S2 Ep.12 - From Chaos to CEO: Scaling Your Event Business with Backend Strategy ft. Your Business Nanny - Inside The Wedding Planner's Mind

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Inside the Wedding Planner's Mind with Irene Tyndale,
Chief Event Officer of Irene Tyndale Weddings and Events. All right,
missus Tyndale, let's get to it.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hey, Hey, sisters and planning Welcome back to another episode
of Inside the Wedding Planner's Mind. I'm your host, Irene Tyndale,
planner coach and your guide on the journey to becoming
the CEO of your business needs. And on today's episode,
it is all for my planners who are out here
and are ready to scale. If you're feeling stuck in

(00:32):
the day to day chaos and unsure how to build
your systems, because that is what is needed to grow,
this is the episode for you. I'm sitting down with
no other than Shaquila Booker, also known as your business Nanny,
and let me just say, ladies and gentlemen, recently, she
has trademark.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
She got the trademark.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Symbol behind your businessess Nanny, so we got to give
that up because that is a process and I have.
She's the powerhouse behind so many event pros, back and transformations,
from building SOPs to structuring your team and your systems.
Shaquila help CEOs, step out of the weeds and back
into the vision. If you're a wedding on a planner
looking to grow without burning out, this episode is for you,

(01:15):
so let's get into it. Good day, my friend, Good day.
How are you?

Speaker 4 (01:20):
Hello, Hi Irene, how are you. I am well.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
I am well.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
Excited to be here with you and everyone today.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Yay.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
I know we were just talking before we hit record.
It's it's summertime and we're feeling it between the kids
and the projects.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
And I tell the kids all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
She kill. I was like, you are on break.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
We are not that part right there, because if I
get another matinee movie I want to go to and
then a crab boil over here and I'm like, O,
can you take me to this water park?

Speaker 4 (01:49):
I'm like, well, I actually brought me one day.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
I took her to the mall. She knew I had
a meeting by the time I was good, and in
my meeting I get a text message saying you can
come get me when you ready. I felt like I
had dropped her off, just dropped her off. Yeah, when
I'm ready, when I'm done with this call. But it
just exactly walked them all.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
A couple more times.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
We got a few more months, she'll be driving and
we're gonna have to go ahead and up right. I
know we were just talking about that.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
We were just talking about it that it's funny because
I know you have girls too now and I love
seeing those Instagram posts that says having a daughter is
like having a broke best friend because they making all
kinds of plans with your money.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
And I tell her, I'll say, so, I only have
one at home now, the old last sumer, and I
said to her, I was like, I don't have any money.
I said, no, no, no, I don't And then she
was like, what you complained about thirty dollars and you
keep having packages sitting here? I said, because my money
is me to spend. My money is my money, not
you checking for me. Look girl, like the Cosme Show.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Episode with Vanessa says we're rich and Bill go's no, no,
your mother and I are ready.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
You have nothing, like you know you have nothing, but yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
So I always like to start off all of our
interviews when we have guests asking our guests what is
your origin story? Like I love to hear how you
got started. You know, I know your background, but I
love for you to tell it in your own words
or your origin stories.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
How did you start?

Speaker 2 (03:15):
You know, how did you you know, become the business
nanny and all that good stuff. So tell the.

Speaker 4 (03:19):
People, Oh, I'm ready to tell the people.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
Hey, I'm gonna tell you this. So the misconception is
that SML assisting and let me say that. So I
am the owner and managing director of SML Assisting. Right. So,
SML Assistant is an executive virtual assistant company. We provide
strategic planning, administrative support as well as event management for

(03:42):
event professionals. And the misconception is people see something that
says virtual, was like, oh, she's a VA. She's a VA,
And that is definitely how I began as a general
administrative support VA service, right. But where I am fifteen
years later is so much more. And the truth is
when I begin and it was just you know, resumes,

(04:02):
travel coordination, email, calendar management again, and I know I
was sharing it with you. This was just something for
me to make a little money, keep my hair done,
get my nails done, while I just sat at.

Speaker 4 (04:12):
Home with our newly born child.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Right.

Speaker 4 (04:17):
But then life change.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
My oldest was going off to college, my younger daughter
was now in middle school, and I didn't want her
to be home for as many hours.

Speaker 4 (04:26):
What people don't.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
Know is that I have a background in event management,
Like I have been the venue event manager, so logistics
management has always been my thing. I've always been in
the event industry in my full career. I've been doing
this since two thousand and three. Well, I've been in
hospitality since two thousand and three, so since two thousand
and six is when I shifted into events specifically, and

(04:52):
I realized it. It was the holes you know as planners.
You all were my clients when I worked on the
venue side. I knew exactly what you cared about and
what I knew who was experienced and who wasn't, what
was an experience, And then I also knew who focused
on the logistics and truly were those planners versus who

(05:16):
were trying to be a planner, coordinator and designer. Right
like you, you can't do things successfully, not one person,
not one person you and my name people will try,
and then you always have to ask yourself at what cost?

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Right?

Speaker 3 (05:32):
Who is going to deal with the repercussions of your decisions?

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Suffering from that? Absolutely I did that once. I literally
I don't even know seven eight years ago or more,
we thought we were going to do that. So I
had a floral friend who was retiring and literally sold
me all her card goods, like pennies on the dollars.
Girl like it was such a good deal. She was

(05:57):
just like, I want, I just want to get rid
of it. Shall everything brought it over. I think that
might have lasted a year. And we did them shoo
at three and I realized, I was like, I love design,
but I am more logistics focused. Unless I have an
entire design department, I'm not doing it. Like I'll design
it and then partner up with a design you know,

(06:17):
design firm or florist and we'll work together, like.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
We'll collaborate, like, hey, I'll come up with the full design.
We'll go back and forth. But to have it all
in house.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
And you're right, like, I think the one who's suffering
Number one, I think you go crazy. Number two. Your
clients may suffer because you know I don't. I don't
and I and you know you know this being on
the venue side at one point, and I hear this
because people are open and honest with us. You people
talk about you because you don't. Most of us don't
do it well. You can't do those two things well

(06:46):
unless you have a full team. That's kind of like
logistics team and design team, but most of us don't
have that. We're trying to do both with both and
do it both well. Very few people could do it well.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
You were absolutely correct because we at that point, you
truly are over extending yourself.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
This is what I think.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
There is no way that you can ensure that the
cake shows up, gets placed out, but be upstairs to
calm the bride down because the mother in law to
be has just putz like you just can't do it.
It's like saying the cake is going to get delivered
at twelve, but we don't have tables being set up
until two. Over the table get you know, without the
table being there. So I say, I went to that

(07:25):
and I said, okay, how do I take this business
that I've already had for ten years and make it
do what I needed to do to maintain the lifestyle.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
I've already created for myself?

Speaker 3 (07:36):
Right, And that's how SML assisting evolved from just virtual
support excuse me, virtual assistance to virtual support. And that's
how it became specific for event professionals because I know
your world, I speak your language.

Speaker 4 (07:51):
When you hire me to support you, I.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
Literally come in and take over the logistics aspect of
the back end to sure that I see that your
business continues to run while you work on supporting your clients. Right,
So you do business and I run your business. And
that's exactly why my I had a client that actually
said it to me, She's like my business nanny. And

(08:14):
I sat with it for a while like that, and
then I started doing some quick Google like do anybody
else call themselves that?

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Right?

Speaker 3 (08:21):
But that's where it came from because just like a
family would hire a nanny to help them take care
of and love and care for their children, that's what
a person gets when they hire me to support them
in their businesses.

Speaker 4 (08:33):
I truly take.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
On the load of what your business is so you
can focus on doing the business. Because really, who goes
into business to run a business?

Speaker 2 (08:45):
I said, I could plan anything, gagged and tied by
my bag and blindfolded and worked in corporate America, worked
at hotels. But when it came to like running and
still running my own business, I was like this, this
is a lot and so this is the one thing,
probably the most I've ever invested in anything, has been

(09:06):
becoming a better CEO, becoming a better business owner.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
It's just it's hard. And I always jo and say, if.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
I could find someone else to run the whole thing
for me, and I could be out here networking, connecting
with people, helping my clients play. I don't mind doing
sales and all that stuff, but if somebody could run it,
I would be happy. Now I do have help, but
at the end of the day, even as the CEO,
and if you have, like somebody like Sequila or somebody else,
you have because we have an executive assistant and are
on our team, you still don't have to know what's

(09:33):
going on in your business because.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
If you don't know, what if you don't know, we're
small businesses.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
By definition, everything runs through that owner with the CEO.
But you have what you describe is a true CEO,
a true executive officer, right like chief second officer, the
person who's supposed to just be the visionary of the brands.
You're supposed to have the ability to pick and choose
what you do right, touching the things that truly require

(10:01):
you because either it's the highest profile client, or you
just have a lot of passion, you know, and you
just want to touch it. But if everything runs through you,
you just an overpaid event manager or underpaid depending on
how you look at it, because I mean, like, what
is it?

Speaker 2 (10:20):
I think my says you an employee, Like you're not.
You're an employee, like if you're always in the weeds
of everything. But I also am also to the point
and I don't know what we're kind of going off
topic a little bit, not off topic, but out of order.
But the other thing is, as the owner, you still
need to know what's going on. And I still think that,
you know, the first year or two of your business,

(10:40):
you need to be fully in your business, so then
you know exactly what you need help in or you know,
I would.

Speaker 3 (10:46):
Say the thing that gets pushed together, the thing.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
That's on your to do list every week, every month,
every quarter, every year and it never comes off any
type of thing, is the thing that you're not good
at or you don't like to do correct And so.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
That's two hours time.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
People, That is.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
Where you need to start.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
If there's something that literally gives you hive because you
don't understand it, you don't like to do it.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
That's when it's the outsource because of overlap, because that's
where those sps come from. Rightless standup believer. In those
few first years, you need to be writing everything down.
And now they not all consystem word you don't even
oh my gosh, they capture on scribe.

Speaker 4 (11:26):
If anyone doesn't know about this system subscribe all.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
I know one of my clients, just one of my
clients is he coaches speakers and he and his team
just got scribed. Like somebody on the team was like
because he was like, hey, they're constantly making SOP because
their team is growing, their their community is growing, their
clientele is growing. And so somebody just talked about scribes
and I was like, oh my gosh, how amazing. But

(11:50):
even that, like, you know, I teach on SOPs.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
And I think about it.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
I'm like, if I had chat.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
GPT or some of the like scribed or AI seven
eight years ago, oh my goodness, I would be we'd.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
Be sitting on on my island. You wouldn't have to
think about anything like And I know I went to
a conference actually last year and one of the sessions
was called let Ai be your assistant.

Speaker 4 (12:13):
Oh you know I was right in the front row.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
What are you telling these people why they.

Speaker 4 (12:16):
Don't have to hire me?

Speaker 3 (12:17):
Let me figure this out right right? Right? But you
still needs.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Touch?

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Well it does, but you know what, it allows people
to begin the starting point of.

Speaker 4 (12:29):
An essay right the outline. It allows you to job.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
And then you can personal because most of our time
is spent trying to get the thought out. We are
so busy and our brains are so cloud with all
the things we have to do or resonsible or it's
hard to be creative.

Speaker 4 (12:46):
Like I tell my clients, like.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
You have to pick a day that you are focusing
on strategy. You pick that you're going to be focusing
on creativity because your mind just can't keep shifting throughout
them es. Actually, if you need to do from an
hour here to hour there, because you got meetings all
those other people, and that's why your brain can't switch.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
I mean, it's the analytical side of the brain and
the creative side of the When I tell people all
the time, I'm like you really, I said, we're in
our own thoughts constantly, right, like darts are going. I'm
a woman of a particular age, so I may sleep
all night. I may not sleep all night. I may
break up every two hours, you know, like my mind
is racing. But I always say, you have to sit

(13:28):
down and brain dump everything that you have in your head,
that you that you've been thinking about, that you've been
wanting to do, that you that you've heard somewhere that
you you want to try, what you need help in,
and it's okay to rest at some point.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
So you got to get it out. You got to
get it out on paper. There's something about the paper,
like you can put.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
It in your tablet, you can put it on paper.
And I tell people, scribble it out, get it all
on paper. My coaching clients LB, I'm like, well, I
mean for anything. I'm like, okay, time to brain up.
They're like, here we go. I'm like, ye, yep, you
got to get your.

Speaker 4 (13:57):
Head and I promise you.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
When I go back and thinking about something, I'm like, oh.

Speaker 4 (14:01):
I wrote that down.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
I literally can know exactly either which pad I wrote
it on or how far into the notebook, because when
you touch it and you're writing it, it actually automatic memory.
Yes you know, it's like I know I wrote this downstorder,
but let me type it into a note I'll be
in there strolling one day, I'm like, oh, I forgot
I typed this up because it doesn't connect the same way,

(14:22):
doesn't connect the same Listen.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
I always say, that's why they say, write the vision,
make it plain, like you know, what's his name, Moses, Uh,
but Moses, he had to write the chisel it out
or whatever chisel commandments. Write the vision to make it praying,
because you have to do that. And then I said,
you do that, step away and then come back to
it and then dissect it, like what's about marketing, what's admin?

(14:44):
What's for this?

Speaker 3 (14:46):
I tell people that it needs to be broken up
into smaller pieces that are disgustible and just sit down
to do it all day. No, you gotta figure it
out because the thing is if you won't get quality right,
because you have to allow your brain to rest. Yeah,
and we will come back. It's like an editor, like
you work and edit the work at the same time.
You can't. Oh my goodness. So yeah, so I want

(15:10):
to know.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
So you know, you're very passionate, but specifically you're passionate
about helping the wedding and event industry, helping planners and
the biggest thing that you help planners with is the
back end of their business. Right, So when you say
back end systems, what exactly does that include for an

(15:30):
event planning business?

Speaker 3 (15:32):
And what is back ends like kind of let's go
into it absolutely. So the back end is as layman's
of that term, it's what's going to be behind the scenes,
and it's usually the last thing people think about because
business we're always thinking about how we're connecting with our
customers or our clients. But the truth is all the

(15:53):
things that we set up behind the scenes helps to
smooth that experience on the other end or the client
of our customer, depending on how the term that we
choose to use. So when it comes to that, I
always tell people like, you have to start somewhere. You
can't wake up one day and think you just go

(16:14):
run a marathon. That you have to train. So if
you want to ensure that you get that piece of business,
you want to ensure that they give you a great review.
You want to ensure that you are the only person
that anybody would ever hire because their experience is top notch. Right,
you have to begin with what does that client journey

(16:37):
look like? You know, from start to finish, how are
you touching them because you want to make them feel
like they're the only one, and we know they can't
be the only one unless they got some dollars and
cents to add up, right, So it's like you know
that multiple people, And in order to do that, you
also need you mentioned brain jumping project management tools. You

(17:01):
need something that's going to keep you on track, because again,
we have to get it out of our head in
order to sleep peacefully at night, but you can't forget
about it, and you also need something to bring it
back to your remembrance.

Speaker 4 (17:15):
I agree with you writing things.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
I actually got notepads, papers like it depends on where
I interested. Yep, I posted like listen, I planned the
whole my team last. They're like, we swear that the
retreat is planning on posting an idea. Pops it to
mat If I'm at my desk, I just grab and
I post it and I grab it and then I.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
Put the post it in my notebook and I'm like, Okay,
well this is what I.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
Want to do here exactly.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
And it's just like yeah, And it's almost like a checklist,
like there's times it really is.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
But it allows you to cross things off. That's another
thing about having something in writing. But for clients that
receive our support now when we meet, all you're doing
is providing that information to me. Right, I'm into your
project management tool, or I guide a person to put
in a protecbantion, so whe everybody should have a CEO day.
You know. That's those things that are are hard to

(18:06):
implement when you're a solopreneur. But again, you have to
take care of the things behind the drape in order
to ensure that what is front facing to the client
is also as smooth. So that's you know, all your
communications and in all things when it comes down tonight,
you know.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah, And it's funny because I tell people though too
that your back end, your systems, the operations behind the scenes,
is part of your branding. It is really, really, really
is because I have people tell me at the end
of the process they like, from the time we inquire
to booking a discovery call to having a call to

(18:46):
the proposal, like, they like, you know, it's it's you know,
who we saw online, it's who we met with on
the phone. But everything was smooth and kind and it
was just like and it all goes to the fact
that we spend all those time and money building our
back end. But it's like, you know, I'm always like,
set it and forget it. But no, it can't set

(19:06):
it and forget it. You know, like every once in
a while, I like the other day, I was getting
inquiries when people wearing booking calls fast enough, and I'm like,
something is going on because typically inquire the schedule comes up.
So I said, let me go ahead and put my own,
let me go test it out. Sure enough, the calendar
had something happened in the calendar had lapsed. There was
nothing on the calendar for them to book, and I'm

(19:27):
women updated my calendar end up saddle and they made
a note for myself and my calendar to make sure
that every two weeks I'm checking those that calendar.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
It's nothing like a right.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
Task myself every two weeks to check the calendar to
make sure that I'm missing those those kind of things,
you know, And it happens when things get updated. We
used to siddle when things get updated, you know. You know,
when anytime I see an update, I go in and
make sure things are right and things are going right
because things throw off and all that good stuff.

Speaker 4 (19:54):
You know term branding.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
I do. I want to say this because you also
mentioned set it forget it right. There is two sides
to the story when it comes to automation, right, But
the truth is is that you can personalize automation.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
Yes you can't and you show your voice because.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
It matches you're branding exactly. Yes, and there's ways to
I also use the PSADO right, but with all of
the CRMs out there, there's ways to create merge fields
for mapping. And all you have to do is add
that particular question to your ink re form so it
automatically pulls, and then you put in a smart field

(20:35):
in your copy.

Speaker 4 (20:36):
That's going to be your automated email.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
Right. You can there's ways to make it always be
you if you don't have to press the button in
the process, because if you make sure that you have
to press the button, you know it's not gonna get
done at some point.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
Right, right, And I've had that happens.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
I mean before it's like, oh wait.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
I forgot to do something, or I forgot to send
something out or send something out incorrectly because I didn't
press the right button so or you were talking.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
To wait, they were supposed to pay and you forget now.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
Listen now, I will tell you this, that's on the point.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
So because we we like our mo knees, so we
have that under people. I mean, everyone wants starts somewhere.
But I'm like, well, you got to create those invoices
in a document or an Excel pay pal. Yeah, it's
like you you have to find a way to still
ensure that it happens when life is happening.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
For you, you know, because.

Speaker 3 (21:29):
Life it does happen and if we don't yeh, Yeah,
we were just talking about that. But the other thing
is I tell.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
People is that if you if you're working a full
time investor job. That's why I call it, y'all, if
you work in your full time investor job. And I
always say, don't despise that. If you work in a
full time job and growing your your passion on the side,
your business on the side, it's okay because you can
pay your bills, the insurance, take care of your babies,
have a room over your head. I said, Especially if

(21:57):
you work a nine to five, you don't want to
be missed seeing inquiries.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
Because you got to wait. You get op at five o'clock.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
Or rio dirty, you know, and you're fighting traffic or
pulling over the side and talk to people. No, you
want you want to be set that stuff up behind
the you know, behind the scenes, so it's working for
you while you're sleeping. I mean, the best thing to
do is, like we tend to get a good amount
of leads, you know, right after Christmas between Christy in
the twenty six in the first week of January. And

(22:23):
there's been times that I'm on vacation, I come home
from you know, I come home email the third or
fourth and I got five inquiries exactly, and I got
five I don't want to schedule. Yeah, you're like, oh,
crazy on to someone as long as I yep, they
moved on to the next one.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
Oh right, they're already.

Speaker 4 (22:38):
Talking to somebody and building a report.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
Because people do business with people they like, Like that's
always going to be the case, especially in our business
when you're talking at weddings and events, right, because they
connect with you as a person, they end up trusting
you as soon as you allow that door to open
for somebody else. Now you're fighting and buying for attention,
you know, and nobody wants that, you know, so and

(23:00):
they also they're reaching out to you on their lunch break,
but then they don't get a response until eight, nine
o'clock at night. Because now you, as you said, you're
working your investor job, and you got to come home
and be who you are, whether it's mom, his wife
and spouse, it you know, or significant other. At some
point you're going to turn into business owner, and you don't.
It's nine and ten o'clock at night, right, m M.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
So why do you think so many planners skip over
this part?

Speaker 3 (23:23):
Right?

Speaker 2 (23:24):
It's until it's almost too late, Like they skip over the.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
Part of creating.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
And I was guilty of that, Like hmm, got laid off,
started a business because the first two brides from the
hotel that I worked at, found me online, found me
on Facebook, reached out, hired me to finish is planning
their wedding. And I was doing that for a couple
of years. I was just out here. You know, word
doc was a word doc for my contract.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
Oh yes, this.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Is twelve years ago, y'all accepting checks. It's funny because
I'm doing an entire episode. I've done it entire episode.
By time you hear this episode, I've done an entire
episode about my journey, my systems journey, and it's hilarious.
I think of all this stuff I used to use
and that kind of thing. Why do you think we
all skip over this part?

Speaker 3 (24:12):
And you know?

Speaker 2 (24:12):
And what are the red flags that it's time to
get help? Like you know, like I like, I know
we hear it, and I know because I coach so
many feel like I hear it. Everyone talks about it,
you know, and your friends are doing it, but I'm
not doing it. But what are the red flags? Well,
first of all, why do people skip this part? You think?

Speaker 3 (24:30):
Honestly, people don't know what they don't know about our industry.
We are hustling at start for most people. So if
you're not doing business, you're not thinking logistically in processes
and systems, right, You're just out here like, oh, I
just got a wedding. I like doing weddings. I just

(24:51):
learned how to do YouTube university.

Speaker 4 (24:54):
Let me go ahead and churney.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
Somebody actually books me. Let me go ahead and do.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
It right right cashat And that's exactly it.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
And no people excuse me. Most people don't think about
it until they eat the phase because they're.

Speaker 4 (25:08):
Like, Okay, this is now a business that you set
it up right.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
So when it comes to scaling, people have grown so
much and I always like to say and that by
now I feel like most people know the difference. But
it's it's like I always want to say, like we
have to first define what is the difference between growing
and scaling, because they are let's talk about it. It's
the same, and that's exactly it. So ultimately, growing means

(25:35):
that your revenues are increasing at pretty much the same
rates as your resources are going out. So you're making
more money, but you're working harder. That's that's in the show.
That's growth. That's a phase that everybody goes through and
it hurts you. Yes, you're like, I'm about to be

(26:00):
burnt out, somebody, I gotta find something. I'm gonna close
these doors.

Speaker 4 (26:03):
Like everyone has that same conversa.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
Everybody has it a couple of times and journey.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
Yeah. So then scaling is the byproduct of pausing having
strategy in a vision, and that means now you're increasing
your revenues, but your resources and the resources that we
primarily are talking about is one's time, right. But the
extent in this space is that it's either staying equalized

(26:31):
or is just slightly above where it was. Because the
key is that most people, when you get to that skill,
it equates to you bringing on support. So you want
to hire someone to do the work, but you're not
paying them.

Speaker 4 (26:48):
Your clients are being charged.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
You're still making more money, but you're not putting out
the time effort or a dollar amount effort when it
comes to it. So I like to make sure people
understand because skill have been a hot topic for social
media for the panet.

Speaker 4 (27:03):
A couple of years.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
People skilling you at scaling. You ain't even got no CRM,
you ain't got no, you ain't got no sv how
you're scaling. No, you're growing.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
And that's good, right, and you're gonna be in the
girl on face for for a few years. But there's
a different leaders something about business. I also noticed that
there's a business. There's a difference of I've coached people
that have been doing business, or there's in business and
doing business like you're doing business and it's just kind

(27:33):
of like I'm doing business. I'm in business. I have
a business or no, really is I have a business
but not really business? Right A little bit? You have
not and I don't want to Deminish said a little bit.
You have a business, but you don't have the CRMs,
you don't have the systems. And let me keep this real.
You're not even registered as an LLC. There you go
right there, right and you're doing this for quiet. And

(27:54):
I've coached people that have been either had LLC, have
done You've been doing business for five years but never
had this strategy, like never sat down and strategized, and
like they're just just on a hamster wheel going and
we've all been there. You have to I a would
see you have the three phase you have to start
up to growing and the scaling uh huh growing phase.
You wi to work like that everbody's business. That part

(28:16):
you learn so much in that phase. You learn who
you wante.

Speaker 4 (28:21):
We gain still close.

Speaker 3 (28:23):
Proximity to our boundaries because we by the end of
that phase.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
Yo, yes, I did thirty two weddings one year. I
would add every physical physically at every wedding, thirty two weddings.
The fact that I still have a husband and family
and all that.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
Let me tell the people this because I worked on
site and I can I say the name is not
a big deal, but shatsan in the first year that
I took over that catering team, it was we came
out of it. You're doing forty one weddings, so y'all, y'all.
Greine said that she by herself did thirty two. Again
a full team, and if anybody knows what shatsulan is,

(28:58):
that was doing forty one, Like, come on, let's think
about for a.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
Second, y'all, And that's going to be And I've been
in the hotel, so that's doing CEOs, that's doing meetings,
that's doing tastings. That's a lot. But that's at a planner,
doing wedding management and partial planning, full plans thirty two weddings.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
But as a single person, that's crazy. Yeah, that wasn't
a tray.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
That was you.

Speaker 4 (29:16):
I mean you had a team to share. We have insistence.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
Yeah, the planning leading up to it was all.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
You, all right, And I was in your shoes before
when I worked at the hotel. At twenty seven, thirty
one year, we have fifty social events and weddings, which
is a lot. But again I had backards team and
all the other exactly. So yeah, and that's that growing
phase where it's kind of like, oh my gosh. And
on top of that, I had purchased a bridle a
wedding show like a bridal show. I produced a bridle

(29:42):
show crazy like which is crazy.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
And you're right, in those growing years.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
You might be in those years for a while, but
that's when you learn what you do like, what you
don't like, who you like, the service, what you really need,
boundaries like you are you are pulling your hair every
other day. You like, I don't want to do this anymore.
I'm going to go back. I always jokes I'm gonna
go work at Target, anything but anything, but but I

(30:07):
don't want I want to be a stocker.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
I don't want to talk to nobody. That's the part
right there. I don't want to talk to nobody.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
When somebody says something that I'm just gonna point.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
They that fart, I don't even want to.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
I don't want want people.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
You're talking about those those red flags, right, you know
you asked the red flags that are personal? Yeah, it's
those growing pains. The red flaves are the growing pains, right.
And I had a client that actually called them blowing
pain because she knew that it was helping her to
get to her next level. But it didn't feel any better.

(30:41):
So with that being said, you're wearing too many hats.
If you are the owner of the CEO, you're supposed
to be the visionary. You're supposed to be in your
mind knowing what are the goals. You're the goal setter,
right then you need to have somebody that can support
you in creating the plan that's set up for implementation,
and then you have your team that's going to execute.

(31:02):
There could be a lot of arms off of that
right in that organization, but that's where you're supposed to fall.
But if you are the CEO, and you are the
maintenance man, and you are the receptionist, and you are
the salesperson, and you are the this, and you are
the that, and you I mean you are full like listen.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
That just reminded me that MJB Auntie, MJB I was
deliving your secretary that far working.

Speaker 3 (31:29):
Every day of the week. Listen, every day of the week.
But then you also are going to find inconsistent client experience.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Yes, and read.

Speaker 3 (31:40):
Your reviews and or if you do happen to have
any form of a workflow automated or otherwise, everything that's
not checked off is going to identify your inconsistent experiences
for your clients, right, you burnout. We talked about that disorganization,

(32:00):
but the truth is you're lacking delegation in structure.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
Like that's but shequila shaquilla, I can't trust nobody. Look, look,
let's just go ahead and jump there. Like, do you
want to be a CEO? That's the question I have. Oh,
I just had to.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
I had that conversation with somebody after this year's retreat.
I was doing one on one. She's like, well, I've
never considered myself CEO. I don't. I'm like, you could
be a CEO, s to be a solopreneur. CEO is
the owner of a business. It's a visionary. It's the visionary.
It's it's do you have a vision for your business?

Speaker 3 (32:31):
Yeah? Yeah, She was like, oh, you're right, it's kind of.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
Like that, but it's it's and listen, I'm gonna keep
it one hundred. Everybody knows that a majority of the
people that I speak to are women of color, and
I know it's hard. Trusting is hard. I just had
this conversation with Brian Dean about trust and like he's like, yeah,
we we it's hard for us to trust even each
otherther like it's hard for us to trust. But that's
the biggest thing. It's like you you're either.

Speaker 4 (32:56):
That being everything for everybody right.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
Personally, and then we take that home. We take what
we do personally being there for everybody. If you're the eldest,
if you're the most responsible, if you're the first to
go to college, if you're the first to get like
you know, you you take that on. No one gave
it to us. We just take it on. Let's keep
that one and then you and then you take that
same attitude and bring it into your into your business,

(33:21):
and then you're aromatic. Clients boundaries, no, no, no, no, you
have to.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
Like our clients are like kids.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
If you have the boundaries that allow them if you
open the doors, what you.

Speaker 3 (33:33):
Allow them to do at nine o'clock at night, but
you say your business hours in at five or six,
if you respond, and then they text you back and
now they're like, why you're not responding? You text them back?
You gave them permission, right, you have hours right right now.
We'll say that.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
Depending on how far the wedding is, like sometimes we
will talk after hours. Is because I'm working on something
correct whatever.

Speaker 4 (33:56):
But they know they boundary correct.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
It's only what you allow because they always like message
to text.

Speaker 4 (34:03):
Them at all.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
I've heard of text like we're not going to do
a full strategy plan through text message. You know, if
you have a quick question because you're working on quote
unquote on homework assignment that I gave you, send me
a text because that's going to be the easiest way
to reach me. Like everyone knows what really matters to
them and what doesn't right and what works for you exactly.
So it's like you set the boundaries, you own the boundaries,

(34:26):
but anytime someone breaks that or over the line, it's
because you allowed them to. And that's when we try
to just be honest with ourselves exactly.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
My clients always go if it's after hours, they go,
We're so sorry, we know you're with the kids or
whatever it's you know. I was like, no, it's okay.
I'm in the middle of cookings in and what's up
and I let them know. Or if they don't get
a responsibility in the next morning, Like my favorite is
like I'll get up because I'll have a do nothing stirve,
go up a certain time and I'll get up in
the next morning, like, I don't expect you to answer

(34:56):
this in the morning, but before I forget, let me
text messages.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
And I've always said, how would you know? And I
tell him I was like, I love you.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
But that's what we have a whole CRM for you
to go through if you have a question about something that's.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
On the checklist. And they laugh and stuff like that,
and because for them they're probably just out and about it.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
They're like, oh, are they talking to mom or you know,
it's they're up in midnight or one in the morning,
and they did they had a common you know, thoughts,
and so they're text messaging me or emailing me, but questions. So,
what shifts do you think mindset wides as a planner
need to make from moving from solopreneur or CEO, you know,

(35:32):
just doing the growing phases. Like if somebody is like,
I'm in the growing phase, I'm in the thickest things
right now and I want to scale my business. What's
the first what's one of the mindset shifts do you
think needs to happen?

Speaker 3 (35:43):
That is that first one they have to move and
go through that transition of being the doer truly being
the CEO. And the point of that is again, and
I know that I'm saying it and saying it again,
but I need to drive this home. As the CEO,
you are the visionary. Yes, when you are thinking about

(36:04):
your business, when you are creating your business plan, you
have to be thinking easily five ten years out right.
How can you think that clearly for such a distance
in the future when you have ten things you're trying
to get done right now, right, you don't have a
clear enough mindset. And even if you do attempt to

(36:26):
do it, how thorough is it? Because the truth is,
we have to think what is our goal for that
year that timeframe. They have to break that down because
there's always any pieces to the puzzle, right, But even
with those pieces of the puzzle, now you got to
come up with a financial plan to meet it. You're
going to come up with a marketing plan to meet it.
Like it's full of strategy. And you can't do that

(36:50):
clearly and thoroughly if you're in the thick of it all. Yeah,
And then that's where And I'm thinking about the people
that I talk to who are new at bringing on.
I love that support them in this right, it's learning
to trust systems and people, and.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
You hit the NILA you've already been talking about it.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
Those are really the two things that really get you
to get from here wherever. That is because everybody's level
is different when they're ready to really say, Okay, I
have to take charge. I just want to direct, I
just want to lead. And that doesn't mean that you
can't plan weddings. What I'm saying is you have to
truly put yourself in a position to run your business,

(37:30):
and you can't be doing the business every day, right,
And that's it. It's it's the thoughts, it's the actions,
and it's trial and error.

Speaker 4 (37:40):
You know they are yes that trial and.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
Error, and people are afraid to fail. We learn the
most mistakes that we make, you know, like that's just
what it is. You could be a forever student, but
if you don't take action on what you heard and
whatever seminar, conference, training from your mint or your coach,

(38:04):
how do you know if it's going to work for you? You
just now have all these full notebooks, but you have
to go ahead to implement it, which means to position
to execute, which means now your team can do the work.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
So many things there. It's one of these things. It's
like you have to decide what it is that you want.
And when I am one of the few coaches out
here in these streets, Seguelavid, I don't tote six figures,
six figures, six figures because I know what it has

(38:40):
to what it took for me to get to six
figures and to stay within the mid to high six figures,
and then I know what it was, says see two
fifth on the books and then go ten to ninety.
When missus Corona came the uninvited guests in twenty twenty,
like all that, that estimate of revenue went away. But

(39:02):
I always tell people like, this is the stuff.

Speaker 3 (39:05):
It is so hard.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
I know because I coach people who are like, you know,
we'll do We'll do a coaching session, a group coaching session,
on one on one session. I give everybody homework and
they're like rolling their eyes. I'm like, wanted you wanted
a business? That bart like you wanted to you want
a business? This is what it takes. Stop thinking that, well,
everybody that we.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
See online that is successful didn't have to do this.

Speaker 4 (39:25):
Oh my goodness, I'm so.

Speaker 3 (39:26):
Happy you said that because the truth is people are
only showing us what they want to see, and they're
only going to show the glits and Glenn because that's
what you're going to buy Donald product. No one's going
to buy the struggle. Like, let's think about that hor
a second. If you have a whole thing and they
have a bins, Like, am I about to go like, No,

(39:47):
no one's struggle. But the truth is we all have
a journey. It looks different than everybody. But you didn't
wake up like this. No, you started from the bottle
and now you're here. You know what I'm saying, Like
between drinking Beyonce, Like, it's just you gotta understand that concept.

Speaker 4 (40:04):
But I like what you said. And as we know, every.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
Coach needs a coach, right, so my coach. She told
her story which is similar to yours based on what
she does and who she supports. She does a lot
of corporate government business. She says, she remembers what she
made her first million, and she said she never want
because of the same story you told, because to your point,
everybody has a different bracket of where they want to fall.

(40:29):
Said when she thought back to how she had to
work that year, as you encounter her, she said she
never wants to see it again. Now you know how
it comes and goes. That's her business.

Speaker 4 (40:40):
I don't know more.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
But the point is is that people strive for what
they see other people at and you just don't know
what it is to get there, and.

Speaker 4 (40:48):
Then when you don't get it, you mad.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
But you didn't do it for.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
Work that they did because you don't know their story.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
And you have to figure out what success.

Speaker 3 (40:57):
Means to you. Yes, ooh, relative hello.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
Like to me, it's like your coach said, I know
what I had to do to get a million. I
don't want to do that anymore. Yep. Maybe she's okay
with one hundred thousand, correct, which that's something that that's
nothing to sleep on, right.

Speaker 3 (41:13):
And then there's some people they just don't want to
have to work on the days. They don't want to work, right,
but just have the ability to cancel a meeting if
they want to cancel a meeting.

Speaker 4 (41:22):
Some people just want to be able to drive their
kids to school.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
Whatever it is, Yes, that's okay, don't figure it out.
I don't want to tell you what it should be
or what you should be striving for. Find yourself with
the people that can support you to meet your goals.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
Right.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
It all goes back to the concept of you have
to be clear minded so you can envision it, create it,
and then you can do it. Right.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
I feel like too, something like a few months ago,
I was like, you know, it's so sad, like becoming
as det it's kind of sad. I tell my kids
all the time, like, stop rushing to being a DELT
because it's getto out here to be an adult. You
got your whole life to be an adult. I was like,
why are you rushing? Like we were just getting my
daughter working on getting her bank account situated, like getting

(42:12):
something situated. And she's like, I'll turn eighteen in three years.
And the guy and I said, why are you rushing?

Speaker 3 (42:17):
It's ghetto and.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
The young man and he looked like he might be
maybe twenty one, twenty two.

Speaker 3 (42:21):
He was like, don't rush. It's like, don't rush, let
me tell you.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
But we were rushing.

Speaker 3 (42:27):
To get to the net. We were rushing to get
to the next thing.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
And I remember one of my mentors and business coaches,
former one Janelle Boyd, said that one year she was
in that growth phase and this is and what you
just said earlier about the growth and the scaling phase,
this is the story that came to mind. She probably
thought she was in a scaling phase, but she was
probably in a girl phase because she did that. Let's
just say she did forty something events, thirty two to

(42:52):
forty events. I'm just making anwhere, but she did a
lot of events. Might have been thirty two plus one year,
and she was like the team was fitty be tied.
They were like looking at me sideways, we make good money.

Speaker 3 (43:03):
She said.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
There was a lot on all of them, on her,
all of them. She she scaled up, she strategized, She
met with her like, she did all the work the
following year, did less weddings and less of more said,
and made more money. There you go, because the strategy
behind it, and that's part of.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
The in strategizing is exactly that how do you get there?

Speaker 2 (43:31):
Right?

Speaker 3 (43:31):
Because what service or what products or what equipment are
you going to rent, sell or provide?

Speaker 4 (43:39):
And how does that pricing change?

Speaker 2 (43:41):
Right?

Speaker 3 (43:41):
That goes back to the concept of like you need
a financial plan with that, right, like what does this
look like? How much do you need to make this
year in order to expend whatever those expenses are, right
and all the things. And I love that because that's
what I want to see for people. Most people just
think I got a book, more business book, more business
that's broke. Yeah, make your money, I will say, yeah,

(44:03):
business des scaly, yes. And that's and I've had it
like I've had seasons where we have less like this
year we have less on less physical things on the books,
but the things that we do have on the book
for twenty twenty five and twenty twenty six are bringing
in a lot more money than if we did twenty
or thirty events. And that's that's just nice, bros. Quality
over quantity, right, Yeah, it's nice. Depends what it does

(44:25):
are Look, you might never go back, right exactly. It's
slow in our industry right now.

Speaker 4 (44:31):
Well, hopefully a lot of people.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
Are seeing that. And you know, if someone is listening
that isn't someone is listening that is not seeing that,
this would be a great time to you know, oh yes, rising, yes,
seeing what you need to change, because if you're still
working just as hard to make quote unquote ends meet, right,
there's probably a lot of things that you need to
pause and work on. And that's why I have shared.

(44:55):
Someone had posted a question on threads about out what
people could be doing in this season of slowly and
I am I am a firm believer that you can
always find a silver lining. This is just me.

Speaker 4 (45:08):
That's a lot of time with my grandmother.

Speaker 3 (45:10):
Right, Like, yes, she's not going to allow anybody in
her miss to be a negative fancy at all.

Speaker 4 (45:19):
It's like, well, this is your time to work on
your business. Yes, ever had time?

Speaker 2 (45:22):
Right right?

Speaker 3 (45:23):
This is how you come popping out like I just
like what I said. You can't just look up one
day and run a marathon and you have to train, right,
this is an opportunity for you to really think about
what is it that you want to do?

Speaker 4 (45:35):
How do you?

Speaker 3 (45:35):
How do you? You know the COVID word pivot if necessary,
Like how do because right now we're slow enough to breathe, yes,
slow enough to live? But then also figure out what
else you can be doing? Because everybody's business could be
given them additional streams, right listen, only planning, you know,
like what else could you possibly be offering? Who can

(45:56):
you collaborate with? Money you don't necessarily have to directly
market for Like, this is the time to really sit
in pause and that pause, you're still working, but it's
like it's valuable. True stress. We get there's really bad stress,
but why choose that stress that adds that monkey to
iron back? Like nah?

Speaker 2 (46:17):
Like I think though, too is doing a season like this,
is that people focus so much on getting the business,
getting the business, finding the business, getting the business, and
because they're trying to break revenue in without thinking like, Okay,
if I give myself a moment to exhale and to
pause like you were just saying, and to get ready

(46:38):
for what's coming, and when you were saying, pivot the
word of twenty and twenty, I promise you that in
the fall of twenty nineteen, two of my coaches and
mentors who know of each other but don't know each other,
both had talked to me and spoke words into me
about shifting and pivoting people prepare yourself, shift and pivot.

(46:59):
And the multiple conversations I had the fall of twenty nineteen,
those were the words that was said in one way
or another.

Speaker 3 (47:05):
And so when everything popped off in.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
March, of course, you spend all of April, you know,
re rescheduling and rebooking and canceling. It was crazy. I
literally in April of twenty twenty, I launched the rebrand
that we had started working another. There you go in
the fall of twenty the fall of twenty nineteen, we owe.
The summer of twenty nineteen we started on my rebrand,
launched it in April. I had time to be on

(47:28):
social media all the time. Then I also launched I
launched you know, intimate weddings and micro weddings. That did
all that also twenty twenty, because I had I had
first of all that word was spoken to me. But
then I had the time to do that. And that's
the thing. It's kind of having that those pauses and
be like, Okay, what do I need to change? What
are the trends for marketing right now? Who is gen z?

(47:49):
Who's millennial? Who do I really like? Let me look
at all my past clients. Who did I jump out
of bed for on that Saturday morning. Versus was like,
oh there, I can't wait for this wedding to go away.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
Have to take everything that comes right. You are systematic
in your approach going forward.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
Right, you know you don't get to right and taking
this time to to and yes, you're making money. We're
in business to make money. But if you're not, if
you're not taking what she Ghila is saying is if
you're not taking the time to pause and strategize for
the future. And I sometimes how people should get I'm like, listen,
if five years is too much for you, what we want,
what we're doing for the next year, that's correct, and

(48:28):
be not We cannot be when I'm coaching. We cannot
be in this same spot co June of twenty twenty six.
You cannot like what are we doing to do that?
Because you can't tell me I want to have this business,
I want to be full time and not understand it.

Speaker 3 (48:42):
It takes work to get there. The thing about it,
it's a process.

Speaker 4 (48:46):
And that to.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
What you were telling me the question that you were
asking me before about like why do people wait so long?
What have you? Yeah, it's because folks don't give themselves
the time to think about the future until But even
to your point of a year, you're right, we have
to start somewhere. But we all know how fast a
year can gol. So you have to think about where

(49:09):
you want to be a year from now, get that
plan and know where you want to be the second
year from now or early the first quarter after that
year hits right. I guide people who work with me
for strategic planning. My goal is to get them to
look at it as a full year. I know that's
when a person first starts. But we have to at

(49:30):
minimum work on it by quarter. It's a quarter goal
and then we break it up into pieces to meet
within that quarter. But we can't be working on Q
one and Q one like we can't work on Q
one in January, you know, like it's that thing.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
Because the truth is, though this is all back in stuff, right,
the money.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
Maker, the revenue generator is the front end. So as
soon as that client gets there and it's time to
start executing the weddings or the events, you don't have
time to work on the back end. That's why get
you to be so far ahead, because sometimes we don't
have the time. That's the real thing. You don't have
the time. They say, oh, maybe for what you want
to make time for, but sometimes you need to make

(50:10):
time to sleep, you know what I'm saying, Like you you.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
Have to spend time with your family. I mean, you
know rest.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
You and I both take extended time.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
I know you take Listen, we're gonna be gone next week.

Speaker 4 (50:22):
I'm counting down.

Speaker 3 (50:23):
I got seven days in Hawaii and I'm like, this
is what it is. But because of that, I've had
yes that I've had time.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
I've been able to do thirty days one summer, thirty
days gone like in and out of Atlanta because the
team was taken care of. I was able to take
a cruise with the family. That's not what it's all about.

Speaker 3 (50:41):
But also if the thing it is if someone cares
about that.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
And it's important to me. Not everybody cares about that,
but not only that, you have your kids who want
to be there for your kids.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
You get your parents.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
Some of us are in that sandwich generation that we're
still taking care of kids and then our parents aren't
needing us. Yeah, if you're single, maybe just wanted to
like chill on it. I have a four day work,
we got three day work. Whatever the case may be.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
Is the thing that if you're showing up for everybody else,
when do you show up for yourself when you're working
on your business right, and it'll grow.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
And I'm gonna tell you this, doing these things that
I talk about on this podcast, that I coach, that
I bring in the expression to talk about this is
the stuff that will make you money. So I don't
know who said it. I'm always trying to find out
who said it. But you know they say that it
takes money to make money.

Speaker 3 (51:24):
Oh and it and.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
It's one of those things like I know it's hard.
The thing like, Okay, I make money, but the first
three to five years of your business, the money that
you quote unquote are earning, is to put right back
in your business.

Speaker 3 (51:36):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
You're not really making a whole lot of profits. So
it's literally a metric on your success.

Speaker 3 (51:45):
That's the key.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
Like you're happy to make it, but you but then
again too, these kind of investments on either doing strategic planning,
getting your systems built, you know, signing up for systems,
you also have to make a plan for that, correct,
because you're like, okay, so if I'm gonna sign up
for the saddle, is this much styllars a month? Then
you know what, when I go into the saddle, I
can't set the thing up. So I might need a shaquilla.
I need to talk to tenniche and I need to

(52:08):
talk to such and such whoever it is to build it.
That costs money and you are paying, just like when
clients are paying, they're paying us not just to plan
and manage and execute. They're paying us for what's between
our ears. When these women and these men out here
who doing everybody can't do it.

Speaker 3 (52:25):
No, no, ma'am, no, I know I cannot.

Speaker 4 (52:27):
We learned the hard way. But I'm hoping that the learning.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
The hard way or the baptism by fires in the
back of my head, I'm hoping that that's far and
few between, because so many people had to experience that
going through that twenty twenty twenty one time frame, because
everyone was out there hustling.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
Everyone was just hustling hard to survive.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
Yeah, and some of us were the byproducts of that.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
Right.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
So it's like now where we are, hopefully we're a
lot wiser and we have those in our our networks
to help guide us or you know, refer us to wherever,
because there's someone in every price point. But to your
PRIs you likely still have to have a price point,
you know what, it has to make some money. Yep.

Speaker 2 (53:11):
Yeah, So what are the first three things a wedding
planner should focus on when they're prepared to scale their business?
Like going to so the two three things you got,
she said, Oh, she's excited about this.

Speaker 3 (53:24):
Look because it's easy to essens if my name is Shaquilla.
Right strategy systems and support, very simplar strategy.

Speaker 4 (53:35):
You have to have.

Speaker 3 (53:37):
Clarity on your goals. Do you want to serve more clients?
Do you want to increase your pricing? Are you trying
to launch a new service? Like? What is the goal?
Then you create the system to support that goal. So
that's where you're documenting your processes and such. And then
the last thing, which sometimes people make the first thing.
So I want everybody to hear me. Now, the last

(53:58):
thing you do is now you identify what needs to
be delegated. Aka, this is when you can hire someone.
Please stop hiring people and then you don't know what
they need to do because now you're paying someone in
both of y'all doing the work.

Speaker 4 (54:16):
If you have to handhold them.

Speaker 3 (54:18):
Through the process, or you have to continue to have
a meeting to talk about how to get it done,
you're wasting valuable resources, which is both your time and
your money, you know. So I just want everybody to
understand that, like it's in that order for real. I
love it.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
She's a period, Yeah, and she said, she's a strategy systems,
which you know, strategy is actually working through it all
and brain dumping and everything we've been talking about today
and putting a plan in a you know, putting a
plan on paper, write the vision making plane. And then
you have your systems, which you know are the plant
throw us CRMs out there.

Speaker 3 (54:50):
The list goes on it. I mean, we can sit here.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
All day talk about all the systems that are out there,
but support is huge.

Speaker 3 (54:56):
But you're right.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
I remember my first VA. She was cool, but I
was frustrated with her. But none of it was her fault, because.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
That's the testimony she was None of it was her
fault because I did.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
I just expected the girl to read my brain and
she she was in another state. She wasn't even in
the same state, and I didn't have.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
My systems in order.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
Now. She was good at cleaning up my emails. There
was a lot of stuff that she did, but I
needed to I didn't have the time. I didn't have
SPPS on paper. It was my first intern who turned assistant,
who didn't turn the lead coordinator, and I wanted to
ask her to be a lead coordinator. She was like
I will and I'm honored, but I need everything that's
in your head on paper. I need to know the
it anyway. And I looked at her and I was

(55:40):
like what She's like, Yeah, I need to know your method.
And I was like, oh, so I had to put
this is way before any AI situations. I had to
put it down. What's even funny?

Speaker 3 (55:48):
And Shequille was last year I hit my spirit.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
I was talking to my coach and I don't know
what it was. She I was like, you know, my
main my degree is in organizational communications. I just liked
what I said, Yes from the University of Central Florida.
And I was like, so, in essence, what you and
I both do, Like when me teaching everybody SPS now

(56:11):
and all that stuff, and what you do is what
I would go into a corporation to.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
Do exactly, to teach them to go in there, teach
them how to do it, clean up their do it
for them right.

Speaker 2 (56:21):
Cleves, reorganize their their their back in and organ and
their charts and stuff. Make sure everybody, you know, the
functional is good in the office, all that kind of stuff.
But when it came to doing it for a for
a creative small business run by a woman. It was.

Speaker 3 (56:37):
It just bogged me because everything was initially didn't connect.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
Initially, I was just like, I can't do this five
thousand page man. They were a little business, but I
had to do it. So the support comes from But
the support, you know, comes to a couple of things.
If you need somebody to help you do the strategy,
didn't you have Didn't you have somebody like Shequila if
you need and the same things. You know, she could
take care of the strategy of the systems and she

(57:02):
could be the support and the back end. But the
support also comes with hiring assistants, correct lead planners or designers,
whatever it is.

Speaker 3 (57:11):
And initially you do it, you're like you're a bookkeeper.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
You're a bookkeeper all that. So the internal external team,
the external teams, absolutely it is correct because even the
people that we outsource, so our bookkeeper, our social media
with all the people that we outsore that it's not
a bunch is they're still part of my team that
I have.

Speaker 3 (57:32):
So I have the core team.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
I always say, like the admin core team, and I
have you know, the our support team that's here are
part of our societ planners, our assistants, that kind of thing.

Speaker 3 (57:41):
But yeah, you're not get it too when you're creating
like eventually when it will. So if a person is
starting by creating like their business plan, they're really starting
from the ground work. Chart is necessary because an helps
them know what they will need when they get there.
Again right act But on that saying you need an

(58:05):
accountant doesn't mean they have to be an employee, no point.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
Right, Yeah, you're.

Speaker 3 (58:10):
Outsourcing your higher contractor is that department. You have a
finance department that's in that CPA that you have on.
You have a base department that's in that attorney. You
have a retainer right like you.

Speaker 4 (58:21):
Have these and if people think like that's for their business.

Speaker 3 (58:26):
And that's why I always say we are small businesses
by definition only we are running companies. Yes, we have
to operate as such. So it goes all the way
back to what you said, and that's why I love
Bligeman and I share this with you when we got
a chance to talk a few months back offline. Is
the concept of knowing that you have a business versus

(58:51):
doing business.

Speaker 2 (58:52):
Yes, there is a difference all big time.

Speaker 3 (58:55):
Mm hmmm hmmm. We were talking about defew means.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
I don't think I finished the thought. But yeah, having
a business and doing business two different things. You can
have a business and say all have a business doing businesses,
making sure your LLC is registered, making sure that you
do and taking the time saying you know what, I'm
not My books are falling because I don't. I'm not
I'm not good keeping up with these spreadsheets or reconciling this,
or I have these systems I've been paid for, but

(59:21):
I'm not using them. M h I you know, like, okay,
I have I've signed up all these systems and i
haven't used any of them.

Speaker 3 (59:27):
I'm still doing a doc.

Speaker 2 (59:29):
Hub and PayPal for invoice which didn't If that's that's
you no shape.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
But if if, if you want to scale and the
other things you kill fear it is this all this that.

Speaker 2 (59:41):
We're talking about, if you want to get paid more,
this is what has to happen.

Speaker 3 (59:45):
Yes, can't.

Speaker 2 (59:46):
You can't be told because there's a conversa. I don't
know if you saw that. There's a conversation. Desorate Dent
put a question about who gives out the luxury the
luxury wedding cards out to people for people to have
that that that title that.

Speaker 3 (59:57):
You know put that as part of the description.

Speaker 2 (59:59):
But but if you want to start charging people more,
regardless of what level you're at, whether you're you know,
the everyday couple that you're dealing with, the higher level,
the one percent, it's the experience because you could be
like Tanisa Lee is one of my always give an example.
When I first met Tanisha Lee, she was she was
just starting her businesses years ago. I mean, her son
went from an Eddie biddy with the leapad to like.

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
You know her now he told her now right, so yeah,
he's a full young man. So you know.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
She loved working with the wybrides because she figured that
everybody needs, anybody needs a beautifully executed day.

Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
She was killing in that space, killing it, making money, killing.
She was happy. She figured out was successful for her.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
Now she grew, her customer base grew, her types of
clients grew, but she was she did the gave the
luxury experience put to the all diy brides. But that's
the thing it's like give you like, oh, I can't
raise my prices, Yes you can. It's a difference from
it's charging somebody one thousand dollars the fifteen undred dollars,
but you have.

Speaker 3 (01:01:02):
To show up value yes, and you have value. Yes.
It's the the luxury that you're providing is an experience.
It's not just the equipment, right, like anybody can rent
something and put it out, you know, it's the concept behind.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
What is that peace of mind that you're providing? Right
as you know, we all have the same features. It's
the benefits, Like what's the benefit of point with you?
It's your systems, it's your process, it's your.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
Team, Like I tell you, it's your personality. If you're
always tired and you're just run, you can't like you know,
that's something that they're going to feel like energy is real,
Like you don't want to.

Speaker 4 (01:01:42):
Pass that along.

Speaker 3 (01:01:43):
And that's all because you have something else on your mind, right,
Like it has nothing to do with who you're encountering.
It has everything to do about what you probably have
in your to do lists in your head because you
haven't even had.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
A moment to put on a piece of paper, you know.
Oh my goodness. So you know, we talked about galing
and we talk about building teams and all that stuff,
like and like support, like that word support is it's
such a good thing, Like it's so full. It's like
your support. Like you said, enter, it's you know, internal
and external. But when it comes to building a team,
what role should be hired first and how she kind

(01:02:16):
of set up their backhands to support your team members.
Because people always want to be out here hiring people,
hiring people. Literally, the first nothing think they go hire
is a b a mm hmm. That's not where you're
gonna start.

Speaker 3 (01:02:27):
In all honesty, I tell everybody your attorney and your accountant.
Now in ernie though, let's let's be let's make this real.
Your attorney could just be the legal document templates right.
The point is to have it again, the concept of
actually doing business right. You want to make sure that

(01:02:48):
you're structurally sound. First, the foundation has to be firm.
And then I say it countsant not bookkeeper. Why because
when it comes to your finances, is not just a
matter of ensuring that it's all recorded what's coming in
and what's going out. You also need to plan for
tax time. So that accountant is going to be your

(01:03:12):
base level of someone who can handle the day to
day functions of your financing and ensure that you're setting
yourself up for what we're all responsible and that's paying
uncle Tom, uncle Sam, uncle Ham, all the people who
in our uncles in real life. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (01:03:28):
So you actually and that was me.

Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
So my first hire was was my CPA, and I
went always to the top of realized like, hold on, girl,
you don't need a CPA. But I was so afraid
because I was going full time and I just wanted
to prepare myself.

Speaker 4 (01:03:44):
And that's why I share that with people.

Speaker 3 (01:03:45):
And then you you set yourself up to be already
where you need to be a little bit further down
the line, because it's like, okay, you hire a bookkeeper
and then by the time you get to the ninth
month of that year, now you need to find somebody
who can do your text you know, so like if
you already start a little bit more, which would be

(01:04:06):
that accountant. I'm just using that as the example Harvard
to set and you take some of that stress off
of you. I love it. Yeah, see that's what it is.
You have to know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
I like this she said that because everybody automatically think
is like an assistant or another plan there and all
that that. No, you need you need sometimes you need
your business structure to be good. Now, if you have
a team and don't have any professional team members like
a bookkeeper or our CPA or a lawyer, or you've

(01:04:38):
been having you know, you've been piecemealing your contracts. Time
to get get those. There's a bunch of legal creative contracts.
I'll put some in the link and the description so
that you guys could check some of those out. Those
are really good because too, I have I have one
for you know, when we have people who are contractors,
have one for coaching stuff. I have one for every time,

(01:05:00):
you know, corporate events and weddings. Those clauses are different too.
You can't there's not one straight agreement that you need
to use for everything because clauses are different. Yeah, devils.
So what's the biggest mistake you think we make when

(01:05:21):
we're trying to scale as planners in general?

Speaker 3 (01:05:26):
And I know I've said this before, but truly it
is the concept that we wait get to that phase
in order to do the work for it. You know,
like there's no peering, right, And it just happened a
lot of times. As entrepreneurs solopreneurs, we fall into it,
right because it all goes back to the fact that

(01:05:47):
most of us begin as a side hustle. Yes, So
once you're working, it's hard to take that pause that
I spoke about before and do this work right. So
that's you need to just hire someone to get it done.
Because we have good intentions, we really do. But the
thing about it is it's a process that it can't

(01:06:08):
be done overnight.

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
Right.

Speaker 4 (01:06:11):
If it's to be done correctly, you have to plan
for it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:15):
Yeah, and it's just what you said so too.

Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
It's kind of like we don't don't wait till it's
don't wait till the pot boiler over, y'all. Just don't
I've done that, because then that's when you are doing
things out of desperation. You're freaking out. You know, the
list goes on and all you're not hiring great persons
to help you. Or let's be real, sometimes you just
take your head in the sand and not do it at.

Speaker 3 (01:06:38):
All, ignoring and ignoring it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
Okay, It's like that's how it was with my numbers
in my book, my book keeping and my numbers, and
I remember my coat taink girl, you sticking? Do you
ignoring it or avoiding it doesn't make it go away.

Speaker 3 (01:06:57):
That's a snowball.

Speaker 4 (01:06:58):
Effect right there.

Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
It does. It just piles up, and she was just
like stop sticking, you know, face it and do it.
And and it's and it's very very scary. I know
a lot of this is is a lot of work,
but I also feel that I know for a fact,
Christy Wright is she used to be one of Dave
Ramsey's speakers, like on his docket, and she has a
book called It's like Business Book Teek or something like that,

(01:07:23):
and I remember her saying that people are accidental.

Speaker 3 (01:07:28):
Business owners, right.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
So she gives the example of like Shaquilla makes quilte
a quilte for Irene's baby, and Irene posts it on
Facebook because you know, she's so proud of like, oh
my god, my friend made this for me. And then
Shaquille makes another one and another one for you know,
for her friend circle and pied by the third or
fourth one, somebody says.

Speaker 3 (01:07:46):
To oh my gosh, who made that? Girl?

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
You should sell those? And then that's how business gets started.

Speaker 4 (01:07:51):
But literally, we fall in you most often.

Speaker 3 (01:07:55):
It's a passion project, especially to your point you say
you deal with mostly women of color. It's a passion
project that we end up being able to make money
off of right. It begins yep.

Speaker 2 (01:08:08):
Oh, I don't know if you could hear that, but
we just had some thunder. I think God agree with that.

Speaker 3 (01:08:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
So we're besides of Atlanta, y'all. Like she's on one
side of the town. I'm on the other side of
town and it's thunder and enlightening over here.

Speaker 3 (01:08:21):
I don't know about your I think it's kirk. Yeah,
I had hail earlier and.

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
Everything, but he is just thunder. So so what's the
biggest mistake? You think?

Speaker 3 (01:08:37):
No, that's not good because I think we talked about that.
I think cut that off BA really quick.

Speaker 2 (01:08:44):
What advice would you give the planner listening right now
who knows that she needs help but feels embarrassed about
how messy things are behind the scenes, so easy, you
are not alone.

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
The problem with people do work is they swear that
they are so far behind everyone else, and the truth
is everyone else is probably exactly where you are right
like or has been there, has been there like she
was earlier.

Speaker 2 (01:09:14):
They ain't talking about it on social media. Then I
talk about how messy. That's why I cannot wait for y'all.
If you haven't listened to that episode, yet. But the
episode about My My My System's journey.

Speaker 3 (01:09:23):
I was laughing through that whole recording because it was
like they did now they see our today, and it's
not perfect. It's been not perfect, they see.

Speaker 4 (01:09:35):
But that being said, of course, the follow up to
that is going to be to start today.

Speaker 3 (01:09:39):
Right. If you start today, you guarantee your tomorrow to
give you the piece that you desire. The challenges. When
people allow fear to lead them, all they do is
create a greater hill, right that that that hill turns
into the mountain. Right now, the cost is so much
more because when you go to hire somebody, bring them

(01:10:01):
in in a proactive stage is always going to be
more cost effective for you than bringing them in in
a reactive stage. If someone has to come in and
clean up your mess, you any the crisis, right because
it's that much more time now beyond just their intellectual
property and their skill and their know how, right, this

(01:10:24):
is now into their time and we know time there
there is no cost to time, right, so people are
to be like, hold on, you know what's going on there.

Speaker 4 (01:10:34):
So that's what I tell people, and that's that's where
you know, it's the.

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
Reminder of breaking things into smaller pieces that are digestible,
because the project may seem super large, but everything to
be broken into process into phases. Right, So share with
whomever it is that you're considering the big picture and
ask them directly, how can I create this to where

(01:11:02):
it's in this price range to start? Or this is
the big picture, what is the minimum part of this
project that I can do now to get me going? Right?
If you fake the funk, it's just it's just gonna chaos,
Like we don't want to create additional confusion. Now, that's

(01:11:24):
just what it is. So just understand. One, it's not
just you to start today.

Speaker 2 (01:11:30):
Be honest, right, and.

Speaker 3 (01:11:32):
The truth that you got to start with being honest
with yourself because you can a lot of whoever you want,
but you can't a lot of yourself.

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
Listen, and first of all, admit that you need help
first to okay, I need help acceptance.

Speaker 3 (01:11:45):
That's the one except that I need to help.

Speaker 2 (01:11:47):
Number two is I have a vision for this company
and for all my life and the last that I
want to live, and I know in my own time,
in my own thoughts and my own skills, I may
not be able to have to do that or don't
have time to do that because my work full time,
might have the kids, might do this, might do that,
whatever the case may be. And then say, okay, let

(01:12:08):
me do some research. Let me ask other friends in
the industry. Let me ask you know, my coach. If
you have a coach listening to podcasts and you listen
to a podcast like this one, and you know Shaquila
is on here and she this is what she does.
This is our expertise. Schedule the the discovery calls. Most
of us discovery calls are free step for fifteen or
thirty minutes and just like download, hey this is you know,

(01:12:30):
fill out the form because everybody that does this has
an extensive inquiry form. Fail out the form, have that
conversation and let them, you know, be honest. I think
sometimes people stop themselves like, well, this is on the list.
Well have you had conversations with social media managers or
some branding experts or website?

Speaker 3 (01:12:48):
Does that know it's expensive? How do you know exactly?
But how do you know?

Speaker 2 (01:12:52):
Because that person might be out of your price page.
But guess what, she or he may have a refer
for you for somebody that somebody who's new and coming
up also so but you don't. But also I say,
when you do that to get like at least you
know what's going to cost. So then you have a
plan and that's there you go.

Speaker 4 (01:13:09):
Now we can start planning for it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:11):
That's part of the strategy. Again, that's part at that point.
Once you once you reach out, most often you're going
to end up into that person's funnel. So that means
you're probably going to start getting some of that knowledge, right,
so you could start preparing yourself and understanding what those
needs are. But if you're you know, ultimately afraid, you know,

(01:13:32):
no one wants to say, oh, I'm afraid there's something
that's holding you back. And it's like whatever that is
that's holding you back is actually holding you back from
your success and that success is whatever you deem it
to be.

Speaker 2 (01:13:44):
But you can't get to the goal post if you don't.

Speaker 4 (01:13:47):
Start the moving like now and looking over there like
I'm not going to be any.

Speaker 3 (01:13:52):
Closer tomorrow, and I've been overthinking it and overthinking that
right there too.

Speaker 2 (01:13:59):
That's what I mind.

Speaker 3 (01:13:59):
Your stuff with the professional. You have to align yourself
with a professional and expert in their field, Like we
always say, the person that's you know, operating their zona genius. Yes,
always going to take you longer to do something.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
Yeah, oh, I said, I remember, I remember that. I
remember I had signed up an out planner. I was
wrecking my brain trying to figure out how to set
my brand and this was years ago, all that kind
of stuff up. I went into the out plan of
Facebook group and I was like, is there somebody in
here who knows? Is there somebody that could hire it
to set this up? And it so happened to be
a lady, lady named Wanda that actually had a bridal

(01:14:36):
salon in town, closed it down, and that's what she
decided to do, kind of like yourself. Had had a baby,
a new baby, and you know, she said, wanted to
be home with all the kids.

Speaker 3 (01:14:44):
So she started doing va stuff. Girl, what took me?

Speaker 2 (01:14:47):
I paid her two twenty five to fully set everything
up in now that two twenty five her because this
was about nine ten years ago.

Speaker 3 (01:14:56):
I paid her that, but she was done in like
two hours. Exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:15:01):
You still working on it, You're still working on I
was wrecking my brain and I heard a podcast one
time say this, and there was these two women on
there was I can't remember this creating empire was it
was a creative empire or something like that. And she
was like, I'm over here from that generation because she's
a gen xer. She's like from the generation like I
am woman, I could figure it out. I could do

(01:15:23):
all things by myself. And she said, I'm here, I'm
here banging my head against this computer trying to figure
out how to do this website when there's a woman
over there who's also growing her business and growing her
empire and trying to feed her family and take care
of her business.

Speaker 3 (01:15:37):
But that's her zona genius.

Speaker 2 (01:15:39):
Why that is not mine? She's like, exactly the lawyer
for creatives. She's like, I'm a lawyer for creatives. I'm
not a website designer. She said, I'm a gonna save
my money and pay her to do what she does
so that she could. You know, putting you're putting a
good out right, And I'm a.

Speaker 3 (01:15:57):
Job creator because I'm gonna stay in my life. I'm
not about to rack my brain, not at all. Like
my brain already does too much. You don't be wrong.
I'm always learning, but I'm not really at a phase
of my life where i want to.

Speaker 4 (01:16:13):
Learn social media management.

Speaker 3 (01:16:14):
For example, no people here virtual and they're like, oh,
you do social media management? No, I don't, like you know,
and I have some people I can send you to.
And that's why I love networking because my goal is
to ensure that the small business owner, the solopreneur gets
the support that they need. That may not be something

(01:16:35):
I can give them directly by doing it for them,
but I'm going to be able to guide you to
the right person and you connect with them, you figure
it out. But no, I'm not going to leave you hanging.
But you just you can't hire one person to do
everything you can don't think you can. So the thing
is you could, and you can pay them, but what's

(01:16:55):
your return on the investment? That's the scary part.

Speaker 2 (01:16:59):
Yeah, I don't. We can talk forever. So my last
question for you is, so what does becoming the business
mean to you? And how can plan body that during
their scaling journey.

Speaker 3 (01:17:16):
One of the lines that a she actually was or
is a fitness trainer and I support it in opening
a brick and mortar gym, and I was beating her
over the head with the phrase, it's not personal, it's
just business. It's not just business because everything to her
was like pulling at the heartstrings. So when I hear

(01:17:40):
becoming the business and what that means to me is
taking the emotion out of it. Yes, our businesses are
our passions. I know, I get my name, you know
I go by It's coin to be your business, nanny,
I know it. I want to be the person who
focus on that. So that way you can focus on this. Right,
So everything can't pull out our heart strengths. Everything can't

(01:18:03):
be held close to the chess. We have to remember
that it is business. This is a revenue generator for us.
We burn businesses and we do all these things, but
we didn't lay down, lift the legs and stirrups and
pushed right, like we can't think of everything to like
the protection mode. Right, you have to set it free

(01:18:25):
so it can scale. And once we and I say
we want people to understand like I'm here with you,
we are on the same level.

Speaker 2 (01:18:33):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:18:34):
Once we act as such, meaning treat it like a business,
that's when we can align ourselves with the fortune five
hundred companies that we give our money to, like that's
just what it is, and that's the way we will
be able to embody that skilled journey, like I want
to see everybody win. I'm not great for everybody because

(01:18:56):
I'm direct. I'm going to help you through it all,
but like, you have to be okay with hearing it.
The first thing that I do when I partner with
somebody is I audit what they already have going on.
I'm not here to be ugly, mean or rude, but
I'm going to give you the real and oh my goodness,
oh my goodness, Terralyn. She said this when I when

(01:19:18):
I first heard her speak before, she'd be like, your
baby is ugly, and you have to be okay with
hearing that. You've heard her say that before, and that
is it.

Speaker 4 (01:19:26):
Like, sometimes you just have to be real and real.
But we don't mean anything by it.

Speaker 3 (01:19:32):
It's just and you know it's real when you're hearing it.
The reason it hurts is because she no, it's true.
You know what, You're right about it. That's why it hurts,
you know it?

Speaker 2 (01:19:41):
You like, yeah, girl, yeah, yeah yeah. But I had
a friend that does ditrit you planning for fortune five
hun companies, and then she did that for years.

Speaker 3 (01:19:54):
I mean, this girl top notch ninety nine percent of time.

Speaker 2 (01:19:58):
Would be the only brown skinned girl, roomy old white men.
And she went, her company will send her out when
people were merging or things are going to be cleaned up.
And she said, I said with her years ago to
do a strategy, a strategy planning with her. She's a beast.
And I still use a lot of what she taught
me and what she did for me years ago, probably
like eight or nine years ago. And she said, don't

(01:20:20):
feel bad people, there's brands out there. She's like, of course, confidentiality.
She can't say if there's brands out there that are
a mess behind the scenes, don't get that twisted. And
you just have enough bigger team to kind of like
bigger shovel things around.

Speaker 3 (01:20:34):
Listen, you could repeat that all day because that goes
back to it. We are comparing ourselves to person's year
ten when we're only a year two. Yeah, and it
goes for all like, oh, I love that you said that,
Like if people can understand that, that's that's truth.

Speaker 4 (01:20:49):
Like we're not lying.

Speaker 3 (01:20:51):
There's levels to it, but everybody has to go through
their journey. Yeah, and you just can't compare yourself to
someone who already approaching that finish line and you can't
jump there either, because it's just gonna be a bigger miss.
Like it don't cost you so much more in peace
and in money likely in time if you just don't
go ahead and begin at the ground level to ensure

(01:21:14):
your foundation is correct.

Speaker 2 (01:21:15):
Oh yeah, so and and I love it because I
always say that the generation of the planners out there
are business owners out there. And I don't when I
say generation, I don't mean like age, just generation. I
mean like people are just starting now starting their businesses now.
They have so much, so much more resources. Yes, free
and paid to.

Speaker 3 (01:21:34):
Be able to start in their own scale.

Speaker 4 (01:21:37):
Yes, it's the free ones that we did not have.

Speaker 3 (01:21:40):
Yes that's something.

Speaker 4 (01:21:43):
Or yeah, great, that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (01:21:45):
You said something earlier too, Like you know, when you
reach out to certain people that have these services and
you get on their mailing list, you might get some coins,
you know, you might get some nuggets and jewels of
them teaching new things and their newsletter and they're free
movement ours.

Speaker 3 (01:21:59):
But that's only just a tip of the iceberg.

Speaker 2 (01:22:01):
That is it? You know, that's it that you're getting
they a sip so you can see that they're qualified.

Speaker 3 (01:22:07):
Yeah, that's the way to test it. But that's if
you like them exactly. Yeah, because then you can see
and it helps to also frame the thought process.

Speaker 2 (01:22:15):
Yeah, I will tell you this because you said, you
say I'm bluding, I'm honest. My uh my coach her
husband when she calls it heavily sandpaper. Oh, it's rough,
but it's.

Speaker 3 (01:22:28):
Yes, it's rough, But I'm doing.

Speaker 2 (01:22:30):
It out of love because I care about you, especially
especially if you're paying her.

Speaker 3 (01:22:34):
If you're gonna pay her.

Speaker 2 (01:22:35):
Don't baby her like when people paying me to coach, Like,
I'm gonna push you out of your comfort zone, like
nobody's business and what's my that's it you.

Speaker 3 (01:22:46):
You will have a deliverable you are proud of if
we work together like, that's what it is. That's it.
Just because I'm here to see that you receive.

Speaker 2 (01:22:57):
What you ask for.

Speaker 3 (01:22:59):
You hired me to perform a job, right, and that
job makes me become aligned with you and your partner
through that process. I wanted to make sure when you
walk away that you have what you asked for.

Speaker 2 (01:23:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:23:12):
Yeah, put the work in, y'all. Put the work in.

Speaker 2 (01:23:15):
So thank you so much. We can talk forever, and
we're gonna be together. We're gonna be together. You know,
we're part of some of the same organizations. We're part
of nswp WB, and then we're also part of an
ABC where we'll be together come November at the Wild Conference.
I'm speaking there. I'm excited.

Speaker 4 (01:23:34):
I'm actually glad you said that.

Speaker 3 (01:23:35):
I if I could just share with everyone when I
say that, I'm into this industry like you just I'm
a part of organizations. I am a certified what in
an event professional like I'm not just out here and
I showed up today like I'm really giving you the
knowledge and the.

Speaker 4 (01:23:52):
Information from the experts.

Speaker 3 (01:23:54):
I just happen to be the person who's taking the
time to learn it so that way I can execute
it for you more swiftly, right and thoroughly.

Speaker 2 (01:24:01):
I love that networks with us, and she goes to
our she goes to conferences and all that good stuff.
So tell everybody how they could connect with you, where
they can find you and all that good stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:24:12):
Absolutely so, s M.

Speaker 3 (01:24:15):
L assisting on all social media platforms. You type in
your business nanny as well, that's me. I own it,
that's mine, kay, And tell me if you see somebody
else's face on it, not my brown, beautiful face.

Speaker 2 (01:24:27):
Because you don't listen, should be having a season assist email.

Speaker 3 (01:24:33):
But you know, even my website, if you go to
my website, I always tell people you can go there
w w W which we all know SMO assistant dot com.
It's all about branding and you everything on my site
you somewhere, So it's going to be a hyperlink to
where you need to go. But the information is there,
you know, read up on me. You know I have
an f a q's page. You know there's services that

(01:24:53):
are both d I Y support virtual support talking about
you know whether or not you you do need some
support in your contract event management. But the point is
is like, based on what you need, I can connect
you on the path to get you there.

Speaker 2 (01:25:09):
But the start is that you have to know what
you need.

Speaker 3 (01:25:11):
Like, I can't help somebody if they can't tell me
what their goal is. That's that's the unfortunate truth. What
is your goal? M hm, that's stakeway. Figure out what
your goal is?

Speaker 2 (01:25:21):
Y'all?

Speaker 3 (01:25:22):
You know what tag me get go into mind. Yes,
tell me what your goal is? I love that question. Yeah,
what is your goal for your business? Let us know that.

Speaker 2 (01:25:35):
Yeah, what is your goal? So this was full of gems,
my friend, it was full of gems. So if you're
a planner who has been operating on sticky notes, screenshots
and voice notes, now is the time to step into
that CEO mode. Shaquille reminded us that scaling doesn't start
with doing more, it starts with doing things better.

Speaker 3 (01:25:57):
So a huge thank you to your business an trademark.

Speaker 2 (01:26:01):
Thank you for sharing your wisdom and giving us a
real look at what it takes to grow with structure insanity.
And that's its structure insanity. All those are two things.
When I wrote that, I was like, oh yeah, I know,
look at that. Be sure to follow Shequila of course
on Instagram at SML assisting and check out her offers

(01:26:22):
for planners ready to get their back in together. And
if today's episode help you, please share it with a
plan a friend and leave us a review. It helps
with more, it helps more planners find us show up
and it's you know, I'm really excited to help each
and everyone and you continue becoming the best CEOs that
you are called to be. So to next time, my friends,

(01:26:44):
keep planning, keep growing, and remember you don't have to
do this alone. Love you all, God bless

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S2 Ep.12 - From Chaos to CEO: Scaling Your Event Business with Backend Strategy ft. Your Business Nanny

Episode Transcript

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}S2 Ep.12 - From Chaos to CEO: Scaling Your Event Business with Backend Strategy ft. Your Business Nanny