Scaling Made Human: How A Fractional COO Builds Systems That Fit Your Life

We sit down with Queen N'Kima of Queendom Arts Consulting to unpack how a fractional COO builds systems that honor real life, drive execution, and create sustainable growth. From $10.5M raised to reviving a college venture program, we break down ethics, psychology, and process.

• shifting from arts consulting to serving professionals and orgs
• defining a fractional COO and clean transitions
• core values as a market edge
• customer journey design as a starter service
• six-stage development framework
• psychology of money and risk tolerance
• needs assessment focused on relationships and capacity
• writing processes by hand for clarity
• building culture, setting boundaries, failing fast
• 2023 lessons, stronger messaging, more handholding
• top wins: investments, nonprofit traction, college relaunch
• “Breaking Ceilings” support group and where to connect

Please, please, please go see the queendomarts.com, visit the website, see what she can really do!

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815-496-0637

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_02 (00:16):
Welcome back to Market It with Atma, where we
share the tips, tools, andstrategies to help your business
be successful.
Today we have on the show a veryspecial guest, Miss Queen Kema.
She is the owner and founder ofQueendom Arts Consulting.
Welcome, Kima.
How are you?
Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 (00:33):
Welcome.

SPEAKER_02 (00:34):
So what do you prefer to be called?

SPEAKER_00 (00:36):
Uh Queen is fine, Queen or Kima, or Queen Kema,
either combination.

SPEAKER_02 (00:40):
Great combinations, by the way.
I love the Queen part.
So tell us, well, tell ouraudience.
Um, you you have a multifacetedskill set, right?
Yes.
What is your primary company nowand what encouraged you to start
it?

SPEAKER_00 (00:54):
Thank you.
So my primary company now we area fractional COO firm, and I
just tell people that's a fancyway of saying we take the
driver's seat and the COO of abusiness long enough to build
sis systems that will helpscale.
Okay.
And then we leave those businessowners in a position to choose
one of two continued paths,which is to work with us in a
fractional capacity as like awhite label back office or for

(01:18):
them to have training,onboarding, and we can actually
acquire uh staffing for them andkind of like transition
ourselves out over a set periodof time and then they can go be
great.

SPEAKER_02 (01:30):
Wow, that's wonderful.
So you kind of give them astructure to the onboarding and
the offboarding so that they'renot left kind of lost.
Yes, correct.
That's wonderful.
So what inspired you to startthis company?

SPEAKER_00 (01:42):
Yes, uh, that is a great question.
So we could spend two hourstalking about that.
Yes, but the 30-second versionis I always had a gift of
helping per helping people.
I always had a passion to helppeople, I always had a passion
to serve.
And then I was always labeled asgifted, right?
So things just kind of naturallycome easy to me.

(02:04):
And so I was like, okay, well, Ithink God did that on purpose.
I think there's a reason thatI'm good at so many things.
Um people, oh, what are you notgood at?
And I'm like, math.
I don't like math.
I can count money, I can dopercentages, I can make
conversions, geometry, algebra,you're kind of out.
Nope, don't ask me to do any ofthat.
I'm like, so don't worry, Goddefinitely stopped pouring.

(02:26):
Yes.
I don't have everything.
Um, but my the culmination of mygift skills, my desires to help
people, um, kind of manifesteditself through this business in
about 2017, uh, where I wantedto, because I grew up doing
professional fine fine artsperformance.
And so I wanted to take theskills that I learned in

(02:47):
business while I was in collegeuh and help other creatives be
business owners.
And so I was like, hey, becauseI had done it professionally,
there were things that were thestandard, the norm for me.
And when I got out of thatrealm, I was like, oh, you guys
are kind of all over the place.
And I realized that like this uhdesigners, clothing designers,
painters, chefs, people, I'mlike, you got this is a

(03:10):
business, and people aren'trespecting you as a business and
they're calling you a starvingartist.
And I kind of took that personaland I was like, I'm an artist,
I'm not starving.

SPEAKER_02 (03:17):
And so I'm very healthy, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 (03:20):
And so um, that's how Queen of Arts consulting um
became.
And so uh during COVID, that wasno longer a sustainable market,
right?
Uh, because most money from artsis made live, right?
So even if we acquire you dealsor represent representation
deals, and this is before youknow influencing was the market

(03:40):
that it is.
Yeah.
Uh, I needed to find somethingmore sustainable.
And so we changed markets, wekept our model.
Um, so the thing that we dohasn't really changed much over
the years, which is to providethat structure of like this is
how you run a business.
Um, but we changed who we do itfor.
So now we do it for careerprofessionals who are looking to

(04:01):
scale or start a business.
Um, usually they are a licensedprofessional, there's
credentialing or differentthings like that.
Um, or hey, I love my nine tofive.
I'm not looking to exit intoentrepreneurship at all.
I have a lifestyle I want tomaintain.
Right.
Um, but I there's this businessor a passion project, or I want
to have something to leave mykids, right?
And I want it to be a legitimatebusiness.

(04:22):
And so we come along as thehands and feet and bandwidth for
those people.
Wow.
And then our final market thatwe work with is organizations.
So organizing orgs like uhGoldman Sachs, Dallas College,
Banks, uh, the City of Dallas orChambers of Commerce, and we
support entrepreneurialprogramming for um underutilized
or disenfranchised communities,people who otherwise wouldn't be

(04:44):
able to afford service from us.
Okay.
Um, and that's our way ofproviding accessibility, and
it's also a really greatbusiness model too.

SPEAKER_02 (04:52):
Absolutely.
So you said that your model kindof shifted a little bit to where
you're helping the entrepreneursand the startup businesses,
right?
So, what was your focus prior tothat and why did you make that
shift?

SPEAKER_00 (05:03):
Yes, so we still help entrepreneurs, startups,
and then also maybe mid-size orbusinesses that have kind of
plateaued.
Um, but we changed our market inthe sense of we no longer
support creatives.
And that is because that'sreally a good thing.
Um, the way that the market hasevolved, I don't I don't like
charging people for things thatI don't need to charge them for.

(05:25):
So if I if I'm charging you, Iwant it to be because I've
either acquired skills orresources that you don't have.
Right.
And that's a a fair trade for mebecause I have skills and
resources that you don't have.
Right.
Um, but there are so manydifferent things like Twitch,
Discord, there are so manydifferent platforms that are
really affordable, reallyaccessible, that I kind of just

(05:46):
redirect people that way.
And I'm like, hey, instead oftrying to put yourself in a
state of survival to figure outhow you're gonna pay me to make
your dreams come true, here'sthese free resources where you
could go and do that and justput the work in and do it
yourself and hold yourselfaccountable.
And so I just didn't feel likeit made sense for us to stay in
that market with the directionof the way society structures

(06:06):
were going, my own personaldesires, my own desire for
stability um and consistency infinances.
And so that's how we kind ofevolved to where we are now.

SPEAKER_02 (06:15):
Wow.
And how long ago did you start,Queen of Arts?

SPEAKER_00 (06:18):
2017.

SPEAKER_02 (06:19):
2017.
So you're over the five-yearhump.
Most businesses fell.
For anyone who who isn'tknowledgeable of this, most
businesses fell within the firstfive years, actually within the
first two years.
Yeah.
So the fact that you made itover that hump is a huge
success.
So you're obviously doing thingsright.
Thank you.
So what what do you think isyour separation factor?

(06:40):
How do you separate from otherfractional CEOs and non-the
philanthropy in general comparedto other people who kind of help
strategize, create that roadmap,and that that template?

SPEAKER_00 (06:52):
That's a great question.
And I would say there's twophases to that.
One is our core values, um, soour ethics, right?
And so we're in an unregulatedmarket, and unfortunately,
anybody can call themselves aconsultant.
And so people have a lot ofconsulting wounds.
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 (07:10):
Absolutely.
It's just like a bad banker,right?
You get a bad taste in yourmouth, and what do you do?

SPEAKER_00 (07:14):
Exactly.
And so uh the number onefeedback that we get
consistently across the boardfrom partners to clients to
people on our staff is how theyfeel um and how they're treated.
I just had a client tell us thismorning, um, thank you for you
know keeping the energy high,keeping it consistent.
They had a lot of differentthings going on in their
personal life, and we were ableto maintain momentum um to where

(07:35):
they don't feel like they wasteda very sizable amount of money
that they've invested so far.
Right.
And so that giving people thatfeeling, it's not just the thing
that we do.
And I tell people anybody canwrite you a strategy, but we're
gonna write a strategy for yourlife.
And we're not gonna say, hey, Ineed you to get it together and
fit in this box.
We're gonna say, let's build abox around you.

(07:57):
Oh, I love that you already havegoing on, what your personal
bandwidth is.
And one of the questions that weask in our needs assessment is
how do external relationshipsimpact you in business?

SPEAKER_02 (08:08):
Oh, can you say that again?

SPEAKER_00 (08:10):
How do your personal relationships impact you in
business?
Your friends, family, children,and you'd be surprised people
start having revelations aboutwhy they're not successful, and
they're like, Oh, yeah, I dohave to reschedule meetings a
lot because I'm a soccer mom.
Yeah, and I'm like, okay, thenwhy do you keep scheduling
meetings at that time?

SPEAKER_02 (08:27):
You know, and so it's the little things we know,
but when you say it out loud, itchanges a lot.
So you you found that gap wherepeople were really the questions
you needed to ask to get theresults that they wanted, I
guess you could say.

SPEAKER_00 (08:41):
And that leads perfectly to the second part.
You you framing that?
Yeah.
The second part is we have acurriculum that I have developed
over the last 10 plus years.
So I love reading, I loveeducating.
Um, and so my degree wasactually in education.
Wow.
Uh in in arts performanceeducation.
And so I try to observe andcorrect a lot.

(09:03):
And so over time, I'm like,okay, these are the common
things that I see.
And that has turned into anentire six-stage development
program that has uh curriculumattached, it has criteria for
how to identify who falls withinthat and what type of resources
they're likely to need as abusiness.
And right now it's prettyfail-proof, which is solid.

SPEAKER_02 (09:21):
Wow.
And you know, so much of ourculture nowadays is so really
emphasizing, I think of thecorporations are really
emphasizing that work-lifebalance and that sense of
relationship.
Yes.
Right?
I mean, I absolutely hate itwhen I'm called a salesperson or
I do not sell, I do not want tosell to you.
I hate it when people sell tome, just so y'all know.

(09:44):
But if you create a relationshipwith me, if you're actually
interested in what I have to sayand you don't waste my time or
you know, the the resources Ihave, it means so much.
I am so committed to whether I Ican use their services or not,
I'll I'll pass it around, right?
So do you feel like the abilityto create relationships and fill
in those gaps for youspecifically is something you

(10:06):
kind of naturally grew upknowing, or do you think it's a
it's a factor that a lot ofbusiness owners need to learn?

SPEAKER_00 (10:14):
That's a great question.
I love your questions.

SPEAKER_02 (10:17):
I I love that you enjoy them.
Um I'm completely off scripttoday.
Yeah.
But I mean, these are realquestions that I think other
business owners that whetherseasoned or not, they really
need to know this because atVent Trinity, we kind of we kind
of do the same model, but interms of marketing, right?
So I can promise you a lot and Ican take a lot of money, but who

(10:38):
know I can't tell whether or notit's gonna come out good.
So we take that away, right?
And we do the build launch growscale methodology we talked
about.
But the most important part Ifeel is that discovery process
ahead of time.
We have to know who you are.
If you know who you are, and ifnot, let's establish that before
we decide to commit to anything.

SPEAKER_00 (11:00):
And that's what we do during our needs assessment.
And we say, Hey, are we a goodfit?
And we actually have a workflowin our back end, our back office
model called not a good fit.
And it's our not a good fitworkflow because we don't want
to ever just drop people off,which kind of ties into your
question about therelationships.
Absolutely.
Um, and so what we tell peopleis after conducting a needs
assessment, whether you decideto move forward or whether we

(11:20):
decide to move forward, eitherway, you're gonna walk away with
a deeper understanding ofyourself, a greater
understanding of where yourbusiness is, and we want to have
that lasting impact in yourjourney, whether you give us
money or not, because we sharetime and space together.
That's right.
And so um I think naturally I'ma very empathetic person.
And so I've always valuedrelationships, uh, but not to

(11:45):
the expense of myself.

SPEAKER_02 (11:47):
So has that always been though?
Uh is that something you had tolearn?

SPEAKER_00 (11:52):
That's kind of like my nature.
Uh I could tell you a storyabout when I was in like middle
school or something, my veryfirst like friend girl like
fallout situation, and two of myfriends like cornered me on the
bus.
It's like six o'clock in themorning, and they're like, I
don't even remember what theywere saying.
They probably had validcriticisms about something about
my personality, who knows?
Right.
But I just was not feeling it.
And so we got off the bus busand they're like, You didn't say

(12:13):
anything.
And I'm like, I didn't, what doyou want me to say?
I listened.
Right, right.
Right.
And they're like, Well, we'retrying to, we're trying to
strengthen our friend circle andda-da-da-da-da.
And I was like, Well, it soundslike you don't want to be my
friend.
And they were both quiet andthey looked at each other and
they were like, How is that whatyou took out of what we said?
And I was like, Well, I justlistened to you say all these
things you don't like about me.

(12:33):
And I'm not interested in beinga different person, so it sounds
like we're not a good fit forfriends.
And I walked off.

SPEAKER_02 (12:40):
If we could just put that in a reel, that phrase
right there, and just remind mychildren, everyone of it on a
day.

SPEAKER_00 (12:47):
We're not a good fit for friends, and so I just
realized that it's not worth it.
Um, and that's kind of just beenmy motto through life, and I
kind of coached other peoplethrough it, and I would tell my
friends by the time we got tohigh school, I had a whole
phrase like um OPP.
I'm like, oh, that's OPP, andI'm like, other people's
problems.
Yeah.
Like, you cannot adopt otherpeople's problems.
And so OPP emoted.

(13:08):
Other people's problems.
And so yeah, it sounds like apersonal problem.
And so I kind of just like hadthat personality where I'm a big
lover and I love people, but ifyou're not feeling me cool, I'm
not gonna try to convince youfurther than that, and I'm just
gonna keep it pushing.

SPEAKER_02 (13:21):
Right.
You have strong boundaries andawareness of what your
capabilities are, right?
I feel like a lot of um, I mean,me included, I have a a business
outside of this, and it's sohard for me to separate because
being empathetic and caringabout what you do and building
relationships is all things weneed, but it's so easy to lose

(13:42):
track of time, to lose track ofpriority.
Yes, especially in a business, Ifeel.
Yes.
Um, and so it's it's a biglearning curve for a lot of
people.
Do you agree with that?

SPEAKER_00 (13:53):
I agree, it's a huge learning curve.
And so that's why we ask thatquestion in the needs
assessment.
It kind of helps give us, andthere are a few other related,
there's a whole relationshipsection.
So there's about five or sixquestions in the relationship
section.
Wow.
And so from there, when uhsometimes people will fill out
the questionnaire before theneeds assessment, but either
way, we I always spend the mosttime there.

(14:14):
Um, the other technical businessthings, those are things I can
see on paper once.

SPEAKER_02 (14:18):
Right, I can see your Google.
You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (14:20):
And so I I spend a lot of time there and I train my
team to spend a lot of timethere and make that the bulk of
our qualifying process umbecause that tells us their
capacity.
And so I think that we havepeople who come along who have
great self-awareness of theircapacity, and then we have
people who come along who don't.
And then what I think is mostimportant is depending on the
duration of our projecttogether, where your position is

(14:42):
in life may change.
Things come up.
You may have felt reallyconfident in your relationships.
Maybe there's a detriment toyour marriage halfway through
our project, what's gonnahappen.
Right.
Right.
And so we still want to knowwhat people's perspectives are
and what their um what's theword?
Expectation, maybe?
Expectation.
There's a phrase uh that'sslipping my mind, but it's

(15:02):
basically like how risk averseyou are.

SPEAKER_02 (15:04):
Um you're a risk authority or no, something on
the other thing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (15:09):
That that thing.
But people think about it forlike money, but they don't think
about it with relationships.
And it's really the same thingpsychologically, emotionally,
it's the same thing.
I have an e-book called ThePsychology of Sales, and I talk
about how um buying is anemotional process.
Everybody thinks that buying islogic.
It's not, it's mostly emotional.

(15:31):
And then in the in the intro ofthat book, I say, if you wake up
tomorrow and there's moneymissing from your account that
you didn't know was gonna begone, the first thing that
happens is not a thought, it's afeeling.
Oh the very first thing, if yousee a minus six thousand dollars
that you weren't expecting,you're gonna feel something in
me.
To my stomach.
It's a feeling, it's not a it'snot a logical thing.

(15:54):
Oh, true.
Same, the opposite is the same.
If you wake up tomorrow andthere's six thousand dollars you
weren't expecting to get, you'regonna feel.
Wow.
You see, and so the ourrelationship with money is more
emotional than we realize.
And so once I figured that out,it really helped inform the rest
of my process of being able tohelp understand how people see
their relationships because nowI know how you're gonna react to

(16:17):
the ebbs and flows of money inyour business.

SPEAKER_02 (16:20):
So important.
Yeah.
So how they um kind of structurehow a client kind of structures
their relationship with theirstaff, their business, and in
their personal life is all afactor into you deciding if
y'all can be mutuallybeneficial.
Yes.
Wow, that's 100%.
It's amaz that's an amazingmindset.
I say that it's amazing, but Ifeel like a lot more of our

(16:41):
society is moving to that.
But they don't have the capacityyou do to see fill in those
gaps, right?
So, what would you say um is asuccess story of yours?
Something you're really proud ofin your business and what you've
done.

SPEAKER_00 (16:54):
Oh, thank you.
Oh man, by God's grace, I have alot of those.
And I would say um I'll give youmy top three.
Okay.
Um, what my first year ofclosing five-figure deals in my
business, which was 2021.
Wow.
2020 in 2021, I closed my firstfive-figure deal, and I was
like, oh, that feels good.

(17:15):
And I did a couple more timesand I was like, oh, I can do
this.
Uh just before I had staff oranything.
And it was just me.
I was just the independentconsultant.
Maybe I'd hire somebody for helpfor short stints if I got a big
project or something like that.
But um, that client, I wasactually able to help uh raise
$10.5 million in investments fortheir business.
Wow.
Um so they actually came to mejust for a dick.

(17:35):
They just wanted a proposaldeck, and I was like, hey,
that's not how that works.
Like, what's going on?
It we have to talk about likewhat is your strategy?

SPEAKER_01 (17:41):
What's the ROI?

SPEAKER_00 (17:42):
What do you mean, you know, and so he ended up
being a client because he'slike, Oh, I hadn't thought about
it any of that.
I was just gonna put the deal onpaper.
And I was like, but what is thestructure of the deal?

SPEAKER_02 (17:50):
If I'm a business owner, if you're looking out for
me, we're gonna talk a littlebit more, right?

SPEAKER_00 (17:55):
Yeah, exactly.
And so that's that's that wasone, and these are in no
particular order, just my topthree, probably equivalent,
equivalently.
Um, I would say the second oneis there's a nonprofit called
Rebrand the Man, um, and theyfocus on mental health for men
and uh in the belief that youknow mentally and emotionally
strong men in communities makestrong communities.

(18:17):
Absolutely.
Because mentally, emotionallydamaged men are very detrimental
to communities.
And so there's a man, um, CoachKyle, Jay Kyle, he's an author,
super, super awesome guy.
Um, we helped him fromconception to now he is like
partner with Nami.
Um and so he he has like theseinitiatives, these build-outs
and curriculum and uh thesegroups with men.

(18:41):
And so being able to see likehis heart, his idea go from the
beginning, you know, all the wayto being a fully realized and
functional nonprofitorganization with great
relationships, that's a huge onefor us.
So we we love when people areable to go through the process
from start to finish.
And so it's a rare find.
Uh and so huge gem.

(19:02):
And then I'll say the last onewould be our Dallas College
project.
So we were able to work withDallas College for the Dallas
College Venture Club, aka D C VC, which is a program for
non-degree seeking communitymembers.
Okay.
It's a pilot program that'shappening right now at the Bill
J.
Priest Center uh in like theCedars near downtown.

(19:24):
Okay.
Um, and it's a co-working space.
And the co-working space isdesigned to say, hey, the
college is here, it's a resourcecenter.
So what you're not pursuing adegree, come in and utilize this
resource, and the objective isto get entrepreneurial
development.
Um but they were having adifficult time deploying it,
right?
They tried to launch it a coupletimes, and there was a lot of
different the co-working spaceum specifically the whole

(19:46):
concept.
Oh, okay.
So yeah, so the space itselfwould be used.
Okay.
Um, but the concept of like theresource was falling flat.
Um and so we came along, andonce we did an audit, I was
like, hey, what you think theproblem is here is not actually
the problem here.
Um and there's a few otherthings that are going on, and so
we ended up um securing at firstthey laughed at first because

(20:08):
they were like, Oh, you're smallbusiness and we're at Dallas
College.
And I was like, and so I kept, Iwas like consistent, you know?
Yeah.
Um, and then we were able tosuccessfully secure a
three-month contract, and thenlike six weeks in, they were
like, Can we follow anextension?
And I was like, Yeah.
And so we were able to have thatthat project for a year.
Um and so we, yeah, that's thevideo we use now in our proposal

(20:29):
deck when we do uhconsultations, is being able to
show, like, uh we have a videointerview for our point of
contact, Danika Hirschberger,who's the community manager
there.
Um, she she's giving herfeedback of where we are, we're
like halfway through, and thenthe other clips of the video are
for towards the end.
So you get to see kind of likethe middle point of where she
was after we kind of cleanedeverything up and put, and she's

(20:51):
like, all right, so fingerscrossed that it'll work this
time.
And then by the end of thevideo, it's like this huge
successful event that we wereable to throw.
And yeah, we covered everythingfrom data implementation to um
how their KPIs are recorded andperformed.
What does measurement look like?
How do we actually quantify ourobjectives and then set
strategies to accomplish them?

(21:12):
What does that look like withrelationships down to helping
write the job description forthe person to run it?
Which is important, which isimportant, and then train her
like we talked about earlier.
So they took that fork in theroad, right?
And so we were able to train andonboard and implement the model
and then support her, and theidea the event was her idea,
which was great.
Um, and we came behind her andit was it was a really awesome,

(21:33):
really, really fun.

SPEAKER_02 (21:34):
Emphasize that event.

SPEAKER_00 (21:36):
It was really awesome.

SPEAKER_02 (21:37):
That is a great um, those are great success stories.
And and ideally, every businessowner wants a success story
right there.
And so you mentioned two thingsthat we follow as well.
One, the customer journey andyour sales process.
Whether you have one or not, doyou feel like you have to have a
customer journey process foryour clients?
100,000 percent.

SPEAKER_00 (21:58):
That's actually a service, it's actually a startup
service that we offer.
So in our in our developmentservices, there's a package
specifically for that.
That's how important it is.
Wow.
And so we're like, hey, it'sjust a thousand dollars.
We made it very affordable.
We have Klarna, you can split itup.
That's how important this is.
I need you to do this first.
This is one of the very firstthings that you need to do.

(22:18):
Um, and the reason is because,and I just give you a quick
analogy.
Would you get in a car withsomebody if they didn't know
where they were going?

SPEAKER_02 (22:26):
I mean, yeah, no, no, it depends.
It does depend because mycoworkers do it a lot with me,
and it's like, why do y'all keepdoing this to yourself?
But you're right.
If I if I don't feel like youare knowledgeable about where
we're going, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (22:39):
Do you know how to drive?
Like, you see what I'm saying?
And I come from a generationbefore a GPS.
So I feel like me getting in thecar, like, I feel like the
younger generation, I'm like,yeah, I get in the car, I'll
just, I'll just pull up my sharemy location.
I'm like, but when we weregrowing up, there was no sharing
my location.
I need the address.
There was no, I need theaddress, I need to know where
I'm going.
And so it's like I'm notcomfortable, you know.
You remember being in highschool with your friends, like,

(23:01):
do you know where you're going?

SPEAKER_02 (23:02):
I had a maps go in the car with me under the seat,
just pull that thing out.
So, you know, yes, we so howdoes that to to touch on that?
The generations, right?
I mean, every single decadewe're gonna have different
generations.
How has your growth in yourgeneration, not having cell
phones and things like that,transitioned into business and

(23:24):
throughout the years?
And how do you think it'simpacting our market right now?

SPEAKER_00 (23:28):
Oh, that's a beautiful question.
I'll say for me, it helps methink long term because I know
how fast or slow things canwork.
Um, because I'm a big, big, bigreader.
My teachers used to always likeI was a kid that came to school
early and went late, so I couldsit in my teachers' classrooms
and ask them questions.
Um, because I'm like thecurriculum is boring, so I I can
tell you no more and I want toknow that other stuff.

SPEAKER_02 (23:49):
I'm sure they love it.

SPEAKER_00 (23:50):
They loved it, they loved it.
And so um from there I learned alot about like the economy and
stocks and all kinds of stuffthat you wouldn't normally learn
in high school because myteachers were happy to share
information with them.

SPEAKER_02 (24:00):
And you were enjoying hearing and receiving
the information.

SPEAKER_00 (24:04):
Yes, and so I'm very grateful for that.
And so from there, watching justkind of my my my love for data.
I didn't know I had a love fordata, I didn't know that's what
it was, I didn't know how todescribe it as that until I was
in like college.
Um, but my love for likeinformation and people and just
kind of understanding how thingswork.
I was that kid that tookeverything apart and tried to
put it back together, right?

(24:25):
So, how does this work?
And so me figuring out, okay,people kind of work the same.
And then I as I began to studyand like history, I'm like,
people are not as different,we're not as unique as we would
like to think we are.
Okay.
And so even though we arespecial in our own way, we're
not as unique as we exactly aswe would like to think that we

(24:46):
are, our psychology, ourfeelings, like these things, a
lot of things are kind ofgenetic or physiological, and we
think it's our personality, butit's actually physiological,
like it's our physical bodies,especially with women and
hormones and the whole thing,right?

SPEAKER_02 (25:02):
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 (25:03):
But that's why we're able to relate because certain
things are just physiological,otherwise, it'd be just humanity
would be all over the place.

SPEAKER_02 (25:10):
Right.
That's why they call it like agrieving process when someone
passes away.
Yes.
You don't know you're gonna gothrough these phases, but there
is a template for these phases.
And it's so funny to watch, notfunny in this sense, but it's so
funny to see people and how theydo behave the same way and they
had no knowledge of it,especially emotions.

SPEAKER_00 (25:27):
Exactly, and can be in different environments
growing up, different uhsocioeconomic status, like
there's in there's these thingsthat are in common.
So when I started learning, huh,I wanted to know what else is in
common.
And so I went on a journey todiscover, and I'm still on that
journey of discovering whatthings are in common, you know,
in life.
And so how that relates, Ithink, to our economy right now

(25:48):
is you see these industryshifts, and people have a, you
know, they right has their ownidea of why they think shifts
are happening, whether it'spolitical or economic or social.
But the reality isphysiologically, we are all
wired to survive.
And so Ebbs and flows, right?
Exactly.
And so if all humanity is likepushing in one direction, then
we're all just trying to push, Ithink, to the same direction of

(26:11):
figuring out what works best forthis environment.

SPEAKER_02 (26:15):
You have a wonderful, wonderful way of
putting that in a frame whereyou can really visualize it.
I picture a sea of fish, youknow, and we do, we we are
always pushing forward.
How we get there is variable.
So, how do you you take that andbecause you care and because you
create relationships, you'veyou've generated this wonderful,
wonderful process and now have ateam.

(26:37):
Um, can you tell us or tell someof the business owners
listening, or maybe evensomebody that's trying to become
a business owner, what would youhave told yourself when you were
in that phase that you feel likewas pivotal for you to learn?

SPEAKER_00 (26:53):
Write your processes down on paper.

SPEAKER_02 (26:56):
Not on the computer?

SPEAKER_00 (26:58):
On paper.
Okay.
Why?
Yeah, on paper.
So like writing, when there's apsychology to writing that you
don't get out of typing.
Um between like tactile of doingthe actual motions of creating
the words and your thoughts, itmakes your it forces your brain
to focus on what's mostimportant.

(27:18):
Um because when you're typing,think about how many times
you've wandered off while you'retyping.

SPEAKER_02 (27:22):
I think my kids have a picture of me sleeping while
I'm typing what they're sayingand my eyes are closed.

SPEAKER_00 (27:28):
You see?
So it's something because it'smechanical, we can do it sub
like unconsciously withoutactually being intentional.
Wow.
But when you write, if you fallasleep while you're writing, you
can see the it's a straightline, it fit lines.
It's it's gone.
The words are gone with yoursleep, right?
So writing helps your brain likeum centralize and focus and

(27:50):
prioritize its thoughts.
So you're gonna be more clear.
You're gonna also think aboutthings that are more relevant,
right?
Because think about how, like,okay, grocery list.
Your mom, right?
So I think if you have to jotdown your grocery list, you're
gonna think, uh, I also needright.
But that doesn't happen ifyou're like typing.
You're just like, oh, I justneed so true.

(28:10):
But if you're when I type mygrocery list on my reminders,
ten times out of ten, I'm gonnaremember something else when I
get to the store.
I'm like, oh dang, I forgot toput, but when I jot it down and
I write it, I'm like, oh, I alsoneed, and I also need, and I
also need.

SPEAKER_02 (28:23):
Wow, that that that's profound because I just
got done telling you rightbefore we got on the call, it
was amazing how you couldmultitask.
You were reading something andyou were able to hear what I was
saying, and that's hard for alot of people to do.
I would not suggest that.
Yeah, don't do that.
Oh, by the way.
But I was so impressed.
You just told me and framed itin a way where I noticed that
I'm doing those thingsnaturally.

(28:45):
So I would have never understoodthat had you not kind of framed
it in that way.
And I feel like that's whatseparates you.

SPEAKER_00 (28:51):
Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 (28:51):
Um, do you feel like you have that ability to um see
what others don't in your lineof business?

SPEAKER_00 (28:58):
Yes, I think a lot of it is God-given discernment.
Um, and I remember I was on abank call one time and a guy
asked me, How'd you come up withthis?
And I was like, prayer andfasting.
And he was like, What?
Put him off guard.
He was so confident.
I was like, Well, yeah, and Iwas like, I mean, that's my
answer.
I'm not gonna lie to you.
I'm not gonna make somethingelse up to make you feel more
comfortable, but it would be alie.
So that's that's the truth umand the reality of it.

(29:20):
And so I thank God all the timefor giving me the mind that I
have, giving me the heart that Ihave towards people, and and
being ethical and honest.
And um, and so yeah, I do thinkI had that ability, but I think
what's more important is thefact that I like to teach other
people.
I don't want to harbor myabilities to myself to elevate
myself, uh, but I I acceptelevation so that I can share

(29:45):
information like this, right?
And then people can share theinformation and so on and so
forth.
Because a lot of the knowledge Ihave came from someone else that
I listened to.
And then I read and then Ilearned more, and so it kind of
just creates that cycle of umlearning.
Which is actually one of ourcore values.
Our last core value is love, um,conditionally.
And if everyone is giving, thenno one has need.

(30:07):
And so if we're constantlygiving information, then it
naturally manifests back to you,right?

SPEAKER_02 (30:13):
Exactly.
That's wonderful.
So, what are your core values?
You'd mentioned them earlier.

SPEAKER_00 (30:16):
Yes, honesty, um, always be impeccable with your
word.
Transparency, it creates roomfor growth.
Growth being a mindset that ismore it's that one, I want to
pause on that real quick.
Because everybody's like, oh,growth, growth, growth, growth,
impact.
It's like, no, it's more of amindset than it is action.
Right?
Because to to grow, you have todecide that you're gonna do it.

(30:40):
Otherwise, when things come up,you will choose not to do it.
And now you're not growing it.
So are you actually right?
So that's the whole thing.
We can have a whole nother.

SPEAKER_02 (30:49):
No, people say it all the time though.
But it it at the end of the day,you can say you want to grow,
but the actionable steps are soso so very different.
And the willingness to learn.

SPEAKER_00 (30:59):
Yep.
That's that decision partbecause you have to decide like
I'm gonna do what's required,whether it's learning something
new, spending more time, takinglonger than I thought it was
gonna take, you know, and like,oh, I thought I was gonna do
this in a year, and it lookslike it's gonna take five years,
and you just come thatcommitment.
Right.
Um, so honesty, transparency,growth, wealth, wealth being
wisdom, wisdom.

(31:20):
I love that.

SPEAKER_02 (31:21):
The wealth being wisdom is is very different than
what you would normally thinkwould come from that.

SPEAKER_00 (31:25):
Yeah, yeah.
Just like this wholeconversation and and you know,
your feedback to me aboutmyself, that's wisdom, right?
And it's my pursuit of wisdom,me choosing to pursue wisdom
above anything else is gonnaautomatically trickle over to
everything else.
Yes.
Um, and and that's the scriptureactually, and all that getting,
get understanding, right?
So it's if you if you're seekingto understand, then you'll know.

(31:48):
Um, and then last is love.
So honesty, transparency,growth, wealth, and love.

SPEAKER_02 (31:52):
And what encouraged you to create those core values
specifically?
I mean, your definitions and thereason behind it is obvious, but
what caused you to really wantthose and embody those?

SPEAKER_00 (32:02):
My own journey with instability.
My own journey of being kind ofalmost frivolous.
I think I was like in my 20s, Iwas very kind of just like
working with the wind.
But when I got closer to uh Iokay, I tell people when I
turned 25, I had a quarter lifecrisis.
And I love it.
Okay, quarter life crisis.

(32:23):
I had a quarter life crisis at25, and I was like, what am I
doing with my life and wherewhere I thought I was gonna be
versus where I was, and I didn'tactually complete my degree at
Baylor, I was almost done.
My family's like, what the heck,you're so close.
And so I needed like I neededlike 60 something hours or
something.
Just the pressure, and it wasjust it was just so many
different things, and I didn'tfeel like I really knew who I

(32:44):
was, and I felt like my identitywas culminated of people's
observations of me.
Um, and because me being veryoutgoing and you know, and
intelligent and things likethat, those things I didn't feel
good making those things thefoundation of my identity.

SPEAKER_02 (33:02):
Um and so I when you transitioned to this business
specifically and you createdthese core values, those were
the specific things that youkind of learned from when you
were going through those phases.

SPEAKER_00 (33:14):
Yeah, that's what so I took out of that season of my
life going through that processof who who am I and taking time
to really learn and discoverthat.
I was like, okay, what are mypillar values?
So the the company core valuesare my core values.
So those are just my core valuesof who I want to be as a person
and my mission in life to impactpositively.

(33:36):
So I'm like, okay, well, if it'sa good formula, it's a good
formula.
So let's just repeat, repeat itover here.

SPEAKER_02 (33:41):
Absolutely.
Don't don't change what worksalready, right?
And another, I think it's a I'mpretty sure it's a scripture.
I say it so much, it might aswell just be my quote.
Um, but it's slow to speak andquick to listen.
Yes.
I I I try to remind myself ofthat all the time because it's
amazing what you'll learn if youjust stop to listen to what
people have to say.

(34:02):
Now, in your sales process, um,we go through build, launch,
grow, and scale.
Where do you think you are, notso much in the sales process,
but as a business, what phase ofbuild, launch, grow, and scale
do you feel like you're in rightnow?

SPEAKER_00 (34:14):
I feel like we teeter back and forth between
grow and scale.
Um so I think that's the naturalflow once you get to a certain
point.
Otherwise, it's plateau, right?
Um there's three options, right?
It's one of those three.
It's gonna be one of those.
So I feel like we're cyclingbetween that.
Um our core team keeps growing,right?
So last year uh our core teamgot to it was me and one other

(34:37):
person, and we kind of wouldcycle out everyone else.
Uh, then we developed aninternship program actually a
year ago this month, uh, whichactually really helped.
Really?
In what sense?
Um, so our team, our core teamas of today consists of seven
people on our core team, andthen we do an internship program
three times a year.
So our team floats between 12 to15 people throughout the year.

(34:59):
And so, yeah, it helped meinform what roles I really need
and helped speak to that coreteam because as I had interns, I
was like, ooh, I kind of needsomebody here all the time.

SPEAKER_02 (35:12):
Like, can you just stay overnight?
I completely so do you feel likeleveraging the interns and
having that those extra handsperiodically is something that
was pivotal for you and yourbusiness?

SPEAKER_00 (35:24):
Oh, a hundred thousand percent.
Actually, UTA really helped mewith that.
So we're a UTA Mavs partner, soUT uh UT Arlington.
And yeah, so they have a lot ofprograms for development.
So I always recommend, so that'sa plug, shameless plug, yeah.
UTA, become a UTA Mavericks Edgepartner.
They accept businesses from ideastage all the way to huge
corporations, and you get tointermingle in those

(35:44):
environments.
Wow.
It's really, really impactful,and they support you in
developing your your internshiprelationship with colleges.
Wow.
And so since I didn't have tofocus on the relationship part,
it allowed our team to focus onokay, well, how are we utilizing
this relationship?

SPEAKER_02 (36:00):
The process.

SPEAKER_00 (36:01):
The process and all that.
Because usually it's like, okay,well, we gotta get in there and
how do we access?
And when access is no longer afocus, you can actually create
strategy.
And so that's kind of how thathappened.

SPEAKER_02 (36:10):
Yes, and you made that sound very easy, but uh
there was like four steps inthere that are like mountains
instead of rocks to climb over,right?
So you had the relationshipportion down, and that's
something you can't teach aswell as you can teach other
things, right?
The analytical side.
So that took a huge chunk out ofwhat you had to kind of work
through.
But strategy, process, and andreally getting your clientele to

(36:36):
that next phase, the buildlaunch grow scale phase, because
you want to see that, right?
Like you said, like that's thereason you got into this.
And there's so many businessowners I talk to on a regular
basis, and they are very artscreative minds.
They are very, they havewonderful ideas that you know
can make money, but they have ahard time having that structure

(36:58):
that you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 (36:58):
And we call it dropping the ball at execution
in our office.

SPEAKER_02 (37:02):
I like that.
What what caused you to createthat line at execution?
Dropping the ball at execution.

SPEAKER_00 (37:06):
Because I just observation.
Same.
Remember, I told you likeobservations and me just like
getting understanding.
I was like, people just drop theball at execution.
Like they're great at planning,they have great ideas, they're
very creative.
And it's just like, okay, well,what's the reason you're not
following through?
Right.
And something, this is where theball is being dropped.
And so that's where we come in.
And that's our motto is listenwell, serve well, be the bridge.

SPEAKER_02 (37:28):
Oh, I love that.
That motto.
I feel like it's very importantsince you've mentioned the core
values and the motto that eachbusiness I think that's a
starting point in reallyunderstanding what you're doing
in your business.
Are you really aligned?

SPEAKER_00 (37:42):
What's the culture?

SPEAKER_02 (37:43):
Yes.
And so let's talk about that fora minute.
From from hiring to toonboarding new clients, um, what
culture do you have your staffembody?
Do you want them to embody thesame culture, the same core
values?
And in that sense, um, do youinform your your clients or your
prospective clients on what yourculture is and what you'll abide

(38:03):
by ahead of time?

SPEAKER_00 (38:04):
Yes, both of those.
So we do both.
Um, and we during our employeeonboarding or our team
onboarding, we go over it, we goover it in interviews also to
make sure that people know whatthe culture is to make sure that
it's a fit for them.
Um like maybe it's too soft oremotional for you.
I mean, we're our business, likeit's a high-paced environment,
fast-paced environment.
But um, does this work for you?

(38:26):
Are you committed to pursuingthese things?
Because if you're not long storyshort, I tell people if you
you're just coming here for acheck, it's not a good fit.
You have to be committed tobecome a better version of
yourself because we're that'swhat we're doing here.
I don't want the only thing yougain out of working for me to be
that you made more money.
I want you to say that youwalked away a better version of

(38:48):
yourself.
I've been blessed and fortunateto have those kinds of
experiences.
So I want to create thatexperience for other people.
I went to Baylor.
Baylor gave me huge experiences.
I I know what I do now because Iwent to Baylor.
Right.
And so being able to say, okay,well, now I know that culture
and that's the culture thathelped me be successful, I want

(39:09):
to emulate that culture in myown way in our business.
And then we do the same thingwith our clients um during the
consultation process.
Uh we we lead with like, hey,we've been talking a lot about
you because we want to make surethat we're not wasting your
time.
But now let's take a step backand let you learn more about us.
And then we bring them in, andthat's when we bring them into
the fold of our culture and letthem know what to expect.

(39:31):
And we are do it.
I've learned to do itconsistently.
What do you mean byconsistently?
So I used to only do it in thebeginning, and then and I think
it was in like with a specificclient or with all of your
clients.
With all of our clients, I wouldjust talk about culture, the
culture of working with us inthe beginning of the process.
Yeah, like a checklist, like ohuh, and then it was gone.
Like the sales process,introduction, check.

SPEAKER_02 (39:52):
And you go over all the other information in between
and it's lost.
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (39:55):
And then there would be a degree.
I lost a lot of money in 2023.
Yes.
I lost a lot of money in 2023,and I was like after COVID.
After COVID, and I was like,what's happening here?
Like my contracts kind of likefell apart.
And I was like, where did the mmomentum go?
Right.

(40:15):
Because it wasn't anything thatI did.

SPEAKER_02 (40:17):
So your onboarding process, you said you hit that
hump at 20 or 2023, right?
Okay.
So tell me more about that andhow you recognized it and and
how you adjusted.

SPEAKER_00 (40:27):
Yeah, so I was like, um, man, are people not buying
into the value?
Uh there was there's a varietyof feedback that was happening.
There are people who didn't feellike they wanted to pay what
they first agreed to pay, sothat's a value issue.
Um, there are people who decidedthat this is more work than what
they anticipated, which is stilla value issue.

(40:49):
That's just a personal value.

SPEAKER_01 (40:51):
Absolutely.
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (40:51):
And so I was like, okay, well, is it my
communication?
What is it?
And so I've made a lot ofmodifications and I spent 2020,
I spent the rest of 2023 and2024 really trying to fix our
messaging and say, okay, well,where is the communication
breakdown happening?
And then I realized fromfeedback from our clients by

(41:12):
actually asking them, hey, theseare the problems we're having
transparently.
And I want you to give mefeedback on your experience.
Okay.
Um, and all of my clients kindof like took accountability and
it was still that whole, we'reblame, I'm blaming myself.
I feel like I'm inadequate inthis environment.
But my observation that I gotout of that information was, oh
no, I'm not holding your handenough.

(41:34):
Uh I need to actually hold yourhand the whole way.
I thought I needed to just holdyour hand to lead you here, but
I actually have to walk youthrough here.
And I didn't realize thatbecause I'm we think of the
world based off how we are, andI'm such an independent thinker
and doer, and you show me.

SPEAKER_02 (41:50):
I assume everyone's like it, right?

SPEAKER_00 (41:52):
And I was like, girl, that is a bad business
model because there aredifferent types of people out
there.

SPEAKER_02 (41:56):
100%.
And when you just assume thatpeople are going to do that, it
it's bound to have contractsfail.
I mean, acquisitions not gonnahappen, right?
Um, so how did you really honein on what your pain point was?
You mentioned that you used tosay your core values in the very
beginning.
These little shifts, when do yousay it now?

SPEAKER_00 (42:15):
Um, so we say it different ways.
Or express it.
Yeah, we express it differentways.
We do kickoff and wrap-upemails.
Um so every Monday and Friday,our clients get an email.
There's like an inspirationalquote in the beginning.
It's always relevant to theirproject, so it's not like, oh,
here's a random quote.
And I just felt like so.
Our team actually is reallyintentional about it.
They take their time, they takepassion.
And our team, like our projectmanager, he's he'll he'll call

(42:38):
me, he'll be like, hey, I wasthinking about this for the
quote for today, but I don'tknow if it makes sense.
And so it's not like, oh, I'mjust Google searching something
and dropping your email.
I'm not sure.
Or AI is writing it, GPT.
Exactly.
I'm thinking about how is thisgonna impact and inform your
project so I can keep yourmindset in the right space
throughout this process.
Um, we also, after theonboarding process, we do like a

(43:02):
new client packet.
And it's more, it's more likeit's personal.
So it's like now we got thecontract down and all the
technical, legal, and all thatkind of stuff.
Let's talk about what's yourwhen's your birthday?
You know what's your what's yourfavorite color?
What's your favorite snack?
And it's literally a form andit's brilliant.

SPEAKER_02 (43:22):
You create that that personal kind of after you've
onboarded them.
Yes.
Because I mean that that's agreat point to point out.
They're going to a business.
If they're coming to you, theywant to see that business
structure and flow.

SPEAKER_01 (43:33):
Yes.

SPEAKER_02 (43:34):
Do I really want to get to know personally?
That's a great thought for a lotof our business owners to think
about.
Um, you really have to not beselfish, I guess, in a sense.
You cannot think about how itaffects you.
And you mentioned somethingabout your team.
Yeah.
That your team came to you andwas kind of toying with the
quote.
The the embodiment of thecommunity and the relationship

(43:58):
and the communication it seemslike you have with you and your
team.
Did you intentionally do that?
Or did it naturally and has ithelped?

SPEAKER_00 (44:04):
Um, it wasn't naturally.
I've actually had to read books.
I was afraid of leadershipleadership.

SPEAKER_02 (44:09):
I think a lot of people have that fear of
success.
I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 (44:12):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (44:12):
Unconsciously, right?
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (44:14):
Yeah.
I was afraid of it.
Um, I was mainly afraid of thefinancial responsibility of like
being like, dang, I'm kind ofpaying people's bills.

SPEAKER_02 (44:22):
Why aren't I paying mine?
Right.
I think we've all had thatrealization at one point or
another.

SPEAKER_00 (44:27):
Yeah.
So it was that at first.
And then also, because I have avery strong personality, I
didn't know, like, okay, well,how do I manage people um
without feeling like I'm losingmyself?

SPEAKER_02 (44:40):
Or without pushing them or not doing enough for
them, right?
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (44:43):
Like, I don't want to be a crutch because I've I
think I've been all the things.
I've been overbearing before,I've been absent before, I've
been a crutch before.
I've been like, I had to gothrough all those phases.
There was no way for me to skipit.
There is not like a 50 steps tosuccess.
It's just like you have to learnyourself.
You have to learn, I have tokeep learning myself as our team

(45:04):
grows and you have differenttypes of personalities.

SPEAKER_02 (45:07):
There's so many variables in business and life,
right?
And I I really want to emphasizewhat you just said.
You make it sound so nonchalant,but three things you say, the
the relationship you have withyour team.
Um, how to think proactively ineverything you do?
Um, would you say is a big Ithink it's a big failing point

(45:27):
in a lot of industries andbusinesses, small, medium, or
large.
Yes.
If you forget to ask yourclients, like what do you feel
the process went?
How did you feel like that?
You're intentionally avoidingsuccess.

SPEAKER_00 (45:41):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (45:42):
Would you agree?

SPEAKER_00 (45:43):
Yeah, I think people are more if I hurt your feelings
when I say this, I'm sorry.
Like I'm gonna hold y'all'shands when I say this.
Most people are more attractedto the glory and the gain over
the grit.

SPEAKER_02 (46:00):
The recognition.

SPEAKER_00 (46:01):
You know, yeah, they want they want to have the
persona of the power and theauthority that comes with having
a position in a market.
But do you actually want to putin to what is required to get
out of that?
You know?
Um, and so I think that's wherethe breakdown happens because I

(46:22):
just I just had to decide.
Like that growth, that growthpillar, I had to decide, and I
have to continually decide umhow I want my team to feel.
Like my team made me very, very,very upset on Friday.
Just so y'all put it I'm notgonna put them out.
Yeah, I'm not gonna put them outthere for what happened, but I
was just not happy, and I waslike, you guys, I'm not happy.

SPEAKER_02 (46:44):
And I was like, their performance or the energy,
yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (46:47):
Yeah, no, it's the performance.
It was it was a big ball drop,it was an obvious ball drop, and
nobody caught it.
And I was like, why am I eventhe person that's having to
bring this up?

SPEAKER_02 (46:56):
Right, because we're always learning.

SPEAKER_00 (46:57):
Yeah, I was like, you guys, we before before we
even got here, this questionthat I'm asking, this is who
would have been responsible towhere these are the this is the
boundary that was here toprevent us from getting to where
we are.
And so I don't understand whythat didn't happen, why nobody
asked for help, why it hasn'tbeen addressed.
And I'm not happy about it, butbecause and I literally said

(47:19):
this to them, because I respecteach and every one of you as a
person and as an adult, I'mgonna end my communication about
it here.
But I want you to insertwhatever else you think needs to
be said out of my frustration.
And then we were just sat therein silence for like maybe two
minutes, and then I moved on.

SPEAKER_02 (47:37):
I appreciate that silence though.
Just just sitting there lettingeverybody soak it in.
Just fill it in.
So, what do you do in thatsituation?
I've um personally and inbusiness, I've watched people
refuse to acknowledge where theyare, whether it's good, bad, or
indifferent, if you can't saywhere you are as a business

(47:58):
owner, successful or not, I feellike eventually your business
will will start to trickle, ifnot plateau, fall.
Yeah.
Would you agree with that?
100%.
And how did you know?
In that moment or overall?
Overall, I would say, because alot I think a lot of us struggle
with this.
One, the humility of acceptingthe fact that we're not perfect

(48:19):
and we make mistakes.

SPEAKER_00 (48:20):
Oh, it sucks.

SPEAKER_02 (48:21):
And learning from them because you can't learn
from them if you're notadmitting that you did anything
wrong.

SPEAKER_00 (48:25):
100%.
Uh it's pride.
I just you just have to decidethat you want success more than
your pride and your ego.

SPEAKER_02 (48:32):
Humility.

SPEAKER_00 (48:33):
Yeah, it's the humility.
And so, I mean, there's beentimes where invoices was late,
so payroll has to be late.
I think that was the hardestthing for me.
Small business owner, like nothaving payroll funding and
trying to support our actualcash flow through our business
without having that.
So, for people who don't haveaccess to those things yet, it
was very, very troubling for me.

(48:55):
And it was it it impacted medeeply.
And my husband was like, Hey,you gotta emotionally detach
yourself to this process.
And that was just like lastyear.
And I was like I was like, Okay,all right, because for whatever
reason, it was like, I don'tknow, it was nothing crazy, but
everything was late.
And I ended up fixing it.
The problem in thataccountability, I learned that

(49:19):
not running from the problemhelped me fix it.
Um, my team is really great,they refined, right?
Nobody like left.
I think I had one person who hadto leave, and I was like, I
completely understand.
Like that I I had a I calledeverybody into the office.
This is where we are, this isthe date of expectancy that I
expect things to kind of likebalance out.

(49:40):
Can you stay or can you not?
Uh give you time to decide.
You don't have to decide in thismoment.
I know you weren't expecting toget this information.

SPEAKER_02 (49:47):
The transparency.
It's refreshing.
Thank you.
Yeah, let me know.

SPEAKER_00 (49:52):
And so we had most of everybody was like, no, we're
here.
We're here, we're doing well.
Um, on paper, we're doing well,we know we're doing well.
The flow is not flowing the waywe need it to, time-wise.
And so we tied up our systems,tightened up our processes, and
like, how can we prevent this inthe future?
Turns out, like, the way I wasdoing accounts receiving is all
wrong.
I'm not an accountant at all.

(50:12):
And so I needed to change theway that my bookkeeping was
being done in relationship tolike dates and time, and give
myself enough window between theexpected pay date, the payday,
the maturation rate of myclients, and then pay parole,
and it was just a whole lie inyour cost.
It was, yeah, it was a lie.
It was a lot.
And I was like, okay, we'regrowing into what I was doing

(50:34):
before doesn't work anymore.
And then I had a revelation andI was like, how will I ever know
that stuff isn't working anymoreif I'm afraid to address it?
And so it's like, okay, well, Ihave to, and so now I kind of
run towards it because I'm like,okay, well, this is gonna help
me inform me faster if somethingis broken and I can fix it and
be proactive, like you talkedabout.

SPEAKER_02 (50:55):
Wow.
And and are you sharing thatwith your team?
Are they are they embodying thesame kind of energy to resolve?

SPEAKER_00 (51:01):
Yes, for the most part.
For the most part.
You have you there's differentpersonalities, so different
people, I I think tenacity islike a personality trait.
Absolutely.
So the more tenacious people onmy team are very, very, very,
very proactive.
Um, and the people who are notnaturally have a desire to be
and they take accountability.
Interesting.
Um, and so it's a really goodenvironment because it's like,

(51:22):
hey, I I I want, I doconsistently tell my team like
fail fast.

SPEAKER_02 (51:27):
Ooh.

SPEAKER_00 (51:27):
Fail fast.

SPEAKER_02 (51:28):
And why is that?
Why is that a motto?

SPEAKER_00 (51:31):
Because one, I mean, this is a business and it's
gonna cost money regardless.
And so I'd rather spend one dayof your payroll figuring out
that this is a problem than 10.

SPEAKER_02 (51:42):
So say it out loud.
Listen, guys, if any of you feeloffended by that, can you call
her, please?

SPEAKER_00 (51:48):
Please.
I just told my friend like lastweek, I was like, I watch, I
can't watch office humor likevideos because as a business
owner, I don't think most ofy'all's jokes are funny.
I'm just like, that's not funny.
Yes, your boss told you that.
What's wrong with you?
Do you want to get paid?

SPEAKER_02 (52:03):
Like, okay, we need a show for business owners
specifically, because I was justgonna ask that.
The ability to lead and theability to do your job in the
most optimal way are you candefinitely have those traits.
But putting those two together,I feel like are very difficult.
And so, how do you do it?

SPEAKER_00 (52:22):
Oh, that's a good question.
I don't even know, Kirk.

SPEAKER_02 (52:25):
Well, it seems like you're very much a trial and
error kind of person.

SPEAKER_00 (52:28):
Yeah, 100%.
100% trial and error andconfidence.
So I do things confidently.
I'll say that.
Like, um, even if I'm not sureit's gonna work, I'm gonna do it
all the way.
Otherwise, we'll have dirtydata.
That's what I tell my team.
I'm like, hey, you gotta haveclean data, like you gotta go
all the way through it.
If you give up halfway, then youwe don't know.
Did it actually fail, or did itlook like it was gonna fail and

(52:48):
then you gave up?
Or like it's just or didsomebody just forget that day.
You know, it's too manyvariables, and so as long as you
go all the way through, then wecan look at what we did and then
make an informed decision fromthere.
But if you stop halfway throughor three-quarters of the way
through in the beginning, you'realways living in pivot land,
right?
Yeah, um, then it's like, okay,well, we're not getting anywhere
because we're just kind ofspinning it.

SPEAKER_02 (53:10):
There's no defined process, right?
You always have to go back tothat floor plan and that
strategy, which is everythingthat you guys do.
Um, for the hand holding in yourstrategy.
Sorry, I'm reeling back to thatbecause I think it's important
that clients and business ownersunderstand that we're not you're
not demeaning the the fact thatpeople need to be walked through

(53:32):
things.
That's what makes a lot ofpeople, I feel like, say, okay,
I'm not gonna ask that becausethat's a stupid question, right?
My kids say it all the time.
That was a stupid question, so Ididn't ask.
Nothing is stupid when you askthese questions.
If you don't ask them, thenthat's the ignorance, right?
And to to walk somebody througha process that they're ignorant
about, especially a businessowner.
You have time, you have payroll,you have other things you have

(53:53):
to optimize and focus on.
Before we kind of wrap up, canyou tell us some upcoming events
um that you have going on thatyou're really proud of and want
to share with your team?
And then also, how can theylearn more?
We can't fit it all in one hour.

SPEAKER_00 (54:08):
No, we can't fit it all in one hour.
Uh so we actually are nothosting any events this year.
I thought about doing some forGlobal Entrepreneurship Week.
Uh, but we'll be attending a lotof events.
So we try to show up.
So if you have an event, let usknow.
I do.
Uh yeah, and we'll show up andsupport.
And so if not our our wholeteam, then we kind of like split
up and to manage ourrelationships to make sure

(54:29):
everybody feels supported.
Um because if we try to all goat once, then we'll only be able
to go so often.
Yes.
Um, so we we attend anywherebetween two to four events per
week collectively as a team.
Uh, and then uh things that arecoming up for us, we do have a
support group for entrepreneurscalled Breaking Sealings.
Um, and it is exactly what itsounds like breaking ceilings.

(54:51):
And so we want to get people outof that plateau, and it really
addresses essentially thispodcast.
This podcast is actually areally great plug.
I didn't do it on purpose.
Shout out to it's all kind ofmine, yeah.
It's adma being adma, walking,walking your purpose.
Um, but yeah, that that group isone, it's accountability.
Um, it does have very strictrules, uh, and it does teach you

(55:14):
like, hey, if you need to behandy held, like don't feel like
that's an insult, like to yourpoint.
Like, be honest about that andbe bold.
And so it empowers our clientsto be able to learn, hey, I need
help and learn and grow thathumility.
And so it's the environment thatwe use to cultivate that culture
that we talked about.
That's why.
And so it's a new thing, but wewant to do it, and so it's the

(55:35):
beginning step, it's very, veryaccessible.
Um, and so it's just like, hey,let's do this for you know, it's
$150 a month.
So$150 a month is enough for youto care, right?
Because that's it's a sizableinvestment, enough to pay
attention to.
It's not something you're gonnaforget about.
Um, but it's not so much that itshould cause any kind of you
know, financial stress.

(55:56):
Right.
So you go on that program monthto month, we do like group
coaching, group workshops, likedifferent people on our team are
going to be doing workshops.
Uh, we'll have partners come inand do workshops, like community
partners in their respectiveareas of uh expertise.
Would love to have you do aworkshop.
Absolutely.
I would love to.
Yes, and then yeah, and so uhthat's the same.

SPEAKER_02 (56:16):
So the support group uh um is called Breaking
Ceilings, and it's for thoseentrepreneurship business
owners, right?
Yeah.
So where is that being held?
And is it online?
Is it digital?

SPEAKER_00 (56:26):
So it's digital and it's actually in our website.
So on the back end of ourwebsite, it kind of looks like a
forum almost.
You can also download an app.
Um so it looks almost like aFacebook group, uh, is the
closest thing that I can compareit to.
So you can post like videos andphotos and uh things like that.

SPEAKER_02 (56:40):
And so yeah, it's where can they find you on
Facebook while I'm on thattopic?

SPEAKER_00 (56:44):
Yeah, so our best social platform is LinkedIn.
Yeah.
So if you look up for usanywhere other than LinkedIn,
it's probably gonna beinconsistent.
But we're really strong onLinkedIn and our website and
Google.
Those are our three primarydigital footprint channels that
we use for acquisition and newclients.
And just our presence, right?
Interesting.
And so Queendom Arts.
Queendom Arts.

(57:05):
So Q-U-E-E-N.
D-O-M.
D-O-M-A-R-T-S.
So Queen King Queendom, justlike Kingdom, Queendom Arts.
At no, that's oh,QueendomArts.com, that's right.
And and then on everything, it'sconsistent across the board.
So all of our platforms are thesame.
You don't have to try tomemorize different versions or
iterations of them.
They're all the same.

SPEAKER_02 (57:26):
I love that you recognize that, guys.
That's really important for yourorganic SEO.
If you want to be ranked higher,make sure everything matches.
So thank you for pointing thatout.
And I need to have you onanother podcast because
everything you've given ustoday, well, we could talk for
hours, I'm sure.
But it it is it is great to hearfrom an experienced business

(57:47):
owner how you've succeeded.
So, congratulations.
Thank you so much.
And I can't wait to have you onagain.
To all of our listeners outthere, please, please, please go
see the queen, visit thewebsite, see what she can really
do.
Because when you do everythingwith intention, it's bound to be
successful.
Until next time, we'll see youthen.