Andie Monet With Strategic Solutions & Development International Inc

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Coach the Coach radio brought to you by the Business RadioX Ambassador Program, the no-cost business development strategy for coaches who want to spend more time serving local business clients and less time selling them. Go to brxambassador.com To learn more. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a fun one today on the show, we have Andie Monet with strategic solutions and Development International. Welcome, Andie.

Andie Monet: [00:00:45] Thank you so much. Lee, I’m super excited to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:48] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about your practice. How are you serving, folks?

Andie Monet: [00:00:53] Oh gosh, I love it. That’s the best thing ever. I’m a business consultant. I’ve been doing it for 30 years. But you know the fun thing I know you didn’t ask me this, but the fun thing about what I do is there’s a passion to it and making knowing that you can make a difference in somebody’s life is so important. And I do that by really tailoring customized solutions for growing businesses where their revenues are growing, but their profit is not.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:23] So what’s your back story? How did you get involved in serving this kind of these folks that want to grow?

Andie Monet: [00:01:32] You know, it was by accident, and I feel like, you know, there’s a lot of people that actually happens to, but early on, I I actually my first business started at 16 years old because my single mother had abandoned me. And now all of a sudden, I had to figure out how to survive, right? And for some interesting reason, my solution to that situation was to start a business. And I don’t know if that would have been anyone’s response, but that was mine. And so I had to learn everything from scratch didn’t have support or mentorship or any kind of support. So I really learned the hard way, as they say. And you know, the the one thing in that process that I really value was because I didn’t have the answers and I really didn’t have a an option to fail. I had to create solutions. And the more solutions I created for myself, which really meant the more solutions I created for my clients, the faster the easier it became. To the point where I was improving operations, I was improving finances, I was improving marketing, I was improving processes, I was optimizing systems. And I didn’t realize until decades later that I actually have a really great gift for problem solving and seeing challenges that are not really obvious to the average person.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:08] Now how did you kind of evolve your practice from, you know, solving these maybe problems for yourself to then going out and helping the folks that you have? I mean, you’ve you’ve worked with thousands of companies from all different sizes, I mean, from smaller to the largest companies on the planet.

Andie Monet: [00:03:27] Yeah, it was. I started out in accounting and finance. Well, really accounting. And that was kind of I I’m a numbers person. So it’s a longer story which we don’t have time for is my original background and interest is in engineering and physics. And so I’m I’m good with numbers, I’m good with math problems, formulas, finding solutions. And so when it came to businesses when I was 16, I really only started, you know, in not actually not that at all, but more office stuff, you know, copying, printing and people slowly but surely gave me the opportunity to do more. And I say that because my mindset was more, I pretty much can do anything, give it to me and just give me a chance and I can do it. And so that just grew and grew and grew and into, you know, I was or by the time I was 20, I was an accountant for one of the big five CPA firms as a manager, which is almost unheard of. And it’s really part of that is is commitment and drive and confidence that I know I can do it. But.

Andie Monet: [00:04:39] What how it ended up becoming management consulting was, I would just notice things like, Hey, I noticed people are having problems with this or complaining about this or something takes three times longer to do and management wants it faster, as we all probably are familiar with. And so it’s finding ways where that wasn’t the case. And so, yeah, I’ve had several fortune five hundred clients where I can be streamlining that, streamlining their processes or giving them solutions that they like. You can’t think outside of your own box, right? You can’t. It’s that whole. Fourth for the trees thing, right? If you’re in this every single day and this is just what you do, it’s so much different when somebody who doesn’t do this day to day in that particular company comes in and says, I notice this and I notice this, and this is how you do things. But if we just move it around this way, it can make a really big impact. And that again comes from the from. Other people wanting either not liking the situation that they’re in or having troubles or challenges, whether it’s specifically

Lee Kantor: [00:05:49] And then having that framework of having good foundational financial structure helps you, I guess, identify these areas and then put it back into the business setting of, OK, now if you fix this here and solve this here, maybe move this piece here. Now we can really grow or scale the business.

Andie Monet: [00:06:10] Yeah. And you know, it’s really it’s hard for, I think, a lot of people to come to terms with that your financial statements and the metrics that come out of your company are a a result of something going on in the company, whether good or bad, right? It could be wonderful. It could be not wonderful, but it’s all a mirror of what the result is. It’s a symptom of something. And so if there’s it’s like, OK, well, if you grow an apple tree, you’re going to have apples. But if you’re trying to grow an apple tree and you get oranges, well, that’s something considerably deeper, right? And so how do you go from symptom backward into where can we make the biggest impact with the least amount of time and the least amount of cost, which is what is what I love to do?

Lee Kantor: [00:07:04] So then the way that you work with folks is that you have to kind of have a discovery period where you’re understanding the lay of the land. And then I would imagine with your background, things become obvious to you that maybe aren’t so obvious to the client.

Andie Monet: [00:07:20] Right, exactly. So the bigger the project, the more discovery there is, right, but there is a discovery in every project because you have to know what you’re working with, like if I say, Hey, let’s go to New York, but we’re in Los Angeles, that’s going to be a long journey. But if I’m in, let’s say, upstate New York and I’m going to, you know, Manhattan or whatever, that’s not the same trip, right? So you have to know where you’re starting and that’s starting point is the data that you have that exist in your business today. Doesn’t matter if it’s good, it doesn’t matter if it’s bad. It doesn’t matter how comprehensive it is or you barely have your systems in place. You’re always starting somewhere. And then where do we want to go from there?

Lee Kantor: [00:08:06] Now, when you since you have worked with such a variety of clients, can you share maybe some of the maybe low hanging fruit or some basic strategies that can help? Pretty much anybody or places to look if they want to increase their profits?

Andie Monet: [00:08:24] Yeah, absolutely. You know, one of the things that’s really easy to skip that I think is really powerful, but it takes discipline to to really dove in is your processes. And I say that because for one example, this one person solopreneur who had five contractors, he called me one day and he says, Hey, I need you to fix my excel worksheet. And I thought, Why on earth are you calling me to fix your Excel worksheet, right? And I said, Well, why don’t you tell me about this situation? He’s like, Well, I use this Excel worksheet to bill to bill my clients, and I said, OK, well, why don’t you start from the beginning and tell me more? And he said, Well, all my contractors are on site. They’re project managers for big hospital construction projects. They put in their time into this mobile app. The mobile app uploads to SharePoint, SharePoint downloads to excel, and then when Excel work, she goes into 17 Excel worksheets and then I build a client by our end person and all these things. And I said, And how long does that take you to build clients? And he said, three weeks. And I said, Well, let me tell you this, I’m not going to rebuild your Excel worksheet, but I will give you a better option. And instead of three weeks, it became two days and his income tripled within two months because now we had three more weeks plus to do business development, to find clients, to take on projects. And since he’s not actually on site himself, his revenue stream is almost limitless, obviously within his industry. And so something so small as billing your clients can make a big difference. And I did the same thing with Monster Beverage. In fact, although not billing, but they have only so many days report to SEC and you only have so many people in that department and you can’t just hire people one week out of the month regularly, right? So by streamlining their processes, we I saved them millions of dollars and thousands of hours just because I found better ways to improve their process to to do financial reporting.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:37] So how does like what’s a symptom of somebody who might have a bad process? Are there things that right now that our listeners or coaches and our business folks that are listening to this? Maybe they everybody has processes. It’s like one of those things where you know you have it might be clunky. It might be inefficient for you. Some things are getting done. How do you know that if your process isn’t as tight as it could be?

Andie Monet: [00:11:03] You know, I this is on my recommendation for people all the time is when you’re sick and tired, you will find an answer. So something that might work and I wanted to work for you. But as you grow and as you grow as a person and grow as a business and grow, you know, because of course, owning a business is a journey. As we all know who own a business, you find that you start getting constrained in certain areas that you just run out of time, run out of energy, run out of whatever. There’s always there’s always a catalyst and sometimes it’s fast and sometimes it’s slow. But the processes will at some point not work. It may not be today. Maybe it’s next year, but eventually they won’t work because your business grows. And when that happens, my question always is what is frustrating you the most and or what is taking you more time than you think it should? And I know that’s really vague, but that is a great place to start, because if you’re unhappy with something, there’s a solution to it. If you’re not unhappy, then it doesn’t need to be fixed today, but it may be it’ll be fixed next year. Or maybe there’s something else that is more of a priority to fix now than than one single process. Maybe it’s a different process.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:17] Now, say you’re frustrated, maybe by the speed of growth or that you’re not. You were growing and now you’ve stopped growing. You mentioned kind of coming in and being that fresh eyes on the situation. How does a company or a leader know if it’s time to not just think outside the box, but to blow up the box?

Andie Monet: [00:12:39] You know, I’m big on it starting internally because I can’t tell somebody when it’s time for them to do something. It’s more coming from them. So if they feel like it’s a problem, or why is something happening? And it’s really a critical question, right? Like, OK, well, I’ve been growing, what, five percent a year for the last five years. And now all of a sudden, I’m not. Well, if that’s something that you want to know about, there is a way to fix it, or at least to address it and understand why it’s happening and then a way to fix it. Because one of the things I love to do with with small businesses is give them ways to grow their business without any cost because as a small business owner, it’s really scary, right? You don’t know what to spend your money on. You don’t know who to trust. You don’t know if it’s going to work all these things because you have limited financial resources. And so there are many, many, many ways to grow your business without adding any marketing costs, without adding any new people and really building a really solid foundation. Because you’re not going to say, OK, well, I’m going to build a house and I’m going to get all the materials, and I have no instructions. And so I’m just going to let’s I know how to build a frame. Let me do that first. Well, you know, obviously that’s not going to last very long, but I only say that to say. Whatever is going on in the business, it doesn’t take too much effort to move you forward. You just have to have the right tools and the mindset to move you forward. And that’s why one of the reasons I love what I love because people have these. Hmm. These incorrect thoughts of how to grow a business incorrect in the sense of they’re limiting. And so once you get past that, it’s so much easier to feel confident about growing your business no matter where it is, whether it went down or it’s not going fast enough. There’s always ways.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:37] So now what are some of? Is there any kind of tactic or any exercise a listener can do right now that can help them kind of maybe change their mindset or kind of rethink their business?

Andie Monet: [00:14:52] Yeah, there’s a lot. But one of the things that I teach, which is hard to explain on the phone, I mean on the phone, on the radio is. That I have this system called a 10:10 mapping, and really it’s a it’s part of a brainstorming activity where you where you have your business and then you decide what are all the ways that. Not me specifically as a business, but me as an industry reach potential customers. For example, I had a client who custom made athletic gear for women. But they were they weren’t just any athletic gear they were they were geared towards. It’s called cause play, which is like costumes. But anyway, they I said, Well, what do you want to do? Do you want to grow? And she said, yes. I said, OK, well, we have to decide or you have to decide with, you know, the tools that I help you figure this out with is, do you want to be in in brick and mortar stores? Do you only want to do e-commerce? Do you want to do you know, joint partnerships with with local gymnasiums? Do you want like, there’s all of these things that you can do? And once you have them on paper and draw it out, not only does that help you open your mind to other opportunities because you have in the way I do and you have to do 10 and then you have to do 10 subcategories to the main category.

Andie Monet: [00:16:23] And part of that is just to open your mind up to opportunities. Whether you want to do them or not is not the point. The point is OK, well, let’s get you past your five feet in front of you. And then if you want to go further, there’s this. There’s this mathematical analysis that determines which ones you should focus on, but I think the brainstorming piece is really important. So no matter. For example, another if you’re if you do nails well, you can work with hair salons and you can work with massage masseuse and you can work with, you know, lots of different complementary industries. You can do them together or as bundles or as referral partners. And so there’s just a lot of opportunities, both for product and service industries.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:11] Now in your career, you decided to write a book in order to help, folks. Can you talk about why it was important for you to become an author?

Andie Monet: [00:17:22] Yes, I am super, super big on education. I’ve always been that way, I always feel like if you don’t know, you don’t know, and it’s such a cliche term, but I think it’s so important and then that owning a business is a journey, right? And I never had. If my my sense is I want to be the person that I didn’t have going through my businesses, which, you know, the first several failed until I figured out how to do what I do. But the book is one way that I can reach more people to have hope, to have inspiration, to have motivation, but also tools and tips on what they can use to grow their business. And so it was really a labor of love to tell people and show people all of the possibilities there are with your business to grow. And it took a long time. I mean, of course, but because it’s like, how do you reduce thirty five years of business experience into one, a few hundred page books? Right? So but I the whole purpose was that somebody somewhere is going to read this and really gain some really helpful knowledge.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:41] Now, in your career, you’ve been part of, sure, several maybe networks and groups that have helped you grow. Is there any kind of advice you would give leaders to choosing the right group and being part of the right community in order to grow?

Andie Monet: [00:19:01] You know, I didn’t have great success in the beginning with that, just because I didn’t I didn’t know what to expect and I didn’t know who would who. Which which groups were good or which ones were not a fit. But I. In a really vague answer, feel like if you find a group that you like, I think go with your gut. I know that I’ve done work with Benny before and they have a great organization. But every organ, every group has a different dynamic and sometimes even a different focus. Whereas some and groups are more professional like attorneys and lawyers and CPAs and other groups are more real, you know, personal business to consumer like hair stylist and real estate agents and those sorts of things. And then the personality of groups really make a difference, too. And so for me, which is a little counterintuitive, like I’m a little bit goofy and I don’t take myself seriously. And so it’s really uncomfortable for me to get into a group that’s all one hundred percent serious because it’s just not me, right? So building that relationship with people who are on a different personality basis makes it hard to to build a solid relationship. So be in a group that really supports you as a person and your industry as well. And there’s several there’s there’s little tip, which I think that they change their name. There’s be an I, there’s a Chamber of Commerce, there’s lots of organizations, and SBA score is a great resource as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:42] Now in your career, can you work with, like you said, you know, large companies like Monster and then smaller folks as well. Is there a story that kind of is the most rewarding that you can share that you helped maybe, entrepreneur? There was struggling, maybe frustrated that you came in and were able to take their business to a new level that you can share. Don’t name the name of the person or the organization, but just kind of illustrate the challenge that they had and how you were able to come in and help them maybe grow or scale their business.

Andie Monet: [00:21:17] Yeah, for sure. I actually have several, but one of them that was one of my favorites is there was a woman and she was retired and she had a little boutique in a really touristy area and she was literally going bankrupt. And I called her or she called me, and she’s like, I want to file bankruptcy. I said, Well, why are you calling me? She said, Anyway, that was a funny conversation. She got my phone number by accident. But. I said. Yeah, you know, shortening the story, of course, but I said, what, why did you start the business? And she said, Well, I’ve always wanted to own that little boutique. It’s near and dear to my heart. And when my husband died, I used all my retirement money and I created this business. So her entire life now is in this business and she’s, you know, over 60 years old. And I said, Is this still a dream of yours to have? And she said, yes. And I said, Well, if this is something you want to do and this is one of your hopes and dreams, why are you going to claim bankruptcy and then just let it die? She said, Because I don’t have I don’t have any idea what to do, and I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. And long story short, I said, OK, listen, I’m not going to charge you because obviously, if you’re claiming bankruptcy, you don’t have the money.

Andie Monet: [00:22:53] But let me help you build your business. Give me 30 days. And if you’re not happy in 30 days, you can just if you want to claim bankruptcy, go ahead. All I need is 30 days, and in the 30 days she went from not bankrupt to tripling her income and having many, many, many hundreds of people coming into her store. And she’s still in business today. Actually, she she passed away and and left it to her daughter, who I also know and and it’s been it’s been going wonderfully. But that was. And that takes a lot of work. And the reason I mentioned that particular story is because. Anything is fixable if you have the right tools in place, and more importantly, that it’s not just one thing in that particular instance, there’s multiple things going on and it was important to me to help her live her goals and her dreams that she wanted to live. And there’s always a way. There’s always a way. At least that’s what I have found with the clients that I’ve worked with. There’s always been a way, and I have had many of those clients where in the beginning where they were literally at the end of their rope and they had no idea what to do. And you know, we’re talking about homelessness and, you know, losing your business, not selling it, but losing it. Just lots of situations and all of those businesses are still opening and running today.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:26] Well, now part of the reason we do this show is to help coaches learn from each other. Can you share with our listeners how you got your last client?

Andie Monet: [00:24:37] Because I don’t do a lot of marketing, but what I do, there’s two things that I do every client that I have knew or not knew. I always say, Hey, this is the range of services that I offer. Feel free to send, you know, send people my information. Or if you want, I can give them a call because you know you don’t. I don’t think customers realize that you they can be a benefit to their friends and family, right? And so technically, it’s a referral, but you have to educate people that referrals are possible. And then there’s discounts for referrals, which I don’t usually do, but that works wonders. And for my last, I don’t. I have to think of who my last client new client was. But usually it’s Hey, do you know anybody got, hey, do you know anybody that has a small business or who has a small business? Do you know anybody who is having challenges with revenue? Do you have any clients who struggled during COVID, which, of course, that’s almost everybody. Do you have a do you have a you have a business owner friend who is in the same city, right? So narrowing down your question helps people to think of specific people not to say, you know, anybody who owns a business, but do you know anybody who owns a restaurant in the city of Los Angeles? You know, because specificity really makes a difference for referrals?

Lee Kantor: [00:26:13] Good stuff. Well, Andy, thank you so much for sharing your story today. If somebody wants to learn more about your practice and maybe get a hold of you or some of the resources you shared. What’s the website?

Andie Monet: [00:26:24] The website is W W W Dot S S D Hyphen A.L., which is the acronym for my company. But you can also find me at Andy Monico as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:42] Good stuff and its and i m o n e t yes.

Andie Monet: [00:26:47] Yes. Two slightly bizarre so names.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:52] Well, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Andie Monet: [00:26:56] Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:59] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Coach the Coach radio.