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Noelle Stary – Mainstreet Moxie, 20 Lemons, The Co-Working Space
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All right, you have found
Authentic Business Adventures,
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the business program that brings you
the struggles,
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stories and triumphant successes
of business owners across the land coming
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to you from a Calls On Call studios
underwritten by Bank of Sun Prairie.
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My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,
author, speaker, speaker,
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and helpful coach to small business
owners across the country.
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Sometimes I can’t talk in the microphone.
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What are you going to do? Today
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we are welcoming/preparing to learn
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from Noelle Stary author and founder
of 20 Lemons and the Coworking Space.
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Noelle, how are you doing today?
I’m doing great.
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Thanks so much for having me.
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Thanks for being on the show here.
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I’m excited because you are an author,
which is super cool,
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but you also actually started businesses,
which means that you’re essentially giving
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business advice and you have
experienced owning a business.
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Yes. I see
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and meet a lot of people that are going
to coach people in business and either
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don’t or have never or both
actually started a business.
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So this is cool to actually meet
someone that has experience.
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Yeah.
Boots on the ground kind of thing.
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Yeah, I think I think a lot
about business is getting dirty.
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Absolutely.
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And, you know,
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like when I think about like business
and thinking about having a little bit
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of grit, I kind of, you know,
I always tell my clients for marketing.
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I always tell them, hey, I like to,
like, roll my sleeves up and get dirty.
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And like, you know, I’m not just going
to deliver brochures to your space.
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I want to actually, like know
like who are they going to.
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Did you tell them what
they’re going to do with it?
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What are you going
to say to the customers?
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And I try to really pull
it all the way through.
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Mm hmm.
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Because I think you’ve got to get
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dirty with your business and get to know
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all the bits and pieces that you can
really make it work. Oh, you have to.
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Absolutely.
Yeah, yeah.
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There’s so much going on that
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I guess the coaches that you hear about or
see them pushing their wares kind
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of thing, I feel like it’s almost
a snake oil thing.
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Like they’re they’re selling
hope based on pushing fear.
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Yeah.
Kind of thing.
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It’s not.
And people that actually have a business
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we can say like, hey man, it’s cool,
you’re going to get a little messy.
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Yeah, well, that’s part
of the fun to a point.
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Yeah.
So how long ago did you start
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20 Lemons?
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So my marketing company
started about 11 years ago.
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Oh wow nice.
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So I started my first business
during the Great Recession.
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Sure.
This time to start one.
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Right.
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Best time to start one.
I was working for a
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a design agency at the time and I
just kind of was of the opinion that.
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You know, I kind of saw the writing
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on the wall like stuff is kind of coming
to a halt all over the country and someone
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said you should go and look
to work for big business.
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And I thought to myself,
are you watching the news?
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And I just really felt like.
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The piece that I love the most about small
business or micro business is you don’t
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need success all over the world, you
just need success in your own community.
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And when you’re talking about micro
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successes, they don’t need
massive amounts of audience.
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And so I felt like I rather
just try to bet on myself.
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And that’s when I decided to start
my marketing company. Nice.
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So were you working for a graphic design
company before or what kind of?
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So, yep.
So I was working for a
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it was they did graphics and they did
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stuff like tons of branding work,
tons of website design, apparel,
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tons of stuff.
They worked.
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it was out of
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the company was called Titonic and it
was a company up in Newark, New Jersey.
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So they did a lot of work during the time
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that Cory Booker was
actually mayor up there.
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Oh, funny.
Kind of really interesting times.
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Yeah.
Yeah, interesting.
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So you what was the triggering moment
for you deciding to leave their.
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So around that time, I you know,
I remember it kind of being like
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September, October, you know,
Obama was coming into office around
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that time and I just like every day
the news would come out and it would be
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like this market tumbled or these
guys are looking for a bailout.
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And I just kind of really felt like.
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I heard this really great quote someone
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had talked about and they said,
you know, you’ve got two choices in life.
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You can either be a part of someone else’s
plan or someone can be a part of yours.
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Sure, he’s like, there’s only two options.
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And I just thought to myself, I’d rather
try to, like, make my own path
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and get people to support what I was
trying to do than just
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try to hitch on to someone else
and and hope for the best at the time.
[00:05:18]
Was the business you were
working for doing OK?
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They were doing OK.
[00:05:22]
They were doing OK.
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They did start to lose business,
which I don’t think was atypical.
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I mean, they worked for they
did a lot of work for mauls.
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They did work for non-profits.
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They did work for Cory Booker.
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And all of those places were doing OK.
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But like I said, even with them as a small
business, I knew, like in my mind,
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having to or I already had worked for a
another small business prior to that.
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And I just thought to myself.
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I feel like what it really takes to be
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good in business is being able to be
agile and make change as fast.
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And as I saw what was happening
in the economy, I thought to myself,
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if I was the guys that owned this
business, I would start laying people off.
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And so at that point,
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I kind of knew, you know,
that was my trigger moment.
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I think that was my moment was I thought
to myself, I can wait here and see if,
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like, the ax is going to, like,
cut down on me.
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I could wait to see
what’s going to happen,
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but I rather just kind of go on my own.
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And when I really started trying to make
some decisions for what I wanted to do.
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Nice, nice.
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No, it’s a very smart move.
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Instead of waiting and seeing,
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which is a very common reaction,
let’s just see how this plays out.
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Yeah, it’s very common.
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It’s interesting because that time
I started my first business in 2006
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and 2008, 2009,
when a lot of bigger companies were
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pulling their marketing,
that meant that smaller companies like me
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could actually afford to have radio
ads and TV ads and stuff like that.
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It’s kind of an interesting.
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Interesting dynamic, I guess we’re before
just couldn’t it was out of the cards.
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Well, and isn’t it funny because, like,
we were just talking two seconds ago,
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like micro businesses aren’t as influenced
by what’s going on in the economy.
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Right.
And so it’s it’s just like
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the determination of who do
I want my audience to be?
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You know, the the book that I just put out
talks to this point of
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who’s your audience?
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And and really what it’s talking about is
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the audience that I might have
always had before the pandemic.
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Nothing has really totally changed.
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But because of outside environmental
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influences,
maybe my audience has changed today.
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So like, for example,
I have a catering facility that I do
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marketing work with and catering
facilities they sell to corporate rights.
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So corporate comes,
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they do their annual events, they do their
annual meetings, they do team building.
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Well, the person who might have been
making the decision to go there might have
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been a I’m just going
to stereotype for a second.
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It might have been like an older white
male, you know, maybe says, wait a second,
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I might be someone who’s at risk of if I
get covid, I’m going to get really sick.
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I was like maybe an older person who’s
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making the decision
we’re not going anymore.
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And so it has nothing to do with the fact
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that the decision maker of a big company
might have always wanted to go there.
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That is the audience.
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But during, let’s say, coronavirus,
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you might have to say, wait a minute,
that’s not my buyer anymore.
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Maybe my buyer is the guy who was going
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to do an indoor wedding that now
is looking for an outdoor wedding.
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And I have to actually change my audience.
Oh, yeah.
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Yeah, you do it there.
Certainly.
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Yeah, we’re we’re I’m out
of near Madison, Wisconsin.
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They couldn’t have a corporate event.
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It just it was illegal,
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but it was they put out stuff that said
no mass gatherings of more than ten.
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Yeah.
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I think there’s no mass
gatherings of more than ten.
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I figured out when I was 10 outdoors
and 20 indoors or vice versa or something
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like that, like we can’t
even gather outside
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what happens when we’re at a stoplight?
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This is the window that keeps going.
Yeah.
[00:09:40]
Like we’re we’re all meant
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we don’t get the choice.
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So Christmas parties and all that kind
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of stuff or whatever the annual New Year’s
bash is and all that kind of stuff,
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the businesses would have
little celebrations.
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Yay, we survived.
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Yeah, we’re
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probably not getting
a whole lot of catering.
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Yeah.
So they’re having to adapt.
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Yeah.
Yeah.
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And so, you know, I think
over the last several months
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or so my businesses have always, you know,
I politely joke my businesses literally
[00:10:12]
have been on Main Street like Main Street
is where I’ve always had my business.
[00:10:17]
And Jersey I think is
kind of unique like this.
[00:10:20]
Like every town has,
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like a little Main Street and there’s
a small local mom and pop shops.
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And we’re at this just really interesting
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time where, like all of these small
businesses were the ones that always gave
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to the community,
the local softball teams,
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the local this you know,
we’re going into like holiday season.
[00:10:39]
And it’s like this is really the time
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for the communities to go back
and support those local businesses.
[00:10:44]
Like Shop Local has always been a key
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message for any town, but it’s never
meant more than it does today.
[00:10:53]
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
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Yeah.
And it’s it’s weird in practice
[00:11:00]
because I guess there’s kind of opposing
ideals now with the whole coronavirus.
[00:11:05]
Stay home.
Don’t go anywhere.
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Yeah, but you also want to shop local,
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which a lot of them have
had to struggle even like.
[00:11:13]
Oh crap.
That means that we need a website,
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we need an e-commerce store, we need
a way to get the product to people.
[00:11:19]
And most people already
expect free shipping.
[00:11:22]
Oh yeah.
Stuff like that.
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It’s not practical.
Or they actually actually.
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Yeah.
So, you know, one of the one of the things
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that I’ve seen that I thought has been
kind of ironic kind of to your point, is
[00:11:32]
if the biggest days of the year right now,
right now, today, right.
[00:11:37]
Cyber Monday, Cyber Monday,
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what do we all do on Cyber Monday
that my dad’s been calling me all day?
[00:11:42]
He keeps going.
[00:11:44]
I need this hair trimmer
because it goes up on price.
[00:11:47]
Tomorrow you can buy a nice Amazon, right.
[00:11:50]
And and so here, it’s like,
you know, we do Black Friday.
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Everyone is doing all
their online shopping.
[00:11:59]
And again, to your point,
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the people that need the sales the most,
I think that I think I was just seeing
[00:12:05]
the other day on the news,
they were saying annual online sales this
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holiday season are supposed
to go up like five percent like.
[00:12:13]
Online sales are supposed to be up,
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but, you know, the people that really need
that buying are the local people and even
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one of the easiest things you can do is
just buy gift cards from them and just
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say, you know what, we’re going
to buy it from you and do it later.
[00:12:30]
But the challenge was for Black Friday.
[00:12:33]
A lot of the small businesses were saying,
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wait a minute, not only do we want people
to come in, but they want discounts here.
[00:12:41]
We’re doing all of this extra stuff
to try to help and stay alive.
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And and now they want us to,
like, give more discounts.
[00:12:51]
And and so I think it’s really been
a challenge like this holiday season
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with seeing how the small businesses are
handling, how they actually give pricing
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their product.
It’s tough.
[00:13:05]
It’s tough.
And as a consumer,
[00:13:07]
just even yesterday,
I went to get some takeout for a wife
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and kid,
and it was a restaurant we never went to,
[00:13:13]
you know, just getting some
Chinese food or whatever.
[00:13:15]
And you have to figure out what is
[00:13:17]
the system that they have
for picking up the food.
[00:13:20]
You’re not hanging out
in the lobby and stuff like this.
[00:13:23]
So from a bigger business, fast food or
something like that, just drive through.
[00:13:27]
No big thing.
[00:13:29]
Other restaurants where it’s sit down,
either sit down outside or just have
[00:13:34]
closed the middle of the road,
places like that.
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I’m just like, I don’t
know how to get food.
[00:13:40]
I don’t even know how
to be a customer of yours.
[00:13:43]
Yeah.
So I have to tell you.
[00:13:44]
So like before we started that,
[00:13:47]
before we went on air today,
we were talking about my coworking space.
[00:13:51]
My cover in space is called
the coworking space.
[00:13:54]
Awesome.
[00:13:54]
And I know you kind of were like, oh,
everyone knows that a coworking spaces.
[00:13:58]
And the reality is,
as I started my coworking space in two
[00:14:01]
thousand nine and when I started
my working space, it was actually called
[00:14:05]
launch pad creative’s
and launch pad creative’s was supposed
[00:14:10]
to be so that, you know,
other marketers or designers or writers
[00:14:14]
can come and work out of this space
and like a collaborative function.
[00:14:18]
But when people would say,
[00:14:19]
what is the launch pad creative side is,
I would say, oh, it’s a coworking space.
[00:14:25]
And then they would go,
what’s a coworking space?
[00:14:27]
And the dialogue just,
[00:14:30]
you know, it was like a 20 minute
dialogue to explain what the place was.
[00:14:34]
And the part that I was always blown away
[00:14:38]
by was you mention it like
you hit the nail on the head.
[00:14:42]
Like I say to people,
when I go being a Jersey girl,
[00:14:47]
I walk into any pizza place in Jersey and,
you know, the routine.
[00:14:50]
You go in, you go to the counter,
[00:14:52]
you order pizza, you can sit down,
they’ll bring it over.
[00:14:55]
You can pay at the end
like it’s no big deal.
[00:14:57]
It’s the same in every
pizza place in New Jersey.
[00:15:00]
The problem is,
is like when you get to a coworking space
[00:15:03]
or if you’re in a new type of work
environment, people are confused, like
[00:15:09]
where I go, how do I
at what point do I buy?
[00:15:13]
Are you coming to like are you dropping it
in my trunk or you’re dropping it
[00:15:17]
on my left side? Am I supposed to open
the window down or do I need a QR code?
[00:15:21]
And so during, like, coronavirus,
like what I’ve been seeing with a lot
[00:15:27]
of my clients is we’re trying to put out
communication or even video that kind
[00:15:32]
of says, you know,
I’m noticing a lot of my restaurants are
[00:15:36]
coming out and they’re saying
and it’s the owner kind of shooting
[00:15:40]
a video and he goes, hey,
when you come and see us,
[00:15:42]
you’re going to notice things
look a little bit different.
[00:15:44]
You’re going to drive up here.
[00:15:46]
You’re going to be met by this person.
[00:15:48]
We’re going to do this.
You’re going to sit down.
[00:15:50]
There’s going to be QR code,
take a picture of it.
[00:15:53]
You can pay right there at the table.
[00:15:55]
And and so I think these little video
snippets have been so impactful because
[00:16:02]
at the beginning of coronavirus,
I just think that extra influx of emails
[00:16:06]
was like quadruple like I bet you can
even keep up with what was going on.
[00:16:13]
And so some of these little video snippets
have been a way of kind of saying,
[00:16:18]
hey, we’re recalibrating our environment
or we’re recalibrating our culture.
[00:16:22]
And here’s what you can expect.
[00:16:24]
And I think to your point as like the end
user, it makes you have a better customer
[00:16:30]
experience when you know
what’s going to be happening.
[00:16:34]
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
[00:16:35]
Because my rules are confused.
[00:16:37]
Customers don’t buy.
I agree.
[00:16:39]
So I think that’s why pizza delivery
[00:16:41]
superway up,
because if you want to eat out or you want
[00:16:44]
to get food delivered, whatever you like,
they’ve had that going on for years.
[00:16:48]
So it’s no big thing.
It’s easy.
[00:16:51]
I don’t know.
[00:16:51]
I don’t want to look like
an idiot going in to get food.
[00:16:55]
Yeah, it’s just not it’s like when you go
[00:16:56]
to a hospital to visit someone and you go
to the cafeteria and it’s just this
[00:17:01]
massive array of tables
and kind of self-serving.
[00:17:04]
You don’t know.
[00:17:05]
Look, I just got to get
something for my mom.
[00:17:08]
I don’t even know how to do it.
[00:17:10]
Ask me.
[00:17:12]
Yeah, it’s just a weird.
[00:17:13]
It’s a weird dynamic, so.
[00:17:15]
If you make the experience,
the buying experience easy,
[00:17:19]
make it easy to buy.
People will buy, right?
[00:17:21]
Yeah, I always love that book.
[00:17:24]
I think it’s the paradox of choice.
[00:17:27]
And it talks about
[00:17:29]
like when you go to a food store,
like a supermarket and you see all
[00:17:34]
of these different cereal boxes or all
these different types of jellies,
[00:17:39]
that if you’re overwhelmed by the amount
of options, you have to make a choice.
[00:17:44]
You know what I’m not going to do?
[00:17:46]
It becomes too can too challenging like
[00:17:49]
people like give me two or three
options and I’m good, right?
[00:17:53]
Small, medium.
Large, right.
[00:17:55]
Yeah.
Yeah.
[00:17:56]
It’s interesting.
With so Calls On Call the call answering
[00:17:59]
service, we had packages that were
named after different ways.
[00:18:04]
The lines for communication.
[00:18:06]
It’s like the first one was a string
package because those two cans
[00:18:08]
and a string and then we had copper fiber,
all this kind of stuff.
[00:18:13]
And I thought it were being clever,
[00:18:16]
but people had no idea
there was like a string better than tin or
[00:18:21]
fiber or that didn’t
like you just don’t get it.
[00:18:24]
Royds technology is clever,
but the idea is, I guess I’ve learned
[00:18:29]
they’re supposed to be clear
over clever and simple.
[00:18:32]
We just have bronze, silver, gold.
[00:18:36]
It’s just it’s so boring.
[00:18:38]
But people get it like, oh,
this is where I’m in.
[00:18:41]
Yeah.
So.
[00:18:42]
All right.
[00:18:43]
Tell me about your book.
[00:18:46]
So you wrote Mainstreet Moxie.
Yeah.
[00:18:48]
So in a super recent,
super recent super super reason because
[00:18:53]
Duquan Cauvin in their super recent
so so as I had
[00:19:00]
so I’ve had my businesses for the last 11
[00:19:02]
years and there was always this like
one of my clients is a publisher.
[00:19:08]
And so she and I talk a lot about a book
and I had reiterations of it in my head.
[00:19:17]
Right.
[00:19:18]
Like, you know, in business,
I call it stirring the pot.
[00:19:22]
I mean, this stuff like bubble
and then stuff kind of comes down.
[00:19:26]
And originally, I want it
to do a book about, like
[00:19:31]
dressing from the dorm room
to the boardroom,
[00:19:34]
like kind of like a dress for success,
like what you do in your early 20s.
[00:19:39]
And as I turned around, right.
[00:19:41]
Time flies and I turned around and I’m
[00:19:43]
like, oh my gosh,
I’m like father and business.
[00:19:45]
Then like dorm room.
[00:19:47]
It’s like that’s like I think I
need like a different audience.
[00:19:51]
And I’m really like,
what started to come out of it was
[00:19:56]
this idea that you fell
forward a lot in business.
[00:20:01]
Like I know.
I know.
[00:20:03]
Like there’s always like the joke
that where it’s like, oh, it is,
[00:20:06]
you know, does Texas go like this,
like in a straight line?
[00:20:09]
And then it’s like,all right.
[00:20:11]
And it’s all over.
[00:20:13]
And and so I think it’s this idea of when
[00:20:18]
you get your hands dirty in business,
you’re if you’re always waiting
[00:20:22]
for perfection, you’re not going
to get there like you’re stuck.
[00:20:27]
And so you’re always like,
I got 80 percent of the information.
[00:20:31]
I’m going to make the next
step based on what I know.
[00:20:33]
And you kind of just keep
doing this on repeat and.
[00:20:38]
The more you do it,
I think you start to build this intuition
[00:20:41]
to how you handle your
Decision-Making in business.
[00:20:47]
And so the book is really
[00:20:50]
about a series of ways to make
decisions as you’re trying to
[00:21:00]
get forward and go through things.
[00:21:03]
And, you know, I had a lot of the book
[00:21:05]
done as we were going into covid and
my publisher and I basically said this.
[00:21:13]
This has got to go out now.
[00:21:14]
And the reason for it is, is
[00:21:18]
I’ve been on a few calls with some
like entrepreneurship classes.
[00:21:22]
And the first thing that I say
[00:21:24]
to the entrepreneurship classes is I say
congratulations for being
[00:21:28]
in an entrepreneurship class during
coronavirus, because
[00:21:33]
you are learning right now what it’s like
to deal with a disaster on a daily basis,
[00:21:39]
like because I don’t think
business is always easy.
[00:21:43]
No, I think I see your face.
[00:21:46]
It is not it’s not only
not easy, it’s it’s hard.
[00:21:50]
It’s hard.
And you need to be able to, like,
[00:21:53]
make decisions on the fly
with the information that, you know.
[00:21:56]
And so being able to be
[00:22:00]
able to make decisions in agile
environments is really important.
[00:22:04]
And so
[00:22:07]
I felt like as we were going
through this, I felt like
[00:22:13]
the story is not just, hey, it’s a success
story that I’ve made it out of it alive.
[00:22:18]
It’s kind of saying I am right there
with you like you are not alone.
[00:22:24]
Like all of us,
small business owners are kind of
[00:22:29]
on the same path.
[00:22:31]
But you know what?
[00:22:32]
We’re the backbone of the people
that we’ve been able to push through.
[00:22:37]
And you just, you know, part of it is
grit and part of it is gusto.
[00:22:44]
I cannot believe during our first shut
down,
[00:22:47]
every time I got on the phone with one
of my restaurant owners, to your point,
[00:22:51]
before they were coming up with new clever
ideas on how to, like,
[00:22:56]
pitch something or present something or
how to, like, send stuff to a table.
[00:23:00]
And I would be talking to business
owners all over the country.
[00:23:05]
And I have these moments when I talk
[00:23:08]
to business owners from
Texas to California to Maine,
[00:23:13]
and the stories are exactly
the same and I think myself.
[00:23:19]
It’s not that someone is being so much
[00:23:21]
more innovative, but it makes you feel
like you have some camaraderie with people
[00:23:26]
that are going through the same process
or the same steps that you are.
[00:23:30]
And and so I feel like the book is kind
of team nice, some business owners to kind
[00:23:37]
of say, hey, we’re going
through this and you can do it.
[00:23:41]
And you know what, like wake up.
[00:23:43]
Like, I joke like put on, like,
[00:23:46]
your favorite underwear because
that’s like your superhero costume.
[00:23:49]
Like, before you get out there and go out
[00:23:52]
into the world every day
and don’t be afraid to make mistakes
[00:23:57]
because you fall once, you get up twice,
like you just keep moving ahead. And like
[00:24:03]
before we know it, we’re going
to be through this also, right?
[00:24:07]
Yeah, I feel like every
[00:24:10]
10 years or so we run
into a little hiccup.
[00:24:13]
Yeah.
[00:24:13]
Rection or whatever you want
to call winter or whatever.
[00:24:17]
So it was interesting when you were
[00:24:18]
talking in your book about
what to wear for zoo meetings.
[00:24:21]
Yeah.
[00:24:22]
People have kind of started dressing down,
some of them way down, looking up.
[00:24:28]
You’re going to paint
the whole way over your head.
[00:24:31]
Yeah, yeah.
[00:24:32]
I mean, it’s kind of funny because you
when we got to like the dressing section,
[00:24:36]
you know, like at that point, like,
we have some family,
[00:24:39]
friends that are involved in the fashion
industry and people and like people that’s
[00:24:44]
like button down shirts
are being laid off.
[00:24:47]
And then I’ve got clients that are selling
like lingerie, e-commerce and sales are
[00:24:51]
through the roof like and, you know,
everything is all over the place and
[00:24:58]
different meetings.
[00:24:59]
But. Well, but what I really think it was
[00:25:01]
like really a challenge to say, do you
keep some nicer clothes still in your
[00:25:08]
wardrobe or do we just kind
of start going the other direction?
[00:25:12]
And
[00:25:13]
I think, like, there’s still something
[00:25:15]
to be said about being able to,
like, dress up, show up.
[00:25:19]
And it doesn’t mean that you need to be
in a full suit, but it definitely means
[00:25:25]
how do you want to present yourself and
what image do you want to push across?
[00:25:29]
I mean, the images that we’re pushing
across today are flat, right?
[00:25:34]
Right.
[00:25:35]
Like,
we’re not really getting the opportunity
[00:25:38]
to, like, sit across from someone
and shake hands like.
[00:25:42]
Right.
Like the art of shaking hands is gone.
[00:25:45]
Like, I remember being in business school
and the diagram comes up on the funny
[00:25:50]
background and it goes, you know,
you’re going to interlock them.
[00:25:57]
And I remember that, like,
that’s going to be a totally different
[00:26:01]
lesson, you know,
to the students of business school.
[00:26:05]
You know, it’s interesting you say
[00:26:06]
that because my kids remote
with the school now, of course,
[00:26:10]
and I was looking at the week,
what they’re being taught this week.
[00:26:15]
And one of the main things was how
[00:26:18]
to communicate and introduce yourself
to people without touching them.
[00:26:22]
So no hug or high five, no handshake,
just the different ways to do this.
[00:26:26]
And oh, my gosh,
I just felt like what are we teaching?
[00:26:31]
Oh, yes, I’m a guy that
shake hands high five.
[00:26:37]
Yeah.
[00:26:37]
Some people hugs, but mostly
high fives and shaking hands.
[00:26:41]
Yeah.
[00:26:41]
I’m like, we’re teaching them how
not to do that, but oh my gosh.
[00:26:46]
Yeah.
[00:26:46]
Because to me I’m like,
we can’t be afraid of this forever.
[00:26:49]
Like this can’t go on forever.
Can’t possibly.
[00:26:52]
But I’ve been wrong about a lot of stuff
so maybe I’ll be wrong about that.
[00:26:55]
I hope not that maybe like oh I can’t
get another high five before I’m dead.
[00:27:02]
I feel like we’ve got a problem.
[00:27:04]
Well, you know, I have to tell I mean,
[00:27:05]
even back to your concept
of like, faux pas, right?
[00:27:08]
Like, I mean, I, I,
I have spent the majority of my business
[00:27:14]
life doing face to face meetings and going
out and having dinner with people
[00:27:18]
and getting to know them
and doing activities.
[00:27:21]
And,
[00:27:22]
you know, we New Jersey had done
a lockdown and we finally started to be
[00:27:28]
able to go out and we went to a picnic
with a few other families.
[00:27:33]
And kind of to your point,
because it’s so second nature,
[00:27:37]
like I saw someone and they introduced
themselves and I immediately, like,
[00:27:41]
shut up, shook my hand out and grab
their hand to, like, shake it.
[00:27:44]
And as I’m shaking and I’m thinking
to myself,
[00:27:47]
I don’t think I’m supposed to be doing
this right now, like
[00:27:50]
like it’s almost like the other direction
where you’re like, oh, my gosh,
[00:27:53]
I forgot that I probably shouldn’t
even be doing this, you know.
[00:27:58]
So weird.
So weird.
[00:28:00]
Yeah.
I don’t
[00:28:02]
know.
So, so my, my background I so I got I went
[00:28:06]
to University
of Maryland College Park, OK.
[00:28:09]
And I got my degree from Robert H.
[00:28:11]
Smith School of Business and I
got it in Human Resources.
[00:28:15]
And what I really loved was I.
[00:28:18]
We love this idea of how
[00:28:21]
people grow and interact,
and they always talk about the hardest
[00:28:25]
thing to change in any
business is culture.
[00:28:28]
Oh yeah.
[00:28:29]
So most important thing to the most
[00:28:32]
important thing, which is
the hardest thing to change.
[00:28:35]
And so isn’t it ironic that, like,
[00:28:39]
the entire world is being asked
to change their cultural norms.
[00:28:45]
Right.
As a way to succeed when we already know
[00:28:48]
that this is actually
the hardest thing to do?
[00:28:52]
From my point of view,
[00:28:53]
you’re essentially asking
an extremely social species to not be
[00:28:58]
social or to be social on these on a
digital front, which is way different.
[00:29:04]
I’m like, this is a difference
between watching porn and having sex.
[00:29:07]
Yes, not the same.
[00:29:09]
Yeah, well, you know, it’s kind of funny.
[00:29:11]
So, I mean, back to like the book
when I talk about this section about
[00:29:18]
what do we dress like today.
Right.
[00:29:21]
Or how do we dress for success.
[00:29:23]
You know, I kind of like do
a joke in the beginning.
[00:29:26]
And I say, you know,
[00:29:27]
whenever I watch movies like Waterworld,
all these futuristic movies and everyone,
[00:29:33]
everyone looks like they’re a disaster.
What happened?
[00:29:38]
And then we get through Korona And you
think to yourself,
[00:29:41]
after you’ve looked at yourself
in the mirror, I know what happened.
[00:29:44]
We all got, like locked
down and can do anything.
[00:29:48]
I think it’s like one of these things
[00:29:50]
where I, I also am, like, blown away by,
like, our point in history that we’re in.
[00:29:58]
I think we’re in a really huge inflection
point where people are going to
[00:30:04]
drastically change
the way technology works.
[00:30:07]
And so, yes, I agree with you.
[00:30:09]
I think Flat Zoom doesn’t work like this
does not work from a social standpoint.
[00:30:15]
It doesn’t work for business development.
[00:30:18]
It just doesn’t work.
[00:30:19]
And I think that there’s going to be new
[00:30:22]
technologies that are going to be coming
out that are going to try to create more
[00:30:27]
social dynamics, three dimensional or
like, you know, I think about Star Wars
[00:30:34]
where like Princess Leia should a hologram
like I I don’t know exactly what it looks
[00:30:40]
like yet, but I’m pretty
sure the future of.
[00:30:44]
Communication digitally
is not going to be flat.
[00:30:47]
All right.
I hope not.
[00:30:49]
And I would like to go back to in person,
but I like to go back to a person
[00:30:54]
that said we’re able to do this
and you’re halfway across the country.
[00:30:58]
So there’s I guess there’s
benefits as far as that goes.
[00:31:02]
Yeah.
[00:31:03]
And it I guess it made some changes or
forced some changes in my business
[00:31:09]
that turned out to be positive that I
would have never expected to be positive.
[00:31:12]
So.
[00:31:14]
There’s there’s a little bit.
[00:31:15]
So what’s it like, what type
of changes have you seen?
[00:31:18]
Oh, my people not being
in the office anymore, OK?
[00:31:22]
Yeah, they went away.
[00:31:23]
So I created a studio A.
[00:31:28]
A pod cast recording studio,
not this one, but over there
[00:31:32]
for people that are still willing
to come in person that can slash will.
[00:31:37]
And because I don’t know what else to do
with the space, I’m paying for it.
[00:31:41]
And I have a lease.
[00:31:42]
So I figured I better
use it for something.
[00:31:44]
I got it.
So you put up on one side,
[00:31:46]
some on your side, and then you’re like,
we’re going to roll with it.
[00:31:49]
Yeah, you just got to adapt.
[00:31:51]
We’re all the employees are
working out of the house now.
[00:31:54]
The house is now
[00:31:55]
and I would have never guessed that they
would be as productive as they are.
[00:32:00]
But thank goodness, man,
[00:32:02]
they have been arguably more so
I don’t know if that would have been
[00:32:06]
the case with a lot of other
employees that I had.
[00:32:08]
I think it’s safe to say that would
not be the case with other employees.
[00:32:12]
But this crew, Tip-Top super awesome.
That’s awesome.
[00:32:16]
So I don’t see it coming back,
[00:32:19]
even if if they’re like, wait, you know,
like they the media or whatever you want
[00:32:24]
to say, whoever whoever comes out
and says, it’s like we were just kidding.
[00:32:28]
It’s not really that big of a deal.
[00:32:29]
Go back to the way you were,
I probably think.
[00:32:33]
We’re we’re working from home.
[00:32:35]
It’s OK.
[00:32:37]
So I have a silly question then,
[00:32:38]
so like what would you continue
to do with your space?
[00:32:44]
Nothing, I think I’ll let the lease lapse
and I’ll build an office in my house.
[00:32:50]
Or in a bit of coworking space or
something like that,
[00:32:53]
some escapement, say, actually,
so I just saw an article that said
[00:32:56]
coworking spaces are
expecting five times growth.
[00:33:00]
I can see if you can survive
this year going out to whatever.
[00:33:04]
Totally.
Yeah.
[00:33:07]
Yeah, because.
[00:33:09]
I guess I like the idea of a coworking
space in the coworking spaces that have
[00:33:12]
seen the different options as far as
privacy or walls are open or whatever you
[00:33:17]
want, or going back to your desk or
just using a flat surface, whatever.
[00:33:22]
There are tons of options.
[00:33:24]
Yeah, and if you’re not if it’s not needed
[00:33:27]
eight hours a day every day,
then it’s a it is a practical alternative.
[00:33:33]
Yeah.
Yeah.
[00:33:35]
Yeah.
[00:33:35]
I definitely think that’s
going to be that’s my opinion.
[00:33:38]
I think stuff is going
to head towards that.
[00:33:40]
Yeah.
And I guess going back to the whole
[00:33:43]
culture thing without employees in my
office, I don’t have anyone to talk to.
[00:33:48]
And I like to have those conversations.
[00:33:50]
I think even like Apple had that whole
centering thing where they wanted to have
[00:33:54]
people accidentally bump into each other
to trigger conversations.
[00:33:58]
Right.
[00:33:59]
And you don’t accidentally run
into someone when you’re remote.
[00:34:02]
Yeah.
[00:34:03]
So you need some means of communicating
with people that is not scheduled.
[00:34:09]
It’s just
[00:34:11]
serendipity takes over
for something like that.
[00:34:14]
And right now, I think we’re we’re
removing a lot of that opportunity.
[00:34:18]
Yeah, that’s interesting.
[00:34:20]
I could see that.
[00:34:22]
Yeah, just to have
[00:34:23]
what was the I can’t refuse Apple or
Google where they have this huge
[00:34:28]
area in the middle
where I think I don’t know if they had
[00:34:31]
the food and stuff like
that in the middle.
[00:34:33]
So people had to leave their office and go
[00:34:35]
through this huge area where
they’re bound to see other people.
[00:34:40]
So and maybe accidentally talk to someone
and maybe accidentally invent whatever.
[00:34:45]
I can tell you.
I mean, I agree with you.
[00:34:47]
So, I mean, I do a lot of work
in the hospitality industry.
[00:34:50]
And I actually think it was
[00:34:53]
because of that background in hospitality
that I feel so passionate about coworking.
[00:34:59]
Oh, and what it was,
was I had worked for Jersey diners
[00:35:03]
and Jersey diners or if you like,
ever look at, like the history of diners.
[00:35:08]
It’s like that’s where people
used to go and have business.
[00:35:11]
You go, you get a cup of coffee,
someone else is having a cup of coffee
[00:35:14]
and it’s over a cup of coffee
that like relationships were made.
[00:35:20]
And so when I started thinking about work
[00:35:23]
environments, I felt like
that was such a critical piece.
[00:35:26]
And I’ve even seen recently people talking
[00:35:29]
about how when you create outside public
space like parks and stuff like they’re
[00:35:35]
kind of also designed so
that people interact.
[00:35:39]
And so
[00:35:42]
from a structural standpoint,
[00:35:46]
I don’t I don’t totally know what
we’re going to see in the future.
[00:35:49]
And I think.
I think.
[00:35:51]
I don’t know if people really have clear
ideas around that, like
[00:35:55]
even like for like thought leaders
in those areas, I, I know they’re thinking
[00:36:01]
about it, but I don’t know if people
have come up with anything clever yet.
[00:36:07]
I think that.
Yeah, I think you’re correct there.
[00:36:11]
Yeah.
We don’t know.
[00:36:12]
It’s just mass confusion, right.
[00:36:14]
Oh I think we’re all just kind of doing
what we think is the best that we can
[00:36:19]
and just adapting as we’re
as we’re moving on.
[00:36:23]
That’s just the name
of the game in business.
[00:36:25]
I think I even wrote a blog about that
[00:36:27]
where it wouldn’t matter
if it happened or not.
[00:36:29]
You would have some other problems that
you’d have to solve as a business owner.
[00:36:33]
Yeah, just to happen,
especially if you have employees.
[00:36:37]
Yeah.
Yeah, totally.
[00:36:38]
Just problems, problems, problems.
They just come.
[00:36:41]
You will never be without problems.
Yeah.
[00:36:43]
If you without them you’ll create some.
[00:36:44]
Just say you can have
something that was so funny.
[00:36:46]
Right.
Like everyone’s like man.
[00:36:48]
And I thought I had problems
the day before covid you know.
[00:36:52]
And you’re like wait.
[00:36:53]
I got like other problems
and you’re right.
[00:36:55]
Like even when there aren’t legitimate
problems, something’s a problem.
[00:37:00]
Absolutely.
[00:37:01]
So you know, but but I do think, like,
we’re getting a little bit of this, like,
[00:37:06]
time under tension, stress,
opportunity, where if you are.
[00:37:16]
I know a lot of business owners I’ve
talked to are exhausted,
[00:37:19]
like they’re eight months into this
and they’re like, I’m emotionally burnt.
[00:37:23]
And one of the things I’ve been talking
[00:37:25]
about is we’ve been going
into the holidays is take a week off,
[00:37:30]
like shut your business and take a week
off, because we’re not really taking
[00:37:36]
long weekends away the way that we used
to or we’re not taking
[00:37:41]
a week vacation because where
are you going on your vacation?
[00:37:44]
Like staycation?
[00:37:46]
We’re already staycation.
[00:37:49]
So, you know, I don’t think people are
giving themselves a chance to recharge.
[00:37:56]
You know, I feel like whenever you read
fitness books or like goal setting books,
[00:38:03]
they really say you can really only do
a hard push like 90 days at a time.
[00:38:09]
You know, like and if we’re eight months
into this, like, take take off,
[00:38:14]
take off between Christmas and New Year’s,
you know, like give yourself a legitimate
[00:38:19]
break because, you know,
I think we got another push ahead of us.
[00:38:24]
And I think it’s in those rest periods
that all of this extra stress or decision
[00:38:32]
making, when we just pause a minute,
like our brains could just think enough or
[00:38:37]
clear out enough that, like,
I think we can get creative again.
[00:38:42]
And so I think that’s kind of like
[00:38:44]
the next piece as a culture we
really need to be pushing on.
[00:38:49]
Yeah, that’s a good
that’s a very good point.
[00:38:51]
You can definitely tell
that people are getting fatigued.
[00:38:55]
And they’re just I don’t know,
I guess ever since March,
[00:38:58]
I feel like there’s just been this cloud
of frustration or tension.
[00:39:04]
Or just maybe it’s
[00:39:07]
people throwing up their arms thinking,
I don’t know what’s going to happen,
[00:39:11]
whether they’re concerned about their job
or their business or I mean,
[00:39:16]
what are their market is going
to crash or something like that.
[00:39:18]
There’s just so much going
on in inundating people
[00:39:22]
that it’s tough to it’s tough to even
adapt, let alone perceive what’s going on.
[00:39:28]
Well, that’s the that’s the thing, right?
[00:39:30]
Like, you’re not even like getting through
to something where it’s like, hey,
[00:39:33]
I implemented this thing and I followed it
through one hundred percent because like,
[00:39:37]
as soon as you’re implementing it,
it’s changing.
[00:39:40]
Twenty four hours later, you know,
we do a lot of work in hospitality and.
[00:39:44]
Every time we were putting something up
on a website, you know,
[00:39:47]
Governor Murphy was changing the rules and
we were changing the communication again.
[00:39:52]
You guys had a mass stop.
Yeah.
[00:39:55]
And so, you know, I think
partially what I’m also seeing
[00:40:00]
in the environment is like everyone just
kind of saying, I don’t want to get away.
[00:40:05]
It goes back to what we
were talking about before.
[00:40:07]
Like,
we don’t want to be doing a hundred
[00:40:11]
different things or selling
a hundred different products.
[00:40:13]
We’re only going to sell five
products that are 10 products.
[00:40:16]
I’m seeing a lot of streamlining,
a lot of like where can we cut things?
[00:40:21]
How can we make our processes easier?
[00:40:24]
We don’t want people calling and talking
to customer service and getting rerouted.
[00:40:28]
We want people to be able to go
to the water line, right.
[00:40:32]
Everyone’s trying to figure out
how do I streamline my process.
[00:40:36]
And and so I think this is what business
owners are getting really clear about.
[00:40:43]
So even if they’re like
because they got to be able to adjust
[00:40:47]
where they’re saying, hey,
whether we’re getting full shutdowns or
[00:40:50]
we’re getting fully open,
I need to be able to adjust quickly.
[00:40:53]
And so I can do that if
I’m not agile enough.
[00:40:56]
And so I think they’re doing
a lot of streamlining.
[00:40:59]
I think that’s fair, that’s fair,
[00:41:01]
I think is a challenge because
there’s an expense to that, right?
[00:41:06]
When their export sales are down or they
don’t even know if their industry is going
[00:41:10]
to survive the industry,
let alone their business.
[00:41:13]
Yeah, and they’re either having to
lay down some money
[00:41:18]
to come up with a website or an app or
something like that that can solve
[00:41:22]
whatever problem it is
to keep their customers.
[00:41:27]
It’s a challenging place to be. Yeah,
we’re gonna ask you,
[00:41:31]
because you do a lot of marketing
with restaurants,
[00:41:33]
where do you see the restaurant industry
going in, let’s say, three years?
[00:41:38]
That’s great question.
[00:41:40]
That’s a great question.
[00:41:43]
You. Ironically,
the Restaurant Association just put out
[00:41:47]
a where’s the restaurant
industry going in the future?
[00:41:49]
And I think the funny and I did I did
not take that webinar yet, but I think
[00:41:58]
I think what we’re going to end up seeing
is a lot more self-service type stuff.
[00:42:04]
I think we’re going to end up
seeing subscription stuff.
[00:42:06]
I think one of the most clever things
[00:42:09]
that I’ve seen come out as we were going
in there, not because of covid was I don’t
[00:42:15]
like Piñera is offering like coffee,
coffee subscription programs.
[00:42:19]
So so for nine dollars and ninety nine
cents, you can go to Piñera every day
[00:42:24]
and get a free cup of coffee because
they’re using it as a loss leader.
[00:42:28]
Right.
Like I’m not just going to get a cup
[00:42:30]
of coffee 30 days in a row
and never get anything else.
[00:42:34]
Right.
So they’re banking on the fact that.
[00:42:37]
You know, like we talk about restaurants,
[00:42:39]
the ways that you increase your dollars is
either, you know,
[00:42:45]
hey, a table that’s getting entrees,
you’re going to have them get more.
[00:42:48]
They’re going to get appetizers or
[00:42:49]
desserts or you’re going to say to them,
hey, you come in once a month.
[00:42:52]
Now we want you to come in twice a month.
[00:42:54]
So if you increase someone’s
[00:42:57]
repeat business, just minimally,
you increase your margin.
[00:43:01]
And so
[00:43:02]
programs like the coffee subscription
program are fantastic because
[00:43:08]
they’re going to increase frequency
at minimal dollars.
[00:43:13]
They’re using it a little bit as
a loss leader in the beginning,
[00:43:17]
but it starts to create
a sense of like loyalty.
[00:43:20]
Right.
And so I think loyalty programs where they
[00:43:24]
used to be, hey, come and spend so much
dollars and we’ll give you discounts,
[00:43:28]
I think they’re going to come up
with new ways to create loyalty programs
[00:43:33]
and allow for people to do
a lot more self serve.
[00:43:36]
So I that’s kind of what I see
kind of coming down the pipeline.
[00:43:41]
Interesting.
[00:43:41]
What about the the more sit
down or more formal restaurant?
[00:43:47]
I think back to like when we were talking
about, like small restaurants,
[00:43:52]
I think if you’re small enough,
I think you’ll be OK.
[00:43:56]
I think the places that have
[00:43:58]
bigger buildings, bigger overhead,
are going to be more challenged.
[00:44:04]
I think that.
[00:44:09]
You know, I’ve seen some
[00:44:10]
of my restaurants, they’re trying to take
their products and sell wholesale,
[00:44:15]
I’ve seen some of my Claudet clients
starting to set up one of them.
[00:44:19]
One of the more clever ones
that I’ve seen lately is,
[00:44:23]
in fact, selling the one like three
or four of my clients are doing it.
[00:44:26]
But I like this one particular one.
[00:44:28]
We have a client called
Quinkan Moo Barbecue.
[00:44:31]
Oh, nice and welcome.
[00:44:33]
Or we can move barbecue sells barbecue,
[00:44:37]
but they’re actually now
also selling as a market.
[00:44:41]
So when you come to their store,
[00:44:43]
you can actually buy Smokers’ from them,
you can finance your smokers’ from them,
[00:44:47]
you can buy your woodchips,
you can buy like steaks.
[00:44:51]
So they really are trying to just say,
[00:44:54]
hey, you’re not just going to come and get
a five dollar barbecue,
[00:44:58]
you’re going to come and get a
thousand dollar smaller share, OK?
[00:45:02]
Right.
[00:45:03]
So they’re all kind of doing
a little bit of that type of stuff.
[00:45:06]
So I’ve seen some of our
clients sell market.
[00:45:10]
We do some work with like some Greek
[00:45:11]
restaurants and they started
doing like import markets.
[00:45:14]
So they’ve taken out some of their inside
[00:45:16]
seats and they’ve started saying,
you know, come in and pick up your olive
[00:45:21]
oil and pick up your breads and pick up
your nest cafe and the items.
[00:45:27]
So I think the market ideas kind
[00:45:29]
of clever, because
when we go back to small business,
[00:45:33]
you know, like you also think
a little bit more specialty.
[00:45:36]
Right.
And so you’re going to get, I think,
[00:45:38]
some more of these,
like specialty items that are coming
[00:45:41]
through, even some of like
more high end places.
[00:45:45]
You know, there’s a great place
[00:45:47]
in New Jersey, grounds for sculpture
that’s outside Sculpture Garden.
[00:45:52]
And they have a beautiful French
restaurant called Raft’s on the Grounds.
[00:45:58]
And Raths is putting
together picnic baskets.
[00:46:01]
You get these gourmet picnic baskets
and have a picnic on the grounds.
[00:46:06]
Know.
So this is where I’m saying I think.
[00:46:11]
People are are being able to be clever,
[00:46:14]
but it doesn’t create
the same turns, right?
[00:46:18]
Like how restaurants make money is am I
[00:46:21]
turning my tables and return
them for higher dollar values?
[00:46:26]
I think it’s going to cut some
of the margin, but I think it will.
[00:46:31]
Bridge between where we are and probably
where we’re going, and I think
[00:46:38]
you’re going to see more collaboration,
so like when I see
[00:46:42]
the smokers being sold at the barbecue
[00:46:45]
place, maybe the smokers are going to be
paying for some of the marketing dollars.
[00:46:49]
Maybe there’s pullup dollars, you know,
[00:46:51]
so I think there’s going to be more
collaboration that’s occurring
[00:46:56]
so that I do think that’s going to happen.
[00:46:58]
I’m just starting to see it, though.
[00:47:01]
Gotcha.
It’s interesting.
[00:47:03]
Is it challenging world?
[00:47:06]
I really like your book because it talks
[00:47:08]
essentially about
how I don’t want to say that they’re
[00:47:11]
necessarily like this is what you
got to do answer’s kind of thing.
[00:47:15]
But but it was an awareness.
[00:47:17]
This is what you have to look for.
[00:47:19]
These are some options and they give you
[00:47:22]
a lot of choices to at least
put your brain to think about.
[00:47:27]
OK, we know that we can get through this.
[00:47:29]
We just have to figure out how
[00:47:31]
all there is to it and then actually
implement it once you figure out.
[00:47:35]
Yeah.
[00:47:36]
So, I mean, you know, like,
there’s a great book out out there,
[00:47:42]
Maria for Leo.
[00:47:43]
I think that’s who writes it.
[00:47:44]
Everything’s figure out a all you know.
[00:47:47]
Oh that’s another Jersey girl.
Yeah.
[00:47:49]
And all of her stuff is all about,
[00:47:52]
you know, it’s stories about
how people figure things out.
[00:47:56]
And and I think when I sit down and I say,
hey, we’re going to work on a marketing
[00:48:01]
plan, we play the game of like,
where are you today?
[00:48:05]
Where do you want to go?
Here’s your gap.
[00:48:07]
How do we close it?
Right.
[00:48:10]
And I think the big piece that I’m
trying to say in the book also is.
[00:48:18]
For right now, we don’t got to worry about
[00:48:20]
what’s happening in 10 years,
let’s worry about the next 60 days,
[00:48:24]
the next 90 days, the next plague,
you know, like let’s just kind of get
[00:48:29]
through bits and pieces
one step at a time,
[00:48:34]
because I think
as fast as we make changes,
[00:48:38]
the external environment changes
and we have to change again.
[00:48:41]
Right.
Like trying to say, hey,
[00:48:44]
this is the new model of how coworking
is going to look for the next 10 years.
[00:48:48]
It’s crazy like we don’t 10 years.
[00:48:51]
We don’t know that much.
Right.
[00:48:53]
Like we just know how do we get
communities reacquainted today?
[00:48:59]
Like, that’s the only
thing we can figure out.
[00:49:01]
And then, you know,
I’m a really big fan of if you listen
[00:49:05]
to the market, the market will
tell you exactly how to sell them.
[00:49:08]
Oh, interesting.
[00:49:09]
And so in order to do that,
[00:49:12]
you got to roll your sleeves up
and got to ask a lot of questions.
[00:49:16]
What do you like about this, how’s this
experience going, how can we change it?
[00:49:20]
And so I think as you continue to ask
questions are going to continue to get
[00:49:25]
answers to know how to ship things
that make sense.
[00:49:29]
I like that.
Yeah, I like it.
[00:49:31]
What has been your biggest
[00:49:35]
we’ll call it
[00:49:37]
nugget that you’ve learned since
you started your business in 2008?
[00:49:40]
My biggest nugget.
[00:49:44]
That’s a good question.
[00:49:45]
I think
[00:49:48]
I think the biggest nugget has been
[00:49:53]
I think it’s I think it really falls
back to the concept of failed forward.
[00:49:57]
OK, I, I just I think you
just need to accept that.
[00:50:05]
In order to move ahead,
[00:50:07]
you’re not going to know every answer
and you need to kind of be OK with that.
[00:50:11]
Fair, totally fair.
[00:50:13]
Yeah, I think like because
I think I probably.
[00:50:18]
I don’t think I’ve ever been
a perfectionist, but I think I.
[00:50:24]
I realize to get ahead,
[00:50:25]
you got to keep going forward,
OK, you got to stay in motion.
[00:50:31]
That makes sense.
[00:50:31]
Yes, and I think a lot of times,
like where I see people stalled out,
[00:50:36]
it just seems like they stop making
decisions or they get paralyzed a little.
[00:50:41]
And I think even if you make the wrong
[00:50:44]
decision, you’ve got to keep
some of your inertia moving.
[00:50:48]
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
[00:50:49]
The rule is in my world,
the rule is keep it moving.
[00:50:52]
Just go, go, go.
[00:50:54]
You either grow or you die.
Yeah.
[00:50:57]
So, yeah, that’s an interesting I like
that in the in the Midwest here,
[00:51:02]
there’s a lot of people that are terrible
and making decisions,
[00:51:05]
just slow moving train extreme,
extremely slow moving train.
[00:51:10]
They just want to get as much data as
[00:51:12]
possible, even if it takes them 10 years
to decide what to order for breakfast.
[00:51:16]
Oh yeah.
I’m like, oh my gosh, you got to go.
[00:51:20]
Had to go.
Yeah, I know.
[00:51:23]
Interesting.
And I think like to that point,
[00:51:26]
I feel like you’ve got to surround
yourself by people that go.
[00:51:29]
Mm hmm.
Oh absolutely.
[00:51:30]
Oh yeah.
You try.
[00:51:32]
I love it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:51:34]
Good job.
[00:51:36]
I love doing business
with people on the East Coast.
[00:51:38]
Yeah.
[00:51:39]
Because you guys get stuff done, we just
go oh my gosh, I love it, I love it.
[00:51:43]
I’m like, I got to move by you.
[00:51:45]
People are so phenomenal.
[00:51:48]
You just need to like
virtually chat with all of us.
[00:51:50]
Maybe
[00:51:53]
it’s maybe those
[00:51:54]
shops with cameras and TVs will
interact accidentally with know funny.
[00:51:59]
Yeah.
[00:52:00]
You know, the concept,
but it’s interesting.
[00:52:02]
Well, thanks for being on the show.
[00:52:04]
This has been super cool.
Yeah.
[00:52:06]
Yeah.
Before we go, do you have a favorite
[00:52:08]
business book or favorite book of any
kind that you’d like to tell me about.
[00:52:12]
Favorite book.
Favorite book.
[00:52:15]
I just like to ask authors that because
[00:52:17]
that means chances are if you
wrote a book, you read books.
[00:52:20]
I do read.
I read tons of books.
[00:52:23]
I actually just finished a book.
[00:52:25]
I’m going to make sure I get it right
because I actually thought it was good.
[00:52:30]
The last book that I just finished was.
[00:52:36]
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardly,
[00:52:40]
I read that book, yeah. Yeah,
that was the last one that I read
[00:52:44]
and I definitely, you know,
I noticed no matter what business book I
[00:52:48]
read, there’s hundreds
of things in all of them.
[00:52:52]
You don’t need you don’t need to take
one hundred things from all of them.
[00:52:55]
You just need to take one, right?
[00:52:57]
Yeah, it’s totally worth it.
[00:52:58]
And you just getting to your point before
[00:53:00]
you get a nugget in a nugget of a nugget,
and next thing you know,
[00:53:03]
you turn around and you’ve got
you’ve got some pretty good foundation.
[00:53:06]
Mm hmm.
Yeah, absolutely.
[00:53:09]
That’s awesome.
Where can people find Main Street Moxie,
[00:53:13]
Amazon.
[00:53:15]
Yeah.
[00:53:16]
So Amazon Main Street Moxie – Surviving and
Thriving in the New American Marketplace.
[00:53:23]
The New American Marketplace.
[00:53:25]
It is not the old American marketplace.
[00:53:28]
All new funny.
[00:53:30]
That’s awesome.
This has been
[00:53:32]
Authentic Business Adventures the business
program that brings you the struggle
[00:53:35]
stories and triumphs and successes
of business owners across the land.
[00:53:40]
Oh, my goodness gracious.
We covered a lot of ground.
[00:53:42]
Well, we did.
We did.
[00:53:44]
I’m excited to see what
happens in the next.
[00:53:48]
Well, forever, really.
[00:53:49]
But let’s call it in the next two years,
I feel like it’s going to take another
[00:53:52]
year for us to figure out
what is going on.
[00:53:56]
And then after that,
I feel like we’ll have a
[00:54:01]
I was going to say a track or a rut.
[00:54:03]
I’m not sure which one it’ll be,
but hopefully it’s a track.
[00:54:06]
I hear you.
[00:54:07]
So it’s just fun.
[00:54:09]
And you’re in the marketing world,
[00:54:10]
so it’ll be fun to see
what you do with all that.
[00:54:13]
Yes, cool.
[00:54:15]
My name is James Kademan
and Authentic Business Adventures is
[00:54:17]
brought to you by Calls On Call offering
call answering and receptionist services
[00:54:21]
for service businesses across
the country, on the web at CallsOnCall.com.
[00:54:27]
As well as
Draw In Customers Business Coaching
[00:54:29]
offering coaching services
for entrepreneurs looking for growth.
[00:54:32]
Hopefully that’s all of them. On the web
at DrawInCustomers.com.
[00:54:36]
And of course The Bold Business Book. A book
for the entrepreneur in all of us
[00:54:40]
available on Amazon and wherever
fine books are sold.
[00:54:44]
We’d like to thank you our wonderful
listeners, as well as our guest
[00:54:47]
Noelle Stary, author
of Main Street Moxie – From Surviving
[00:54:51]
to Thriving
in the New American Marketplace,
[00:54:53]
as well as the founder of 20 Lemons
and the Coworking Space.
[00:54:57]
I love that you have so much going on.
It’s so cool.
[00:54:59]
Thank you.
[00:55:00]
Find us airing locally on 103.5 Wednesdays at 1:00 p.m.,
[00:55:04]
Sundays at 2 p.m. And let’s see here,
past episodes can be found morning,
[00:55:09]
noon, and night, at the podcast link found
at DrawInCustomers.com.
[00:55:12]
Thank you for listening.
We’ll see you next week.
[00:55:14]
I want you to stay awesome.
[00:55:15]
And if you do nothing else,
enjoy your business.
[00:55:19]
