I think I was about eight and I would have to,
you know, here in Australia we used to have self
-service. pumps for service stations or fuel
stations, gas stations and I would go out as
an eight -year -old and I would pump fuel for
people. I would clean windscreen, check tire
pressure and check oil and things like that and
that's what I was trained to do. I was trained
by my mum to make sure I counted back change
and sold drinks and things like that. I have
my hand in it just to keep my eye on the money
because that's my strategy, that's my brain,
that's where I love to be. But the clear plan
consulting really comes from my ability to come
into a business and really objectively look at
that business on behalf of the owner. Look at
where we can make improvements, but ultimately
what I do is I work out where they want to go
personally. What do they want to achieve personally?
What does that look like? And we start painting
a picture. And what I do is I help them use their
vehicle, which is the greatest vehicle that we
can have, a business. to get them where they
want to go financially outside. So and so it's
all these small little things that you need to
be aware of because if you're doing your cash
flow forecasting and you're thinking I'm going
to have this amount of money and then it's not
there because it's being held well you need to
now think well how am I going to run without
that extra money because that it might seem small
two and a half percent but over hundreds of thousands
of dollars or millions of dollars on a project
it's a lot of money. And so you want to make
sure that you're getting every bit of that money
in your pocket. And simple things like when I
go through someone's accounting software and
I'm looking at their expenses, I'm looking how
I can pull back every time at least 10%. How
do you stop somebody from, well not necessarily
stop, but how do you give the lesson to someone
who hasn't been in that space before, before
it actually happens? So obviously we can talk
to the challenges we've had, that we've helped
other people with, and we can show them and talk
to them about what's actually happened in our
own situations. Some people can't learn that
way. Some people have to go through the hurt
to understand it. And I can't stop that. I can
give every platform, every provision, but if
that person is hell -bent on needing to... go
their own way, then I'll happily bid them the
very best and say, look, if you don't want help,
that's totally fine. This week on the Thrive
Well journey, we're talking with Sonia Corkery,
wife, mom, entrepreneur, and founder of Clear
Plan Consulting. Sonia helps business owners
cut the chaos, clear up their systems, and finally
get clarity on how they run day to day. She's
been doing this for over 15 years from helping
her husband's company, Electrotech, grow to now
coaching others to do the same. In this episode,
we dive into the strategies that free you to
focus on growth, family, and building a business
that truly fuels your dream. Hey there. Look,
my hope is that the Thravo journey meets you
exactly where you are and helps you rise into
who you're here to be. It's 2025 and this is
your year to thrive despite what the world is
throwing at us. And our desire is that our conversations
inspire you. bring clarity and give you a reason
to breathe deeper. So our ask is that you take
a moment to subscribe, download the episode and
follow us on your favorite RSS platform. Your
support doesn't just help the show grow, it helps
build a space that's rooted in your evolution.
And that means everything to me and the TTJ team.
Now, if you're ready to go beyond the episodes,
Come join our private Thrive Wheel Journey discussion
group on Facebook. We're walking through a 22
-week series built to anchor each week in intention,
purpose, and meaningful connection. I do so look
forward to hearing your voice and can't wait
to see you in the group. But for right now, let's
get into it. Ever feel like your business is
thriving on the outside, but internally it's
a chaotic mess? What if you could streamline
your operations, manage your data more effectively
and align every part of your business with your
true purpose. So today I'm excited that we're
joined by Sonia Corkery, a business operations
expert with over 15 years of experience from
building systems that connect people and data
to helping entrepreneurs like you and myself.
clean up the chaos. So Sonia is here and she's
going to share how to take control of your business
and design a life that aligns with your goals.
And you know, she's worked with businesses of
all sizes and she's here to show you how to make
your business flow seamlessly. And again, I just
want to say thank you Sonia for being here. She
is down under in Australia, meeting the guy over
here in the south. And so good to have you here.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. It's
so great to connect with people everywhere around
the world. And I think that was the good part
about COVID, right, is we really started to connect
this way. And it's just being able to broaden
our ideas and connections, you know, throughout
the world. So thank you so much for having me.
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, there was a space
and time, you know, I live to travel, and I was
going to come to Australia just to kind of check
it out for like a month. It didn't happen. My
family was like, you can't go over there. And
oh, you know, it's too far and all this kind
of stuff. And I was like, Look, I'm going. It
hasn't happened yet. But it will happen. So talk
to you. We would love to have you. It'll be great.
It'll be great. Yes, I'm looking forward to it.
But so yeah, you know, you're here. And again,
I'm excited that you're here. And I just want
to have you share a little bit about who you
are. And before we get into the meat of what
the message that you can bring. And today, Sonia,
who are you beyond your professional success?
Well, I'm currently I'm a wife and I'm a mother
of three beautiful boys. Loving, you know, having
teenage kids and all of the challenges that that
brings. But my story really begins from a very
young age. And the reason is because my my parents
were entrepreneurial. So my I grew up within
businesses. And my mom was just an absolute star
of business. She had multiple ideas. And I was
kind of that child that was always brought along
for the journey. So it really started quite early.
I think it was about eight and I would have to,
you know, here in Australia, we used to have
self service. pumps for service stations or fuel
stations, gas stations. And I would go out as
an eight year old and I would pump fuel for people
I would clean windscreen, check tire pressure
and check oil and things like that. And that's
what I was trained to do. I was trained by my
mom to make sure I counted back change and sold
drinks and things like that. So from a very young
age, I was taught that this this is the way I
wasn't really taught to have a job. I was taught
to run a business. And so when I evolved and
left my schooling career. I didn't want to be
in business because I saw how hard that was,
right? And so I was like, I don't want to do
that. That looks really hard. I can't even comprehend.
Because, you know, she'd had a massive failure
in that time. And that really scared me. And
what happened was we were basically left without
a home to live in. We had to live underneath
one of the businesses that we owned because we
couldn't even afford to rent a house. We had
no walls in that area where we were sleeping
and we had to shower outside. And where I was
living at the time, it was quite cold in those
times. So for me, that shocked me. Right. That
was like, don't want this. I never want to be
poor like this, where we can't feed ourselves
or have a roof over our head. And so. When I
left home, I was determined, I was absolutely
determined to make it my way. And in that time,
I didn't envision business at all, because I
just seen what had happened and how it could
go so wrong. Right. And from that time, I decided
to get into a finance career, which I actually
fell into banking because I was great at sales,
which was crazy. Right. But in banks, they need
salespeople because that's what they're doing
is they're selling to you. And that kind of just
took off. And over a period of years, I was one
of the youngest bank managers that that big corporate
bank had ever had. And I actually fell into commercial
lending and then into financial planning. So
I got all these great, amazing skill sets from
very early on in my life. And that really was
the turning point or set the bar for me moving
forward into business, which came a little bit
further down the track. Yeah, I would think that
when you grew up with that that experience that
maybe possibly they're a failure fear of failure
may have kind of jumped into your psyche. Did
that happen for you? Absolutely. Yes. It's just
shook me to my core about how bad it could be,
you know, how things could be to a point where
you can't have a house you can't even rent somewhere
it's not because there wasn't something available
which is like now people struggle because there's
not enough housing we just couldn't afford it
we couldn't afford to buy food and so that that
really scared me as a child to go what if i have
nothing What if I can't have the basics? And
so I was clinging to look for all of these sureties.
I was trying to be so sure about my decisions
to make sure the outcomes were absolutely finite.
And we just know that life takes where it's going
to go. It just takes its own road. And they always
say, if you want to make God laugh, give him
a plan, right? Right. And you'll go, no, that's
not happening. This is happening now, right?
feel now that I've really evolved over time as
a person and how I look at things and I'm no
longer fearful of of the things that I was because
of my experiences in you know the last couple
of decades running a business and kind of saying
well no matter what it's going to work out. Yeah,
and I work out but I also I'm not as steadfast
in the outcome as I once was and getting sorry
Incredibly stressed when things didn't work out
exactly as I had planned And that's a powerful
lesson to not being so steadfast in the result
like You like you said, you know if you want
to make God laugh give him your plan, right?
So I gave all that up right like I have a direction
on where I want to go But I know it's never ever
going to work out the way that I plan for it
to work out. It may work out. And it may take
turns and curves and bumps and everything. But
it does come to some kind of fruition. But it
never it's never to the plan that I create for
myself. Yeah, but you you said you you're not
sucking the steadfast result. But you actually
began to create who you were and who you are
now. From from you just said finance, right?
You were in finance, and then you started your
own business. What was that transition like?
So what actually happened was I was had all these
great life goals, you know, I wanted to be married,
and I wanted to have my babies early. And all
of these, you know, personal goals, as well as
my career goals. And all of that was ticking
along greatly. And I had my second son and I
had been on leave for about two weeks. And my
husband came home and he said, I've quit my job
today. I'm going to go into business for myself.
And I went just like that. That is the man he
is. He makes he just he goes with his gut and
he just makes decisions and everything always
seems to fall into place where I'm the opposite
of that. I love to plan. So as you can imagine,
you know, being a new mom, having a toddler,
that was a really busy time for me anyway, let
alone to take on this decision because I felt
like I needed to control this. And he was like,
it's fine. I have money put away. It's going
to be OK. But what he saw was he had over the
time that we'd been together, he was. in the
armed forces. He'd left that career to become
an electrician and one day he was working in
this big business and he just said look I can
do this better and I can make more money for
us because what he'd realized was in business
you get paid first. The expenses come out and
you only get taxed on what's left over. It's
not you get paid, you pay your taxes and then
you get whatever's left. There was more money,
more opportunity and he wanted more out of life.
He didn't want to just be the standard. He was
like, I want to be the best we can be. I want
to have money for our kids. I just, I want to
have... things, I want to have experiences, I
want to travel. And I was like, I want that too,
but I want to do it in the safety of this little
bubble of a job, right? Yeah, of course. And
so and it just took off. And so I was when I
went back to work, I was looking after my children
working full time, probably like a ridiculous
like 100 hours a week, being a financial planner,
and then coming home and doing his bookwork,
right? Helping him run the business. And one
day he just said, I need you, I need you full
time. So I took a $60 ,000 a year pay cut to
go in and work with my husband in the business
full time. And it was the best thing I ever did
in my life. That's love, right? And then you
said it was the best, best choice you ever made.
What was our best choice? What was what made
it the best choice at that moment? Or was it
something that you kind of had to figure out
later? It was the best choice at that time, because
what it gave me initially, immediately what it
gave me was time back with my kids. So my kids
were really little, they were like, maybe the
oldest one at that time was probably maybe two,
two and a half, you know, three years of age.
And my other son was only probably like, six
months old. And I was missing this. You know,
my son was the first child at daycare. He was
the last child at pickup. They were having to
bath him and feed him dinner because he would
fall asleep and not get to eat because and I
wouldn't see him even awake all day. And I was
missing everything and paying for the privilege
like I was working at a job to pay for childcare.
And immediately what I got was was that family
back. that I wanted to be and have and grow.
I want my kids to know me, not know their childcare
people as their, you know, their mum figure.
I wanted me. So the initial thing I got was family.
And the next thing I got was to see the capacity
of which we could make money and how that could
be done and how we could have more in our pocket
than if I was just working a normal job. And
yes, it had to be driven. Yes, it had to be planned.
Yes. But I had all this experience that I had
gained over, you know, decades working in finance.
And not many people have that. So I think between
the operational aspect of David doing what he
did best and me doing what I did best, it was
the combination of those two that really gave
us the foundations that we needed to kick it
off as well as we did in the beginning. That's
beautiful. I think when you talk about family,
that's like the best. The fact that you get to
spend time with your children, they get to know
you and be with you, that makes the journey to
where you were that much sweeter. And so now
you're in the business, what are you doing in
the business that gives you the, I guess, the
knowledge of entrepreneurship and things like
that, as opposed to just working at a job. So
for me, because it was an industry I hadn't worked
in before, so construction -based businesses,
there was so much that I had to learn in respects
to compliance, operations, how to run workflow
programs, how to structure a job effectively.
do negotiations with suppliers for terms, you
know, making the banking products fit in with
the supplier terms to get the most out of cash
flow. So I kind of had one side of a coin and
I was trying to look at what the other side looked
like. And so over that time, it was a learn as
you go and seek. seek out help and seek out assistance
for those who were successful already, right?
So I'm not afraid to ask the question or say,
you know, what makes you successful and how can
I get some of that because I need that right,
right now. And so I saw people who were better
than me to learn from those people because the
great thing about entrepreneurial, you know,
groups and people is that they want other people
to be successful. because then they have other
people that know and understand what they're
going through. And it's really hard to have those
discussions with family members who don't know
what it's like to run a business or friends.
And they go, it's hard, just give it up and get
a job. Yeah, you're like, I don't want to do
that. Yeah. So I really reached out to those
circles and we became part of other business
groups and it and it just kind of flourished
and we made all these friends and got to go to
these great conferences around the world and
just learn so much. And it really just helped
us flourish in the business. That's beautiful.
And so how did your personal experiences like
in the different industries that you were in
prepare you for the work that you do now? I know
it's probably a take that people don't always
understand. But I came from a corporate business
was very regimented, like extremely compliant
and I've come into an industry and I came into
an industry that was dodgy as just construction
was like everyone's handshake deals cash under
the table you know let's do this and let's do
that right and I was like no not having it I
can't do it because I don't have a dishonest
bone in my body and I just could not align myself
with those kinds of values and so I just did
not feel comfortable working in or around those
kinds of people and so over time we really learned
who we wanted to work with and who we didn't
because I think that was also a reflection of
us in our business and our outcomes and just
really starting to get the vibe and go that guy's
probably not a good payer like he just doesn't
strike me as the most honest human um and I want
to get paid right like that's why we're here
that's why we're doing it and um just in that
I just had learned so much about doing things
the right way legally, that I wanted to make
sure that we maintained that. And I'd come from
a very male dominated industry and I'd come into
an even more male dominated industry. And I knew
that I had to kind of earn my stripes. I had
to learn. I couldn't just walk in and expect
that I would be given the same respect as everybody
else. I really had to kind of, you know, learn
that. Earn the respect. You are now, you're the
founder of ClearPlan Consulting. What do you
do with, is that, you still do that and work
with your husband or is it separate? No, we have,
we actually have multiple businesses. So we do
property development as well. He has another
business doing EV services design. So EV is obviously.
massive thing that's taken off around the world.
So we have that plus the contracting business
that's still running. I don't really have much
to do with that as much anymore. I have my hand
in it just to keep my eye on the money because
that's my strategy. That's my brain. That's where
I love to be. But the clear plan consulting really
comes from my ability to come into a business
and really objectively look at that business
on behalf of the owner. look at where we can
make improvements. But ultimately what I do is
I work out where they want to go personally.
What do they want to achieve personally? What
does that look like? And we start painting a
picture. And what I do is I help them use their
vehicle, which is the greatest vehicle that we
can have a business. to get them where they want
to go financially outside. So I work with their
accountant, their planners and other specialists
to basically say, this is how you can use this
to grow this. And it might be, I want to have,
you know, family holidays every year. I want
to retire early. I would like to be able to branch
into a different division of business. Whatever
that is, it's my job to strategically plan to
get them there using what they've got. Now you,
like just talking to you and just meeting you,
you transition your life, and I know it's in
the message, but it just seems like seamlessly,
right? And I think that's great, right? So you
have the ability to share with people that don't
necessarily have the idea of how to transition
in their lives or how to make their business
seem seamless. So what are the common... The
question here I have is, what are the common
challenges entrepreneurs face when they try to
integrate systems into their business? Here on
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next step toward thriving. So the biggest challenge
always is everything is in the entrepreneur's
mind and a lot of times largely they might have
say under 10 employees in their business, but
they are wearing several hats. Everything is
up here built into their brain. And what we have
a challenge with is actually getting them to
stop. We need to extract the information from
them and be able to put that down into a system
of procedure so that that can be delivered on
a platform where everyone can get access. So
it could just be a step -by -step on how to set
up jobs within their workflow program. It could
be how they operationally run a job and the way
they wanna run it. So it's run in a sequential
way that they need to get the outcome that they
want. Because a team member will come in and
do it their way. But if you as the business owner
need it specifically done in a way. for compliance
or legal reasons or just to make sure that the
outcome is exactly as you would like for the
client so that the finishes are correct. That
needs to be documented but also explained as
to why it's done that way. And so the issue we
have is getting them to stop for those moments
so we can extract the information. We only have
to really do it once and put it on a video and
then we break it down into steps and other ways
to build a system. because they're just everywhere
and being called on all the time. And that's
why most of them get burnt out. Because they
just can't stop. Right? Yeah. Like, if I stop
all over and it'll happen. Well, if you don't
stop and do this, it'll be like this forever.
What is your pain point? Do you want to keep
going forever? Or do you want to be able to take
a week off and go to Hawaii? Like, what is it?
Where's your pain point? Right? Right. So it's
like, that is my biggest one. And then just talking
about cashflow and getting them to understand
about putting money aside for liabilities. You
know, yeah, can you talk to I didn't want to
interrupt. So it's good stuff. Um, I forgot I
was gonna say, oh, so you talked about pain point
and structure in your business. Let's start to
the the beginning entrepreneurs that don't necessarily
know how to pay themselves or set money aside.
What do you say about that? That I love this
because this is so great. This can be done when
you're foundationally setting up a startup. It
can be done through scale stage any stage in
your business when you finding that cash flow
is a challenge for you. And so some people are
better at this than others but where the basics
really start from is in a great book called Profit
First from Mike Mullowitz. Now, where he writes,
and it's obviously written for the US market,
but we can adapt it to any country in the world,
just tweaking it a little bit. But basically,
every major liability has a bank account. Now,
in Australia, we get a transactional account
and you can have several savings accounts attached
to that that are free. and they might earn interest
along the way, you can label them on your banking.
But essentially what that is, is every major
liability is allocated and every week or via
every payment that you receive in, you need to
allocate a portion to those liabilities. It could
be for in Australia, we have company tax. Then
we have something called GST, which is a percentage
like you guys have sales tax on each of your
items. We have what we call GST and that's a
fixed percentage. And so when we're getting that
invoice in, we automatically need to allocate
a percentage of that invoice to there. We make
sure that you guys have 401k accounts for people
to put money aside for retirement. We have what's
called superannuation. We have to hold on to
that money for our employees legally, and it's
not our money. We need to provision and put that
away. Payroll taxes. What we do is we set those
accounts out, I label them, I look at their industry
and I look at what percentage profit they should
be making on an average and we start them small
with small increments to ease them into it and
then over time we get them to the percentages
that they need to have there. But the best part
is there's an account called Profit and we set
that margin and we make sure that they get paid
that first. So that we are growing into a mindset
where the profit is always front of mind. It's
not I'm getting paid last because so many business
owners will pay everyone else in their business
but not take a real wage or not provision anything
in a war chest or somewhere safe as a fallback
if anything were to happen. No emergency type
fund. You know, we talk a lot about What's that
gentleman's name in America? Oh, what's his?
Dave Ramsey. And he talks about provisioning,
right, and paying off everything. Now, I agree
to some extent, and then others, you know, I'm
open to using things for cash flow like cards
or terms on a trade account. But that there right
there, The Profit First, that is a great book.
And that, to me, is the absolute foundations
for running any major business. I'm going to
get that. First of all, thank you for that. You're
welcome. Do you want another suggestion on a
great book for investments? Yes, please. There's
a book called Girls That Invest. It was actually
written by a lady who's based in New Zealand.
I'm just trying to remember the name of it now.
But that there is a very good book, irrespective
of your gender. It says Girls That Invest, but
basically the explanations about investing and
starting very basic, it is just very well written.
And so I find that I pass on all these books
to other people just because they're so great.
Give you some knowledge because it's really about
getting the knowledge and understanding and knowing
where to go to get that right. Yeah, this is
girl girls in invest girls that invest in it.
Yes, and it's a pink and purple. Yeah. All right,
profit first, girls that invest, check that book
out. Is it an audio book just for people who
don't like to read? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And but
the great thing, but with the girls that invest,
it has a lot of what are they like examples there
where they've actually taken real people and
what their own personal investment structures
are. So you might not get that when you're actually,
you know, on Audible, you won't get to see the
significance of that. But you know, whatever
works for you. My husband, my husband won't he
will not read a book like he only does audible,
right. And it's because he's in the car 90 %
of the time. So that's what he does. It's easy.
Well, if we don't, we don't have a lot of time
in the day, I think it's it's okay for the audible
because it it you can listen to it while you're
doing something and you still you know, bring
in the knowledge and let it ruminate and all
that good stuff. But there's nothing better than
a written book that's written well. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. Yeah. So as going back to the pain yourself,
is there a percentage that you work off of? Or
is it like a set percentage? Or is it does it
differ in that profit area? So every industry
is slightly different. And so Because in electrical
contracting for us, that was our business, there's
a large percentage that goes towards material
expenditure. So it means that the profit is a
little bit less. But if you had, say, a service
-based business like I do with consulting, the
margin is more because there's no real material
expenditure there. And the overheads and expenses,
you know, I can work from anywhere. I go out
to people's businesses. The biggest expense I
have is if I have to travel interstate or internationally
to service people's business. And, you know,
obviously that's a cost, but usually the client
will pay as part of that. So for an electrical
contracting, you know, if we could get a year
where it's like 15%, that would be amazing. Right.
In Australia, when you're in construction, in
the bigger contracts, the primary, the builder
may actually hold 5 % of the total amount of
your contract until 12 until you know, the end
of the project, and you get at the end, two and
a half percent, and then 12 months later, you
get the other two and a half, right? So you're
not even getting all your profit up front. At
the end of the project, you've they hold that
because that's for your warranty period. Okay.
And so it's all these small little things that
you need to be aware of. Because if you're doing
your cash flow forecasting, and you're thinking,
I'm going to have this amount of money, and then
it's not there. because it's being held, well,
you need to now think, well, how am I going to
run without that extra money? Because that it
might seem small two and a half percent, but
over hundreds of thousands of dollars, or millions
of dollars on a project, it's a lot of money.
Yeah, yeah. And so you want to make sure that
you're getting every bit of that money in your
pocket. And simple things like when I go through
someone's accounting software, and I'm looking
at their expenses, I'm looking how I can pull
back every time at least 10%. So if there's subscriptions
that they're paying for that they're not using,
or just anything that's an expense that is rubbish,
just not called for, or just wasted, I'm pulling
that back because I'm trying to pull back 10
% and then I'm trying to advance you forward
another 10%. So if I can get you to a point where
I think if you're not charging correctly and
we can put your mark up, further up, and I can
save your expenses straight away. I've made you
money. Yeah, yeah. And and teaching people how
to do that for themselves so they can do it every
year and not have to get me in is is part of
my skill set and my niche. You know, I don't
know. Some people may think that this is something
that they don't need because they don't necessarily
see the issue. What do you say to those people
that that that think that way? like, oh, I could
figure this out on my own, my own and think that
they have the answer. But it's still kind of
crazy. What do you say to those those that mindset?
It's so funny that you say that because when
I was financial planning, there were people that
would come in and sit down and say, but I could
learn this off the internet. What do I need to
do? it's it's true right like if you can read
you can learn so it's not to say the information
isn't accessible anybody can get this information
but my question always is you're sitting in the
chair across from me have you done it if we are
here in another week or in another month and
we're having the same conversation what you have
lost is time you will never get back get back
yeah and so what i'm giving you for the cost
of my time is a skill set right now that it's
taken me decades to learn, I'm going to give
it to you all in one hit. And you can choose
to learn it along with me as I do it for you,
or you can just pay me to get it done, right?
Either way, what's your time worth? Is your time
better invested learning the skill set, or is
it better paying a specialist and going on with
what you need to do with your time? And so that's
where we really talk about what your time is
worth. I know that my rate, people might say,
oh my gosh, $500 an hour is a lot of money. Okay,
it might be in the scheme of things, but what
you're getting is decades worth of knowledge
that I can actually help you make possibly hundreds
of thousands or millions of dollars and more
profit and more money in your pocket. And so
when they're sitting across from me, that's the
question. It's like, okay, well, why haven't
you done it then? That's what that's what it
comes back down to. Why haven't you done it then?
And it's like, well, I don't know what I'm doing.
Well, acknowledge that. Yeah, exactly. Right.
And it's like, I don't want to be a bookkeeper.
So I don't want to go learn that skill set. I
pay someone I don't want to be an accountant.
I I look, I love my accountant, and I probably
harass him every week. Because, you know, I we
talk strategy high level. But I pay him because
I don't want to go and do that. And so I wouldn't
go and learn to be a plumber, I wouldn't go learn
to be an electrician or a doctor, because I pay
for the specialist and I know what their time
is worth. And I'm happy to do that because it
allows me the time and space to do what I need
to do, which is be with my family and be with
my kids. But I'm not doing this, which I love
doing for businesses and business owners. I want
to be with my kids and create memories. Nice.
I love that. And just kind of going, I don't
know if making this connect, but there's a lot
of people, business entrepreneurs that, you know,
they kind of live in the chaos of a new business
or even if it's you know if it's still going
but they live in the chaos of it and they may
be in it and it's like oh it's fine you know
this is kind of how I live um what do you say
to those people that you know they have the the
chaotic life or the chaotic business that may
just be just a float just a float you know um
but there's potential in there what do you what
do you say to those that mindset If they're open
to learning and open to change, we can give them
so much more of their time back. I actually experienced
this with my husband, their team many years ago
used to call him Cyclone Dave and probably be
like Hurricane Dave, I guess in in terminology
for the US, he would come in, he would mess things
up and he would leave, right? He would just come
in where there were no problems and he would
create chaos. Because when he actually had given
over control to all these other people in the
business, and it was growing, for a period he
wasn't needed. It's like he didn't have anything
to do. He was like, I legit do not know what
I'm doing with my day. I'm not needed. I have
somebody for every role. And so he was looking
for things to fix to save. And so he would create
these things, not even consciously, it would
just happen. And I would just say, Like you're
not needed they go and put your time somewhere
else and that's how we ended up with other businesses
Doing other things because he was really needed
right in there And so I would say my question
would be is it a conscious thing that you're
having all of these chaotic stresses Is it actually
something that you've created unbeknownst to
you that you don't realize? That we could fix
and if I fix it, are you gonna go and create
another thing? You know, is it because you've
grown your business to a size where you may not
be needed? Do you need to shift your focus and
potentially look at the strategy of what the
business can give you and start working on your
own wealth creation outside the business? And
knowing and understanding that, is that better
time spent for you? If it's not, in that example,
if it legitimately is just chaotic and everything's
everywhere, we can absolutely help people get
their time back if they're willing to take the
time to implement some small changes over a period
of weeks or months. Do you find people, I wouldn't
know if I would say self sabotage, but like you
said, kind of self create that issue, because
they don't want to relinquish the power, control,
all that, all that good stuff. And they're okay
in the, the world. Absolutely and that's there's
some deep psychological rooted things like there
might be money stories from growing up and reasons
why they feel they can't do things a certain
way. It could be from previous traumas that have
happened in a job or it could be because of you
know nearly losing the business. previously because
a job didn't go well and so therefore they will
not change how they do things in this regard
because they're just so scared of losing it and
like you were saying earlier you know being driven
by a fear mindset as opposed to an abundance
mindset right and so there are some things that
people just need to kind of question where does
that come from where does that feeling come from
deep deep down and objectively look at it and
go there was that time that this happened and
I struggled and so I thought I'm never going
to allow that to happen again and so I'm just
not negotiable on these things and so sometimes
it's it's a real work through we got to talk
about it and say okay well what if we looked
at doing it this way and you still felt comfortable
but we could make these small changes how would
you feel about that and when I can show you that
works then would you be open to maybe changing
a little bit more? because I can show you how
that may help you as well. And we would never
put you in a position where it would all fall
over, right? I'm going to give you backups for
backups, because I don't want that to happen
for you. Backups for backups. I like that. You're
giving such great, great energy. I don't know
if I was to mention this, but it is five something
in the morning. 539. I don't have any makeup
on because it is so early over here. But it is
early. So again, I appreciate that. But in the
world of entrepreneurship, we talked to beginners
been beginning business owners of people who
want to scale their business. So do have a question
about in your experience because you work with
different sized businesses, what's the biggest
mistake entrepreneurs make when they're trying
to scale their business? They pull a lot of money
out of their business personally for reasons
that are not legitimate. They get themselves
into a financial bind because they've bought,
might be they buy a new really expensive vehicle,
for example, or they might buy a house and they
push their business to the financial limits and
they don't leave anything in the tank for any
emergencies, right? It's like, I am running on
fumes. That's okay. I'll get just enough to keep
me going. And they're draining this thing dry
before it's even had an opportunity to stabilize
foundationally. So I see them sucking things
out going, that's okay. It's a business expense.
I'm like, No, it's not. Taxation office is not
going to like that at all. And so I always say
to them, look, if we're building for something,
we've got a plan for it. So if you want a $500
,000 vehicle, no problem. No problems, right?
We can provision for that. But what I need you
to do is put it in a way where that asset is
held separately from your business, essentially
untouchable. How do I do that? How do I get you
money legitimately to you know, get this thing
that you want. It could be a house, it could
be a car, you know, jet ski, whatever. Everybody
has their things that they want, right? Their
drivers, vision boards, what's life meant to
look like? And it's how do I help you get there?
How do I keep the profit in the business so that
you don't drain the life force from this thing
that's giving you the food on your plate and
have you over commit it? right? Because you need
it's a beast that you always need to feed business,
you need to always be having the leads generated
and making sure that money's coming in, that
that money is being managed effectively, the
business itself is being managed effectively,
that your team are all on board with what the
outcomes are aiming to be. And so that it's run
like a well oiled machine, because you can't
push something to its limits that isn't isn't
being managed correctly. You know, you're going
to kill it if you don't look after it and and
nurture it essentially. So it'll give you everything
you want and more. But you have to make sure
that you're you're taking care of it in that
way. And so, you know, people just kind of like
milk it dry too early. Milking it dry too early.
Well, when they're in it, they probably don't
realize that they're doing it. It's just it's
probably new to them. And they're just like,
Oh, I got this, this guy before you know it.
But it's Michael, it's a justification, right?
It's really hard. So I'm going to go buy this.
Okay, exactly. Exactly. You know, say again.
I said, I get it, right? I get it. Like, I'm
there for it. But let's look at it in a way where
we can plan for it, not just do it and try to
say, well, that's okay. Because if you're not
thinking what could happen on the negative side
of that, then you know, what's the risk? Like
you risk you pull 100 grand out of your business
and you've only got $20 ,000 left in the thing,
in the account, and tax bill comes up and you
can't pay it. Well, what are you going to do?
You're going to sell that car at a loss. Lesson
learned. Lesson learned. That's a tough lesson
to learn. Man, it's a tough lesson to learn.
And I don't think, like, unless, how do you stop
somebody from, well, not necessarily stop, but
how do you give the lesson to someone who hasn't
been in that space before, before it actually
happens? So obviously, we can talk to the challenges
we've had that we've helped other people with
and we can show them and talk to them about what's
actually happened in our own situations. Some
people can't learn that way. Some people have
to go through the hurt to understand it and I
can't stop that. I can give every platform every
provision but if that person is hell bent on
needing to go their own way, then I'll happily
bid them the very best and say, look, if you
don't want help, that's totally fine. But at
the end of the day, a lot of those people may
come back in five or 10 years time and say, OK,
look, I'm ready for help now. And that's that's
great, too, because I can't always I can I can
speak to things, but some people are kinetic
learners. They've got to be in it right. They've
got to do it. And I get it because everybody
learns in a different way. Two of my kids are
high -functioning autistics. One's an ADHD. So
I got the neurodiversity thing going. And they
all learn differently. And they all need different
things to feel comfortable. And so I understand
that. And I will give every platform that I can
for those business owners to feel comfortable.
But until they are happy to go ahead, it's really
their choice. How do you assess your clients?
what you what you could give them and, and figure
out what's best for them for the for them. So
what we do initially is we talk a lot about what
they actually want to achieve. And if I think
that that person is just not negotiable, like
not open to suggestion or learning, I'll probably
just say, Look, Thank you for your time. Unfortunately,
I won't be able to assist you. Okay, totally
cool with that. I'm not for everybody, but I
need somebody who's open to make changes. I have
people who will come to me and we'll talk about
what their life looks like and they'll do up
a vision board or, you know, we have a process
that I go through about what does life look like
now and what does life got to look like? What
would you like it to look like? I'll ask them
questions and I'll say okay so you've put a Maserati
on there or a Lamborghini or whatever right?
Is that really what you want or is that what
you think society wants you to want? Good question.
And we'll ask the question because I want to
know if I'm working to get you that Ferrari is
it really you or is it something you're going
to get and it's an empty success because it's
not really you it's what you think in your mind
rich looks like right? But what's wealth? Wealth
to me is intergenerational wealth for my family
and maybe their kids and having multiple streams
of income passively outside of my business that
my business has helped to create. Owning everything
outright and being able to swipe the card wherever
I want and never think about money and have holidays
and adventures and experiences all year round
with my family, right? That's mine. In that nowhere
have I said I need to have something really extravagant,
because in my mind, my wealth is not that. And
so I really encourage people to ask the question
of themselves, you know, is this really what
I want? Or is this what society has told me that
I want? And so I'll get you what you need. If
you want a portfolio of 20 houses, you know,
okay, why? Why do you want 20 houses? Oh, because
I want money. And okay, have you ever had investment
properties before? Do you know what's involved?
Like, because that's a whole different ballgame,
right? Another beast. So it's, it's really about
working with people who are open to the learnings
and being able to ask those deep questions. And
so we do that assessment in the beginning, before
we take a client on to say, yes, we can help
you or no, we can't. So got many things from
that. But what I wrote down was be coachable.
And understand what wealth looks like to you,
not necessarily what wealth looks like to you
because of what it may look like to other people
in the world. Yeah. Yeah. Like that. What advice
do you have for entrepreneurs? Like you alluded
to this earlier in the conversation, about wearing
all hats for entrepreneurs. What advice do you
have for those entrepreneurs that are trying
to wear all hats in the business? And I'll just
say me. I started off that way, but I was like,
this is not sustainable. It just does not work.
No, because you're absolutely exhausted, right?
At the end of the day, and every day runs into
the next, it becomes Groundhog Day, there's no
weekends, there's no downtime. And unless you
generally live to run your business, you need
something else, you need a break. And most of
us can't take a holiday for more than a few days
because of the way our brain works. You know,
we can't sit still, right? It's just the way
we work. But it would be nice to have the freedom
to choose, right, Michael? Yes. And so what we
want the freedom to choose, that is what life
is about. So what we want is when we can incorporate
people into the business as these specialists,
and we don't always get it right the first time.
So that's a whole nother lesson. But if we have
provisioned funds to make sure that we have money
to go and bring on that specialist, time to train,
figure out if they're the right person that we
need within the business, and once we've locked
in and solidified that role, then we move into
doing that for the next role. And I tell people
when to basically trigger to hire. So we'll say,
OK, well, when you have this amount of money
and you're doing this amount per week in this
role, we really need to look at putting that
into a full time position or a part time position.
You might need you might do it via a virtual
assistant. You might do that with someone that
sits full time within your business. It could
be a subcontractor. There's many ways that we
can do that. It doesn't have to be the traditional
way of putting someone in as a full time person
if you can't sustain that yet. And that's fine.
That's okay. But it's about letting them know
what's available and out there that they can,
you know, source those skill sets from and then
saying, okay, well, what fits best for your business?
Let's look at that. Let's explore that. And then
let's recruit for that position. Let's really,
really take the time on the hiring process because,
you know, That's where all the money and time
spent is in the beginning part of training. And
then when you are happy with that person, like,
let's move on to the next one until you basically
have a team behind you that have the same shared
vision for your business and will help you with
the planning so that you can have time back and
have freedom to choose. And this all just really
supports business growth and also for the entrepreneur
owner. to really still be able to take time for
themselves and their family. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.
Do you want your kids to say my parents always
worked? That you know what I mean? Like when
you look back and they're 21 and you go on their
21st birthday, you know, what do you remember
about your life? And they say that you always
worked and were never there. How would that feel?
You know, that's not a great legacy you want
to leave as far as memory is concerned. But I
mean, if you bought them in and you said this
is what I do, you know, in my business and this
we're growing this so that we can have everything
but I now am going to take time out from that
and be with you. I want you to understand that
when I'm with you, I'm with you 100%. But the
reason I work so much is because I'm doing this
so that we can have you know, everything that
we need, and I can be with you as much time as
we can, you know. Yeah. Yeah. So you worked with
operations. And can you walk us through like
the first steps entrepreneurs should? I don't
know if I should take. Yeah, they should take
one. They're set up their operational part of
the business. So operations is really fun because
depending on the type of the business, it can
be just a few things that we need to put in place
or it could be multiple, it could be multi -layered.
So in the example of say the electrical business,
there is different types of electrical. So there
could be domestic electrical with residential
houses. It could be brand new builds. It could
be multi -story high rise apartment blocks. It
could be industrial. And so what we have to do
with in a business is say, okay, operationally,
let's just start with where majority of your
work is coming from right now. Say it's a brand
new home builds. Okay, well, there's five stages.
to electrical in say, North Queensland, because
we have, you know, cyclones, hurricanes up there.
And so we need to document operationally what
is expected of your team at every stage in the
business. And I need to build that in so that
the team have exactly what they need, because
everybody is just looking for instruction, right?
And if they aren't given it, they'll just do
it in the way that they know. So operationally,
it'll be like the team know that they need to
attend the workshop in the morning. They need
to collect the materials that they need. They
need to advise the office team that they're completing
that task for the day. They have a phone with
their run sheet of the day. They basically click
on here. They do that. And it's all documented,
everything that they need to do. And so when
things arise for the business owner to address,
they'll say to their team member, did you follow
the procedure what happened so they can understand
if it's a procedural problem operationally or
is it the team member not doing something for
a particular reason and so then that becomes
a training and gives an opportunity to be a good
leader and develop leadership skills in training
that team member to to do things in a way and
the reasons as to why that's done that way and
it's good because there's communication there.
And they get to work through that and say, Okay,
well, that was something that happened. And we
could have avoided that by doing x. So let's
put something in place to make sure that we go
don't go down that road again. Is there a bit
of foresight that needs to happen in that space?
Yeah, so we we map that out on a really macro
level of what that will look like. And so the
business owner knows what we're trying to achieve
what the outcome will be. And the team you know,
are really good generally at helping you document
that because let's just say the entrepreneur
only has, you know, 40 hours a week, he wants
to be in his business. And so that team member
go, okay, well, you're about to go and do an
electrical lead in, for example, I would like
you to video and take photos of you actually
doing that and talk through what you do when
you do that. and we're going to use that and
we're going to say okay where can we make improvements
and how and we're going to develop a step by
step on that procedure based on what you've done
and a lot of people will absolutely freak out
they will freak out because of the level they're
like oh my god there's too much responsibility
but sometimes people depending on the personality
they need something to be you know out of the
normal, they need these little tasks to be like
little wins and go, okay, cool. If you help me
document this, I'm going to give you an extra
5 % in your pay, or I'm going to give you a weekend
away with your family, or I'm going to give you
this, right? Like whatever, whatever floats their
boat. But don't do all the work yourself, get
your team on the ground to help you. You've got
a whole computer in your hand at any given time,
like make a video. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Man,
it's so like all the knowledge that you have
comes from decades of experience. And with new
entrepreneurs and people who are entrepreneurs
but still kind of live in the chaos, within all
of that, they're still purpose, right? And they're
looking for a purpose and creating a purpose
for themselves. or their business may be a purpose
-driven business. Do you feel that you are living
your purpose down? Absolutely. I don't have to
do what I'm doing. This actually came because
when we were in our business groups, people kept
asking me for advice. And my husband was saying,
this is a business, you should be charging for
this. I'm like, no, I just love helping people.
I just want to see people be successful and not
make all of the mistakes if we can help them
avoid it. Right. But it was just became so often.
And so my purpose came really without me even
knowing because I just generally loved helping
people. And what I would say to somebody who's
in that period where they're not really sure
or they're still exploring that. and say, sometimes
it just comes and you don't even expect it. You
can look back and go, wow, you know, I really
love doing this. Like it fulfills me. And when
I fill up my cup. you know I can give to so many
others and that's kind of what happened for me.
You know our business became really successful
and it took a really long time to get there but
when it did it freed up my time and my kids are
at school all day so I'm still looking for things
to do right. And so for me I fill my cup by helping
other people and so it's almost selfish in that
way because I you know I'm doing that because
it helps me but in saying that I wouldn't be
getting discouraged if you haven't found it yet.
Sometimes it'll just happen upon you unexpectedly.
And sometimes it'll be a very defined moment
when you're doing something and you'll go, my
goodness, I feel that in my core. I know that
is something that I'm driven to do. And my purpose
is to do this. And this is why. And if you are
purpose led, if your intentions are good, if
you are coachable, as you said, open to learning
and you want to work along, you know, great other
entrepreneurs, get into a group, meet people,
exchange ideas and say, you know, this is my
purpose and get it out there so people know who
you are and what you do and why. And that reciprocation
will come. It will come. Clear plan consulting.
What is your mission? And how do people get in
contact with you? So my mission obviously is
to help as many business owners as possible in
the time that I've got on this earth. I've got
a lot of the years left and a lot of knowledge
to give people. So I want to do that. Now people
can reach out to me via my website. I have a
YouTube channel. I'm across the platforms. So
you can find me there with the tagline, Cleveland
Consulting, Proprietary Limited. And so if you
reach out and we can have a conversation, I've
done a lot of conversations with people, even
internationally, and we can just shoot ideas.
I talk about programs that people use. I know
that SimPro, for example, is a workflow program
that's just come into the US and Canada. It was
purchased from an Australian company. And people
contact me just about how to use it, right? So
look, I'm open to having conversations and helping
people where I can. And one of the things that
I really, really want to do is learn how I can
help kids get the start in their entrepreneurial
journey as well. And so what I'm actually building
now is a platform to teach kids about finance
fundamentals and all of the basics that are in
business so I can grow that so we have a new
generation coming through behind us that have
already got the learnings at their fingertips.
That's excellent. I love that. So as your last
last question is for you know, what's on your
heart and your mind, you probably have said this
already, but in your spirit, in your soul, what
would you like to share with people as your last
words on the podcast today? What I would probably
say to everybody is be sure in yourself of your
skill set and your ability to learn. If you are
open to learning, if you have two ears, if you
can Um, exchange ideas and be objective. You
can achieve absolutely anything in your life.
Don't think that you can't have everything that
you want. Just be open to changing the way that
you might get it because like I said, if you
want to make God love, have a plan. Everything
will come to you in a way that it needs to and
at the time that it needs to come to you and
reach out for help. Great words. Again, first
of all, thank you. I feel like I'm in the studio
over in Australia talking to you right now. It's
really great to have you here at five, six o
'clock in the morning there and pouring all your
energy and your knowledge into this podcast.
With a deep thanks from my heart, I appreciate
you for being here. That's my pleasure. Yes,
thank you. And for you listeners and you watchers,
the question of the week is, what's the biggest
lesson you've learned that you believe every
entrepreneur, including yourself, should know
no matter where they are in their journey? And
make sure that you connect with Sonia. We'll
have the information in the description. And
as we always say, let's make thriving our new
normal. See you next week. Before you go, I just
want to say thank you. Thank you for being a
part of the Thrabull journey. Every time you
show up here, you're choosing growth, clarity,
and the deeper work of becoming who you're meant
to be in this world. And if you're ready to reconnect
with what truly lights you up, I created something
powerful that can help you. It's called The Empowered
Path, Seven Days to Reclaim Your Purpose and
Passion. It's a beautifully designed guided workbook
that walks you through a week of powerful prompts.
clarity building tools, and real mindset shifts.
Now you can get instant access to it today. It's
a small investment for a huge return, your energy,
your clarity, your alignment. And if you want
to take it deeper, check this out. I'm offering
a limited number of free 30 minute purpose coaching
sessions. No pressure. No pitch, just space for
you to reconnect with your direction, your gifts,
and what's next. So you can grab the guide and
book your session at the link in the show notes.
Let's not just go through the motions. Let's
really walk this path on purpose. I appreciate
you. And like we always say, let's make thriving
our new normal. And I'll talk to you soon.