Are you ready for the challenges presented to your business now and in the future? Watch our roundtable of experts discuss how businesses of all sizes can conquer their biggest challenges and grow effectively and efficiently into the future.
Business Growth
Hear from a roundtable of successful entrepreneurs on how businesses can overcome the major challenges keeping them from massive growth.
Webinar
Oct 17, 2023
Are you ready for the challenges presented to your business now and in the future? Watch our roundtable of experts discuss how businesses of all sizes can conquer their biggest challenges and grow effectively and efficiently into the future.
Modern times are rocky ones for businesses trying to grow. Recessions, talent shortages, inflation, and more are creating numerous unique and difficult challenges that businesses of all sizes need to overcome in order to fulfill their potential.
In this webinar, join our hosts Kristen Voster, CPA, President at Fox Valley CPAs; Alexandra Watkins, Founder & Chief Innovation Officer at Eat My Words; Joey Vitale, Founding Attorney at Indie Law & CEO of Skybreaker; and Impact’s own Marsha Muenster, COO of Impact Wisconsin, as they put their entrepreneurial minds together to discuss modern business challenges and how to overcome them to spur growth.
Every business hits roadblocks. Check out more insights to discover fresh ideas and strategies that can help you break through.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Welcome everyone to Impact's entrepreneurial roundtable, how to overcome the challenges blocking your growth. My name is Marsha Muenster, and I will be moderating throughout the webinar. In today's episode, we'll be discussing how businesses of all sizes can conquer the biggest challenges that affect their growth and growing efficiently and effectively into the future. We're very eager to bring you our experts to walk you through it. But before we get started, there are a couple of housekeeping items I'd like to review.
MARSHA MUENSTER
First of all, all attendees are on mute. If you have any audio or video issues, please let us know using the ask questions section on your screen. You can also use the question section to ask our panelists any questions about today's topic. We will be answering those towards the end. However, feel free to enter them at any time.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Lastly, this session is being recorded. Everyone who signed up for today's webinar will receive a link to view on demand. I am excited to introduce our panel as I have the opportunity to hand select this group from my personal network based on their expertise that each of them will contribute to our conversation today. They represent multiple regions from California to the Midwest. And as a business owner myself, I look forward to hearing their perspective and valuable wisdom.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Let's meet the team. Kristen, if you'd like to go first.
KRISTEN VOSTER
Sure. Hi, good morning. My name is Kristen Voster. I am a CPA and the owner of Fox Valley CPAs, which is located in Appleton, Wisconsin. We specialize in small business tax and accounting.
KRISTEN VOSTER
We prepare business, individual tax returns, as well as payroll processing, consulting, tax planning services, bookkeeping, and financial statement preparation. Marcia and her husband Cody have been clients at Fox Valley CPA since 2017 when they came in for their business and individual tax return preparation. I'm also part of a networking group that Cody formed in 2019. I'm looking forward to sharing some information with all of you today.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Thank you, Kristen. Alexandra, please introduce yourself.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
Hi, I'm Alexandra Watkins. I am the founder of a branding firm that specializes in naming things. We are called Eat My Words. And the reason we're named that is we started out naming things that make people fat and drunk. And my claim to fame is that I named the Wendy's Baconator.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
So if you have ever eaten a Baconator, you have literally eaten my words. I'm also the author of this book, Hello My Name Is Awesome, How to Create Brand Names That Stick. It was named a top 10 marketing book by Inc Magazine. And I was also the author in residence at the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center. We at Eat My Words, we name everything from robots to racehorses.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
Right now we're naming, you know, we just named some autonomous surface vessels that will be used by the military. We're naming socks. It's really all over the place, but I love what I do. Our sweet spot is names that make people smile instead of scratch their head. And I'm in San Diego, California, and I'm just really happy to be here.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
And I know Marsha through her husband, Cody, who is my fantastic business coach.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Thank you, Alexandra. Really excited to have you today. And Joey, if you could introduce yourself, please.
JOEY VITALE
Absolutely. Hey, everybody. My name is Joey Vitale. I'm very just excited and honored to be here. Also came to this group through Marsha and Cody as my business coach.
JOEY VITALE
I run a trademark law firm called Indi Law, where my team is just really passionate about giving owners peace of mind on the legal side. And we're now in our sixth year, and we focus exclusively on trademarks. We learned as a law firm that protecting your brand, your business name, logo, slogan is a really crucial, critical part of a business asset that you need to protect, that a lot of business owners weren't thinking about when they would go to an attorney for help with things like LLCs, contracts. So we decided to really focus on trademarks after we were dealing with so many business owners that were getting blindsided by cease and desist letters. And as we grew the business, we really leaned a lot on virtual team, overseas virtual assistants, and I created a lot of love for just the game changing secret that can be adding an a layer of overseas support to your business to create more sustainable profit, and it's just been a total game changer for our firms. So now we started a second business called Skybreaker that's all about building your overseas, trusted dream team.
JOEY VITALE
So again, I'm so excited to be here. I I I'm just I'm lucky to be here with these awesome women, and I know we're gonna be talking about a lot of important stuff on the business side. Hopefully I can add helpful value on the legal and team side of things as well.
MARSHA MUENSTER
That sounds great. We definitely know that you will, Joey. So let's get started then. Let's start talking about some of these topics. And I really want to start with one that is important and relevant for all businesses, and that is AI and chat GPT.
MARSHA MUENSTER
So curious, Alexandra, maybe if we can start with you. What was your first impression of it?
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
Well, I was pretty terrified of it when it started to become really popular. My business had slowed down and as a namer and words, I was very worried that ChatGPG was going to replace me. And so Cody gave me the advice like, look, you have to really embrace it and get ahead of it. And that's what I've done. And I've learned to love it.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
I use it constantly and I use it for everything from hasn't caught up with me. It's pretty far away from being an amazing namer, but it's great for helping me kick off my brainstorming. It's actually pretty good at taglines, but I use it every day for improving my communication. I often will write a letter and then I'll put the letter or an email, then I'll put it into ChatGPT and ask it to smooth it out, make it more professional. Whatever it is I need to do, it will do.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
And one thing that I've learned to use it for that has saved a lot of time and money is writing the rationale for all of the names. So when I present 100 names to a client, I like to just come up with the names and then I ask ChatGPT to write the rationale of why it's a good name based on some parameters I put into it. And it just does it automatically. So it's helped me and it's helped my namers and that helps me keep my costs down because now it's saving them hours of time so they don't need to charge me the same amount that they might have before.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Well, thank you for sharing that. I'm sure you're not alone as far as when it was first introduced. And many of you on here today thinking about how's this gonna impact our businesses. And it's great that you've found a way to really leverage it. You're still doing the creative and the work.
MARSHA MUENSTER
I use it in a similar way of having my initial concept but it helps me to polish it up or to fine tune it from there. Joey, how about you? What has been your experience, your first impression and how are you using it now?
JOEY VITALE
Yeah, well, like Alexandra, I was scared when it came out. I was very much like, oh my gosh, the movies are all true, robots are gonna take over. And I was seeing similar conversations in like the Facebook groups and the communities of lawyers and other businesses that I'm in of, oh my gosh, our businesses, our firm's gonna be around in five years because of this. Thanks, Alexandra.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
The robots are taking over. I'm sorry.
JOEY VITALE
But I've since talked to so many people who are helping us see how this is helping us save so much time, and it's really helping us get better and better. I actually attended a conference last week that was the it's the biggest conference for law firm owners, and there were over I've heard 15,000 people in the room and watching online, and the the main message on the first keynote was AI is not going to replace lawyers, but AI is going to replace lawyers that don't use AI. And I think for me that was the big take away. This is really going to, even the playing field, make it more and more accessible for business owners and entrepreneurs to get into the game for there to be more competitors. And so we've already seen that happen with technology, but I think there's gonna be a really accelerated layer to that where there's going to be a lot more competition or collaboration with other types of businesses, And it's going to be a lot of to what extent are you using AI to help you and your business rise above the rest?
MARSHA MUENSTER
I think that message at the conference is relevant to so many, right? That it's not a replacement, but it is with AI or what's the alternative? So a great reason to really embrace it. In addition to AI being a topic, another one for all businesses is really the importance of employee retention and recruiting. And for each of you, I'm curious how your business is handling this hectic recruiting landscape today from remote work, hybrid labor shortages in tech.
MARSHA MUENSTER
There's so much happening right now. Kristen, curious from your perspective.
KRISTEN VOSTER
Yeah, so it's such a challenging environment right now. So we were always actively looking for new employees, basically using our internal network to find people. If I hear about a great candidate, I'll reach out to them directly and ask if they're just willing to have a conversation with me. There's some things here that set us apart from other firms, so that's been working really well. Retaining employees, I am very understanding of, you know, their schedule and them requesting time off for their family.
KRISTEN VOSTER
I also provide annual employee bonuses that are measurable and that are delivered timely and on a consistent basis. And then I give employees small incentives during the year to help kind of keep them going and make them happy. I also am sure that I'm always treating them with respect.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Always a good idea. Alexandra, Well, how about
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
for me, it's always been easy to attract people to eat my words because one, we have a fun name and two, people, I mean, getting paid to dream up names really is a dream job. So it's easy to find people. But what I do is even if I'm not looking for anyone at the moment, I always have, we have the ultimate name or challenge on our website where somebody can come in and take a task and submit name ideas for a fictitious product to us. And so that way I constantly am getting people applying. So when I need new talent, I don't have to start looking.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
It's already there. But I only work with contractors. It's just a good business model for me, but I treat them like employees in the best way possible. I give bonuses, incentives. I send gifts.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
One of my best namers just had a baby. I sent her a really nice baby shower gift. So I try to treat them how I would wanna be treated and I was a freelancer for a long time. And I make them feel visible. I don't hide them behind a curtain.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Yeah, Joey, what are your thoughts?
JOEY VITALE
Yeah, well, for some context, I work with a lot of business owners that are below or right at that million dollar a year mark. I know that we've got a pretty big spectrum of business owners that are attending this, and so because of that, one of our focuses is what we call hiring from the bottom up. So there's a lot of talk in my circles about bringing on overseas VAs or very part time US teammates to fill in more administrative work, which both can free up you as the business owner from doing that work when you need to focus on higher value tasks, but also can free up the rest of the team if you have one, so they can focus on the work that matters the most in their roles. And we've seen time and time again that when a company makes a bigger risk of bringing on a hire that they can barely afford or a rock star that they're like, if this works, then we really don't wanna lose them, then it can create a lot of stress of either it doesn't work out, or maybe they're not a good culture fit because they wanna keep them because they're good, or they leave and now there's a vacuum, and because you didn't do a Kristin set of always be recruiting, you don't have someone to fill that spot.
JOEY VITALE
And so we've just seen a much more like peace of mind and sustainable route of making sure that we're hiring from the bottom and elevating them up versus trying to find higher level leaders and and more skilled workers to directly bring in.
MARSHA MUENSTER
That's a good perspective. So one, you know, with, Kristen and Alexandra, really how you treat them, And then also thinking through that logic when you're hiring from Joey. Curious for the group then, what advice would you give to retain or attract top talent to the group? So Alexandra, you had mentioned how when you hire contractors, you treat them as employees. What else would
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
you suggest? Well, I give them exciting incentives. So for instance, when we're working on a naming project, they're required to, everybody sends me 75 names. That's the minimum. But I say, give them all.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
I will double your pay if the client chooses and trademarks your name. And that's a really exciting incentive for them to try harder and give more names. And I honor that and it makes it fun. It almost gamifies it for them. Like it makes it a contest.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
And then they're really vested. And one thing I will say I love about Joey's firm is Joey keeps you posted along the way in the trademark process, which I've never seen another firm do. And what I do is as the clients are reviewing the names, trademarking, I keep all of the namers posted so they feel like they're part of a process. And I know from when I was a freelancer, you submit the names, you never hear another word. So making people feel part of the process is huge.
MARSHA MUENSTER
That is great. It's so important today to have a purpose within work for so many people. It's very common as far as feedback of employees and that gives them that not only do they provide the name, but they're involved all the way through until they see it go live and it becomes real. And every time they see that they can connect to it. So that's a great thought.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Kristen, how about you?
KRISTEN VOSTER
Yeah, so I think the really important thing to do in today's market is you have to be able to differentiate your company from another company somehow. So for us, we have this measurable revenue production bonus that's provided. It's shown, each employee knows, and it gives them an advantage over another firm in the area. So they might work somewhere else, work eighty hours a week, get paid x salary, and that's it. Here, you're getting paid based on what you're doing.
KRISTEN VOSTER
So it's kind of this added incentive for them to be, you know, producing and then they're happy because they're going to make more money and they're doing the same job essentially. So I think that just finding that way you can differentiate your company as compared to another one in your industry is really important.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Yes, and Joey.
JOEY VITALE
Yeah. Well, know this sounds corny, but it's been so true in our business. We hire 100% on culture fit and alignment with our core values and not skill set. And especially when by the time we get to interviewing a candidate, so much of those interview questions are targeted towards are you going to be a good culture fit versus more types of are you qualified for this role? And we've just seen time and time again with ourselves and other companies that we consult with that when someone sacrifices a little bit of core value alignment and bringing on a hire, even if they're really good at their job, it tends to not last for very long, and if it does, it can become toxic across the whole company.
JOEY VITALE
And so that's something that we've learned to just continue to say steadfast with and to keep our recruiting team top of mind is we're looking for the people that are the biggest examples of us living out our core values.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Nice. So as you're looking at the advice of it, it's really having what are those standards, Before you go to recruit, being able to really identify that so that you're not negotiating on it and you can really say these are the things that we're gonna do in order to build that culture or whatever for your company is the most important as you look to retain and recruit that talent.
JOEY VITALE
Yeah, Marcia real quick if I can just add to that. Absolutely. If you feel like you don't know what your core values are or you feel like they're not very clear, it can be a really helpful exercise to look at your existing team or past teammates and say, what about them made them not a good fit here? Having conversations around that or just journaling on it can really help you clarify, okay, if they weren't a good fit, can that means that there's something about that? That that how can we come up with a word or a phrase that really clarifies what makes a person a good fit in that type of situation.
MARSHA MUENSTER
What a great idea. It's much easier to see something and be able to put words to it than sometimes conceptually what the values are. So I really like suggestion. If this is what didn't work, you can take the opposite and that'll help you define what will work. Good, does anyone else have any comments on that?
MARSHA MUENSTER
Otherwise we will move to the next topic. This one is also one that you should be thinking about. It's when or at least you're hearing about it. Inflation recession really setting budgets during a crazy time. So thinking about this, the new year will be starting soon.
MARSHA MUENSTER
How should your business be going about budgeting now versus investing in the Joey, what were your what's your thoughts on this one?
JOEY VITALE
Yeah. Well well, again, just to set the context again, we work with a lot of companies at that million dollar ish level, and a lot of it there just to give you an example, we have a lot of companies that we work with both on the trademark side and on the team side, that have a goal of like 500 ks for the year. And so their Q4, their 2024 goals are all kind of in how can we get in alignment with this? And if you break things down, if you want to work, let's say twenty hours a week, we work with a lot of lifestyle entrepreneurs that don't want to work forty hours a week. If your goal is 500 ks a year and your goal is twenty hours a week, then you need to be spending your time, just according to the math, on $1,000 an hour tasks, dollars 500 an hour tasks and up.
JOEY VITALE
So you really do have to delegate what you can to free up your time and what matters most. And so a huge thing in terms of just getting ready for the new year for us and prepping is if we're gonna hit these big goals, then especially in times of inflation or a possible recession, I need to be super disciplined in how I'm spending my time so that I can show up as well as I can for the company.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Yes, thank you for that example. Kristen, what are your thoughts on this one?
KRISTEN VOSTER
Yeah, so I get this question asked a lot by my clients, especially this time of year, so towards the end of the year. So coming from like my background in the tax side of things, tax planning is important. You want to kind of figure out where you're at for the year, figure out where your tax liability is now through tax planning. That way on April 15, you don't have a big surprise. Right?
KRISTEN VOSTER
So my other advice would be to make decisions based on current tax law. So we all wish we had a crystal ball. Everyone asks me what's going to happen next year? You know, what's going on with tax? I always urge people just whatever the current tax law is now, hypothetical, base your decisions on that.
KRISTEN VOSTER
Also, purchase items. Like, if you need some additional items for your company, make sure you're purchasing what you need. I don't recommend buying things just to reduce your tax liability. So the good purchases would be, are they going to increase your revenue? Is it going to increase productivity?
KRISTEN VOSTER
Then great. Great purchases. You know, go ahead and do that. So a lot of my my thoughts would be what do you need? What's going to help you with revenue and then productivity and then make those decisions now because you have until December 31 to put those in place for this year.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Well, good. As each of you is planning for your end of 2023 and looking into 2024, I'm curious what the goals are for each of you as you end this year and what should businesses be looking at going forward? Kristen, would you like to start?
KRISTEN VOSTER
Sure, yeah. I actually keep like an annual checklist here that has a due date of which month it should be done in. So I want to make sure that that's done before the end of the year so we're basically ready for tax season and we can roll into it just knowing we're ready to go. You know, and I also set goals for 2024 revenue and production for the employees, for the company, and make sure that budget's complete as well.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Nice, it's a great idea to have an annual checklist because you don't remember all the little things unless you have it documented. So that's a nice process to have in place. Alexandra, how about from your side?
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
One thing that I'm trying to do is productize my business more. I have a new service called Fun Size, where we it's an inexpensive service and it gives people a fun size serving of names. And it's something that can be, I'm sure it can be automated. I'm using VAs. Skybreaker has provided me with some fantastic VAs.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
So I'm using doing that. And then also looking at bringing on either operations person and thinking about a successor.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Nice. Well, those are some good things. Joey, what does your Q3 and beyond look like?
JOEY VITALE
Yeah. We are looking at really three things for next year. The first is to really level up our social media game by embracing a video first marketing strategy. So, by the end of this month and into next year, I'm going to be on YouTube for the first time, which is going to be a big step out of my comfort zone, but we're really excited to lean into long form video that can be repurposed into short term video, Reels, social media posts, graphics, and everything down from there. So that'll be really fun.
JOEY VITALE
The second thing is me attending more conferences. When we look back this year, we definitely saw upticks in leads and sales every time I went to a conference, especially if I spoke somewhere, so we really want to double down on that for the next year. And then the third thing is we really wanna help both businesses grow on autopilot more, and see how long things can run without me. Both so that I can take a break and be with my family and friends more, but also because we're realizing that's a really important metric to track. So I'm gonna be going to Sicily at least twice next year for a month and we'll see what might break down when I'm gone.
MARSHA MUENSTER
It's a great way to think about it. Whether you're on the side of building the system, so maybe that's something new and how Alexandra is productizing it or if you're on the side of let's see if it breaks while I'm gone. Either way, it's great to have that clarity. So for each of us to really understand what is the clarity and how are we gonna measure Q3 or Q4 and then really prepare as we move forward. So then organizing for 2024.
MARSHA MUENSTER
As we come to the end of 2023, what does this look like for you in the current landscape and what is your advice for other business owners? Planning is such a big thing for you, Kristen. I'd love for you to take a little time and explain what you suggest for the business owners.
KRISTEN VOSTER
Sure, so definitely look at your staff. Do you need additional employees? I hired somebody for this upcoming tax season, so we'll be adding an employee, which is nice. Definitely getting organized and having that checklist if you have that done. Get your financial statements in order.
KRISTEN VOSTER
That's really, really important because you need that to make any decisions. So just really being kind of having a pulse on everything that's going on in your business is really important.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Nice. Alexandra, what would you suggest?
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
Oh, I think just, yeah, looking into your crystal ball and scheduling things on your calendar. So if they're already on there, you're committed to doing them. And that could be, you know, every Monday morning posting something on LinkedIn, but just having something repetitive. One thing I'm really focused on right now is being on more podcasts. I've been on almost, I think 85 so far.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
And so I'm using one of my VAs to reach out to podcasters. I'm also using ChatGPT in some really creative ways there. So, yeah, just doing a lot of planning that way, just to keep me top of mind, because sometimes I can get so focused on the business or working on the day to day that I forget to do things like automate, you know, every Monday, put something on LinkedIn. But yeah, Joey is Joey. I'm always catching up to Joey, but I love just the YouTube strategy.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
You know, that's something I'll look at next year.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Yeah, nice. One thing you had shared with me, Alexandra, was also the focus that if there's too many things, sometimes it's good to really select one and focus. And I think that aligns to what Joey is doing as well. So whether it's LinkedIn for your business or YouTube or whatever channel it is, anything that you'd wanna speak to about that and really having that focus versus kind of getting spread too thin?
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
Yeah, LinkedIn right now is my medium. And I've just found that if you can, it is too much for me to do, you know, Facebook and Instagram. And right now I'm on YouTube. There's a lot of on YouTube because every podcast is also a vodcast and gets put on YouTube. So I do have a lot there, but not my own channel per se.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
But yeah, just focus on one and then you really build traction. So this week I put something on LinkedIn every day and I haven't had to try it. I've just had a lot of news to share. So just building your audience and where is your audience? My audience, business people, they're on LinkedIn.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Yeah, very good point. Also, by having it focused, it's easier to have that content, right? If you're trying to do it across all channels, it can make it a little bit more challenging to keep up with relevant content. Yeah, Joey, can I
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
just I'm sorry, I just want to get one? So on LinkedIn, I've noticed this trend. If there's something you do and you can be not really vulnerable, but just because everybody said, you know, I'm excited to announce. But I recently on Monday gave a talk for the New York Public Library. And that to me was that was really the pinnacle of, I mean, I've given talks at the Stanford Business School many, many times, but to me, the New York Public Library was at the same level.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
And by telling people that on LinkedIn, like I am, this is so exciting for me. Like, one of the most exciting moments of my life was seeing my book on the shelves of the New York Public Library and now being invited to speak to them. And by just being honest like that, I got so much traction out of that because people felt my excitement and it was really real. So I think if you can do things like that And I posted a photo of the New York Public Library with the two lions in front. And I was telling my friend about it and he's like, Oh, like from Breakfast at Tiffany's.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
And he's an author too. And I'm hooking him up with them. And I said, Oh, when you speak there, you should post a screenshot from Breakfast at Tiffany's when they go to the New York Public Library. People love that stuff. You know, it's a little, it's like, you know, because so many people use like just generic stock photos when they're posting on social, try to be a little more creative.
MARSHA MUENSTER
I love that. Thank you for sharing that story. So yes, it's creative. And also exactly like you said, they can actually experience it and be happy with you where instead of it just being an announcement which doesn't really carry the feelings and the emotion and the desire to read it and share it and all of those types of things. That's a great example.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Joey, what is your thoughts as you look at 2024 and what you would give advice to business owners, what would it be?
JOEY VITALE
Yeah, well, man, there's been some, I mean, great advice already and I'm catching up to Alexandra on the LinkedIn side, but I love that tip of being creative. I mean, one of the best posts that we that I've done recently was using AI. I found some AI app that, put me in a cheetah pimp suit, and so we put a headshot of that, and it was a pretty funny thing to to see because that's definitely not in my wardrobe. In terms of advice for next year, I would I would say that it's it's becoming very easy and natural right now to fall into a trap where you as a business owner just want to survive right now. And I think there are, I get it, but there are so many examples of businesses that are having their best months ever this year, and they're not slowing down.
JOEY VITALE
So I just think from a mindset space, continuing to go into the next year with this idea of we're going to thrive next year, not just survive. And maybe that means revenue growth, maybe that just means we're going to become way more profitable next year at the same revenue level than going after this bigger revenue number. But that's my main mantra going into next year, and definitely in this fourth quarter of we're gonna be thriving right now, not just surviving in this tough time.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Nice and good to really get specific on what thriving means because it doesn't always have to be revenue growth, right? It can be profitability, it can be other things, but whatever that growth is to commit to it and then work towards making it happen because you might as well focus on what you can control, right? We can't control the uncontrollables. In looking at the year then, I also am curious of what predictions you have as a group. So if you're looking at 2024 ahead, what would you predict is going to happen?
MARSHA MUENSTER
Alexandra, what are your thoughts?
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
I think ChatGPT is going to continue to shake things up. Think a lot of people haven't even tried it yet. People are really intimidated by the name Jot GPT, and it is a really strange, strange name. By the way, if you can't remember GPT, because a lot of people butcher it, I asked Jot GPT, how can I how can people remember GPT? And they they gave me a lot of acronyms, but my favorite was giant pounders typing.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
So embrace JAT GPT and just be prepared for more things to shake up. But like Joey said, have fun with it. Like, Joey's pimp suit leopard pimp suit. Oh my gosh. That was the best.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
Yeah. I made a logo for someone the other day. I just asked ChatGPT. I I named a well, I can't say what I named, but I used ChatGPT to come up with a logo idea. And, yeah, it's it's pretty cool what you can do with it and just get creative, but be prepared for more things to shake up.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Nice. I like that idea. And I do want to remind everyone as we're going through these, if you have questions, please post them. So we'd be happy to answer them. Any thoughts that you have on the things being discussed.
MARSHA MUENSTER
So we encourage you to use the question and answer section for that. Joey, I'm curious what you think or what your predictions are for next year.
JOEY VITALE
Yeah, well, just following up on what Alexandra says, I do think that despite all of the tech improvements that are happening, I think business is only gonna get more and more human. I think that the businesses that stand out are gonna be the ones that continue to find ways to just really reach people where they're at. And one of my clients who I just absolutely loved working with, they actually coined the term and have the trademark for the term H2H. And so they did a TED Talk saying business is no longer B2B or B2C, it's all H2H. I think that's going to happen more and more where business is all just going to be about a human to human relationship between you and your audience and your customers.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Nice, and thanks for sharing that. That'll be the first many of us hear it, but probably not the last. So H2H, a new term. Kristen, I know that you get asked often for your crystal ball as to what is going to happen. So what are your thoughts?
MARSHA MUENSTER
What are you predicting within the things that you believe are going to happen?
KRISTEN VOSTER
Yeah, so I've also noticed business growth is really strong. So I have clients in multiple industries and they're doing very, very well. So I think that that's good. So that means pay attention to your financial statements, you know, keep looking at that, really dig into it because I think things are going well, so there might be an opportunity for additional revenue or net profit. So the planning aspect, if you're not doing that now, make sure you get into that more this year.
KRISTEN VOSTER
I think the employee retention issue is going to continue. So, again, maybe try to focus on finding employees, keeping the good ones that you have because I think that that's gonna continue to be a challenge in 2024, so it's important to kinda keep the good ones you have and maybe continue to recruit every year. As far as tax law changes, again, I have no idea. Flip a quarter, not sure. So continue to make decisions based on what the current laws are.
MARSHA MUENSTER
That sounds good. And we did get a question in on this topic from the group, so thank you for that. So whoever would like to take this, what is the main area you recommend a business level up their human experience? And on the flip side, where do you most recommend they level up the use of their technology?
JOEY VITALE
Mhmm. Well, can take this. It's good to see you, Kjell. So I'll I'll share a quick story that's very recent, like as of this week, because what we we're starting to see, especially with our law firm, is we really wanna be a human law firm. We want to make sure that we're treating our customers as nice as we can, and we really value giving them a low effort experience through the trademark process.
JOEY VITALE
And for years, we've had this slogan that we've been using, not really slogan, but just motto of like, We make trademarks easy. And that is true that when we help clients and there's nothing that happens out of our control that creates roadblocks, it's a smooth process. But the truth is that trademarks are hard and the process is complicated, and there are times when, whether it's the federal government or other companies with trademarks, create real roadblocks for the experience, And we're noticing that we can be more effective in how we're onboarding and having certain types of intake conversations with new leads, because if we're always saying we make trademarks easy, and then hard stuff happens, it can feel like we're breaking that promise. So we're really starting to shift our language now of saying, look, trademarks are hard, they are complicated, but we are gonna be in your corner the whole time. That way people aren't as caught off guard when these complications happen.
JOEY VITALE
And then in terms of leveling up technology, I'll name drop Cody again. One of our difficult things right now is making sure that we are staffing our phones with people who are calling, and frankly, we're getting a lot of calls just from people who want to talk to an attorney but don't need trademark help, and so it's hard for us to find the staff at a budget that makes sense for our company right now to fill those, and Cody has connected us to someone who can basically help us create an AI phone staff. And if this works out, it's gonna be amazing for us, because that way we can answer the phone right away. It can still sound somewhat hopefully human on that call, but we'll be able to know at that very beginning stage of hopefully them working with us, that they are a good qualified fit for us. And if not, we can send them in other directions.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Nice and thank you for sharing that. I mean, there's a lot there, Joey. So one of the things is the transparency when we go back to how you're telling the clients that it is hard and really the value of your company is making it look easy. So at the end of the day, the goal is still an easy experience, but it's not because it's easy, it's because that's the value you're providing, but to really let them know that it is challenging. So I like that piece.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Then on the AI side, I'll also comment. So I do have some experience with those phone systems and AI and there's so much potential with things like that. And one of the interesting things is we've had a lot of conversations internally and with others that are interested or in that space. And one of the things that they've said is you don't have to necessarily, it doesn't have to be human too. You can always disclose that it's AI calling.
MARSHA MUENSTER
And so there's ways of really lightening that for those of you who feel that there might be some risk involved, but just watching how much has transformed over the last six months. If I were to add a prediction in it's that that is going to continue to grow at that speed and soon some of those things will be very common where right now it's really cutting edge. So Kristen or Alexandra, any comments or any thoughts on this question as a whole from your side?
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
Yeah, I would say, and hi, Shell. Nice to see you. When Joey said, hi, Shell. I'm like, I don't know a Shell. I'm like, oh, Shell, hi.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
Yeah, for me, it's like your employees permission to be creative and embrace and explore new things. Even if you're like, oh, I don't know about this AI phone system thing. Let somebody try that out. And I'm gonna tell you, I love H2H. Joey, that's so great.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
And I'm gonna tell you about a really magical experience that happened for me this week. On our website, we have a test called the Smile and Scratch test, where you can test the strength of any brand name. And I get the answers to all the tests emailed to me. So one guy that took the test, I started having a conversation with him and I looked him up on LinkedIn and I discovered some things we had in common. So we were going back and forth.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
And I asked him who he had read my book and I said, who recommended your book to me? I'm curious. So he told me about this guy who's like this bazillionaire. And and I was like, wow. That's great.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
Do you have his email? He's like, well, I don't have his email, but I have his cell cell phone number. You should just, you know, get in touch with him. And I'm like, ugh. You know?
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
I don't know. But I made him a video. I never do this, but Cody always makes videos. I'm like, I'm gonna make a video. So I made a video on my pink Barbie phone.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
Just a really fun video. Like, hi. Thank you, you know, with his name. You know, thank you so I'm I know you don't know me. Oh, I did my my fun little mystery mug, you know, in the beginning.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
You know, who is this mysterious woman? And I made a fun video, like, thank you so much for recommending my book. You know, I held it up. And he he he immediately texted me back. What a creative video.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
I want to order a 100 of your books for my mastermind group and have you come speak at one of our conferences.
JOEY VITALE
Mhmm.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
Like, you know, so be create creative. Be human. Right? So embrace human, embrace AI, but don't forget to be human too.
MARSHA MUENSTER
And I also like the vulnerability of that, right? Okay, maybe it made you a little uncomfortable. It's not always the things that are comfortable, but by stepping out, the reward was worth it, right? The moment you get that message of, hey, now you've got, you exceeded probably what your expectation was when sending it. And that wouldn't have happened if you let fear take over there.
MARSHA MUENSTER
So great job doing that and for sharing it. I hope that inspires everyone to do that thing that may pay off and maybe you're a little hesitant to do, whether it's making an AI phone call or sending a video like that. So that was great. I also want to go back on the topic of the leveling up for tech. And this is one, Kristen, that I think maybe you can comment on.
MARSHA MUENSTER
When you look at leveling up for tech, cybersecurity is a big topic. And I'm assuming in your business, Kristen, that would be relevant. Maybe you can speak to that from a tech standpoint.
KRISTEN VOSTER
Sure, yeah, of course we have every year software upgrades, tech software, internal systems, things like that. My IT provider is so important to me, of course. I also have a cybersecurity policy which if I did not, I probably wouldn't be able to sleep at night. But yeah, I think it's so important right now. You know, I attend webinars and I do research on this and honestly, like what they're saying is basically it's not a matter of if, but when someone's going to try to attack your business.
KRISTEN VOSTER
So even a small business, medium, large, it doesn't matter. At some point someone's going to try. If you have certain systems in place, hopefully that's prevented. If somehow they do get through, though, that cybersecurity policy, you know, honestly, it's very, very reasonable what I pay for that per year. So it's well worth the dollars spent.
KRISTEN VOSTER
It helps me, give peace of mind that we're protected in case something happens, our clients would be protected in some manner. So I do recommend that you reach out to your insurance company and just get a quote. Know, can't hurt anything, of course. It'll take a few minutes and you fill out a small form, but very, very important. Within that also updating software, Microsoft updates, all of those updates for your computer, Apple, whatever device you carry, those updates are helping with preventing the cyber breaches because they're updating problems within the system.
KRISTEN VOSTER
So make sure you're updating your software as well.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Yes, thank you for that. And really, we all want to be able to sleep at night, right? So if you haven't thought about cybersecurity, the checking your policy, great advice. Then when they come back, sometimes they're going to require you to do some things which is really helpful. What they're going to ask of you is going to help to prevent your business, your data, your customers, your employees.
MARSHA MUENSTER
So looking at that as a really good opportunity and definitely a takeaway for the group if it's something you haven't tackled. Joey, did you have any thoughts on that topic at all?
JOEY VITALE
I mean, I defer to Kristen 100% on that. I do think that it's only a matter of when. Obviously Kristen knows this world a lot more than I do, but one thing that I know I need to do a better job of, and I'll just encourage you all to follow me in in doing this, is, like, change your passwords, make them complicated. I think I should probably shouldn't say this publicly, but, like, I still get the Google and the Apple alerts that say, like, hey. You have 200 accounts with the same password.
JOEY VITALE
I wish there was a way for me to to change all of those super quickly, but I my limited knowledge of how all of this works is that one of the best things you can do is is have strong passwords and set up that two factor authentication. And just a pro tip that we've learned the hard way on our end, we use Slack across our team channel, and so for certain instances where we do really need team access to a certain type of shared account, we do have things set up and automations triggered so that that two factor authentication code can get very quickly shared to the whole team in case someone on the team that has that password or has through LastPass or whatever access to that, they can just copy and paste from there instead of asking me or someone else what the cell phone number or what the code was.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Yes, and great, I'm glad that you brought that up. And in case anyone doesn't know what two factor is, it's just giving a second verification. So in the event that someone gets your password and they go to log into the account, it is gonna notify you, you've probably received on your phone a text message with a code that you have to enter. That's an example of it. So by having that extra layer there, it really will provide again more preventative measures.
MARSHA MUENSTER
And although speaking to what Jo Anne said about, yes, it does take a lot of effort to change those passwords. It's the amount of effort there will be if you don't change them and then you have a breach or a situation. So it's always that balance of what to do and when to do it. But it is something I would highly encourage you to do is those complex passwords and the multifactor, if nothing more, right? And then to go to the beyond of the insurance policies and really taking it to the next step depending on your business, the risk and your comfort so that you can sleep at night.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Well, good. Well, thank you for that information. What I'd like to do now is just take a few minutes. Each one of Joey, Alexandra and Kristen all have some things that they're going to give as gifts for participating today. So I'd like to give them an opportunity to talk through what the resources that they're going to be sharing with you are, how you can utilize them.
MARSHA MUENSTER
And then we will after that come back for some additional questions and answers. So Kristen, if you would like to go first.
KRISTEN VOSTER
Sure, yeah. If you'd like to go to the website, which is fbcpa.com, you can sign up for a monthly newsletter. It gives you great tax tips and advice every month. Also, there's helpful tax guidance, so if you click on the tax center section, you can do some research and kind of find some forms and some information that will be useful. We also if you would like to use our internal checklist, you can customize that based on your business and kinda it'll help keep you organized during the year and think about some things that probably you think about after, like, oh, yeah.
KRISTEN VOSTER
I forgot we we do that every year. And also, if you're located in Wisconsin because we are a Wisconsin based CPA firm, if you're located in the state and you'd like to reach out, we can provide you with a one hour consultation to go through your tax return, your accounting software, and give you a recommendation, you know, on what we see.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Thank you, Kristen. Also, will be sharing these resources after, so be aware that you will be getting a communication and they will be shared in the bottom right hand corner of the council. So you'll get access to them. As far as the checklist, great idea to customize it to make it your own. We really appreciate you sharing what you have Kristin because I'm sure there's ideas on there that we might have missed or not thought of.
MARSHA MUENSTER
And then we can also add the things that we need to do based on the structure of our business and how often and when we're going to do those. Seasonality is another good option for that. It may not be something that you do all at once, but maybe in each season there are certain things and by creating that list, you'll make sure that they're done consistently and not forgotten. So that's great. Alexandra, what is it that you have that you're willing to share with the group?
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
Well, if you go to eatmywords.com, there are two free things there for you. One is our free test a name test, and that's the smile and scratch test. So you can run your name through there, any name as many times as you want. It's free to take the test. You will learn a lot evaluating your name.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
You'll get tips along the way. And when you submit it with your email, you will get a free lesson from my online course, How to Create Super Sticky Brand Names. And the free lesson is five costly domain mistakes you must avoid. And it's imperative that you watch it before buying a domain name, but it's really fun and playful as well. And also there is a free mini masterclass on our website and both the test a name and free mini masterclass are right in the top level navigation.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
And I just created a new offer where I will review, I personally will review a human person, a name expert will review up to 40 names and they can be generated by AI. They can be generated by you. I'll do it for $500 And if you choose, and I can give you a little help along the way, it's a half hour call with me. And if you say, you know what, Alexandra, you guys do it for me. I don't like any of these names after all.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
You do it for me. You can apply that $500 to any of our services, including fund size. And that is at you can find it on our website, but it's also at pronamereview.com.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Nice. Okay, and those will, as I mentioned, be shared so you can go and take those. I'm sure some of you are very interested to do the test and see how your name stacks up. And Joey, you have several things that you're going to be offering. If you could please give us a little insight into those.
JOEY VITALE
Yeah, I feel like Santa Claus. I've got all the gifts. I will say though that, I mean, nothing feels better than having a name that's approved by Alexandra and and Eat My Words. So it's a really good feeling when you when you get her two thumbs up. In terms of of what I have to offer, number one, in terms of just free consultation calls, whether that's because don't yet have a trademark and need help on the trademark side, or you'd like to explore more of the world of virtual assistants, we do offer free consultation strategy sessions on on both of those.
JOEY VITALE
We also have a really great freebie on the legal side. One of the things that we don't do, but we get asked about a lot, is help with contracts. So what we've decided to do is we've created a legal bundle that includes five or six of the most commonly asked contracts that we get asked for. And so that's totally free and they're very We've created them so they're both attorney drafted, but also in plain English and requires customization. So it's pretty easy once you see them to make the small tweaks and then start using them.
JOEY VITALE
And then on the team building side, a lot of people say, hey, I'm interested in bringing on a new VA, but I don't exactly know what I would have them help with first. And one of our big pro tips is if you're still managing your inbox alone, it's really awesome to bring on a VA that can help you manage your inbox, get you to inbox zero, and maybe over time even reply to emails on your behalf. We've got a free Master Your Inbox course that you can take as well that walks you through our step of how I use VAs, and even if you don't have a VA, it can just help you organize and create a process for being better at your inbox, which I know a lot of people don't like talking about, but it's a big pain point. And then finally, I really wanna just plug Cody again and Cultivate Advisors. They've been life changing to I think everybody on this call, but they've really helped my businesses so much, they've got a really great new report.
JOEY VITALE
It's called the Business Health and Value Assessment. I've taken it. It's super helpful. It's this form that only takes maybe fifteen minutes to fill out, and when you're done, you get this really detailed report showing you the health of your business and what matters most in terms of opportunities for improvement. So it can be really good for you to see, okay, what should I really be focusing on improving over the next quarter, over the next year?
JOEY VITALE
And then the second part of the report is a really light evaluation of your company saying based on what you've told us, if you ever wanted to sell it, it's currently worth about this. And if you make the changes that we're telling you you should make, here's how that would increase in value. So it's a really amazing free document that you can use just to help figure out next steps as a business owner, because I know there there can be a really long laundry list of things that you could do to help your business, and it really helped me stay focused on what mattered most.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Nice, you are right, it is like Christmas. There's a lot of variety there, Jerry. So one, the legal bundle contracts, I mean, how great if any of you are in a situation of not having those contracts in place, you can reference them, you can change them, adjust them a little bit for what you need. Inbox, I agree that, can you ever actually master your inbox? There's so much that goes into that.
MARSHA MUENSTER
So any tips and things that are working for you, a very helpful resource along with the evaluation. So if you're just looking at your business as a whole, where should you focus? If you're potentially planning for next year and uncertain of that, maybe that business evaluation could help. And then if you don't even know where to begin that consultation So he's willing to just, hey, let's have a conversation about it and see where you can go from there. So thank you all for those generous gifts.
MARSHA MUENSTER
I really encourage everyone that's attending to pick and choose. You know, maybe it's not all for you, but what is the one or two resources that were shared that's really gonna help you and go ahead and take the next steps with that? I'm just gonna look real quick here to see if we have any follow-up questions as we come to the end of our time together. It looks like Thank you for the shell for the really nice comments and for the participation. If anyone has another comment, feel free to share them in the group.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Otherwise, as we conclude, I really want to really thank Kristen, Joey and Alexandra for your time, for your generosity and your advice, and really for just openly sharing your perspectives and being willing to participate. So it's been a great experience. You as everyone that's attending, you can look in the bottom right hand corner for all the links, including a survey. And that survey is going to be one that we'd love you to take a few minutes to take. We're looking to provide tangible advice and value through groups of business leaders and people like yourselves.
MARSHA MUENSTER
So you'd have the ability to join these, but what we'd really like to understand is maybe how you could help shape them. What would you be interested in participating in as we begin that? So that's what the survey will reference to. Then we have all the offers from the hosts as well as some related blogs to these topics. If you're on this email or on this right now, you also receive an email.
MARSHA MUENSTER
The email will have the links to all of those resources in addition to the recorded session if you'd like to go back and reference any of the information that was shared. So I want to open it up to the group as any final thoughts as we come to the end of our time.
ALEXANDRA WATKINS
I just want to say thank you for having me. It was great to be a panelist, but also learning a lot from Joey and Kristan. And yeah, Joey always is so generous with everything he shares. And I got to say his independent contractor agreement has really, really helped me.
MARSHA MUENSTER
Sure, there is one comment. Joey, someone had just asked about, would you mind repeating the name of the company that provides the business health and value test?
JOEY VITALE
Yes, it's called Cultivate Advisors, and I believe it's cultivatedvisors.com.
MARSHA MUENSTER
And the link will be shared in the resources as well. Thank you for that. And thank you, Alexandra. We are very happy to have you on as well.
KRISTEN VOSTER
Kristen, Joey, any final thoughts? No, thank you for having me.
JOEY VITALE
Yes, thank you, guys. This has been a really awesome roundtable.
MARSHA MUENSTER
You for everyone who's joined and participated. We hope you got a lot of value, and we wish you a great day.
2024 is full of questions. What should businesses expect and how can they prepare their own strategies, budgets, campaigns, and teams for something so uncertain?
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