Hiring is hard. And it’s harder when fewer people apply for an open position.    When it was an ‘employer’s market,’ tons of people would apply for job openings. Employers had their pick. Those employers in upward trending industries or with great reputations or with fantastic benefits packages tend to have less trouble, but none of those factors are easily maneuvered or controlled.    Today, hiring is very, very hard. Because attracting applicants is very, very hard. People are leaving the job market. Not everyone, but enough so that we feel it. We feel it at our favorite restaurants and retail stores with slightly longer lines and slightly longer waits. We feel it when we’re hiring when 3 people apply for a position that, two years ago, 15 people would have applied for.    Everywhere, Human Resources and Marketing departments are racking their brains, trying to figure out how to fill open positions. How to advertise their job listings in new places or with new parameters. But they’re missing something.   Listen in as JoyGenea and Michelle talk about rethinking hiring, from the job title to the job description to the ‘ideal candidate.’

If These Heels Could Talk

Hiring Different

It’s like a break-up. Someone is going to want it and someone else isn’t.    As a small business owner, when you have to fire an employee, you know it’s going to be emotional and difficult. Even if the emotion is anger. But how do you handle it when someone decides to leave?   Employment is a relationship. It can feel transactional and distant or it can feel emotionally intense, but it’s still a relationship. And all relationships require both parties to consent to continue the relationship. As employers, we earn our employees’ trust and loyalty through our leadership. Employees earn an employer’s trust and loyalty through job performance and their contributions to the team. Listen in as Michelle and JoyGenea talk about what it feels like to get ‘dumped’ by an employee. And, more importantly, what to do to re-engage the rest of the team in the transition.

When an Employee Breaks Up with You

Swag or promotional products, can be an excellent way to extend your networking and help build your small business. But, like any other advertising options, swag needs to be executed correctly. Every real estate and insurance agent in your area will give away a calendar, or a pen, or a can cozy. The bank and law firms will also have pens. The law firm ones might be slightly nicer. Coffee cups, hats, and whatever is on trend for the year (pop sockets and fidget spinners have been popular recently) will be at every trade show, conference, and parade. Not to mention the all popular charity 5K t-shirt.    And some of these get worn or used. You can often see a 5K t-shirt in action while someone is mowing their lawn or painting. But when is the last time you saw a promotional product on someone’s desk at work? When was the last time someone said, “You should see this amazing thing I got from XYZ company.”   The power of promotional products isn’t always in the universal appeal. Sometimes the power is in the unique. Or the remarkable. Or the creative. None of which automatically mean expensive. But all of which mean time, effort, and thought given.    Listen in as Michelle and JoyGenea discuss the power of swag and what it can do for your business’s reputation.

Swag to Remember

You’ve networked. You’ve been introduced. Lots of people know who you are and that you’re in business.    While networking is an ongoing activity, part of the process is nurturing relationships for the long-term. But how?   Frankly, the same way you would nurture any relationship. Show up. Be present. Be interested and engaged. Enthusiastically cheer on the other business’s success and be supportive in more challenging times. Listen to what is important to the other business owner and then act on it in conjunction with them. Look for opportunities to work together on special projects or promotions.   JoyGenea and Michelle discuss nurturing relationships in their business lives, including the most important step - choosing which relationship to nurture.   

Nurturing Partnerships

Oh, look. You stumbled over a consequence.    Consequences of our choices and other’s choices are all around us in business and leadership. And sometimes, like children, we stamp our feet and proclaim it’s just not fair. But outcomes of our decisions are rarely all one bad or all good. In fact, we typically don’t know all the consequences of our actions.   Natural consequences are the ones that just happen - drink to excess, get a hangover. Imposed consequences are things like getting grounded, getting ‘written up’, or getting arrested. An authority develops a system of corrective action intended to incentivize desirable behavior. Say you’re always late for work. Your coworkers may gossip about you behind your back, resent your behavior as disrespectful, or act in a way that feels disrespectful to you. Natural consequences. Your boss may start disciplining you or fire you. Imposed consequences.   Listen in as Michelle and JoyGenea apply this to various situations in their life and pose one question: Which one is more likely to change behavior?

Are Consequences Inevitable

What we tell ourselves about a situation is a powerful thing. Business not growing? It’s easy to say it’s because of the market. Or because of circumstances. Or because of the weather. But what do you do when you’re watching someone else thrive with the same circumstances?   When JoyGenea and Michelle met, they quickly joined forces as office mates. And Michelle’s business started to achieve some of the things that JoyGenea had wanted for her business. Michelle thought JoyGenea had decided to keep her business small. JoyGenea didn’t realize that the small decisions she made every day made sure her business stayed on it’s course, even while she set goals for the kind of growth she was seeing in Michelle’s business.   Three years later, JoyGenea and Michelle discuss this dynamic for the first time. Listen in.

What Are You Deciding?

We’re probably all familiar with the idea of a workout buddy - someone to make sure we show up to our workouts and complete them all the way through. This is an accountability partner, and we need them in our businesses. Why? Because being accountable only to ourselves in the short term means procrastinating on the really important and difficult things in the long term.    People who like to workout don’t need a workout buddy. Business owners all have things we enjoy and things we don’t. Sometimes it’s reviews. Sometimes it’s budgets. Sometimes it’s strategic planning, or posting to social media, or getting those website edits done.    Romantic partners make lousy professional accountability partners. Business coaches, therapists, counselors, and professional executive groups make amazing accountability partners. Why? Because the relationship has clarity of purpose and goals.    Listen in as JoyGenea and Michelle discuss what qualities make for a successful accountability partnership, including their own abilities to hear what others are saying.  

Accountability Partners

Hiring family and friends. The place most small businesses start and, if done well, can be an absolute boon to a business early on. Once a business has non-related employees, hiring family gets extra tricky. The owner isn’t just navigating the familial relationships and dynamics, but internal business dynamics among staff.    Clear communication, expectations, and standards are the key to successfully hiring family, as both Michelle and JoyGenea can attest. JoyGenea has navigated the family in business many, many times and had learned many of the same lessons that Michelle, fresh from her own experience, just discovered.

Nepotism by Any Other Name

Ever see a headshot on a business card? How many times does it look like the person who handed you the card? What about images for your website? When was the last time you updated those?   Some businesses recognize the need for professional images, but don’t update them frequently. This happens for coaches, consultants, real estate agents, insurance agents, and others who build their personal brand professionally. Some businesses don’t understand the importance of professional, quality images, spending the bulk of their resources on a powerfully designed brochure or website and then putting in whatever image they can find from a free stock photo site.    Either way, updated professional photos are essential to your marketing efforts. Creating a library of professional photos requires some time, effort, and the right photographer. Listen in as JoyGenea and Michelle discuss finding the right professional partner in this episode.

Say Cheese!

Sorry, we don’t take that card. Sorry, the computer won’t let me do that. Sorry, we’re not allowed to process refunds without a manager.    How many times have you heard something like this at a national chain or a government office or some other organization where decision-making is removed from the person who is standing in front of the customer.    There are solid business reasons to make decisions centrally in large organizations - consistency, employee training, fewer hiring requirements and larger labor pool. But the challenge is that when you are creating universal ‘policies’ that are made to be implemented without any real-time information or decision-making, your policies will only cover the situations that you’ve foreseen.    And so the customer standing in front of your employee, waiting to return something broken, is going to have a bad experience. Because you’ve made a decision for that situation that makes your life easier, not theirs.    Large organizations like chain retailers and restaurants can accommodate these bad experiences and exceptions due to the sheer volume of customers and transactions. Government offices can accommodate these bad experiences because there are no other options for most of us. Small businesses cannot survive this kind of decision-making.    Listen in as JoyGenea and Michelle discuss business decisions made for the running of the business without the customer or client in mind. And the slippery slope some business owners find themselves on when they prioritize their convenience over their customers.

Buying Roadblocks

Every week, there’s another headline about millennials and what they’re doing wrong - not enough of this, too much of that. Millennials have, evidently, killed the diamond and dairy industries, refused home ownership on a massive scale, and slowed the birth rate to its lowest point ever. Wow. That’s a ton of responsibility.   Employers just shake their heads and ponder how to engage with a millennial work force. Now that millennials are in their 30’s and *gasp* 40’s, employers need to face up to a different type of leadership emerging in their companies. It’s a leadership style that has less foundation in accountability and more in compassion. Less focus on competition and more on collaboration. But also mired in self-doubt and a lack of sustained follow through.   As a millennial and Gen Z’er respectively, Michelle and JoyGenea share a unique perspective. Employers have an obligation to train and develop leaders from the millennial generation. Because without those future leaders, where will your company go?

Generational Leadership

There’s nothing that can replace practice. Think about gymnasts. Years - decades really - of practice to perform a routine that’s about a minute long. Talk about pressure. And talk about dedication to practicing.    In business, practicing can mean many things. Those arguments that you have with yourself in the shower or the car are practicing for real conversations. Practicing a pitch or presentation helps calm the nerves and clarify intentions. Practicing with a coach is even more powerful, as a great coach can show you a mirror of your own thinking, restating and helping you determine the best path forward.   Regardless of the task at hand, practicing helps focus the mind and frame your goals. Listen in as Michelle and JoyGenea talk about all the 

Practice Makes Profit

Imagine 3 adult siblings with respectful relationships who primarily see each other during holidays. Imagine now that these 3 siblings are faced with planning a parent’s funeral and dissolving a household, estate, and life. The amount of time and work this creates is like another job. And it requires all siblings to step into the challenge in different ways.   It’s a stressful challenge for any sibling group. When one of the siblings owns a business, there is more to consider. For example, the person who owns a business will, out of necessity, have legal and financial partnerships that can help. Siblings, parents, and other close family who are not attuned to the day to day realities of owning a business are unlikely to understand to the time constraints placed on owners. They may assume that owning a business means a vacation whenever you want or need one.    Often, as adults, our family communication patterns haven’t evolved with us. So when we get together in larger family groups (like holidays), we fall back into familiar communication patterns. In times of stress, these communication patterns can be incredibly destructive or incredibly useful. Business owners have unique tools to handle conflict in communication.   Listen in as JoyGenea talks about her recent experience planning a parent’s funeral while keeping her business running. Learn about her successes, like setting clear goals and objectives with her siblings, as well as her challenges, like managing time, relationships, and bureaucracy in a completely different way.   

Juggling Business and Grief

It’s not about how much your product or service costs. It’s about the value of that product or service in your client’s mind.    It’s not about who sees your ad. It’s about what your ad says (or doesn’t say) that creates desire.    Marketing isn’t advertising. But strong marketing and strong advertising emanate from the same place - understanding your brand’s unique selling proposition and then communicating that, over and over, in different ways.    Often, both Michelle and JoyGenea hear from clients who want to place advertisements. And when asked what we’re advertising, it’s a throwaway answer, like ‘whatever, we just need to get our name out there.’ And then a month later, the same client comes to us with a ‘how do I know if it worked?’ question.    It’s not about having all the answers in advance. It’s about being thoughtful with the questions, knowing your business’s unique contribution to your clients, knowing the value you bring to their lives, the pain point you help them resolve. And then telling people about that.

The Wizard of Ads

There are obvious differences, like holidays that are religion-based. And there are subtle and individual differences, like Memorial Day feeling different for a family that has lost a loved one in military service. But relatively recently, more mainstream media attention has been focused on what might be termed political or historical holidays, like Independence Day or the Fourth of July, and those for who mourn the day.    In other words, our cultural sensibilities are shifting to encompass a more complete version of our shared history and how it impacts ourselves and our families today. Businesses are listening and starting to act differently on social media and with their messaging. Listen in as Michelle and JoyGenea discuss the many questions that surround small business owners who may be struggling to find the path that will best serve their goals.

Woke Business

Have you ever wondered what happens when women take off their heels for the day and unwind with a glass of red or a finger or two of whiskey? What stories would they tell? What meetings have they walked into unannounced to take back the power? If These Heels Could Talk takes you behind the scenes with two women in the business world who have seen it all. They’ve been at the bottom of the ladder and the top of the ladder. They’ve been underestimated and they’ve had their ideas stolen. And they’ve also broken through the glass ceiling and started their own successful businesses. If you’ve ever wanted to learn about entrepreneurship and empowerment as a woman in business without all the frills and the lies, this podcast was created for you. Michelle and JoyGenea take off the uncomfortable heels, the lipstick, the pantyhose, the bra with the underwire poking out, and they give it to you straight. Learn everything you need to know about taking your rightful place as a woman of power and importance from two women who have experienced the ups and the downs of being a woman in business. Find your voice and gain your footing in the business world as they recount both stories of horror and of triumph over their decades of experience.

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If These Heels Could Talk

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