I recently did a Facebook live on my fan page where people could ask me questions ahead of time or they could jump on and ask me questions live. We're going to get into some personal stuff today and business stuff! I haven't done one of these in a while and I know that I'm always getting questions in the Facebook group and I want to make sure that once in a while you guys have access to ask me anything you want so that I can help you in any way possible. Let’s dive in to some Q&A!
Q: What do you say to somebody who doesn't know many people and is trying to grow their legacy?
A: I would say to her, if you don't know many people it’s your #1 priority to start networking and getting out there. If you feel like how do I do this? Where do I go? Whether you need to find people locally or maybe you need to start going to some events, being a part of other groups or joining masterminds. Maybe you're thinking I can't afford that because I know that’s another big objection is people say they can't afford it and maybe you need to lead it and start a peer lead group.
So there are many, many ways to go about this and you have to be really careful that you're not always going yeah, but…yeah, but I don't have the money. I don't have the time. I don't know anybody. A lot of times we make these excuses up and I will tell you that in order to achieve the end result you're looking for, you need to make sure that you’re just blowing past those excuses and doing whatever it is you need to do. I feel like the answer is go meet people and that sounds a lot harder than it is, but we do it everyday. I just jumped on the phone not too long ago with somebody that I met through Instagram.
There are people out there. She's from Nashville, I'm in Milwaukee, we met on Instagram and we were chatting on the phone not too long ago. You can find people to do that with too.
Q: If someone messages you and says hi, how much do you charge for X? What's the best response?
A: So first of all, I'm assuming you don't want them to know the price. If you didn't care you would just answer. There are some programs that we don't just tell you the price and why we do that is, for instance, I will tell you that sometimes people come to us and they just want market research. They're actually not even interested in my products, programs or services. They're trying to figure out what do you get, what's included and they're going to go copy and do the same thing.
So we purposely do not share our pricing or structure of certain programs with the public for that reason. If you're in the same boat as me and you're thinking I don't want to just give this all out and let everybody see it, what we typically do is, first we don't give that information out unless we know you're qualified for the program. That's a really good way to say it because I don't just give it out to anybody.
I have to make sure you're a good fit before I decide if you've qualified to even be given that information. I also think that when you just give a price to somebody and they have no idea what the promises of this program are or what's included in what they're going to get out of it, it's really hard to put a value on that when it's just a quick answer. I would just say if that's your reasoning, come up with something where your team and you know what you're going to say so you're not put on the spot or caught off guard when somebody asks you.
Q: How do you zero in on your target market and ideal client avatar for a service-based business? I struggle with being drawn into too many different client niches and end up trying to talk to and help everyone.
A: I tell people you can niche in two ways. You can niche your person or your topic. So one of my private coaching, Powerhouse clients, Rachel, is an example. She is a Pinterest expert. She doesn't have to be for one niche because if you're a Pinterest expert, you have a specific topic that you're really focused on that already is niched down enough. So you can have a super niche by going both ways. People always want me to go to just dance studios and I’m like listen, as long as I can get the topic niched enough, I don't need to go to just dance studios.
But if my topic was broad and my niche was broad then yes, I'm in what we call a red ocean, which is a very, very saturated market and we need to separate ourselves right away. You have to figure out am I going to niche the person or we can niche the topic and if you can niche both, even better in time.
Q: How do you figure out how much you can take on and actually get done in one day? A realistic to-do list.
A: So it's really hard, we're just guessing every time we set a goal, every time we say what we're going to do today or how long it’s going to take us, we're guessing right? We're making an educated guess and that's totally okay. But what I do is I look at my 3 big things that have to happen today and I work through the most important. I don't work on getting the little stuff done that I can just cruise through, I work on what has to happen today, what is the most specific thing? I find the biggest priority and I go in that order.
When I work on #1, if it takes me all day and I don't get to #2 or #3, that's fine because at least the #1 priority has been completed and then I'll just roll the others over until tomorrow. For me, it's not about only having a couple things to do. It's just priority. What is a priority? Are you focusing on your main thing? If you have too many things that are your main things you have to outsource and you need to hire more people to help you.
Q: How do you balance work and life?
A: I feel like I kind of just go all in on whatever it is I'm doing or I'm present in what I'm doing. So if I’m at a business conference, and I'm out of town for the week, I’m all in, I’m here. I’m ready to go, ready to do everything. I’m super focused. Then when I’m home from that trip, I’m with my girls and I have what we call a date night every week where we go do something! So to give you example, I'll pick them up from school on Friday, let’s say my husband is working, we will go to the library, we have a really cool library in our hometown and they just they love it and then we go to a place for dinner real quick so we can kind of fast food places, we'll go get a cupcake, watch a movie and I'm not on my phone. I'm not taking calls. I'm not doing those types of things.
I think it's just being really intentional with this time by allocating what this time is for specifically so I can travel a ton and work a ton, but I can still be a really good mom when I'm doing that. I think that's how I balance it. Even yesterday Teagan had a preschool field trip at a nursing home. I didn't have to be one of the moms that went but for me, it was like this would be something fun we can do together. It's just the two of us, she’s very shy and that can be very intimidating. It was the whole morning that was to just be present be focused. As soon as she was done, I dropped her off at my mom’s and I worked the rest of the day.
It’s just me going do I feel good about both areas of my life? It's not like it's going to be balanced perfectly, but how do I feel about both areas? Do I feel good about my work today and do I feel good about being a mom and a wife? I'm pretty good at not letting people's judgments affect me. If you told me you thought I was a bad mom because I travel too much, I know that I'm not. It rolls right off my back and it really doesn't bother me and I've learned that if it does bother me, it's probably because it's some part of me questioning it or I'm second-guessing myself.
Q: Need assistance to decide which platform to use for my web page for my business, Wix, WordPress? So many choices!
A: For the most part I’ve had WordPress and then I switched over to Squarespace because I was given some poor information and I’m going back to WordPress, it’s in the works of being built. Honestly, WordPress is just where it's at for SEO and for me, I have somebody that can help me with the tech side of it. If you're like, but I have to do it and it's really hard, you might not be at a stage where SEO even matters to you. You may want to look at Wix or Squarespace because it's easier, you can do it yourself and it'll be super user-friendly.
I don't typically work in my website. I could if I needed to go into my WordPress and change something but it's rare that I would make a change because I outsource that. That’s where that work-life balance comes in. I'm very good at delegating, building a team, outsourcing, so there's not a million things to do. I mean there's always a million things to do but there's not a million things to do that I shouldn't be doing on my plate.
Q: I'm going to be in a podcast today any last minute tips?
A: One thing to say to everybody if you're going on a podcast and you have a podcast is to make sure you mention your podcast. Where do I grow my platform? Do I start a podcast? Do I jump on Facebook live? Do I start an Instagram? Where do I go? You can go on all of that. Every one of them will help you. When you're investing in that platform you go all-in. So when you're investing in a podcast interview, the #1 way for them to convert to your people, to be your person is by shouting out your own podcast. So when people ask you, where is the best place for us to find you? Most people will say that at the end of a podcast interview, you will want to say, well I love my podcast, I have this one over here, other places are over here. So keeping them in the same platform is the best way to go. When you're talking about your Instagram on your podcasts not all podcast listeners will be your audience and vice versa. Try to stay within the platform.
I would say too if you have some sort of freebie or something to get them from being just a listener to somebody who's actually jumping on your email list so you can give something really good. You want to make sure your website is doing its job by getting them on the website and then getting them to opt into something. The #1 job of my website is to get them into my email and then into some sort of a funnel. If you have something to give to them definitely do a giveaway of some sort whether that's a freebie, whether that's like the first 10 people that message us are going to get a free call, whatever that looks like for you.
Q: I find when I talk to people about my business idea in person they all love it and they are on board. But when I try to put it on paper and write it down, even in business groups, I get almost no response. How do I make my in-person passion translate to paper and marketing needs?
A: When you’re talking to somebody it's going to be hard for them to not be like that's amazing! So, tough love here…are they saying it's amazing, but then if it's on paper, you're trying to get their credit card in they’re like not happening, that's possible. Another thing that could be happening is it could be great when you talk about it because you're excited, your passionate, you have all this energy and then you read it on paper and it's like, you know, that could be. It might mean you need to outsource it to a copywriter that will make it sound magical.
When I give my stuff to my copywriter and she sends it back to me, I'll be reading it and I'm thinking, it almost gives me anxiety that I better step up this program because she made it sound so phenomenal, I have to make it be as good as she’s making it sounds.
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Q: Why don't you do your Facebook live as a podcast anymore?
A: I rarely do. So I started doing my podcast probably a year ago. I started to do Facebook lives and always record them for my podcast and honestly if I'm going to be totally transparent here, it’s because I was super burnt out with my podcast. My podcast has been around for 3 years, it’s not like a Facebook live where people are giving you a thumbs-up and they're talking to you and they say I love this, this is amazing! With a podcast, it's like you're talking to a mic and you sometimes don't hear anyone and it can get really hard to stay motivated when you’re wondering where people are and saying, hello?!
So I got a little burnt out and about a year ago my podcast kind of out nowhere started to really pick up numbers. For some reason that was this really great thing that got me motivated again and it almost put a little bit more pressure and responsibility of wow this is growing, I better step it up. That's kind of how I felt a year ago and seeing those numbers was really validating for me and now I make it a habit that every single Monday I look at my podcast numbers and when I see these numbers I picture real people and that helps me. So the reason I don't combine them anymore typically is because I feel like every platform is very different and it's better to engage with your Facebook live audience and sometimes your podcast listeners don't want to hear you engaging with other people it's just a different experience for your user.
Q: I would love to know things about your investment properties. Do you have a different LLC for each property? Do you have different checking accounts for each? What are things that people don't realize when having them? I’m just new at getting them.
A: So that's one thing people don't understand is that a rental property is a separate business. It's a separate LLC. I file separate taxes. I have a bank account for each. I have a separate credit card. It is a business and so when people say to me, ‘oh you have two businesses?’ I actually quite a few because every rental property has its own business and its own bank account. When I go to my bank, they think I'm crazy!! They have to be thinking, why do you have 12 accounts?! Every single business is separated because you want it nice and neat and organized for tax purposes.
Make sure you are finding a great CPA to help you do this especially if you're new to it because you can have something really hurt you on the back end tax-wise if you don't know what you're doing. My biggest mistake was (and you need to go back and listen to the podcast when I was talking about when I got arrested…) and I talked about this horrible situation that happened when I sold the property and had to reinvest. So if you don't know a lot of this start involving yourself with people who are doing this, who have been there because it's like you don't know until you actually do it.
Q: How do you categorize things that are for your office when you have multiple businesses? If you buy printer paper, how do you know which business to put that under?
A: I'm going to do a little disclaimer. I’m not a tax professional and you should be consulting your tax professional! But I will tell you what I do and remember every state is different, every country is different so if you're not from here know that you’ll want to talk to somebody. So a couple things you can do if you feel like you're buying a pack of paper and it's really 50% for this business and 50% for that business, you can actually separate that and then allocate it to say 50% here and 50% there. In one of my businesses I have two locations, which are my studios, office supplies do come in and some of the things we allocated saying, 70% is going to location #1 and 30% go to location #2 because the second location is smaller and younger.
So let's just say I buy paper for my studio and it's sitting here and I need to print something for my other business, I might use the paper and it's fine! I’m an S-Corp and because I'm an S-Corp everything kind of flowers together. It's not like I'm going to get audited by the IRS like you use paper for your consulting and it wouldn’t matter because of how it is set up. I’m NOT a professional tax adviser and I should probably not even be talking to you about that! But I just want to share with you what I do but it’s so, so important to find somebody really great that you can go to, to ask questions like this that are certified in your state.
Q: Do you donate money or time and to what? I'd love to know what places you support when it comes to donating.
A: I feel like there's a lot and I’m a big believer in donating not just time but money as well and honestly in the stage of my life, I donate more money than time because I’m a pretty busy person. One of the charities that I've recently started donating to is Charity Water. I read the book first, it’s a phenomenal book. I heard about it a year ago and it's a really cool company! After reading the book I was just hooked and there's this program that they have called The Spring and it's a monthly, automatic recurring payment comes out of my checking account and every single month I’m donating an amount to this organization, Charity Water. It’s going toward building new wells and getting clean water for people all over the world.
Kendra Scott is going to have a pop-up shop at our live event. They have the most amazing jewelry!! If you don't know what I’m talking about we have a treat for you and one of the things Kendra Scott is big on giving back as well so they're going to be donating 20% of the proceeds to any charity of my choice. I have an amazing friend, his name is Jeff, and he has these really cool bars protein bars called Kize Bars and he’s just an amazing person and he takes a lot of the proceeds and basically helps feed children.
He goes to Haiti every year, helps builds orphanages and he has invited me to come this year which is something I might look at doing. We're going to be donating our 20% from Kendra Scott to Jeff’s organization to help them build the orphanages. I’m not super public about it and then I think with time there will be a stage in my life where I can donate more time. So I donate my time right now with my kids school and our church anytime they're looking for volunteers or need something I try to do it as best I can. I'm not going to lie. I will do more of the donation type stuff. So when they say things like we need spoons for something, you better believe I’m packing up spoons.
It’s easier for me at this moment to give my money away than it would be to give my time. But you do what you can do and maybe you’re in a place where you don’t have the money to give so then give your time and at some point your time will become more valuable that you'd rather be able to give your money. I do think both are important so I did sign up to go with one of my masterminds in summer of 2020 to go to Africa to build schools as well and I signed up for that trip. So I'm really excited! I do want to go and do something like that, I would love to go to Haiti with them I just don't know if it's realistic this time with my kids age and how long I will be gone.
I've never been away from my kids for more than 5 days and I just want to be very conscious of how old they are and how hard it is, especially for Teagan who’s only 3. I'm always trying to figure out how can we impact? How can we take our business and use it for the greater impact? We do 3 community events at my brick and mortars. We just did this community Christmas party and it was completely free, open to the public. I paid for Facebook ads to make sure the city knew about it. We had hundreds of families come in for free, they got free pictures with Santa, they wrote letters to Santa and gave it to him in person.
We had Toys for Tots, we always pick a company to sponsor, the Marines come in because of a partnership with them. So the Marines came in, you brought a toy if you wanted, you didn't have to, my studios went around the city and got people to donate prizes so that if you were to give a toy you’d be entered into the raffle. So we’re really big in giving back to our community, but then giving to people in need as well. If you walk in one of my buildings right now, we have a million coats and piles and it's because there is a program called Coats For Kids. When you live in a place like I live, in Wisconsin, there are kids that need winter coats and every year I'll go in my closet and grab my coats out and we donate all of those to the organization that does this locally.
After our recitals we have flowers we sell and usually we sell out but one year we didn't and I'm like, what do you do with fresh flowers? So that night we took them to a nursing home and we made my nephew and niece at the time there by like 14-15, and we gave away a lot of bouquets of flowers for people to put in their rooms.
Q: What's your exhaustion tip, what helps when day after day you can hardly get out of bed?
A: I have been really exhausted lately. I walked into my Mastermind the other night and my friend says to me you look really tired and I was like oh…great! Thank you. That makes me feel great! I came home and my kids have not been good sleepers since we got home from Italy and I seriously think it was because they were with us for 10 days in a row sleeping in my bed. We get home and my kids who have been amazing sleepers all of a sudden, Teagan thought we were permanently sleeping together! My husband and I are constantly taking turns and I have been so exhausted, sleeping in longer than normal because I just feel like I have to take care of my body to not get sick.
I think my exhaustion tip would be to get sleep and eating really well, taking care of my body and putting the best things into my body. I have been into bio hacking and listening to the BulletProof Radio podcast. I have a friend who is a scientist and he’s always giving me tips on what to try and I just want to be the healthiest person I can be. I am a go, go, go person but I can do it because I’m taking care of myself. I’m really only working from about 9-3 which isn’t that much time.
Q: What do you to when acquaintances ask you for free services?
A: She said acquaintances, not friends. If they are real friends and you really want to help that’s totally cool. However, I feel like it’s usually not the friend that asks its the people that you’re not that close with that usually ask. I have people that ask to stay at my rental properties and I think, listen…we have real expenses and people think rental properties are free so why would you charge them? There is a minimum I have to charge people because it still costs money. I’m not in a place where I can let everyone stay for free.
Real friends value your work and would offer to pay you. Some people I will give stuff away if they truly need help and I will give stuff away. I make sure they are real friends with a true friendship. If it’s an acquaintance, I will tell you the best way to get out of that is by not being the person that has to do the talking. When I have a sales team it’s a lot easier to say how much I charge versus me personally saying heres what i charge and asking if they want to pay that.
Q: You are a million steps ahead of me and it feels like I will never get to where you are. Where and when is the right time to start?
A: First, start immediately! The best time to start on anything you’re talking about is a certain time ago. I wish I would have started on Instagram 3 years ago and I would be a million times bigger than I am right now. The next best time is to start this second because you’ve already wasted time. You don’t have time to waste. The more time you take to get ready, the harder it will be to grow. If I were to be getting started today its going to be that much harder. It’s going to be even harder a few years from now. Its always the best time right now, you just have to go!
I’ve only been doing this for 3 years which I don’t think is that long at all. You have to understand that the get rich overnight things are not real and it’s going to take you a little bit of time to make this happen. You have to put in the work and know that you’re not going to get a lot of results in the beginning, but the results in the long run will be worth it. I just got this new stuff that’s a hair supplement and I’m big into healthy stuff, I don’t want any chemicals. It helps with hair growth because I have VERY thin hair. I feel as I’m getting older it’s thinning and I bought this stuff that says you have to take it for 6 months before you see results.
I know I’ll do it because I’m disciplined and I’ve seen other people with great results from it. There’s a lot of people that can’t do something for 6 months without seeing results. Sometimes things take time so I want you to understand that it might be in the time taking stage and you have to keep doing that e every day to see change. Go all in until the moment where you don’t see any change after a while and start to reevaluate things!
Q: How long did it take you to phase yourself out of your brick and mortar?
A: Honestly years and years and years. If you’re like, ‘I don’t want to do that’, I’m looking at putting investing all this tie but then knowing at that moment I could own that business for an additional 30-40 years and i will put in the work of taking those years to really set up systems, delegate and build my team knowing that it could run on auto pilot for years. I know that i would have given them a foundation to continue to run without me.
In the beginning when I was working like a crazy person I had to sacrifice a lot, but I’ve put in the work and it definitely took years. One of the things I always do when I’m training a new role is I set up the system for whatever that looks like. The first year I’m showing them and telling them how I do it. The second year I’m giving them more responsibility, letting them do it with me and start to oversee it. The next year I let them go for it and take it over.
In the online space I’m building a sellable, scalable business. I’m not trying to run a business that absolutely has to have me. You will see me transition throughout the next few years. I’m bringing in experts and complimentary coaches that pop in. It doesn’t have to always be the Stacy show, and it can be for you if that’s what you want but I know I will get burnt out if I constantly keep doing it because I like new, I like to be challenged, I like innovation and growth.
I love doing these Q&A’s with you so make sure you join our Facebook group to submit your questions for the next one! If you are looking to work with me in 2019, there are still a few spots left in my Powerhouse Mastermind! The applications are closing very, very soon. Book a call with my team to see if you would be a good fit. If you’re looking to blow up next year and make it your breakthrough year, you need to join this group! This is the only way to privately work with me in 2019, I hope to see you in the Powerhouse Mastermind!
