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Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to Fearless Fabulous You.
Speaker 3: I am your host, Melanie Young, and I am glad
Speaker 3: you're joining me today. It's a beautiful summer day where
Speaker 3: I am as you know, I enjoy interviewing dynamic people
Speaker 3: who inspire you to live the best life you can
Speaker 3: and I like doing it to help you as well.
Speaker 3: And today we're going to be talking to my guest
Speaker 3: who is fearless and helping small business owners and entrepreneurs
Speaker 3: get a boost in their business and in their outlook
Speaker 3: to take them to the next level. But before we
Speaker 3: go into that topic and my guests, I do want
Speaker 3: to give a shout out to where I am now
Speaker 3: because they have graciously offered me an office and it
Speaker 3: was as spur of the moment as a morning phone
Speaker 3: call today at nine am, I am in the beautiful
Speaker 3: town of Abington, Virginia, in southern Virginia, near the Appalachian Mountains,
Speaker 3: near the border of my home state now of Tennessee.
Speaker 3: Let's just say it is beautiful. It's surrounded by mountains.
Speaker 3: It has been called one of the coolest places in
Speaker 3: southern Virginia and one of the best small town food
Speaker 3: scenes in the country by USA Today ten Bests. And
Speaker 3: I'm going to be checking out some restaurants after this show.
Speaker 2: Little fun facts.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of arts here in theater and the
Speaker 3: Martha Washington Inn and Spa, which was built in eighteen
Speaker 3: thirty two.
Speaker 2: We're going to go visit that. It is charming.
Speaker 3: And if you are doing road trips like many of
Speaker 3: you know I've been doing with my husband David now
Speaker 3: for three years, put Abington, Virginia on your map if
Speaker 3: you're going down I eighty one south, and frankly, put
Speaker 3: the whole state of Virginia on your map, because we've
Speaker 3: been touring and visiting wineries on the Monticello side Ava
Speaker 3: and the Shenandoah Valley side, and we have some gems
Speaker 3: which we'll be sharing on our other show, The Connected
Speaker 3: Table Lives, so check that out. But I want to
Speaker 3: thank the Abington Convention of Visitors Bureau who literally two
Speaker 3: hours ago said come on in because that's what Southern
Speaker 3: hospitality is all about. So thank you to the City
Speaker 3: of Abington, Virginia. So now let's go on to my guest,
Speaker 3: who is an amazing woman.
Speaker 2: Like me, lived in New York, now live South. She
Speaker 2: is an award Jackie P.
Speaker 3: Taylor is an award winning businesswoman host of the podcast
Speaker 3: The Real Juggle, which takes an unvarnished look at what
Speaker 3: it means to be successful. She is a business consultant
Speaker 3: and has worked with everything from top Fortune five hundreds
Speaker 3: to independent entrepreneurs and she helps them get a boost
Speaker 3: in their outlook on what they're doing and their vision
Speaker 3: and their strategies to take their business to the next level.
Speaker 3: She really helps a lot of people from many diverse
Speaker 3: backgrounds realize their potential engage in more rewarding lives and careers.
Speaker 2: She has a book out called Give Me a Boost.
Speaker 3: It's an easy, slim read with a lot of interesting
Speaker 3: insights and tips to help underresource business owners like yourself
Speaker 3: and sometimes like me, who are onto person heart but
Speaker 3: sometimes just feel they need a little extra help and
Speaker 3: insights and motivation to get to that next level, as
Speaker 3: they say, get that boost. So we're gonna be talking
Speaker 3: about everything you may want to know. If you were
Speaker 3: starting out as an entrepreneur, maybe you have a business,
Speaker 3: but you just got to take it to that next level.
Speaker 3: And you're saying, now what, Jackie P. Taylor, Welcome to
Speaker 3: Fearless Fabulous You.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 5: I'm so excited to be on with you.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm curious and I always start this way, Jackie.
Speaker 3: Tell me a little bit about your personal and professional background,
Speaker 3: starting with where you raised, your raised and your education
Speaker 3: and your early career because most people, let's face it,
Speaker 3: don't start out as young youngs. You're saying, I want
Speaker 3: to help businesses build business build their businesses.
Speaker 2: So give me a sense of your career journey.
Speaker 4: Sure, So just to tell you who I am, I
Speaker 4: am a diversity enthusiast. I am guided by my passion
Speaker 4: and I'm energized by helping other people. That's at my core.
Speaker 4: I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. And it's funny
Speaker 4: that you say that people don't start out saying they
Speaker 4: want to own businesses. One of the first things that
Speaker 4: I remember, one of my young memories in Brooklyn, there
Speaker 4: was a store that sold these car radios. This is
Speaker 4: back in the days when you had to like bring
Speaker 4: your car radio in and out of your car. So
Speaker 4: I'm dating myself, and they were selling these car radios,
Speaker 4: and so in the trash just outside of the store
Speaker 4: they had the plastic containers that the car radios came in. Well,
Speaker 4: I was about eleven years old, maybe ten, and I
Speaker 4: thought that this was like a huge find. I got
Speaker 4: my best friend and I we took all of these
Speaker 4: car radio you know, compartments, and we went door to
Speaker 4: door in Brooklyn Schenectady Avenue and I was basically selling
Speaker 4: these you know bags, you know, as anything you can
Speaker 4: use it for, as type of things. And I just
Speaker 4: remember this one neighbor thing. You know, you can keep it,
Speaker 4: but I'm going to give you five dollars. So I
Speaker 4: don't know, I've been I've been entrepreneuring for a while.
Speaker 2: I'm impressed by that. And you were doordered or salesman
Speaker 2: which you know I did.
Speaker 3: I did that in Atlanta when I was first starting
Speaker 3: out and desperately needed money because I hadn't gotten my
Speaker 3: break in writing, and I had to sell door to
Speaker 3: door cable TV subscriptions on Beauford Highway, which, if you know,
Speaker 3: a thing of Atlanta is just like wall the wall
Speaker 3: apartment come back.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: And my parents dissed me so bad.
Speaker 3: But I made some money and I learned how to
Speaker 3: be fearless in selling.
Speaker 2: It built a lot of fearlessness in me about sales.
Speaker 2: And that's important, right.
Speaker 3: Because you've got to be able to sell yourself and
Speaker 3: your product, your service, right, Jackie.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you learn grit, right, you learn grit. You learn
Speaker 4: how to make something out of nothing, and you know
Speaker 4: from what your situation and mine, you definitely learn to
Speaker 4: deal with rejection. Because I'm sure we both got a
Speaker 4: few notes.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I got a lot of a lot of
Speaker 3: nose and a lot of dogs trying to stiff my crotch.
Speaker 2: I was like dodging big dogs all the time. It
Speaker 2: was like good away from me. It was crazy.
Speaker 3: So what was your what was your first career break
Speaker 3: when you well, where'd you go to school? And tell
Speaker 3: me about your education and then your career break.
Speaker 5: Sure.
Speaker 4: So just since we're on this Virginia theme, I actually
Speaker 4: attended boarding school for high school in Richmond, Virginia. Who
Speaker 4: I did have my days in Virginia. So I agree
Speaker 4: the great state of Virginia it should be on the
Speaker 4: visit list. I actually got a full scholarship to Adelphi University.
Speaker 4: And I have always been the person that wants to work.
Speaker 4: I have had no patients. I've learned patients over the years.
Speaker 4: I had no patients, and so I did a lot
Speaker 4: of interning. I ended up getting my first job with
Speaker 4: ABC News Radio, and I interned. You know, I was
Speaker 4: competing against the other desk assistance. If you if you
Speaker 4: were in media, you understand that you kind of work
Speaker 4: your way up from coffee to getting b roll and
Speaker 4: sound on tape. And I did that. But because I
Speaker 4: had self taught technology backgrounds, I was helping ABC News
Speaker 4: Radio and the team there with their station calls. Right,
Speaker 4: we would do those morning show prep calls, and so
Speaker 4: I helped them with their Microsoft Access database. And so
Speaker 4: at the end of the internship, we were all buying
Speaker 4: for jobs. I was not ready to graduate yet, mind you,
Speaker 4: but we'll get to that. We were buying for jobs,
Speaker 4: and I ended up getting the job. They actually created
Speaker 4: a role in talk show prep Morning show talk Prep,
Speaker 4: and they said, well, wait a minute, when do you
Speaker 4: get your degree. I was like, Oh, I'll get it
Speaker 4: next semester. I'll get it next semester. So, with my
Speaker 4: full scholarship to my parents dismay, I left Adelphi.
Speaker 2: Oh Go, joined the workforce.
Speaker 4: And so ultimately I got my bachelor's degree from Mercy College, Dobbsbury,
Speaker 4: New York. But my path was not a traditional path,
Speaker 4: to say the least.
Speaker 3: You know a lot of people sorry, and you know
Speaker 3: it's an important message to everybody out there. You don't
Speaker 3: have to follow the traditional path. There will be people
Speaker 3: along the way, hiring managers and HR other HR people
Speaker 3: who look for that traditional path. But some of the
Speaker 3: people I most admire and business did not follow it.
Speaker 3: They followed their gut and their instinct and their why right.
Speaker 4: And more and more organizations today, I know Big four
Speaker 4: consulting firms, a lot of the tech firms have gotten
Speaker 4: a rid of the requirement that you have a bachelor's degree.
Speaker 5: I think I saw an article just today that Kellogg.
Speaker 4: Actually is now hiring and not requiring a bachelor's degree.
Speaker 4: So I think, you know, I was ahead of my
Speaker 4: time with that.
Speaker 5: It wasn't as easy, but you're right.
Speaker 2: Time have changed, you know, Jackie.
Speaker 3: That's encouraging because I was with a good friend up
Speaker 3: in the Hudson Valley who was lamenting.
Speaker 2: She neats coaching.
Speaker 3: I can't get a job because I don't have a
Speaker 3: college degree. And I look straight he and I said,
Speaker 3: you know, Bill Gates, Mark.
Speaker 5: Zuckerberg, that is that is not your barrier? Did you
Speaker 5: tell her that that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just said that is not your barrier. I said,
Speaker 3: your barrier is up in between your ears. I said,
Speaker 3: you know, you got to you gotta, like, you know,
Speaker 3: change what's inside your head.
Speaker 2: And a lot of it is that when you're coaching,
Speaker 2: don't you.
Speaker 4: Think I think that on one, it's a mindset. I
Speaker 4: am big on I mean people use the term manifestation.
Speaker 4: Back before people were using that term. I was always
Speaker 4: big on visioning, right, and so I set a vision.
Speaker 4: I set a goal, and I had this fearlessness you
Speaker 4: know that it was going to happen. And even to
Speaker 4: this day, I had vision boards from Melanie from years ago,
Speaker 4: and so it may not have occurred in that year,
Speaker 4: but maybe like a couple of years later, or it
Speaker 4: happens in its own time. But I'm really big on
Speaker 4: making sure that you vision and you get your mind
Speaker 4: in the right place.
Speaker 3: Well, I completely agree, and I rely on vision boards
Speaker 3: a lot, and I've changed my vision over the years
Speaker 3: quite frequently. And then I also will sometimes lie in
Speaker 3: the morning and while I visualize my day, I also
Speaker 3: visualize any mental barriers they're standing in my way in
Speaker 3: the long term and how to break through them. And
Speaker 3: it's actually been a great mental exercise to kind of
Speaker 3: rethink many many things in your.
Speaker 2: Book give me a boost.
Speaker 3: A lot of it I knew because I've had businesses
Speaker 3: and you know, I come from like the entrepreneuri background.
Speaker 2: But you said something in there that really resonated.
Speaker 3: With me because I closed my business after going through
Speaker 3: breast cancer treatment, my main business, which was a fairly
Speaker 3: successful marketing and culinary events agency in New York City.
Speaker 3: I was like the person that you wanted to be
Speaker 3: when you grew up, I have to say, and then
Speaker 3: you know, I get the breast cancer diagnosis, I go
Speaker 3: through chemo so fearful. Remember that word that I'm going
Speaker 3: to lose all my business that I hid it from
Speaker 3: everybody for two years, soldier through and then at the
Speaker 3: end of it said I am so done. And for
Speaker 3: a while I was freelancing, And man, that's really different,
Speaker 3: you say, and give me a boost. There's a big
Speaker 3: diss being a freelancer and an entrepreneur because they're both
Speaker 3: in many cases self employee.
Speaker 2: But they're very different. So I want you to define that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, very different.
Speaker 4: So I always say entrepreneurs are absolutely business owners, but
Speaker 4: a business owner is not necessarily an entrepreneur or a
Speaker 4: business owner. And both an entrepreneur and a business owner
Speaker 4: are independent, autonomous.
Speaker 5: Have a vision, risky.
Speaker 4: But for an entrepreneur it's different. You are building something
Speaker 4: bigger than yourself. You want to work yourself and build
Speaker 4: yourself out of the day to day operations and administryvia
Speaker 4: and focus on the bringing someone in and a succession
Speaker 4: plan under you.
Speaker 5: You want more than one location.
Speaker 4: You want to diversify your products and your services. You
Speaker 4: want to you have aspirations of significant growth.
Speaker 5: So although you are a business.
Speaker 4: Owner, you are an entrepreneur because you're building something bigger.
Speaker 4: When you are self employed or a business owner, you
Speaker 4: still have many of those same attributes, but it doesn't
Speaker 4: need to grow you. It doesn't need to grow to
Speaker 4: some you know, scaled level. You're fine working in your
Speaker 4: business every day. I use the example of a plumber
Speaker 4: who's self employed and doing really well. You're like Atrician,
Speaker 4: a salon owner, and they're happy. They don't necessarily want
Speaker 4: to get to the point where they have like multiple
Speaker 4: locations and multiple teammates. They're happy doing a day to
Speaker 4: day and I think that's the biggest differentiator.
Speaker 3: Very good explanation, and I completely and entrepreneurs are builders.
Speaker 3: They like to build. They're restless. I mean, there's that
Speaker 3: entrepreneurial itch.
Speaker 4: Because most right it's like an itch.
Speaker 2: Like you said, you love to work. I can't stop working.
Speaker 3: You know, people even this morning, I was writing a
Speaker 3: post about our show today and you know we're with relatives.
Speaker 2: They're like, you're always working. It's like, I I like it.
Speaker 3: I it's an itch to build and create. And if
Speaker 3: you got that itch, do scratch it because you may
Speaker 3: be doing some amazing things. What are some essential tools
Speaker 3: and tactics. This is a good one because I know,
Speaker 3: I know when I hung my shingle, I just said
Speaker 3: I'm in business. I had no plan other than I
Speaker 3: didn't want to work for anybody else. So when I
Speaker 3: started my business, I did not want want to work
Speaker 3: for anyone else. So that was my drive, not I
Speaker 3: want to build something. I just wanted to do it
Speaker 3: my way and better.
Speaker 2: That was my drive. My way.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I.
Speaker 4: Think that that is a lot of the motivation for
Speaker 4: a lot of self employed people and business owners. You know,
Speaker 4: you want to do it your way. You have a
Speaker 4: vision on how things to get done need to get done.
Speaker 4: I think essentially in order to do that, there's some
Speaker 4: bras packs and we're going to just talk Melanie around
Speaker 4: just launching and not necessarily growing and scaling to launch,
Speaker 4: having that vision, understanding that it's something that could be profitable.
Speaker 4: So basically people will pay you for the product or
Speaker 4: service that you bring into market. Essential is a business plan,
Speaker 4: and I know that's debatable to some people.
Speaker 5: I started my business, I didn't have the business plan.
Speaker 4: If you want to do it right, it is essential
Speaker 4: to have a business plan, and so I think that
Speaker 4: plan is important. And then having an execution STRATG is important.
Speaker 4: So unlike the lottery where you just need a dollar
Speaker 4: and a dream. If you are looking to start a business,
Speaker 4: you need a proposal for what you're going to get
Speaker 4: going and a plan for getting it done.
Speaker 3: And if you're looking to get funding for your business,
Speaker 3: if you need funding, you need that plan and you
Speaker 3: need that. You need that plan, You need a proposal,
Speaker 3: and you need a timeline.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you not only need the plan to formally apply
Speaker 4: for funding sources, whether that's a bank loan or a grant,
Speaker 4: et cetera, but that plan is going to help you
Speaker 4: codify the idea in your head. So I have online
Speaker 4: through my social Jackie P. Taylor, I'm on a mission
Speaker 4: to talk to ten thousand business owners about what they
Speaker 4: need to grow and scale their business. And I cannot
Speaker 4: tell you how many business owners I talk to who
Speaker 4: cannot cleanly articulate within less than a minute let's say
Speaker 4: what their business is, what's going to help them grow,
Speaker 4: and what their vision is for where they can see
Speaker 4: their business going. I get a lot of that's a
Speaker 4: really good questionquestion, And so I know also that that
Speaker 4: those are the individuals who delay in answering those questions,
Speaker 4: are the ones who haven't formally put a business plan together.
Speaker 4: Because if you had then you would be able to
Speaker 4: articulate that a lot, a lot more easily.
Speaker 3: It's so interesting, Jackie, because that's the people I want
Speaker 3: to help, because I come from the communications background. My
Speaker 3: company was started out in public relations, a good old
Speaker 3: fashioned way pitching media. But it grew because I grew
Speaker 3: and I had a plan to become the best events
Speaker 3: culinary events company in the United States, and to be
Speaker 3: the best at what I did in every aspect and diversify.
Speaker 3: And I diversified and I grew because you got to
Speaker 3: expand you've got to add people and teams. But I
Speaker 3: want to help people who cannot articulate because I find
Speaker 3: that the communication skills of most people, much less most
Speaker 3: business people, most less most business owners is weak flat
Speaker 3: out week.
Speaker 5: I think you're spot on.
Speaker 4: I think you're spot on, And working with someone like
Speaker 4: yourself also helps them make the decisions that I compel
Speaker 4: many of them to make, which is, you know, it
Speaker 4: may be a matter of honing your communication skills one percent,
Speaker 4: but then it also may be working with someone like
Speaker 4: yourself may help you determine that maybe I am not
Speaker 4: the face of the business, maybe I am not the
Speaker 4: voice of the business, and maybe it makes more sense
Speaker 4: for me to hire or bring someone else on board
Speaker 4: to be that front facing person while I work on
Speaker 4: the vision and tightening up the operation exactly.
Speaker 3: And if you're a numbers person or a tech geek,
Speaker 3: you may not be the best communicator of what your
Speaker 3: mission is and more importantly, identifying who your audience is
Speaker 3: and communicating to them.
Speaker 2: We've all seen major.
Speaker 3: Gaffs in businesses large and small where they've miscommunicated with
Speaker 3: their audiences and it's been backfired on them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's been it's been horrible. And so to me
Speaker 4: that the risk is so high and the consequences that
Speaker 4: you've described are so great that it just makes sense
Speaker 4: to as a leader, make the decision early.
Speaker 3: And don't you agree that understanding and you talk about
Speaker 3: the SWAT analysis, So.
Speaker 2: We're going to I want you to explain it.
Speaker 3: But in that you can understand what your weaknesses are
Speaker 3: and where you need to beef up and get the
Speaker 3: best people. So for those who don't understand a SWAT analysis,
Speaker 3: I'm going to have Jackie explain it.
Speaker 5: Sure.
Speaker 4: So, a SWAT analysis is a method that you can leverage.
Speaker 4: And you talked about the book being very easy to
Speaker 4: read in the book, I have a description of a
Speaker 4: squad analysis, and I actually allow you to treat it
Speaker 4: as a workbook where you can actually fill this information
Speaker 4: in where you talk about your strengths that's the s
Speaker 4: W your weaknesses, your opportunities, and your threats. And you
Speaker 4: look at this both internally and externally. So what are
Speaker 4: your strengths and weaknesses internally as an organization, as a leader,
Speaker 4: what are you lacking? What this differentiates you from other
Speaker 4: people in the market. And then what are your opportunities
Speaker 4: and your threats externally? And that can be anything depending
Speaker 4: upon when you're doing it. Like a pandemic, right, that's
Speaker 4: a threat and needing to pivot to going online versus
Speaker 4: in person.
Speaker 5: Could be financial threats.
Speaker 4: It could be competition that has you know, spawned and
Speaker 4: sparked up in an area where you are tapping into
Speaker 4: the market and recognizing that you need to be prepared
Speaker 4: to go up against competition. And so the SWAT analysis
Speaker 4: gives you a comprehensive view of where you stand and
Speaker 4: then from that information you can put an action plan together,
Speaker 4: because once you identify a risk, you got to mitigate
Speaker 4: the risk, right, You got to have a plan for
Speaker 4: doing something doing something about it.
Speaker 3: It's so important and every business needs it and the
Speaker 3: other one again getting back to communication is the essential why.
Speaker 3: You need to be able to answer why are you
Speaker 3: doing this? Why is there a need? Why will it
Speaker 3: make a difference? And then how how will it make
Speaker 3: a difference, and how will be implemented and how will
Speaker 3: make an impact and how will you measure results? Right?
Speaker 4: Absolutely that that is such a great point, and you
Speaker 4: know in the book I kind of guide people on
Speaker 4: that journey to your point. Am I really an entrepreneur?
Speaker 4: Is this right for me?
Speaker 5: You know?
Speaker 4: What are my strengths and weaknesses? And then what's my why?
Speaker 4: What's my wis them? Am I doing this to build
Speaker 4: a legacy for myself my family? Am I doing this
Speaker 4: because I just need to make ends meet? You know,
Speaker 4: depending upon what your motivational why is will determine how
Speaker 4: far you get and how far you want to take
Speaker 4: your business and kind of what your next steps are.
Speaker 4: And I know that this seems like for some of
Speaker 4: your listeners, you know, nice to have great. When I
Speaker 4: have some time, I will do it. I cannot emphasize
Speaker 4: enough how mandatory this is, how important it is to
Speaker 4: ask yourself these questions and go do this if you
Speaker 4: are truly looking to be a successful entrepreneur.
Speaker 3: Well, my thought is, if you say I don't have
Speaker 3: the time to do the things we just discussed, you
Speaker 3: don't have the time to run a business because it
Speaker 3: is you know what it's consuming, it's life.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 4: And one of the things that's interesting is I had
Speaker 4: another conversation with someone and we were talking about the
Speaker 4: same thing, about the difference between an entrepreneur and a
Speaker 4: business owner, and he said, oh, my gosh, it just
Speaker 4: makes me courage of hearing you say all those things.
Speaker 5: He was like, I guess I'm not an entrepreneur.
Speaker 4: And I laugh because to your point, if you're an
Speaker 4: if you're not an entrepreneur, it will exhaust you. But
Speaker 4: if you are, it's gonna make your You'll have that itch, right,
Speaker 4: You'll have that that inspatiable itch where it's.
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, that's me, and then you'll kind of pile on.
Speaker 4: So so you know, if you sit and ask yourselves
Speaker 4: the right question, you will know kind of where you
Speaker 4: stand and what your next ups are.
Speaker 2: I couldn't agree more. And I've I've waffled a little bit.
Speaker 3: After I closed my business, I waffled on starting a
Speaker 3: new business or just being a freelancer, and it's been
Speaker 3: a real coming to terms of what really makes that
Speaker 3: the me and me happy.
Speaker 2: It's definitely being.
Speaker 3: An entrepreneur, but anyway, and helping people and helping other
Speaker 3: people be better at communicating their why, because so many
Speaker 3: people are lost.
Speaker 2: They can't find their way.
Speaker 3: First they can't find their why, and then when they
Speaker 3: find it, they can't explain it to anybody.
Speaker 2: And if you can't explain it, how are you going
Speaker 2: to sell it? You know, whether it's a product, serve
Speaker 2: us or whatever.
Speaker 4: One hundred percent you talked about access to capital, and
Speaker 4: you know, one of the things that you know is
Speaker 4: really important in order to be able to access capital
Speaker 4: is to be able to succinctly articulate your value proposition.
Speaker 5: Perfect your pitch. What's your pitch?
Speaker 4: And so when you talk about being able to effectively
Speaker 4: communicate who you are, what you need, and why somebody
Speaker 4: should take a bet on you or take a risk
Speaker 4: on you, you're not going to be able to access
Speaker 4: capital if that's not something that you can do.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 5: So, if there's a need for you.
Speaker 3: Melanie, we need you out there, and there's always a
Speaker 3: need for people like you know, we compliment on each other.
Speaker 3: So I want to talk about access to capital and
Speaker 3: access to capital as a woman and a woman of color.
Speaker 3: How hard is it now for women out there or
Speaker 3: is it getting better?
Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you for asking that question.
Speaker 5: It's it's definitely it's not easy. You know.
Speaker 4: Although you know minorities represent twenty percent of the overall population,
Speaker 4: less than two percent of activist capital is actual with
Speaker 4: going to these entrepreneurs from an investment standpoint, and post pandemic,
Speaker 4: with the anticipated recession, you know, the capital is going
Speaker 4: to be even more restricted. Right, people are not making
Speaker 4: the same level of PE investments that they have private
Speaker 4: equity investments that they have in the past.
Speaker 5: So unfortunately, I don't have.
Speaker 4: A very beautiful picture to paint. However, from bad comes good, right,
Speaker 4: and in hard times there are always those who kind
Speaker 4: of can rise up through the ashes. I talk to
Speaker 4: my mentees and entrepreneurs about diversifying the different sources of funding. So, yes,
Speaker 4: you can bootstrap and talk to family and friends if
Speaker 4: you are so privileged, But most minority entrepreneurs do not
Speaker 4: have that benefit of a rich junkle right that they
Speaker 4: can tap into. There are grants available. Many of the
Speaker 4: entrepreneurs who I speak to do not tap into contract
Speaker 4: with government, and there are tens of millions of dollars
Speaker 4: every year that go unused that are set aside for
Speaker 4: minority entrepreneurs. That's another source. And then the other piece,
Speaker 4: it's pitch competitions. There are a number of corporations and
Speaker 4: private orgs who are offering pitch competitions to entrepreneurs where
Speaker 4: within sixty seconds, right, you can tap into hundreds of
Speaker 4: thousands or millions of dollars.
Speaker 3: You know, I want to center on this because I
Speaker 3: thought the whole section on diversifying income streams much as
Speaker 3: diversifying your approach to access to capital, we're both significant.
Speaker 3: While we're talking about capital, you brought up some really
Speaker 3: great points. Another one is finding organizations that do micro loans,
Speaker 3: which you're not going to.
Speaker 2: Be the big VC money, but micro loans.
Speaker 3: You know, you've got to understand how much you need
Speaker 3: and how much you want and don't undervalue.
Speaker 2: I mean it's easier to you know, go down and
Speaker 2: go up.
Speaker 3: Is there are there sources where one can find this
Speaker 3: information easily or do you have to like really spend
Speaker 3: a lot of time looking online for this type of information,
Speaker 3: particularly when you talk about pitch competitions and grants and
Speaker 3: as I said, micro loans and companies that will fund
Speaker 3: the smaller business owner versus the big VC companies.
Speaker 4: Right, So there are sources, you know, obviously by leveraging
Speaker 4: Google and a lot of AI technologies that we have
Speaker 4: now to search for pitch competitions and things of the like.
Speaker 4: But I work hard to consolidate that information through my
Speaker 4: website at Jackiettaylor dot com.
Speaker 5: I often share it through my.
Speaker 4: Social whether that's through LinkedIn or through Instagram for entrepreneurs,
Speaker 4: So consider me a hub for being able to share
Speaker 4: this information. If you are looking at VC funding, you know,
Speaker 4: looking at those organizations who have funded businesses like yours
Speaker 4: in the past. It's always suggested so economics development authorities
Speaker 4: in the different states. So depending upon where you live,
Speaker 4: there is a local economic development authority that looks at
Speaker 4: incentives and grants and programs to support emerging businesses in
Speaker 4: the area. So with some modest legwork, those resources are
Speaker 4: out there. But part of my mission in my ministry
Speaker 4: is also to provide that information to emerging entrepreneurs as.
Speaker 3: Well, and I think that's a great value proposition for
Speaker 3: anyone who wants to work with you, because.
Speaker 2: That's that's hard. You know, the research takes a lot
Speaker 2: of time. That's when you really need to get in.
Speaker 3: That's when, you know, I call it the divide and
Speaker 3: conquer theory of business. Save your time for what you
Speaker 3: need to do to oversee and grow your business, and
Speaker 3: hire the people that can do all that research so
Speaker 3: that they're doing that research.
Speaker 2: And bringing it to it's money well spent.
Speaker 4: You know. That reminds me of a section of my
Speaker 4: book where I actually speak directly to that. So for
Speaker 4: founders who are looking to spend more time working on
Speaker 4: their business instead of in their business, I have a
Speaker 4: method that I present to them called the three d's, Do, delegate,
Speaker 4: dedicate And so literally you will sit in this, you know,
Speaker 4: in give me a boost and work on that spreadsheet
Speaker 4: where you say, what are the things as an owner
Speaker 4: that I absolutely have to do as the visionary of
Speaker 4: the business, what are the things that I can delegate
Speaker 4: to people who work for me, contractors or otherwise or
Speaker 4: outside of myself? And then what are the things that
Speaker 4: I should one hundred percent dedicate externally to an outsource provider?
Speaker 4: And that can be everything from your payroll to your
Speaker 4: accounts receivable and so on. And I think being deliberate
Speaker 4: and creating a taxonomy and a list of all your
Speaker 4: tasks and then putting it into those categories, it's absolutely
Speaker 4: what you need to do to free yourself up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because time is money, and sometimes you'll save both
Speaker 3: by delegating, dividing and conquering higher outsourcing. I mean, there's
Speaker 3: a lot of ways to do it, and I think
Speaker 3: it's really don't try to do it all, because you
Speaker 3: will end up in the weeds, as they say in
Speaker 3: the restaurant business, and you can't see the forest for
Speaker 3: the trees. And really an entrepreneur has to lead, build
Speaker 3: and have vision.
Speaker 4: You know, not only will you end up in the weeds,
Speaker 4: but I have a whole section of the book then
Speaker 4: generally right, not leting. When people write books like this
Speaker 4: for business owners, they focus on the business and the operations.
Speaker 4: But I thought it was important in one of my
Speaker 4: chapters to talk about energy boosts. And so if you
Speaker 4: don't do these things, what's the risk of doing nothing?
Speaker 4: The risk of doing nothing is that you put yourself
Speaker 4: in the category of those entrepreneurs who are at risk
Speaker 4: of anxiety, depression, overwhelm, and a ton of other mental
Speaker 4: health challenges because the life of an entrepreneur is not easy,
Speaker 4: and so if you're not intentional about making sure that
Speaker 4: you allow yourself self care, that you allow yourself free time,
Speaker 4: and that you're setting up your business in a way
Speaker 4: that affords you those things, then you're going to put
Speaker 4: yourself personally right your personal health at risk. So I
Speaker 4: always thought it was important to take that time to
Speaker 4: pause and focus on that.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm a perfect example of the person who didn't
Speaker 3: because I basically worked myself to the bone building the business,
Speaker 3: but never took time for myself, and I got cancer.
Speaker 3: I got breast cancer, which I truly believe, even though
Speaker 3: stress is not cause cancer or the stress wore down
Speaker 3: my body to the point where it opened itself up
Speaker 3: to getting sick, which is why I ended up, you know,
Speaker 3: walking and closing my business and saying I need to
Speaker 3: rethink the business because at that point I can only
Speaker 3: associate my former company with getting sick at that point,
Speaker 3: being stressed. But you have to say it's okay to
Speaker 3: do that. It's not a sign of it's not a
Speaker 3: sign of weakness or giving up. It's saying I want
Speaker 3: to take better care of myself and build a better life.
Speaker 2: And a lot of it is your mindset, right.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, yeah, and you've got to do that. To
Speaker 4: your point, yeah, affect your immune system and so it'll
Speaker 4: it'll weaken your ability to even fight off. You know,
Speaker 4: everything is from the common cold to more complex issues,
Speaker 4: like you said, from cancer and everything else. I'm a believer.
Speaker 4: I personally believe that stress causes a lot of things
Speaker 4: that we can't necessarily, like figure out the cause of.
Speaker 4: But so often as entrepreneurs, we put ourselves in this
Speaker 4: martyr syndrome.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: We equate busyness with productivity, and that's not necessarily the
Speaker 4: same thing. So I love that you're being vulnerable and
Speaker 4: sharing your personal circumstances. But there are a lot of
Speaker 4: entrepreneurs who are listening to your show who hopefully will
Speaker 4: take heed.
Speaker 3: I think the pandemic is taught a lot of people
Speaker 3: to take better care of themselves. We all weathered through it,
Speaker 3: and no one is the same. Everyone is different and
Speaker 3: hopefully taking better care of themselves and rethinking what their
Speaker 3: values and goals and what's important are. And if you're
Speaker 3: not healthy, you can't run a business. You can't take
Speaker 3: care of anybody. You can't take care of yourself, your family,
Speaker 3: your business, anything.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about another part of give.
Speaker 3: Me a Boost that I think is important and really
Speaker 3: spoke to me about diversifying income streams to mitigate risk
Speaker 3: and why it was.
Speaker 2: Important to me.
Speaker 3: As I think about the business I've I've had in
Speaker 3: the business I much smaller business I have, there's just
Speaker 3: income streams that die out. A perfect example is artificial
Speaker 3: and AI and chat GBT is taking over the world
Speaker 3: of writers and media, and media is struggling right now.
Speaker 3: All media is struggling to get revenue. It's a broken system.
Speaker 3: And I'll be the first to say that you've got
Speaker 3: to have other ways to diversify your income stream if
Speaker 3: you want to stay in it, or you've got to
Speaker 3: go get another business or job to support You're what
Speaker 3: becomes sometimes for some people an expensive passionate hobby. Talk
Speaker 3: about different ways to diversify income streams because I thought
Speaker 3: this was really helpful and wise.
Speaker 4: Yeah. When I when I mentor emerging business owners, I
Speaker 4: challenge them to look across the landscape of what they
Speaker 4: can offer the market. So if you're offering products, challenge
Speaker 4: them to look at services that compliment what they do,
Speaker 4: what they have that they can offer to them market.
Speaker 4: If you offer services, I challenge them to look at
Speaker 4: technology or how to productize what they do so that
Speaker 4: they can diversify. So one area is in you know,
Speaker 4: have I exhausted the universe of what the market needs
Speaker 4: or wants from me from a product and services standpoint.
Speaker 4: So if you are in a salon, you know, in
Speaker 4: addition to doing hair and providing that service, you know,
Speaker 4: can you create a product or rebrand a product or
Speaker 4: hair moisturizer or a hair growth theorem and things are
Speaker 4: the like, can you create additional services we're in addition
Speaker 4: to doing hair and styling, you're providing I don't know,
Speaker 4: advisory around hair growth and with the health of your
Speaker 4: hair and measuring that.
Speaker 5: Can you educate others?
Speaker 4: I have a mentee that I work with who's amazing
Speaker 4: at what she does, and she has a couple of salons,
Speaker 4: but she also trains other stylists to do what she does,
Speaker 4: and it requires an entrepreneurial mindset and confidence to be
Speaker 4: able to see that as a potential diversification. I think Melanie.
Speaker 4: The other area of diversifying is where I talk about
Speaker 4: diversifying who your customer base is.
Speaker 5: And I think that's a that's a big piece as well.
Speaker 2: It's a huge piece.
Speaker 3: I mean you have to look at it all very
Speaker 3: three sixty and you've get some very good examples. I mean,
Speaker 3: I am on a couple of sites, media sites and
Speaker 3: also public relations sites because it's everybody integrates, and I
Speaker 3: mean everybody's complaining. Okay, it's kind of sad. Everybody's complaining
Speaker 3: because nobody's making money. The fees are smaller, the clients
Speaker 3: are crabbier, the demands are higher.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is, So what are you going to do
Speaker 2: about it? You know? My thing is don't complain?
Speaker 3: Create See what the I'm a big believer everybody has
Speaker 3: the same problem, which everybody seems to have.
Speaker 2: There's like three big problems, and.
Speaker 3: What can you do to help people solve those problems
Speaker 3: in a way that everybody's feeling better about themselves, their business,
Speaker 3: their life, and making money.
Speaker 2: And it's focusing on that clarity can really do some
Speaker 2: amazing thing.
Speaker 3: I thought the hair the hair care is an interesting
Speaker 3: example because I've seen that with people, you know, I've
Speaker 3: seen it in salons but it's any business.
Speaker 2: Any business can do this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, regardless of the industry or the discipline. You're absolutely right,
Speaker 4: any business can do it. But you realize that this conversation,
Speaker 4: this ideation, you have to have the capacity and the
Speaker 4: time to do it. And this is the job of
Speaker 4: the founder. And so this is why I when I
Speaker 4: talk tough the you know, the businesses that I mentor,
Speaker 4: I go through what they're doing in a day and
Speaker 4: I'm like, are you spending your time doing the right things.
Speaker 4: So another example that I'll give you in the book
Speaker 4: is I have the four sees right, Yes, you know
Speaker 4: the the entrepreneur that I work with is generally an
Speaker 4: entrepreneur who is looking to grow and scale, meaning they've
Speaker 4: already set up their business. There are a ton of
Speaker 4: resources melanies that are out there that can help people
Speaker 4: figure out how to do a startup, from trembers of
Speaker 4: commerce to you know startup. Ideally, the ideal reader is
Speaker 4: someone who's already a couple of years into their business
Speaker 4: and they truly want to grow at scale. So I
Speaker 4: have a methodology that I have called the four Seeds.
Speaker 4: If you want to grow your business, you got to
Speaker 4: increase your revenue right, So in order to you got
Speaker 4: to increase your revenue. If you want to scale your business,
Speaker 4: then even if your revenue stays the same, you've got
Speaker 4: to do more with less. Meaning as you grow, your
Speaker 4: expenses can't grow to the same proportion. You've got to
Speaker 4: keep your expenses down. And so I challenge them to
Speaker 4: look at the four seeds. The first one is look
Speaker 4: at your consumers.
Speaker 5: That's individual consumers. Do you have them?
Speaker 4: Is your business model such that you have individual consumers,
Speaker 4: whether that's people that walk into your brick and mortar
Speaker 4: or go on your website to purchase your products or services.
Speaker 4: The second seed is around corporates. You can't tell you
Speaker 4: how many emerging business owners don't have corporate clients, and
Speaker 4: if you're not sure how the widgets that you sell
Speaker 4: would translate into corporate clients. I work with mentees all
Speaker 4: the time on how to pivot their brand and their
Speaker 4: capability to make it attractive to corporations. Court spend a
Speaker 4: lot of money and they look for supplier diversity and
Speaker 4: to add minority businesses to their supplier base. Third c
Speaker 4: is contract government contracts. Nine times out of the set,
Speaker 4: ninety five percent of the time whatever you do and
Speaker 4: whatever business you're in, somebody in government will buy it.
Speaker 4: Government contracts are great because I say this with the
Speaker 4: somewhat recession proof right, because the government will fund itself
Speaker 4: right even in hard times, and they'll continue to make
Speaker 4: purposes and.
Speaker 5: They have set aside contracts. And then that.
Speaker 4: Last see is around collaborations or alliances. Have you created
Speaker 4: a relationship with what could be an alliance or a
Speaker 4: channel partner to help you grow? So, if you're a
Speaker 4: salon owner or you're a stylist, what would a good
Speaker 4: channel partner or alliance be with an event planner? Right
Speaker 4: who does weddings who will tell you every time they
Speaker 4: plan an event or have a wedding when they need
Speaker 4: a makeup artist or a stylist. So I challenge my
Speaker 4: founders to be thoughtful and be creative around how to
Speaker 4: change their portfolio mix of customers.
Speaker 2: I think these are so important. You had me at government.
Speaker 3: I mean my eyes widened at the government contract part
Speaker 3: because a lot of people don't even think about that.
Speaker 3: It made me think because a lot of the income
Speaker 3: that the Connected Table, my main business derives is through
Speaker 3: government funded contracts out of Europe.
Speaker 2: And what's neat about them.
Speaker 3: And that's my business strategy right now, because once you
Speaker 3: identify when the funding needs, when the funding deadlines are,
Speaker 3: and who gets the funding, and you follow follow the
Speaker 3: income trail and the paper trail and how to apply.
Speaker 2: That's money that it's user or lose. It's spent and
Speaker 2: they have to spend it.
Speaker 3: So it's like, wow, that's money people must spend within
Speaker 3: a certain fiscal date year and you want to help
Speaker 3: them spend it and do it right. And it's the
Speaker 3: same with I have a couple of friends who do
Speaker 3: work with the government and the food sector and in
Speaker 3: economic development, and a lot of people don't even think
Speaker 3: about that be Does there soups to looking just around
Speaker 3: their local you know what's around them versus the beyond?
Speaker 2: And amazing.
Speaker 4: Absolutely And one of my mentees does I love that
Speaker 4: you mentioned food service because government buy food service. One
Speaker 4: of my mentees create sustainable wallpaper. She's a designer and
Speaker 4: she has wallpaper.
Speaker 5: Well, guess what.
Speaker 4: Corporations are still fitting out their office space, as do
Speaker 4: government agencies, many of which are actually in physically in
Speaker 4: offices even post COVID, more so than the corporations, and
Speaker 4: so it just requires you as a founder to tweak
Speaker 4: your business model a bit to target the customers who
Speaker 4: are going to be And these government contracts are large contracts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and multi year yeah, yes, multi year contracts.
Speaker 4: So when I sit with a mentee and I say, well,
Speaker 4: let's look at your revenue and then you create that
Speaker 4: little pie chart about where the red and he's coming
Speaker 4: from and what type of customers. As you're planning for
Speaker 4: a recession or disruption or those potential threats, having a
Speaker 4: diverse customer base is what's going to help get you through,
Speaker 4: and so you just got to be thoughtful around getting
Speaker 4: that done. There's also certifications that are required, right, You've
Speaker 4: got to be certified as a small business enterprise, minority
Speaker 4: business enterprise depending upon your income assets, eight day certification
Speaker 4: with the federal government.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, and there's a lot of resources online
Speaker 3: to help with this. You just got to you know, again,
Speaker 3: Google has been very helpful to getting information. Just verify
Speaker 3: it because Google doesn't always WHATICH comes up isn't always
Speaker 3: the most evidence space. You've got to do your homework
Speaker 3: on that. Collaborations are another good one because you've got
Speaker 3: to think about what I get approached about doing collaborations
Speaker 3: all the time. You've got to be very careful there
Speaker 3: that you don't over commit and over collaborate.
Speaker 2: It's got to be very strategic and streamlined.
Speaker 3: Otherwise, if it's taking more time to do the collaboration,
Speaker 3: may not be the best.
Speaker 2: Partnership.
Speaker 3: And you've got to make sure that it's an equal
Speaker 3: partnership and one's not taking from you more than you're
Speaker 3: getting from them. So you've got to weigh those very carefully,
Speaker 3: because again, time is money, and you are trying to
Speaker 3: streamline your business to grow and scale it and not
Speaker 3: wear yourself down, which is super super important. So I'm
Speaker 3: curious you work, you said, with a lot of businesses
Speaker 3: who are scaling.
Speaker 2: Do you want to share a success tory?
Speaker 5: Sure?
Speaker 4: I mean, I think there are so many out there
Speaker 4: businesses that have done done well growing and scaling and
Speaker 4: using some of the tips. I actually lead an accelerated
Speaker 4: program with a large, big for consulting firm where we
Speaker 4: work with black and Latino entrepreneurs who are looking to
Speaker 4: grow and scale, and there are a number of examples
Speaker 4: of those founders getting educated on how to streamline their
Speaker 4: internal operations, how to leverage technology, and they're able to
Speaker 4: capitalize on the insights that they learned to one reduce
Speaker 4: their expenses. There are great examples of business owners who
Speaker 4: have created distributor partnerships. And so that mentee that I
Speaker 4: told you about Fit by Row is one of her lines,
Speaker 4: but she's Rochelle Border Designs, and she's got great distributor
Speaker 4: relationships now with Wayfair and Nacy's and others. And so
Speaker 4: I think those are examples of how to take it
Speaker 4: out of your you know, your normal day to day realm.
Speaker 4: You're you know, pounding the pavement approach, and how to
Speaker 4: leverage strategic, large scale corporate relationships to kind of get
Speaker 4: your brand out there and expand your customer base.
Speaker 3: And you know, I think it's again it's leveraging your
Speaker 3: relationships and getting outside what is the normal.
Speaker 2: And it's the same again with your customer base.
Speaker 3: You know, maybe what you're selling can be re messaged
Speaker 3: to another audience. I mean, you know, I have the
Speaker 3: Connected Tables primary audience is the wine, wine and hospitality industry,
Speaker 3: but we have a large number of followers and fans
Speaker 3: who are consumers who just love to know where we're
Speaker 3: going and want tips somewhere to go when they go
Speaker 3: into this in that wine country or here, they just
Speaker 3: hang on everywhere what to eat or drink. So you know,
Speaker 3: it's two different audiences right there. And then you look
Speaker 3: at the age groups of all of them and you go, h.
Speaker 3: Then you're talking to different people with different income brackets.
Speaker 3: Let's see what the different messages are to them. And
Speaker 3: then maybe you're talking to the business the corporations where
Speaker 3: they need you know, the young executive recruits to come
Speaker 3: in need to be trained on certain things to be
Speaker 3: able to entertain clients when they go out to you know,
Speaker 3: business meetings and lunches. So that's a way to think
Speaker 3: through how to sell the services in different ways and
Speaker 3: what we're doing to reach different audiences with different you know,
Speaker 3: the why why you need us, And it's really sitting
Speaker 3: down and thinking about getting inside the head of you know, what,
Speaker 3: what does the value you can provide different audiences and
Speaker 3: why they would.
Speaker 2: Need you, whether it's a service.
Speaker 5: I love that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And as you were talking, the more idea ideas you
Speaker 4: come up with, the more ideas you generate, right, because
Speaker 4: you're like and and and then.
Speaker 5: I could also do this.
Speaker 4: You know, you know, when you start looking at your
Speaker 4: customer experience. I talk in give me a boost about
Speaker 4: how to focus on and improve your customer experience because
Speaker 4: the psycho time that it takes to find a customer
Speaker 4: is a lot longer than it could be to retain
Speaker 4: a customer. And so so many entrepreneurs, Yeah, don't spend
Speaker 4: time keeping a customer. If you're going to go through
Speaker 4: everything you're going to go through from your marketing dollars
Speaker 4: to the time, and you finally close that cost client,
Speaker 4: you can't then divert your attention to the next without
Speaker 4: making sure that you're retaining your customers and your clients.
Speaker 4: And so what is that experience like? And so I
Speaker 4: think a lot of what you share around you know
Speaker 4: how to grow and expand your business based on your industry.
Speaker 4: It grows tentacles, right, it definitely expands from there.
Speaker 5: I love it. I love the energy people have.
Speaker 3: You know, your clients have great experiences and recommend you.
Speaker 3: I mean most of our business, most of my business
Speaker 3: when I had my agency, was all recommendation, all word
Speaker 3: of mouth. I never had to go and sell my services.
Speaker 5: There was a need.
Speaker 2: People didn't know how to do it.
Speaker 3: I had a great why you know, nobody knew how
Speaker 3: to do what we did. Nobody wanted to do what
Speaker 3: we did, but they wanted it done for them, and
Speaker 3: we did it, and we did it great. And you know,
Speaker 3: once you get that, you get lots of referrals and
Speaker 3: then you know, then leverage those referrals and get testimonials
Speaker 3: and get more testimonials.
Speaker 2: For your site. It's always a build.
Speaker 3: But always remember, and this is important as we get,
Speaker 3: you know, to give back as well. So don't always
Speaker 3: take offer to give and say what can I do
Speaker 3: for You've been such a great person you company or
Speaker 3: business or individual to worry what can I do for you?
Speaker 3: How can I you know, what can I do to
Speaker 3: make your life better? Because people sometimes never say that,
Speaker 3: and it sometimes takes people off guard, like, well you
Speaker 3: really do care, right.
Speaker 4: Thank you for talking about giving because there is large
Speaker 4: corporate a lot of what I've done. You talked about
Speaker 4: the time I spend with Fortune five hundred or government executives,
Speaker 4: a lot of those same strategies and principles I wrote
Speaker 4: give me a boost because those same strategies and principles
Speaker 4: are applicable to emerging business owners, just at a different
Speaker 4: level and different scale. And I wrote a book in
Speaker 4: such an easy to understand, direct, simple way, because having
Speaker 4: that information should not be difficult to obtain, and so
Speaker 4: often we throw acronyms, we use these really big terms
Speaker 4: that folks don't understand.
Speaker 5: It should not.
Speaker 4: Be that difficult, and so I created the books to
Speaker 4: kind of bridge bridge that particular gap. But you talk
Speaker 4: about giving, and one of the strategies for large scale organizations,
Speaker 4: and you know, helping to embed their brand and market
Speaker 4: is around their CSR initiatives, which is corporate social responsibility.
Speaker 4: And so I compel you know, the mentees, the emerging
Speaker 4: founders that I mentor to think about what their corporate
Speaker 4: social responsibility strategy is, What is your philanthropic and you know, effort,
Speaker 4: what should your customers align you with when it comes
Speaker 4: to how you're giving back to the communities that you're
Speaker 4: selling in. And I think that I love that you
Speaker 4: brought that up because I think it's an important part
Speaker 4: of business in today's world.
Speaker 3: It is and it should be part of everybody's business model.
Speaker 2: I actually.
Speaker 3: I feel very strongly about that when I decide who
Speaker 3: I put on my show as casts, to be honest,
Speaker 3: because I get a lot of people approached me but
Speaker 3: I don't accept everyone because I look at very specifically
Speaker 3: what they're doing, not to promote themselves, but to help
Speaker 3: others in their business model and the message. And you know,
Speaker 3: otherwise they can pay to be on my show and
Speaker 3: promote themselves. But you know I have a model for
Speaker 3: that too. But you know I look for that giving
Speaker 3: back because that's how I was brought up. I mean
Speaker 3: it was, it was built into my DNA to be
Speaker 3: a giving person.
Speaker 2: It's not about writing a check.
Speaker 3: It's just making leaving an impact and helping make the
Speaker 3: community person.
Speaker 2: It could be anything better.
Speaker 3: What can I do every day to do something better
Speaker 3: for somebody, some organization somehow, And it's that giving back.
Speaker 3: And too often you're so busy selling and trying to
Speaker 3: get nail the sale.
Speaker 2: Did you forget the.
Speaker 3: Giving back and the appreciation and saying you've been good
Speaker 3: to me, I appreciate your business. What can we do
Speaker 3: that it's not about business? How can we take this?
Speaker 3: And it's not a friendship, but just I think of
Speaker 3: you as more than just a check being sent to me, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's not a transactional relationship.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, really, a transactional relationship only goes so far.
Speaker 5: That's exactly right.
Speaker 4: I actually have on my check cultivating responsible Leadership, so
Speaker 4: I have my name all my actual checks. And I
Speaker 4: do that for many of the reasons that you just
Speaker 4: listed out, Because I think it's important as leaders for
Speaker 4: us to embrace gratitude as part of our core, you
Speaker 4: know profile. So as leaders, if you are truly a leader,
Speaker 4: then you lead with gratitude.
Speaker 3: I love that exactly and and and I take a
Speaker 3: lot of people forget that in the mix to the
Speaker 3: the scramble, as they say, the scramble up the ladder.
Speaker 3: You get to make sure you don't kick out the
Speaker 3: wrungs and stop too hard. So we're any at the
Speaker 3: end of the show, I'd love for you to share
Speaker 3: with me a fearless, fabulous quote that motivates you every day.
Speaker 2: Jackie.
Speaker 5: Sure, So, I guess.
Speaker 4: I guess there's one part of the optimist creed that
Speaker 4: that I love that I live by, and it's the
Speaker 4: part where where it says, you know, give so much
Speaker 4: time to improving yourself that you have no time to
Speaker 4: criticize others. Too large for worry, too noble for anger,
Speaker 4: too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the
Speaker 4: presence of trouble, and so I often I have that
Speaker 4: the entire creed up. But that part always resonates with
Speaker 4: me because you know, we're all going to have challenges.
Speaker 4: You're going to have you know, monkey wrenches thrown, you know,
Speaker 4: in our days, and I have to be deliberate. That
Speaker 4: helps me to be super intentional and deliberate about making
Speaker 4: sure that the space in my head, in my heart,
Speaker 4: that I reserve for positivity, for progress and for my
Speaker 4: best self.
Speaker 2: So I love it.
Speaker 3: That's a great way to end again. I really appreciate
Speaker 3: that we've been talking to Jackie P. Taylor JACKIEP. Taylor
Speaker 3: dot com. Her book is Give Me a Boost, The
Speaker 3: Underresourced Entrepreneur's Handbag for growing and Scaling your business.
Speaker 2: I hope this has been helpful for all of you listening.
Speaker 3: You can, of course hear my shows They're Evergreen on iHeartRadio, Spotify,
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, and about thirty five other channels, and you
Speaker 3: can follow me at Melanie Fabulous on Instagram, the Connected
Speaker 3: Table dot com to learn about our other show, The
Speaker 3: Connected Table and Melanie on dot com. I love helping
Speaker 3: people feel better about themselves and think big and be
Speaker 3: fearless and think about focusing on fabulous in every aspect
Speaker 3: to the life. And I know you do too, Jackie,
Speaker 3: So thank you for joining me. I appreciate it, I
Speaker 3: really do, and to always you have the choice, underscore
Speaker 3: choice in your life to make the best ones for you.
Speaker 3: Choose fabulous, choose fearless, and share what you have as
Speaker 3: a gift with others to improve their lives as well.
Speaker 3: Thank you for joining me. I'm fearless, fabulous.
Speaker 2: You