Crush The Journey Podcast is a show dedicated to the small business owners that will feature expert guests presenting relevant information to help small business owners grow a profitable business.
Episode 038 Leverage Your Strengths To Create Greatness with Darren Virassammy
Guest Bio
Darren Virassammy is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of 34 Strong, comprised of a team that believes everyone deserves a great place to work and that any workplace can be great. A leading expert in the global employee engagement community, the 34 Strong team leverages the Strengths-Based approach to human development to create massive shifts within organizations, both culturally and on the bottom line. He and his team have created sustainable change in small microbusinesses, all the way up to large organizational teams at the FDA, Bank of America, American Licorice and The California Department of Public Health. Recently, Darren has keynoted for Hitachi Global Women’s Conference, The Rotary World Peace Conference, The Professional Grounds Management Society, and Author Mike Michalowicz’ Profit Con (where he also closed down the conference by performing a solo bass guitar piece he composed titled Metamorphosisas a tribute to the journey of entrepreneurs) Darren’s 34 Strong Business partner, Brandon Miller is the co-Author (with his wife Analyn Miller) of a Strengths-Based Parenting book titled: Play to Their Strengths due out in July of 2019.
Episode Summery
So for many entrepreneurs it feels more natural to focus on what is wrong more often than what it right because what is wrong is what gets attention. It is why many entrepreneurs and business owners tend to fall into the trap of putting out daily fires in their business and don’t often take the time to really look at all the areas that are going right and that they are strong. And really and truly, it is going to be focussing on your strengths and the strengths of those around you that will take your business to that next level and my guest today is here to share his expertise on how we can do just that.
Items mentioned in this episode:
Click the link for Darren's FREE gift to all of you - Grind. Greatness. Genius
This amazing tool will help you identify what are the things you are doing that are in your grind zone, greatness zone and genius zone.
34 Strong website - : www.34strong.com
34 Strong Overview Video
Check out one of Darren’s talks: Creating Excellence Through Strengths(My keynote talk from Profit Con 2018):
This episode is sponsored by my FREE Cash Flow Clarity Bundle
Guest Bio:
Having a keen eye isn’t just for what one sees, but also for what one senses. Having been one of the most sought after portrait photographers in the U.S. for more than three decades, Jeffrey Shaw, a.k.a. the Lingo Guy, uses this honed intuition to teach entrepreneurs how to attract their ideal customers by speaking their Secret Language.Jeffrey is host of the popular business podcast Creative Warriors, a nationally acclaimed keynote speaker, a TEDx speaker, a business coach for entrepreneurs, and author of the bestselling book, LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer’s Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible.
Episode Summery
We all know that to be successful entrepreneurs we need to work with our ideal customers because they are the ones who will truly value what we have to offer and be willing to pay for it. But despite our efforts to develop outstanding products or services, create snazzy websites, and toil night and day to deliver our offerings, so often we may fail to reach our ideal customers, which can leave many of us frustrated and defeated. Well my guest today is Jeffrey Shaw and he was able to turn his own business around by learning to speak the secret language of his ideal customers and truely differentiate himself from his competitors and he put it all in his new book, LINGO where he shares his 5 step secret language strategy.
Items mentioned in this episode:
Click the link for Jeffrey's FREE gift to all of you
Jeffery will review your website and offer suggestions on how you can ensure your website is speaking the secret language of your ideal customer
Jeffrey Shaw Website - https://jeffreyshaw.com
This episode is sponsored by my FREE Cash Flow Clarity Bundle
Episode 036 How To Prepare For The Unexpected with Dawn McFadden and Christina Bushnell
Guest Bios
Dawn is one of the founding partners of McFadden Bushnell. Dawn moved to Chagrin Falls when she was in High School. She attended law school at Case Western Reserve University and has spent a significant portion of her professional life in the Cleveland area. Dawn focuses on assisting clients and their families in planning for possible long-term care needs, including nursing home care. Locating the appropriate type of care, coordinating private and public resources to finance the cost of care, and working to ensure the client’s right to quality care are all part of their elder law practice. When not in the office, she can be found in Shaker Heights, Ohio with her husband André.
Christina is a founding partner of McFadden Bushnell. A longtime resident of the Cleveland area, Christina spent the first decade of her legal career as a paralegal before taking the plunge and going to law school. She concentrates her practice on elder law, special needs planning and estate planning, particularly assisting her clients plan for long-term care issues through the use of Medicaid crisis and pre-planning. Outside the office, Christina and her husband Mike can be found cheering on their sons Declan and Sean at hockey, basketball, or other various sports depending on the season.
Episode Summery
In this episode we will be talking about something that is near and dear to my heart. As most of your know, I mentioned a couple episodes ago my mother had fallen ill and unfortunately passed away. The whole experience as many of you can imagine was very difficult for a number of reasons. But probably the most difficult was just how unprepared me and my family were, especially preparing all the legal stuff. For those of you that may have experienced a terminal illness of a loved one, you know that alone is painful but when you are completely unprepared for how everything is going to be handled during and after, it can be quite unbearable. Well my guests today are 2 of some of the kindest and heart-centered lawyers I know and they happen to be sisters to boot. They took what could have been a tremendously confusing, chaotic and frantic situation and made it as simply and easy as possible. And I have invited them here to today to talk to us about the conversations we need to start having with our loved ones and the planning that needs to be done now, both personally as well as for our business, so that if God forbid you find yourself in a similar situation as I was last year, you will at least have that peace of mind knowing that all the major decisions and planning have already been done so that you can focus on being there for your loved one.
Items mentioned in this episode:
Website: www.mcfaddenbushnell.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mcfaddenbushnell/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MB_Law
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mcfadden-bushnell-llc/?trk=company_logo
This episode is sponsored by my FREE Cash Flow Clarity Bundle
Guest Bio
Steve Bealey has over 11 years experience in the financial industry with credentials including certified financial planner and accredited portfolio management advisor. He is also very passionate about educating and empowering young people to make smart choices with their money. In 2017, Steve published the book "Financial Success Starts...Now! The Young Person's Guide to Money in America". It is geared towards helping young people make smart financial decisions on their path to growing wealth and building a secure future.
Episode Summery
In today's episode, I discuss with financial expert, Steve Bealey, about the fundamentals of how to build wealth and the strategies he recommends in making your financial success to start now.
Items mentioned
Steve Bealey website
This episode is sponsored by my FREE Cash Flow Clarity Bundle
Episode 034 Understanding GDPR With Lots Of Legal Love with Lisa Fraley, JD
Guest Bio
Lisa Fraley, JD, is an Attorney, Legal Coach®, Speaker and #1 Best-Selling Author of Easy Legal Steps...That are Also Good for Your Soul. She’s also the host of the “Legally Enlightened” podcast on iTunes. She’s a frequent legal expert on over 250 webinars and podcasts including top-ranked “Entrepreneur on Fire”, and she’s spoken at live events for Jonathan Fields, Mike Koenigs, Carolin Soldo, Health Coach Institute, The Health Coach Group, and others, taking stage alongside Gabrielle Bernstein, Kris Carr, and many of today’s thought leaders.
Lisa's mission is to help small business owners understand that the law can be accessible, empowering, loving, and even spiritual. As a Holistic Lawyer®, Lisa blends her legal expertise and caring health & life coaching skills to help thousands of heart-centered entrepreneurs to protect their businesses and brands with contracts, disclaimers, trademarks and more. She shares her “Legal Love” through DIY legal templates, online courses and 1:1 services and is known for aligning legal steps with the chakras. Join the Legal Love tribe and receive free legal tips at lisafraley.com.
Episode Summery
I am so excited to have back on my show online legal expert, Lisa Fraley. Lisa specializes in providing legal documents for the online entrepreneur with clarity and lots of legal love. Thinking about the legal parts of our business isn’t always the fun but it is necessary if you want to ensure that you are protected and remain compliant. And today Lisa is here to talk to us all about a newer law that came into effect this past May called GDPR which stands for General Data Protection Regulation and the steps we need to ensure we are in compliance.
Items mentioned in this episode:
Websites: lisafraley.com Podcast: https://lisafraley.com/podcast/
Facebook: facebook.com/lisafraleylegalcoach
LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisafraley1 FREE GDPR Webinar This episode is sponsored by my FREE Cash Flow Clarity Bundle
Episode 033 What Million Dollar Brands Know
Guest Bio
Known as The Marketing Stylist™, Lisa N. Alexander has worked as an art director, graphic designer and marketing consultant throughout her 20 year career. As a consultant, and now Creative Director of PrettyWork Creative LLC, she helps small business owners grow their businesses through strategic marketing and branding.
Lisa describes this process as helping clients develop their WOW factor for their big marketing red carpet events. Web launches, advertising campaigns, social media marketing, new business launches are all big events that require the expertise of a stylist to help businesses put their best face forward and her clients love her for this.
Lisa is also a talented speaker and according to the motivational business speaker, Karen McCullough, Lisa is one speaker she would go out of her way to hear speak. She infuses her ability to make the crowd laugh with her marketing know-how and personal growth lessons. She leaves her audiences, inspired, informed and empowered! Lisa has even shared a story at The Moth Story Slam in Houston.
Lisa is also the author of This Woman Knows, her personal story of coming into her own place of knowing and power. She shares this message with women through public speaking opportunities and encourages them to become women who know. She is also the author of, Put It Out There! 5 Steps to Kick Fear’s Butt and Move Your Dream Forward and will release her first marketing book, What Million-Dollar Brands Know: Branding Strategies for Entrepreneurs in 2018.
Taking the storytelling process to a new level, Lisa and her husband Elgin Alexander produced their first documentary entitled, What Mercy Looks Like for the This Woman Knows franchise. It is a story about the volunteers who helped rebuild Houston after Hurricane Harvey and the organization who spearheaded the mission. The documentary won a Gold Remi at the 2018 WorldFest Houston International Independent Film Festival.
Lisa has appeared in the American Express Open Forum Blog, The Weather Channel and PRINT Magazine. Lisa has also presented to international audiences. She has been featured in two UK Magazines, Vital Woman and Women Empowering Women. Lisa’s work was also published in an Australian publication, This Woman Can. Lisa recently shared her “What If I Look Stupid?” presentation with a group of international personal and virtual assistants. A conversation on how women can ask for what they want and the communication and negotiation tools to do so.
One of Lisa’s greatest achievements was going back to school and graduating with honors from Ashford University with a B.A. in PR and Marketing.
She’s also very proud of her volunteer work. Lisa has volunteered at Freedom Place — a safe house for young girls rescued from sex trafficking and was the former Chief Communication Officer for The Freedom Coalition. Lisa was also the board secretary for Get Together Northwest Houston and has served on the NAWBO Houston board as Director of Public Relations and is the current Chapter President.
Lisa married her high school sweetheart, Elgin, and the two have been happily married for over 30 years and have two adult children and a rambunctious Labrador-mix named Kobe.
Episode Summery
What are successful entrepreneurs doing in their marketing and branding that have allowed them to scale to become million dollar brands? Todays guest, Lisa Alexander, shares her insights from the amazing women she interviewed for her latest book, "What Million Dollar Brands Know: Marketing and Brand Strategies For Today's Entrepreneur". Lisa shares with us how success strategies by connecting with your audience, identifying your target audience, refining your product or service, empowering your employees in being your brand advocate and how these women overcame insurmountable obstacles.
Items mentioned in this episode:
Websites: www.lisanalexander.com,www.prettyworkcreative.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/themarketingstylist
Instagram: www.instagram.com/lisanalexander
Twitter: www.twitter.com/lisanalexander This episode is sponsored by my FREE Cash Flow Clarity Bundle
Episode 032 Learn The Importance Of Effective Email Marketing
Guest Bio
Shana is the CEO and Founder of Radical Reach, a social media expert services company.
Shana started RadicalReach full time after spending 16 years in the marketing and tech worlds. She wanted to combine the best of both of those to help business owners achieve their dreams. She is a Certified Social Media Manager who loves the way social media connects the world. You’ll often times find Shana engaging on behalf of clients while eating cupcakes and drinking way too much coffee. In her free time you’ll usually find Shana at a pinball parlor in Cleveland. She’s in two pinball leagues and working her way toward international pinball domination.
Episode Summery
So all of you know how important it is to market your business and nowadays there are so many different channels to communicate with your audience but one area that is often glossed over or sometimes just plain confusing is email marketing. Email marketing is a great way to maintain a constant and direct dialog with your customers and when done effectively can really help grow your businesses and increase your sales. Well my guest today is here to share with us her amazing tips for how to create an effective email marketing campaign.
Items mentioned in this episode:
Website: http://radicalreach.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RadicalReach/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanam/ This episode is sponsored by my FREE Cash Flow Clarity Bundle
Episode031 How To Use Video To Connect With Your Audience
Guest Bio
Teresa Lynn Crockett has created a 60-second video for just about any industry you can name. 3 years ago, she started SugarBowl Creative LLC to educate, entertain and inspire other female business owners to share their message on camera! Script. Shoot. Sound. Edit. Even improv! This one-woman shop specializes in making you look good, sweet & simple.
Episode Summery
Video is a wonderful medium to connect with your audience and it can be incorporated into numerous touchpoints. Video expert Teresa Crockett with SugarBowl Creative talks with us about some great ways and strategies to incorporate video into your marketing efforts. Her simple steps will have your taking action right away.
Items mentioned in this episode:
Sugarbowl Creativewebsite Instagram @sugarbcreative
Episode 030 How To Know When It Is Time To Rebrand with Morgan Stapp
Guest Bio
Morgan is a branding and web designer who works with adventurers, artisans, and passionate small businesses owners. She helps her clients bring their best vision for your business to life through branding and website design that infuses who they are with what they do! When she’s not daydreaming on Pinterest, you can find Morgan exploring a new outdoor spot with her best four-legged adventure buddy Remi, cuddled up in front of the fireplace with some room-temperature coffee and a good book, or trying her hand at some new form of creative expression like pottery, watercolor painting, or photography.
Key Takeaways
Items mentioned in this episode:
Morgan Stapp Design website Morgan Stapp Design Instagram - @morganstapp_design Morgan Stapp Design Facebook Download the FREE Ultimate Branding Checklist Canva Linda’s Lenses Photography Eryn Morgan Success Strategist This episode is sponsored by:
ErynMorgan.com/Evolution-Live
Episode 029 - How Your Inner Work Creates Your Outer Results with Kelly Ruta
Guest Bio
Kelly Ruta is a high-performance mentor for female entrepreneurs. Her style of coaching and speaking has best been described as Gary Vaynerchuk meets Brene Brown; ass-kicking with a heart. Kelly’s 20+ year career has been spent helping women rise above serious challenges and take back their businesses and lives. Her clinical and life experiences with diverse people and challenges make her uniquely qualified as an expert at helping people get out of their own way and rise up in todays entrepreneurial world. Key Takeaways
Call To Action: Identify your emotional pain point related to business and begin to do the inner work to heal that Items mentioned in this episode:
Kelly Ruta's website and resources
This episode is sponsored by:
ErynMorgan.com/Evolution-Live
Episode 028 - Reclaim Your Time With A Virtual Assistant with Laura Licursi
Guest Bio
Laura Licursi is the founder of Elite Virtual Assistants. EVA helps entrepreneurs and small business owners get back to doing what they do best by helping them delegate work that is keeping them busy working IN their business instead of ON their business. Laura was a Virtual Assistant for almost 20 years before starting EVA in 2015 with a vision to empower people to live a life that is rewarding and fun. Laura lives in Strongsville, Ohio with her husband, 3 children and 2 dogs. "Time is the most valuable thing that you have. You can spend it any way you'd like. But you can never get it back. So use your time the best way you possibly can." -Laura Key Takeaways
Items mentioned in this episode:
twitter.com/evassist
facebook.com/elitevirtualassist
linkedin.com/in/laura-licursi-6863a32a
instagram.com/elite_assist/
pinterest.com/evassist
This episode is sponsored by:
ErynMorgan.com/Evolution-Live
Episode 027 - Achieve More By Working Less with Lisa Crilley Mallis
Guest Bio
Lisa Crilley Mallis works with focused, successful business owners who are overcommitted and still want to achieve more without giving up their nights and weekends. For over 15 years, Lisa has provided customized, practical solutions to everyday capacity building challenges, allowing her clients to accomplish more in less time, while still enjoying their lives.
She is the current National Association of Business Owners (NAWBO) Cleveland president and a member of the Red Key Network and International Coach Federation. Lisa lives in Chagrin Falls, Ohio with her husband Lou and his dog, Neuton. She loves chocolate, the beach, and country music.
Key Takeaways
Items mentioned in this episode:
Contact Lisa Crilley Mallis
Email: Lisa@ImpactiveStrategies.com
www.Twitter.com/ImpactiveStrat
www.Facebook.com/ImpactiveStrategies
www.linkedin.com/in/lcrilleymallis/
www.google.com/+LisaMallis
This episode is sponsored by:
ErynMorgan.com/Evolution-Live
Episode 026 - Profit First Success Story with Dr. Belen Amat
Guest Bio
Dr. Belen Amat was born and raised in Mexico City, where she studied medicine at the Universidad Panamericana and graduated with honors. She decided to pursue a dual specialty in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at GRMEP in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she found wonderful people and a great city for her family.
Ever since she was a child, she wanted to be a doctor and help people, especially when they were sick and needed help the most. She put her life-long love of science to work figuring out complex medical issues and preventing illnesses.
After several years of working in large clinics and hospital networks, she decided to start her own practice with the idea of reviving the personalized attention she believes is the basis of a quality medical service. Her research into the Direct Primary Care model showed high rates of patient satisfaction and improved medical and wellness outcomes through increased patient access and communication, so she decided to adopt this preventative model of care.
“I believe in patient care that is based on a personal relationship between a doctor and a patient, a relationship based in trust and communication. This is one of the reasons why I believe in spending more time with each person and listen to their needs,” Dr. Amat said.
“I enjoy helping my patients prevent diseases and helping children to develop and grow healthy.”
Dr. Amat volunteers for medical mission trips to Honduras and offers service in Spanish for the Spanish-speaking community.
Key Takeaways
Items mentioned in this episode:
Direct Primary Care of Western Michigan
Find a Direct Primary Care Provider in your area
Profit First Professionals
This episode is sponsored by:
ErynMorgan.com/Evolution-Live
Episode 025 - Design Your Business To Run Like Clockwork with Mike Michalowicz
Guest Bio
Mike Michalowicz is the entrepreneur behind three multi-million dollar companies and is the author of Profit First,The Pumpkin Plan, Surge and what BusinessWeek deemed the entrepreneur’s cult classic, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur.
Mike is a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal and the former business makeover specialist on MSNBC. Today Mike travels the world as entrepreneurial advocate speaking to groups. He is globally recognized as the guy who “challenges out dated business beliefs” and teaches us what to do about it. Key Takeaways
Items mentioned in this episode:
Get your copy of Clockwork today
Get your FREE Virtual Clockwork Kit
Profit First Professionals
This episode is sponsored by:
ErynMorgan.com/Evolution-Live
Episode 024 - Intentional Networking with Maria Jeancola
Guest Bio
An entrepreneur at heart, Maria Jeancola loves helping people thrive and succeed. She has found that being part of an amazing company like Aligned Health Center, and spreading the word of Chiropractic BioPhysics, as an unbelievably rewarding experience.
In addition to providing health care, She has built Network Fifty Two, a networking group that helps people connect and work together in a mutually beneficial way. She has been amazed at the success of this group from the very beginning and it proves that collaboration is a key ingredient in the pursuit of excellence.
To further expand her reach to help others both personally and professionally, she also runs a life and health insurance brokerage. This has allowed her to encompass her wide network of people, businesses, and services to provide a unique approach to help individuals and small businesses with the best possible solution when it comes to insurance, investments and benefits.
As a proud mother of three amazing children, she tries to lead by example, believing that a parent should not make their children their excuse, but their reason.
Key Takeaways
Definition of networking - cultivate productive business relationships
Givers attract takers
There are angel numbers - the number 52 means to selflessly give
Biggest misconception about networking is that there is no one who needs what you do
How to network at an event:
Items mentioned in this episode:
www.networkfiftytwo.com
www.facebook.com/networkfiftytwo
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariajeancola
Episode 023 - Objection Is Not Rejection: How to Overcome The 3 Most Common Sales Objections with Eryn Morgan Guest Bio Eryn Morgan is a success strategist who helps creative, multi-passionate, highly-skilled women transform into the leaders of their businesses (and lives). She functions as your coach, guru, and the business partner you’ve always wanted. She’s honed her skills in marketing, sales, mindset, operations, and motivating you to get stuff done, so you don’t have to be an expert in #allthethings. When she’s not obsessing over her clients and wearing her business coach hat, she’s fantasizing about being a private detective, drinking copious amounts of wine (while cooking!), being equally fascinated and terrified of birds, and watching her boyfriend play Madden on XBox and acting like it’s a “real game.” Key Takeaways The 3 Most Common Objections and How to reframe the question: 1. Money - "Where is your prospect willing to seek the funds to invest in their transformation?" 2. Time - this is more an opportunity cost objection; "What is the cost of not taking action now?" 3. Need to talk with someone else before proceeding - help your prospect on how to have that conversation by showing them what they will look like after their transformation and therefore their conversation needs to be more about seeking support rather than permission
Items mentioned in this episode: ErynMorgan.com Instagram: @erynemorgan ErynMorgan.com/Evolution-Live This episode is sponsored by: ErynMorgan.com/Evolution-Live
Episode 022 - Entrepreneurial You with Dorie Clark Guest Bio Dorie Clark is the author of the new book Entrepreneurial You. Her past books include Reinventing You and Stand Out, which was named the #1 Leadership Book of 2015 by Inc.magazine. A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, she teaches at Duke University and writes frequently for the Harvard Business Review. She is also a consultant and speaker for clients such as Google, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank. And a fun fact about Dorie, is that she is the producer of multiple Grammy winning jazz album. Items mentioned in this episode: Dorie Clark's Website 88 Question Entrepreneurial You Self Assessment Get your copy of Entrepreneurial You today (Full Disclosure I am an affiliate for this product so if you decide to purchase I may receive a commission) This episode is sponsored by: ErynMorgan.com/Evolution-Live
Episode 021 - 5 Lessons I Learned On How To Prepare For The Unexpected with Jennifer Hottle 1. What are the non-negociable things happening in your life right now 1. Work 2. Family 3. Self 2. Talk with your family/support system about how everyone is going to deal with the situation 1. What is the action plan (ie treatment plan) 2. Set up a schedule 3. Let them know what times you need to devote to your clients/family 3. Inform your clients of what is happening in your life IF it will prevent you from delivering on your promise 4. Be sure to allow yourself time each day to decompress 1. Long bath 2. Reading 3. Meditating 4. Praying 5. Be prepared to work remotely
This episode is sponsored by: ErynMorgan.com/Evolution-Live
Episode003 - How To Put Your Profit First with Ron Saharyan
In this episode of Crush The Journey we will be talking with Ron Saharyan of Profit First Professionals about the cash management system called Profit First. Ron educates entrepreneurs about the benefits for putting Profit First instead of last.
Key takeaways:
Items mentioned:
http://www.growmyaccountingpractice.com
www.profitfirstpodcast.com
Ready for clarity? Grab your FREE Cashflow Clarity Bundle now. This bundle includes the first 2 chapters of the Profit First book and a training video to get you started.