Do you ever wish your team was a productive, finely honed operation? Your solutions are in this episode! Jimmy interviews Andrea Schlapia of Ironstone to discover the proven processes of becoming the most qualified candidate for a dream position and how to attract and retain great team members to help you succeed.
Episode Keys:
- The importance of creating and functioning your business with a written plan including the types of positions and roles you need for ultimate success.
- How to assess your current business practices to discover areas of improvement.
- Why a business coach is necessary to take your business from average to extraordinary!
- The best frequency to perform performance reviews of your team members.
- The secret to increasing your productivity and spending less time in your business.
Podcast Transcription
JW:
Good morning! You know, one of the things in life that has always puzzled me is having the right people on your bus. If you’re an entrepreneur like me, it is always important. It’s at the top of the importance ladder to find the right people, to put on your team. The wrong person, the wrong hire, the wrong culture fit does nothing but slow you down on your trajectory to success. So I’m honored today, to hopefully share a few minutes of her time… She is so busy. It took us weeks just to get on her calendar. This lady is such a talent. But I met her at a conference of few weeks back and she so impressed me. I said, “You know, I’ve got to get her on the show and I’ve got to have some insight from her because she is loaded with good information.” Now I did some homework on this lady. So I’m going to try to get her tripped up on a couple of questions about her childhood, but you’ll hear those later in the show. Hey, this is Jimmy Williams. Welcome to Live a Life By Design, your Monday morning moments of motivation so we can help you become a bigger, better, and bolder you. As I said, we have someone today that came from the great state of Idaho. She is someone that has something similar to one of my best mentors,Jim Rohn. Idaho just seems to turn out talented, wonderful, and beautiful people for some reason. But today our guest is Andrea Schlapia. She is the CEO and founder of Ironstone. This group has an outstanding background and program to help you become a better team leader, help you to hire those people that you need to hire, and also coach you in an ongoing process to make certain that your systems are in place. And we’re going to show you here in a few moments and place in the show notes, how you can contact her and also get a free consultation so she can help you get started in this process. So Ironstone is one of those companies that you just must get in contact with if you’re an entrepreneur, or even more so, if you’re simply a great candidate looking for the right position. So with that said, welcome to the show, Andrea, glad to have you this morning!
AS:
Jimmy, it is absolutely a pleasure to connect, collaborate and all of the above.
JW:
So I’m just going to cut to the chase. You know, here on Live a Life By Design, we have the unvarnished truth. I’m telling you, I’m talking about the pure truth you get with no colors around it. I’ve got to hear something about the rodeo queen and I read, I did my research, you were a rodeo queen, as I understand, way back in the younger days. Tell me a little bit about that.
AS:
I’m not that old Jimmy.
JW:
Well, I want you to know I’m a big time horse rider, as long as it was plugged in it in front of Kmart, we didn’t even have Walmart back then. They had Kmart’s when I was a kid.
AS:
And I had Kmart too. It was, you know, the dime to ride the horse. That’s how it all started all those years ago. And yes, you have done your research because I was Miss Rodeo Idaho 1991. So that has been for sure. And you know, Miss Rodeo America first runner-up, all that kind of good stuff. And it paid for some private college Northwest Nazarene College in Idaho, so I can’t complain. It was a great childhood and a great way to grow up.
JW:
Awesome! Well, I’ve got to ask you now… Be serious, how much hairspray, how many cans did you use to keep the hair that tall in the horse? You were tall in the saddle, your hair was about two foot taller. So how’s that work again?
AS:
Again, that was in the nineties, so yes, hair was a lot bigger than it is in today’s world. And if you could stop a bird in flight, that’s when you knew how much hairspray you had in your hair, and if you had enough. So, there’s your answer.
JW:
On her side of her saddle of her horse, they hung a sign on the saddle horn on either side that said “no open flames near rider,” but anyway. I’m just kidding.
AS:
Everyone, everyone had that sign. It wasn’t just me.
JW:
I’m just teasing you. Hey, welcome to the show today. It is an honor to have a few minutes of your time. You’ve got such a background. You are a registered corporate coach as a designee. You have a designation in human capital strategist. You’re a strategic business partner certification and certified administrator of PXT Select and Myers-Briggs assessments. Wow. Do you not sleep?
AS:
Yeah, that’s a lot of years. So now you’re now you’re dating me in my age because it’s what I’ve accomplished over many, many years of hard work and education. I’m a lifelong learner. I love learning, so that will never stop. And, you know, alphabet soup behind the name, but it really is what are you going to do with that? So that’s the more important aspect of it.
JW:
Absolutely. We’re going to dive into that in just a moment. I just want to say that it… It’s just to me a lifelong learning person is the same that I espouse. I just love, matter of fact, I tell people all the time, if they’d send me back to college, but pay me what I make now, I’d stay there and get three PhDs. You know what I mean?
AS:
Absolutely. I would do, you know, PhD or not, I would just continue for the rest of my life. Absolutely.
JW:
So, I’m going to ask a few questions, because what people need to understand is our backgrounds are important and make us who we are today. So another dear friend of mine lost a parent at a very young age, she was about 12, in a car accident. And she’s my speaking coach now. And Deirdre Van Nest has been on this show. She’s just a great lady. I don’t want to bring up a sad moment for you, but I want to just find… Losing your parents at such a young age, you were like 10, right? Or how old were you at the time?
AS:
Yeah, actually I was six. My dad passed away and it was… You know, as we talk about it right now I can visualize that day, even as a six year old. He was hit by a drunk driver. So it was an unnecessary reason for losing a parent. And I have two older sisters and they’re 10 and 13 years old than I am. And, you know, I can remember that day of, you know, I grew up on a farm. This is in Idaho. And my oldest sister and I were sitting outside and I saw a police car drive up thought, “Hey, that’s cool.” As a six year old kid, you think it’s cool. And then all of a sudden you see your mom’s face completely changed when two people are standing at the front door and having a conversation. So, you know, that completely changed our lives. And that is why my mom is absolutely one of my mentors and the people and person, I should say, that I look up to, because she took the most horrific situation that anybody could ever experience and made all of us strong, brought us all together. You know, three girls, 19, 16, and 6. And we all have college degrees. We all are in the business world and it was a non-negotiable to not go to college and to be the best you could be. And so she’s a tough lady. Had to be.
JW:
Well, I’ve got to tell you, I applaud your dear mom. She did an outstanding job. I haven’t met her or had the pleasure of meeting your sisters, but you know, you being instilled with that, “Hey, you’ve got to make your way in this world. There are no free lunches.” You know, I tell my kids every day, if they offer you something for free, there is no free lunch. Someone’s paying that for you. So get your education as you did, and really make yourself an entrepreneur, in every sense of the word. I just applaud her and you for such great job. So let me just dive into this a little bit. So you were actually in the financial investments world for years. What made you want to leave such a great profession and go into consulting about teams and team building and hiring and evaluation of entities?
AS:
Well, that is a great question. And it was you know, somewhat of a push. But when I was in the financial advisor chair, and I’ve been in the financial industry, you know, going now 25 plus years, frightening as the number gets higher and higher each year. But, you know, I had the opportunity… One of my mentors when I was a financial advisor, gave me the opportunity to start training new advisors that came in the door. And I absolutely fell in love with that. And that instantly changed my trajectory and mindset around what I wanted to do with my career. So through that process, I was able to work at some different consulting firms and again, trained. And then I worked at three different mutual fund firms. So Dreyfus, Prudential, DWS Investments… Got to walk into every single financial advisory firm, whether it was independent, whether it was a wirehouse, whether it was an insurance bank. And guess what, Jimmy? Their problems are all the same! Problems are all the same, no matter what.
JW:
I tell people, just a different location, right, Andrea?
AS:
That’s exactly right. All the problems are the same. But, you know, in 2002 and 2008, the best times in the industry practice management, isn’t really a cool thing. It’s a cost center. It’s not a revenue generating. So I had the opportunity to get laid off twice and I got laid off twice by the same boss. It was like Groundhog Day in 2002 and 2008. You know, it’s a very small industry once you’re in it. And I know that you know that. So it was an opportunity, then, in December of 2008 to start Ironstone, and it has been the best 13-year ride that I can say. It is my baby. It’s, you know, the opportunity to mentor others and the team members that we have to help them to be great in their space. And just, it’s a ripple effect of the impact that you may never know that you have on someone based upon the learning and development and training and coaching, and just every opportunity to touch somebody’s life. And to make it a little bit better, even if it’s like a grain of salt worth, you may never know what that does for somebody.
JW:
You know, it’s not to get too biblical, but some of us plant seeds, some of us water, and some of us reap the harvest, right? You may be in the seed planning moment for that person, but you may be in the water moment for someone else, right? So I love your approach to this. So I do need to know though, I couldn’t find exactly why you call your company Ironstone. Tell me where you’re going with it. How’d you get that name?
AS:
That is an excellent question. So a friend of mine who is in the marketing space, we went to lunch one day and I said, “You know, I really love the concept of cornerstone,” and what the aspect of that is and my faith foundation, because I can say that is, you know, my faith, my family, my friendships, my philanthropy, you know, I’ve got a whole little formula for you I’ll talk about later. But the aspect of cornerstone is so critical for me and my life, but everybody has that name. Everybody uses that name here. There’s a cornerstone on every corner. So when I shared that with this person, they said, “Well, you’re a female in the financial industry. It needs to be strong. Let’s take that whole concept. How about Ironstone?” It was easy as that. And it was truly a gift from God, because it was too easy and coincidences don’t just happen in my opinion. So it was all about the strength of iron. And if you look at our website and you look at the colors and you look at the eye of Ironstone, it’s got a split in it… The concept is an anvil. And all of our colors are blues and oranges because iron is cold and metal is cold and it’s the blues and the heat of learning and development and education and molding your mind with the anvil, just like we heat up metal. And it changes to that red hot orange. When you get to start bending it and morphing into something new and beautiful, that is Ironstone.
JW:
Oh man, I’m getting chills on the story. I love that. Again, not to get too biblical on you, Andrea, but remember iron sharpens iron. As a man, you know, the Bible tells us that.
AS:
Exactly right. That’s exactly right.
JW:
I love your idea. I love your thought behind the name. If I were an entrepreneur seeking some help from you and I were to send an email to you at office@ironstonehq.com, for example, and I said in there, “Hey, I need some help.” Would you be willing today on this podcast to offer a free consultation to those entrepreneurs that may wish to look at your services?
AS:
That is without question a yes, because that is what I am passionate about. And I’ll do you want even better, Jimmy. So I’ll also raise you that in the subject line, say, “Can we connect and have a free consultation?” But on our website, remember orange means action and heating up the metal. Well, look for the big orange button in the upper right-hand corner. And your listeners can schedule, call, jump on the calendar right now as we speak. We’re looking for that big orange button in the corner.
JW:
Awesome, so just push that orange button, tell them the date and times that they’re available and you’re available. It’s that simple folks. And I will tell you remember that the complex is very hard to make simple. She’s already done it for you. Click the button, get online. It’ll send the message out to her and you, and take advantage of this. So let’s talk about one of your services. I love the idea of the “fundamental four” score for my company. So tell me a little bit about that. How did that come about and what does that tell me as an entrepreneur?
AS:
Excellent question, sir. So remember, I got to walk in to all of those different companies, but those mutual fund firm experiences and everything was the exact same. That offered me the opportunity to create what the “fundamental four” is today. So it’s strategic planning, business development, operational effectiveness, and the human element. And then there’s eight subcategories underneath each of those that we take a look at. And bottom line, it’s how to run a business, how to run any business, by the way, it’s not just financial industry. There’s one line item on there that identifies it as financial industry, but you take one out of 32 off there, and it’s how to run a business. So not only free consultation, there’s another orange button on every single page. It says, “assess your practice”. If you click that orange button, it will lead you right through the fundamental four analysis. And we’ll give you a report and then we can have a conversation that’s all around that for you, to help you point you in the right way,
JW:
I’m going to be pushing some orange buttons, then, I can tell you, when I get off this podcast today, but… So I love that. So it tells you those areas of your business that are fundamental to being success for you. And that’s why it’s the “fundamental four”. I love that. Let’s talk a little bit about your strategic planning process. I will tell you, most of my clients that are entrepreneurs, like myself, that have done a great job, knowing what their industry is, what their products are. They know how to sell them. They are horrible about strategic planning. They don’t have a clue beyond this year’s operating budget. “How’s It going to look? What do I want it to look like?” They don’t know. How do you help people gain control of strategic planning beyond just the 12 months?
AS:
Well, but let me give you a statistic before we even go there. Do you realize that only 3% of the population actually have goals and only 1% of the population actually write them down?
JW:
So you’re saying not only my revenue, but by writing my goals, I’m in the upper 1%. I love that.
AS:
That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. Now, that’s going to help you to implement them. Implementation is kind of key. So that’s part of our how the strategic planning has eight subcategories underneath it. Yes, putting a business plan together. What is succession, how about compensation, how about incentive? What’s your business model? Operating costs? A lot, lots of different things, but half of the battle is where do you want to go? What does success look like? So here’s my challenge to all of your listeners. Just because it’s not January 1st or December 31st in this moment, between now and December 31st, what does success look like? Describe what success looks like. Write it down. And if your listeners haven’t tried storyboarding, you know what storyboarding is.
JW:
Absolutely, use it all the time.
AS:
I love this thing. It’s a post-it note. You know, the little small square ones. One thought one post-it note, put it up on the wall. Every single thing can be storyboarded. So let’s take an easy something. Where do you want to go on vacation in 2022 and beyond? Where do you want to go on vacation 2022 and beyond? You could have a whole family fun storyboarding experience at home. Same thing with your business. What are all the processes and systems? What does success look like? Whether it’s the number of people that you want on your team, the revenue that you want, the process and systems that you want to put into place, your social media strategy. It can be anything and there’s no wrong answers, by the way. There’s red lights in storyboarding because it’s collecting ideas.
JW:
I love the test. I can’t fail is what you’re saying.
AS:
Yeah. One hundred percent. A-Plus.
JW:
But you know, the thing about it with me is, so I’m a goal geek. I’m just going to be honest. We’ve been doing this since I was in college. I thought if I don’t have goals to pull me forward… Too many people think, “Oh, I’ve got a goal.”They write it. They forget about it. Let me tell you, I look at mine every morning during my planning time for the day. And I pick my big three for the day and I go, one of those is going to have something to do with my goals. Either the short-term mid-term long-term goals. Generally you’ll find these stack up to be your long-term goal success if you get your mid, you know, your short, right, everything else works. Right? So, so let’s talk a little bit then about how to know if I’ve got the right people on the bus. So think about this. I’m needing a new client relationship manager, for example. How would you recommend that I go about that process to get the right person? Do you do that in your business?
AS:
We do. I will say we are not recruiters. We have some phenomenal strategic partners, but if you want help to put your hiring process together, we do this with you and you can replicate it time after time after time. And it works regardless if it’s intern to owner and everything in between, it’s helping you to manage the hiring process. So from a Zoom or telephone interview to an in-office, if we’re going in office, to a meal time to skill simulations, to top two, an assessment, we can talk PXT all day long. It’s an awesome, awesome nerd-level data, but very easy to understand. And so we want to help with that whole entire process because, bottom line, Jimmy, it is hire for attitude, train for skill, have multiple interviews, and have all of your team as a part of the process are really some key drivers of the success to getting the right person on the bus.
JW:
You know, I love your approach to that. Let me ask you this though, in terms of a position with this paradigm shift, we’ve seen that’s happened in the last 18 months, especially in our industry and a lot of companies working from home, now, maybe I need someone in a position I don’t have on the org chart. I’m assuming that you would know at Ironstone how my system’s supposed to be going. And you could say, “Hey, Jimmy, tell me just what you’re needing,” and maybe help me craft a job description, the duties of that person. Maybe you can help with some of that. Is that something you’d do as well?
AS:
Absolutely. And I will, you know, see your job description and I’ll raise you a task list. The difference is, job description is a great high level overview of the position so we’ll think of it like as a recruiting tool, but if I’m looking to join your team, does that really tell me the day in the life of what the position is and what the expectations are? Probably not. So a task list is a little bit further in the weeds. Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly as needed… What does that role and expectations of that role have within it? So what are the literal tasks? That’s like a roadmap for success. And lots of people say, “Oh, that’s so remedial.” Well, you might think it’s remedial, but guess what? It’s the foundation for everything because it’s your guide for actually interviewing. It’s your onboarding curriculum. It is your career path for bringing somebody into the team and helping moving them up the ladder and helping to coach and elevate them. So not only is it attracting somebody, it’s retaining and managing and elevating people on your team, all with a task list.
JW:
I love that. So we actually call it your catalytic converter on our list. And I know that sounds terrible, like a car, but what we’re doing is we’re taking something that’s in raw form. And we’re going to show you, if you’ll just follow these steps. And here’s what you do this day, this day, this day. I know it sounds a little geeky, but listen, it works Andrea, because those people come into that position brand new to your culture, brand new to your company, and they feel all of a sudden connected. Guess what, if I have an engaged employee, I have got a real jewel in the rough, right? So talk to me about engagement. I’m guessing you address that issue with themes. You know, something about these Gallup polls I read that really scare me when they tell me the percentage of people engaged. What do you know about that, and what can you help our listeners find out?
AS:
You are not wrong on the scary part. So let me say, 85% of working adults today are just going through the motions.
JW:
Now wait a minute, you said 85% are going through the motions. Not 15%.
AS:
That’s right. So 85% are going through the motion. That means flip it the other way, 15% of people are engaged. That’s a pretty low number.
JW:
That explains why productivity is down, right?
AS:
That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. And guess what? Engagement is solely determined by you, the manager. Like 70%, I should say, of engagement is determined by you, the manager. How you are interacting with that individual. And only 22% of workers… And this is, you know, industry research study, Gallup, you know, and a ton more… 22% of workers believe that you as the business owner – only 22%, let me say that again – believe that you, as the business owner have a clear direction of the firm. So this ties right back to our conversation with goals. If you don’t have goals, if you don’t have everything written down, if they’re all in your head, this is a bless your heart moment because it doesn’t help your team to know where we’re going, what you’re doing, what your expectations are and what success looks like by the end of the year.
JW:
One of the comments you said there in your presentation, which was so wonderfully said, people do not quit jobs. They quit people, managers, leaders, CEOs, whatever. They don’t quit the job. They’re frustrated with the lack of leadership, vision, and direction given to them to get their job done at the highest level of efficiency as possible. So let’s talk about, what can we do? Let’s talk about those entrepreneurs, now. This is Jimmy asking. What can we do as leaders to be better communicators with our team? I’m sure Ironstone can help with that too.
AS:
Well, absolutely. You know we can. That’s our lane. That’s our lane, Jimmy. But here’s the challenge to every entrepreneur and business owner is, I would challenge you to shift your mindset from a boss to a coach, because this is what team members are looking for, is feedback. And having a quality coaching experience in three things that are really required for quality coaching experience is establishing the goals together with the team member, not dictator and saying, “Hey, Jimmy, here you go.” But, “Hey, let’s talk about this and work together to create your goals.” Continual coaching. And so not just at the end of the year and “Hey, great job. Thanks for being a team member. And you got a job next year.” No, that’s a kudos and that’s only once a year, so that’s not really coaching. So from a much more of a, I’m going to say, OJT which is on-the-job training. A lot of people don’t know that term if you’re younger than an X, but that’s exactly what people are looking for, is a continual conversation, but it has to be meaningful. So just a kudos, thumbs up is much different than specific and meaningful coaching, collaboration, specific. Being, “You did great on X and this was the outcome,” or “Here’s an opportunity to improve on this,” or “Great client feedback that you received, or you built this process out.” So it has to be really specific feedback, not just an “attaboy”. And then from the accountability standpoint, we said, how many times are the ideal? Always speak from a best practice. Ideally you have more formalized coaching stop points four times a year. I know everybody’s sitting down, hopefully, because somebody just fell out of their chair, fell over when I said that, like “I don’t even want to do it once a year. Why would I want to do it four?” But ideally it’s four times a year. Every 90 days is much easier to get feedback on 90 days, really then looking back at 12 months because you know what? You just irritated me. And now that’s all I remember in the last week. So I don’t know what happened the rest of the, you know, 51 weeks out of the year. I just remember last week. So if you’ve never are… I should say, if you’re only doing coaching and performance feedback once a year right now, do it at least twice a year. Don’t try to do it four times a year. Not do it well, do a mid-year review June July-ish and end the year, December timeframe and knock it out of the park.
JW:
I love that advice. So I’ve got to be honest with you. I’m a just take copious notes when I’m at these conferences and I come back on the plane, don’t laugh. My whole job… I told you I’m a geek guy, but my whole job on the plane is to go through those notes, pick out the highest two or three of each session. Because if I brought all of my notes in, my team got that real blurry glass side look, last time I did that. And so you said that and I underlined it and drew a box around it. When you said four times per year, give feedback. So our listeners understand, you’re not saying do a full evaluation and review. You’re saying, stop, take a few moments, maybe 30 minutes and give some feedback on specific projects, tasks, and so forth that they did from input by them to output for the company, show the connectivity of what they did well, what we may need to show a little more improvement on. You know, I’m not saying that you sit down and chew them out. I’m saying to them though that you give them some good candid feedback. And explain the difference about that, when you say four times a year, make sure I’m on the right track for our listeners. What do you really mean? What am I going to do each of those four sessions?
AS:
So those four sessions, we have a performance feedback system and it has 15 key performance indicators that you’re scoring regardless of the role and responsibility. It’s the same 15 key performance indicators that we’re scoring folks on. But the very last portion of it is, now you’re creating the specific goal, because somebody that’s in an intern versus a client service versus a paraplanner versus an advisor, they’re going to all have different types of goals. Those same key 15 performance indicators that becomes a very consistent measuring stick. You’re going to be able to give that feedback and guess what, Jimmy? It has to be two way communication. So if you and I are in a performance feedback, you’re going to do a self evaluation. I’m not just going to say, “Hey, here’s what I saw. You did. Great. Not great.” No, it’s what did you see in your own performance that you’ve done really, really well. That’s really critical because then it makes it collaborative. And, again, a two way communication. Think about this. Too many people, I think, think about a business as like, “Hey, it’s a family” and it’s like, bring it together. I want to shift your mindset. Families can be disfunctional. So let’s not be a family. Let’s bee the professional sports team. Cause guess what? A professional sports team has to perform and they can have a phenomenal culture and they can come together. And when there is under-performance, there’s coaching and there’s, “Let’s go to tape. Let’s look at this, let’s practice.” All of those things. I mean, we’re in an Olympic year right now. And so there was a ton of practice, going tape, looking at this collaborative feedback, to get to that space. It’s the same thing as running a business for a professional sports team. And unfortunately, if you don’t perform, there’s going to be cuts. You can’t use those same analogies with a family because, “Okay, well, we can cut you, but we’re not going to see you at Thanksgiving, you know, the holidays.”
JW:
You know, you brought up something. We think of our team, and this sounds funny to everyone, but I’m an old guitar player. We think of our team is that platinum-selling rock and roll band that says I get only two hours on stage every night, but I’ve got to practice for months and rehearse for months and perhaps play for years before I get that two hours. See, we all want to be on stage if you’re like Jimmy. I love to speak. Matter of fact, I’m the one they get the hook to most of the time, you know, I want to give as much value as I can. As they did Andrea. She did such a great job. Just kept going and going…. No, I’m just kidding. You have an uncanny knack of communicating wonderful things to people. So I’ll do want to ask you this. If you had a magic wand – I always ask this question to my guests – and you can take that wand and make it do anything you’d like to do to improve your business, your life, your industry, whatever, what would Andrea do with that wand?
AS:
That would allow me to, I think we actually already said it at the beginning of this collaboration, is lifelong learning. I will always go to school because if I can continue to increase my wisdom, God gets the glory for everything that I do. And he’s the one that gives me the wisdom, but I can continue to increase that. That’s always going to help me to be better. And guess what? That’s going to be a ripple effect on other people that I have the opportunity to connect with that I may never know how I impacted them.
JW:
You know, you have a wonderful answer on that one because I will tell you, all I want to do is help the next person, see what I’m doing? Just help the next guy. If I can help the next guy, guess what? Hopefully that’ll help the next guy. And just like that rock in the water, you just don’t know where it quits, right? So let me ask you this. Who are some of your mentors that keep you motivated? I mean, you’ve done so many things in your career from rodeo queen of Idaho, which I just think that’s cool, and all the way, all the way now being an entrepreneur, having your own successful business. So tell me what motivates you.
AS:
There’s a lot of things that motivate me, but I will say, I’m going to frame this in what I call the FP squared. FP squared is my faith, my physical wellbeing family and friends, and my philanthropy, meaning giving back. So faith is my F, my P is my physical wellbeing. My family and friends is the other F and the P, philanthropy and the giving back. That’s my FP squared. So, that’s my hill… But again, my mentorsI’m going to highlight my mom yet again, because she made things work when all things said, they’re not gonna work because it blew up our family. And that woman put every ounce of my stick-to-it-ness, my determination and everything that I am today, I owe it to that lovely woman.
JW:
Let me tell you why your mom was so successful. She got a degree, I understand a Bachelor’s in Education, Special Education, perhaps a Master’s in Special Education. And then she went on to be a reading specialist, I believe. Is that correct?
AS:
That is correct.
JW:
Let me tell you why she was so successful. And if most of us, if not all of us as entrepreneurs striking out from that secure every two weeks paycheck, with all those benefits, if we could just see the real vision we have and what our potential is within us to bring to the world, the greatest of values, not only would it help our sales grow in value, it would help so many other people get their values, right? Just what you’re doing at Ironstone. You’re helping these guys and gals be better leaders, be better managers, be better operators of their business. But your mom’s secret was this, that a lot of us don’t have :she didn’t have a choice. It had to work, right?
AS:
That’s exactly right.
JW:
So, don’t take this wrong, mom didn’t have the luxury you and I had. You know, you could have gone out and got another job or you’re very talented, beautiful person. You’re smart. You could get another job. Instead, you said, “No, I want to change, not just a few people. I want to change the world.” Man, I love Steve Jobs. You’ve got to read his biography, if you haven’t, listeners, because this guy turned the computer industry on its ear and then went on to audio and other things, right? So before I let you go, what would be one piece of advice you would leave our listeners with? If you could only leave one, you’ve got so much great stuff, but if I could only have one piece of advice, what would that be?
AS:
I’m limited to one?
JW:
This is the hard part. See, that’s why you’re a professional. That one piece of advice.
AS:
Be genuine and authentic.
JW:
Ooh, I like that. Genuinely authentic. Okay. Give me some background.
AS:
Genuinely authentic because your true self will come out by allowing yourself to be vulnerable and to be authentic and to be true. And then again, you will be able to impact more people. Don’t try to be the smartest person in the room. Be a listener, be an active listener and keep it simple. I tried to sneak some other things in there.
JW:
I love it. See, that’s what you’ll get at Ironstone, folks. If you give them an opportunity, go to Ironstonehq.com. Look for the orange buttons. They’re on every page on the website, I’m telling you it’s easy to find, easy to see. Upper right-hand corner. Give a call to her team. She’s got some great people. I’ve talked to them. They’re glad to work with you. Also, if you get a moment and you would like to have that calendar time to speak directly with her team or with Andrea, go to office@ironstonehq.com, simply send that email. And basically what you need to do is put in the subject line, “Hey, live a life.” And then she’s going to give you some free advice, some great tools just for taking a few minutes of your time and talking with her, go click the orange button, get on her calendar. And she didn’t pay me to say this. I’m not paying her to be here. She didn’t pay me to say this. I’m just telling you in the time I met her at this conference, it made such an impression on me as a leader, a father, and entrepreneur, that I said, I’ve got to talk some more to this lady. So I did what I normally do. And Andrea, you can tell them it’s true. Or, you know, I’m not making this up and belching, I cornered her up at a lunch to say, “I’ve got to talk to you.”
AS:
Yes, yes, you’re right, Jimmy, you did corner me. I not going to say anything different than that. Very, very true and transparent.
JW:
Once security left, we had our conversation. No, I’m just kidding. Anything you’d like to add before we close out this episode, anything at all? So
AS:
I have a quote from Milton Berle, which, you know, some people might have to look up who that is, but I love this, because again, it’s simple. I’m going to leave you with this. “If Opportunity, doesn’t knock, build a door.”
JW:
I love that. Love that. And those of you who don’t know Milton Berle go to YouTube and some of his stuff… So I’m the guy, I love clean comedy. I’m not big on part of our guidelines here. We don’t allow profanity. I don’t use it. Nobody else needs to use it on our podcast, but Milton Berle was so clean and hilarious back in his day. So that is a great one. I love it. Well, I want you to know it has been fantastic having you on the show. We’re going to have information regarding what we talked about today in the show notes. We’re even going to send in our show notes, a portion of what she presented at this conference I attended known as the Elite Wealth Advisor Symposium, where she just knocked it out of the park. So Andrea, thank you so much for your time today. I know you’re a busy professional and it has been my pleasure to have you here on Live a Life By Design.
AS:
Absolutely phenomenal, Jimmy. It’s my pleasure as well. You are a cherished spirit and soul, and I’m glad to be a part of your world in any way. So have a fabulous, fabulous rest of your day and thank you for the opportunity to visit with you.
JW:
It is my pleasure and we will do this again, lady. Thank you.
AS:
Thank you, sir.