know,such a long period happens that if you
cancel early, there's a cancellationfee, which I did, which I was very
grateful to have in my contract.
However, they did not have the meansto pay my 3-month cancellation fee.
(20:00):
So, I could have either, you know, justtaken the one month that they did offer,
um, which I ended up doing, or, um, nottake it and then go to a bankruptcy lawyer
and fight for the additional three months.
Um, that is very expensive.
And, to be honest, because of the amountin comparison to bankruptcy cases, a
lot of lawyers wouldn't even answermy calls because the amount wasn't
(20:21):
significant enough for them to take.
So, here I am, in this one year contract,this was actually the funds that I
got to even hire my first full-timeemployee, comes to me and says, you
know, 4 months in, we're, we're stopping.
Like, we're stopping the work.
You're not getting paid.
So when that happens, you go intopanic mode as, as I did, because you're
(20:44):
like, "Oh my gosh, this was money
I relied on.
This paid for payroll.
This paid for X, Y, Z.
I now no longer have this money.
What do I do?"
Well, my friends, that's whyyou have your business savings.
Um, not only were we able to rideout the couple of weeks until we
got our next contract, but it madethe cushion and the blow of that
(21:04):
news a little bit easier to swallow.
Um, and that was such a relief to have.
So, having your business savings,having something that's a little bit
of a cushion–very, very important.
Another thing as well, that unfortunatelydoes happen more often than not, is
people just won't pay your invoice!
Um, you know, usually you'll invoicesometimes, you know, after an event or
(21:26):
after a service, or maybe you do halfupfront, half at the end and they'll
pay the first invoice, but they won'tpay the second or it's a small contract
so they'll just pay you at the end...
and they don't pay you.
And then you find out that, again,unfortunately, they're have,
they're a small business, they'regoing into business problems
and it's affecting now yourself.
And you know, when you, when you'refaced with these situations, which again,
(21:48):
unfortunately, I've encountered, isthat when you feel bad because you're
like, I know I'm in a business too.
I'm here to make money.
I'm here to support myself, youknow, my team, all these things.
And to say, "We're no longer in business,"or, "We're struggling," as a business
owner, that's super duper hard to hearand it breaks my heart because people
who go into business, they don't, I mean,yes, they do it because they love it,
(22:10):
it's their passion, but,like, it's hard work.
Sidebar (22:12):
um, it is hard work.
It's a lot of sacrifice.
It's a lot of time, but you do it anywaysbecause you believe in what you're doing.
So, whenever I hear a business goingunder, my heart breaks cause I'm like,
the hours, the time, that's not easy.
But, then, my head goes, "Well,I still need to get paid."
You know, whether it's a dollar or ahundred thousand dollars, this was money
(22:33):
that I've built into my revenue plan.
This is money that I think about when Ithink about growing the team, expanding my
services, doing higher quality marketinginitiatives, all that kind of stuff.
So, when my invoices don't getpaid, it gets incredibly stressful.
Because again, you, I feel likeI have to rob Peter to pay Paul.
Because when you thinkabout your revenue, right?
(22:54):
It's not just money that justsits into a cushy bank account
and grows and grows and grows.
As we talked about, moneycomes in, money goes out.
So you'll have subscriptionfees, you'll have,
you know, payroll or consulting costs.
You'll have travel, you'll havefood, you'll have things that
sustain your business and sustainyou so you can run your business.
But when that money doesn't comein, then now you're like, "Oh shoot,
(23:17):
I have to dig into that revenue orthat pot of money, which I didn't
really want to for this expense."
And then unfortunately it kind ofbecomes a little bit of a, of a cycle.
So, having your business savings, havingan emergency fund for your business
or an emergency payroll and emergencysavings, like if you can build that out,
your future self will thank you so much.
(23:38):
Hand over fist.
So, always know that if it's good,ride that wave, ride in the wave of
people loving you and paying you andjust soak it all up because that's
amazing and that's such a great time.
But, what goes up must come down.
And you want to prepare for thosedowns, you know, like when we think
about COVID (23:56):
COVID shut down the world.
Businesses stopped running,stopped getting revenue.
People didn't know what was happening.
Those businesses that didn't have acontingency plan to ride out COVID,
mind you, it was, it was quite along time, um, didn't survive and
are either starting up again, or
just aren't going to come backinto the marketplace cause
(24:16):
the markets changed so much.
So you have to be mindful that thesethings, these types of responsibilities
only increase the more money you makebecause the more money you make, the more
expenses you're going to have and themore you want these types of contingencies
to help you support your business inthe short-term and in the long-term.
When I think about my moneywins definitely reaching over
(24:39):
the half a milli mark was...
bananas.
Like, you work day in and day outand I don't like looking at numbers.
I have like insecurities, which we'llcome back to in a different episode um,
and that's–I don't know if everyone canhear that but that's a beautiful, uh, New
York police siren–um, so when you thinkabout it, um as I kind of get back onto
(25:02):
my train of thought, um I, I have moneyinsecurity, so I don't like to look at
the money coming into the account andthe, and all the things and the bills.
I just, I have a lot of things onauto withdrawal because I don't
like to get too nitty grittyand I, and it gets me anxious.
But when I looked and I saw whatwe did, I was so proud of reaching
that number and reaching that figureand knowing that we could do it.
(25:22):
And that I had a team that wascapable and I had a service that
was in demand and it makes you feelreally good and truly validates you.
But, then, there's months where it'squiet, and there's months where no
one's returning your emails, and there'smonths where, you know, a packed week
where you hardly, hardly had timeto breathe and eat a lunch, you now
have all the free time in the world.
It is incredibly stressful and it's anincredibly, I feel incredibly small.
(25:46):
So, those moments are going to happen.
They've happened to me.
They will happen, you know, throughoutyour point in business, but by having
the right systems and structures inplace, you will be able to celebrate
and live and relive those wins overand over and over and over again.
Um, I would say when it comesto being focused on money and
(26:10):
sales, don't let it consume you.
Don't let that be your why.
Be mindful of why you're doing what youdo and fall in love with that reason.
Everything else will come after that.
The money will come.
The opportunities will come.
But people buy your why, andthat's what's most important.
And, in the hard times, that'swhat you have to remember.
Because when the money isn't flowing in,when things are trickling in or things are
(26:31):
slowing down and your brain wants to go inpanic mode, remember your why, remember,
you know, the desire and the burningheart that you had for your business and
the thing that you're doing in the worldand the mark that you wanted to leave.
So those are insights I wanted toimpart to all of y'all when it comes
to money struggles and money wins.
(26:53):
Um, it's, it's a journey.
It's interesting.
And maybe we'll get deeper into someother things when it comes to, um, like
banks and different types of servicesand things like that, that are offered.
But, first and foremost,understand your money pipeline.
Understand your marketing
sales processes.
And understand your different cycles thatyou're going to go through because that's
(27:15):
going to be super important as you notonly manage your business, but as you
grow and you scale your business as well.
And so with that, we are goingto end this episode here.
Thank you all so much for tuning in,listening in, and, you know, being
a part of this journey, as always,because, again, I love to share
this insight with y'all and hearingfrom you and, and, you know, your
(27:38):
comments and, your own experiences,it just makes my heart full of joy.
So, thank you so much for listening.
Um, hope y'all stay safe, be well,and we will see you next episode.
Hey everyone.
Welcome back to another episodeof Confessions of a Founder.
I'm your host, Alysha M.
Campbell, Founder andCEO of CultureShift HR.
Uh, I'm so excited, as always!
I think every episode I'm excited to behere and talking about CultureShift HR,
maybe talking about the journey and allof the stuff in between and to be in a
(00:35):
space to actually talk about a journey.
And the reason is becausewhen you actually think about
it, you know, millions ofbusinesses are started in a year.
So many individuals wake up one day andsay, "Hey, I want to start a business,"
and either start it right away or maybemake plans to start it in the future.
And then either things start andthen don't have a very happy ending,
(00:56):
unfortunately, or things progress,but then, you know, they reach kind
of superstardom and then you got,like, the next Google and then you're
like buying everything from them.
So, I am so excited to be able to be ina space where, uh, given that I started
my business in 2018 now being, you know,the first quarter of 2024 being able to
(01:17):
talk about a journey, being able to talkabout, you know, the ups and downs, the
in-betweens, the highs, the lows, um,and all of those things that happen and
the transformation of not just startinga business, but actually becoming a CEO.
So, I'm always going to be excited.
I was funny.
I was thinking about it this morning asI was getting ready to record and, um,
you know, the day–it's Monday– and, youknow, Mondays, I think I'm becoming one
(01:41):
of those people where Mondays are like,"Ugh," and I mean, Monday always gets
the worst rap, but I think when I thinkabout Mondays, it's kind of like that
momentum to get started, you know, andgetting back into the swing of things.
And then I realized I wasrecording my podcast today.
I was like, "Ah, I'm like, so excited!"
So, I'm really excited.
(02:01):
And now it makes me happy aboutMondays because I'll record either
on the weekend or on a Monday andit just makes today so much better.
So here we are.
I'm, I'm very happy.
Um, So today's episode is actually aroundsales and, you know, having, you know,
sales is such a big concern and sucha big obstacle for a lot of founders.
(02:26):
And when you think about sales, the nextthing that comes into mind is money.
Money struggles, money wins and, and asI, as we said, everything in between.
And, um, when I think about kind ofour previous episode where we talked
about wearing many hats, one of thethings that I, you know, as a CEO,
especially as I began, began to growmy team, the function of sales really
(02:48):
never has left me, um-- left me fully.
And we're going to talk about myjourney in sales and getting help and
support and all that good stuff but,as CEO, sales is probably on your mind
more often than not, when it comes towhen you think about your business.
For me, I would say my number onething that I think about is the team.
You know, is everybody functioning okay?
Does everyone have what they need?
Is everybody set up for success?
(03:09):
What roadblocks can I removefrom my team, et cetera?
And the second is sales.
You know, thinking abouthow do we get more sales?
How do we, um, you know,get it to new markets?
Reach out to new consumers,customers, clients?
Then that funnels into brandingwhich funnels into marketing...
All that kind of great stuff.
So, we're going to talk about sales andwe're going to talk about specifically
when it comes to sales, money, um,money, money, money, money, money.
(03:33):
And the reason is because moneyis actually what defines a-- one
of the key elements, I shouldsay, is what defines a business.
You know, if you're not making money,you're kind of just doing a hobby.
No offense, no one who's like outthere trying, but it's really at
that point until you make your firstsale and you have money coming in
and you're actually transactions.
It's having transactions.
It's a hobby or it's, youknow, not up on its feet yet.
(03:55):
And that's, important to knowbecause people will do a lot of
things and be like, "Yeah, it'sa business," but you know, do you
know your ideal customer profile?
Are you aligning your sales objectivesto your marketing and branding?
Are you in the right target market?
Have you identified, you know, whatyour key products are in the language
for your audience and kind of allthose things that go in between.
If you haven't answered thosequestions and really begun to push
(04:16):
forward in that arena, then you'renot technically selling anything.
So, to wind it back a little bitand to kind of talk around, um, my
experience with money, money strugglesand money wins is that it's– if you
listen to the first few episodeswhen I started going full-time in my
business, I was very honest when Isaid I had no clue what I was doing.
(04:41):
When you transition from aconsultant to running a business
full-time, it is a different beast.
I'm talking about it being very...
You have to be very open.
You have to be very flexible.
You have to be in differentspaces to do all the things.
So when you're, so what I mean bythat is when you're a consultant,
a client says, "Hey, Alysha, I wantyou to create a workshop training."
(05:02):
Great.
I create the workshoptraining, deliver it.
I get paid.
Done.
You know, I have maybe a small invoiceplatform, I have something set up
maybe on my PayPal or a Stripe account,and I do the transaction, I perform
the service, and I move on my way.
And that's kind of howI was as a consultant.
I didn't really think about thebigger ecosystem of my business.
(05:23):
But, when I became a CEO and I'm like,"Okay, like we're going to do this
thing and we're going to make it work."
You have 10 times the thingson your plate than what you had
on your plate as a consultant.
So, going from, "Oh, you know, I'm justgonna, you know, email a couple people."
No, you're now actually doing an emailcampaign with, like, a 3-step follow up.
From, "Oh, you know, I'm just gonna sendout this invoice a day late because,
(05:44):
uh, I'm just too tired tonight."
"No, I'm actually going to send thisinvoice tomorrow 2 weeks early to make
sure that I actually get paid on timeso that I can actually pay myself and
pay my staff via the payroll system."
Um, "Oh, you know, I'm just going to,you know, lose receipts when I have
business expenses because it doesn't evenreally matter anyways," to, "Actually,
(06:05):
everything needs to be photographedand recorded to make sure that I
have those receipts for my accountantso we are good come tax season."
You can clearly see the key differencesfrom consultant versus, a CEO.
And the thing is, especially when you'rea solopreneur or like a CEO, but you
don't, you maybe don't have a team
you have to keep allthese things top of mind.
(06:27):
So you're thinking about platforms,you're thinking about back-end operations.
And, when it comes to money, that'sthe biggest thing you want to track.
That's the biggest thing you wantto, keep on top of, because that
means you are getting paid on time.
That means that you are stayingon top of your revenue funnel.
That means you're saying on top of yoursales forecasts, what's coming in, what's
(06:47):
going out, the timeline of those things.
And that can totallydisrupt your business model.
Um, a lot of businesses have ebbs andflows, usually the beginning of the year
is a slow season.
Is a slow start to the year.
So, you'll see a lot of sales activityin Q4 to make sure that Q1 doesn't dry
up and you're kind of starting that salescycle all over again come January 3rd.
(07:10):
These are things that as a CEO, youneed to see from like a 30,000 foot
view and be mindful of as you go throughdifferent cycles in your business.
So, when it came to CultureShiftHR, when it came to getting
sales, I was not good at it.
And I would say I'm probablystill not good at sales.
And you might be saying, "Well,Alysha, you have, um, or, you
(07:32):
know, you are operating in avery healthy six-figure business.
How do you not know sales?"
And I would say, "You know what?
That's a really great question youshould be asking," and I would say
it's not that I don't know sales.
I'm very familiar with what the salespipeline looks like for CultureShift.
We are a very referralheavy business model.
We also have an RFP pipeline that weaggressively attack every month to
(07:56):
submit RFPs for different DEI projects.
We also have partners that will pass ondifferent opportunities to us as well.
Our marketing initiatives that we have onsocial also bring in leads and different
referrals and things of that nature.
So I am very, you know, mindfulof the different pipes that
go into the sales funnel.
But, what I will say is thatsales is not an exact science.
(08:18):
You can have a formula,you can have a, "Oh, okay,
I know if I post this much, I'mgoing to get this much views.
I'm going to get this much leadsand this much traction, et cetera."
Like, you can figuratively saywhat it is that you're doing,
but it doesn't always work.
There's, you know, you have to bemindful of so many things when it
comes to sales and, you know, the moneymachine that it allows you to generate.
(08:40):
You have to think about your competitors.
You have to think about themarket that you're playing in.
You have to think about your consumers.
You have to think about theseason and the seasonality of the
business that is taking place inthe moments that you're marketing.
And so all of these things arecoming together, um, all in one
conversation in your brain asyou're thinking about, "Okay,
am I going to be able topay my staff this month?
(09:00):
Am I going to be able to bringon a new hire knowing that we're
going to be getting some newclients in the upcoming weeks?"
All of these things are going to becoming through your head and, you know,
creating space in regards to being ableto, you know, think about your business
and being able to build your business.
And I say "build" intentionallybecause you can't build
(09:21):
your business without money.
You need money to buy the platforms.
You need money to pay yourconsultants, to pay your staff.
You need money to pay yourself.
You need money to begin to upgrade thetype of quality and level of which you
are producing a product or a service.
And that really, really matters.
Are you putting those funds and thoserevenues back into the business?
(09:42):
Are you getting a better platformto then highlight and support
your marketing initiatives better?
Are you creating higher level contentfor your marketing initiatives
to make sure you stand out?
All of these things matter and thosethings cannot happen without money.
So, if we go back when I went, um, into,well, I guess we can start from 2018.
(10:04):
When I started CultureShift, I hadmy first client for probably about
a year and a half, give or take.
And the reason was I was still workingfull-time and this client was all
I could really manage at the time.
And I didn't have the capacityto manage the client work in
the hours that I was doing it.
Plus, you know, go out andmarket and, and get some, some
(10:25):
other larger, larger clients.
Um, the money at the time was good,so I didn't feel like I needed more.
At the time it was kind of more ofa, you know, building it and kind
of it being, um, a side hustle.
But, you know, it was very mindfulthat, okay, as even as I'm bringing
in this extra money, I need to accountfor it in my taxes, in my budgeting.
You know, if I want to build aproper website or hire someone to
(10:47):
build a proper website for me, Ihave to have the funds to do so.
So that was really interesting
just being like, "Ooh, yay, it's payday!"
To, actually no.
How are you going to reinvestthis money into your business?
How are you going to now use these fundsto make sure that you get more money?
Through through other clients.
So, going from those days to todaywhere, you know, we have the systems,
(11:09):
the platforms, the people, and creatingmore of a–I would say–an automation
of our sales pipeline in our salesecosystem, it's really interesting
um, because, as I said earlier, atCultureShift, I would say 85 to 90
percent of our business is referrals.
So, as much as we market and we've um,done sales outreaches and email campaigns
(11:30):
and hired sales consultants for LinkedInand email campaigns and marketing on
LinkedIn and all these great things.
We realized that a lot of our saleswas coming in through referrals when
it kind of dawned us that that's wherewe should be putting our attention.
That's where we should be puttingour efforts to amplify the
amount of referrals that we got.
So when we, when we realized that itwas taking something that was random
(11:53):
and that was just coming to us atvarious points in the month or in
the quarter and really beginning tosystematize it as best as possible.
Cause, I mean, people are only goingto refer you if they have a need and if
that need is aligned with what you do.
So, it's not a foolproof system,but if you can align to getting more
(12:14):
of your clients that already loveyou, that already want the services
that you offer that are already, youknow, knowing and really providing
a good testimony of your work.
It's really a great way tobuild and scale your business.
Um, as we, you know, as we'vegrown over the years, money will
come in and out and ebb and flow.
And that's something that youwould think is common knowledge
(12:36):
when you are starting a businessor operating a business over time.
But it is so important to know your moneycycles because as quickly as someone
can say, "Yeah, I want to work with you.
Let's get it going!"
Is as quickly as they can say,"Okay, we changed our mind."
So, always having some type of contingencyplan, having a business savings with
at least 3 months of expenses that cantake care of a quarter or more of your
(13:02):
business expenses should things happenis always, always important and something
that I've continued to rely on heavilyand continue to use in my business to
make sure that, you know, if monthsare short, if things, you know, get a
little bit slow, we're not in panic mode.
We have the resourcesand the supply to do it.
Now, that did not get built overnight,that took months to build, where as
(13:24):
we're getting, as, you know, moneyis coming in, 10 percent of every
contract or every, or every, and, youknow, service we provided would go
directly into the business savings.
We didn't touch it, I didn't look at it,it was like, as if it didn't exist, and
slowly that account gets, you know, builtup, and of course, when we got maybe
some of the bigger projects, then I wouldtake a larger chunk to kind of like, make
sure, we put it over into that account.
(13:45):
So, those things are so important, um, tothink about when you're thinking about,
you know, money wins and money problems isbecause again, as easy as it can come in
is as easy as it can go out or even stopso, always being mindful of those things.
When it came to CultureShift,because a lot of our business was via
word-of-mouth, it was so importantto get out there as much as possible.
(14:07):
When I say "get out there", formyself, um, I use a lot of social
media, specifically on LinkedIn.
So, highlighting the servicesCultureShift provides, highlighting
testimony, testimonials, highlighting,um, you know, exciting products
or services that we're offering.
Just constantly being people's faceson what we do and why we do it,
which is really, really important.
(14:28):
And you have to think about it, right?
Because the average attention spanof a consumer is seven seconds.
That means you have seven secondsto grab somebody's attention and for
them to make an active decision ifthey want to engage with you online
or if they just want to pass you by.
So the more that you know, you'regetting eyeballs on your, on your,
you know, marketing on your branding,all of that key stuff, the more.
(14:51):
Influence you're going to have when theseindividuals actually have a need and
actually have, you know, um, you know,need support in the area that you provide.
That's, that's definitely key.
I would say the biggest strugglethough, is keeping sales consistent.
As I mentioned before, um, Iwas really, and I still am a
key part of the sales pipeline.
(15:11):
Many individuals, if not all, my clientswant to work specifically with me.
So I, you know, take, Ioutsource a lot of my back end.
"Back end" is another word for operations.
If, if you're not familiar with theterm, but operations so that I can
specifically just focus on sales.
So, um, I have someone who handles mymarketing, who handles my systems, who
handles, you know, some administrativework, who handles any branding and
(15:34):
partnerships and things of that nature
because if my brain isn't just on salesand I'm getting distracted with 10 other
things, it's going to be the least thingthat I do because it's not always fun.
Let's, let's be honest.
So, by having all those things takencare of and when a, when a lead
comes in and says, "Hey, we wantto hire CultureShift for a talk,"
I can answer that lead within 30seconds, get them on a call within
(15:56):
the afternoon and book it by tomorrow.
The speed to market when itcomes to, you know, your sales
funnel is so, so, so important.
So, when I think about the opportunitythat sales and money brings to the
business obviously the more sales thatyou bring in, the more money is going to
come in and the more this and the moreof that and everybody's celebrating.
(16:16):
Yes; however, we want to be mindfulthat when they say more money
more problems, that's not a joke.
Because, great, you have more money,but when you're having more money that
means you're probably selling more ofyour services which, again, means you
probably only have so much of yourown capacity to fulfill that service.
So, then, you have to thinkabout, "Who else can I hire?
(16:38):
What other support can I utilize?"
And that's when the money that maybewas a $10,000 contract becomes a $5,000
contract because you now have to hirea consultant to come in and do the work
or to support you in doing the work.
And, so, the more money you make,the more, hopefully not a lot, but
usually there's an increase or aninflux of expenses depending on your
(17:00):
business, depending on your, um,team, capacity, all those key things.
I know when I went from just itbeing me to actually hiring full-time
staff and expanding my consultingteam, the expenses went up.
It would came to a point where youcan't use the freebie platforms for
your marketing and social media.
We run five different brands acrossthe CultureShift HR kind of, um,
(17:23):
umbrella, you know, a free socialmedia platform that allows you
to post 2 brands on one channel,
that's not really going to give us alot of reach and a lot of opportunity.
And it gives us a very broken system.
So yes, I do have to pay for a platformthat allows me to have unlimited
channels and brands and all that stuffso that we can actually market properly.
You know, I think at the beginning youcan do a lot and get really far with the
(17:46):
freebies and, like, the free templates andthe free access, but at a point, if you
really want to scale, if you really wantto, you know, go beyond what you're doing,
you're going to need theinfrastructure and the operational
systems to take you there.
And that costs money!
So, when you think about, you know,"Well, Alysha as businesses grow,
(18:07):
why does more money go out the door?"
It's because it costs more to domore things to have a higher quality.
But, I will say, it is worth it inthe end, especially if this is a
business that you actually want togrow and actually want to scale.
Um, and not just, you know,keep as, as a side gig.
I think for us, the biggestlesson that I've learned is that
(18:28):
when times are good, it's good.
Meaning that, you know, you'vegot high revenue coming in.
Um, you know, things, thingsare getting paid on time.
Be mindful of what the opposite can be.
What do I mean by that?
So, last year we had unfortunately,we had one client that went, um,
unfortunately their business wentinsolvable, they went bankrupt.
(18:51):
There was another word I waslooking for, but I can't say it
so I'm just going to say bankrupt.
We had another, we had a clientthat unfortunately after, you
know, over a decade in business,successful business went bankrupt.
Insolvent!
That's the word.
It went insolvent and was not ableto pay out, um, our, our contract.
We were in a 1-year agreement and thework that we were doing was quite intense.
(19:15):
And there was getting a time where, youknow, they weren't, things were kind of
slowing down, people were leaving, and,you know, people were keeping me updated,
but it felt very positive of "Alysha,we're going to keep the work going.
The work needs to happen."
Great, that's all I needed to hear.
So we're doing the work in the background.
Things are happening.
And then we got the email that they'reshutting down their operational team,
(19:37):
you know, laying off 90 percent ofstaff and that this was the last
invoice that we're going to pay.
Now you would think, when yourcontract, okay, there's usually a
contingency involved when, you know,such a long period happens that if you
cancel early, there's a cancellationfee, which I did, which I was very
grateful to have in my contract.
However, they did not have the meansto pay my 3-month cancellation fee.
(20:00):
So, I could have either, you know, justtaken the one month that they did offer,
um, which I ended up doing, or, um, nottake it and then go to a bankruptcy lawyer
and fight for the additional three months.
Um, that is very expensive.
And, to be honest, because of the amountin comparison to bankruptcy cases, a
lot of lawyers wouldn't even answermy calls because the amount wasn't
(20:21):
significant enough for them to take.
So, here I am, in this one year contract,this was actually the funds that I
got to even hire my first full-timeemployee, comes to me and says, you
know, 4 months in, we're, we're stopping.
Like, we're stopping the work.
You're not getting paid.
So when that happens, you go intopanic mode as, as I did, because you're
(20:44):
like, "Oh my gosh, this was money
I relied on.
This paid for payroll.
This paid for X, Y, Z.
I now no longer have this money.
What do I do?"
Well, my friends, that's whyyou have your business savings.
Um, not only were we able to rideout the couple of weeks until we
got our next contract, but it madethe cushion and the blow of that
(21:04):
news a little bit easier to swallow.
Um, and that was such a relief to have.
So, having your business savings,having something that's a little bit
of a cushion–very, very important.
Another thing as well, that unfortunatelydoes happen more often than not, is
people just won't pay your invoice!
Um, you know, usually you'll invoicesometimes, you know, after an event or
(21:26):
after a service, or maybe you do halfupfront, half at the end and they'll
pay the first invoice, but they won'tpay the second or it's a small contract
so they'll just pay you at the end...
and they don't pay you.
And then you find out that, again,unfortunately, they're have,
they're a small business, they'regoing into business problems
and it's affecting now yourself.
And you know, when you, when you'refaced with these situations, which again,
(21:48):
unfortunately, I've encountered, isthat when you feel bad because you're
like, I know I'm in a business too.
I'm here to make money.
I'm here to support myself, youknow, my team, all these things.
And to say, "We're no longer in business,"or, "We're struggling," as a business
owner, that's super duper hard to hearand it breaks my heart because people
who go into business, they don't, I mean,yes, they do it because they love it,
(22:10):
it's their passion, but,like, it's hard work.
Sidebar (22:12):
um, it is hard work.
It's a lot of sacrifice.
It's a lot of time, but you do it anywaysbecause you believe in what you're doing.
So, whenever I hear a business goingunder, my heart breaks cause I'm like,
the hours, the time, that's not easy.
But, then, my head goes, "Well,I still need to get paid."
You know, whether it's a dollar or ahundred thousand dollars, this was money
(22:33):
that I've built into my revenue plan.
This is money that I think about when Ithink about growing the team, expanding my
services, doing higher quality marketinginitiatives, all that kind of stuff.
So, when my invoices don't getpaid, it gets incredibly stressful.
Because again, you, I feel likeI have to rob Peter to pay Paul.
Because when you thinkabout your revenue, right?
(22:54):
It's not just money that justsits into a cushy bank account
and grows and grows and grows.
As we talked about, moneycomes in, money goes out.
So you'll have subscriptionfees, you'll have,
you know, payroll or consulting costs.
You'll have travel, you'll havefood, you'll have things that
sustain your business and sustainyou so you can run your business.
But when that money doesn't comein, then now you're like, "Oh shoot,
(23:17):
I have to dig into that revenue orthat pot of money, which I didn't
really want to for this expense."
And then unfortunately it kind ofbecomes a little bit of a, of a cycle.
So, having your business savings, havingan emergency fund for your business
or an emergency payroll and emergencysavings, like if you can build that out,
your future self will thank you so much.
(23:38):
Hand over fist.
So, always know that if it's good,ride that wave, ride in the wave of
people loving you and paying you andjust soak it all up because that's
amazing and that's such a great time.
But, what goes up must come down.
And you want to prepare for thosedowns, you know, like when we think
about COVID (23:56):
COVID shut down the world.
Businesses stopped running,stopped getting revenue.
People didn't know what was happening.
Those businesses that didn't have acontingency plan to ride out COVID,
mind you, it was, it was quite along time, um, didn't survive and
are either starting up again, or
just aren't going to come backinto the marketplace cause
(24:16):
the markets changed so much.
So you have to be mindful that thesethings, these types of responsibilities
only increase the more money you makebecause the more money you make, the more
expenses you're going to have and themore you want these types of contingencies
to help you support your business inthe short-term and in the long-term.
When I think about my moneywins definitely reaching over
(24:39):
the half a milli mark was...
bananas.
Like, you work day in and day outand I don't like looking at numbers.
I have like insecurities, which we'llcome back to in a different episode um,
and that's–I don't know if everyone canhear that but that's a beautiful, uh, New
York police siren–um, so when you thinkabout it, um as I kind of get back onto
(25:02):
my train of thought, um I, I have moneyinsecurity, so I don't like to look at
the money coming into the account andthe, and all the things and the bills.
I just, I have a lot of things onauto withdrawal because I don't
like to get too nitty grittyand I, and it gets me anxious.
But when I looked and I saw whatwe did, I was so proud of reaching
that number and reaching that figureand knowing that we could do it.
(25:22):
And that I had a team that wascapable and I had a service that
was in demand and it makes you feelreally good and truly validates you.
But, then, there's months where it'squiet, and there's months where no
one's returning your emails, and there'smonths where, you know, a packed week
where you hardly, hardly had timeto breathe and eat a lunch, you now
have all the free time in the world.
It is incredibly stressful and it's anincredibly, I feel incredibly small.
(25:46):
So, those moments are going to happen.
They've happened to me.
They will happen, you know, throughoutyour point in business, but by having
the right systems and structures inplace, you will be able to celebrate
and live and relive those wins overand over and over and over again.
Um, I would say when it comesto being focused on money and
(26:10):
sales, don't let it consume you.
Don't let that be your why.
Be mindful of why you're doing what youdo and fall in love with that reason.
Everything else will come after that.
The money will come.
The opportunities will come.
But people buy your why, andthat's what's most important.
And, in the hard times, that'swhat you have to remember.
Because when the money isn't flowing in,when things are trickling in or things are
(26:31):
slowing down and your brain wants to go inpanic mode, remember your why, remember,
you know, the desire and the burningheart that you had for your business and
the thing that you're doing in the worldand the mark that you wanted to leave.
So those are insights I wanted toimpart to all of y'all when it comes
to money struggles and money wins.
(26:53):
Um, it's, it's a journey.
It's interesting.
And maybe we'll get deeper into someother things when it comes to, um, like
banks and different types of servicesand things like that, that are offered.
But, first and foremost,understand your money pipeline.
Understand your marketing
sales processes.
And understand your different cycles thatyou're going to go through because that's
(27:15):
going to be super important as you notonly manage your business, but as you
grow and you scale your business as well.
And so with that, we are goingto end this episode here.
Thank you all so much for tuning in,listening in, and, you know, being
a part of this journey, as always,because, again, I love to share
this insight with y'all and hearingfrom you and, and, you know, your
(27:38):
comments and, your own experiences,it just makes my heart full of joy.
So, thank you so much for listening.
Um, hope y'all stay safe, be well,and we will see you next episode.
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