Cuppa SEO and 100state go way back.

In fact, it was 100state that helped define the initial direction Cuppa SEO would embark on just about 11 years ago. Back then, the leaders of 100state were Andrew Conley, Niko Skievaski, and Joseph Dahari.

Fast forward to 2024, and there are some new faces leading 100state — Kelly and JJ Pagac. They’ve got a strong vision, kind hearts — and they’ve been kind enough to take part in our spotlight series.

In case you’re not familiar, our spotlight series always highlights amazing artists and small businesses that stand out from the crowd for their all-around awesomeness.

So, let’s get to know more about 100state, Kelly and JJ …

What is 100 State?
100state is a 5013c coworking space. Our mission is to unite entrepreneurs, innovators, and creatives in a community-centric space. We feel that the best ideas bubble up when a diverse group comes together to share ideas and support each other.

Please tell me a little bit about yourself and JJ, and why you chose to take on 100 State.
JJ Pagac is a web developer with over 20 years of experience. He found 100state as his home base while working out of a coffee shop. Looking for a fun and unique community to surround himself with, JJ found 100state at its first location on State Street.

Kelly Pagac is a content creator with a background in holistic wellness. She thrives at finding ways to bring inspiration and well-being to people through social media.  Through the tools of meditation, yoga, and energy work, Kelly has formed a personal mission of bringing more peace to the world.

We chose to take on 100state because it was always a home for unique, out-of-the-box thinkers. Since we both think beyond the status quo and have a strong sense of creating community, we felt that tackling the job of breathing life back into the organization was a perfect fit for us.

What does 100 State do?
We provide work and office space for remote workers and entrepreneurs, showcase art from Madison area artists, rent out meeting rooms, and provide space for thought-provoking talks, along with programs for business skills and self-growth.

Why Do You Love Doing It?
We love helping people! We provide a space where someone feels safe being authentic.

How Does it Help People?
Who doesn’t want to be seen for who they are in a non-judgemental way? By providing the kind of space for someone to shine in their own way provides someone to leading a fulfilled life.

What are your long-term goals for 100 State?
In the long term, we would like to be an educational space for self-growth and business that helps to cultivate compassionate leaders. In the short term, we are still climbing out of the effects of the pandemic and building our community back up.

Favorite type of coffee?
Dark roast all day long!

If you’d like to learn more about 100state, or potentially become a member, feel free to visit their website anytime.

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In this episode of the GUTS podcast, I had the privilege of speaking with Tom Ziglar on the topic of leadership.

Tom is the author of the book, 10 Leadership Virtues for Disruptive Times, which we dig into during our talk.

TOPICS DISCUSSED:

• T. Rex managers vs. Coach Leaders
• We’ll discuss two of Tom’s leadership virtues, Kindness and Selflessness
  • Why they are so important?
  • And how we can cultivate and incorporate these virtues into daily life?
• Zig Ziglar’s most important lesson

Here’s a brief excerpt of our conversation. you can listen to the entire podcast episode right here on the Cuppa SEO Website, or on Apple Podcasts.

“And so, a coach leader asks each person on their team, hey, what’s your why? What’s your purpose for being here? When you do well on the job, what does that mean in the rest of your life? And so a coach leader, asking these questions, we’ll dig in, and find out what it is that that motivates and inspires and drives someone — what’s the bigger reason for the job rather than you know, other than just paying the bills?

And so if I’m a team member, and I’ve got a leader who helps me see that my purpose in life can not only be fulfilled at work by doing a good job, but by being fulfilled overall — like, the better I do on my job, the faster I get my dream — then all of a sudden, I’m moving towards my purpose, which means I’m not going to deal with depression. And if my life is balanced, then I’ve got that solid foundation. And then the third one is what we were talking about on results versus growth. People said that 37%, the reason they quit was lack of motivation. So what’s the antidote to that? It’s goals and growth.

If somebody is growing every day, and they’re getting closer to their goals on a regular basis, then that creates internal motivation.

And the way that a coach leader works with their people in this scenario, is they ask them very simply, hey, you know, where do you want to be in a year? Do you want to make more money here next year? You do? Well, great. What are you going to do to develop yourself so that you can demonstrate tangible progress that will allow you to make more money? And so the coach leader asks that question, and then all of a sudden the team member starts having to take ownership and they start having to think about how they’re going to improve themselves. And of course, the coach leader helps them.

And the big key here is that with all the disruption that we’re in, we know that the intensity and frequency of disruption is going up — all we’ve got to do is read the headlines. It’s not just the pandemic, it’s inflation. It’s the global uncertainty, it’s politics, it’s all these things hitting us at the same time.

But if you’re growing, if you’re leading a team and helping them grow, then you’re ready for the disruption.”

Connect with Tom on social, or go to Ziglar.com for great resources, books and more.

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thezigziglar/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheZigZiglar
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zigl…
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ziglarlife
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZigZiglar

Thanks for visiting, and stay well!

The post GUTS Podcast Highlight: An Interview with Tom Ziglar on Leadership appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

In this installment of our Small Business Spotlight series we’ll be highlighting Matt Jacoby of Eleven Music Career Center, which offers music career coaches, as well as a team of virtual assistants to help musicians, DJs and producers develop business skills. They also provide more services, but I will leave those for Matt to describe below.

I’ve known Matt for years, and he has a true knack for business and music, so I wasn’t surprised to see Eleven Music manifest into reality.

In case you’re not familiar, our spotlight series always highlights amazing artists and small businesses that stand out from the crowd for their all-around awesomeness.

So, let’s get to know more about Matt and his business …

1.) WHO ARE YOU?
My name is Matt Jacoby.  I am one of the 3 co-founders behind Eleven Music Career Center.  Eleven provides music career coaches and a team of virtual assistants to help musicians, DJs and producers develop their business skills, build a virtual business team, curate the array of tools and platforms available today, generate more revenue, and be more successful and happy in pursuing music as a real job.

Outside of Eleven, I give private drum lessons in the Sun Prairie / Windsor area to keep my own music skills fresh and help develop the next generation of drummers.

On the family side of things, I am a husband to my wonderful wife Emily and a father to our three beautiful children: Carter (9), Devin (6), & Aleyah (2).

Ever since high school, I have followed my entrepreneurial spirit and always had a side hustle.  In high school I taught myself how to build websites and landed a volunteer role in building our high school’s first website ever (1999 baby!).  Throughout college and beyond I funded a lot of my extracurricular activities and fun expenses with website clients.  In 2013, I started a new job as a website developer for a local pharmaceutical company in their marketing department.  From there I was introduced to HubSpot and digital marketing automation platforms.  Since then, building websites and deploying marketing automation solutions have gone hand in hand for me.

From 2004 on, I also started exploring how my musical interests could work with my entrepreneurial interests.  This lead to a small handful of music startup organizations in the Madison area that I started either alone or with colleagues.  It was from this trial and error period that I built a collection of sticky notes and digital notebooks that eventually started to help us shape Eleven Music Career Center in 2018.

2.) WHAT DO YOU DO?
Currently the only business founder / partner in Eleven that is able to make Eleven most of my focus as a day job (the other two still need their day jobs and make Eleven a side hustle for now), I have been busy educating myself with the Business Made Simple business operating system and the StoryBrand marketing frameworks.  These tools have allowed me to get excited about starting yet another company from the ground up and has given us the time and runway to figure out what Eleven should be, who it can serve, and how we’re going to do it.

What this means is that I’ve spent the past year developing our leadership strategy, our core mission and characteristics, our financial model, our music career coaching program, and have recently started developing our virtual assistant program.  My passion lies in working on a business, not so much in it.  I feel I’m at my best when I am sitting in the pilot’s seat in the cockpit, steering the plane in the direction it needs to go.  However I still have to perform some of the “in business” tasks, such as acquiring new customers, taking care of existing customers as a coach or a service provider, marketing, and manager duties for our existing contractor team.

What we do for Eleven right now includes career coaching and mentoring, Patreon fan club management, tour and event management, content creation, email marketing, livestream moderating, web development, project management, graphic design, and some music publishing assistance. We have other service ideas in the works but we want to make sure the need and demand exists.

3.) WHY DO YOU LOVE DOING IT?
Like I said earlier, it has been the perfect marriage of my “self employment ambition” and my music background.  As a drummer of 26+ years with 3 bands on my resume, I saw a lot of creativity but not a lot of business savviness.  The music industry has changed a lot in the last 20 years and the traditional music industry was built to confuse musicians.  Corporate record labels and other services grew up around the artist community to help them “get signed and get famous”.  In my opinion, this industry grew around the artists’ ignorance of how they should conduct themselves, how to negotiate and how not to lose control over their own work.

Luckily the Internet has challenged the traditional industry’s model and allowed more and more artists to find some level of stability and success on their own with direct-to-fan access.  The only problem with that is that artists now had to learn what record labels and other industry services could do faster due to their expertise.  So while artists can now go straight to fans and influence via multiple online platforms, they still aren’t very skilled at handling their business affairs that strengthen their creativity.

Most music businesses who help musicians still focus on their careers from a “music first” mentality.  Eleven Music Career Center approaches artists as small business owners first, building a more traditional small business that has music, merch, tours, and more as its products and services.

The last point I will say here is that we are focused on building a service that helps an artist get 100% of their revenue and then it’s up the artist if they want to continue working with us or not.  We operate under short term contracts, either 1 year or month-to-month.  This makes Eleven an investment in an artist’s business rather than a expense or debt that is difficult to repay or find value in.

4.) HOW DOES IT HELP PEOPLE?
The stereotype is the “starving artist” for a reason.  The whole world has come to assume that if you go into music, you are passionate about being in poverty.  It’s assume that music is never more than a hobby except for when you are Taylor Swift.

We find that a lot of tools and platforms that launch in the music industry claim to be the magic pill that will fix the music industry.  However, the only thing they are doing is adding another tool or platform to the music industry that will ultimately confuse the very audience they are trying to help.  At this point music creators don’t need another tool or platform.  They need a partner to help them navigate the sea of options, figure out a clear plan for their music and their life, and get re-focused on what is important: their career and their music.

One of my business partners, Nick Venturella, came into this business relationship with the idea that music can be a middle class employment opportunity just as much as being a store manager, doctor, manufacturer, or construction worker might be.  We like to think that Eleven is here to help make more middle class musicians.  You don’t have to achieve Taylor Swift fame to make it in music.  You just have to build a business that finds its audience of people, just like any other business in this world, and if it can make enough to build a sustainable lifestyle on, that should be the American Dream for music.  I know plenty of middle class musicians who have found music to be their primary or only source of income, some right here in Madison.  They buy groceries, pay their mortgage and utilities, and remodel their house using music.  That is what we want.

5.) FAVORITE BAND OF ALL TIME
That is hard to answer!  My tastes in music and choice of different genres over the years has greatly impacted my ability to choose just one.  But if you are going to make me narrow it down, I guess I would have to say The Offspring.  I discovered them in high school and they are the primary reason I was able to develop speed while playing the drums.  They were a major influence in my musical development, and to this day I still listen to them and keep them in my practice routine.  I’ve even used some of their songs to teach my drum students here in the area.

Learn more about Matt and ElevenMusic, or his drum lessons.

Want more from Cuppa SEO Web Design?

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In this installment of our Small Business Spotlight series we’ll be highlighting Stacy & Josh Pauley, owners of Top Tier Automotive.

They run an amazing, family-owned auto shop (they’re married), and the caliber of work Top Tier performs on both domestic and foreign cars is pretty impressive.

One reason for this is Josh’s experience working  in small shops and large dealerships in the Madison area for the last 16 years. He also has ASE Master Certification. 

I have known Stacy for over 10 years now (how did that happen?), and she is a total car, motorcycle, and tech geek. She’s also a savvy marketer, and that’s the part of the business she handles.

Both Josh and Stacy are honest, hard working, and believe in providing stellar service — which is why they fit right in here on our spotlight series …

In case you’re not familiar, our spotlight series always highlights amazing artists, small businesses and individuals that stand out from the crowd for their all-around awesomeness.

So let’s get to know Josh, Stacy, and Top Tier Automotive!

1. Who Are You?
We are Josh & Stacy Pauley – Chronologically though we are: Madison natives, gear heads, putting up with each other’s shenanigans for 17 years, dog parents, motorcycle riders (Stacy is a 4th generation motorcycle rider and 3rd generation female motorcycle rider), and business owners.

2. What Do You Do?
Other than wrangling dogs?! We own Top Tier Automotive in Madison, repairing and modifying vehicles. We work on everything from old hot rods to new electric cars (and everything in-between)!

3. Why Do You Love Doing It?
A couple different reasons: The automotive world offers an endless supply of options & variety in what you can do. It can be as simple as basic maintenance to get you from A to B, to extreme customization and specialty vehicles. We also enjoy helping people get the most out of their automotive experience. For most people an automobile will be their second most expensive investment, and we want to make sure they have a trusted source for all their automotive needs.

4. How Does it Help People?
Having a mechanic than you can trust is getting harder and harder. Especially now with how complicated cars have become. Knowing that you have someone that you can: bring your car to that will take the time to explain the situation, discuss the best course of action, and fix it right the first time is invaluable.

5. If you could own any car, from any year, what would it be?
That’s a hard question for Josh & I. Some people are die hard fans of one particular car or company. Josh & I are more eclectic with our taste. A lot of times we don’t even like the same car! But…

• Josh: 1934 Ford 5-Window Coupe or 1965 Shelby Cobra
• Stacy: I would say a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda Hemi in Plum Crazy purple

Want to learn more or get in touch with Top Tier?
You can visit their website, Instagram or Facebook page. Or simply give them a call them at 608-572-7722. Top Tier is located at: 5506 County Highway Cv, Madison, Wisconsin 53704.

For your viewing pleasure: cool cars, cute pups and a little family history …

(Stacy’s 1948 Oldsmobile Series 98 project)

(Josh’s 1962 Ford Fairlane)

(Stacy’s Great-great uncle on his brother’s early-1900’s Indian)

(Our pack of pups)

 

 

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I’m incredibly excited about the next edition of my 5 Questions With series!

My guest, Susan Weinschenk, is the Chief Behavioral Scientist at The Team W, Inc., a business she founded nearly a decade ago. During our interview she will be sharing insight into behavioral science, user experience, ethics, and how human behavior research can dramatically improve the impact of an organization’s products or services.

Susan works at the intersection of behavioral science and design — and this is an excellent opportunity for business leaders to learn how these methodologies can spark sustainable growth.  She will also be sharing some challenges she’s faced over the years, and how she and her team handled them.

More about Susan …

• Chief Behavioral Scientist and CEO at The Team W, Inc.
• Ph.D. in Psychology
• Author of many books including “100 Things Every Designer Needs To Know About People”
• Co-host of the HumanTech podcast
• Contributor for Psychology Today online
• Clients include Amazon, Disney, Target

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Today’s interview is with millionaire, serial entrepreneur, Tom Antion. He’s also appeared in our Spotlight Series, which inspired me to start this video series … so, he’s my guinea pig!

In addition to being a business owner, Tom is also the host of the popular podcast, Screw the Commute. Here’s the interview …

Interview topics include:
– What Tom does, and how he has consistently helped entrepreneurs succeed.
– How to work smart, not just hard.
– How he developed a “serious work ethic,” thanks to his dad
– A little bit about the documentary, American Entrepreneur, which focuses on the pain and misery of commuting to and from a full-time job — working, unfulfilled, to make someone else rich.
– The number one thing Tom wanted to share with viewers who are in this boat right now — in the midst of a pandemic — to help them take the leap to entrepreneur.
– Through all the different businesses Tom has owned over the years, which one provided the greatest challenge and how he handled it.
– A few corny dad jokes.

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I’ve been using PodMatch for a couple of months now, and it has been a powerful tool in helping me get booked as a guest on podcasts, which is why I wanted to get the word out about the application and its founder.

In case you’re not familiar, our spotlight series always highlights amazing artists, small businesses and individuals that stand out from the crowd for their all-around awesomeness.

So, let’s get to know more about Alex and PodMatch …

1. Who is PodMatch & What Does it Do?
PodMatch is a service that automatically matches ideal podcast guests and podcast hosts together for interviews. Imagine your favorite online dating app but instead of using it for finding dates, you’re
booking podcast interviews. We use the same(ish) technology for automated matching!

3. Why Do You Love Doing It?
As a passionate podcaster myself who has been helped so much by others along the way, I wanted a way to give back to the industry. I found the entire guest/host connecting process to be very difficult and there was a need to be met here. That’s why I created PodMatch. Today, I love helping people find that ideal guest for their podcast so they can create episodes that impact the world. This is something that I’m so passionate about! Serving the world through podcasting.

4. How Does it Help People?
It helps people who want to be podcast guests find shows who are looking for people with their skills, talents, and expertise. That way, they can share their message with the world! On the flip side, it helps hosts find guests for their podcast so they can focus on producing great content.

5. Why did you decide to create this solution for podcasters and podcast guests?
This is my way of giving back to the podcasting community that has given so much to me. So many people in podcasting have helped me along the way. And I remember when I got started, finding guests used to be a pain, but thankfully, PodMatch is now around for me, and all other podcasters to make this process painless.

6. What hurdles have you faced during start up, and the growth process?
PodMatch almost immediately took off. Figuring out how to manage my time properly with answering people’s questions about it, getting on calls with members who had ideas, and of course, further developing the product, (not to mention keeping my own podcast going) was a lot of work. That balance was tough to figure out and initially caused me to work more than I should have been. But today, I have a much better balance!

7. Favorite coffee?
I actually don’t drink coffee, or tea, just water. I’m a huge fan of water, always have been since I was a kid. (Fun fact, the last time I drank a soda was 2003.

8. Favorite analog hobby (for those times you’re not in front of your computer)?
I enjoy going to the beach with my wife and friends. Playing soccer, swimming laps, and outdoor circuit workouts. All of which, based around community, I love being with the people in my life.

If you’d like to learn more about Alex or PodMatch, feel free to check out any of the following links:

• Podmatch.com
• Creating a Brand (podcast website)
• Creating a Brand Podcast (listen to the podcast)

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I was lucky enough to be a guest on one of Tom’s recent podcasts (episode 434), and I enjoyed his humor and insights so much that I convinced him to be interviewed for our spotlight series.

In case you’re not familiar, our spotlight series always highlights amazing artists, small businesses and individuals that stand out from the crowd for their all-around awesomeness.

So, let’s get to know more about Tom and what he does …

1. Who Are You?
I’m just your every day multimillionaire guy next door who has never had a job. Don’t think I was born with a silver spoon. My dad taught me a serious work ethic and I feel my success is attributed to that work ethic combined with a massive customer service ethic.

I went to college on a football scholarship and by the time I graduated, and starting with nothing, I owned 5 apartment buildings and a hotel. Since then, I’ve been a freelance charter pilot, owned a nightclub where I was in gunfights and had bikers trying to kill me, owned a Practical Joke company like Candid Camera, and traveled the world as a professional speaker with 3000 paid events under my belt.

A Hollywood documentary is being done about my life (I thought you had to be dead to have a documentary about your life, but apparently not hahaha) called “The American Entrepreneur” premiering summer 2021. You can see the trailer here.

All this might sound boastful, but I want to send the message that if you’re not in the car everyday making someone else rich, you’ll have time to enjoy two or three lives instead of one. Hence, the name of my podcast is ….”Screw the Commute.”

2. What Do You Do?
I’ve been selling on the commercial Internet since there was a commercial Internet circa 1994. I didn’t make a nickel for the first two years until I got good training from the 31-year-old “grandfather” of Internet marketing Corey Rudl. Four years later I was an Internet multimillionaire.

What I’d like to mention here is another thing my dad taught me and that was to strive for excellence in everything you do. When you do that, people will notice and want to learn what you know. In this case I was striving for excellence in Internet marketing just to sell my own products and services. I got so good at it that people noticed and wanted me to teach them what I knew. So, I sell my own products and services and also teach others to do so.

From this came the longest running, most unique and most successful mentor program in the field of Internet and digital marketing, a unique Retreat Center where people come in from all over the world to study Internet marketing in the lap of luxury, and the only licensed, dedicated Internet marketing distance learning school in the USA (probably the world).

3. Why Do You Love Doing It?
All I saw from my dad my entire life was entrepreneurship and high achievement. My dad actually put the first electric lightbulb in Carnegie Pennsylvania and by 13 years old he had an electrical contracting firm.

I get so excited to see successful businesspeople and I get especially excited when I had a big part in their success.

Case in point: Young Ilya Pozin was a Russian immigrant working at Comp USA in Rockville, Maryland circa1997. He was a 17-year-old high school kid. As I was in there shopping, I noticed just about all the computer related questions were being referred to him. I asked him my question and he answered it perfectly without even pausing to think about it. I could see he was someone special.

I slipped him a note that said, “Call me for a job. I’ll pay you double what they’re paying you here.” He called and started working with me. At the time he was on a path to just get a corporate job like his immigrant parents had done. I taught him how to start his own business. He worked with me for a few years and then it was time to spread his wings. He just sold his third startup pluto.tv to Viacom for $340 Million. I told him next time I see him, he’s buying dinner hahaha.

So, I ask you, “Who couldn’t love being part of success stories like that?”

4. How Does it Help People?
I’m somewhat in the life changing business . . . at least in the financial life changing business.

I was doing a fundraiser not too long ago in Philadelphia and a lady came up to me in tears . . . actually I would characterize it as “blubbering.” I said, “What’s wrong?” When she could halfway talk, she said she heard me speak ten years earlier and she and her husband were laid off and were going to lose their home. She told me because of my speech she started an online business which saved their home and turned their entire life around.

What I teach gives people options to have a better and more secure life.

5. What caused you to transition from professional comedian to internet marketing guru and podcaster?
I’m always moving forward. The entertainment company and professional comedy came from a needed respite from the nasty nightclub world. As the comedy career took off, I was thinking there must be something bigger out there for me than just doing parties. That something bigger was professional speaking.

Pro Speaking
Pro speaking let me combine my business experience and my entertainment skills for much bigger money than simply entertaining. Part of being a professional speaker is selling your products at the back of the room. Prior to the Internet it was hard enough to sell your products across the street, let alone around the world from your desktop.

Arrival of the Commercial Internet
When I saw the commercial Internet emerge, I know that was my ticket to selling my information products on a much wider basis. I was basically learning the Internet just to sell my own stuff. As mentioned earlier, I got so good at it that people started begging me to teach them.

Podcasting
I pooh-poohed podcasting for a long time. People just wanted to hear themselves talk and nobody was making any money from it. Then a couple years ago new cars started being able to play podcasts from their dashboards. Podcast listenership exceeded XM Radio and podcasts were free. Also, in home devices like Amazon’s Echo and Google Assistant started selling hundreds of millions of units all capable of playing podcasts.

Then I saw people really start making money and that’s when I jumped in. The name “Screw the Commute” was a no brainer as I guess I’m pretty unique and qualified to do such a podcast since I’ve never had a job.  As I’m writing this, I just completed 437 episodes.

On Mondays I do a training session on something that’s either made me or saved me a ton of money and on Wednesdays and Fridays I Interview other great entrepreneurs like you.

6. Who is your favorite comedian, and why?
Two brothers Brian and Dennis Regan. They are just extremely skilled in mixing physical expression and everyday observations and occurrences that have me buckled over laughing.

Thank you, Tom, for taking the time to answer our spotlight questions.

If you’d like to learn more about Tom and his offerings, feel free to check out any of the following links:

• https://screwthecommute.com (Tom’s Podcast)
• https://www.ScrewTheCommute.com/automatefree (Free Business Automation Ebook)
• https://www.GreatInternetMarketingTraining.com (Mentor Program)

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5. Have you ever had a coffee-centric moped design? Something like the Flux Espresso
Haha, no we haven’t. BUT, riding Your Local Ride to the local coffee shop is a time honored tradition. So much so in fact that we plan to add a coffee holder some time in the future.

• https://www.fluxmopeds.com
• https://www.facebook.com/FluxMopeds
• https://www.instagram.com/fluxmopeds/

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In this installment of our Small Business Spotlight series we’ll be highlighting Dan Paulson, owner of InVision Development International. InVision helps business owners achieve greater success through coaching, culture building and communication.

Dan is a fellow author, as well as an accomplished international speaker, facilitator and coach. And from the moment we met, it was obvious that his desire to help others is what drives him. In other words, this guy is the real deal. 

And in the midst of the pandemic, what Dan offers is more critical than ever to help businesses NOW, so they can survive and be in a position of strength going forward.

In case you’re not familiar, our spotlight series always highlights amazing artists and small businesses that stand out from the crowd for their all-around awesomeness.

So, let’s get to know more about Dan and his business …

1. Who Are You?

I am Dan Paulson, CEO of InVision Development International, Author, Speaker, Husband, Dad, and car guy.

2. What Do You Do?

My purpose is to help others achieve greater levels of success than they could on their own.  My passion is coaching leaders to build great cultures.  The best way I describe what I do is help those business owners who can’t seem to get out of their own way.  They’ve been successful in their own right but at a personal cost to family and freedom.  My role is to help them uncover a new way of leadership and communication that pays dividends not only in sales and profitability, but also quality of life.

3. Why Do You Love Doing It?

What I do is rewarding because I actually get to see people transform.  It may seem cliche but when you witness someone who has never had a vacation with family that didn’t involve work finally turn off the phone and truly be with their loved ones its great.  All while knowing their business is still performing better than if they were there working.

4. How Does it Help People?

True freedom.  As an entrepreneur myself I can speak to how difficult a path this can be.  We all take the risk because we want to be in control of our own destiny and be rewarded for it. Over time the excitement of being your own boss is replaced by the roller coaster of sales.  Expanding leads to employees.  Employees bring their own challenges.  You feel the need to take care of your business to ensure it produces the income you expect.  Over time many owners slowly begin to fall into the trap that nobody can do the job as well as they can and they need to constantly monitor all activities to ensure continued growth.  The trap eventually turns into the prison that the owner cannot escape. The idea of freedom is replaced by employee and customer issues, receivables, sales, service problems, and constant fires that need to be extinguished.  I help break that cycle while showing a way to maintain growth and profits.  In fact I often help accelerate their growth!

5. In the midst of the pandemic, what are some ways you can help business NOW so they are more prepared to stay in business — and be positioned for growth once the economy starts to recover?

Be proactive instead of reactive.  Since COVID began to impact businesses early in the year I was already talking with my clients about what I saw happening.  I have been going in to help in every aspect from reducing costs where it makes sense to protecting cash.  I have also spent a great deal of time focused on communication and transparency with leaders and their teams to reduce fear and stress.  On the side I have been educating myself on the stimulus packages and helping owners find ways to get funding.

Going forward as we begin to reopen the country I am working with owners on ramp up plans and contingencies to address the potential challenges that restarting business may face.  Above all, I act as a sounding board for my clients to vent, question, work through, and refocus.  I provide a lot of entrepreneurial support through this process.

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If you’d like to get in touch with Dan, or learn more about InVision, feel free to visit his website.

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