Latest / Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane / Why Not Today? Season 1 - Episode 16 with Jeff Robertson, Advisor, Roanoke Region Small Business Development Center

Transcript

Why Not Today? Season 1 - Episode 16 with Jeff Robertson, Advisor, Roanoke Region Small Business Development Center · Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane

0:00
Hello, this is Leslie and I am the host of the Why Not Today podcast.
0:06
This is a podcast to celebrate people who have been courageous and said, why not today?
0:11
I started this podcast in honor of my father, Pastor Kane, who often said, why not today?
0:16
I'm based in Reston, Virginia, a planned community right outside of Washington, DC.
0:21
And thanks for joining us today.
0:22
I'm excited my guest today is Jeff Robertson.
0:26
And I always kind of like before I introduce Jeff and who he is and what he does, talk
0:30
about connections and where you meet people.
0:32
So I actually, with my Mary Kay business have because if you've listened to this much, you
0:37
know, I travel a lot and spending a lot of time at Mount Lake.
0:40
So I thought if I'm going to be at the lake all the time, I might as well grow my business
0:43
there.
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So I joined the chamber and went to an event one morning and Jeff was there and shared
0:49
that he could help with businesses.
0:51
And so we connected and he works for and I'm going to get it wrong, but small business.
0:56
You can correct me.
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I'm the Roanoke.
0:58
It's Roanoke Regional Small Business Development Center.
1:04
And that is a subdivision of basically Virginia's SBDC.
1:07
OK, so I told my sister about it.
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She's like, well, you know, they have those here.
1:12
I'm like, yeah, but I can I'm virtually doesn't matter.
1:15
So it's great.
1:16
Jeff and I connected and he's helped me with the podcast and some different things.
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So in addition to that, he's got a lot of other things going on that are courageous.
1:24
So I thought I would share his courageous stories and his knowledge today with you guys.
1:30
So, Jeff, why don't you introduce yourself and tell us a little about you and maybe a
1:35
fun fact people don't know.
1:36
Yeah, I am Jeff Robertson and I was a small business advisor.
1:42
I'm actually assigned to Franklin County where you're a member of the chamber.
1:45
This is a few years back during Covid as businesses were suffering through, as the county saw
1:52
a need to fund a part time dedicated position as a small business advisor.
1:57
And so they were able to connect with the SBDC office here in Virginia to get that position.
2:03
And I came on board in February of twenty twenty two.
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So I've been working with SBDC for about six or six or so months now, seven months.
2:15
So what I do is I work whether you're you're starting a business, you're in business, our
2:20
office is available to help you along the way as a small business.
2:25
Just navigate all those ups and downs and make sure that when you kick your business
2:29
off, if you're starting, that you kick it off in the right way.
2:32
And if you're in business is is helping you get funding, helping you with a variety of
2:36
issues, whether it's marketing, human resources, you name it.
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Our office is packed full of knowledge.
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And the cool thing that what we do is it's a free service is even though I'm the Franklin
2:47
County advisor is the SBDCs are all over the nation.
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And it's just a matter of anyone who's listening this podcast.
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If you're in Utah, Alaska, wherever you should be able to find an SBDC office that can help.
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So that's one of my main things is to just help spread the word about that.
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Probably a fun fact with me is I got two kids, 10 and 10 and 12.
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And one of the things I enjoy doing is teaching them how to be business owners at their age
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as well.
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And then I actually grew up and lived in Franklin County where I work at.
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So I'm familiar with all things, Franklin County as well.
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So like to travel, just like you, Leslie, I like to go and see and learn more about
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what's going on around other parts of the world, too.
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So great.
3:34
Well, it's been a wealth of knowledge for me.
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So what was interesting, too, is you've got I know you have your own businesses and do
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a lot of different things.
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And we talked a minute before we started about how you kind of have to pivot like a lot of
3:47
us did for COVID.
3:48
But before we go into that, tell me what what what does courage mean to you?
3:52
What's the definition of courage?
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I think for me, it's about taking that chance is in sometimes in life is you are able to
4:02
you take a chance on everybody else's dreams and goals.
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But so courage sometimes is having the ability to take a chance on yourself is having the
4:11
courage to take a step toward your goal, whether it be in life, fitness, faith, finances, wherever
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it's is just making that step toward your reaching what your personal goals would be.
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So it takes a lot of courage because you get comfortable when you're working for someone
4:28
else or you're employed for someone else.
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So it's like in gyms.
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So it's easy to sit on the couch.
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It's way easier to sell the couch than it is to go walk or run or what have you.
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So that's courage.
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And I enjoy helping people find that courage, too.
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And I can tell.
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Yeah.
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And you do lots of different things.
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So and you've been a wealth of knowledge just for my podcast from the SBD, whatever, but
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also talk about your business and what you've done.
4:55
So let's talk about what you've done in your life to be courageous or the businesses you've
5:02
started and how that happened, how that changed or what you had to do to be courageous because
5:09
of COVID, because that's a big thing.
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We all had to kind of shift.
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Yes, I had my marketing company prior to COVID.
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So I was working in that and we were launching in Virginia.
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They have driver improvement classes where it's eight hour in-person classes.
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And then we were starting to launch our gym on a personal note.
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And let me go backwards.
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How did you get from a marketing company to driver's ed to a gym?
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Yeah.
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So I've had a background in marketing for years.
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That was kind of the mainstay.
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I worked at a dealership where I was kind of the catch all do all wear all the hats.
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I did marketing.
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I did operations.
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I think dealership like car dealership.
5:47
Yeah.
5:48
OK.
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So I managed I managed all sorts of just different hats with that.
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So I invested heavily on this personal development, learning more about digital presence and how
6:01
to grow that business from that digital footprint.
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So you're looking at from 2007 moving forward, that's back before Facebook marketing, Instagram
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marketing.
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Those weren't big back then.
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So we were on kind of the cutting edge of that.
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So I kind of taught myself how to do it.
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Hired a couple of mentors that help mentors that help me vet my knowledge because I was
6:25
unconfident that I was doing the right thing.
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Turns out I was.
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And they really helped me with that.
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So that powering the coach is what helped me along the way there.
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So as time went on, I just took those skills that I had learned over the years and I packaged
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them into my own marketing digital marketing company because it was still where a lot of
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folks didn't know how to do that.
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And conversations like you and I have had about websites and presence and what much
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money should I spend on my website?
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How much money should I spend over here?
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Being able to educate people, navigate through that.
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So as that went on was I had said, wait out of the dealership and I was running that business
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and I was still a fitness coach.
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I was working inside of someone else's fitness gym and I knew that I had that passion about
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just coaching people.
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So it was one of those things where I wanted to segue into owning my own fitness center
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at some point in time.
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And that's kind of what led us into, we were trying to find a couple of different things
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that we could do entrepreneurial wise.
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And when you get into business, Leslie, it's about solving problems.
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And we saw a need in the driver improvement space, we saw a need for week, your classes
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during the week and daytime classes.
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And that was our whole goal was so many people needed classes, but they work, they work night
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shift or they don't want to give their weekends up.
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So that was a problem we intended to solve, which is we were just going to have a better
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time slot than some of the other companies did.
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And along with that is we were launching our gym and just trying to be in that entrepreneurial
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space is yeah, there was a lot of irons in the fire, but it wasn't as consuming as it
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sounds when it's like, it's just about putting the, it's about getting the right people on
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your team.
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It's about getting the right people in places.
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Even though you own these businesses, your job as an entrepreneur is to get people to
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create jobs and to help them help find people that can help you run your business so you
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can continue to grow your business.
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So we were full speed ahead.
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And then as everyone knows, it's going to listen to this starting, starting February,
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March of 2020 things started getting really, really crazy with COVID and things were starting
8:39
to shut down and then come April is the, in Virginia, they shut gyms down altogether,
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no more in person, couldn't go in or anything like that.
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So that pumped the brakes on that plan.
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And then the DMV basically shut down what we do as well because you couldn't meet in
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person.
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There was no gathering of groups.
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If you remember, there was a phase where you just couldn't gather in person in groups at
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all.
9:03
Yep.
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So there goes two businesses.
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Yeah.
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So, so that's kind of the backstory.
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And then, so there was a little bit of the courage is when I work with other small business
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owners is that's the first part of their courage as well as taking their, that idea, that passion,
9:18
those thoughts and taking action to make that a reality.
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And then, you know, sometimes when people start a business, like a lot of clients I
9:28
work with at the SBDC, they may be starting and they have these little nagging things
9:34
that impede their, their launch or impede their progress as they go.
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But it's simple stuff.
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Like maybe it's working with a bank, maybe a loan got delayed, maybe whatever, not a
9:45
COVID shut down your business, you can't operate.
9:49
Yeah.
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So, so it took a lot of courage just to navigate that.
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And then I'm not the only one.
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I had friends that were in the same boat as I was.
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And then as things start to come back to life, and you could only have certainly certain
10:03
people, you don't have a 10, 12.
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Right.
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For us, on our business side was the courage to continue to operate, to start back in operations.
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We opened our gym in July 1st of 2020, as soon as the governor said we could go back
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to in person.
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And along these times is one of the, one of the notable things about the Royal Oak Small
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Business Development Center, or SBDC is what we call it.
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What's known is they took massive, I wasn't a member of the team, but I stood on the outside
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and they took massive action on getting information out to clients, getting information out on
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how to get the care, some of them PPP money, the new ERC money, the employee retention
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credit money.
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They were holding, they were meeting, holding webinars, Zoom meetings, taking massive amounts
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of actions to help people be able to keep operating and do that.
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So that's like the big thing that my office for the county that funds my position, they
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took notice of that.
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And that was one of the biggest things that the businesses in the area that we served
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got to take advantage of was just the massive amount of actions that the SBDC offices took
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to help small businesses continue to function.
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That's awesome to say we're able to help.
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I remember being in business after September 11th, when I live right outside of DC, which
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kind of magnified things a little bit, but it was scary.
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And it was like, okay, how am I going to exist?
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And like the last thing you felt like you want to do was call somebody say, do you need
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lipstick?
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Do you need makeup?
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Like people, but people needed to be heard and have conversations.
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But there was a big sales conference that like Zig Ziglar and the big guys put on.
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I remember in DC and it was totally free.
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And they're like, the way to get this economy back is to keep people, the salespeople back
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out there and the economy moving, which is sounds like exactly what they were doing there
12:05
is just helping.
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There was a point in time when the president or one of his speeches says, get back to life.
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We're going to handle this.
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Go shopping, go visit a French restaurant.
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Stop being scared.
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It was a big deal.
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That was a huge deal.
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I remember that.
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Yeah.
12:21
So sorry I interrupted you.
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No, no, it was great.
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That's a very great point is just another time when small businesses had to pivot to
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keep going because that was a short time.
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It wasn't as long.
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You're not 11.
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I don't think maybe a week to two weeks where it was a big standstill then.
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But you know, COVID was months for some businesses to two similar things, but you're absolutely
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right with that.
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So that's probably the biggest thing.
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And then watching standing on the sidelines and hand holding other clients as they try
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to navigate, make their dream a reality.
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And that is really neat sometimes when you when like working with yourself or some of
13:03
the folks that are in the meetings that we go to and you see that you see that you hear
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the passion you can enjoy.
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I can see the passion for the ones in watching them take that curse because you know, when
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someone's most people are living comfortably at a job.
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And when they want to segue into their own small business, they give up the security
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of the regular paycheck and they give up security of vacation.
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They give some security for all those things.
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So there's not a small business owner out there that doesn't have tons of courage.
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So you see it.
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Oh, yeah.
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Yeah.
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And I know, including my job to do to pursue Mary Kay full time, which was 22 years ago,
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the big question people ask, and I think I've mentioned on here before is, you know, what
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are you going to do for insurance?
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You know, I'm going to buy insurance and, you know, working for somebody else is not
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a bad thing if that's your passion.
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But that is not who I be.
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I'm much better working for myself.
14:00
And you know, working for somebody else, you're you don't have unlimited vacations.
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Like I just got back from two and a half weeks in Florida, followed by three weeks at Swamp
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Lake before that.
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And I'm like trying to figure out when I'm going to leave next week.
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So I have unlimited time off and can have that flexibility.
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But yes, it does take courage every day, as you know, you hit it.
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You hit the number one thing you're trying as entrepreneurs, you're trying to buy back
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time.
14:26
Yeah.
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When you're an entrepreneur, you're able to you're able to buy back time and use your
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time how you want it to be used.
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Right.
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And that takes courage.
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Yes.
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Put you first and put your family first.
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I know you said your kids are important.
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You're teaching them the business skills and watching you.
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And I know my dad, who I cast kind of honoring, he owned his own business.
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And I watched him model that where, you know, a lot of times after dinner, we'd have dinner
14:52
as a family.
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And then he'd he had an office at the house, he'd go work.
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On weekends, he'd be doing work, but he'd be at every soccer game and was there.
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And when I was a kid at 16, he actually took five weeks and we traveled cross country,
15:07
which looking back, like that's a big thing.
15:09
And we were talking about it the other day that he still worked his business as he was
15:13
traveling.
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And there was no such thing as a cell phone or GPS that we would go drive where we were
15:18
going to be, find a fun campground for us kids to play.
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And then he'd get on the pay phone and work with the pay phone.
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That's awesome.
15:25
Yeah.
15:26
So watching that.
15:27
And you may we may have to pay phone is something that used to be on the side of stores and
15:34
you could find in random places.
15:35
You put coins in them to make calls in case there's anyone listening.
15:39
No idea what a pay phone is exactly.
15:42
I found one in San Diego a couple of years ago at the pier.
15:45
If you're walking along San Diego, there's just there's a pay phone.
15:48
So I haven't seen one in years.
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Yeah, I saw one recently somewhere.
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I was like, wow, what's that?
15:53
So you have tons of people that have courage in starting business, as you said.
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Any fun stories of people that, you know, went against odds and had the courage and
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just did amazing things, whether the business was amazing or it changed them or changed
16:08
somebody else?
16:09
I think you see that all the time.
16:11
Now, one of the things that the SBDC that we're big on is the confidentiality that we
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have with our clients.
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So it's harder to share the client's stories without their their permission.
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So this just keep that in mind.
16:23
And that's a big deal that I like for folks to know when they're coming in to work with
16:28
us, because sometimes this is a great segue into to stuff that we do as well is is when
16:33
you and I are working together.
16:35
It's just you and I.
16:36
I'll log our notes.
16:37
I log my time, but we don't go share your information.
16:42
So it's not like you have the confidence to know that the confidentiality that we have
16:47
is a big deal.
16:48
But since I can tell you, since I have started at the SBDC, I have worked with a long line
16:55
of just various businesses.
16:58
And the one thing that stands out to me is most everybody I've worked with has everything
17:08
there.
17:09
They've got it all laid out.
17:10
It might be over here.
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It might be there.
17:13
It's in various places on a piece of notebook paper.
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It is this that the other.
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They just need the encouragement to go right.
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And sometimes it's about taking that big list of I'm going to do all these things.
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And it's about me stepping in and going, OK, what are we got?
17:30
Right.
17:31
Well, look, these are the three things I feel like will move your needle the most inside
17:36
of your business.
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Can we work on those?
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And that's all they need was you like.
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And I'm the same way.
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If I take off my coaching hat and put on my business running, I have all these ideas.
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I got everything running through my head.
17:48
Yeah, you know, me, though.
17:49
Yeah.
17:50
And you want somebody to say, hey, pick these three things and go do on those.
17:53
Go work on that.
17:55
And I use that from a couple of coaches that's helped me is just working on about three things
18:01
that's going to move your money.
18:02
Because you need that's what we do in business.
18:05
We have to have money.
18:06
We have to have funds coming in to be able to succeed.
18:08
And like you said, they would buy your own insurance is is you have the ability to go
18:14
out and create income for yourself.
18:16
And that's true solving problems, especially with these.
18:19
But you get into you want to work on things that are going to generate you short term
18:26
now and longer term money.
18:29
So if you can pick three things that will do that.
18:32
And I posted the other day is is before I go to bed, I try to make a note of those three
18:36
things.
18:37
What's three things?
18:38
So when you get up the next morning, you get up a purpose and you got your three things
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know what you're doing.
18:44
Yeah.
18:45
Well, it's funny you say that that Mary Kay Ash, who started Mary Kay Cosmetic, was a
18:49
master of people management.
18:50
I was actually listening to something today.
18:51
She has a book on people management that is required reading for either Stanford or Hartford
18:58
Business School.
19:00
And there's some some government agency that requires people to read it, too, that she
19:06
said.
19:07
But she always taught the six most important things list, which make your six most important
19:13
things you need to do tomorrow before you go to bed at night, not the 300 things.
19:17
And do you know where that story came from?
19:19
Go ahead.
19:20
That actually, it was somebody went.
19:24
It was years ago, went to maybe Carnegie or one of the wealthiest men.
19:31
And he went and he said, I can help solve problems in your organization.
19:37
And he goes, well, how much they're going to cost me.
19:38
He goes, you know what, I will help.
19:40
And then you pay me what you think it's worth.
19:42
Yeah.
19:43
And he put into place that six most important things.
19:45
And what a difference it makes.
19:46
And I heard something the other day, too, say, focus on three things because we can
19:50
go all over the place.
19:51
So I know I'm going to totally pivot here.
19:53
I know you're in the fitness space.
19:54
And we kind of talked at the beginning about courage of working out.
19:58
I mentioned this before, because I used to teach water aerobics and told people, you
20:01
know, just get up and just, you know, how are you going to feel if you do it?
20:05
So I'm sure getting people getting back to the gym after covid was something important
20:10
to take care of themselves.
20:12
I shared with somebody the other day when covid started, my go to stress or snow when
20:17
we have a snowstorm, it's baking.
20:19
Well, when covid started, I started baking.
20:22
I'm like, OK, the snowstorm baking has got to stop soon or we're going to be in trouble.
20:27
But, you know, people getting back to the gym or just having the courage to work out
20:31
or get started a fitness because it is one step at a time.
20:34
So, you know, share with us a little bit about why you would say why not stay and get healthy
20:38
and take care of yourself.
20:41
See, one of the biggest things I saw was people just needed to be back around people.
20:47
Right.
20:48
You know, we spent so much time.
20:51
And even though I mean, for me is like the cup full of covid was I got to spend about
20:56
seven or eight months straight with my kids.
20:58
I there's that's the one people talk about time spent.
21:02
But I needed to get around adults.
21:04
And I'm real big on the influences that I let in my life.
21:08
And unfortunately, I have to go outside to find those business owners, those big thought
21:13
seekers always try to listen to the levels way above me to get better in my life.
21:19
And people just in general, as they came back into our gym, they were excited to see their
21:23
friends.
21:24
They was excited to be back in person.
21:25
They was excited just to be back in there.
21:27
But, you know, a lot of the noise that was created during covid was just about the benefits
21:32
of being healthy during that whole time.
21:35
So there was there was folks that were ready to get back in just to start working on them.
21:40
We run a group exercise program.
21:42
I help mentor and work in other personal training spaces and different things.
21:47
And it's just the mental, you know, the work moving weights and it's all good for our body.
21:54
But moving weights is just as big for our mental health and deloading stress coming
22:01
in and just getting.
22:05
So many people carry the weight of the world around and they don't know how to get it out.
22:10
And it just leads to just negative energies, negative emotions and negative health effects.
22:14
So just coming in and moving and I got to tell a lot of folks, if you don't want to
22:19
come to my gym, go put on a pair of shoes and go walk your neighborhood.
22:22
Do do something.
22:24
Just do something to help deload that day.
22:28
And then always do a little evaluation of the influences you're letting in your life
22:32
is.
22:33
And I've been taught over the years and I like spreading the word that you're going
22:37
to be a product of the five people that you let in your life.
22:40
And at our gym, we have a big rule about positivity only.
22:44
No gossip, no negativity.
22:46
And it's just a big deal that our members can come in and in gym, we can come in and
22:51
work out in a positive community and get lifted up, not pushed down.
22:55
Right.
22:56
Yeah.
22:57
And I think that's one thing COVID definitely opened my eyes to is like, who are we spending
23:01
time with?
23:02
And we were we closed our circle if we had to be careful who we were around.
23:07
And I was very selective.
23:08
And as I travel a lot and pop into in and out of town, there are people that I really
23:13
care about that lift me up and that I'm going to make sure I'm spending time with to fill
23:19
my soul and give me motivate me.
23:21
And you know, just good friends and family and spending time.
23:24
Important.
23:25
So yeah, all these things take courage.
23:28
So I know you talked about introduction, were there did you have to make choices to close
23:34
businesses because of COVID?
23:38
Not personally.
23:39
I had friends, I had to mentor and handhold some friends before I was doing anything with
23:45
SBDC.
23:46
I mentored some friends as they decided that they that was in their best interest was to
23:52
close.
23:53
And a lot of it was because they were ready to move on.
23:58
Some people some COVID help people just go on and say, you know, we've been looking to
24:03
move on.
24:04
So it was as negative as it looked in the only community center on to business close
24:09
and the owner was like, I don't have anybody wants to buy this.
24:12
I'm exiting now.
24:13
So the time for me to go.
24:15
So there was there was that there was a small bit of that.
24:18
But some folks close because they didn't want to take the time some folks close that was
24:23
launching because they didn't qualify for any of the funds that was being pushed out
24:27
by the government because they were too new of a business.
24:29
That was one of the deal situations.
24:33
But you know, yeah, we had I had a little bit of that to where people we are.
24:40
I work with a group of even in our fitness side where we the cool thing for us was we
24:46
when we saw it coming and I noticed that we were we had already started inside of our
24:50
fitness space and social distancing, cleaning your own weights.
24:54
We had we had limited our class sizes.
24:56
We had added an extra class for overflows.
24:59
And so we had did a massive pivot is what we like to call to start accommodating because
25:05
we knew we had that feeling of where it was going and it kept getting about to shut down
25:09
stuff and some of the in-person things you kind of saw was going to be a deal.
25:14
So we started really working hard for the folks I was working with them coming up with
25:19
plans just on the personal side of what we did back during covid.
25:24
But yeah, we had I had friends that exited the gym business.
25:27
I had people that closed.
25:28
I had folks that moved into other businesses, went ahead and took other opportunities.
25:34
It was it was definitely impacted.
25:37
You know, a lot of folks that I know.
25:39
So right.
25:40
Yeah.
25:41
So I know you've given us lots of tips and ideas for businesses and getting started.
25:46
So what encouragement would you have for someone to say, why not today?
25:50
Yes.
25:51
Yeah, that's always a great one.
25:52
To kind of pull it all together.
25:53
Yeah.
25:54
Yeah.
25:55
It flows with that.
25:56
That same thing that we started off with was if you're setting on that that business idea
26:01
and you're you know, there's a lot of folks that have great ideas and they're they're
26:08
fighting where they're at.
26:10
So their life's telling them to change or life's telling them they need to to take that
26:15
opportunity.
26:16
And I think sometimes it's if you have that, if you're looking to start a small business,
26:21
the first part of it would be is why not connect with your SPDC office today is something super
26:28
powerful.
26:29
And what we do in most every office has is we have a program called Business Smart Start.
26:35
If you have an idea, if you don't have anything set up, you can set and go through that class.
26:40
It costs you a little bit, but you get in deliverables.
26:44
We started charging a little bit for it to cover mailing and you get a book.
26:48
You get all sorts of things that help you be successful.
26:50
That's what we want out of our office.
26:52
Anyone who's not in business that comes to our office and says, hey, I want to start
26:57
a business.
26:58
They go through business smart start before they take any other steps.
27:01
And it educates them on insurances, laws, just gives them a thousand yard overview of
27:07
this is what small business looks like.
27:09
Because some people at that point say, you know what?
27:11
I'm going back over here.
27:12
I'm going to work.
27:14
I'd rather be an employee.
27:18
I would rather be an employee.
27:19
I want to do what you do.
27:20
And I get that.
27:21
Right.
27:22
So I've got lots of people that said that's me.
27:25
Like no way.
27:26
He's like, I like getting my vacations every year and this is the other.
27:31
So you have that angle on it is when you're starting is connecting with your business
27:37
advisor first is going to help you always call it that mind, feel a business is, you
27:45
know, before you go out and sign a lease that is way too high than what your business is
27:52
going to do.
27:53
That hurts a lot of people.
27:54
Sometimes you want to hire three people and they don't have the funds coming in to cover
27:58
the paper.
27:59
So we helped that initially just like, hey, these are the kind of some good do's and don'ts.
28:03
If you're in business, why not can go ahead and sign up just to be on the email list for
28:10
your local small business development center.
28:13
You can you can sign up.
28:14
And then the biggest thing that I noticed and so I'm always and I get with my folks
28:20
that I've worked with on page sign up and you don't have to work with me at all, but
28:24
get on my email list because here's what happened is I was on the SBDC office.
28:29
So the cool backstory for me was I had worked with my office on every business that I launched.
28:34
I knew all the folks I had worked with Tom Tanner, who's who's a just a wealth of information
28:40
when it comes to everything.
28:42
So I had worked with them.
28:43
I was on the email list.
28:45
So as soon as the shutdown struck coming, I started getting emails from the SBDC office
28:50
joined this zoom call.
28:52
We're going to be covering this.
28:54
We're going to show we're going to work on this strategy.
28:56
And they just started putting out tons of information.
28:58
So why not go ahead, get signed up at your local SBDC office, get on that mailing list.
29:04
So you're in their system and you don't have to do anything.
29:08
And then who knows?
29:09
We have another downturn.
29:11
We have another COVID event.
29:13
Who knows how what's coming down the pipe?
29:14
Like you mentioned, 9-11, 20 some years ago.
29:18
And then there we were in 2020.
29:21
Again, with with COVID is if you're already in that system, it's one step that you don't
29:26
have to take.
29:27
You guys have great resources and yeah, well, some knowledge and help for me.
29:31
Like even I know we are texting back and forth about t-shirts and t-shirt presses and we're
29:36
to get you know, but I will and help each other.
29:39
Yeah.
29:40
And if I don't have the answers, but the cool thing is to is when you do that, you get access
29:46
and when you're signed up, you get access to our resource library.
29:49
And most of the programs that we do, we record and post there and all the trainings that
29:55
we do, whether it may be a QuickBooks, financial things, human resources.
30:00
If we have a speaker come in and talk about intellectual property rights or whatever,
30:04
generally that's recorded and placed inside of our resource libraries.
30:08
All your trades and email and I guarantee you the value you're going to get from the
30:12
SBDC offices will overwhelm the inbox time it takes to go through it and leave it off
30:17
or sign up.
30:18
I have not jumped on any of those.
30:20
They keep going.
30:21
I have a bad habit of working a lot in my business on my business.
30:25
So I need to take some time to work on some of these things.
30:29
So this has been a wealth of help for me just to get me a little more accountable.
30:34
I'm listening to your podcast, Leslie.
30:36
If there's something in there that I need to refresh on, I'll flip it on.
30:40
Listen to it in the car.
30:41
May not watch it, but I'll listen to it in the car while I'm traveling.
30:44
And it gets me gets my thoughts where it needs to be.
30:47
That's that's why I love being in the car.
30:49
It gets your brain going and thinking.
30:53
So I always kind of try to connect back to my dad.
30:56
And obviously, you never met my dad and kind of a stretch.
30:59
But I think the things and just that you shared that were connection my dad is first of all
31:05
your kids and being being able to be there for them and teaching them business, which
31:10
I think my dad was a master and didn't really realize what he was doing.
31:14
Interesting.
31:15
He always preached like, get involved, help get involved in your community.
31:19
We're all like, yeah, right.
31:20
But it's interesting to see that I'm very much like him and have done that and got involved.
31:26
And you're just there helping businesses.
31:28
And I love that you're willing to help people.
31:30
My dad actually started the local chamber here where I live in Reston.
31:36
And I didn't really realize what it was and what it did.
31:38
He started when I was just finishing high school and found out later that he didn't
31:43
even have business locally to start a chamber.
31:47
He started a chamber because he was raising six kids in a community.
31:50
And I didn't realize really what how much connection he had until he had had a stroke.
31:56
And I'd be walking down the street and people are like, how's your dad?
31:59
And I'm like, first of all, who are you?
32:00
And how do you know my dad?
32:02
But he touched a lot of lives just helping people.
32:04
And I see you doing that.
32:06
Just I still remember I think I'd come in later once out for second one.
32:11
Everybody did their introductions at that event.
32:14
And I remember you saying sitting in the back saying, if you need help, I've got free resource.
32:17
I'm like, OK, who is this guy?
32:19
I need to meet him.
32:20
And I'm so glad I did.
32:22
So any closing thoughts?
32:24
You're what you said earlier about that we may have been while we were just chatting up
32:29
about your dad cross country.
32:31
You guys.
32:32
I get to travel.
32:33
I travel a little bit with SBDC to whatever.
32:37
It's nothing over the top.
32:38
But I travel a lot with inside my business because I belong to certain like I am in a
32:43
mastermind group and we meet a couple of times a year and we try to meet in different areas.
32:46
And it's just it's worth the investment for the personal development I get out.
32:51
I made a rule the other week I had to go to San Diego and I made a rule when I left when
32:56
I was getting out of the car.
32:57
Kids were there.
32:58
I was the night before.
32:59
I had an early flight and I was like, guys, I am not doing this so I can travel by myself.
33:06
Next time I have to go somewhere, either everyone goes or I'm not going because I get when you
33:11
go if it's a meeting that I have to be in or whatever.
33:14
But when I'm out there, I don't want to go.
33:16
I may be in San Diego or Orlando or wherever.
33:19
And I'm like, I just go to the class and I go back to the room and they'll call me like,
33:22
what are you doing?
33:23
Yeah, I'm fun.
33:24
Like, no, I don't want to do this.
33:25
I don't want to go do anything.
33:26
You guys are in here.
33:28
So that's a lot of similarities with your dad and investment that his businesses is
33:33
is drive and everything allowed him to invest back in you guys.
33:36
Yeah.
33:37
And that's just our cross.
33:38
Country trip, but there are many occasions where he yanked us out of school.
33:42
He was going on a trip for work and we went with them.
33:46
And it was invaluable.
33:49
And I remember my niece, her senior year in high school, I was going actually to North
33:52
Carolina for a Mary Kay meeting.
33:54
And we're going to go stop at Snowstown Lake, which she loves.
33:56
So she wanted to go with me.
33:58
And it was in the middle of the week.
33:59
And I'm like, can I go?
34:00
I'm like, well, you have to miss school.
34:01
You have to ask your mom.
34:02
And she said it was her last.
34:03
It was June of her senior year.
34:04
And she went with me and sat in the back of a Mary Kay meeting all day.
34:11
And we stopped and did all kinds of things.
34:13
She learned much more than she would ever in a classroom.
34:16
Just business and life and, you know, and we were able to bond and have that fun.
34:22
So yeah, you're doing it right.
34:24
I think it's super, super powerful.
34:26
And when the entrepreneurs that are listening to this is just that's that's huge.
34:32
If you're in the parent space or you think about getting a parent spaces, we are creating
34:37
those those moments in time.
34:40
And we only have that that so much.
34:43
And what did I tell my members the other day?
34:46
So you're not fighting life.
34:47
You fight in time.
34:48
And that's true.
34:49
You keep that all in mind.
34:50
You know, so yeah.
34:51
Yeah.
34:52
And I went the opposite way when I was just went to Florida.
34:56
I went with my 81 year old mother and my youngest sister.
35:00
And yeah, we drove and it was a long trip.
35:02
But we were and I was gone for two and a half weeks.
35:04
But I did that because, you know, we're not promised tomorrow and I want to be able to
35:09
spend time.
35:10
And that's important to me.
35:11
So are you doing the things have encouraged to do the things that are important for you
35:15
and saying, so, Jeff, how do people find you?
35:18
I'm going to share this with the podcast.
35:20
But people want to find I was going to tell you is for everyone is if you're in Virginia,
35:26
I would follow Virginia SBDC's Instagram account, their Facebook page.
35:31
That way you can they will help you find you can find your local offices.
35:36
But if you it ain't about connecting with me, it's about connecting with that local
35:40
SBDC office.
35:41
So if you're near Roanoke, we cover Roanoke, Franklin, New River Valley, Battetot.
35:48
It's it's with our SBDC, the Roanoke Regional Small Business Development Center.
35:53
But everyone else in the world is going to be listening to this obviously is just a quick
35:56
Google search about the nearest SBDC office near me.
36:02
And I feel like you'll be able to get into that.
36:04
Now me personally, one of the easiest ways to connect with me is going to run up small
36:08
business dot org and you'll see you get matched with an advisor and you can scroll down and
36:13
find me now.
36:14
I service this area here.
36:16
But if you are struggling with finding an SBDC office and you've got a quick question,
36:20
shoot me a message.
36:21
I go by country coach on Instagram.
36:24
If you're trying to find an office and you can't get connected in, it's a country underscore
36:29
underscore coach.
36:31
I will direct you to the nearest SBDC office or I'll find you someone in word ever would
36:38
carry your ever.
36:39
So for someone in Denver, I worked with some guys in Denver at a conference I was at.
36:43
There's offices there.
36:44
They're always looking for folks to come in.
36:45
So keep that in mind.
36:46
So don't just think that I'm just representing the bigger picture of what's out there for
36:51
every state has this available to them.
36:54
And it's a free resource for folks need to take advantage of.
36:58
Right.
36:59
And also we might, you know, I know a lot of people at the lake and Roanoke and people
37:03
might be interested in going to your gym.
37:05
So what's the gym name?
37:06
It's I'm over in Daleville.
37:07
It's Daleville Fit Body Boot Camp.
37:08
But yeah, you don't you don't just get no.
37:13
That's great.
37:14
I appreciate that.
37:15
Shout out.
37:16
So yeah, we're you do virtual classes?
37:17
No, we're all in.
37:18
I'm not coming to Roanoke to work out.
37:22
Sorry.
37:23
That's right.
37:24
You don't have to come to my gym.
37:27
If you're near there and you need help, I will help you.
37:29
OK, if you're looking, just just Google Fit Body Boot Camp or gym near me.
37:35
But the biggest thing is if you will if you'll go get you a nice pair of shoes and commit
37:39
to walking 30 minutes a day, you'll feel better.
37:42
Just do something.
37:43
We don't have to be about coming, coming to work with me personally.
37:47
If you will just commit to taking a little action and spending 30 to 40 minutes a day
37:52
doing something for you, because as I tell my members and people that work with me, if
37:57
you'll invest in you, you're going to feel better.
38:00
Everyone else around you is going to feel it too.
38:02
So true.
38:03
And this morning I usually walk every single day and this morning I really didn't feel
38:06
like it.
38:07
But I knew as soon as I would walk out this cold, fresh air and I live on a little lake,
38:11
walk around the lake that I'd be happy I did and feel better all day long.
38:14
So well, thank you so much.
38:17
Great information.
38:18
And we will share information on the podcast.
38:20
Of course, you can find the podcast on iTunes and Spotify.
38:24
And I think I added to Google.
38:25
So wherever you can find podcasts, got Instagram and Facebook and we do have Why Not Today
38:30
gear.
38:31
We've got t shirts and cups and vinyls.
38:34
So if you want some Why Not Today gear, let me know.
38:37
Because we all need to say why not to get Why Not Today.
38:39
So this is Leslie and Jeff and thanks for joining us today.
38:43
Have a great day.