Episodi
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In the world of AI, the art of human book-writing seems to be dying. However there is still tremendous value in books, especially business books. Not only do books serve as a medium for sharing your knowledge and expertise, it also serves as a platform to scale your message and impact.
As entrepreneurs and business owners, we all have ideas but getting them into a manuscript might seem daunting. Self-publishing offers a viable means for converting your ideas from manuscript to a digital or printed book. Thatโs where Michele DeFilippo comes in. Through her company, 1106 Design, she and her team offer a proven approach to guide authors through the self-publishing process.
In this scale tale, Michele shares how she stumbled into starting a business that has helped 4,000 authors self-publish their books while generating revenue just under $1M USD.
As you listen to her story, youโll also discover:
How to embrace technology to enhance or pivot your business, Why AI should be leveraged as a research assistant and not as an author, The pros and cons of hiring a ghostwriter, How self-publishing a book is like managing a project, Why authors must approach their book promotion as an entrepreneur would a business, and more!Whether you've flirted with the idea of writing a book, are feeling overwhelmed by the self-publishing process, or are curious about the world of self-publishing, youโre guaranteed to learn valuable lessons from Michele. Even if you arenโt interested in self-publishing, thereโs also plenty to learn about scaling your own small businessโ operations from Micheleโs 25+ years as an entrepreneur.
Listen now!
๐๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฐ. โญ โญ โญ โญ โญ
๐View this Episodeโs Full Show Notes at ScaleTalesPodcast.com.
ยฉ Copyright 2024. Scale Tales is an Equilibria, Inc. podcast. We're dedicated to providing resources to support fellow fast-growing small businesses in scaling back-office operations without pain and chaos. Visit our website to learn more.
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Performing an online search for โbrandingโ is bound to lead to all kinds of tips, strategies, and advice. But what really works? What can take your brand to the next level? The answers to these questions stump many of us entrepreneurs and small business owners.
We know we have a great product or service because of referrals and recommendations, but if there are not enough people to know about it we miss out on the opportunity to truly scale our reach, impact, and revenue.
Thatโs where Rich Kozak comes to the rescue. He has 47 years of experience in defining, languaging, and scaling brands for both companies and individuals. He applies that experience through his work as the CEO of Rich Brands and Impact Driven Publishing.
In this scale tale, Rich describes his unique process for brand transformation through the story of his work with Dr. Mary OโDwyer, a licensed breath therapist. Be prepared to take notes as he details how he helped her brand get and receive credit for having a global presence.
As you listen to this story, Rich's strategic insights will provide you with a roadmap for expanding your brand's influence on a larger or global scale without a large budget. Youโll also learn the difference between branding, strategy, and marketing and how to use that information to redefine your brand, understand how it is perceived by your customers, and create value.
It's time to break free from ineffective branding strategies and unlock the secrets to transforming your local brand into a global powerhouse.
Listen now!
๐๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฐ. โญ โญ โญ โญ โญ
๐View this Episodeโs Full Show Notes at ScaleTalesPodcast.com.
ยฉ Copyright 2024. Scale Tales is an Equilibria, Inc. podcast. We're dedicated to providing resources to support fellow fast-growing small businesses in scaling back-office operations without pain and chaos. Visit our website to learn more.
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Episodi mancanti?
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Resistance builds muscle. No one knows that better than Beate Chelette, the Growth Architect behind Chelette Enterprises and The Womenโs Code. Her path to entrepreneurial success follows the heroโs journey as she immigrated from Germany to the U.S.
In this scale tale, Beate chronicles a series of natural disasters and the profound personal and financial loss she suffered after starting a photography business. To her surprise, when she humbly asked the President of the U.S. for help, he answered! Not only did she strategize her way out of debt, but 18 months later, she sold her photography business to Bill Gates.
Now she applies the strategy lessons she learned through the school of hard knocks to help other business owners, particularly women entrepreneurs, successfully scale.
Beate also shares a series of questions she recommends asking yourself to drive innovation and problem-solving in your business. Listen now and learn from this master of her craft on how to best leverage technology to streamline your business operations to achieve scale and maximize profit!
๐๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฐ. โญ โญ โญ โญ โญ
๐View this Episodeโs Full Show Notes at ScaleTalesPodcast.com.
ยฉ Copyright 2024. Scale Tales is an Equilibria, Inc. podcast. We're dedicated to providing resources to support fellow fast-growing small businesses in scaling back-office operations without pain and chaos. Visit our website to learn more.
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โNecessity is the mother of invention.โ This seems to be a recurring theme in Max Emmaโs entrepreneurial journey. As a CEO of several current and past successful businesses, itโs easy to see where he is now without an appreciation of the hard work, tenacity, and perseverance it took along the way. He even overcame the shame of bankruptcy and bounced back stronger than ever before.
Now heโs sharing his story with others.
In this scale tale, Max recounts his family's immigration to the United States from the former Soviet Union and how his unconventional method for learning English paved the way to a prosperous career in corporate accounting and finance. Eventually, he realized his passion for entrepreneurship and after recovering from a failed landscaping business, he and his wife co-founded BooXkeeping.
Leveraging their combined knowledge in accounting and finance, they grew BooXkeeping from a single employee and several university students to a team of 23 full-time employees at their headquarters. But the growth didnโt stop there. They are currently on track to scale from 12 franchises to over 40 franchises by 2025.
Max has cleverly built a foundation in knowledge of accounting and franchising to create multiple businesses with multiple streams of income. Thereโs more to him and his scale tale than meets the eye. Stay tuned to find out how Max turned his setbacks into opportunities, and how you can apply his strategies to your business scale journey.
๐๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฐ. โญ โญ โญ โญ โญ
๐View this Episodeโs Full Show Notes at ScaleTalesPodcast.com.
ยฉ Copyright 2024. Scale Tales is an Equilibria, Inc. podcast. We're dedicated to providing resources to support fellow fast-growing small businesses in scaling back-office operations without pain and chaos. Visit our website to learn more.
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You donโt get to be considered in the top 1% of your field by giving up easily or being a slacker. No one knows that better than Kathleen Black, CEO of Kathleen Black Coaching & Consulting.
Sheโs a savvy entrepreneur who, refreshingly, places a high value on business operations. Kathleen credits this as the basis for her success in multiple businesses. She says, โWhen systems are clear, people are empowered.โ Now, she teaches other high performers how they can also rise to the top of their respective fields by building the most efficient and productive teams in the world.
In this scale tale, Kathleen shares the story behind how she became a top 1% realtor in the largest real estate market in North America.
Yes, this episode is for you even if you do not work in real estate! There are lessons that all of us can learn and apply to our businesses. Listen now!
๐๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฐ. โญ โญ โญ โญ โญ
๐View this Episodeโs Full Show Notes at ScaleTalesPodcast.com.
ยฉ Copyright 2024. Scale Tales is an Equilibria, Inc. podcast. We're dedicated to providing resources to support fellow fast-growing small businesses in scaling back-office operations without pain and chaos. Visit our website to learn more.
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At the beginning of his musical career, one of the greatest rock guitarists of all time struggled financially due to constant talent suppression. Had he not left his hometown and accepted a chance opportunity to perform abroad, the world may never have known his musical genius.
Similarly, our podcast host and producer Alicia Butler Pierre, whose talents have often been described as โunorthodox,โ and โeclectic,โ found that traveling within and outside her country accelerated her career. Sheโs coined a specific term to describe this effect where relocating allows otherwise obscure talents to be recognized, respected, and rewarded.
In this special edition of Scale Tales, weโre sharing an audio version of Aliciaโs TEDx Talk where she reveals the name of this relocation effect. She also explores the science behind this phenomenon while sharing her story to make the case for seeking new environments to find a spotlight for your talent. You may also find this talk to provide the inspiration you need to try a new location to grow and scale your business.
This episode features an adaptation of Aliciaโs original talk delivered live at TEDx Viikki in Helsinki, Finland.
๐๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฐ. โญ โญ โญ โญ โญ
๐View this Episodeโs Full Show Notes at ScaleTalesPodcast.com.
ยฉ Copyright 2024. Scale Tales is an Equilibria, Inc. podcast. We're dedicated to providing resources to support fellow fast-growing small businesses in scaling back-office operations without pain and chaos. Visit our website to learn more.
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Growing up, Troy Trewin always knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur. He witnessed the successes as well as the struggles of his familyโs business, so he had a leg up on what it took to grow and scale a company. So, after three years of working for one of the worldโs top accounting firms, he started two internet companies.
When he realized he grew weary of running service-based businesses, Troy decided to shift into managing product-based businesses.
The product of choice?
Whisky!
It was 2011 and over the next decade, his involvement in the distillery business included everything from helping a friend start a distillery from the ground up to functioning as CEO over distilleries to serving on the boards of many other distilleries. When a friend mentioned having trouble scaling a Whisky Academy business in 2019, Troy suggested she change the business model from in-person to online.
The timing could not have been more perfect โ he along with two others joined forces with his friend in a partnership that started The Distillers Institute. In this scale tale, Troy details how they set an operational foundation that enabled them to legalize their partnership, build an online course, and launch it in only 9 monthsโฆduring a pandemic!
Discover how they scaled from 60 students to 400 in less than two years, as well as the people, processes, and tools they leveraged to achieve this scale, and their plans for expanding across the world!
๐๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฐ. โญ โญ โญ โญ โญ
๐View this Episodeโs Full Show Notes at ScaleTalesPodcast.com.
ยฉ Copyright 2024. Scale Tales is an Equilibria, Inc. podcast. We're dedicated to providing resources to support fellow fast-growing small businesses in scaling back-office operations without pain and chaos. Visit our website to learn more.
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Picture it โ the year is 1990 and Curt Anderson is full of hopes and dreams. However, those dreams are deferred when he accepts his fatherโs request to take over their family-owned floral business. At the time the business was bankrupt and in desperate need of financial resuscitation.
Curt spends the next several years grinding and doing everything he can to save the business from ruin. Just when it seems all hope is lost, he discovers a lifeline that will change the trajectory of both his business and his career.
That lifeline is the internet.
By 1995, he changes the business model from brick-and-mortar to e-commerce. Along the way, heโs thrown more lifelines until one day he realizes he needs someone else to come in and help manage the daily operations. After 20 years of hard work, smart partnerships, and investments in business infrastructure he successfully sells his business.
How did he do it?
Thatโs what youโll discover in this scale tale. Join us as Curt takes us on a journey that includes experimenting with new technologies, forming partnerships with key people, and outsourcing a critical part of his back-office operations.
๐๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฐ. โญ โญ โญ โญ โญ
๐View this Episodeโs Full Show Notes at ScaleTalesPodcast.com.
ยฉ Copyright 2024. Scale Tales is an Equilibria, Inc. podcast. We're dedicated to providing resources to support fellow fast-growing small businesses in scaling back-office operations without pain and chaos. Visit our website to learn more.
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Cheryl Taylor is no stranger to managing projects on a large scale. When she landed a contract to replace a 17-year-old jail technology, she jumped at the chance! Not only did she complete that project 10 months ahead of schedule, but the project even won an innovation award.
That kind of success results from a career that spans telecommunications, energy, healthcare, education, and more. Sheโs worked in large publicly-traded companies, government institutions, and small businesses, including her own โ TPM Services.
In this scale tale, Cheryl takes us back to the time when she upgraded that jail technology for a county government organization with over 800 employees with an $800M annual budget. Discover how she developed a project plan, kept reluctant staff engaged, and ensured no inmates were lost in the system.
Unfamiliar with the U.S. jail system? No worries! We share lessons learned at the end of this episode that you can apply to any business.
๐๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฐ. โญ โญ โญ โญ โญ
๐View this Episodeโs Full Show Notes at ScaleTalesPodcast.com.
ยฉ Copyright 2024. Scale Tales is an Equilibria, Inc. podcast. We're dedicated to providing resources to support fellow fast-growing small businesses in scaling back-office operations without pain and chaos. Visit our website to learn more.
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"Never take advice from someone who has nothing to lose by giving it." - Darrell Evans
That comes from Darrell Evans, an investor, business coach, and digital marketing expert. He graduated over 20 years ago with a finance degree and entered financial sales before moving into the mortgage industry. He later founded a successful mortgage company and a digital marketing agency, using early digital marketing strategies that proved effective during economic uncertainty.
By 2012, he and his business partner met the owner of an auto body shop who, though already successful, wanted to scale to the next level.
In our latest scale tale, Darrell takes us back to that moment when they applied their 6-step framework that incorporated internet marketing in the age of Web 2.0 during a time when things like YouTube and LinkedIn were barely a part of the collective conscious.
Take notes as he shares insights about tailoring products and services based on customer psychology and establishing a business infrastructure to support it.
๐๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฐ. โญ โญ โญ โญ โญ
๐View this Episodeโs Full Show Notes at ScaleTalesPodcast.com.
ยฉ Copyright 2024. Scale Tales is an Equilibria, Inc. podcast. We're dedicated to providing resources to support fellow fast-growing small businesses in scaling back-office operations without pain and chaos. Visit our website to learn more.
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Marianne Rutz, Europeโs leading customer support expert, started her career in 1999 at Hertz's contact center. She was well-suited for the role as she has a background in travel and tourism. After gaining more experience in operations, she faced a difficult and unexpected battle with cancer.
Undeterred, Marianne project managed her way through the rounds of treatment and upon winning this battle, she decided to start a business. Her consulting firm began with a desire to make customer service a better place by turning frontline customer service divisions from cost centres to profit centres.
When one of her retail clients began to struggle with providing quality customer service during the COVID-19 pandemic, they sought Marianneโs expertise. With her guidance, the client saw remarkable improvements and unexpected revenue growth. In this latest scale tale, Marianne shares how this transformation took place.
๐๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฐ. โญ โญ โญ โญ โญ
๐View this Episodeโs Full Show Notes at ScaleTalesPodcast.com.
ยฉ Copyright 2024. Scale Tales is an Equilibria, Inc. podcast. We're dedicated to providing resources to support fellow fast-growing small businesses in scaling back-office operations without pain and chaos. Visit our website to learn more.
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Jeremy Streten is on a mission to provide access to legal advice for all small to medium-sized businesses around the world. These arenโt just empty words. He really means it as evidenced by the strategic moves heโs made to, as he describes it, โโฆscale myself out of my law firm to remove dependency on me.โ
Howโs that possible when business laws are country-dependent?
Well, turns out thatโs not entirely true. In this scale tale, Jeremy describes how his keen observations during a law conference coupled with sage advice from a business coach, led him down a path to scale business legal advice via a business legal lifecycle. Itโs an easy-to-understand chart designed to empower business owners in proactively securing legal protections using a combination of standard and local or customized practices.
Now, heโs transitioned out of being a traditional lawyer working on a per-client basis and into the role of CEO of a lawtech company with remote global operations across Australia, the U.S., and the U.K.
Listen as he recounts the bumps and bruises along his journey that led to him building a business infrastructure that includes the optimal combination of people, processes, and technologies necessary to scale a service-based business.
Jeremyโs cracked the code and now you can learn from him and apply the lessons learned from his scale tale to your organization!
๐๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฐ. โญ โญ โญ โญ โญ
ยฉ Copyright 2024. Scale Tales is an Equilibria, Inc. podcast. We're dedicated to providing resources to support fellow fast-growing small businesses in scaling back-office operations without pain and chaos. Visit our website to learn more.
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Did you know that joy has financial value? Specifically, happy employees have 31% higher productivity, their sales are 37% higher and theyโre three times more creative. Marguerite Orane leverages these stats as part of making her case for joy in the workplace.
As an executive leadership coach, facilitator, and public speaker, she empowers executives and their teams to imbue joy in their work so that they can scale their organizations without sacrificing themselves and their families in the process.
Healthy family relationships are particularly important to Marguerite. Her first leadership role at the tender age of 23 found her as her fatherโs boss in their family-owned manufacturing business. The experience of leading a 70-employee all-male group, navigating unions and erratic business cycles during a time of unrest in Jamaica, and ultimately selling the business to ensure her parents retired financially secure, left her feeling depleted, traumatized, andโฆfree!
In this scale tale, Marguerite describes her journey from running a family-owned business to working in other businesses, and ultimately starting her own coaching business โ a business that allows her the freedom and flexibility to lead with ease, grace, and joy. She also shares why her experience as an MBA student at Harvard Business School was the therapy she needed to release the pain and make room for profit.
Discover the business infrastructure sheโs put in place to ensure she has a team aligned to her companyโs joy-based mission with proven processes that generate the results required to take already successful organizations to even higher heights.
๐๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฐ. โญ โญ โญ โญ โญ
ยฉ Copyright 2024. Scale Tales is an Equilibria, Inc. podcast. We're dedicated to providing resources to support fellow fast-growing small businesses in scaling back-office operations without pain and chaos. Visit our website to learn more.
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While his friends pursued careers in fields like law, medicine, and technology, Richard Blank went in a completely different direction โ language. In fact, his love of language and communications led him to study abroad for one semester in Spain. That experience changed the trajectory of his life.
A few years after graduating from university, he accepted an offer to conduct training at a call center in Costa Rica. At 27 years old he decided to call Costa Rica home. That was over 20 years ago.
And he never looked back.
In this first episode of Scale Tales, Richard takes us on his journey when he leveraged his advanced Spanish-speaking skills, business prowess, and emotional intelligence to build and scale Costa Ricaโs Call Center from a one-seat to a 300-seat operation!
Discover how he used a cash-only approach to invest in the business infrastructure required to lay a foundation for sustainable growth, his tips for reducing attrition, and why he urges entrepreneurs to โact their wage.โ
๐๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฐ. โญ โญ โญ โญ โญ
ยฉ Copyright 2024. Scale Tales is an Equilibria, Inc. podcast. We're dedicated to providing resources to support fellow fast-growing small businesses in scaling back-office operations without pain and chaos. Visit our website to learn more.
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Welcome to our newest show brought to you by Equilibria, Inc. - Scale Tales.
Scale Tales is a weekly business storytelling podcast. Join us as entrepreneurs, experts, and executives share entertaining accounts of their extraordinary moments at work while revealing how they did it. These true stories will take you on a journey from the conception of an idea to its growth and transformation into something seemingly impossible. Our interviews go beyond the typical Q&A format, providing both inspiration and practical tips to help you achieve similar success in your business or career.
With a focus on operations, each episode ends with a summary of key lessons and resources to help you replicate these results. Whether you're an ambitious founder or a leader in a fast-growing organization, this show is for you if you're looking for actionable strategies to scale the operations of your business, service, product line, or team despite your busy schedule.
Subscribe now so you don't miss any of these stories!
