Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. So today’s guest is Paul Malott, founder and CEO of Automations24, where he helps growing businesses eliminate friction and scale smarter through no code automation. With more than 15 years of experience in procurement system strategy and digital transformation, Paul has built automation solutions for everyone, from lean startups to fortune 500, focusing on fast, flexible, high ROI workflows without costly IT overhauls. He’s also a doctoral candidate in AI and business strategy, author of a forthcoming book on automation. We Should talk about that today and host of the Control Alt delete, Repeat podcast, Paul brings a people first approach to automation, showing how the right systems free leaders to scale with clarity and confidence. Paul, welcome to the show.

Paul Malott: Well, thank you very much for having me, Trisha, I appreciate that. Uh, we’ll also have you introduce me when I walk through the door in the house to my children. They’ll show me some respect. Maybe, uh, a little more than than they do now. You know what I mean?

Trisha Stetzel: I pride myself on giving very nice intros to my guests, Paul.

Trisha Stetzel: Because we don’t often do that for ourselves, so I’m glad you liked it. Hey, hey, let’s dive into who in the world is Paul? You already talked about your kiddos, so you may have to give us a little bit of insight into maybe you’ll tell us a dad joke or something later. I don’t know, but who is Paul? And then let’s talk a little bit about Automations24 before we take a deeper dive.

Paul Malott: Sure, sure. So again, thank you for the opportunity. I’m a fan of the show and very glad to be here. Um, my name is Paul Malott. Uh, m a l o t and not mallet or anything like that, but, um, I digress. I am essentially a 15 year procurement professional who roughly two years ago took the deep dive into entrepreneurship. And that means a lot of different things. Um, it means adjustment to from corporate life to entrepreneurial, uh, hustle. And it means, you know, reskilling. It means essentially revaluing and looking at yourself all over again. And, um, that’s been a fantastic experience while I’m here talking today is because exactly that what’s happened is I’ve transformed as a person from being a corporate, uh, juice sipper, so to speak. Right? To really valuing the type of what I can bring to businesses. Right. The type of value in my unique value proposition that exists for businesses. And that’s really what turned into automations 24. I had this realization in my corporate experience that there were things that I were doing that were confined by the guardrails of the organization itself. And, um, unfortunately, we weren’t a fit, right? It was kind of a mutual decision, so to speak. And from that, automations 24 started right. I reskilled myself became, uh, so an expert will say in automations and use some of the skills that I had learned in the corporate environment to start transforming businesses. And it was really serendipitous the moment. Right. The timing was everything. Because these tools, these artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, perplexity, Claude, they became accessible and widely available and cost effective. So, you know, my feather in my cap, so to speak, in my professional career was through building systems, through changing processes, and these tools becoming accessible like they are today, uh, enable businesses of all sizes to make leaps and bounds in their internal processes, external processes. And that’s what I’m doing now, is essentially removing the digital rock from people’s digital shoes and helping them be more efficient.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that digital rocks from their digital shoes. Okay, so I may use that later. Paul, please. All right, I want to I want to start with something super simple. There are people listening to this show today that are still reluctant to dive into AI. I’m just I’m just throwing it out there. What would you say to those folks who haven’t, who feel like they haven’t even put their toes in the water when it comes to AI?

Paul Malott: Sure. It’s a it’s a really good question. I question. I think it’s a perspective, uh, the idea that hustle equates to money is changing, right? We see these companies that are 510 smaller than that people and making, uh, huge, huge value, presenting huge value to, to clients. Right? Whether it’s through software or changing the way that physical services are delivered. And we have to kind of embrace that change of of mind frame. It’s not necessarily hustle equates to more money or more success. Now it’s about developing something that is agile and flexible and can be, uh, basically you can update it and change it, right? As the external market demands. And AI is really good for that. Right? We have to think now about if you remove the hustle from the equation and you just think about doing things smarter. And we think about manual processes, how much manual effort we put into our business. And I’ll speak to the CEOs out there, to the to the business owners, the the presidents of their own company. We’re not working to bury ourselves from the work, right. We’re working so that we can benefit from it in one way or another.

Paul Malott: Maybe we love it. Maybe you’re freaks like me. You really like to work really, really hard and deep dive things. But there’s a bigger reason for it, all right? And when you think about all the hustle you’re putting into it, the manual work, you need to think about it like a tax on your business. Right? It’s an inefficiency. It doesn’t necessarily show up as a line item, but it’s going to erode your margins. It’s going to present the risk in the future. And you have to think of a way, just standard business is to think of a way to compete. Right. And AI is a tool to compete. Automations are a tool to compete. So with the accessibility of it, don’t be afraid to dip your toes in it. Spend the $10 right where it used to cost two. Two years ago. Ten years ago. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars. Right now, it’s effective. And if you have a little interest, you can adapt to it or adapt the tool to you and your business process and start doing things slightly different, but more effective and more efficient.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And $10 will get you a long way with tools that.

Speaker4: We have access.

Trisha Stetzel: To now for sure.

Speaker4: It really will.

Trisha Stetzel: Um, you’ve you have experienced, Paul, from startups all the way to fortune 500 companies. What’s the biggest mistake you see businesses make when they first try to automate?

Paul Malott: Well, it’s the boil the ocean problem, right? You can’t eat the elephant whole. You can’t try to boil the ocean. The ocean. Um, and I think, uh, especially in the past year, we’ve seen a lot of organizations jump on the AI and automation hype train. And that’s great right? They’re recognizing the value that it can bring, but they’re also, in a sense blinding themselves to the complexities of business. Right. In any business, implementing something is a challenge. It’s a cultural challenge. It’s more than, here’s your tool, go use it. And unfortunately, the biggest issue is that businesses look at the tool like it’s a tool. And they expect use just because the tool is available. There’s a lot more to it. And to defeat that. My suggestion is always go for the low hanging fruit. Go, go for small wins. And those small wins, they build momentum over time rather than, you know, hitting a wall like some of these other organizations will when they’re throwing everything in the kitchen sink at the the the problem. Right.

Speaker4: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I need this tool and I need that tool and I need the other tool. And then I try to implement all of those tools at once. And it makes things super challenging.

Speaker4: Right. Yeah.

Paul Malott: And you know, and it does. And some people believe that they need AI in their business, but they really need automations. And it’s it’s really interesting to me that they get mixed up in definition because an automation is really just taking the way I define it. It’s taking a piece of information from one application and transferring it to another, or transforming the information as it goes between the other application. Right. And it’s it’s a set of ones and zeros and codes that people way smarter than me are able to come up with some really cool solutions with without really embedding AI into that workflow or that process. Then when you start embedding AI into automations, that’s when you’re not just generating using AI to generate stuff or using automation to transfer data. That’s when you’re transforming it and you’re really building upon. You’re putting your own essence into that message that you’re trying to get across or that that process. Right. And so to delineate between both and then say, well, what is it I really need? That’s also a really good first step. Maybe you just want to take something from ten Excel files and make them go to one. That’s an automation problem.

Paul Malott: But maybe you need ten sentiment analysis on those ten Excel files. That’s an AI problem right? So so determining what problems you may have or is maybe a good first step. And that usually equates to where am I spending time? I hate spending time on like uh, for me, back to the Excel thing. Ten Excel files open at once makes my mind explode. You know I can’t. And then you one piece of data is off in my mind explodes again. That’s a perfect situation for me to use AI, right? It’s it’s a good enough tool now where you can confidently, especially with data and transforming data and interpreting information, you can confidently use it with the right prompts and the right guidance. I tell people back to my children, talk to it like you’re talking to my three year old, and you will learn how to speak with it, how to prompt it better, and you will get better results as you learn the process, right? But you gotta you gotta start. So the first thing is always start. Don’t start in something huge. Start with something small that that you’re going to be able to manage.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah I so I love that you talk about or even in your bio um, no code automation. So I thank you for giving us a great definition or a difference between AI and automation. So what exactly is no code automation?

Paul Malott: Oh, it’s the serendipitous, the serendipity I discussed earlier about my career and tech kind of coming together, right? I always looked at things as a corporate procurement director from the very high level. Eagle. Eagle. Eye view of the process and what we need to do. And no code tools allowed me to apply that logic to technology without code. Like literally no code means no code. So there are platforms out there like Make.com and Zapier, Pipedrive and probably others, right. That you as as a like me, not classically trained in, in coding or development. You can go in there and with logic start putting together a process. Right. You can the we’ll go back to Excel. You can take your Excel sheet and find through this system that sell sell a two and grab the data from that literally like you know if your you’re visual, it’s beautiful. You can grab the information and pull it to the next step. And what the platform is doing is handling the coding behind it such that you now have a workflow. Previously, you’d have to hire a developer to build a custom solution for you, and now you can do it yourself. Or you can hire companies like automations 24 to do it at a bigger scale and help with the implementation and support. Um, the the implementation, the effectiveness of it. Right. Making sure it’s effective.

Trisha Stetzel: So, Paul, who are your best clients? Who are the people that come to you and say, this is what I need. Help me.

Paul Malott: There’s a lot of different, uh, businesses that find value in this, right? So it’s a hard question to answer. And I wish I had a better answer because every smart business owner knows exactly what their ICP is. But but the capability of Automations and artificial intelligence is functionally agnostic, right? And when you think of process and just data exchange, then then you can apply the same kind of logic across functions and so on. So it’s really hard to answer that question, but I find that founders who need to develop their business, they need a digital infrastructure. They really benefit from no code, low code because they can piecemeal. It sounds wrong to say piecemeal. They can strategically build modules that are custom to their needs, that are specific to their businesses requirements, not spending $5,000 doing it. And they can build these systems and have them talk through that type of platform. And now you’ve basically built an enterprise resource system with under $100 by piecemealing with automation. Right? So there are blueprints out there. A blueprint would be something you could go on and download the automation before you even have to drag and drop, right? There are blueprints out there for small businesses that can help them start up that are free. They’re very simple automations, like categorizing emails or taking that email and reading the document in the email.

Paul Malott: And those things are very helpful when you’re doing it yourself, when you’re, uh, technical founder and you’re very focused on the product you’re making, you don’t have time for that stuff, you know? So so to be able to do it quickly where it used to take hours, it’s a huge time saver. On the other side, the businesses that are ingrained in how they do things, the business, the small 50 to 200 people, businesses, e-commerce, they’re they’re stuck in their ways. And they are realizing now that doors are opening where inefficiencies can be closed off. They can be just by doing things and, uh, differently. And it’s unfortunate that the way that some companies are realizing is through oh crap moments. Right. But there are other companies out there that are like, I think we could use this tool in this unique way. And you start to see the value come in, uh, almost instantaneously for these companies because they have the business, they have the tried and true customers that come back and that hits their bottom line immediately. So I love serving those companies as well, because you can come in and very quickly provide them return on investment.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Well and listen, your ICP has a challenge. It’s not a particular industry or particular size. Right. They actually have something in common. Uh, so I think you exactly who you serve without, uh, worrying about who that you know, what industry they come from or what size they are because they’re challenged with the same thing, which is they need to be more productive in their businesses. Um, okay. I know people are already ready to connect with you because you have so much knowledge around automation and AI and so many of us don’t. So we need somebody like Paul to talk to and come in and help us with our businesses, tell people how they can connect with you or the best way to find you.

Paul Malott: The phenomenal compliment. Thank you very much. People can find me at WWE 24.com or on LinkedIn. Paul Malott m a l o t t.

Speaker4: Okay.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you very much, Paul. So I want to talk about the human side of systems because not everybody’s ready for automation or they don’t even want to talk about AI. So how does a leadership mindset or even the culture of a business. Play a role in creating this automation ready organization or environment.

Paul Malott: But, uh, great question. And we kind of alluded to that earlier in that you can’t just grab a tool and hand it to somebody and say, you know, here you go. It’d be the equivalent of me, uh, you know, having a chainsaw or something, and I wouldn’t know what I was doing with it, you know, it’d be dangerous, right? Excuse me. So in these cases, these companies need to realize that their fear is a common fear. Just like you had mentioned the. Com the commonalities of issues across the businesses. It’s a common fear across businesses. And I think the best thing that companies can do culturally is build the idea that artificial intelligence is not replacing people. It’s an augmenting. It’s augmenting their capability more or less. Right. And that means AI isn’t here to take jobs. It means that the company is trying to do the same thing they’ve always tried to do compete, right? But they’re competing in a way that they’re giving us the opportunity to augment our value. Right? So it means augment means amplify. It means if I’m really good engineer, I have a tool now that can amplify what is really good but also really bad, right. So it’s a balancing act that I believe company leadership must do when they’re implementing this.

Paul Malott: Take their time. Right. Recognize the value that comes through taking the time and allowing people to achieve comfort in using the tools before you demand the return from the tool itself. Right? You know, it’s a harmonizing action here. So with augmenting and amplifying comes this idea that the Dunning-Kruger effect, that if you just give people this tool and we use the tool and we don’t really understand the layers that are developing under it. We could potentially develop this idea that we’re super Uber competent in whatever it is we’re doing, but in reality be incompetent in it, right? And that’s a that is the Dunning-Kruger effect in action in AI. And some of the things I’ve studied is found to exacerbate that issue a little bit, because you can get on using it and get answers and you get. And it hallucinates. Right. And then studies have found that humans are reading the answers from AI and repeating the answers, even if it’s a hallucinated wrong answer. So the element of human in the loop, the element of giving your people time to learn the tool, learn how to communicate with it, and demand from it the ROI with that time. That’s really the important thing for businesses.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, and I love that you talk about it’s not a replacement. There are so many conversations and posts and things out there, right, that we’re reading that says, oh, automation, AI are going to take over the world and everyone’s going to lose their lose their jobs. I mean, the sky is falling, right? Uh, and I think in reality, we know that’s not true, but it’s nice to hear you, an expert in this space, really talk about how humans need to be, uh, writing alongside or using the tools. Right? Because that’s where the information comes from. It comes from smart humans.

Speaker4: Not not. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Go ahead. Please.

Paul Malott: Well, it’s interesting, I always like to think about Henry Ford in this example and the automobile. And there was a I’m going to misquote this and I apologize for this, but he was asked a question like, what do the if I gave the people what they wanted, I would have gave they would have wanted faster horses. Right? So the idea that, um, we’re at this kind of moment right now where, uh, we’re we’re getting a tool maybe that we don’t realize we need immediately to. That can be something, uh, that we have to cope with because it is a different way of doing things, and it’s being forced on us, uh, I think to the benefit of all of us, faster than we’ve ever seen before. Right? I the way smarter people than me out there talk about how we’re seeing 30 plus years of technological change in three, right? From from these changes in AI. That compression really makes it hard for us to adapt. So business owners, again, have to be understanding of the culture impact that that has on their business. Right.

Speaker4: Mhm.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. And and technology is moving so fast. Thank you for bringing that up. Because you knew I was going to ask you this question. Not really. Uh what are you excited about coming through the end of 2025 into 2026 and beyond?

Paul Malott: Uh, the accessibility of these tools, the fact that they are more accessible than ever, the fact that that means that so many creative people are going to be start using, are starting to use these tools in ever more creative ways. I believe the and I need to caution about this too. They’re all making our lives frictionless, right? These tools are designed to make our lives frictionless. And I believe innovation. And, you know, it comes from friction in a way. Right. Solutions come from problem solving. So, you know, I’m excited, but I’m also astute in watching it happen. Because as we start to alleviate frictions in business, you know, we can’t be complacent, right? So I’m really excited about the tools and solutions that creativity is bringing out there. I’m really excited about the possibility that, you know, I envision the future being, uh, personal tech stacks where we all are capable of designing our unique persona, for lack of a better term. That is digital and and we’re able to we all have the capability to manage it accordingly. Right? And it goes to the idea that we’re personal branding ourselves. This is another way for us to recognize value, right? Um, but we have to be cautious of it too, because it’s going to present unique issues, but unique issues present unique solutions. We just can’t be complacent.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And it’s moving so fast at this point. Right. We’ve got to at least embrace a portion of it and start small. That’s what I heard you say. Start with something. Right. Um, okay. Can we talk about the book? Can we talk about your book? Okay. Tell me about it.

Paul Malott: Sure. Unleashing the AI Cash Flow Machine is a book written for small business owners, and it essentially details, uh, ten of my favorite open source tools, and open source is essentially where the developers are kind enough to provide free or very cheap usage of these high tech tools. Um, and what I do is I describe, you know, these tools individually what their business case uses are. And it’s really meant to bridge the gap between the super techy stuff that, you know, I barely understand and, uh, the and the people who want to just run their business but don’t know where to start with AI. This is designed to give you a high level idea of what tool is out there, for what purpose, and teach you when the time is right to start dipping your toes in the water.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, awesome. So can we find the book yet, or are we still waiting for it to come out?

Paul Malott: You can you can find it on Amazon right now.

Trisha Stetzel: Fantastic. Ai cash flow machine.

Paul Malott: Unleashing the AI cash flow machine.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely unleashing the AI cash flow machine I love it. It’s fantastic. Okay, what about your podcast? Control, alt? Delete, repeat.

Paul Malott: That podcast is, uh, where I talk with tons of people in my situation, right. And business owners and we it’s meant to be a quick ten, 15 minute, uh, trial and tribulation, so to speak. Right. And the idea behind it and the reason for the name is exactly that many times in business and in life, your control alt deleting something, right. And automation is, uh, repeating something. What what process are you repeating. So we take that principle. What processes did businesses or small business owners run into that they were like control alt delete please. And then what ones were they? What did they find that was super successful for them and why? And how did they use that and adapt. So that’s where when you hop on and you’re listening, you get to hear really cool examples of business owners and from all different types of industries, and how they’re using AI and automation to overcome that. Control alt delete moment.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s fantastic. So you guys go out to Paul’s website or and or Amazon to find his book, and his website is automations 24 so o t o m a t I o n s the number two. The number four. Comm automations 24 comm. Paul, what a great conversation today. I’m so glad that you came and spent this time with me today.

Paul Malott: Thank you very much, Trisha. The pleasure is mine.

Trisha Stetzel: So if you could leave the listeners with one thing today, what would it be?

Paul Malott: Start small. Don’t. Don’t be afraid to get wet. But. But start small and, uh, talk to when you’re using a large language model, talk to it like it’s Paul’s three year old daughter.

Speaker5: I love that Paul’s three year old daughter.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. And and if you want.

Paul Malott: Brains in there. So. So you’ll get good answers. Trust me.

Speaker5: I love it.

Trisha Stetzel: It’s fantastic. Paul, thank you again for your time today. This has been amazing.

Paul Malott: Thank you Trisha I appreciate you.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation I had with Paul, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran or a Houston Leader writer. Ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate, and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours and your business. Your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. Today’s guest is Anneliese Vance, also known as the Neurospicy Mommy, co-founder of Never Miss a Moment Consulting as a fractional CMO, marketing vendor, broker, podcaster and yes, even a self-described human jungle gym for her two kids, Anneliese knows firsthand the challenges of running a business while raising a family alongside her husband. She built Never Miss a moment consulting to help fathers of family owned businesses stop feeling torn between providing financially or being present at home by taking marketing off their shoulders, she empowers them to reclaim their time, strengthen their family connections, and truly never miss the moments that matter most. Anneliese, welcome to the show.

Anneliese Vance : Thank you Trisha. I’m so excited to be here.

Trisha Stetzel: I am too. This is a long time coming, and…

Anneliese Vance : I Know, I know, we’ve had so much come against us. I’m like, this must happen.

Trisha Stetzel: There’s a reason because you actually have something new to share that you wouldn’t have been able to share had we not pushed this back just a little bit. Okay, so before we dig into everything else, tell us a little more about Anneliese and never miss a moment consulting.

Anneliese Vance : Okay. Um, so I always like to pay tribute to where I came from. And I am, um, fourth generation female owned, uh, to start with, um, family owned business. Um, and the reason I say to start with is recently in January, my husband and I, we changed our operating agreement to a partnership because honestly, it had been that way the whole time. Um, I won’t get into the back story of why it took almost five years to do that, but, um, it’s really a it’s a step forward from where I came from. Um, just it being a partnership. I’ll just. And that kind of will go into our topic today. Um, let’s see, I am, as you said, you said a lot of it. So, um, I’m a mom of two under six. I am a wife. Um, I am a business owner. Um, we own another business that we, um, have owned since we were dating and engaged and then never miss a moment. Um, really was born out of my daughter. Was eight months. Um, I was watching her grow up before my eyes as I was sitting making calls because it was during Covid and so I couldn’t go out. So I had to make calls. And I’m like, I do not want to miss moments anymore. Um, and my husband actually encouraged me to start the company.

Anneliese Vance : And I just I hope it’s okay to say this, but God has really built the business the last four and a half going on five years. It’ll be five years in November, um, with some of the stuff we might get into without his help, there is really no way that it would have worked without him. Um, and we do, uh, serve dad owned businesses, family owned businesses, uh, trades. Um, and we, we help those people that, um, they just carry the weight on their shoulders. And I don’t know if you said this, but I always like to say that we take marketing off your shoulders so that if your kids are small enough or your grandkids, um, they can be up there instead and, uh, work with a lot of marketing vendors. I can get into that if you want, just wherever you want to take the conversation. But, um, we built a business that was literally the antithesis of where I worked for 14 years. Um, it was a great foundation, literally, like majority of our clients that followed us? I would not have without them. I’m very grateful for it. But we just saw things we we knew the family owned business needed that wasn’t being provided, and so we decided to provide it.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I love that. So, Annalise. And by the way, I think you should tell your joke about your name so that everyone remembers. Before we. Before I ask you my first question.

Anneliese Vance : Okay, so, um, on the day that my husband asked my dad permission to marry me, and he was very, very nervous, um, my dad said she’s on a lease with option to buy. You can take her off the market. Um, and my husband did do that 18.5 years ago. I did have to kick him under the table to let him know it was a joke. Because my husband has warmed up to dad jokes. My dad’s a chemist. My mom’s a biologist. They met an organic chem. They’re really, really smart. So. Yeah, um, it helps people pronounce my name. Right. So I’ve. I’ve learned to laugh at myself and tell it. Um, and people always pronounce my name right after I tell it so, and it fits into the whole dad owned dad joke thing I love to do too, so it all works.

Trisha Stetzel: So now we don’t have to kick each other under the table. It’s okay.

Anneliese Vance : Yeah. Good, good.

Speaker5: All right, so you talked.

Trisha Stetzel: About a family owned business. Not only did you grow up in a family owned business, you now co-run or co-own or in a partnership with your husband in this family owned business, and you homeschool and all of the other things around, just being a mom. What have those experiences taught you about the realities of blending family and business?

Anneliese Vance : Not starting deep, are we? Trish. At all? Good grief. Um. Oh. Um, if I have to say, the biggest thing is it’s okay that it’s hard sometimes and it is okay to prioritize family. Um, and to really be very clear on who your audience is. I think one of the beautiful things that God did. Because we serve family owned businesses, we like to say that we get you because we are you. Um, with with our background, I either grew up in experienced what you’re going through, heard it from my mom and what she experienced growing up, or have experienced it up until almost age six. Um, with my kids and our our customers get it. And it’s just this beautiful community of us getting when they’re struggling, them getting when we’re struggling, and just a trust that it’s going to get taken care of. It just may not look like the traditional route and that that’s okay. Um, that the people that were meant to serve are going to understand, um, that it just looks a little different, but know that we, for them really are the best people to handle it, because we then showed them the same grace when they go through situations.

Speaker5: Um, I’d.

Anneliese Vance : Say that’s quickly. There’s a lot of lessons I’ve learned in five years, Trisha, Trisha. But I would say that’s the overarching umbrella of what what I’ve learned that.

Trisha Stetzel: So the question that comes up for me, Annalise, is how do you do it all? How do you find balance in doing what you do?

Anneliese Vance : Yeah, the answer is I don’t do it all. Um, which I think is the testimony to my husband and I doing it as a partnership. And I love my mother and my grandmother. I never met my great grandma with all of my heart. Um, but they were more. I’m going to do it. Um, and this is public knowledge on LinkedIn, so it’s it’s not me throwing my parents under the bus, but their business didn’t make it. Um, and my dad had to go back to work at a critical age of, I think I was 14. It was just a horrible time to have dad have to travel again, because it’s when a girl really needs her dad, not when she’s in diapers. Need they need you in teens, dad. So do the business now. Be there for when they need you. Older little side note, but, um, my husband and I, we really have each other’s backs. Um, on on Monday and Tuesday, I take the kids out. Um, we have, um, they’re actually starting dance and acrobatics. Um, is going to be new this fall, so they start that next week. Um, I have a moms group and that provides childcare where I get filled back up on Tuesdays, and that’s very structured. And I don’t know if we’re going to get into the neuro spicy part, but structure and routine is very, very important.

Anneliese Vance : And then my husband, the reason I can be on this call with you right now, um, actually has the kids out. So Wednesday, Thursday we trade off. Um, and then also I don’t do everything in the business. Um, you mentioned the marketing vendor broker, and I feel like explaining that term may be helpful. Um, so one of the things that bothered me when I was in sales and had to sell things is it would get outsourced, but it would get outsourced to an employee. Well, nothing against employees, but you’re only going to work so hard on it. And the thing about working with marketing vendors, which is just other business owners that do marketing other than we do, is they have a vested interest. They want to be referred to the next time they own their business, they’re going to bring their A plus game. Um, and then in return, they come back to us to bring our A-plus game. So we do Google ad management in-house. Um, my husband is brilliant, and that’s part of his, um, neurodiverse ness. And, um, it he’s like, I can do this. And I’m like, fantastic. Um, I do a lot of, um, the business development. Well, all of the business development, um, the, um, data analysis, the, the CMO work, um, the, um, that’s where my neurodiverse ness comes in is, um, finding patterns.

Anneliese Vance : And so we really get to blend our gifts together. Um, but we don’t have to do what the other person is good at. And then we have people that offer what we don’t. And so I had to make a decision when we first started. Am I going to try and fake this and like hold it in and like onto that money? Or am I going to let someone who’s going to do a really good job for them? And what I always say is, I would rather take my percentage and let them win as well and go spend time with my kids. Um, and so that’s what I do, um, is I don’t do it all. And, um, we do say no to some things. We we are very much in our lane. And it’s interesting right now, um, we have a client who we’re trying to figure out if they’re they’re in our lane. We we love them very much, but, um, I think we’re both on both sides trying to decide if it’s a good fit and and being willing to step away sometimes if it’s not. Um, we’ve. And it always seems to be in December, but we’ve at very critical times said no to people that just aren’t in our lane anymore.

Anneliese Vance : And it allowed our business kind of like pruning a rose bush. My parents are gardeners. Um, to just flourish and grow back and just be very, very clear and to not be afraid to say no. Like, hey, we’re not a good fit for you, but this person might be. And then we can get a percentage. We still win. Um, their business still wins. So, uh, yeah, the answer is I don’t. Or I would be, I would be in a pillow room somewhere because I literally I think that’s also my, my message to business owners is you can’t handle it. Like we really do like to take it off their shoulders. Like if you’re in trades, you’re really good at your trade. And if you’re not good at marketing, it is okay. It is okay to have someone else handle that. It doesn’t mean you suck or you’re not good at your business. And, um, I don’t think my I think my parents would have received help if it had existed back then. Um, but learning to ask for help has been so critical and admitting, and I think people respect it, too, that I don’t do everything and I’m very open about that.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that, and it’s so important that we step back and really do the things that we’re exceptional at and don’t do the things that we’re not or we don’t even enjoy doing. Right.

Anneliese Vance : I agree 1,000%.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. So, um, I would expect nothing less than for you to know your ideal client market because, well, you are a CMO after all. Uh, so you’re very focused. You know exactly who you want to serve. Tell me more about the passion behind your business. Really driving, helping fathers of family owned businesses. Where does that passion come from?

Anneliese Vance : Thank you so much for asking this question. Um, so I love my father very much. We’re very close. Um, we actually, if you go on LinkedIn, we write a post together every Monday under Hashtag Monday moments. Um, I will not get into that and get distracted because I love my father very much. But, um, my dad was born in 1950. Typical baby boomer provider. Um, and so he has always just had that if I need to be an employee to provide, if I need to travel, to provide, that’s a way that I’m loving my family. And it took me a very long time to understand that, um, I think the older my kids got, the more I understood that that that was just him and how he did things. Um, but as I mentioned, you know, at 14, my dad did go back to work, and I won’t get into the details here, but it just it made things more challenging. Um, and so I just have some personal experiences where I just know the importance of a father being present and that providing their time, um, can be just as important as providing financially, if sometimes not more important. Like my kids, they never like, man, I wish I had this. They’re like, no, they’re running to see daddy. Um, and just living that for the last five and a half years.

Anneliese Vance : Um, because all but for 18 months, my husband has been home with our kids. Um, my son never remembers my husband leaving because I’ll tell you a quick funny story. So he would watch my husband walk out the door every morning, and then at nap time, he would go to daddy’s office door, which was right by his bedroom, and say, you know, he wanted to say good night to him before nap. And I was like, oh, daddy’s working. Which was true. My husband or my my son never understood that my husband left. He’s always been home. Um, and my daughter has this very mature appreciation for what daddy does. Just she’s, you know, a little older. And she lived it, lived through it with us. Um, but I’ve watched my kids are so confident and so just they’re everyone’s kids are amazing. But, um. Without getting into all of the background of neurodiversity, it routine and, um, being able to depend on certain things is just so critical. And I’m just I’m so grateful that we were able to provide that for our kids. And something about me is, I’m not that person’s like, great, I’ve got it. Like I’m someone who loves to pay it forward. Um, it just lights me up.

Anneliese Vance : And so I love that I can get texts, um, from my clients. Actually, a funny story. So we have two clients that are both have the same name, and one of them was texting me and I thought it was the other. And I thought it was kind of weird that he was texting me because I knew everything was going okay with his account, and he texted me. He’s like, um, I’m at the post office, like, I’ll call you in a couple minutes. And he called me. He’s like, Annalise, everything’s going great. Like, we don’t need to talk. And that’s kind of our joke is like, he doesn’t want to hear from me, you know? Like, I don’t want to hear from him, because if I do, it means something is wrong. And so, um, you know, and on the same token, the customer that did call us was just. He’d had a horrible experience and was just very, very afraid to step out again. And I was able to reassure him. But I love being able to come from that place of empathy and get texts from my clients of like, I’m on my vacation. I know you’ve got it handled, and they’re with their kids and they’re fully present, and you know, they have little girls and they have little boys.

Anneliese Vance : Like little girls need to see how their future husband, in my opinion, how their future husband should treat them. And sons, I can’t raise a man, um, and I can nurture him. I can comfort him. But I cannot raise my son up into a man. And he’s going to be four in December. And it’s just very, very evident. I was telling my husband just a couple days ago that I don’t feel equipped, and he’s like, he needs time with me. And I’m like, I know. Um, but just that he can provide that, you know and I can we can cover for each other and give our kids what they need in the moment that they need it because it changes. Um, and so, you know, personally, it’s very important to our family. But like I said, I love being able to pay that forward and them knowing like they’ve got this, they get us, um, you know, they’re living it or like I said, like I lived it growing up, um, and really being able to provide that place that people can come to trust, know that it’s handled, um, and that they can go only they can raise their kids. I can’t raise their kids. I can handle their marketing, but I can’t raise their kids.

Anneliese Vance : I can raise mine. I always say, I love my kids. I’m not sure about yours. Um, I’m sure they’re great, but, um, I wouldn’t do for your kids what I do for my kids sometimes. Like, bless the world. Last night with my son was a funny story. But anyway, um, it was a very long answer to your question, but, yeah, I’m just. I’m so passionate to be able to provide that opportunity for other dads and the moms. Um, you know, I always say that the the husband and the dad is the, um, the thermostat in the house, right? So a thermometer goes up and down, but a thermostat, you set it and it stays there, or it should, um, and my husband really is that he walks in and, you know, peace comes into the room. And I just love being able to provide that opportunity for other dads to be able to do that, because then that takes pressure and stress off the wife. So it really just is like a full circle for the kids, the wife, the husband and everybody. So I feel like I’m making an impact, um, and not just handling their marketing. Not that that doesn’t make an impact, but the family stuff, I think, makes a a lasting generational impact.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that and being so vulnerable to tell, um, so much of your story. And I think it will resonate with people who are listening. So, um, if folks are already ready to connect with you. They want to learn more. They just want to get to know you. What’s the best way for them to reach out online?

Anneliese Vance : Yeah. So two ways. One, I’m on LinkedIn. Um, and I answer all of my own DMs. It’s not AI. Um, so I always tell people this little trick if you’re on LinkedIn and sometimes they limit your DMs. And I’m not saying this to get more comments on a post, but if you comment on a post and say, hey, I heard you on Houston Business Radio, I can then message you back. Um, so if you’re if you’re out of DMs, that’s one way. The other is never miss a moment consulting. Com if you go to the last page on the right. Um we just updated I think it’s called Let’s connect. Um, but I answer all of those messages so you can send a message there. It goes right to my email. Me personally, I will answer it, not AI. Um, as you can tell how I feel about AI, I might have lost some people there, but, um, I’m a human and I am a, Um, I’m going to connect back. So. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. Thank you. And by the way, I know, um, Annalise told this joke about on a lease, but that’s not how you spell it, so I’m just going to spell it for you guys. It’s a n n e l I e s e so that you guys can find her. Annalise. Dance, not Annalise.

Anneliese Vance : Yeah, and I’m, like the vice president. No, we’re not related. Okay, if anyone’s wondering.

Trisha Stetzel: And just in case anyone’s wondering. All right.

Anneliese Vance : What about once a week.

Trisha Stetzel: That you do? Uh. All right. Annalise, you have talked a little bit about, um, neurodivergent, and you shared something with me this morning that you just learned, which is why we had to push our our. Yeah. Back, uh, to have this conversation this morning. And you shared with me, uh, about being gifted and neurodivergent. So can you talk a little bit more about that, if you don’t mind?

Anneliese Vance : Yeah, absolutely. And I’m still learning about it. Um, I actually learned about it in my moms group yesterday and I laughed. I’m like, oh, this is why our this is why our meeting got pushed back. I was thinking about you yesterday. I love that. Um, but if anyone wants to look it up, it’s called twice. Exceptional. Um, so it is either a child with autism. Um, which is what my daughter is, um, what I was. Now, I’m an adult with autism, um, and, uh, giftedness. Um, and then my son and my husband are actually both, um, have attention challenges. So their brain goes really, really fast and is gifted. So their brain goes like, on turbo. Um, like my friend called my son the Flash. Um, he literally he’ll be doing one thing over here, and his body is here. You can’t see my hands. His body’s here. And then his brain goes over here, and it’s like, what just happened? Um, but, um, they are going to struggle with, um, different emotional regulation. Um, they’re going to be really good at problem solving and puzzles. And so, um, actually, my son’s, um, Sunday school teacher is in the moms group because it’s at my church. And, um, she just gave me this great advice of just to follow his giftings, um, which is what we did with my daughter. Um, and so I think a lot of stuff with Neurodivergence can overlap. It’s not always the same.

Anneliese Vance : But my daughter danced since six months old. She literally danced on beat to, like, music that was playing before she walked. Um, and she, like, she will choreograph dances. She’s in ballet and tap and, um, acro. Like I said, they’re starting that next week. Um, and then my son will be in the middle of target and he’ll be dancing, um, to the beat. And he’s more hip hop. So, like, at his age, all he can do is ballet. But we’re getting him into acro, which I think is going to be really good for him because he just I call him monkey because he just is always climbing and jumping and flipping. And I don’t know that this is the speed of his brain, or if it’s just a boy, but like he will act without thinking. It seems like. Like he just like, trusts himself. I think it’s somewhat of a boy thing, whereas my daughter is very analytical and processing like, she’ll still do it, but you can watch that she’s processing before it happens. Um, and so yeah, just knowing that them compounded, um, just provides unique challenges. Um, so I’m honestly still learning about it, but I was just really grateful to know, oh, there’s a term for this. Um, and still learning, as always. Um, but to be. Because as we are heading into homeschool, as you mentioned, um, people are like, so how are you going to handle a gifted child with homeschool? I’m like, he’s just going to do kindergarten with my daughter.

Anneliese Vance : Um, because he already knows everything for preschool. Um, he was memorizing books at 18 months. Funny story. So I read to my kids before every bedtime and every nap time. So every time they go to bed, um, though my son is not napping, pray for me. Um, and, uh, so he’s like, mommy, I read to you. And I went, oh, haha. Okay, Trisha. He read the entire book like he was reading it word for word. This was not like a I can read book. This was like. And I was like, honey, come here. And at that time I was like, oh, okay. Um, and his memory, that’s another thing with twice exceptional kids, um, that you might recognize kids, his memory, he will remember something from like four weeks ago. And I’m like, yeah, we did say that. And my husband have to look at each other like, okay, let me go back in the memory bank. Like, what is he referencing? Because it happened? Because he’s remembering it. So it obviously happened and go, oh yeah, buddy, I remember that because he’ll remember sometimes better than we do. Um, so we ought to be on our game of what we say and what we do, what we say we’re going to do for him, because he will hold us to it. Um, yeah. So, okay.

Trisha Stetzel: So not only do you want a business with your husband, I have heard most of you, if not all of you, are twice exceptional.

Anneliese Vance : All of us.

Trisha Stetzel: And you’re going to homeschool. That is a lot for one couple to carry as business owners. So I’d like to go back to the term neuro spicy, because I have a feeling that that is part of what we’re bringing together here, right? So let’s talk about the neuro spicy mommy and how that came about.

Anneliese Vance : Okay. Well, um, I cannot take credit for the term. It’s one I’ve heard from some people on LinkedIn, and I just think it’s fabulous. It’s another way to say neurodivergent and just, you know, got a little attitude. Um, I think it’s if I have to say, my definition of it is, I own it. Um, it’s not a negative. Um, it’s not anything I’m ashamed of. Um, I have a friend that says, you know, you have a beautiful brain, and I do, um, I have some challenges that I have to kind of get ahead of, um, like, when technology doesn’t work and I have to reschedule with Trisha, I have to not freak out on the back end and tell myself there’s a reason for this. It’s okay. Um. And just really do that faith over fear. Um, I can get very fearful and controlling. Um, and so I have to get ahead of that and decide I’m not going to be that way and ask myself, like, what is this costing me as a wife, a business owner and a mom? And just decide, like, I’m not going to do that. Um, and then, uh, let’s see. Yeah. So I found out at 40 that I had autism. Um, I always kind of had hints of it. But in watching my daughter and my husband made the comment. He’s like, it’s like looking in a mirror. And I’m like, so I just started doing more research and I just accepted.

Anneliese Vance : It’s like, you know what? A lot of people are neurodivergent. It’s okay. Um, it means I’m really smart. I’m really good at patterns. I’m, um, I think sometimes autism can get a bad rap because it’s a spectrum, right? That’s something I always like to say. Um, not everyone. Is that, like, prototypical, like what you might think of? Um, and I’m very my daughter and I are both very empathetic off the charts, which is kind of atypical of like what you would think about with autism. Um, and so just kind of figuring out what our flavor was. Um, but it’s I’ve had so much empathy for my daughter. Um, and when I’ve done stuff for myself, it’s helped me slow down with my son, because my son can be very emotional. Um, and I hope it’s okay that I tell this story, but last night, my son was constipated. Um, he just had too much cheese for his little body. And so we were doing the midnight pees, and he felt like he had to do something else, and it never happened. And he was just. He was just really upset about it. Um, and it took almost an hour till 1 a.m. in the morning to calm him down. And, um, just because I take care of myself for my neurodivergence I have that I’m filled up to take care of my kids.

Anneliese Vance : Um, I’m filled up to go to respond versus react and go, okay, where are they coming from? Or to say like, hey, buddy, like, we really need to find a new way to handle this. But he’s three, you know, um, so it’s it’s this beautiful story of like, because I accepted it for myself and Honestly stepped back. That was a lot of where the partnership came from. It let my husband take on a little bit more responsibility, which he was already doing and fully capable of. Um, but again, relinquishing that control, um, and not being fearful. Um, so that’s why it’s just such a beautiful testimony for it to be a partnership versus the female owned. Nothing against female owned businesses, rocket girls. Uh, nothing against. It just wasn’t our story. I just I could not keep going at that pace. I had to take some stuff off of my plate and realize, like you said, like my gifting really is with my kids, really is empathizing with them. Um, my husband’s learning a lot. Um, but with him being actually gifted in ADHD, that is actually part of his challenge is processing and expressing emotions. So giving him grace. Um, yeah. So it’s just it it all worked out into this beautiful picture of where. What could seem negative really became the beauty of it. So.

Trisha Stetzel: So, so much that we’ve unpacked today on Elise. And as we close up, is there one thing that we haven’t tackled or one thing that we have that you’d like to just reiterate to the audience today about having a family owned business and going through so many amazing things together as a family.

Anneliese Vance : Um, I think one thing I would say is your family doesn’t have to look like anybody else’s. Um, it’s really okay to, you know, accept where your family is at and that you’re going to grow together. Um, because, you know, what used to be challenges aren’t. And then life presents you more, right? Um, and I think, I mean, you mentioned my vulnerability, which. Thank you. Um, because that is something I’ve really been working on. Um, but really, just to admit, like when you need help, whether it is for marketing, um, or whether it is, you know, I’m going to throw my kid against the wall if I don’t go grab a cup of coffee. Um, you know, and like, it’s nothing against my kid. It’s me. That’s my self-care lacking at that time. Um, but just like when you’re aware that you need help to just ask for it, and it it it takes incredible strength, in my opinion, not weakness. And I think, um, especially for the dads that we serve, admitting weakness is a big stigma. Um, with dads and I, a lot of dads that I follow and support on LinkedIn are breaking that stigma. And I love that. Um, but just yeah, it it’s strength and it’s loving your family and yourself all the things and your wife um, to say, like, I don’t have it, you know.

Anneliese Vance : I need help, and then we can do that for each other. And then we can do that for the people. Um, in our business. And, um, you don’t always have to have the answer either, you know, like, sometimes you can be like, you know, let me get back to you on that. Like, take a pause. You really just if I don’t have peace about something, I normally take a pause. Um, so I don’t know who that was for because that was just dropped in my head. Um, but yeah, just own your story and let it play out, and the right people will be attracted to your story. Um, I have a couple friends. I’m not trying not to name drop on here because I. I follow so many people on LinkedIn. Um, but that your vibe will attract your tribe. Um, it’s the best I’ve ever heard it put. And you don’t have to be afraid if you’re yourself, that you’re going to turn people away because they weren’t going to be attracted to you anyway. Um, so it’s just easier to just be yourself. And then you don’t have to pretend to be anybody else because that’s exhausting.

Trisha Stetzel: So it is, says the master marketer, I am.

Speaker6: Thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: She’s not surprised at all.

Speaker6: Thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: Amazing things, um, that we’ve talked about today. I really appreciate you being on the show. You guys, you need to go connect with Annalise. And the ways you can find her is her website at. Never miss a moment consulting. And her name is spelled a n e l I s e Vance. And you can find her on LinkedIn, which is how she and I found each other. Uh, as a matter of fact. So it’s never miss a moment consulting com where you can find that information. You guys connect with Annalise for just her personal story and just to meet her as a person, but also as a master marketer. Like, I hope that every, um, man and wife who own a business together can see how important having, um, taking the burden of marketing off their shoulders so they can put their kiddo on it, I think I didn’t say it exactly right, but that’s okay. So thank you again for being on with me today, Annalisa.

Speaker6: It’s been. You’re welcome. Sure.

Anneliese Vance : Thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that I had with Anneliese, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran or Houston leader ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate and review our show. It helps reach more bold business minds just like yours and your business. Your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.