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
The 5-Star Success Blueprint with Beate Chelette | #129
Transform your mindset and accelerate your business growth with invaluable insights from Beate Chelette, the Growth Architect, in this episode of Evolving Business Minds. Discover how she went from being a broke single mom and immigrant to owning a successful global photography company, ultimately selling it to Bill Gates. Learn her unique concept of growth architecture, emphasizing the creation of a strategic blueprint vital for turning your talent into a thriving business, automating processes, and scaling efficiently. Beate's journey is proof that opportunities can be found in any market condition, and her story is packed with actionable advice for any entrepreneur.
We don't shy away from the tough topics, from managing debt while digitizing large-format images to the tough decisions around outsourcing and balancing a multitude of business responsibilities, we cut to the core of what it takes to navigate the challenges of growing a business. Beate shares her strategies for systematizing tasks, the importance of hiring specialized help, and the critical mindset shift of valuing time over money. Hear firsthand how she managed the pressures of being a single parent while running a business and learn how to implement these strategies in your own entrepreneurial journey.
Finally, we will learn more about Beate's "Five Star Success Blueprint," a structured path to help business owners grow, gain more clients, and increase revenue. From market research and building scalable systems to preparing your business for acquisition, Beate provides a comprehensive guide to achieving success. We also explore the role of AI in enhancing productivity and the importance of maintaining a positive mindset. Join us and be inspired by Beate's compelling story and expert advice, designed to help you take your business to the next level.
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All right, welcome to a new episode of the Evolving Business Minds podcast. Today's guest went from being a broke single mom, an immigrant buried in debt, to building a global photography company and selling the business for millions to Bill Gates. She's now a business coach at the Growth Architect and the host of the Business Growth Architect show. I want to welcome Beate Shillette to the show.
Beate Chelette:Thank you so much for having me, Andy. I think we're going to have a great conversation about how do you make it happen.
Andy Silvius:Yeah, I think so too, and we finally got this one on the books because I know I've had to cancel from being sick and some other things, so it's great to finally have you on the show.
Beate Chelette:They say some things are worthwhile waiting for.
Andy Silvius:Yeah, before we get going too far, if you don't mind, can you take a few minutes and just kind of let everyone know what the growth architect is and then how they can get in touch with you if they're interested?
Beate Chelette:Yeah, I like that. You put that up front. So my name is, as we talked about, is Beata Shillette, known as a growth architect. Growth architecture comes from the understanding that if you want to build something, you need a blueprint. Like if you build a house, you know you need a foundation, you need walls, you need drywalls, you need framing, you need windows, you need all these things. So my job really is to make it as simple as possible for anyone to understand what are the steps, in which order do they come, what do I need to know at each one of these phases and then be prepared to making the decisions that are required in that particular phase. So I always say I help people land planes, because you can't have your idea. You can circulate at 30,000 feet, you do nothing about it. Your plane will crash. So there is a necessity to build out the route when do you want to go, where do you want to land it and how are you going to get from here to there? And growth architecture is really divided in two main components, if you so want to. So there's a five star success blueprint, which I'm sure we're going to talk about today.
Beate Chelette:That's the method in which you are moving through the growing, building and scaling of the business. And then there's the aspect of the business where you know I help my clients with, and they're in three very distinct areas. Number one is how do you turn your talent into a business? That's the first one, pardon me. And the second one is once you know what the business is, what the idea is, who you're serving, then how do you grow that into a real business where you figure out the automation and you figure out what are you doing. The automation and you figure out what are you doing. How are you going to get the leads? That's the growth aspect. And then the third part is the is how do you scale it? That's when you make yourself obsolete and you have other people do the work. So business really falls in these three categories. I want your audience to really pay attention to this, because it's not about the one marketing course that you're buying, it's about the strategic plan that you have.
Andy Silvius:Every business has the growth, the build phase, the growth phase and the scale phase I like that you've broken that down, because I I've interviewed a lot of business owners and, um, I think the way you articulated that is just it puts it into a framework that people can follow, because it does get confusing running a business. Right, you start, you know you start at one phase and then you jump around a lot, have mistakes, and so just having a clear plan with those action steps, I think would be a massive benefit to business owners. Now I'd like to dive into the photography business that you started To me. I've seen other photography companies and there's only, you know, there's not that many that go global, and so I don't know if I mentioned that at the beginning, but, for everyone listening, she grew a photography company into a global business. So I'd like to know a little bit more about the type of photography you were doing and then how you ended up building it into a global business yes.
Beate Chelette:So let's talk about, uh, in general, about opportunity. So the opportunity always is. There's an opportunity in every market. I really truly believe that. So when we, when we take a look right now, andy at the market, right, people go like, oh my gosh, it's gonna be a recession. Business is terrible, people are laying people off, and then they go home and they cry. When I see this, I do not go home and cry. I always go and look where's the opportunity. So I see opportunity right now in podcasting, which is why you and I are doing this. We are seeing the opportunity that YouTube is putting billions of dollars into creating YouTube as the number one podcasting platform, which is why we do video on the podcast. So we already, you and I are aligned because we already always looking for opportunity, because that is entrepreneurship in its core.
Beate Chelette:So, to answer your question at the time that I was building a photography business, my actual degree is photography. I, however, found out much earlier than maybe I would have wished to or maybe that was the lucky draw is that I'm better at the business side of things. So for me, the understanding of what comes in which order is a gift that I have. It literally comes so natural to me. I mean, you say something to me, I'll break it out in 10 steps. You go how did you do that? Like, doesn't everybody know how to do that? So that's just how I work and how I operate.
Beate Chelette:And I realized that that had, in photography or in the creative arts, a high value, because creatives think that they can be a creative, so they don't have to deal with the business, only to find out that the creative is one part and they still need to know the business. So they're hit with a double whammy after they just tried everything in their book to avoid doing the other thing. So I came in always from this business side of things, andy, helping people that have you know crazy, outlandish, ridiculous, fabulous ideas and have them. I was like how do I, how do I land my plane now?
Beate Chelette:yeah and uh, photography is one of these, these pieces. So I was a photo editor at l magazine in germany. You know, I was a photographer, I made money with photography and then I became a photographer representative, a still photography producer, and I ended up then having this idea about starting this photography business with architectural and interior photography. And the idea was that was at a time when people for the very first time in America this was, you know, many years ago where people were thinking about 800 thread count sheets which up until then nobody cared, people went to these whatever. Back then JCPenney got a bunch of polyester sheets and then were wondering why they slept so shitty all night long. So that was when people started decorating and Martha Stewart became a thing and all these things were popping up and I said I'm going to build a stock syndication and I'm going to go to all the top photographers in the world, the number one photographers in this particular field, because that was the one field that was still wide open. So lifestyle and you know, product like all of these things were all taken, but in the architecture and interior world there wasn't any opportunity specifically in that market was that in architectural photography you have to use large format cameras, otherwise the lines are falling and everything looks kind of like scored away and there was no technology at the time to have large format digital cameras. So it was just the first 35 millimeter camera basically turned digital.
Beate Chelette:And so I flew to these photographers to New York and wherever they were, and I walked in their studio and I loaded literally like a box with slides that needed to be digitized and I flew back and then I sent them to India and I had this whole system built out, how I was going to digitize this material, because a case study house is a case study house today is a case study house in 50 years was a case study house 50 years ago. A modern Eames design is an Eames design today and forever, because there's classics, right. A traditional house is a traditional house. A white picket fence with roses, a white picket fence with roses it doesn't really change that much. So the longevity of this business was amazing.
Beate Chelette:And then I had this moment right. So we're doing all these photos, we are turning them into digital assets and then one day, um, my photographers are coming in and we're talking the top photographers in the industry I mean, this is the a-list and they're coming in and they like throw some slides on my desk and I said what is this? Is that? Well, that's madonna's house. It was just published in elder core and it came out of embargo. Can you sell that?
Andy Silvius:And not to interrupt you, but when you're talking about slides, are you talking about, like the actual film reels?
Beate Chelette:that you're digitizing. Yeah, it was film.
Andy Silvius:Yeah it was film, okay, okay.
Beate Chelette:Yeah, yeah.
Andy Silvius: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, thank you. 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.
Beate Chelette:And because this was just a transition time when everything went into digital. But that was my opportunity, because nobody else wanted to do it, so I did it.
Andy Silvius:Okay, because it was still so new for them that they weren't wanting to adapt yet.
Beate Chelette:And it was too expensive to do. That's how I ended up so much in debt, because I had to pay for all of this before I was making the money. That was the investment I made into the business, because I was an editor at Elle magazine Before that. Did I know how to sell these stories? Of course I did so. Now I built up this global syndication of these at-home stories. Next thing, I'm syndicating Francis Ford Coppola, madonna, simon Baker, julianne Moore. Ford Coppola, madonna, simon Baker, julianne Moore, ciel I mean Cindy Crawford. I'm having the top of the top of the top in my home story archives because the A people work with A-list architects, a-list interior designers who work with A-list celebrities. And that's when I became I don't want to say I became a global phenomenon, but I certainly became the world leader pretty quickly.
Andy Silvius:Was that pretty exciting for you to go, because you had, up until this point, been struggling with the amount of debt, right?
Beate Chelette:Oh no, I'm still struggling with the debt at this time because I have the opportunity. But remember, in order to get there I have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get the stuff digitized yeah, I mean there was always a box that was flying somewhere, to india, to the uh, to the place where we were digitizing these, these images. And that was what, at 35 a pop, because it was a large format that added up and you couldn't do this in the us, had to outsource it.
Andy Silvius:Or was it just more?
Beate Chelette:would have been three times as expensive.
Andy Silvius:It's kind of crazy how that happens, right, like you know, not to go on a side tangent, but a lot of people discuss, you know, how we shouldn't be sending things overseas. But, as a business owner, a lot of people just can't make it if they don't outsource some of the stuff out of the country to other areas of the world where things are more affordable.
Beate Chelette:You know, I think you have to be as a business owner. Let's go on that tangent, because I think it's a good tangent to go on, and I do believe that there is a clarity in how you want to run your business. So you can say one of my core values, you may say, is that I want a brick and mortar business, or I want a business where I have people come into the office and I want to build something. I want to create a legacy business. I want my children to maybe one day take it over, or I want to maybe build it and sell it then to someone. That's a business strategy. You do that.
Beate Chelette:Where I was at the time, I had a brick and mortar business. So we had an office and we had people working at the office. We just needed to figure out on the technology side where we could get the technology side done fast and quickly without a lot of the drama that especially happens in California. I mean, california is not a friendly place to do business and it's very expensive. And then you're responsible for everything. And if you hire somebody and they don't pay their taxes, somehow it's your responsibility. And if somebody doesn't pay their child support, somehow you know the government. They come after you to, to to pay. You know to take, so you have to pay them so they can then take the child support because the government can do their job in holding people accountable. Support because the government can do their job in holding people accountable.
Beate Chelette:And so you do make deliberate decisions and say which are the risks that I will take and which are the risks or the expense that I cannot afford, and for me that the technology definitely had to be outsourced. I mean, there just wasn't any question about that. So it is a deliberate business decision how you want to run it. That's based on your own value and what you're trying to build. But that's a strategy. That's growth architecture at its finest. First question I ask everybody what are we building?
Andy Silvius:Now, outside of the amount of debt you accrued and I'm sure there were some major challenges with shipping items back and forth across seas what were some other major challenges that you faced in your business early on? How did you overcome those?
Beate Chelette:I think that the challenges are, like probably most everybody listening to the show Andy is how do I do all the work and do all the sales and recruit new photographers and make sure everything is done and take care of the accounting and take care of the bills being paid and make sure that the money is in and have a life and have a family? And I was a single mom at the same time. So I was, I was, I was stressed out beyond, beyond imagination. I mean it was just ridiculous. How ridiculous how much work I had on my plate and how do you overcome it. Well, people always say how do you do it? You can't think about it.
Andy Silvius:You just do it.
Beate Chelette:I mean, if I were to ever think about how I feel about something, I would not get anything done. Yeah, I mean, people always go like well, how do you feel about it? The question when you run a business doesn't really ask itself like that. The question the business is asking what do you need to do to achieve your main objective? And the main objective is part of the overall strategy we create. So if I have the umbrella strategy and underneath my tactics I know exactly if what I need to do helps or hurts that and then I stay focused on the execution. That's what you do and you don't look up and you don't look left, you don't look right. You train yourself to pay, to worry about money twice a month when you have to pay bills and other than that you can't.
Andy Silvius:Yeah, now, what you just explained a couple of minutes ago about all the hats you had to wear. I think that probably resonates with 99% of business owners because, especially small to medium size, that's what you do, and I think the biggest struggle, at least my wife and I have found through running our businesses, is always knowing, or is understanding, at what point do you hire leverage so that you don't have to wear all the hats and so that you can start to scale. So, once you're past, how did you break it down earlier? You had the build, the growth and the scale.
Beate Chelette:You have the build, grow and scale.
Andy Silvius:Yeah.
Andy Silvius:So I think for a lot of business owners and I say this from my own experience it can be tough transitioning from the growth to the scaling part where you can outsource and move yourself out of the spot, and sometimes it has to do with relinquishing control or not understanding how to teach people.
Andy Silvius:But I think a lot of people are just scared to hire. I've had discussions with other business owners where they didn't necessarily so. For example, we just went through a new hiring phase for our business and I over the years in the past have just gone and hired, like interview a couple of people and hire them. And so this time around, the last two times we've hired, we put out job postings. We had a ton of interviews or a ton of applications come through and you sort those, you pick the ones that should move to the next phase of the next interview and then hire. I know I'm kind of going off a little bit on a tangent, but I think a lot of business owners struggle from what you went through that wearing all the hats to figuring out how to hire a qualified person, to then take some of the weight off of their shoulders, and at what point did you figure out who you needed to hire, and did you already have this plan, this growth architect plan, in place?
Beate Chelette:No, the growth architecture I teach today is really the result of of years of of many, many mistakes and being and making some very, very expensive mistakes. I I like to systematize things, so I've always had good systems in place, because I I realize that you can't let, you can't have anybody come in and do things unless you clear what they are. The biggest mistake I've probably ever made was to hire somebody and then think that this person could do kind of what I do and do multiple jobs or wear multiple hats. If you're listening to the show and that's what you're thinking, forget it. It's just not going to happen.
Beate Chelette:People are not as invested, people are not vested in your success. They're invested in their own success and they are always asking what is in it for me. So you love your business. They don't. They like you and they like your business and it's cool. But there, believe me, if somebody offers them more money and two more vacation days, they'll take that Because there is.
Beate Chelette:No, it has nothing to do with loyalty, it's just about that. In each person's life, their own life is the most important thing, yeah, not someone else's. Or? What I really recommend today to do is, before you hire one full-time person. Take that job and slice it and dice it in as many small jobs as you possibly can, on whether that's just somebody who does videos, somebody who just does social media, somebody who just does the video on YouTube. I'd rather have you have a team of five people that work five hours a week each than have one person that works full time, because it's less dangerous for the business and it just requires more management than you have to go and build, you know, set up a proper project management software.
Beate Chelette:But that's easy when you know what you're doing and that's you know why people hire me. They, you know that's what I help them with. They say well, how do I get from the growth phase to the scale phase? How do I get from the building phase to the growth phase? And then we look at where we want to go and then we reverse, engineer these pieces and then once I know what the pieces are and how we get there, then it's easy to build the systems. Once I know what systems we need to build, it's easy to put the workflows into place. So it literally, you know, I compare this kind of like one of those puppets that are on the strings. When it's on the ground, it's like it's a mess, like it looks like nothing, and it's only when you lift it up and you shake it that everything is in place. And that's what you have to do with your business.
Andy Silvius:You have to take it, you have to lift it up and hang it you know, on a knob, so you know what it looks like and then you know exactly what you can do with it yeah, the other one of the things we've done too and I don't know if this is something that you do, but I know it's helped us a lot is just writing out every task that the job like we were going to hire a new position what is every little task that needs to be done in that job, because I I think we've hired in the past where it's like we think we need someone because there's a few items that are, you know, taking a lot of our time, but then you put someone in place and it doesn't necessarily warrant a full-time or a person in that spot, or we just haven't identified all the tasks that they need to do well, it's easy.
Beate Chelette:You take a list, um, as you're going through a week, and there's a uh and there's a line in the middle of the list on the end, and I recommend just doing a regular sheet of paper so you have it right handy, or a clipboard and then on the left side goes tasks that you like, and on the right side go tasks you don't like, and everything that's on the right side becomes a job for someone else.
Andy Silvius:It's a very simple way of doing it. I like it.
Beate Chelette:I like it very simple. Now you may be good. Remember now, what I did not say is I didn't say what you're good at and what you're not good at. I said what you like and what you don't like, because you could dislike accounting and be good at it. But if you dislike it and you're good at it, why would you want to do it? Now, if you like accounting and you really slice and dice the numbers so you know your KPIs and your performance metrics and how you're hitting the targets and what your profit margin is on every single job, by all means knock yourself out. But unless that is the case, please don't.
Andy Silvius:So it's probably better if you liked it but you weren't good at it because you'd like it enough to learn it.
Beate Chelette:See, that's a very astute comment. That means that you just immediately thought about something that you did and where that was exactly the case. But that's how we get caught in these endless loops that we are terrorizing ourselves as business owners to go like, well, should I hire, Should I not hire? What should I hire for? It becomes very simple. I don't like it.
Andy Silvius:Yeah, there's plenty of things in business I don't like, but the great thing is I think my wife and I have identified she likes the things I hate and same for me.
Beate Chelette:Good for you to marry her.
Andy Silvius:Yeah, well, this was a long time of learning our strengths and weaknesses, and especially with business. Yeah, and actually I've mentioned it quite a few times on this podcast. The book that really triggered it for me was a book called Rocket Fuel and talks about the. I think it's like the integrator and the visionary and so and there's always, you know, for a business there's a lot of times you need two different people. The visionary is not necessarily good at integrating and applying. You know the execution of it.
Beate Chelette:Sounds like EOS to me. Yes, yes, there's a lot about that, and I'm not saying that you can't be an integrator to some extent and a visionary. I do believe that you have to know things well enough to know if other people are doing a good job or not. I mean, how would you know if somebody is doing good accounting if you don't even know how to open your QuickBooks and write an invoice? I mean, that's ludicrous in my opinion. I mean you have to be good enough to know if somebody does a good job.
Beate Chelette:I'm pretty good at many things. It has nothing to do with being humble or not humble or whatever that might be, but it has something to do with that. I happen to really like systems and processes, but I also know that I can completely get caught into minutiae and that there are people that are better at it than I am, because I go down a rabbit hole. I know my personality type. I know what I tend to do.
Beate Chelette:I know I'm very consistent in how I show up, in how I show up, and I do catch myself sometimes with things that I shouldn't be doing because I made a decision to give it to someone else, but I still want to do them and mess everybody up because that's my whatever ego or my exaggerated esteem of self or my capabilities, whatever you may want to call it, or maybe I'm just a jerk, but as a business owner, we have to have these, the self-awareness to say what do I do and how do I show up. I had a great line that I used this weekend on someone where there was a family event and there was a conversation about well, so-and-so always looks at me like that. They still think I'm the same way that I was when I was a child and I said other people's perception of you is on you Because it's on your own mind.
Beate Chelette:It's a story you believe in. It's the trigger point, you're still allowed to happen. Believe in it's the trigger point, you're still allowed to happen. And it's then the actions, because you give up. You give up on being able to make the change, so you just fall right back into your old pattern. That's on you the perception other people have of you as a leader, as a business owner, as an integrator, as a visionary.
Andy Silvius:That is something you have 100% control over, and if you don't like the way you show up, you got to do the work yeah, sorry, I'm just thinking about, you know, when we, when I have these discussions, it's like I relate a lot to some of the things that we've had in our struggles in our own business and choices we've made. So, um, I do, I feel like a lot of business owners never really reach the levels of success and revenue that they want to achieve. A lot of people I, you know I say a lot, I'm generalizing, but I think just based on my conversations I've had in the past. But I'm curious for you what and I hope this isn't redundant because we're definitely have gone through some of these but what were some of the key fundamentals that allowed you to grow your business into a multimillion dollar business? Like if you had to identify just core concepts.
Beate Chelette:The core concepts are very. Again, everything is really really super simple. If you run a hundred thousand dollar business, you're a different leader than if you run a million dollar business a different leader than you run a $5 million business, a different leader than you run a $10 million business. If you want to be a $100 million business, you need to act like somebody who owns a $100 million company. I'm going to give you one very simple example. Put it in perspective.
Beate Chelette:It's one of the most fascinating conversations I've had. So in one of the groups that I mentor, one of the women said well, I'm finding somebody to work in India for $3 an hour. I said $3 an hour. Well, I know I can get a VA for $3 an hour. I'm like I would never hire somebody for $3 an hour. But she wanted to hire somebody for $3 an hour. I said well, you just told me that you signed about $ four million dollars in work through government contracts that are going to roll in over the next three years. So allow me to take you through an exercise. How is somebody who just signed four million dollars in government contracts working when hiring? I said is this person looking for a $3 an hour person in India and spending hours of their time to make sure that they don't overpay that $3 person and she says that sounds ridiculous. I said you do sound ridiculous.
Andy Silvius:Well, she probably didn't even recognize she was doing it right.
Beate Chelette:No, of course she didn't recognize. I said how much time are you spending on training somebody who's $3 an hour? She says hours. I said are they any good? She says no. I said why are you wasting your time?
Andy Silvius:Yeah.
Beate Chelette:I said, somebody who runs a business that has $4 million in government contracts would never do this. You're acting like somebody who's running a $50,000 business. That's how you get there. At every step of the way you say not looking at what you mindset. You know the vibrational energy of how we create things are all based on these same concepts.
Beate Chelette:One day it might happen. It'll probably be better if you're out there and actually do stuff so you can make it happen and be in that vibration of that energy to call these things in that are rightfully yours. But I think that's where most people get caught is they go and they say I want to be a million dollar business but I'm not. So I'm going to act like 60,000, hopefully getting to $100,000 business. And then one day, when you know magically things change, which can't because you keep doing the same thing over and over and over again then when I'm going to be the $1 million business, then I'm going to behave like a million dollar business owner. No, if you had 60,000 and you want to be a million dollar business owner, you better figure out what a million dollar business owner does and then you become that. That's how you are a one million dollar business owner. That's why people don't grow and that's why they keep going through these crazy sine waves.
Andy Silvius:When your behavior is different too.
Beate Chelette:Yeah.
Andy Silvius:Your behavior, of everything that you choose to do, is different at those different levels.
Beate Chelette:Yeah, it's like I'm going to make myself a hair appointment with a hairdresser that is $20 less expensive, but it takes me 45 minutes to drive there and 45 minutes to get back. But I saved myself $20. Did you Really?
Andy Silvius:It's so funny, you say that I've had this conversation with family members and friends that it's when you value money more than your own time, when we don't realize that money is replaceable but your time is not.
Beate Chelette:I value my time over everything, over everything. When I, you know, we just had a wedding over the weekend and I spent a lot of time and energy in creating an experience that I wanted our guests to have, because that is important to me and because I value my time and I value their time, I want them, when they come, to feel a particular way, I wanted to create an experience, so I'm willing to put the time and the money in to create that, because I know that these experiences people will take with them and hold them forever. That matters to me. But I also have to catch myself. If I'm saving money Now, that doesn't mean that I stupidly overpay on stuff.
Andy Silvius:Right.
Beate Chelette:But sometimes I'm like, is it worth my time to do all of that and then to save money? And I, and I did something really stupid the other day. You know, my, my, my granddaughter. I have a. I have a 10 months old granddaughter who I think is the most perfect child ever to walk the planet, and I, you know, I found on on a Facebook marketplace this bath thing in the tub where you strap them in so they don't flop around, or fall, yeah, but they can play or something.
Beate Chelette:Yeah, yeah, yeah, Exactly. And then I spent this enormous amount of time and energy on coordinating with this person to get this device and I thought if I would have just bought that thing and shipped it to me, then I probably would have saved myself all this time. And then I'm thinking well, my husband is in renewable energy, so we do not believe in wasting and over-plastic the planet, so reuse is one of our core principles as a couple, and putting that energy and effort in it to make that happen for my granddaughter is also something that I really value. So in my head I'm justifying that in this particular case I was okay with it because it was something that was meaningful to me to do something and I was willing to put the extra effort in it and it fulfilled a core value of mine. But on a time level I was willing to put the extra effort in it and it fulfilled a core value of mine, but on a time level that was stupid yeah, I know.
Andy Silvius:I know exactly what you're feeling, though, because I've had this conversation a handful of times with, like I said, family members, and I've done it too. And then you realize or I've done it where I've purchased something like that, thinking, oh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna save money by doing it, but by the time you calculate your driving and all the things it takes, it ends up costing you more. Now, I think for business owners that are early, early on, like brand new, a lot of times all you have is your time. So for a business that you just started, there are people that will need to take a lot of time invested up front. But that's not necessarily what you're talking about. You're talking about as you've grown. You have to evaluate what's more important the time or the money you always, you always.
Beate Chelette:Do you pay? Yeah, you pay with time or you pay with money. If you pay with time, you cannot spend that time to do money generating tasks. Right, it's, it's that, it's that easy. So if you have no work, your first job call to order has to be how do I get work? And then when you do that and you say how much, how much time and energy do I need to spend to get money in the door, then how much time do I have left to do all these other tasks? But in the beginning I always compare it to running up a spiral staircase and three-inch heels as fast as you can while carrying a 20-pound sand sack.
Beate Chelette:I mean that's just building a business. It's just a lot of work.
Andy Silvius:Right. Do you have any specific strategies or tips that would help business owners that might be struggling to grow their business? You know how do they gain more clients and increase their revenue.
Beate Chelette:Yeah, so I'll. Let's just take him through the five star success blueprint, because, yeah, that's designed to do that. So the five star success blueprint is really my I call it. My proprietary method is like this is a system that I use for everybody, and it has five different stars in it, and the first star is what is the idea. So you know and I really want you to take notes on this, because this is the core of everything that you know I even gave a talk about this to a group that is very familiar with EOS, the Entrepreneur Operating System, and then the guy said oh my God, we spent like days on this and you did this in an hour.
Beate Chelette:So the first thing is the idea who is the idea for?
Beate Chelette:Why am I the right person to have this idea? Who is my client and what is the problem that they're having? So this is in the idea, in the first part, that you really need to flush it out. Oftentimes, the mistake that's made here is that it's being sold to a phantom avatar, somebody who thinks should need your product but doesn't really need it or has no desire for it, or you sending it in the wrong language. So make sure that it's very clear. They trust you to be that person to do this, that they actually need it. It's a problem they have identified, they have it and you know who has this particular problem. Then, when you have that, you go to the star number two, which is the offer. Once you know what their problem is, it's easy to make an offer, because then your offer needs to solve that problem. And if they have multiple problems or if there's a transformation journey problem, they start here, like with me. They build, grow and scale. That's a transformation journey. So now you can say what is my offer that I need to have to address in all these different pieces? This is where we built the signature system, because that is where we then identify what are the different phases of the journey and what do we need to offer on each one of these journeys. You have that.
Beate Chelette:Now you go to the third part, that's the system, and when you have, when you know what you're selling, who you're selling it to, you have the offer that solves the problem. You know exactly what to build. Then we automate. You automate before you hire. So you look at how do I deliver the product or the service? How do I do the onboarding. How do I do all these pieces Now? You build the system. Then, and only then, do you go to hire. Number four is the team, because when you have these other pieces, now you know who do you need to hire to run the systems that deliver the offer to the client who has the problem that you can solve. And then you go to the fifth one, and then that becomes the focus you as a leader, because then you know who you need to be to run that team that operates those systems, that manages that offer, that solves the problems for your clients.
Andy Silvius:To run that team that operates those systems, that manages that offer, that solves the problems for your clients. Yeah, and they all tie. I mean it's, it's all in order. So how did you just? How did you come up with this concept? Was it just going back and identifying what you did in your business to get to where you were and then just put these steps in place? Like, how did you come up with this?
Beate Chelette:It's thousands of conversations with people where they go like, oh my God, I can't believe my stuff's not selling. And I'm looking at this and I've said, well, who are you selling it to? Well, everybody really needs it. I said, well, it's not going to work. So why don't we figure out who? Either we figure out who the client is that you want to serve, or we're going to look at the offer and make sure that the offer actually is landing for the client you've already identified. That happens all the time. People make an offer before they know who they're selling to. That's probably one of the biggest problems. I mean, you see this all the time too. I mean, people do this. I don't know why or I've done it.
Andy Silvius:I've done it in the past, we all do yeah, but then when you realize that you're just sitting there spinning your wheels and you can't get traction, you have to go backwards, because if you don't have a plan like this in place, you're just operating at what comes at you. And then, yeah, once you have hit your head against the wall enough times, you start going backwards to the drawing board and figure out, like okay, what do I need to do to move this forward?
Beate Chelette:Well, once somebody said to me I consider my work like a pearl in the oyster, and I could not help myself. Andy and I blurted out good luck, waiting for a diver. That's it in a nutshell.
Andy Silvius:Were they shocked. You said that to them.
Beate Chelette:She was a little offended. I mean my German directness may have come out, but I couldn't help it. I mean I literally burst out laughing, said good luck, waiting for a diver.
Andy Silvius:I think we not to go too far on a side tangent, but I think we need more people like you to just shoot it straight. There's too many people that are afraid of hurting someone's feelings. But it's like, at the end of the day, if you're struggling with something, would you rather be told directly what to do or have someone be cautious of your feelings and not figure out where you need to go?
Beate Chelette:You know, that's my style, I mean, that's why I call it growth architecture, that's why I create a system, because if I can tell them that within the system there's a conflict, and you know, the landing is a little bit softer because they're violating the rules of the system, of course I created the system. I can I. It takes me literally 30 minutes the most. I just need to listen to somebody. I know exactly where the problem is because I've been doing this so often. So things that often happen, as I said, it's the wrong offer to the wrong client, or it's the wrong client altogether, or it is the wounded healer business owner mentality where they want to help people that need it the most, that have neither a desire for it, can't afford it and have no awareness that they need this right. That is the worst business model ever where you say well, you know, I really want to provide a service for burned out social workers.
Beate Chelette:I did this with moms, right? So I created a brand called the Women's Code, which I still do work in and love very much, but it was all about giving single working moms or working moms tools to be in balance. Well, guess what? Working moms don't have time for that. Even though they're out of balance and want to be in balance, they're not mentally there to make that time, to give themselves the time to do the things, because they're running around non-stop and they don't have five minutes. They don't have, they think they don't have five minutes.
Beate Chelette:So that was a bust. So, yes, they need it and they're stressed out and they tell you they need it, but they're not, at the larger part, not willing to do what it takes, unless they've had a major event that then forced them to rethink that. And typically women then at that point either blow up their relationship, their health or their job. But then that's a whole different story. That's a different offer then. So I was trying to help them to avoid getting to that point. But the awareness of the problem doesn't happen until you are at the point so great idea, not feasible, then wanted, nobody wanted yeah, I mean, as you're talking about that, it makes me wonder how many businesses are in that position.
Andy Silvius:You know that are creating a product or a service based on something that they think that people want or need, but at the end of the day, they don't. So do you do market, and you may have already answered this. So I apologize Because I'm really I'm kind of going off of some of the questions. They don't so do you do market, and you may have already answered this. So I apologize because I'm really I'm kind of going off of some of the questions I had for you.
Beate Chelette:No, but I love it, I mean it's so much better of an interview because your audience knows that you're in it because you're participating in the stuff we're talking about. That makes it a lot more real. So it's more than an interview. We're actually having a intelligent conversation over a beer or whatever we're drinking. Right about this, I think this makes it so much better.
Andy Silvius:So fire away. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So do you have. I know you talked about identifying the avatar, but how do you do some of your market research to understand who needs the product or service prior to doing all of that work?
Beate Chelette:That's where ADD comes in.
Andy Silvius:Very helpful where you helpful where you add like attention deficit disorder. Yeah, yeah, okay, okay I'm?
Beate Chelette:I'm an information junkie, yeah, and I am constantly. You know, gary says I'm addicted to my phone, um, but I'm. I'm always thinking about what's, what's what's happening, where is this going next? And then, how does this affect what I do, like what I told you. You know, I went to this podcasting conference and I met the people from YouTube and when I found out what they're doing with podcasting on YouTube, I mean, you and I first would go and like podcasting on YouTube. Podcasting is an auditory medium. It's not a visual, but it's YouTube. Well, that makes so much sense. It's actually really smart, when you have so many views, to now create a new market segment that hasn't existed. That's going to put pressure on everybody else. You think that Apple is not already developing as something that is akin to uh, the the visual, uh aspect of a podcast, because it's eyes that you can advertise to people. That's what they're all about, right?
Andy Silvius:so we're seeing it with spotify too. Spotify is releasing. They've only, they've only so far let the top top people video, but now they're starting to open up for some of the smaller shows to put video up.
Beate Chelette:There you go and the reason is exactly that and the tools that are coming out. So, when you see something like that, you need to think about your own business and you need to think about what does this mean, own business? And you need to think about what does this mean. Then you know and I'll let you in the thought process. So, because we are in a very real interview here, or real conversation, so I'm not 30. I have experience. I'm not the cute, hot, sexy thing with a glass of carbonate and oversized sweater sitting about making my dream happen. That's just not my brand. I'm the badass grandma, right? So that's a deliberate choice.
Beate Chelette:So, as we are now going into the video piece, we are going back to all of our old clips that we've done all the content and we are now making, you know, reels 20 second, 30 second, 60 seconds and we are pulling out stuff. So we are now creating myself as a younger avatar, still in that badass grandma kind of vibe, but to go more into the animation aspect of things, because AI now allows us to do so many different things. So I'm constantly now looking as if it is true what YouTube said that the audience is men between 25 and 45 that are consuming a video podcast on their platform between the hours of 8 pm until 1 am. Who do I need to be to appeal to that audience idea? What offer do I need to do to sell them something if I have their eyes on my stuff? What systems do I need to be building? What team do I need to have and who do I need to be?
Beate Chelette:So we are right back in the five-star success blueprint. It's not difficult. It's work, but it's not difficult if you stick to these simple methods, and the older I get, the simpler it becomes. My slide, when I talk about the five-star success blueprint, has five words on it. That's it, and I'll take him for an entire hour on a slide with five words well, there's a, there's a.
Andy Silvius:I think there's a ted talk about slides as well and how you know, when you load up things with too much information, make them too complicated, people can't follow along. It doesn't matter how smart you are, it's just the way our brain works. And simplifying those steps. That's why I love this, this five-step blueprint you have, because I've been, uh, I've done goal planning a lot for different businesses I've owned and I you know I used to be a mechanic and worked for companies and then I started a real estate career and team and we've had multiple businesses.
Andy Silvius:But in real estate you do a lot of goal planning. So it's like you take the amount of money you want to make and you just work it backwards based on you know your conversion rates and all of that, but having when you step in. Where I really found this difficult is when I stepped into a different business where you have a different market of people for your serve. You have to understand who's going to buy or sell your or buy your product or service. The goal planning was far more difficult for me when I got into those positions than when I was in real estate, because in real estate you you can identify certain targets, but for the most part you are kind of you're at the mercy of your community and who's buying and selling. So I just that's all that to say. I love the five-step blueprint because it just makes it simple on how to go plan and have an actual plan to move forward in your business.
Beate Chelette:Yeah, and I'm literally making this available. It's at 5starsuccessblueprintcom. We made it like one of our low entry level products and you know if anybody figures this out. I mean this is a really kind of cool, cool little thing. I mean we have talked about this excessively. I mean if you do a search for me under that, you'll find lots of content on that. But I believe to your point that the big mistake people make is to listen to internet marketers.
Beate Chelette:And an internet marketer is convinced that the one thing that they're selling at this very moment is the one thing that will solve all of your problems, no matter where you are in your journey. That's a lie. That is an absolute, freaking lie. So, yes, you could use a scaling method, but if you're in building, scaling does nothing because you got nothing to scale. Try to multiply a zero it is still nothing. And you know. And when you really look at you know, because I always look at the business model behind things. So what I see is so let's say, you go out and you see the guy that does all the speaker training, and then he says well, the fastest way to get authorities to speak from stage? Well, he has a point right. It makes sense, very logical. You want to. And then you learn that. And then his next affiliate offer with this this other marketer guy is are you going to need a funnel for that? Because when you give them something, then you need to have them in a funnel and then they need to be converted. Oh, okay, so I'm going to go to the funnel guy. Then you do that, and then the next affiliate offer from the funnel guy is have you ever thought about creating an online course. Here she is, she walks right in the door with her. How to create an online course.
Beate Chelette:Well, that makes a lot of sense. So the internet marketing world is designed by the top whatever 50 people to keep you buying from them in an endless loop. To keep you buying from them in an endless loop. So then you have all these different products, because then you need to write the book, you need to have the online course, you need to do a product launch, you need to do the funnel, you need to do the lead generation, you need to do conversion, you need to go to the traffic and whatever conference and a couple of thousand dollars a pop you need how about getting certified? Because nobody believes you if you're certified. Now become a peak performance coach by brendan bouchard and you're just in this endless loop and you still don't have a business still running in the same circle you're a junkie yeah, you're a junkie.
Andy Silvius:I'm gonna have my uh video editor clip all this last part out because I feel like it's so impactful. You make an absolutely great point because it's all we see on social media these days, everywhere you turn, and it's very easy if you're in a vulnerable position, whether you need to make more money or you're struggling in your business and don't know where to go. You see this like I don't know.
Beate Chelette:One more thing it's called one more thing. Yeah one more thing and you're there. That's the one domino that makes all the dominoes fall.
Andy Silvius:You're just one more, just one more yeah, or the people that are doing the ads where it's like you know, hey, we'll show you how to make all this money from home and do nothing well if? If that were real, then why are they trying to sell you a course to do it? And they could just be sitting at home doing nothing.
Beate Chelette:Yeah, and that to our point of this entire conversation. That's why you pull out your five words from the Five Steps to Success Blueprint and you say, if I have these five pieces in place, I know where the lead generation goes. Pieces in place, I know where the lead generation goes. Now you look at the repertoire of all the stuff that you've bought and you say, now I'm pulling in speaking for lead generation and it fits right here. Now it has a place, a part of an overall business strategy, part of a model. Or you say I'm pulling in podcasting over here as an authority builder, which is also in the first part. Why are you the one making the offer? Remember, it's the first step, the idea. Now you say I'm using this and this tool to build my authority. Now you plug in all the pieces where they go in your overall framework, in growth architecture, in your overall five-star success blueprint, and now you know how it all goes together. What is done in the market is designed to confuse you, so you keep buying more.
Andy Silvius:Yeah, that's incredible. No, that makes sense, and I'll make sure that we link all of this stuff in the show notes as well, so that people can have it. I do want to transition a little bit because we're getting close to wrapping up.
Andy Silvius:Oh yeah, we can keep talking for a little while, but I want to make sure I cover this point, because there's only a handful of business owners I've had on my show that have sold a business for a significant amount of money, and we personally have been in a phase lately where we are trying to buy businesses and it's not as easy as it looks because we're trying to buy to increase our growth. So it's not different businesses. It's all within the bookkeeping accounting realm and there's a lot of due diligence on the buyer's part to go through and understand whether the business is feasible to buy for the price and valuation what? Well, first off, do you think everybody should set up their business from the beginning to sell it if they want to in the future?
Beate Chelette:Yes.
Andy Silvius:Okay, so what are some lessons you learned along the way of building your business and then selling it? What are some of those lessons you learned through the process of selling?
Beate Chelette:Yeah, I mean, I set my business up specifically for the purpose of acquisition because I did want a payday, and when you build systems and processes from the get-go, that's really the key to evaluation of any kind is it needs to be something other people want. It needs to be something that solves a very clear problem. So there's many different ways to look at how to set up your business. I ask all my clients I said are we setting this up for acquisition? Because it changes the business model and it changes the role of the owner? If I set it up for acquisition, I'm going to need to make my business owner more obsolete sooner than if I don't. If it's a family legacy business which you know, and I have a client in the clothing recycling business and their entire idea is that they want to grow this business with different divisions, so that every family member has a part of this and it's all part of of of a larger thing, because they want to create generational wealth. That's within the culture, that's within their belief system. That's a different model. So you you really again it comes back down to you cannot look at what you have and what you're capable of today and say this is what I'm building. You have to look at what do you want there. You know, and I and I do a lot of mindset work and we go very deep with all of our clients to make sure that we remove these mental blocks. But you cannot envision something that is not possible for you to achieve. It's a very simple idea and mindset.
Beate Chelette:I never wanted to be a dentist. It is not within my realm of possibility of achievement. It's never even occurred to me once. But teaching, educating, showing other people how to be successful is something that's in my realm I have. Now, when I have that clarity of what I believe my purpose is, you need to ask yourself how far do you want to push it?
Beate Chelette:When I sold my business, I was at a mental stage where I was going to push it. I was going to push it hard. I want to push it hard for many reasons. I needed to prove to my mother my abusive mother that she was wrong, that I was not a failure, that I wasn't going to end up on the street and eat dog shit. I had to prove to her at least. I thought that's what I needed to do. I ended up proving myself right, which is way, way better than proving somebody else wrong. And then I had to become a person that I actually liked, because when you do things for other reasons, sometimes you take on a persona that's really not aligned with who you are, how you want to show up.
Beate Chelette:That goes back to my lesson of the perception of others of you is on you, not them yeah um, and then I had to work hard to become the person that I wanted to be and be in a role of changing the perception other people had of me as just a kind of like a mean, terrible, hardcore, emotionless, logical german strategist with no emotions whatsoever.
Beate Chelette:They had no idea all the stuff that I had to hide, because I couldn't allow any of this to surface, because otherwise I would have been debilitated in the pain and agony that I felt on the inside. So I think the most important thing is you get really clear and quiet and honest with yourself and say am I willing to address this yet? And in order for me to get there, what do I need to address? If the last thing you watch at night is people getting murdered and stabbed, please don't expect to wake up in the morning with a great mindset and, believe me, I love my spy movies and I do like the bad guys getting caught and thrown into jail. But you have to be deliberate about what are you going to put in and are you doing the mindset work in the morning?
Andy Silvius:Are you telling me I should stop watching Yellowstone at night?
Beate Chelette:then but Yellowstone is so good though, yeah.
Andy Silvius:My wife got me hooked on it recently, so we've been watching it every night. It is so that's intense, that can be intense.
Beate Chelette:That is totally intense. But you know, then you need to counteract these things that you're internalizing with other things, with mindset, or you put time limits on this, or you, you, you know I think people get so drawn into some of this really negative, horrible stuff that you can, you can, you can tell that, as they're going into these moments or into life where, oh, so-and-so, I'm sure it's not going to show up again. It hasn't even happened yet. They already have a negative outcome of it.
Beate Chelette:So if you want to sell your business or you want to build something that's worth being acquired, you have to have a plan, and the plan starts with who you are and what your capabilities are and what you actually believe in the universe is friendly God spirit, one source, whatever you want to call it is here to agree with you, not to disagree with you. If you think you're a failure guess what? Failure is what's going to be served to you. If you think you're a success, success is what's going to be served to you. If you think you're success, success is what's going to be served to you. I mean, just look at some of the politicians that have absolutely no, no reason to be anywhere close to where they are, and what is it? It is the exaggerated, uh vision of themselves, and so convincingly though that other people are buying into it, and this is not for anybody specific, but for I mean, there's many of them many of them out there and you go like dude, how did you even get here?
Beate Chelette:uh, you're a loser, right? Yes, I think it all the time.
Beate Chelette:So the clarity about who you are, what you person that has that does. You run the business like a person who's selling a business. You set up systems like a person who's selling a business. You run your team like a person who's running a business that wants to be sold, so this team can be handed over and integrated into another company. That's how you do it. You get clear and then you execute on that clarity based on the attributes of the models that already exist of people that have done it for you before you.
Andy Silvius:Now, let's say, hypothetically, you have someone who owns a business. Currently they have not done any planning, they've been running it and realized that they're not on the track that they want to be. Would you I mean, I'm assuming you'd have them go back through the five steps, but would you have? Let's just say, their business model needs to shift in order for them to achieve what they want.
Beate Chelette:They're probably going to need somebody to help them. Yeah, it is literally as much credit as I give smart people. There's not one person that I know that I've ever talked to that is successful, that doesn't have a coach or consultant or somebody who kicks their butt or helps them lovingly. However, you know, whatever your style is to get out of your own way, it is impossible for us to see what we do. I have a high performance coach and she calls me on my stuff and I and I I do, and I have groups and I have people around me that you need to be called on your stuff because you don't know what you don't know. So if you're stuck, either they need to call you Andy, or they need to call me, or they need to call somebody that they resonate with. And it's like, hey, schedule one of the whatever strategy sessions, discovery calls or whatever that is, and at least see what resonates with you.
Beate Chelette:Now, anytime you go on a call like that, obviously it is a call determined to figure out if you're a good client fit. Otherwise, why bother, right? I mean, we're not in the business of giving time away. We're here, we're in the business of helping other people. So our job is to get people on the phone to make sure that we can help them and that they want to be helped. That's what these calls are all about. So find somebody who can help you at a rate that is painful but a stretch, because unless there's a significant investment, you will not value it. That's human psychology. For some reason, if it's worth $100, and it doesn't matter whether you lose $100 or not you're not going to do the work, but it's $10,000. And you don't get anything out of it. That hurts. So you're much more committed to make things work at that level, and that's why good trainers are priced at a certain price, because we want to weed out people that are where. It doesn't matter. You come to me, it needs to matter.
Andy Silvius:Well, you mentioned something that's huge and it's identifying if people want the help. There's a lot of times people will spend time talking to a coach or consultant or asking for help, but then they don't do anything with it. So their actions speak louder than their words to and whether they want to. And I've um, I struggled with this particular thing a lot when I was running a real estate team. I wanted to help everyone who came to my real estate team be successful and ultimately I felt towards the end. I I felt like I wanted to help everyone who came in my real estate team be successful and ultimately I felt towards the end. I felt like I wanted their success more for them than they wanted it for themselves, and it's a vicious trap, because then you almost become resentful by trying to help them and they're not doing it when people don't live up to their own potential.
Beate Chelette:Yes, yeah, yeah, you're absolutely correct. Yeah, I cannot want this more for you than you want this for yourself, and this is this is what our um. This goes back down to the wounded healer as a concept, which which I think that every consultant, coach or business owner should go through. The wounded healer says that if you help other people enough, you don't ever have to look at your own stuff because you get your satisfaction out of helping other people, which then covers how you feel about yourself. So if you are not a wounded healer, if you are a healer, a healer waits for somebody to make the appointment and then says what can I help you with? And then the plan is being installed.
Beate Chelette:You know Matt Ryder from Seventh Level, who is probably one of the best salespeople I've ever met in my entire life and one of the best trainers I've seen. He refers to this as kind of like the avocado right. So he says, when you go to the supermarket and somebody picks up an avocado and then puts it down and walks out of the store, the manager doesn't run after you and says oh my God, why didn't you buy my avocado? What's wrong with you? Are you not having guacamole? I mean, you're jeopardizing my livelihood, the livelihood of all my employees. Are we going to go bankrupt? You just didn't want an avocado.
Andy Silvius:Yeah.
Beate Chelette:And so that's how we have to look at it as trainers, and you will never forget the avocado from here on out right, I won't.
Andy Silvius:I'm gonna think about every time I go in the grocery store right, but it is so, it's so smart.
Beate Chelette:It's like if somebody comes to you and wants your services and then they don't buy. You just go avocado. Didn't want to do the work on the guacamole tonight.
Andy Silvius:Yeah.
Beate Chelette:Or it wasn't the right time for them. Yeah, it wasn't what they wanted at the time. It's just not significant enough. And then your job now becomes to have the best avocado, so you can attract the people that want avocados that are perfectly ripe, just for the guacamole, that they walk in the store and they're willing to spend any amount of money for it because they need that perfect avocado for the guacamole for tonight. That's your job and everybody else avocado.
Andy Silvius:Yeah, I'm going to think about avocados. Completely different now.
Beate Chelette:I've never thought about an avocado the same way, since.
Andy Silvius:Yeah, no, that's a great analogy, because I think we can be hard on ourselves too when somebody doesn't sign up with you or buy your product or your service and I do. I think there is a portion tell me your opinion on this, but I think there is a portion of like. You still need to be good at sales and helping people see what they can't see, helping them understand or identify the areas that they need help in, because, like you mentioned a few minutes ago, um, we, we just don't know what we don't know. And when we're in the weeds and we can't see our own problems right in front of us because we're so focused on minutiae and other things, a good salesperson should not be a high-pressure salesperson, but identify and show you where you need the help and why it's important.
Beate Chelette:Yes, and the sales training that we do, or that we recommend our clients, or when we help them to figure out the script. It's all conversational selling. It's really about look, you know, if I take you through the five-star success blueprint, it'll become very clear to you where your gaps are. And then my question is what do you want to do about it? Yeah, and then the question is are you ready? There's always two questions we need to answer. There's the simplest two questions in sales Can you do this on your own or do you need help? And if you say you want to do it on your own, that's fine. But if you've done it for five years and you're still at the same point, you do need help. But if you don't want help, that's okay. So can you do this on your own or do you need help?
Andy Silvius:Yeah.
Beate Chelette:And if that is a yes, I need help. Then the next question, the logical question, is am I the one to help you? And if I'm not, find someone else? Because you know? Again, I break everything down to the simplest, simplest possible. This this not very difficult. Do you need help or not? Can you figure this out on your own or not? No I cannot figure this out if you spend five years on it. Good, so you do need help. Yes, am I the right one?
Andy Silvius:that's a yes or no question it makes it very simple because we, as people, like to over complicate things yeah, and if it's not the right time, then your decision is you want to stay where you are.
Beate Chelette:That's a decision you just made. That's my job to get you to that crossroads and say this is a dead end. There's only a road that goes to the left or a road that's going to the right. The right is a yes, the left is a no, and the indecision keeps you on the cul-de-sac. That's your choice. My job is to get you there. You determine the direction. What are you going to do?
Andy Silvius:Well, it's simple. At that point too, it's simple for them to understand what they need to do.
Andy Silvius:Exactly exactly and if they choose to go and do it again on their own, uh, you know, there's a good chance. Handful years later they may be ready, when they've gone through enough pain or struggle, or whatever it is that they're that they're up against now, knowing what you know, now, after you know selling your business, you know building a large business, selling it, coaching. You know a lot of people. If you could go back in time, um, what is one piece of advice you'd give your younger self?
Beate Chelette:I probably would say very much along the lines of what we just talked about. You can't take things personal like you can't take failure personal. You know I have a story that I tell about that is. Take failure personal. You know I I have a story that I tell about that is like when you you know when your gps says it needs to be updated, but you can't drive when you're doing it. So you keep driving with the gps. It says needs to be updated.
Beate Chelette:One day, inevitably, they're building their freeway on ramp and the road that you've taken is is blocked. There's a guy in in a suit with a hard hat, the yellow stripe on it, and then you're going to stop, you're going to get out of your car, you're going to throw yourself on the ground, you're going to throw a temper tantrum, you're going to go. I'm the worst driver in the world. I never drive again and insurance is too expensive and all insurance companies are stupid. Anyway, I hate my life. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me. I'm such a failure, says nobody ever. You in your car, you do a little slap on the forehead with your hand because you knew you should have updated the GPS, and then you wave at the guy, if you're friendly enough, and say thanks, now, I know I shouldn't take this way and you're convinced that the destination that you're going to is still there. Isn't that amazing how that simple concept can help? And then you just find another way to get there.
Beate Chelette:And I think when we get into these failure moments, people have this thing that they literally like throw themselves on the asphalt and throw a temper tantrum because they're in that moment. They're so scared that there is no other way. There's always another way. So failure to me, or the way I look at it today, is very pragmatic. That I say you just eliminated a dead end. Congratulations. You know, this is not where you need to go, and the faster you can do it, the better it is. So instead of being upset about this cost me $1,000, it only cost you $1,000 to avoid you1,000, to avoid potentially going down a $25,000 mastermind with a big internet marketer. You only paid $1,000 for the online course to find out it's shit. Congratulations, you just saved yourself a year and $25,000.
Andy Silvius:Yeah. So just reframing your failures and understanding that there's still the destinations there. And it can be difficult in the moment. I've struggled with it. I think the majority of people probably would, especially early on. You know, taking failures hard, but that's a great way to think about it. I've never thought about it that way. I mean I still adapt, but I've never put the framework of like, hey, the destination is still there, we just need to find a new path.
Beate Chelette:Again, you know, if you believe in mindset and we believe in mindset that if you can, you know, as they. You know, I have it on my cup here. It says if you believe it, you can achieve it. So it is available to you. If you can call it into consciousness, right, so it's there. It's a universal law.
Andy Silvius:Do you think you're naturally wired, though, to have a positive outlook and mindset, or is that something that you've developed over time?
Beate Chelette:I had to develop that I really did.
Andy Silvius:What did I had to develop that? I really did.
Beate Chelette:I really did you do to develop it I did a lot, a lot of mindset work. I mean, I've I've always been, I've always had a very strong intuition. I work a lot with intuition. You know, like I, I, I, I see things, I see images. I mean things become very clear and the more and the deeper I go into, you know, trusting my intuition and my spirituality or my connection to the divine or one source, the better I get at what I do and the more relaxed I get at what I do.
Beate Chelette:I think that we are raised to believe that it's an unfriendly universe that is here to take advantage of us and in our ideal case, we get to 65. We have a couple thousand dollars we get every month, and then we can do for five, 10 years the things we really wanted to do, and then we die and that's a good life. That's how we have been programmed to believe. So if you're an entrepreneur or you're entrepreneur, curious, and you want to step out of that, then all of this is a lie. Otherwise you couldn't have this visual. So there's something that's coming through. I call it the voice. I always ask how loud's the voice and if it's screaming, you better get on it, because something is going to happen. The universe is going to create an explosion in your life for you to blow up everything, so you can finally listen to the voice that you're already hearing, that you keep ignoring.
Beate Chelette:So I believe that the positivity comes from this perspective of saying, if what I've been told, that's an unfriendly universe, and I have to hold on long enough until I get to a point that I don't even know what that is, what that looks like, but that other people have told me to so that I then can, it's just so ludicrous when I say it like that, I can't even say it with a straight face, other than saying it's idiotic. So you're here to have an enjoyment in your life now. So if you're here and you're listening to this and you're not enjoying your life now, guess what? We just brought awareness to that. And you're listening to this and you're not enjoying your life now, guess what? We just brought awareness to that and you better be doing something about this now.
Beate Chelette:So go find a podcast that talks about mindset, that talks about reframing, that talks about positivity, and there's lots of really good stuff out there. I like I like david niggles the successful. I like David Nagel's the Successful Mind. I like what's her name? Dana Wild, on positivity, on entrepreneurship there's a lot of really good stuff out there and then flood your mind. Flood your mind with new information. If I had the original apple computer, I cannot plug in my iphone, even if I override the operating system you can plug in a floppy disk.
Beate Chelette:Because it is an old system.
Andy Silvius:Yeah.
Beate Chelette:So every system needs a new operating system at times, and the only way to have a new operating system work is to either exchange the machine or to install a new operating system. So if you are not where you need to be, you need to install a new operating system. So start working on that. What's that going to look like?
Andy Silvius:I think that's a great way to get towards the end of this show, because I don't know that was a great conversation. I've had it's been a pleasure having you on here. I do have one last question for you that I ask every guest, just because it's been such a large topic these days, and every there's. There's everyone on the side of being terrified of it, or love it, or don't really care. But what are your thoughts on ai? I love ai you love it and uh how?
Beate Chelette:so? How do you think ai is my smartest friend?
Andy Silvius:Yeah, I use it every day, but I've had conversations with people who are deathly terrified of it. I've had people on the show. That's why I always ask this question now, because I get so many varied answers. So the question is how do you think it's affected business owners and entrepreneurs currently, and how do you think it will affect them in the future?
Beate Chelette:Yeah, this goes back to everything we talked about today. So if I think as AI, as AI as a thing that is coming toward me, I should be afraid, because that's another marketing technique. That's how it's being presented, remember. But if you look at AI like I look at things, that everything is a tool and I need to determine where and how I'm going to use it, it's your friend, the more you need to be on AI, because the good guys and the bad guys are feeding AI.
Beate Chelette:Ai is a toddler. So if you don't tell this toddler that there are certain bad words and that lying is not good and that faking is inappropriate and that mediocrity is not accepted, then all the bad guys that are that or believe in that are feeding it. Then that's going to be the outcome. So good people must feed AI more than the other people with all the good stuff that we're putting in, because the toddler is being educated, so being afraid of it is going to make it worse. Participating in it is going to make it better, because it needs both sides, and I'm part of Women in Technology Hollywood. So we talk a lot about AI and ethical AI and how it affects and copyright and infringements and content creation Also. We don't know any of this yet, but avoiding isn't going to make it go away. The Internet didn't go away for people that were avoiding it. Phones didn't go away for people that avoided avoiding it. Phones didn't go away for people that avoided it. This isn't going to go away.
Andy Silvius:No it's definitely not.
Andy Silvius:I think, and you know it could. I think it's hard to say, I think there could be dangers to it in some sense if, like you said, if it gets out of control with the wrong people. But I know for us I use it on a daily basis now and it helps output, increases output. There's just so many different uses for it and I'm using it at a very simple level. You know there's guys like if I was a tech developer you know some or some it guy I'm sure I could find a million better ways to use it. I'm building.
Beate Chelette:I'm building an AI business AI based business with a partner together on on evaluating a tool that we're setting up for acquisition, and it's a tool that is utilizing AI to evaluate resumes. So if you put a job on, you get 400 job applicants, how are you going to know who are the top 10 candidates are and how much time do you want to have to put aside?
Andy Silvius:so we we build a whole system based on ai where, in minutes, it'll tell you which 10 candidates are the most qualified well then, we're gonna have to stay in touch touch because we have big plans to keep hiring over the next couple of years. So when it's ready, I want to know about it.
Andy Silvius:Because that's the most time consuming thing is going through, because I go through and read every resume. I go through and read the questions in the application and then the resume, make sure that they match up and that's how I move people to our second interview. But it is time consuming.
Beate Chelette:We built the whole system. It does all of that automatically for you. It finds the criteria the criteria are designed with you in a rubric and then it'll check against the criteria in the rubric that you've given it and then finds the people and then it gets automatically set up for who the most qualified candidates are. So you know, to the point of your question, with AI, I don't think that being afraid is going to really produce anything that's worthwhile. I think courage is what you need in this world, and the more I know about it, the more I can use it. So it's beneficial, but I don't want to be surprised about it. I want to be on the forefront of it and I I think it's amazing, and I think your show is amazing. And while we're at it, we should tell everybody, andy, that you're listening to the show and you're still here. Thank you for doing amazing. And I think your show is amazing. And while we're at it, we should tell everybody, andy, that you're listening to the show and you're still here. Thank you for doing that.
Andy Silvius:And do.
Beate Chelette:Andy a big favor. It's a labor of love. Go wherever you pick up the show, give it a five-star review. A little comment, because AI is the algorithm right now. It's getting measured by engagement, so just put a little heart in it. Or a great show. Just a short comment, we'll do that shows that there's engagement and that Andy's on the right track and we can help more people with this show.
Andy Silvius:I love that you ended it with the call to action for my show. I appreciate it there's one thing I want to say about the AI stuff just very quickly. I think fear a lot of times comes from ignorance and just not understanding what things are. I think when you educate yourself and understand things a lot of times that fear disappears.
Beate Chelette:Yes, yes, yes, yes, absolutely. It's like this with everything. It's easy to be afraid, but what they say courage is when you feel fear, and you do it anyway.
Andy Silvius:Yep Well Beate. This was an incredible show. Thank you very much for being on here. I know that it'll bring a ton of value to everyone listening and I appreciate it.
Beate Chelette:Thank you so much for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure to be on your show.
Andy Silvius:Absolutely, and thank you guys for listening. If you liked what you heard today, go ahead and leave me a comment of what stuck out the most to you from today's episode. We'll see you on the next one. Thanks for watching.