Unf*ck Your Biz With Braden Braden Drake

On today's episode of the podcast I talk with La Kira La Forgia about the people leader archetype.

Find our your leader archetype at https://the-paradigm.com/quiz?affiliate=bradendrake1Kira is the founder of Paradigm, a people operations/HR company that helps small business owners build out the standards of compliance for hiring employees, maintain a hybrid team of employees and contractors legally in all 50 states and build out their growth plans and people management strategies.  Kira created the People Leader Archetype quiz. After helping almost 70 businesses develop their HR compliance and growth plan,  and while there are offers that stem from this, it's hard to coach on management without getting into the nitty gritty of who someone is. Kira found that her vast experiences in management over the past 10+ years was always missing the ability to get advice that wasn't outdated, cold or targeted at white men. It all seemed to be about showing up and checking the boxes and Kira found that wasn't working. She wanted to create a language based on organizational psychology to understand a person's values and the persona and values that you're bringing to work every day. It's not just your management style because that can change over time. When you take the quiz you get a survival kit that includes ways to connect with people you manage who may not connect with your type. Archetype 1 - Stone Cold Supervisor Much like Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, you can have really solid boundaries and be really direct and have everyone know what to expect from you which can be really beneficial to your team. Your strengths are being clear and straightforward. This can sometimes make your team feel disconnected so try a 15 minute check-in to answer questions and make them feel heard. Archetype 2 - Open Book BossYou're very transparent in the interest of open communication. You thrive on giving your team everything you can and boundaries are loose.  Your team might not always have clear expectations of what you expect. Like Michael Scott, this can breed a lot of chaos. Your business needs more systems to add structure and intentionality and avoid toxic flexibility. A lot of first time entrepreneurs fall into this. Archetype 3 - Efficient ExecutorThe Ron Swanson of it all, there's a really hard edge but there's so much care and heart behind each action and there is a motivation for a lowkey environment for the team that isn't obvious right away. It can look like you're not really putting your team in a place to excel or have their needs looked after first but realistically you're one of the more productive types of managers. You're hiring people who are looking for justice in their work environment because you're creating a fair work environment. These managers tend to have team members who retain for a long time. Archetype 4 - BFF Boss The Liz Lemon boss, values team happiness at work and gives a personalized approach. Most decisions benefit the team even more than the client. Have more frequent one on ones like once a month and set specific times for meetings.  If you have to give more direct feedback,  don't sugarcoat it but preface that it may be blunt. Archetype 5 - The Balanced Mentor In the middle of the archetype spectrum,  the Balanced Mentor can see many sides of a discussion and can connect with lots of personality types. They can get a well balanced team with diverse personalities. You have lots of different interests and need to spend more time on your management skills because you have so many types of people on your team. Tends to be brutally honest. Get in Touch with Our GuestKira La Forgia, Founder of ParadigmFollow Kira on Instagram @theparadigmmListen to Kira's podcast, On the Up and Up

On today's episode of the podcast I'm joined by my student, Tiffany Aukes about her experience with my program and how it helped her unf*ck her business. 

The doors are officially open to my signature program, Unf*ck Your Biz, a step-by-step framework to get your legal and tax shit legit. Head to unfuckyourbiz.com to learn more about the six step framework, what's included and how we can help you through this live, 8-week cohort based course. 

 

Tiffany is the founder of Stitchin' Addiction, a Texas-based business that creates historical fashions worn by literary heroines. Her audience includes reenactors, museums, theaters and people looking for outfits for literary or historical events. 

Currently Tiffany is working towards hitting the $20k mark. Her business comes with a high cost of goods and is labor intensive. Tiffany shares that while she could break her income ceiling if she contracted out sewing, she is known for the quality and fit of her work and she's not ready to turn that over to someone yet which means there is a limit on how many orders she can take. She ran the business full time this year but misses her full time job of teaching and plans to go back to that and wants to keep her business part time for the next five to 10 years while she teaches. 

Tiffany decided she was ready to join my program because she knew she needed to file her LLC as her business started to get bigger. In doing a routine check-up on her business and what kind of course could benefit her, Tiffany saw I offered not only help with LLC formation but also legal, tax and financial aspects of the business which she was looking for assistance with. 

She filed her LLC during my LLC filing party and attended co-working hours to get her coursework done. While she uses a different bookkeeping method, she found that other solutions in our program were a good fit for her business. We talked about this on my team and equate it to buying trail mix. You may not want the raisins but if the rest of the trail mix looks good then you'll buy it. Even if you have your LLC filed or prefer a different bookkeeping method, if the other steps in the Unf*ck Your Biz framework are going to help you get the rest of your tax and legal shit legit, then the program is still for you.  The majority of the people who join our program only need two or three of the steps in our program. 

Business insurance is on Tiffany's to-do list. She is currently working on adding a Terms of Service to her checkout page and creating a rental line for photographers and creating a rental contract for that line when it's ready to launch. She plans to look into trademarking her business name. 

When joining the program she went through the Tax Playbook to make sure she wasn't missing anything and wanted to double check that she had everything set-up properly. When she joined the program she didn't have any back taxes as she had paid them off prior to joining the program. 

She did not have a cash flow system set-up when she joined so she went into her online Novo bank account to set up her reserves to automate her tax savings. 

Get in Touch with Our Guest

 Tiffany Aukes, Founder of Stitchin' Addiction

Follow Tiffany on Instagram @stitchinaddictionLike Stitchin Addiction on FacebookWatch Stitchin Addiction on YouTube

On today's episode of the podcast I chat with former Unf*ck Your Biz student Stephanie Stuart about how the program helped her save on unnecessary business expenses she didn't know she had, get her bookkeeping in order, and legally form her second business. 

The doors are officially open to Unf*ck Your Biz, a step-by-step framework to get your legal and tax shit legit. The doors are only open until May 24 so learn more about Unf*ck Your Biz at unfuckyourbiz.com. 

Stephanie has been in business for six years as a Phoenix-based interior designer focusing on business and residential construction products. She spent three years in California and then three years in Phoenix. She has a six figure business and with a slower year last year, was able to focus on unf*cking her biz. Recently she has started a second business as an installer of a specialty decorative resin product, 3Form. 

Moving from California to Arizona, Stephanie needed to unf*ck her biz because she had not properly closed it in the state of California and was still paying $800 a year despite no longer being there. When you move, you want to transfer your LLC right away, it's called domestication if your state allows it. 

During her time in Unf*ck Your Bix, Stephanie left for a little white then came back and rejoined because she knew she still had parts of her business to get together and didn't make the time to take enough advantage of it the first time. She got a good base line the first time but really wanted to understand these aspects of her business so she joined again to get a deeper understanding and she loves the bookkeeping and customer support. 

Currently, Stephanie is working on her bookkeeping. She uses Quickbooks for her S Corp business and a spreadsheet for her LLC resin installation business. The new business has larger, more simple transactions and Stephanie uses the weekly co-working to hold herself accountable to keep her books up to date. 

Unf*ck Your Biz helps with business projections and setting business goals. Stephanie has started looking at her books as more than furniture and services and has broken it out more by package and what packages are making more money or how many more consultations or certain types of packages she wants want to offer more of than others and if she needs to tweak her offers or messaging. 

Stephanie filed her LLC for her second business during the program after winging it for her first business years ago. She unknowingly paid franchise tax for three years on the LLC after leaving California. Unf*ck Your Biz has given Stephanie peace of mind in her business. 

Get in Touch with Our Guest

 Stephanie Stuart, Founder of Stuart Design Co. 

Follow on Instagram @StuartDesignCo

Listen to Your Favorite Interior Design Podcast by Stephanie Stuart

Check out Stuart Design Co. at www.stuartdesignco.com

Unf*ck Your Biz is here! 🥳 Today I officially opened the doors to my Unf*ck Your Biz program for the first time in two years. If you've been listening to the podcast you've heard me tease this launch for awhile and you can officially join beginning today through May 24th. 

This episode is a live recording of my first masterclass today diving into the Most Common Legal & Tax Mistakes at Each Stage of Business (and how you can avoid them). If you want to hear about the Unf*ck Your Biz launch specifically, skip to the 51 minute mark. 

Learn more and sign up at unfuckyourbiz.com

 

On today's episode I sit down with wedding videographer and student of mine, Jessie Hinkel about when she decided it was time to create her LLC and join my membership. 


Have you signed up for our free upcoming masterclass "The Most Common Legal and Tax Mistakes at Each Stage of Business and How You Can Avoid Them." I'm going to show you how you can make the ultimate shift from struggling to manage your business gremlins like the finances and legalities to creating ease, automation, and peace of mind. And then I'm going to open the doors to Unf*ck Your Biz and answer questions. Catch it at 9:00am PST or 12:00pm PST. Register at www.bradendrake.com/masterclass to watch it live so you can ask me questions during the Q&A or catch the replay. 

Jessie has had her videography business for the last ten years, both part and full time over the last decade. She learned from her husband who taught videography at a high school. He was asked to film friends' weddings and Jessie began to learn and work with him and it has now evolved into her business. 

In December of 2022, Jessie became a Profit Rx member. The content inside Profit Rx is what will be used in the re-launch of my program, Unf*ck Your Biz. Before joining, Jessie did the bare minimum on the legal and tax side of her business and didn't have a real understanding of the numbers in her business. 

Prior to joining she had just created her LLC in September and wished she had found Profit Rx sooner. Despite having had a business for almost a decade, Jessie felt like an imposter and that she didn't feel like she knew enough of this side of the business. 

She decided to file her LLC so that her business and her family would feel more protected and that she could feel like her business had a more solid footing on which to grow. Starting the p

Attending our weekly co-working has helped Jessie feel connected when being self-employed can feel isolating. That's part of why we're moving back to the Unf*ck Your Biz program in a co-hort model so everyone comes with questions on the same module at the same time to work together. 

Jessie has become more excited about her numbers and is enjoying watching them paint the full picture of her year. She is looking at hiring her first person to help on the backend of her business. She set up automated tax savings with Novo so that the money is automated to be set aside and not spent. 

I also automate my business finances and now my personal finances as well to set aside for savings. I recommend everyone add one building block per quarter to incorporate new automations. 

On the horizon, Jessie wants to save money for larger purchases, like a new camera. 

If you're consider joining the Unf*ck Your Biz program and have been in business for awhile, Jessie felt the same way, feeling like she should know all the things because she had business for so long. She was worried about looking stupid and had trouble finding someone local that understood her business and wanted to work with someone of her size. 

I'm not here to teach you how to run your business, I'm here to teach you how to keep more of your money and marketing programs are here to teach you how to make more money. 

Get in Touch with Our Guest

Jessie Hinkel, Founder of Hinkel Productions

Follow Jessie on Instagram @hinkelproductionsLike Hinkel Productions on Facebook  /hinkelproductionsCheck out Jessie's website at www.hinkelproductions.com

On today's episode I chat with Emily Monus about how the relationship with her business finances has changed since working through the Unf*ck Your Biz material. 

Have you signed up for our free upcoming masterclass "The Most Common Legal and Tax Mistakes at Each Stage of Business and How You Can Avoid Them." I'm going to show you how you can make the ultimate shift from struggling to manage your business gremlins like the finances and legalities to creating ease, automation, and peace of mind. And then I'm going to open the doors to Unf*ck Your Biz and answer questions. Catch it at 9:00am PST or 12:00pm PST. Register at www.bradendrake.com/masterclass to watch it live so you can ask me questions during the Q&A or catch the replay. 

Emily is a wedding and event planner primarily serving LGBTQIA+ and vegan wedding clients in the New York City area. She started her business officially in 2016 and credits a big part of where she is today to the last few years and becoming a recovering people pleaser which has led to a mini explosion of growth. She also got in control of her finances (including stopping throwing her books together in a day before taxes). 

Currently Emily is projecting to make $75k in her business this year, up from $40k the year before. A surreal number for Emily. About $20k comes from non-profit clients and the rest from wedding planning clients. Her packages range from $4,500 for management only to $9,800 for full service. She also just recently hired her first employee and her next goal is $100k. 

Emily is on top of it because when it comes to hiring, I always like to think about when are you going to hit capacity? How many clients can you handle in a year (I call this your ceiling) and what revenue marker do you need to start to hire? You want to solve capacity issues before you get capacity problems. Because you're paying your employees hourly, you won't be paying them unless you have work for them which allows the work to scale. Once this person hits 70-80% capacity, you then hire your next person. I feel like you need enough wiggle room where if you had a 15-20% increase in your leads next month you wouldn't need to turn them away due to capacity. 

Emily is a current Profit Rx student, my current membership. I'll be taking the core curriculum from Profit Rx, putting it back into my signature program Unf*ck Your Biz, and make Profit Rx our monthly on-going support after the program. 

Emily joined in December 2022 and told herself she needed to get her business under control and this side of the business and finances felt like the last piece of her life she needed to get under control. She had a difficult relationship with money throughout her life and wanted to have a system and get non-judgemental support. 

She started by reading the textbook and started the parts and attended the monthly Q&As to build community and get the work done during weekly co-working calls. I set up Emily's books and we got her on her Profit Rx plan and Emily took it from there. She's been keeping up with bookkeeping and noticed in February and March that with not as much going on she switched to an every other week bookkeeping schedule and plans to move back to more frequently as busy season approaches. 

Getting control of her finances has made Emily less afraid to invest in things she might not otherwise spend money on because she has a better understanding of how much money she has and can better future forecast. She charges her clients with monthly payments which helps her track future monthly revenue. In her bookkeeping, we also set up tracking by project type so Emily is able to see how much she's making off management, partial planning and full planning. 

In the upcoming version of Profit Rx (our post-program support), our core component will be to submit your monthly P&L along with observations, monthly goals and projections to help keep everyone accountable and tracking profit margins. 

Get in T