Smart Man, Smarter Woman Podcast Steve Loates and Juliet Aurora: Entrepreneurs, Small Business

Gold Nuggets in this Episode:
Time is going faster for Juliet. Is it because she’s been stuck in the house with Steve for a year during lockdown? “No matter how much we know, we still fail sometimes.” “There is no such thing as a failure. There are victories and there are learnings. Sometimes what become victories later resulted from our greatest learnings.” “The only people who never fail are those that never do anything at all.” “Always show that thing that differentiates you from other companies, and in most cases other than your product, it’s usually you.” “You have something to tell people. You’re telling your story, your brand’s story, or your company’s story, and people get attached to that and they like to follow your journey.” “Pinterest is not social media. It is a visual search engine. It’s the third largest search engine after Google and YouTube.” “The number one mistake is not collecting people’s emails.” “Email marketing is the number one thing that companies can do that brings a lot of conversion.“ “Whether you’re on social media, writing blog posts, email marketing, or anything that you’re doing, you always have to tell a story.” “Don’t be afraid. If you want to do this so badly, go for it. You will fail. Learn from those mistakes. Stand up again. Go, pivot, create something.” “Don’t worry about finding customers for your products. Find products for your customers.” - Seth Godin
  Our guest is Founder and CEO of Rectified, Inc., Sandy Dedeian.
Sandy has been an entrepreneur and marketer since 2004, and has followed an atypical career path. She has a unique mix of academic knowledge, traditional work experience, and crazy entrepreneurship. In 2007, she founded Rectified Inc. to help small and medium companies improve and perfect their marketing, and has since worked with SMEs in the Middle East, the UK, the US, and Canada.
Sandy holds a Bachelors of Business Administration from the American University of Beirut, a Masters in Management from the Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, and an MBA from HEC Montréal.
Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0

Gold Nuggets in this Episode:
Steve didn’t ask how Juliet was doing. She’s going to tell us anyway because she prepared an answer. “I don’t think any business owner can really hit their goals unless they understand the financial position of the company.” “I don’t think you need to do your numbers yourself. I think it’s really important to get a qualified bookkeeper that you’re able to communicate with as well.” “The question of, ‘what do you see when you look at these numbers?’ Could start a wonderful conversation that could also lead to education.” “Let’s not just imagine it in our heads, but actually lay out a plan.” “Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, and cash is king.” “Entrepreneurs may not talk about it the way we do, they might not manage it efficiently or effectively, but the mere fact that they are still in business and have been able to manage cash flow over whatever length of time their business has been around, is a testament to their ability and their success.” “Give the financial side of the business as much attention as the other sides.” “Banks generally aren’t in the business of funding startups.” “If you have a banker and you’re unhappy, or you’re looking for a new one, it’s really important to talk to people you know.” “The banker is not your best friend.” “Nobody expects an entrepreneur to be perfect, but they do expect them to be transparent, knowledgeable, and to be enhancing their skills.” Tracey has a gift for listeners (linked below). Steve’s questions are famous. “When you understand your money, it changes the trajectory of your life.” “It’s really important to be kind to yourself.” “I believe that through knowledge and discipline, financial peace is possible for all of us.” - Dave Ramsey
  Our guest is Founder of Bissett Financial Fitness, Inc., Tracey Bissett.
Tracey has over 20 years of experience in financial services. Prior to Bissett Financial Fitness Inc, Tracey worked as an executive at TD Bank. Her experience and education make her uniquely qualified to coach on all aspects of money.
In 2020, Bissett Financial Fitness, Inc. launched the Young Money Scholarship Fund to assist post-secondary students with their finances.
Tracey holds an MBA from Dalhousie University, a Bachelor’s from Queen’s University, a Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Certificate from Centennial College, and a Higher Education Teaching Certificate from Harvard University.
Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0

Gold Nuggets in this Episode:
“Time is the ultimate status symbol.” “Clients measure value differently. What we too often call customer experience, when we’re working on customer experience, we’re actually working on customer service.” “Service is designed to save clients time and effort. Experience is about creating time well spent.” “What do the best brands in the world have in common? People don’t buy from them, they buy into them.” “If anyone expects to recover, you must be staging an experience. Your in-store experience has to be worth me paying a ticket to get in.” “Even experiences are commoditised, so you have to keep refreshing them.” “Experience is time well designed, and experience is memory. If there’s no memory, you didn’t have an experience.” “Whatever business you think you’re in - you’re not in that business.” “There are two types of loyalty. There’s the loyalty of fear and obligation, and there’s the other kind of loyalty which is connection and identity.” There’s no Q&A round today. “Open, honest communication is the best foundation for any relationship. But remember that at the end of the day, it’s not what you say or what you do, but how you make people feel, that matters the most.” - Tony Shay  
Our guest is Founder of DMW Strategic Consulting, Dennis Moseley-Williams.
Dennis has been a globally sought-after motivational speaker on customer experience for over 20 years. He is the author of Serious Shift: How Experience Staging Can Save Your Practice, and he has a blog that is read by entrepreneurs and business owners globally.
Dennis is one of only two certified Experience Economy Experts in the financial services industry in the world.
Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0

Gold Nuggets in this Episode:
Juliet will never get tired of being called the Smarter Woman. “With some entrepreneurs there’s this sort of internal process that goes on of wanting to be a ‘self-made person’. Often times this can lead to people feeling like they have to do everything themselves, but that is such a fallacy. No man is an island.” “When you find the right people at the right place and the right time, magic can happen.” “They think in order for you to be an entrepreneur, you need to have some fancy tech startup. Being an entrepreneur can just be you have an Etsy store and selling stuff.” “Be really conservative with your cash flow at the start.” “Do not make the assumption that your project will go viral.” “Pitching and finding potential investors is not an easy thing to do. It does, to an extent, depend on the networks of people that you have.” “Everybody sees the flashy headline. Nobody sees the two years of groundwork that it took to get to that point.” “Most start-ups fail.” “It’s okay to let an idea go. You can try new things.” “You can do anything - just not everything. Accept the help that people are willing to give if you’re just starting your entrepreneurial journey.” “Build something 100 people love, not something 1 Million people kind-of like.” - Brian Chesky  
Our guest is Marketing Director of Atomic47 Labs, Nicholas Prouten.
Nick’s decade-long career has spanned across roles in Gaming, Entertainment, Cybersecurity, Real Estate, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrencies. He is an Ambassador for LODE, a precious-metal-backed cryptocurrency, and his goal is to bring back an honest monetary system.
Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0

Gold Nuggets in this Episode:
“Keep saying ‘yes’ whether you know how to do it or you dont know how to do it. At some point you will make it if you just keep saying ‘yes’ and faking it.” “To be an entrepreneur, you’ve got to have that persistence, and you’ve got to have those multi-skills and be able to get through a lot of different things.” “Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. It does take a special kind of breed.” “A lot of people who hire designers, or any creatives in general - anything that you’re hiring somebody to create for you, is owned by them by what’s called creative ownership. It’s that creator’s intellectual property until the creator gives that company the creative ownership. An action item to help companies get around this is creating something as simple as a creative transfer agreement.” “There is a belief that once you pay for something like a logo that it is yours, but it is not by law.” “Being an entrepreneur, as lonely as it can be, make sure that you’re finding ways to connect and be inspired. If you’re having a hard day, just call someone.” “Be good to yourself. Rest. Take a day off every now and again.” “You see things and you say ‘why?’ I dream things that never were and say ‘why not?’” - George Bernard Shaw  
Our guest is Central Branch Founder, Brady Dahmer.
Brady is a multiple award-winning designer and creative entrepreneur. With over 25 years of experience, Brady has held board positions in several arts foundations and events, developed courses, served as a faculty member of a national art school, worked with Fortune 500 Companies, entrepreneurs, revolutionary thinkers, and current and future leaders. He taught Design and Art Direction, and designed a curriculum, at The Art Institute, and ran the TYE international youth entrepreneurial program for high school students.
He is the author of ”I Wish We Knew That Before We Started...”
Brady holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Design and Advertising from Conestoga College.
Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0

Gold Nuggets in this Episode:
Today is an almost perfect day for Juliet. Steve wants the credit, but only for the good days... “I believe that your business should support your life, not consume it.” “More often than not, you’re doing a lot of repetitive admin work.” “Start with a virtual assistant, but you want to be purposeful and keep that lane really small, and have it grow.” “Day 1, if you’re thinking of being an entrepreneur, start that team.” “You didn’t start a business to run a business.” “Your calendar is like your time bank account. If you don’t do things effectively with the hour, you’re going to lose the day.” “Your primary focus right now has been delivering the services and keeping the business, revenue, and profits, but there’s a second thing that most people neglect and don’t understand, and that’s the efficiency of growing the business and compressing the admin aspect of it so the creation continues to grow.” “Do anything you can to have a good laugh.” “You had jobs you didn’t like doing. You left them for a reason. So, this is supposed to be fun.” “Learning is only learning when you implement it. Slow down to speed up. Implement. Build your win team so you can get to what is next.” “Winning doesn’t always mean being first. Winning means you’re doing better than you’ve ever done before.” - Bonnie Blair  
Our guest is Founder of Win the Hour, Win the Day, Kris Ward.
Kris is the leading authority on team building and productivity. After her husband’s cancer diagnosis, Kris stepped back from the day-to-day running of her business for 2 years. After her husband’s passing, she returned to the business full-time and found it growing despite her absence. Today, she coaches and teaches entrepreneurs how to grow their business so that they can become more successful with more freedom.
Kris has featured on multiple leading podcasts, radio shows, and TV shows, she is the best-selling author of “Win the Hour, Win the Day”, and the host of the Top 10 podcast, Win the Hour, Win the Day.
Kris holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Ryerson University.
Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0