Welcome to the first episode of Smart man Smarter woman – a podcast for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. In this episode we introduce ourselves, share a little about our own entrepreneurial journey as well as outline why we started this podcast for small business owners and what you can expect in future episodes.
Smart Man, Smarter Woman References
We talk about a lot in each episode; however, we don’t want you to miss a thing! Here are some key items were mentioned if you want to take a closer look.
REFERENCES IN SHOW:
The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber
The Road Less Stupid by Keith J. Cunningham
Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis
WEBSITE
www.aissolutions.ca
www.kninja.net
www.smartmansmarterwoman.com
Learn more about our Cloud Accounting Services here
Transcript
Steve (00:00):
I am Steve Loates.
Juliet (00:02):
And I am Juliet Aurora.
Steve (00:04):
And we are your co-hosts. And we’re super excited to have you with us on our episode one to kick off our podcast. And during this initial episode, we thought we would introduce ourselves, give you a little bit of background, talk about our own entrepreneurial journey. Why we’re doing this podcast and what we are hoping to accomplish with it.
Steve (00:31):
So before I go any further, perhaps just get a few words from my wonderful cohost, the smarter woman herself, Juliet Aurora. How are you doing Juliet?
Juliet (00:44):
I’m excellent. Thank you Steve. And am I only supposed to have a few words here? Is that it? I’m done then? So that’s my few words, or was there something more that you were looking for me to talk about?
Steve (00:56):
No, I learned a long time ago that you get as many words as you need.
Juliet (01:02):
Perfect.
Steve (01:04):
So that was all you needed, just those few words?
Juliet (01:08):
Apparently. Apparently that’s all I needed.
Steve (01:11):
Okay. So as I mentioned at the beginning, our podcast is for and about entrepreneurs. We hope to have a guest on the podcast every week except for this initial episode. And each one we hope will bring something from their own background, a different area, a different segment that will help entrepreneurs on the different parts of their own journey.
Steve (01:43):
So I think perhaps before we go too much further, we may want to address the name of our podcast, and how we arrived at it. Would you like to deal with that, Juliet?
Juliet (01:56):
Well, I don’t know. I mean it’s a great name. I’m not sure that it requires even any kind of an explanation. It seems pretty self explanatory to me.
Steve (02:07):
Yes, as I’m sure it would. So the background behind the name for those of you in our audience is simply I have been trying to get Juliet to join me in a podcast for a number of years I’ve wanted to do this. And it wasn’t until I came up with this name for the podcast that for some funny reason, she thought that yes, now must be the time to get started in a podcast. So that is really how we arrived at the name. It was nothing more than that’s what it took to get Juliet to join me. And of course she is the smarter woman in our family. And I guess you should get maybe a little bit of background day Juliet about when I say our family.
Juliet (02:56):
Well first of all, I mean really it was just a coincidence that this was the name you came up with and I agreed to it. You’ve been trying to convince me to do this for probably three or four years, and perhaps it was just that I was worn down and said, “Okay fine, I’m going to do it.” And just to coincidence to also have the name at the same time. But yes, I’m happy to talk a little bit about the family dynamic, and only because some of you may know us already in our audience, but many of you will not.
Juliet (03:27):
Steve and I are not only business partners, we are also life partners. So we are also married. Which may explain a lot as you listen over the coming weeks, and the coming episodes. It may explain a lot about the dynamic that goes between the two of us. We’re going to try really hard to leave the husband and wife dynamic out of the podcast, but quite honestly, that’s probably not going to happen. But we’re certainly going to try. And I think that in some cases it’ll be a good thing. Some maybe not. It may be that we’ve had a bad personal day, which will come through on the podcast. But again, hopefully not. But yes, that is a little bit about our family dynamic.
Steve (04:17):
Okay. Well, I’m sure we will never have a bad day, Juliet. So I don’t think we need to worry about that. Maybe to get started, why don’t you share a little bit about your journey as an entrepreneur? And since it’s ladies first and particularly smarter ladies first, then once you’re done, I will share a little of my journey and then we can go from there. So why don’t you start us at the beginning?
Juliet (04:48):
I’m not sure we have enough time for me to start at the beginning. But I think that probably a good place to start on my journey is the first thing that I want to talk about is, as Steve mentioned, this podcast is designed for entrepreneurs. And it really is a, I’m going to say a special breed of people who enter into the entrepreneurial journey.
Juliet (05:17):
You need to have a particular type of personality. You need to have a drive that is unseen anywhere else in order to get through this journey. So when I started my entrepreneurial journey, quite honestly it was never something that I thought about. A lot of the guests that you’re going to hear over the coming weeks and coming months will tell you that they knew from a very young age that they were always going to be a business owner. That was not me.
Juliet (05:49):
I was probably thinking throughout all of my schooling and that I would enter into the corporate world and become this big corporate big wig. Never thinking that I would venture out on my own. Entrepreneurship was not part of my family history. I don’t have any family members who are in business for themselves. So there were no role models for me as we went through, as I was growing up.
Juliet (06:17):
My journey honestly started out of necessity. Which maybe something that you share, but my journey started in 2000. I was going through a divorce. I was a single mom, and my daughter was very young. And I found that she was spending way too much time in daycare. And I hated dropping her off at seven in the morning and then not picking her up until six at night. And thought about okay, so we need to change this, change this lifestyle so I could spend more time with her. And then a series of events happened which just sort of all fell in line. The stars all aligned. And the company that I was working for at the time was bought by an international conglomerate. So they were looking to move and relocate the offices. And I wasn’t interested in relocating to the U.S. at the time. I wasn’t interested in relocating to the U.S., so took the severance package.
Juliet (07:31):
I gave myself six months with my severance package. I had enough money that I could survive for six months. And said okay, well let me hang up my shingle and see what this looks like. And worst case scenario in six months, if it’s not working, I’ll go back, pound the pavement, and move back into the corporate world.
Juliet (07:51):
So that’s now 20 years ago. We’re actually celebrating the anniversary of AIS Solutions 20 years. And can’t even imagine when I sat down and started that, took that first step, that I would end up where I was now.
Juliet (08:09):
So for many years it was just me running the business out of a spare bedroom in my house, working while my daughter was sleeping, working late at night, working when she was napping. And pretty much taking anything in everything I could, any job that was offered to me, any project that was offered to me. I would take it so that I could pay the bills. And it wasn’t until now I’m going to fast forward 10 years, probably eight years. This is a really long entrepreneurial journey. I’m only eight years into it. I’ll speed along the last 12 years.
Juliet (08:48):
So eight years later, I started to expand a little bit and started to hire some subcontractors who worked with me. I would do the controllership piece and had subcontractors who were doing the bookkeeping piece.
Juliet (09:04):
And then in 2010, and by now Steve and I are together. And in 2010, moved AIS Solutions out of my home and into an office. Hired employees, and actually fundamentally changed the framework, the business model, everything for the business. So we’ve been in this, I’m going to say this business model with employees for the last 10 years. But before that, it was just myself and completely different experiences going from being a solo, to eing solo with subcontractors, to being an office space to being with employees. And we’re hoping that as we go through the different episodes of the podcast, not only will you learn a little bit more about our journey and our experiences as we go through it. But that you’ll be able to relate at different points to the different guests that we have. So hopefully that’s a brief enough summary of my entrepreneurial journey. I will turn it back over to you, Steve.
Steve (10:15):
That’s great, Juliet. Thank you. I don’t think I’ve ever heard your journey so brief. But anyway, thank you for sharing. That was great. My journey I guess began a few years before Juliet’s did. And I learned I think probably in my early twenties, I’m going to say. I graduated from college. I found myself starting and finishing a number of different jobs with different companies, over a very short period of time.
Steve (10:59):
So what I was learning was that if I wanted to have any sort of a successful business career, it was probably going to be working for myself. Although that’s certainly not what I thought when I first graduated from college.
Steve (11:17):
The first couple of jobs I guess that came and went, I was convinced that I perhaps had just, I hadn’t found the right situation yet. But after it happens a third, a fourth, a fifth time, even I had to admit that the problem was probably not with those companies.
Steve (11:40):
I appeared to be the common thread throughout this scenario. So it was certainly time for some self-reflection as to what the problem was. And it really I think came down to a few things, but it was primarily I think I didn’t like following instructions that I didn’t believe in. I didn’t like following the leadership of others if I didn’t believe in where they were trying to take me. My mom called it an independent attitude. I like to call it strong-willed and decisive. My dad I think had a completely different name for it that I can’t mention on this podcast.
Steve (12:28):
But I will say the one thing that the corporate world did give me is that my last job in the corporate world, although it was very brief, it was also very important. It was important because it was that job that led me to an offer that started me on my own entrepreneurial journey. In my late twenties, one of my retail clients I was dealing with at that time was looking to expand and needed a manager to look after their newest location. Now at this point, I had zero experience working in retail and even less experience managing people.
Steve (13:11):
And although the offer was appealing, I almost didn’t take it because truth be told, I wasn’t loving the job I had at that point. But it wasn’t a bad job. I mean, I had a nice salary, bonuses, I had a car, expense account. I got to travel. But they were persistent. And finally, they asked me that all important question, what would it take for me to join them?
Steve (13:41):
Now I believe the best time to negotiate is when you really don’t care about the outcome. So I said, “I’m very interested in joining you, but I’m not willing to give up one job for just another job. So if you want me to come with you, it must include an opportunity for some ownership. I need to feel I’m going to be the master of my own ship. I want a chance to own a piece of the business that I am going to help build.”
Steve (14:14):
So we went back and forth, and eventually we reached an agreement that seemed fair for all parties concerned. That basically I came on as an employee. And if I reach certain goals with the business, I would then be given an opportunity to purchase part of the business. And that was the beginning of my journey as an entrepreneur.
Steve (14:38):
But what I also learned during that initial part of my journey was that they gave me full autonomy. But full autonomy also meant full for success and failure. So it began.
Steve (14:57):
Now up until then, I really hadn’t experienced much self doubt in my career. I was still pretty cocky. But it hit me then when I thought about what I had just done. I had a young family, I’d given up the salary and benefits for the opportunity to run a brand new retail business with which I had zero experience. What did I know about retail? I’d never worked a day in retail in my life. I’d had completely lost my mind perhaps.
Steve (15:28):
Anyway, things began well enough. We had a great first year. We were profitable. Second year was better. I reached the goals that I was supposed to, and so I became a co-owner in the business.
Steve (15:42):
The problem was that that early success made me blind to a lot of things. And I know this happens to a lot of entrepreneurs. I just saw the success, but I really didn’t understand what was going on in the business I don’t think. Our top line, we were doing I think at that time just over $2 million a year. But we were losing money. How is that even possible? And I can tell you my partners were not impressed. Remember that autonomy thing? I was very angry, very frustrated with myself. How could we possibly be losing money when we were selling more products than we had ever sold?
Steve (16:28):
So that brought me to another very important event in my own entrepreneurial journey. I was determined to understand what was going on, which means I needed to understand the numbers and the financial workings of business. So I called my accountant, told him I wanted to understand every number, every line, every note on our financial statement.
Steve (16:54):
Now fortunately for me, he was the type of accountant every small business owners should have, and he was eager to help. He was patient and gave me a crash course in how to read financial statements, and taught me why I shouldn’t just be looking at the top line number and how much money I had in the bank.
Steve (17:16):
He also taught me about things like profit margins, discounting, and the impact of discounting, inventory turn. Things that are critical to the success of a retail business. So fast forward a few years, we turned the business around. I bought out my partners completely and grew the business from two to three, to eventually four locations. And we also added an eCommerce platform.
Steve (17:47):
And I should also explain at this point, that one thing my journey has taught me, and it’s taught me many things. But it also has taught me not to believe in success in failure, only success in learnings. And I can tell you I experienced plenty of both during those years.
Steve (18:11):
During this time, I also became really fascinated with computers, technology. Most of all with the worldwide web and the opportunities it presented for small businesses like mine. You have to remember, this is way back in 1997. So before social media, before email marketing. Google didn’t even exist until the following year.
Steve (18:35):
For a number of reasons, I knew that in order for my business to keep growing and prospering, we needed a website so I could take advantage of this worldwide web thing. So over the next year or so, I learned how to build a website so I could create one for my own business. I became a student of online marketing, how it could help my business grow. Eventually learning about social media, online advertising, email marketing, all of the stuff that goes along with digital marketing.
Steve (19:10):
By now, Juliet and I had met and decided we wanted to be partners both in life and business. I love building businesses. And since I now had a great manager running my retail business, it did allow me to start another business that could focus on helping small business with their online marketing. And as that business grew, it didn’t take long before I decided it was time to close the retail business and focus my energy completely on the online marketing business. As well as helping Juliet with our own business AIS Solutions.
Steve (19:51):
And this leads us to about 2014, 2015. I had now closed the retail business, sold the eCommerce part of it, and was working with the online marketing. However, as I work part time with Juliet at AIS Solutions, I really could see the potential. And I truly believe that if we were both to focus on the one business AIS Solutions, that if we both brought our strengths to that business, that we could build it into something special.
Steve (20:28):
So I wound down the online marketing and consulting, joined AIS Solutions on a full-time basis where I would be responsible for the business development, the marketing and sales. So Juliet could focus her talents and energy on the operations, the team building, and the training. And really that’s where we came together in the same business.
Steve (20:52):
So the past 10 years I think have been pretty unbelievable for us. Certainly the last five or six. Now I don’t think either of us would tell you that everything has run smoothly, because it certainly hasn’t. There were days that we seriously thought about closing the doors. Came a lot closer to doing that than I like to remember. But we persisted. I think we’re both a little bit stubborn overall.
Steve (21:25):
The good, I think has far outweighed the bad. And we are very proud and honored to over the last few years been recognized inside and outside of our industry with a number of different awards that we’re very, very proud of. And although we received those awards, we know that it really is the support of our awesome team and our great clients that makes it all. Right? Without those people, there would be no awards at all.
Steve (21:59):
So that I think is brings us up to about 2016, ’17. Where in 2016, we actually launched another business, which I’m going to let Juliet talk about for a little. Because I think it was something that it was really near and dear to her heart that was the birth of our second business in 2016. So would you like to talk a little about Kninja Juliet?
Juliet (22:32):
Absolutely. So we’ve talked about AIS Solutions, which is bookkeeping, QuickBooks training on the accounting side of businesses. And obviously we are in the bookkeeping space. And we found that our industry was undergoing this major shift from desktop, to cloud, to virtual. There were a lot of changes that were happening. And what we wanted more than anything else was for somebody to be able to sit down and train our team on how to grow this business.
Juliet (23:10):
We kept waiting, and we waited and we waited. And in early 2016, Steve and I were sitting at a beach, I’m not even sure where it was now, if it was Jamaica or Mexico. Having some mudslides, talking about our business and what we wanted to do. And a lot of our crazy ideas tend to come when we’re sitting on a beach. So it’s not unusual that the concept of Kninja was also over some mudslides.
Juliet (23:40):
So we decided that since nobody else was building something that was going to help grow our business, we needed to build something and then we needed to sell it to other bookkeepers to help them grow their business. And that really was where Kninja was born. It was from an internal need, which then became an external helping mechanism to help other business owners in the bookkeeping and accounting space move their business forward.
Steve (24:11):
That’s great. So after the launch of Kninja, then I guess about a year or so later, maybe a little more than that, we wrote our book. The Kninja Way: Our Journey to Firm of the Future.
Juliet (24:25):
No, no, no, no, no. You got to back up first.
Steve (24:29):
Okay, go ahead.
Juliet (24:30):
So we launched Kninja, and we then threw in our name for whatever reason at the last minute into a contest which was sponsored by Intuit, which is the makers of QuickBooks. Which is a piece of accounting software for those of you who may not be familiar with it. And honestly, the contest is called Firms of the Future, and it is designed to recognize firms in our industry who are using the latest technology, moving forward, cutting edge, etc., etc. And I have never been one to kind of recognize any progress that we make or any I guess take advantage, or recognize any … I don’t even know how to phrase this. I have never been one to pat myself on the back and say that we’re doing an awesome job and yes, we’re great. So I wasn’t planning to put our name in into the hat.
Juliet (25:38):
The deadline I still remember was July 31st of 2017 at midnight. And we decided to put in an application because even though I don’t usually like to pat myself on the back, Steve said, “What? Of course we have to put our name in.” So we decided on this Sunday evening at 6:00 at night that we needed to put in an application. The deadline was at midnight, so we put in an application.
Juliet (26:03):
So fast forward, we ended up winning Firm of the Future for Canada, which was mind boggling for us, which also then threw us into the ring for the global Firm of the Future. So there was one winner chosen from five different countries, and we were there to represent Canada. And this is fall of 2017. And we’re blown away completely that we ended up winning the global title. And the support that we got from Canada was unbelievable at this conference when it was announced.
Juliet (26:45):
But what we found was how many people in the industry came up to us afterwards and said, “Oh my God, you guys have it altogether. I can’t believe. I could never do what you guys have done.” And that was the reason that we wrote a book. Because there were so many people who thought that we had it all together and that we’d always had it all together. And how far that was from the truth was what we needed to share. So we wrote a book called The Kninja Way: Our Journey to Firm of the Future that talks about what it looked like for us, and how much we struggled, and how we struggled, and what we did to help us get out of those struggles.
Juliet (27:34):
So probably the only time that we’re going to pitch anything to you throughout this podcast is for the book. It’s called The Kninja Way: Our Journey to Firm of the Future. You can find it on Amazon. And the only reason that I am comfortable pitching it to you is that our next big venture is going to be starting the Kninja Foundation. Actually it’s already started, it was incorporated in August of last year. And all of the proceeds, not some of the proceeds, all of the proceeds from the book are going to support the Kninja Foundation whose first project is going to be to build [Nina 00:28:20] House, which is going to be a shelter for women and at risk youth female. So would love to have your support. If you would jump over to Amazon, buy the book, download the ebook to support my Kninja Foundation. It would be greatly appreciated. Okay Steve, back to you. Sorry, that was a really long segue. I just didn’t want you to jump over, the reason behind the book.
Steve (28:47):
No, not at all. Thank you for doing that. I think the other thing with the book is I also think it’s a pretty good read. It’s entertaining. Yes, we are a little biased. But we’re also very open during that book. When we’re talking about our journey, we share, well remember no failures, right? We share our learnings as well as our success. And I think any entrepreneur would get something from the book.
Steve (29:17):
And it’s funny I was thinking Juliet, when you said the people were congratulating us after we won the Firm of the Future and saying, “You guys have it so together.” And I can always remember you know what our business coach said to us. It’s like the duck on the lake. That when you see the part of the duck on top of the lake, it’s just moving along very smoothly wherever it wants to go. And it looks like it’s so together and so organized. But underneath the water, the duck’s feet are just paddling madly trying to get where they’re trying to go and trying to make sure that they actually stay afloat on the water. And I think there’s many, many times in the entrepreneurial journey where that metaphor just fits perfectly for what is going on inside a business that on the outside can look like it’s being run perfectly. But there’s a lot of scrambling going on on the inside of that business.
Steve (30:31):
I guess the only other thing is that also brought us to the launch of our podcast. We talked a little bit about the name, but why a podcast? Why are we doing it?
Steve (30:44):
Well for myself, I think more than anything being an entrepreneur for the most of my my business life anyway. It’s been pretty good to me. I have had a good life through being an entrepreneur. And I’ve learned a lot. I’ve made a lot of mistakes. So for me, the podcast is a way of hopefully giving back a little bit of perhaps sharing some of the mistakes and the learnings that may help others avoid making the same mistake. And through a podcast, I think, I’m hoping we can reach more people and help more entrepreneurs by using this medium. And that’s really why I wanted to do this. Quite honestly, I’m not that comfortable in front of a video camera. So videos, that wasn’t something that really excited me. But the podcasts, that I could do. Didn’t need to worry about being in front of the camera. So that for me is why I wanted to start the podcast. I don’t know if you want to add anything to that, Juliet.
Juliet (32:05):
I don’t know if I do. Honestly, the only reason I think that I agreed to the podcast other than it being something that Steve really wanted to do and we’ve always tried as much as possible to support each other and help each other achieve our dreams. And Steve quite honestly has been talking about this for a number of years. But I think also that over the years, and especially since 2017, I really have heard over and over again people say that we always have it all together. And we don’t have enough opportunities to kind of bring it back to reality as to what it really is that it looks like when you’re an entrepreneur. We hear all these success stories, these overnight success stories. That I think one of the things I want to make sure that we do over the course of these episodes is his share so that the entrepreneurs that are out there and the business owners don’t feel like they’re alone. That they actually, that they understand that there are other people who encounter the same challenges and are feeling the way that they’re feeling. Not everybody has a network of business owners around them. So we’re hoping that you’re going to let us be your network of business owners around you as you go through your journey.
Steve (33:39):
Thank you, Juliet. That’s great. And I guess finally, what are we going to do on this podcast? And what we are looking to do is each episode, and it will be a weekly episode. We will bring in a guest. And over the next few weeks, we’re going to have people. We’re going to have business coaches, strategic coaches. People who were serial entrepreneurs, who have multiple businesses. Business owners who have a completely remote business with a remote team. What else? People who have been an entrepreneur and moved back to the corporate world for a different viewpoint. And just really anything and everyone who has some expertise that we think will help benefit the entrepreneurs that are out there. So that is what we’re going to be trying to accomplish.
Steve (34:45):
The other thing that is going to happen on, I guess two things that will happen on every episode. The first one is you will hear a quote for me, because I love quotes. So that’s something that you will hear. But also-
Juliet (35:04):
And hold on, hold on, hold on before you move past your quotes. So I’m looking for people to help me rally Steve, because Steve needs some rallying here. He said that he loves quotes. That is an understatement. He actually is a geek, like a digital geek about his quotes. That he’s got some kind of directory of quotes built out. I think it’s in Evernote, where he’s got all the quotes listed in that search. It’s a searchable database of some sort. So when he says that he likes quotes, that’s an understatement.
Juliet (35:39):
But one of Steve’s hobbies as well is photography. So he takes some amazing pictures with his camera. And I thought it was a fabulous idea and it needs some encouragement. So I’m looking for you guys in the audience to if you see Steve, if you message Steve on social media, let him know that what a fabulous idea it would be if he created a coffee table book with pictures that he’s taken, photographs that he has taken with his quotes. And they’re not necessarily words that he’s spoken, they’re quotes that have inspired him. So I think that that would be a fabulous idea for a coffee table book. And would appreciate some support in helping Steve get this dream of his. I actually said that would be a great birthday present to himself. The timeline might be a little bit short. But hey, if you don’t try, you’ll never make it, right? So okay, back to you Steve.
Steve (36:44):
Well, thank you Juliet. I think I just got called out in public, so I guess I’m going to actually have to do that now. One of the other things we’re also going to do on every episode is everyone of our guests are going to be asked a series of questions. And it’s going to be for, I’m going to date myself here, but for those of you who remember the actor’s studio with James Lipton, where at the end of every episode, he used to ask his guest a series of questions and it was always the same questions. So like James Lipton did on his show, we are going to have a series of questions that each guest will be asked to answer, and they will be the same questions. And I’m sure the time … go ahead Juliet. Not that you like interrupting, but go ahead.
Juliet (37:43):
No, not at all. I don’t like interrupting. I think that it would only be fair if we’re expecting all of our guests to answer these questions, that we should have to answer them. So perhaps in this first episode you provide your answers to the questions and I can ask you the questions. And I will provide my answers because I think that’s only fair and it should all be fair. So would you like to go first or do you want me to ask you first?
Steve (38:10):
Well I think it should be ladies first. So does the lady want to ask the questions first or give the answers first?
Juliet (38:18):
Okay. Why don’t you ask me the questions first? Because just in case you answer first and your answer is the same as mine, then at least mine will be original still.
Steve (38:29):
Thank you. Okay, so here is the first question. What one word best defines an entrepreneur?
Juliet (38:40):
I probably should have prepared the answers, because I actually know what the questions are. So the one word I would say would be courage. And it’s supposed to only be one word. So there you go. Courage. I don’t have to explain that, I just have to say the word.
Steve (38:56):
Good job. What profession other than your own would you like to attend?
Juliet (39:05):
So people that have known me for a long time will know what this one is. So it is writer. I want to write a, I guess I’ve already written a book. But I want to write a fiction book.
Steve (39:20):
Okay. What profession would you not like to do?
Juliet (39:26):
I’m going to say lawyer.
Steve (39:28):
Okay.
Juliet (39:30):
No offense to any lawyers out there.
Steve (39:33):
What sound or noise do you love?
Juliet (39:38):
The ocean. The ocean is and water is my spot.
Steve (39:44):
What book would you recommend for entrepreneurs?
Juliet (39:52):
That’s a tough one. I’m going to be biased at the moment. And it’s going to be really geared towards … it’s not necessarily for entrepreneurs, it’s for women. And it’s only because I’m being strongly influenced by it at the moment. Which is Rachel Hollis, and the Girl, Wash Your Face is her first book that I would highly recommend for women to read. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or not. It’s a fabulous book. So I don’t know if that’s really the right answer, but that’s my answer.
Steve (40:32):
Your answer is always the right answer. I thought we established that years ago.
Juliet (40:37):
Good answer.
Steve (40:38):
When your own entrepreneurial journey is completed, what do you hope your legacy is?
Juliet (40:47):
I’m hoping that my legacy is going to be actually through the Kninja foundation and Nina House. Because I want my entrepreneurial journey to be able to fund the creation of Nina House.
Steve (41:06):
Awesome. Awesome. Great answers.
Juliet (41:08):
Thank you. And I didn’t prepare for them.
Steve (41:12):
I believe it’s now me on the hot seat.
Juliet (41:14):
It is. And you can’t do the same ones as me.
Steve (41:19):
Absolutely I can if my answer is the same. Sure.
Juliet (41:22):
Yeah. I don’t think the Rachel Hollis book will be the same thing for same answer too.
Steve (41:26):
It will not. It will not.
Juliet (41:28):
Okay. So first question, what one word best defines an entrepreneurs?
Steve (41:35):
And mine is exactly the same as yours. It is courage. And I know it’s supposed to be one word-
Juliet (41:42):
No, one word.
Steve (41:44):
I’m going to elaborate. But first of all, I was going to say fearless. But then I thought no, because we all have fear. And it is the courage you need to overcome the fear. So courage is the word I’m going with.
Juliet (41:59):
Okay. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Steve (42:06):
This one is easy. Formula 1 race car driver.
Juliet (42:11):
Okay. Yeah, that was probably a given.
Steve (42:14):
Okay. You’re not supposed to laugh when I give that answer. Okay?
Juliet (42:18):
Sorry. I’m supposed to be a very serious interviewer. My apologies. What profession would you not like to do?
Steve (42:26):
Bookkeeper. The idea, I mean I think bookkeepers are awesome people. They do an awesome job. But the thought of sitting there working with numbers every day I think would drive me nuts.
Juliet (42:46):
Okay, fair enough.
Steve (42:48):
I’m glad we have bookkeepers because I would not be the bookkeeper.
Juliet (42:53):
Okay. So what sound or noise do you love?
Steve (42:58):
Now that one’s pretty easy too. I think it’s the sound of running water. So I mean it can be a stream, a waterfall, the ocean. Just moving water, I love the sound.
Juliet (43:10):
See, I would have thought it would have been the same as your profession you’d like to attempt. I was expecting it to be the sound of an engine or a Formula 1 race. So interesting that yours was water as well.
Steve (43:24):
And I think it really does depend upon my mood. If I’m trying to relax, it’s not the sound of a car, it’s the sound of running water. But I do love the sound of a car.
Juliet (43:36):
Okay. What book would you recommend for entrepreneurs?
Steve (43:41):
Now, this one was really, really hard for me because there are so many great books. So I have to do two. Sorry, I know it’s supposed to be one, but I have to-
Juliet (43:52):
I’m not sure we allow people to do two.
Steve (43:55):
Well I’m one of the hosts, so I’m allowed to do two. So the first one would be The E Myth, Michael Gerber. Every entrepreneur should read that book. And the other one I think is less well known, but I found it just to be an awesome book. And it is called The Road Less Stupid. And it’s a very interesting title for a book. And the author escapes me at the moment. But great, great book. If you ever get an opportunity to read it, there is lots of value, lots of what I call gold nuggets in there. So those would be the two books I would recommend.
Juliet (44:43):
Okay. I don’t think I read the second one. Okay. So last question. When your own entrepreneurial journey is completed, what do you hope your legacy is?
Steve (44:57):
I guess I hope my legacy is that I have helped some other entrepreneurs enjoy and have a successful entrepreneurial journey of their own. That would be mine.
Juliet (45:14):
Excellent. And that is exactly why we are doing this podcast.
Steve (45:20):
We are. So I think that is, quote, quote, quote, you have to do a quote now. You talk about trying to pick one book for entrepreneurs to read. Now you’re saying one quote.
Juliet (45:38):
And this quote-
Steve (45:41):
Honestly, I don’t have a favorite because there’s so many awesome quotes. But I guess it would have to be a quote from Jim Rohn because Jim Rohn has been an awesome mentor to me. Again, if you’ve not listened to any of his stuff, Jim Rohn, you have to. Every entrepreneur should listen to it. But I’ve always loved one of his quotes among many of his, and that is, “Don’t wish for fewer problems, wish for more skills.” And I always thought that that was a not only great advice for entrepreneurs, but just great advice for life in general. So that’s the quote for this episode. Before I close this out Juliet, anything you would like to add?
Juliet (46:38):
And I absolutely knew that your first quote for the first episode of your podcast was going to be a Jim Rohn quote. I would have been stunned if it wasn’t. So I’m glad that you did choose one that was Jim Rohn.
Juliet (46:52):
And I guess, I’d like to thank everyone for listening to us for the last, I don’t even know how long this is. Half an hour, 40 minutes. We hope that you’re going to join us every week. We look forward to chatting with you and hopefully helping you on your business journey.
Steve (47:12):
Thank you Juliet. And thank you very much to our audience. We hope you found some value here. Hope you found our story is interesting, but you also found some value in them that may help you on your own journey. We hope to see or hear, hope you listen to us in some future episodes of our podcasts. We’d love it if you would subscribe and write us a review would be awesome. And the future looks very bright, and we hope to see you there. Until next time, bye for now.
Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0
