Sept. 12, 2023

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

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

I first met Gail Doby, 12 years ago, and she was a force to be reckoned with in her industry, back then. Since then, she has built her business, The Pearl Collective, and reputation on helping creatives (in the design industry) work smart and transform their businesses into successful operations.

Gail and I talk about the importance of building and nurturing relationships, the power of referrals, hiring and supporting valuable staff members, the business building blocks necessary for success – and so much more.

Moving from a job in an industry you love to “going it alone” can be a big challenge and really talented designers falter – not for lack of design talent or intelligence – but because they do not have the tools, guidance, or support to create a healthy business.

As you listen to Gail I’m sure you will be able to learn some tips that will help your entrepreneurial journey too.

Learn more about Gail: https://gaildoby.com/

A little about me:

I began my career as a teacher, was a corporate trainer for many years, and then found my niche training & supporting business owners, entrepreneurs & sales professionals to network at a world-class level. My passion is working with motivated people, who are coachable and who want to build their businesses through relationship marketing and networking (online & offline). I help my clients create retention strategies, grow through referrals, and create loyal customers by staying connected.

In appreciation for being here, I have a couple of gifts for you.

A LinkedIn Checklist for setting up your fully optimized Profile: https://www.janiceporter.com/linkedin-training.html

An opportunity to test drive the Follow Up system I recommend by sending a FREE greeting card (on me): www.sendacardeverytime.com


Connect with me:

http://JanicePorter.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/janiceporter/

https://www.facebook.com/JanicePorterBiz

https://twitter.com/janiceporter


Join our Relationships Rule community on FB here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/relationshipsrule/


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Transcript
Janice Porter:

Hello everyone and welcome to relationships

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

remember

Gail Doby:

it out afterwards.

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

relation, my podcast is all about relationships. This was

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

first time through a mutual acquaintance or friend or

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

what I love about relationships.

Gail Doby:

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

Gail Doby:

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

Gail Doby:

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

Gail Doby:

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

Gail Doby:

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

Gail Doby:

right,

Janice Porter:

it's circumstances and people go into

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

takes me right into the point of being staying connected with

Janice Porter:

people is important. Because especially in your business, and

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

training and consulting business, but now has a

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

work that you're doing now.

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

support interior design firms, architects. And also kind of

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

their distributors for some years and then went into

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

long is just having that focus on relationships.

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

left brain side of things.

Unknown:

But I always was right brain because I grew up with

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Janice Porter:

Interesting, that's really fascinating to me,

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

talked to about this?

Unknown:

Absolutely. The thing that is so critical for people

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

any business. It's all businesses.

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Unknown:

yeah, some of those prospects and quite frankly, if

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

staying in touch is critically important. Even afterwards, and

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

for their birthday for their anniversary, I was sent some

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

literally 25 years,

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

house was exactly the way it was when you design

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Janice Porter:

So the the, the designers that you work with,

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

too, right? Well, we

Unknown:

serve people that are up to well, pretty much all

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

we work with people who want to build a business.

Janice Porter:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

when you are most definitely running a team and probably have

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

where we see people and this relates to your business and

Unknown:

your podcast. You have to have relationships with everyone that

Unknown:

you work with. And the most important relationship you have

Unknown:

is actually your employees. Your team members are your most

Unknown:

important relationship before your clients. Because if you're

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

designer,

Janice Porter:

that I love that, that you shared that because I

Janice Porter:

talk to a lot of business, small business owners and

Janice Porter:

entrepreneurs who are at the stage where they want to not

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

exactly your way. But the more you provide training and

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Janice Porter:

Yeah, so she she has different gifts to you.

Janice Porter:

Right. And

Unknown:

she's way better at that than I am.

Janice Porter:

Yeah. So you definitely have to show some

Janice Porter:

love and appreciation and respect to the people that are

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

their overall their boss and she was running the customer service

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

and therefore undermining her responsibility. And it really

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

wrote your first book in March 2021. Business Breakthrough,

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

that focused on the design industry or it is okay.

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

that.

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

hate writing? I mean, I'm curious.

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Janice Porter:

Definitely. Yeah, I love stories. I love hearing

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Unknown:

have watched them and their entertainment if you want.

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

they're trying to sell viewership and advertising. So

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

thing

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

you?

Unknown:

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

Janice Porter:

Have you got a couple of stories that you could

Janice Porter:

just share? So many?

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

bit more about

Janice Porter:

what you I want to see how working with you

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

they could do,

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

this month, five years from their very first time working

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

You have to build the relationship with yourself

Unknown:

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

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

feelings attached because you are emotionally involved in all

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

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

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

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

Unknown:

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

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

Unknown:

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

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blocking them from that beautiful vision that they had.

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

they're stuck.

Janice Porter:

So find another way to make this happen. And

Janice Porter:

literally,

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

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yourself something to work toward, because that's what

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

once. That's all,

Janice Porter:

you said earlier that you felt this was your this

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

satisfying to watch the growth in your clients.

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

set. And eventually they do graduate we have people have

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

that.

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

maintain that relationship, because they are going to be

Janice Porter:

your raving fans,

Unknown:

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

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

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Janice Porter:

Yeah, that was great. That makes so much sense

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Unknown:

only wired up. Yeah, yeah. Well,

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Unknown:

this one? It's painful.

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

big stages, right?

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

some rehearsals and I'm also working with a performance

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

and money. And it is so critically important because I

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

next level because we never push ourselves as hard as other

Unknown:

people will push us

Janice Porter:

that's really good advice actually. Very good

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

the speaking thing for what selling from the stage or

Unknown:

not necessarily Something from the stage but I'm

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

minutes. And they do blocking and staging and content mapping

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

then you have to work on expressing different ways. So

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Janice Porter:

One of the things that I've been looking and

Janice Porter:

learning and reading about lately is the power of

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

a story so to speak? I do

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

that we heard is our parents teaching us stories or reading

Unknown:

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

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Janice Porter:

when I taught school, I taught elementary

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Unknown:

some interviews, and there are some conversations

Unknown:

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

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

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

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

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

running into issues with Team things that are maybe

Unknown:

frustrating. But really interestingly, I would say this

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

years.

Janice Porter:

And that speaks that speaks volumes. Actually,

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

learn from the last time. Well, and

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Unknown:

I would say that one of the biggest things that I

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

the other thing I think is really important is to have

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

those employees, our clients come and see your operations,

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

have a contingency plan.

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

that I think overrides everything else. So thank you

Janice Porter:

for your insights. Thank you for your sharing your your

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

you could probably tell because I was asking different things

Janice Porter:

around the globe about you instead of just staying focused.

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

one, part two? Well, I

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

that for myself?

Janice Porter:

Now, what are you most curious about today?

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

about lots of things my curiosity has grown over the

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

plan ahead that contingency contingency plan that we talked

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

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

Unknown:

Thank you.

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

pro collective.com. Is that pro collective

Unknown:

pro collective? Is that URL is pro collective.

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

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

Janice Porter:

And remember to stay connected and be remembered