Ep. 33 The Stern Truth: Systems & Scaling for Sanity with Megan Fraser

Megan Fraser has got it maid. Yes, you read that right – M-A-I-D. She’s the owner and CEO of Maid Fantastic, a cleaning company that services the Fraser Valley.

I sit down with Megan to see how she’s faring in business six years on. It’s a huge milestone for her as an entrepreneur. We dive into how she grew up with entrepreneurs in her life as role models and how that set her on her path.

Megan was previously in a sales job but found it too difficult to balance with motherhood. She took over a cleaning business and ended up loving it.

Maid Fantastic now has eight technicians and is still growing. Considering that staffing was one of her biggest challenges, I’d say Megan is doing well in facing that challenge.

The most fulfilling part for her is making and keeping those strong customer relationships. She credits strong systems to helping keep her work life and personal life balanced. And guess what one of her golden nuggets of advice is? “Invest in a project management tool.”

We talk about how treating your customer like a number is the worst thing you can do in business. True leadership is caring about your customers and wanting their success just as much as your own.

Megan’s last golden nugget is to dream bigger and don’t let your limiting beliefs hold you back. Wise words to live by.

Get in touch with Megan here:

https://maidfantasticcleaning.ca
info@maidfantasticcleaning.com
Linkedin: @maidfantastic
Instagram: @maidfantastic
Facebook: @maidfantastic 

It’s back to business in September. Join us for the Masterclass or the MOMENTUM Mentorship Accountability group. Check the links below to sign up.

Masterclass: From “Hard & Draining” to Renewed Passion & Higher Profits –  Sept. 10th
 https://marshallstern.net/page/from-stuck-to-renewed-profit

MOMENTUM Mentorship Accountability – Starts Sept. 15th https://marshallstern.net/page/momentum

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Marshall Stern: Alright. Before we get into today's episode, we have two really important dates I want you to mark on your calendar and come check out because as we know, it's back to school. It is September. That also means back to business. So two dates here, Wednesday, September 10th. Mark your calendar, join us for this very special masterclass.

[00:00:21] I will be teaching on the real reason why your business isn't growing and making the shift from hard and draining to a renewed passion, profit impact. Check it out. The link is in the show notes. You can also send me an email to Marshall@marshallstern.net and I'd be more than happy to send you over the link to grab your free.

[00:00:41] Also September 15th, we are back with our Momentum Mentorship Accountability Group. I would love for you to come check it out. Just simply send me an email in the subject line Momentum Guest. We'll get you set up there and see you either on the 15th or the 29th. We meet twice a month. It is an awesome group.

[00:01:00] You will love it. It's an accountability mastermind, I’m coaching all of it. Grab your spot, be my guest. We'll see you then. Enjoy this episode.

[00:01:13] I'm Marshall Stern and I've spent over 35 years leading and growing multiple small businesses. I know firsthand the struggles of entrepreneurship, feeling isolated, lonely, overwhelmed, and feeling like you have to do it all by yourself. I've been through multiple recessions, and I have felt the highs and the lows.

[00:01:32] I've been there, and I get it. This podcast is here to change that every week. I will bring you straight talking advice, real world strategies, and honest conversations about what it takes to succeed in business without the fluff, the gimmicks, or the sugar-coated. If you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and start making real progress, then you are in the right place. 

[00:01:55] This is the Stern Truth. 

[00:02:00] Alright, welcome back everyone to another episode of The Stern Truth, Business Unfiltered, and we have another amazing guest for you to meet and hear from today. I'd like to introduce you to Megan Fraser from the CEO and Founder of Maid Fantastic, Megan, how are you? 

[00:02:16] Megan Fraser: I'm good. Thank you so much for having me today.

[00:02:19] Marshall Stern: No, my pleasure. Thank you for coming on and sharing your Stern Truths about your entrepreneurial journey. So I mean, saying that, how did you get into this whole, well, tell us a little bit about Maid Fantastic. 

[00:02:30] Megan Fraser: Okay. So Maid Fantastic is a residential cleaning company. We service from Surrey to Chilliwack, and Pitt Meadows and Mission as well.

[00:02:40] So kind of everything on this side of the river. We only do inside, so we don't do anything exterior. We do have a junk removal side as well that my partner, that he takes care of on that side. We have a team of eight technicians. So we've got a quite a great team and yeah, we've been doing this for six years now, officially five years, but six years now.

[00:03:03] Marshall Stern: Well, first of all. You surpassed the one year hurdle, then the five year. And now you're, that's awesome. So congrats on that. I want to acknowledge that you know, because a lot of people listening to this, I don't know exactly who they are. But I do know some from some comments. Some are newer in business, some are more established.

[00:03:20] But six years is good. Six years is, that's shows some power. 

[00:03:25] Megan Fraser: Yeah, definitely a milestone I'm proud of. 

[00:03:27] Marshall Stern: And do you want to share another milestone before we get into it that you just shared? 

[00:03:31] Megan Fraser: Yes. We just hit in July a hundred recurring clients. So that's been a huge goal of ours. So that means clients that we have every single month, that's weekly, biweekly, and monthly.

[00:03:40] And that's not even just our one-time cleans. 

[00:03:43] Marshall Stern: So my first question I'm going to ask you is, how the hell do you keep up with that? 

[00:03:48] Megan Fraser: Software. Softwares, routines, schedules, checklists. All of the automations, everything to keep the system running. 

[00:03:55] Marshall Stern: Okay. I like it. All right. How did you get into this business? Like how did you start? Were you all, did you grow up as an entrepreneur or, or a family? 

[00:04:04] Megan Fraser: I've always wanted to have my own business. Even when I was young, I had an aunt who started a business herself, just kind of a small business, and I always thought that was so cool that she did that. I wanted to do something like that, but I had no idea what, I ended up doing a lot of sales type jobs. 

[00:04:20] So I definitely got all that training on how to talk to people, how to deal with customers and, and having to motivate yourself kind of. And it was not intentional. I had no intentions of starting a cleaning company. I loved my sales job, but it was starting to interfere with being a mom and it was just really hard to balance the both of them.

[00:04:40] So I up and quit with no plan in sight. And then my stepmom, a good friend of hers, we went over there for a barbecue and she was like, I have a cleaning business. I'm wanting to retire. I really need some help for the next few months until I'm ready to retire and go back to school for something else that's less physical on the body.

[00:04:57] And so I was like, well, I can clean. I'm a mom, like I can do this. And I ended up falling in love with it. I ended up like every single day you make people happy. They look forward to seeing you. You’re the best thing of their day. You get to kind of grow up with families. I saw kids that were babies and then kind of grow up to be toddlers and to be a part of all of that.

[00:05:16] So it just became such a fulfilling and rewarding job that I never thought that I would love. And it just kind of grew from there, just unintentionally. And then it finally, we started becoming more intentional a few years back, but at first it was just, it all happened by accident. 

[00:05:30] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Accident, accidental entrepreneur.

[00:05:32] Megan Fraser: Yes. 

[00:05:33] Marshall Stern: So I'm curious, so you have - you have a team, you said you have eight technicians? 

[00:05:38] Megan Fraser: Yes. Yes. 

[00:05:39] Marshall Stern: Okay. So are you, do you go into the field from time to time or…? 

[00:05:42] Megan Fraser: haven't been in the field for a couple of years now. So I work full-time in our office. We have an office just in Alder Grove. So I do all of the day-to-day, I do all the sales calls, I do all the scheduling, I do all the follow up.

[00:05:55] I do all the marketing, I do all the hiring and everything, like I do it all. So that's going to be our next step is getting someone into the office and, getting that help so that I can focus on growing the business and not working in the business every day. 

[00:06:10] Marshall Stern: Yeah, I love that. Yeah. So, yeah, so we're just finishing up this month.

[00:06:13] I don’t know if you saw this, so. By the time this episode comes out, it will not be… but this month we're doing the ONtrepreneur bonfire. Right. And the entrepreneur being the ON. So, and that's all about with focus, being intentional and becoming the entrepreneur, working on the business. 

[00:06:29] Megan Fraser: Yes. 

[00:06:29] Marshall Stern: Not just in it. Because it can get, yeah. Now, so for you, there's two ways to be in the business. You could be in the field, which you're no longer. 

[00:06:37] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:06:38] Marshall Stern: And then there's the whole part about the administrative stuff. 

[00:06:42] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:06:42] Marshall Stern: Invoicing, the scheduling and all of that. 

[00:06:45] Megan Fraser: Yep. 

[00:06:46] Marshall Stern: So that's still in. So that's something you might be looking at, bringing someone on, almost like an assistant or an office manager.

[00:06:52] Did you kind of do that? 

[00:06:53] Megan Fraser: Yeah, absolutely. So we have one of our girls that's been with us for two years now and she expressed interest, in December like last winter I guess, that she wanted to eventually go into the office. So we've been kind of growing the team so we can get to that point. And then she's been slowly coming in, doing some training, learning some stuff.

[00:07:10] Because she's very green when it comes to an office, but she knows the business, our company, our clients, everything in and out. So I'm really excited because I absolutely adore her. I trust her and I just know that she's going to be the right fit. So yeah, that's the next milestone that's going to be happening here in the next couple months.

[00:07:27] Marshall Stern: That's awesome. And I mean, it sounds like, I mean, you really understand, I know we had a brief chat before, but you really understand the whole idea about scaling a business, that what it might take to scale about growing and about being more like, like I said earlier, the entrepreneur. Not just always in it.

[00:07:44] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:07:45] Marshall Stern: But along the ways, and even maybe still from time to time we run into challenges. What would you say, what would be one of Megan's biggest challenges she's faced? 

[00:07:55] Megan Fraser: That I've overcome or that I'm still facing? 

[00:07:58] Marshall Stern: Actually, that's a great question. Why don't we do both? 

[00:08:00] Megan Fraser: Okay. So my biggest challenge that I had, that I overcame was staffing, being able to keep people,  because it's a very physically demanding job.

[00:08:10] There's some houses you go into and they're not the nicest houses to go into. So keeping staff was the hardest issue, and that came through getting benefits and making the job a lot more desirable. And now we've had. Almost next to none turnover since that happened a year ago. So, or I guess over a year ago now.

[00:08:30] So since then we've been able to really develop our team. We've had people that are staying a long time, they're hitting milestones one, two years. And so that's made a lot of the chaos go away because once you have people that know what they're doing, you don't have all that cons. Chaos of training and dealing with new people.

[00:08:48] So that's been really helpful. I'd say right now the biggest hurdle is I am the -  I blocked the pipeline, like, I am in my own way because I can only do so much in a day. So having someone come in the office so that I can get more done in a day is definitely going to be the next challenge I'm trying to overcome.

[00:09:10] That's definitely where I struggle. 

[00:09:12] Marshall Stern: So I'm curious why, why do you think that's an area that you struggle? Like what – or what is it that daunting? Like is it, yeah, what? What would it be that holds you back from it? 

[00:09:22] Megan Fraser:  There's just so much to do as we grow. There's just not enough hours in a day. I'm, as we talked about before, I'm also a mom of three and they go to two different schools, so I only have so many hours in the day of being able to be in the office and do everything that I need to do.

[00:09:39] So it’ll be nice having someone like just having someone answer the phones it taking sales calls in the car is. I hate it, but I have to do it. It's a necessity. But that will really help making sure that our sales process is being done properly, and the follow up and all of that stuff. And then so when she's doing all those sales calls and follow up and just kind of the admin task, then I can really focus on growing the business so that we'll be able to grow at a much faster pace as well.

[00:10:06] Marshall Stern: Right. Okay. No, no, it makes sense. And so do you have a plan in place as to when you're going to bring this person in-house slowly?  

[00:10:12] Megan Fraser: We were just trying to wait through to get through summer because everyone has holidays and stuff, so she's been kind of coming in on days that we are slow and I've been teaching her sales training.

[00:10:21] Luckily, the business coach that I've hired, that's industry specific, she actually just started at the beginning of the summer, a sales university training specifically for booking, cleaning appointments, basically. So she's been doing that with me. It's been running basically biweekly. So she'll come in, we'll watch the episode together, we'll talk about it.

[00:10:40] And then once the training's done. I think it ends in September, at the end of September. And then from there we'll start making the plan of getting her into the office part-time to start. And then after that, doing, eventually getting it to full-time. I'm hoping by Christmas time that she can be full-time or almost there.

[00:10:56] Marshall Stern: Perfect. 

[00:10:57] Megan Fraser: Yeah, 

[00:10:57] Marshall Stern: That sounds like good, like a good plan. 

[00:10:59] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:11:00] Marshall Stern: Okay, so this is the Stern Truth. So we're going to share some Stern Truths here. Okay. What, you talked about some things that sort of, I guess, blocks. Things that you've overcome. And one, you are in the, I mean, really you are in the process of overcoming it.

[00:11:18] Okay. What do you think - so you've been in business six years. 

[00:11:23] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:11:24] Marshall Stern: What do you think from, well, I guess I'll ask you this question first. Are you involved with other business owners? Are you in any masterminds or any groups? Do you or do you have friends who are, have their own business? 

[00:11:34] Megan Fraser: Yes, I do. 

[00:11:35] Marshall Stern: Okay. What do you think separates, and you're probably, I think you're in our Facebook group - what do you think separates those businesses and business owners that continue to struggle from those who actually succeed or on the path to succeeding and they're able to scale, they're able to build the business that they want to build?

[00:11:58] Megan Fraser: Number one, systems.

[00:12:00] Having a process in place for everything that's repeatable and scalable is the number one thing. Otherwise, you're just going to spin in circles. And, focus, like what is it exactly that you want and how are you going to achieve it? So making time, scheduling time, not just making time. Scheduling time that's repeatable in your calendar.

[00:12:19] Automated, like you know, what days you plan for the next one month, you, what days you plan quarterly. What times you do yearly. I mean, I have systems even for my kids. We have like a digital calendar up on the wall and they have their tasks of every day that they go on. They do, they get little stars and they can like earn them.

[00:12:37] Redeem them for like different rewards and stuff like that. So even getting your family on board to be supportive is going to be the biggest thing to help get you to that next level. 

[00:12:46] Marshall Stern: I love that. I love that. And yeah, I mean it's, well you said a few things there. Systems, yes. Focus a hundred percent. The blocking of the time.

[00:12:54] I'm all about time blocking. 

[00:12:56] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:12:56] Marshall Stern: The one thing I want to add there, because a lot of people say, oh yeah, yeah, I've got, I could block time. I block here, block here, block here. Yeah. But do you, do you actually respect the block? Yeah. Do you actually, or is it just on your calendar's? Like, yeah, I did it. I've got this one hour of what I call on it.

[00:13:09] Right. Working on the business. But then you end up just in it doing stuff and it's like, you, you were intentional, but the emails came in. You're reacting. Right. So it's a matter of not just planning it. Not just planning the work, but working the plan. 

[00:13:25] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:13:26] Marshall Stern: Perfect. Okay. 

[00:13:27] Megan Fraser: Absolutely. 

[00:13:27] Marshall Stern: If you could, well, I guess, can I do it with systems? But one, I'm all about like delivering. At least I always say to my listeners, if you take one golden nugget. I got that from my father. One golden nugget from, from this session – what would, I would say, out of everything we've talked about so far, maybe we haven't talked about it that one yet.

[00:13:46] The one golden nugget that either someone has shared with you that's made a huge difference or that you'd like to transfer to our listeners? 

[00:13:55] Megan Fraser: Hmm. That's a hard question. Oh, let's see. I'd say one of the best things that someone introduced to me was having a project management tool. Now, I don't believe in going out and just getting all the most expensive software.

[00:14:09] There's tons of out there that are free. Just having somewhere that you can use on your computer, on your phone. You can have it anywhere you are, so you can add stuff to it and just having literally everything in one place. The project management tool I have, I can connect my spreadsheets to it, so I have different favorite tabs.

[00:14:26] And I use it, there's a personal – there's like a hierarchy. So I have a personal workspace and a business one. And I can access it from absolutely anywhere. It connects with my Google calendar. And that has been a game changer for me. It's like my entire brain in one space. And that's kind of what helps keep me really organized.

[00:14:43] I can have recurring events. I can add other people to it and have them add stuff and add notes. And basically everything, I think that's been the one tool that's been the most helpful to my being organized. And I can keep even my systems and processes in place there. And there's clickable links and, just having everything in one place because we get distracted with so many different apps and different things all over the place.

[00:15:05] So having something that just centralizes everything in one spot is definitely going to be a game changer for a lot of people. 

[00:15:12] Marshall Stern: Okay. I'm going to ask you a different question and that's really good. No, I love that. Because there's one area that we haven't touched on, you haven't mentioned it, I haven't asked yet.

[00:15:21] Okay. I'm going to get to it in a second. I want my listeners to just hold tight and just build the buildup. Yeah. So you have eight technicians? 

[00:15:28] Megan Fraser: Yep. 

[00:15:29] Marshall Stern: Your turnover is really good right now. 

[00:15:31] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:15:32] Marshall Stern: Why? 

[00:15:33] Megan Fraser: Because I care about them. Like I actually like genuinely care about their wellbeing on a day-to-day basis.

[00:15:39] I show them that they matter. I check in on them, I ask about them. I remember their family, like their kids and different little things. I do personalized birthday gifts of things that they've told me at one point, ou know, or you know, I know they're into a certain sport or they're into this or you know, and I just, I think that shows, like I've even had people quit in the past that bought me flowers.

[00:16:01] Because they were quitting and they felt so bad because they said I was such a great boss. They just were moving onto a different career, which was totally, there was no bad feelings or anything like that, and it like made me cry. because I'm like, wow, like you don't need to give me flowers. So I think just genuinely caring.

[00:16:16] I feel like a lot of businesses treat their employees like a number or they owe them something and just showing that they're a real human being and when they feel good and they're happy, that's only going to deliver in their results. 

[00:16:28] Marshall Stern: That's where I wanted to go. Thank you. This was like, I primed you for it, but I'm serious because I always say, I always say, and I had a business with like eight staff as well and, yep.

[00:16:37] Eight employees and when I work with my coaching clients, some of them have employees and some don't. Some are solopreneurs, some outsource, but it's still, they have sub or contract employees. 

[00:16:48] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:16:49] Marshall Stern: Too many people are, you know, out there and you could see even go – I'm not going to mention stores, but even you go to till I was about to – You go into like a local store or like –

[00:17:00] My daughter was on a plane today to Toronto. Yeah. I won't mention the airline. It doesn't really matter. It could be any airline. And I've gone through this too, like it's stressful. 

[00:17:09] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:17:10] Marshall Stern: They treat you like a number and they don't care that there's like, she caught me, they were going to miss their plane.There's a huge lineup for just putting the bags, like just checking your bag. 

[00:17:19] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:17:19] Marshall Stern: They make it so difficult. 

[00:17:21] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:17:22] Marshall Stern: And it's, they don't care like the airline and it goes down. So if the airline would treat their people better. People would treat clients better. 

[00:17:30] Megan Fraser: Yep. Absolutely. 

[00:17:31] Marshall Stern: So I've already, I wrote a book way back, back like 2008.To 2009. 2009.  and one of the chapters was all about people. Your first customer, your most, or you, me, as the entrepreneur, as the business owner, our number one customer is our people. We take care of our people. They will take care of the end customer. 

[00:17:56] Megan Fraser: Absolutely. I one hundred percent agree with that.

[00:17:59] Marshall Stern: And there's a word for that. 

[00:18:00] Megan Fraser: Ooh, there is. 

[00:18:01] Marshall Stern: There's a word for, there's a word for a person who does that. 

[00:18:05] Megan Fraser: Oh, it's right at the tip of my tongue. I can't ever think of it right now. 

[00:18:08] Marshall Stern: You even used, you even talked about it when you were talking about connecting. You didn't use word connecting, but you remember their birthdays.

[00:18:14] You remember what their favorite sport is or what this is, or if they have kids or whatever and you buy them just, and you do things, you care about them. 

[00:18:23] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:18:24] Marshall Stern: That's leadership. 

[00:18:25] Megan Fraser: Ah, that was not the word I was thinking of, but yes. That was very, very- 

[00:18:28] Marshall Stern: But there's another one too. But this is leadership.

[00:18:30] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:18:31] Marshall Stern: And so I know you talked about like systems and focus, this is all leadership. 

[00:18:36] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:18:37] Marshall Stern: Because there are a lot of people, there are a lot of business coaches out there that will sell a system, but the business owner doesn't have the right mindset for it. And they get stuck in what I call that employee mindset.

[00:18:48] Megan Fraser: Yes. 

[00:18:48] Marshall Stern: And not trusting. And not empowering. They try to delegate, do this, and they wonder why they don't do it. And they're not good leaders. They haven't stepped into that role. And then they wonder why the system doesn't work. 

[00:19:01] Megan Fraser: For me, reading the E-Myth was what kind of made that click for me.That was reading it. I was like mind blown over and over and I was like, oh my goodness. I actually just finished reading it again now that I feel like I went from the technician to the manager and now I'm going try to go from the manager to the entrepreneurs. I read it again recently just to refresh my mind and yeah.

[00:19:20] So it's nice to see those different stages. That you go through as an entrepreneur 

[00:19:24] Marshall Stern: And you can – I've read the E-Myth multiple times. I've seen Michael Gerber speak a couple times. 

[00:19:29] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:19:29] Marshall Stern: And, I even had an E-Myth coach myself. 

[00:19:32] Megan Fraser: Okay. 

[00:19:33] Marshall Stern: A while back, actually, right before the pandemic. 

[00:19:35] Megan Fraser: Nice. Okay. 

[00:19:36] Marshall Stern: Up until the pandemic. And I remember saying to him,  this was, I was coaching, mentoring business owners. I've been doing it since 2012, but I had my sign company and I really, this was what, in 2020, so five years ago. This was six years ago I hired him. The E-Myth coach and, because I loved the E-Myth. And I remember I asked him early on, I said, you know, because I was doing the sales myself.

[00:19:59] And I wasn't sure if I should find someone else, but I thought, I'm being the technician. I'm not supposed to be the technician. I'm supposed to be the manager, and then the entrepreneur and the leader, and, and he said, it's okay as a business owner, you can do sales. You could be the technician that way.

[00:20:12] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:20:13] Marshall Stern: Right. But the whole idea, because it's revenue generating. 

[00:20:16] Megan Fraser: Yes. 

[00:20:17] Marshall Stern: That's the key. 

[00:20:18] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:20:18] Marshall Stern: But you can, yeah. And you have to keep in mind. With any task you do, whether it's building out a system, SOPs, it's the vision of the business. That's where, as long as you keep the vision and work towards that vision on a daily basis, which you obviously are, and looking at who you can bring on your team, like you brought your business coach on your team to help you get to the next stage of your business.

[00:20:43] Which is absolutely awesome. Love that. But it's you in the end. And that's what a lot of people don't realize. Like the buck stops, you know, there's a saying, the buck stops with you. It does. Right. And if we as a business owner don't have the right mindset, and it's really the leader's mindset.

[00:21:03] It's just not going to work. No system, no like, hey, I built a residential cleaning business to eight figures. You can do it too. Buy my program. None of it's going to work. Yeah. If you don't have the right mindset. 

[00:21:14] Megan Fraser: Absolutely. 

[00:21:15] Marshall Stern: So what got you, I'm curious, what got, what was the inspiration for you to bring on this business coach that you have?

[00:21:24] Megan Fraser: Honestly, I was tired of spinning in circles. It was so hard to do it all, and I felt like I would get two steps forward or go one step forward, two steps back, and I just kept, it was like that hamster wheel. And I was in so many different Facebook groups of different cleaning business owners, and I kept seeing this one course and everybody swore by it and I was like, oh, it's a cult.

[00:21:45] I'm not joining it. And finally just bit the bullet and had an interview with her and I realized it's exactly what I was looking for. And so I faced my fears and did it anyways and it's was everything I needed. They have such a system that step by step, but before they give you the systems how to do it each like chapter they have in it.

[00:22:04] It's all about the mindset for it. Like they do the owner's training so that you can now be why you're doing what you're doing and why you have to do it this way, and then you go on to like the next step. So she had – I mean, she's been doing it for so long, but she's thought of everything about how to prime the owner and how to get to that so that you believe in what you're doing.

[00:22:22] Because if otherwise, you're just wasting your money. And yeah. And then when I started seeing results, like every time I would implement what she told me to do and then it would work and then you get your own confidence. Because you're like, hey, I can actually do this. And it just kept growing and growing and growing.

[00:22:36] Marshall Stern: That's awesome. And I do want to say, because I've done, I've invested in different –  I've never actually invested, well, I shouldn't say that. It wasn't – I invested in a high ticket coaching program for myself years ago. So it wasn't industry specific, but I know people who've invested in different industry specific programs.

[00:22:51] They call them coaching programs or more training programs. Teaching programs, yeah. Not as much on the coaching side, but some has systems giving it, here's the cut and paste. Here's the system, here's how you do this, the emails to use, and this is how I build my business. It sounds like with this person you hired, your core values are very similar to like they align with the program.

[00:23:10] Megan Fraser: Yes. 

[00:23:10] Marshall Stern: That's the problem with a lot of other programs. 

[00:23:13] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:23:13] Marshall Stern: That the core values for us as the business owner do not align. But, or we think they do, but we don't know. But shiny object, it's like, oh, I want shiny object. I want what they have, so I'm going to give them my $10,000 or $15,000, or whatever it is.

[00:23:32] Right. And then you get into it and it's like icky. And so I love it when you first said it, it starts with all about like the mindset and what it is to be an owner. And that is so important that, right? Absolutely not one size fits all. 

[00:23:46] Megan Fraser: Actually the funny thing too, or the inspiring thing and exciting thing of the coach that I chose one, I already know that she knows what she's doing, but she actually just got made Forbes 50 over 50.

[00:23:55] For something, I don't know, basically. And I was like, okay. Like it just shows that what I picked or who I picked was like right and knows what they're doing. So that was also nice to see that they're actually real and reliable. 

[00:24:07] Marshall Stern: Yeah. No, that's awesome. And, and it, it's really important to have a connection.

[00:24:10] Like, I always say to people if I'm having a conversation with someone looking to bring on a coach or mentor to their business and we're having a discussion, I always say, you know what? I might not be the right fit. It has to be a fit. You have to feel comfortable with the other person. Just like when you're bringing on an employee or – 

[00:24:26] Megan Fraser: Absolutely.

[00:24:27] Marshall Stern: If you were doing a business partner. Right. It has to be a fit. If it's not a fit, there's others, it's not going to go well. It's not exactly. You're not going to do the work. 

[00:24:35] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:24:37] Marshall Stern: I remember I had a business, he called himself a coach, about 25 years ago. 

[00:24:42] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:24:42] Marshall Stern: From my sign company, and he ended up being consultant.

[00:24:45] That's what he really, what he was. And it was a lot of money. I had a sales person at the time, and he, so this so-called coach came in, there was zero coaching, asking questions, going deep, getting to, you know, why you're, what's holding you back, having you change the way you think.

[00:25:01] All that kind of stuff. 

[00:25:02] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:25:03] Marshall Stern: He just, he asked a few questions and basically went away and came, did some research, talked to our customers, talked to our vendors. Talked to our staff, and gave me a big binder, which I still have. And he said, here, do this, implement this. 

[00:25:16] Megan Fraser: Oh my goodness. 

[00:25:18] Marshall Stern: And it was a year long, it was a year long contract, right.

[00:25:20] Megan Fraser: Oh my gosh.

[00:25:21] Marshall Stern: He says, we'll check in once every two weeks and, but just do this. And I sat down with my salesperson at the time, and it was just very, I use that word, icky. It just wasn't, yeah. Our values weren't aligned. Absolutely. So we didn't do the work. 

[00:25:34] Megan Fraser: Yeah. Yeah. And then it's frustrating and discouraging.

[00:25:39] Marshall Stern: Yeah. And it's also time as it's financially consuming and time consuming and you don't have that You can, the money you can get back. 

[00:25:46] Megan Fraser: Yeah. But the time you can't. 

[00:25:47] Marshall Stern: Time you can't. Time you can't. Okay. I've never asked this question before. I have two questions I can ask before we go. Never asked this one. Do you have any questions for me? 

[00:25:58] Megan Fraser: Oh, what made you decide to do the podcast? 

[00:26:02] Marshall Stern: Hmm. I like that question. Okay. I don't think anyone's asked me that, at least not in a while. Okay. So I had a podcast about 10 years ago. 

[00:26:09] Megan Fraser: Okay. 

[00:26:10] Marshall Stern: That was definitely a hobby and I played around with it in my basement.

[00:26:15] That sounds creepy. And I ran it for, I don't know, maybe it was like six months or so. Five, six months. Yeah. I had like four listeners. Including my mom. And it's like when I did my book, I think I had three people buy it. One  was my mom. She really supported me. And I didn't do anything with it.

[00:26:35] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:26:36] Marshall Stern: So I didn't really market it. I had a few coaching programs at the time, but I was just starting out in the coaching world. So, but I had a voice that I wanted to be heard, so I thought this is the way to go. And podcasts were just getting big. 

[00:26:49] Megan Fraser: Yeah. 

[00:26:50] Marshall Stern: And then I decided a couple years ago, I have to get back to it. I just love it. It's –I have so much to share and I, and I want to bring people on like you, amazing people like you to share. So I'm going to do a plug for the first episode, not my first episode. My first episode was introduction. But Russ, yeah, for,  Remedial Reno – Okay. I'm going to screw up his company name now, so I apologize for it.

[00:27:14] He had a podcast called “It's Just Business,” and I was a guest on his podcast about three years ago. It was like this had him and Dana, there was, they were co-hosts and they would interview different business owners and I loved the podcast. I'm still out there. They stopped doing it last year or two years ago now.

[00:27:33] But there's still like probably a hundred episodes. And the dynamic with them and they're not dynamic with the guests. It was real people talking real business. And I said, that's what, there needs to be more. 

[00:27:43] Megan Fraser: Yeah.

[00:27:44] Marshall Stern: It’s not about bringing like people who've made it to the other side, not the other side, but success wise and all the sugar coating.

[00:27:52] We just have to have raw, real conversations. What's worked, what hasn't worked and that's what this was and I missed it. So I thought, you know what? I can't find another podcast like that. So I'm going to create my own. So, that's why. 

[00:28:06] Megan Fraser: Oh, awesome. 

[00:28:07] Marshall Stern: So thank you for the, thank you for the question problem. And it's a great way to meet awesome people like you too. One last question. 

[00:28:15] Megan Fraser: Okay. 

[00:28:16] Marshall Stern: What is one thing that you wish someone had told you before you started or as you were starting, that you think would've really been a game changer back then? 

[00:28:26] Megan Fraser: Back then? 

[00:28:26] Marshall Stern: Or is there something? Yeah. 

[00:28:29] Megan Fraser: Probably to dream bigger.

[00:28:30] Originally when I started I was like, no, I'm not doing anything. I was scared of everything and I always thought that I couldn't do it. If someone like really kind of instilled like to dream bigger and to not let your limiting beliefs hold you back. I think that's what I struggled with for a long time at first, and then once I kind of overcame that, which comes with time, honestly.

[00:28:51] But, yeah, if I really like had people that could have guided me in that direction, so I could have believed in myself sooner. 

[00:28:59] Marshall Stern: Hmm. Okay. So I like that. I really do like that. Okay. This is amazing. You, you've shared so much with us. I'm trying to think. There's more I want to ask. I know we're out of time.

[00:29:12] No, I might have to have you back. 

[00:29:15] Megan Fraser: Oh, I would love that. 

[00:29:15] Marshall Stern: After you've brought on your employee into the office. And see how that's going. Maybe we'll do  - maybe we'll do a follow up session in a few months. See how that goes. 

[00:29:24] Megan Fraser: See how that's going and see if I'm pulling my hair out or if things are going well.

[00:29:28] Marshall Stern: Oh, you won't be pulling your hair out. No, you, I know you've got you. You've got it. So Megan. Thank you so much for being part of my journey with this podcast and sharing all your amazing adventures with our audience. 

[00:29:40] Megan Fraser: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure. 

[00:29:43] Marshall Stern: So, gang, I want you, this is not just talk.

[00:29:46] I want you to engage. If you're watching this on YouTube, comment below, ask questions, ask Megan questions. Okay. I'd love to hear your insights. If you're listening to the audio. Send me an email share, like review and all that kind of stuff.  If you have other business owner, friends, people you know, or people who are starting out, there's so much that Megan has shared and I really, really do think this episode's going to be helping people think differently about their business, which is really what this is all about.

[00:30:15] So yeah. So we're going to get Megan back. Until again next week, see another episode of the Stern Truth Business Unfiltered. Have a great week everyone.

[00:30:26] Thank you so much for tuning in to the Stern Truth. If you found today's episode helpful, we would love to hear from you. Please like, share and leave us a review. Also, if you'd like to be a guest in the upcoming episode or join us in one of our Moment Accountability Group sessions, simply email me to marshall@marshallstern.net. 

[00:30:46] That's marshall@marshallstern.net. And don't forget to hit the subscribe button, so never miss an episode. Until next time, keep pushing forward and meeting with confidence.