Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have the owner of DeBellevue Consulting, Leanna DeBellevue. Welcome.

Leanna DeBellevue: Thank you so much for having me, I appreciate it.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn about your practice. Tell us about your firm. How you serving folks?

Leanna DeBellevue: Yeah, so I was a digital marketing business owner. I had my own agency for about 15 years. I just sold that in August of this year. And everyone kept asking me, what is next? What is next? And it took me a little, a little bit to figure it out. But I realized that business owners, we get in our own way a lot and we don’t have a ton of accountability. There’s so many blind spots And so my next step, my next chapter, is actually born out of necessity of what I see other people around me, myself included, needing, which is eliminating blind spots, just having open, honest conversations and helping each other navigate this, this roller coaster of business ownership.

Lee Kantor: Now with your clients that you have, are they I mean, they’re called blind spots or are they even aware they have them?

Leanna DeBellevue: No. You know, honestly, it’s those people that say, man, I feel like I’ve tried everything and I’m just not getting to that next level, or I’ve hit a ceiling and I can’t figure out why. A lot of times they are not sure what the issue is. They just know that it’s something holding them back.

Lee Kantor: So. So how does that kind of show itself to a one of your clients? Like what is the symptoms or signals that they might be having some issues that that there are things out there holding them back?

Leanna DeBellevue: Yeah, a lot of times they don’t even know that they need someone like me until they get into a conversation with someone like me. Right. I’ll ask them, like, you know, kind of, what are your goals or what are you working towards? What are you most excited about in your business this year? Or, you know, kind of what’s that next step for you? And a lot of times people are just like, you know, man, with the economy changing, I’ve really been struggling. I can’t quite get my footing or. Man, I’m so busy. I would love to bring on, you know, someone to help kind of take some stress off me, but I just can’t. And it’s just those, those quick little moments of I really want to. But the second I hear that. But I know that nine times out of ten, there’s probably a blind spot that they’re just not able to identify that will help them kind of figure out and have that aha moment.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there anything a listener could do right now to kind of maybe have one of those blind spots appear before them? Is there some things that you recommend that they can do themselves that can kind of show them that they might have some blind spots to work on?

Leanna DeBellevue: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I relied heavily on my tribe of other fellow business owners when I was in the middle of owning my agency. And a lot of times, you just really need someone to mirror back what you’re saying. I think a lot of times as business owners, we know what the problem is, but we’re so used to saying it to ourselves that we don’t even hear it. So a lot of times I would ask someone that I trusted. Half the time it was my husband, the other time, half the time it was other business owners that I knew, hey, this is what I’m struggling with. Will you just talk it out with me? And, you know, like I needed to hire someone. I need to hire someone. But I’m not really quite sure what that position would look like to take stuff off my plate. Right. And just really kind of. Okay, so here’s the problem. Here’s, like, I’m not I’m not seeing the connection. What am I missing? And a lot of times people can see the problem all around you. You just can’t see it for yourself. So really having a conversation and honest conversation with someone that you trust and say, what I’m going to tell you all of the details. What am I missing? Or what do you see that I’m not? And that a lot of times will start the ball rolling with identifying a blind spot.

Lee Kantor: Now, that sounding board that you’re choosing to do this exercise, is it better if they kind of know you pretty well? Or is it work better if they’re, you know, kind of more of an acquaintance?

Leanna DeBellevue: I don’t know if that part matters as much as it is typically someone who is also a business owner. Right? It’s such a different world when you’re creating something out of nothing. Most of the time, uh, it your mind shifts, uh, mindset needs to shift a little bit. So talking to other business owners I think is typically more helpful, whether it’s an acquaintance or someone you know. Well, if it’s someone you know well, you might get to the answer a little bit quicker. Um, I think a lot of times those around us know our weaknesses. Um, they don’t always bring it to our attention, but they at least notice them themselves so they can have that conversation with you.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned earlier accountability. How important is it to have some sort of an accountability partner on your team?

Leanna DeBellevue: Yeah, that was a game changer for us in business. Um, it was really easy when you are the owner, to put other people off and to say, oh, I’ll get that to you later. I’ll get that to you later, and later may never come. And those are typically the things that you’re putting off, are typically the things you need to do to get the business going in the direction that you need to. So, um, I have two really good friends that every morning, um, excuse me, every Monday morning we would get on a quick text thread, say the 3 or 4 things that we were going to get accomplished that week. We would check in with each other on Wednesday. The following Friday, we had to hold ourselves accountable. Did I get things done that I said I was going to? In the six months that we did that, my business grew leaps and bounds because I finally stopped putting off the things that I was, you know, had been putting off for so long, and it was simply because I had to tell someone else that I was going to do it.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, can you share a little bit? I mean, you don’t have to say word for word what we’re in those messages, but can you give the listener an idea of what goes into one of those accountability questions? And like, if you didn’t make, you know, you didn’t accomplish what you set out to? What does that conversation look like? Do you mind sharing some of the, you know, kind of the particulars so we can kind of hear what it looked like in, you know, in real life, not just conceptually.

Leanna DeBellevue: Yeah, absolutely. So, um, use myself for an example. Um, I needed to put, um, we were needing to create a new CRM. Um, our old CRM just was not holding any of the customer information that we needed it to. It was very limited. So I had been putting this off for about six, 6 to 8 months because I knew it was going to be a time suck for me, and I just really didn’t want to do it. And so I remember on a Monday I said to the girls, I said, hey, I’m going to research CRMs. I need to figure out which one I’m going to get to. And they lovingly questioned me on it. They said, okay, that’s not going to take a whole week. What’s the next step that you’re going to get done along with that? And I said, okay, I’m going to research it and I will make a decision on what that CRM is. On Wednesday, we had a quick check in. Literally it was a question of is everyone on track this week or is there something that, um, a lot of times something will come up during the week that maybe it’s a much larger process than you originally thought it was going to be? Or maybe you’ve come up against a question that you don’t know how to answer.

Leanna DeBellevue: But in this case, it was Wednesday. I still hadn’t done it. I said, nope, just haven’t gotten the time. They said, what? You know what time, what day and time are you going to carve out to do some research? I said Thursday, finished it on Thursday by the end of the day. Friday. I did have a decision. I said, this is the CRM we’re going to use and here’s why. You know, kind of why I went in the direction that I did and they said, great, when are you going to get it? Get it implemented? So literally, had I not just had 1 or 2 little sentences, a saying, you said you were going to do it, why aren’t you doing it? And how are you going to make time to do it? And then great, you met that goal. Now how are you going to take it to the next step or the next level? So what I’ve been putting off for, I think about eight months, I got done in about two and a half weeks.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, that goes to something that I found, um, and myself and other people is that you break promises to yourself all the time, but you keep appointments with others, like you show up when another person says, can you do this? Or here’s this thought, you’re going to respond. You’re not going to ignore that person, but to yourself. If this was all happening internally, it’ll go on forever.

Leanna DeBellevue: Yes, 1,000%. I’m great at doing what I’m telling others that I’m going to do for them. But when it came to myself, yes, I would break promises to myself daily and it was really just putting a chokehold on our growth.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re working with your clients, um, are you having these kind of difficult conversations? Because this could be, you know, you’re you’re asking someone to change some behaviors here that are pretty set.

Leanna DeBellevue: Yeah. Yeah, it’s a lot of hard conversations. Um, but I think there’s two things that I think makes it easier to have those conversations. One is that as a business owner, I have made these same mistakes. I am coming from a place of being in the trenches with them. Um, so there’s no judgment. It’s not, you know, well, you should have done this or why didn’t you do that? It’s okay. This is what you told me. This is what you said was important. I want to help you navigate this. Right. Um, I think it’s very rare to see roadblocks, um, in a business where the business owner is not, you know, kind of the most responsible for that, right? We get in our own ways all the time. Um, but I tell people there is no judgment. I just want to help you navigate. And once there’s that trust established, and they see that it’s very gentle guidance, but still, um, still pretty firm, right? Um, once they see that by taking those prompts and moving through the uncomfortableness, they get to that next goal, working together becomes easier and easier and more and more, um, fulfilling for them because they know that doing the hard thing is going to result in the the success that they’re looking for.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re working with clients, do you have a point of entry? That’s kind of an easy way to kind of learn how to work together?

Leanna DeBellevue: Yeah. We have, um, a lot of different areas that we discuss in business. I tell people all the time, you might think that the problem is staffing, but in reality it’s a process. Or you might think it’s process, but in reality it’s it’s your offer. So we really look at the, the business as a whole. Um, and then I try and work on the things that feel the smallest first because people will start seeing that progress and it starts to build. Right then they’re really excited. Okay. Well, only took me a couple of days to see progress here. Now let me look at in this, you know, kind of this area of that area. And so by the time you’re doing really hard things, you have that momentum and you have that, um, excitement that it doesn’t feel as overwhelming as it might have in the very beginning.

Lee Kantor: So you’re trying to have an initial kind of, uh, holistic conversation to understand kind of the big picture. So then you can start diagnosing where there’s opportunities.

Leanna DeBellevue: Yeah. And I really do think that most people know, um, it’s either just hard to get it out or we really don’t have time to stop and think about the problem. Right. Because you’re putting out one fire after another fire after another fire, when the reality is sometimes you just need to take a step back, relax a second, take a deep breath, look at everything, look at the landscape, and then make a decision.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned earlier that you built and sold an agency. Can you talk about what that was like to build something from scratch and then, um, exit from it? Because a lot of people have that dream, but it’s not a reality for folks.

Leanna DeBellevue: Yeah. And I honestly, I had no idea that the probability of our business selling, um, I didn’t realize that, um, it would be such a, um, a hard task to take on. Um, we were told it would take about 6 to 12 months to sell. I knew for about the year before that I had grown it into where I felt I wanted to take it, like all the boxes were checked, all of the goals that I wanted to, you know, tend to accomplish, I had accomplished. And so I knew it was kind of time to pass the baton to someone who was more excited. They’ve got that fresh, you know, kind of fresh new look and take on the business. And so I did that. Partly everyone was saying, you know, we were blessed enough to win. 2024 Business Marketing, top digital marketing agency of the East Valley. 2025 we got business of the year. Everyone asked me, why would you go out now? Right? Like you’re just picking up your, you know, everything is great. But I knew it was time. I knew that I had taken it as far as I had wanted to take it.

Leanna DeBellevue: And I knew that with AI and everything else coming in. It would take a total reinvention. And I really just didn’t feel like I had that reinvention. So they, uh, we took it to a business broker. They did an evaluation. They said it would take 6 to 12 months to sell. Um, and we had a full price offer in a week with a 30 day close. So in my mind, I’d given myself six months to to a full year to kind of release this, you know, kind of business. Um, next thing I knew, 45 days later, we were we were out. And it’s been an amazing journey. Um, but I think in business, you know, when you’ve taken it as far as you want to or can, and I was just it was a timing thing. Right? We had just we hit the timing just right. But I think a lot of that goes back to having those processes in place, having those difficult conversations. I think if I didn’t have that accountability, you know, the last year before that, we wouldn’t have been in a position to sell at the value that we did.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you talk about kind of the thinking when it came to exiting? Were you did you always go, okay, I’m going to sell this to a stranger or did you ever consider I’m going to sell it to, you know, my employees? Did you? Were there other options that you kind of looked at before you landed on what you landed on?

Leanna DeBellevue: You know, I never thought I was going to give it up. I didn’t. It just. It was. A time that I just I was done. I don’t know what happened. I think all of those boxes were checked. All of the revenue goals had been met. And I think I thought something magical would happen when you got to a certain level and things would just get easier and it would just be kind of, you know, kind of take on a life of itself and didn’t need as much of my attention. And I realized that the more that I needed to, the bigger we got, the more I needed to pour into. So, um, I never thought I was going to sell it when the time came. Um, I didn’t think that our staff, um, would have the mindset. They are fantastic at what they do. Um, but I didn’t have anyone on the team that saw the company in its entirety and had a vision for it in its entirety. They each had a vision for it within their own specific areas. Um, and because of that, I knew that I wanted to find someone who had a passion for, uh, growth and for the digital space in its entirety.

Lee Kantor: Now, did you kind of actively seek out individuals that you knew, or was this something you gave it to the broker, and the broker then just started asking around.

Leanna DeBellevue: Yeah, we took it to the broker. Um, and I think I was gonna give them because we were under contract with them until the end of the year. I figured that I would give them until the end of the year to see how it played out. And then potentially, if they didn’t have someone, um, that I could do, people reach out to people that I knew. Um, here in the Valley, we are one of the larger agencies. So I knew a lot of the the smaller agencies couldn’t necessarily absorb us, um, or purchase us. So I knew that more than likely it was going to have to go either out of state or to one of the really large firms. And I didn’t want it to go to a large firm because as as big as our company was, it still had a very small feel, and I didn’t want that to get lost.

Lee Kantor: So you were trying to have it be a culture fit as well?

Leanna DeBellevue: Absolutely. And that’s the number one thing. When we were speaking to potential buyers, um, the focus was on our staff and on our culture. Um, our culture was one that I’m so proud of and of everything that that we built and all of our accomplishments, all of our athletes. I think the number one thing that I was most proud of was our team and our company culture, and that’s something that I protected for your sake. And I told my husband, I don’t care what the offer is, um, or who it’s from. If it’s not going to be a cultural fit, I don’t want to to go down that road. So thankfully we did find someone that definitely had a lot of the same ideas and understood culture and wanted to protect that as well.

Lee Kantor: Now that you’ve, uh, I guess, kind of downsized your responsibilities in your life into the firm that you have now, um, have you noticed a difference on maybe quality of life or your work life balance, or was that was that ever an issue for you?

Leanna DeBellevue: It definitely was an issue for me. I think knowing that I was positioning myself to sell the last three months, um, that I was in the business before we took it to market, I started to remove myself. Um, I didn’t think it would be fair to sell the company to someone that was solely dependent on me. I wanted to test our, you know, our team, our processes and all of that. Um, so I did have a fairly good work life balance. If anything, it might be the opposite now because it is just a startup again. Um, I’m used to having a full staff that did everything. An assistant, you know, a team for this, a director for that, and different people to lean on. Now I’m back to being the, you know, the marketing department and the PR department and our, you know, our everything, right? And everything all over again. Um, that said, I’m very, very protective of my time because I know that if there’s not a balance or that balance gets thrown off, that will hurt the trajectory of our company.

Lee Kantor: So now is your work still in marketing? Does it touch that at all or you’re more of a general kind of business consulting?

Leanna DeBellevue: Um, just general business. We will look at the marketing aspect of something because that is an important aspect of someone’s business, but I don’t do any of the actual work. You know, I can oversee, like, hey, you need to look at your KPIs here or you need to, you know, kind of, you know, focus more on SEO this quarter or something along those lines. So I’ll give direction, but I’m not actually responsible for the results anymore, which has taken such a huge amount of weight off, which has been nice.

Lee Kantor: Now anything, um, any opinions about what’s happening in the world of marketing with the advent of, uh, all the AI stuff that’s going on and how quickly things are moving in that regard, do you have any ideas, any trends that you’re seeing or any shifts of how people are thinking?

Leanna DeBellevue: Yeah, I think, you know, the pendulum is swinging more towards an AI driven world, which I think can be great for making some processes faster. But what I’m seeing for businesses who are getting the results that are game changing for them is they’re using AI tools as a resource, but they’re still leaning into telling authentic, value driven stories, right? Um, I think now with AI, people are starting to question more and more is this real? Is this authentic? Is this I mean, we’re seeing videos that we’re like, you know, what is this? And then we find out it’s AI. So it’s making us question, um, what it is we’re seeing. So those brands and those, um, business owners that can tell stories authentically and they’re just really seeking true connection. People are flocking to them. It doesn’t have to be all of this high tech AI generated, um, you know, business plans and marketing plans and all of these things. It really is. How are you showing up for your clients in a way that’s authentic, which is something that I think a lot of people thought AI would take us away from. But that trend of kind of pushing back a little against that and showing up authentically is, is just amazing for our clients that we work with.

Lee Kantor: So that’s that’s now becoming a point of differentiation is if you can show up authentically. I, I.

Leanna DeBellevue: Know that sounds silly, but.

Lee Kantor: Well, it’s not silly. It’s just that’s the way it used to be. Like, that’s. Yeah. You know, it used to be. That’s what, you know, you would meet face to face. You would look someone in the eye and you would do business or you wouldn’t. And it got to the point where we were scaling everything and everything was, you know, trying to scale, scale, scale that you lose some of the humanity.

Leanna DeBellevue: Yep. I think the pendulum swinging back into that humanity. I think at the end of the day, as great as some of these features are, um, we are always going to want a human connection and brands that show up with that connection. They’re hitting it out of the park every time.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, I was on your website and I saw that you’re doing something that kind of leans into that authenticity. Uh, the accountability Collective. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Leanna DeBellevue: Yeah. No, this is great. We’re so excited to launch this. It’s launching in January. Um, it is exactly what my girlfriends and I had, um, that brought our business to the next level. It is an accountability group, um, where we’re going to meet three times a week. Monday morning. We’re checking in. What are you getting done this week? Wednesday. We’re just going to do a quick literally a one liner. Are you doing what you said you were going to do? If not, is there anything we can help with. And then Friday did you get it done? It sounds so easy and so simple, but it’s the one thing that business owners time and time and time again are telling me that they’re missing. And then when I come in and I implement that accountability for them, they’re like, man, I wish I had had this all along. So now we’re gonna open it up and we’re going to offer it to everybody. Um, whether you’ve got personal goals or business goals that you’re trying to achieve, let’s let’s get some accountability around that and see if we can’t move that needle.

Lee Kantor: And will it be delivered in the same way that you discussed earlier through via text?

Leanna DeBellevue: Um, I think we’re going to do, um, we’re going to have a couple of different options because I know with time zones and, you know, things are it’s hard to get everybody in one space at one time. Um, we’re going to have a zoom option. We’ll have a WhatsApp option, and then we’ll have a text option. So I really don’t want there to be a reason why people haven’t, you know, why people can’t participate. Um, you know, if it’s 8 a.m. and you’re in the car drop off line, right, with your kids, and it’s not a good time to meet. Great. Just make sure that you text us by 9 a.m. what you’re going to get done. Um, some people like to have that face to face interaction. So we’ll meet on zoom. So we’re we’re opening it up to a variety of ways just to meet people where they are.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Leanna DeBellevue: Yeah. Great. Um, I would love to talk to business owners who know that they’re doing the job that they are called to do, whether that’s plumbing or, um, a school teacher or a marketing agency, whatever that is. But they just are missing something. They don’t know what that something is. They just need a little guidance. Um, I tell people all the time, typically the way I work with people is very short lived. Um, they just really need to get over that one hump, and then they don’t need me again until they hit that next ceiling or that next, you know, kind of area where they’re transitioning. So, um, I love having conversations with people, helping them have that aha moment and the light bulb goes off. And then nine times out of ten they know what to do after that. So anyone who’s just tired of being tired, tired of struggling, tired of not knowing what that answer is, that’s a great that’s a great person for me to have a conversation with.

Lee Kantor: And for somebody who wants to learn more or connect with you or somebody on the team, what’s the website? What’s the best way to connect?

Leanna DeBellevue: Great. It’s w-w-w dot com. All of our social media handles are at Bellevue Consulting, so we can be found on almost any platform.

Lee Kantor: Well, Liana, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Leanna DeBellevue: Thank you so much. I appreciate your time.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.