Evolving Business Minds
Welcome to "Evolving Business Minds", formerly known as "Resourceful Agent Radio Show." In this podcast we deep dive into the entrepreneurial journey, uncovering the real stories behind successful business owners. Each episode, join us as we explore the challenges, triumphs, and innovations that have shaped today's business landscape. From the initial spark of an idea to the complex realities of growth, adaptation, and sustainability, our guests share their firsthand experiences and the lessons learned along the way.
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Evolving Business Minds
Blueprint for Global Business Success with Ann Carden | #126
What if you could transform a financial necessity into a thriving international business? Tune into our latest episode featuring Ann Carden, whose journey from crafting handmade dolls to owning and selling seven successful businesses is nothing short of extraordinary. With over 43 years of business marketing and sales experience, Ann shares the pivotal moments and strategies that propelled her from humble beginnings to global success. This episode promises to leave you inspired by Ann's resourcefulness, innovation, and sheer determination in an era before the internet reshaped the business landscape.
Discover the keys to business success as Ann and I discuss the evolution of entrepreneurship and business coaching. From the initial hurdles of starting a business without accessible resources to the game-changing impact of attending business conferences, we highlight how the entrepreneurial landscape has dramatically shifted. Today’s opportunities are vast but can also be distracting. Ann emphasizes the importance of a focused, all-in approach and continuous learning, sharing personal anecdotes that underscore the stark contrasts between past and present business environments.
Gain invaluable insights from Ann’s journey, including lessons from selling multiple businesses and the impact of AI on growth. We explore her innovative strategies like pre-selling to minimize financial risk and the necessity of creating turnkey operations that attract buyers. Ann's story is a testament to the power of resilience and resourcefulness, whether adapting to industry shifts or leveraging networks. Don’t miss this value-packed interview and be sure to share your thoughts in the comments. Connect with Ann for more personalized guidance through the contact information in our show notes.
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All right, welcome to another episode of the Evolving Business Minds podcast. Today's guest has more than 43 years of business marketing and sales experience. She has built seven successful businesses, five of which she has sold and currently still owns and operates two of them. I want to welcome Ann Carden to the show.
Speaker 2:Hey, thank you, andy, for having me. It's a pleasure to be here, super excited.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm excited to have you as well. You have quite a long list of business experience and I think it'll be very valuable to the listeners today.
Speaker 2:That shows my age.
Speaker 1:No, no. So if you don't mind, can you just take a few minutes and kind of let everyone know an overview of the things you're currently doing with your consulting business and then how they can connect with you?
Speaker 2:Sure, I work with really professional entrepreneurs and business owners who want to build out revenue streams that are coaching, consulting. They want to get a book done, they want to build influence in the market, they want to play in a premium market. So really helping them level everything up and elevate their business to get really high-end, premium clients and customers.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's awesome. All right, so I'd like to start at the beginning. What was the first business you started and what was your motivation behind it?
Speaker 2:Well, you're going to laugh, but it was a doll business. It was a handmade doll business and I started that out of financial hardship. I left my corporate career, I left my corporate income. When I had kids, I didn't want them raised by daycare and I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. We made a move halfway across the country, bought a home in the country, which meant it was outside of a small town. There was no opportunity and most people would not understand this, because this was before we had access to the internet. I mean, it was out there but nobody had access to it. We didn't have computers, we didn't have any of those things. So the opportunity wasn't there and financially it just was.
Speaker 2:My husband's paycheck wasn't working so I could not squeeze two more dimes out of his paycheck and my four-year-old son needed shoes and I literally sat down and cried because we didn't have the money. So I prayed for an answer. I found I had a box of stuff I'm very resourceful, I always have been always found a way to make money and I had a box of stuff in my stored in my basement that was worth about $15. And I said maybe I can make something out of this and take it to a store in town and sell it. And long story short, that turned into an international, global doll business that I did for seven years.
Speaker 2:I did all my own designs. I had lots of people working for me. I was basically running a man out of my home. So that was my first business. And then from there, when I sold that, I sold all of my designs, my patterns, everything I built up in that company and then I went on to my next thing. But it started out of financial hardship. It didn't really start with a business idea in mind. It started with how can I make some money to help my family?
Speaker 1:And so you were creating the dolls and then reselling them. Did you had you had any experience prior to that in production or retail?
Speaker 2:Well, my business background was in retail. So I had used to run a million dollar, multimillion dollar departments for a billion dollar retail organization and I did that for 13 years. So I was in high level management. I would have 30 and 35, 40 people that I was managing in those departments and everything that I did was always in a premium. They were always high end department stores, so they were always premium department and premium retail experience. So, yes, I had some, but it didn't prepare me for entrepreneurship, even though I did a lot of things in that business. I was really an entrepreneur, to be honest.
Speaker 2:I was responsible for the success and the growth of those departments, but it still wasn't the same as playing with my own money.
Speaker 1:No, I can definitely see that, While it may not have been the same, I think you probably had the core, you probably had core fundamentals. You didn't even realize that helped you get to the point where you were at. So you living in the country, how did that work with distributing, producing everything? You know what were. What did that look like for you?
Speaker 2:That's so funny. So I had to do things the old fashioned way again, showing my age. People would probably a lot of your audience wouldn't even relate to this, but the way that became an international business is I had to advertise in international magazines and then there were craft stores all across the country and I got into one specific type of store and they had stores all across the country and so then I would rent space in all of those stores. So I was in multiple stores throughout the nation and then I was also shipping overseas through that magazine. In fact, a couple of my dolls ended up on the cover of one of the international magazine I used to run in. You couldn't buy the cover. They had to be selected out of thousands of vendors, thousands of people advertising.
Speaker 2:So that was quite an honor and but I did all of my own designs. I didn't copy people, and that was one of the things that really set me apart. And, and really one of the things that put my dolls on the map is I created this line of Noah's Ark dolls. So they were. There were giraffes and there were lions and tigers and everything that would have gone into Noah's Ark, and this Noah's Ark fabric had come onto the market and that literally exploded my business and all the dolls were signed, numbered, they had all had special tags, all of that. So there there was some brand, a lot of branding. That went into that too, and I became very well known in that in in the craft industry and in the craft space. So I would have people waiting for my next dolls to come out.
Speaker 1:Hey everyone, I have a quick interruption from the show, but I'll make it brief. I've got something that I think is vital for every entrepreneur out there and it can be a game changer for your business. Navigating the business world demands more than just passion. It requires crystal clear financial insight. That's where our company, olive Branch Bookkeeping Inc, comes in, offering not just book cleanups for those behind on taxes, but also comprehensive monthly bookkeeping, payroll management, corporate structuring and the key to informed decisions detailed profit and loss reports.
Speaker 1:Imagine this your financial records spotless and strategic, paving the way for growth without the headache of entangling years of bookkeeping yourself. With Olive Branch, you're equipped with financial clarity to steer your business forward. So if the thought of sorting out your finances feels overwhelming, let Olive Branch Bookkeeping lighten the load. They're more than just bookkeepers. They're your financial clarity partners. If you'd like to see how our team can help you and your business, I'll include a booking link and contact information in the show notes so you can schedule a free discovery call. That's awesome. I, uh, it's funny. You're talking about magazines and, yes, I would say the majority of people don't have any experience with advertising and magazines. I I've only done it a couple times with luxury properties when I was selling real estate in Northern Idaho. But how was that experience for you? Because I do think there's such a gap now between how advertising used to be and I'm assuming was this in the 90s.
Speaker 2:It was in the 90s.
Speaker 1:yes, and I remember in the 90s when we first got our like our very first computer with the internet and you had this stupid loud modem in the background screaming at you and then you couldn't use the phone right like you couldn't get on the phone if someone was on the internet, so but those advertising costs were probably through the roof as well, right, advertising costs were probably through the roof as well.
Speaker 2:Right, gosh, I tell you, I talk about this all the time. I say people have no idea, like literally, if you can't be successful in business today, there's something wrong because you have no idea what technology has done. And a good example of this is when I was advertising in those magazines. I mean, it would cost me, you know, a thousand or $1,500. Now, keep in mind this was in the nineties, so it was not to do that. Yes, and what would happen is I would basically be paying for two or three issues before the ad would even come out, and I would not even know if that ad was going to be successful. So now, if it's not successful, I've just paid for two more issues with the same dolls or with the same advertisement, and so nothing was in real time. Now we can do things in real time, we can get our message out there instantaneously, and that was just never a thing. And we can do it free. In most cases, we can put it out there free and test, and that just was never a thing.
Speaker 2:I can remember a lot of years when I was growing businesses. I would have to advertise in newspapers and I would run a full page ad and those things were. Well, that was the other thing. I started my second business in a village with 98. There were only 98 people in this small little town and I started a business and when I would advertise in these in the newspaper and run this full page ad, that would cost me a couple thousand dollars.
Speaker 2:That when that ad would come out, if you got nothing off of it, and literally you had like a week, you had a week for that ad to hit and if it did not hit, if it didn't land and you didn't get anything from it, it was like throwing money in the trash can and burning it. Literally it was like lighting money on fire. And that was how we lived our businesses. That was the way we did it. So we tried to do a lot of organic marketing getting out, I would run, I would do charity events, I would get out, I would speak, I would do anything and everything I could to build up my brand. But with that international business that wasn't really an option. I just had to go out and run ads and that was the way I had to do it. So crazy easy times.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I don't want to get too in the weeds with all the details here, but I find it fascinating just because we see so many business owners now, like you said, that have access to the internet, they have access to social media, yet they're failing, and you had to get scrappy when we didn't have that type of marketing. The other big thing that comes to mind is you probably couldn't track your return on your ad spend either, right, unless you had people buying, maybe at a questionnaire, but there was no like. We have all this real time data now where, if we have people click on an ad, we can track them and through your website and everything else to see if they convert Back. Then you're just shooting in the dark, hoping that your sales would increase after an ad would go out.
Speaker 2:That was it. If somebody you know, I, my second business was a health club, right or, or like if I got doll orders, I would know that ad was successful, did the ad pay for itself and did I make a profit? And that was how we tracked. That was the data that we had. And even when I had my, my first health club and I would run those full page ads, we measured that off of okay, how many people did we have come in, how many people did we close into sales. That was all tracked manually. We kept little tracking sheets and so we did track all of that. But that was the data that we used.
Speaker 2:And but again you, a lot of times you would put that money in and you had no idea if it was going to pull and if it was going to do anything, and I can think of so many times. In fact, one of the reasons, andy, I went on a mission to become really good at marketing was because I was sick and tired of burning that money. I just burned it up and burned it up and burned it up because I didn't understand marketing the way I needed to and I said this is, this is just crazy. And I worked with a coach who's showed me what I was doing wrong in my marketing and one of my businesses and I thought, oh my, I said, you have me and I have control over this stuff. And that was when I went on a mission, like, okay, I need to really learn what makes great marketing. And I started studying under Dan Kennedy and you know the I mean I think there's nobody better than him. His principles are still relevant today, and so that was all just part of that journey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's cool. I like hearing these stories because and I think it's a good reminder for people now to be able even now, you can get scrappy and do a lot of organic marketing. People, myself included, have defaulted at times to like, oh, I'm going to run ads to get customers, but there's a lot of free ways to get business. There's a ton of free ways to get business, especially with social media and the exposure we have. There's a ton of free ways to get business, especially with social media and the exposure we have. I am curious, though what are some major challenges you faced early on in business, and how did you overcome those?
Speaker 2:I think a lot of the challenges is we didn't have the information and things available today to learn business and to grow in business the way we do today. I mean today you can get on chat, gpt and you can find out a lot of things. Now that doesn't mean you know how to execute. That's the other side right. But even the knowledge and the information is helpful. And when I first started in businesses I mean even through several of my businesses I didn't even know what a business coach was Like. I had never heard of a business coach.
Speaker 2:I remember going to one of my first business conferences and you know that changed the game for me. And then I became a student of business and and I started studying. But you, I had to order business materials to learn, so I would have, you know, loads of these huge binders and notebooks that would be shipped to my house and I couldn't just order a book on Amazon to read a book, and so it was. It wasn't easy to learn how to be successful in business and and the other thing I think to really put in in perspective for people, andy, is I had, I was on a podcast and she said when did you first make. When did you make your first million dollars? And I said you know, I was on a podcast and she said when did you first make?
Speaker 2:When did you make your first million dollars? And I said you know, I really had to think about that. Because I said that was never a goal, because being a millionaire was not something like. There were only 5,000 in the whole country. So you didn't think about becoming a millionaire. That was nothing that you even gave thought to when you were building a business. You were building a business to work for yourself, to build an income. It was just a very different time and world. And so now you know there's a new millionaire in the United States every eight seconds. I mean, that's just insane.
Speaker 1:Is that a real stat?
Speaker 2:Eight seconds. That's crazy, never. And now we have billionaires, right? Those things just didn't not that we. Now we have billionaires, right we? Those things just didn't not that we didn't have billionaires, but look, you could count them on one hand for many, many, many years. But because of technology, we have been able to speed success and businesses. And so, going back to what we said earlier, gosh, if you can't make it in business today, it's just mind blowing to me that you can't survive in business today. I just really believe you're not taking the actions you need to take. If that is what's happening because there's more opportunity, like there are so many opportunities to make money and start businesses and even add to my business, I don't even have the time to do them all.
Speaker 1:Well, there's two things I got out of that. Oh sorry, there's two things I was thinking about as you were explaining that, and that's you made the comment that you weren't even really thinking about being a millionaire. You were just building a business and you're probably focused more on quality than the money you're wanting to make. And then the second thing is there are a ton of opportunities to make money and I almost feel like that's a negative in the space in some ways. Only because some people and I say some people, I'm gonna include myself in this because I've done it a couple of times it becomes a distraction. So, instead of focusing on the core thing you're building, you end up wandering from one thing to the next, thinking you're going to make money in this area because you're not necessarily, like product or service, focused on making that better. You're making decisions based on how much money you want to make. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:Yes, and I would love to speak to this because I want to I want to give a little insight into this. When I, when I first started working as a coach with a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners especially entrepreneurs, because they typically can start something out of nothing, right? So, and so those are the people I really want to speak to. When you think about business owners, they usually have an investment. So that's kind of how I differentiate the two. And I would say to the entrepreneurs which, if that's a lot of your audience, this will really resonate with them I say, look, if you went and leased a building for five years or 10 years which is typically what you're asked to lease a building for, because I've done it for years and you had overhead, you had electric you had to pay, you had phone, you had advertising costs, you had staff that you had to pay, and would you be running your business the same way?
Speaker 2:Or would you be all in and you would be completely all in and focused on what you had to do? Right, you would be showing up every day, you would be in there, you would be doing whatever it is to make it work, because you just signed a seven-year lease and I did that over and over and over again with my businesses. And so if you take that mindset and you realize that is what it is going to take like, cut out, cut away the distractions, figure out what you want to do, go all in. Learn all you can. Grow grow in business, grow in marketing, grow in sales, learn everything that you can, as if you cannot get out of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That is how you become successful in anything, and so it makes me crazy. If people aren't successful, it's like I said, it's more the actions they're taking or not taking, because there is no shortage. No shortage of opportunities to make incredible money. Even if you don't want to become a millionaire, you can build wealth, you can build an income that was never a thing. Now, back in that first business, I was making over a six-figure income 34 years ago, which was unheard of, but not revenue income. That was my income and so, but I know, if I could do it back then, doing it the way I was, I mean, it's crazy to think what you can do today and what I've even been able to do today, far beyond what I ever had thought about for years.
Speaker 1:I speak to this a lot on my show because I have a real estate background. My wife and I own a bookkeeping firm now, but you see it a lot in real estate. People get into real estate and they treat it like a hobby and I think that the barrier to entry is so low for becoming a business owner now that people treat it as if it's a hobby and so they don't go all in and they don't commit to the actions that are needed. And again, I'm going to put the blame on myself, because there's been at times early on where you focus on the flashy stuff, like focus on making videos and doing that kind of thing, but if it's not actually driving you revenue or some activity for the business, it's worthless, and it's pretty common these days.
Speaker 2:So with your experience, I'm curious what would you say are some key fundamentals to starting and growing a successful business, like if you had to niche it down to just maybe two or three things I would say the first thing is make a decision and be committed to that decision. Just like I said, imagine if you rented this place. Imagine if you had overhead, you couldn't get out no-transcript the leader of your business, of your company, then the buck stops with you. You are responsible, even if that employee messes up, even if that client leaves, even it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter whether you're doing everything or not doing everything. You're still leading the business and so you're responsible. And so when you assume that responsibility and you own that, you will make different decisions. You will do things differently. Because I'm responsible. You quit putting the responsibility and blame on other people and you take it upon yourself. So that would be the second thing I would say is you have to go all in. You have to be responsible. The third thing is you have to be very resourceful and quit looking for the quick fix and start looking for things with the long game in mind as well as the short game. You need both in business. A lot of people don't think this way, like how is this going to impact the long game in my business? And so think about that, and that's obviously also where strategy comes in. But you need to be resourceful and I'll give you a very quick example, andy, when I was building my health clubs, I didn't want to keep taking out of my profits to add something new to my health club, and so I remember I'm going to use spin, for example.
Speaker 2:When spinning came onto the scene, I wanted I was always looking for ways to keep my health club above everybody else be the number one club. I wanted to be the person everybody tried to be following. I didn't want to be the. I wanted to be the leader, and so that was always my goal in business Like, how can I be the best, how can I do the best for my members, how can I get the most premium clients and members? And so that was always my drive. And but when spinning came in, I knew, okay, here's something new, it's coming onto the scene, it's popular, people are loving it.
Speaker 2:But I looked at the spin bikes and I saw the money that it was going to take to put spin bikes into my club and I'm still in a small town, and so, even though the profitability was there, I didn't want to take all my profits and put in spin bikes. So I started looking for okay, how can I be resourceful here to get what I want get my members more, but also make money with this? Like everything should be making you money. So think about that too. Everything should make you money in your business until you're giving it away. And so I put together a program and a package and I actually went out and sold spin packages and a spin program before I ever bought the bikes.
Speaker 2:And my goal was, if I do not get the money to make the bikes, you know, I did all the math, I broke it all out. I knew what I had to get to break even. And then I knew what I had to do to to make a profit and start making money on that. And so I knew that if I filled this first session, I would be able to get the spin bikes paid for, you know, in six or eight weeks. So I actually sold them, took all the money up front, and because people don't, you can't believe them until they lay down the money right, so I just count on them to say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I want that, because I would have gone out and bought them and then been stuck with them.
Speaker 2:So I sold the program, I got the money for the spin bike and my whole goal was if this if there's not enough interest, I don't invest, I don't get them, I give the money back to the people that pay and I don't put it in. But it worked so well and I know I did that with other things too, I'm just thinking spinning here but it worked so well that I started using that strategy. Every single time I wanted to bring something new into my business, that where there was going to be a big investment, a big expense, and so then, before I knew it, I had all of these different revenue streams that were making me money, making me profits, and I was getting all the stuff paid for again. So that's what I'm talking about when I say be resourceful, look around, there are ways to do things, but it's not about people giving you things, and that bugs me a bit when people expect everybody to give them everything. That's not what I'm talking about with being resourceful.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a huge lesson too. I don't mean to interrupt you.
Speaker 2:Go ahead.
Speaker 1:I was just going to say that's a massive lesson. I've heard that from a couple of the people, some of the big guys with social media followings online that we probably all know, talking about pre-selling stuff like that to see if, for one, you're doing your own market research to see is there the interest. Because if there's not the interest and you would have gone and just invested the money into the bikes and then it flopped Now you're the one in the hole and, in a way, even though you could afford to go pay for those bikes up front, in a way I think it's a lot of us do it that way because it's we're lazy, we don't prepare. It was probably a little bit harder for you to go and pre-sell the stuff up front, but it saved you in the long term.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But you know, the other side of this is you can start building that momentum and get people excited and enthusiastic and give them something to look forward to, and what people don't realize is that also anchors people to you. So when you're doing things like that, there's another, there's a sort of a hidden side of that too. Okay, now people feel even more connected because now there's something exciting coming and so there's a lot of benefits. But that is a strategy that I teach people today is don't build something out, build it. You know, sell it first, build it as you go and for the at least for the first round, the first go round and then from there you'll have it and then you can sell it over and over again. But we did that with so many things I can't even tell you. Anytime I wanted something new, I would just sell, sell, sell. I mean even when we wanted to put in a shake bar to my business, we sold shake cards before we put in the shake bar. So there were yeah, there were a lot, of, a lot of areas and a lot of ways that Pilates and Zumba and barbell classes, there were all these different things that I did that, that, and here was the cool thing when I sold all those businesses later, guess what? I had assets in my business, but I had assets that a lot of them I hadn't paid for. They were paid for by people who invested, but invested to get something out of it. So it was, yeah, that. So being resourceful.
Speaker 2:And then I think, finally, the fourth thing I would say is resiliency. If you are not resilient, if you can't learn to be resilient, if you're not willing to be resilient, you need to just hang it up, because business is has cycles, it's up and down, there are valleys, there are peaks, and where I believe that the only way to fail is if you won't change or you quit. That's it. If you don't change or you quit, that's the only way you can possibly fail in business Change or quit. So be resilient and just know that everything passes, but don't sit there.
Speaker 2:The pandemic was a perfect example, andy. How many people went away? How many people went back to jobs? I saw coaches good business coaches that because they weren't online, they hadn't spent the time or the effort to learn how to market online or be online or be present, they went back and got jobs. They quit their business because they didn't know how to make that transition. Don't ever be that person. Don't be in that place. Be resilient and again do what other people aren't willing to do, and that will serve you so well for success.
Speaker 1:It's funny you brought up the COVID thing because it wasn't that long ago, although it kind of feels like it now, but within the last four years, just how much of a change there's been to shifting online. And when you talk about businesses like I was in Northern Idaho during COVID and in real estate, I talked to coworkers of mine that we were only locked down for a short period of time but they were just hanging out at their house. They weren't using that time to be productive and reach out to their clients. They weren't trying to build a momentum for when alone a website or any sort of like online presence and those are the ones that were gone and they were some really nice restaurants that we had that disappeared because of that time frame.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they weren't even innovating, People weren't even trying. They weren't even trying. They could have been trying, right, and anything would have been better than nothing, and so, but the restaurants that innovated, you know, they were the ones that survived and even thrived. And I had this conversation. You know, we've seen a lot of change in the tech industry lately all the layoffs with Google and Microsoft and a lot of, and so then all the tech companies follow, all the layoffs with Google and Microsoft and a lot of, and so then all the tech companies follow, right, they they're laying off people, and so that's a whole big thing. And I said but there are tech areas where they're not doing that healthcare, pharmaceuticals, like. So think about what industries are thriving that aren't going anywhere, that are going to continue to grow, and so if you're so rigid that you can't make that shift or make that change again that's what I'm talking about with being resilient and even being resourceful those things will serve you very well.
Speaker 1:It's funny You've said resourceful a handful of times. My show used to be resourceful agent radio show. And I had yeah and my my real estate brand was resourceful agent realty and the whole premise behind it, like the whole mission, was to be resourceful for our clients and come up with out of the box solutions. So it's just funny that you that you've used that word quite a bit, Cause that used to be the name of the show before I change it to evolving business minds.
Speaker 2:Yes, I there's. You know, that's just really served me, even if my first business you asked me about my first business I was actually about eight years old and I I sold craft classes to the neighborhood kids, because I learned how to make these paper mache balloons with tissue paper and and I thought, oh wow, I want to teach this to everybody, but hey, there's some costs here, right, I had to buy the stuff and so I actually sold those classes and charged a dime or a quarter and I was eight years old, I was making money at eight years old and I was just being resourceful with what I knew and what I had. And, hey, how can I turn this into something? Not thinking about being an entrepreneur? That wasn't an obstacle, I didn't even know that word, but that's an example of being resourceful. How can you? You know, even leveraging your network. There's so many ways, so many ways.
Speaker 1:To me it sounds like you were hustling your friends at eight years old. That's what it sounds like. I'm kids.
Speaker 2:I was, it was funny. I was a Girl Scout for years, so I sold Girl Scout cookies. I was, it was funny, I. I was a girl scout for years, so I sold girl scout cookies. I used to sell flower seeds and vegetable seeds door to door and I would houses and I would babysit and I always found a way to make money and it you know, here's the thing, and I could tell you a funny story. I know we don't have time, but even my I have seven-year-old tri grandkids and they went out a few weeks ago and made a few hundred dollars and that's a whole nother story.
Speaker 2:But look, if kids can do it, adults can do it. I mean, look, and there's just more opportunity today. Just go ask somebody what they need help with and what are they willing to pay you. I mean that that's literally how easy it can be to make money. So there's no reason people talk about being broke or what I. I just look at that and say, if you have a phone, if you have the internet, you have opportunity. Period, you just do.
Speaker 1:It's just about putting the effort in.
Speaker 2:That's it.
Speaker 1:So I want to shift gears slightly and I want to talk about your experiences with selling your businesses. So you've sold five out of the seven you've started. What are some lessons you learned from selling five of those businesses?
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness. Well, the first thing I would say is, I learned you have to build a turnkey operation that somebody else will want to step into. So one of the big mistakes people make in their business they get into their business, they're good at something and they build that up, but the whole business evolves around them and look, nobody wants to buy a job, nobody's going to pay you a lot of money to have to come in and work their butt off. They're just not going to do it. So you have to build a turnkey business. And that was a real eye-opener for me. As I started moving that direction, I had to make sure that everything was dialed in, from the first phone call to tours in my businesses, to people in place. Nothing could be dependent on me. And when you do that, you have a highly desirable business and of course it has to be profitable, right. So that's what makes a business very desirable.
Speaker 2:But I went through. The first business I sold on my own because I sold out to a pattern company. The second and third business were two businesses together. I had a weight loss center and a health club. Those I sold on my own. I did not go through. I didn't use a business broker, and so that was a whole learning curve, let me tell you to do that. So then when I sold the last two, I used a business broker. So I've done it really a lot different ways.
Speaker 2:I think the interesting thing is the business broker really didn't work for me and I would not do that again, knowing what I know now. I paid him a lot of money and I ended up writing the ads and I just didn't feel like because I was not a multi-million dollar business that I was selling and I wasn't they didn't put the effort into it, and then I, but I still thought to pay them the same percentage. So it was a lot of money and I don't really know what they did for me, except it put, it put an ad that I wrote up on because their ads weren't working. So I wrote the ad and I said let's use this. And then, of course, we started getting bites and so they toured a few people and that was, and they did the paperwork. The paperwork part was easier having a broker, but they made a lot of money with the pay, you know, just for paperwork.
Speaker 2:So I would say you have to just really look at where do you? You know, one took a lot more time than the other, so the business broker was easier as far as it was less of my time. It was a lot more time on my part with the other. But there's not a right or wrong. You just have to know what you're doing, and you still can't do it on your own. We still had to have an attorney involved. We still had to have an accountant involved.
Speaker 1:So you know there's legal contracts and making sure that you're yeah, we're. We've been on the process on the flip side, trying to buy businesses. We're trying to buy accounting firms. We've had a couple negotiations and one that almost went through, but just, you know, until you start digging into someone's finances, uh, you don't really know how well a business is running. It's kind of amazing, even talking to even negotiating with accounting, you know, and bookkeeping firms, people who are in the industry that we're in, thinking that they would have their stuff dialed in and they don't. And it's uh, it's more common than not. And so I wanted to touch on something. You said that you have to remove yourself from the business and have it turn key and that's something we are always working towards in our business is how do we remove ourselves from it, but it is so much easier to say and it's a lot harder to do, so how did you end up removing yourself from it? What were those steps that you took to remove yourself from the business and make it turn key for somebody else?
Speaker 2:It was hard because when I was running my health clubs, I still loved doing it. I still loved doing the stuff, I still had clients, I was personal training and I was still teaching some of the classes and I loved it. But what I realized is I had to become the CEO. And when you become the CEO of your business and you put on that hat and you're thinking differently, then you can work the areas when you want to, not because you have to. So the very first thing is you want to be able to do things because you want to, not because the business is dependent on you. So you have to put the right people in place. But more than that, even before, I kept building out my employees and building and even expanding and opening more businesses. Because I had four. At one time I had to remove myself from two of them to get the other two up and going and get the people trained and get the people in place and all of that. And then I was going back and forth between all of them.
Speaker 2:You can't completely take your hands off of your business, and I think a lot of people. So I see two things they either completely, they remove themselves so far that they're clueless. We see this a lot in big corporations, right, they're absolutely clueless as to what is going on at the most basic level of their business. They don't know their customers hate them and they don't know their employees hate them because they remove themselves so far. So you have to think about how can I replace myself but still stay in it and still have your hands on the pulse of the business and still be the driver of the business? And especially as a small business, if you're going to be a billion dollar company, you know these are going to be a little bit different principles. But as a small business owner, as an entrepreneur, these are the principles to really consider. And it's just a process. You have to make sure you get the right people. You, but systems are critical and crucial. Everything becomes a system If, if anything gets done in your business.
Speaker 2:I always say it sounds bad and I don't mean to say this, but you don't want your people to have to think for themselves, and I don't mean that in a bad way. It's not that I didn't listen to people and that I didn't listen to their ideas and allow them to be creative. It wasn't that. It's just I didn't want to leave anything to chance If a tour walked in the door. I spent a lot of advertising dollars to get people to come in the door to tour our businesses and we didn't want to let those people walk back out the door and go down the street. And so we have a system in place. And the other thing is you really have to train your people. If you don't train your people and you don't invest in your people, good luck ever stepping out of your business. Those are probably the three things is get the right people in place, train them well, put in systems.
Speaker 1:And when we talk about systems, just to clarify for the listeners, it's you're creating repeatable processes.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Systematic approach to something. Repeatable processes yes, systematic approach to something, um, and it would be difficult if you didn't have a repeatable process, because now, if you have 10 different sets of clients come to the door and you have 10 different ways to handle them, how are you ever able to train your people? How are you ever able to like there, there's no standard to work Right.
Speaker 2:We even had phone scripts. So if people call my people used to script, they tracked. Where'd you hear about us? Everything, everything was systematized. Everything, down to even the the shake bar that we had. I didn't just go out and buy stuff and put in shakes. It was like a franchise, almost like a license. Just go out and buy stuff and put in shakes. It was like a franchise, almost like a license. It was a licensing program that we use where you did this many sports.
Speaker 2:For this I mean everything. Everything was systematized in my, in my business. Even my trainers had a system. They had a process that they followed with our training clients and I bought into those things. I owned a lot of different licensing programs when I had my clubs because they already had the systems in place. I didn't reinvent the wheel. It was easy to bring it in, train my people and it worked really, really well and it made my business so much more lucrative and it made it so much more desirable when I went to sell them because nothing was left to chance. It was already done for everybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how did you keep up with all of this? Because, I mean, it sounds you had, you sounded like you were extremely busy with multiple locations. So how did you stay focused to keep the business moving forward but also keep the training and build out the processes? Like, as you're talking about this, I think you're you're so used to being in it and so it probably felt natural for you. But from the outside, looking in, it's like you had a lot going on. So how did you keep all of those areas moving and growing without it completely grumbling or losing your mind, without it completely grumbling or losing your mind.
Speaker 2:It sounds like it was easy. It's not. Yeah, there were a lot of oh gosh, a lot of blood, sweat and tears along the way. Let me tell you it's not easy like it sounds. It takes time, it's a process, and this is the other thing people aren't willing to put in the time. It takes time to do all of these things.
Speaker 1:It doesn't happen overnight and it's really important that you understand that when you're building out and going into business and so so wait and not to interrupt you, but you're telling me that the people on Instagram that are selling courses to make you a millionaire in three days. That's not real.
Speaker 2:No, it's not real.
Speaker 1:I'm joking.
Speaker 2:Doesn't happen that way. No, it just takes time. But yes, it is busy and you are, and when I was running all four of those, it was crazy, it was a lot. They were an hour, almost 45 or 50 minutes apart. It wasn't easy, which but in the process I also knew that two of them were going to sell and so you know, I knew that that was the plan for those. So that was, that was sort of how I got real was able to do. All four is because two of them were in the midst of selling. But yeah, it's, it wasn't easy, it's. You know, I worked hard, I worked really hard. I would be in my club, you know, usually by 4.30 or quarter to five in the morning, and even, you know, and I did that for years and years and I put in the time and I put in the work and I put in the hours, and that's just how it was.
Speaker 1:Do you think everyone should structure and operate a business with the intention to sell it at some point?
Speaker 2:Absolutely yes.
Speaker 1:Even if the intention is not to sell it, it probably helps it run a lot more smoothly, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%. So, even if you're not going to sell it, be looking for ways still to replace yourself. I mean, think about this what if you get sick? Is your business just stop, or is it just going to go away? You know, if you put put so much effort and so much time and hard work into things, why do you want to just give up on that or have something happen? I think a lot of people don't think big enough, but it all depends, too, on what you want your future to be, if you've. You know, even with the business that I have now, I'm putting things in place to be able to when I decide to exit or sell someday. So even though I might not sell my coaching, so to speak, I have other things in my business that I'm building up to sell. So it's definitely something I believe people should think about, because it's also a legacy, right, it's helping other people too.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is, it's. It's interesting I Trying to think of how I could phrase this question with with you removing yourself I want to get a little granular here with you removing yourself from positions in your businesses even though you still had hands on, how did you know when it was the right time to replace yourself in departments or roles that you had inside of your business? Cause I've seen people friends of mine even that try to remove themselves too quickly, even if it's not all the way. They want to just swap someone out, put them up, put someone in there so they can look at the big picture, but it ends up being way too soon, they're not profitable enough and that ends up hurting them in the long run or completely pushing them into business failure. So how did you know when those when was the right time to do that for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know if I really knew. Yeah, I mean, I think for the most part when I expanded, you know, when I was expanding in maybe offering something new or bringing in something new, or I was expanding my classes and now I'm going to have more classes, you know, there comes a point where you say, okay, I can't do everything, I can't do it all. Or I expanded my hours in my business that all required more help because I was one person and so I could not continue to grow or function if I kept trying to do everything. So I think there really just comes a point. The other thing is, if you're not good at something, ok, for example, I can't answer the phone and teach a class, right, I can't do that at the same time, and so you just have to.
Speaker 2:You really have to look at the areas and say, okay, where is there really a need here? What's the most important thing for me? To get in here right now? That would help me and take some things off of my plate. And I don't think there's a right answer for everyone here, but I do think that you just have to have some instinct or some insight into when that timing is right. And there comes a point where you cannot grow anymore If you don't do, if you don't get help or you don't bring in someone to help you. So you just have to have those instincts. I think and know that.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I've got a couple of questions before we wrap up. I've been asking everyone who comes on the show this question because it's been such a it's just been such a hot topic for the last couple of years, last year and a half. But what are your thoughts on AI and how do you think it has affected business owners and entrepreneurs currently, and how do you think it will affect them in the future?
Speaker 2:That's such a good question. I get it. I've been getting asked this a lot. I've been giving a lot of thought to it. It's definitely a disruptor. I love AI. I use it in my business and I use it for a lot of my content and I don't copy it, but I use it to get ideas and to jog, you know, to get things rolling or jog ideas. So I do think it's super, super valuable. Will it replace people, like in the coaching industry? I tell you what my client there's nothing that people can't already find and they still can't get it done. So you said to distraction. I think AI is also coming onto the scene. It can be a distraction for businesses as well and, yes, it's a disruptor, but, like anything, there are now needs for people to learn AI. So that's a whole nother position right, or another opportunity for somebody. So I always believe that where there's a disruptor, there's opportunity, and that you have to find that. You have to find those gaps.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like the idea. I mean, I do the same thing you do. I use it for ideas and I talk about it on every show. It's like I use it to brainstorm brainstorm with myself, because it's easier than trying to go to Google. But if I have a framework or some marketing thing and I want to expand on it, it's easier for me to do that than to have a blank sheet of paper. But it's usually just to to help myself build from the idea.
Speaker 2:Just gives you the ideas. It kind of gives you a start. That's the way I look at it. It gives you a start for that content just start.
Speaker 1:That's the way I look at it. Start for that content, but I think that's such a basic level. I just saw a video today where they use the new chat gpt with a screen share and it was voice controlled and it was talking back to them and it was tutoring a student. So a student was doing geometry and they were asking him, asking chat gpt to to tutor him and it was like having a teacher on his computer.
Speaker 1:It was pretty amazing and I think that's going to be a disruptor in education and I mean it could be a lot of different things, but it's.
Speaker 2:I think our education can definitely use a little disruption. Yeah, yeah, I think there's going to be a lot of benefits to it and I think it's going to, you know, in in healthcare, for example. I think it's it's going to really do a lot. I there's going to be a lot of benefits to it. I do not think people should get scared about it, because there are still going to be needs for people. But, you know, the one thing I think it will do is I think it's going to force people to be better.
Speaker 1:That's not a bad thing. So last question before we end the show if you could leave listeners with one actionable item that would have a positive impact on them today, what would it be and why?
Speaker 2:One actionable item I would say look for opportunities to consistently grow. Don't look to keep making changes and jumping from one thing to the next, but look at how can I grow my core business and look for those opportunities where they don't require you. So I'm not talking necessarily like passive income, like everybody talks about, but I'm always looking for ways to build revenue streams that don't depend on me and I think that's a really powerful strategy when you are looking to do bigger things and expand and grow. In a way, it's kind of that same thing like how can I replace myself, but it's on a different scale. So, but one thing I see people do is they have so many different businesses and they're so disconnected and it's like that gets exhausting to run a lot of businesses. But if you can find a way to build off of your core business and build new revenue streams, that can be a really powerful way to continue to grow.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Well, anne, thank you very much for being on the show today. I know this will bring the listeners a ton of value, and we'll put all of your links in the show notes so that if anybody wants to reach out to you for consulting, they can get in touch with you.
Speaker 2:Sounds great. Thank you so much for having me. This was fun.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I want to thank you for listening today. If you've enjoyed the show and felt like it provided you value, I'd love to hear in the comments what stuck out the most to you. We'll see you on the next one.