According to you, what do you think is some of
the great traits of leadership? I think you know
that a good business and great leaders go hand
in hand. I don't think you can separate those
two if you're trying to build a business. I think
leadership is very, very important. So according
to you, what are those traits? Yes. Well, thanks
for having me back, first of all. You know, yes,
they do go hand in hand with business. A good
leader is a visionary, for one, usually has a
good vision. They are usually a good communicator
of that vision. And they have a good leader,
in my mind, is somebody who has a good vision
and has the ability to influence others to act.
if you will, or to action for the greater cause,
right? So they have to be a good communicator.
They have to be able to influence others and
as well as invest in others, you know, bring
others along with them. I think that's a good
leader. Wow. Why do you think of all these things
that you just mentioned? Can you talk about that
a little bit more? I want to hear your thoughts
behind some of the things that you mentioned.
Well, I think a good leader and especially in
business and I can just use my business as an
example. I had a vision for my business, which
is the fractional CFO. And my vision grew as
I got into it because I started to see more needs
that to be met with my clients. And so I thought,
well, why don't we take the same concept and
apply it to a C -suite, which would address all
of the areas in a small business owner, you know,
other areas as well. And you can bring in a team
with you. And so I took my vision to some previous
colleagues of mine and communicated to them.
my vision, you know, the plan, how it would work,
how it would help and benefit so many of these
small business owners and brought them in with
me. They're both very excited to work with me
on this. I was able to bring them in with my
vision. So I have some stakeholders now at other
resources, if you will. And I think They're able
to give me the support that I need to follow
through with my vision as a leader. Thank you
for sharing that. What would you say that some
of the lessons you have learned by either bad
leadership or good leadership in your experience?
Well, basically, there's a lot of leaders. I
have worked for good and bad leaders. The good
leaders to me, like I said, are the ones that
are like very they're invested in their followers
or their employees. Right. And they want to bring
them along with them, you know, for all the wins,
all the journey. They're very supportive, you
know, of their co -workers, teammates, stakeholders.
Some of the bad ones I've worked for, I think
were more of a like of a leadership to them was
more like a dictatorship. You know, it's the
I'm in charge thing and you do what I say. And,
you know, this is how it's going to be done.
There's no collaboration. There's no teamwork.
And it's very demoralizing. It's very it's not
motivational at all, you know, for the for the
greater effort of the team. Yeah, thank you for
sharing that. Next question for you, Teresa.
And I actually really appreciate you mentioning
some of those things, by the way, because I have
had experiences in my life where my energy was
channeled in the wrong place by bad leadership.
And had it been channeled to the right, things
would have been much more different. But I did
not know at that time I wasn't the leader that
I should have been, and neither was my mentor,
my boss, was the leader that I should have been
to guide me through all these things. Our company
values as first -class business are patience,
persistence, consistency, and reliability, all
based on the foundation of love. I'm sure you
have some of those things as well when it comes
to your businesses that you look up to, that
you strive for, and some of the foundations that
I think make you as a leader too. Is there something
that you want to talk about or mention to our
audience? I like, well, like I said, I like to
invest in my employees. I like to be, I like
to be a good mentor to them. I like to be a good
role model, you know, for them. I like to be,
I think a huge attribute of a strong leader,
somebody that knows how to support others. It's
not just direct, you know, not just directing
and, but supporting them, you know, in their
efforts, giving them clear expectations. And,
you know, I think the biggest compliment to me
is I've had recently have had previous employees
you know that have reached out you know wanting
to come back and work for me again and i think
that's the biggest compliment um you know i'd
like to bring people up with me as i go so um
you know i i believe strongly in you know automate
eliminate and delegate and the delegate is key
and the only way you can delegate is if you have
you know strong teammates you know working with
you and they're motivated to work you working
with you and yes their energy is positive energy
they're excited about what they're doing every
day they're excited about the vision the bigger
you know the bigger story what are we accomplishing
here all together you know um So I think to me,
that's always been very important. And it feels
good to me to know that I've helped all these
others, you know, these other employees and teammates,
you know, reach their goals, accomplish their
dreams. And I think that's the exciting part
of it to me. You mentioned that a great leader
needs to know how to support their team. What
are some of the things that you do to support
your team? What does that look like? What I've
done, some of the things that I do is I like
to invest in them as far as training. I had two
employees that worked for me doing a data entry
catch -up project for a client. Neither one of
them had an accounting degree, but I saw talent.
I saw talent and skills with them. I worked with
them. put together a training program. We were
heavily involved in some Excel spreadsheets at
the time, and I offered them an opportunity to
go to Excel University, which I did. I loved
it. It's Excel for accountants, and they were
both very excited about it. They went and did
it. They accomplished it, and both very excited,
and both of them, even beyond that, decided to
go back to school and get their accounting degree.
And one of them did get the accounting degree.
The other one's still working on it. But that,
to me, that's a good leader. If you can influence
others like that, you know, to motivate them
to want to accomplish, you know, their dreams
and their goals. Yeah. Thank you for sharing
that. Teresa, for my next question, I mean, your
brand, I mean, it's very clear there's a lot
of headways you're making and lives you're probably
impacting and changing. But it all started, I'm
guessing, at one point way back when. According
to you, why do you think that some leaders hide
from funding their vision? And how can those
leaders then lean into funding that vision? I
think probably the most obvious is while they
have a good vision or a good idea, they don't
always have. clarity or well -defined plan for
that idea and so they don't really know how to
go about it you know um and you know along with
that i think a lot of them are you know people
may be scared you know they're afraid if you
will they're afraid of failure um there's a lot
that goes in into it beyond just having a good
idea hot product or hot service there's the business
side of things right and not everybody understands
or knows what all's entailed in the business
side and or if they do maybe they're afraid of
failure you know What if I don't what if I'm
not successful? You know, how's that going to
look to my peers or what am I going to do if
I fail? I think the best way to address that
in business is to have a backup plan and do some
what if scenarios, you know, make sure that,
you know, whatever the worst case scenario is
that you've got a plan for it, you can handle
it. And I think if you plan it out, then that
relieves a lot of that anxiety and that fear.
It gives clarity to your vision, gives you more
confidence. I think and finally, I would say,
you know, from a financial standpoint, a lot
of visionaries don't have the financial resources
or they don't think they do. They may not realize
there's there's various ways of getting funding,
you know, for a good idea. You know, there's
grants, government money, of course. There's
partnerships, crowdfunding, you know, financial
lending. There's a variety of ways to get funding.
And one of the most important ones is probably
if you can communicate effectively your vision
and your plan to outside stakeholders. There's
investors out there just looking for great ideas
to invest in. So, yeah. I think you mentioned
a very good point. A lot of times we have a very,
very great idea, but we just don't know how to
present it in a way or speak about it in a way
that would actually help someone or influence
someone's decision in investing in us. A lot
of times, I think I'm also guilty of that. We
like to just... blurt out our services, our product
out to people, but not to the point of inspiration
that they want to invest in. And a lot of times
people don't even have the craft together to
answer the question that person might be looking
for. Like, what would your projection is? Like,
what was your quarterly projection? What is your
yearly projection? If you invested this amount
of money, how much can you grow it? What are
your, who's going to be your CEO? Who's going
to be your CFO? Who's going to be your CTO? Do
you have a great team behind you to help you
scale that? Do you have infrastructure in place
to scale that? And what about the people that
you're hiring? Are those people qualified to
do so? Have those people done it, what you want
to do? Have those people helped others do what
you want to do? Where are you going to be going
in the next few weeks, months, let alone years?
How long do you plan on being in the business?
Do you plan on selling? What's my rate of return
if I invest in it? These are some of the questions
that entrepreneurs, most of them have no clue
when they're looking for investments. And I think
it's at the end of the day for an investor, they're
looking at the return they want to have. Right.
And and if you give them a good return, why wouldn't
they invest in you again? Again, like if someone
gave me like if I invest $100 ,000 in someone.
Right. And then within 18 to 18 to 20 months,
they're like, hey, I'll return 15 or 20 percent.
Right. And and they did. They paid me before
I was able to even I mean, before the 18 month
mark. Why would I not throw down under a thousand
on that adventure as an investor? I would definitely
do so. And that's how I think great businesses
are made as well. I mean, throughout the history,
the business is the last at least. This is one
of the lessons I learned yesterday. I didn't
even realize it. You don't have a scalable business
by starving to yourself to death. I mean, great
CEOs and CEOs and CTOs who are building big businesses,
while the company might be negative, right? And
it takes like maybe four or five years to get
it positive. They're still taking a healthy salary
home to support themselves and not starve to
death. And that's one of the only ways I think
I know to have a scalable business. What are
your thoughts on some of that? Do you agree,
disagree? Maybe you want to counter with that
something? No, I agree with all of that. But
all of that goes back to having a good plan.
Everything you described, all those questions
that are going to be asked by the investor should
be answered in a plan. And that's part of clear
communication. Of your vision, of your plan.
That's how you bring others in, stakeholders
in, investors in. And then, of course, beyond
that, it's performance based. Right. Which is
what you're talking about. You present the plan,
you get the buy in, you get the funding. And
now all you have to do is perform. Make sure
you have your resources, you know, in place so
that you can handle the performance and give
those investors, you know, a return on their
investment. And that's exactly the exact purpose
of what we're trying to do for small business
owners. Yes. Wow. Thank you for sharing that.
I want to double down on what you just mentioned
there, though. You specifically mentioned you
need to have people in place who, if you don't
know what you're doing, right? Even before you
go talk to investors, even before you even approach
maybe promissory notes or grants. Like if you
bring people in who know what they're talking
about, who they know what you need to do, who
will help you build it together, who will help
you bring it all together. It's more important.
You don't want to be putting the cart before
the horse. That's not how it works. There's steps
towards it. You cannot just show up on an investor's
day one day and expect him to just give you funding
without you getting your crap together. Yes,
you have to have the plan and you have to have
the resources in place. And that resources is
basically developing your network. Who's on your
team? Who's on your team that's going to take
care of every aspect of your business? Correct.
Because let's face it all, if you think you're
going to do it yourself, No investor is going
to invest in that. Yes. And I want to add to
that. Most business owners are terrible CEOs.
The startups, they have no idea how to be a CEO,
but they want to be because of whatever control
or whatever limiting beliefs they might have.
But in reality. They have a great vision. Most
business owners are chief visionary officers.
Exactly. I think they think because, like I said,
they have a great vision. They have a great product
or service to sell. They're good at what they
do, right? So that makes them a great CEO. No,
that has nothing to do with business. Correct.
It's a business side of things. Yes, exactly.
I mean, they can probably go for the direction
of the values and things about a business or
they can learn how to be a good CEO. I always
say, you know, get into your business and work
in all areas of your business at first. That's
fine. Wear all the hats, but you don't have to
keep them all on. Find the ones that you're good
at, that you enjoy doing and you can make an
impact. And then the others, you know. Find somebody
else. Bring in the experts in the other areas
of that business to handle those other areas
so you can focus on what you're good at. how
you're going to drive the business and work on
the business. Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision
Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your
reactions as these episodes continue to move
forward. This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a vision pro yourself.