Pearls of Wisdom from Gail Doby – Interior Design Business Transformation Specialist | RR223

Janice Porter: 00:00:01

Hello everyone and welcome to relationships

Janice Porter: 00:00:04

rule. I am very pleased to introduce you to my guests this

Janice Porter: 00:00:08

week her name is Gail Dobby. And Gail comes to us from the

Janice Porter: 00:00:12

Colorado area. And what's really fun for me as in this in

Janice Porter: 00:00:17

interview that I'm going to do is that when I was introduced to

Janice Porter: 00:00:20

Gail, this was because we were both part of a book that we each

Janice Porter: 00:00:25

did a chapter in just recently, for a friend of mine, Lorraine

Janice Porter: 00:00:29

ball, and the book was called more than a few written words.

Janice Porter: 00:00:32

And we we actually are side by side in our chapters because we

Janice Porter: 00:00:37

are both in the piece it talks about sales and marketing. And

Janice Porter: 00:00:42

when I first saw Gail's name, I thought I've met her before. And

Janice Porter: 00:00:47

it was a long time ago. And she, you know, she didn't really

Janice Porter: 00:00:50

remember and it's okay, Gail, I don't mind that you didn't

Janice Porter: 00:00:53

remember

Gail Doby: 00:00:55

it out afterwards.

Janice Porter: 00:00:57

And first of all, welcome to the show. Thank you.

Janice Porter: 00:01:00

You're welcome. And, but what was fun for me is because my

Janice Porter: 00:01:04

relation, my podcast is all about relationships. This was

Janice Porter: 00:01:08

kind of fun to, to dig back, because I knew I knew that I

Janice Porter: 00:01:12

knew the girl's name when I saw it, but I wasn't sure. And then

Janice Porter: 00:01:16

Lorraine thought we should meet. And she introduced us, right.

Janice Porter: 00:01:20

And then I started to dig in and ask a couple of questions. And

Janice Porter: 00:01:24

we both remembered, where you know how we were connected the

Janice Porter: 00:01:27

first time through a mutual acquaintance or friend or

Janice Porter: 00:01:31

client, I think in the case of you, and and what was so funny

Janice Porter: 00:01:36

is that, that just fits right into, okay, we had a

Janice Porter: 00:01:40

relationship many years ago, small though it was and by the

Janice Porter: 00:01:44

way, I found out it was 2011. Right, which is 12 years ago.

Janice Porter: 00:01:51

And what that did for me was it made it such a warmer connection

Janice Porter: 00:01:56

this time around, because I knew we had talked before. And that's

Janice Porter: 00:02:00

what I love about relationships.

Gail Doby: 00:02:03

Absolutely right. And it's just so fun when you find

Gail Doby: 00:02:06

that will and I like you anyway, you're very warm and genuine. So

Gail Doby: 00:02:11

one of the things that's really nice about that is when you do

Gail Doby: 00:02:14

reconnect, and you think Oh, I like this person, I don't know

Gail Doby: 00:02:18

why we haven't stayed connected. So anyway, these circumstances,

Gail Doby: 00:02:23

right,

Janice Porter: 00:02:24

it's circumstances and people go into

Janice Porter: 00:02:26

different directions and, and get caught up. But that also

Janice Porter: 00:02:30

takes me right into the point of being staying connected with

Janice Porter: 00:02:35

people is important. Because especially in your business, and

Janice Porter: 00:02:40

I haven't even talked about that yet, because I just jumped right

Janice Porter: 00:02:44

in. But in your business, the kind of intimacy that happens

Janice Porter: 00:02:51

for clients with their designer is big. And so it would seem

Janice Porter: 00:02:57

that if you love the designer that worked with you, that you

Janice Porter: 00:03:00

would tell others about them. And so the relationships form,

Janice Porter: 00:03:04

you know, referral partners and things like that. So a backup

Janice Porter: 00:03:07

now, because I started and I'm coming from left curve, and I'm

Janice Porter: 00:03:10

coming back in to who you are. So please, I know that Gail is a

Janice Porter: 00:03:16

co founder of the Perl collective, which used to be her

Janice Porter: 00:03:21

training and consulting business, but now has a

Janice Porter: 00:03:23

beautiful, I love the pearl on your book, and we'll talk about

Janice Porter: 00:03:29

that in a minute. But this is a consultancy. Tell us about the

Janice Porter: 00:03:32

work that you're doing now.

Unknown: 00:03:34

Well, it's very much relationship driven as well.

Unknown: 00:03:37

Still in coaching and consulting. I've been doing that

Unknown: 00:03:40

for a little over 15 years now. And it's related to and we

Unknown: 00:03:44

support interior design firms, architects. And also kind of

Unknown: 00:03:50

oddly, I do companies like accounting companies, CPA firms.

Unknown: 00:03:56

And I for some reason, they come to me because they need some

Unknown: 00:04:00

help as well. So I think that I was meant to do this. This is my

Unknown: 00:04:06

calling. I just didn't know it was it took me many years to

Unknown: 00:04:09

figure that out. Yeah. And it was an event or getting here to

Unknown: 00:04:13

stay at a finance degree. First, I went to work for a fortune 500

Unknown: 00:04:17

company in sales marketing. And then I went to work for one of

Unknown: 00:04:21

their distributors for some years and then went into

Unknown: 00:04:24

consulting. And then next thing you know, I ended up and being

Unknown: 00:04:28

in Denver, meet my husband. And I had friends that were flying

Unknown: 00:04:32

me around the country to get me to do their design work. So I

Unknown: 00:04:37

decided I would go get a design degree. So I did design for

Unknown: 00:04:40

quite a long time and started that back in 87. And once I got

Unknown: 00:04:45

to a point in 2007, I said, I'm not so sure I really want to

Unknown: 00:04:49

keep doing this. I was burned out. And I have my current co

Unknown: 00:04:54

founder has been working with me for 18 years, and she started as

Unknown: 00:04:59

an intern My business. So we decided to start this business,

Unknown: 00:05:03

which was in 2007, we started talking about 2008, we actually

Unknown: 00:05:09

started our business. And we were still doing design work for

Unknown: 00:05:12

a while. But we were also starting to do coaching and

Unknown: 00:05:15

consulting. And it's evolved over the years. And here we are

Unknown: 00:05:19

now 15 years later. And we have many clients that stay with us

Unknown: 00:05:24

for years. And it's because of relationships. And it's because

Unknown: 00:05:28

that's one of the core principles and things that both

Unknown: 00:05:33

Aaron and I have in common is relationships. So, with that

Unknown: 00:05:37

being one of our values, it was pretty easy for us to start

Unknown: 00:05:41

building this business. And that's how we keep people for so

Unknown: 00:05:44

long is just having that focus on relationships.

Janice Porter: 00:05:48

So just back me up for a second. So when you

Janice Porter: 00:05:51

were working in finance, you were doing design on just as a

Janice Porter: 00:05:57

passion like you weren't getting you might have been getting paid

Janice Porter: 00:06:00

for it. I don't know. But I mean, it wasn't your It wasn't

Janice Porter: 00:06:02

your career at that point. No. So you started off on the on the

Janice Porter: 00:06:07

left brain side of things.

Unknown: 00:06:09

But I always was right brain because I grew up with

Unknown: 00:06:12

music and heart and all sorts of things like that. But when I got

Unknown: 00:06:16

my degree, when I graduated, the fortune 500 company hired me for

Unknown: 00:06:21

sales marketing, right? So it wasn't even. Okay. Okay,

Unknown: 00:06:26

interesting. So yeah, and so going into the consulting role

Unknown: 00:06:29

later, that was one of the things I wanted to do is bring

Unknown: 00:06:32

in my business, experience my finance, and bring that into

Unknown: 00:06:36

what I'm doing now. And I think that we have to be open to the

Unknown: 00:06:41

fact that if we're not happy doing what we're doing, let's

Unknown: 00:06:45

look at what we have done in the past, or what some of our skills

Unknown: 00:06:49

are, just try to use some of those to create a new path for

Unknown: 00:06:52

ourselves. And that's, that's essentially what happened.

Janice Porter: 00:06:56

Interesting, that's really fascinating to me,

Janice Porter: 00:06:59

because when I first met you the first time around, I know you

Janice Porter: 00:07:02

had at that time about 10,000 people in your community of

Janice Porter: 00:07:06

designers and so forth, that you were doing online halls and so

Janice Porter: 00:07:11

forth with, which was huge. And so to, to keep that community

Janice Porter: 00:07:17

growing and going. And, you know, interior design is a

Janice Porter: 00:07:20

fascinating field, I think because I'm not an interior

Janice Porter: 00:07:24

designer, I love design, I love looking at beautiful things I

Janice Porter: 00:07:27

have one of my best friends works in a in that she's not a

Janice Porter: 00:07:31

designer, but she is, you know, she she helped me with my house,

Janice Porter: 00:07:35

because like you did probably in those early days, right. And I

Janice Porter: 00:07:41

love the textures. My father was a clothing manufacturer. And for

Janice Porter: 00:07:44

me, it was all about the fabrics. And you know, that kind

Janice Porter: 00:07:47

of thing. So kind of fun. But but you got the best of both

Janice Porter: 00:07:52

worlds. If someone hires you, as a just, and they're a designer,

Janice Porter: 00:07:57

I think they've got the best of both worlds, because you've got

Janice Porter: 00:07:59

the finance piece, you run your own business, and you are sales

Janice Porter: 00:08:05

and marketing expert. But you're also have been a designer all

Janice Porter: 00:08:08

those years, too. So I think it's brilliant. And I think

Janice Porter: 00:08:14

there was something in your chapter that you wrote in the in

Janice Porter: 00:08:17

the joint book that we did about that I think happens from so

Janice Porter: 00:08:22

many small business owners. The key point to remember is to

Janice Porter: 00:08:26

market when you're the busiest so that your future pipeline is

Janice Porter: 00:08:29

full. We all think when we're busy, we don't have time to

Janice Porter: 00:08:32

network or to stay connected with people. So can you speak to

Janice Porter: 00:08:35

that with the hundreds and 1000s of women and men that you've

Janice Porter: 00:08:40

talked to about this?

Unknown: 00:08:42

Absolutely. The thing that is so critical for people

Unknown: 00:08:45

to understand is that if you don't want to have a roller

Unknown: 00:08:47

coaster ride on your business, right, then you have to fill the

Unknown: 00:08:50

pipeline when you're full. Right? Because if you wait until

Unknown: 00:08:55

you don't have business, you're already down and the dip, and

Unknown: 00:08:59

the dip is too late, you've already put yourself six months

Unknown: 00:09:02

behind. So it really is that it critically important to market

Unknown: 00:09:07

at that time. And I say it until I'm probably blue. Because I

Unknown: 00:09:14

really believe so strongly that this is one of the keys for

Unknown: 00:09:17

people to be successful in their business. And it's not any, just

Unknown: 00:09:21

any business. It's all businesses.

Janice Porter: 00:09:24

So yeah, and then you say, so how do I do that?

Janice Porter: 00:09:27

I'm so busy. I'm busy running around for this client and that

Janice Porter: 00:09:30

client, and how can I be talking to prospects? Well,

Unknown: 00:09:34

yeah, some of those prospects and quite frankly, if

Unknown: 00:09:37

you're in the service industry, the majority of your people that

Unknown: 00:09:41

are going to hire you or your current clients looking for more

Unknown: 00:09:44

work. So all you have to do is pick up the phone or send an

Unknown: 00:09:48

email or meet them for lunch or coffee. So it's not that hard.

Unknown: 00:09:52

You do eat. You probably drink coffee. And you probably are

Unknown: 00:10:00

very relationship driven anyway. So that's kind of an easy thing

Unknown: 00:10:03

to do is simple. You can write handwritten notes. And I know

Unknown: 00:10:06

you have send out cards. So that's one of your things. And

Unknown: 00:10:10

staying in touch is critically important. Even afterwards, and

Unknown: 00:10:15

I've got a great story for this. I have been in this business

Unknown: 00:10:18

now, almost 15 years and our 14 year, we got a, I got a call

Unknown: 00:10:24

from one of my old design clients. Now, mind you, I did

Unknown: 00:10:29

her project probably 25 years ago, wow. And the reason she has

Unknown: 00:10:34

kept in touch and has for yours is because I've always stayed in

Unknown: 00:10:38

touch, I've always kept in touch at their holidays, or maybe at

Unknown: 00:10:43

for their birthday for their anniversary, I was sent some

Unknown: 00:10:47

sort of a message to them or a card. And she just was so happy

Unknown: 00:10:53

to reach back out. And at one point, she wanted to have me do

Unknown: 00:10:57

another project. And I went out and I looked at it. And it had

Unknown: 00:11:01

been so many years since we've done work together that she was

Unknown: 00:11:04

shocked at the price. And I said that's okay, I'll introduce you

Unknown: 00:11:08

to some other designers because I'm honestly really busy with my

Unknown: 00:11:12

current business. And so I put her in touch with somebody else,

Unknown: 00:11:16

and she hired them. But she came back again and wanted to talk

Unknown: 00:11:20

again. Oh, my gosh, this is so funny. Because it'd been

Unknown: 00:11:23

literally 25 years,

Janice Porter: 00:11:25

no, and I thought you were gonna tell me that her

Janice Porter: 00:11:27

house was exactly the way it was when you design

Unknown: 00:11:30

that one, they sold it, they went to California, they

Unknown: 00:11:33

sold that house, and then they came back to Colorado.

Janice Porter: 00:11:37

So the the, the designers that you work with,

Janice Porter: 00:11:42

I'm gonna stick to their design business for the moment, but the

Janice Porter: 00:11:45

designers that you work with, I know there's different levels of

Janice Porter: 00:11:53

work that they do, but also probably levels of interest in

Janice Porter: 00:11:57

the business because there's a lot of interior designers like

Janice Porter: 00:12:01

realtors who maybe do it part time or you know, around there,

Janice Porter: 00:12:04

and they're not that serious. And that's what they're the ones

Janice Porter: 00:12:07

that are the probably making the up and down swing all the time.

Janice Porter: 00:12:11

What would you say? Are the sort of key points that you would

Janice Porter: 00:12:19

teach to make them work smart, even in a smaller business? Or

Janice Porter: 00:12:24

are you not interested in those people? You know, there's that

Janice Porter: 00:12:27

too, right? Well, we

Unknown: 00:12:29

serve people that are up to well, pretty much all

Unknown: 00:12:33

types of people in the business, but the distinction is there are

Unknown: 00:12:36

people who are dabblers or hobbyists, okay, then there are

Unknown: 00:12:41

people who are really are wanting to build a business. And

Unknown: 00:12:44

we work with people who want to build a business.

Janice Porter: 00:12:47

So distinction, okay. Okay, and then go ahead.

Unknown: 00:12:51

And then how we work with them is it depends on where

Unknown: 00:12:54

they are, because everyone has their spot on their journey.

Unknown: 00:12:58

Yes, we've identified three basic sections of the journey,

Unknown: 00:13:02

and the early stage up to about a quarter of million dollars. At

Unknown: 00:13:06

that stage, you have to prove that you have the chops to do

Unknown: 00:13:09

design. And you also have to prove that you can sign a client

Unknown: 00:13:14

and get them to pay you to do the work. And that's the first

Unknown: 00:13:18

phase. And if you can do that on a consistent basis, then you

Unknown: 00:13:22

have a chance of building a real business. But that's the proof

Unknown: 00:13:26

of concept that has to happen in that early stage. And then once

Unknown: 00:13:30

you hit about 250,000 and go to about a million, that's the

Unknown: 00:13:34

stage when okay, you're committed, you know that you can

Unknown: 00:13:38

design, you already have figured out that there's a lot you don't

Unknown: 00:13:42

know about running a business, and you need help with that. And

Unknown: 00:13:46

at that point, you're starting to think about, okay, I'm

Unknown: 00:13:49

exhausted, I don't want to work all the time. I need help. I

Unknown: 00:13:52

need people on my team. So you're starting to build a team.

Unknown: 00:13:56

And then you get to the next level, which is the Million and

Unknown: 00:13:58

above. And this is where you are a serious business person, you

Unknown: 00:14:02

are a person that is you are all in. And this is something that

Unknown: 00:14:07

you want to do. It's a profession for you. It is not

Unknown: 00:14:10

just a job. It's not just a hobby, and you're not dabbling,

Unknown: 00:14:14

you are actually building a real business. And you want to take

Unknown: 00:14:18

it to a level that you've never taken it before. And this is

Unknown: 00:14:21

when you are most definitely running a team and probably have

Unknown: 00:14:26

a leadership team. And you're also systematizing your business

Unknown: 00:14:30

and starting to get to a point where this is a whole different

Unknown: 00:14:34

aspect of running a business. You are serious about this. And

Unknown: 00:14:39

where we see people and this relates to your business and

Unknown: 00:14:43

your podcast. You have to have relationships with everyone that

Unknown: 00:14:47

you work with. And the most important relationship you have

Unknown: 00:14:50

is actually your employees. Your team members are your most

Unknown: 00:14:55

important relationship before your clients. Because if you're

Unknown: 00:14:59

if you're employees aren't happy, your clients won't have

Unknown: 00:15:02

be happy. They just won't. Yeah, because that will be reflected

Unknown: 00:15:06

in the work that they do for sure. They'll show it in their,

Unknown: 00:15:09

their mood and the way they are. But if they like your company,

Unknown: 00:15:13

and they like you, which is important, you have to be very

Unknown: 00:15:16

likeable. And I wasn't in my first business, I failed

Unknown: 00:15:20

miserably in my design business, I was not a good manager, I was

Unknown: 00:15:24

a micromanager, very controlling, but I've learned to

Unknown: 00:15:28

be a lot better about that. And I've really learned to focus on

Unknown: 00:15:31

relationships. And it's because of the mistakes I made as a

Unknown: 00:15:35

designer,

Janice Porter: 00:15:36

that I love that, that you shared that because I

Janice Porter: 00:15:41

talk to a lot of business, small business owners and

Janice Porter: 00:15:44

entrepreneurs who are at the stage where they want to not

Janice Porter: 00:15:48

necessarily design of course, but in any situation where it's

Janice Porter: 00:15:52

time to hire part time or VA or somebody, you know, to do some

Janice Porter: 00:15:58

things. And I know for me, I get to on top of them to micromanage

Janice Porter: 00:16:03

because I'm a control freak. And I don't want it done just that

Janice Porter: 00:16:07

way I want it done the same way I would do. How can I expect

Janice Porter: 00:16:10

that? That's ridiculous, right? No. And so we we either don't do

Janice Porter: 00:16:15

it, and therefore we're still struggling timewise ourselves,

Janice Porter: 00:16:19

or we have to make a change somewhere and let something go.

Janice Porter: 00:16:23

But let it go to the point not to the point that you don't care

Janice Porter: 00:16:26

about it, you still care, but you have to build that rapport

Janice Porter: 00:16:31

and relationship with the person so that they they get you right,

Janice Porter: 00:16:36

and they know that they want to do it, they will do it your way.

Janice Porter: 00:16:41

Well, or that you trust that? Not necessarily your way. But

Unknown: 00:16:46

so I would say that yes. And because the yes and is

Unknown: 00:16:50

you want them to do it. And you also want them to have ownership

Unknown: 00:16:54

of it. Yeah. And if you want it your way, then you're going to

Unknown: 00:16:58

own it forever. And if you want to have others do it, then you

Unknown: 00:17:02

let need to let them own it. And be okay with them not doing it

Unknown: 00:17:06

exactly your way. But the more you provide training and

Unknown: 00:17:10

support, the better it is, and the more likely they'll do it

Unknown: 00:17:14

closer to the way you would do it. Exactly what here's the

Unknown: 00:17:17

other piece, the serendipity of this is that they might even do

Unknown: 00:17:22

it way better than you do. That's what's happened to me.

Unknown: 00:17:26

And I have a great team right now, I will tell you that the

Unknown: 00:17:28

person that took over in the early stages, you're doing

Unknown: 00:17:32

everything you're wearing to enhancing your business. And a

Unknown: 00:17:35

few years ago, probably five years ago, I hired an operations

Unknown: 00:17:39

manager. And the one I have right now has been with us for

Unknown: 00:17:43

about four years. And she is phenomenal. She does things way

Unknown: 00:17:48

better than I would ever do them. And so I tell her, Okay,

Unknown: 00:17:52

I've got this idea. Here's some research I've done helped me put

Unknown: 00:17:55

this together so that it makes sense to the rest of the team.

Unknown: 00:17:59

And she'll take it and she'll go work on it. And she'll bring it

Unknown: 00:18:02

back. And it's absolutely brilliant. Brilliant. And I look

Unknown: 00:18:05

at it and say, I'm so glad I hired her.

Janice Porter: 00:18:09

Yeah, so she she has different gifts to you.

Janice Porter: 00:18:11

Right. And

Unknown: 00:18:13

she's way better at that than I am.

Janice Porter: 00:18:15

Yeah. So you definitely have to show some

Janice Porter: 00:18:19

love and appreciation and respect to the people that are

Janice Porter: 00:18:23

on your team or else it's never going to work. I know, my one of

Janice Porter: 00:18:26

my daughters worked in a company several years ago, where the I

Janice Porter: 00:18:31

think he was the accountant in the company. And he was kind of

Janice Porter: 00:18:35

their overall their boss and she was running the customer service

Janice Porter: 00:18:39

team. And he was micromanaging everything that she did, and not

Janice Porter: 00:18:46

and therefore undermining her responsibility. And it really

Janice Porter: 00:18:52

was hard for her. It was so hard you could see it. She was not

Janice Porter: 00:18:56

going to build confidence when that's happening all the time.

Janice Porter: 00:18:58

And not only that he was yelling at them, which was even worse

Janice Porter: 00:19:02

doesn't work. No, bullying is what it really came down to. So

Janice Porter: 00:19:07

yeah, that's a really good point. So you your book, you

Janice Porter: 00:19:12

wrote your first book in March 2021. Business Breakthrough,

Janice Porter: 00:19:17

your creative value blueprint to get paid what you're worth, is

Janice Porter: 00:19:21

that focused on the design industry or it is okay.

Unknown: 00:19:25

It is. And what's interesting is a lot of people

Unknown: 00:19:28

read this that aren't in the industry, because it really

Unknown: 00:19:31

applies to most businesses. Yeah, I'm sure it does. That's

Unknown: 00:19:34

what it's asking. Yeah, and I think that for most people, the

Unknown: 00:19:39

reason I would call it creative value blueprint is that you're

Unknown: 00:19:44

in the creative business, and you have a value to it. And a

Unknown: 00:19:47

blueprint is something you can relate to, and it's a plan. So

Unknown: 00:19:51

if that's the case, then it makes sense for this to be a

Unknown: 00:19:54

creative value blueprint. And we do have a system and a process

Unknown: 00:19:59

that we've just done. We've refined over the years, we call

Unknown: 00:20:02

it our VIP experience. And when you walk out of there, you

Unknown: 00:20:06

essentially have that creative value blueprint. And that's why

Unknown: 00:20:10

we use that word because or that phrase, because it really fits

Unknown: 00:20:14

that.

Janice Porter: 00:20:15

Yeah, that makes sense. And is that book? Have

Janice Porter: 00:20:20

you written? Are you writing? Like, did you love writing or

Janice Porter: 00:20:22

hate writing? I mean, I'm curious.

Unknown: 00:20:24

I enjoy writing. And I probably, I have had so little

Unknown: 00:20:29

time I've been so so busy. But what I'm working on is, I have

Unknown: 00:20:34

started an outline for a new book, and it will be hopefully

Unknown: 00:20:38

it'll take. We'll see how long it takes. But maybe next year?

Unknown: 00:20:43

I'm not promising. And is it? Is it a completely different? Me I

Unknown: 00:20:49

asked like, or is it different thought it is going to be a

Unknown: 00:20:52

little bit different. And we'll be definitely focused on the

Unknown: 00:20:57

journeys that a lot of our clients have taken. Oh, fun.

Unknown: 00:21:00

Those are always fun to hear about. All of us like to see if

Unknown: 00:21:03

somebody started here. And they've ended up 16 times

Unknown: 00:21:06

bigger, which we have has done that. What is that path? How did

Unknown: 00:21:11

they get there? And hearing that story is can be very inspiring.

Janice Porter: 00:21:15

Definitely. Yeah, I love stories. I love hearing

Janice Porter: 00:21:18

the stories. So I have to ask you, this is like, this is to

Janice Porter: 00:21:23

the side. Okay, just a little bit. But you know, there's so

Janice Porter: 00:21:27

much on television with design shows on HGTV and other ones as

Janice Porter: 00:21:35

well. As your any one of those shows. Have you ever watched

Janice Porter: 00:21:39

any? Is there one that you think is true to reality? Are they all

Janice Porter: 00:21:44

just No, none of them? Not a one? No. I

Unknown: 00:21:47

have watched them and their entertainment if you want.

Unknown: 00:21:51

That's where you go. But there's no reality there. Because quite

Unknown: 00:21:54

frankly, you don't know what their budget is. Yes, show pays

Unknown: 00:21:58

for the construction. Not very much. And they don't really pay

Unknown: 00:22:03

the designers. And it's all for exposure. It's all for exposure.

Unknown: 00:22:08

Yeah. Unless you're a big celebrity and the celebrity, you

Unknown: 00:22:12

just have to have a big following. So the reality is

Unknown: 00:22:15

they're trying to sell viewership and advertising. So

Unknown: 00:22:20

it's not real, their entertainment is just a great

Unknown: 00:22:24

thing

Janice Porter: 00:22:24

to watch. Yeah, it's fun. It's fun, and it gives

Janice Porter: 00:22:26

you ideas sometimes, right. Okay. And tell me, Can you can

Janice Porter: 00:22:33

you think of you just mentioned a story where someone grew their

Janice Porter: 00:22:36

business? 16 times the amount? That's, that's in your book? Can

Janice Porter: 00:22:41

you?

Unknown: 00:22:41

Yeah, new book would be Oh, yeah. And then what?

Janice Porter: 00:22:45

Have you got a couple of stories that you could

Janice Porter: 00:22:47

just share? So many?

Unknown: 00:22:49

Yeah. Okay. And do you want it about, tell me a little

Unknown: 00:22:53

bit more about

Janice Porter: 00:22:53

what you I want to see how working with you

Janice Porter: 00:22:56

change the path for somebody or, or open the path for somebody

Janice Porter: 00:23:01

that to, to the heights that they didn't really expect that

Janice Porter: 00:23:04

they could do,

Unknown: 00:23:05

because we've had so many of those. We have another

Unknown: 00:23:07

client that came to me in 2018. And its partners in life and in

Unknown: 00:23:12

business. And they were doing about 1.8 million, which is

Unknown: 00:23:16

healthy. And the problem was cashflow, and profit, they just

Unknown: 00:23:20

didn't have it. And today, we are five years later, literally

Unknown: 00:23:26

this month, five years from their very first time working

Unknown: 00:23:29

with me. And they built a team, I think they're up to 15. Now

Unknown: 00:23:35

they're getting close to 8 million, I would say revenue. So

Unknown: 00:23:39

they've grown pretty dramatically. But what they've

Unknown: 00:23:41

learned is that, and I think this is a key You asked for me

Unknown: 00:23:46

to think about what is something that I want to share with

Unknown: 00:23:49

people. The key to growing your business is growing yourself.

Unknown: 00:23:56

You have to build the relationship with yourself

Unknown: 00:23:58

first, before you can grow your business. And when we had our

Unknown: 00:24:02

first day that we met their interiors, a good part of the

Unknown: 00:24:06

time and these are men. That's pretty common for a lot of my

Unknown: 00:24:11

clients. Because this is such a personal thing to grow a

Unknown: 00:24:14

business. And it's so hard is hard work. And you have a lot of

Unknown: 00:24:19

feelings attached because you are emotionally involved in all

Unknown: 00:24:22

aspects of the business. And they just didn't know what to

Unknown: 00:24:25

do. And so I took it through an exercise and I'm happy to just

Unknown: 00:24:30

do it really quickly. It only takes a second to do it. But the

Unknown: 00:24:33

first thing is you have to imagine where you want to go

Unknown: 00:24:36

with your life and your business and have a vision that is so

Unknown: 00:24:40

powerful that you can see it you can taste it, you can feel it.

Unknown: 00:24:44

So literally I walk them through this and ask them to close their

Unknown: 00:24:48

eyes and breathe. And then think about that and think about what

Unknown: 00:24:52

they were doing, who they were with what were the things that

Unknown: 00:24:56

they had accomplished. And then imagine that There was a brick

Unknown: 00:25:00

wall in front of them. And on that were giant sticky notes.

Unknown: 00:25:04

And on each sticky note was one of the things that was in their

Unknown: 00:25:08

way. And what they needed to do is understand that that was

Unknown: 00:25:13

blocking them from that beautiful vision that they had.

Unknown: 00:25:17

So what they needed to do was walk around the wall and see

Unknown: 00:25:22

their vision, instead of facing the wall and staring out where

Unknown: 00:25:26

they're stuck.

Janice Porter: 00:25:27

So find another way to make this happen. And

Janice Porter: 00:25:30

literally,

Unknown: 00:25:31

it's just taking a step, or two or five, yeah, just

Unknown: 00:25:35

in a different path and bypassing the negative, don't

Unknown: 00:25:38

stay focused on that, because you're more of that. But stay

Unknown: 00:25:42

focused on the vision and where you want to go. And if you do

Unknown: 00:25:44

that, you can literally break through a lot of the blocks that

Unknown: 00:25:49

you mentally have, and move toward a very positive future.

Unknown: 00:25:53

But you have to have a plan. Most people don't have a plan.

Unknown: 00:25:57

And that's the reason that most businesses fail, they don't have

Unknown: 00:26:00

a plan. And you have to have some sort of a plan, even if

Unknown: 00:26:04

it's on a napkin, and it's literally, yeah, and things

Unknown: 00:26:07

you've written down. But just write something down. And give

Unknown: 00:26:12

yourself something to work toward, because that's what

Unknown: 00:26:14

motivates you every day. And you have to look at it every day.

Unknown: 00:26:18

And just remember that you have to take one step every day,

Unknown: 00:26:21

once. That's all,

Janice Porter: 00:26:23

you said earlier that you felt this was your this

Janice Porter: 00:26:26

was your calling, this was your gift. And so it must be so

Janice Porter: 00:26:30

satisfying to watch the growth in your clients.

Unknown: 00:26:35

There's nothing better, it really is so exciting and

Unknown: 00:26:39

set. And eventually they do graduate we have people have

Unknown: 00:26:42

been with us, they'll sometimes stay seven or eight years. And

Unknown: 00:26:45

then they say we're ready to graduate. Because they've gotten

Unknown: 00:26:48

all they need, and they're in good shape. And they need

Unknown: 00:26:51

different kinds of help. Yeah, we love that. Because they've

Unknown: 00:26:54

gotten to a point, they don't have to depend on us anymore.

Unknown: 00:26:57

They have the information they need. And they have the support

Unknown: 00:27:00

that got them to that point. So it's really exciting to see

Unknown: 00:27:04

that.

Janice Porter: 00:27:05

Now there's a good point to then say, okay, so

Janice Porter: 00:27:08

they leave the nest their graduate. Now it's up to you to

Janice Porter: 00:27:12

maintain that relationship, because they are going to be

Janice Porter: 00:27:15

your raving fans,

Unknown: 00:27:17

right? Absolutely. So I text them all the time. I've

Unknown: 00:27:20

been texting a few of them this week. And sometimes we'll have

Unknown: 00:27:24

them come back as speakers, some of them become our coaches. And

Unknown: 00:27:28

most of them want to stay connected with us. So that

Unknown: 00:27:31

relationship is huge. And they send us clients all the time.

Janice Porter: 00:27:34

Yeah, that was great. That makes so much sense

Janice Porter: 00:27:37

in the end. And that's the kind of I've noticed in the last year

Janice Porter: 00:27:43

and a half, more and more people coming to me that new people

Janice Porter: 00:27:47

that said, come talk to us need to talk to journalists, and you

Janice Porter: 00:27:51

start to see the fruits of your labor of caring about people.

Janice Porter: 00:27:56

And so it's it's the best way to do business. The best

Unknown: 00:27:59

only wired up. Yeah, yeah. Well,

Janice Porter: 00:28:01

I say that. But I would say that too. I know that

Janice Porter: 00:28:06

you are on a new journey to improve yourself as well, which

Janice Porter: 00:28:12

is what you were talking about. Everybody should do. And I love

Janice Porter: 00:28:15

this. How is that going? And do you mind if we talked about

Unknown: 00:28:20

this one? It's painful.

Janice Porter: 00:28:22

So your, your your you now want to be on the

Janice Porter: 00:28:26

big stages, right?

Unknown: 00:28:27

I'm working on that. Yes. Actually, tomorrow, I have

Unknown: 00:28:31

some rehearsals and I'm also working with a performance

Unknown: 00:28:35

coach. So this is something that is a very big investment in time

Unknown: 00:28:40

and money. And it is so critically important because I

Unknown: 00:28:44

get so much business from my speaking. So the more the better

Unknown: 00:28:48

I can do at that and the more concise my message is, the

Unknown: 00:28:52

better my business will be. And it's not really just for that

Unknown: 00:28:55

it's just because I know I can be better. And if you know you

Unknown: 00:28:59

can be better than why in the world wouldn't you want to try

Unknown: 00:29:02

to be better. And we in reality, none of us can do this alone.

Unknown: 00:29:08

And if we try to do it ourselves, we're gonna go so

Unknown: 00:29:10

far. But if we want to go the distance, we always find a

Unknown: 00:29:14

coach, we find a mentor we find somebody else we find a

Unknown: 00:29:17

mastermind group those are the things that help you get to that

Unknown: 00:29:21

next level because we never push ourselves as hard as other

Unknown: 00:29:25

people will push us

Janice Porter: 00:29:28

that's really good advice actually. Very good

Janice Porter: 00:29:30

advice. And so in this case, did you do you feel you're in the

Janice Porter: 00:29:33

right place you found and does this training that you're doing

Janice Porter: 00:29:39

going to cost busy? Does it did they help you with the the

Janice Porter: 00:29:45

actual speech as well? Okay, so as well as the performance

Janice Porter: 00:29:50

you've got the performance coach and then they help you craft the

Janice Porter: 00:29:53

the speaking thing for what selling from the stage or

Unknown: 00:29:59

not necessarily Something from the stage but I'm

Unknown: 00:30:01

doing a Keynote or so developing a keynote speech, which is 45

Unknown: 00:30:05

minutes. And they do blocking and staging and content mapping

Unknown: 00:30:09

and teach you how to do the photo of vocal warm ups. And

Unknown: 00:30:13

then you have to work on expressing different ways. So

Unknown: 00:30:19

save really work on so many things in the whole process.

Unknown: 00:30:22

It's, it's really a good program.

Janice Porter: 00:30:24

One of the things that I've been looking and

Janice Porter: 00:30:26

learning and reading about lately is the power of

Janice Porter: 00:30:30

storytelling in what we do. So how much of that is coming into

Janice Porter: 00:30:34

play? Like, does every point in you, in your speech have to have

Janice Porter: 00:30:38

a story so to speak? I do

Unknown: 00:30:40

have a lot of stories in there. Because yes, people

Unknown: 00:30:43

are interested in stories. That's what engages people, when

Unknown: 00:30:45

you think back to when we were kids. That's the first thing

Unknown: 00:30:48

that we heard is our parents teaching us stories or reading

Unknown: 00:30:51

stories. And we love that and especially for parents, like my

Unknown: 00:30:55

mother was so good at telling stories. She had been raised

Unknown: 00:31:01

with a grandfather who taught her how to tell stories. And she

Unknown: 00:31:05

I could, we would ask her to tell the same stories over and

Unknown: 00:31:08

over and over because it was so entertaining. So yes,

Janice Porter: 00:31:12

when I taught school, I taught elementary

Janice Porter: 00:31:16

school and the little ones and I don't know if you're familiar.

Janice Porter: 00:31:21

Well, you must be familiar with this book, Charlson, the

Janice Porter: 00:31:23

chocolate Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Yes. Okay. So

Janice Porter: 00:31:27

by Roald Dahl. And that was a book that was written so well,

Janice Porter: 00:31:31

that every chapter, you were begging for the next thing,

Janice Porter: 00:31:36

right, like at the end of every chapter. So I used to read that

Janice Porter: 00:31:39

to my kids in school, I also used to read it to my kids, my

Janice Porter: 00:31:43

own kids. And I would always end a chapter and they say, that's

Janice Porter: 00:31:47

it for tonight. We only got one chapter tonight. And they'd be

Janice Porter: 00:31:49

begging for the next chapter. Because it was such a good

Janice Porter: 00:31:52

story. And then of course, you bring it to life when I love

Janice Porter: 00:31:54

reading out loud anyway. So that was kind of fun. So yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:31:58

telling stories, reading stories with heart, whatever it is, it

Janice Porter: 00:32:02

can make such a difference to somebody's life experience of a

Janice Porter: 00:32:09

situation. So love it. That's great. This is fun. Is there now

Janice Porter: 00:32:15

you have a podcast as well. Yes, called creative genius. We do. I

Janice Porter: 00:32:21

am looking forward to perhaps being on that. I think. I think

Janice Porter: 00:32:25

we've got it booked. I can't remember. And but tell me what

Janice Porter: 00:32:30

it what is it mostly interviews? Or is it you or it is

Unknown: 00:32:34

some interviews, and there are some conversations

Unknown: 00:32:36

that Aaron and I have, we talk about things that are happening

Unknown: 00:32:39

in our business or happening in the industry. And I think it's

Unknown: 00:32:44

interesting to hear behind the scenes, because she's worked

Unknown: 00:32:46

with me 18 years now. So we have this long history of working

Unknown: 00:32:51

together. And we have had our ups and downs, of course, but

Unknown: 00:32:55

we're really close. And we have a great working relationship.

Unknown: 00:33:00

And it's because we both know what our roles are. And we don't

Unknown: 00:33:04

have to worry about each other the other person is they will do

Unknown: 00:33:06

their job. Yeah. And it's really interesting sharing some of the

Unknown: 00:33:11

things that we found along the way, maybe building the team

Unknown: 00:33:15

running into issues with Team things that are maybe

Unknown: 00:33:19

frustrating. But really interestingly, I would say this

Unknown: 00:33:23

is my second business. This time I learned from my first

Unknown: 00:33:26

mistakes. And this time, I believe that we have an amazing

Unknown: 00:33:30

team. And most of our people have been with us for years

Unknown: 00:33:34

years.

Janice Porter: 00:33:35

And that speaks that speaks volumes. Actually,

Unknown: 00:33:38

it really does. Yeah, tells you how much I had to

Unknown: 00:33:41

learn from the last time. Well, and

Janice Porter: 00:33:43

I think that's great that you can see that that

Janice Porter: 00:33:46

you you've grown and you become a different person in a way,

Janice Porter: 00:33:49

right. So yeah, so cool. What would you say? Was your biggest

Janice Porter: 00:33:58

aha along the way? About yourself? Oh, gosh.

Unknown: 00:34:06

I would say that one of the biggest things that I

Unknown: 00:34:09

learned was how resilient I was and how much grit I had. Because

Unknown: 00:34:15

there were times that even my husband said to me, you need to

Unknown: 00:34:18

go get a job. And I looked at him and I said, How long have

Unknown: 00:34:23

you been married to me? I am unemployable. No way anybody's

Unknown: 00:34:28

going to employ me. So I need to figure this out. And so every

Unknown: 00:34:33

time I hit that wall, I would look at it and say, okay, remove

Unknown: 00:34:37

the emotions from this and think about what I can do to fix the

Unknown: 00:34:41

problem. And that has always served me well. And I would say

Unknown: 00:34:46

the other thing I think is really important is to have

Unknown: 00:34:49

contingency plans. We have that's not my nature. I'm such

Unknown: 00:34:54

an optimist, and I think a lot of entrepreneurs are yes, and we

Unknown: 00:34:58

tend to look at things with the rose colored glasses, and we

Unknown: 00:35:01

don't look at the contingency. And I'll give you a great

Unknown: 00:35:03

example of this. We this is 2020 and February, taking a group of

Unknown: 00:35:09

our clients to Portland, Oregon to see a friend of mine who used

Unknown: 00:35:14

to be a client. And he had 35 people on his team. And we said,

Unknown: 00:35:18

Okay, we want to show your business and have you have had

Unknown: 00:35:22

those employees, our clients come and see your operations,

Unknown: 00:35:26

because they'll learn so much. And while we were there, he said

Unknown: 00:35:30

to one of our smaller groups, he said, Well, what are you doing

Unknown: 00:35:34

to plan for COVID? And we looked at him when he said, What do you

Unknown: 00:35:37

mean? He said, it's going to shut down the United States.

Unknown: 00:35:41

This is February. Yes. Yeah. And I said, I don't know. And I

Unknown: 00:35:49

literally was stymied, I had no idea. But he had already

Unknown: 00:35:52

planned. He knew who his layoffs were going to be. He was going

Unknown: 00:35:55

to cut his staff, he was going to cut the salaries by 10%. He

Unknown: 00:36:01

knew what expenses to cut. He had ordered laptops for all of

Unknown: 00:36:05

his people. They had policies for working from home, all of

Unknown: 00:36:09

these things were in place by February of 2020. Wow. And so

Unknown: 00:36:14

sure enough, we were we were kind of born by hand, but we

Unknown: 00:36:19

still didn't have that plan. Until really April or May. And

Unknown: 00:36:24

even then it was not fully fleshed out. But he had his all

Unknown: 00:36:27

together. And I've learned so much just from him watching him

Unknown: 00:36:32

have a contingency plan.

Janice Porter: 00:36:33

Yeah, that's That's amazing. Actually, that

Janice Porter: 00:36:37

crazy smart. Yeah, that's really interesting. Most people weren't

Janice Porter: 00:36:41

like him, that's for sure. Interesting. Wow. Well, this has

Janice Porter: 00:36:45

been fascinating. And I love finding out about my, my guess

Janice Porter: 00:36:50

stories and and their journeys and and love the fact that you

Janice Porter: 00:36:55

get it that relationships are important. And that's the thing

Janice Porter: 00:36:59

that I think overrides everything else. So thank you

Janice Porter: 00:37:02

for your insights. Thank you for your sharing your your

Janice Porter: 00:37:06

information with this as well. One last question. And I

Janice Porter: 00:37:10

sometimes ask this of my of my guests, sometimes they don't,

Janice Porter: 00:37:13

but I feel I want to ask you. Two parts. And first part is,

Janice Porter: 00:37:20

like, I love curiosity. It's my favorite word. And before that,

Janice Porter: 00:37:24

you could probably tell because I was asking different things

Janice Porter: 00:37:27

around the globe about you instead of just staying focused.

Janice Porter: 00:37:30

So curiosity, do you believe it's innate? Or learned? And

Janice Porter: 00:37:36

what are you most curious about yourself these days? So part

Janice Porter: 00:37:40

one, part two? Well, I

Unknown: 00:37:43

think curiosity is innate. I think we all have it.

Unknown: 00:37:46

We're born with it. And that's what we have as children. And we

Unknown: 00:37:50

lose that as we get older, I think. And I think we can

Unknown: 00:37:53

rekindle that very, very easily. And the second part of the

Unknown: 00:37:58

question, make sure I've got it correct. Is that, how am I using

Unknown: 00:38:03

that for myself?

Janice Porter: 00:38:04

Now, what are you most curious about today?

Unknown: 00:38:08

Well, what am I most curious about? I am curious

Unknown: 00:38:11

about lots of things my curiosity has grown over the

Unknown: 00:38:14

years. And, for example, one of the books I'm reading right now

Unknown: 00:38:18

is called 2030. So I am looking forward to see what is going to

Unknown: 00:38:23

happen in the world in the next seven years, because we have to

Unknown: 00:38:27

plan ahead that contingency contingency plan that we talked

Unknown: 00:38:31

about earlier. So I believe that that is really important for us

Unknown: 00:38:35

to think about. So I would say curiosity about the future.

Unknown: 00:38:40

Thank you.

Janice Porter: 00:38:41

Thank you for that. That's fun. And thank you

Janice Porter: 00:38:44

for being an amazing guest. Thank you to my audience for

Janice Porter: 00:38:47

being here and being loyal. Please. If you like what you

Janice Porter: 00:38:51

heard, please go. I will put Gail's information in the show

Janice Porter: 00:38:55

notes. And I think it's going to be pro collective right. Yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:39:01

pro collective.com. Is that pro collective

Unknown: 00:39:04

pro collective? Is that URL is pro collective.

Janice Porter: 00:39:09

Okay. And yeah, so that will be there. Please.

Janice Porter: 00:39:16

Take a look at what the work that she's doing. And if you if

Janice Porter: 00:39:20

you liked what you heard, leave us a review much appreciated.

Janice Porter: 00:39:23

And remember to stay connected and be remembered