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The Rome Floyd Chamber Show – Lisa Smith, Executive Director of Georgia’s Rome Office of Tourism

June 2, 2023 by angishields

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Rome Business Radio
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Tagged With: Broad Street, Georgia's Rome, Georgia's Rome Office of Tourism, Hardy on Broad, Hardy Realty, Hardy Realty Studio, Karley Parker, Lisa Smith, Pam Powers-Smith, Rome Floyd Chamber, Rome Floyd Chamber Business Resource Series, Rome Floyd Chamber of Commerce, Rome Floyd County Business

BRX Pro Tip: African Proverb for Entrepreneurs

June 2, 2023 by angishields

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BRX Pro Tip: African Proverb for Entrepreneurs
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BRX Pro Tip: African Proverb for Entrepreneurs

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, you’ve come across some wisdom from the other side of the world lately, haven’t you?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:11] Yeah, this is something I’ve heard about. I never knew that this was an African proverb, but I think it pertains to entrepreneurs really well. The proverb is, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:26] I think that successful entrepreneurs that make the transition from doing everything themselves to delegating to others is kind of the way to go. And you have to understand if when you delegate, when you build a team, when you kind of have people around you that you’re not going to get the exact same work done in the way, exact way you would like it to be done, or if you would do it yourself and you think that, you know what, it’ll be better and faster if I just do it myself.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:56] But over the long haul, that’s just not true. Because you’re not investing your time in the work that really matters. As soon as you have tasks that you can delegate, you should be delegating it. That is the only way you can lead well. So take the leap. Involve others on your journey. Share your mission with others who think like you and believe what you believe. Then, see how far you all can go together. And that’s what we’re doing at Business RadioX. We’re looking for others so we can serve more people together.

BRX Pro Tip: No Such Thing as Multitasking

June 1, 2023 by angishields

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Stone Payton : [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, what strategies do you lean on to help you multitask?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:11] I don’t multitask. There has just been recent research from MIT that says that human brains are wired to just do one cognitively demanding thing at a time. And what’s happening when most people think they are multitasking is really called task switching. You’re just kind of toggling between a variety of tasks and you’re not really doing any one of them well as well as you could be if you were focusing in on them. You’re just kind of bouncing between them individually and thinking that you’re doing them all simultaneously. But sadly, when you’re bouncing between these tasks, that means you’re less creative and far more likely to make mistakes than if you were just locked in on one of those individual tasks and focusing solely on that.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:57] So next time, instead of multitasking, try removing all your distractions and just lock into one task at a time. Give it 100% of your effort rather than trying to get several things done at the same time. And then, when you completed that task, move on to the next one. You’ll see you’ll be more effective, you’ll get a better result, and it actually will take you less time.

Trafficking in Traffic

June 1, 2023 by angishields

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Derek and Andrea Johnston with The Gathering Board

May 31, 2023 by angishields

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Sponsored by Business RadioX ® Main Street Warriors

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Derek-Andrea-Johnston-bwWe are Derek and Andrea Johnston, the owners of a local charcuterie company called The Gathering Board. Derek’s background is in emergency medicine, specifically as a firefighter/paramedic and owner of a CPR company. Andrea has owned a general contracting company, volunteered as an EMT, and was a licensed Realtor prior to establishing The Gathering Board Co.

Our careers were focused on helping people, sometimes on the worst day of their lives, and that has greatly influenced our attitudes in what we do now. We serve others. We feed them, yes, but we also want to make it meaningful.

The Gathering Board is not just another caterer or restaurant. Its purpose is to bring people together, for celebrations like weddings or birthdays, but also for funerals or other events that are more somber. The point is to share food, share conversation, and establish new relationships as well as deepening current ones.

The Gathering Board Co was first dreamed up in July 2020, born out of our love of good food and to fill a niche that was missing in Cherokee County. We officially opened the doors to our very own storefront in August 2021 in downtown Holly Springs.

We have had the pleasure of serving thousands of people artistically crafted and incredibly delicious charcuterie boards and grazing tables. We focus first on using high quality, fresh ingredients and then presenting them in a visually appealing way. You eat with your eyes first, and we want your meal to be exceptional; we want you to be able to experience a taste of art.

Follow The Gathering Board on Facebook.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:24] Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Cherokee Business Radio Stone Payton here with you this morning. And today’s episode is brought to you in part by our local small business initiative, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors Defending capitalism, promoting small business and supporting our local community. For more information, go to Mainstreet warriors.org and a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors Diesel David Inc. Please go check them out at diesel. David.com. You guys are in for a real treat this morning. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with The Gathering Board Andrea and Derek Johnston. How are y’all?

Andrea Johnston: [00:01:13] Hey Stone.

Derek Johnston: [00:01:15] Good morning.

Andrea Johnston: [00:01:16] We’re doing good. How are you?

Stone Payton: [00:01:17] I am doing well. Coming off the Memorial Day weekend, I shared with you before we went on air that I got my youngest daughter married off. I’m anticipating a raise. I got more family coming in through the week. So tired. But it’s I’m feeling very blessed and so delighted to have you guys in the studio. I’ve been looking forward to this conversation for a long time. I got a ton of questions. I know we’re not going to get to them all, but I think maybe a great place to start would be if you could share with me and our listeners mission purpose. What are you guys really out there trying to do for folks?

Andrea Johnston: [00:01:56] So our real focus is just to provide people with delicious, beautiful food. I love feeding people. I love eating. And thankfully Derek likes to eat as well too, so it works out well together. And really our goal is just to provide a product to people that that allows them to gather together. Like your daughter’s wedding. Right? You probably noticed the food is sometimes the highlight of the event.

Stone Payton: [00:02:29] So yeah, it was a big deal and if I’d have been on top of my game, you’d have been in Chattanooga with me this past weekend.

Andrea Johnston: [00:02:34] I love Chattanooga this weekend. We actually did do a wedding on Friday and it was for 125 people. And it’s just something that it’s like a magnet. And, you know, you can have Chick fil A or you can have tacos. And, you know, Chick fil A is doing the Lord’s work. But but there’s something different about charcuterie. And if I had a dollar for every time somebody said, oh, that’s too pretty to eat, you know, I would be very wealthy. And but what we find is it’s it’s a magnet that draws the people together. They they just gather around, which is pretty much why we came up with the name the gathering board, because we wanted something that is the central focus of your event. If you don’t have anything to talk about, at least talk about the food and, you know, making it. Visually appealing. That’s that’s really high importance for us. High quality foods. It’s got to taste good, look good and. Yeah, that’s. That’s. That’s what we enjoy doing.

Stone Payton: [00:03:44] Well, it’s got to be incredibly rewarding work. What are you in fact, I’m going to ask you individually and I’ll start with Derek at this point, because you guys have been at this a while. Derek, I’ll start with you. What are you finding the most rewarding about the work, about the business? What do you enjoy the most?

Derek Johnston: [00:04:03] My past business. I’ve been a medic since I was 19, a paramedic and a lot of a lot of times when we take care of when I took care of people on the ambulance and the E.R. or wherever, we would take really good care of them, drop them off, and then probably never see them again. Here we’re feeding people, which is super enjoyable. You can actually see somebody when they come to pick up our food. We show that to show them to it. We show them the board first and they always get this amazing smile and they are like, Oh, this is so beautiful. And then we open it up and they can smell it. So. We know. I like the saying you eat with your eyes first. So they’re seeing it visually.

Stone Payton: [00:04:55] That is so true, though, right? It’s true. Yeah.

Derek Johnston: [00:04:58] And they get so excited and when they get home is obviously going to taste better because it’s a work of art, right. And when they come back to order, another item, another board, they tell us how delicious it was. So again, a lot of we get a lot of feedback on how delicious, how artistic the food was and it made their event a lot better. So I really enjoy that part of it.

Stone Payton: [00:05:27] Yeah, that’s a tough answer to follow. Andrea, how about you? Is it very similar or is there something special that you find that you get out of it these days?

Andrea Johnston: [00:05:35] So I had a lady stop by with her two daughters and her sister’s husband’s father. You can follow that sister’s husband’s father.

Stone Payton: [00:05:45] Oh, yeah. I’m from Alabama. I got I got.

Andrea Johnston: [00:05:49] You know what I’m talking about. He had passed away, and so she had bought two boards to take over to the family to just kind of say, hey, sorry, sorry for your loss. And she wrote us a note a few weeks later, and she said that when she brought that over there, it was just this amazing moment where all the family members, the brothers, her sister could gather around, the mom, the wife that had just lost her husband. They all gathered together and she used that word gathered together to eat off of this charcuterie board. And the boys were so happy because that was the first thing that their mom had eaten in three days. And I still get goosebumps. I still tear up a little bit every time I think about that story. And that is that’s what I love. I love to hear these stories of connection, getting people together over a shared plate. And there’s something magical about sharing food off of one plate or one platter. And that’s that’s the joy that I get, is hearing those stories of how our food brought them together and created a bond and a memory.

Stone Payton: [00:07:04] All right. I got to know the backstory on this, the genesis of this idea, the early going. How did you end up here? How did it all get started for you guys?

Andrea Johnston: [00:07:13] How did a medic and a real estate agent become charcuterie? Exactly. Do you want to tell your.

Derek Johnston: [00:07:20] You’re actually better at telling you.

Andrea Johnston: [00:07:22] Talk a lot more.

Derek Johnston: [00:07:24] I have, yeah.

Andrea Johnston: [00:07:25] So Derek and I met, I don’t know, 4 or 5 years ago and we started dating and I went down to Midtown where he lived and we went to Ponce City Market. So it’s one of the first weekends we spent together. So it was it was pretty momentous.

Stone Payton: [00:07:46] Great choice, by the way, for a date, right? Yeah. Nicely done.

Andrea Johnston: [00:07:50] Sir. He knows what he’s doing. So we went to Ponce City Market and there’s a little Italian restaurant there and we got a charcuterie board. Now, I’d been on dates before and I’d had a charcuterie board and it was good. But this one was special because I think mostly because I who was with and they did a also did a great job of presenting the board. I’m pretty sure there was some focaccia on it and it became more of an event than than just food. So I’m throwing all the olives his way because those are disgusting and hogging all the tomato jam and oh, try this and, you know, have a little bit of that. And it was so much fun. And so a couple of weeks later, we went to another restaurant and got a charcuterie board and it was terrible. It was dry. The presentation was blah. It was like on this silver like cookie sheet kind of plate. And it just it didn’t it wasn’t appealing. I didn’t enjoy it. And it irritated me that we spent a lot of money on this board that we didn’t even like. And so we joked around about doing YouTube videos of charcuterie board reviews so that nobody else would have to suffer the same fate that we had to go brutal.

Andrea Johnston: [00:09:09] Yeah, it was horrible. And so we, we had this big plan to go out to all these different restaurants and get their boards and do a video review, but then Covid hit and of course, we didn’t go anywhere. Everything was shut down and we ended up just, you know, staying at home and cooking for ourselves like most people did. And Derek here is a very good cook. But he’s he he was making it an event. He’s like, let’s put on some music. Let’s drink some wine. It’s a date. It’s a date. It was an event, Yes. But I was starving, waiting for him to cook it. I was so hungry and some rummaging through his fridge. He’s griping. I’m making dinner. I’m like, I know, but I’m hungry right now. So it kind of hurts my my soul to say I put together this plate. And I think the first items on it were like Kraft singles and baloney. They have their place. Those from Alabama.

Stone Payton: [00:10:13] Sounds perfect to.

Speaker5: [00:10:14] Me. Yeah.

Andrea Johnston: [00:10:16] But we could do better. So anyway, whatever I do, I just like to do really well. So we went to Whole Foods and got some better cheese and added some meats and some nuts and things like that. And pretty soon we were making those for dinner, his post and pictures on Facebook, and his mom asked for one for her birthday. So I was like, I have to step up my game if this is a gift, right? So she lives in they live in Mississippi. And so we went down there for her birthday and bought her a really nice wood board and all the meats and cheeses. And then I wanted to get some cheese knives for it. So we stopped a little antique store, told the lady what what I was making and and, you know, we’re talking because that’s what I like to do is talk. And she’s like, oh, there’s a place down in New Orleans that makes and delivers charcuterie. And it was that like, you know, aha moment because I like to start businesses in my head and, you know, name them. What can we do and could this be a profitable business? And I’ve done so many of those in my head, but this one just seemed really unique. And I’m like, We don’t have anything like that. That would be awesome. So we just talked it through and planned and came up with a name and a logo and a website and took off.

Stone Payton: [00:11:39] Well, I got to tell you, I feel like for whatever my opinion is worth, you absolutely nailed the name, the logo, the the look and feel the frame. Thank you for the business. I feel like you absolutely nailed it. And now here comes the reality of opening a business. It also occurs to me you may have had to jump through a few more hoops than like I did to to spin up this studio or even the whole Business RadioX network because you’re dealing with food. Is that is that accurate?

Andrea Johnston: [00:12:06] Yeah, absolutely. So we did start this out of our house and I supposed to. Not supposed to, but I didn’t have any reference for if this was even a legitimate, sustainable business. Right, Right. I wasn’t willing to throw thousands and thousands of dollars into something if I would get ten customers. Yeah. And so once we realized there is a demand for this and it is something that we could turn into a business, absolutely, We’re like, let’s get on it. So I think we had started in August of 2020 was when I was like, we’re official with a logo. That makes you official, right? Yeah.

Stone Payton: [00:12:51] But that right there smack dab in the middle of all this crazy stuff, man, you guys are right.

Andrea Johnston: [00:12:56] We’re like, Are we insane? Telling people, Gather together, gather around, and everybody else is like, get away.

Stone Payton: [00:13:02] But maybe people were starting to get thirsty for that, right? And to have a mechanism, you know, to. Wow.

Andrea Johnston: [00:13:07] Yeah, yeah. There definitely was a market of people like just I need charcuterie. And the fact that we could deliver to them was super helpful. Yeah. So we delivered to everybody. We also partnered up with a local business where we could drop off boards to to their store and they would keep it in the fridge for customers to pick up. They liked it because, you know, they got more clients into their store. We liked it because it gave us the opportunity to drop it. Often and the customer could pick it up at a later time. So that worked out really well. But I would say August to March, March is when we signed the lease for our storefront and got things started. So it really wasn’t all that long.

Stone Payton: [00:13:46] Another big jump to me, huge jump. I mean, we’re sitting in a studio here in a co-working space, right? And so I pay a monthly fee for that, but my out is pretty easy. You know, I don’t have this big capital investment, don’t have this huge lease. I mean, my hat is off to you guys for for taking that jump. Do you remember your first handful of clients or collaborations? I bet they I bet they’re like burned into your brain, right?

Andrea Johnston: [00:14:10] I do. I do. Her name is Danielle, and I was in I don’t know, I was in the grocery store. And so I have a website that has an app that on my phone, it’ll notify me if I get an online order. And so I had put the website out there and I just remember, I don’t know, maybe in the produce aisle was standing there and my phone went off and I looked, I was like, I got an order and I was by myself. I probably looked like ridiculous dancing around, doing a little happy dance in the middle of the store. But like, I got a legit order from somebody I did not know. So Derek had, you know, clients that he would teach a CPR classes to and he’d be like, Hey, why don’t you bring them aboard? And so we had done a few of those, but that was our first legitimate, I don’t know this person. She just ordered a charcuterie board and I probably took 3 or 4 hours making it so it was perfect. I was so nervous.

Derek Johnston: [00:15:09] We’ve definitely gotten more proficient at little bit.

Stone Payton: [00:15:12] Oh, I’ll bet you. I bet you have systems in place and your checklists and all that. So how does how is the sales and marketing aspect of the business evolved? Is it is it a lot of referrals now? Is there are you still finding you do need to get out there and shake the trees a little bit and let people know that you’re here and all that?

Derek Johnston: [00:15:30] Well, honestly, we haven’t really advertised much Up until recently. We’ve done one Facebook ad, very limited budget. Yeah, it’s mostly been referrals. Typically, every time we go to an event, especially if we staff an event, say we have, we’re going to a wedding or a corporate event where they have 100, 150 people, you have 150 potential clients. So if you present very well, we have a lot of people that will come over and book things while they’re at the event. So we’re getting ready to market and push where we’re at because a lot of people don’t realize we’re across from the old train station, but staffing has been a challenge. So that’s we’ve slowly worked up to where we can really start pushing, but we don’t want to overpromise and under-deliver. So getting our staffing up a little bit more and we’re going to really start doing some marketing.

Andrea Johnston: [00:16:42] Like when we had the website going, it was a month or two or so before I was ready to say, Okay, let’s go and we can get into that a little bit later. Why? It took a little bit at the beginning, but what we did, and I will shamelessly plug Cherokee Connect.

Stone Payton: [00:17:04] Oh yeah.

Andrea Johnston: [00:17:04] Forever. And I will forever be a subscriber to their to their Facebook page because they really got us started. So we were just a tiny little brand new business. And I did one post, I don’t know, 5:00 in the evening and I said, charcuterie boards delivered. Is that a thing? It is now. And I had a couple of pictures and stone. I had over 500 visits to my website. Wow. That night. That night from 5:00 until midnight. It was crazy. Just the insane response from this community. And clearly they wanted charcuterie as much as I did. And it just took off and just right off the bat just took off and. Holiday seasons are already insane. So, you know, Halloween up until about New Year’s. Just go, go, go, go, go. So it was a good timing as far as that goes where we started it in the fall. That was definitely helpful, but just a really supportive, amazing community.

Stone Payton: [00:18:13] Oh yeah. God bless Josh Bagby and Cherokee. And Josh was kind enough to come in the studio not too long ago. And he’s just a he’s a wonderful person. And I recognize that this is grown beyond just Josh and Josh’s efforts. But he’s that guy that lets it do that, right? And he’s just a wonderful person. And yes, Cherokee Connect is fabulous. And I find that the the whole Cherokee County business community community in general just they’re so supportive. They will rally behind you if you let them know that you need and want to help, which was new for me, right? I had always been a little more invested in positioning. And but once I started telling people, hey, here’s where I could use some help, like with this Main Street Warriors program that we’re doing. You know, I couldn’t really figure out how to get it going. I just started asking a few people and they just jumped to help. And it sounds like you’ve had the same kind of experience.

Andrea Johnston: [00:19:08] Yeah, absolutely. Just good, genuine, amazing people in our community and all of our all of our clients. We are very fortunate. Everybody’s been amazing. So nice. We we don’t get yelled at like a lot of restaurants get yelled at. Right. Right. And everybody’s so nice. And like Derek had said, referrals and Cherokee Connect. I would say, hands down is why our business is doing so well.

Stone Payton: [00:19:38] Boy, that doing good work is a good sales tool, isn’t it?

Speaker5: [00:19:40] Derek That helps.

Stone Payton: [00:19:44] Now are you finding because I do feel like maybe it’s just because it’s gotten on my radar in the last several months. But but my instincts are that the whole idea of charcuterie is a little more popular these days, or at least I’m seeing it seeing it more. Are you finding that you have to work hard to differentiate yourself, or is there just enough demand and enough business that the good ones are here and there’s room for them to or like? Or do you find that you have to do some things to try to really differentiate yourself?

Andrea Johnston: [00:20:15] Well, number one, I would say we are licensed and insured. That is how we are different than almost all of the other like charcuterie businesses that you see. As I mentioned earlier, you’re not supposed to start this out. You’re not supposed to do this out of your home. Right? You’re not able to get a cottage license like you are if you’re making jams or breads or cakes. Okay, that can be licensed properly. But this is meats and cheeses. It’s time and temperature controlled, different ballgame, totally different ballgame. So there’s only a few of us in this county that have gone through the steps to get licensed. We’re dual license with the Health Department and the Department of Agriculture for a variety of reasons. One is wholesaling and then we are considered a restaurant. We’re in this kind of nobody knows what we are.

Speaker5: [00:21:01] Are we a.

Andrea Johnston: [00:21:02] Restaurant? Are we a caterer? Are we take out. Yes, yes. We’re all.

Speaker5: [00:21:07] Just decided.

Stone Payton: [00:21:08] To check all those boxes, go through the paces and I got to believe you’ve got these I don’t know, these minimum performance standards. I’m from the consulting world. I’m probably using the wrong words, but.

Speaker5: [00:21:20] We get like.

Andrea Johnston: [00:21:21] We get inspections. Okay. From the health department, I’m happy to say our last two were both hundreds.

Speaker5: [00:21:26] Nice.

Stone Payton: [00:21:27] Can’t do much better than that. I’m not that great at math, but that sounds like a good score.

Speaker5: [00:21:30] That’s a good score.

Andrea Johnston: [00:21:31] It’s a good score. But really what what we do to differentiate ourselves is the the quality. We’re using high quality products and we’re making it look beautiful. We really spend a lot of time on that. On the esthetics part of it, it’s like Derek said earlier.

Speaker5: [00:21:53] It goes back to what.

Stone Payton: [00:21:54] Derek said, right?

Speaker5: [00:21:55] You eat with your.

Stone Payton: [00:21:55] Eyes first, so you can’t just pop plop it all on the table.

Andrea Johnston: [00:21:59] Right? So I will say there’s he kind of gets irritated when I say this. There’s nothing special about our food except for it’s fresh. We buy fruit constantly to make sure it’s fresh. Meats and cheeses cut daily like it’s fresh. And it’s how we present it that when you see you can have a pile of cheese and meat sitting on a plate. Yep, it’s food. It tastes good. But when we put it together with the edible flowers and the blackberries and the rosemary, it tastes better. It just tastes better because it looks better. So we definitely do that really well. We do grazing tables that are just awesome. They really they really are. They’re pretty cool.

Stone Payton: [00:22:50] Well, even your boxed product that you came you were kind enough to bring some to me this morning and it’s absolutely gorgeous. I’m sure the food is. Going to be delicious, but it’s just it’s beautiful. And there will be a picture of this where we publish. But for those who are listening live or catch it on a on a podcasting platform, I mean, it’s just beautiful. It’s got the cool little twine tied with the with the tag. And you’ve got you’ve got the, the just all the pieces just you can see through the cardboard box so you can get a vision of it. So you’ve taken great care not only in the, in the product itself, but the way it’s presented.

Andrea Johnston: [00:23:23] We also do a lot of our products. We make them in house. So the jam that you have on your board there, yeah, we make that ourselves. Oh, and there’s bourbon in it.

Speaker5: [00:23:33] Sweet, right? Oh, wow.

Andrea Johnston: [00:23:35] So we kind of have a cult following on that jam. I had one lady who had purchased a large board for a birthday party that she was putting on, and then a couple hours later, I had a family come in to the store. They’re like, Do you have some of that jam? And I was like, Sure. They said we were just at a birthday party and they had it. It was amazing. I was like, okay, it’s right there. And then 20 minutes later, another couple, Hey, do you have some of that pepper jam? We were just at a birthday party. It was two couples from that same party coming to pick them up. It was kind of funny. I have one person say it’s like crack. Like there’s. They’re just like, they need a fix.

Stone Payton: [00:24:18] Well, you had me at Bourbon.

Andrea Johnston: [00:24:21] Yep, we do bourbon. We have some jam that’s got red wine in it, one that’s got brandy, a Guinness chutney like we have fun with with with the sounds.

Speaker5: [00:24:32] Marvelous.

Stone Payton: [00:24:33] So a lot of our tribe, people who tap into this show, whether it’s live or on demand, they are entrepreneurs as well. You know, they run small businesses, a lot of them here local, but also nationally. And so I like to find out if this happens to people who come to the studio, as you got things going, began, began to get your feet under you, did anything kind of sneak up on you? Were there some surprises along the way in terms of running a business that you just didn’t see coming, that you didn’t anticipate and you had to adjust for? Or did you pretty much just have smooth sailing?

Andrea Johnston: [00:25:12] Well, I said we signed the lease in March, right? Yeah, March 3rd, I believe. March 1st is when I saw the space. And March 2nd is when I told Derek about it.

Stone Payton: [00:25:24] Man, she can make a decision, huh? Are the two of you can.

Andrea Johnston: [00:25:27] So I am very much a risk taker.

Speaker5: [00:25:30] I see that.

Andrea Johnston: [00:25:31] And. And what made me decide was I was like, you know what? This is going to go quick. And if I don’t jump on this, I’m going to regret it every time I drive by. Yeah. So I was like, Hey, Derek, I found us a space. What do you think? He’s like, Whatever your heart desires. He always says that. Okay, cool. Half the time. I know he’s kind of like, you better think about this a little longer, but he said I could do it. No, he was on board. He always supports me in everything. I am very much like, Let’s go. He’s got the brakes. Slow down. And together we work really well together. I get he’s like, frustrated at me for going so fast and not planning, and I’m frustrated at him for making me stop and slow down. And it works out great for both of us. I push him. He pulls me back a little bit to make sure what we’re doing is we’re doing it well. Like you said earlier, we don’t want to overpromise and under-deliver. So when we get to a certain point like this last weekend, I had to close down orders on Wednesday, Tuesday, Tuesday or Wednesday for Saturday, because we were fully booked.

Andrea Johnston: [00:26:44] We could have taken a lot more, but I did not want to rush. I did not want to put out a product that wasn’t perfect. So I would say. What we didn’t anticipate is I would I would say just even the volume of orders that we get and having no time to do anything else. So trying to keep up with the bookkeeping part of it or my poor employees, I’m like, I’m going to pay you today, I promise. No, they always get paid on time, but. Just the things that it takes to run a business. It’s hard to keep up with that because I’m very involved in making the boards. And, you know, we have we have some great staff. We just brought on another girl we’re looking to hire. If anybody is looking for a job, I would say that’s that’s one of the the biggest things that I wasn’t anticipating is just the lack of time, lack of time to do anything socially or otherwise.

Stone Payton: [00:27:52] I would think that would that would be an incredibly important and productive dynamic that you guys have a different perspective or bring a different set of strengths to the equation. And clearly you trust and respect each other’s vantage point, even though that might not be your default, you’re a little quicker to throw your hat over the fence. You’re a little quicker to hit the brakes and kind of evaluate the situation, not unlike my business partner. And I think although it seems like you guys are doing a much better job than we are, but we’re doing fine. We’ve been at it a while too. That is marvelous. Anything else unique or different or something you have to really be cognizant of because of the fact that you are a couple? Is it does it come like, are there some specifics about division of labor? Or because I got to believe there are some unique aspects I’m trying to envision Holly and I and we are a marvelous couple, I believe. And you talk about incredibly supportive. I mean, she is just unbelievable. And I’m not sure that she and I should run a studio together, let alone a network. So, yeah, anything speak to that a little bit. If there is anything to to acknowledge on that front. Well, that.

Derek Johnston: [00:29:07] Was a concern initially. We talked quite a bit and. Came to an overview and some limitations on what we would do and what we wouldn’t do. I think the challenge, we work really well together. The the big challenge, I think, is not having personal time. We have a lot of business time together and we’re working, working, working, but we don’t really have a good bit of time to have off and do the things like we used to do when we were dating. So that was the.

Stone Payton: [00:29:52] Birth of this whole thing in the first place, was to go have fun, date night and evaluate charcuterie boards.

Derek Johnston: [00:29:57] But we have fun during the day. Yeah, we’re infamous for dancing in the kitchen at home, so I love it. Brought that to the store. So we’ll put on some music and dance. Usually when nobody’s there, when we’re making jam or whatever, after hours, we make that a date.

Speaker5: [00:30:16] Now we’re so late, I don’t think that’s lame at all.

Stone Payton: [00:30:21] I think it’s.

Speaker5: [00:30:22] Terrific.

Andrea Johnston: [00:30:23] I go through all my pictures and were like, Oh, that was a fun date. We went here and here and here and here and now. All that’s on my phone is charcuterie pictures of meat and cheese.

Speaker5: [00:30:31] So the answer.

Stone Payton: [00:30:32] To this question may be a little out of focus, given what you were just kind enough to share with me about. You know, right now, it’s just heads down. We’re we’re we’re buried. But I’m going to ask anyway outside the scope of the business and I’ll ask each of you individually, but also it may be a shared thing, but outside the scope of this business, are there some passions My listeners know for me it’s hunting, fishing and travel, right? Is there something like that for either of you, or were the two of you together that you will circle back to when you get all the rest of this stuff figured out?

Speaker6: [00:31:08] I’ll go first.

[00:31:10] I have another business. Like I mentioned, I’ve been a paramedic since I was 19. I was able to push medications to save somebody’s life, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t purchase alcohol and I wasn’t on the company’s insurance. So I’ve been doing that for a really long time. I and I started my own business in 2005 where I just do training now. I did some occasional Covid contracts and I’ve worked a lot of different other areas, but I mostly just do training and I really enjoy training people. I like when that that light bulb goes off and somebody that, you know, finally gets it. So I do enjoy that and I’ve been limited on what I can do with my other business because we’ve been so encompassed currently getting this one going and operating.

Derek Johnston: [00:32:10] Very well. So I’m going to let you go with it.

Andrea Johnston: [00:32:15] Well, I’ll tag on to what you had asked earlier about us working together, because I really want to emphasize, we we don’t fight. We’re we don’t fight. It’s the coolest thing ever. That wasn’t always the case with me, with previous relationships. And I’m not a fighter, so. And neither is Derek. And so we talk. We talk. And I’m like, Hey, I don’t like when you did that. He’s like, Well, I didn’t like when you did that. Okay, well, I’ll try not to do that again. Okay. Okay. And then we’re done. And it’s the best thing ever. So working together really hasn’t been that much of a challenge. It’s been quite fun. I would say. This weekend you were asked what we did. We didn’t do anything. I went outside by myself and I took a bath by myself. And I spent some alone time because we’re together all the time. I just need to be alone for a little bit. And so that’s, I think, kind of how we recharge and get back at it. But I just really enjoy, really enjoy working together. And, you know, that’s not the case for everybody. And to be able to say, hey, you know, we’re a great married but not good business partners. Well, that was a little concern that we had. We actually started the business before we got married. Did you really? We did. Wow. We were a little backwards on that. Yeah, that’s how we roll. So we actually just got married about a year ago. And so that was a big concern, you know, starting the business together, going to derail a good relationship. Right. I think it’s just changed it a little bit. So.

Speaker5: [00:33:59] Um, well, I’d love.

Stone Payton: [00:34:00] To hear that. And I and I genuinely believe it, just watching the dynamic here in the room because I have the benefit of being here with you in person live. And I also get the distinct impression that when it’s time for you to have your your space, your alone time, it’s not something that Derek regrets. He supports that too, and makes room for that, which is an important part of that equation, right?

Speaker5: [00:34:24] Absolutely. Yeah.

Andrea Johnston: [00:34:25] He I would come home and I’d say, Hey, I bought a camel for us as a pet. And he’d be like, Well, this is really inconvenient, but let me go build a barn.

Stone Payton: [00:34:38] Or he’d go into the bottled water business and just leverage the fact that. Right. He’s he’s always thinking he’s got this business, he’s got this. Yeah, that’s.

Speaker5: [00:34:44] Fantastic.

Andrea Johnston: [00:34:45] Crazy supportive of anything I want to do. So that’s terrifying and awesome at the same time.

Stone Payton: [00:34:52] So, so coming back to the business of providing this art that is food, are there are there some parameters around it? Like you’ll only do small groups or this size group or can you do really large groups? Have you decided to to look at bringing on like what products that would products and services that would complement it either through collaboration or you got any of those kind of plans in motion?

Andrea Johnston: [00:35:20] Back to the all we do is charcuterie and no time for anything else. Yeah. Good problem to have, right? Right. But also I have all these like we have all these ideas of people we could collaborate with and I want to, as soon as we just take a breath, you know, because we’re just putting out a lot of food. This last weekend, we probably put out food for about 350, 350 people. Wow. Just on Saturday. So he had Friday when we had a grazing table as well. So we’re just we’re just kind of just feeding people. We definitely want to to do things in more collaboration. But our focus right now, charcuterie, like I know some businesses will try to do this or do that or do this or do that to get more business coming in. Right, right. And then all that does is confuse people. Are they a sandwich shop or are they brunch or are they this or that? Yeah. So we we decided we’re going to focus strictly on charcuterie until we are known for that and nothing else, then we feel like we could branch out a little bit more. So we do boards for one person that are cute little six by six.

Speaker5: [00:36:39] Boxes, a board.

Stone Payton: [00:36:40] To a client or a guest or a.

Speaker5: [00:36:42] Yes. Okay.

Andrea Johnston: [00:36:43] Yeah. This one you have right here is for 2 to 4 people. So two is a meal up to four if you. It looks.

Speaker5: [00:36:48] Like a single.

Stone Payton: [00:36:49] Serving box to me.

Speaker5: [00:36:51] No, I’m kidding.

Andrea Johnston: [00:36:52] If you’re hungry, your wife will not be happy. If you choose. That’s a single person. Unless she’s that.

Speaker5: [00:36:57] Single. I’m sorry I interrupted you.

Stone Payton: [00:36:59] You’re one person. And like, this is AA2 to four.

Andrea Johnston: [00:37:02] Yeah, we have one That’s 3 to 6. 5 to 10 going on up. Right. The largest that we serve on an actual platter is up to 30. And so you can get multiple ones if you have a large group and then we’ll do the grazing tables after that. We we do have the big board, we call it our bougie board, this gorgeous black walnut board that that Derek actually made. And we could fit food on there to feed 50 to 60 people. And that fits in our fridge but nobody else’s fridge. So you have to pick it up and take it right to your event.

Stone Payton: [00:37:36] But Derek made the board.

Speaker5: [00:37:37] Of course he did. Of course.

Andrea Johnston: [00:37:38] He did. Geez, I know, right? So then we go up to grazing tables and those we’ve decided to do a minimum of 50. Just because we take so much time, we take so much effort, we do a lot of food, and if we do a grazing table, that means I’m going on site to to build this and then I’m not at the store. So we would have to limit what orders we take. So we just decide. 50 people is our minimum for us to come out to your to your shop, to your office, to your home and do a grazing table on site. And then we’ve done events for up to 600 people. So last December, we did an event down in Buckhead for 600 people that was so terrifying and so much fun at the same time.

Derek Johnston: [00:38:34] It was very rewarding because we did it all in two hours, fed these people. We got a lot of people fed in two hours. It was just a lot of prep to it. But yeah, a lot of prep.

Andrea Johnston: [00:38:49] So two days out we’re cutting the meats and cheeses. The day before we actually did skewers instead of a grazing table because you can’t get 600 people through a grazing table in two hours. It’s just impossible because they’re taking their time looking at this, looking at that sort of like with the event planner, we decided skewers was the way to go. So you get two meats, two cheeses, an olive and a tomato or whatever. And then we did a variety of those. We did some spinach dip and vegetables and a couple other things and. Nine 967 skewers, I think is what we did.

Speaker5: [00:39:26] And you may or may not have.

Stone Payton: [00:39:28] Even been able to track it, but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to learn that some business came from exposing 600 people to write quality of your work.

Andrea Johnston: [00:39:38] Yeah, definitely. The event planner that hired us to do this event, we’ve done multiple ones from with her since then, you know, building that relationship, right. Making sure that we we deliver what we say we’re going to on time, high quality, beautiful product. That’s that’s what we must do every time. And in doing so, we get future business.

Stone Payton: [00:40:03] Well, everything you guys have said is compelling. But again, you had me at Bourbon. All right. What’s the best way for our listeners to reach out, have a conversation with you? And, you know, it may be. Well, let me back up before we give them some coordinates. How does it work? Is it best for them to call the shop, walk in the shop, go to an online thing? Tell me about that. And then let’s definitely make sure we leave them with coordinates.

Andrea Johnston: [00:40:28] Sure. Absolutely. So the easiest way. Well, there’s no easiest whatever is most convenient for them. They can stop by order right from us there at the store. You can call us and we can take your order over the phone. Or you can go online and order from our website. At the end of it, write down what day and time you want it. We’ll make sure that it is ready. So you say, Hey, I have an event Thursday afternoon. I would like to have the board by 2 p.m.. We’ll have it ready for you Thursday by 2 p.m.. We aren’t going to make it today for Thursday. We make it on Thursday. So that’s really important. We always make the boards the day that you pick them up, Whether you choose to hold them over the next day is up to you. But we’re always going to make them that day and then we’ll have it ready for you by to send you a text when it’s ready. But then you can come anytime before we close at six. Pick it up. Hey, you’re running late, so you’re going to come at 330. That’s fine. It’s there waiting for you in the fridge.

Stone Payton: [00:41:23] And I can come to you with maybe a few specific ideas to fold in. Or I can come to you and say, Look, I got 30 people. Half of them are Yankees. I don’t know. I got to feed them. My my wife.

Andrea Johnston: [00:41:35] You say that like it’s a rude thing.

Stone Payton: [00:41:36] It’s not a rude thing. It’s just, you know.

Speaker5: [00:41:38] I’m a Yankee.

Stone Payton: [00:41:40] Sometimes their tastes are different, right? So maybe they don’t. And so and half of my extended family is Yankees because I my wife is from Philadelphia, but I can come to you with very little knowledge about what to do and just say, help me figure this thing out.

Speaker5: [00:41:53] Right.

Andrea Johnston: [00:41:54] So generally, we like to say. It’s worked out really well to say you get what you get unless you have an allergy. So certainly will work around allergies as much as possible. If you say, you know, stone, I hate goat cheese, I don’t want it on there, or mostly olives. People don’t like olives.

Speaker5: [00:42:13] Well, you don’t like. They’re so gross in the charcuterie.

Stone Payton: [00:42:16] I love olives.

Speaker5: [00:42:17] Do you like olives? Jerk? Yes, sir.

Stone Payton: [00:42:18] So do I. So that’s just an interesting little tidbit. But you will bring olives.

Speaker5: [00:42:22] I will.

Andrea Johnston: [00:42:23] Bring them. Yeah.

Speaker5: [00:42:23] That’s the thing.

Andrea Johnston: [00:42:24] People will be like, oh, I don’t like olives. And I’m like, What are you getting a board for 25 people? Somebody is going to like olives. Okay, that’s fine. But just off to the side. So we find it’s there’s so many options. We have so many different cheeses and meats and accessories or accouterments is the word. It gets overwhelming. So we just say, hey. And really, people end up saying, you know what? I don’t care. I trust you. Just whatever. Sure. And so that works out really well because we’re able to, you know, put cheddar. We’re always going to put a cheddar on there. It’s amazing. Top left corner. They’re nice.

Speaker5: [00:43:03] And I got.

Stone Payton: [00:43:04] My eye on it right.

Speaker5: [00:43:05] Now.

Andrea Johnston: [00:43:05] But then we can work through other cheeses that I might find that are new. You have a one in there called A Smoking Goat.

Speaker5: [00:43:13] Oh, baby.

Andrea Johnston: [00:43:13] It’s so good. I don’t really care for smoked cheese. He doesn’t care for goat cheese. But this is delicious. And so we can try something like that. Whereas whereas if somebody says I don’t like goat cheese, they might not be willing to try it. But if they don’t know what it is and they eat it, that’s really good. What is that? It’s goat cheese. What? I didn’t know I liked it. Well, you know, because we don’t do inferior goat cheese. There’s some goat cheese. That’s terrible, right? We try everything. Everything. This is how I keep my girlish figure. We try everything to make sure it’s taste good. And aside from olives, I like everything that we put on our boards, and, you know, so. So that’s. That’s generally how it works. Unless you have a preference, we just give you what we think would look good. And once in a while people come back, Hey, I didn’t really care for that Gouda. Some, you know, some of our customers don’t like Gouda. Okay, so we make a little note. They don’t get Gouda. This person doesn’t get pickles or, you know, whatever. And. Everybody’s happy. Everybody’s happy with it.

Stone Payton: [00:44:22] So I’m sure they are okay because I’m happy just anticipating. I know I’m going to be happy when I see you again on the other side of this. Okay, So let’s do leave them with store, location, website. Anything else you think would be a good way for them to to connect with you?

Speaker5: [00:44:37] Sure.

Andrea Johnston: [00:44:37] Well, first off, I’d like to say we are having we’ve been there two years, but we are finally having a ribbon cutting ceremony. All right. Finally, this has been on our to do list for quite a while. Right. But it’s going to be next Tuesday, June 6th at 3 p.m. We’re going to have the Chamber of Commerce over. Do the big scissors with the ribbon. Should be fun. And we will have a grazing table there. It’s not unlimited. I would say the first 100 people or.

Speaker5: [00:45:05] So.

Andrea Johnston: [00:45:06] Can get to help themselves. So if anybody wants to join us for that, that would be wonderful. And we are also going to say thank you to your listeners. And we don’t do coupons very often. We haven’t really needed to, you know, So we’re going to offer a coupon for 10% off to any of your listeners. The coupon code B, r, x Business RadioX That’s how I got that perfect original, right?

Speaker5: [00:45:32] Nicely done.

Andrea Johnston: [00:45:33] Yes. For 10% off. And then you can find us at 2800 Holly Springs Parkway, Suite 100. So we are right across from the old train depot, the downtown area that’s going in. Yeah, we’re right in that little intersection and. Our website is w w w dot the gathering board.co. So we do get a little bit of confusion with their.com was taken but the gathering board.co is where you can find us online and phone number is (770) 500-8715. We are on not on Twitter we are on Instagram, Facebook and I did just start a TikTok channel.

Speaker5: [00:46:19] I know, right?

Andrea Johnston: [00:46:20] We are a whopping 53 followers already.

Stone Payton: [00:46:22] And we’ll get to see some of those dancing in the home kitchen videos on TikTok.

Speaker5: [00:46:27] No, no.

Andrea Johnston: [00:46:29] This girl does not dance.

Derek Johnston: [00:46:32] Possibly. And I want to say one more time, thank you for inviting us in and thank you to your listeners. That code is thank you to people who support the radio, the local radio. So we really appreciate that.

Stone Payton: [00:46:45] Well, it is my pleasure. And it really has been a delight having you guys in the studio. Thanks for sharing your insight, your perspective, and thank you for being such an important part of our community. And don’t be a stranger. Let’s continue to follow this story. Come in sometime maybe with one of your event planners and we’ll spotlight their business and maybe talk about the collaboration. But it’s an exciting time and we’re excited for you. You guys are doing important work and and we certainly appreciate it. So thank you.

Speaker5: [00:47:15] Thank you. Thank you.

Stone Payton: [00:47:16] All right. Until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Andrea and Derek Johnston with the gathering board. And everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you next time on Cherokee Business Radio.

 

Tagged With: The Gathering Board

BRX Pro Tip: Showing Up

May 31, 2023 by angishields

Real Talk with a Realtor: Insights into a Flourishing Business

May 30, 2023 by angishields

Patrick-Pulliam
Northwest Arkansas
Real Talk with a Realtor: Insights into a Flourishing Business
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Patrick-PulliamPatrick Pulliam has been an Arkansas resident for 16 total years and a REALTOR® in NWA for the past 4.

Throughout his time living and working in NWA, Patrick has amassed a wealth of knowledge and experience in residential brokerage, as well as commercial investments.

Patrick takes pride in the relationships he has been able to build and grow over the past couple of years, with a large network of buyers, sellers, investors, realtors, and business owners that reach far beyond one industry.

In his free time, Pat enjoys spending time with his wife Emily, daughter Esther, watching the Razorbacks, and staying active in the gym.

As a believer, husband, and father, Patrick stays motivated to build a better tomorrow for the NWA community with his company, The Future Team at EXP Realty. Their motto is “Developing the Future of NWA Through Real Estate”!

Connect with Patrick on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Tagged With: The Future Team at EXP Realty

Constance Payne with Fresh Start Biohazard Cleaning Services

May 30, 2023 by angishields

Constance-Payne-Feature
Cherokee Business Radio
Constance Payne with Fresh Start Biohazard Cleaning Services
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Constance-PayneConstance Payne is the owner of Fresh Start Biohazard Cleaning Services, a forensics cleaning company serving all of metro atlanta and surrounding counties, and is a successful actor here in Atlanta.

Connect with Constance on Facebook.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:05] Coming to you live from the Business RadioX studio in Woodstock, Georgia. This is fearless formula with Sharon Cline.

Sharon Cline: [00:00:19] Welcome to Fearless Formula. I’m Business RadioX, where we talk about the ups and downs of the business world and offer words of wisdom for business success. I’m your host, Sharon Cline. And today on the show, we have the owner of a forensic cleaning company, which is so cool. It’s called Fresh Start Biohazard Cleaning Services. They specialize in cleaning up of crime scenes, tear gas deaths and hoarding and virus disinfection. I mean, you kind of cover all the bases here. All the things that nobody wants to touch or that would smell. I love that you’re here. Please welcome. I’m sorry. Constance Payne. Okay. I’m like, Yeah, I’m thinking about murder. Like, that’s in the back of my mind throwing me off a little bit because that’s not been something I’ve focused on here on the show. So I’m so fascinated by what you do because it’s not just that part of your life that’s really interesting and different. You have a whole other aspect which I can’t wait to talk about. So let’s start with your business. How did you get started in this?

Constance Payne: [00:01:19] Well, I started working for a third party company about four years ago. A friend of a friend got me into it because I was looking for work that I could do that was sporadic, that made good money. So I could also be an actor because I can’t really do the 9 to 5 or, you know, it’s really hard to rise in the ranks of a company and then say, Hey, I need two weeks off to go film this movie or I’m going to Europe for a month by. Right. So no, being able to own my own company and take these calls by myself, I can do the things that I want to do.

Sharon Cline: [00:01:52] Well, it’s what people say on the show a lot is how being their own business owner allows for so much more flexibility. And they’d never imagined working for another company where they have a boss. They can make their own hours. But I imagine with yours the hours are probably all over the place because all kinds of things happen day and night.

Constance Payne: [00:02:11] Yeah, yeah, it’s all over the place. It just depends on when somebody wants to make that call and say, All right, I’ve had enough. Or Hey, I’ve discovered my family member is in a jam and they have decided that this is enough or there’s everything is so different. I mean, it comes from hoarding people that have lived in garbage, never thrown it out for about a year or two to maybe people just hoarding certain items and then we go over to the death part of it. If there’s a murder, got to wait for the crime scene to be cleared on that one. Or if somebody’s found discovered dead, they depending on how long they’ve been there, is how hard my job is. I might have to cut a bath, like, you know, gut the bathroom out if they explode in there, you know, because you’re talking like human decomposition. If you’re stuck in a house and your air goes out and all of that for three months straight and you’re just roasting and people don’t know. Yeah, well, honestly, there’s certain cases where I’m like, how the hell did you all not know? I could smell a dead body? The smell of human decomposition is unlike any type of smell you’ve ever smelled in your life. And I could smell the shit from out at the beginning of a subdivision. And people that have been in, like, condo units, you know what I mean?

Sharon Cline: [00:03:29] Yeah, they’re all connected somewhere.

Constance Payne: [00:03:31] Proximity of each other. And. And you think you’d see your neighbors grass getting five feet high, their mail spilling out of their mailbox, Their cars haven’t moved in forever. And you got this horrible stink going on and.

Sharon Cline: [00:03:42] No one said a word.

Constance Payne: [00:03:43] Something might be amiss here, people. But, you know, it just goes back to the general population just being very into themselves and what they’re doing.

Sharon Cline: [00:03:53] I think that’s interesting just in general, thinking about how I think the world is like how I see it often. So I’m in my own world and the world, what gets reflected to me is the way I see the world. But there’s a whole other side that I’m guilty of it.

Constance Payne: [00:04:06] Too, in aspects, you.

Sharon Cline: [00:04:07] Know, like in my.

Constance Payne: [00:04:08] Office for acting. It’s like, I mean, I could it’s a very, very small universe that I live in for that. And I think that’s why I do like the job that I have outside of that with the forensic cleaning, because it reminds me about like being human, you know, and what’s important in life. And that’s one thing that I’ve learned at the end of every day. The only thing that matters is human life and quality of life. Absolutely everything else is bullshit.

Sharon Cline: [00:04:35] Well, I never really thought about how you can draw parallels between what it’s like to be an actor and sort of live a human experience in that way, reflect a human experience, but then also deal with someone else’s end of their human experience and how you can draw. Yeah, draw parallels between the two. I never thought about that.

Constance Payne: [00:04:53] That’s what makes me a good actor. Yeah, because I’m really taking like experiences from my from, from reality here and then just using under imaginary circumstances when I’m on a set and then I can just like really go into something and show some some really good unique emotions.

Sharon Cline: [00:05:10] So I can’t imagine. So how do you deal with what you. Do experience emotion wise in a crime scene or in a clean up situation that you can tell was maybe not a natural death, but maybe something violent or just the energy behind what you’re cleaning.

Constance Payne: [00:05:25] Yeah, really. Honestly, it doesn’t matter if something’s violent, Like there’s so many different words you can use to describe so many different scenes depending on the circumstances and all of that. And, you know, the first thing I got to do is just emotionally close myself off and do my job because I can’t be crying.

Sharon Cline: [00:05:42] Right.

Constance Payne: [00:05:42] Right. I can’t be crying. And I got to be able to do my job. Remember line item, how to do it, you know, for sanitation purposes and get on out of there. And then I deal with that later. Okay. So I’ll do some gardening. I lift weights, you know, hit the hit the heavy bag.

Sharon Cline: [00:06:00] You turn it to a positive.

Constance Payne: [00:06:02] Yeah, Yeah. For as much as death is a part of my life, I like to watch things grow. I’ve got, you know, a couple animals and stuff like that, too.

Sharon Cline: [00:06:09] And Garden.

Constance Payne: [00:06:10] Garden. And then I also like to shoot guns and run around topless in the forest, you know?

Sharon Cline: [00:06:16] About what time does that happen? I’m just curious.

Constance Payne: [00:06:18] 4:00, You know, cocktail hour.

Sharon Cline: [00:06:23] Where exactly would this be? Yeah, see.

Constance Payne: [00:06:25] I mean, my my decompression techniques might not work for everyone, but this is what works for me. Don’t knock it till you try it, everyone. Well, I think.

Sharon Cline: [00:06:34] Also it makes you. It’s a unique personality that can handle the kind of job that you’re doing as well. Right. So, I mean, whatever works for you to make this so that it’s a cathartic experience as opposed to one that brings your spirit down and has negative effects of your life. Sounds positive.

Constance Payne: [00:06:48] To me. Oh, yeah, yeah. And not to say that there aren’t like some really hard days. And, you know, sometimes I might not say nothing for a couple of days, you know, which makes personal relationships a little strenuous and stuff like that. I guess it’s more or less. I’m the type of person where it’s like, Hey, how was your day? Fine. Like. Like, why can’t that be an okay answer, knowing what I do for a living and that just leave it at that.

Sharon Cline: [00:07:14] Are you not allowed to talk about certain things? No.

Constance Payne: [00:07:16] I mean, I can talk about whatever I want. There are certain things I personally don’t. I mean, I could talk to you about in depth about other items off of air. Right. You know, for there’s a lot of different reasons. There’s a lot that goes into what I do. You know, did you.

Sharon Cline: [00:07:33] Have to get certified, obviously. What was the process in order to be someone that could have a business like this?

Constance Payne: [00:07:38] There’s a lot of online certifications and stuff like that. Just like with everything in business, everything has to be up to OSHA standards. So, you know, there’s in-person classes, there’s online certificates, and then every year you got to read up on them and pay your money and stuff like that. I got a lot of my blood cleanup experience when I was in my early 20s. I was a tattoo artist, and so that cross-contamination was really beat into my head. It’s like it doesn’t matter how many gloves you got to use in a day, you know, like you use them all the time. You use them all the time. You take them off if there’s even a question and, you know, just just being all around clean.

Sharon Cline: [00:08:15] Right, Right. So, okay, so you were able to get your certification you used to live, I want to say, is it Indiana that you’re from?

Constance Payne: [00:08:22] That’s where I was born.

Sharon Cline: [00:08:23] Where you were born. Okay. How did you come here?

Constance Payne: [00:08:25] Well, from northwest Indiana, I was down in Texas for a little bit, met and lived with my dad for a little and started doing radio while I was tattooing and stuff.

Sharon Cline: [00:08:37] What did you do with radio?

Constance Payne: [00:08:39] I was a it was on I was on a morning show. Well, first I was a bone babe for Cumulus Radio, and that’s where I met Dan Aykroyd and everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, it was. It was a very good, fun time in my life. And then I started being on a morning show in Alabama. I was the chick on the all male show.

Sharon Cline: [00:08:58] How was that? I need to know.

Constance Payne: [00:08:59] It was fun. I mean, I had a good time, a lot of laughter. It’s just Alabama Rocket City was not there wasn’t enough going on for me at that point in my life. And so then I went down to Daytona Beach. I had some friends and family out there and started tattooing again, started rocking out and became an actor. I mean, I’ve just done so many different things. It’s all gotten me where I’m at today. And you know, any type of business I’ve owned or worked for has helped shape the way that I do things today. And I haven’t always made the best, you know, the best choices in business. But I have learned from my mistakes. Sure. And I’m proud of that.

Sharon Cline: [00:09:40] Well, I mean, that’s to me, it’s not a mistake.

Constance Payne: [00:09:42] Well, yeah, exactly. It’s a lesson. And so when people ask me for asking for acting tips right now, too, and like there’s no book for that, all you can do is anytime I’ve done it, I do a lot of mixed martial arts, too. And so I’m really into cross training. And I take that type of lesson into every element and aspect of my life is that everywhere you go, people are going to do things a little bit different the way or totally different. And it’s good to learn all the different ways that everybody does stuff and learn all the different types of personality. And people that do it and then pick what works for you and just do that well.

Sharon Cline: [00:10:18] Even being able to identify with different personality types and different aspects of people can help you, I imagine, as an actor as well.

Constance Payne: [00:10:24] Oh, absolutely. I love going down the rabbit hole of of different businesses and unique personalities, just talking to people as much as I’m I was talking to you about this off air. I’m an introverted extrovert. As much as I’m like, I can’t get a conversation started. If somebody comes up and says hi to me, Oh, we can talk all day.

Sharon Cline: [00:10:41] Long, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Constance Payne: [00:10:43] But I can’t just go up to somebody that I’ve never spoken to before in my life and say anything. You know how hard it is to get a.

Sharon Cline: [00:10:51] Date like that? Yes, I do. I’m very familiar. I’m the same in that I need as much time where I’m interacting as as I do quiet because it like refills my spirit in some way. I like both, but I’m not like exactly an introvert. I’m not exactly an extrovert, but I think like things like this to me feel like I get the best of both worlds because we’re, you know, using media to be out there in the world, which has extroversion to it. But here we are, just the two of us having like a little chit chat, like the energy is super calm because it’s just you and me, which is nice. Yeah. Okay. I just went down a little bit of a rabbit hole. Oh, no, no, no.

Constance Payne: [00:11:26] And we get like, you know, and that’s the thing too. It’s like with with acting between acting and the forensic cleaning, I get enough excitement there, you know, like, I want to go hang out in the forest after that or plant my garden.

Sharon Cline: [00:11:39] Something wonderful and calm about trees. And because I love trees, I love I have like a little bit of a woods in the back of my yard. And I have to say that some of the calming times that I have is being quiet outside, just listening to nature, and it’s amazing how it calms my spirit down. So yeah, I think that sometimes makes me feel more spiritual than like a spiritual, actual building, you know.

Constance Payne: [00:12:01] Just being in nature.

Sharon Cline: [00:12:02] Yeah, yeah, totally. I get you, girl. So you also do method acting? I do? Yeah. What is that like?

Constance Payne: [00:12:08] Well, I got my own thing, you know, like, there’s certain types of method actors out there. Like, some, they’ll. They’ll be in character are all on set from the you know what I mean. Or for months on end and I don’t do that I mean not knocking that that works for other people that’s cool. But me personally, I just do a lot of character research and development and, you know, I kind of create my own version of this character. I’ll talk to the director a whole lot or the writer and really get a good idea before I’m on set of who this person is, you know, because they’re only giving you certain details that you can pull out of the script. And if the script is written well, then you’ve got all this foreshadowing and you know all these things that you can work with. Yeah. To build an actual person and a unique character versus just being a body that moves and talks, right?

Sharon Cline: [00:12:58] Like if you embody it.

Constance Payne: [00:12:59] Yeah, yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:13:00] But you also do stunts.

Constance Payne: [00:13:02] Yeah, I do stunts.

Sharon Cline: [00:13:03] Is that why also you’re doing, you’re into like the fitness.

Constance Payne: [00:13:06] Part of it. Yeah. That’s why I do a lot of fitness and MMA stuff and I lift heavy a lot. I’m boxing and jujitsu based martial artist, and so I’ve done a lot of my fight choreography for a lot of the lower budget films and everything that I do. And I mean, I think it’s fun. Oh, you got to see this one. I get my face smashed in the dirt in this mud pole. We were supposed to be doing something else. And then the rain started coming and we’re like, Oh, hell, all right. And I was like, We’ll just set this this scene up outside my producer’s house. We got a wood pile. I’ll just start chopping. So we just came up with something on the fly and we start wrestling around in the mud. And I was telling the guy who was a new guy I was working with, and I was like, All right, I want you to grab me by the back of my hair and fucking stuff me down in there, right? And and so it was a real fun scene. And like, I had mud in my teeth and it was yeah, it was. It was a good time. And I didn’t really we didn’t think things through. And so then I’m like butt naked in my producer’s backyard getting hosed off by the coldest water hose ever. We’re all just laughing. I’m like, So, you know, being on set is fun. You know, You never know. Every every day is a unique surprise. Like.

Sharon Cline: [00:14:17] It’s so funny. I’m trying to imagine this and they must love you because you’re diverse. You have like, skills that they really value, I imagine.

Constance Payne: [00:14:23] Oh yeah, I’m useful in a lot of different ways because I mean, I’m really popular in the indie market right now. I’m working my way up and everything, and I have a small production company based out of Calhoun that that I do a lot of work out of. So we do like little short little like, you know, anywhere between 5 and 10 minute type of real material for other actors and stuff.

Sharon Cline: [00:14:45] So it’s so fun.

Constance Payne: [00:14:46] Yeah, it is fun. I mean, I have a great time being an actor no matter what I’m playing like and we’re doing a lot of different types of characters for me right now. Like before it was always like, Oh, this former military, you know, badass. Yeah, mercenary, all the or FBI agent, all that kind of stuff. And, and now, you know, I paid an assault victim not that long ago and, oh, I just got booked on a music video. I get to. I get to kiss a really hot chick. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:15:13] Yeah. What video? We have to see this. You have to send me links. I’ll send.

Constance Payne: [00:15:17] You links. I’ll send you links. Awesome. It’s a Brazilian artist. She’s, like, super awesome. I like her music, and I’m a little judgy when it comes to people making original music. I really like her music. It’s got this nice, creepy kind of sounds. I think like Beetlejuice Nightmare before Christmas type of cool. Yeah, but with a little poppy unfitness. It’s so weird.

Sharon Cline: [00:15:39] But how nice that you get to be part of something you actually really like.

Constance Payne: [00:15:41] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, that’s the thing. It’s like, I, like, I fit in this. I’m. It’s. I’m a genre in its own like. And that’s why I dress the way that I dress and, and I don’t cover up my tattoos anywhere I go. Because if you don’t like me, by the way that I look, then you’re not my people. And I don’t want to do business with you anyway. Exactly. And I’m not going to be baking muffins on any Hallmark movie channel or anything like that.

Sharon Cline: [00:16:03] I was reading a little bit about your story about how initially people gave you a hard time about your tattoos. You’ll never succeed in this business.

Constance Payne: [00:16:10] Oh yeah. I heard a lot of things from acting teachers when I first started. And, you know, that was that was the main one that they were like, Oh, no, you have too many tattoos. Nobody’s ever going to hire you. And not only saying that, but like looking at me like I’m a piece of garbage when they do it. So weird, so judgy. Yeah. And I was the first person hired out of that class, and I was hired for a lead role in in a YouTube series that’s got 2.9 million views on it. Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s really weird how. And now here I’m at in my career, I got a film called Adrenaline. I filmed out in Europe two years ago and I filmed it with Louis Mandylor from the Debt Collector. Oh my. Yeah, Louis and Costas were in that movie and I’m the leading lady in it as an FBI agent. Dun dun, duh. You know, and and it’s right now it’s running the European train. Right now it’s in Japan. Brazil. It just got released in Germany and just here in America shortly.

Sharon Cline: [00:17:11] You’re all over the world.

Constance Payne: [00:17:12] Yeah. Yeah, It’s been. It’s been. It’s cool. And. And then I just hang out here in little Woodstock. I know, right? I’m like.

Sharon Cline: [00:17:19] That’s so conservative compared to like, considering what you do in your genre and what you’re interested in and how you present yourself like it still works for you. Everything falls into place for you. That’s so cool though, because you’re being your authentic self.

Constance Payne: [00:17:32] Yeah, exactly. And you know, like a lot of my good friends, they’re all like senior citizens and stuff like that. Like, I, I.

Sharon Cline: [00:17:41] I love it, though.

Constance Payne: [00:17:42] Yeah. I mean, I’m like, I’m wholesome, but deadly.

Sharon Cline: [00:17:46] You’re on both sides of the spectrum. I feel like I am, too, because I’m kind of like I have, like I was saying, I’m a bit introverted, but I’m a bit extroverted. I have a rebellious side to me, but I also like to fit in. I have like, I’m I don’t know what I am. I I’m a radio host at the moment though.

Constance Payne: [00:18:02] Yeah, I would say. And you know what? That’s okay. Yeah. I don’t know what I was this morning, but then I realized that I was still stuck in this body. So. Yeah. So we do make the best of it. We work with what we have.

Sharon Cline: [00:18:15] All right. So how did you get into the acting industry here in Atlanta? So you started were you in Daytona first?

Constance Payne: [00:18:20] Yeah, I was in Daytona and I was going through my first divorce. I know that sounds like a fucking loser right there. No, it doesn’t.

Sharon Cline: [00:18:27] This is like the state of the way things are. I think the stronger we get, the harder it is to put up with a lot of things that don’t work. So I just think that’s the way the state of women in general.

Constance Payne: [00:18:36] Yeah. So, yeah, so I was on number one and we were going through a divorce and I and I decided I wanted something for myself. I’d spent so many years dedicated to his company helping make that grow and all that and, and being taken advantage of. So I started taking this acting class. That was the one I told you about that I got hired out of that. They told me that I wouldn’t be able to succeed.

Sharon Cline: [00:18:57] I would I would think about that every day. I think I would have so much pleasure out of knowing what really happened. Girl, I’ve.

Constance Payne: [00:19:03] Actually only taken, like, two acting classes in my whole life. Yeah, that’s another thing I don’t do. Like, there’s like, this whole list of things that they tell actors to do here in Atlanta. They have to have this. You have to do that. And if you don’t do this and you don’t do that, nobody will ever take you seriously. And I don’t do any of that stuff. I just yeah, I’m like totally against the core. I don’t even think my website is functional right now for my acting, and I don’t care because I get scripts in the mail all the time. Like I’m, you know, I’ll do some auditions here and there, but they’re really high level auditions. I’m not doing any, you know, basic stuff here. But then most parts people just send me a message like, Hey, here’s a script, here’s the part read for this. Are you interested? It’s always lead co-lead or a very strong supporting. And you know, because with budgets and movies like under $2 million that’s that’s considered ultra low budget. Wow. Yeah, I know, right?

Sharon Cline: [00:20:00] Yes. For me too. So yeah.

Constance Payne: [00:20:02] I know.

Sharon Cline: [00:20:03] For my life. I can’t imagine.

Constance Payne: [00:20:04] I can’t wait to say that at my company. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:20:08] We’re low budget. I know. It’s such disrespect. But I can’t imagine what’s considered like a mid-budget what’s considered a high budget.

Constance Payne: [00:20:17] Anything over 2 million? Yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:20:19] I suppose that’s true. I want specifics. Well, but that’s interesting because really people are coming to you. You don’t have to go out there and try to sell yourself in some ways, like I’m sure actors do, like I do with auditioning for voice over work. That’s kind of like a sale, like I’m trying to sell myself.

Constance Payne: [00:20:35] I mean, I do and I don’t, I guess like Facebook, I’m friends with a lot of people on Facebook, so my network is really there, most of my directors and producers and, you know, and I’ll go to certain events that actors typically don’t go to. Like I went to the AFM this last year, the American Film Market in Santa Monica, and there was a really good move. I met a lot of people making a lot of movies and a lot of people want to put me in their movies, you know? And it’s not like it’s really a distribution festival. It’s not something that actors, unless you were in the movie and your company made it or whatever, you’re not really there.

Sharon Cline: [00:21:09] But that’s thinking outside the box.

Constance Payne: [00:21:11] Yeah. And I just like met everybody. I cut the line, you know what I mean? Like, these are all the people selling their movies, all the directors, and these are the people that I wanted to say hi and not have to stand in a line to possibly, you know, work my way through all these auditions for years to maybe eventually work with you if I get so lucky, Right?

Sharon Cline: [00:21:33] Because really, I mean, I know that you have a unique look and a unique sound. Everything’s cool. But there is there’s got to be a level of competition that you’re always thinking, okay, this person could have potentially had this part.

Constance Payne: [00:21:45] Glad I got it. Honestly, I don’t really care. I mean, if somebody love that. Yeah, like if somebody else gets a job, there’s nobody that I have personally met that looks similar to me. There might be other like females with tattoos. They don’t have them the way that I have mine. They’re not as buff as me, girl. I’m a I’m a big little lady. All right? I’m breaking at 125 pounds. Five foot four. Constance Payne is the destroyer. So, you know, like, I am who I am, and people there are. They’re going to like it and hire me or they’re going to get somebody else. But, you know, I go all in when I do stuff. I’m fun to work around. I’m not I know when to shut up. I’ve been on a couple of sets where people just don’t stop. Really. Yeah, Yeah. And it’s really hard.

Sharon Cline: [00:22:37] I’ve heard that one of the things that I’ve learned through voice over work in particular is when you’re working with directors or script writers, people who are who are making the copy. If you’re a pleasant person to work with and for it’s such a different like people will come back to me because it was easy, you know, as opposed to working with someone who may sound a little bit different or whatever. If there’s any resistance there, they don’t want to go down that road. Y y you know, it’s so nice to have a nice experience. So I was happy to hear that you feel like that’s a valuable asset.

Constance Payne: [00:23:09] Oh, absolutely. I mean, that’s I mean, that’s I mean, shit. I prefer to work with people that are easy, like in film. Like, there’s. I mean, like I said, we got a little mini mini company and there’s certain people that I will never hire again and people that have been friends with and it just because, like while you’re cool to have a cup of coffee with on set you I can’t do you and I found it like personally insulting because here I am giving somebody an opportunity by being in one of my films and being opposite of me. And. And you’re acting the way that you’re acting. And that’s insulting because you clearly have no idea how hard I work to do what I do.

Sharon Cline: [00:23:50] It is a disrespect because you are providing an opportunity that someone would have worked extremely hard to get.

Constance Payne: [00:23:56] Oh yeah, you cut the line and you disrespect me.

Sharon Cline: [00:24:01] That sounds like a movie quote.

Constance Payne: [00:24:02] Yeah, I’m just glad that we’re only concentrating on little like 5 to 10 minute spots right now because we are. We’ve got a couple features coming up next year that we’re partnering up with people on and they will not be involved in those, you know, and I’d rather have you fuck up on a small one than really show your ass on something big and there’d be an actual problem here.

Sharon Cline: [00:24:25] I can’t imagine. So it’s interesting. You’ve got like friends that you can not work with but be friends with. Yeah, but then you’ve got people that you work with, I’m sure in this industry where you’re like, We couldn’t be friends. Glad to work with you. You know?

Constance Payne: [00:24:37] Uh, you know, it’s kind of funny on that one. Me I don’t really want to work with in the film industry. Like, you know, with forensics, I’m always going to work with all types of crazy people and, you know, all like, all different levels of personality. And that’s that’s what I find interesting about that occupation. But in film, I can choose. I definitely can because I want to always have a good experience on set. I don’t want to be arguing with anybody. You know, you can’t ruin the tone on set. And that’s what I didn’t like about, you know, certain people I’ve worked with in the past is that now half of my acting ability is going. Towards trying to keep the set at a certain tone. Otherwise you’re going to shut down for real. And this whole day has been wasted. You know, it’s thousands of dollars down the toilet because you want to have a moment? Yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:25:27] So how is how realistic are forensic shows?

Constance Payne: [00:25:32] It depends on which one you’re watching.

Sharon Cline: [00:25:33] Okay. What would you say is the most realistic?

Constance Payne: [00:25:35] I would say the Samuel L Jackson movie, The Cleaner, was a very. How everything’s broken down and, you know, suiting up and very, very on point with that. So if you’re looking for something new age, that kind of gives you an idea. I would say that for sure.

Sharon Cline: [00:25:54] So what is not realistic?

Constance Payne: [00:25:58] Well, you know, it’s funny you say that. We were shooting a commercial for the forensics company a couple of weeks ago, and I was on the phone with my other producers, and they were like, All right, well, we’ll interview you and we’ll set up a scene. We’ll have like, you know what we’ll do, like the chalk outline and then maybe throw a leg in there. And I was like, I was like, That’s so Hollywood and like old school Hollywood to I don’t even remember the last time I saw a chalk line. Was that like Alfred Hitchcock? You know, like, what are we.

Sharon Cline: [00:26:32] Who are you trying to target here?

Constance Payne: [00:26:33] Negative. Negative, negative. We are not doing that. And there’s not going to be a whole leg, though. I mean, I have found you know, I did find a I find interesting things sometimes, but it was a little excessive what they were asking. So we just went with the pool, a standard pool of blood. And then I made some some chunks of skull and teeth out of clay real quick and tossed those. Yeah, toss those in there and just set up my crime scene tape.

Sharon Cline: [00:26:59] And is there anything you’re afraid of? Like when you go on to a job site, are you ever afraid of what you’re going to see?

Constance Payne: [00:27:06] I mean, I’ve I’ve seen a lot and I’ve seen it all. I mean, I would say, like when when cats or rats pop out of nowhere and they’ll spook, you know, you’re already kind of you’re in this cryptic environment already and now now throw like animals flailing around that are, you know, disgusting. Yeah. You know, you know, that’ll be like, ah. But then I’m like, oh, okay. That was just an ugly cat.

Sharon Cline: [00:27:31] I didn’t think you were going to say that. I didn’t think you were like, you know, the jump scare moment I was thinking.

Constance Payne: [00:27:36] About the only thing that scares me.

Sharon Cline: [00:27:37] Yeah, I would say I think it’s something else. I don’t know what. Just the notion of like, what you’re actually interacting with and and what happened behind what you’re interacting with. I don’t know.

Constance Payne: [00:27:46] No, I mean, I do think about all those things sometimes, you know, when I when I’ll take up stuff from 33rd party companies, I don’t know until I’m there until like I kind of discover and go through it until like the end. So that mystery of figuring out, Oh, that’s how this went down. And they feel, Oh, whoa.

Sharon Cline: [00:28:07] Okay, interesting. How many jobs do you do? Like a week? A month? Is it all the time constant.

Constance Payne: [00:28:13] It’s it’s sporadic. It’s all over the place. Like, I can I can I might work, like two, three weeks solid, you know, like, depending, like, let’s say there’s a big horde and a bunch of dead bodies in between on other calls. You know what I mean? Like it. It’s so all over the place. Or, you know, if I’m going to be on set, then I’ve got somebody else to kind of cover for me and take calls. But I mean, it’s hard. I think there’s something in the moon and the stars, too, with it. I know that sounds weird. We were just.

Sharon Cline: [00:28:38] Talking about that before the show, that sometimes things just happen. It just.

Constance Payne: [00:28:42] Happens. It’s like it’ll be like Murder week or Suicide Week. You know what I mean? It’s just. It’s very.

Sharon Cline: [00:28:48] Interesting. So, yeah. Is it Christmas time where things tend to pick up, you know, how there are like themes that there are moments that are more emotional during certain parts of the year or something like that?

Constance Payne: [00:28:58] Yeah, there’s I mean, it depends. It’s very like I said it each month does its own weird thing.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:05] Wild Do you ever see something on the news where you’re like, Oh, that’s the whole story behind what I cleaned up?

Constance Payne: [00:29:10] Yeah. And it usually aligns with what I’ve seen or sometimes, you know, like my, my buddies at the, you know, the police department or the sheriff’s office or fire department or whatever, they’ll they’ll tell me what happened.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:24] Interesting, because. Okay, so I know it’s.

Constance Payne: [00:29:26] Not I’m sorry. Sometimes I get a totally different version from the homeowner.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:30] Oh, no, really.

Constance Payne: [00:29:32] I’ve had people tell me I don’t live here and their mail is their name in the mail is everywhere. Oh, they know. You’re kidding.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:37] Yeah. Yeah, that’s crazy.

Constance Payne: [00:29:39] Yeah, it’s so weird.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:41] Like, flat out lies.

Constance Payne: [00:29:42] Flat out like I wasn’t going to know somebody stole all your mail and hid it in this house, lady. Like.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:50] So you deal with personality types all the time.

Constance Payne: [00:29:53] Everybody’s mentally sick in some kind of capacity, You know, It just depends on the level what you’re dealing with. Some people just get sad. You know, some people, their loved one dies, their partner dies, and then they get a depression room or depression house, as I like to call it. And and then one day they finally decide that they’ve had enough. Up in there. They’re ready to move forward in life, and that’s when I step in.

Sharon Cline: [00:30:16] So how many other companies are out there like yours, even in this Woodstock area? Because I see that you I typed it out. You service Cherokee Cobb, Bartow, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Fulton, Clayton, Henry, Fayette, Douglas and Forsyth Counties. That’s many counties.

Constance Payne: [00:30:33] Yeah, that’s everybody. So anybody that’ll call. I mean, it depends. I mean, the drive time and everything depends because I’ve got two service vehicles, I’ve got a big old truck and then I got a little car for zipping around. So, like, that’s what I keep. Everything just depends. Sometimes I might just need a bucket, you know, full of some gear. Sometimes I got to pull out the heavy equipment. Just disposing of mattresses, furniture, all You know, it’s every unique case. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:31:03] So how much does what you see visually in your business affect how you help out or influence your acting career? In other words, like, if you know what something genuinely, really looks like as a crime scene and you go on to a set and you’re like, None of this looks even remotely normal.

Constance Payne: [00:31:21] Well, yeah. And that’s what I like about the acting community now, is like everybody’s wanting to get the realistic look. They just don’t know what it is in certain types of things, which I mean, I think it’s kind of funny. It’s like if you’re going to write a movie about like military personnel or detectives that maybe you might want to have a former on staff for writing, you know what I mean? For dialog purposes.

Sharon Cline: [00:31:44] I heard they had someone like that on like E.R. They had someone like, I don’t know if it was Michael Crichton or whoever it was, but someone who had like a real MD.

Constance Payne: [00:31:52] Yeah. Understanding of what we’re doing here today.

Sharon Cline: [00:31:55] It’s not going to be super fake, you know, it can actually have an element of realism to it. And that’s another.

Constance Payne: [00:32:00] Thing about preparing for yourself for, for set. Like if, if I were to cast somebody as an attorney and put them in one of my movies and I don’t see any and you do your research by watching other television shows versus doing your own personal research on your own reconnaissance. I can tell the difference that is being lazy, like, you know, interesting or being motivated.

Sharon Cline: [00:32:24] What’s your favorite acting job that you’ve gotten?

Constance Payne: [00:32:31] I mean, I guess you’d have to be more specific on the question of like just the content or I mean.

Sharon Cline: [00:32:36] How about this? What has been the most satisfying acting job that you’ve had where you were just like you left, you finished it, you were just like, Damn, that is why I’m here on this planet, is to have moments like this, jobs like this.

Constance Payne: [00:32:48] Well, I was butt naked, covered in blood on the streets of Miami about four years ago doing this film called Sadie.

Sharon Cline: [00:32:57] Like they they had.

Constance Payne: [00:32:59] Closed off this street in the like, we’re outside. Okay? It’s like between the hours of ten and four in the morning. And I spent that entire time covered in corn sirup and coagulated blood taking a stroll through hell. And I was very I found it very liberating, especially when we’re, like, wrapping up and I’m in this bathtub in the middle of an alley. You know, they’ve got it lit all like funky and stuff. And. And this truck driver, No, he drives by ever so. And he had his phone up and he was filming me and I’m like, just sitting there and I’m just covered in blood and I’m waving. You know, there’s a lot of good moments on that. I actually chased after the goat, too, because every, you know, at the gates of hell, there’s always a goat. And they took the rope off of of him against the advice of the goat handler. And then the goat took off. And I’m the only athlete on set. So now here I am, butt naked, covered in blood, running down the streets of Miami after a fucking goat.

Sharon Cline: [00:34:02] Not many people can say that. Definitely not been said on our show before. I think that’s amazing. Yeah.

Constance Payne: [00:34:07] I mean, I saved the goat, you know? And that was really fun. Like, I don’t think I’ve ever saved anything in real life on set before. Since then.

Sharon Cline: [00:34:14] Well, if you weren’t an athlete, that goat might have, like, really been out there today.

Constance Payne: [00:34:19] We would have owed somebody $350. I think that’s what the going rate you know how hard it was to find a goat down in Miami because of Santeria. Everybody’s looking at us like we’re crazy, like we’re going to murder this goat or something. And I was like, I swear, it’s just the movie. We’re not going to hurt the goat like.

Sharon Cline: [00:34:36] But they don’t know for sure.

Constance Payne: [00:34:38] But they don’t know because yeah, because we’re all flying in from LA. Like.

Sharon Cline: [00:34:44] Oh God, I like people I don’t even know. I don’t know what it’s like. But I can imagine, like if you’re, if you were to go back into your, into your history as well of acting like, is there a job where you’re like, I wish I had never signed up to do this position or this role?

Constance Payne: [00:34:57] Yeah, yeah. I’m not going to mention the title of it because that director is a piece of garbage. This is all over $300. And it was just a very I could tell that the director was chauvinist because, you know, it was one of those I’m a director, writer, producer, and I get his script and, and all the all the women in the script, they would always just follow the men around and agree with them all the time. And in what society does that ever happen? Okay.

Sharon Cline: [00:35:24] Fantasy land. Yeah.

Constance Payne: [00:35:25] The women just they were just like, oh, yes, yeah. Oh, no, you know? And so I could tell it was a chauvinist from, from the script writing and you know, that he didn’t know what he was doing. And I’m like, okay, whatever. You’re going to do this low budget film. And, and I went ahead and I did it. And and he was just really rude. Just this was like six, seven years ago. So it’s just very condescending, very rude. And then all out, he just didn’t flat out didn’t pay me three, you know, $300. And he must have forged my signature on the thing because you can’t get distribution in the film industry without all signed signatures from from actors. And there was a bunch of other people that had complained that they hadn’t been paid and that they also did not sign any type of contract or anything. And now he’s on a second film. So I’m just kind of letting this sit back because, I mean, my name is a I’m a registered trademark.

Sharon Cline: [00:36:19] Are you like an R?

Constance Payne: [00:36:20] Yeah, I’ve got the R with the little circle. Yeah. Really? Yeah. That’s amazing. Yeah. For acting and my clothing and my jewelry and stuff like that.

Sharon Cline: [00:36:28] Like, we could talk all day. Yeah, we could.

Constance Payne: [00:36:30] We could talk all day.

Sharon Cline: [00:36:31] That’s like, a whole other side I didn’t know about. That’s so.

Constance Payne: [00:36:33] Cool. Yeah. So I’m just kind of sitting back on that one and waiting until it’s actually relevant.

Sharon Cline: [00:36:38] Interesting. What do you think people don’t know about the acting industry that you think, okay, here’s my chance to really tell people some things that I’ve learned.

Constance Payne: [00:36:47] Well, I would have to say that I definitely don’t have to sleep with anybody to get where I’m at. I think that I find that like a very common thing. People, you know, when they meet me, they’re always like, Oh, you must, you know, Oh, are they looking at me like I haven’t busted my ass to do this? Now, there might be stories from back in the day where women had done that. And however, whatever, whatever as you, as you. But for, for people to just, you know, think that just because you’re in this industry that that you got to sleep your way up to the top compromise yourself. Yeah it’s just not true. Like people hire me because I’m a badass female and that’s what they’re looking for. They’re looking for, you know, some, some some fight moves and some feistiness. And I don’t have to sleep with anybody to get where I’m going. You know why? Because they write me a fucking paycheck, right? Right. You know, like. Like that. That’s.

Sharon Cline: [00:37:37] There’s your proof.

Constance Payne: [00:37:38] There you go. Yeah. And I guess, you know, in my most recent failed marriage, it was it was hard towards the end of that because I fly out a lot. You know, you got people paying for my my flights, my hotel rooms. They’re paying my salary for the week to one month that I’m on a set. And here he was thinking, I’m on vacation. Like I’m literally working from the time my plane lands to the time it goes up. I don’t. And if I’m not working and busting my ass on set, I’m exhausted and hiding in my hotel room. Right.

Sharon Cline: [00:38:11] So this the divided life feeling where you have your life, but then there’s a perception of what your life is really like.

Constance Payne: [00:38:17] Exactly. And I mean, I do a good job of showing because there’s a lot of great things about it. You know what I mean? I love my life, you know, But it’s not every single day I’m not doing lingerie photo shoots, you know what I mean? Getting my hair styled and, you know, makeup put on by Betty. Like, I’m not, you know, I’m not doing all that. When I do have those moments, it’s fun and I enjoy them. And we’re doing it for work and, you know, and we all have a good time doing it. And then the other half of the time I might be in somebody’s hoarding house shithole, having a piss in my own coffee cup because I ain’t hovering over that. Right.

Sharon Cline: [00:38:56] What a diverse life. Yeah, but have you had to deal? I know we talked just briefly. You mentioned about a director being pretty misogynistic, but have you had to deal with much of what’s considered the MeToo movement? Have you had have you had issues in that way in the in your acting career?

Constance Payne: [00:39:13] I haven’t had anybody. I think people I’m apparently I’m intimidating. I’m a bit intimidating. I’ve had people verbally try to test the waters. I could tell, you know what I mean? You can tell. And I always direct a conversation very quickly, especially when I pick up on one of those hints of somebody trying to gear it towards that way. Like when if a new director or producer hits me up on online and I could tell they don’t know how to have a conversation with me, the first thing I say is, All right, cool. You know, if you’d like to see my reels and resume, let me know. I can drop them to you here. If you shoot me your email address, I can send it there. And either, yeah, let it be. And either they’ll, they’ll say, Yeah, I’d love to see your stuff. Send it here, send it there or they don’t respond. And if they don’t respond well.

Sharon Cline: [00:40:03] Then you know.

Constance Payne: [00:40:04] Then I know, I don’t.

Sharon Cline: [00:40:06] Know why. I just sort of assumed it was very pervasive and everyone has to deal with it for some reason in my mind.

Constance Payne: [00:40:12] I mean, there’s a community, a very small community here and there, and it’s really about the the women that I’ve seen have those experiences. They’re they’re coming from a sense of desperation and wanting to be liked and and move ahead. And so they’re not seeing the signs of somebody with their bullshit.

Sharon Cline: [00:40:33] Do you think there’s an energy around that kind of an actor that is like, I will do whatever just so that I can like, I’ll get to know you and I’ll be close to you and I’ll do whatever I can.

Constance Payne: [00:40:42] Yeah. Or thinking that that this person is, is it at all valuable to their career and worth pursuing in any type of professional way, personal, professional, whatever way. But, you know, you have to identify what value does that have, Does that person have towards your goals and where you’re getting at in life? And, you know, I mean, I surround myself by good people who do what they say they’re going to do in the timely manner that they allow themselves or that I kind of have to be like, Oh, I’ll have it done next week. I’m like, Ah, I know you won’t till the end of the month, but that’s fine, you know, At least I know, but not ever getting that task done. That says something about your work ethic. Exactly. And it’s not because, oh, you got a million things to do and you’re so busy. Well, aren’t we motherfucking all? You know, that’s really presumptuous of you to think that you’re the busiest person in Woodstock or in Atlanta, Georgia, or these United States of the world, for that matter.

Sharon Cline: [00:41:37] We all have the same amount of time, right? Yeah.

Constance Payne: [00:41:39] We all got 24 hours in a day. And, you know, just like hitting the gym. I’ve had to wake up earlier sometimes and move my schedule around this way or that way to be able to to, to hit, you know, the amount of hours that I need to look, the way that I need to look for whatever I got coming up. Like right now I’m doing a weight cut. You know, I spent three hours jogging yesterday out in the hot sun. Yeah. And oh, I’m waddling. I’m modeling today. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:42:04] Like you are. You look good. You look like you’re super strong, ready to take everything on, which is probably like a good thing, right?

Constance Payne: [00:42:09] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, well, at any any given moment, if. If the situation were to arise. Stand back. I’ve got it.

Sharon Cline: [00:42:17] Like. But how interesting. You have to really mold yourself to be whatever. I mean I know that’s what an actor does, but I’ve never really spoken to someone who actually is doing something actively well.

Constance Payne: [00:42:26] There are certain things like some people, they’re like, they don’t. They just like, This is the way I look and. That’s it. You know, and I’m that goes along with the method. Part of the acting is that I like to embody myself and, you know, always changing my looks and up and down and, you know, like this next one, I’m playing a Ranger like a state park ranger for a few scenes in a film. And I really want my my cheekbones to to pop hard on this one because the last couple of films, I just felt a little bit fuller and, you know, just weird stuff like that.

Sharon Cline: [00:42:59] But that’s that’s your assessment, not someone’s told you to change.

Constance Payne: [00:43:03] No, nobody tells me to change. I do it because when I get this footage back with because I think I’m going to be doing a Southern accent in this one as well, like a southern hippie type of. And so I have a whole look and a whole different sound in frame. And so that’s just showing range and all different types of characters that I can play.

Sharon Cline: [00:43:26] Opens up potential.

Constance Payne: [00:43:27] Other, yeah, for people to see me different types of ways.

Sharon Cline: [00:43:30] What other accents do you do? Southern accent.

Constance Payne: [00:43:32] I can pretty much do anything. Honestly, if I listen to like I’ll Google on on YouTube and stuff like that and it’ll take a little bit of research and then, you know, I’ll start reading a book in that accent and like hitting each every word because that’s my trick on set when if I because you can’t just practice the script, you know, if you’re doing an accent, you can’t just read the script. You got to read the whole book. It could be a book about anything. It doesn’t matter.

Sharon Cline: [00:44:00] But you’re reading it in the accent.

Constance Payne: [00:44:01] You’re reading it in the accent, and you have to read it out loud. And that way when the script changes on set because it always fucking does, you’re you’re spending less time, you can just, you know, assimilate. Yeah, you’re just assimilate to it. You’re just, you’re already there.

Sharon Cline: [00:44:16] You can do a British accent. I’m terrible at a British accent.

Constance Payne: [00:44:20] Oh well I used to have an RV and I had to stay at senior living communities.

Speaker3: [00:44:30] And so I would call in my little old lady voice. Oh, my gosh, that’s crazy.

Constance Payne: [00:44:38] That’s a good one, right?

Sharon Cline: [00:44:39] A really good one. I could never do it. It sounds so good. I’m like, it gets even.

Constance Payne: [00:44:42] That’s just like off hint like if I if I focus and sit down, I could do it. Like, you know what I mean? Yeah. It was not prepared for it, but I mean, shoot, I do. I mean, literally anything. I just got to listen to it and I get them.

Sharon Cline: [00:44:54] That’s a skill. That’s like a Meryl Streep skill. Yeah. You know, whereas she could do any accent and it sounds so authentic and normal, like. Like she lives this every day, but that’s kind of super chill. Yeah, exactly.

Constance Payne: [00:45:03] And it’s super chill because that’s another thing like not overthinking it.

Sharon Cline: [00:45:07] Oh, yeah. Well, that’s my problem.

Constance Payne: [00:45:08] Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, same thing in the cleanup. You know, if I’ve got somebody like brain and coagulated Blood, my I can’t really think about what I’m about touching. You know? I just got to. Just do it. Just do it.

Sharon Cline: [00:45:20] Just do it. But it’s sacred work, you know? It is sacred work.

Constance Payne: [00:45:24] It is. I mean, you’re dealing with the dead, you know, And like, I have a lot of respect for the dead. And, you know, I haven’t had any ghost experiences or anything like that and doing my job, which is very strange because when I lived in Daytona Beach in my first marriage, we lived in a haunted neighborhood. And yeah, I had like three, four different houses in the same neighborhood. Each and every one of them was haunted. It was kind of like every time we moved, like the there were more ghosts at the new place, but then the old ones would follow us. Yeah, it was crazy. And then it got to the point where it was like daily activity and it was insane. And then found a psychic. She did some. It was all through text message too. Really?

Speaker4: [00:46:05] I know it sounds like bullshit, right? And that was.

Constance Payne: [00:46:07] Like, this is garbage. And then days went by. Weeks went by, months went by. Never had an experience since then.

Sharon Cline: [00:46:14] Well, there’s so much I don’t understand out there. Yeah. You know of why things work the way they work and turn it on.

Constance Payne: [00:46:20] And turn it off like. And. And that was another thing. I was kind of scared to get into the forensic cleaning because that was a very terrifying experience in those houses. And, you know, just especially the unknown and hearing all these sounds and scary things.

Speaker4: [00:46:34] That’s why I was.

Sharon Cline: [00:46:35] Thinking it would be kind of spooky, But you’re like, it’s just when the animals come flying out of.

Speaker4: [00:46:39] Nowhere. Yeah, just the animals. I mean, after.

Constance Payne: [00:46:41] The first couple jobs, I was like, All right, nobody’s following me home, so this is cool.

Sharon Cline: [00:46:45] Shoe.

Constance Payne: [00:46:45] I think they know that. I respect them. You know that. That I’m trying to help out here. I don’t.

Sharon Cline: [00:46:51] Know. That’s an energy, you know, a respectful energy of sacred work. I think that’s the way I would look at it, too. And not everybody’s got the right disposition to do it. So I appreciate that. Like I was thinking how nice it is that I get to meet all these different business owners that do things that I could never do that are not in my wheelhouse or even thought about. But I really have a true respect for anybody that is following a dream that they have. And I think that’s so cool about you too, because you’ve got lots of different dreams that you’re following and are being successful in, in lots of ways. And I think What would advice would you give someone who is out there wanting to pursue a job or even getting into the. Acting field. What would you suggest for them?

Constance Payne: [00:47:34] Quit being a pussy.

Speaker4: [00:47:36] That’s our fearless formula. That’s my fearless formula. Because I’ve had.

Constance Payne: [00:47:40] So many people come after me for business advice, for regular business stuff, and then business advice for specifically being an actor. And I can talk to people for about two hours, kind of interview them, figure out what’s your dream, you know what I mean, and give them some breakdowns of, Oh, hey, you could do this. These are options. Da da da da da da da da da da. Two hours later, every single time. Sharon, You know what they say to me? They say, Well, what if I.

Speaker5: [00:48:06] Do all that and it doesn’t work out?

Sharon Cline: [00:48:08] I know.

Constance Payne: [00:48:09] And I’m like, Now I’m pissed because you wasted two hours of my time while I’m trying to help you out being kind. And now you want to have this loser mentality of you’re afraid to fail. Do you think I’ve always I’ve not been successful at everything. It’s been years in a lot of failure to get where I’m at and a lot of different.

Sharon Cline: [00:48:28] What makes you keep going?

Constance Payne: [00:48:29] Not being a pussy. I told you. I told.

Speaker4: [00:48:32] You. It’s really that simple. It feels like.

Sharon Cline: [00:48:35] It should be more complicated because really, people, including myself, I get in my own head and it’s just like, no, I get overwhelmed and I can’t face, I don’t know, not succeeding in some way my family or their excuses that I could come up with like 50 of them right now of why I can’t do.

Speaker4: [00:48:49] Something.

Constance Payne: [00:48:50] Well, a lot of family shame is a big thing that that leads a lot of people in their lives. And, you know, and that’s another big thing about being an actor is you literally have to not care what other people think or anything because you get caught in your head like that. You’re going to choke on camera. You know, if you’re like, Oh, God, was that okay? Was that you? Don’t you know what I mean? Like, you don’t need approval. You know, you just you just do what you do and approve of yourself and be like, all right, this is my big goal. I’m going to break this down into, all right, at the end of the year, I’m going to do this. And now let’s break this down into quarters and then let’s do, you know, monthlies and then be proud of yourself every time that you accomplish one of those. And then you’ll see the light at the end of time.

Sharon Cline: [00:49:32] Not overwhelming.

Constance Payne: [00:49:33] Yeah. When you break it down. When you break it down. Yeah. Everybody sees everything. All in this. This big mess. It’s all over the place. It’s all these thoughts and ideas and everything. And sometimes if you just like, get rid of all the bullshit and just focus on them, it’s like. Like building a house, you know? You don’t start putting the roof on first when you ain’t got no structure. But people.

Sharon Cline: [00:49:48] Want the roof, They want.

Speaker4: [00:49:49] It done. They want the yeah.

[00:49:50] They want to hurry up and done because it’s raining tomorrow. It’s raining tomorrow. Yeah. What are you going to do with all the roof.

Sharon Cline: [00:49:57] But that’s what people like the end result. But you know, I like that you’re talking about like the small things can be just as satisfying that you accomplished. It doesn’t have to be the roof, but it can be just that you have a plan.

Speaker4: [00:50:07] Yeah, exactly.

Sharon Cline: [00:50:08] Little things.

Constance Payne: [00:50:08] Yeah. Live in the tent, out back for a minute until you can save up for all the nails and the lumber.

Sharon Cline: [00:50:13] That feels so doable and, like, positive and accessible. You know, a little result is something that I can. I can grab on to and make that my goal. Like, if I did if I auditioned for ten auditions this week, well, that’s great. You know, that’s that’s what I wanted. Okay, well, then what’s supposed to happen will happen. You know, let go of the result. Interesting. These are all things like.

Constance Payne: [00:50:35] Obviously you want to book those roles just like everybody else auditioning for them. But the fact that they’re even looking at you and listening to you, that’s a big accomplishment right there.

Sharon Cline: [00:50:44] Right there. Statistics that show me how often people listen to my auditions, my reels, all of those things. And so or if I get shortlisted, which is like round two, all.

Speaker4: [00:50:53] Those things are.

Sharon Cline: [00:50:54] Fun. Yeah. So I get a real kick out of that.

Speaker4: [00:50:56] That’s good.

Sharon Cline: [00:50:57] So yeah, it can be very motivating and then it can also be demotivating because I’ll be like, Oh my gosh, Like I worked so hard on all of these and nobody liked any of them. And it’s like, Why am I in this business? But you know, when you get booked, then it’s like, Oh, well, this is why I’m in this.

Speaker4: [00:51:09] I’m a baby all the time. I’ll go like two.

Constance Payne: [00:51:11] Weeks and I don’t book anything as an actor. And then I’m like, Oh.

Speaker4: [00:51:14] I’m a loser. Nobody likes me. And then it’s like something.

Constance Payne: [00:51:17] Huge happens.

Speaker4: [00:51:17] And then you’re like, Oh, well, no, I’m not. Yeah, I’ve got like three big features.

Constance Payne: [00:51:20] I’m doing that. What am I even quit crying.

Speaker4: [00:51:24] Quit crying.

Sharon Cline: [00:51:25] All right, well, if someone wanted to get in touch with you, how can they do that?

Constance Payne: [00:51:29] Facebook is the best. Facebook would be the best way to get in contact with me. Constance Payne. Yes. And then also my website for forensic cleaning is Fresh start biocom. So if you need anything like that, let me know.

Sharon Cline: [00:51:45] I’ve had so much fun chatting with you. I really we could talk a very long time. Like I could see we have to have you have to come back.

Speaker4: [00:51:52] Of course.

Sharon Cline: [00:51:52] We’ll talk about your new projects, too, because there’s so many really fun, exciting things happening. But I think one of the best things about it is that you are truly authentically you. So what is yours was really meant to be yours, You know, it’s super cool. It’s super cool to watch and everybody listening. Thank you for tuning into Fearless formula. And again, this is Sharon Cline reminding you that with knowledge and understanding, we can all have our own fearless formula. Have a great day.

 

Tagged With: Fresh Start Biohazard Cleaning Services

BRX Pro Tip: Sales Tip – After You Get a Yes, Stop Talking

May 29, 2023 by angishields

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BRX Pro Tips
BRX Pro Tip: Sales Tip - After You Get a Yes, Stop Talking
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BRX Pro Tip: Sales Tip – After You Get a Yes, Stop Talking

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you, Lee, here’s a little sales tip. When you get to a yes, stop talking.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:11] Yeah, it’s funny to watch. I think it happens a lot with younger salespeople that they, sometimes, get so entranced in their own storytelling that they’re missing buying signals from their prospect. And when the prospect says yes, stop talking, end the meeting, and I think it’s something you say is don’t spend more time buying it back.

Stone Payton: [00:00:35] Exactly. Once you sold it, don’t buy it back.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:39] And I think that that discipline is important. Remember, the reason you’re having this conversation is to sell something. And once you’ve done that, leave. Like, don’t keep talking, don’t keep kind of rehashing different benefits or why they’re really, really going to really enjoy working with you because the more you’re talking after they bought it, all you’re doing is bringing up the possibility that you’re going to stumble upon something that they don’t like, and they don’t want, and they might stop being interested in what you’re selling. So, the bottom line is when you get a yes, stop talking, end the meeting, and then start onboarding them as a client.

Stone Payton: [00:01:20] Amen. I mean, I’ve specifically recommend it and I try to practice this discipline myself. For me, don’t just stop talking, stand up, get out of there.

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