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BRX Pro Tip: Help People Get the Outcome They Desire

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BRX Pro Tip: Help People Get the Outcome They Desire

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. There can be so many complexities to running an effective business sales strategy, marketing strategy, operations. But, you know, sometimes it just boils down to doing the simple things. And one of the simple ideas that just is a fundamental principle in being successful, and it’s just help people get the outcome they desire.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:29] Yeah. Remember, all it takes to make money is to convince someone to pay you for something. If you want to make an impact or you want to really make a difference or you want to change the world, then you’re going to have to help that person get the outcome they really desire. You’re going to have to really spend some time and truly understand what their pain is, what they’re trying to accomplish. You’re going to have to know them. You’re going to have to understand them. And you’re going to really and truly want them to succeed.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:57] So, if you focus on helping them get the outcome they really desire, you will get everything you ever wanted by helping them get what they really wanted. So, spend the time. Get to know your prospect or the people that are most important to you, and help them achieve their goals. The more time you invest in helping other people achieve their goals, you will find, like magic, you will achieve your goals as well.

Mike Cavaggioni with Average Joe Finances

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Mike-CavaggioniMike Cavaggioni is a veteran and retired U.S. Navy officer having served for 20 years. Mike is a licensed REALTOR-ASSOCIATE®, and Podcast Host. Near the end of his Navy career, he shifted his focus to financial independence and entrepreneurship.

Mike started investing in real estate and working his other side-hustles to create passive income and become financially independent by age 38. He owns real estate in Hawaii, Virginia, Oregon, and Texas.

Mike is the host of the Average Joe Finances® Podcast, a top 1% internationally ranked podcast. He started the podcast to share both his own and his guest’s adventures in becoming financially independent.

Mike’s mission is to provide relevant and informative content that will help others in their own financial independence journey. Mike’s goal is to help you beat debt, build your wealth, and control your future!

Mike and Average Joe Finances Links:

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Phillip Hearn: [00:00:03] Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Doc’s discussions here on Saint Louis. Business RadioX Um, I get an opportunity to talk to a lot of different people in my lines of work, and this particular guest is probably one of the most fun conversations I’ve had here in the last 12 months, maybe even going back to the last two years. Uh, really bright, energetic guy doing entrepreneurship, owning real estate. And he’s got a podcast that you might have heard of, Average Joes Finance that is now in the top 1% of internationally ranked podcasts. So we’re being treated with a with a very special guest here today. I want to welcome everybody, all of our listeners to Mike and Joni. How are you?

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:00:48] Hey, doc, I’m feeling good and I am super excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me on.

Phillip Hearn: [00:00:54] Absolutely. All right. How did I do with the pronunciation of your last name? I’ve been losing some sleep over this. Did I do okay?

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:01:00] You did fantastic. It was great.

Phillip Hearn: [00:01:02] Did I?

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:01:02] Yes.

Phillip Hearn: [00:01:03] I’m trying not to mess it up. I kept rereading it and trying to say it phonetically. So I appreciate your patience with me. So really happy to have you here. Thanks for spending some time with me today. I want to dive in. I’ve had a chance to read a bit about you, but I want to give our listeners a snapshot of how did you get to today? How do we get the mic that we know right now? Take me through your past experiences, your upbringing. You’ve got a very interesting history, so I want the listeners to be able to tap into that.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:01:32] Absolutely. So I grew up on Long Island, New York, not not in one of the best neighborhoods. Right. So for me, I pretty much didn’t have a choice. I had to join the military, which which is what I did. I joined the Navy to to kind of get out of the the situation I was in and also, you know, do something for myself. And, you know, I wanted to go to school and I wanted to figure things out and and kind of be on my own. So I was I was 17 years old and I had to have my parents sign a waiver to to let me go early. And so, yeah, I did. I joined the Navy at 17. I didn’t actually ship off to boot camp until I was 18. So that, you know, that worked out fine. But I wound up staying in for 20 years. Right? I spent a lot of time in Virginia. That’s where most of my time in the Navy was, down in Norfolk, Virginia, Virginia Beach area, that whole Tidewater area, and did a couple deployments, did some boots on the ground over in Baghdad at and just just a really well-rounded and diverse career right now. Towards the end, I wound up out here in Hawaii and liked it so much that I decided to stay. So, you know, the thing was throughout my career, you know, I bought my I’ll tell you about the real estate side of it, right? So I bought my first home when I was 22 years old, actually just turned 23.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:02:56] Actually, it was, uh, we closed I think, four days after my 23rd birthday. But anyway, we, um, we get this house and it was in an area that probably wasn’t the best for rental opportunity or even really for, you know, the actual appreciation of the market because I bought it in 2007 and we all know what happened, you know, over the next two years after that. So that kind of was very painful. So fast forward a little bit. I wound up having to short sell that property a couple years later for 93,000 less than what I paid for it, which was very painful. Absolutely. So that that definitely put a bad taste in my mouth. My wife and I were like, Uh, we’re not sure if the real estate game really is for us because we, we wound up renting that place out for a little bit and we were losing money every month because we had a high mortgage payment and we couldn’t rent for what we thought we could in that area. So it was it was kind of an eye opening experience. But we decided, you know, hey, we can’t stay out of the game forever. We can’t just keep doing this, you know? Just the Navy and let that be it. Right? So we had to figure something out. When we found out we were going to come to Hawaii, we came up with the plan to pay off all of our debt, and that was our focus, right? So we you know, obviously we were following the Dave Ramsey baby steps, but we only did steps one through three because that was to get rid of the consumer debt.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:04:25] And that’s what we focused on. So we had like a two year window. So we paid off all of our debt and we saved up $40,000 after paying off all of our debt, which we had probably about $28,000 in credit card debt. And we had a couple of personal loans probably adding up to about 40 to 45,000. So it was it was a pretty good, pretty good run over that two year period. We come out to Hawaii and we said, let’s try to buy a home again. Let’s make this happen. So we did. We bought a house out here. You know, it was probably the best investment we made because the appreciation in Hawaii is absolutely bonkers. And then, of course, you know, over the past couple of years, that kind of helped as well. But it generally always appreciates, you know, between three, five, sometimes 7% a year. Right? So we bought this property and it’s worth probably almost 400,000 more than what I paid for it, which is fantastic. And that was back in 2018. But anyway, we get out here to Hawaii and sorry, I’m long winded. I’m from New York. I can’t help it.

Phillip Hearn: [00:05:28] I love New York because that’s why I think we get along was one of my favorite places to travel to. So. No, you’re good.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:05:33] There you go. There you go. So. So we get out here and we buy this house and we’re like, Let’s start looking into possibly investing in real estate. Like. Like for real this time. Like, get all in on this. And ran into a buddy of mine who was stationed on the Theodore Roosevelt Roosevelt with back in Virginia. And he was investing in real estate, doing really well at the time. I think he had 27, 28 doors. I knew both him and his wife very well and said, hey, you know, I’m trying to get back into this and I want to, you know, learn more from you guys or show you guys like what I’m looking at. Tell me if this makes sense. And they’re like, Yeah, let’s let’s set up a lunch and and we’ll go over a couple of things. So we, we bought them lunch and then I, you know, grabbed the, the stuff that I found, the deals that I was looking at and brought it over and said, Hey, you know, here’s what I found. You know, there’s these two different duplexes that I like that really stand out to me. Here’s what the numbers look like. This is, you know, I think this could be a really good investment. And, you know, they were looking and they were like, yeah, these two are both really good. Basically, you could pick either one.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:06:41] Um, you know, and just looking at the numbers like it was going to cash flow very well. So now again, that’s just on the numbers. That’s not looking at the property, that’s not, you know, making sure that it’s in good shape or anything else. This is just going off of the MLS listings that we found. Right? Right. So anyway, we decided, hey, we’re we’re going to go for it. And we buy this duplex in Chesapeake, Virginia. Now, we we started this whole process back in November of 2019. We closed on this property in February of 2020. So think about that date. I don’t know what the heck. Really good. I don’t know what’s going on with my timing here, man. But I felt like, you know, big man upstairs was like, Hey, man, real estate is not for you, Guy. Just kind of sit down and go to your Navy thing, right? That’s what it felt like. So, um, yeah, so, you know, I wound up having my upstairs tenant not be able to pay their rent for about seven months, and I couldn’t do anything about it. My downstairs tenant was Section eight and that actually covered the mortgage and most of the expenses. So we were okay there. But any time like an emergency came up, like a toilet was broken or we had to replace a vanity cabinet or something, um, that was all coming out of pocket.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:07:55] So here I am now, at a net loss with this property, just trying to figure out, hey, how the heck am I supposed to get past this now? Um, so I wound up finding and this is the beautiful thing that, like, when you, when you find yourself in a crisis, you start searching for ways to help you get out of it, right? So doing some research, I found that the county of Chesapeake in Virginia was doing they had a rent repayment program for people that qualified for it. And I was like, Well, my tenant qualifies for it. He lost his job due to COVID, so let me see if I can get them enrolled in this. So I filled out all the paperwork and sent it to him. I said, Hey man, I just need you to sign this, bring it to the office. And they should, you know, cover your rent. And that way I don’t have to evict you and I don’t have to worry about any of that stuff. And you guys are good to go. I’m good to go. We’re all happy, right? Okay, so he signs the paperwork, sends it in, and they wind up back paying me all the rent that he owed me, plus late fees. So in the end, that that deal wound up cash flowing for $950 a month.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:08:54] So. Wow. So that that that first, uh, you know, guess, you know, I’m at bat and it was a bunt turned into an RBI. Right? You know, we brought somebody in with that. So it worked out really well. Anyway, I, I wound up selling that property and getting into multifamily real estate because I was going to these meetups, right? And of course, with COVID going on, everything was being done over Zoom. So I started going to a bunch of these and just learning as much as I could and, and multifamily real estate really got a grasp on me and I was like, this is this is something I really like and it’s a lot more passive. And I was super busy with my day job in the Navy, so I’m like, This is really appealing. So as I learned more and peeled back the onion, I said, Yeah, this is something I want to do. So I wound up getting my first multifamily deal after I sold that and wound up getting into two more over the next year. And that’s kind of where I’m at with my real estate right now. So long story short, that’s how we got there. Um, and all throughout that time, you know, serving 20 years in the Navy, winding up in Hawaii. I retired this past December and still here.

Speaker3: [00:10:03] That’s awesome.

Phillip Hearn: [00:10:04] I love stories like that because they show perseverance, Right? And truthfully, I’m also going to need you to let us know the next time you buy a property because that means something else is about to happen. So I kind of need a tip off from you of what, when you’re about to buy the next one, you know? So, um, so I’m going to start off this question with some gratitude. Dude. And I’m going to say first, thank you for your service. Tell us a little bit more about your naval experiences and how they help you today. Because, you know, we talked a little bit about it when I was lucky enough to be a guest on your show, and that seems to be a very big core of not only who you are, but how you conduct business. So if you could tell us a little bit more about that, how did that help shape who you are today?

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:10:46] Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much for that and great question. So, you know, I would say that the Navy has definitely shaped me, especially in my decision making abilities. And that’s going to be mostly from the fact that when I joined the Navy, I joined the Navy as an E-1, the lowest possible rank you could be. Right? I worked really hard and was able to make it to E-6 in six and a half years. Right. The highest you can go is E-9. Right. And when I was an E-6, so it’s a petty officer first class, I decided I wanted to apply for a commission and become an officer. And, you know, I was like, hey, you know, let me just try it out and and see what happens and, you know, just go through the process. So I know because most people take at least three tries before they get picked up if they ever get picked up. Right. It’s a very competitive program. So I was like, I’m just going to apply. I’m going to go through the process and see what it’s like. So I applied for the Limited Duty Officer program, and I actually picked it up on my first try, and I was very surprised. So here I was now at my eight and a half year mark, finding out that I was getting commissioned in a year, um, very interesting time in my life.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:11:59] And because I had gone from being an E-1, you know, being the guy that has to do all the, the, you know, the not so fun jobs and always getting told what to do and, you know, doing all the things that nobody else wants to do to, you know, up to E-6 where I was running the the division, you know, and making sure all my my folks were taken care of, too. Now I’m going to be commissioned as an officer and really start moving up the the chain of command here. So I said, okay, this is this is going to be interesting. So I commissioned and, you know, got to my first ship and was put in charge of one of the biggest divisions for, for the admin side. It was the personnel division. So I went from being an E-6 where I had like three people under me to now being a ensign, A01, and I had 42 people under me. And I’m like, Oh wow. Huh? This is different, you know? So it was a pretty it was it was a really good experience, right? Transitioning that way. And I learned so much right from that period that I was on the Theodore Roosevelt because I did three different division officer jobs while I was there.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:13:08] And I got to really experience a lot of different people’s leadership styles, right? Because I wound up having three bosses while I was there that kind of came and gone. You know, I’ve learned I learned some good leadership. I’ve learned some bad leadership, and I’m appreciative of every single leader that I’ve served under because they’ve always taught me something. Whether this was a good way to lead or whether it was a bad way to lead. Right. And I always learned from those experiences that I’ve had with every single one of them, whether I like them or not. Right. So. That was a defining moment for me, I think, in my career in the Navy. So shortly after that, well, not shortly after I did three years on the Theodore Roosevelt, and then I transferred to Naval Special Warfare Group ten, where I went from being a division officer to now being a department head and a director. Now, I went there as an O to a lieutenant junior grade and they put me in an O for a lieutenant Commander Billet Right? So I went from being in a brand new division officer job to now being in a department head slash director job just like that. And again, another huge learning curve and experience for me because now it was it was a lot different.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:14:21] Now I’m in charge of so I was in charge of a directorate, but also in charge of four other commands, all of their admin programs. So I had to go and inspect them and stuff. A couple of them were in Coronado, so every quarter I would fly out to Coronado out in California and get really great Mexican food while I was there. And and go around and inspect these areas and check on all the the sailors there and make sure they’re good. And it was another really great experience where I got to learn from, you know. Not only my superiors, but also my subordinates. Right. And also my peers. Really, really great experience. So these are the things that kind of shaped my decision making process right from there. Now I’m a lieutenant and A03. I go to another zero four job, another lieutenant commander job as the staff executive officer over at US Pacific Fleet out here in Hawaii. That’s how I wound up here. And now I’m you know, as a staff XO of enlisted personnel, I was second in command, right. Um, and we had 200 a total of, if you count all the chiefs and the enlisted folks, a total of 294 people under me. Oh, wow. Okay. Very different experience again. Right. But so rewarding because getting to experience these different leadership levels as I was, you know, going through my career in the military, it really helped shaped and mold my decision making process as well.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:15:47] So now I knew when I had a sailor that got in trouble and they were coming in front of me as the executive officer, that’s usually like the step before they go to captain’s mast and getting like really big trouble where they can get punished and stuff. Um, I had a really good process now for, for asking questions and understanding like where they’re coming from with the situations that they were in. Because you know what? I was in your shoes not too long ago when I was a young enlisted sailor, right? So those experiences were fantastic, you know, and and it helped me, I believe, like in my personal life, when it comes to making very important decisions, to really sit back, analyze and make sure the decision I’m making is the right thing and the right move for me and my family. Right. Real estate for me was was almost a no brainer. And I say almost because there was definitely a lot of reservations there from both my wife and I because of our experience with that first property back in 2007. Right? Sure. So. One of the things that I really feel like the Navy helped me with is that ability to persevere, even when you’re not too sure what that outcome might be.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:16:58] Yeah. So that is one of the things that when we decided to get back into real estate, we took a look back at what happened in the past with the previous one and said, You know what? We are not going to let that define us. And even the second time it happened with COVID, we said, we’re not going to let this define us. And we persevered and pushed through. And and yeah, that’s definitely helped me with my process. I believe my my time in the Navy. It’s been fantastic. Um, even the time I served overseas, you know, on deployments and in Iraq. Right. Um, some of the best experiences I’ve ever had was on deployment, because a lot of times when you’re in certain situations and you have to make decisions and they can be life or death decisions, right? It makes it really puts a lot of things into perspective, you know, for, you know, what your decision process is, and especially when you’re under pressure and have to make a quick decision, what kind of gears are turning and what kind of thoughts are coming up as you’re making those decisions, especially when you have to make one very fast. So absolutely, definitely, definitely helped me out, I think big time.

Phillip Hearn: [00:18:09] I love it and think the the nugget that is in all of that are those transferable experiences and those transferable skill sets, right? So there’s so many times where we all have felt this as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, a little bit of that imposter syndrome, right? But you’ve technically done the work that you’re about to do in real estate. It just wasn’t called real estate. It was a boat for for goodness sake. Right. And so you’re leading those folks and you’re leading those people. Same thing in a real estate transaction and even after. Right. So you have some empathy with, hey, I know I’ve got a renter in there. Lost her job during COVID. Let’s find a way to get you what you need. So I love those those stories of perseverance, but also transferring those experiences and transferring those skill sets. That’s that’s a lot of fun. That’s really awesome.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:18:59] You know, I’m I really appreciate that. But I want to point out one thing that you said that really sticks out to me, Doc, and that is imposter syndrome, right? That is something that I have suffered with ever since I started on my journey. Right. Even while I was in the Navy. Right. Like when I first commissioned and wound up, you know, in charge of my first division to when I was in charge of my first directorate to when I was in charge of my first command as an executive officer. You know, I look at those situations and I say, who the heck am I to be the guy in charge of this? Who the heck am I to be the one doing these things? You know, just a couple of weeks ago, I was I was a E-6, you know, on my ship. Um, you know, just making sure that my my 2 or 3 sailors were good to go. Now I’m here with 42 people in front of me looking for guidance, and I’m like, wow, you know? So, yeah, imposter syndrome, I think is something that whether you want to believe it or not, every single person suffers from. And it just it just what matters is how do you take that suffering? Do you turn it into a strength or do you let it become your weakness? And I I’d like to believe that I’ve turned mine into a strength.

Phillip Hearn: [00:20:12] Absolutely. No. And I think that’s beautifully said, just because you’re so right, we all see it and in different points in our life. Right? So they always talk about when you’re younger and in school, you’re big man on campus and you go from big fish in a small pond to now a small fish in a big pond, and it just forces you to have to tap into those experiences and those skill sets like you talked about. So it’s pretty cool when you can translate the work that you’ve done to see how far you’ve gotten to today. So I love those kinds of stories. So I think that was really important. I saw on your website as well with the Average Joe podcast that you have reached financial independence by the age of 38. The most important question I have, because everybody’s got their own definition and your personal definition, what is your definition of financial independence? Tell us a little bit more about what that looks like to you and your family.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:21:06] So for me, it’s when your passive income has exceeded what your monthly expenses are right to now. Like if you don’t want to work, you don’t have to, right? And for me, it’s the freedom to do what I want to do. Right? And that is the key word is freedom. So when you look at financial independence or financial freedom, right, that is the key word is freedom. So that is the number one thing that it means to me.

Phillip Hearn: [00:21:31] I love it. I love it. And it’s interesting, too, because, you know, younger guys. How old are you now, if you don’t mind me asking? 38. Okay. Okay. So this year. All right. So we’re we’re breaking breaking ground breaking new news.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:21:45] So 38.5.

Speaker3: [00:21:46] How about that?

Phillip Hearn: [00:21:47] Okay. Yeah. There we go. Because we all used to start with the house and the three fourths and the fourths and everything else. So what? When did that goal kick into overdrive for you? Right. So everybody’s got a goal of, Hey, I want to do this. I want to make a bunch of money, I want to do all these things and and those are great. But there’s some sticktoitiveness that you talked about. So what when did that crystallize as a goal of like, okay, not only am I, we’re going to do this, but here’s how I have to do it. How long ago did that tap into where you go, I’m going to be financed. I’m going to have financial freedom and we’re going to find financial independence.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:22:21] Yeah. So it was it was when I came out here to Hawaii and decided to get back into real estate again, I was, you know, getting closer to the end of my career in the Navy. I think at the time I was at 16 or 17 years when I came out here and I said, you know, my retirement from the Navy is not going to be enough, especially if we want to stay in Hawaii. So I need to start looking at other options. And that’s when I was like, you know, I want to start looking at real estate again because real estate is to me now again, I had already been investing in index funds and other things like that, right? Etfs. I started a mutual funds account for my children. Right. That is separate just for them. They probably have more money than me right now.

Speaker3: [00:23:05] But it always works like that because that was the.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:23:08] Focus. Right? But but the thing is like, you know, I said for for me personally, real estate, I like it because it’s tangible. It’s something that will always have a need for right people. That is one of the necessities of human life is shelter. Right? So we always need a place to we always need a roof over our heads. So for me, real estate, I felt like was yes, I remember what happened back in oh eight, oh nine, because trust me, it happened to me. Right? So yes, I do remember that. I remember the pain of that. But I also remember that recovery and that bounce back, right? Real estate, no matter what, if your idea is to hold, it will always make you look like a genius, you know, years down the road. Because if you hold it, it will undoubtedly go up in value, right? And for the most part, the the stock market’s the same way, which is why I prefer index funds and ETFs, not individual stocks, because consistently you’re looking at about a 10% return per year on average. Right. So as long as you’re well diverse and you’re focused on, you know, you have that end goal in mind that, you know, financial independence is what you’re seeking or just building your wealth is what you’re seeking, right? The idea needs to always be the long run. So I always I was always looking at my life in five year increments, right? So I knew when I came out here to Hawaii, like I’m in that retirement increment now, so I need to figure this out. And at the time, I wasn’t even really thinking about this because I just got out of debt, you know, I was like, Oh, I’m debt free now. You know, I’m the man. I don’t have to worry about all these credit card bills and all this other stuff. My car’s paid off. Like you can’t tell me nothing. And it turns out, yeah, you can still tell me something in real estate was was speaking very loudly to me.

Phillip Hearn: [00:24:55] I love it. I love it. So when you talk about your real estate and I know you’ve made that transition from residential to commercial or multifamily even, right? What has what has been that experience been like? Because I know a lot of folks, for instance, when they get into real estate, they’re like, don’t talk to me about anything other than the single family property. I can see right in front of me, right? Other folks. And I’m a big proponent of what you mentioned, that multifamily piece, right? I love that opportunity for if you have a big enough property, you’ve got one property manager that needs to come to one building as opposed to 30 buildings scattered across the city. So what’s been your attack plan as you start to make some of those transitions? Not to say you’ve forgotten about residential, but getting more into that multifamily. Take us a little bit into that insight.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:25:40] Yeah, absolutely. So like I mentioned earlier, when I when I decided to get over into the multifamily space, it was because of how busy I was right with my day job in the Navy. And I realized how much time that the residential real estate that I had, that duplex that I had was taking away from me. Right. Especially with it being back in Chesapeake, Virginia. And I’m 5000 miles away in Hawaii. Right. And doing everything sight unseen through pictures and videos was very tedious and also very time consuming. Right. You know, I hear those horror stories all the time where people are getting those phone calls at 2:00 in the morning because of plumbing issues and this and that. Well, I was getting those calls at technically 7:00 in the morning on the East Coast, But it’s still 2:00 in the morning.

Speaker3: [00:26:25] 2:00 for you. Yeah. There it is. Yeah. Not fun.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:26:28] Right? And, you know, like I said, when I was going through this whole process, I was going to these different meetups and I was going on these Zoom calls and I was learning about multifamily and the, the people I did my first multifamily deal with was actually the people whose zoom calls I was going to because I got to know, like and trust them, right? And it’s because I built these relationships with them. It wasn’t just like a Oh yeah, they showed me a slide deck That looks good. The numbers look good. I’m going to get in. No, they did a there was a couple deals that I missed out on. And sometimes I look back and I. And I and I’m like, Man, I should have got in on that first deal. But I’m like, No, everything happens for a reason at the right time. Yeah. So I wound up, you know, getting in and at the right time for me that I thought it was. But I saw I got to experience and see what they, they did on these previous deals. And it even gave me a more of a warm and fuzzy that this is the right group to get involved in. Right. Right. And so for me, it was the learning piece, right? There’s there’s a whole bunch of it that when I talk to people about when you’re getting into this side of real estate or any side of real estate, I have what I call these four pillars to building wealth.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:27:33] And if you want, I can go over them with you real quick. But this is kind of part of my decision making process as well. So that first pillar, right, is very important. But it’s education, right? It’s learning the particular niche or investment that you want to get involved in. You want to learn as much as possible. So books, courses or even just learning from the source itself, right directly from them. That’s a very important piece. That’s pillar number one. And all of these are important, but you’re going to you’re going to see where I’m going with this, right? Pillar number two is mentorship and coaching, excuse me. And of course, knowing the difference between the two of those. Right. Finding yourself a good mentor, that’s going to be the person that’s going to, you know, kind of guide you and say, hey, you know, maybe maybe just keep doing what you’re doing or the person that you can go to for like sage guidance. You know, when you’re not too sure about something or you want to learn a little bit more about something, they have that experience and that that that deep knowledge base that you can kind of tap into where a coach is going to be the one that, you know, coaches are usually paid for, right? And they’re going to be the ones that kick you in the butt and say, hey, stop doing A, B, C, and D, you need to get hot on doing, you know, the rest of this stuff.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:28:45] So I like both. I like having mentors and coaches because I think it’s it’s super important to have both. But either either way at least get one right. Sorry. That’s my dog barking back there. No, it’s okay. The third one is building networks and relationships. Right? So networking and building relationships and knowing the difference between the two. Right? So building a network is one thing, right? But building relationships is something that’s completely different than just somebody that’s being in your network. Right? So what I tell people is go out to networking events, go out to conferences, meet people. Right? It’s great if you want to pass out your business card to 100 people, fine. Whatever. Most of the time those business cards get thrown in the trash or they get thrown in a filing cabinet and they’re never seen again. So what I always tell people to do is go to these events, seek out 2 to 5 people, depending on the size of the event and how long you’re going to be there and really get to know them, exchange information like put their number in your phone. They put your number in their phone. Right. Exchange information. Learn about them. You know, if if the person you’re talking to has a kid that has a that’s in a soccer tournament that’s coming up and they’re going for states or something, remember that? Call them a week after it happens.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:30:00] Be like, Hey, how’d little Timmy do on that soccer tournament? You guys go to states, What’s going on? They will remember you. And when they have a really good deal that comes up, they’re going to say, Hey, remember that Mike guy, man? He called me up. He you know, he followed up with me and asked about Timmy’s game. That’s a that’s a real dude right there. I’m going to hit him back up, Right. Um, you know, because I got this good deal and I need a partner. So those are important things. Is actually building that relationship, building rapport with people and not just exchanging information and going on your merry way. Right. Um, the fourth and the most important pillar of all. And the other three don’t even matter if you don’t do this one, but you need the other three to get to this one. Okay? Action. You have to take action, right? So you can be educated all you want. You can have a mentor and a coach telling you what to do all you want. You can build as many relationships and network all you want if you don’t take action, all of that is for naught. So yeah, those are my four pillars and that’s all a big part of like how I make my decisions as well.

Phillip Hearn: [00:31:04] And I love those four pillars mean again, you know, my background being an education. So I geek out about the research and all the work, right? So like you said, a good book sometimes kind of gets your mind going, digging into that topic whole wholeheartedly. Agree. Luckily, I’ve been able to be and also have really good mentors and coaches, right? So working as a coach, it’s kind of like even if you’re giving that advice out as a coach, you have to live that advice too. So it kind of keeps you on, on your, your, you know, your head on a swivel, if you will. Um, I love the networking concept because I agree people exchange phone numbers even now, right? So we can have a QR code. I do all of my cards through a QR code. People will take a picture and never. Yeah, see, there we go. Look at that. So a lot of people will do that. And like you said, never go back and double check or follow up with that. So I was always a big proponent. I still am of following up something as simple as a quick message of like, Hey, it’s so great to meet you.

Phillip Hearn: [00:32:02] That keeps the conversation going. But the action piece, yeah, you can you can plan and replan and plan. Again, a little bit of paralysis analysis, if you will. If you don’t actually take off and go with it. Yeah. What have you been doing? Right? So I love the four pillars and I think those are seminal messages that anybody can use, no matter what their business construct, real estate or otherwise. So that’s a beautiful thing. One last real estate question for you, and I think listeners are probably going, how does he pull this off? So you said something very important. One of your first properties in Chesapeake, Virginia. Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, excuse me. You’re sitting 5000 miles away, five time zones away in Hawaii. Who are the most important members of your team to be able to pull this off? Right. Because I believe you not only have property, of course, in Hawaii and Virginia, but a couple other places, if I was reading correctly. So how do you pull this off with being so far away?

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:32:57] So that is a great question. And, you know, on that first deal in Chesapeake that I probably didn’t have the right team in place. So I learned a lot of those hard lessons the hard way, right? Even though I knew better because I, you know, had really great mentors that said, you know, make sure you have your team set up first. Now, I had a great real estate agent out there, right. I had my property manager who was also my general contractor. And this is probably where I made the mistake. Right. Because they shouldn’t be the same person. Right. Okay. So that was one of the things I ran into because a lot of times he would be dealing with property management issues, not only for me but for other clients that he had. So when there was a contracting issue that I needed help with or a repair or something like that, sometimes the availability made it very difficult. And now I’m scrambling trying to find a plumber or something, you know, and I’m doing it from Hawaii making these phone calls. And I’m like, Yeah, sorry, I can’t meet you there because I don’t, you know, I’m 5000 miles away.

Speaker3: [00:33:57] You.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:33:57] Know, if you could meet my property manager there and then I’d have to get them synced up. So yes, that was probably one of the biggest issues I had to deal with. So having your team in place is super important, right? So you want to have a good real estate agent, you want to have a good property manager, you want to have a good general contractor. Right. And they should be different people. Right. But those are the those are the important things. Right. You know, who’s your boots on the ground in that area if you’re going to invest out of market. Now, with the other deals that I’m in as a limited partner, one of the beautiful things is I get to work with some amazing operators, right? So they have their entire team in place. Every time we get into one of these deals. And what happens is, you know, they have their boots on the ground. The entire team goes over there and looks at the property, you know, and they when they have the inspections and they’re doing all of, you know, just everything, right. So they they get somebody local to be the property manager. Right. It’s not just somebody that we kind of just sit over there and the entire process is in place before the deal, even before there’s even an offer on the deal.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:35:02] Right. They have everything in place. So that is one of the most important things is who do you have on your team? Who’s who are the important people that you’re going to trust in this? Because you cannot be there all the time, right? Actually, sometimes you can’t be there any of the time in my situation. So it’s who do you have that you trust that’s going to make sure that, you know, these assets are being taken care of and you’re not getting, you know, the short end of the stick on the back end. Right? So that’s important. So if you’re going to go into multifamily real estate, whether you want to be an operator and be a general partner or whether you want to be passive and be a limited partner. Right. The important piece is who’s on the team, right? So if you’re a general partner, what what are you bringing to the table for one? What kind of value do you add to the rest of the team? And then for two, what does everyone else on the rest of the team doing right, Making sure that everybody’s doing their own equal part? Now, if you’re a limited partner and you find a group of operators that you like and you find these general partners, you know, what are they all doing? What kind of background, you know, did you do on them and what have they done in the past, the deals that they’re looking at? Did you do your own due diligence on them yourself or did you just trust what was sent in that slide deck? I always tell people, too, if you go in as a limited partner, don’t just trust getting a slide deck.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:36:21] Do your own research on that market. Really learn about it. Don’t just say yes, because if you do that, you wind up getting yourself in a situation where somebody, you know, that team may not have done the best due diligence. And, you know, a couple months into the deal, there’s an issue. And now they need they’re going to do a capital call and they need more money from you because, you know, things went wrong because they miscalculated something or, hey, we didn’t know that, you know, it was at 40% occupancy. We thought it was at 80% occupancy because that’s what the previous owner told us, Right. So or they were on a month to month basis. And now that there’s new management here, everybody dipped out. So those are the things that are really important. So see what they’ve done in the past and really do your due diligence, not only, you know, on the team, but also on the actual investments and the assets that they’re that they’re acquiring.

Phillip Hearn: [00:37:14] Love it. And then this taps back into two of your pillars, right? So, of course, the last pillar of action, you’re going to be taking action. But that educational component and that networking component, right, making sure you’ve got folks that you can trust when you physically can’t be there at all times doing all the things. So I love that that that definitely ties back into the pillars as well. So I love a I love a good double dip when we can get them 100%. So you hit that financial freedom number this year, You know, within the half year or so you got your real estate investments, you’re starting to grow that. Plus you’ve got this fantastic podcast. Tell me how the podcast, Average Joe’s average Joe’s Finance want to make sure we keep pubbing that.

Speaker4: [00:37:57] And with you.

Phillip Hearn: [00:37:57] But tell me how that started and what made you say, I’ve got these experiences, I’m seeing them. I’m living them right as you as you describe. And now you’re on episode here, 166. I mean, how did we go from that to that? It’s like going from 0 to 100. Real quick, what does that look like?

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:38:15] Yeah. So definitely appreciate that question and appreciate the shout out for the podcast. So yeah, so Average Joe Finances podcast started off as a blog, right? So I when I first came out here to Hawaii, I was super excited about the story that I had about getting out of debt and you know, what I did to get there. So, you know, what I told you at the beginning was kind of like some of the basic stuff, but there was other pieces to it. Like we were doing the envelope method. We wound up having sinking funds accounts, which actually was one of my favorite ways to invest and save, as well as pay off our debt. So if you don’t know what sinking funds is, if you go to my YouTube channel, it’s the first video on there. Um, but yeah, so we got into this and I started a blog and I had a buddy of mine who had just started a podcast, also somebody else that was on the Theodore Roosevelt with me. He got into some trouble and, you know, got and had a couple situations in his life where things kind of took a turn for the worst. And he started a podcast talking about resilience and how he was able to bounce back in life from those situations that he was in. And he got himself up into the top 5% within his first year of doing it. And he came up to me one day, he’s like, Hey, Mike. He’s like, You know this blog that you have here, Average Joe finances. This is this is really awesome and you’re sharing your story. I think it would be really beneficial to other people if you started a podcast to not only talk about this, but bring on other people that are doing similar things and share their story.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:39:49] Because, you know, I can tell just from the way that you write your blog posts and everything else that you’re doing here, that you’re trying to impact other people. It’s not just for you to, you know, document and record what you’ve done. It’s to try to help other people. I said, Well, yeah, I am trying to help other people. Um, so I was like, But I’m not sure I can do a podcast right now while I’m still in the Navy. I just don’t feel like I have the time. And if I do it, I don’t want to just, you know, wing it and, you know, try to figure it out as I go. I want to make sure I have a good plan and make sure I can get episodes out on a regular, consistent basis. He’s like, Man, even if you just do one a month, just trust me. He’s like, Podcasting is going to be big. Get into it. Just do it. I’m like, Fine, twist my arm. So I started the podcast and of course I did exactly the opposite of what I said I was going to do. I started the podcast without a plan. Yeah, I started it without having content really recorded. I’m like, Huh, uh, how am I supposed to do this? Like my first four episodes? 4 or 5 episodes? No, I think my first first three episodes were just me. One was an intro, one was my seven Steps to Beating Debt. And I forget what the third one was so long ago.

Speaker3: [00:41:02] And then my fourth one was my first interview. And that kind of happened.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:41:07] Because I reached out and said, Hey, I started a podcast and are there any real estate investors or people investing in the stock market or anything that want to come on my show and share their story? And, you know, got got my first interview. And for whatever reason, I was like hell bent on making sure that the episodes were only like 20 minutes long.

Speaker3: [00:41:26] Right, Right. So that was that was the goal, right? Because I was like, I want somebody.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:41:30] To listen to it, you know, on their drive to work and that’s it.

Speaker3: [00:41:33] Well, people listen to podcasts.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:41:34] On their commute to and from work, right?

Speaker3: [00:41:36] Yeah.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:41:37] Anyway, I learned about this later.

Speaker3: [00:41:39] On, But yeah, I was I was so hell bent on making it 20 minutes that.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:41:43] My first interview, the guy comes.

Speaker3: [00:41:45] On.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:41:45] You know, we’re having a great dialog even though it was a little robotic because at the time I had like, you know, set questions.

Speaker3: [00:41:53] I was like, I have to ask every single one of these questions, right? Even if I have to cut the guy off and make sure.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:41:58] That I get the next.

Speaker3: [00:41:59] Question in, which is kind of what I did, which was like, I wasn’t the best interviewer when I first started this.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:42:05] And, you know, we get to about the 20 minute mark and I’m.

Speaker3: [00:42:08] Like and he’s like, Yeah, I’m ready. You know, let’s keep going.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:42:10] You know what else you want to talk about?

Speaker3: [00:42:12] And I’m like, All right, well, that was a great interview. Thanks for coming on and and close it out. Like, not.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:42:17] Even realize using.

Speaker3: [00:42:19] What I had just.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:42:20] Done. And if.

Speaker3: [00:42:21] You go listen to that episode, you’ll you’ll.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:42:22] Listen to it and be like.

Speaker3: [00:42:24] Man, you just kind of cut this guy off and everything and and it’s okay, you know? And I talked to him.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:42:30] Afterwards and said.

Speaker3: [00:42:31] Oh, you know, this is.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:42:31] So you can come back on in the future for part two.

Speaker3: [00:42:34] Right, right. Um, and yes, I mean, I truly meant that, but at the same time, I’m like, Man, what am I doing? So I did another solo episode after that, I think, and then I did another interview and I still was kind of in that same thing where it was very regimented, but it went a little bit longer this time. And I said, okay, cool. And then I was like, What am I doing? Why? Why am I sitting here like putting these, these, these borders up, you know, that I can’t go past and I’m putting limitations on my show by doing this, by saying I have to ask these specific questions. So it’s definitely evolved a lot from then. Um, I mean, you’ve been on the show, you know how I do things. I like to keep.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:43:15] It very conversational the same way you’re doing it here. I love this right?

Speaker3: [00:43:18] Because that’s when you get people’s most authentic selves, right, is when you keep it conversational.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:43:25] Keep it.

Speaker3: [00:43:25] Light and fun. So I’ve definitely evolved my show from then to now.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:43:29] The only real set questions I have is like the very.

Speaker3: [00:43:32] First question where I ask, you know, about their background, and then at the end I do this thing.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:43:36] Called the Final Round, where I ask everybody the.

Speaker3: [00:43:38] Same four questions, but all in between.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:43:41] Is specifically about the topic we’re going to talk.

Speaker3: [00:43:44] About and whatever is comfortable for the guest, because I.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:43:47] Want to make sure that we’re putting the best.

Speaker3: [00:43:49] Possible content out there while making everybody comfortable and not cringe. Right, right, right. That’s that’s the whole thing. You know, when you can laugh and smile and have a good time while you’re doing an.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:43:59] Interview, it really helps.

Speaker3: [00:44:01] With the authenticity of the guest. And also for you as a host.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:44:06] You know, really get.

Speaker3: [00:44:06] Out there and ask, you know, some of the more.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:44:08] Important questions. And I the way I like to treat my.

Speaker3: [00:44:10] Show as well. And I think it’s really helped the growth. And it’s because my because it helps my listeners is every time I bring somebody on.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:44:18] I’m like, hey, talk to me like a fifth grader, right? As if I don’t know anything.

Speaker3: [00:44:22] You know? And if you’re going to put acronyms out there or anything.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:44:25] Like that, I will ask you what those acronyms stand for, even though I know that stands for Key Performance Indicator. Right.

Speaker3: [00:44:31] I’m still going to ask you to explain that, right?

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:44:33] Because for my listeners, this might be their first episode that they’ve ever listened to.

Speaker3: [00:44:38] I don’t want them to get turned off and be like.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:44:39] Yeah, this is a little.

Speaker3: [00:44:40] Too.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:44:41] Advanced for me. That’s why it’s called Average Joe finances, right?

Speaker3: [00:44:45] That’s who I’m appealing to, somebody that wants to get in there and break free. And that’s why my tagline is Beat debt, Build your wealth.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:44:53] And control your future.

Speaker3: [00:44:55] No doubt. Mic drop.

Phillip Hearn: [00:44:57] Yeah, No. And no pun intended with the mic drop either. I mean. No, no, I don’t want to drop. It’s very expensive. Don’t drop that. That’s a nice one. Don’t do that. But I totally do. Because, you know, when I was growing up, I did communication in college and I remember one of my favorite professors go The questions you start an interview with should not actually be the questions you get to in the sense of they shouldn’t be in this order. You mentioned guardrails was a perfect visual, right? They shouldn’t be in this exact order. They should kind of be a starter. And then wherever the interview goes, you’ve kind of gotten it to that particular point. And so I’ve been lucky enough to be on your show. I think I was on episode 162 if I was paying attention correctly.

Speaker3: [00:45:40] Yeah. Came out recently.

Phillip Hearn: [00:45:41] Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, had a great time, good energy, good good vibe about it. But no, it’s been it was fun to be a part of it. And I’ve gotten a chance now to go back and even listen to more episodes and you’ve come a long way, so congrats with the success on that for sure.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:45:57] Definitely appreciate that. Thank you so much.

Phillip Hearn: [00:45:59] Absolutely. So most important question that I like to ask before wrapping up any conversation like this. And again, thank you for your time. This is a ton of fun. How do our listeners connect with you? What types of clients do you want to be connected with? What does that all look like? How do people get to Mike? What does that? Look like from their end.

Speaker3: [00:46:19] Yeah, absolutely. And thank you for that. So the easiest.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:46:22] Way is my personal website, which is the Mike.

Speaker3: [00:46:25] Tv.com.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:46:27] Or Mike cavazzoni.com.

Speaker3: [00:46:28] If you can figure.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:46:29] Out how to spell my last name.

Speaker3: [00:46:31] And then of course, my my main website.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:46:33] Which started everything is average Joe finances.com you’ll.

Speaker3: [00:46:36] Be able to find the podcast and everything.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:46:38] There but you can also find it from my personal website.

Speaker3: [00:46:40] But you’ll see you know I also offer financial coaching.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:46:44] For people that are struggling. I’m actually starting to get a little bit away from that and I actually hired some.

Speaker3: [00:46:50] Coaches that now I have other.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:46:53] Coaches that take.

Speaker3: [00:46:53] On clients as well. So you don’t necessarily have to.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:46:56] Work directly with me. There’s other coaches on my team that you can work with as well.

Speaker3: [00:47:01] And they’re all fantastic people and they all share.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:47:03] The same vision as me, right?

Speaker3: [00:47:05] So that’s, that’s the biggest thing. And of course with real estate, I’m a licensed real estate agent in Hawaii. So if you need help with that, I’m definitely here. Or if you need to find somebody in any other market. I have a huge network of real estate agents and lenders and private money lenders and all that good stuff just.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:47:23] From what I’ve built with the podcast.

Speaker3: [00:47:25] So happy to help in any aspect. And if you’re thinking about starting a podcast yourself, I’d be happy.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:47:30] To talk to you about that and help you out with that as well.

Phillip Hearn: [00:47:33] Yeah, so you and I are going to definitely be staying in touch. So just we just created our real estate brokerage in Missouri, so we got some things very nice about even after the show too, so that’s perfect. Mike It has been an absolute pleasure. I’ve really enjoyed the conversation. I knew I would. I was I’ve been looking forward to this one. So this is this has been a ton of a ton of fun. So thanks for coming on.

Speaker3: [00:47:55] Again, thank you so much for having me.

Mike Cavaggioni: [00:47:57] The pleasure was.

Speaker3: [00:47:58] 100%. Well, maybe not 100%. 50 over 50. All mine as well. 5050. Yeah. I had a great time. This one. Aloha.

Phillip Hearn: [00:48:06] Yes. So thanks again to our guests, Mike Faggioni. A ton of fun. Really good insight for those listeners who are listening. A ton of great pearls in this information. You’ve just joined us and and finished up another episode of Doc’s discussions. I’m Dr. Philip Hearn and thanks for hanging out with us on Saint Louis Business RadioX Take care.

 

About Your Host

Phillip-HearnDr. Phillip Hearn Ed.D. is a results-driven entrepreneur, Senior Executive, Consultant, and Board Member with more than 20 years of success in business acquisition and real estate. His expertise in leveraging extensive experience with expansion, and financing, makes Phillip a valuable asset for companies, particularly in real estate, seeking guidance on growth opportunities and process improvement.

Phillip is the founder of Mid American Capital Holdings, LLC, an acquisition focused company. Current subsidiaries include Phillip Speaks, specializing in coaching, advising and public speaking engagements; Financial Center, consulting business owners on methods to implement business trade lines and credit to grow their operations, and other subsidiaries which continues to expand. Phillip also gives back via his non for profit Center for Communities and Economic Development.

Phillip has obtained an Ed.D. from Capella University and holds an Executive Masters in Health Administration (EMHA) from Saint Louis University; an MA in Marketing and a BA in Media Communication, both from Webster University, and Lean Six Sigma (Black Belt) from Villanova University. He has served as a Board Member for the National Sales Network St. Louis Chapter and Ready Readers, for which he has also served as the Governance Department Chair and President of the Board.

Phillip is a coach, advisor, key note speaker and podcast host on Business RadioX. Audiences benefit professionally and personally through his teachings of leveraging and application. His new book “Life Mottos for Success” exemplifies how positive words and thoughts can transform your life!

Connect with Phillip on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.

Stephanie Wilson-Coleman with The Champagne Connection

by

Stephanie-Wilson-ColmanFeatured in UpJourney Online Magazine, Authority Magazine, The Crusader, N’digo Magazine, MetaMonthly Magazine, Dr. Stephanie E. Wilson-Coleman is a Holistic Life Coach turned Executive Coach, author of 4 books, host of the popular podcast, A Sip of Inspiration, and Founder and CEO of The Champagne Connection.

Dr. Stephanie has an Executive M.B.A from the University of Chicago Booth, Ph.D. in Holistic Life Counseling, and a Behavioral Finance Certification from Duke University.

Her story is filled with conflict, villains, roadblocks, moral dilemmas, and spiritual awakenings. The Empowerment Doctor is a teenage mother, a survivor of sexual molestation, gang rape, homelessness, and a basal skull fracture.

Dr. Stephanie has the uncanny ability to help others transform obstacles into stepping stones to living their dreams. She has an insatiable appetite for helping others rethink the impossible. Her superpower: Transforming Lives. Teeth-rattling, soul-shaking experiences vaporize at her command.

Let Stephanie help you find the winning strategy in the cards life has dealt.

As she always says “Life is too short to drink cheap champagne. Trust Your Greatness, Embrace Your Power”.

Connect with Stephanie on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:05] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Saint Louis, Missouri. It’s time for Saint Louis Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Phillip Hearn: [00:00:18] Hello, good people, and welcome to Doc’s discussions here on Saint Louis Business RadioX. I am so excited about our guest today. Too many accolades to name. I will probably miss some. I don’t want to offend this fantastic human being, so I’m just going to get right into the introduction of Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman. Dr. Wilson- Coleman. How are you?

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:00:40] I am doing absolutely fantastic and no worries, because I am not easily offended. Okay. Okay, good, good.

Phillip Hearn: [00:00:49] Well, then you’re on the right show. Yeah. I’m gonna try not to offend you, but I’m glad to know that I’ve got a little leeway. So this is. Yeah, you got some leeway. I appreciate having you here today. Like I said, I’ve been looking forward to this interview for a while. You were nice enough to. To have me on your show. A sip of inspiration, which we’ll dive into here later in our show. But I’m definitely excited to see you again and connect with you again. It’s a good spirit. It’s a good energy. So I’m looking forward to this.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:01:15] Okay. I am too.

Phillip Hearn: [00:01:16] Awesome. So I’ve had a chance to read through your story and being very lucky to do so and come away with the feeling that you are a survivor. You’re a fighter in your life. Your story is extremely inspirational. Can you tell us and my viewers more about your past, where you come from? How do we get to the the Dr. Wilson Coleman that we have today? I know you’ve you’ve overcome a few things, to say the least.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:01:42] Oh, yeah, to say the least. As a matter of fact, I used to say that any day I did not consider suicide was a good day. So that’s how I managed to decide whether it was a good day or not. I grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. Everything you’ve heard about it is probably true. And then started planning My Escape from Little Rock when I was like 14. I was a teen mom, pregnant at 14, had my child at 15, and it wasn’t pleasant in a small town like Little Rock, Arkansas. So you lost all your friends. You lost supposedly. You supposed to lose all hope. But hope has been the one thing that I have leaned on. So luckily, I didn’t lose hope. So I graduated at the top of my class, graduated from college early, and not because I was trying to prove anything, but because I was constantly told that I was going to have to take care of myself. No one’s going to take care of someone that has a baby already. So I knew I had to get busy. So I graduated college, then eventually got married and moved to Florida, and that seemed like a happy ending. But it was at the end of the marriage where I ended up homeless. Okay, I suffered a basal skull fracture. And that’s where you rattle the brain stem. And 96% of the people at that time did not recover from basal skull fractures. So I tell people when you want to, the one good thing that happened to me was that near-death experience, because they told me I was going to die.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:03:18] And what I have learned is when people tell you you’re going to die, you get real clear about what you want to do. So all of those people that you’re afraid to let go of that are dragging you down, Trust me, somebody tells you you’re going to die. You are not afraid of that anymore. Everybody has to go. And you learn that. You don’t even have to explain why they have to go. You just stop calling them or answering their calls. I usually joke that God created call waiting for that purpose. So when the negative people called you see who’s calling. You don’t have to answer the call. There’s nothing that says you have to answer the call. So fast forward. Um, I ended up my son graduated from Jackson State University. Um, so that was a success. And I went further in the education, now in the homelessness part and then being told you’re going to die too, you know, you’ve got to get busy that So that’s the quickest way to get rid of people who are dragging you down. You do have to learn what. What your purpose is. Why did you get here? So you learned. I learned the hard way to ask the right questions. You know not why is this happening to me? Because that’s a question that no one can answer. Okay. But the question is, what do I do next? What have I learned? Those are questions that you can answer.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:04:45] So what did I learn? So I learned that you can’t spend all of your money. Okay? Because with the divorce, you know, we were we were two incomes and he was making great money. And then when he left, he took all the money out of the bank and stole the money from the sale of the house. So I didn’t have any place to stay. I mean, all of that. So I learned you can’t spend all of your money. And that’s that was a harsh way to learn it. But I also learned that for me to move forward, I needed what I call the cosmic two by four. Okay? So so don’t seem to get moving when it’s a friendly reminder, right? Yeah, Right. So I wasn’t that person. So, so. So I had to get near death before said oh okay. That’s what you were trying to tell me. Universal. Yeah, but I’m listening now. So I started to journal and my first book was, Is anybody listening? Okay. And I journaled about the, the experiences I had, the different experiences and the spiritual awakenings because there will be a spiritual awakening. People don’t always call it that, but you know, not to offend anyone. There will be a spiritual awakening because you will you will find out that you’re not doing it by yourself, that there’s something greater than you in this universe that will help you through those things. If you trust it, there’s something that will let you know what the next step is if you listen. So you’ve got to learn how to listen, and you’ve got to learn how to trust.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:06:26] So that’s what I found out in the book. It wasn’t that people weren’t listening to me. That’s what I thought. People were not listening to me. I wasn’t listening to the universal presence. I wasn’t listening and looking at the signs that were all around me that this thing that I was living called a life was going to, like burn up. Okay? I was going to crash and burn. I wasn’t listening to it. So when I started to listen to it, I promised God. I said, okay. You get me out of this, I will never be back here again. Okay? I promise you that I will never be back again. So I started by literally, what can I do now with what I have? And that is probably the most important thing anyone listening can do. What can you do right now with what you have? And if you don’t have anything, there’s a whole lot you can do. You can get out a piece of paper. You can start writing down what you’re grateful for, because if you are on this side of the ground, you can make some changes. So even be grateful for that. Okay? You need to do some forgiveness too. So I had to let go some of that residue that I was carrying around about people who did me wrong. So I generally talk about our they did me wrong stories. Everybody got it. They did me wrong story. Okay, everybody all right?

Speaker4: [00:08:00] Of course. Yeah.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:08:01] You got to let them go. Okay. Okay. Figure out what you learned. Figure out what you could have possibly done different if it happens now. And don’t beat yourself up for for where you are now, because that’s like driving your car in a rearview mirror. You can’t change that back there. That happened. Just write down what you learned. Write down what you now know never to do again. Okay? Okay. And those then become like your values and your morals and don’t ever break them. Okay, So for instance, I had to figure out money, so I figured out money. So there’s some type. I don’t care what’s happening. I tied. And the thing about tithing is people get caught up on the 10%. They don’t have it. So if you’ve got 1% tithe 1%, right. Okay. It’s the actual action. That changes the thought process. It’s not the amount of money. It’s not the percentage. It’s the action that you need to take to get where you need to go and forgive yourself because we can forgive other people easily. Yeah, but forgive yourself and take full responsibility. So I did. So I took a job. I actually took a job in another state. And then they told me they couldn’t pay me after a week. So I was homeless again. So I said, okay, God, now there is some place you want me to be and I’m just not there. Where is that place? Right. Right. And in an hour or so later, after that prayer, my aunt from Chicago called and said, You know, if you can get her, you can stay with me. Now, fast, you know, let’s go backwards a little bit, because I visited her some years before all that happened to me and I was on the beach and the little voice said, you need to move to Chicago. I lived in Florida and I said, It’s too cold in Chicago. I’m not going.

Phillip Hearn: [00:10:08] But it is too cold. I mean, let’s just be honest with the listeners. It is a little too cold. But no, keep going. Right.

Speaker4: [00:10:14] Still cold. It’s still cold.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:10:16] I’m used to 80, 90, 120 degree. Take 120. But I can take 27. Okay. Yes. And the message said no, you’re going to Chicago.

Speaker4: [00:10:26] I’m not going to Chicago.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:10:28] So fast forward, everything fell apart for me in Florida, and this universal presence got me where I needed to be, which was in Chicago. Okay. I took a job where they asked me what I needed to make. Okay. And okay. And it was it was a gaming company. So they asked me if I could work at home or if I wanted to work in the office. And things just started going. My career reached its height. Employer paid for my master’s degree, my MBA from the University of Chicago. Didn’t have to pay for it. So this is where I was supposed to be to do the work that I needed to do. And I got here and it was nearly magical. Now, not say didn’t have to work, you know, I applied for everything. I still had to study. I still had to do the work. But the finances, I paid off $65,000 in debt and no time. I started to tithe ten, 15%. I was able to put money in savings, all of that because the universe got me where they wanted me to be, to do the work that the universe wanted me to do for it. We forget sometimes that we didn’t come here just to live out our fans, our fantasies and do what we want to do. We were created by a higher being and we will do what that higher being needs us to do. And you will go kicking or screaming. But I recommend that you go peacefully.

Speaker4: [00:12:05] Because I’ve done it kicking and screaming part.

Phillip Hearn: [00:12:07] Yeah, yeah. The kicking and screaming that that’s the truest statement of it all. And you definitely dropped some knowledge for us with that too. So I want to tap a little bit into that timeframe of Chicago. Right? So part of your background, an executive MBA, a PhD in holistic life counseling. Take us through what those processes, you know, and and those achievements, right? So a life of achievement. But those particular achievements, especially in that timeline, what did that do for you? I mean, that that’s part of your overcoming roadblocks and conflicts of the past. That sounds like a crossroad point. Tell us a little bit more about that.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:12:48] So it was a crossroad point and it was something that I’d always wanted to do younger. I always wanted to go to an Ivy League school. I don’t know why I had the GPA. I had the intelligence, as they said. But, you know, back then I was pregnant, had a baby, and that.

Speaker4: [00:13:06] Just wasn’t happening. Right, Right.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:13:08] So when I got here, I had a great job at a gaming company. They were eventually bought out by Microsoft and moved to Seattle. Well, you know, I just got to Chicago. It’s cold. I’m still missing 100 degree weather.

Speaker4: [00:13:23] I am not going to Seattle. Right. And when I even got.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:13:27] That job, this is a cute thing, is when took that when I was looking for work says God, you know.

Speaker4: [00:13:32] Everything is far around here. I can’t drive 20 minutes. I am not getting on a train to go to work and this job.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:13:39] So I turned down jobs because they didn’t meet my requirements. This job was 20 minutes from work.

Speaker4: [00:13:48] Free parking. I can pick my hours, okay? And they pay me what I wanted to pay so was really clear. So then the universe. Yeah. So then when they went says, God, you know, I’m not going to rainy, dark weather, I’m, I’m still missing that.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:14:05] So I took a they gave me a buyout.

Speaker4: [00:14:09] And my 401. My 401.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:14:12] Was fantastic that I.

Speaker4: [00:14:15] Didn’t even have to contribute.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:14:16] To Microsoft. Was that good of an employer. So he took all that with me and then had a friend that worked for a temp agency and says, Go over here and apply for me. Right? I went over there. I didn’t like it, didn’t like the people. They didn’t.

Speaker4: [00:14:29] Like me. I went home. Right. But then they called back and said.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:14:35] We want you to to we want to interview you. We want you to interview for this position. So would you apply for it? So I said, okay. And and then they offered it to me. So I gave them this a ridiculous salary and they said okay. I said.

Speaker4: [00:14:51] Oh, oh.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:14:53] Okay. But it was temporary, no problem. And then a permanent position came up and they the HR called and said, You didn’t apply for this. I hadn’t planned on applying, but I applied. Right? Yeah. So I applied. I got the salary I wanted and then I got bored after a couple of years and my boss said, Why don’t you go to look at one of the graduate schools? You know, you’re really good at that.

Speaker4: [00:15:18] You could you would really do well with an MBA. Look at one of the top graduate schools.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:15:23] So in Chicago, that would be University of Chicago and Northwestern applied.

Speaker4: [00:15:28] Got involved too, but.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:15:30] University of Chicago was closer to the office and closer to where I live. So says, I’m gonna take that. Okay, I’ll take that back.

Speaker4: [00:15:37] I have not.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:15:37] Never I have never worked so hard in my life.

Speaker4: [00:15:40] And I came out of that.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:15:42] I came out of the University of Chicago experience saying I used to think I was really smart because they always said I had a great IQ. But when your first week of classes are with all of the Nobel Prize winners, you realize.

Speaker4: [00:15:55] Just how smart you’re not.

Phillip Hearn: [00:15:57] Okay, so you’re saying you just got to bump up your standard just a little bit? Oh, yeah, just.

Speaker4: [00:16:01] Just a little bit. Okay. So I ended up working.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:16:04] Still full time. And then my process was they give you all of your books before the class. So I would read everything before that semester even started temp the homework. And then we had we worked in groups. It was it was tough. But the great thing is we did intern, we did a ten day intern in Singapore and to, to study financial instruments and to actually study the the, the system where how we move goods and services throughout the world because they have one of the best trucking industries and over there to move goods. So we studied that and financial instruments and then went to Barcelona. So that was a matter of understanding that the gift was given. The work was hard. I still had to work. I still had to do that. I learned more quicker than I ever thought. And my staff, though, because I use them as my guinea pig. So as I would learn new concepts, I take that back to work.

Speaker4: [00:17:03] This is what we’re going to do, this is how we’re going to run this.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:17:07] So my staff would say.

Speaker4: [00:17:08] We’re going to tell you, you can’t go to any more classes and you can’t go to any more conferences because you work us to death. But as a result of it.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:17:18] I was able to share that knowledge with people who worked for me, and it even inspired some of them to go back and get more education and start start living their dreams too. So because I obviously have proven that.

Speaker4: [00:17:33] If you can make it when the people tell you you’re going to die, okay, I think everybody needs a near-death experience because all them people y’all say y’all going to stop talking to and y’all going to leave alone. Y’all have a hard time, but let somebody tell you you’re going to die, okay? Right. Right. It’s the easiest thing to do. So it helped them with knowing.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:17:53] That they could do more, too, that it’s never too late to do more. So the staffs.

Speaker4: [00:17:58] I’ve always had.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:17:58] Have I’ve always encouraged them to do their best at work and make sure they’re sharing all of their ideas and to make sure that if we have to rearrange some schedules or something so that they too can get some additional education so that they can start to live their dreams to see what they actually can do. We don’t trust ourselves enough to step out there, but hopefully and some of them say to this day, I gave them I gave them the the the strength. And I was so confident in that they could do it. And then they’d come back to work and we’d talk about what they talked about, what they learned, and we talk about how we could use that in our actual environment at work. And as a result, all out of I always had the highest scores of team excellence of happy people because they allowed them, I, I allowed them to grow. I insisted that they grow, that they didn’t stay where they were because I don’t think that that’s what the universal presence wants from us. It wants us to change. It wants us to make mistakes. It wants us to learn more about ourselves. Yeah. So then I realized not using money, right, was my problem. So I started coaching people about how to find out what their real beliefs are. See, when you look into your money.

Speaker4: [00:19:26] You know what you believe. Okay?

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:19:29] You just.

Speaker4: [00:19:30] Know how.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:19:31] Do you spend your money? So we break it out in categories. So did you spend money on your your own development, your own self development? And usually people don’t. You’ll be surprised how smart that how small that budget is. But they spent money getting people out of debt, lending money they’re never going to get.

Speaker4: [00:19:48] Back eating out.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:19:49] We do so much eating out and then we wonder where our health is bad. So once we can get those categories together and have you look over at 420 days, you can see for yourself. What you believe and.

Speaker4: [00:20:04] What you think.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:20:04] And then I work with you to.

Speaker4: [00:20:06] Actually change.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:20:07] That, but did get to a point in life where I needed to know more about not just the mechanics of how people handled money, but how they thought about it, which is why I went back to do the holistic life coaching degree so that way I could tap into what you’re thinking about, what you’re thinking about spiritually or and some people don’t think they have a spiritual belief, but any beliefs you have generally will go back, would go back to what you believe spiritually. So I could identify any lack of consciousness so we could work on things that would help them start to understand that they too could create an abundance starting right where they are.

Phillip Hearn: [00:20:49] I love it. I love it. There’s not a lot of people that I’ve been lucky enough to come across where even as you’re reading their bio, the words literally jump off the page, right? So as I was reading through your stuff and preparing for today. I got excited, even more excited. So of course I know you then get a chance to read your bio. And then I’m like, okay, I got ten other questions. I’m going to ask an assumptive question. Okay. How have you been able to make peace with your past? So this will be one of the last things I asked, looking back as we now will dig into moving forward. But I think it’s an important question because you tapped into a couple of things early in the conversation of being able to get away from kind of the excess and the mess of life. Right? That’s probably the easiest way to put it. But you just strike me as someone who’s been able to understand the lessons of the past. Right? You talked about that, but also to a point, make some peace with it. So I’m assuming that. But how have you been able to make peace with your past?

Speaker4: [00:21:51] Well, the first thing is.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:21:53] If you take a.

Speaker4: [00:21:55] Real good look at.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:21:57] What you’ve been able to experience where you are now, how you got there.

Speaker4: [00:22:02] Then you look at the path that it took.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:22:05] Understanding that everybody’s path is different and you can’t believe everything you hear and say on social media now. Okay. Because they are skipping over a whole lot of stuff to get to where they are. And everyone defines success and how they how they have actually accomplished things differently. So. Right. One of the things that held me up for a long time is I was a victim of sexual molestation and I was raped 23 times. And I know because I counted them. So what I did was it looks like you’re frozen. Okay. We’re still recording. So so as I was saying. I was a victim of sexual molestation.

Phillip Hearn: [00:23:04] So. Dr. Wilson Coleman and again, I’m going to ask an assumptive question here. As I’ve read through your bio, like I said, your energy, your the works that you’ve done, the achievements that you’ve had in your life, just bounce off the page. There’s not a lot of people that I’ve been lucky enough to kind of follow and dig into that. I feel that way about where I read it and I get excited by reading your stuff right. So I’m going to ask the assumptive question and tell me if it is or and also tell me your thoughts. But how have you been able to make peace with your past? There’s so many layers to who you are as a person. There’s for every it seems like if you said universal push, right, you kind of put it out into the ether. There’s been some equal and opposite reactions that have almost led you to those pushes, but you just seem to have and carry yourself with a really good energy and a peace. How have you been able to make peace with your past?

Speaker4: [00:24:00] Well, one of the most.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:24:01] Important things I had to do and this was some important work for me, is growing up, I was sexually molested and raped 23 times. I know, because I counted them. Okay. I had to. Okay. So how I made I had to make peace with that.

Speaker4: [00:24:19] So. I understand.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:24:22] I understood that we’re all here for a reason and we’re all here to do things. And some of some people have a really good ride and some people don’t. And that’s just the luck of the draw. It’s not personal. That’s just, hey, somehow.

Speaker4: [00:24:37] Maybe in multiple lifetimes before needed to atone for something. Who knows? Right.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:24:43] So I wrote all of those instances down and then did what I call a burning bowl. So I took a pot. Okay.

Speaker4: [00:24:53] I actually use a cauldron now, so.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:24:55] And I wrote them down. I wrote how I felt, and I put them in there and I burned them up. Okay. Okay. And then I took the. And I love the water. I love water and mountains. So the one good thing about moving to Chicago is at least I got to keep the water.

Speaker4: [00:25:12] Right, So. So I took them to.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:25:16] Lake Michigan and I released it. Okay. Okay. I just released it. I released it to whatever it it was I was supposed to learn. I’ve now learned. So this experience would not be repeated. So the one thing that I did learn from that is. When you are a caretaker in any situation, children when you’re supervisor or you’re working with other people, you have to make sure that you are giving them what they need.

Speaker4: [00:25:51] So that they can.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:25:51] Be their best self and not to take away anything to make them feel worse about anything. So I got I got that message really loud and clear. So as a result of that, I’m all I always work with people, make sure they’re trying to be their best self, help them release the things they need to release, step into their goodness and their greatness. And you can only focus on one.

Speaker4: [00:26:17] Thing at a time.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:26:18] To So gratitude list a very important. So if any of that other stuff starts to come up, I.

Speaker4: [00:26:26] Go to gratitude. I forgive myself.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:26:29] For reaching back into the past and trying to live there.

Speaker4: [00:26:33] But you can’t live in.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:26:34] The past, right? And and become really grateful for the fact that I know I can even do that. And the fact that that’s not happening now, there are great things happening in my life. I try to stay focused on those things, and if I have a bad.

Speaker4: [00:26:52] Day, I have a bad day. Go take a nap. Okay. That’s what I do. I go take a nap. I mean, I literally I have gone to bed. And taking a nap at 11:00 in the morning because says, you know what? You didn’t bring the best Stephanie here today, so you need a nap, child. So go take a nap. Okay.

Phillip Hearn: [00:27:13] And I’m only chuckling because I just had this conversation with some friends go There are a couple days where you just don’t bring your fastball and you go, we got to reset. We need a 20 minute nap. We need we need to just recalibrate some things. Yeah. So I’m chuckling because of that. That’s too close to home.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:27:29] You just got to recalibrate, that’s all.

Speaker4: [00:27:31] Don’t get mad about. Don’t get mad about it. It doesn’t do any good to keep talking about your They did me wrong story because guess what? You know, they’re not going to undo it. So why are you still talking about it?

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:27:44] Absolutely.

Speaker4: [00:27:44] So take take a nap. Okay. If you have to kick something, kick something plastic so you don’t have to break thing. Okay? You got to punch something, punch the pillow. But do what you need to do.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:27:58] Exercise helps to get out. Get out around nature.

Speaker4: [00:28:02] And you don’t see the tree crying. And because it lost its leaves, you know, it just gets busy making new leaves. Oh, you have got to figure out what you can do.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:28:15] To reset because you can’t take that energy into next project because the next project will reflect that energy.

Phillip Hearn: [00:28:22] I love it.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:28:23] I love it. And forgive yourself.

Speaker4: [00:28:24] And if people and some people are waiting for other folk to come and say, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that, that is just not happening. So I say, go to the mirror and do what I call mirror work. So everybody, when you go to pass a mirror, you look at that mirror and you say the best things possible. You can think about yourself in that mirror.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:28:44] Okay, do some mirror work. Remind yourself how wonderful you are because you’ve survived that stuff. Don’t put yourself down and say, Oh, if this hadn’t happened, because if that hadn’t.

Speaker4: [00:28:57] Happened, you wouldn’t.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:28:57] Be the you you are today.

Phillip Hearn: [00:29:00] Absolutely love that. The two big pieces, that first piece about grace, right. When we’re talking about ourselves personally, professionally, especially, we don’t seem to give ourselves grace. Right. Right. It’s the old motto, and I’ve talked to you about it. When I was on your show, my grandmother used to say, You do the best you can with what you have at that point in time. Nobody’s telling you to be perfect. Nobody’s telling you to have all the answers. But giving yourself some grace I think is extremely big. And also the mindset piece. So I just heard an old Simon Sinek talk, right?

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:29:33] I love Simon Sinek, right.

Phillip Hearn: [00:29:35] And he goes, It’s very difficult for people to actually think the negative. He goes, Watch this. He goes, I’m going to say something to you. Let’s see if it works. He goes, Don’t think about an elephant. He goes, Congratulations. You just thought about an elephant. I’m telling you, don’t do it. But you’re thinking about it, right? So it’s all that mindset of if you’re if you’re putting positive ideas and thoughts out there, you’re usually going to get them back. And again, you’re living proof. So my, my, my listeners and viewers don’t have to hear me. They can just listen to Dr. Wilson Coleman because you cut all the you know, you’re the white paper in this whole thing, right? Like we can see the actual result here. So that’s but I love it. I absolutely love that. So I want to dive into something a little more fun. Currently what you’re doing. So tell me more about how the Champagne connection and your show a sip of inspiration. So you got a bunch of things going on. But these two things again, I was again lucky enough to be a guest on your show, dug into the Champagne connection. Tell our listeners, how did these two ideas and projects come about and how have you gotten to gotten both to where they are today?

Speaker4: [00:30:48] So I believe that.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:30:50] Life is too short for you not to have or experience anything you want to experience. We get an average of what, about 77, maybe 80 years in good.

Speaker4: [00:31:02] Health, and.

Phillip Hearn: [00:31:03] That’s usually women. The guys only get to about 70 because we dump stuff. So between now and then.

Speaker4: [00:31:08] Right. So life is.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:31:09] Just too short not to have what it is you have. So hence the champagne connection, champagne standing for experiencing and having all of the good things that you actually want in your life come true. But the problem is, is we spend a lot of time thinking about what we don’t want or what or did they did me wrong story. So we don’t spend any time thinking about what is it we want to experience Now, Steve Harvey has a thing going through, I think TikTok now about sit down and write 300 things that you want. And the genius in that is once you start writing, you realize you don’t want 300.

Speaker4: [00:31:47] Things, right?

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:31:48] You realize that there’s just really about 10 or 15.

Speaker4: [00:31:53] Things that you really want in your.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:31:54] Life.

Speaker4: [00:31:55] And we we do that a lot.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:31:57] To help you find your purpose. As everyone says. So there’s, there’s a bunch of tests you can take for that. So once we identify that, then we literally set up a steps and plans for you to take to start.

Speaker4: [00:32:10] To live.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:32:11] Your life, to start to have that champagne life as the song says. So it’s and it there are easy steps. People are awfully, awfully surprised if you can stop.

Speaker4: [00:32:22] Feeling bad about.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:32:23] What happened and forgive yourself if you can.

Speaker4: [00:32:26] Stop just hating all the folk and forgive them. You just freed up a whole bunch of time, right? Right. Well, you can work on your stuff.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:32:35] So people don’t work on their stuff. So help them work on their stuff, create fun ways and games for them to get there. As a matter of fact, I created a your top values game that people love to this day because it’s more than people say, Well, what are your top values?

Speaker4: [00:32:50] No, we got a game for that. Okay? Then you end up with with these values and you say, Oh my God, that’s right. That’s me. That’s what I do. So now how do we use.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:32:59] Them and then help people go through their go through the day where doing your day, you do 1 or 2 things just for you toward your dreams. Okay? And you will be surprised if you can start little how big that is. So and then a sip of inspiration started because people used to say, you got to share this stuff because you do a whole bunch of stuff, right?

Speaker4: [00:33:23] You just got to do a whole bunch of stuff into the platform. So I started as a cable access.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:33:28] Television show locally and would do things, and that was fun. I love TV, so that was fun. And we would have guests on because I’m not the only person in the world that’s overcome stuff. There are a lot of people like me, okay, and think that you need to be introduced to those people. It’s not just me. We all use different techniques and I like to talk about the different techniques so people can see that it’s not one, 1 or 10 things that you do. It’s millions of things that people. Do that will get you to the same place. It’s just.

Speaker4: [00:34:01] What can you do now? Not what Stephanie.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:34:05] Can do.

Speaker4: [00:34:05] Now. What can you do now?

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:34:07] And maybe what you can do now is. As I always say, is look at how you spend in your money and determine.

Speaker4: [00:34:16] Those feelings that went with that dress you bought that you don’t have any place to wear it to. Okay. That’s what we really need to talk about. Okay. So maybe that’s where we can start. So those are some of the things that I do. So.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:34:30] Okay, so.

Speaker4: [00:34:32] What’s the experience with the two days, the two time of day Starbucks? What’s the experience? Okay. You’re trying to save money, so but what are you getting out of the experience.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:34:44] Of buying the dress, of spending too much money on coffee or eating.

Speaker4: [00:34:48] Out every day.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:34:48] When you can cook something? What is the experience? What’s the.

Speaker4: [00:34:51] Emotional payoff?

Phillip Hearn: [00:34:54] Let’s see. That part right there, I think is the most powerful piece of it, right? You’re doing something in the moment and you’re not thinking of even the emotional payoff that that is. I love that. Okay. Okay.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:35:07] And so when when they find out what.

Speaker4: [00:35:10] The emotional payoffs are, then we talk about other ways that you can actually get the same emotional good feel. But you’re not breaking the bank.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:35:22] You’re saving money.

Speaker4: [00:35:23] You’re you are putting money toward.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:35:25] Your kid’s college or toward that vacation you want to take or you’re working to be debt free. So then we can find ways for you to do that, to get emotional payoffs. So I’m asking people to pay attention to that in everyday things that they do.

Phillip Hearn: [00:35:41] That’s awesome. That’s fantastic.

Speaker4: [00:35:43] How how do you feel when you do that? Yeah. How do you feel?

Phillip Hearn: [00:35:48] And like you said, if it goes back just to the mindset piece of it, right? Understand the mindset and the why behind it. I always say that if we’re doing it right, we all should sound like five year olds. Why? Why are we doing this? Right. As is happening? Why is this the response I’m giving or getting? Right. Right. So just simplifying the process in terms of the why behind it opens up a lot more of of the of potentially the better mindset of where you’re trying to get to. Right. I love it, actually. Love it. So again, you’ve got champagne connection. You’ve got sip of inspiration. I mean, we are talking to a doctor, so I’m not surprised. Right. Of how this all speeds up. But you’ve also just written your fifth book, correct?

Speaker4: [00:36:30] Yes, my fifth book.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:36:32] Yes. Yes. For parents and their children. So. Right. Self esteem your superpower ways parents can improve children’s self-esteem. And I wrote it. It’s only like 41 pages. It’s really simple. It includes really.

Speaker4: [00:36:47] Easy to use techniques because I believe if.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:36:51] The techniques aren’t easy to use, people are not going to use them. Okay. That’s that’s anything change in your life? You know, something sound really, really daunting when you talk to some professionals, but if we keep it simple, so first you’re going to pay attention to things that your children do and talk about that in the book. One of the things is conversations. We don’t talk to our kids about conversations because we don’t think we have anything to talk about. So we ask the question, How was your day? How was school? So you get that one word answer. It’s like, okay. It was good. Okay.

Speaker4: [00:37:29] That’s what you get.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:37:30] So I am quite the Enquirer now. So, you know.

Speaker4: [00:37:35] I’ve done a little.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:37:36] Research, so I would say things like, okay, do my kids like to pick them up? What’s your favorite thing to.

Speaker4: [00:37:44] Do when you’re riding in the car?

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:37:46] You know, so my son would say, what was his favorite thing to do was? I’d say, well, why?

Speaker4: [00:37:51] How did you come up with that?

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:37:53] And that’s a whole conversation.

Speaker4: [00:37:54] So now we’re talking.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:37:55] About stuff.

Speaker4: [00:37:57] That started off with what does he like to do in the car to everything else and.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:38:01] Just keep the.

Speaker4: [00:38:02] Conversation going? Okay.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:38:04] Right. And sometimes I just ask.

Speaker4: [00:38:06] Stupid questions, right? Like.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:38:08] Okay, we’re going to the grocery store.

Speaker4: [00:38:10] If you could buy the groceries, what would we buy? What would you buy and what would we be eating tonight for dinner? Okay. And then with my kid, we would actually buy that and then we would actually would actually.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:38:22] Go home.

Speaker4: [00:38:23] And we would.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:38:24] Fix that. And that would be.

Speaker4: [00:38:25] What we would eat. Yeah. Okay, so you’re engaging them all the time.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:38:31] So. And I like I can deal more with emotions better with emotions than I can with words because when you ask them how their, you know, their words, people don’t mean the same thing when they say the same word. But emotions are really telling. So I can ask, well, you know, he played sports and remember, he loved he loved baseball. That was number one. And and football was number two. But there was this thing about basketball.

Speaker4: [00:39:04] And everybody was playing basketball. So I said, how does it feel when you play basketball? And he said, All that running up and down the court just with two points makes no sense to me. So we talked about the feeling. How do you feel? He told me what the problem was.

Phillip Hearn: [00:39:25] Yeah, yeah, he sure.

Speaker4: [00:39:27] Did. So it’s like, okay, well, okay, so I’m gonna stop. I’m gonna stop pushing you about basketball now. So. So where are we going to stick to?

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:39:36] He says baseball.

Speaker4: [00:39:37] He says it is just.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:39:40] Baseball is just more satisfying.

Speaker4: [00:39:43] You either did your part or you didn’t do your part. And you know, right away.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:39:48] Says, okay, baseball it is it. Wow. So you’ve just got to figure out. And so in the book, the self-esteem thing book, talk about that. I talk about setting aside some playtime with your kids and play with them. Sit in the floor if that’s what they need to do, sit in the floor when they come home from school or whenever they come in the door. You’ve got to be excited. You’ve got to be just don’t say.

Speaker4: [00:40:11] How was your.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:40:12] Day? I used to say, Oh my God, I’m so glad.

Speaker4: [00:40:15] To see you. Look at.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:40:17] You.

Speaker4: [00:40:17] And just compliment them about things. And then what.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:40:21] Happens is they’re excited to see.

Speaker4: [00:40:24] You. They’re excited to be home with you because.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:40:28] You’re excited about them.

Speaker4: [00:40:29] And then if they have.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:40:31] Problems in school, just found ways to help them to do that, you know? So we would read together. So like I’d get books that were just outside anything they was reading at school. Some of them are my own. When I had my stepdaughter, I used to.

Speaker4: [00:40:50] Tell her, You can’t tell your teacher we read this book, but she she read a lot. So we would read the books.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:40:55] We would talk about them and they would be mysteries or horror stories or serial.

Speaker4: [00:41:00] Killers. But we talk about it. The books, it would be totally off. And then I would buy.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:41:05] Magazines and leave them in the living room and on the table.

Speaker4: [00:41:10] Of their favorite things. So I.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:41:11] Would take.

Speaker4: [00:41:12] Subscriptions and then, yeah, I would. And then in the mornings at breakfast, they’d all.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:41:18] Have they both have to get a magazine and we would each read something to each other from our magazine.

Speaker4: [00:41:23] It’s like, love it. You just have to be creative. And when you’re doing stuff like that, it would be one it. They just love coming home. So if they had a bad day, they were the first one to tell me what happened.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:41:36] You know, this.

Speaker4: [00:41:37] Is what happened and this is what that did and this is what they did. And I know I wasn’t supposed to do this part, but this is how I felt about it. And then we would replay the situation. So talk to your kids, but play games with them, too.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:41:51] So. And color. Nobody likes to color anymore color.

Speaker4: [00:41:55] Go to the dollar tree. Those things are a buck 25. Yeah. Color with them. And once you do that, they’re learning more. Then they will begin to tell you the real things about.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:42:07] What’s going on. So-and-so hit me.

Speaker4: [00:42:11] Or they said.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:42:12] This or.

Speaker4: [00:42:13] The teacher didn’t do this. And then you can help them with ways to handle that.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:42:18] And then of course, you marched right up to the school and talk to the teachers and the principals too. But you don’t take that.

Speaker4: [00:42:24] Combative attitude with you because nobody wants to work with you.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:42:29] Right. If you are combat combative, try to see all sides of the story. And true enough, somebody is probably more wrong than the other. But go with. Go with that sense that everybody in this room is important and at the end of the day, want everyone to have learned what they need to know so that tomorrow they’re we’re all better people.

Phillip Hearn: [00:42:55] I absolutely love this. The funny part, as you’re telling the story of the book, it almost sounds like we could be using this as adults, right? Somebody walks into the room you haven’t seen in a while. Just just a nice welcoming energy smile, you know? And again, it’s just that relation piece because it almost is the version for the parents of how to win friends and influence people. You remember that, right? Dale Carnegie. Right. That kind of vibe of if I give you the safe spaces to feel like you can interact with me openly, you’re going to want to tell me stuff, right? People like to talk about themselves, even kids. So that’s. That’s so good. And the writing is huge.

Speaker4: [00:43:36] Find something. Find something in everyone that you like. And if there’s nothing that you like, you don’t need to talk to those people. You all are not friends. Let them go. Okay.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:43:51] That’s the.

Speaker4: [00:43:51] Message from.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:43:51] God. But there’s something.

Speaker4: [00:43:53] That you like and focus.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:43:55] On that understanding. Everybody is having issues. Everybody is experiencing some because we’re here to grow. So everyone’s having some kind of growth pains. Everybody. Okay. So find something that you can compliment, something that you like about them and say what you mean.

Speaker4: [00:44:13] So if I say.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:44:15] I can give me a call, I’ll help you. You need to help the.

Speaker4: [00:44:19] People when they call.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:44:21] No doubt. Okay. Because that’s another part of this thing too, is if you don’t keep your word to yourself. Then who’s going to keep their word.

Speaker4: [00:44:31] With you.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:44:32] When you need something? You’ve got to. You have got to understand that. Yeah.

Phillip Hearn: [00:44:37] Yeah, absolutely. I love it. I love this. This is so fun. Here’s a question for you. And this actually taps into something you mentioned earlier in our discussion. I want to know professionally and personally, and it could be knowing you, it might be one in the same, but what’s your definition of success?

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:44:59] My definition of success is that you.

Speaker4: [00:45:02] Have.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:45:04] Given yourself permission. To try something. To try to do something hard. And you actually did it. Now, I didn’t say you were good at it when.

Speaker4: [00:45:16] You did it. It was successful when you did it. It’s not what I said, okay? You set out to do something. And you did it. Yeah.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:45:29] Because what you learned.

Speaker4: [00:45:31] From whatever you did.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:45:34] Is valuable.

Speaker4: [00:45:35] Even if what.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:45:36] You decided. Midway through it is. This is not the thing you really.

Speaker4: [00:45:42] Wanted to do.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:45:43] Anyway. It’s something else.

Speaker4: [00:45:45] You want to do. Those are the people that.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:45:48] I’ve just loved that because we don’t give our self enough. We don’t give ourselves a chance. It’s like we say things like, I even used to say this now my son, before he died, said he wanted me to get healthy. He gave me instructions to hike. I said, I.

Speaker4: [00:46:05] Can’t do this. I can’t do this. But one day I said, Well, you know, girl, you can get up and walk around the corner. That’s success. Yeah, that’s what you’re doing. Yeah. For me at that time. And now? Now I’m up to 40 miles a week. Okay, So people just.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:46:22] Just started. That is. That is that is so empowering. And let people see you fail. That’s empowering and let them see.

Speaker4: [00:46:32] You get up. That’s empowering to.

Phillip Hearn: [00:46:36] Yeah, I love it.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:46:37] And love yourself no matter what happens.

Phillip Hearn: [00:46:41] That sometimes can be the toughest thing for people to do on a consistent basis, right? Not in moments, not in spurts, but consistency of, like you said, the mirror technique. When we look in the mirror and I’m going to find the best things about me. That’s I like that definition and everybody in the fun part. I like asking that question to people that I know and that interests me because the answers are so different. They come to back to universal pieces, right? Giving yourself some grace, finding the true portions of who you are and continuing to kind of go again. But I love that. That’s a great that’s a fun answer for that. So you’ve got so much going on, right? And we talk so much about it. And again, it puts a big smile on my face. But how do you find your time to reset, relax and allow you to go again? What does that process look like for you? Because we always hear go, go, go from folks who are successful in their personal and especially their professional lives. What is that? Reset and relax time look like for you? What do you do?

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:47:44] So I probably.

Speaker4: [00:47:46] Have more relaxed time than people think.

Phillip Hearn: [00:47:51] They always ask you, do you sleep? Let me let me ask the question I always get. Do you sleep?

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:47:55] Um, I didn’t.

Speaker4: [00:47:56] Before.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:47:57] So I spent a time where I didn’t get much sleep. I was running on 3 or 4 hours of sleep and, um, and then I had a visit to the doctor who.

Speaker4: [00:48:08] Explained that my every all.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:48:10] Of my vitals were just off. Right. Just off. So I at that time, I, I read the a book. I think it was Surrender by Michael Singer. Okay. Okay. So I said, you know what? I can’t function like this. So now this is when the rubber hits the road. I either believe in a divine presence that’s going to help me through. I don’t. Okay, this rate, I’m going to burn out, right? So I sleep now. I, I, I go to bed. Okay, So.

Speaker4: [00:48:41] So everything is all about 1030. Okay? I go to bed and get under the cover. Go to bed. Okay. Right in pajamas. Go to bed. Right. Nothing’s on. Everything’s off. And. And don’t have an emergency because I’m not going to go see you till the morning. All right? Right. And then. And then I get up in.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:49:04] The morning and have about an hour and a half, or I spend with myself, which is prayer time. And then I do affirmations and I go over gratitude list and I do all of that. That’s an hour and a half. I don’t allow it to be interrupted. Um, so then I start my day with this the world, and then I get anywhere from 3 to 6 miles in a day during the daytime. So I find that once I started to get some rest, I wake up in the morning energized, right? And then after, after I do my my prayer time, even in while I have that time and I do that.

Speaker4: [00:49:40] Meditation.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:49:41] Time, answers to stuff come. So when I start work, answers are there already. So yeah. So I find that I, I can do more, it seems with less time because I’m rested and, and that was a big thing for me to get rested and to just use the meditation time. So it sounds like it’s all work. Uh, luckily I always say I can do it. I can do a normal amount of work in a short period of time, but that’s not me. That comes from being rested and being focused because when you’re focused, you’d be surprised what you can get done.

Phillip Hearn: [00:50:22] Yeah, yeah. Proper preparation almost, basically. Right?

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:50:26] It is.

Speaker4: [00:50:27] And then but then have then I do have some.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:50:29] Things like at the end.

Speaker4: [00:50:30] Of the day.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:50:31] I will go through my to do list what I accomplished, what I didn’t accomplish, I set tomorrow up to that’s key for me is I write down what I, I write down what I know I need to do tomorrow. And I have two columns, things that absolutely have to be done and then things that I can move if there is something else that comes up because there’s emergencies. So I like to make sure I’m going to have some time to handle those emergencies without ruining sleep and looking at high cholesterol, high blood.

Speaker4: [00:51:00] Pressure and all that other stuff again. So.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:51:02] Right. So I do that. So I do that. So I sit down, I write down five things that I know I’m going to do tomorrow and then said, okay. And if I get time, I’ll do these. And if tomorrow just goes haywire, okay, these are the things don’t have to do tomorrow, I can do another day. So you can see I got a plan A, B and C going into the day before I go to bed.

Speaker4: [00:51:23] So that’s probably why I can sleep. It’s already know what tomorrow’s going to look like, right? Yeah. And so ready to go. Right. Don’t check. Don’t check social.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:51:32] Media until later in the day. I do will check email because since the new book is out I’ve been getting a lot of email from. Press to interview me. So check that early, but literally only check for press responses early in the morning. That’s it. Okay. Because I do you know, I do that I get a lot done then and that’s the deal I make you get this done and you can hit that icon trail and.

Speaker4: [00:51:57] Go to the hiking trail and see all the trees and birds and then do that, come back home and then do the next set. And that’s at the end of the day, this is what we did.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:52:06] Okay.

Speaker4: [00:52:06] This is what you got to do in the morning.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:52:08] Okay. If it’s if something happens, you’re going to.

Speaker4: [00:52:11] Skip on this because you got to plan for you have to plan for.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:52:14] Emergencies because emergencies happen. And that was one thing I learned. So that’s that’s me. So, yeah, so don’t call me during my sleep time.

Speaker4: [00:52:22] Because my mother used to say it’s my mother used to say when we were we would be out, she would say, Now y’all know what time I go to bed? So if anything happens after that bedtime, you get to either call the police or the ambulance, because I’m not going to be able to help you. Right? Right.

Phillip Hearn: [00:52:41] Yeah. I’ve shut it down.

Speaker4: [00:52:42] Shut it down. Shut it down. Right. So that’s how I handle it. That’s awesome. But then do I plan it, though, to the hour.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:52:53] Though, my.

Speaker4: [00:52:54] Work day, So that may be a little anal, so. Okay, so you.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:52:58] Want to know how long it’s going to take you to do something. So it’s like so plan it to the.

Speaker4: [00:53:03] To the hour.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:53:05] And if I’m working on a project, I give myself a certain amount of time because you can’t. You can’t keep that creative juice rolling all the time. You know, it comes when it comes. So I do take pencil and paper with me even when I’m hiking, because if I.

Speaker4: [00:53:22] Get an idea, I’ll jot it down. Don’t stop. Okay. We are not going to stop and work that thing out. We’re going to write that thing down. Thank you, God. Put that in the pocket and we’re going to keep on going. Okay. So because that’s a commitment I made to me, and if I don’t keep the commitments I make, to.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:53:39] Me.

Speaker4: [00:53:40] How do I expect other.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:53:41] People to to keep their commitments that they make to me? Yeah.

Phillip Hearn: [00:53:46] Yeah. That makes a great sense.

Speaker5: [00:53:48] I love it.

Phillip Hearn: [00:53:50] So to wrap this thing up, how do our listeners find you? Find your words? How do they connect with you? Tell tell us all the things. How does this work?

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:54:00] Okay, so you can put my.

Speaker4: [00:54:03] Name in Google. That’s Stephanie Wilson hyphen Coleman. And I’m usually in the.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:54:08] First three or 4 or 5.

Speaker4: [00:54:09] Pages. There is another Stephanie Wilson. She’s an astronaut. That’s not me. Okay. Okay.

Phillip Hearn: [00:54:14] So you’re not the astronaut?

Speaker4: [00:54:15] I’m not the astronaut. Right? Not the astronaut. Okay. And the website is champagne connection. The champagne. And I spell it because there’s a champagne Illinois that’s spelled different. So it’s like the liquor champagne connection.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:54:31] There’s no s at the end if you.

Speaker4: [00:54:34] Put in champagne connections. Haven’t been there lately, but it’s not me. Okay so champagne connection.com is how you find me you can even get and when you when you log into.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:54:45] There there’s a pop up where you can actually subscribe to a blueprint to financial success. And if you listen to this, you already.

Speaker4: [00:54:53] Know that it’s going to deal more with your emotions and experiences than money that comes later.

Dr. Stephanie Wilson-Coleman: [00:54:59] And you can find me too. On a sip of inspiration.com. It’ll send me an email there. I have a podcast. It’s everywhere. Podcast is hosted on ancor.com, but it’s also on YouTube. So you can find me on YouTube. I do empower m p o r is Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn and Instagram and TikTok and all those other places. If you do empowerment. Dr. Then that will get you to my business Facebook page, But don’t use that a lot because people tend to communicate me in my personal page. So that’s how you find me.

Phillip Hearn: [00:55:41] Awesome. Well, I’m glad our viewers have that opportunity to find you. Dr. Wilson Coleman, This has been an absolute pleasure and a treat. I really appreciate the time and I’m glad I got a chance to spend some more time with you and learn more about your story.

Speaker4: [00:55:54] You are welcome. But you know, you don’t have to call me Dr. Wilson when Stephanie will get you everything you want.

Phillip Hearn: [00:56:00] No, look, we made a deal on your show. If I’m a doctor, you’re a doctor. You got the same thing. So, no, I don’t care what they call you. They can call you Stephanie if they’d like to. I’m calling you Doc or doctor. That’s how this works. So. Okay.

Speaker6: [00:56:13] Okay.

Phillip Hearn: [00:56:15] And again, I want to thank my special guest, Dr. Stephanie Wilson Coleman, for being here with us today. This has been doc discussions on some of those Business RadioX. Take care and we’ll see you next time.

 

About Your Host

Phillip-HearnDr. Phillip Hearn Ed.D. is a results-driven entrepreneur, Senior Executive, Consultant, and Board Member with more than 20 years of success in business acquisition and real estate. His expertise in leveraging extensive experience with expansion, and financing, makes Phillip a valuable asset for companies, particularly in real estate, seeking guidance on growth opportunities and process improvement.

Phillip is the founder of Mid American Capital Holdings, LLC, an acquisition focused company. Current subsidiaries include Phillip Speaks, specializing in coaching, advising and public speaking engagements; Financial Center, consulting business owners on methods to implement business trade lines and credit to grow their operations, and other subsidiaries which continues to expand. Phillip also gives back via his non for profit Center for Communities and Economic Development.

Phillip has obtained an Ed.D. from Capella University and holds an Executive Masters in Health Administration (EMHA) from Saint Louis University; an MA in Marketing and a BA in Media Communication, both from Webster University, and Lean Six Sigma (Black Belt) from Villanova University. He has served as a Board Member for the National Sales Network St. Louis Chapter and Ready Readers, for which he has also served as the Governance Department Chair and President of the Board.

Phillip is a coach, advisor, key note speaker and podcast host on Business RadioX. Audiences benefit professionally and personally through his teachings of leveraging and application. His new book “Life Mottos for Success” exemplifies how positive words and thoughts can transform your life!

Connect with Phillip on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.

BRX Pro Tip: 2 Ways to Stay Top of Mind

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BRX Pro Tip: 2 Ways to Stay Top of Mind

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, today’s topic: staying top of mind.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:09] Yeah, it’s important to stay top of mind, especially if you’re in an industry that’s super competitive and a lot of folks look like they do similar things. So, in order to stand out and to be the go-to, the one that people in your niche remember, you have to take the time and put in the effort to be there where they are, when they want to learn more.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] So, a couple of easy ways to do this, number one, start some sort of a newsletter, blog, podcast, something that happens on a regular rhythm, regular, predictable rhythm that comes out, and they can see your brand, they can see you’re smart, they can see some of the work that you’re doing, how you’re helping other people. Just reminding them all the time, “Hey, I’m still here. I’m still doing good work. People still like me.” That way, when they do have a need, they think of you.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:01] It’s important to just be in front of people because they’re not always ready to buy. And just because you’ve given them a message, and they’re not ready to buy, you don’t want them to forget about you. So, in three months, when they are ready to buy, that they think of you. So, you’ve got to do the work every single day to be ready when they’re ready.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:18] The second thing is to show up at events that your clients think are important. So, if your clients are going to certain conferences, tradeshows, events, it’s important that you’re there in some form or fashion to be there when they’re there because this event is important to them. And to see you there, it just cements that you’re a part of the ecosystem, that you’re a go-to person, you’re an indispensable part of the industry that you’re serving.

David Harris with ACCELERATE

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ACCELERATE-logo

David-Harris-ACCELERATEDavid Harris, CEO of ACCELERATE Your Business.Today, provides flexible, on-demand strategic advisory and deliver the tactical, practical skills needed to solve problems for small and medium businesses.

At Accelerate Your Business Today, we know there is no longer a single problem and solution: unravelling complexity across many roles and functions and finding the right solutions is vital. My ability to scale up, experience and knowledge allow us to address problems that few can.

The collective at ACCELERATE – is passionate about taking on immense challenges that matter to our clients. We build our client’s capabilities and leadership skills at every level and at every opportunity to help build internal support, find the real issues, reach practical recommendations and assist in leading the ongoing solutions work.

We understand how to resolve the most significant business issues, explain the most viable options, provide various solutions, and position your business to win more now.

Connect with David on LinkedIn and follow ACCELERATE on Twitter.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: [00:00:15] Welcome to the High Velocity Radio Show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Accelerate. Mr. David Harris. How are you, man?

David Harris: [00:00:33] Great, Stan. It’s great to be here and what a great show you have.

Stone Payton: [00:00:37] Well, it is an absolute delight to have you on the show. I’ve really been looking forward to this. Some of our listeners may be able to tell already you’re a little south of us, even though we’re in South America. In Georgia.

David Harris: [00:00:52] Yeah, well, we’re just in downtown Australia.

Stone Payton: [00:00:55] I like that. That’s perfect. So I got a ton of questions, man, and I know we probably won’t get to them all, but I think a great place to start would be if you could share with me and our listeners mission purpose. What are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks, man?

David Harris: [00:01:15] I suppose it sort of captures this we really about trying to help businesses grow. Now, look, there’s a million of those types, all our types of businesses across the world. The difference is we’re trying to help them with a fact based or evidence based approach. So if you go online, if you go on to Twitter, you’ll find this millions of people saying, Oh, I just got my first million dollar customer and I only paid $10. Well, I don’t think any of that’s really factual. So what we’re really looking what we’re really looking for is what’s the evidence and how do we actually help small startups, Medium businesses grow bigger, faster. And in my background is that I’ve helped businesses between start ups to $850 Million in revenue. So I’ve got this enormous width of experience, knowledge, education, even that says, well, okay, let’s approach this in the right way, not in sort of some crazy way. So for us, it’s about facts, it’s about evidence, and we want to talk about that whenever we’re talking to potential clients or wherever we’re being interviewed by wonderful people like you stated.

Stone Payton: [00:02:30] Well, yeah, Take me back to the beginning, if you would. Tell me a little bit about your back story. How in the world did you end up in this line of work?

David Harris: [00:02:39] Well, strangely enough, if I go back far enough and it does seem like it’s back in the stone ages. But, you know, I left school at 18 and I got a job in a retailer. And in those days, everything was physical. There was no online business. So I’m showing my age. And in my first month of being in this business, unbeknownst to me until after the end of the month, I was the number one salesperson. And that was a bit of a shock to me. I thought, Oh, anyway, I was a bit keen to be their number two number one salesperson in month two, and I did that for every month for about eight months until they promoted me. So it got me out of the place by making me an assistant manager somewhere in the back of nowhere. So that was sort of my story. And what has always been a great interest to me is why? Why does one salesperson always have achieve, overachieve compared to a group of others? Why does one business overachieve faster or grow faster than others? Why does one online store boom that compared to all the others and so across the world that why has driven me to all sorts of places and so sort of lifelong learning. And it’s taken me to be a director of businesses in the last ten or 15 years that have been between 200 and 850 million in revenue. So I’ve had all this experience of hiring and firing CEOs with the rest of the board, making sure governance and all the other things that we do with strategy at a board level is starting. And in my earlier years, I owned a number of retail sort of franchise type, also franchisee of multiple retail businesses. So, you know, I’ve sort of done it on all sides and I’m using that, if you like, along with sort of a marketing background to say, okay, how do we really help all of these start up small and medium businesses, try and miss all the wrong turns and get them into the right terms. And that’s really the driver, I think.

Stone Payton: [00:04:56] Stein Well, I can tell that you love the work. What are you finding the most rewarding at this point? What are you enjoying the most about the work?

David Harris: [00:05:06] Well, I think if I turn that the other way and say, what’s the most challenging thing for for businesses, and that is online because whether you’re a retailer in downtown, you know, the west of the U.S. or in the U.K. or in Australia or in Canada, the western world is seeing a huge change from, you know, regional towns are growing and most of them are sort of shrinking. And so if you’ve got a physical business, whether you’re an accountant or a professional or a furniture retailer or something or other, if your town’s not growing, then you know you’re going to be caught. You’re going to eventually have to either exit or you have to find a way to sell more. And the only way to sell more is to sell online. And that world has dramatically changed since COVID. Why has it changed since COVID one is significantly more people buying online, including b2b, which was always thought to be quite protected. But I’ll get to some stats on that in a minute. So that’s meant that retailers and businesses have had to change the way they sort of act how they think and how they communicate to win more buyers online. Does that make sense? Start.

Stone Payton: [00:06:25] So let’s talk a little bit about about the work. If a company like Business Radio X, for example, we’re a media operation, we’ve had a good run. We’re pretty successful. We definitely have our our own set of challenges. And I’m sure sometimes we could just sort of get out of our own own way early in an engagement cycle, if you will, like, how does the work start to unfold? Walk us through the process, if you would.

David Harris: [00:06:54] Yeah. So if we think about this, even starting from the very starting point of Google, so what Google wants every business now to do is to show its expertise, its authority and its trust ability. They call that eight eight. But every business today, if they’re wanting to sell more online, they’ve got to display more credibility, trust and authority. And that is very hard for many businesses. So the first thing we want to establish is, okay, you want to sell more online? Yes. How do we sell more online? Let’s first start with getting your scores. We’ve got a system where we can score a business quite quickly about that trust, credibility and authority. And we very quickly come to a view about, okay, how do we scale that? And we talk to businesses about we can probably get you a 100 X or 100 times improvement in 30 days. Wow. And we can demonstrate how we can do that and why we can do it. Sometimes we don’t guarantee we can do it. It depends on how good they are already on their trust score. But it is potential that is possible that you can actually move the dial significantly if you do some of the many things that we talk to them about.

David Harris: [00:08:15] So step one is trust, authority and expertise. The second part is what your buyers want to know and what they expect you to tell them online is Why should I only buy from your business rather than your competitors? So it sounds simple. But in taking your case. Stone there’s probably, I don’t know, 3000, 3 million podcasting businesses. So why, why should your ideal buyer buy from you or use your services? Now, that takes a fair bit of work for the owners of a business or a business leaders to wrap their head around because they’re very normally say, Oh, well, we get 3% market share and you know, we take home X dollars and I get paid such and such and it’s sort of crazy. Well, it’s crazy at the moment. Maybe. Or maybe you’re really up against the wall and it’s not crazy. But one way or another you have to address this. And if you can’t explain to your ideal buyers why they should buy from you, who else is going to do that?

Stone Payton: [00:09:32] No, it’s an excellent point. And I can tell you, in our world, almost two decades ago, when Lee Kantor and I started this business, he and I owned the own the network. It was a very different world. Very few people were doing digital radio or podcasting. And so it was it was very easy to articulate the distinction between the work we were doing and your more traditional terrestrial kind of radio. And now the podcasting is so prolific we can pretty much we can’t explain it given enough time and given it enough trust. But, but I mean, it’s a lot of energy and it commands a lot of resources for us to have those conversations and help a prospective client understand that. And yeah, so we’ve actually lived through exactly what you’re describing and probably still need to do a better job of it.

David Harris: [00:10:25] Well, every business is faced with these problems, and so you’re not alone. The real story now is that 70% of potential new buyers with a transaction size up to $500,000. And this is according to McKinsey, the world’s largest global consulting companies, see little or no need to meet a human ever. Hmm. So if you’re selling a $200,000 computer technology package, I don’t want to see you purchase in person. In fact, what they really want to do is they want to see all the information on your website. That’s explains why they should buy from your business or only buy from your business, too. It looks like you really know the answer to everything, so you’re very trusted, have a lot of authority as a business, but most importantly, you’ve got everything on that website or landing page that delivers the trust, the credibility, and makes it really easy for them to say, Yeah, I think we need to buy from these guys. Now 75% of the world’s businesses do not do this. Yet 70% of their potential buyers are wanting this or in fact that’s they’re buying from those businesses that deliver that.

Stone Payton: [00:11:42] Well, and it certainly sounds like you coming in and and viewing. I’m going to keep using us as a as the as the example example. I got to tell the listeners out there, if you want some really good top notch consulting for free, at least in the beginning, get yourself a radio show. You get to talk to just a really smart people. But no, it’s the best way for me to kind of internalize it, I think. But but as you’re talking, I’m thinking about, you know, Lee and I, our studio partners, the whole team, I think maybe we’re so close to it, Right? So we think the website looks fine to us, right? Our our our presence out there in the world looks fine to us. But someone like like you and your team coming in with fresh eyes and perspective and apparently with these tools that help us really tell us where we are and where our opportunities for growth are. That sounds to me like it would be invaluable.

David Harris: [00:12:35] Well, it does make it, we hope and we believe we can make a difference. And we’ve approached it in the way in which the biggest problems exist. You know, if you go to a normal digital advertising agency, what they’re going to say to you is, oh, look, you need some paid advertising, so we’re going to do some Google AdWords, let’s put some paid ads on Facebook, Let’s do this and this and this. And they will work to some extent. But they won’t work unless you’ve really gone and looked after the fundamentals, which is argue as a business and expert and authority and trust and compared to your competitors. And if you’re not already that for Google, it’s very unlikely you’re going to be for real people. So all this paid money, paid advertising is going to have a pretty poor conversion. Or put another way, your return on investment is going to be pretty lousy. So you’ve got to fix the framework for the house. You know, you’ve got to become trusted, more authority, a more expert, or to be seen that way and hopefully are. Do you see where I’m going?

Stone Payton: [00:13:44] Well, I do see where you’re going. And I can see some especially early stage companies needing to to work on on creating thought leadership and the language and all that and then getting it out there. But I can also see very well established organizations who they really do have expertise, they do have authority when when they get the work, they are well trusted. But but they’re not doing a great job of of getting that out there in a way that people can understand that without these big long conversations. Right. It seems like that’s that’s seems like that’s where you’re really filling the void.

David Harris: [00:14:25] Yes. And I think it’s the difference here is that we’ve got to look at this as being human people to people. And the really simplest level, you cannot be friends with someone you don’t trust. It’s just normal human nature. But on a commercial level and especially online, you won’t buy from a business that you don’t trust first. That’s the gap. How do you make a business? A lawyer? An accountant or a retailer who is unknown in other markets where they’re trying to sell to the next city or cities or the next state? How do you build them from being just another retailer selling another range of furniture or just another lawyer into something where someone say, Oh, look, you’ve got to go and deal with them? These guys are the smart guys. So that’s the the quandary and that’s the space that’s the most critical part that helps set businesses and differentiate them. From their competitors.

Stone Payton: [00:15:35] Well, I’ll tell you what’s coming into focus for me as a result of this conversation. I mean, intellectually and even viscerally, I you know, I recognize that you have to win a person’s trust if you’re going to really be able to serve them and to get their business. But it’s even it’s even more fundamental than that. You’re not even going to get a shot at winning their trust further. In today’s world, you’re not even going to get a chance if you if you try. That’s because that’s where I bet you, man. What, what, what a noble pursuit. So do you find yourself? I think I know the answer to this is yes, but I still would love to hear you kind of expound upon it. The whole sales and marketing thing for for you and your team. I guess you kind of have to, as we would say here in South Georgia, in Georgia, you kind of have to eat your own cooking, don’t you? And do what? You’re out there practicing, preach it.

David Harris: [00:16:29] And we’re also learning every day, you know, so we’re learning with clients, but also we’re learning in our own instance. And there’s amazing you sometimes think that you are climbing Mount Everest. You know, you sort of think, oh, well, I’m really towards the peak now. We must know everything. I need to turn around the corner and think, Oh, that’s so much more. We didn’t realize. We just found another, you know, 500 layers to make businesses more trusted, credible and so they can grow faster. So, you know, we’re in a continuous state of learning and applying that thinking and that learning for clients. We’re saving them years or decades because we’re able to say, well, look, in a really simple sense, that means simple in terms of clients. It’s simple. It’s just let’s simplify something so complex and really simple sense. These are the basics in which you need to operate in a human way, and we have to apply that in a digital way.

Stone Payton: [00:17:30] Hmm. And you’re not only identifying the gaps, but when you identify the gap, you’ve got a solution set. You have tools that help close the gap for for your client.

David Harris: [00:17:40] Absolutely. And part of that is really getting clients online and into podcasting is a great example, because when you think about it, what’s missing for most online websites is the credibility of having a person online or the decision maker or the owner or whatever, but getting them into a situation where they’re being heard and where they’re hopefully sounding sensible, logical and trustworthy. And so by exposing people to that. Podcasting is a critical step in my view. And it’s really about delivering what I call the power of more trust, the more you’re seen. Some people aren’t ideal for that, but in most cases you can help people be seen more, be heard more, which helps them sell more.

Stone Payton: [00:18:37] Yeah. And of course, you know, you’re singing my song. But but particularly, I think if you can have a real, authentic conversation, have those people have, you know, genuine conversations around their work and the why behind the work and what they’ve learned and it. Yeah, I do. I think it’s a great way and it’s how just in full transparency to our audience it’s how David and I initially got connected because he you know in that regard, we’re on a on a similar quest to to help people get out there and build those relationships and grow that business. And yeah, I do think this platform is one of those marvelous ways to establish that. And I wrote that down in my notes. They eat right to demonstrate in a non salesy kind of elegant way the expertise and and to visibly demonstrate authority and cultivate that, that trust. So yeah, I’m in 100% agreement. Amen. So I want to shift gears on you for a moment and talk about, you know, you are out there, you’re practicing your craft. And fortunately, what you’re doing for people also helps you grow your your own business. Have you had the benefit of one or more mentors along the way that kind of helped you navigate this terrain of running your own business?

David Harris: [00:19:57] Well, of course, yes. There’s hundreds in a way. I, I haven’t really paid a mentor ever, but I’ve found people along life’s journey where you say what they’re saying is really interesting and say, you know, you spend some time with them one way or another. You might read about them. You might. I think we all pick up valuable snippets from each other. You know, I’ll capture something about you. Stone Today, they’ll think, Oh, that’s that’s really interesting. In fact, I already have. And we can chat more about that if you want. But, you know, in our initial conversations pre this podcast, you know, I’ve immediately identified that this is you deliver a high level of trust, credibility and authority. You might not realize it, but you do. And I can see how that can work for Stax and other businesses. So you’re already on that journey, whether or not you actually realize how powerful it is, what you’ve got and how you can magnify that in your sort of sales process. That’s another story, but you have it. And why that’s important, I think we should really connect the dots for listeners is that if this trust credibility authority wall has been able to be thought over, think of it as a big wall.

David Harris: [00:21:20] You’ve got to be more trusted, credible and have authority. Then the global average is something like this. Your revenue growth will be 5 to 8 times faster. Your margin will be 16% higher. Your marketing and sales performance will be 22 times more recognizable. Your operating profit margin will be 19% higher on average. Your total shareholder returns will be two times more. Now, that’s not me. That’s the smart people in the world who’ve said we measure these things about how businesses are more trusted. All I’ve done is we’ve done is simply just collated those results. But they’re big results. And I would have thought everybody wants to grow five or eight times faster, have more margin, be more recognizable without having to pay more advertising and so on. So the dots are you can save money and make more money and sell more by at least starting with trust, credibility and authority before you start getting to the next step. And we can talk about what the next step is. Well, if you want to stone but you know, there’s a real formula. It’s real mathematics that says this is the space you start with.

Stone Payton: [00:22:37] Well, those are some very impressive stats, those numbers. And I really like that. Okay. Here is the situation. Here’s current reality, Here’s the opportunity. And here is a roadmap with specific tools, resources that we can bring to bear to to close the gap. So I would to me, I would qualify that as genuine methodology. Like you can you can actually do something about it. Are you finding that you’re gravitating to a certain type of business, a certain type of individual, a sector or or even like a geographic area? Because I don’t know, man, this sounds to me like you could be doing this work all over the world.

David Harris: [00:23:28] Well, it is. Or at least the Western world, the Asian world or the Chinese world is a fairly different market. So they expect and see things that are different. It’s just be culturally. So yes, across the Western world, Canada, US, UK, you see, they are all the same problem. We all have the same issues and. You know, when you start sort of thinking about this, we can deliver a course, all of this information online. We don’t need to meet someone in downtown Georgia or downtown Washington, D.C., or wherever we pick up from time zones. You know, we can do this sort of work just like everybody else can from anywhere else around the world. So it’s deliverables in terms of businesses. What we find is that you’ve got either generally two types. One, they’ve got their back to the wall and they’re really looking for solutions to get them out of that tight corner. They need to break free because they’re just getting smashed. And the second type is leaders or business owners who say, look, you know, we’ve got a problem. We’ve got to be able to grow and we can’t do it in a physical sense anymore. We’ve got to get on line. Yes, we can be on Shopify, but what are we going to say? What are we going to promote? How are we going to say it and how do we sort of build this trust, credibility and authority? And what do we do on social media or what do we do here? You know, it’s almost impossible to answer unless you come with a sort of framework that’s already proven that helps them get there.

Stone Payton: [00:25:02] Well, in these kinds of things, I mean, you rattled off a whole bunch of different things. But even if you and I want to make sure this is accurate, but I’m operating under the impression that even if one were to make even incremental improvements in just a few of these areas, it seems like it could have a huge impact. I like to hunt and fish, so I liken it to to siting in a rifle. Right. If you raise the barrel just a little bit, you know, a hundred yards away, it’s you know, you might strike your target, you know, a couple of inches differently. Is it the same way with this? Just an incremental improvement here and there can have a huge impact. Yeah.

David Harris: [00:25:41] It can. And that really depends on what the current businesses, if you like, trust score is. So we need to run the bad algorithms across their business online. So we simply just run a report. We get it 24 hours later and we’ve got a really good sense then about where their gaps are. And sometimes, in fact, the great majority of times for small start ups, medium businesses, we can have this huge impact for not significant money quite quickly. And so, you know, that’s what we call stage one is getting that trust authority done. There’s a this might also help sort of frame the overall part of the market where the gaps are. Is that a sort of independent ten year global research across 47 countries, 400,000 businesses found out how the best sell law, so 400,000 businesses, ten years, 47 countries. And so, number one, the gap was trust. Trust, credibility and authority was spoken about that. Number two, gap is your why. So technically, that’s a value proposition. Who wants to talk about value proposition? So your why why should your ideal buyers buy from you? Rather than your competitors. Number three of the five is do you have a strategic narrative and pitch? So what does that mean? It means tell me about your business in a story. Don’t tell me a dot points. Don’t tell me about it in three sort of paragraphs. Tell it to me like it would be a story.

David Harris: [00:27:24] And so we talk about that as being put that framework or put that narrative together in the same way that the best selling movies and books of all time have been successful and that that storyline structure has a great deal of impact. And so if you build a narrative about why your business is different and you tell it in that structured way, then you have a fairly high chance of being 22 times more recognizable than your competitors. Number four, social selling. What’s social selling? Well, as everyone knows, people don’t really want to be pitched on social. About buying a business. So there’s a price or buying a service from a business. But there is a process in which you can legitimately and reasonably approach ideal targets. But it’s different to doing it online, a different way of doing it and door to door or in a store. And so social selling methodology allows you to really get good at that. And so we talk about that’s the number four gap and ultimately the number five of the five is strategic marketing. This doesn’t mean spending millions on all sorts of paid advertising. It just means being really sharp and smart. So there the five steps that were came out of the 400,000 businesses across 47 countries over ten years. And those five steps are the really big gaps when you start talking to almost every business.

Stone Payton: [00:29:04] Well, I got to tell you, it makes all the sense in the world, especially when when you describe it. And so if one were to dive into this work with you and with your guidance and specialized expertise to help them navigate that, what I envision is kind of a quick upshot. Based on the on the on the statistics, the numbers you shared with us, and then over time, you probably still need to kind of keep pumping the handle. Right. Like there’s. That’s right. Right. So there’s some over time just to stay on top of it because things change. Speak to that a little bit.

David Harris: [00:29:40] Uh, yes. So I mean, I think that this is really building a new house or you’ve bought an old house and you’re trying to renovate it. You’ve got to make sure the structure’s right. So the floorboards have got to be right. The frame’s got to be right. You’ve got to replace a few bits here and there to make it structurally sound. What an online business. It has to be structurally sound, and you have to fill in how you can show that you’re more expertise, you’ve got more authority, and you’re more trusted than your competitors. So your house has got to be structurally right. The next part is, okay, let’s then start talking about, okay, we can build the trust quite quickly, which gets you some traffic and some online sort of hits. But the second step is really if we don’t sort of do that quite quickly, define why your ideal buyers should only buy from you. Then you can have the traffic coming that’s trusting, but you can’t convert it because you can’t explain why they should do it. Why should I should buy from you? So, you know, one and two are almost wrapped together. And then when you get to the third part, which is, well, tell it to me in a story, not a fake story, but a narrative in a way in which I can understand as a potential buyer. And so that’s wrapped together. So one, two and three aren’t far off. So we can start on the journey, but a bit like building. You can fix the frame, but you very soon need the plaster put on the walls. Then you need a bit of paint to sort of, you know, make it look nice and you know, you’ve got to put the carpet down. So there is a few bucks over a few months. Yes. You could stop and say, okay, we’ve run out of plaster money now. Well, can we restart it again in a couple of months? Yeah, that’s okay, too. But, you know, there’s a gap in revenue potential. Does that make sense?

Stone Payton: [00:31:30] It makes all the sense in the world. And then once you have that structure in place and you continue to to to grow in your business and you continue to have additional stories, you can you can now feed this machine. Or at least that’s the imagery I’m creating in my own head.

David Harris: [00:31:48] All right. You know, you just keep the garden up to date. You paint it every so often, You know, why put new curtains in it or something? You know, you never really stop. But your initial purchase, you know, your real big cost of getting it the old house into a new house, once you’ve got that done and the rest is really just maintenance.

Stone Payton: [00:32:10] Yeah. All right. Before we wrap in a few minutes, I’m going to ask you if you would, to share a couple of actionable kind of pro tips that our listeners can go ahead and start thinking about and that kind of thing. But before we do that, I’d go a little different direction here a little bit and ask you, well, the way we say it here is what do you have a tendency to to nerd out about? And I mean, like outside the scope of your work, like I told you a little earlier, I like to hunt and fish. My wife likes to paint. She’s down at the Reeves Art Center right now, helping them hang a new installation. So outside the scope of your work, are you into some other kind of hobby or something that you really just enjoy doing outside?

David Harris: [00:32:51] Yes. Well, you know, fitness and keeping the house tidy and mowing the lawns and doing those sort of things. But I have a rather different hobby that might surprise people. And it’s really about the artists, and I’m going to explain it in a minute because I just need to differentiate from people who are inside the game. But I’m a bit of a voyeur for politics, huh? And so whether it’s US politics or Australian politics, you know, I’ve only become really interested in the US politics as a result of a particularly unusual person being involved in the US. But but so and the reason the politics interests me is really the same story is how do why do people vote for one person over another or one party? So it’s sort of the extension of what I’ve already been talking about. And there are a great deal of similarities between them, the different. But and so I use the sort of art of politics, if you like, and sort of reflect on politics to business and then business back to politics. But I’m not and haven’t ever stood for government or parliament or anything like that. So that’s, you know, I just want to differentiate that. But the understanding and the crossover and the differences about how to be more successful in the political space, I’m not that much different from being more successful in the business space.

Stone Payton: [00:34:24] I am so glad that I asked because I don’t we’ve never had that answer before. I could tell you that right out of the box. But but it makes sense. And it’s just there is so much of the conversation we’ve had that you could apply to that world and probably learn a ton and maybe if one so chose, actually help a campaign, right?

David Harris: [00:34:45] Yes, well, I’ve actually done that. They different campaigns have paid us to assist in that. And the market research is really not much different. But from consumer or business research, it’s not much different from political research. The difference is that, of course, the statements made by. Aspiring candidates more and more not link to trust and credibility.

Stone Payton: [00:35:15] That’s the truth. Well, that is interesting. All right. Yeah, let’s do before we wrap, I’d love to share with our clients just a couple of actionable tips, something they should be thinking about, reading, doing, not doing. And look, gain. The number one tip is if this is piqued your interest and I’m sure it has. Reach out and have a conversation with David or someone on his team. It sounds like he’s got some tools to even just help you begin to get your arms around this. But yeah, David, let’s leave him with just a couple of pro tips. Let’s call them before we go.

David Harris: [00:35:48] Well, so let’s do the free stuff. So on the website, which is accelerate your business dot today. So WW dot accelerate your business dot Today I write a daily blog and there’s about 200 or 300 articles in there that’s free that talk about how to do this, how to win trust. A lot of what I we professionally might sell is really on there for free. So you know go and have a look it’s on the website across the top of the header just click away and read through. And we have people who read 100 articles in the day. They just, they get stuck into it. Yeah. So that’s the first step. The second step is I might give you some stats that come from McKinsey. Again, the world’s biggest consulting companies. It’s public information, so I’m not sharing theirs. It’s not available for everyone else. But the more online channels of business deploys, the bigger the market share gains, so the more platforms that a business is on. So that’s really Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., etc.. The bigger the market share gains. There’s no doubt of that. It’s just.

David Harris: [00:37:03] That’s true. The second one that might be of interest to buyers is that business to business buyers? So, you know, professional services buying something else or people buying their services, accountants, solicitors, anything from selling business to business. Over 70% of their buyers prefer a multichannel approach. So that’s what my first statement was talking about. More channels. Regardless of the industry, the country, the size of the business or the customer relationship stage. So whether you’re just starting to look or whether you’re just about to say yes to a business regardless of that stage. More channels equals more market share, more revenue. Not my numbers. Mckinsey, The world’s biggest. Yeah. And the third one of those stones, which will sort of answer this is all the potential buyers prefer to buy in three ways. First, the vast majority want to sell serve. So that’s social and websites too. They only want to deal be human via Zoom or its equivalent. So human interactions are remote and if they are really have to and they don’t have a choice that is person to person in that order.

Stone Payton: [00:38:37] The world has changed, hasn’t it?

David Harris: [00:38:40] And then the point is, I think the story has changed. This is not a projection about the future. This is the facts now.

Stone Payton: [00:38:50] Absolutely. Well, this has been just so informative, so inspiring. I can’t thank you enough. What is the best way for our listeners to connect? So let’s make sure we leave them with the website and any of those links again, because I want to make sure people can tap into your work and have a conversation with you, man.

David Harris: [00:39:09] Sure. So we’re easily found, as you would expect. We’re on Twitter, we’re on LinkedIn and of course on the website. So accelerate your business dot today. There is no air use or coms, dot coms, etc. afterwards. It is simply accelerate your business dot today. That’s the website. Secondly, on the website, you’ll be able to chat to us. Leave a message. You can send an email directly to me, which is David Harris at Accelerate Your Business Today. There’s a supporting email address and so on. But I think that’s that’ll give you a really easy access to us and we’re very happy to sort of provide as much information as we can to you for free when we have to if we want to go to the next step and we have to sort of dig in and start doing some work. Well, yeah, you know, obviously we’ve got to get paid, but we can provide a lot of information that that allows some businesses to self help. Do it yourself, even.

Stone Payton: [00:40:13] Well, David, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show today. It really has been informing, inspiring your energy and your passion for genuinely trying to to serve and using data to help people generate real results. And what I call an actual green dollar ROI is impressive and you’re doing important work. Keep up the good work and let’s stay connected. But just know that we appreciate you, man, and I sure thank you for joining us.

David Harris: [00:40:46] No problems at all. And I wish all of your listeners and you stay in all the best.

Stone Payton: [00:40:51] Well, thank you. All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guests today, David Harris with Accelerate and everyone here at the Business Radio X family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.

 

Mary Win King with Simplicity Home Staging & Design

by

Sponsored by Business RadioX ® Main Street Warriors

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Mary-Win-King

Mary-Win-King-headshotbwMary Win King grew up in a small town in South Carolina and has been living in Georgia for 12 years with her husband and amazing 11 year old daughter. She is so thankful to be in the Southeast with warmer weather!

Mary and her family love living in Ball Ground on their 13 acre farm enjoying their horses, cats and dog.  She has always had a passion for interior design and home staging, so starting Simplicity Home Staging & Design 2.5 years ago, alongside a friend at the time, has been such a blessing. Simplicity-Home-Staging-and-Design-logo

Mary loves helping clients LOVE their home and turning it into a relaxing “breath of fresh air” when they come home each day.

On the home staging side, she loves being able to help potential buyers see themselves in the home by showing off the great aspects of each room and what the home has to offer.

Currently, we look forward to serving new clients with our new bundle services. The best gift is when we are able to call our clients our new friends!

Follow Simplicity Home Staging & Design on Facebook.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:24] Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Cherokee Business Radio. Stone Payton here with you this morning. And today’s episode is brought to you in part by our local small business initiative, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors Defending Capitalism, promoting small business and supporting our local community. For more information, go to Main Street Warriors dot org and a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors Diesel David Inc. Please go check them out at Diesel David dot com. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Simplicity Home Staging and Design, Miss Mary Win King. How are you?

Mary Win King: [00:01:10] I’m great. I’m so thankful and honored to be here that you would just have me on your show and excited to just let people know what we’re about.

Stone Payton: [00:01:19] Well, we are delighted to have you in the studio this morning. I got a ton of questions. I, I know we probably won’t get to them all, but I think a good place to start might be if you could share with me in our listeners mission purpose. What are what are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks?

Mary Win King: [00:01:39] Yeah. So my heart and mission for this business is to first and foremost use the gifts and talents that God has given us to literally serve our community. And my goal is to make design and home staging fun and simple for our clients that they love working with us and letting their homes be represented in who they are because so many people aren’t able to walk in their homes and feel who they are in their personality, and it’s just an honor to help them with that.

Stone Payton: [00:02:12] So what is the most fun? What’s the most rewarding for you about the work?

Mary Win King: [00:02:17] Oh, goodness. One of the most rewarding things is to be able to call our clients, our friends at the end or in the middle of our projects. Probably one of the best compliments that I’ve gotten from one of our clients was just her saying that we made her year. Her home was dark and she lived in it for six years and didn’t know that it could truly reflect her and be a place of a breath of fresh air for her and to truly have a kitchen where she can bake with her daughter and, you know, really love it and be there and let it reflect.

Stone Payton: [00:02:54] Her, that’s got to feel good. You must sleep really well at night, right?

Mary Win King: [00:02:57] I do. After working really hard, I do.

Stone Payton: [00:03:01] So from working hard and from knowing the good. The good that you’re doing.

Mary Win King: [00:03:04] Really? Yes, absolutely. And reaching our clients on a deeper level and not just design. And this is about like loving on our community that way.

Stone Payton: [00:03:15] So take me back to the beginning. How in the world did you find yourself in this line of work?

Mary Win King: [00:03:21] So I had always wanted to do interior design and home staging. I remember thinking back as a teenager, helping my mom pick out fabrics and wallpaper for our home and saying, Mom, clearly it’s it’s this choice. And she, you know, because she would struggle like many people do and just always wanting to do it. So then, you know, God opened some doors for me to work at a retail decorating store called Scottsdale Farms and Milton and get hands on experience and kind of apprentice under an interior designer. And, you know, we became best friends and got to love, love doing it and and helping people come in every day with pictures of their home and being able to say, okay, what what is your style? Let’s pick out a piece of artwork or a rug that reflects you and base the design around that.

Stone Payton: [00:04:14] I love that approach. I love that framing that you start with the person and who they are and helping them express that through the way that they they design their home. I think that is fantastic. Say more about this, this Apprentice experience, because it sounds like you have had the benefit of some fabulous, what do you call it? Mentor shifts, say more about Scottsdale forms and that whole experience.

Mary Win King: [00:04:39] Sure. So, yeah, it was it was a friend named Damon that literally he would challenge me. He would say, okay, we’re looking to make this this space a transitional space. What does that mean to you? Go grab chairs, artwork, you know, colors that that that would reflect from your design aspect. And the neat thing is, is we saw things differently and yet we were both great at our job. So that’s the fun part about design, is it can go in different directions and still reflect that person.

Stone Payton: [00:05:18] Yeah. So do you find yourself now in a position of. Mentoring other people in your space or.

Mary Win King: [00:05:26] It’s funny that you ask me that. Yeah. Actually, I’m currently trying to help someone. A lady approached me actually through the Woodstock Business Club. It was a contact of a contact, and she said that she had a friend that was looking to start an interior design business in South Carolina, which is where me and my husband are originally from. Mm hmm. And so she asked if I would help her kind of guide her through that and what the business aspect looks like. And two and a half years in, I feel like I can give her some good guidance and lessons learned and all of that. So she, you know, just asked if she could shadow and ask me a bunch of questions. And I said, of course. So I love helping people that way as well because it’s it’s different starting your own business, but it’s it’s worth it if you love what you’re doing well.

Stone Payton: [00:06:14] And there’s practicing the craft. But to your point, you’re also running a business like, for example, and I got a ton of questions around every aspect of running the business for you, but I’ll start with sales and marketing. How do you get the new clients?

Mary Win King: [00:06:29] The best way to do that is through referrals so that the clients that I have helped know how deeply I care about them. Yeah. And for them, you know say on Cherokee connect to say Mary win is awesome go go with her. And I mean, honestly, that’s the best meaningful way to help get the word out and keep it community based.

Stone Payton: [00:06:53] So don’t you just love Cherokee Connect? I do. And Josh Bagby and he must surround himself with some great people as well. But I just we’ve had Justin in the studio and he’s I mean, just what a great person. And I just love this thing he’s put together. And, you know, you’ve mentioned community. You’ve also mentioned briefly Woodstock Business Club and now Cherokee Connect. We got a lot going for us here locally, don’t we?

Mary Win King: [00:07:18] It’s amazing. And if you get to know the business owners one on one, you’re just like, wow, it’s special.

Stone Payton: [00:07:26] That’s one of the things I love about this work is that, you know, they’ll come in and today it’s just me and you. But a lot of times it’ll be two or three different businesses in here and giving them a chance to connect and talk to each other. And it just without exception in my experience and I’ve been here almost two years now, Holly and I and they they really they want to help you succeed, even if they’re in your space. I don’t know that anybody else is in my space around here, but I mean, I c I had a, I had an episode Chris Chris Creamer with Atlanta Drone Cleaning. He had two other people in a similar business like to do the pressure washing the soft washing and he was trying to help. He wasn’t even here for him. He was trying. He’s he’s a main Street warrior, you know, he’s part of our thing. But he was trying to help them. And I love that that’s all over this community.

Mary Win King: [00:08:15] It’s that way. Yeah. And the neat thing is, is there’s enough business to go around. Everybody wants to live here, which I don’t blame them. You know, like, you’ve got the best of both worlds. You have the country and the horses, and I love that. And then you have the city and the small town feel and you know all that it has to offer.

Stone Payton: [00:08:32] Yeah. All right. So let’s talk about the work a little bit. Yeah, let’s say. Well, you know, I really did. It sounds like something I’m making up, but it is the God’s honest truth. Just yesterday, you crossed my mind. I knew we were going to have the interview, but Holly and my sister in law who came into town to watch Holly act over here in the in the play, the murder on the Orient Express. So Susan was here, and so so they decided it was time to take down winter and put up Easter. So, of course, it’s my job to go to the attic and get all the tubs, you know. But that is the beginning and the end of my expertise. But watching them think through and watching Holly get Susan’s ideas on how we should set up Easter and all that. But yeah, talk about the work. Let’s say that that Holly engaged you and had to, like, walk through what that process is like and maybe some of the specific services that might have unfolded as a result of that.

Mary Win King: [00:09:25] Sure. So we have recently simplified our process for our clients to try to kind of have six different custom bundles or packages which most clients might fall under. No, I don’t want to say all but most. So what we would do is we would initially set up a design consultation that would typically be where we would come. Me and my assistant would come to your home and walk through your space that you currently have and for you to tell us, okay, I love this inherited piece, we want to work around that or I’d love to change this and really be able to measure and get a grasp of what we’re working with and what you do like and what you don’t like. So that typically lasts about an hour, hour and a half, and that design consultation is $150. So that gives us a basis to kind of get a game plan of how to move forward. So with that being said, we’ve kind of started with these packages just as a basis to start from. So like the largest tier is called the Foundational focus package, and that would include like if the client needed any remodel or construction in addition to the just.

Stone Payton: [00:10:42] A great time to bring you in, right. Like we’re going to carve out half of this wall and we’re going to put a bar here and we’re going to that’s a great time to bring you.

Mary Win King: [00:10:48] Absolutely. Just even to get the scale and proportion correct. Like, you know, we had a client that kind of took out an L-shaped Island that she had that was making her kitchen feel really small. And, you know, we’re she was like, well, how big does my new island need to be? You know, those questions that really are important to get right. So obviously helping them with that. So that would be the foundational focus is kind of the bigger like if you’re doing kind of a larger project. Now, we’ve also helped a client with a ground up home in helping the exterior design of that and now getting to help with the interior design. But that could also include if the client needs shopping and decor as well, like furniture and paint colors and, you know, decor down to the pillows, which are one of my favorite things to shop for.

Stone Payton: [00:11:36] Well, it wouldn’t surprise me to discover that you may have one client that is. Yeah, I want you to go do the shopping. Tell me what to do. Go. You go get it. You just make it happen. Here’s a check, you know? Yeah. And then others that are like, Well, no, I want to go do this. I enjoy the shopping or I want you to go with me. There’s probably that whole continuum, right?

Mary Win King: [00:11:54] It really is. And it’s really fun. Like, I love going and shopping with clients too, because you get to hear their aspect of, you know, of the design as you’re in the store looking at different elements. And then we have so the below kind of the foundational focus. We have a package called the Cherry on top, and I just love that because say you have your walls and it could include paint colors if you need to change that. But if you have everything the foundation already finished for yourself and you just are looking to kind of top. It off with your furniture and, you know, rugs that are just scale in your room and artwork and things like that, then that’s kind of where that package might laugh or someone. But to your point of different people needing different things, the the package under that is called the Jumpstart package. Now we kind of base that if a client needed a specific room, like if they were struggling with a certain space in their home, we kind of base that one around it where we could help them specifically. However, to customize it and to tailor it to this one client. The Jumpstart package actually included doing a design consultation and our last client needed online help. She didn’t. She didn’t for us to help her. The best way we could serve her was we did the consultation. She needed about 25 to 30 different decor items throughout her home, not just one room. She still kind of fell under that jumpstart, you know, package concept. But then we were able to go home and work online and send her some links to each of those elements, and then she could buy them as she pleased. So she was on her own time frame for that. So really just looking and seeing what works for each client best.

Stone Payton: [00:13:47] Yeah, well, I love the flexibility because it’s not like at my home I have a little home office because we’re kind of empty nesters now. And, you know, so if I wanted to re jigger that, you could come in and say, okay, we’ll start here. And it sounds like you could come do a consultation and they could hit the brakes there and say, okay, this has been great. You’ve given me some great ideas. You’re not necessarily coming in guns ablaze and trying to write.

Mary Win King: [00:14:13] No. And and as long as I always say clients, please just communicate with me. Communication is best because then we both know what our jobs are and everybody has a lot going on and that’s okay. So if we communicate and say, okay, Mary, when I love the consultation, I love the idea, Hey, we need to wait a month, then I will contact you in a month, you know, and that works out great too. And the last thing that we’ve kind of formed that is fun is called the Designer for the day package, where if you need just it would be us coming in for 4 hours of like impactful design help of do you want you know, where the client could say, okay, should I put curtains here? And we would be able to answer all of those specific questions. And then therefore, if they need to help pass that we can, or if the client wants to do it themselves, they can.

Stone Payton: [00:15:05] So I’m sitting here kind of wondering what would keep a person from having you come in. And the only thing I can think of and it’s it’s it’s I would put it under the banner of disbelief or a concern that doesn’t warrant concern that maybe you’re going to be judgmental, right? Yeah. Is that something that you.

Mary Win King: [00:15:25] Oh, gosh.

Stone Payton: [00:15:25] I run into.

Mary Win King: [00:15:26] I do and I feel like. So I, I want people to understand that I’m like one of the most approachable people as you as you know now.

Stone Payton: [00:15:38] Yes. Yes.

Mary Win King: [00:15:39] The the this is not a judgment. This is not a place of judgment. We all have areas that we need help in. And design might just be something that someone needs help in. And it could incorporate some organization maybe, or, you know, just rethinking things. So that is something I would love for people to take the pressure off of themselves for just no judgment.

Stone Payton: [00:16:03] The only analogy that comes to mind for me is people who are at the top of their game and professional services or sports. You know, sometimes they’ll they’ll bring in a coach, right, who is, you know, a professional basketball player might bring in a coach that is just he is the free throw guy. Right. And we’re going to help you get nail that down. And it doesn’t make you less. It makes you more. I mean, so I kind of put it in that box for me from my frame of reference is, you know, get you a design coach for a day or a half a day for this room or whatever and bring it in. But yeah, I think so you run into that occasionally or Yeah, you have to be cognizant that, that Absolutely.

Mary Win King: [00:16:41] And I just, I always tell people, don’t worry, life is life. Life happens if you have you know, so many people have animals and young children and things that they’re working around and that’s okay. Like that is that is just everybody’s life. And so we want to actually make the design practical for what your everyday life looks like, whatever that is, you know?

Stone Payton: [00:17:04] Yeah. And you’re coming in with with expertise as opposed to bias. Like maybe you in a million years would never have a splash of. I think it’s knitting needles. Gray is what we have on our walls. And maybe you in a million years in your own home, you would never put that in your own home. But you’re not doing your home. You’re doing holly home.

Mary Win King: [00:17:21] Exactly. Exactly.

Stone Payton: [00:17:22] That’s something. And then you find. If that’s what we want for the background, then let’s make that pop or not pop or whatever you want to do. So you’re not you’re not Mary, winning the place. Exactly. You’re coming in with your expertise.

Mary Win King: [00:17:38] That’s exactly right. And that is what I want for it to set us apart. Like, it doesn’t matter what my personal design style is, it really matters what makes you feel good. And that I always tell a client during the consultation, I don’t want them to hire me for them just to like their home. I want them to love their home. And so in text messages and, you know, going back and forth, if they don’t say they love it, then I know we haven’t hit the market.

Stone Payton: [00:18:06] Now, are you staying firmly niched in the established home owner, someone who’s there? Or are you also finding that that there’s a market to help? Well, like real estate agents, people are putting their their home on the market to get it to where it’s it helps them sell their home.

Mary Win King: [00:18:24] Absolutely. So on the design side, my brain can’t, but I automatically go to resale value. I will ask the homeowner. So I kind of automatically think that way. But with helping the real estate agents, the neat thing is, is that has primarily been on the home staging side. But see, that is where I love bringing the business full circle of being able to hopefully help a client with their interior design and then be able to help them stage it to get it ready to go on the market. Whether that’s in recent time or if it’s in five years, it really doesn’t matter. But when I am helping on the design side, I always say, okay, are y’all planning to stay in this home? Or if we’re doing some major, you know, money investment for resale that that’s so important to think about and not overlook for for the future?

Stone Payton: [00:19:22] All right. So let’s talk about being an entrepreneur, running a business. So it’s great that you’re doing all this. Shout out to Damon. Was it Scottsdale, Forbes? I mean, that seemed like it was a great situation for you. Talk a little bit about what it was like when you decided to to make this transition, because now you’ve got to run a business, too.

Mary Win King: [00:19:42] Yeah, well, the great thing is, is also I have some family that are entrepreneurs and just knowing that if we and also I will say some of my friends that are real estate agents have helped me on the entrepreneur side and just really kind of been some mentors for me. I would say that I’ve had to just. Know that that one, everything that you would mark off your list of starting a business was one step closer. And to encourage people that way, you know, like the like the friend that I’m helping with, you know, potentially starting one in South Carolina, like go in every day and say, I’m gonna mark one next thing off your list that you accomplish that will help you get closer to starting that business and help you get better. You know, I mean, part of my studying, I mean, I would go to libraries and rent out books. I mean, I just love it. I love there’s a local actual designer, Brian Patrick Flynn, and he is amazing. But he was self-taught. So that encouragement. Right. You know, because I went to Clemson, but I didn’t major in it. But I’ve always had a passion for it. So to me, the passion can override, you know, anything else that you just don’t necessarily know until you do it.

Stone Payton: [00:21:11] So so you study the craft, you read about that. Do you find yourself also reading blogs, books, websites, listening to shows or around how to run a business to? Do you.

Mary Win King: [00:21:22] See that? Yes. And but I will say that I my main thing is I want to do God’s will in this. And I have let him, you know, really lead me in in how we operate. And I do love studying other designers and everything, but I also. Want to make sure that I just stay true to the heart of this business and why I started it and not not veer off, you know, too much from that. And just knowing that it’s about relationships.

Stone Payton: [00:21:55] It really is. Isn’t your business in particular, I would think is just it can’t be transactional. It really does have to be grounded in in relationship. And it requires, I suspect, a level of trust. Yes. Right.

Mary Win King: [00:22:10] Yes, it does. It really does. So kind of that moment that the light bulb kind of goes off in in someone’s mind of like, okay, all right, she’s done enough to where I can trust, you know, like and she say, like one of my clients was I was measuring for mirrors the other day for her home. And I was like, well, what do you think about this idea? She was like, Marilyn, I trust you. Just go for it, you know? So like that, to get to that point is, is a great feeling and it’s important. And I want other people to feel that and to know, you know, how much I do truly care.

Stone Payton: [00:22:45] Well, and do you find let’s say again, we’ll go and play that thing out with Holly. Let’s say Holly brings you in, you do a consultation. You kind of help her think through transitioning between the different holidays because she’ll do winter. She’ll do Easter. Yeah. What is it? She skips something. And of course, Halloween, Christmas and we have tubs that are that color. Like we have orange tubs with black lids. That’s Halloween. That’s great. It pastel tilts came down. Right? Right. And so so it’s all color coded in that kind of thing. And then do you find that okay, you’ll see. You’ll see Holly again for Halloween or or summer or whatever. Yeah.

Mary Win King: [00:23:23] Yeah. I think that’s important. As long as they communicate that they need me, I will mark time off, you know, and make sure that we set that apart. Yeah. I helped a client decorate for Christmas last year, and then she was like, Now make sure you have time for me next year. And I’m like, Of course I will. So she’s a client that I’ve been working with ongoing for about actually two years. Mar will be two years. Wow. You know what an honor for that of like, you know, just being able to help them with their ongoing projects within their home.

Stone Payton: [00:23:55] Well, I think that’s marvelous. I’m not even a little bit surprised that that’s the case. So I was thinking like, we have this we have a little patio home right here on the edge of downtown Woodstock, and it has a little side screened in porch that, you know, we enjoy TV outside and we have and now I’m thinking of trying to make it more like a I’m thinking about maybe a whiskey barrel. Yeah, maybe make it a little more outdoorsy, that kind of stuff. And not just the ideas of what the space could be and all, but you also probably almost certainly know maybe a good place to go find that couch or that outdoor furniture or maybe even that whiskey barrel. Or if you don’t, you’re like, okay, I’m going to go look at where are some good place to get a whiskey barrel and I’ll get back to you, right?

Mary Win King: [00:24:40] Absolutely. It’s funny you mention a whiskey barrel because I have one of those in my half bath. That’s part of I think that’s hilarious. Oh, it’s great. I have to give credit to my husband on that one. That was his idea. But yeah, exactly. So have lots of great contacts to shop there and, you know, points of references. A lot of times, thankfully, I am able to even text some people that work at different, you know, different stores and and have relationships with them. And but I do love always finding new resources if if I don’t know exactly where I’m initially going for something, it’s probably fun. It’s so fun. It’s so fun. And and sometimes, you know, you can find some surprising deals online, but you just have to know how what you’re looking for. Right. And and that’s where it’s great when when we can come in and help because even down to the dimensions of a chandelier, like knowing what’s going to look right in a space and making sure it’s not too small or not too big, that’s important and it’s hard for others to visualize it.

Stone Payton: [00:25:46] Yeah. And you’ve done so many, you have a much better feel for that. And if you find the place to get my whiskey barrel now, that’s kind of in your file. Absolutely. So the next family that wants a whiskey barrel, you’ve got you’ve got this, you’ve got these three whiskey barrel places you’re going to go check out, right?

Mary Win King: [00:26:01] Yeah. Yeah. And in that boils down to then knowing okay or those people that I would like future clients to work with or, you know, or should we keep looking, you know, kind of thing. So but to be able to say, hey, go over and visit so-and-so at the local store, I just think it really helps once again bring it down to a fun experience. And keeping it simple.

Stone Payton: [00:26:26] Yeah, well, it’s like if somebody asked me about equipment, like maybe they’re going to do a podcast thing on their own, you know, I can save them a lot of heartache by, you know, don’t buy this kind of might get.

Mary Win King: [00:26:35] This kind of like.

Stone Payton: [00:26:35] Here’s some just because this is my.

Mary Win King: [00:26:38] World. Right right right exactly. And. And so it’s it’s so fun to be able to to help different things. And I like, I like challenges. I, I don’t I don’t want to just stay in one realm of style to help certain clients that only have, you know, say, an updated traditional style or something like that.

Stone Payton: [00:26:58] Yeah. You mentioned your husband briefly. What’s his.

Mary Win King: [00:27:00] Name? His name is Corey.

Stone Payton: [00:27:01] Corey. So but the reason I mention it is in my experience, this is at least been true for me. Having a support system has been so incredibly helpful to me in my entrepreneurial journey. And I just I got to believe and I have it, spousal support, people that are close to you, have you found that to be important for you as well?

Mary Win King: [00:27:24] Very, including our 11 year old daughter. She’s so supportive. And and it gives me an opportunity as an entrepreneur to tell her, look, if you love something, go after it. Don’t be scared, take some risks. You know, and this was the kind of one of the first times that I’ve been able to take a risk on myself in doing it, but also kind of follow your gut. And that’s something I really want and hope for, even for my clients. Like one of my goals that you and I talked about prior, but is to work with our clients so closely to where at the end of a project they can go out and even feel good about selecting something for themselves decor wise, you know? And like one of my clients said, I just keep coming back to this one piece of artwork. I’m like, Good, That’s what I want you to listen to, you know? And she loved it and it worked and totally worked. So. So just yes, our family, I’m so thankful for such a great support system. And just the neat thing is, is my husband and I have just recently finished building a ground up cabin in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. And so that was a fun experience to be able to use our design elements and like bounce ideas off of each other. And he has a good eye too. So just really pull things and make it what we really wanted to envision it being.

Stone Payton: [00:28:53] So, yeah. Okay. I’m going to shift gears on you a little bit here before we wrap. I’m interested to know and it turns out our listeners are too. We’ve got some great feedback on asking this this question outside the scope of your work. What, if anything, do you have a tendency to nerd out about and really get involved with? For me, it’s hunting and fishing.

Mary Win King: [00:29:12] Oh yeah. My other love is horses and outdoor, you know, nature and animals. And we have three cats and two horses and one dog and 13 acres in ball ground. And so, so yeah. So just spending time with them and having friends over to spend time with them and kind of get that, you know, just laid back feel of being at the barn.

Stone Payton: [00:29:39] Yeah. So you kind of live that, that country life. Yeah. Oh yeah. It’s awesome. All right. What’s the best way for our listeners to connect with you? Tap into your work, have a conversation with with you, email, LinkedIn, whatever is appropriate, but let’s make sure they can connect with you.

Mary Win King: [00:29:55] Yeah. So the we have a website, of course, so you can contact us through our website. It’s w w w dot simplicity home staging and design with the word and actually spelled out dot com. And then if you’d like to email us, it is simplicity home interiors at gmail.com. Or you can feel free to pick up the phone and actually call me or text me, which would be great. At 6062600175. And I would love to add that we didn’t talk too much about home staging, but we love doing occupied and vacant home staging for our a lot of real estate agents, home owners that are getting their homes ready to go on the market as well. And we’ve had experience and been blessed to be able to help stage homes from anywhere from 250,000 all the way up to 3 million. So it’s it’s been a great experience to see that transformation. And in a few hours, it can make a huge difference.

Stone Payton: [00:31:03] Well, I bet it does. It it can make a real difference in the price that you get for your home. So realtors out there, yeah, you’d like to connect with them as well. Well, you know, what might be fun is have you come back sometime? Maybe with a delighted realtor client and we’ll give them a chance to talk about about their business, but. But also maybe talk about how you collaborate.

Mary Win King: [00:31:24] Absolutely.

Stone Payton: [00:31:25] I think that would be a very informative segment. So if you’re up for that woman, I love that.

Mary Win King: [00:31:30] Yeah, already. Yeah, I would love that because it just to educate people how much it can truly help. And those online pictures when when potential buyers are scanning through to let. Your home set apart and stand out to being clean and simple and really letting the flow work for them to see them in their home. You know, it just it really can be so important.

Stone Payton: [00:31:53] All right. We’re going to make that happen.

Mary Win King: [00:31:54] Awesome.

Stone Payton: [00:31:55] Well, it has been an absolute delight having you in the studio this morning. Thanks. Well, thank you for sharing your insight, your perspective and your energy. I thank you. I love your. This has been fantastic. You’re doing important work and we sure appreciate you.

Mary Win King: [00:32:11] Thank you so much.

Stone Payton: [00:32:13] My pleasure. All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, Mary winking with simplicity, home staging and design, and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying, we’ll see you again on Cherokee Business Radio.

 

BRX Pro Tip: Ask for a Review

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BRX-Banner

BRX Pro Tip: Ask for a Review

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, I love it when I get testimonials, reviews, anybody out there in the marketplace saying good things about me or us. What’s the secret, man, on getting reviews?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:18] Yeah, if you’re just waiting for people to review you, then you’re going to find a lot of people who are going to take the time to review you who might have something negative to say. So, I recommend being proactive when it comes to reviews and put a system or process in place that just ask for reviews, either yourself as part of your service right after they’ve finished or after you’ve done some service for somebody or just part of what you do every day.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:43] It’s just the fact in today’s world that people rely on social media, they’re constantly looking for some sort of third-party validation of the services before they make a purchase. So, whatever you can do to just have an over-abundance of positive reviews, I would put something in place to make sure that happens.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:04] You know, to get five-star reviews used to be a nice-to-have, but it’s becoming more and more of a must-have. So, I would do some things like ask everybody that has ever worked with you to say, “Hey, do me a favor. Review the service,” number one. Number two, every time you have a service, ask them at the end of it. Go, “Hey, do you mind doing a review?”

Lee Kantor: [00:01:27] I know, like my dentist, as I’m leaving the dentist’s office, they’re like, “Hey, give us a review. We’ll give you a $5 Starbucks card.” Like, a lot of people are bribing people for reviews in order to get more and more reviews, and it’s something to think about. If the person doesn’t like your service, they’re going to pass. But if they like your service and you offer them a little something, they’re more likely to say, “Okay, yeah, I’ll give you a review. Why not? I’ll do it right now.”

Lee Kantor: [00:01:55] So, anything you can do to encourage someone right now to give you a review whether in Google, whether on your website, whether on Facebook or whatever social media platform you use, definitely do that. It’ll help you grow your brand, grow your business.

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