Episode 23: Fostering An Intentional Foundation In Your Business W/ Amber Hamilton

Welcome to the 23rd episode of the Self-Employment Success Podcast. My guest on today’s podcast is Amber Hamilton. Amber is the owner of INTEN, a sales and branding company that helps start-up business owners create an intentional foundation in their business, to allow them to grow and scale effectively. Amber helps entrepreneurs create practical steps to get their businesses off the ground and foster real sales and growth. In this episode, Amber talks about her career path and how Covid impacted that path after going back to work full time after years of being a stay at home mom. She shares a lot of wisdom about the truth behind creating a business and the problems that a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with. We talk about what service her business provides to startup companies and how Amber helps business owners create processes for the steps they have to take to foster success. She shares about how she helps her clients prioritize the things that will impact their business. Amber is full of energy and life and that comes through in how much we laughed throughout this conversation. So with that introduction, I hope you enjoy this episode of the Self-Employment Success Podcast with Amber Hamilton.

Links

PeaceLink Financial Planning LLC
Amber Hamilton

Transcript:

Leland Gross (00:01.55)

All right, welcome Amber Hamilton to the Self-Employment Success Podcast. Thanks for having me, Leland. I'm excited for this conversation. For listeners, Amber is obviously a great entrepreneur, but also has been a friend for years, basically since I moved to the Virginia Beach area, which is awesome. So that's, you know, going on eight years now. Has it really been that long? I know, which is wild. But she also is an entrepreneur with a great story. And so.

I'll let you take it from here. Tell us about your business. What do you do and kind of where does it stand today? Today. It's a great question. And most entrepreneurs would be like, oh, kind of like, I think I know. I know what I want it to be. I know what I think. I know what I think it is. Yeah, so I my business right now is I do basically sales consulting, sales and branding.

consulting for startups. I have a couple of different offerings, but I focus on helping people really, I just use this analogy, get the spaghetti out of their brain and make it make sense. So, so often entrepreneurs have a million ideas and they're visionary. So they're 10 years down the road, but really understanding how to take those practical next steps to build the foundation and get it off the ground is really challenging.

Everything feels urgent and important and not everything is urgent and important. And so that's where I come in. So I help them really figure out what are these key next steps. And then depending on what stage they are, if they are ready to go to market with a product or service, we help build out their go to market strategy so they can prep for investment and prove their concept in the market so that investors are interested in them.

That's awesome and necessary. I feel like I've been in my business for a while and I'm still trying to take spaghetti and turn it into like a waffle. Where it's like in this little compartment. You're like, does it make any sense? Yeah, yeah. Totally. I think every entrepreneur can relate to the like just living in the future and having a million and a half ideas. And then you're like, you know, listening to.

Leland Gross (02:16.766)

podcasts and getting even a 10 hundred more. A ton more. Yeah, well, and even earlier today, I was on a call with a guy and he had done one iteration. You know, I'd worked with him through one iteration of it, totally fell flat, which it happens. And he was like, do we abandon it? Do we read? You know, and so as he was talking, we were able to pinpoint like what he needs to do now, you know, what he needs to do next and what parts.

totally die because they just didn't work. And what parts do you salvage to bring into the next iteration? Because the entrepreneur's journey is, at least from my perspective, I feel like it's presented as this very like, romanticized, like flashy, like we get all these venture capital.

back and then we get all this money and then we're like, and I'm free, I make my own schedule. We're just like building this amazing company and it happens quickly and it's, you know, there's all this energy and momentum, but the truth is it's long and arduous. And there's often multiple iterations of what your business is gonna be before you really figure out what is the thing that it's gonna make, where you fit in the market, right? Like what is your product or service? What pain does it really meet?

who's gonna pay for it, how much are they gonna pay for it? Like it takes several iterations and pivots and that and it's late nights. You go, usually go through every human emotion by 10 a.m. You know, you're like, this is a terrible idea, this was the best idea, you know? Yeah, 8 a.m. you're like, this is gonna work. No, you're like, this isn't gonna work. This isn't gonna work. And in the day you're like, I had one good email.

We're on the up and up. Yeah. And like somewhere around 3 p.m. you start looking for jobs. Yeah. You always just keep LinkedIn and like ZipperCurves. Yeah. You're like, I mean, I'm looking. Open to work. Yeah. So it is, you know, really helping entrepreneurs have a better and healthier sense of what this journey and process really looks like is also part of kind of the role that I play with. Gosh, that's so valuable. How did you?

Leland Gross (04:32.054)

What's the background story of Amber Hamilton? Like how did you get here? How did you get into this? We don't have enough time. Like how did you stumble your way into this sales consulting world? Why startups? Kind of just tell us the journey that brought you here. Yeah, well, that's actually a great word that the stumble into it is fairly accurate, ironically. I mean, I graduated college and went right into.

while I was working for a nonprofit doing fundraising, which in my mind is sales. And then I have four kids and so I was stay at home mom for a bit and you know, but always was doing something either in event spaces or sales. And when I went back to work, about eight years ago now, seven or eight years ago now, I managed to land a job being the general manager for Bridal and High End.

gown store here in the area. And it was like baptism by fire learning again, what it means to be full-time working, how to lead teams, you know, I had a staff of over 30 women ranging in ages from 17 to 77. Sure. We had three different storefronts. You know, there was a lot of inventory, you know, sales training. How do we increase sales? And, and we did it. Like I.

One of my philosophies as a leader is just hire people that are better at it than you are, because I can't be the expert at everything. And so I stayed in my lane, which was I'm really good at leading people, and I'm good at helping them understand how to sell a product. Like, what's the language we use? How do we overcome these objections? But I couldn't sell a tuxedo to you to save your life, right? So I hired someone and she grew that department by almost 300% in a year. So, you know, and then we did, we got really strategic on...

sales and we increased our sales about 200% in every department over the course of the time that I was there, which that it's huge. And it was, some of it was just simply low hanging fruit. It was just putting better processes in. It was making sure people that walked in were really qualified. It was leading a team so that they, we didn't have high turnover, right? Like the higher turnover you have, the longer it takes for you to ramp somebody's sales up again and get them comfortable there. So

Leland Gross (06:52.966)

simply being able to retain employees longer and create an environment where they wanted to work was a huge piece of that. And then COVID hit and the wedding industry had to take a pause. At home beach allowance. I mean, it was a mess. And so it just, it became a great opportunity for me to move on. I didn't wanna keep working nights or weekends.

because I have kids and wanted to be able to be with them. And so a friend of mine had started a startup and launched it and he was like, will you come help me do sales? And so I went from selling bridal gowns to selling software to consultants, which again was a huge learning curve. I was like, I would be sitting in meetings, just like writing down acronyms and then Googling them to figure out why I was like, what does this private equity what mean? Yeah. But again, I learned a ton and through that,

I learned a lot about the startup world and I also learned a lot about, again, even more sales. And the whole second year I was there, I was doing sales and customer experience and I was literally consulting consultants on how to sell themselves and get clients. Cause they were like, I'm great when I get in there, but I don't know how to land a client. A lot of these people had left their jobs during COVID and wanted to, they were like, I'll just go out on my own. You know, but they didn't, they didn't,

respect the fact that they had whole sales teams at the companies that they had worked at or that they didn't have a process that differentiated them. Or so I was doing a lot of coaching and for them, and last August I was like, why? Like I kind of had an opportunity handed to me to be able to go out on my own. And so initially I was again, the entrepreneur's journey, I was gonna go in one direction. I had this strategic partnership lined up with a private and independent school association

thought I was gonna do some consulting for them for their business offices. Hot tip, if you don't have an education background, they don't want you. And that's fair. Even though I was like, no, it's like your business office, they were like, we don't care. Yeah, they're like, we- What do you know about schools? Yeah, everyone needs education to be an education. To be fair, I don't know anything about schools. I sent my kids to them. Yeah. And-

Leland Gross (09:21.906)

That's all, you know, so. I spent a large chunk of my life in them. I have been to school. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Never seen the background. Never seen, yeah. So, but during that, I just got connected with the 757 Startup Studios, just kind of through networking. And I was like, hey, I'd love to mentor more so, cause I had time and I was curious about that ecosystem. And last fall, this time last fall, I started with them and I fell in love with it.

fell in love with working with founders, all of a sudden it was like all these things in my life that had like led me to this moment and like prepared me and just the way that I'm wired and the way that I think, I'm able to hear like this brain dump of this is our idea and this is where we think we can go and this is it and be able to just say it back concisely. And they're like.

Wait, yeah, that's it. We haven't been able to put it in those words or we haven't been able, and again, helping them figure out what are the steps that you need to take to kind of really be productive and not busy for the sake of being busy, but really actually being productive. And then I was starting to see a few things, and so I got with the director there, and I said, can we put together a four-part series? I wanna test this out, right? So he was, Hunter was so great.

He was like, yeah, let's test it out. Cause I'm like, I'm hearing these same four things. We're having trouble, not, I call it the word vomit where you just tell, you know, every single little detail about your company. And then you've backed somebody into a corner and they don't wanna. Their eyes have glazed over. You've lost them. Yeah, like they're not buying anything from you. They're not investing in you. Like they're just trying to figure out a way out of the corner. They're just trying to get out of the conversation. So how do we talk about it? Who is your target market? How do you figure that out? What is the sales process? How do you begin to develop it? And then mock phone calls because.

The other thing I found was founders are amazing at building a service or a product, but the idea of getting on a phone call and selling it makes them want to crawl under a desk. And they're not like us who can talk to a brick wall. Right. I'm the first guy I've got you in the corner. Lots of words. No, that's usually me too. I'm like, calm down. This is why I'm doing this. Why I love it. This is why you should live it. This is all the details about it.

Leland Gross (11:37.022)

They're like, Oh my God, can I go now? Yeah. So my kids even make fun of me. Like if I'm in line somewhere and I'm like, Oh my gosh, I just met the coolest person and my son's like, how do you do that? Like, and they even start joking me now. They're like, where's she from? And I'm like, Minnesota. Isn't that amazing? So, but that's not, that's not, most people aren't wired that way. Right. You know? And so what does, and how do you have an effective sales call? Cause even for talkers like us, like that's not actually effective.

You've got to be really good at listening and asking the right questions and guiding. And so we put that together and it went well. And it was like, oh yeah, we're hitting on something here. And so I've just developed these offerings for startups in different stages where I can come in and kind of be a key, help them regain some sanity, put some processes in place, depending on where they are. And I'm just so excited.

It's been a blast. That's awesome. It's so fun. There's like probably 50 questions running through my head. So we come out of COVID, you're going, or before COVID, you're going back to work from being a stay at home mom, get this job in this bridal store where you're the GM, you're like running it, all of it. And so, you know, drinking from a fire hose, figure out what you're good at. I'm good at teaching people how to sell. COVID happens. Move to this.

tech startup. So now you're getting the startup feel, but you're also still drinking from a fire hose on those skills. There was one between that and the 757, right? Sorry. Okay. So then move into the 757 startups, which tell me a little bit about that. Is that, were you working there or were you just a volunteer mentor? Just mentoring. So I was kind of like, I had some time. I was trying to flesh out what I was going to do.

I was kind of running down this one path, which in my gut, I knew Riley wasn't going to work, again, because I have an education background. Oh, that was at the schools. Yeah, yeah. But then, and I had been doing some other stuff and got hired in January by a guy, and we doubled his revenue. Again, he was a bootstrapped founder, meaning he was self-funding. And we built out some, just again, oftentimes it's not rocket science. I think.

Leland Gross (14:05.374)

when people think sales, they think it is this super complicated, you know, and maybe at some, I mean, sometimes the, it can be a little complicated, but at the end of the day, especially for startups, it's like, what's the low hanging fruit, right? Like how are we leveraging your network? Like, do you just have a good process in place for tracking this? Are you actually following up with people? You know, so a lot of times people are like, well, I've got all these leads, but I don't know. I'm like, have you called them? Have you called them? Yeah.

I got a call and I'm like, I mean, you can email them too, but like, you should probably reach out. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Somehow you need to get in contact. Yeah, we should contact them. They don't know they're a lead. Right, or they may. Like sometimes it's like they've literally like filled out a form on your website. And they're just waiting to be contacted. And they're just waiting for you to reach out to them. Or they downloaded a, you know, something that you had, like a one pager or a value add, or, you know, or could we figure something out like that? Again, driving these leads and.

So it's oftentimes it's not rocket science, but people feel like sales is just overwhelming. And it's like, well, no, we'll just do it one stage at a time. And you've got these big, huge sales trainings and they're good, but what they're really, all they're teaching you honestly is how to connect with people and how to really have an authentic conversation.

make sure you're speaking to the person whose pain you really can solve with your product or service. Again, it's not rocket science, it's just having a better perspective on how do I combat an objection without being pushy? How do I, again, just trust the process. If you follow up enough, somebody's gonna get back to you, or how to send, I call it the breakup email. You usually get 30 to 40% response rate on a breakup email, and people are usually like,

Leland Gross (15:58.274)

So it's little things like that, that I, over the past couple of years, even with bridal gowns and then with software and then, you know, it's kind of the consistent, those are the consistent pieces. Yeah. You had so much entrepreneurial experience in this, whether you were the actual entrepreneur or not, that you kind of realized no matter what these industries are.

there's a common thread of everyone's trying to figure these things out, right. Which I find to be really true. No matter if you're selling widgets or you're mowing someone's lawn or you're a CEO, like everyone's trying to figure these key things out. Cause they're, they're the keys to success in a business sales. You just need them. It is how you make the money. So if you're, if you have this great product and no sales, doesn't matter. If you have a great service.

but no one's buying it, it doesn't matter. But everyone's good at the product or the service, not how do we get people through the door. And I think that barrier is what prevents a lot of people from even becoming entrepreneurs. Like, how do I sell this? I don't like it, it's a scary unknown. It is, yeah. And then it's spaghetti, because there's also a million other things. And then you play office, which is what I call being busy, just for the sake of being busy. Yep, yep.

why is your email still open? No one's emailed you until I'm like. It's like, Julie, you're just like sitting there doing, like moving paper around, being like this is clearly so important. And it's like, you're not using your time purposefully, efficiently, productively. And so what you're doing is filling a huge need for these people of being like, what is productive? What is your skill set? Where do we?

bring in the other necessities. Exactly. And what are the processes? Yes. I feel like processes is such an entrepreneurial buzzword, but it's so necessary. Right. It is. We just brought on another employee this week. And so I'm re-looking at all my processes, being like, these make sense to me. Yeah. Now they need to make sense for everybody. Or like, how do we do this? And to have these things and roles and systems in place, make it easier to, when you're in the meeting with someone,

Leland Gross (18:21.042)

Yeah, it's I've done this a million times. This rolls off my tongue. Right. And is organic and natural, but it's not. Or it's organically inorganic. Yeah. Well, it's like, um, when you have the. When you have the foundation and you have the process in place, even if you have a call script, right? Like even if you have a call script for your brand new, you know, sales baby to come practice it, the.

The benefit is you can go off script some, you can improvise, but you can always come back to that. We know these things work or we're paying attention and these are the key objections that we consistently hear. Does that mean we need to change our product some or service? Does that mean like we need to adjust it? Does that mean we need to do a better job of communicating upfront what we do or how we fill those voids?

does it mean we're talking to the wrong people? So even being able to track some of those things of how do we, because sometimes people are gonna complain just to complain, right? Or you're just talking to someone who's not your target market. They're not a fit. Or they seem like your target market, but just for this person it's not. Right, exactly. Or it's not the right time. And so again, when you're in a sales call, I talk all the time about, I call it Fanta. You might hear Bant, but it's.

It's do they have the funds? So I like using funds, not budget funds means again, set the psychology behind it. There might be funds available, but if it's not a line item in the budget, then it's hard to finagle that. So they have the funds. Are you talking to the person who has authority to make the decision? Do they have the need for it for what you have is timing? Are they in the position to purchase in the next little bit? And then.

I totally blanked on the last one, but I forget what the last A is at the moment. Well, I like FANT.

Leland Gross (20:20.998)

I'll think of it. It'll come to me in a little bit. But again, like, oh, ask specifically, when will you, when are we making this decision? Because sometimes people will be like, yeah, yeah. Let me go talk to my team. And they're just being nice and pushing you off. But when you can ask those specific questions of, will you be ready to make a decision this month? Or is it in two months? Or is it next week? So you can.

And even as you ask to follow up, like do I have your permission to email you again in a week if I haven't heard from you? So again, it just, there's clarity around that. There's a process in place. So you know when you're in those calls, okay, I've got my checklist, or if they're not the authority, who do we need to talk to? And then you can duplicate that, right? So especially in startup world, what does it mean to be scalable? How do you really create a process that...

If I bring someone else in, they can fit right in and we can now duplicate this, um, you know, over and over again. Yeah. Like we're standard repeatable processes. Like you can come in and just plug and play in some ways. Yep. Yeah. Yep. And easily ramp somebody up to make money. So you're mentoring at seven five seven startup startup, seven by seven or seven by seven co-lab and they have the angel investors and then they have an accelerator, which is a 12 week program they do once a year.

So we've got seven companies in there right now and they're a little bit further down the road, right? Like they have an MVP. So they have a product or service that is Got some meat on its bones. And then the startup studios is I got a napkin idea And I mean, I want to see if I can flush this out and that's about a six-month program So I mentor with them and the angels are like the shark tank. Yeah So they and they pick and they me, you know me and they kind of look that you know you apply to get investment and

Typically on angel investing, they will, I mean, it depends on the fund, but usually eight to 10 companies will invest in a year with the expectation that two of those will go do well. Take off and really make it. And kind of they'll recoup any losses if they got another investment. But, and those, it takes time, right? So like they're not expecting a return usually till three, five, seven years down the road. I just picture Shark Tank. Yeah. Like. Yeah.

Leland Gross (22:39.302)

Hi sharks. Okay. Does your dog need a bone? Yeah. It's like. Well, don't you take a bone with me and invest in my business. Exactly. I feel like that's like my wife and I just watched Shark Tank. It's like an embarrassing thing we do. And we, I feel like anytime there's an idea that we throw around, it's just like, we just say, Shark Tank. Hey sharks. That's awesome. So you're, you're mentoring there. When did the actual launch into your,

Company's called Intentional Foundation. We haven't actually said that yet. Oh yeah. Well, it's getting kind of a rebrand, but yeah, we'll figure that out. It is, was, depending on when you were listening. Depending on. Currently it is Inten, short for Intentional Foundation. Okay. When did you start Inten? Like when did that come into the process of you saying, we've got something here that's really working, we're touching on some stuff, I should make this my own business? Yeah. Well, ironically, Inten was an LLC I got a couple years ago because I had this whole other business idea.

Love that. That's a longer story. Yeah I was gonna do this like how to help women get on and stay on a strong career path and all the collateral is gonna be in 10 minutes or less and it was all gonna be intentional. So when I launched, kind of went out on my own, I was like well just use this LLC because it's silly to pay for another one and do all that kind of stuff.

But honestly, one of the things that I'm working on right now is I need a new iteration of I need to pivot and not pivot, but like. Now I need my brand and my company name to fit what I'm doing. So that's kind of the next step for me. Like, I don't have my website up because I didn't. I like had a little thing up and I was like, this keeps changing. So I'm just going to take that down. Yeah, it's not actually speaking to what I do. Right. So like my LinkedIn profile is like.

Oh, up to date and like, I kind of keep that active for people to get in contact with me. Um, but honestly up to this point, it's been referral based, like the people that I've worked with. Um, so I haven't really had to create your own sales. But I, um, that is actually on the roadmap for this year is, you know, a new name and a new website and you know, all that kind of stuff.

Leland Gross (25:03.002)

Again, as an entrepreneur, you know, well, I don't know, has yours changed some? I mean, you're in financial advising, so it's... Well, yeah, and I feel like my process has changed. I feel like I've explored... When I left my last firm, I knew it's great if people work with retirees. That's not what I get excited about. But I didn't have like a total clear, this is my avatar, this is the needs that I really love. I had some ideas.

But it was still pretty vague. So I didn't have any real clear messaging. And over time have really found like, I love working with self-employed professionals. Love working with millennials, people in their 30s and 40s who are building their life and building their business and just overall building. Because I kept coming into people in their 50s and 60s who's like, you have a lot of things that need help and that's great.

I need you to build a time machine and go back to your building years. And over time I similarly started seeing a lot of the same themes among people's fear of paying taxes or how do I invest or I don't have a benefits package because I'm my own business. So how do I do these things? And so kind of similar to you, I've shifted over time and kind of just learned like these are the things that bring me to life that I can provide a lot of value in.

And from there I've had to, I mean, my sales process, even just my financial planning process has changed probably three or four times and my website is a constant fluid. Like every day I look at it and I'm like, I need to change that. Yeah. Like we need to change this because that's baby Peacelink and now we're kind of like teenage Peacelink, you know, like we're growing and just, especially with, I'm sure you can relate with startups and.

small team solopreneurs like the people running it are changing and evolving and so the business will naturally change and evolve it's not like a stationary thing. You look at even just major things like McDonald's. When I was a kid you walked in and every like there were like burger shaped chairs and like crazy colors and now they're more like sleek and modern. They're changing their messaging and products over time to match things and so yeah I think definitely over time

Leland Gross (27:28.314)

I've had to do a lot more soul searching and just figuring out what works, what doesn't work, what speaks to people. Why is what I'm saying not connecting? And is that because of who I'm trying to connect it to or is that because of how I'm saying it? And which would have been really helpful to have a consultant offer me to do that. Truly. Because it is like...

spaghetti versus the waffle. And I get that analogy, the couple that did our premarital counseling kind of said like, Leiland you're a waffle, you compartmentalize everything, Lindy is spaghetti. It's just more fluid and flowing and kind of intertwined. But it's also really helpful, I found, as an analogy for me in entrepreneurship. It is. Well because you have so many thoughts going on in your brain all the time.

And because there are so many pieces, you don't have a sales department and an accounting department and this department, and you are all of them. And so it's like, okay, well, again, how do I set in motion the things that are gonna be productive where I'm not doing activity for activity's sake? Because that's the other thing with, I think a lot of, there's a lot on the market right now that promises big, fast results.

And I am telling you, like, overall, it's not true. Yeah, won't work. It won't happen. It won't happen. And what will happen is they will deliver on their promise to get 50 phone calls on your calendar, but it's gonna be 50 phone calls of, five to 10 of them might be actually qualified. And now you've just wasted so much time. And so again, like strategic activity that doesn't burn you out.

that, you know, and again, there's times where, you know, there's the grind and the push and the hustle, but again, how do we be really strategic and set up these processes that will, because I think the other entrepreneur lie is, we're gonna hit a certain revenue milestone and I'm gonna have more free time. Nope. Lies. I think so many lies because.

Leland Gross (29:44.466)

The more revenue you get, the more expectations you are, the more this, and then you've gotta build your team, which means you need more revenue, which means, and so it's this crazy cycle. So if on the front end, we can build some processes and systems in place that free up your time, and you can begin to go into this business and this world of owning or running your own company with healthy, I mean, I hate like healthy boundaries, like healthy work-life balance, where you set the tone.

and really build it around that. And again, those processes are the thing that makes it so easy. So much is, so it's always worth it to invest in those things at the beginning. Spend the time figuring out what your brand really is. Spend the time, like, don't just hire a quick fix anybody. Hire somebody who's gonna say, I'm in it with you for a little bit of the long haul. We're gonna, it's gonna be.

slow, you're going to get frustrated. But I'm telling you in six months from now, a year from now, you're going to be so grateful we put these processes and we built out your CRM and we figured out the language that works and we did good market research and we, you know, like those are the... It is true. We launch our businesses and then just start spinning our wheels immediately. And but this idea of like, I'm trying to think of...

there are some consultants in the financial advising world, how they say, like, finding what works and just doing the reps. Like, as opposed to just, like you said, doing 55 calls for the sake of doing 55 calls, it's what actually works. What do you, what value do you actually provide? Like working on that and knowing it's just going to take doing the reps, following up with your leads. Yep. Like getting, doing whatever it takes to get leads.

You know, and like almost putting these things in place that help you say what I'm doing is actually productive and it's still gonna take work. You're not gonna launch a business and not have it work. I feel like on Instagram, my Instagram just sends me like entrepreneurship stuff now. But everyone's like, watch how I made $35,000 a month in three months of just doing Instagram.

Leland Gross (32:05.658)

I doubt that's true. And if it is like you're the fluke. Yeah. Well, at nine times out of 10, what they're actually doing is getting paid to sell somebody else's program and they're getting an affiliate, you know, someone just started paying you $35,000 a month to post this. Cause you already had a big following, which you didn't. Yeah. So it's, there's a lot of chaos out there and I do, I, I'm working on a, um, workshop right now where it does talk.

speak to this because again, I think as we talked about earlier, like it's like this glorified entrepreneur, you know, it's all unicorns and rainbows and we get this big, huge heavy funding from venture capitalism. Now I'm a millionaire and I can yeah and it's like, no, you're going to be like crying over your computer at 2am.

I had someone on the podcast a couple months ago when I asked the question, like, what was the low point? He was like, I mean, like every day at some point, it's just all the time. What day are you asking? And I mean, people do it for a reason. There's wonderful pieces to it. But you're right. Like, I think it's again, not from an entrepreneurship perspective, but from like a financial planning perspective, there are so many clients, the world just screams, get rich quick. Yes.

here's the one investment you need and it's gonna change your life. You're never gonna have to do anything again. And I talked to you, I'm like, if it sounds too good to be true, it is. And we want you to get rich well, not necessarily get rich quick. Like, if we can do both, great. But for the most part, we know things compound over years and we wanna do the right things repeatably and well.

be excellent so that your wealth actually makes sense and serves you and is the most tax efficient and all these things. As opposed to just saying here's like the one, you know, game stop that everyone's jumping on and now you're going to lose all your money in six months because it flops. Yeah, no, 100%. No, I love that. Do you get rich well or not? Like build your business well. Yeah, no, totally. I mean, it is. I mean, that's and that's part of why I even.

Leland Gross (34:15.482)

was intentional foundation. It was like, if we build an intentional foundation, you can grow from that. Because again, you can, if you do this really, and I tell my clients all the time, I said, you are writing chapter one, but you're looking at companies who are on chapter 15. And you're like, well, how do we get there fast? You don't. If you ask them, they're like, They didn't. We thought we'd be.

at chapter 30 by now. Yeah, like we're at chapter 15. Well, and even like you have to, it's like, even like Netflix was selling, sending DVDs, you know, 15 years ago before they totally transformed. Amazon was a bookstore. Amazon was a bookstore. TikTok was musically. Facebook was a thing to

So Zuckerberg could get dates, you know? I mean, Facebook was a digital version of a college yearbook. Yes, like that's it. Colleges had the Facebook, which was the yearbook. And it was like, let's make it digital. Right. Debbie, 60-year-old Debbie from down the street on Facebook, probably didn't use it as her college yearbook. For sure she did not. She's just like, angry at the guy who spent too fast. Exactly. Yeah, so every company with major success has had multiple iterations. And

But you've got to write chapter one really, really well. You've got to build that foundation. You have got to be willing to put in the time and the effort and say, I will do it little and often over time is where you see, again, putting in the reps. That's where you see the change. And that will give you the ability to have longevity within the marketplace. Because with a strong foundation, you will then be able to pivot when the market says, actually, we're going over here. You may even then be set up to see market changes.

in order to, you know, so you can be flexible in the future and be ahead of the curve, you know, but again, you've got to, so you're not always spinning your wheels being, you know, reactive. You really can be proactive as you build your business. I think the reactive proactive thing is huge. I just feel like, I mean, again, business or not, people kind of are walking through life, letting life happen to them.

Leland Gross (36:26.066)

Like they're just in the river and just going down the river as opposed to being intentionally like, what am I doing with my life, with my time? No question. It's true of business. Most people are just in the river. They get started and they kind of follow the little template on rocket lawyer and are just letting it happen to them and are getting reactive to, well, now here's a fire. Now here's another fire. And they're just firemen. Yep. As opposed to, like you said, being proactive to say,

How can we anticipate some of these things? How can we build this well? On the book analogy, if a book has a really terrible first chapter and doesn't lay a good foundation, no one's finishing it. No one's finishing it. They're gonna put the book down and leave and say that was a bad book. Totally, yeah. And same thing for your business. If you cannot figure out how to, and when I say brand, I mean like how people experience you and understand what you do as a business. Like you gotta get that.

down, like even for me, it took me six months to be able to come up with on freaking LinkedIn, like I take startups to market, like I, you right? Like, and that's a piece of what I do, but like, that's the most concise and clear thing I can say that gives people context for what I do. So I get you to revenue quickly, right? Like I'm taking, we do go to market, but like that's. And that's helpful because that's not just, I'm a sales consultant. Right.

Which doesn't tell them anything. Right. Like if I, the fastest way for me, if I'm on an airplane and someone like, I don't want to talk to someone, like, what do you do? I'm like, I'm a financial advisor. Yeah. They're gone. Conversation. Yeah. But if I say like, I help self-employed professionals optimize their business finances so they can get the most out of their business. Great. Now we're talking. Now if they're interested, they'll ask more and if not, they'll self-select out and great, you know, like, and even that I feel like is a weak line. I'm working on my little.

Yeah, well, and my friend Kate DeLeo, she's with Ennobles. She does brand. She always says brand is the fastest path to revenue. That's your get rich. Yeah, it is because it's like when people really understand who you are and what you do, then you can easily create marketing and you can easily target people and say, hey, I know who we are. I know what I do. I know who I'm for. I know what I'm for. I know how I can fix your pains. So it makes those conversations way more strategic.

Leland Gross (38:52.274)

way more effective. And you don't get lost in conversations with people who aren't a fit. Cause people are like, oh, I'm not self-employed so it's fine. Right. And then great, I'm not gonna spin my wheels doing 50 calls with people where only five of them fit what I'm trying to do, because I can market better to the people. So people are self-selecting out and more people who I want to self-select in are because they know. And that's a good point too, Leland, is that as a startup and a small business owner,

you have to come to terms with the fact that you're not for everyone. And you can't be. Because I think oftentimes, like I see entrepreneurs and they kind of get these dollar signs, they're like, oh my gosh, this is like a $12 billion industry. And we get, and I'm like, it might be, but like your piece of the pie, like figure out your piece of the pie, you know? And you're not gonna be for everyone, you know? Like pet food might be a $40 billion industry, but like, listen, I am not the dog parent that is like,

painting my dog's toenails and giving it, you know. I'm like, so I've used the dog food that the vet tells me to use and that's it. So I'm not, and it's like, well, if we get this new, you know, this one's organic. I'm like, I might be part of that $40 billion industry, but I am not. Yeah, you're looking for the organic dog food people, which make up a part of that industry. 100%, yeah. Or, and when you think your target market there, it's like,

probably the pet owner that doesn't have kids. Cause like part of my problem is I'm like, listen, when you take a number, I got four boys over here that I gotta feed before you, you know? And there are some people who are like, not that way. They're like, how could you ever put your dog after your children? And I'm like, that's your market. So what's that size market? Now we're talking like, what's your branding towards them? How do you speak to them? What do they love? Like, how do you, you know, so again, it's like just really being intentional.

really dialing it in. It's really figuring out what the story you tell is and then how to get in front of them. And you do that and it's like, there's enough niches out there for enough people to make a livable wage if you just do it well. Oh yeah. And you build it well. I've said it once, I'll say it a million times, the riches are in the niches. Oh, I love that. The riches are in the niches. No, riches are in the niches. Oh.

Leland Gross (41:17.834)

I did not coin that, but I do love it and I believe it. So for you in this journey, what surprised you the most of this whole stumbling story? Yeah, what has surprised you the most? This is going to sound kind of crazy, but like kind of how good I am at it. I love that. I really like from and you know, just even the personal side of my story like

graduated from college, got married young, and kind of just assumed I'd be a mom. I came from a background that essentially that was what I was, I don't like to use the word groomed, but that was kind of what the expectation was, when I was just gonna be a mom for the rest of my, stay at home mom. And I bounced around here and there, and then when I got a divorce a few years ago, it was like, well.

because I'm going to go back to work. And I knew at that time I had background in events and some sales. And so I kind of, again, I didn't stumble into the job. But I applied on Indeed, and then I happened to get hired. But overseeing three stores after being a full-time stay-at-home mom for seven years was kind of a, I'm still to this day, I'm like, Ashley, why did you hire me? She took a rest, but we did good work. You know? And

And so I think for me, the past five years has really been a journey of learning what I'm good at, realizing that I have these pretty incredible strengths in certain areas and then being real confident to say like, hey, this is my lane. Like I am the first to say, hey, that one's above my pay grade or that one's outside of my, I know somebody that you could talk to, but that's out. I'm not.

Listen, I'm going to stay in my lane. That thought right there is a podcast in and of itself. In and of itself. That is just not my lane. That's not my lane. I'll hand it off. Yeah, I'm going to. I've got an incredible network of people who, especially when I work with founders, it's like, hey, we do need to get a lawyer over here. We need to get, you need some video, or you need this. It's like, again, I'm good on the strategy. I'm good on the branding. I'm good on your sales process. But even for marketing, I know enough to be dangerous. So we're going to pull in someone for marketing.

Leland Gross (43:36.25)

You know, like I, I understand certain things here, but we're going to pull somebody in for that, you know, um, finances way out of my league. Like, is that a spreadsheet? I'm going to go throw up. But yeah, I think the biggest thing and especially this past year has been. Really? Like, I think, and you even said it like realizing like what brings.

what lights me up and what I'm like the parts that I'm good at. I'm like pretty freaking good at it. Yeah, you know, it's like hey, that's kind of cool. Yeah, you know, like I really I've got something really big here to bring to the table and it matters and I'm going to stay here because my piece of the puzzle really matters and yeah, we're going to knock it out of the park with you. I love it. What was the low point for you? Well.

being a single mom to four kids and trying to feed them. Sure. That makes sense. Quite honestly. They're all boys and they're not small. They're all boys and they're not small and eat a lot of food. I think the low points for me.

Leland Gross (44:52.81)

Gosh, that's a good question. I mean, it's been a lot of wrestling. There was probably about three months ago, I could tell I was right at the precipice. And I was like, I figured it out. Like I'm here, I know what I'm doing. And I was like out of money. And so I was sitting in this really low moment of like, did I just work this hard for the past nine months?

to have to go get a job. Or like have to go, you know, like, and I was literally sitting there. And luckily I have the privilege of having a community of people and a family that is like as invested in me and this as I am. And often more, they believe in me more than I believe myself, which I, in myself, which I think is not, I think I know for certain is.

why I'm where I am now is because the community of people around me on those low moments were like, you have not worked this hard for there to not be fruit on the other side, like keep going. So, you know, in that moment, it was kind of like, all right, we're gonna, you know, I had some people that were like, well, we're gonna fund the next little bit because we believe in you too. And it ended up being literally like, two weeks later, I landed a.

huge, like a really big client. And I was like, yes, I knew it. That is like the stories that entrepreneurship is made of. I know, right? And then it was like, and even over the past cup two months, it's like, oh my gosh, I figured out these smaller offerings that really work. And it's like, it's been so cool to see, again, I think I'm in the momentum piece now, I think.

But it seems like takes a while to trust it. I really does. It's like I think we've hit up. I've hit a point where I've done enough of the work. I put in the hours and the time, especially mentoring, where I now am confident to say I can give two hours free and then it's six, one and a half hour sessions for fifteen hundred dollars. And I will walk through this piece with you or it's, you know, an hour discovery call and then scope of work with, you know, like I've, I've worked enough and have enough. Successful.

Leland Gross (47:12.078)

iterations of what I've done over the past year to go, okay, I'm confident enough to say, here's what I can do. And then here's where we need to go. You know? And so I think that's the part that's yeah, but that, that moment, it was probably, I mean, it wasn't that long ago. It was right at the beginning of the summer. And I was like, man, this may be like, I really don't want to throw in the towel, but I may, but I'm at this point where I gotta pay my bills. I gotta feed my kids. I got it, you know, and, and then

And I will say with that, if there's one encouragement I can say to entrepreneurs is get a couple of really good people around you because you are going to have dark days and you are going to want to throw in the towel. Like we joked earlier where it was like 8 a.m. you're excited, 10 a.m. it sucks, noon you're excited again, 3 p.m. you're looking for jobs, 5 p.m. you're you know, like that's going to be fairly consistent. But having people around you that will be honest enough with you to say,

hey, it's time to throw in the towel. Like this, you gave it a go, but like, this is a bad idea. Yeah. Or the others. Or the others who are like, uh-uh, like keep going. Like we have watched you, we are hearing how you've grown, we're seeing the work you've done. We also believe you're right there. Like keep going. Cause there are for sure gonna be plenty of days where you need someone else to believe in you more than you believe in yourself. Wow. I mean that.

That's the nugget of the call everyone, right there. Okay, so this is a podcast about success, but if you pull anybody on the side of the road and ask them what that means, you're gonna get a different answer from each person. So for you, how would you define success and how will you know if or when you've achieved it? When I've achieved it. Two, I think there'll be two things. The first is when I consistently and confidently know I can...

provide for myself and my kids, that there's consistent revenue, that I know that there's, and even if there's a slow month, because consulting sometimes you just don't have a client, that I've built up the, we're okay, there's some reserve. So that there's just a sense of, I don't have a dollar amount, right? It's like, and I don't live terribly.

Leland Gross (49:37.522)

lavishly. I've got four boys, we can't have anything nice. Even if you afford it, they're gonna destroy it. They're gonna destroy it. So I'm a couch is from Walmart. So you know, but way more for me where it's like

Yeah, yeah, we got McDonald's money. You know, like there's no big, you know, it's like, yes, I can say yes to kind of just the day in and day out that there's an opportunity to save up for a trip once a year, you know, just, I just want to live comfortably. I don't, again, I don't need the huge house. I just want to know that there's revenue that with my company, I am, I built this business where I can provide for myself and my kids. The second thing is within my business.

that there is impact in communities that wouldn't have had it otherwise because the thing I love the most about founders