Julie Goodall with Genesis Consulting

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity radio.

Stone Payton: [00:00:15] Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this morning and today’s episode is brought to you in part by the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors program. For more information, go to Main Street Warriors dot org. You guys are in for such a real treat this morning. And please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Genesis Consulting. Ms.. Julie Goodall. How are you?

Julie Goodall: [00:00:48] Excellent. Happy Friday.

Stone Payton: [00:00:51] Oh, we are delighted to have you on the show. And I got a ton of questions. I know we won’t get to them all, but maybe a good place to start would be mission purpose. What are you out there trying to do for folks, Julie?

Julie Goodall: [00:01:06] So Genesis was founded out of love for people pursuing their purpose. And so really, in a nutshell, people get into business to do what they love, and then if they see some success before they know it, they’re spending 50% or more of their time managing the business instead of doing that thing they love. And so we make the back office noise go away so those business owners can get back to doing what they love.

Stone Payton: [00:01:32] You know, you and I got a chance to visit briefly, I don’t know, maybe a week or so ago. And it was very clear that you are such an ardent supporter of entrepreneurs and such a believer in this whole idea of entrepreneurship. What is it that has you such an ardent supporter?

Julie Goodall: [00:01:56] Well, I think part of it is because I am one and I understand them. There’s a there’s a passion there that you don’t see traditionally in in kind of W2 jobs working for for someone else. There’s that that live for this. And in the beginning I thought that I had to keep keep starting businesses in order to feel that feeling. And then I realized, oh, I could help other people who are starting and kind of live vicariously through them and help them reach their goals and avoid those pitfalls of entrepreneurship. But yeah, there’s just something in Texas about that, that drive, that passion. When people find their purpose in life and they’re just committed to all in. It’s just it’s such a such a wonderful feeling and I’m just so grateful to be part of that.

Stone Payton: [00:02:49] So was there a catalytic moment, a specific event or set of events that compelled you to to own your own business, or did it evolve a little differently for you?

Julie Goodall: [00:03:02] Yeah. So when I had my second daughter, I was trying to lose the weight. And I’ve always been somebody who, you know, go big or go home, right? So normal people, they might join like a Weight Watchers or a diet program. I became a personal trainer because if a little information is good, more is better. And I lost all the weight. And people in my community and my family noticed and they asked me to start training them, and I did. And one day one of them said, You should start a gym. And that’s kind of where the seed was planted. At first I kind of scoffed a little bit. I was like, That’s ridiculous. We live in this small town. I have no money. You know, you have to have all this education and capital to start a business. But once we started, I just couldn’t get it out of my head. And I went to a friend of mine who was a manager of a bank to just kind of get my feet wet and ask about funding. And she said to me, and she was super kind about it, but she said, No one will ever lend to you because you are female, you are young. I was under 30 at the time and you are uneducated. And I’ll tell you, the best thing you can do to light me up is tell me I can’t do something. So once you said that, I was like, Oh, well, now the gantlet has been thrown like I have to make it happen. And there was no turning back at that point. I was just so driven to do it, and I did. So yeah.

Stone Payton: [00:04:30] So let’s talk about the work a little bit because you your expertise and experience is in an area that a lot of us entrepreneurs really don’t even like to think about, much less get involved in doing ourselves.

Julie Goodall: [00:04:46] Yeah, yeah. I mean, we, we really focus around the finances and part of it is because of that, you know, no pun intended, but the genesis of my first genesis. So the gym was actually Genesis Fitness. Apparently. I’ve got a theme going here. And, you know, a lot of business success or failure. I mean, there’s a lot of factors, but a lot of it really does come down to money. You know, and it’s not just not having it when you start, it’s the management of what you do have. It’s the forecasting and the budgeting. For me, I ended up with enough to start it. I guess you don’t know what you don’t know. And I know there’s seasonality to some businesses. And so when we hit Summer, I live in Vermont and so Summers all of like maybe six weeks long. And so Vermonters want to take their workouts outside. They don’t want to be in a gym. There’s only sunlight for a very short window here. And I just I didn’t have enough of a cushion to make it through. And so I’ve I’ve been part of businesses that have failed due to funding. My second business, you know, there is a funding component in there that broke up a partnership. And then I’ve since supported numerous businesses who when they reached out to me, it was their second attempt at business and they would tell me candidly that their first one didn’t make it due to kind of poor management of finances. And so it’s it’s critical, the money aspect, but there’s so much guilt and shame around money and not just in business in general, you know, in marriages and people just they don’t talk about it. It’s a big taboo. And so I love to talk about it. I love to make it a safe space. It’s okay. We all have it. We all use it. We all need it. It’s not a dirty word. Let’s talk about your business and your finances and help you understand them in a way that feels comfortable for you so that that can contribute to your success. Hopefully.

Stone Payton: [00:06:44] I’m sure every client situation presents its own unique characteristics, its own idiosyncrasies. And I suspect that you’ve been at this long enough now that you probably see some patterns, some things over and over, like when you’re first working with a client, you may not say it out loud, or maybe you do, or you say to yourself, Yeah, I’ve seen this before. Can you share with us some of those common, I don’t know, mistakes or less than optimal practices that you see entrepreneurs engage in?

Julie Goodall: [00:07:15] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the biggest one and I think it touches everybody, I mean, there’s very, very few people who know everything they need to know when they start out, but it’s that you don’t know what you don’t know. And a lot of people reach out to me for just that. They’re like, I started the business. I’m excited and I know that I’m great at what I do. What I don’t know is beyond paying my bills, right? If you’re if you’ve got a brick and mortar store or a location, you know, things like you have to pay the rent and you got to keep the lights on. But there’s a lot of confusion for folks that have come from a W2 world about things like estimated taxes and how to know if they’re profitable and even if they are profitable when they get to that point where they’re ready to grow. How do I know if I can afford to take on an employee and how do I how do I set up payroll and and how do I track my expenses? You know, there’s a lot of stuff like that that there’s wonderful resources and software out there, but it’s not one size fits all. And so people end up in a in a platform or a software or with a a bookkeeper or coach or somebody that’s recommended or unfortunately, that they Googled and they found something online. I actually had a discovery call this week with somebody who did this package online and weighed it. It was an exorbitant amount of money and it wasn’t functioning and they weren’t helpful. The support wasn’t there. And I just felt really bad. And all I kept thinking is, you wouldn’t have known that. You don’t know if you don’t know.

Stone Payton: [00:08:52] It sounds to me like sometimes you you find yourself maybe being sort of the quarterback, like even if it’s a a service you don’t directly provide. You probably have a relationship with or are intimately familiar with a best in class resource that will help kind of plug this hole or serve this purpose. Is that accurate?

Julie Goodall: [00:09:13] Oh, absolutely. That is. Let me try to put a number on it. But I would say it’s at least half of what I do from day to day. Like, yes, I can help with the stuff they came with, but a lot of times they need some kind of resource or support that I can’t or don’t provide. And so a big part of what I do is, is networking and connecting with other professionals that have a complementary service, something that comes up often. And I vet them like I don’t I’m very I don’t know if it’s a maternal thing or if it’s just part of my character, but my clients are my babies, they’re family, they’re special, and I don’t just hand them off to somebody I found in the Yellow Pages, and I know that dates me a bit there, but they don’t go to anybody that I wouldn’t send my mother to or go to myself. So all of these people and I’ve I’ve cultivated this these relationships over a number of years. These are people that I would refer my own family to or use for myself.

Julie Goodall: [00:10:19] And so when people come to me, I tell them flat out, if I if I’m not the right person, I don’t send them away empty handed. I’m like, here are three other people who are exceptional in this space that I think would be a great fit for you or that you need to know. And so I spend a lot of my time also cultivating those relationships. So not only client relationships, but but people in that kind of sphere of influence. We’re sort of a board of directors. People go into business and it’s it’s unfortunate that they think going into business for themselves means going into business by themselves. It really doesn’t have to be that way. And if you’ve got this support staff, this board of directors, that’s all communicating. We’re all there to support you. I mean, that to me is the key to success. You can’t possibly know everything, and so you just have to have the right players there, whether you call them coach or cheerleaders or whatever, whatever works. But entrepreneurship can be lonely and you don’t have to go it alone.

Stone Payton: [00:11:27] So how does the whole sales and marketing thing work for a consulting practice like like yours? Are you out there shaking the trees and implementing some sort of marketing strategy, or have you sort of cracked the code on on a different path?

Julie Goodall: [00:11:44] Well, I mean, I think it’s twofold. One, I am incredibly grateful that we’ve been in business long enough and we have enough happy clients that we are 100% word of mouth. I don’t I’m terrible about doing social media or going out. And so our clients refer to us all the time. And that’s that’s really helped us grow kind of nationwide, which was just surreal to me. Know somebody had a sister in law out in California or or wherever, and everything we do is virtual. So we’re not we don’t have those geographical limits anymore. But the other one that I found that works for me is, is B and I Business Networking International. And I was fortunate enough about three years ago to find a local chapter that’s there. They’re my tribe, they’re my people. They’re completely invested in supporting me and seeing me succeed. And they care as much as I do about vetting those professionals. So when they make a recommendation, it’s very warm and it’s glowing almost to the point where if it comes from them, there’s no chance of not getting the business because we’ve taught each other who the right candidates are and and how to make those introductions. And I get about 50% of my business from them. So it’s still all word of mouth, but that’s part of that membership. So about 50% comes from my dry referral partners and the rest comes from just word of mouth, social media clients singing our praises or asking for recommendations or or that kind of thing. Yeah, So it allows me to be really targeted. I don’t I don’t have to do all the other stuff, if you will.

Stone Payton: [00:13:26] Well, it’s interesting that you mentioned B and I, because that organization has such a marvelous reputation here where I am, which is, you know, Woodstock, Georgia. So clearly, they’re doing a they’re doing a terrific job. I mean, I can hear it in your voice. You must really enjoy the work. What are you finding the most rewarding? What do you enjoy the most?

Julie Goodall: [00:13:51] My I like. I live for making people’s lives easier because I’ve been through this three times now and I finally hit my stride. Third time’s a charm, I guess I felt all the pain points, and I know how heart wrenching it can be to put blood, sweat and tears into something and have it not work out. And so if I can even be a small part of lifting those people up, forget financial advice. Maybe it’s just encouragement. Maybe it’s just saying, Hey, I’ve been there. I know exactly what you’re feeling because that kind of empathy and compassion, at least in my experience, it doesn’t often come from folks who haven’t tried to run a business. They would always get these comments like, Must be nice to work whenever you want and take days off whenever you want and keep all the money and you know, and it kind of makes me laugh because obviously they just have no idea what running a business is really like. We’re always on. You’re always, I mean, middle of the night, you got that idea. You got to get up and write it down and you’re always worried. And and so a lot of the folks that I meet with, they come for one purpose. But I think what they really get is a little bit of like entrepreneurial therapy. They get connection and they get somebody that tells them it’ll be okay. And I’m not saying that it always is. Sometimes it’s not, and sometimes they need guidance on how to get out. But yeah, that that connection and an advice and that trusted like connecting them to the people they need to know I just. I can’t imagine doing anything else.

Stone Payton: [00:15:35] I love that phrase, entrepreneurial therapy. You may hear that again, and I’ll try to remember to credit you, but.

Julie Goodall: [00:15:42] No, that’s okay. I actually used to have it on my website and I had a couple of therapist friends who were like, You really shouldn’t say that you’re not licensed. And I was like, Okay, okay. And I took it off. But I still use it from time to time because it feels like that’s the bulk of what I do on these calls. You know, it’s like I said that same that guilt. It’s it’s really just providing a safe space for them to let their guard down and be vulnerable.

Stone Payton: [00:16:06] So you’re out there, you’re helping folks make the adjustments, make the shifts, the changes that they need to make to live into their mission and purpose and and vision. How about you? Do you find yourself making changes? And have you made any substantial changes recently?

Julie Goodall: [00:16:24] Oh, gosh, yeah. I mean, I grow, I grow constantly. I kind of feel like when kids are small, it’s like they go to sleep and the next day you’re sure that they’ve grown. And I mean, I feel like that’s where my business has been at for the last few years because as I learn things, I mean, my day comes with such an amazing amount of variety. If I don’t know the answer, I always tell them, I don’t know and I’ll get back to them. But I learn all the time and I also learn from my clients. I might be able to help them with something, but they give me wonderful ideas and so I’m constantly adapting and shifting my own business. And I think the most impactful thing I’ve done in the last 12 months is let go and hire. So I never thought of myself as having an ego. But when it came time to let go of some stuff and delegate, I just kept hearing myself say, Well, nobody else can really do this piece of the business. This really has to be me. And when I finally really questioned myself and I’m like, Wait a minute, does it though? Does it really have to be you? You know? And so when I was finally able to delegate and let folks help me and take some things off my plate, I was shocked and impressed is not even the word, but it was like the weight of the world was lifted.

Julie Goodall: [00:17:44] I kind of I think I understood, like, what some people feel like we take from them. These people took from me and what it allowed me to do is free up some space to do things that were more. In my in my zone of genius, you know, like, do I really need to be monitoring my email all day long? Can somebody else help with that so that I can create new services and products and do continuing ads so that I can be of more value to people? And so I’ve really shifted and my happiness. Like, I was surprised I expected the revenue to take a dip because got to have those billable hours. And creation is not necessarily billable hours, but my revenue went up and my the happiness quotient was just through the roof. I’m just I’m right where I need to be. It’s so wonderful. I look forward to not every day. Obviously nothing’s perfect, but I really, truly do look forward to almost every day. And I’m so grateful for my team for giving me that space.

Stone Payton: [00:18:45] You mentioned a few moments ago that you couldn’t imagine doing anything else. But it’s still a fun question to ask, so I’m going to ask it anyway. If you weren’t doing this professionally, what else might you pursue instead?

Julie Goodall: [00:19:01] So about a month ago, I probably wouldn’t have had a great answer to that. But I’ve recently met this, I guess by trade. She’s a naturopath, but she was introduced to me by my business coach and good friend, and she and I said, Well, what makes her different? And she said, well, basically the boots on the nose and she can tell you what’s missing from your diet, or she’ll put your arm down and tell you that you’ve got lead in your system. And I was like, What? So I booked this appointment kind of just to see if she was crazy. And the woman is magical, like she has all these cool little things that she does. See, I don’t know how to explain it other than, like, magic or voodoo, but I’ve had sessions with her now, and I tell her every time, Boy, if I got a do over, I want to be you when I grow up. Like, it’s just so cool. It’s such a neat thing. I didn’t even know it existed.

Stone Payton: [00:19:56] So you are so full of enthusiasm. It comes through over the airwaves. And, you know, I recognize you’re human to sometimes you got to run out of gas. My question is, where do you go? And I don’t necessarily mean a physical place, but for inspiration to recharge the the batteries when it’s when it’s time to to do that, what do you do? Where do you go to kind of get get recharged?

Julie Goodall: [00:20:24] Yeah. So I think there are two different things. My, my main outlet is exercise, which again is something that, you know, even a few months back I would have said, you’re crazy. I’m like, I don’t I don’t run unless I’m being chased. But exercise is I crave it now. Yesterday was a particularly long day. I was quote unquote, on all day. And it was supposed to be a day off from working out. And I asked my husband after dinner, I was like, Hey, do you mind if I go down? We have a gym in the basement. I was like, I just need to get some energy out. And I felt a million times better when I was done, even 20 minutes. It just. I don’t know. It centers me. I can’t think when I’m exercising. It’s like my brain and my body can’t work simultaneously. So it allows me to turn off my brain and I don’t. Maybe it’s the blood flow. I don’t know enough about the science, but that’s what I do kind of for stress. And it does help with creativity because when I get off again, I don’t know if it’s the blood flow thing, but I get those ideas, I get a renewed energy, but I’m also an extrovert.

Julie Goodall: [00:21:30] And so getting together, especially with I don’t mean to do this, they’ve just become my friends, but with my entrepreneurial friends, not necessarily to talk about business, but just life in general because they have such a similar perspective, Like their lives are similar, you know, So we can commiserate on things and and they’re all experts in their field. And so, you know, I have a best friend who is social. She does social media coaching. And so he comes up with these cool ideas that I’ve never thought of before and I just love. And it happens organically. It’s not all of us using each other for our expertise. It’s we could be having coffee or drinks or whatever, but the energy and the enthusiasm and the creativity that comes out, I just I take pages of notes and I have to I have to bring my self down because when I get home, I just want to, like, redo everything. It’s like, Oh, I got to redo my website and I got to like, I just I’m so charged up by it. So being around other good, passionate, wonderful people, it just lights me up. It really does.

Stone Payton: [00:22:36] So what’s next for Genesis? What? What’s on the horizon?

Julie Goodall: [00:22:41] So I am actually really looking to get into more public speaking and next to snakes. It’s my biggest fear in life actually is public speaking, and I wanted to do more of it to get over the fear. And I’m not over it. But in doing this little exercise for the last year to kind of get my feet wet and try to get over that fear, I realized I really enjoy it and I. I just I love getting a message out and that encouragement that I do with my clients, if I could reach a bigger audience like how powerful, how wonderful would that be? And to meet new people. So this next year, I really geared up this year to put systems in place so that my business continues to run so that I can take more opportunities next year to do some speaking and do some traveling and meet some people. And I never, ever thought that that would be my direction. But it just feels right. And I’m a I’m a trust your gut girl.

Stone Payton: [00:23:41] Well, we have to swing back around after you have a few speaking gigs under your belt and and do an update and check in with you, because I’m sure you’ll learn a ton and meet some fascinating people. So let’s make that happen.

Julie Goodall: [00:23:53] Yeah, I would love it, Love it, Love it. Yes, please.

Stone Payton: [00:23:56] All right, before we wrap, let’s leave our listeners with a few actionable kind of pro tips. Pro tip number one gang is reach out to Julie and have a conversation with her. But short of that, before that, maybe, I don’t know, something. They should be reading a couple of things they should be doing in terms of going and looking at their their books. But let’s leave them with a couple of actionable tips that they can go ahead and and begin to put some wheels in motion right now, maybe or at least begin thinking about.

Julie Goodall: [00:24:27] Yeah, I think the one thing I would say most important for entrepreneurs is if you’re doing it alone, don’t there are people out there, there are free resources, there are webinars and classes and books and all kinds of people who want to support you don’t try to fumble through. And I love the Google as much as anybody else, but don’t just Google everything, you know, get some support because you’re going to need it, otherwise you’re going to burn out. And the other one, yeah, there are some fantastic books out there and that to me is like you just opened a can of worms. Greg McEwan wrote Essentialism and Effortless. Those are two of my absolute favorites. I’m currently finishing up building a story brand, and that one really is more about your messaging and it can really change everything. Positioning your client as a hero and your yourself or your business as the guide. You’re not the hero, you’re the guide. And it just is. It’s an exceptional book. There’s a program that goes with it that’s free and you can kind of map it all out. Oh, gosh. So many so many books. There are so many resources. Just don’t do it alone.

Stone Payton: [00:25:41] Well, I’m glad I asked. I think that’s marvelous advice. All right. What’s the best way for our listeners to reach out and have a conversation with you or someone on your team? Learn more about your work. Whatever you feel like is appropriate, whether it’s an email, website, LinkedIn. I just want to make sure they can they can connect with you and tap into your work.

Julie Goodall: [00:26:01] Yeah, absolutely. Best way is probably our website has all the contact info. There’s a contact form so you can get in, get a scheduled. I do free 30 minute discovery calls and the website is Genesis Consulting Corp Corp. Genesis and ISIS. Yeah. So Genesis, Consulting Corp, all kinds of info about who we are and what we do and why we do it. And you can get in touch that way. There are some blogs and I’m going to be adding a bunch of resources and stuff too. Yeah.

Stone Payton: [00:26:34] Well, Julie, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show today. Thank you so much for investing the time and the energy. You’re doing such important work. And we we sincerely appreciate you.

Julie Goodall: [00:26:48] Thank you so much for having me. This was a blast. I hope to do it again.

Stone Payton: [00:26:52] All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for Julie Goodall and everyone here at the business Radio X family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.