December 16, 2025 • 47 mins
In this episode of the Business Roundtable Podcast, David W. Carr, founder of Steward Your Business, sits down with Stephanie Simpson, founder of Brand-ification, to explore the powerful intersection of leadership, message clarity, and brand confidence.
Stephanie shares her journey from Warner Bros. to launching a brand strategy firm that helps business owners define who they are, what they stand for, and how to communicate it clearly. Together, they unpack why so many professionals struggle to articulate their value — and what it really takes to create a brand that connects.
What You’ll Learn:
Connect with Stephanie Simpson
🌐 Website: https://brand-ification.com
📧 Email: stephanie@brand-ification.com
🔗 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stephaniefifesimpson
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/business-roundtable--6049255/support.
Watch more episodes on YouTube and subscribe here:
https://www.youtube.com/@steward_your_business
Connect with Steward Your Business:
Website: https://stewardyourbusiness.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwcarr
Stephanie shares her journey from Warner Bros. to launching a brand strategy firm that helps business owners define who they are, what they stand for, and how to communicate it clearly. Together, they unpack why so many professionals struggle to articulate their value — and what it really takes to create a brand that connects.
What You’ll Learn:
- The real difference between branding, marketing, and messaging.
- How to identify and speak directly to your ideal clients.
- Why clarity beats cleverness every time.
- How to “duplicate yourself” through better communication and systems.
- The missing link between brand clarity and leadership alignment.
Connect with Stephanie Simpson
🌐 Website: https://brand-ification.com
📧 Email: stephanie@brand-ification.com
🔗 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stephaniefifesimpson
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/business-roundtable--6049255/support.
Watch more episodes on YouTube and subscribe here:
https://www.youtube.com/@steward_your_business
Connect with Steward Your Business:
Website: https://stewardyourbusiness.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwcarr
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Welcome back to the Business Roundtable podcast. My name is
David Carr Founders do or Your Business, where we bring
people together to accomplish great things, and we do that
here on the podcast week after week, episode after episode.
And I'm excited to have another brand new guest this week,
Stephanie Simpson of Brandification. Welcome to the podcast. Stephanie.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Thank you, absolutely absolutely, I'm excited to dig into this
one because we're gonna do it a little different than
we've typically done on episodes because you have such a
great background in branding and marketing and positioning, and really
what I wanted to have you come on here is
like there's a really gap between companies about where they are,
what they stand for.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
How do they show up in the world, and how
do they diversify themselves. And I'm excited for you to
come on the podcast today. We're going to do a
kind of a working exercise. You're going to go through
look at Stewart your business, and give me some great feedback.
But before we jump into that, if you will, I'd
love you to just talk to our audience about your
journey in the branding space and why you created Brandification.
(01:12):
Now this this fantastic to have you here. So we
just walk us through a little bit of your journey, Stephanie.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Yeah, it's a long and winding road. But I started
my career off at Warner Brothers in the marketing department
at Warner Brothers Television and learned from a great marketer
there who ended up being the head of the all
of Warner Brothers marketing and she's incredible. And so I
learned about branding and about the importance of, you know,
(01:42):
showing exactly what you are so that you attract exactly
who you want. So that was a great learning experience.
And then over the years, I wanted to start my
own business. And I'm a photographer and a cinematographer. I
have a master's from an Art Center College of Design,
and so I had a photography business for thirteen years
and I concentrated on working with business owners and their
(02:08):
visual brand. And what I know is over time is
that business owners often don't understand their own business. And
so it went from instead of like can I take
a nice picture? Of course I can, but is it
telling the story of your business? Is it the right
picture to tell about your brand? And not everybody wants
to be the face of their brand, so it's important
(02:30):
to know, like, what's going to tell that story. So
I learned. I started coaching clients on how to stand
out in the marketplace and how to understand what their
company's all about and what they're passionate about, and how
to share that and communicate it. And over time I
found that the deliverable of photography was not as satisfying
(02:50):
as the deliverable of really helping people elevate their businesses
and attract more clients and feel proud of themselves they
had really done something extraordinary, from nothing into something amazing.
So that's kind of how that's my journey.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, no, I love it. But I mean, you are
such a talented photographer too, Stephie. So you guys, when
you go check out Gratification, you'll see some of her
work and connect with Ephany were connected on LinkedIn as well.
But I love that you st're saying, Okay, the photography
was an outcome, but you you what I hear you
saying is that your love of helping people understand what
they are, what their businesses are really about, how they're
(03:27):
really becoming, is really your passion. And that's where you've
come to gratification. Now it's like, okay, more than Yes,
images are important, but it's more than that outcome.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Yeah, it's making people feel good about themselves and the
things that they've created and nothing on. Business owners, like
entrepreneurs were like such a specific breed of people, and
we put our all and our hearts and souls into
these businesses. And if it's just kind of met at
the end and you're feeling a little bit of brand
envy or you're just not attracting the right clients, and
(04:00):
you think, what am I doing wrong? You know, I
love my business, but I'm just not getting what I
need out of it. And so most of the time,
the problem is messaging. The problem is understanding what you're
saying that's going to make you the obvious choice to
your ideal customers.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, I know you and I were talking before we
recorded this podcast, and one thing I wrote down that
you alluded to is that, you know, we were talking
about I think business focus. I got to get the LLC,
I got the formation, I got to get a website
or a logo. And what you said that stood out
to me was it really just a mirror back of like,
let me be a mirror back and what are you
really standing on? What is the foundation of what you're
(04:41):
trying to create here? And I think people don't understand
that they have some thought, possibly, but they get caught
in the other minutia. And what I found is that
they haven't spent the time necessarily working with somebody like you, Stephanie,
and I loved even before we recorded this podcast, you
gave me some more questions as the hohomework roll unpacked
to further get to the point of, like what do
you stand for? What are you all about? What what
(05:03):
makes you unique in the marketplace, because there's a lot
of people that can do, you know, leadership development and
other things that I do as part of your steward
your business and I'm excited for you to unpact this
with me today. Me too. Yeah. So with that, Stephanie,
let's let you lead the conversation a little bit of
like show us how you work, and we're gonna use me,
(05:24):
David car steward your business as an example of like
when you guys are working with the brand strategists like Stephanie,
what that should look like and how Stephanie's unique approach
with all of her background experience, So we're going to
be opening up the hood. I'm just gonna be transparent,
open here with you all. So you're gonna learn a
little bit more about steward your business today and let
Stephanie ask the questions and weren't have a dialogue back
(05:45):
and forth so you can start to see are you
applying these principles in your own business? And of course
follow up with Stephanie. As you hear these things, you're like, man,
I probably use her help. But Stephaniel, let you try
to take it away. As you're working with the client,
you're working with somebody, and you've looked at some of
my resources, my website, and I know you've got a
questionnaire that I filled out Once't you just walk us
(06:07):
through kind of the journey working with you?
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Absolutely. I think the important thing is to understand that
a brand is not a logo or a color palette
or the images that you use. It is who you are,
who you want to attract, and what makes you stand out.
And it's really really hard, it's so challenging to do
that from within your business. You know, they say you
can't see the label from inside the bottle well, it's
(06:31):
the same thing, and it's really difficult to do for
your own business to understand what makes me special, you know,
and it's not something we really dwell on in our lives.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah, you know, yeah, I can't even see you know,
I can't see it, right, you said, I love that
you can't see the inside the label and the inside.
So I love that you're going to provide an outside perspective,
having worked with so many different businesses and working with
entrepreneurs to give us and give me perspective.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah. So the framework that I work with is what
I call the five Pillars of marketing, and that's where
we start to understand what those are and then how
we're going to fill in the important information about you
into those five pillars. So the five pillars, with this
first one is understanding deeply your target audience, who specifically
(07:21):
are you trying to attract. And it's very unproductive to say, like, well,
anybody with a paycheck, you know, anybody with the yes, yeah,
you know, that doesn't help us, and it doesn't help
people refer us either, because they need to understand who
we are and what we stand for. So when they
see that person, they say, ah, I've got the person
(07:42):
for you. So understanding your target audience is foundational. That's
the most important first step. Second step is your messaging.
Understanding what to say to those people so that they
understand you and know what they're going to get out
of the experience. This is yournch ciators. The things that
help you stand apart in the marketplace, the things you're
(08:03):
passionate about, how you want to who you want to attract,
and how what's going to What can you say that's
going to make them say, Ah, they're the person that
they said the thing that's what I want. Number three
is content. Content marketing should be your foundational marketing. So
we're talking about blog posts for SEO, social media posts
(08:27):
for brand recognition and awareness, email for directly speaking to
interested companies. You know, that's your traditional inbound marketing, but
it can also be thought leadership, podcasts, it can be
other forms of content that you create. Some people want
to have content as the top of their funnel, so
they want to create all kinds of amazing tools. I
(08:48):
use HubSpot as an example. They offer all these amazing
tools and amazing education and certifications and stuff, all to
get you into their ecosystems, so that someday when you're
ready pay for their very expensive tools.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
We've got to get you in somewhere, somewhere in the
product for.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
You to grow to afford them, you know, to need,
and that's a very smart way to go. The fourth
pillar is growth marketing. So that can be public speaking,
it could be events, it could be affiliate marketing, it
could be referral marketing, it could be all kinds of
different things, but a system that you can use that
(09:27):
you can scale up or back depending on your needs
for acquiring new clients. So that's like sort of the
real engine to to your marketing funnel. And then the
last one is what I call infusion, which is really
infusing who you are and what your brand stands for
into everything that you do. That's the customer journey. That's
(09:50):
how you speak to customers, how your team is trained,
who you hire, it's everything that you do. So it
could even be like I only buy recycled paper, or
you know, I believe strongly in the environment, So these
are the things that I'm doing to exemplify those and
to so once you have all of those pieces in place,
(10:13):
you are a rock solid brand. You are really speaking
the right message to the right people and closing those sales.
So that's kind of where I start, and so I
want to start this sort of process with you and
learn about your business and then how you can refine
your messaging and it's showcase and shine a light on
(10:39):
your differentiators. So first things first, I want to know
all about your target audience.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Sure, no, thanks, Stephanie. Well it's Stewart your Business. You know,
we're all about bringing people together to accomplished great things.
So it's all Stewart is a big important word too
because meaning coming from my biological background working in environmental
consulting services, industry, architecture engineering, my own consulting professional services,
if you will, that's been part of my life's long
(11:07):
journey of like how do we take care of resources?
And so people are your greatest assets. So in that,
Stewart your Business was formed in twenty twenty two as
a way of helping business owners and individuals, particularly those
on a leadership journey moving from a technical specialist subject
better expert to manager and ultimately a leader within a company.
(11:28):
And what I found, particularly with small business owners, typically
of less than fifty employees, is that they didn't have
a strong leadership team underneath them, and they didn't have
the people there that could run the business for the
business owner. The business owner had to stay actively involved
and they didn't have that. So, having been in that
journey of building a company working with another company called
(11:51):
Barcas for four and a half years, we went and
took it from about twenty twenty five employees to over
eighty employees in four years, generating a million in revenue
our first year I came on board, and multiple revenue
multiple millions over the next few years. So there's a
lot of scaling challenges there to get the right people
in the right place, equipping them to not just have
technical skills, but to have leadership skills to address the
(12:14):
challenges that they're facing as you grow a company. So
that's where I start. Stephanie has been focusing on those
businesses that have fifty employees or less, typically that are
usually under several million in annual revenue. Some could be
as high seven or eight million in avenue revenue. You're
still having this challenge of growing a leadership team underneath
you that know their place, know their voice, know how
(12:34):
they work together with the team and that's where it
have been and what's excited about stear of your business
has been growing this particular in twenty twenty five is
to offer that for those I love working in the
business owners and their teams, but subsequently that there's one
avatar the other avatars for that individual that is the
up and coming. There may be the new department head,
(12:55):
director or the group manager, and they have they're solid
on their technical skills because that's why they got promoted up,
but they don't have the leadership skills. They haven't developed
an awareness perhaps even of their understanding of who they are.
And this is my own journey. So I'm speaking to
the people that I've been in this journey because I
was in this place and so they're they're throwing everything
that they can in that in the business, trying to
(13:18):
do the right things of the business or where they
think a leader should be, only to be frustrated that
people aren't following along, they're not trusting them, they're not
getting them the credibility that they want to have. And
meanwhile they're burning that. They're just focusing on that, and
you know, they're letting other areas of their life that
might you know diminish as well because they're trying so
hard in one area. So we try to look at
it holistically because I've been there. I've been married twenty years,
(13:39):
got teenagers, been through this process. So it's both that
business owner and their team and the individual. Those are
the people I strive to serve, Stephanie.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
So is the individual paying for their own coaching or
is the company paying for the coaching?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
So too prong It could be both. It could be both.
Typically though it's been the business owner because they're able
to afford it, they can have there's a higher ticket
offer there, and I'm doing coaching and consulting with them. However,
seeing that there's a need and not every businesses unfortunately,
we'll cover that. I have been growing a group coaching
(14:17):
program so individuals can also invest in themselves Stephanie and
have that as another option, another way for them.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
To work with me, and that would be a different
price point than if through a company. Okay, correct, yes,
all right, So you're that business owner and you want
to grow and scale your company, but you can't duplicate
yourself yep. Would you say that that is the pain point,
that's where you want to grow but you're stuck at
(14:44):
a level because you can't do everything yourself. Is that
fair to say? That?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Absolutely is fair to say. I mean most of the busines,
especially in this particular industry, Stephanie, they started because they're
very smart at what they do. Technically, they started a business,
and that's great an of us do, but then there's
a certain point of scalable or they hit a wall.
I'm working with a client right now, just to your point, Stephanie,
woman on business where she's bringing on the team because
she's like, I want I want to sell my company
(15:11):
at some point. And professional services company is only as
valuable as the team, the systems, and the processes you
have in place. If the owner is that the lynchpin,
it's really not worth very much at the end of
the day. Yeah, other than the revenue can create right
now for you. But once that, once you stop, that
goes away.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Right once you've left the business, you have not left
it in a place where you can exit gracefully and
the things will go on as usual. Would you say
that a good portion of your CEOs are in that
position they're looking for their exit strategy or to grow.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, I mean, definitely, I think the ones that are
forward thinking. Absolutely, Stephanie, I think that those are the
ideal clients because they already recognize that I have a
network with Synergy Partners, I would say, and so when
I were talking with people that work in murders and
acquisitions or private equity. When I talk with these companies,
one of the things they look at when they are
looking to buy or sell a company is what's the
(16:05):
strength of the team. And so that's another way I
look at bringing in clients potentially through them if they say, hey,
look they need to develop their team. But where I've
been working mostly with clients has been engineering, biological firms,
others that don't have that leadership team yet that can
do the project management, that can do the business development,
that can work cohesively with their administrative team and their
(16:28):
technical people that are in the field, and so there's
a breakdown and they're really if they don't have key people,
the company really is going to it won't be able
to survive other than the business owners really trying to
keep prop it up, and that's not sustainable. They get
burned out. Absolutely, So would you say.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
It's fair to say that one of your client avatars
are people looking to set up their business for sale
in the next five to seven years.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Absolutely, yes, okay.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
So I would identify that as a as a main
avatar so that you can then take that person and
speak directly to that person. So some of your marketing
should be involved in, you know, education on when to
do that. You know, should you start three years isn't enough,
you know, you need more time to build up your team.
(17:19):
So if you're starting to speak directly to that CEO
of a company, they want to scale it, maybe they
want to give it to a family member, maybe they
want to sell it, maybe it could be absorbed into
a larger company. That what will they need to do
to achieve that goal. That's where you step in and
can help them transition. Particularly with the fact that you
(17:40):
are targeting aec and environmental businesses, that gives you a
niche into that world as an avatar. So that would
be out.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
That's a real insight because I haven't I haven't I
don't think, like you said earlier in your pillars, haven't
stressed that as much extremely. I mean, I know it intrinsically,
but we're saying, as you're peeling back layers, run hearing
and saying, hey, make sure that you get that differentiator
out there, right.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
I'm also trying to find the thing that's going to
cause them to want to buy now, the want to
sign up with you now, and they need a reason
for it to be today. And the hard thing with
CEOs and the people who are running and doing most
of the heavy lifting with their companies is they're not
going to say, gosh, you know, I need some leadership
coaching because it's just not something that they're going to
(18:29):
want to invest time in. So you have to give
them a reason to want to buy now. So let's
think about some of the other avatars that you serve.
So let's say that overwhelmed person who wants to scale,
like maybe they've bumped up against a million or five
million that can never get above that level. What is
(18:51):
a pain point that's really specific that's going to cause
them to want to take action? Think about that person,
what is the pain point? Is it that they're always overwhelmed.
I don't want it to be a feeling. I want
it to be like a reason an outcome for their business,
because we don't take action for feelings.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Yeah right, Well, I will say for the business owner
that particular person where they're running up.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Besides, well you talked about selling their company. That's one way.
I think a lot of them do really care about
their employees Stephanie, and they recognize they're doing their employee
as a disservice because they can't provide the support that
they need. And what I found is there's a quiet
quitting sometimes or they're losing good people. And so I
don't think business owners recognize the cost. Maybe they theoretically
(19:47):
do it when I talk about talent recruiters things like that,
about the cost of finding a person, onboarding them, getting
them all trained up, and they have all this knowledge
and information. Right if that person and leaves, it's very comton.
You lose production. You have to find somebody else. Even
if you find somebody else, they take they take time
(20:07):
to get up to speed. So what I find is
you create a competitive advantage in the marketplace when you
have a strong culture, a strong team that works very
very well together, and every day that they stay together
you have you're you're going to be ahead of anybody
else that tries to get it in the game. So
from a business owner perspective, it's in their best interest
to make sure that that team feels either they we
(20:29):
talk about feeling, but they have a holistic approach. They
have there's trust, there's relational trust, there's alignment, right, so
that they can then okay, then it can scale and
there's people that want to come here and it's it's
a place that they are leaving a legacy, you know
that they're like, Okay, this is something really good, and
I want to make sure that it continues on, especially
beyond me.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Yeah, so okay, I still want to dig into that
a little bit deeper because it's still kind of amorphous,
you know, doesn't have a specific shape to it, and
I wanted to be pointy to be sure. So let's
think about that that inciting incident, Like we're thinking about
(21:12):
a script. You know, there's an insert book. There's an
inciting incident that you know all had breaks. So you've
got the CEO and they they they're overwhelmed. They can't
do everything if they're going to grow, So they need
to duplicate themselves, right, So that could be a question,
do you need to duplicate yourself? How do you train
(21:34):
up people you already have, or how do you identify
new candidates that can do what you do, so that
you can concentrate on the scaling piece and they can
do your operation, you know, in the business, not on
the business kind of kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
So that might be duplication is huge.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
That might be a word that would cause people, oh
my gosh, magic, can I duplicate myself? That's what I need.
Every business owner that's overwhelmed wants to be able to
duplicate themselves so that they can concentrate on the things
it's actually going to make the company grow. You know.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
No, that's a great point, jehany Well, even even I
work with a couple of clients that they have people
and then maybe they've quote unquote duplicated themselves to a degree.
But also what I found on these small companies that
that's good to a certain group, but then they have
only one person that kind of is still a keyholder,
like they know all the information at SILOED. So we
(22:30):
have to have redundancy. And I've known this over the
course of my career. So what's the redundancy that they
have in place? Maybe they can't do one hundred percent,
maybe it's seventy five eighty percent of whether you could do.
But if that person gets sick, they could leave. Something happens,
You're not going to be sunk in your business. And
so you know that that is really critical to maintain
their companies that they don't fall behind.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Yes, so what if there's three questions? Question one would
be sorry for me in my brain? How can you
duplicate yourself? Number two would be what if your right
hand person leaves? How can you structure your company so
(23:15):
that you can keep going and you're not going to
pull your hair out?
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (23:19):
And three, I want to I want to exit my
business in five to seven years or five whatever however
you want to say. So those would be three avatars
with really specific questions that would cause them to pull
(23:43):
the trigger and hire you. Yes, and you're such a
good you're such a good outreacher, and you met so
many people and you have a lot of consistent leads.
But you know, to have somebody say this is the
problem I need to solve today. It can't be a feeling,
can be a morphist. It can't be leadership or you know,
(24:04):
synergy or alignment. You know, like those aren't real things,
real things. I need another me and I need somebody
as a backup in case I want to go on
vacation and those two can still run the company, you know,
like it's a practical need. Okay, so let's start with that,
(24:24):
and then you can also add your manager. Do you
want help training them up to become one of those
you know, number two or number three on the totem
pol or do you need to bring somebody up? And
then as a separate avatar if you want to, you
could have it for individuals and say, maybe are you
(24:48):
never making it up the ladder. You're still a manager,
but you can't get to director. You're a director, but
you just get the VP and you can't find you know,
all the jobs you've been offered or lateral moves, that
kind of thing. Then that would be individuals coaching, So
that could be an ARM two of your business. You
have ARM one for the business and themselves and ARM
(25:10):
two for more like professional coaching. Yeah, absolutely, okay, so
we're we're good on those.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Yes, yes, yes, that's great.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Now let's talk about differentiators. So now now that you
have those three that are really specific and really hooking
the person, you.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Know, yes, why you.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
There are a million coaches out there and there's lots
of people that are there to help you scale and
growth and a line the teams. YAA, but why you
what is it that you're passionate about that are like
you really believe in that. It's like meaty goodness that
they can like you know, sink their teeth into.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
No, absolutely, Stephanie, I love that. No. I mean, like
I said earlier, you know, spending twenty five plus years
in this industry. I've been there from the literally from
out of college just starting my career environmental consulting and
marking my way up. So it's not that I've just
gone out and got some certificates and said I want
to be a coach and you know, hey, this is
(26:14):
my own personal journey and so I have done that.
And for those of you who connected me on LinkedIn,
you can kind of see my journey A very active
involvement with organizations, not just my organization. I've worked at
small firms, large firms, you know, worked at the County
of riverside of public sector. I've worked at volunteered with nonprofits,
(26:35):
and so I understand organizational structure very well. I was
the user group leader for del Tech Vision, which is
an enterprise resource planning software here in County La County
for many years. I helped found that group because I
understand the value of project management a member of Project
Management Institute, among others. So I'm very actively involved in
(26:56):
professional organizations understanding what they're dealing with on a day
to day basis, Stephanie. So this is you know, tried
and true, tested and worked on very you know, multi
multi million dollar large projects, working with companies, power companies,
and all sorts of different industries. So they're getting all
of that in addition to the tools. And that's where
(27:16):
I've worked with the existing clients because they know me.
I know the industry, I know the language, versus coming
out and having something coach that doesn't know that. You know,
I know my that's my my lane. So if you
asked me to do this, could I help in manufacturing? Probably,
but I'm not going to be effective because manufacturing is
not where I spent my career and I don't know
the workflows of exactly what they do or let's just say,
(27:39):
you know warehousing, right, So it's really the professional services
space I'm very familiar with.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Okay, I mean that's great background, that's you know, that
sort of is the validate like the base layer of validation.
But what why did you go into environmental consulting? Why
the environment? Like I want to know, Like I don't
(28:08):
want your resume, I want to know you.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yeah, well I saw. I saw the challenge of being
a technical person and having to step up into number
one management role and number two U technical leadership role.
And so what I saw was the challenge that people face,
including again myself, using myself as the avatar of I
(28:33):
didn't understand these skills and I still see the many
people to come out of college and they'll have technical skills,
but they don't have these other skills of who they are,
defining who they are, what they beyond their technical skills,
whether they're innate talents, skills beyond their technical skills, abilities,
and how to articulate those Well, so I did that
(28:55):
through a personal journey. But what I found is that's
why I targeted this industry engineer. They're very smart in
the head. They're very subject matter experts, biologists, archaeologists, cultural resources.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
They even physical therapists have are physical therapists. It's kind
of getting out of there there that left side of
the brain and to the right side and helping unlock
them if you will, uh, And that's a.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Passionate end, like what's you're unlocking them to? What end?
Speaker 1 (29:22):
To understanding and putting value language and value about who
they are innately, instead of trying to put on errors
or trying to behave or show up in something that
what I call it outward expressive behavior versus how are they?
How are there inly naturally designed? And I think a
lot of people show up because oh, this is what
society tells me to be, or my parents said I
(29:43):
should be a doctor, So I'll be a doctor. And
they can learn the technical skills and they can be
very effective in that, but the reality is to be
a leader you have to go beyond technical skills. And
maybe they have good management, if they've got a good
standard operating procedures, you can fill the boxes. But the
reality is what I found, as many people that can
get to that point start to not feel fulfilled. They
(30:05):
feel like a kind of a cup half empty, they
feel drained, they don't feel truly alive and living in
their full purpose. And so that's where my passion is,
or how do we create that space for them to
feel abundant instead of drained. And they know how to
they know how to work the system, they know how
to make money to a degree. You know they're successful.
They've had some level of success, right, it's just how
(30:27):
do we be successful holistically, like you said, living the
life that they really want?
Speaker 3 (30:33):
So clusion to that problem finding the right people who
can do the tasks and love doing the tasks that
you hate doing, so that you can spend more time
doing the things that you love to do. Is that
the That's.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
That's that's definitely part of it. That's one of the task.
What's one of the activities we actually do, Stephanie, I
work with them is like we break down what are
the things you're doing and one of the things that
are in your zone of genius that you love doing
that really fit with you, and then how do we
delegate again me being the connect here and bringing the
right people. It's like, Okay, well maybe you should not
be doing that anymore. We need to shift that. Even
though you can do it right, it's not the best
(31:08):
use of your time and energy. So let's get you
and what you're in being when you're in your zone
of genius, when you're in your zone of what you
do best, You're going to make more money, You're going
to create more opportunities for yourself. It's just it's a
natural law in the world. And then you're going to
also help other people. But there's there's a lot of
fear and an anxiety of people that I found, Stephanie,
that they want to hold onto position because they feel like, well,
(31:29):
this is what I've got, this is defines me, this
is my role, this is my title, and so they
hold very tightly to that only to their own you know,
demise if you will, because they don't realizing if you
can let go of those things and realize there's a
bigger picture. There's there's just an abundance of regeneration if
you will, over and over again. So it's me helping
them unlock that and knowing that that's what I've done
(31:50):
in my own personal journey.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Okay, I mean I like everything that you're saying, but
it still doesn't give me a thing that makes you
stand out the marketplace and make you the obvious choice.
I mean, really, why are you? We want to know, like,
why are you the obvious choice? And it can't be
systems and processes, it can't be it can't be your journey.
(32:14):
It needs to be something less deeper than that. Like
you know, you have a super passion for the environment,
or you have a super passion for builders, you know,
because they're creating something from nothing, or you or you
have a you have a way of pulling out the
(32:36):
talents out of the people that like the that's the.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Connector that's that's the that's the connection, like I said,
the foundation of like where you bring people together to
accomplish great things. So oftentimes you have people working in silence.
There's a great ted talk about called super chickens where
you have people that are isolated. This often happens in
an organization, or you have people that are siloed, or
you promote only one person as a high up and
then they kind of dominate. It's really it's I like
(32:59):
to use the Ghostbuster analogy, Stephanie, I am the person
that suggests, why don't we cross the streams? You know,
they're trying to take out the marshmallow man, right, and
they're all shooting. It's not working, And it takes one
person to say let's cross the streams and then, oh
my goodness, there's a multiplying effect. So that's where I
come into the multiplying effect exponentially when we take those
people that are trying to do everything and I come
in as a connector and I say, let's bring these
(33:21):
things in together and start to unlock. People like, Oh,
I didn't even think about that. I would know I
should be talking to that person. I'm like, yeah, absolutely,
you guys could actually have more effect together than you
would isolated in a loan just trying to push grind through.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Okay, here's a question. Would you say that you're able
to do that, execute that and sense the team and
understand the fields that are going on because you have
a very high emotional intelligence, yes, say that that is
like ingrained in you emotional intelligence. Yet you also have
a technical mind, which is why you like working within
(33:58):
that industry because it's very technical and science y, and
very often you have sciencey people who are not high
emotional intelligence people. So maybe you're the blending of the two.
Would it be is that your secret soft Well, that.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Definitely is yeah, yes, I mean I've done that. That's
how I did. That's how we grew the company from
you know, twenty five to eighty employees over four years.
As the connector. I was that person working well, very well,
Like I said, systems and processes to the point Stephanie
wore and I left that company after about six months
of being gone. That a person was very systems oriented,
(34:34):
good person, very just very systems oriented, but not the connector.
And systematically, one by one people left the company. They
didn't feel the connection. They didn't feel even though they're
doing the technical work. And that's what I find a
lot of these companies. They don't realize that they don't
they need both. They need both the's two sides of
a coin. We need systems and processes, we also need
the connection and helping people that view that.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Okay, as you were talking, the image that came into
my mind was two halves of the brain and the
bundle of nerves and synapses connect to the two sides
of the brain.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Is that you I like that? Yes? Yes, okay.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
So when when I'm a technical person a technical job
and I'm having a hard time with managing all the
fields of the people that are working for me, they're
driving me nuts because it's like all the fields and
you know this person and YadA YadA, and they just
they want to wash their hands of that as that
(35:27):
is not their core strength. Their core strength is the
thing that brought them into this very technical world to
begin with. They didn't get there from being emotionally intelligent.
But they need to have those skills in order to
be a superior leader, and they want to be a
superior leader and they want those problems to go away.
So they either have to hire somebody to do that
(35:49):
and help them facilitate that, or a team or HR
or you or whatever, or they have to learn those
skills so that they can head off those problems before
they begin. So like if you can do you see
how presenting yourself as that bundle of nerves between the
two hemispheres means that you speak both languages fluently and
(36:15):
you can help guide that that journey. Does that resonate
with you? Oh?
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Absolutely absolutely, because I've learned to appreciate the differences where
before they were, like you said, irritants, and you can
create a toxic and even work environment if you don't
understand how everybody works in appreciating that and drawing the
best out of each other. So that's where, yes, my
strength was in being able to grow and scale the
previous company I was with now and helping other businesses
(36:42):
unlock that. Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Okay, So now we need to connect the dots. So
now you've got your three avatars, and you've got your
differentiator of being that connector between right and your left
brain thinking people, the ability to bring empathy to the technical,
to be able to bring structure to the to the
(37:06):
people that are are more flowing and less rigid. So
you're able to do that and facilitate that with a
deep understanding of that work environment because you have all
of those years of experience in environmental and AAC and
you have the proof of concepts that you have grown
(37:27):
a company in that way. Then you have the pain
point of I want to grow my company so I
can exit, or I have the pain point of I
need to duplicate myself and I don't know how to
do that. So if you take all of those pieces
to me, that starts to create a cohesive brand. And
so now the question is does all that resonate with you?
(37:50):
You feel like, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
You've done a great job pulling pulling it out. I
love I love how I'm getting this and and thank
you Stephanie. I hope you guys are enjoying this. The Becau.
Stephanie is just a master at this, so you're getting
a masterclass here.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Well, now we need to think about how to execute.
How do you how do you bring that to life? Now?
One thing about your website is it has a lot
of content on it. There are many many words on
your website. But I did not notice anywhere on the
website that says that you work with environmental consulting firm,
your AEC companies. That didn't see any of that. I
(38:27):
also didn't see a pain point that would cause me
to say that I need that, I'll pay for it.
And so if you can take the tone down all
the words so that I don't have to read as much,
I don't want to have to work on a website
to have to work to figure it out. So if
right off the bat it is duplicate yourself, grow your
(38:52):
company for your eventual exit and and grow to you know,
fi fold, where your business five fold, like oh okay,
that's something different than aligning teams and synergy, which is
not very specific. So if you can change your messaging
(39:12):
to be more talking directly to those three avatars and
then your additional you could do a separate page for
your professional individuals for individuals, but your main customer, that
core customer is going to be those three avatars that
we talked about, So now you need to talk to them.
Are you this This is what I do, and you
(39:34):
can have a future of the brain and this is me.
Lookge right there, put your face right there.
Speaker 4 (39:39):
Right.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
So it's memorable and something fun. And you know, because
you're you're not a super serious guy, You're.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
You got to employ this. It's not I don't want
to be absolutely right, and you're.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
A nice person, and we don't want to see that
you're going to talk about like execution and executing and
you know, like you're going to be a lot more
holistic about your approach. So if you can talk those
people in the simplest terms possible, that really says, yeah,
that's me. I see myself there, and I now know that.
(40:16):
That's why I want to spend money to hire you.
I'm not going to hire you because I'm feeling something.
I'm going to hire you because I have a specific
business need and I don't know how to do it.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Yes, but you do.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
So that gives you your audience and your messaging and
then your content needs to speak directly to those people.
I need to know it. For sure. You've got a
lot of content on your LinkedIn, You've got a lot
of content on your website and your blogs, but I
don't know who you are. I just know that you're
active online.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
MM.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
I want to be able to know these are the
people that I serve, These are the you know, repeat it,
repeat it, repeat it like I could do in networking meetings.
It's every time. Well it doesn't hurt to do that
online like it seems like we're repeating ourselves, but really
we're educating our audience about what makes us different.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah, that's a good point. And I was to to say,
as you say that, Stephanie too, I think we get
like kind of I don't say numb to it, but
we like, Oh I think that because we heard it.
But many people haven't heard this. In fact, I was
talking to a gentleman that didn't eat three year email
campaign in Stephanie, and he said he would this, he would,
And he said this guy was on his email list
for probably nine or ten years, I don't know a
long time. He said, I just got your email, which
(41:39):
he probably got multiple times, but he didn't. But he
kind of got it in years past, but he didn't
do anything about it. But for this time he saw
it again or it came up and he got it.
He was like, oh my gosh. So to your point,
I think it's important to like remember that not everybody
is seeing I mean, we've got a lot of stuff
going on, so things. You know, you could post something
(41:59):
and you missed it, so maybe reposted again or you know,
and then you know if it's meaningful and it's on
point right Stephanie, or.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Just repeat it and everything. I'm this and this is
my job or I'm the person you know, I'm the
two halves of the brain. I'm you know, whatever your
slogan wants to be. And then I'm gonna encourage you
for in your H one title tag at the top
of your website above the fold, I want that to
be searchable so that right now it's not very SEO friendly.
(42:28):
Nobody's going to look for stewarding vision, like you're not
going to google that. So think hard about like how
somebody would google you, because I feel like a lot
of people say, well, I don't really get my clients
from Google. But what happens is, oh, I saw that
guy and he was in one of my things where
(42:49):
I was at a I was at a public speaking
thing and there was that guy. I don't remember the
name of his company. What if I just googled what
you has, maybe I'll find him, you know, and suddenly
you become findable by that person. Think to take your
card or whatever. One last thing I know that you
(43:10):
are doing public speaking, do you have a way of
capturing people's emails during those events?
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Yes? Yes, although it could be improved. I'll just put
it that way. It's a little clunky.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
So a lot of people who public speak forget that.
This this amazing time. Like, even if you can't sell
from stage, which is completely fine, you can still offer
a free download and put a QR code on the screen,
get people to get into your funnel, and then they
get the free download and return for their email address,
and suddenly you've got you know, the forty people in
(43:43):
that room or the one hundred people in that room.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Absolutely absolutely, I'm going to be speaking here next month.
So that's a great prompt that I can.
Speaker 3 (43:51):
Create a code and then all they have to do
is give their give their email and they can see
it right then and there.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
You know, it should be valuable content that relates to
whatever it is you were speaking about.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
Wow, this has been great, Stephanie. I mean you've given
me a lot of good things to think about. Consider.
I hope everybody you know I'm putting myself out there
because here's the thing. I want to be a better
business owner. I want to help steward your business reach
more people. And Stephanie here, thank you for sharing your
insights and perspective. I want to make sure you guys
go to gratification. You guys can check that out online
or of course connect with Stephanie on LinkedIn. You know, Stephanie,
(44:29):
we've covered a lot of different things. So if a
business owner is coming this, you went through your pillars.
But what would you encourage them to do if they're
listening to this of you know, in their own business,
where would you have them start?
Speaker 3 (44:41):
I would start, for sure, I would say two steps. One,
really think hard about your target audience and why would
they hire you? You know, what's a reason, real reason
that they would hire you? And then the next thing
is think about your differentiators. What am I passionate about it? Like,
I feel super strong that messaging is the key to
(45:01):
all of this, Like I feel passionate about it, So
you know, that's my differentiator. Like I'm not looking at
marketing with impressions and downloads. I'm looking at it from
what is it You're saying, it's going to connect with
the people you want to want to work with, So
I feel strongly about that. So if you can really
think about, like what you feel strongly about, like, it
can be hard to stand out if you're an accountant
(45:23):
or a realtor, or you know, or something you're the
services you're providing are often the same as the next guy.
But if you can figure out, like, well, I'm the
person who does this, I feel strongly about this, or
I offer my clients tools that they can use, or
or I'm I only offer this kind of service.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
You know.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
I have a friend who offers she has a sales
tax business. I mean, there's nothing less sexy it is business.
But she makes it interesting because she's super passionate about
helping small business owners with this like very difficult hurdle
and their businesses. And then she puts all kinds of
(46:00):
amazing pictures on the Internet and it becomes it becomes
a really interesting profession.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
Absolutely absolutely. Well, I'm so grateful that you came on
the podcast today. We're gonna have to have you come
back for sure, because I think this is fantastic and
I mean, you've got more insights. We just get everything.
But I'm glad that I could. You could walk me
through and you give me some number of actionable items
that I can do, and I appreciate that because at
the end of the day, I want to be able
to reach more people, help leverage the resources experience I've had,
(46:31):
and so you're giving me the ability to do that.
So thank you so much. Stephanie.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
Oh this was so fun. This is what I love
to do, and this is exactly what I do for
all my clients.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
You just got to like, you go there, you go.
Oh fantastic. Well, everybody, I hope you will follow along
for Stephanie, whether it's on YouTube or LinkedIn or wherever
you find this on your favorite podcast platform, share it
(47:03):
if you have value in this, and of course come
back and enjoy another episode the next time on the
Business Around People podcast. Thanks everybody. Thanks again, Stephanie. Next
time much Hi
Welcome back to the Business Roundtable podcast. My name is
David Carr Founders do or Your Business, where we bring
people together to accomplish great things, and we do that
here on the podcast week after week, episode after episode.
And I'm excited to have another brand new guest this week,
Stephanie Simpson of Brandification. Welcome to the podcast. Stephanie.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Thank you, absolutely absolutely, I'm excited to dig into this
one because we're gonna do it a little different than
we've typically done on episodes because you have such a
great background in branding and marketing and positioning, and really
what I wanted to have you come on here is
like there's a really gap between companies about where they are,
what they stand for.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
How do they show up in the world, and how
do they diversify themselves. And I'm excited for you to
come on the podcast today. We're going to do a
kind of a working exercise. You're going to go through
look at Stewart your business, and give me some great feedback.
But before we jump into that, if you will, I'd
love you to just talk to our audience about your
journey in the branding space and why you created Brandification.
(01:12):
Now this this fantastic to have you here. So we
just walk us through a little bit of your journey, Stephanie.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Yeah, it's a long and winding road. But I started
my career off at Warner Brothers in the marketing department
at Warner Brothers Television and learned from a great marketer
there who ended up being the head of the all
of Warner Brothers marketing and she's incredible. And so I
learned about branding and about the importance of, you know,
(01:42):
showing exactly what you are so that you attract exactly
who you want. So that was a great learning experience.
And then over the years, I wanted to start my
own business. And I'm a photographer and a cinematographer. I
have a master's from an Art Center College of Design,
and so I had a photography business for thirteen years
and I concentrated on working with business owners and their
(02:08):
visual brand. And what I know is over time is
that business owners often don't understand their own business. And
so it went from instead of like can I take
a nice picture? Of course I can, but is it
telling the story of your business? Is it the right
picture to tell about your brand? And not everybody wants
to be the face of their brand, so it's important
(02:30):
to know, like, what's going to tell that story. So
I learned. I started coaching clients on how to stand
out in the marketplace and how to understand what their
company's all about and what they're passionate about, and how
to share that and communicate it. And over time I
found that the deliverable of photography was not as satisfying
(02:50):
as the deliverable of really helping people elevate their businesses
and attract more clients and feel proud of themselves they
had really done something extraordinary, from nothing into something amazing.
So that's kind of how that's my journey.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, no, I love it. But I mean, you are
such a talented photographer too, Stephie. So you guys, when
you go check out Gratification, you'll see some of her
work and connect with Ephany were connected on LinkedIn as well.
But I love that you st're saying, Okay, the photography
was an outcome, but you you what I hear you
saying is that your love of helping people understand what
they are, what their businesses are really about, how they're
(03:27):
really becoming, is really your passion. And that's where you've
come to gratification. Now it's like, okay, more than Yes,
images are important, but it's more than that outcome.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Yeah, it's making people feel good about themselves and the
things that they've created and nothing on. Business owners, like
entrepreneurs were like such a specific breed of people, and
we put our all and our hearts and souls into
these businesses. And if it's just kind of met at
the end and you're feeling a little bit of brand
envy or you're just not attracting the right clients, and
(04:00):
you think, what am I doing wrong? You know, I
love my business, but I'm just not getting what I
need out of it. And so most of the time,
the problem is messaging. The problem is understanding what you're
saying that's going to make you the obvious choice to
your ideal customers.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, I know you and I were talking before we
recorded this podcast, and one thing I wrote down that
you alluded to is that, you know, we were talking
about I think business focus. I got to get the LLC,
I got the formation, I got to get a website
or a logo. And what you said that stood out
to me was it really just a mirror back of like,
let me be a mirror back and what are you
really standing on? What is the foundation of what you're
(04:41):
trying to create here? And I think people don't understand
that they have some thought, possibly, but they get caught
in the other minutia. And what I found is that
they haven't spent the time necessarily working with somebody like you, Stephanie,
and I loved even before we recorded this podcast, you
gave me some more questions as the hohomework roll unpacked
to further get to the point of, like what do
you stand for? What are you all about? What what
(05:03):
makes you unique in the marketplace, because there's a lot
of people that can do, you know, leadership development and
other things that I do as part of your steward
your business and I'm excited for you to unpact this
with me today. Me too. Yeah. So with that, Stephanie,
let's let you lead the conversation a little bit of
like show us how you work, and we're gonna use me,
(05:24):
David car steward your business as an example of like
when you guys are working with the brand strategists like Stephanie,
what that should look like and how Stephanie's unique approach
with all of her background experience, So we're going to
be opening up the hood. I'm just gonna be transparent,
open here with you all. So you're gonna learn a
little bit more about steward your business today and let
Stephanie ask the questions and weren't have a dialogue back
(05:45):
and forth so you can start to see are you
applying these principles in your own business? And of course
follow up with Stephanie. As you hear these things, you're like, man,
I probably use her help. But Stephaniel, let you try
to take it away. As you're working with the client,
you're working with somebody, and you've looked at some of
my resources, my website, and I know you've got a
questionnaire that I filled out Once't you just walk us
(06:07):
through kind of the journey working with you?
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Absolutely. I think the important thing is to understand that
a brand is not a logo or a color palette
or the images that you use. It is who you are,
who you want to attract, and what makes you stand out.
And it's really really hard, it's so challenging to do
that from within your business. You know, they say you
can't see the label from inside the bottle well, it's
(06:31):
the same thing, and it's really difficult to do for
your own business to understand what makes me special, you know,
and it's not something we really dwell on in our lives.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah, you know, yeah, I can't even see you know,
I can't see it, right, you said, I love that
you can't see the inside the label and the inside.
So I love that you're going to provide an outside perspective,
having worked with so many different businesses and working with
entrepreneurs to give us and give me perspective.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah. So the framework that I work with is what
I call the five Pillars of marketing, and that's where
we start to understand what those are and then how
we're going to fill in the important information about you
into those five pillars. So the five pillars, with this
first one is understanding deeply your target audience, who specifically
(07:21):
are you trying to attract. And it's very unproductive to say, like, well,
anybody with a paycheck, you know, anybody with the yes, yeah,
you know, that doesn't help us, and it doesn't help
people refer us either, because they need to understand who
we are and what we stand for. So when they
see that person, they say, ah, I've got the person
(07:42):
for you. So understanding your target audience is foundational. That's
the most important first step. Second step is your messaging.
Understanding what to say to those people so that they
understand you and know what they're going to get out
of the experience. This is yournch ciators. The things that
help you stand apart in the marketplace, the things you're
(08:03):
passionate about, how you want to who you want to attract,
and how what's going to What can you say that's
going to make them say, Ah, they're the person that
they said the thing that's what I want. Number three
is content. Content marketing should be your foundational marketing. So
we're talking about blog posts for SEO, social media posts
(08:27):
for brand recognition and awareness, email for directly speaking to
interested companies. You know, that's your traditional inbound marketing, but
it can also be thought leadership, podcasts, it can be
other forms of content that you create. Some people want
to have content as the top of their funnel, so
they want to create all kinds of amazing tools. I
(08:48):
use HubSpot as an example. They offer all these amazing
tools and amazing education and certifications and stuff, all to
get you into their ecosystems, so that someday when you're
ready pay for their very expensive tools.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
We've got to get you in somewhere, somewhere in the
product for.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
You to grow to afford them, you know, to need,
and that's a very smart way to go. The fourth
pillar is growth marketing. So that can be public speaking,
it could be events, it could be affiliate marketing, it
could be referral marketing, it could be all kinds of
different things, but a system that you can use that
(09:27):
you can scale up or back depending on your needs
for acquiring new clients. So that's like sort of the
real engine to to your marketing funnel. And then the
last one is what I call infusion, which is really
infusing who you are and what your brand stands for
into everything that you do. That's the customer journey. That's
(09:50):
how you speak to customers, how your team is trained,
who you hire, it's everything that you do. So it
could even be like I only buy recycled paper, or
you know, I believe strongly in the environment, So these
are the things that I'm doing to exemplify those and
to so once you have all of those pieces in place,
(10:13):
you are a rock solid brand. You are really speaking
the right message to the right people and closing those sales.
So that's kind of where I start, and so I
want to start this sort of process with you and
learn about your business and then how you can refine
your messaging and it's showcase and shine a light on
(10:39):
your differentiators. So first things first, I want to know
all about your target audience.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Sure, no, thanks, Stephanie. Well it's Stewart your Business. You know,
we're all about bringing people together to accomplished great things.
So it's all Stewart is a big important word too
because meaning coming from my biological background working in environmental
consulting services, industry, architecture engineering, my own consulting professional services,
if you will, that's been part of my life's long
(11:07):
journey of like how do we take care of resources?
And so people are your greatest assets. So in that,
Stewart your Business was formed in twenty twenty two as
a way of helping business owners and individuals, particularly those
on a leadership journey moving from a technical specialist subject
better expert to manager and ultimately a leader within a company.
(11:28):
And what I found, particularly with small business owners, typically
of less than fifty employees, is that they didn't have
a strong leadership team underneath them, and they didn't have
the people there that could run the business for the
business owner. The business owner had to stay actively involved
and they didn't have that. So, having been in that
journey of building a company working with another company called
(11:51):
Barcas for four and a half years, we went and
took it from about twenty twenty five employees to over
eighty employees in four years, generating a million in revenue
our first year I came on board, and multiple revenue
multiple millions over the next few years. So there's a
lot of scaling challenges there to get the right people
in the right place, equipping them to not just have
technical skills, but to have leadership skills to address the
(12:14):
challenges that they're facing as you grow a company. So
that's where I start. Stephanie has been focusing on those
businesses that have fifty employees or less, typically that are
usually under several million in annual revenue. Some could be
as high seven or eight million in avenue revenue. You're
still having this challenge of growing a leadership team underneath
you that know their place, know their voice, know how
(12:34):
they work together with the team and that's where it
have been and what's excited about stear of your business
has been growing this particular in twenty twenty five is
to offer that for those I love working in the
business owners and their teams, but subsequently that there's one
avatar the other avatars for that individual that is the
up and coming. There may be the new department head,
(12:55):
director or the group manager, and they have they're solid
on their technical skills because that's why they got promoted up,
but they don't have the leadership skills. They haven't developed
an awareness perhaps even of their understanding of who they are.
And this is my own journey. So I'm speaking to
the people that I've been in this journey because I
was in this place and so they're they're throwing everything
that they can in that in the business, trying to
(13:18):
do the right things of the business or where they
think a leader should be, only to be frustrated that
people aren't following along, they're not trusting them, they're not
getting them the credibility that they want to have. And
meanwhile they're burning that. They're just focusing on that, and
you know, they're letting other areas of their life that
might you know diminish as well because they're trying so
hard in one area. So we try to look at
it holistically because I've been there. I've been married twenty years,
(13:39):
got teenagers, been through this process. So it's both that
business owner and their team and the individual. Those are
the people I strive to serve, Stephanie.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
So is the individual paying for their own coaching or
is the company paying for the coaching?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
So too prong It could be both. It could be both.
Typically though it's been the business owner because they're able
to afford it, they can have there's a higher ticket
offer there, and I'm doing coaching and consulting with them. However,
seeing that there's a need and not every businesses unfortunately,
we'll cover that. I have been growing a group coaching
(14:17):
program so individuals can also invest in themselves Stephanie and
have that as another option, another way for them.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
To work with me, and that would be a different
price point than if through a company. Okay, correct, yes,
all right, So you're that business owner and you want
to grow and scale your company, but you can't duplicate
yourself yep. Would you say that that is the pain point,
that's where you want to grow but you're stuck at
(14:44):
a level because you can't do everything yourself. Is that
fair to say? That?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Absolutely is fair to say. I mean most of the busines,
especially in this particular industry, Stephanie, they started because they're
very smart at what they do. Technically, they started a business,
and that's great an of us do, but then there's
a certain point of scalable or they hit a wall.
I'm working with a client right now, just to your point, Stephanie,
woman on business where she's bringing on the team because
she's like, I want I want to sell my company
(15:11):
at some point. And professional services company is only as
valuable as the team, the systems, and the processes you
have in place. If the owner is that the lynchpin,
it's really not worth very much at the end of
the day. Yeah, other than the revenue can create right
now for you. But once that, once you stop, that
goes away.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Right once you've left the business, you have not left
it in a place where you can exit gracefully and
the things will go on as usual. Would you say
that a good portion of your CEOs are in that
position they're looking for their exit strategy or to grow.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, I mean, definitely, I think the ones that are
forward thinking. Absolutely, Stephanie, I think that those are the
ideal clients because they already recognize that I have a
network with Synergy Partners, I would say, and so when
I were talking with people that work in murders and
acquisitions or private equity. When I talk with these companies,
one of the things they look at when they are
looking to buy or sell a company is what's the
(16:05):
strength of the team. And so that's another way I
look at bringing in clients potentially through them if they say, hey,
look they need to develop their team. But where I've
been working mostly with clients has been engineering, biological firms,
others that don't have that leadership team yet that can
do the project management, that can do the business development,
that can work cohesively with their administrative team and their
(16:28):
technical people that are in the field, and so there's
a breakdown and they're really if they don't have key people,
the company really is going to it won't be able
to survive other than the business owners really trying to
keep prop it up, and that's not sustainable. They get
burned out. Absolutely, So would you say.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
It's fair to say that one of your client avatars
are people looking to set up their business for sale
in the next five to seven years.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Absolutely, yes, okay.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
So I would identify that as a as a main
avatar so that you can then take that person and
speak directly to that person. So some of your marketing
should be involved in, you know, education on when to
do that. You know, should you start three years isn't enough,
you know, you need more time to build up your team.
(17:19):
So if you're starting to speak directly to that CEO
of a company, they want to scale it, maybe they
want to give it to a family member, maybe they
want to sell it, maybe it could be absorbed into
a larger company. That what will they need to do
to achieve that goal. That's where you step in and
can help them transition. Particularly with the fact that you
(17:40):
are targeting aec and environmental businesses, that gives you a
niche into that world as an avatar. So that would
be out.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
That's a real insight because I haven't I haven't I
don't think, like you said earlier in your pillars, haven't
stressed that as much extremely. I mean, I know it intrinsically,
but we're saying, as you're peeling back layers, run hearing
and saying, hey, make sure that you get that differentiator
out there, right.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
I'm also trying to find the thing that's going to
cause them to want to buy now, the want to
sign up with you now, and they need a reason
for it to be today. And the hard thing with
CEOs and the people who are running and doing most
of the heavy lifting with their companies is they're not
going to say, gosh, you know, I need some leadership
coaching because it's just not something that they're going to
(18:29):
want to invest time in. So you have to give
them a reason to want to buy now. So let's
think about some of the other avatars that you serve.
So let's say that overwhelmed person who wants to scale,
like maybe they've bumped up against a million or five
million that can never get above that level. What is
(18:51):
a pain point that's really specific that's going to cause
them to want to take action? Think about that person,
what is the pain point? Is it that they're always overwhelmed.
I don't want it to be a feeling. I want
it to be like a reason an outcome for their business,
because we don't take action for feelings.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Yeah right, Well, I will say for the business owner
that particular person where they're running up.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Besides, well you talked about selling their company. That's one way.
I think a lot of them do really care about
their employees Stephanie, and they recognize they're doing their employee
as a disservice because they can't provide the support that
they need. And what I found is there's a quiet
quitting sometimes or they're losing good people. And so I
don't think business owners recognize the cost. Maybe they theoretically
(19:47):
do it when I talk about talent recruiters things like that,
about the cost of finding a person, onboarding them, getting
them all trained up, and they have all this knowledge
and information. Right if that person and leaves, it's very comton.
You lose production. You have to find somebody else. Even
if you find somebody else, they take they take time
(20:07):
to get up to speed. So what I find is
you create a competitive advantage in the marketplace when you
have a strong culture, a strong team that works very
very well together, and every day that they stay together
you have you're you're going to be ahead of anybody
else that tries to get it in the game. So
from a business owner perspective, it's in their best interest
to make sure that that team feels either they we
(20:29):
talk about feeling, but they have a holistic approach. They
have there's trust, there's relational trust, there's alignment, right, so
that they can then okay, then it can scale and
there's people that want to come here and it's it's
a place that they are leaving a legacy, you know
that they're like, Okay, this is something really good, and
I want to make sure that it continues on, especially
beyond me.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Yeah, so okay, I still want to dig into that
a little bit deeper because it's still kind of amorphous,
you know, doesn't have a specific shape to it, and
I wanted to be pointy to be sure. So let's
think about that that inciting incident, Like we're thinking about
(21:12):
a script. You know, there's an insert book. There's an
inciting incident that you know all had breaks. So you've
got the CEO and they they they're overwhelmed. They can't
do everything if they're going to grow, So they need
to duplicate themselves, right, So that could be a question,
do you need to duplicate yourself? How do you train
(21:34):
up people you already have, or how do you identify
new candidates that can do what you do, so that
you can concentrate on the scaling piece and they can
do your operation, you know, in the business, not on
the business kind of kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
So that might be duplication is huge.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
That might be a word that would cause people, oh
my gosh, magic, can I duplicate myself? That's what I need.
Every business owner that's overwhelmed wants to be able to
duplicate themselves so that they can concentrate on the things
it's actually going to make the company grow. You know.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
No, that's a great point, jehany Well, even even I
work with a couple of clients that they have people
and then maybe they've quote unquote duplicated themselves to a degree.
But also what I found on these small companies that
that's good to a certain group, but then they have
only one person that kind of is still a keyholder,
like they know all the information at SILOED. So we
(22:30):
have to have redundancy. And I've known this over the
course of my career. So what's the redundancy that they
have in place? Maybe they can't do one hundred percent,
maybe it's seventy five eighty percent of whether you could do.
But if that person gets sick, they could leave. Something happens,
You're not going to be sunk in your business. And
so you know that that is really critical to maintain
their companies that they don't fall behind.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Yes, so what if there's three questions? Question one would
be sorry for me in my brain? How can you
duplicate yourself? Number two would be what if your right
hand person leaves? How can you structure your company so
(23:15):
that you can keep going and you're not going to
pull your hair out?
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (23:19):
And three, I want to I want to exit my
business in five to seven years or five whatever however
you want to say. So those would be three avatars
with really specific questions that would cause them to pull
(23:43):
the trigger and hire you. Yes, and you're such a
good you're such a good outreacher, and you met so
many people and you have a lot of consistent leads.
But you know, to have somebody say this is the
problem I need to solve today. It can't be a feeling,
can be a morphist. It can't be leadership or you know,
(24:04):
synergy or alignment. You know, like those aren't real things,
real things. I need another me and I need somebody
as a backup in case I want to go on
vacation and those two can still run the company, you know,
like it's a practical need. Okay, so let's start with that,
(24:24):
and then you can also add your manager. Do you
want help training them up to become one of those
you know, number two or number three on the totem
pol or do you need to bring somebody up? And
then as a separate avatar if you want to, you
could have it for individuals and say, maybe are you
(24:48):
never making it up the ladder. You're still a manager,
but you can't get to director. You're a director, but
you just get the VP and you can't find you know,
all the jobs you've been offered or lateral moves, that
kind of thing. Then that would be individuals coaching, So
that could be an ARM two of your business. You
have ARM one for the business and themselves and ARM
(25:10):
two for more like professional coaching. Yeah, absolutely, okay, so
we're we're good on those.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Yes, yes, yes, that's great.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Now let's talk about differentiators. So now now that you
have those three that are really specific and really hooking
the person, you.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Know, yes, why you.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
There are a million coaches out there and there's lots
of people that are there to help you scale and
growth and a line the teams. YAA, but why you
what is it that you're passionate about that are like
you really believe in that. It's like meaty goodness that
they can like you know, sink their teeth into.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
No, absolutely, Stephanie, I love that. No. I mean, like
I said earlier, you know, spending twenty five plus years
in this industry. I've been there from the literally from
out of college just starting my career environmental consulting and
marking my way up. So it's not that I've just
gone out and got some certificates and said I want
to be a coach and you know, hey, this is
(26:14):
my own personal journey and so I have done that.
And for those of you who connected me on LinkedIn,
you can kind of see my journey A very active
involvement with organizations, not just my organization. I've worked at
small firms, large firms, you know, worked at the County
of riverside of public sector. I've worked at volunteered with nonprofits,
(26:35):
and so I understand organizational structure very well. I was
the user group leader for del Tech Vision, which is
an enterprise resource planning software here in County La County
for many years. I helped found that group because I
understand the value of project management a member of Project
Management Institute, among others. So I'm very actively involved in
(26:56):
professional organizations understanding what they're dealing with on a day
to day basis, Stephanie. So this is you know, tried
and true, tested and worked on very you know, multi
multi million dollar large projects, working with companies, power companies,
and all sorts of different industries. So they're getting all
of that in addition to the tools. And that's where
(27:16):
I've worked with the existing clients because they know me.
I know the industry, I know the language, versus coming
out and having something coach that doesn't know that. You know,
I know my that's my my lane. So if you
asked me to do this, could I help in manufacturing? Probably,
but I'm not going to be effective because manufacturing is
not where I spent my career and I don't know
the workflows of exactly what they do or let's just say,
(27:39):
you know warehousing, right, So it's really the professional services
space I'm very familiar with.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Okay, I mean that's great background, that's you know, that
sort of is the validate like the base layer of validation.
But what why did you go into environmental consulting? Why
the environment? Like I want to know, Like I don't
(28:08):
want your resume, I want to know you.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yeah, well I saw. I saw the challenge of being
a technical person and having to step up into number
one management role and number two U technical leadership role.
And so what I saw was the challenge that people face,
including again myself, using myself as the avatar of I
(28:33):
didn't understand these skills and I still see the many
people to come out of college and they'll have technical skills,
but they don't have these other skills of who they are,
defining who they are, what they beyond their technical skills,
whether they're innate talents, skills beyond their technical skills, abilities,
and how to articulate those Well, so I did that
(28:55):
through a personal journey. But what I found is that's
why I targeted this industry engineer. They're very smart in
the head. They're very subject matter experts, biologists, archaeologists, cultural resources.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
They even physical therapists have are physical therapists. It's kind
of getting out of there there that left side of
the brain and to the right side and helping unlock
them if you will, uh, And that's a.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Passionate end, like what's you're unlocking them to? What end?
Speaker 1 (29:22):
To understanding and putting value language and value about who
they are innately, instead of trying to put on errors
or trying to behave or show up in something that
what I call it outward expressive behavior versus how are they?
How are there inly naturally designed? And I think a
lot of people show up because oh, this is what
society tells me to be, or my parents said I
(29:43):
should be a doctor, So I'll be a doctor. And
they can learn the technical skills and they can be
very effective in that, but the reality is to be
a leader you have to go beyond technical skills. And
maybe they have good management, if they've got a good
standard operating procedures, you can fill the boxes. But the
reality is what I found, as many people that can
get to that point start to not feel fulfilled. They
(30:05):
feel like a kind of a cup half empty, they
feel drained, they don't feel truly alive and living in
their full purpose. And so that's where my passion is,
or how do we create that space for them to
feel abundant instead of drained. And they know how to
they know how to work the system, they know how
to make money to a degree. You know they're successful.
They've had some level of success, right, it's just how
(30:27):
do we be successful holistically, like you said, living the
life that they really want?
Speaker 3 (30:33):
So clusion to that problem finding the right people who
can do the tasks and love doing the tasks that
you hate doing, so that you can spend more time
doing the things that you love to do. Is that
the That's.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
That's that's definitely part of it. That's one of the task.
What's one of the activities we actually do, Stephanie, I
work with them is like we break down what are
the things you're doing and one of the things that
are in your zone of genius that you love doing
that really fit with you, and then how do we
delegate again me being the connect here and bringing the
right people. It's like, Okay, well maybe you should not
be doing that anymore. We need to shift that. Even
though you can do it right, it's not the best
(31:08):
use of your time and energy. So let's get you
and what you're in being when you're in your zone
of genius, when you're in your zone of what you
do best, You're going to make more money, You're going
to create more opportunities for yourself. It's just it's a
natural law in the world. And then you're going to
also help other people. But there's there's a lot of
fear and an anxiety of people that I found, Stephanie,
that they want to hold onto position because they feel like, well,
(31:29):
this is what I've got, this is defines me, this
is my role, this is my title, and so they
hold very tightly to that only to their own you know,
demise if you will, because they don't realizing if you
can let go of those things and realize there's a
bigger picture. There's there's just an abundance of regeneration if
you will, over and over again. So it's me helping
them unlock that and knowing that that's what I've done
(31:50):
in my own personal journey.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Okay, I mean I like everything that you're saying, but
it still doesn't give me a thing that makes you
stand out the marketplace and make you the obvious choice.
I mean, really, why are you? We want to know, like,
why are you the obvious choice? And it can't be
systems and processes, it can't be it can't be your journey.
(32:14):
It needs to be something less deeper than that. Like
you know, you have a super passion for the environment,
or you have a super passion for builders, you know,
because they're creating something from nothing, or you or you
have a you have a way of pulling out the
(32:36):
talents out of the people that like the that's the.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Connector that's that's the that's the connection, like I said,
the foundation of like where you bring people together to
accomplish great things. So oftentimes you have people working in silence.
There's a great ted talk about called super chickens where
you have people that are isolated. This often happens in
an organization, or you have people that are siloed, or
you promote only one person as a high up and
then they kind of dominate. It's really it's I like
(32:59):
to use the Ghostbuster analogy, Stephanie, I am the person
that suggests, why don't we cross the streams? You know,
they're trying to take out the marshmallow man, right, and
they're all shooting. It's not working, And it takes one
person to say let's cross the streams and then, oh
my goodness, there's a multiplying effect. So that's where I
come into the multiplying effect exponentially when we take those
people that are trying to do everything and I come
in as a connector and I say, let's bring these
(33:21):
things in together and start to unlock. People like, Oh,
I didn't even think about that. I would know I
should be talking to that person. I'm like, yeah, absolutely,
you guys could actually have more effect together than you
would isolated in a loan just trying to push grind through.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Okay, here's a question. Would you say that you're able
to do that, execute that and sense the team and
understand the fields that are going on because you have
a very high emotional intelligence, yes, say that that is
like ingrained in you emotional intelligence. Yet you also have
a technical mind, which is why you like working within
(33:58):
that industry because it's very technical and science y, and
very often you have sciencey people who are not high
emotional intelligence people. So maybe you're the blending of the two.
Would it be is that your secret soft Well, that.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Definitely is yeah, yes, I mean I've done that. That's
how I did. That's how we grew the company from
you know, twenty five to eighty employees over four years.
As the connector. I was that person working well, very well,
Like I said, systems and processes to the point Stephanie
wore and I left that company after about six months
of being gone. That a person was very systems oriented,
(34:34):
good person, very just very systems oriented, but not the connector.
And systematically, one by one people left the company. They
didn't feel the connection. They didn't feel even though they're
doing the technical work. And that's what I find a
lot of these companies. They don't realize that they don't
they need both. They need both the's two sides of
a coin. We need systems and processes, we also need
the connection and helping people that view that.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Okay, as you were talking, the image that came into
my mind was two halves of the brain and the
bundle of nerves and synapses connect to the two sides
of the brain.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Is that you I like that? Yes? Yes, okay.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
So when when I'm a technical person a technical job
and I'm having a hard time with managing all the
fields of the people that are working for me, they're
driving me nuts because it's like all the fields and
you know this person and YadA YadA, and they just
they want to wash their hands of that as that
(35:27):
is not their core strength. Their core strength is the
thing that brought them into this very technical world to
begin with. They didn't get there from being emotionally intelligent.
But they need to have those skills in order to
be a superior leader, and they want to be a
superior leader and they want those problems to go away.
So they either have to hire somebody to do that
(35:49):
and help them facilitate that, or a team or HR
or you or whatever, or they have to learn those
skills so that they can head off those problems before
they begin. So like if you can do you see
how presenting yourself as that bundle of nerves between the
two hemispheres means that you speak both languages fluently and
(36:15):
you can help guide that that journey. Does that resonate
with you? Oh?
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Absolutely absolutely, because I've learned to appreciate the differences where
before they were, like you said, irritants, and you can
create a toxic and even work environment if you don't
understand how everybody works in appreciating that and drawing the
best out of each other. So that's where, yes, my
strength was in being able to grow and scale the
previous company I was with now and helping other businesses
(36:42):
unlock that. Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Okay, So now we need to connect the dots. So
now you've got your three avatars, and you've got your
differentiator of being that connector between right and your left
brain thinking people, the ability to bring empathy to the technical,
to be able to bring structure to the to the
(37:06):
people that are are more flowing and less rigid. So
you're able to do that and facilitate that with a
deep understanding of that work environment because you have all
of those years of experience in environmental and AAC and
you have the proof of concepts that you have grown
(37:27):
a company in that way. Then you have the pain
point of I want to grow my company so I
can exit, or I have the pain point of I
need to duplicate myself and I don't know how to
do that. So if you take all of those pieces
to me, that starts to create a cohesive brand. And
so now the question is does all that resonate with you?
(37:50):
You feel like, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
You've done a great job pulling pulling it out. I
love I love how I'm getting this and and thank
you Stephanie. I hope you guys are enjoying this. The Becau.
Stephanie is just a master at this, so you're getting
a masterclass here.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Well, now we need to think about how to execute.
How do you how do you bring that to life? Now?
One thing about your website is it has a lot
of content on it. There are many many words on
your website. But I did not notice anywhere on the
website that says that you work with environmental consulting firm,
your AEC companies. That didn't see any of that. I
(38:27):
also didn't see a pain point that would cause me
to say that I need that, I'll pay for it.
And so if you can take the tone down all
the words so that I don't have to read as much,
I don't want to have to work on a website
to have to work to figure it out. So if
right off the bat it is duplicate yourself, grow your
(38:52):
company for your eventual exit and and grow to you know,
fi fold, where your business five fold, like oh okay,
that's something different than aligning teams and synergy, which is
not very specific. So if you can change your messaging
(39:12):
to be more talking directly to those three avatars and
then your additional you could do a separate page for
your professional individuals for individuals, but your main customer, that
core customer is going to be those three avatars that
we talked about, So now you need to talk to them.
Are you this This is what I do, and you
(39:34):
can have a future of the brain and this is me.
Lookge right there, put your face right there.
Speaker 4 (39:39):
Right.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
So it's memorable and something fun. And you know, because
you're you're not a super serious guy, You're.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
You got to employ this. It's not I don't want
to be absolutely right, and you're.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
A nice person, and we don't want to see that
you're going to talk about like execution and executing and
you know, like you're going to be a lot more
holistic about your approach. So if you can talk those
people in the simplest terms possible, that really says, yeah,
that's me. I see myself there, and I now know that.
(40:16):
That's why I want to spend money to hire you.
I'm not going to hire you because I'm feeling something.
I'm going to hire you because I have a specific
business need and I don't know how to do it.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Yes, but you do.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
So that gives you your audience and your messaging and
then your content needs to speak directly to those people.
I need to know it. For sure. You've got a
lot of content on your LinkedIn, You've got a lot
of content on your website and your blogs, but I
don't know who you are. I just know that you're
active online.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
MM.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
I want to be able to know these are the
people that I serve, These are the you know, repeat it,
repeat it, repeat it like I could do in networking meetings.
It's every time. Well it doesn't hurt to do that
online like it seems like we're repeating ourselves, but really
we're educating our audience about what makes us different.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah, that's a good point. And I was to to say,
as you say that, Stephanie too, I think we get
like kind of I don't say numb to it, but
we like, Oh I think that because we heard it.
But many people haven't heard this. In fact, I was
talking to a gentleman that didn't eat three year email
campaign in Stephanie, and he said he would this, he would,
And he said this guy was on his email list
for probably nine or ten years, I don't know a
long time. He said, I just got your email, which
(41:39):
he probably got multiple times, but he didn't. But he
kind of got it in years past, but he didn't
do anything about it. But for this time he saw
it again or it came up and he got it.
He was like, oh my gosh. So to your point,
I think it's important to like remember that not everybody
is seeing I mean, we've got a lot of stuff
going on, so things. You know, you could post something
(41:59):
and you missed it, so maybe reposted again or you know,
and then you know if it's meaningful and it's on
point right Stephanie, or.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Just repeat it and everything. I'm this and this is
my job or I'm the person you know, I'm the
two halves of the brain. I'm you know, whatever your
slogan wants to be. And then I'm gonna encourage you
for in your H one title tag at the top
of your website above the fold, I want that to
be searchable so that right now it's not very SEO friendly.
(42:28):
Nobody's going to look for stewarding vision, like you're not
going to google that. So think hard about like how
somebody would google you, because I feel like a lot
of people say, well, I don't really get my clients
from Google. But what happens is, oh, I saw that
guy and he was in one of my things where
(42:49):
I was at a I was at a public speaking
thing and there was that guy. I don't remember the
name of his company. What if I just googled what
you has, maybe I'll find him, you know, and suddenly
you become findable by that person. Think to take your
card or whatever. One last thing I know that you
(43:10):
are doing public speaking, do you have a way of
capturing people's emails during those events?
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Yes? Yes, although it could be improved. I'll just put
it that way. It's a little clunky.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
So a lot of people who public speak forget that.
This this amazing time. Like, even if you can't sell
from stage, which is completely fine, you can still offer
a free download and put a QR code on the screen,
get people to get into your funnel, and then they
get the free download and return for their email address,
and suddenly you've got you know, the forty people in
(43:43):
that room or the one hundred people in that room.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Absolutely absolutely, I'm going to be speaking here next month.
So that's a great prompt that I can.
Speaker 3 (43:51):
Create a code and then all they have to do
is give their give their email and they can see
it right then and there.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
You know, it should be valuable content that relates to
whatever it is you were speaking about.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
Wow, this has been great, Stephanie. I mean you've given
me a lot of good things to think about. Consider.
I hope everybody you know I'm putting myself out there
because here's the thing. I want to be a better
business owner. I want to help steward your business reach
more people. And Stephanie here, thank you for sharing your
insights and perspective. I want to make sure you guys
go to gratification. You guys can check that out online
or of course connect with Stephanie on LinkedIn. You know, Stephanie,
(44:29):
we've covered a lot of different things. So if a
business owner is coming this, you went through your pillars.
But what would you encourage them to do if they're
listening to this of you know, in their own business,
where would you have them start?
Speaker 3 (44:41):
I would start, for sure, I would say two steps. One,
really think hard about your target audience and why would
they hire you? You know, what's a reason, real reason
that they would hire you? And then the next thing
is think about your differentiators. What am I passionate about it? Like,
I feel super strong that messaging is the key to
(45:01):
all of this, Like I feel passionate about it, So
you know, that's my differentiator. Like I'm not looking at
marketing with impressions and downloads. I'm looking at it from
what is it You're saying, it's going to connect with
the people you want to want to work with, So
I feel strongly about that. So if you can really
think about, like what you feel strongly about, like, it
can be hard to stand out if you're an accountant
(45:23):
or a realtor, or you know, or something you're the
services you're providing are often the same as the next guy.
But if you can figure out, like, well, I'm the
person who does this, I feel strongly about this, or
I offer my clients tools that they can use, or
or I'm I only offer this kind of service.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
You know.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
I have a friend who offers she has a sales
tax business. I mean, there's nothing less sexy it is business.
But she makes it interesting because she's super passionate about
helping small business owners with this like very difficult hurdle
and their businesses. And then she puts all kinds of
(46:00):
amazing pictures on the Internet and it becomes it becomes
a really interesting profession.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
Absolutely absolutely. Well, I'm so grateful that you came on
the podcast today. We're gonna have to have you come
back for sure, because I think this is fantastic and
I mean, you've got more insights. We just get everything.
But I'm glad that I could. You could walk me
through and you give me some number of actionable items
that I can do, and I appreciate that because at
the end of the day, I want to be able
to reach more people, help leverage the resources experience I've had,
(46:31):
and so you're giving me the ability to do that.
So thank you so much. Stephanie.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
Oh this was so fun. This is what I love
to do, and this is exactly what I do for
all my clients.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
You just got to like, you go there, you go.
Oh fantastic. Well, everybody, I hope you will follow along
for Stephanie, whether it's on YouTube or LinkedIn or wherever
you find this on your favorite podcast platform, share it
(47:03):
if you have value in this, and of course come
back and enjoy another episode the next time on the
Business Around People podcast. Thanks everybody. Thanks again, Stephanie. Next
time much Hi
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