The Foureva Podcast
Welcome to The Foureva Podcast, where we break barriers and redefine success!
Join host Jamar Jones, a dynamic entrepreneur, national speaker, and author of "Change Your Circle, Change Your Life," as he takes you on an extraordinary journey of inspiration and motivation.
In each episode, we bring you an impressive lineup of star-studded guests, each with a unique voice and a wealth of insights to share. From industry leaders to renowned experts, we uncover their secrets to success in personal, business, and marketing domains. Prepare to be captivated by their stories, strategies, and experiences that will empower you to reach new heights.
Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a marketing professional, or simply seeking fresh perspectives on life and business, The Foureva Podcast is your ultimate destination. Discover the transformative power of changing your circle and unlocking your full potential. With each episode, we delve into the minds of the most influential voices in the industry, providing you with the tools and inspiration you need to overcome obstacles and achieve greatness.
Don't miss out on this dynamic podcast that will fuel your ambition, challenge your limits, and propel you toward success. Tune in to The Foureva Podcast and join a community of driven individuals who are ready to make an impact. Get ready to be inspired, motivated, and 'foureva' transformed!
The Foureva Podcast
From chaos to clarity: Scaling Strategies for Entrepreneurs w/ Stephanie Warlick
Want to grow your business, build a powerful team, and reclaim your time? In this episode, Stephanie Warlick—fractional COO, HR expert, and business strategist—reveals proven strategies to help entrepreneurs scale smarter, delegate effectively, and create systems that drive real growth.
Discover how to stop wearing all the hats, avoid burnout, and focus on what truly moves the needle in your business. Stephanie shares practical tips on operations, team building, and leadership that every business owner needs to hear.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
✅ The #1 mistake stopping entrepreneurs from scaling—and how to fix it
✅ How to delegate without losing control (even if you’ve struggled before)
✅ Why building a team of generalists might be the smartest move for small businesses
✅ The essential systems and processes that free up your time
✅ How to use data and KPIs to make smarter, faster business decisions
✅ Why developing an "owner mindset" at every level creates unstoppable businesses
✅ The truth about DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion)—and why it’s more than just an HR issue
🚀 If you're a founder, entrepreneur, or small business owner ready to scale without chaos, this episode is packed with actionable insights to grow your income, team, and impact!
🔔 Like, Subscribe, and Turn on Notifications for more expert interviews on business growth, leadership, mindset, and operations!
Hiring somebody to handle the sales marketing brand over here, or is it particular functions in the business? How would you break apart kind of what's needed in someone's business?
Speaker 2:Again, we're going to go back to what skills and abilities does the owner have and what needs to be supplemented, but the key responsibilities are definitely someone that can help manage the finances. That's got to be critical. You know how much money do we have to spend, how much money is coming in, and so you may not have a sales operations person if the finance person can do financial projections.
Speaker 1:So glad to have you on the Forever Podcast. I'm going to be diving into everything operations systems, really buying back the time back in an entrepreneur's life, which is just so important, and really we're going to uncover a lot of things in this episode. So I'm super excited. But first can you just let everybody know who you are and what you do?
Speaker 2:Sure, stephanie Warlick. With Five Foot View Consulting. I help small businesses gain back time in their life so that they can scale their business, and I take care of the day-to-day operations. I also am an author and a speaker and a coach helping people scale in the corporate world.
Speaker 1:Awesome and what's going on right now Like what's hot in your life right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this week I am heavy focused on preparing for speaking engagement in Toronto at Disrupt HR, where I'll be talking about my digital accessibility book. I'm super excited about that, nice.
Speaker 1:Nice, nice, have you ever been in Toronto?
Speaker 2:Once, like a lifetime ago it was so long ago I was right out of college. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to heading back.
Speaker 1:Nice, nice, I've never been, so I would love to go at some point in my life.
Speaker 2:I would love to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well cool. One question I have for you is what is so for the people that are listening in right now, and there's people joining in right now on the live. So what's one of the most common mistakes that you see entrepreneurs make when it comes to scaling their business?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, lack of delegation is the number one problem with small business owners not being able to scale. They have a fear of relinquishing responsibilities to other people. Somebody's not going to be able to do it as well as them, and that really holds them back from scaling oh, I mean it's so tough, to delegate though it is it is, it's your baby, it's your, no one's gonna take care of.
Speaker 2:I've been there, I get it, but entrepreneurs and the owners are best at at one or two things the reasons they started the business, and they really need to get all the other stuff that other people can do um off their plate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so what's the first uh thing that somebody should delegate? Like, uh, so you're growing your business and you're going from solopreneur and you're scaling, what's, what's the first thing that should get off, should get off your plate?
Speaker 2:You know, I think that varies by person, right? Because you really need to focus on skills and abilities, each person's skills and abilities. So an entrepreneur might be great at sales, the next entrepreneur might be great at finance. So they need to keep what they love and what they're great at and get rid of everything else. So, again, it's going to vary by person and what they're great at and get rid of everything else.
Speaker 1:So again, it's going to vary by person. Gotcha, gotcha, I've often heard admin tasks is like the number one thing. Do you agree with that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean that is something that is a low cost, outsourceable task or set of tasks that can easily go to someone else. So, again, if we keep in mind skills and abilities, typically an entrepreneur is going to demand a higher value for their hourly rate for the work that they're performing. Why not get rid of the lower cost tasks to someone else?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I had this experience because I did hear about the. You should outsource the admin tasks, and the biggest problem with that as an entrepreneur, though, is like, if it's, if it's like direct admin tasks for them to do let's say, it's scheduling or checking your emails, or just some of those I feel like that's OK, but if you're having them do something in your business, it's more important to have some kind of SOPs or a process documented before you hire somebody to do that, because they're going to ask you a thousand questions, like literally a thousand questions. So, yeah, what is your experience with that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree that SOPs are great. I'm a huge process person. However, I don't know. Show me an entrepreneur that's written down all their processes where they've been by themselves and I don't know. I'll eat my words, but nobody has time for that.
Speaker 2:So I would recommend that they bring in a qualified person that they can verbalize what needs to be done. Bring in a qualified person that they can verbalize what needs to be done and that person can write it down for them and execute and then practice what they wrote down and see if it works and what gaps need to be filled in yeah, for sure, for sure, um, it is, is delegation.
Speaker 1:Um, I guess, what's, what's something that that goes wrong with delegation that you see commonly, because I think it's like, okay, let's delegate, but what are some?
Speaker 2:pitfalls that maybe we can avoid. Yeah, I think, level setting expectations. So you want to delegate and you want to have someone that can work independently for you. You don't want to tell them step by step, and so an experienced person in that area can work independently. But they need to know what they're driving to and what the what, the measurement of success is. And as long as that is clear, I think you can have success. But lack of clear expectations. So, as an example, one might say I want you to hire people for me, but if you don't tell them how many people or what kind of people, there's a way that person can be successful, right? So level setting expectations is critical.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%. I had a conversation with someone else and the expectations is just. I think it's in any relationship, right for sure. You got to make sure the expectations are straight, because that's where a lot of times things collide, they don't work out. There's a falling out because the expectations are not clear. Um, and especially as things change to an evolve, they should constantly have a checkpoint on expectations.
Speaker 2:Um yeah. I have a caveat to that, as I'm thinking.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:You know. So if, if I were called in as a consultant which I often am, I someone might say I know I need people and I they may not know how many people and they may not. They might not have the answers to give an experience, someone to outsource to. But asking the right questions, like okay, well, what's your budget? And then what do you like to do, what don't you want to do? Like kind of pulling up, pulling on those strings to find out what, how to get to those answers, I think is the next best step.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:They may not know what they need.
Speaker 1:For sure, for sure, and so, as as somebody is getting people, so they're, they're building a team, they're starting to delegate, then what's next? What's next to get them to that next level?
Speaker 2:Building the team is such a big step, and there's many steps in building a team right, so I got to stop there. And that is like again, level setting the expectations about what you need and who the right person is. You have to I. I choose to have multi-faceted and skilled folks at the beginning that can wear many hats, because in a small business.
Speaker 1:That's what happens.
Speaker 2:Everybody wears bands right, so, um, the more diverse a person can be. That's what happens. Everybody wears pants, right? So the more diverse a person can be. That's kind of where I recommend folks go, because you never really know, and that way people can support each other going on vacation or if someone's out, and then you continue to build from there.
Speaker 1:You hit my heart because so I had an experience where with scaling the company and actually I hired too many specialists and not enough generalists, and it definitely bit me in the backside and it was just such a learning lesson, like it's something that like, okay, you got clients that come on board, so you have particular needs, but then okay, what if those clients go away?
Speaker 1:What if, um, the, the, you bring on more clients that also now that's just like a couple of clients that need that one particular specialized thing, but then now you're moving over to this space and then they can't transition quick, you know, quickly enough. Um, so this is like I feel like this is gold. I mean, people don't realize, when you've been on the other side of this, this is gold. So, in hiring those generalists, what are the buckets operation like that they should be, that should be in Like, is it, you know, ok, hiring somebody to handle the sales marketing brand over here, or is it? Is it particular functions in the business? How would you break apart kind of what's needed in someone's business?
Speaker 2:Yeah, again, we're going to go back to what skills and abilities does the owner have and what needs to be supplemented, but the key responsibilities are definitely someone that can help manage the finances, that's kind of critical how much money? Do we have to spend how much money is coming in, and so you may not have a sales operations person if the finance person can do financial projections and understand.
Speaker 2:Okay, we're short on third quarter, we've got plenty for fourth quarter kind of conversation. Definitely an operations person that can take care of process and then sales. A lot of times that do the sales business development that's critical to grow the business well yes a lot of times that's the small business owner of themselves. They are the yeah, that's true their product outwardly facing better than anybody yeah, that's, that's totally true, totally true.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's a couple of people like oh, I don't want to be the face of the business. I'm like you have to suck it up because because I I don't think you have much of a choice. Um, you know, because it's it's hard to like pass that off, to have other people sell. It depends on the business, the industry, all that stuff. But, um, nine times out of ten it's got to be you. Um, that's at least pushing because you're, it's your baby, you know it's, it's, it's something that you started or you created, or you're now leading the ship and you have the vision.
Speaker 1:So, it's oftentimes for you to get to a certain point and then start bringing people in to help support that. What's one of the best channels for sales growth that you've seen in all the companies that you just helped consult. And what's a really great channel in the service based industry channels for sales growth that you've seen in all the companies that you just helped consult what's a really great channel in the service-based industry? Let's say they're B2B, service-based industry. I think that's primarily our audience. We do have some B2C, but primarily it's B2B. Is there a great channel for sales growth?
Speaker 2:LinkedIn has been working for me and several of my clients. It's a really great way to stay connected. It maintains a professional level, whereas Instagram and Facebook get into pets and dogs and plants and all that kind of stuff that you may not want to see on a daily basis but really to get the nuts and bolts of business conversation. I think LinkedIn is a really good source and has proven to be successful for clients.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then are you just is it just DMing people, is it just connecting contents, all of those things?
Speaker 2:The golden rule is, the goodness is to get their email address, so as soon as you can connect, follow them at value, provide information so that they see you as a valuable resource, get their email and then stay connected to them through email.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, cool, cool, cool. And on the operations side, I guess how would you start to systematize things in someone's business? I've even seen like medium, medium sized companies have terrible systems. I mean, like I'm like how are you guys? You guys are making millions of dollars in this, in this thing. You look behind the curtain, it looks like a, it's like a circus.
Speaker 1:I'm like what in the world? I'm like you guys are still manually sign, like signing something, and somebody's got to physically pass it over, and I'm like what in the world? I'm like you guys are still manually signing something and somebody's got to physically pass it over, and I'm like what in the world? So I guess and I understand it depends on what industry, but I guess let's go to the service based business what are some good systems or softwares, programs Like how would you go about that?
Speaker 2:That's a really great question. So when we talk about systems and process, there are three pillars systems, process and people and it is going to differ for all organizations. By the way, it's not uncommon for a medium sized business at 40 to 50 million to still have things under the curtain that you don't want to be looking at, especially if they grew really quickly, if they grew really quickly because they just can't keep up.
Speaker 2:I have a couple of clients where we talk about building the airplane, why it's flying in the air, or I use the analogy of changing the tires on the race car while it's going around the track and it never actually pulls the pit. That's not uncommon, so it is difficult to get to that. But before automation, which is, I think, where you're going in terms of a system, I think a process needs to be handwritten the old-fashioned way, step-by-step, and people follow through and check it and make sure that the people part of it work, and that makes sense for the people that perform the job. Then you can automate and move to systems.
Speaker 2:In terms of systems, I was a Salesforce admin for a long time. I'm a big believer in Salesforce and have a friend that's worked for me in three different companies as a Salesforce guy. You could do some amazing things with that and that can cover sales projections as well as customer interactions, so that's definitely a great system. Love HubSpot as well. There are all kinds of systems. It does depend on the industry in terms of accounting and HR and how big your staff is. What, what would be an applicable, an applicable, correct next system?
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure I. I love HubSpot and they're not sponsoring this podcast. Yes, yes, I do know some people on HubSpot, but I haven't gotten that to happen yet. But I love HubSpot. I have heard good things about Salesforce. I have heard that Salesforce is pretty robust as far as the system. So sometimes if a company has a smaller staff or they're doing more of the, the micro um tasks and actions, they shouldn't jump into a giant platform like that because they're gonna be overwhelmed and it's expensive. And it's expensive, I mean, as you start to go and get into the, you know, because I think they're more enterprise right, they're more enterprise built for enterprise companies. But I have heard good things about them as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they are. They can be on the expensive side. It is robust. It is what you need as you continue to go, but if you're working at $40 to $50 million, it's.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:For a small business. A Google sheet or an Excel sheet can do the exact same thing.
Speaker 1:See, I love that Sometimes you don't need to get all the fancy stuff, just start documenting what you're doing and get it into a place, and then you'll figure out what system to actually put it into.
Speaker 1:And what do you think about the custom-made systems? So I don't know if you've ever seen like where somebody's got like their own built crm system or like it's almost like some mad scientist went back there and like created this thing and you're like wow, like this is incredible that you have your own custom software. But then as the company grows and scales, it's like they kind of like add on things and like it gets clunky, and I don't know if you've ever seen something like that I have yeah, I call it a spaghetti mess.
Speaker 2:So I had inherited at some point, um, a salesforce system actually that just had this bolted on and that add-on and this and it was. You had no idea how everything was connected. In general, how would I feel about custom systems? I think if someone is going to have a custom homegrown software platform, they absolutely need an IT staff that can support them, and if they don't have that, it can't keep up with bugs and the growth that the company needs. So I have found the best systems to work with are ones that are out of the box but highly customizable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. It just blows my mind when I see that I'm like, well, look atenstein, right like system, I'm like, holy crap, there's one in particular. I'm not gonna say it on on air here, but it was, it blew my mind, it absolutely blew my mind. I'm like and then there was no training too on it, so like anybody like legacy people knew it, but then anybody knew coming into it, it was like a nightmare, trying to like explain like oh yeah, so this is how you do this.
Speaker 1:They're like what in the I've been there it's crazy and and also I want to talk about data for a second. So how important is data in a business? You talked about finances as a piece of that. How important is that to a business and how can we use data to help grow and scale? Sure.
Speaker 2:I think data is critical In order to have to find success and reach success. You need to define the finish line, and if you aren't measuring where you are in relation to the finish line, how do you know where you are?
Speaker 2:You might be, on a completely wrong planet critical. They're great information. It tells you what's working and what's not working, and I particularly like KPIs where we're forward looking, because then you're not reacting to something that happened in the past. You're taking care of mitigating challenges good challenges and risks that could be in the future. So that's. I'm sorry. I think I lost part two of what you asked. I'm like my mind is like going.
Speaker 1:No, it's all good. How can you use data to help you actually scale the company from? I mean just all the data points right, like how can you actually use it to grow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think using it to grow would be things like okay, I have X number of widgets I can make per minute and I know that one person can make that number of widgets in a minute. If I want to sell.
Speaker 1:X number of widgets. How?
Speaker 2:many more people do I need? I mean it's basic math in terms of production and manufacturing. Or how many delivery drivers do you need? Or how many staff need to be supported? How many customer service orientation people do I need to support the customers that we have out there as you grow? So every time you're measuring those factors, it tells you where you need to grow and add staff or add funding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. And how do we see that Like as a business owner? How do we see the data?
Speaker 2:That is a really great question question Like cause.
Speaker 1:I mean like how, how do we, how do we actually know that Um, like as far as, like I know, on the PNL, right, you, you can see certain things on there, but how do we systematize it and actually see the data so we can actually understand what, where to go, who to hire Um? And I just didn't know if there's a certain platform that you recommend or things that you've seen that people use that data to actually grow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think in the last couple organizations I've been in we've used Salesforce. Sorry, I didn't mean to keep sales.
Speaker 1:No, sorry, you're a Salesforce advocate.
Speaker 2:Or Google. We've used that and they have excellent dashboarding tools. I have used other dashboarding tools but, honestly, documentation of it, tracking it, measuring it, having measurable objectives is the key. It's not necessarily about the system, the system can. Systems can in fact sometimes complicate things and and one should not allow the system complication of entering the data deter them from actually collecting the data, because you can do it on a good old fashioned notebook. You're old fashioned, I'm old, I don't know what to say.
Speaker 1:You're like. You're like, drop the fancy stuff, let's just get the notebook and let me see what's going on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because the data is all in a system is only as good as the people that put it in, and I've also worked in organizations where salespeople hate putting the data in. Well, if they don't put the data in, leaders can't get the data out to dashboard it and really understand what's going on. So garbage in, garbage out. Give me something good. Put it on a piece of paper if we need. At least I have the information and then I can assimilate it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, for sure, and it is a struggle to force yourself to put in the data it is. I know I've struggled with it, but I've I definitely. Anytime that I struggle with it I'm like I'm doing this for the greater good. It's really why I'm doing it. Yes, it takes extra time, it's a little tedious, it's annoying, but, like, then I can actually pull up a report or pull up something and say, you know, okay, how accurate is this? You know, and then I make a decision off of this to understand, like, even like from a sales perspective, like meetings booked, how many appointments, what's your show rate? I mean, all all those things help you understand, like, how much activity are you actually doing right? And then, what are you actually applying to the business to, to, to grow and scale, like to your point about getting the right people, how many, you know, okay, now that we know that, oh, we look at all how many appointments, we may need one more appointment center to help with that, to grow the business.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, right that's, and it's not just about activity, it's about productive activity. Right, because data can also tell you okay, I've got all of these appointments, but none of them are giving me the return on the investment that.
Speaker 1:I actually want that's another decision.
Speaker 2:Maybe I need to downsize, or maybe I need to change up our marketing strategy. Yeah it's really key information and I think I think you hit the nail on the head where you started to say then you were getting the reports that you wanted. Most people struggle to put the data into the system because they don't see the value of the outputs.
Speaker 2:And so the quicker you can get to the valuable outputs that say wow, this is really amazing data to help me run my business. I need to do more of this, and then everybody kind of gets on board with that. That's the key. It's got to be value to that's.
Speaker 1:That's the key.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's gotta be value to them in order to put the effort.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a hundred, a hundred percent. And the productivity. I just want to touch on that too, cause it's so true, cause you could be pedaling real fast in one direction, right into a wall, and you don't even know, you don't, you have no clue, you don't even know, and't you have no clue, you don't even know. And so you may need to slow down a little bit or change bikes um, get some new wheels new tires.
Speaker 2:I don't know how hard your head is that you ran into a wall and you didn't know it, but hopefully you do know before you run into the wall sometimes it's hard.
Speaker 1:You know business owners and and executives, some of us are stubborn. You know we're stubborn, we got egos and like determined right. It's a determination that's a nicer way to put it right, that's not.
Speaker 2:That's not a wall that I can't get through.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna just break through it yeah, yeah, we'll go break through the wall. Even if we hit it, we go break through the wall.
Speaker 2:Even if we hit it, we go break right through it and it's just going to go.
Speaker 1:I don't need this wall Right, right and to our own detriment, sometimes, we may go right through the wall and then fall over. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:But, you know, sometimes you got to take those calculated risks to see what's on the other side.
Speaker 1:You know that's true. So that's the other thing I want to talk to you about actually is the risk risk-taking. How do you, I guess in your experience, what? How do you know how much actual risk to take as a business owner? Cause I've seen it happen both ways. It's happened both ways with me, where I'm a risk taker. That that's that. But sometimes to my detriment, it actually hasn't paid off, and sometimes the risk is like, oh my God, if I would have never done that, this would have never happened. And then people are like, oh, I would have never done that. But some people take the risk and get there. So what's your risk appetites with working with a business and what have you seen to work?
Speaker 2:Well, like most entrepreneurs and you, I have a big risk appetite. I'm not risk averse and I do feel like you have to take risk. But I was actually communicating with someone earlier today about risk and I said listen, I don't when I say I take risk. I don't take any risk without analyzing pros and cons and making an informed decision or calculated risks and mitigate and I avoid and I do what I need to do, but you have to take risks to find out what's on the other what is on the other side, and I think it is different.
Speaker 2:Everyone's appetite is different. You know I'm not going to take a risk that's going to put my family in danger, but if it's going to give me a potential opportunity, I'll jump all day long.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, and and do you feel, like that's most entrepreneurs or most executives that you work with that they have a bigger appetite for risk?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that is a key component of an entrepreneurial spirit that I talk a lot about. You have to. You have to keep pushing the envelope to see what's out there and how can I make this better, stronger, faster, easier for less money. Whatever the case may be, we all have a fear of the what ifs. But, yeah, overcoming that what if? Fear, like you said, if if I hadn't done this, then I wouldn't have all this.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And lots of people said don't do that, that's too risky. Just keep your job and get your salary and get the benefits I'm like. But this sucks and I don't want to work here anymore.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent.
Speaker 2:And I'm so glad I did, and so I can tell you that the risks that I've taken and there has never been a risk that I've taken that I have regretted taking. I have made mistakes in business, of course, but I think that's par for the course and you learn from those.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what's been the biggest risk that you've ever taken?
Speaker 2:Well, it was actually a personal risk, not a business risk.
Speaker 1:Okay, go for it, go for it, yeah, yeah, let's hear it.
Speaker 2:My husband and I dated for about six and a half years when we got engaged. We met in college. It was the first day of college. We just had our 27th wedding anniversary.
Speaker 1:Wow, congratulations, thank you.
Speaker 2:When I moved to the Washington DC area and left my family business, family small business and left home, that was hugely scary to come to DC and I was kind of banking on us getting married and having a happy life together and it was the best decision I ever made. But man, it was scary. I left everything I knew.
Speaker 1:It's always scary to go from one environment that you really know to something that you don't. It is very I moved a lot of times in my life, but it usually always pays off in some way shape or form, though. Like you get to learn about new people, new environments, how, how other people do things in a different space, like it's just. I look at it from a positivity standpoint of like hey, what's all the positive things I can actually learn through this experience, instead of the negatives through this?
Speaker 2:experience instead of the negatives, absolutely, absolutely. I really do believe that when we get to the end, whatever that is, I hope for me it's another hundred years from now, but when we get there, I think that there will be more regrets of things that aren't done than things that are done yeah. You know that's often heard, but you can always change course If you take a risk and it doesn't work, you can always change course.
Speaker 2:If you take a risk and it doesn't work, you'd always change course again. We're not. We're not stuck in that place, so yeah, for sure, For sure.
Speaker 1:Uh, what? What does it mean to stand in the gap?
Speaker 2:Ooh, you've been reading about me, um, my, um, uh, coo, former COO of mine, uh, that I adore, uh, named michelle she coined the term for me. Uh, that's my coach, the name of my coaching program, um, but it was developed through. I would be running around like a chicken with my head cut off, but I'm going crazy, like I need to do this and I do this and nobody's taking care of that. I need to get this done and it's impacting my I'm just going to do this job because nobody's doing it. And she'd say, steph, if you're willing to stay in the gap, I've got your back all day long. So for me, that's the crux of my coaching, where I teach people, find the hole, find the space, find the need, find what's not being done and solve the problem for your owner for your manager, for your supervisor, for your community, whatever it is.
Speaker 2:There are numerous examples where I look back and I've stood in the gap because something needed to be done. Nobody else was doing it.
Speaker 1:Um, that's, that's what it means to me yeah, that's the problem yeah, yeah, I feel like that's a very underestimated thing you just said, though it sounds too simple, but it's something that a lot of people don't do. No, people see things and then, instead of that gap, they complain or they say, oh, somebody else will do that. They point fingers. Not my job, that's not my job yeah, not my job yeah.
Speaker 2:I've never heard those those words, except for just this example. I've never said those words Like I'm like everything. So. So when I work for a company, or even my own company again, this is a antriple mindset, an owner mindset everything is my responsibility to take care of the company and make sure that it's successful. So, therefore, everything that needs to be done has the potential to be my job, and if somebody else isn't doing it and I know it's in the best interest of the company then I'm gonna do it mmm can I give you another example?
Speaker 2:yeah yeah, so the owner of my the, the cover of my next book is going to be called owner mindset and how to foster an entrepreneurial spirit at every level, and the cover of the book has a crumpled up piece of paper. And I ask folks when I coach them, are you person a or person b? And that's, are you the person that sees the piece of garbage when you walk down the hall and picks it up and takes care of it Because you know that's the best thing for the company, or do you walk past it and say that's not my job, that's not my garbage, because that person's never going to be successful in the world.
Speaker 2:to be successful, you've got to act like the owner and take care of it. Take care of the business as if it's your own.
Speaker 1:What? Who's saying that it's just garbage Cause? I feel like if I had that question asked directly to me, I feel like I would always be like, oh yeah, I'm gonna pick it up, but you know that they're not picking it up, you know for a fact.
Speaker 2:All right, I'm a little bit of a germaphobe, I guess I'll qualify it If it's just a dry piece of like office paper, if it looks kind of nasty. The truth is, I'd probably walk past it too. But we're just assuming it's just a plain white piece of paper that somebody dropped.
Speaker 1:I, but I but also I know a lot of people just to, especially if they're the style of like a people pleaser they're, they're just going to. You know you ask them that question. They're just going to say, oh yeah, yeah, I would definitely pick it up and put it in the trash, but you know you know deep down, if no one was looking, they ain't picking up that piece of paper.
Speaker 2:The managers are always looking. They're always looking to see who's going to step up and do what nobody wants to do that's how that's how one finds success in the corporate world yeah, 100 percent.
Speaker 1:uh, what? What if since we're on this topic what if the job that you have currently is very toxic, but you see a lot of these gaps and you see pieces of paper that could be picked up, but you don't want to pick it up because you're not going to get recognized?
Speaker 2:I, that's just such a loaded question. I mean, I'll go back to what you first said and I would say to somebody if the environment's toxic, then get the heck out of there. No one makes us stay in that space, particularly in perhaps in our life, in our community, we don't always have the flexibility to get up and leave. But I would argue that we can find resources to move out of negative situations. But in the workplace no one's making us stay there. There are jobs available and anyone can leave a toxic workplace and move on. But in the meantime, if you are stuck in a toxic workplace, then the other thing about standing in the gap is you're always developing other, additional skills and abilities.
Speaker 1:To become that generalist, True, that enhances your resume. Why not, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:While you're looking for next.
Speaker 1:So you're an optimist? Yeah, right, yeah. You look at situations and see what opportunities are there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, that's a growth mindset, I mean I think that's probably an entrepreneurial characteristic as well. You have to. It doesn't do me any good to look at something in a negative light or say that's not going to work. I have to believe it's going to work.
Speaker 1:I put everything into everything I do Correct me if I'm wrong. I want you to correct me if I'm wrong. But are we in a generation right now that I feel like there's a very entitlement thing position in this day and age? Now, I'm saying that because you're looking at opportunity right, and I'm the same way I see things and I'm like, oh, it's opportunity, let me jump on that. But sometimes I feel like with the generation that's here now, the younger generation, is it fair to say that there's this level of entitlement, of being like, oh, I'm not doing that unless I'm going to get paid this amount, or I'm not going to do that unless my title says this, and they're not kind of looking at the opportunities, they're just trying to hone in on whatever they've been given and own that space. Have you seen that? Am I off?
Speaker 2:No, no, but you're showing your age If you're not in that generation anymore. No, I don't think you're off. That's definitely something I've heard from owners that people I mean interns are walking into places going. Well, I want more money. You want me to move that pencil from over here to over there, and that wasn't on the job description. I'm not.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm talking about? I do. You know what I'm talking about? I?
Speaker 2:do, but I don't know that it's a generational thing. I have 22 years old, I just graduated from college and they were taught the hard work ethic and they know that I never got a raise after the hard work ethic and they know that I never got a raise after I never got a raise, that I didn't work the job for a year before I worked the extra work to earn the raise.
Speaker 2:Right and they observed that and they observed us in our small businesses and they know what it takes to grind it out and earn your keep. Um, I mean they've, they've gotten lots of things. They're very, they've been very spoiled, but we also made them work.
Speaker 1:And so.
Speaker 2:I do think that it is something that's taught, and individuals need to be taught to earn what they get for sure, I'm a big believer in the earn.
Speaker 1:You know like you got to earn your keep, but you should also be celebrated and promoted if you do.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of people.
Speaker 1:They do try to earn their keep and then, unfortunately, leadership doesn't understand that if you want to keep people around, you got to give them some opportunity. You got to, you got to celebrate it. If you're not going to promote them, you better celebrate them, because otherwise why are they going to keep doing it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so let's talk about the word promote because I don't disagree with you, but as a business owner and a very small organization, as I hire people, it's going to be me and them.
Speaker 2:There's no room for promoting in small business. Sometimes, right, it's just a very flat organization. But recognizing with bonuses and other rewards and incentives absolutely is a great thing. Employers can take advantage. They see a rock star, they're knocking it out of the park. They see a rock star, they're knocking it out of the park and they will let that person, that high achiever, keep knocking it out of the park all day long because they need that person. They're like. They don't want to turn them off and slow them down. In one point I had in a job many years ago. I had two full-time jobs. I got moved to a new position. They didn't replace me on the old position and after about six months.
Speaker 2:I said to my boss, I really need you to backfill that other position. And he said but you're doing great, like you're just doing both, it's fine, I'm like, but I'm going to die, so you need to take care of that. I'm sorry you haven't been able to fill that position, but move me over to one full-time position, because each full-time position in itself was already 50, 60 hours. It was crazy. So, yeah, I think you need to learn to speak up, and I did. I learned to speak up and say this is what I need, and if you want me to keep giving, then I have to be rewarded for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because otherwise the faucet is going to turn off at some point.
Speaker 1:You only got so much energy in the tank.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Well, let that be a learning lesson for all the leaders and people that are watching and listening. It seems like a lot of people they're more just agreeing with certain things. There's no questions yet. So we're we're gonna keep it rolling. Um, I wanna, I wanna talk to you a little bit about, about your, your brand of who you are, a little bit about your speaking the book going, going a little bit into that. Um, what's, uh, what is a personal brand done for you? Um, as far as being able to speak on stages, being able to have a book and be an author, what, what has that done for you? As far as being able to speak on stages, being able to have a book and be an author, what has that done for you and your business?
Speaker 2:It certainly drives clients to me. It has helped people see value in my communication because it's more widespread, and I've been able to reach other influencers that have helped promote the business. So I think it's been amazing. What an incredible journey.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I love it every day. What made you become an author?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, I always had the idea in my head that I wanted to write a book. My first book was actually a children's book that came out last April, and I had this idea in my head for 18 years and maybe 20 years. I got out of the corporate space, I started my new small business, 5 Foot View. This creativity just started flowing out of my head and it was like it had been bottled up for years. And so this concept that I had just got on paper and I found this amazing illustrator named Laurentiu, from Romania, and he helped me craft these ideas that I had in my head and put it down. Similarly, to Stand in the Gap it was, I saw a need to help children with fear of loud noises and I couldn't find a book out there. So I did it. I made it.
Speaker 1:So you just made it. I made it is there, is there? Uh, do you have any regrets, do I?
Speaker 2:know. No, I loved it. I I learned lots of things so then the second book the second book was a business book um, that's called darkened style office about digital accessibility. I learned a lot of things in the process, so absolutely no regrets, just learning how to do it differently and improve. And now I have another client that I'm helping him self-publish his book because of all the things I learned through those processes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nice.
Speaker 2:Definitely no regrets, just all learning and could have done that a little differently. But it's all good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, always a learning lesson through everything that we do. And what has speaking done to your business? Well, actually, let me ask how do you get speaking engagements?
Speaker 2:I ask for them. Sometimes it's so simple, so simple.
Speaker 1:Just ask, you'll get you'll get on stages?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I ask. I've applied to several In the digital accessibility book. I'm mostly targeting HR professionals. That's part of my background and I want to speak to HR professionals to help make workplaces more inclusive. So I'm really targeting and reaching out to people that are in the HR DEI spaces to help me open those doors and take. I think DEI has is having a rough time right now out there, but it doesn't need to be in. That it's and we've overcomplicated it in so many ways and really it's just about saying a diverse environment and an inclusive environment, we're going to have a better business because there's brilliance out there, and we know that the more diverse our audience, our teams are, the more phenomenal our decision-making is, our revenue can be, and so why not?
Speaker 2:It's good for business. So I love talking about that and speaking to HR professionals, and for me it just is a nice big bow around everything that I'm doing, standing in the up and helping businesses grow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. I want to ask you a very I'm afraid. I can see that look on your face.
Speaker 2:I'm afraid.
Speaker 1:So about the DEI space, because I think it's a very timely topic and I'm hoping that I could talk to the team about getting this episode out sooner than later. I believe that DEI should not be under HR. That's my belief. I think it should be under business strategy. I think it should be an overarching business goal of the business and be tied to things that are also impact metrics for revenue producing activities as well as people. The reason why is I've been blessed enough to interview a lot of amazing dei leaders and get into side conversations. I've actually personally spoke at um a lot of different hr conferences, especially with the change your circle, change your life um, a piece of it where I'm kind of talking on a very top, top level thing, like how do we actually change our circle? Um, and so I got booked a lot in 2020 and 2022 or 2021 um, especially with all the you know the noise around it um, which I'll definitely make some intros to to some of those places I spoke at um.
Speaker 1:But I I think the biggest problem is like we just told these HR leaders right to go in and do like, give me a DEI strategy, you know, and at first it was like OK, we need a PR, we need the press release, we need the website, we need a statement, we need blah, blah, blah. It was like a plug and play, you know thing. And then you had all these people that didn't that. Some people knew how to actually implement this kind of strategy and some people were just trying their best. God bless them. They're just trying their best in that area and the problem is leaders need to have uh, at the end of the day, leaders need to have, like executives, they need to have real business ties to initiatives of what they're doing, otherwise they're just going to stop doing it.
Speaker 1:Um, and I just believe that putting it under hr it made it almost like this expense thing instead of, like you said, it can literally be a revenue producing. You may, uh, what was? Oh, hold on, hold on, it's gonna hit me, it's gonna hit me. I saw this uh netflix special hold on, it's gonna hit me. There's a netflix special about um, what was it? Uh, doritos or no? Was it cheetos, cheetos and um. It was amazing because this person that worked literally in the factory gave them an idea of how to tackle and get into the Latino market and it's an amazing like it's amazing documentary.
Speaker 1:But they opened up a whole category and guess what? That the green like street corn, street corn. With what's it? Street corn? Was it Cheetos? Street corn? Cheetos are actually the biggest profit. That brings in the most profit for Cheetos. It goes over, it's over, the actual regular Cheetos. And now they open up all these other places. So I'm saying that story because if they would have never looked and had a more diverse way of approach to business and getting more people at the seat of the table to have those conversations and ideas they would like, they would have never opened that, that, that wing of their business and that potential revenue. So I feel like it needs to be tied to business strategy instead of under the HR where it's like it's just a people thing. What are your, what's your hot take on that?
Speaker 2:Um. First of all, you made me hungry um.
Speaker 1:First of all, you made me hungry um you're gonna love that documentary, then if you love cheetos, you're gonna be hungry, so you'll be snacking on cheetos as you're watching it right.
Speaker 2:Um, what is I gosh? I I have so many thoughts about that. I don't disagree that it could be. I mean, I do think that it is a business strategy. It's definitely tied to numbers the people aspect of it and HR aspect is because there's so much. In order to get a company to diversify their population and be inclusive, we need to have all kinds of training in interviewing, and so that's the HR aspect of it where, like you, need to get rid of bias, like latent bias and unconscious bias, and you know, from my book's perspective, are your website, is your website and application process even digitally accessible to people with disabilities? Like that's the HR part of it, that has to be done to make the business strategy work?
Speaker 1:Totally agree.
Speaker 2:So I agree with you that we know that it's good for business. We know that diverse environments have a lower turnover and the costs that are involved in turnover. So again, that's all in HR. So I think I don't disagree. They certainly can operate hand in hand as departments next to each other with the common goal, just as in sales needs to support that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's kind of where I was going with. It is like I think it totally should be, not just on HR shoulders, I guess. Is what I'm saying? Like any other departments need to come in and it may be it's a, maybe it's a council, maybe it's a, it's an initiative program that brings in these, these leaders as advisors to like and they're held accountable. You know that initiative but it's. But it's bringing in other things, not just all on hr and saying like hey, go, go, do that, because it's just at some point. It's just kind of.
Speaker 1:I've been, I've seen some of the you know behind the scenes. I've seen some of these budgets that they give to put these initiatives. It's especially with how big the company is. It's laughable, it's absolutely laughable about like you want somebody to create something brand new that's never been, you know, it's never been implemented before in this company and you're giving them pennies you know to be able to do that and it's like one person usually leading the initiative of something that will probably normally take a team of people to do it.
Speaker 2:Right, so I'm going to communicate something maybe controversial.
Speaker 1:You can go for it. Go for it, go for it.
Speaker 2:I think when it's just in HR and the aspect of the financial benefits aren't brought to the strategic level of the company, it's just a check the box and that's why companies would have a small budget. You know they. They can say that they've got a diversity program, but don't put anything really toward it. So do you really?
Speaker 1:have a diversity program.
Speaker 2:Um, but they can say it and they can, they can check that box and that's kind of bs, right? Um so really putting your money where your mouth is and making an inclusive culture and a welcoming culture and open door, you know, for everybody because it's good for business, I think is really the approach that we need to take yeah, I, I totally agree.
Speaker 1:I totally agree. I don't. I don't think it's too controversial because I think a lot of people know that. You know they just might not say that that's right. I guess that's why it's controversial.
Speaker 2:Nobody really wants to admit that they're doing the check the box thing yeah.
Speaker 1:But they are.
Speaker 2:You can tell when somebody's doing the check the box thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah, See, on this podcast we'd like to be keep, keep it real what we want. We want people to really learn this stuff, Like if we keep, you know, tiptoeing around stuff, nothing's going to get done.
Speaker 1:Nothing's going to get done. So thank you for the work that you do. You know, I think it's it's work that needs to be done, and we got to continue to keep pushing and moving that needle, um, in that space, um, so that's, that's incredible. That's incredible, um, and I know I'll put you a little in the hot seat, but you know, that's all right, that's what good, that's what I do.
Speaker 1:that's what I do, um, what is, uh, what's one say? What's one takeaway that you can give the audience? Um, as far as how to like what's one thing that they can look at in their business? Um, I know you said delegation in the beginning of this, um, but I guess what's what's one? Is there a checklist? Is there like an audit process that we need to look at in our business to understand it a little bit more clear?
Speaker 2:I think so, maybe, maybe not. I mean, yes, I could give you a checklist. Probably don't have enough time for that right now. But as a follow on to delegation, the clear authority and responsibility is the next step beyond delegation who's responsible for what level? Setting expectations of who's going to get it done, because that's where I see most organizations begin to fail. They have multiple people working on the same thing, nobody working on other things, somebody working over somebody and stepping over. So defining clear accountability and responsibility to get things done is really the starting point to a successful organization. After the entrepreneur is ready to delegate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and are you a believer in hiring contractors as well? Yes, I am. I'm a contractor, that's right. They bring you in. That's right, of course I am.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's a phenomenal way for a. So I serve as a fractional coo and hr executive. That's a phenomenal way for a small business to gain expertise without paying the annual salary and benefits of someone that has 30 years of experience and yeah fractional. Fractionals can be brought in a chief marketing officer, a chief financial officer, a product owner, all of those types of executives that you can get you know hours a week or hours a month from to continue to build your company until you're ready to fill that, that hole.
Speaker 1:That's the best. That's amazing. Where can people find your upcoming book? Is there a release date? Can you give us anything?
Speaker 2:I know I can't.
Speaker 1:So I will continue. I was trying to get the exclusive.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm sorry. I'll send it to you when it's done.
Speaker 2:You know, the truth is that I started it and I got busier than I expected with Dark and Silent Office and the accessibility book and my coaching program and those are taking off. So it's just. It actually got moved to the back burner a little bit and I still try and preserve a few hours a week for pickleball and meditation. So I haven't gotten there yet. But, stephanieworlickcom, I'll keep everyone updated and informed. And where I am now with the book is just interviewing entrepreneurs and small business owners and really validating my thoughts about the entrepreneurial spirit and validating that we can teach people how to be successful in the corporate world by thinking like an owner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, for sure. Well, thank you so much for being on this episode and just dropping so much knowledge, wisdom, everybody. Go buy the book. Go buy the book Also in the future. Go buy the future book Owner Mindset. Definitely go buy the book and definitely connect with Stephanie.
Speaker 1:I think that I always tell people every single episode that the people that I bring on are reachable. All you got to do is shoot a message. I wrote a whole book on it. Change your Circle, change your Life, and that's what it's all about is being able to connect with people, because you never know where that conversation may go and you really know what you're talking about, especially on the people side of really cultivating that team and getting your business to the next level. So, thanks for being on here. We're going to have all your socials and everything once we publish it and all that stuff, thank you, so people will be able to connect with you and if you're listening, watching to everybody in here on the live.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for for tuning in. That's why I keep looking over here. I got the chat over here. Thank you so much for tuning in. Like, comment, subscribe. Share this with somebody that needs to hear it today. Once this, once it goes, actually goes live. Um, and don't forget if you can change your circle, you could change your life. So thank you so much, stephanie, for being on here and we'll catch you guys on the next episode. Thank you so great to see you. Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe. And don't forget to hit that notification bell for more amazing content that we're going to be putting out. And don't forget to Like, comment and subscribe. And don't forget to hit that notification bell for more amazing Content that we're gonna be putting out. And don't forget you can change your circle to change your life. Thank you.
