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How to Overcome Perfectionism and Procrastination In Your Business

How to Overcome Perfectionism and Procrastination In Your Business

by subs@stephaniehayes.biz | General Business, Mindset Mastery

How to Overcome Perfectionism and Procrastination In Your Business March 7, 2020 General Business | Mindset Mastery Keeping perfectionism at bay over the long run requires shifting acceptance, reassurance and validation from external to internal sources, and this...
Fear of Success: What To Do When What You Want Is Scary

Fear of Success: What To Do When What You Want Is Scary

by subs@stephaniehayes.biz | General Business, Mindset Mastery

Fear of Success: What To Do When What You Want Is Scary April 10, 2019 General Business | Mindset Mastery Fear of success is a legitimate thing. And it’s one that probably prevents us from moving forward more than anything else, largely because we don’t recognize it...

Recent Posts

  • Episode 2 – What’s In a Name?
  • Episode 1 – The Journey So Far
  • How to Make Spending Decisions in Uncertain Times
  • Breaking Down the Friction Between “Thinking Work” and “Doing Work”
  • How to Overcome Perfectionism and Procrastination In Your Business
Real People, Real Business
Real People, Real Business

Tired of hearing amazing stories that are inspirational but feel out of reach? Craving some real talk with people who are just like you? In Real People, Real Business, Business Strategist Stephanie Hayes interviews business owners that are building their businesses and making progress through grit, determination and action. They are working through the everyday challenges and celebrating incremental wins on their journey to their dream. Every one has a story, and each of these entrepreneurs are telling theirs in funny, vulnerable and heartwarming ways that will make you say “Yes! That’s me!” and leave you with creative ideas for breaking through that next roadblock that might just have you stuck. Celebrating all businesses and all business owners, and creating a community of real people.

Josh Fuller – Overcoming Obstacles By Going All In
byStephanie Hayes

Josh Fuller is the founder and CEO of Matic Digital, a digital strategy and talent growth agency that he grew to over $1.5M in new business in its first year. Josh shares how he did that while also battling serious health and business challenges that would have made most entrepreneurs give up – but he pushed through and kept going.

Building a business is hard work on the best of days, but when you get thrown both personal and business curve balls at the same time, it can be difficult to find the motivation to keep going under the weight of it all.

In this episode, Josh Fuller takes us on his journey to founding his creative digital company, Matic Digital, expanding his services into talent growth, and the rocky road he was forced to navigate after a serious health crisis and a non-paying client converged at the same time.

Josh tells us that he never had plans to start an agency and how he expanded from providing creative digital services to also growing and matching talent. His company focuses on acquiring top talent, and he describes the challenges, advantages and strategies he uses for retaining premium independent workers and the human-centered approach he takes that has been very successful. 

After experiencing business success after just a few months, Josh was hit with an unexpected health crisis while also dealing with a sudden drop in revenue after a large client stopped paying their invoices. He’s very candid about how he considered closing the doors on Matic Digital but details how he was able to persevere by going all in, eventually making it through to brighter days.

You’ll be inspired by Josh’s resilience in overcoming obstacles and his gift for nurturing people and relationships that has become a superpower for growing his business.

Skip to Topic:
2:19 – Launching a creative agency
3:18 – The challenges of being a 1-person show starting a business
4:17 – Branching out into talent growth
6:09- The 3 categories of clients Matic works with
9:15 – The advantages of using top talent
11:08 – Strategy for retaining top independent talent when you’re an agency
13:02 – Why they employ a nearshore strategy for hiring talent
14:11 – Maturing their anchor business model by promoting the human story
17:33 – Creating a different approach to independent work
19:55 – The importance of emphasizing why you do something over what you can do
22:08 – On working with clients in a way that’s collaborative and fun
28:41 – What sparked Josh to start an agency when he previously had no plans to do so
29:58 – The big strength that has helped Josh build his business
31:30 – Helping clients find talent that’s a best fit for them
34:21 – How the move to big agencies revealed the need for strengthened people skills
36:53 – Getting hit with both financial and health crises at the same time
43:16 – Not quitting when things were at their worst and steps Josh took to turn things around
45:02 – The surprise resolution that sparked momentum for Josh and his business
45:52 – The big piece of advice Josh has about going all in

Find Josh  at:

Website: https://www.maticdigital.co/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshfullercd/

Visit Stephanie at: https://stephaniehayes.biz/

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Josh Fuller – Overcoming Obstacles By Going All In
Josh Fuller – Overcoming Obstacles By Going All In
February 1, 2023
Stephanie Hayes
Ken Babcock – Leaving Harvard to Bet On Yourself
January 27, 2023
Stephanie Hayes
Vinnie Potestivo – Big Conversations in Small Media
January 26, 2023
Stephanie Hayes
Tommy Yionoulis – Staying the Course as a Bootstrapped Startup
January 20, 2023
Stephanie Hayes
Lindsay McMahon – Staying One Step Ahead in a Crowded Market
January 18, 2023
Stephanie Hayes
Jen Pelka – Disrupting the Wine Industry with Values-Based Branding
January 13, 2023
Stephanie Hayes
Cathy Nesbitt – Worming Your Way Into Business By Solving A Rotten Problem
January 11, 2023
Stephanie Hayes
Andrew Wolgemuth – Diamonds in the Rough – Finding Opportunity in the Most Unlikely Places
January 5, 2023
Stephanie Hayes
Tahnee Sanders – Marketing for the Real World
December 28, 2022
Stephanie Hayes
Becca Rich – Healing Your Relationship With Time
December 21, 2022
Stephanie Hayes
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Episode 77 of Real People, Real Business is live! Episode 77 of Real People, Real Business is live!

Building a business is hard work on the best of days, but when you get thrown both personal and business curve balls at the same time, it can be difficult to find the motivation to keep going under the weight of it all. 

In this episode, Josh Fuller takes us on his journey to founding his creative digital company, Matic Digital, expanding his services into talent growth, and the rocky road he was forced to navigate after a serious health crisis and a non-paying client converged at the same time.

Josh tells us that he never had plans to start an agency and how he expanded from providing creative digital services to also growing and matching talent. His company focuses on acquiring top talent, and he describes the challenges, advantages and strategies he uses for retaining premium independent workers and the human-centered approach he takes that has been very successful. 

After experiencing business success after just a few months, Josh was hit with an unexpected health crisis while also dealing with a sudden drop in revenue after a large client stopped paying their invoices. He’s very candid about how he considered closing the doors on Matic Digital but details how he was able to persevere by going all in, eventually making it through to brighter days. 

You’ll be inspired by Josh’s resilience in overcoming obstacles and his gift for nurturing people and relationships which has become a superpower for growing his business. 

View full episode at https://podcast.stephaniehayes.biz/episode-77/
Episode 76 of Real People, Real Business is live! Episode 76 of Real People, Real Business is live!

As a graduate student at Harvard Business School with a keen interest in what makes high performing teams tick, Ken Babcock and his friends honed in on documentation as a key challenge affecting team performance. Because documentation is something people don’t like to do, given the amount of time it takes and how quickly it can become out of date, Ken’s group set out to create a solution to lower the barrier to creating documentation. Today, their SaaS solution, Tango, has over 200,000 users. 

In this episode, Ken tells us about the decision to drop out of Harvard to pursue his business idea, how they funded the business, their user-centric approach to growth, and the elements that have led to their success. 

Ken explains how Tango works to document processes and how it’s being used with different clients. Ken explains why he and his co-founders pursued funding early on and one aspect that made their business especially attractive to investors. 

Next, he shares the one steadfast focus that has helped them drive the company forward and build an award-winning product, and how their innovation efforts are driven by using data to gather customer feedback.

Finally, Ken discusses what it’s like to work with co-founders and the culture they’ve established that has been key to their success. He also mentions how well TikTok has worked for Tango in attracting customers, the exciting new things they are developing, and the difference between what he learned in business school compared to what he's experienced in the real world of starting a business.

View full episode at https://podcast.stephaniehayes.biz/episode-76/
Episode 75 of Real People, Real Business is live! Episode 75 of Real People, Real Business is live!

If you are a podcaster or content creator, you will not want to miss this episode with Emmy Award-winning Media Advisor and Creator Economist Vinnie Potestivo (@vinniepotestivo). Vinnie helps impact-driven clients create and distribute content that’s highly shareable.

In this episode, Vinnie talks about his early career in big media working at MTV and the opportunity he saw with podcasting as the next wave for storytelling and conversations.

He recounts his observations while working in talent casting with celebrity MTV shows and discusses the importance of content ownership, the power he sees in storytelling and conversations, his passion for sharing valuable content, and how he uses all of that in his own business to help clients leverage small media distribution channels to create connection and impact.

Vinnie shares some actionable tactics and recommendations for how podcasters can get their content out to a wider audience and get thousands of content shares using blog aggregators. He also lets us in on the benefits of getting your content on Google News and steps for how to do it.

You’ll also hear what Vinnie says is the future of search and why you shouldn’t be comfortable with the search results you get from Google and Amazon. He goes on to explain how he works with his clients, the unique approach he takes to helping them stand out, and how he leverages their accomplishments in the media.

Finally, Vinnie explains how he uses creative marketing platforms to become more discoverable and why you should too, and why you should seek out podcast guest opportunities as a business owner, even if you don’t have a podcast.

You’ll want to take notes on this one, so get your notepad and pen and join our conversation!

View full episode at https://podcast.stephaniehayes.biz/episode-75/
Episode 74 of Real People, Real Business is live! Episode 74 of Real People, Real Business is live!

Tommy Yionoulis is the founder of OpsAnalitica, a SaaS platform that helps multi-unit businesses manage and measure their daily team activities for more consistent operations.

In this episode, you’ll hear how Tommy went from being a “non-techie” guy working in the restaurant business and moonlighting as a standup comedian, to founding his SaaS company, OpsAnalitica.

As a business owner, Tommy shares the ups and downs of bootstrapping a software startup and how he finds the motivation to keep going and not give up. You’ll learn from his experience how to leverage automation to free up your time when you don’t have a team; how to know when you should hire salespeople; and whether obtaining private equity funding is the right decision for your business.

Finally, Tommy talks about how critical the support of his spouse has been to building a bootstrapped business, the development challenges specific to building a software company, and the mindset that motivates him to keep driving forward through the hard times.

If you’ve ever had times where you felt like giving up on your business, Tommy’s story will inspire you to keep going, so join our conversation!

View full episode at https://podcast.stephaniehayes.biz/episode-74/
Episode 73 of Real People, Real Business is live! Episode 73 of Real People, Real Business is live!

The popularity of podcasting has exploded over the last several years, but back in 2013, ESL teacher Lindsay McMahon (@all_ears_english), recognized podcasting as an opportunity to teach English as a second language to adults in a new way. After approaching a fellow teacher and friend to start a podcast together, the All Ears English podcast was born and receives 8 million downloads per month.

In this episode, Lindsay discusses using podcasting to help her clients improve their English language skills and scaling a business that is both an education and a media company. She also covers the key elements that have helped her ensure the continued growth of her business as well as the one thing that has supported her personal growth as an entrepreneur.

Lindsay takes us behind the scenes on moving to a blended revenue model to scale her business, using innovation and experimentation to come up with new offers, and how she is using quizzes and other types of lead magnets to attract new customers to help her stay one step ahead of a crowded market.

Lindsay describes the challenges of working with international customers in a global economy, how she solicits continuous feedback from her customers, and transitioning from a partnership to being the sole owner of her company. 

Our conversation concludes with Lindsay’s advice for other entrepreneurs when it comes to hiring a team, choosing a niche, and the importance of knowing your financial numbers. In the future, Lindsay is looking forward to launching additional podcasts, building white labeling partnerships, and helping more business owners start podcasts. 

Lindsay’s innovative approach to her business and her experience as a podcaster is sure to fill you with lots of inspiration and ideas to apply to your own business.

View full episode at https://podcast.stephaniehayes.biz/episode-73/
Episode 72 of Real People, Real Business is live! Episode 72 of Real People, Real Business is live!

Jen Pelka (@unefemmewines) is a co-Founder and CEO with a passion for empowering women. Featuring world-class wines made by women, Jen has used values-based branding to build her business, Une Femme Wines, into the fastest growing sparkling wine brand in the US.

Jen opened her first restaurant, a champagne bar called The Riddler, with capital she raised from 100% female investors in 2 locations - New York and San Francisco. Jen infused her passion for empowering women into her restaurants by attracting top-level female chefs and sommeliers and creating a pro-female atmosphere that they eventually became known for. As a result, she was able to build an incredible community of women.

Jen talks about how she originally started her current business, Une Femme Wines, as a side hustle that she and her brother decided to turn into a full-time venture. At Une Femme, Jen seized on an untapped niche that her customers were increasingly asking for - wines from female producers. That led to partnerships with female winemakers as well as giving back to female charities, all of which are aligned with Jen’s big passion for empowering women to start businesses and get better access to capital. 

Jen opens up about the very difficult decision to close The Riddler restaurants, as a result of the pandemic, and how she uses what she learned from that experience to inform her approach running Une Femme, including prioritizing balance and self-care to help her be the best leader she can be in her business.

Jen discusses landing a national partnership with a major airline that she says put Une Femme on the map and the demand she sees for value-based brands. And much more!

View full episode at https://podcast.stephaniehayes.biz/episode-72/
Follow on Instagram

@stephaniehayes.biz

Do you find yourself trying to create more all the time rather than selling what you have? #smallbusinesscheck #businessowner #businesscoaching #creativeentrepreneur #womeninbusinesstiktok #businesscoach

♬ original sound - Stephanie Hayes
Making Space
Making Space

It’s time to move from hustle and overwork to building a life around your business. Being a business owner doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your well-being. Instead, we’re advocating for slowing down, accepting and leaning into a more realistic and comfortable way to build your own wealth. This show is a collection of thoughts, discussions and opinions on how to build a successful business that integrates well with you and your life, whatever that may look like.

Learn more at www.StephanieHayes.biz!

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How to Make Spending Decisions in Uncertain Times
byStephanie Hayes

Even at the best of times, making decisions around where to spend or invest your money is challenging for most business owners. When things get a little rocky or uncertain, those decisions get exponentially more difficult. In this episode, we are exploring Stephanie’s 3-Part Spending Confidence Strategy, and how to identify who you are as a buyer, and how to approach buying decisions based on your own Spender Profile.

—

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/making-space/message

How to Make Spending Decisions in Uncertain Times
How to Make Spending Decisions in Uncertain Times
July 19, 2022
Stephanie Hayes
How to Ensure You’re Making the Right Changes (For Your Business)
June 13, 2022
Stephanie Hayes
Thinking Work vs. Doing Work
June 6, 2022
Stephanie Hayes
3 Tips For Changing the Money Patterns in Your Business
May 30, 2022
Stephanie Hayes
Maybe It’s All Already There
May 23, 2022
Stephanie Hayes
Why Structure Gives You Freedom
May 15, 2022
Stephanie Hayes
Why “Customer First” May Cause You to Fail (An Alternative Approach to Business Design)
May 13, 2022
Stephanie Hayes
Stop Fighting Yourself
May 11, 2022
Stephanie Hayes
Making Space (Trailer)
May 11, 2022
Stephanie Hayes
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ABOUT

I am a business strategist and coach that works with service-based businesses who want to move from generating income to building assets, while continuing to do the work they love.

Episode 77 of Real People, Real Business is live! Episode 77 of Real People, Real Business is live!

Building a business is hard work on the best of days, but when you get thrown both personal and business curve balls at the same time, it can be difficult to find the motivation to keep going under the weight of it all. 

In this episode, Josh Fuller takes us on his journey to founding his creative digital company, Matic Digital, expanding his services into talent growth, and the rocky road he was forced to navigate after a serious health crisis and a non-paying client converged at the same time.

Josh tells us that he never had plans to start an agency and how he expanded from providing creative digital services to also growing and matching talent. His company focuses on acquiring top talent, and he describes the challenges, advantages and strategies he uses for retaining premium independent workers and the human-centered approach he takes that has been very successful. 

After experiencing business success after just a few months, Josh was hit with an unexpected health crisis while also dealing with a sudden drop in revenue after a large client stopped paying their invoices. He’s very candid about how he considered closing the doors on Matic Digital but details how he was able to persevere by going all in, eventually making it through to brighter days. 

You’ll be inspired by Josh’s resilience in overcoming obstacles and his gift for nurturing people and relationships which has become a superpower for growing his business. 

View full episode at https://podcast.stephaniehayes.biz/episode-77/
Episode 76 of Real People, Real Business is live! Episode 76 of Real People, Real Business is live!

As a graduate student at Harvard Business School with a keen interest in what makes high performing teams tick, Ken Babcock and his friends honed in on documentation as a key challenge affecting team performance. Because documentation is something people don’t like to do, given the amount of time it takes and how quickly it can become out of date, Ken’s group set out to create a solution to lower the barrier to creating documentation. Today, their SaaS solution, Tango, has over 200,000 users. 

In this episode, Ken tells us about the decision to drop out of Harvard to pursue his business idea, how they funded the business, their user-centric approach to growth, and the elements that have led to their success. 

Ken explains how Tango works to document processes and how it’s being used with different clients. Ken explains why he and his co-founders pursued funding early on and one aspect that made their business especially attractive to investors. 

Next, he shares the one steadfast focus that has helped them drive the company forward and build an award-winning product, and how their innovation efforts are driven by using data to gather customer feedback.

Finally, Ken discusses what it’s like to work with co-founders and the culture they’ve established that has been key to their success. He also mentions how well TikTok has worked for Tango in attracting customers, the exciting new things they are developing, and the difference between what he learned in business school compared to what he's experienced in the real world of starting a business.

View full episode at https://podcast.stephaniehayes.biz/episode-76/
Episode 75 of Real People, Real Business is live! Episode 75 of Real People, Real Business is live!

If you are a podcaster or content creator, you will not want to miss this episode with Emmy Award-winning Media Advisor and Creator Economist Vinnie Potestivo (@vinniepotestivo). Vinnie helps impact-driven clients create and distribute content that’s highly shareable.

In this episode, Vinnie talks about his early career in big media working at MTV and the opportunity he saw with podcasting as the next wave for storytelling and conversations.

He recounts his observations while working in talent casting with celebrity MTV shows and discusses the importance of content ownership, the power he sees in storytelling and conversations, his passion for sharing valuable content, and how he uses all of that in his own business to help clients leverage small media distribution channels to create connection and impact.

Vinnie shares some actionable tactics and recommendations for how podcasters can get their content out to a wider audience and get thousands of content shares using blog aggregators. He also lets us in on the benefits of getting your content on Google News and steps for how to do it.

You’ll also hear what Vinnie says is the future of search and why you shouldn’t be comfortable with the search results you get from Google and Amazon. He goes on to explain how he works with his clients, the unique approach he takes to helping them stand out, and how he leverages their accomplishments in the media.

Finally, Vinnie explains how he uses creative marketing platforms to become more discoverable and why you should too, and why you should seek out podcast guest opportunities as a business owner, even if you don’t have a podcast.

You’ll want to take notes on this one, so get your notepad and pen and join our conversation!

View full episode at https://podcast.stephaniehayes.biz/episode-75/
Episode 74 of Real People, Real Business is live! Episode 74 of Real People, Real Business is live!

Tommy Yionoulis is the founder of OpsAnalitica, a SaaS platform that helps multi-unit businesses manage and measure their daily team activities for more consistent operations.

In this episode, you’ll hear how Tommy went from being a “non-techie” guy working in the restaurant business and moonlighting as a standup comedian, to founding his SaaS company, OpsAnalitica.

As a business owner, Tommy shares the ups and downs of bootstrapping a software startup and how he finds the motivation to keep going and not give up. You’ll learn from his experience how to leverage automation to free up your time when you don’t have a team; how to know when you should hire salespeople; and whether obtaining private equity funding is the right decision for your business.

Finally, Tommy talks about how critical the support of his spouse has been to building a bootstrapped business, the development challenges specific to building a software company, and the mindset that motivates him to keep driving forward through the hard times.

If you’ve ever had times where you felt like giving up on your business, Tommy’s story will inspire you to keep going, so join our conversation!

View full episode at https://podcast.stephaniehayes.biz/episode-74/
Episode 73 of Real People, Real Business is live! Episode 73 of Real People, Real Business is live!

The popularity of podcasting has exploded over the last several years, but back in 2013, ESL teacher Lindsay McMahon (@all_ears_english), recognized podcasting as an opportunity to teach English as a second language to adults in a new way. After approaching a fellow teacher and friend to start a podcast together, the All Ears English podcast was born and receives 8 million downloads per month.

In this episode, Lindsay discusses using podcasting to help her clients improve their English language skills and scaling a business that is both an education and a media company. She also covers the key elements that have helped her ensure the continued growth of her business as well as the one thing that has supported her personal growth as an entrepreneur.

Lindsay takes us behind the scenes on moving to a blended revenue model to scale her business, using innovation and experimentation to come up with new offers, and how she is using quizzes and other types of lead magnets to attract new customers to help her stay one step ahead of a crowded market.

Lindsay describes the challenges of working with international customers in a global economy, how she solicits continuous feedback from her customers, and transitioning from a partnership to being the sole owner of her company. 

Our conversation concludes with Lindsay’s advice for other entrepreneurs when it comes to hiring a team, choosing a niche, and the importance of knowing your financial numbers. In the future, Lindsay is looking forward to launching additional podcasts, building white labeling partnerships, and helping more business owners start podcasts. 

Lindsay’s innovative approach to her business and her experience as a podcaster is sure to fill you with lots of inspiration and ideas to apply to your own business.

View full episode at https://podcast.stephaniehayes.biz/episode-73/
Episode 72 of Real People, Real Business is live! Episode 72 of Real People, Real Business is live!

Jen Pelka (@unefemmewines) is a co-Founder and CEO with a passion for empowering women. Featuring world-class wines made by women, Jen has used values-based branding to build her business, Une Femme Wines, into the fastest growing sparkling wine brand in the US.

Jen opened her first restaurant, a champagne bar called The Riddler, with capital she raised from 100% female investors in 2 locations - New York and San Francisco. Jen infused her passion for empowering women into her restaurants by attracting top-level female chefs and sommeliers and creating a pro-female atmosphere that they eventually became known for. As a result, she was able to build an incredible community of women.

Jen talks about how she originally started her current business, Une Femme Wines, as a side hustle that she and her brother decided to turn into a full-time venture. At Une Femme, Jen seized on an untapped niche that her customers were increasingly asking for - wines from female producers. That led to partnerships with female winemakers as well as giving back to female charities, all of which are aligned with Jen’s big passion for empowering women to start businesses and get better access to capital. 

Jen opens up about the very difficult decision to close The Riddler restaurants, as a result of the pandemic, and how she uses what she learned from that experience to inform her approach running Une Femme, including prioritizing balance and self-care to help her be the best leader she can be in her business.

Jen discusses landing a national partnership with a major airline that she says put Une Femme on the map and the demand she sees for value-based brands. And much more!

View full episode at https://podcast.stephaniehayes.biz/episode-72/

For enquiries:
hello@stephaniehayes.biz

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