Leading Like a Visionary Without Losing the Details with Stephanie Allen | RR 308

Janice Porter: 00:00:00

Stephanie, hello, hello. Welcome to this week's

Janice Porter: 00:00:05

episode of relationships rule. Today's guest, Stephanie Allen

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is a trusted advisor to CEOs and is the quiet force behind many

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thriving digital agencies and tech companies as a fractional

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COO and creator of the panoramic operations roadmap, she helps

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overwhelmed founders step out of the daily grind and into

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visionary leadership. In this conversation, Stephanie,

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Stephanie and I will explore the relationship between a visionary

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CEO and their integrator, or second in command, and why it's

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one of the most powerful dynamics in business. So if

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you've ever wondered how to grow without burning out, or how to

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build a team that runs without you, this conversation is for

Janice Porter: 00:00:49

you. Welcome to the show. Stephanie,

Stephanie Allen: 00:00:53

thank you, Janice, wonderful to be here

Stephanie Allen: 00:00:54

today. I hope I

Janice Porter: 00:00:56

got that right. I think the integrator, or as you

Janice Porter: 00:01:00

have sometimes you call yourself the fractional CFO second in

Janice Porter: 00:01:05

command. CO, oh, I mean, sorry, not CFO. Coo, correct.

Stephanie Allen: 00:01:09

Yes, I think you got it right. And it's, it's

Stephanie Allen: 00:01:13

actually okay that you called me a CFO, okay. And it's a great

Stephanie Allen: 00:01:17

way for me to just explain any C suite that has operations in or

Stephanie Allen: 00:01:25

officer in the name could be doing more than one area of the

Stephanie Allen: 00:01:29

business. That's true. So when you're looking for your second

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in command, it's very important that you consider where are the

Stephanie Allen: 00:01:36

gaps that you either don't want to do or would like someone more

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experienced to do for you, and make sure that your second in

Stephanie Allen: 00:01:44

command has those strengths. So in a lot of work I've been doing

Stephanie Allen: 00:01:47

over the years, I've moved into that CFO a little bit like I do

Stephanie Allen: 00:01:52

look at the data and the finance, and I make sure that we

Stephanie Allen: 00:01:55

have a plan to get to the financial goals of the business.

Stephanie Allen: 00:01:58

Now, depending on what the goals are of the business. There could

Stephanie Allen: 00:02:02

be a spot where I say, Well, I'm not the right person to handle

Stephanie Allen: 00:02:04

this anymore. You need to talk to my peer or friend over here

Stephanie Allen: 00:02:08

who's a fractional CFO, and they can take you the rest of the

Stephanie Allen: 00:02:10

way. So it just depends on the needs of the business and what

Stephanie Allen: 00:02:13

they're trying to do. I've actually spent a lot of time to

Stephanie Allen: 00:02:18

really master finances of a business, so I can help small

Stephanie Allen: 00:02:22

business owners actually clean up their books. That's one of

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the things I'm known for. So when I start to work with a

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business owner, they're often very thrilled that they actually

Stephanie Allen: 00:02:33

like looking at their data and the books after working with me,

Stephanie Allen: 00:02:37

because they made it easy for them to understand. Well,

Janice Porter: 00:02:40

let's start with your business. How did you come

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to specialize in this and be that, that integrator or special

Janice Porter: 00:02:48

second in command for to support CEOs and business owners?

Stephanie Allen: 00:02:56

I've always been fascinated with business in

Stephanie Allen: 00:03:01

some way. When I was a teenager, I started my own business, hired

Stephanie Allen: 00:03:05

others to work for me. Well, I went and did what I really

Stephanie Allen: 00:03:09

wanted to do, and then eventually sold the business,

Stephanie Allen: 00:03:12

and that paid for some of my university, and I got to pay

Stephanie Allen: 00:03:16

back my parents as well the investors in the business. What

Stephanie Allen: 00:03:19

kind

Janice Porter: 00:03:20

of business was it? I have to ask. It was a hot

Janice Porter: 00:03:22

dog stand that did

Stephanie Allen: 00:03:23

a lot in a small town, and I learned very

Stephanie Allen: 00:03:26

early. Listen to the listen to your clients, listen to your

Stephanie Allen: 00:03:30

customers. My business thrived because I just did what they

Stephanie Allen: 00:03:33

asked. You know, like one time I was using this cleaner, and a

Stephanie Allen: 00:03:39

lovely woman said, you know, that's not very good to do with

Stephanie Allen: 00:03:42

food. You should use vinegar or something like that, and and so

Stephanie Allen: 00:03:46

I had to go through the Health Department. I did everything

Stephanie Allen: 00:03:48

right Fire Department, and I just did all the permits and

Stephanie Allen: 00:03:50

everything like that. So I was learning about all the elements

Stephanie Allen: 00:03:53

of having a really good, thriving business, and really

Stephanie Allen: 00:03:57

enjoy the freedom that I got having my own business. And so

Stephanie Allen: 00:04:02

for as a kid, I was like, this is I've got flexibility, I've

Stephanie Allen: 00:04:05

got freedom, and I've got money. And then I went off to school,

Stephanie Allen: 00:04:09

and I learned a lot about business and marketing, and I

Stephanie Allen: 00:04:12

started working with business owners in university as an

Stephanie Allen: 00:04:16

internship. And so I've always worked closely with business

Stephanie Allen: 00:04:19

owners throughout my whole career, and I kept wanting to

Stephanie Allen: 00:04:22

get closer and closer to helping solve the big problems, and that

Stephanie Allen: 00:04:26

that helped me go from intern to customer service rep to project

Stephanie Allen: 00:04:30

manager to Director of PMO, all the way up to coo like I just

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really kept growing and figuring things out to get there. And

Stephanie Allen: 00:04:38

then I eventually thought, well, I want to really master this.

Stephanie Allen: 00:04:41

And I've always wanted my own business again. And then just

Stephanie Allen: 00:04:44

happened, three and a half, four years ago, I really started

Stephanie Allen: 00:04:47

thinking about it, and then I two and a half, three years ago,

Stephanie Allen: 00:04:52

I made the leap, and I love it, and that's why I mastered I

Stephanie Allen: 00:04:56

actually really understand all the workings of what it is. To

Stephanie Allen: 00:05:00

be in a business and to run a business, I really wanted to be

Stephanie Allen: 00:05:03

masterful at that, and I did that. So now I'm out helping

Stephanie Allen: 00:05:05

multiple businesses as at the same time to help more

Stephanie Allen: 00:05:08

businesses quickly.

Janice Porter: 00:05:11

It fast. You actually fascinate me, because

Janice Porter: 00:05:14

you are very focused and very thoughtful about what you do,

Janice Porter: 00:05:18

and I know that from working with you, but have to now go

Janice Porter: 00:05:21

back I I'm just the curious person nature that I have when

Janice Porter: 00:05:25

you started your business in school at what the hot dog

Janice Porter: 00:05:28

stand. Somebody inspired you to do that. What

Stephanie Allen: 00:05:31

it was my mother, my mother and so I love

Stephanie Allen: 00:05:34

it. So my mom is is a teacher and but I think she actually is

Stephanie Allen: 00:05:41

also an entrepreneur, but you didn't have the support system

Stephanie Allen: 00:05:45

or the mentors that I did in my life at a critical time in my

Stephanie Allen: 00:05:50

early 20s to be coached and guided by the business owners I

Stephanie Allen: 00:05:55

worked with that I knew how I could make my own Business I

Stephanie Allen: 00:06:00

love that. I love that she she tried, she tried to do her own

Stephanie Allen: 00:06:03

business when she was a young mom, and yeah, really worked

Stephanie Allen: 00:06:06

out, and then she needed the stability to help her family.

Stephanie Allen: 00:06:09

And I think that I'll probably all also influenced my decision

Stephanie Allen: 00:06:13

to take fewer risks when I was younger, to make sure like I had

Stephanie Allen: 00:06:18

my I bootstrapped myself. I had my own savings. I had my I was

Stephanie Allen: 00:06:22

debt free. I had backups to pay myself when I did this, because

Stephanie Allen: 00:06:26

I had a family and but it also took really working with mentors

Stephanie Allen: 00:06:32

and on my own philosophy of money to know that I had to take

Stephanie Allen: 00:06:36

a risk and understand I'm not necessarily going to be debt

Stephanie Allen: 00:06:39

free, but the long term, I'll have more rewards, and I was

Stephanie Allen: 00:06:44

ready to face that and take the big leap to take those risks. So

Stephanie Allen: 00:06:49

that was my evolution as an entrepreneur. Yeah, that's

Stephanie Allen: 00:06:52

amazing. Until I had worked on myself and worked on my mindset,

Stephanie Allen: 00:06:58

I'm really feeling blessed and fortunate that I worked on

Stephanie Allen: 00:07:01

scaffolding all that, because my business has taken off a lot

Stephanie Allen: 00:07:04

faster. I haven't had a lot of the startup woes or challenges

Stephanie Allen: 00:07:08

because I had the ground foundation before I started that

Janice Porter: 00:07:12

and that you bring to your to your clients,

Janice Porter: 00:07:15

for

Stephanie Allen: 00:07:15

sure, exactly, I help them scaffold what they

Stephanie Allen: 00:07:18

need in place to grow at an accelerated pace.

Janice Porter: 00:07:21

That's That's fantastic. Okay, so what would

Janice Porter: 00:07:25

you say? So, the CEO is usually the visionary. The COO is the

Janice Porter: 00:07:30

day to day makes all that happen for the visionary, right? What?

Janice Porter: 00:07:34

What would you say? What? What does a a really good

Janice Porter: 00:07:38

relationship between those two people look like when it's

Janice Porter: 00:07:41

working well.

Stephanie Allen: 00:07:45

Well, there's constant communication without

Stephanie Allen: 00:07:47

always meeting. So you you're always looped into each other.

Stephanie Allen: 00:07:51

There are feedback loops. So one of the things when my clients

Stephanie Allen: 00:07:55

work with me is I'm teaching them how to have that good

Stephanie Allen: 00:07:57

communication. So I work asynchronously a lot with them.

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:01

So I don't wait for them to be available to tell them an

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:04

update, or to ask them things or to have an update from them. I

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:08

do a lot of messaging and text messaging and like on their

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:12

preferred communication channel, where it's not stressful or

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:15

overwhelming for them, and I give them very comprehensive

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:18

updates at the right time, and I keep in mind when they're not

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:21

able to hear a message and decide when I'm going to give it

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:24

to them, or I let them know, don't look till you need to. But

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:26

here it is said in that moment. So I think communication is key,

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:31

and it's getting very clear about what, what the visionary

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:35

wants, what what they want, and you have to help make it happen.

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:38

And you mentioned something, the CEO is about the day to day. One

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:44

of the biggest learnings, I think, an integrator, second in

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:47

command needs to go through in their career to be successful is

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:52

to realize it doesn't mean that they're doing all the day to

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:54

day.

Unknown: 00:08:56

They're overseeing

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:58

Yeah, they oversee it. Yeah, they're

Stephanie Allen: 00:08:59

overseeing it. But you can't whether you're a CEO or COO or

Stephanie Allen: 00:09:04

another C suite, you can't be actually doing all the

Stephanie Allen: 00:09:07

implementation. You need to be coaching, inspiring, mentoring,

Stephanie Allen: 00:09:11

showing, teaching, to make sure the team understands how to work

Stephanie Allen: 00:09:16

independently, without a leader, but most leaders there to back

Stephanie Allen: 00:09:20

them up, and they can go to them when they get stuck.

Janice Porter: 00:09:24

That kind of makes me think of okay. So this

Janice Porter: 00:09:29

is where I know I fall down when I'm working as a trainer with no

Janice Porter: 00:09:36

not a trainer. In this instance, it would be okay. So I've been

Janice Porter: 00:09:39

involved in network marketing for a long time, and one of my

Janice Porter: 00:09:44

pieces in my business is my the send out card system at which

Janice Porter: 00:09:49

you're aware of, I think, and, and there's a there's a layer in

Janice Porter: 00:09:54

there where I can have a downline. They call it in that

Janice Porter: 00:09:59

industry. But basically, people working doing an independent

Janice Porter: 00:10:03

business, but I gained some of the benefits from them being in

Janice Porter: 00:10:08

my group, right? And they're independent. They have to do

Janice Porter: 00:10:12

their business their own way, but I'm there to help them. So

Janice Porter: 00:10:15

what I tend to do is I over teach or I don't know how to

Janice Porter: 00:10:22

accept their way of doing things if it doesn't seem like it's

Janice Porter: 00:10:26

moving things forward, I have no control over that. So where's

Janice Porter: 00:10:31

the balance between encouraging them forward and not smothering

Janice Porter: 00:10:37

them? Do you know what I mean? Does that happen with you know,

Janice Porter: 00:10:43

have you come across that kind of thing in traditional

Janice Porter: 00:10:46

business? It's like micromanaging, I guess, in a

Janice Porter: 00:10:50

way,

Stephanie Allen: 00:10:52

definitely, I think one of the places I spend

Stephanie Allen: 00:10:55

a lot of my time with is teaching directors and managers

Stephanie Allen: 00:10:59

how to lead a team. We don't really spend a lot of time

Stephanie Allen: 00:11:05

helping people learn how to delegate, but you're talking

Stephanie Allen: 00:11:08

about to me, you know, delegates, maybe that common,

Stephanie Allen: 00:11:11

the common word, and we don't all get taught how to teach. You

Stephanie Allen: 00:11:16

know, you're, you're a teacher, so I would actually rely on some

Stephanie Allen: 00:11:19

of your insights, of your past when you were a teacher, right?

Stephanie Allen: 00:11:23

And some of that, right? That's my strength bringing that in,

Stephanie Allen: 00:11:26

yeah. I think the step before you get into the part where

Stephanie Allen: 00:11:30

you're really great at is first of all asking if they're

Stephanie Allen: 00:11:34

interested, yeah, and, and what they could do if they consider

Stephanie Allen: 00:11:40

doing it differently. Yeah, so that's having influence. So

Stephanie Allen: 00:11:44

learning the skill of being influential when you're teaching

Stephanie Allen: 00:11:47

people is the key to inspiring different behavior. So telling

Stephanie Allen: 00:11:52

stories about how you did it one way, and you went out of your

Stephanie Allen: 00:11:56

comfort zone, you tried it another way, and the the outcome

Stephanie Allen: 00:11:59

was so much better than you could have imagined. Would you

Stephanie Allen: 00:12:03

like to feel that way too? Got it? Here's how we can apply it

Stephanie Allen: 00:12:06

to your business or your LinkedIn, and I'm just asking

Stephanie Allen: 00:12:10

you to stick with it for x time. It's going to feel

Stephanie Allen: 00:12:14

uncomfortable, but let's regroup in X amount of weeks and see

Stephanie Allen: 00:12:18

what you think. And if it doesn't work, we can let it go,

Stephanie Allen: 00:12:20

but at least you've tried. So it's that part of being

Stephanie Allen: 00:12:24

influential or inspiring people to change their mind or be open

Stephanie Allen: 00:12:29

to changing their mind. And I have an example. I was just

Stephanie Allen: 00:12:32

facilitating a leadership meeting where we are planning

Stephanie Allen: 00:12:36

the next quarter, and we were talking about building sales

Stephanie Allen: 00:12:40

revenue and, and how everyone in the company can kind of help

Stephanie Allen: 00:12:42

grow the revenue and, and some people were saying, Well, I

Stephanie Allen: 00:12:46

don't want to do these types of calls, or I don't want to. And I

Stephanie Allen: 00:12:48

said, that's fair. You don't have to. I can step in as the

Stephanie Allen: 00:12:51

integrator and having that experience and help. But I

Stephanie Allen: 00:12:55

encourage you to keep an open mind, because if, if I can

Stephanie Allen: 00:12:58

create a framework that's easy for you to do, and then you're

Stephanie Allen: 00:13:01

actually helping build the business, and then you can have

Stephanie Allen: 00:13:03

a bonus and sort of unstoppable revenue for yourself in this

Stephanie Allen: 00:13:07

career, in this business. I don't know you might change your

Stephanie Allen: 00:13:10

mind that you are open to doing it. So who you are today might

Stephanie Allen: 00:13:14

not be who you are in six months or three months when we revisit

Stephanie Allen: 00:13:19

this again. And the only reason I know that is because I've done

Stephanie Allen: 00:13:23

that. I've been through that too. They're things like I

Stephanie Allen: 00:13:24

thought, I'm never going to want to do that right, right? And

Stephanie Allen: 00:13:27

then I end up doing it. So the job of the integrator, the

Stephanie Allen: 00:13:31

second in command, is to champion the CEO's vision and

Stephanie Allen: 00:13:36

the company's vision and those goals, and put it in a way that

Stephanie Allen: 00:13:41

the team understands, and they understand how it helps their

Stephanie Allen: 00:13:44

purpose on some level, because there's the individual purpose,

Stephanie Allen: 00:13:48

and then there's purpose of the company, and you have a great

Stephanie Allen: 00:13:51

team when those core values and purpose overlap, and as

Stephanie Allen: 00:13:54

integrated, you leverage that knowledge, and you use that to

Stephanie Allen: 00:13:57

inspire the team to evolve.

Janice Porter: 00:14:00

It sounds so easy when you explain it. The thing

Janice Porter: 00:14:03

that kept coming up for me when you were talking was it, it

Janice Porter: 00:14:07

backs up a level to trust and trusting the person that's in

Janice Porter: 00:14:12

front of you talking about it. So it is influence. But does

Janice Porter: 00:14:15

influence start with it starts with trust, does it not?

Stephanie Allen: 00:14:20

Of course, you have to get to know your team.

Stephanie Allen: 00:14:21

Yeah, I have to build trust very quickly, because I'm coming in

Stephanie Allen: 00:14:26

in the middle of things and not staying forever. Yes, and that

Stephanie Allen: 00:14:31

just comes from years of leading a team and working with people

Stephanie Allen: 00:14:34

and getting to know them. So I have ways of doing that, being

Stephanie Allen: 00:14:38

vulnerable myself and asking them questions and getting to

Stephanie Allen: 00:14:41

know people really quickly. And I really enjoy meeting different

Stephanie Allen: 00:14:44

people, so that helps too. And it's interesting, when trust is

Stephanie Allen: 00:14:53

built, your the team members get vulnerable. It's like, I'm not

Stephanie Allen: 00:14:57

I'm not sure I wanted you to tell this. To my boss yet? Oh,

Stephanie Allen: 00:15:01

yeah. So you you have to create a very safe space and also still

Stephanie Allen: 00:15:05

protect the business at the same time. So I always say, this is

Stephanie Allen: 00:15:11

what I'm going to say, this is what I need you to work on for

Stephanie Allen: 00:15:15

our next check in. Or I'd like you to have a conversation with

Stephanie Allen: 00:15:21

the CEO before we meet again. It's everything is clear to

Stephanie Allen: 00:15:26

everyone, so I either coach them on how to bring it up with their

Stephanie Allen: 00:15:29

boss, or I give them time to think about it, and I let them

Stephanie Allen: 00:15:34

know what I am going to say, because there's certain things I

Stephanie Allen: 00:15:36

do need to let the boss know, to protect them in the business.

Stephanie Allen: 00:15:40

And I let the person know, because you didn't say this.

Stephanie Allen: 00:15:42

It's okay for me not to say that, but if you were to come

Stephanie Allen: 00:15:45

and say you're thinking of quitting or anything like that,

Stephanie Allen: 00:15:48

I would have to tell the boss, right? So I'm very I have ground

Stephanie Allen: 00:15:52

rules. I talk about what is private and what's public, and I

Stephanie Allen: 00:15:56

even sometimes say to people, this is what I'm going to say.

Stephanie Allen: 00:15:59

So you're not worried. Now. This is not the way every manager

Stephanie Allen: 00:16:02

should work. This is me being a consultant fractional CEO at the

Stephanie Allen: 00:16:05

same time. But it doesn't matter. Like one of the books

Stephanie Allen: 00:16:09

I'm reading and that I enjoy revisiting is leading beyond

Stephanie Allen: 00:16:14

change, by Michael Sahota and Audrey sohota. They're my

Stephanie Allen: 00:16:18

mentors, and I've had training from them as well, and so you

Stephanie Allen: 00:16:21

always have to, it's about creating a safe space, like you

Stephanie Allen: 00:16:24

can't change behavior if you don't feel safe to be

Stephanie Allen: 00:16:28

vulnerable, you're changing. So I've had a lot of training, and

Stephanie Allen: 00:16:33

I keep up on that skill so I can have those things. I think it's

Stephanie Allen: 00:16:38

really tough when you put people in a management position, and

Stephanie Allen: 00:16:41

they don't have any tools in their toolbox to actually do the

Stephanie Allen: 00:16:45

inspiring and to help people right?

Janice Porter: 00:16:48

And I'm pretty much self taught with everything

Janice Porter: 00:16:51

I've done since teaching. So I get that a lot. So many founders

Janice Porter: 00:16:57

and small business owners, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs,

Janice Porter: 00:17:02

they struggle like I do, to let go and delegate effectively. So

Janice Porter: 00:17:09

if I'm looking for help and I don't trust it like I've done

Janice Porter: 00:17:13

this so many times where I've delegated something, then I've

Janice Porter: 00:17:16

had to check it every single time, because I don't trust the

Janice Porter: 00:17:19

person. Is it because I haven't found the right person, or is it

Janice Porter: 00:17:22

because, internally, I just can't trust don't know.

Stephanie Allen: 00:17:29

It could be a few factors. Okay, usually I'm

Stephanie Allen: 00:17:34

brought in to help figure out what the issue is. That's a

Stephanie Allen: 00:17:36

great time to bring me in. So when I'm faced with that

Stephanie Allen: 00:17:39

dilemma, sometimes it's that they don't understand what the

Stephanie Allen: 00:17:47

priorities are, or they there. There's gaps in skill level and

Stephanie Allen: 00:17:52

they need to be taught.

Janice Porter: 00:17:54

And fear of of scaling or fear of doing

Janice Porter: 00:17:58

whatever is supposed to come next, I guess, too, yeah,

Stephanie Allen: 00:18:01

and maybe it's that there's unrealistic

Stephanie Allen: 00:18:07

expectations. And I'm always curious, what was the onboarding

Stephanie Allen: 00:18:11

like? What, what? What training did they get? And it's okay to

Stephanie Allen: 00:18:18

learn on the job. I learned a lot of things on the job earlier

Stephanie Allen: 00:18:20

on my career too, but I had amazing managers that would give

Stephanie Allen: 00:18:24

me a chance to review things and teach me. I only learned about

Stephanie Allen: 00:18:28

how to not make a mistake because people taught me how to

Stephanie Allen: 00:18:31

do that. I think sometimes we assume people know how to check

Stephanie Allen: 00:18:36

their own work. People know what high quality is, and if you, if

Stephanie Allen: 00:18:41

you get through your career and you keep accelerating, and no

Stephanie Allen: 00:18:44

one's taught you those skills, there'll be a point where it

Stephanie Allen: 00:18:48

catches up to you and expectations are high, but you

Stephanie Allen: 00:18:51

didn't actually have the foundation to be successful in

Stephanie Allen: 00:18:55

it isn't

Janice Porter: 00:18:55

that kind of the Peter Principle. So sort of, you

Janice Porter: 00:18:59

heard of the Peter Principle. I don't think I've heard of that.

Janice Porter: 00:19:02

No, it's sort of rising to the level of your incompetence,

Janice Porter: 00:19:07

basically.

Stephanie Allen: 00:19:08

Yeah, I think, I think I've always heard of it

Stephanie Allen: 00:19:11

as the halo effect. Oh, okay, you do something really, really

Stephanie Allen: 00:19:14

well, and then you keep advancing. But doesn't mean you

Stephanie Allen: 00:19:16

have all the foundational skills next level, right?

Janice Porter: 00:19:21

Yeah, interesting. Well, you created

Janice Porter: 00:19:23

something called the panoramic operations roadmap. How does

Janice Porter: 00:19:26

that help in the work that you do?

Stephanie Allen: 00:19:31

It's a way for me to learn the business really

Stephanie Allen: 00:19:32

quickly, but also give the business high value in a very

Stephanie Allen: 00:19:36

short amount of time. So we do a half day workshop, and I ask a

Stephanie Allen: 00:19:41

bunch of questions a questionnaire before the

Stephanie Allen: 00:19:44

workshop, and I prepare a recommendation of what to do

Stephanie Allen: 00:19:49

over the next 90 days to reach their goals. I also give them an

Stephanie Allen: 00:19:52

assessment of what to keep, start and stop doing

Unknown: 00:19:56

okay,

Stephanie Allen: 00:19:58

and I let them know where. Quick Wins are to

Stephanie Allen: 00:20:01

grow the business effectively faster and what they need more

Stephanie Allen: 00:20:06

time to do. And I actually map it out, like what order to do it

Stephanie Allen: 00:20:09

and what area of the business. And I look at all areas of the

Stephanie Allen: 00:20:12

business. I look at the vision and the values. I look at HR,

Stephanie Allen: 00:20:19

finance, operations, marketing, like the sales process. Every I

Stephanie Allen: 00:20:24

look at the whole thing, and it's really fun when we do that

Stephanie Allen: 00:20:29

together, and then they ask me to help them implement it.

Stephanie Allen: 00:20:32

Usually, if they have a six month roadmap, we're there by

Stephanie Allen: 00:20:36

the six months mark, and then we're continuing to, like, grow

Stephanie Allen: 00:20:39

the business to the next level. So really, when people are at

Stephanie Allen: 00:20:43

when people want to get to the next level in their business,

Stephanie Allen: 00:20:46

and it's not they, they've not been able to do that on their

Stephanie Allen: 00:20:48

own, it's a really good time to bring me in to do this

Stephanie Allen: 00:20:51

assessment with them. I turn it into a half day workshop,

Stephanie Allen: 00:20:54

because I collaborate with the CEO or them and their leadership

Stephanie Allen: 00:20:58

team in that half day workshops, that when I deliver the roadmap,

Stephanie Allen: 00:21:02

I already have buy in and input and clarity, that they can

Stephanie Allen: 00:21:06

actually run that roadmap on their own. If they have the

Stephanie Allen: 00:21:10

capacity and ability to do that with their team, they don't need

Stephanie Allen: 00:21:13

to have me implement it the way I give it, and they get a whole

Stephanie Allen: 00:21:16

suite of recommendations, tools and resources, all the templates

Stephanie Allen: 00:21:22

I've created over time, up to that point in time, it's a lot

Stephanie Allen: 00:21:26

of fun, and this is really where I have a lot of joy helping many

Stephanie Allen: 00:21:30

businesses as quickly as I can, because I love operational

Stephanie Allen: 00:21:35

design to unblock a company for unstoppable growth, and helping

Stephanie Allen: 00:21:41

them do that, whatever it is, on their terms. You know, growth

Stephanie Allen: 00:21:44

doesn't have to be a huge team. Growth doesn't have to be a

Stephanie Allen: 00:21:48

billion dollars, right? It's, it's, to me, it's having a self

Stephanie Allen: 00:21:53

managed team with flexibility to do what they are great at and to

Stephanie Allen: 00:21:58

grow the business and have financial freedom. And financial

Stephanie Allen: 00:22:01

freedom, to me, is possible when you're profitable, no matter

Stephanie Allen: 00:22:05

what happens externally. If you have a healthy business, you

Stephanie Allen: 00:22:09

have the ability to adapt and pivot, to still be relevant,

Stephanie Allen: 00:22:12

because you have profit to help continue to build your business.

Janice Porter: 00:22:17

So it was seemed to me that that that the the

Janice Porter: 00:22:21

panoramic operations roadmap gives doing it as that half day

Janice Porter: 00:22:25

workshop probably gives you enough time to build that trust

Janice Porter: 00:22:30

in the with the CEO, CEO who's who's not sure, like they called

Janice Porter: 00:22:35

you, but they're not really sure if they're ready or they need

Janice Porter: 00:22:39

help, but then they're teetering, and so that gives you

Janice Porter: 00:22:42

time to bring them on on side, right? I love that.

Stephanie Allen: 00:22:46

And it's a way for them to see what I get right

Stephanie Allen: 00:22:48

away. And yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:22:49

and how you operate, how you work, and and

Janice Porter: 00:22:51

so forth. Yeah, I love that. So what are the most common

Janice Porter: 00:22:57

breakdowns that you see in the leadership dynamics and and how

Janice Porter: 00:23:01

do you help repair them? So with a company within the C suite,

Janice Porter: 00:23:08

let's say, right? I

Stephanie Allen: 00:23:13

think the most common one is not talking about

Stephanie Allen: 00:23:16

the tough stuff. You know, when I first go into a leadership

Stephanie Allen: 00:23:21

team. The meetings are either pretty quick or they're talking

Stephanie Allen: 00:23:28

about day to day stuff and not on the business as a team. Yes,

Janice Porter: 00:23:33

okay,

Stephanie Allen: 00:23:36

and I ask a lot of clarifying questions because

Stephanie Allen: 00:23:39

of the skills I've grown

Janice Porter: 00:23:41

and violence in the room. Well, no, then they're

Janice Porter: 00:23:45

like, Wow, we we're

Stephanie Allen: 00:23:46

happy we're talking about this now, right?

Stephanie Allen: 00:23:48

So, yeah, that that is that's a good thing. I think it's

Stephanie Allen: 00:23:52

communication, just making sure have the right communication

Stephanie Allen: 00:23:56

happening. That's a big one. And then I think too, I find the

Stephanie Allen: 00:24:00

team dynamics that are blocking the team, not just at the

Stephanie Allen: 00:24:03

leadership level, but on all levels. And I clear that up at

Stephanie Allen: 00:24:07

an individual level. And then I I think sometimes it's

Stephanie Allen: 00:24:11

uncomfortable to work with me. I'm just going to come out like,

Stephanie Allen: 00:24:14

I'm just going to be really honest about that, because any

Stephanie Allen: 00:24:17

issue that you have in the business, I will uncover, yeah,

Stephanie Allen: 00:24:20

and I will make a safe space as possible for us to deal with

Stephanie Allen: 00:24:25

that issue.

Janice Porter: 00:24:27

Yeah, I can understand somebody's going to

Janice Porter: 00:24:29

get uncomfortable if they're not doing what they're supposed to

Janice Porter: 00:24:31

be doing, or if it comes to light, and they've been coasting

Janice Porter: 00:24:35

for the the last while, and now it's, you know, they've been

Janice Porter: 00:24:40

caught, so to speak. And I'm not saying that it's like horrible

Janice Porter: 00:24:43

or horrific. It's just it's a weakness in the company. I

Stephanie Allen: 00:24:47

like to think of it as growing pains. Okay,

Stephanie Allen: 00:24:50

grow unless you get through the growing pain, right? Yeah. So if

Stephanie Allen: 00:24:52

you think of the human body, when we're growing really fast,

Stephanie Allen: 00:24:56

we have aches and pains, or sometimes things are. Growing at

Stephanie Allen: 00:25:00

a different pace, or sometimes, like, our frontal lobe is

Stephanie Allen: 00:25:04

behaving one way, like when we're a teenager, and it's not

Stephanie Allen: 00:25:07

necessarily the way we want to want to act, yeah? Well, I see

Stephanie Allen: 00:25:09

operations that way, where there are growing pains and when

Stephanie Allen: 00:25:12

communication is not happening properly. And I think it's

Stephanie Allen: 00:25:15

because my whole success has been on communication. I think

Stephanie Allen: 00:25:18

90, like 90% of issues can be solved with communication, and

Stephanie Allen: 00:25:23

then the other stuff is technical and solving it that

Stephanie Allen: 00:25:25

way, but you have to be on the same page before you can go

Stephanie Allen: 00:25:28

forward, right? But when you get through those communication

Stephanie Allen: 00:25:32

challenges, you build trust, but when you have to fix them, if

Stephanie Allen: 00:25:36

it's a team dynamic, it feels like you're opening a Pandora's

Stephanie Allen: 00:25:40

box and it's uncomfortable and it's ugly, and I have tools in

Stephanie Allen: 00:25:47

my toolbox that bring us back on point, make it safe, make it

Stephanie Allen: 00:25:51

easy to have those conversations, but when we get

Stephanie Allen: 00:25:54

through that, the team is amazing, like it is like you are

Stephanie Allen: 00:25:58

working as a team. You're collaborating in a way that you

Stephanie Allen: 00:26:01

never thought was possible. And then business owners say, Wow, I

Stephanie Allen: 00:26:05

have amazing clients, an amazing team doing amazing work. And

Stephanie Allen: 00:26:09

when they say that to me, guess what's next? Now, we're growing

Stephanie Allen: 00:26:12

our revenue. That's the next thing we can focus on, and we're

Stephanie Allen: 00:26:15

doing it. And so if you you're trying to grow your revenue and

Stephanie Allen: 00:26:19

an accelerated pace, and you don't have a collaborative, high

Stephanie Allen: 00:26:23

functioning team, or you don't have all the right clients in

Stephanie Allen: 00:26:27

your mix, or both. Doesn't matter how hard your sales team

Stephanie Allen: 00:26:32

works, it's not going to is. You're not going to have the

Stephanie Allen: 00:26:36

outcomes you want to the degree you want.

Janice Porter: 00:26:40

So do you ever get in a situation where you

Janice Porter: 00:26:44

have to say to the CEO, this this person is holding you back,

Janice Porter: 00:26:48

this person doesn't fit in the mix, this person you know needs

Janice Porter: 00:26:53

to be gone.

Stephanie Allen: 00:26:55

I would say it a little differently. Of course

Stephanie Allen: 00:26:58

you would I say, I would say if, if you keep this team the way it

Stephanie Allen: 00:27:02

is, yeah, here are the three scenarios that could happen. Can

Stephanie Allen: 00:27:08

you live with all three of those scenarios? Which one do you

Stephanie Allen: 00:27:11

prefer? And so they get that information from me pretty early

Stephanie Allen: 00:27:15

on. And then

Janice Porter: 00:27:19

would you recommend? Yeah, I give

Stephanie Allen: 00:27:22

them options, and they choose, yeah, okay. I

Stephanie Allen: 00:27:24

say, here are the three scenarios, or here are the three

Stephanie Allen: 00:27:27

options. You could you go with? Which one do you want? And I'll

Stephanie Allen: 00:27:30

help you do it. Ultimately, their decision, of course, yeah,

Stephanie Allen: 00:27:33

I support them with that. And then I work on, I work on

Stephanie Allen: 00:27:38

leveling people up in the team. And you know, 90% of the time

Stephanie Allen: 00:27:44

people rise to that occasion. 5% of the time people decide to

Stephanie Allen: 00:27:50

gracefully exit on their own, sure, and the other 5% the the

Stephanie Allen: 00:27:54

founder, the CEO, has a tough decision to make. So it's not a

Stephanie Allen: 00:27:58

it's not a huge number that don't make it. And it's never

Stephanie Allen: 00:28:03

easy when, for sure, when a team has to evolve. But it's tough.

Stephanie Allen: 00:28:09

It's tough because, you know, you want to be careful, as a as

Stephanie Allen: 00:28:14

a COO, that you're not just seen as

Janice Porter: 00:28:18

the person that Yeah, but you

Stephanie Allen: 00:28:20

know it. I'm sure many people who I've worked

Stephanie Allen: 00:28:23

with have had that impression, and that's just part of part of

Stephanie Allen: 00:28:26

the job. So

Janice Porter: 00:28:27

I'm going to go back to your story about you

Janice Porter: 00:28:32

starting a business in as a teenager. I know you have a son

Janice Porter: 00:28:36

who's a teenager, I think or becoming almost.

Unknown: 00:28:39

He's becoming one. He's not quite there

Janice Porter: 00:28:40

yet. Do you see him as an entrepreneurial

Janice Porter: 00:28:43

spirit? Is he going to do the same thing? Is he because I, I

Janice Porter: 00:28:47

know that you like me, you're the on the business side, and

Janice Porter: 00:28:52

your husband's a teacher. And my husband was a teacher as well.

Janice Porter: 00:28:54

And, and that was steady, Eddie, right? That's that was his love,

Janice Porter: 00:28:58

and the kids loved him. And, yeah, coached, and that was who

Janice Porter: 00:29:01

he was. And it's funny, because I have two daughters, one's more

Janice Porter: 00:29:05

like my husband, one's more like me. So I'm just curious what

Janice Porter: 00:29:09

bent your son is taking, you see, at this early stage?

Stephanie Allen: 00:29:15

Well, I'd say I'm definitely encouraging him

Stephanie Allen: 00:29:16

to be an entrepreneur. I'm not sure he'll be an entrepreneur

Stephanie Allen: 00:29:22

the same way I am. I think that he's going to accelerate faster

Stephanie Allen: 00:29:31

than me as an entrepreneur in his career. What I know is that

Stephanie Allen: 00:29:37

he's not going to be okay with the confines of a system, and he

Stephanie Allen: 00:29:42

will not buy into it. And the and the reason I know this is he

Stephanie Allen: 00:29:44

hasn't bought into the nine to five his whole life, yeah. And

Stephanie Allen: 00:29:49

he has created business cases your son, yeah, he's like, in

Stephanie Allen: 00:29:52

his mind, like, he's like, yes, like, and so eventually he's

Stephanie Allen: 00:29:56

created, He created business case to, like, have the

Stephanie Allen: 00:29:59

lifestyle he wanted. It, and I couldn't say no. So he's been

Stephanie Allen: 00:30:02

trying since kindergarten to, like, change, like, redesign his

Stephanie Allen: 00:30:06

life love. And it doesn't surprise me, because I'm someone

Stephanie Allen: 00:30:10

that's designed my life to be the way I want it, within the

Stephanie Allen: 00:30:13

confines of systems, and not that I can't change.

Janice Porter: 00:30:18

So, like, things put me in an

Stephanie Allen: 00:30:19

interesting position, because he, he gave me

Stephanie Allen: 00:30:21

this whole business case about why he should be homeschooled

Stephanie Allen: 00:30:26

and how we could do it, and he's been trying. And then I

Stephanie Allen: 00:30:29

eventually, I said yes, because it would, I would have been a

Stephanie Allen: 00:30:33

hypocrite if I had designed my own life and wouldn't support

Stephanie Allen: 00:30:38

him designing his best life at 12,

Janice Porter: 00:30:41

wow, and puts a whole other burden on you,

Stephanie Allen: 00:30:45

not really, when your husband's a teacher

Stephanie Allen: 00:30:47

and you have all the curriculum. And I have amazing support

Stephanie Allen: 00:30:51

network, and my son is very disciplined in doing his

Stephanie Allen: 00:30:56

schoolwork, and he's open to doing school with me in the

Stephanie Allen: 00:31:00

evening or on weekends if I have a busy week with my business. So

Stephanie Allen: 00:31:04

what I've discovered is he's actually learning more. He's

Stephanie Allen: 00:31:06

written more. He's written better, and he's retained more

Stephanie Allen: 00:31:11

information. He's interested in politics. He's interested in

Stephanie Allen: 00:31:14

science. He's designing his own business right now. While he's a

Stephanie Allen: 00:31:20

kid on his own. I'm not even part of it. He's like, figuring

Stephanie Allen: 00:31:22

it out. He's not ready to show me, yeah, and he's learning

Stephanie Allen: 00:31:25

about, he'll be learning about investments and how to how to do

Stephanie Allen: 00:31:31

Wealth Management. In April, we're going to be doing it

Stephanie Allen: 00:31:34

together, and I'm figuring out ways that he can be learning

Stephanie Allen: 00:31:37

things with, with me, up in his own business. So the fact that

Stephanie Allen: 00:31:41

he's doing all that, he's He's two years ahead of me. I think

Stephanie Allen: 00:31:44

when I was like doing all this, I was 1415, yeah, he's doing it

Stephanie Allen: 00:31:48

at 12, and I think it's going to be better with his money than

Stephanie Allen: 00:31:51

me, because I'm teaching him all the things I wish I knew sooner.

Stephanie Allen: 00:31:53

Yeah. So to me, I think that our education system is, is is good,

Stephanie Allen: 00:32:00

so that everyone has access to it. But I don't think it's

Stephanie Allen: 00:32:04

advancing in its approach as quickly as needed for today's

Stephanie Allen: 00:32:09

minds and children and

Janice Porter: 00:32:11

for the way it information is is brought to us

Janice Porter: 00:32:15

so much faster now than it was, and that's the other reason I

Janice Porter: 00:32:18

think that it doesn't keep up.

Stephanie Allen: 00:32:21

Yeah, and I feel very blessed that I have

Stephanie Allen: 00:32:24

designed my life to be able to teach my son and run a business.

Stephanie Allen: 00:32:29

Yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:32:29

it's amazing.

Stephanie Allen: 00:32:30

And I, and this is what I and going back to what

Stephanie Allen: 00:32:33

I said, where there'll be, you know, when you say you'll never

Stephanie Allen: 00:32:35

do something, never say, Never you might change. So my mom

Stephanie Allen: 00:32:39

laughs because I said I never wanted to be a teacher. I saw

Stephanie Allen: 00:32:42

how hard it was she went through. My grandma was a

Stephanie Allen: 00:32:45

teacher. My husband's a teacher. But guess what? I ended up

Stephanie Allen: 00:32:49

becoming a teacher on my own terms, not in a way that I

Stephanie Allen: 00:32:54

didn't want to be having to, like, live with anyone else's

Stephanie Allen: 00:32:56

rules on it. Yeah. And yet I respect the curriculum of where

Stephanie Allen: 00:33:01

we live, and I am teaching that curriculum, right? I'm I have

Stephanie Allen: 00:33:03

flexibility in how I'm teaching it, yes, and it's been quite

Stephanie Allen: 00:33:09

interesting that I've actually accepted that I am a teacher,

Stephanie Allen: 00:33:12

just not in a school system. I love that, and once I owned

Stephanie Allen: 00:33:15

that, I've noticed even in my consulting, I am teaching other

Stephanie Allen: 00:33:19

people to how to how to be a teacher, especially at the

Stephanie Allen: 00:33:22

manager level, I'm getting these breakthrough moments. Like,

Stephanie Allen: 00:33:24

well, how would they know that if you didn't show them? Like,

Stephanie Allen: 00:33:28

oh my gosh. So like, now I'm actually teaching people how to

Stephanie Allen: 00:33:31

be teachers in business, which is just starting this year,

Stephanie Allen: 00:33:34

because I've started to really lean into that role of teacher,

Stephanie Allen: 00:33:38

even though I didn't,

Janice Porter: 00:33:39

yes, yeah. Well, it has a certain, not stigma,

Janice Porter: 00:33:44

but a certain aura around it, that is, and I think this is why

Janice Porter: 00:33:51

I got out of teaching, is because I couldn't stay in the

Janice Porter: 00:33:55

bureaucracy of it. I loved teaching the kids, but I

Janice Porter: 00:33:59

couldn't being in the same place at the same time every day, and

Janice Porter: 00:34:04

having to sit in the same lunchroom seat, because someone

Janice Porter: 00:34:08

would have a fit if you sat in their seat, their seat, like it

Janice Porter: 00:34:11

was just very set in their ways, kind of people. And I couldn't

Janice Porter: 00:34:15

do that, so I found a way to teach as well in a different

Janice Porter: 00:34:19

way. So yeah, it's interesting because, yeah, now

Stephanie Allen: 00:34:24

one of the scariest things, though, for me

Stephanie Allen: 00:34:26

as a parent is to do what's best for my kid, but maybe not the

Stephanie Allen: 00:34:31

norm, of course. So like, that's the that's the part of it too,

Stephanie Allen: 00:34:35

right? That that's where you have to be brave and take risks.

Stephanie Allen: 00:34:38

I think we're always taking risks, whether we're a parent,

Stephanie Allen: 00:34:41

whether we're a business owner, yes, but

Janice Porter: 00:34:44

your son asked for it. He made the case for it,

Janice Porter: 00:34:46

which makes Right, yeah, much easier to and he

Unknown: 00:34:50

heard a lot of nos before he got a yes. So yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:34:53

that's good, but now, how does he How do you

Janice Porter: 00:34:55

socialize him? How does that work? When is

Stephanie Allen: 00:34:58

his friends that he's made over the. Years,

Stephanie Allen: 00:35:01

and he's now open to exploring other ways to get involved and

Stephanie Allen: 00:35:06

meet people, which was not even something he wanted to do when

Stephanie Allen: 00:35:10

he was kind of feeling the drag of going to school every day.

Stephanie Allen: 00:35:13

Yeah, so he, I feel like he's venturing on his Troy, like he's

Stephanie Allen: 00:35:16

getting trying to get into music. He's thinking about other

Stephanie Allen: 00:35:19

things. I think the most the thing I'm most proud of is that

Stephanie Allen: 00:35:22

he's creating his own amazing morning like he has his routine.

Stephanie Allen: 00:35:28

It's also very powerful to be 12 and have no one telling you

Stephanie Allen: 00:35:32

where you need to be and what you wanted, what you have to do.

Stephanie Allen: 00:35:35

So he's learning this discipline, and he's learning

Stephanie Allen: 00:35:38

how to be a very productive human being with freedom. It's

Stephanie Allen: 00:35:43

safe to stay in the system. It's safe to say, show up at this

Stephanie Allen: 00:35:47

time, sit here, do this worksheet, all that. But when

Stephanie Allen: 00:35:51

you have to, like, do that for yourself and not have someone

Stephanie Allen: 00:35:54

telling you what to do all the time, like, we work on a plan, I

Stephanie Allen: 00:35:57

help him. But he has a lot of independence, and by having a

Stephanie Allen: 00:36:00

lot of that independence, he's created discipline to have that

Stephanie Allen: 00:36:04

structure that he needs, and I've helped him with that too.

Stephanie Allen: 00:36:06

Yeah, you're very lucky. That's what I'm most proud of. And why?

Stephanie Allen: 00:36:10

Yes, because he's getting to become a kid human, in my

Stephanie Allen: 00:36:15

opinion,

Janice Porter: 00:36:16

because kids need they need order and discipline

Janice Porter: 00:36:19

and structure. But not everyone can do it the same way. Not

Janice Porter: 00:36:23

everyone thrives doing it the same way. I my granddaughter's

Janice Porter: 00:36:27

going to be one of those kids. She she has her own agenda, and

Janice Porter: 00:36:33

you're not going to mess around with it. So just see her sit in

Janice Porter: 00:36:36

a classroom all day will not be easy. So we're looking at

Janice Porter: 00:36:40

different, you know, ways to support her with that, but,

Stephanie Allen: 00:36:45

but I'm lucky. I've got a lot of great support

Stephanie Allen: 00:36:47

network around me. I've got a lot of access to curriculum.

Stephanie Allen: 00:36:49

It's not hard. It mean, it doesn't take me a lot of time to

Stephanie Allen: 00:36:51

put his work together, and I can mark things at the right time

Stephanie Allen: 00:36:56

and things like that. But also, I'm giving him access to other

Stephanie Allen: 00:37:02

people, other than his parents, to support him too, like he's

Stephanie Allen: 00:37:06

getting, it's not just like his own peer group that he's

Stephanie Allen: 00:37:08

building. It's like he's getting access to a financial wealth

Stephanie Allen: 00:37:12

coach. He's getting access to, you know, other people to talk

Stephanie Allen: 00:37:16

to things like that, like he's building, I'm building his

Stephanie Allen: 00:37:19

network of support for him,

Janice Porter: 00:37:20

he'll have a LinkedIn profile soon. Yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:37:22

maybe he

Stephanie Allen: 00:37:24

can't wait till he's gonna make a YouTube

Stephanie Allen: 00:37:27

channel. That's

Janice Porter: 00:37:27

right. Oh yeah, right, exactly. Thanks for

Janice Porter: 00:37:30

sharing that. That's really special. Actually, I really like

Janice Porter: 00:37:32

that. So before we wrap up, a couple of quick questions. But

Janice Porter: 00:37:36

first of all, I think you've already answered this, but What

Janice Porter: 00:37:41

role have relationships played in your own business journey?

Janice Porter: 00:37:44

And what would you say your biggest relationship rule is in

Janice Porter: 00:37:48

business?

Stephanie Allen: 00:37:50

Well, I think the biggest role the

Stephanie Allen: 00:37:52

relationships played in my business was I've always had

Stephanie Allen: 00:37:56

this amazing support network before I take a big leap, so I

Stephanie Allen: 00:37:59

know that no matter what happens, I'll be okay, okay. And

Stephanie Allen: 00:38:04

I was surrounded by a few amazing mentors who were

Stephanie Allen: 00:38:09

supporting me when I took the leap to start my own business.

Stephanie Allen: 00:38:12

So I didn't really feel scary like I thought it would. And

Stephanie Allen: 00:38:16

then my role for relationships is really just listen and show

Stephanie Allen: 00:38:19

up when they need you. So, for example, I work with multiple

Stephanie Allen: 00:38:25

business owners, and I always try to really just be there when

Stephanie Allen: 00:38:29

they they need me. Like, I'm accessible. They have on demand

Stephanie Allen: 00:38:31

access to me. I never put a time limit, or I feel like, like,

Stephanie Allen: 00:38:36

Call me when you need to. I'll let you know when I like, when I

Stephanie Allen: 00:38:38

can listen or get back to you and let me know, if it's urgent,

Stephanie Allen: 00:38:42

I feel like that, that's just like, show up and be there when

Stephanie Allen: 00:38:45

you're needed, is the other rule, because I'm not great with

Stephanie Allen: 00:38:48

the card sending. I'm not great with the gift giving. I'd like

Stephanie Allen: 00:38:51

to be good at that one day, that's my goal. But I'm really

Stephanie Allen: 00:38:55

good at really being there when you need me in the business, and

Stephanie Allen: 00:38:59

being there for my core group of people that show up for me. And

Stephanie Allen: 00:39:04

it's, it's not everyone, it's my clients and my close knit circle

Stephanie Allen: 00:39:09

that I do that for. I might not, I wouldn't say that that's like

Stephanie Allen: 00:39:14

everyone gets that treatment. There's certain like the certain

Stephanie Allen: 00:39:18

most important relationships do, and I think for the broader

Stephanie Allen: 00:39:22

network, how I handle the relationships, I always think

Stephanie Allen: 00:39:24

about, well, how can I support you? What can I do to help you?

Stephanie Allen: 00:39:27

How can we help each other? That's how I approach it as

Stephanie Allen: 00:39:31

well. Mm, hmm.

Janice Porter: 00:39:32

Yeah, that's very good advice, too, for people. So

Janice Porter: 00:39:37

before we go, I would like to just ask you, so you're reading,

Janice Porter: 00:39:42

you're reading an actual, real book, is that your preferable

Janice Porter: 00:39:45

way of consuming information? These days,

Stephanie Allen: 00:39:48

I like reading books, and I have different

Stephanie Allen: 00:39:51

forms of books. I've got the hard copy book, I've got audio

Stephanie Allen: 00:39:55

and I have to always reading because. Just so I just, I'm

Stephanie Allen: 00:40:01

always reading. That's probably one of my mentors probably

Stephanie Allen: 00:40:04

inspired me to do that. But I've always loved reading, and I'm

Stephanie Allen: 00:40:07

really, I read a lot of business stuff and leadership

Janice Porter: 00:40:12

stuff, for sure. And lastly, curiosity, that's my

Janice Porter: 00:40:18

favorite word. So would you say that curiosity is innate or

Janice Porter: 00:40:23

learned? And what are you most curious about these days?

Stephanie Allen: 00:40:29

I think it could be both. The reason is, I

Stephanie Allen: 00:40:32

actually try to teach people to be curious when they're not.

Stephanie Allen: 00:40:37

Yes, when you have a curious team, it's a lot more fun to

Stephanie Allen: 00:40:41

work with them. Curiosity is a way to expand your mind and

Stephanie Allen: 00:40:50

think anything's possible and just to learn new things. What

Stephanie Allen: 00:40:55

am I curious about right now? I'm curious about unique ways to

Stephanie Allen: 00:41:00

be creative. So I'm reading. I'm reading, you know, I'm about to

Stephanie Allen: 00:41:07

read this book that was recommended the trillion dollar

Stephanie Allen: 00:41:09

coach. This is what I'm just starting to read. I usually read

Stephanie Allen: 00:41:12

a few things at the same time, yeah, the one I already told

Stephanie Allen: 00:41:15

you. And then I'm also reading this book of poems by Amanda

Stephanie Allen: 00:41:21

Gorman. Call us what we carry. It was kind of inspired by the

Stephanie Allen: 00:41:25

pandemic, and I'm slowly getting through it to remind me of what

Stephanie Allen: 00:41:29

it's like to to be poetic. And the reason I'm doing this is

Stephanie Allen: 00:41:34

because I want to be masterful at writing and telling stories.

Stephanie Allen: 00:41:38

So I'm really curious right now about creative writing. It's

Stephanie Allen: 00:41:42

easy to be a business writer. For me, it's, I used to be a

Stephanie Allen: 00:41:45

really good creative writer when I was younger, so I'm trying to,

Stephanie Allen: 00:41:47

like, get back into that and interesting enough. I'm using

Stephanie Allen: 00:41:52

cooking to be creative. I've, I've become quite the chef in my

Stephanie Allen: 00:41:56

family, and I've tried to branch out and share it with other

Stephanie Allen: 00:41:58

people. So I enjoy cooking. I didn't know I was that good at

Stephanie Allen: 00:42:02

it. Oh, that's fantastic. And creative and and now

Janice Porter: 00:42:06

there's so much online about you know, I know

Janice Porter: 00:42:09

sometimes I'll go even just to be a voyeur on Instagram and

Janice Porter: 00:42:13

find something new to cook, because it's all, they're all

Janice Porter: 00:42:15

out there. So maybe you'll be on there someday, doing, ready

Stephanie Allen: 00:42:20

to do that. I'm really curious about to have,

Stephanie Allen: 00:42:23

how to have high, good protein energy meals, and so I cook that

Stephanie Allen: 00:42:28

way for my family.

Janice Porter: 00:42:31

You're amazing, actually, super woman. I think

Janice Porter: 00:42:34

we'll call you super. So I

Stephanie Allen: 00:42:36

don't know if, I don't know if I'm I could, I

Stephanie Allen: 00:42:40

could say that to myself, I there's a lot of things I don't

Stephanie Allen: 00:42:43

get get done, right, but I just, I just try to be better the next

Stephanie Allen: 00:42:46

day, right? Yeah, there you go. That's a

Janice Porter: 00:42:49

great so thank you, Stephanie, for your time.

Janice Porter: 00:42:51

Thank you for your wisdom. Thank you for sharing about your

Janice Porter: 00:42:57

business. Because I think that you've reminded us that behind

Janice Porter: 00:43:02

every thriving CEO, there's a trusted partner, someone who

Janice Porter: 00:43:06

understands the vision, brings structure to the chaos and helps

Janice Porter: 00:43:09

turn strategy into results. I think that the relationship, as

Janice Porter: 00:43:14

you described it, between a visionary and an integrator,

Janice Porter: 00:43:17

isn't just operational, it's transformational, and I would

Janice Porter: 00:43:22

suggest that when if you're a found whether you're a founder,

Janice Porter: 00:43:26

looking for your second in command or a leader ready to

Janice Porter: 00:43:29

trust more and do less, Stephanie's wisdom offers a

Janice Porter: 00:43:33

powerful road map, because in business, just like in life, the

Janice Porter: 00:43:37

right relationships really do rule. And I encourage you to

Janice Porter: 00:43:41

reach out if any of this resonates with you, and have a

Janice Porter: 00:43:46

chat with Stephanie or check out her website. And I'll put all of

Janice Porter: 00:43:50

that in in the show notes. What's the best way for them to

Janice Porter: 00:43:53

find you on your website? Stephanie Allen consulting,

Stephanie Allen: 00:43:56

yes, you can find me on my website. Stephanie

Stephanie Allen: 00:43:58

Allen consulting, com or on LinkedIn, you can find Stephanie

Stephanie Allen: 00:44:02

Allen, and you'll find me there, but all the ways to contact me

Stephanie Allen: 00:44:05

are on my website as well. Perfect.

Janice Porter: 00:44:08

Thank you so much, Stephanie, and thank you

Janice Porter: 00:44:10

to everybody my loyal listeners who check in and hear what I

Janice Porter: 00:44:14

have to say each week. I appreciate you, and if you like

Janice Porter: 00:44:16

what you heard, please let us know and remember to stay

Janice Porter: 00:44:19

connected and be remembered. You.