Financial Freedom and Business Success with Staci Millard

Financial freedom is something CPA turned entrepreneur Staci Millard shows her clients. After a 15-year career in accounting fueled by her love for numbers and problem-solving, Staci built a multimillion-dollar business. She has dedicated herself to helping hundreds of small business owners gain clarity on their finances, improve their profits, succeed, and ultimately gain financial freedom. 

Through her business, she offers personalized programs like The Business Blueprint, a 90-day system to boost profits and streamline operations, and Profit on Purpose, which focuses on mastering the money mindset. With her deep understanding of entrepreneurial challenges, Staci is passionate about empowering others to build thriving businesses.

In this blog, we’ll recap her episode to understand what is financial freedom, proper money management techniques, and how you can gain financial independence.

Staci Millard’s Career Success

The career change from being an accountant to a business educator was quite the journey. Staci Millard pivoted her career from accounting to mentoring in a way that felt natural but required strategic adjustments. She says, “I think there’s a lot of it that came absolutely naturally”, referencing the ability to guide others when it comes to understanding financial security. Static continues, “I’d been doing it for years and years and now just had more time to focus on it without the day-to-day tax deadlines and all that fun stuff.”

After years of providing financial guidance, stepping away from the day-to-day demands of tax deadlines allowed her to focus on sharing her expertise with a broader audience. Selling her localized business, however, highlighted a challenge: her network and contacts were tied to that specific location, limiting her initial reach. Reflecting on this, Staci emphasizes the importance of personal branding, which she believes could have expanded her network and created greater opportunities sooner. While her core advice to business owners remained consistent, the shift to mentoring required her to build an audience that could benefit from her insights.

Staci Millard’s career shift was not a planned move but rather the result of an epiphany during the post-pandemic period. She realized she no longer wanted to run her business in its current form, as the firm had outgrown her.

While multiple factors ultimately led to her decision to do a career pivot, it was personal brand-building and creating a network outside of her localized business that really allowed her to thrive. Staci says, “I’ve met some of the most incredible human beings and put more mindful intention into how I build in the future. It was definitely a lesson. It wasn’t all ease.”

The process of selling her firm happened quickly, leaving her initially uncertain about her next steps. However, this unplanned transition became a valuable learning experience, enabling her to approach future opportunities with greater mindfulness and intention. Despite the challenges, Staci found the shift to be transformative, allowing her to connect with inspiring individuals and rebuild her path with purpose.

Career Success That Leads To Financial Freedom

For most entrepreneurs who started out in corporate, a resounding issue is the hardship of maintaining a work-life balance. When Staci sold her business, it was partly also because of burnout, saying that burnout can often stem from overwork but also from feeling misaligned with your current work. In overcoming that burnout came a difficult decision. She realized, “I really had to look at, you know, I am tired. How would I do business differently the next time? A lot of business owners joke that we’re not employable. The way we work is just like we could never work for somebody else again, and that was a truth for me.”

Financial freedom and career success can go hand in hand. When Staci transitioned from her 9 to 5, she took on a similar, self-managed role and focused on gaining financial freedom rather than just chasing creativity. Over time, it allowed her to appease the burnout by working on her own terms while simultaneously meeting all her financial obligations and goals. 

With this freedom, it allowed her to finally align with her true mission which was helping others in a meaningful way. Staci says success doesn’t require a perfect plan upfront. Just take those first steps, make room for growth, and build slowly to find fulfillment and reach maximum impact in your career. 

The Business Skills You Need To Gain Financial Stability

When asked about her biggest takeaways from being an entrepreneur, here’s what Staci has to give advice-wise. 

1. Ownership Starts at the Top
   
   As the business owner, everything starts and stops with you. What happens in the business is a reflection of what you tolerate and how you show up. Accountability begins with the leader. Staci says, “One of the key concepts that I really had to get past was that everything starts and stops with the person at the top, which is you, and that was really hard.”
2. Actions Speak Louder Than Intentions
   
   Intentions alone are not enough; your actions set the tone for how others behave and interact within your business. According to Staci, “People need to be accountable for what they do.” referencing how actions are more important than your intention. “It’s your actions that show, how people should behave, and when I took ownership of that, things really changed.”
3. The Power of NumbersUnderstanding and leveraging numbers can significantly simplify and free up operations within a business.
4. Leadership is a Learnable Skill
   
   Leadership is not innate or automatic with a title. It requires intentional learning, practice, and the ability to adapt techniques to fit your vision and team dynamics. Staci says, “I don’t think that anybody was ever taught leadership.” Like any other skill, including her knowledge on accounting, it was something she had to actively seek out and practice in order to master.
5. Your Business Depends on Effective Leadership
   
   To grow beyond yourself, your business needs a team, and effectively managing that team requires honing leadership skills. A good leader creates a positive workplace while ensuring excellent client experiences.
6. Titles Don’t Equal LeadershipBeing appointed a leadership position doesn’t automatically make you an effective leader. It takes continuous effort to master the nuances of true leadership. Like any of the relevant business skills, you don’t become a leader just because you’re on top of the organization. Staci says, that to be an effective leader, “it’s going to take some skill set. So that was one of my biggest learnings.”

Advice For New Entrepreneurs

While Staci gives strategic advice for business owners, she also has some advice for people looking to venture out into their own businesses. 

Understand the Market

• Most products or services already exist in some form. Research competitors and identify what customers are currently paying for similar solutions to gauge pricing and market demand.
  
  Understand the market with The Write Direction’s business research report services. We’ll research the market for you to see just how viable your ideas are!

Conduct Market Research

• Don’t hesitate to ask potential customers, friends, and family for feedback. Understand their needs and what they believe would truly make a difference in their lives.
  
  The Write Direction offers research and case study writing services to help you on your journey!

Overcome Fear of Visibility

• Being seen and engaging with others is essential for a business. If you’re unwilling to be visible, it will be difficult to connect with and serve your target audience effectively.
  
  Once you get over the fear of being seen, consider The Write Direction’s custom business plan writing services! We’ll do the planning for you so all you need to do is execute!

Align with a Purposeful Mindset

• Approach your business with the intent to genuinely help and provide value, rather than focusing solely on making sales. Asking customers how you can serve them better helps you align with their needs and build trust.

Watch An Entrepreneur’s Vibes Podcast Featuring Staci Millard

 

Staci’s journey reminds us that success is about more than just the right idea—it’s about building connections, refining your skills, and leading with purpose. If her insights inspired you, imagine what you can achieve with the right tools and support. Explore our tailored content and marketing solutions at The Write Direction to start making your vision a reality today!

Staci Millard [00:00:00] Business is just like basically failing a whole bunch of times and learning to do better. And if you can adopt that mindset of like, “Okay, I’m gonna fail,” and just make it a game, that’s where the real fun begins. 

Patricia [00:00:26] Welcome back to An Entrepreneur’s Vibes, the podcast that gives insight into the minds of visionary entrepreneurs and business leaders, brought to you by The Write Direction, a leading professional and technical writing company based in North America. Each episode we explore stories and experiences of those who dare to dream took the leap and built their own empires. Join us in uncovering the secrets to success and lessons learned along the way. So if you’re just starting out your entrepreneurial journey or you’re already a seasoned business pro, you’ll find inspiration, knowledge and good vibes right here. Today, we’re thrilled to have a truly inspiring guest with us. She is a CPA turned educator whose passion for numbers and puzzles led to a successful 15 year career in accounting. She didn’t stop there, though. She went on to build a multimillion dollar business, all while helping hundreds of small business owners understand their numbers and increase their profits. She has a deep understanding of the struggles entrepreneurs face and is committed to seeing them succeed by offering personalized services like The Business Blueprint, a step by step system to increase profit and flow in just 90 days, and Profit on Purpose, where she helps business owners master their money mindset. Today, she’s here to share her journey, her wisdom, and her strategies for creating thriving businesses. Please help me in welcoming to the show, Staci Millard! 

Staci Millard [00:01:45] Thank you so much for having me! 

Patricia [00:01:46] Hi, Staci! How are you today? Happy Monday, by the way. 

Staci Millard [00:01:50] Yeah, I’m doing great. It’s a fantastic Monday. 

Patricia [00:01:53] Glad to hear that. So without further ado, I would love to ask you, how was it, the transition from your accounting career to becoming a business educator and coach? 

Staci Millard [00:02:05] It was a very interesting change. I think there’s a lot of it that came absolutely naturally. I’d been doing it for years and years and now just had more time to, I guess, focus on it without the day to day of, you know, tax deadlines and all that fun stuff. But I also learned a lot along the way that I think, you know, a lot of business owners can take is when you have a very localized business, the world doesn’t really operate that way anymore. And so I went from having a business that operated in one city, obviously did very well, but my contacts and my network, when I sold that business, I had a non-compete where, not relevant, but they just didn’t have the same value as what they had before. So if I had one piece of advice to business owners is, you know, this discussion about personal branding, had I been paying attention to it along the way, I think I could have created a lot bigger network and a lot more value. So my reach could have went further faster, shifting from, you know, an accounting and tax practice into being a mentor. And I think that’s interesting because like, the advice wouldn’t have changed. Like the advice I gave business owners didn’t change, and I already knew that. I just didn’t have the audience to tell it to. 

Patricia [00:03:20] And was that transition something that happened gradually? Was it something that you planned or something just came along while you were at it? 

Staci Millard [00:03:28] Yeah, I had this epiphany moment, you know, through after the pandemic that was like, I don’t know that I want to run business this way anymore. I had amazing clients, but the firm really had outgrown me, and there was like multiple kind of reasons I decided to exit, but it wasn’t something I was ever planning. And I think like building a personal brand, and building that network, and building it in a way that it’s like you can actually reach those people after the fact, like, I hadn’t put that effort in. And so, you know, in the few months that it did take to sell and go through all the logistics of selling, it was very quick. It was kind of just like a rip the band-aid off. And it left me like sort of standing in the dust going like, “Okay, now what do I do?” Now, that’s been like an absolutely phenomenal process. And I’ve met some of the most incredible human beings after that and put more mindful intention into how I build in the future. But it was definitely – it was a lesson. It wasn’t all ease. 

Patricia [00:04:29] [00:04:29]And how would you say your experience in accounting shaped the way you understood business and entrepreneurship? [4.7s]

Staci Millard [00:04:35] [00:04:35]So I think a lot of entrepreneurs, like we hear over and over again that this failure statistics for businesses is like astronomical, right? You’re better chances of failing than surviving, and I think that’s for multiple reasons. But the advantage that I had in business is seeing, you know, the finances behind it and really, like, using the finances, you can tell if a business owner is taking time off, if they’re the one doing all the work, if all the pressure is on them, how happy their team likely is. You can see how happy their customers are by repeat business. Like all of those cues about really like having a great business and an enjoyable business were in the numbers. And so being an accountant, I could tell you like if it’s exhausting because if you’re financially strapped, that business is probably weighing on you every moment of the day. Right? Like those narratives when you see the numbers behind the business and then you hear what the business owner talks about behind closed doors, it’s like it’s very linked to how you experience that. And so I guess if I had anything to share, it’s like we need to start paying attention to the numbers because usually we’re very reactionary. Like, we have those emotions and the feelings about the business and we just don’t really know what to do about it. But it’s because we’re almost like turning a blind eye and we don’t even know where to look or we’re not exploring like, “Okay, well, why does business feel this way?” and we’re almost not willing to admit to ourselves like, “Okay, I have to do something differently,” we’re just like reaching around in the dark, grasping at strategies that somebody else has told us instead of looking at, like, our business’ blueprint and how we do business to really get out like that other side of the dark tunnel. [97.9s]

Patricia [00:06:14] You make a very interesting parallel between like by looking at the numbers and then being able to tell whether the business is actually being successful. Could you tell me when was that defining moment that solidified your decision to help other business owners? 

Staci Millard [00:06:29] I think that business has always been interesting to me since the time I was a kid, because my parents both came from government and corporate, and I could see that they really wanted to have an impact doing what they did, but they felt very helpless to do it. And then when I went into accounting, I was kind of behind the scenes, sort of helping business owners, but with owning my own business, like it didn’t have my flavor to it. I was often kind of like handcuffed and how I could help somebody or the advice I could give because I was working for somebody else. So, you know, that desire to change the world really started early, but the transition to more mentorship was sort of just kept happening along the way. Like more often and more often I’m like, okay, you’re not just here to have your taxes filed. Like, let me explain something to you. And it was more because I could see the frustration in people. Like they wanted a better way, but they didn’t know what to do about it. And it just started coming out more often and more often. And finally I was like, “Okay, this is what I do.” 

Patricia [00:07:30] You found that passion and basically like telling people more than they came to you for. 

Staci Millard [00:07:34] Yeah, always. 

Patricia [00:07:36] [00:07:36]Earlier you said you were in the dark when you decided to leave the firm, and you were – that was like back in 2020, maybe? Could you tell me the challenges you faced when you were starting out this business of your own, and how did you overcome those first few years? [15.6s]

Staci Millard [00:07:52] [00:07:52]First of all, I would say that I think a lot of business owners consider their business, their baby, and they feel a level of responsibility to their team, in this case, to clients. I still live in the community that my business was in. And so one of the very first things I had to kind of get past was this sense of like, I’ve abandoned people for selling my business. That was really hard and really interesting. At the same time, I would say that, you know, a lot of business owners face burnout, and I can easily say that’s where I was. Burnout doesn’t always just happen just because you’re working a lot of hours, but it can be working. It can be, you know, you’re doing work that’s misaligned and some things like that. So my next step was, okay, I had to overcome that burnout. So I had all this guilt about, you know, selling the business. Then I really had to look at, you know, I am tired. Like, how would I do business differently the next time? A lot of business owners joke, though, that we’re not employable. The way we work is just like we could never go work for somebody else again, and that was a truth for me. So I really had to take some time to navigate, you know, how do I want to do business differently? And I think one of the hardest parts was feeling like I wanted to run, but I felt sort of caged, because I just didn’t have the network. I could see in myself that I, like, I needed to have impact to feel good in a day. I needed to be helping people to feel good about how I use my energy for the day, but I didn’t have that network to go and continue to make the impact that I was already used to. And so for, like, probably a good year, I felt like I was just kind of like recreating that. And I could see sparks of it when I got into a group and I was like, “Oh yeah, like, I can actually provide value here,” and those would be great days. And other days when I felt like I was, you know, on the island, that wasn’t easy. That’s why I was speaking a little bit about like, you know, your network and your personal branding, because if you ever decide, “I want to shift in what I do,” it’s like you want your people to be alongside you doing that. You don’t want to do what I did and just all of a sudden, you know, be in the middle of nowhere, like trying to, you know, tell people like, “I can help. I promise.” So those were the, like, the hardest kind of steps that I had to take. [134.6s]

Patricia [00:10:08] I feel like a lot of people really, like, understand when you said that you needed something that was impactful to do something with, like, a purpose. I feel like a lot of people feel stuck and I feel like a lot of people you could say it’s because they feel burnout, but then, you know, you can get stuck in [00:10:27]this rut and [0.5s] then you don’t even know what to do without like a backup plan or, like you said, the network to lean on. [00:10:32]What exactly do you do when you’re, like burnt out? Is there anything specifically that you did that helped you, you know, get out of that kind of negative mindset that really pushed you forward to being the success that you are today? [12.4s]

Staci Millard [00:10:46] [00:10:46]A couple of things that stand out for me was just like, number one, taking the time, right? I think a lot of us spend a lot of time in fight or flight when we’re just like, “Next thing, next thing, next thing.” So it was working with somebody who does a little bit of somatic healing. It was more just about like our nervous system and how we show up and creating capacity because people can tell you like, “Oh, just take a break or take a day off,” but you almost, like, don’t know what to do with it. And it’s funny because like early in accounting, we would go through that in tax season when we’d work crazy hours and then all of a sudden, you know, May or June hit, and you’re just like, “Oh, I got nothing to do anymore.” Like your body doesn’t even know. So very similar to that. It started with like creating capacity, being able to take lunch breaks and, you know, have time in my schedule. But then beyond that, it was having time to actually just change the narrative and question my own thoughts, right? Where I maybe was having negative thoughts around, you know, the amount of impact or other people are further ahead. All of those things that I think a lot of, you know, a lot of us, that goes through our minds, but it was actually having the time to question what I was thinking and what I was feeling. And I think most business owners don’t leave nearly enough time in their schedule to even just like not only not analyze their thoughts, but like not even analyze like some of their strategy, whether it’s working or not. So asking myself, like, how did I experience today? What were some of the great parts? There’s a book that I absolutely love. It’s called The Gap and the Gain. I happened to read that book and like the perfect timing for me, but it talks a lot about how we live in the gap. We live in the difference between where we are now and where we want to be. And, you know, we hear so much about goals and pushing towards them, and those are great. But we also have to live in the gain in terms of like, “How did today go? What are the things that we can celebrate?” and we just forget that so often. So some of those practices of like just slowing down to notice the good things around us like shifted everything for me. It’s so simple, but it really did shift so much. [121.8s]

Patricia [00:12:48] I think that’s really great advice. It’s all like – it’s in the simple check ins that you make with yourself. And could you tell me, like, what drives this passion of yours to help other people? 

Staci Millard [00:13:00] I get asked this often, and I don’t really have an answer. Like, it really is just innate in what I do, and it has been since I was a young kid. My parents talk a lot about how I was very change oriented. I always wanted things to be improving, and I would just say it’s like very much in my nature. I don’t know, you know, to put labels on it. I don’t know if it’s a growth mindset thing where I just, like, see the possibility or where that really came from, but I have a strong belief that we should leave the world better than when we were here. We should leave every room better for having had us in it. And so I think, you know, just the fact that that’s just such a key part of who I am, I don’t know where it came from. I don’t have one defining moment, but it’s such a key part of who I am that like shows up in every aspect of life. 

Patricia [00:13:56] [00:13:56]I think that’s beautiful. Well, could you tell us, like, how do you balance the technical aspects of accounting with the creative side of business coaching? [8.1s]

Staci Millard [00:14:05] [00:14:05]Yeah. So what I would say is that like my career, I was heavy into the technical aspect to start with, right? So obtaining a CPA designation, it doesn’t matter like which way you put it. You’re going to school and you’re learning a lot of the technical aspect, learning a lot about taxes and financial standards. So that took place pretty early on, but then I was able to shift that. Like once you have that knowledge, not a lot is changing day to day. Now it becomes more about application. And I thought that’s where the creativity gets to come to play because that’s where we’re talking to people, trying to educate them on like, “What does that mean?” and in layman’s terms, like, “How does this affect your business?” and that’s where I get to do some of those fun things. And then I would say like day to day now, I tend to live in more of the creative space and I’ve learned more and more that I just don’t enjoy being in the technical aspect anymore where I did to begin with. I just like notice in my own energy, like, “What do I want to do daily? What lights me up?” And it’s not about, you know, being in a tax return by any means, but it’s about, you know, having that impact. So I look at my role in the business. I’m like, okay, well, where should my energy be and my time be aligned? And so I fill those gaps in with team so that that doesn’t sort of stifle the creativity because the creativity is like that driving force and that life force behind the business. That creativity is what brings life to the mission, and the technical aspect is really just like a tool of getting there, right? Like our mission is about changing how business is done and how successful and profitable and enjoyable businesses are. And so I focus on the creativity and then, you know, compliance, I’ll call it like bookkeeping and accounting tax, is one of the ways that we get there doing it. So, I let somebody who loves that do that. [116.1s]

Patricia [00:16:02] Earlier you were talking about how you said you didn’t want to feel like you were working for someone else, and I feel like a lot of people can kind of relate to that. What would you say to people who want to get in touch with their more creative side to feel that they’re doing something more impactful than just like logging in every day and doing their regular 9 to 5, which could feel a little more analytical, logical, but not so much creative.?

Staci Millard [00:16:30] I don’t know if I’m the best person to answer that because when I first started business, I went out with what was safe. Like I really just replaced a job for myself. I went from working for somebody else to essentially doing the same thing. And I if I look back, I don’t feel like there’s a lot of creativity to it. It was more about like, I wanted financial freedom from it. I wanted to make more doing what I was doing, and I just wanted time freedom. I wanted to be able to work on my own schedule. And so it could be as simple as taking some steps like that. I think that there are lots of people who put out great frameworks about how to, you know, like find your big idea. For me, it was just like I had a passion to help, and I did that. And every time I built on it, like, so you start the business, and you replace the job, and then it almost created capacity to do a step further of like, “Oh, well, how else can I help?” Right? So that mission, like that was what it was for me. So I think if anything, I’d say like, don’t be scared by the idea that maybe you don’t have the exact framework. If you’re leaving your 9 to 5, like create yourself some freedom and some space to take a step and then just continue to build on it. Just don’t stop at step number one. 

Patricia [00:17:50] I think that’s like really sound advice. Like, you make space basically when you, you know, you make a different decision than what you’re used to and then, you know, little by little, brick by brick, you build an entirely different narrative for yourself is basically what I’m getting. [00:18:04]When you’re coaching some of the entrepreneurs that you work with, what are the common struggles that you see them do, especially like some small business owners, and how do you address them? [8.5s]

Staci Millard [00:18:15] [00:18:15]So first of all, put the disclaimer like, absolutely no shame. I went to business school. I’m an accountant, and I didn’t look at my numbers, but really, like, I work with businesses who make, you know, high six figure numbers and they never looked at their numbers and they had no idea that they weren’t making profit. Every, you know, you can kind of like, what’s the saying like you can rob Peter to pay Paul like you take from one pot to put in another and like you can actually stumble along quite a far ways, but eventually it catches up with you. So I think having a grasp on the numbers, that’s actually when for me, I got to start paying my team more. As soon as I looked at the numbers and understood them, I was able to give raises and I was able to like align what we did for customers better. And all of a sudden, like even they were happier, like they were happy to begin with, but they were like thrilled when we kind of took a look at some of the financial aspects and stayed in our lane and we did what we were good at and what we didn’t. And so that’s one thing. But to get a little bit more granular, the biggest mistake that I see small business owners making from a financial perspective is they don’t operate the business like a business. So if you look at a Fortune 500 company, those businesses, A, have key players within them making decisions, right? So they’re intentional about each decision they’re making. And B, they pay every single person what they’re worth. Right? So what I see mistakes happening is a small business owner is acting like all those C-suite executives. Their, you know, IT, their HR, their accounting or marketing, their are ops, but they don’t understand their role in each one, and they’re not intentional about the space they hold in that. And then included in that is like they don’t have an understanding of what that financial picture looks like for the business and they’re not paying themselves like how that should be. So, you know, I had a client who made candles, but because they weren’t paying themselves, they weren’t looking at like, “Oh, how many hours does it take me to make these candles, to pack them up, to ship these orders?” You know, at the end of a couple of years, they’re like, “Man, I am exhausted. Like, I can’t believe how hard I’m working.” And we actually tallied up like, okay, on average, how often do you work. It was like they were getting paid less than minimum wage. I was like, “Well, that would never be allowed in a big business.” So they’re not looking at like, “Okay, if I paid every person here, and if I looked at these roles, you know, what would the financial aspect of the business look like?” Because then they start cutting out like, “Oh, we’re not going to do this, or this isn’t important.” And they start making way different decisions. And it also gives you the opportunity of like early on you’re like, “Wow, my process isn’t very efficient. I need to have a better process so that this can actually be profitable and pay me a better salary for doing what I do.” And so really that concept of like, “Here’s the business and here’s me,” and being able to reflect on, “Okay, well, what’s going on? What’s working well, what’s not, where are the numbers? But also like what efforts are we putting in? What should we be doing? What should we be doing?” That’s what what people are missing instead of it just like floating through and being like, “Okay, look, I’m trying all the things. Is my bank balance where I want it to be today?”[194.4s]

Patricia [00:21:30] Like just because like, the business is making money doesn’t mean that that’s necessarily like profit to you or that you’re investing in your team well enough to, you know, make an even more successful venture, so what I’m understanding. 

Staci Millard [00:21:42] Yeah, absolutely. And like you need that outside in perspective. You need to be able to look at it just no different than if you’re an investor and you’re investing in the stock market, you look at that company that you’re investing in and you’re like, “Hey, how are they doing? Are they making great decisions?” Like, your investing your time and your energy in this business as well. And so you need to be having that discernment of, you know, “Am I doing this well.” and being able to reflect on your own actions, right? Having that vulnerability to be able to say like, “Oh, I don’t know that I spend my time well this week. I have to do something different next week,” and not having any shame about it, but just being able to make positive change. 

Patricia [00:22:21] [00:22:21]You offer a service called The Business Blueprint. Could you explain to us what that is, what it entails, and how it helps business owners? [7.7s]

Staci Millard [00:22:30] [00:22:30]Yeah. So working with what I would say like solo service providers, but also like smaller scale retail and product based clients, we break down the concept of doing business. And this is most often when I find that business owners start out because they have a passion and whatever they’re going to deliver, but they really they lack – their feedback to me is that they don’t know what business is about. They have to learn all the things that business involves. And so I find at that stage there’s usually a combination of “I have no idea what I’m doing, I’m doing all these things, but I don’t know. I’m out of time. And possibly, I’m out of money.” And I also notice that this is the time where a lot of people are creating frameworks or they’ll create, you know, work with a coach and they’ll create like a revenue, like projections like, “Oh, if you did this much in revenue, where would you be?” and those are kind of worthless in the fact that like, unless you understand what it takes to get there on those projections, you’re not going to get there. So we’ve done it a little differently and taking a look at some of the pillars behind that business. So, you know, what do you need to get paid as an individual? So especially when you’re a smaller business, like you’re probably the person who’s doing the most. So what do you need to be paid from the business? What should you be paid for the time and efforts that you’re putting in? What are the expenses to operate the business? Right? They may not be a lot, but you need to understand what else do I have to cover? You need to understand where your time is going because we pay for things in two ways, either with time or money, and time is probably arguably the most valuable asset. So you need to have time and then you need to understand your customer, like what do they want? And then the fifth pillar behind that is the offering, the piece that connects your customer, the buyer, like, we don’t have a business without a customer, and then us, and sort of that framework for our business. What is the product that connects the two? And when you start putting those five pieces together, you start finding out like, you know, “I have all these costs to cover, but knowing my customer, like they don’t really want to pay for that.” So then you start getting creative and like redefining maybe your product offering or maybe you’d make changes to cut some of your costs, or maybe you outsource some of the work so that it’s less expensive. But you start making decisions until the five puzzle pieces can fit together, that you have enough time to do the work, that you’re covering the expenses of the business, that you’re getting paid what you need to be paid for your time and efforts, the customer is really happy, and you have a product suite that sort of connects – bridges those two together. [159.5s]

Patricia [00:25:11] And what kind of results have you seen from your clients after completing the course of The Business Blueprint? 

Staci Millard [00:25:17] Yeah. So the biggest thing is just that level of clarity. The changes are all very unique to every business, right? Sometimes, they’re changing their product suite. Sometimes, they even have redefined the market. They have redefined who they want to serve. Obviously, like cutting some expenses can happen sometimes, but changing, especially changing where our time and efforts are going, I think a lot of us are spending time on things that we don’t need to be. But ultimately, it was the biggest change is just that level of understanding of like, “Oh, I get it now.” Like this is what the people want, this is what I need to do to deliver, and and it could be even just like changes in the marketing, like now being able to connect better to the customers and having that product that resonates with them, but all around, it’s a level of clarity and “Okay, this is what I need to do.”

Patricia [00:26:11] [00:26:11]You also offer what’s called the Profit on Purpose. How does that system differ from traditional financial planning? [7.9s]

Staci Millard [00:26:20] [00:26:20]Yeah. So I think a lot of the times people think they go to an accountant or a bookkeeper to get certain types of advice. Now, my firm offers both. So like this is no shame on bookkeepers or accountants, but bookkeepers, unless that specific individual has taken time, their own time, nobody’s regulating them to go figure out anything beyond how to use a piece of software to record data and record receipts. So a lot of the time we see clients like, “Oh, I want this bookkeeper to provide me information,” then they go to their accountant and they’re like, “Well now, I want my accountant to provide this information,” but the accountant goes, and really they’re responsible for meeting financial standards, financial reporting standards and for understanding the Tax Act. And so the accountant, your relationship with them isn’t necessarily like a partner in your business driving results. It’s really about like meeting those, you know, reporting standards and compliance standards. And so the piece that’s missing is somebody that’s like a CFO. And those people, they’re not just budget makers, but they are a partner in the business in sort of combining all the different departments to like really drive financial success and other metrics within the business and drive success there. And they use money as a tool to do that. So Profit on Purpose starts breaking down the three pillars to profit. So if you break it down into an equation, it’s revenue less your cost of sales less your overhead equals profit. And if we want our profit to be a certain amount, we go back to understanding how we pull each of those three levers up or down to get the results that we want. And it sounds pretty basic, but this is actually the understanding that most people lack within their business. Like if  I make a change here or if I do this thing, what are those results going to be and how does that impact my business? But that arguably – it’s great that a bookkeeper puts the data in because data is the foundation of decision making, and it’s great that your accountant keeps you compliant because you don’t want to be responding to CRA or IRS, like, any of those tax departments and saying that you don’t have it together. But what’s really going to drive change in your business, and profitability, and that financial security, is knowing how to pull the levers to have success. So, you know, what options do you have when it comes to revenue? What are your options with your cost of your sales or your cost of your products? And then what can you do with your overhead to, you know, drive that picture of success? [165.4s]

Patricia [00:29:06] Could you share a success story with us from someone who used the Profit on Purpose system and succeeded? 

Staci Millard [00:29:14] There’s literally so many examples, because we inherently do this with every client that we work with. And I would say like the biggest changes really are with product based businesses who, going in, they’re making products and they just don’t have a concept of like, “Why at the end of the day do I not have any like profit left?” So we broke it down into three categories for them explaining, you know, this is how this is going. And then you can get more granular, you can get like down to the product, “Okay, here’s my cost.” But understanding how those three worked together meant that they decided to, like, this one client decided to stop certain offerings. They drastically increase the price on others, and then they decided to start using a manufacturer for some others. And instantly was like, “Okay, those changes resulted in profit,” where they’d been stumbling around for years before that. Other business owners where they were like, I’m thinking of a service provider, or they’re like wondering why there wasn’t a lot of profit left, and it’s like, “Oh, well, like this is actually just a revenue game.” Like, they had a low margin, they had higher overhead, and it just meant that they had to do volume. So it changed how they did marketing because they’re like, “Oh, okay. So, you know, I have to reach a lot of people, and it can’t be very expensive for me to do that, so what are my marketing tools going to be so I can get in front of those people quickly?” We’ve had so many people cut things that weren’t resulting in any profit or any value added within the business. We’ve had people start adding easy, you know, easy wins that they get to add services for their customers and their customers are really happy, but it didn’t take much more for them to like add that on and it added significant amounts of revenue and profit at the end of the day. So there’s like there’s so many scenarios, but again, it always just comes back to that like it’s cloudy and it’s like the sun clears and you’re like, “Oh, now I know what to do.”

Patricia [00:31:11] You basically provide them with a much clearer perspective that it’s like based on the data that you’re given and that helps them like beat up the clouds. You also offer one on one client mentorship. What is the focus on that and how is that tailored to the individual needs of your client? 

Staci Millard [00:31:28] You know, first of all, we can give frameworks and courses, but I always say that like I would never pay for university and not have access to a professor. Like I don’t want to learn through a textbook. And I think this is one of the biggest misses in any of like the coaching industry and online education industry is like, we’re missing that 1 to 1. Like if people knew how to apply this, they would already be doing it. So, you know, I think all of our products always offer some level of like you can gain access, you either have access or you can gain access to us so that we can help you apply things. But 1 to 1 coaching and mentorship takes it a step further in terms of like you’re an individual and you have all your own, you know, personal life. You’ve got your own bias, like you have your own intricacies of your business that I maybe can’t, you know, address in a course. We have clients who don’t want to put the time into watching the video that may address things that they already know. They just don’t want to spend the time there. So they’re like they’re more interested in having that very 1 to 1, you know, get to know me, get to know how I do business, tell me how I can, you know, make change and do it quickly. And that’s where we work with people. And I would also say it’s like my favorite way that we work with clients because we actually get to witness the change, right? Where we were talking about like the gap and the gain, we get to spend some time reminding them of how far they’ve come so that they’re not just focused on that area of lack or, you know, how far they are from their goals, But we get to experience those positive changes. We also get to hold people accountable because when you have a thousand areas of people like pulling at your attention, whether it’s customers, team, all these things, social media pulling your attention, it’s hard to remember to stay on the path and stay the course. So having that like one person that they get to come back to, I’m like, “Okay, this is what what I’m doing,” provides them sort of like that anchor to continue in the right direction without getting distracted. And so again, like there’s more impact behind that. 

Patricia [00:33:37] That sounds like a really solid system and you get to give them consistent feedback and you get to, you know, like you said, anchor them and steer them towards the path to success. [00:33:48]Do you usually have clients who are already in the business, they’re already like business owners, or have you also encounter mentoring someone who haven’t necessarily built their business yet and just want to see how to get started? [13.6s]

Staci Millard [00:34:03] [00:34:03]Yeah. So because I come at it from the financial lens, I think we have great investments and especially early in business, we have a lot of areas we need to invest time and money. And I think that, you know, it can be worth working with a mentor. But it does become sort of a drain on resources. And I think that there’s especially early on, there’s so many options for like free advice, like free toolkits that everybody offers online. Like you don’t need necessarily to work with a mentor. You may want to, for example, like I met with a startup for a food-based product, and we met early on, but we just had like one quick session. It wasn’t continued mentorship because I was like, “Look, here’s something you need to know for the foundation, but you need to work on this on your own because otherwise you’re paying for something.” But like, I don’t think I can drive the same results. The other reason that I don’t always work with startups is there’s a lot of learning to do. The way I explain it is like for me and so many others, it was like we’re teenagers. And you know, when your parents tell you something as a teenager, you’re like, “Yeah, I got this.” There’s so many things like that in startup where it really does require you to have your blinders on. It requires you to be telling people like, “I don’t need your advice,” or like “This is what I want to do,” and you’re just almost like finding yourself and like figuring some things out. And so again, like when things change so often, this is why I tell startups not to invest heavily on, you know, like branding too early on because it’s like you’re probably going to change it. So like, I wouldn’t put all my eggs there when it’s like, you have so many things to invest in. So I think startups, if you’re interested in knowing a really great financial future, like whether it’s me or somebody else, like invest in an hour or a couple of hours of learning the basis of the financial aspect, but then use your money to invest in growth, because the biggest thing you need early on is visibility. But then once you get that visibility and you have a proven product or a proven service, you’re making money and you’re growing, that’s when you start needing more and more of that, more like tailored advice. That’s when you should be investing in, you know, a coach or a mentor to get you further, faster. [136.4s]

Patricia [00:36:20] And how do you help your clients overcome their fears and achieve their ambitious dreams in your mentorship program? 

Staci Millard [00:36:28] I think the biggest thing that really just [00:36:30]makes a difference [0.4s] is being seen. So our clients, they are really just grateful to have somebody who is like, no shame, no judgment, help you rip the band-aid off and then like, let’s just move forward. It doesn’t matter. Well, sometimes I guess, depending on the client, it matters how you got there so you can change it. But there’s no shame along with it. And I think that’s one of the biggest pieces that a lot of people feel fear of, like judgment or fear of failure. And we just make it a safe space to kind of move forward. 

Patricia [00:37:02] You earlier were talking about the importance of having a personal brand. Is that something that you coach your clients with as well, how to build their own personal brand? 

Staci Millard [00:37:11] Not really, to be honest. You know, I’m really great at it and my team and I are great at profit and we’re great at helping you with the finances in your business. I know enough to be dangerous, but it’s definitely not my expertise. I think there are some really great books out there like Be by Jessica Zweig was one of my favorites that I’ve ever read on personal branding. But I think a lot of the time when it comes to like the personal brand is like, we just forget that a lot of it is actually a way of life for us. Right? So a lot of my personal branding is really about values that I already hold true. It’s not about inventing something new. It’s just about the ways that we communicate it. And arguably, like we are branding ourselves and like how we show up in every room. But what you’re wanting to do is be intentional about how you can almost like tangibly make good on some of those connections that you’ve made. And, you know, the essence that you bring to life or business and be able to use that instead of it just being like something that was put out into the world that you can’t ever use in the future. 

Patricia [00:38:19] You also have a service called the Financial Freedom Session. Could you tell us more about this, what clients can expect from it, and how does it set them up for long term success? 

Staci Millard [00:38:31] Financial freedom sessions really are. I would almost describe it as like taking Profit on Purpose and taking The Business Blueprint and walking somebody through it. I just know in the industries that we know and the experience that we have, we can accomplish it a lot faster. But then because it takes so much of our time and our expertise, it’s like more personalized service, but it’s also more expensive. So it’s an option for people. And really it’s about giving you that clarity of, “Okay, here’s what to do.” And it’s more the difference between us like, “Okay, so do you want to learn from somebody and do you want to learn from a textbook?” And I think there’s a great or a course like there’s a time and place for that. Right? If you have more time but not enough money, then there’s a great place for you to do that, and here’s how. And it’s probably gonna take you a little bit longer because you’re not the expert. So you’ll stumble around it a little bit, but you’ll learn and that’s a great way of doing it. And then on the other side of things, if you’re like, “I have some money, but I’m out of time. Like, I just need to learn this quick,” then there’s a different solution towards like, here’s how you can learn faster, but it does cost a little bit more, right? 

Patricia [00:39:39] You also have a podcast called The Small Business School Podcast. What inspired you to start that? 

Staci Millard [00:39:47] Many years ago, pre-COVID even, I was giving advice on Facebook, Facebook lives, Facebook videos, and I always got the feedback that we shared, You know, what other people didn’t share. A lot of people felt like accountants are like gatekeepers, that we weren’t, you know, really the keep hearing that, like knowing the numbers is important, but they didn’t know how to do it or they felt like there was something being hidden. There’s always a secret in the financial industries. And so I was sharing things and concepts of, Hey, you might have gotten this advice, but here’s why it’s not great advice or, you know, here’s what you should be doing instead. And eventually I just, you know, times changed, and the digital world where you showed up doing, that podcast never used to be a thing, right? I didn’t have a radio show. Those were all pretty impossible. But all of a sudden it was something very accessible. And a friend of mine owns a podcast agency and I met her. She’s like, This is what you need. And so it started out with like, okay, I’ll try this, and now it’s like 200 episodes in and all the wonderfulness that comes behind it. But it really just started from that desire to share information and it’s just a platform that we can do that in. And I would argue that you get way better advice when you actually have a few minutes to explain a concept than versus like 90 seconds or I don’t even know how long now they want you to have like seven second clips on Instagram so you can give way better advice when you have a little bit of time to explain so that people actually get the nuances behind what advice you’re giving. 

Patricia [00:41:19] I agree. And who would you say are your audience and what do you hope that they take away from listening to your podcast? 

Staci Millard [00:41:28] So we really exist for the scale of entrepreneurs. It’s like this black hole where there’s quite a few resources for starting businesses and there’s free advice like everywhere on how to start and get started. But when it comes to scaling, that is where the advice needs to get more seasoned. Less people have went ahead before you, so there’s not as many people who’ve done it before. And the advice becomes more nuanced and it becomes more expensive. And so that’s where we’re trying to fill that black hole for people. Like, what does it really take to scale the business, right? You started and you did well a little bit, but what does it take to move on from there, right? You know, once you’ve started hiring a couple of team members and things like that, that’s who we really are there to serve and just connecting like great service providers who are willing to share the behind the scenes tips, tricks, secrets that you don’t often get talked about and connecting them with the people who need to hear it. 

Patricia [00:42:30] [00:42:30]And how would you say podcasting has helped you connect with your community and expand your reach? [4.9s]

Staci Millard [00:42:37] [00:42:37]So I talk often about, like, there’s two things you need to know in business, and one is how to make money, and the other is how to use the money to continue to make more money and to continue to have impact. And so, like, that first piece is all about visibility, right? Without a customer, you don’t have a business. And in order to have customers, you have to be visible to somebody. So podcasting is great, but it’s no different than like creating a website unless you tell somebody the website exists, nobody knows to go and search for it. And arguably, like, unless you’re doing a bunch for SEO, like nobody’s finding you through a web search. And it’s the same with podcasting, like there’s tons and tons of podcasts now. So I use the podcast to intentionally reach out to people who had advice that I, you know, could give them. So maybe they’re service providers and I could give them advice, but they’d also be great power partners. Like we could really work together to make a difference in business, and that grew my network. And in turn it’s like, now I have great referral sources for clients. Now I have more clients because they told their people about the podcast and it was just this like machine that sort of generated positive results in our business. I often refer different clients to podcasting for reasons, but I worked with a client a little over a year ago who was in like the sustainable product business. So they had a product. They really focused on sustainability. She also had a marketing company that only worked with like Sustainable brands, and she was like trying to get more visible. I was like, “Well, the podcast is a perfect platform for you to do that.” Right? Like, you get to meet brands, interview them, they know other brands, and then, you know, that doubles as, you know, a referral source for the marketing business and creates, you know, some opportunity to collaborate with other businesses so that, you know, you’re sharing each other’s businesses, and that was like just the most positive experience for us, so I think that there’s lots and lots of stories like that with podcasting and how the results aren’t just in one area of business. They’re everywhere. [124.1s]

 

Patricia [00:44:42] Well, speaking of some positive experiences from podcasting, what have been some of the most memorable moments or guests you’ve had on the podcast? As you said, you’ve had over 200 episodes. 

 

Staci Millard [00:44:53] I would say that almost every episode, like I have my notebook in front of me and I’m taking notes. So I have a ton of guests that I absolutely love having on. One of my favorites was a recent episode with my friend Christina. She is a whiz when it comes to like, creating community. She owns a podcast and social media agency and we were actually traveling together for work, and I held her hostage because I had a question, because I’d seen her on another person’s podcast. I’m like, “But people don’t understand how to apply this.” And I held her hostage in our hotel room, so that was like a fun episode. I’ve also interviewed Jacqueline Johnson was one of my favorite interviews ever. Jacqueline is the brains behind Create Cultivate, which was like one of the biggest event companies for business owners in the US. And then she’s also got like a bunch of new things that she’s got on the go, but she is just – her mind is incredible when it comes to business, and I learned so much from her. And then one of my other favorite episodes was somebody who had never been on a podcast before, but I think we all long for like those mentors that feel like almost like a parent to you where you’re like, “This is the best advice from somebody who’s really seasoned,” and she had no idea what podcasting was about, but it was incredible to like get to interview her and have all that, like, really true wisdom come from a place that you’d like just done business for so long, and I was kind of excited just to give her a platform to share some of that of like, yeah, just some different ideas than what most people are talking about on Instagram. 

Patricia [00:46:33] Having a podcast really gives you that platform to other people who might not have that same reach, so it’s always like a really fun experience meeting people, and learning from their experiences, and then getting to share that with your audience. That’s really the magic of podcasting, in my opinion. I wanted to get your entrepreneurial insights and advice. [00:46:56]What would you say have been the key lessons that you’ve learned from your journey as an entrepreneur? [3.4s]

Staci Millard [00:47:00] [00:47:00]One of the key concepts that I really had to get past was that everything starts and stops with the person at the top, which is you, and that was really hard. I fought that for quite a while where I was like, “No, like people need to be accountable for what they do.” And yes, absolutely, but it is your business and things that happen in the business are what you tolerate, and they are also affected by how you show up and you know what you do. Your intentions are worthless. It’s your actions that show, you know, how other people should behave. And when I took ownership for that, things really changed. I’ve already talked about, you know, the numbers really freed things up for me. And then the last concept that I share often is that leadership. I think we all just assume that we can be leaders, right? Like, you know, high school gym class, you’re like captain of something, and we’re like, “Oh, we’ve got leadership abilities.” I personally ran – I was the manager of a retail store. Somebody promoted me and told me I was the manager. I was a leader at 18 years old. And so I thought I went in with leadership skills, but I don’t think that anybody was ever taught leadership. We don’t understand the nuances of it. And so one of the things that we talk a lot with our clients is like leadership is a whole new skill set. So whatever skill, whatever industry you’re in, you’re coming in with that knowledge. And like, I was an accountant, but I had to learn this new skill of leadership because arguably your business will never be more than just you unless you’re using a team and you’re using people. And I really had to set out to be purposeful and learning like different leadership techniques and trying them on for size and deciding what was the right fit for me and the vision that I had so that I could, you know, give people a great place to work while also giving clients a great experience. And that was sort of like a lot to kind of grasp because I was like, I thought I was a leader already. I was like, Just because somebody appoints you a title doesn’t mean that if you really want to be an effective leader, it’s like it’s going to take some skill set. So that was one of my biggest learnings. [128.9s]

 

Patricia [00:49:11] [00:49:11]And how important is mindset in achieving business success and how do you cultivate a positive mindset? [6.0s]

 

Staci Millard [00:49:18] [00:49:18]I’d say that it’s sort of like 60/40 on mindset, because I, for a while ,I saw the shift in at least in what I got to see on social media of, like, everything’s about mindset. You needed to mindset your way out of it. You needed, you know, all these affirmations and all these different things. And I agree that you are the leader and you’re responsible, so your mindset puts the flavor to everything. Your mindset is what goes and executes. But strategy would be like the other 40% that it’s like, unless you have a great strategy, you can’t mindset your way out of making more money. You can’t just like be, you know, in your home thinking like, “Okay, today, I’m going to make a million dollars, and then it happened, right? You have to implement a strategy. So they really just go hand in hand in how you show up every day, how people experience you, you know, how you execute that strategy. So it is very important. I would say, though, one of the things that I talk about is, you know, how do you invest and in mindset, right? So you can hire a coach for some strategy. You can also hire coaches for mindset. But if mindset is such an integral piece of what you do, can you afford to be hiring a coach or a mentor who is only helping you? Or how often do you even hire them as a great example? That’s somebody who’s just helping you with mindset. Like I would argue even for leadership, it’s like I would prefer to download an audiobook and read some books and continue on with that every single day. Read ten pages a day of something leadership as I’m trying to develop myself as a leader, because my development in that area is how I implement. I’m not just going to learn like go and pay, you know, somebody 5,000 dollars to learn “here’s something in leadership,” but then not implement it. It’s an implementation. So I want that reminder every single day of like, “Okay, here’s how to show up. Here’s the new like idea to try on and continue to build on it.” Mindset’s the same way for me. I would rather listen to an audio program. I would rather, you know, see a reminder on my phone. I’d rather have those like little reminders through the day, because I feel like they have the impact. And then financially, it’s like how can you afford to make huge investments and have the right return on that investment, if that makes any sense? Like, you know, if we’re paying really high level coaches, it’s like, how can that have a return on our business, and does it leave us any money to go and invest in other areas to grow? Because arguably we’re probably going to need some marketing or we’re going to need to hire a team member. So like, I like to right size those investments and ask myself like, what is my best way of learning this? Is it an hour with that person or is it, you know, maybe hearing one of their audio programs on repeat? Like, that’s how I love to learn mindset. [174.0s]

 

Patricia [00:52:13] Earlier when we were talking about The Business Blueprint, you were talking about the five important pillars like where your customer is, and what value you should provide to them, how much revenue or profit you want to gain, I wanted to ask like, what advice would you give to someone? Because that’s all very technical from someone, and you said it yourself, you usually work with people who already are business owners who want to scale up, but what advice would you give to someone who is literally just starting their entrepreneurial journey? 

 

Staci Millard [00:52:44] Yeah, so like, my sister is in this boat, so we’ve been talking about this a lot and there’s a couple of key things. So like one, there’s not a lot of products or services that you could invent now that haven’t already been invented. And so we’re looking at like what, you know, what do people who are already doing this charge. And even if it’s not exact, it’s like, you know, your customers having their problem may be met in a different way. So like, what are what are they willing to pay? And so you can see that by the other things that they’re buying that fulfill that same need or solve that same problem. And then the other thing is being able to just ask, right? We can start by asking family and friends. We can ask for introductions, but doing some market research of like, you know, what are you really looking for? Like, what do you feel would make the difference in your life? And I think that’s one of the most interesting things, because I feel like a lot of people are too scared to ask. Like, we don’t want to be visible. We were like, “Oh, I don’t want to be seen like, I don’t know.” I was like, “But if you’re not going to be willing to be seen, this entire business has no point, because you will only exist to serve somebody else and that means they see you,” right? So, start by aligning yourself well and come from a place of not just like, “Oh, I really want to make a sale, but like I actually really want to help this person and I want to do it well. So I’m going to ask them like, how can I help you well?”

 

Patricia [00:54:08] Earlier you were talking about how when you’re a business owner, you are the most important person, and then you were talking about like how you learned to be a leader. You basically have to scale up your self throughout like your business journey, throughout that journey yourself. I wanted to ask you. How do you continue to grow and develop your skills as a business coach and educator? 

 

Staci Millard [00:54:31] I don’t know that there’s ever a point where I don’t have a book or a podcast or a mentor on the go. And I mean, like for mentorship, we want to be going with like those next steps, right next steps are. But I think it’s for me, it’s, it’s really looking at what is the next skill set that I need or mindset that I need to get me to the next level. In this case, like I actually hired a mentor who has done something I’ve never done and I am definitely borrowing some strategy, but even just like the possibility, like I haven’t built $100 million business and that’s where I’d love to go. And like that idea is like, I didn’t even ever really think that’s possible for me. So somewhat I’m, you know, borrowing their belief, but it was based on like, “Okay, where do I want to go next? Like, what would be fun? And then what skillset or mindset do I need to get there?” and then aligning what I’m learning with that. 

 

Patricia [00:55:20] I wanted to get some final questions about the future vision and goals that you have. What are the future plans that you have and goals for your business and personal growth? 

 

Staci Millard [00:55:30] We talked a lot about how I have this like deep desire to help people. And I think that, you know, early on when I started my first accounting practice, like we really were changing the way people did things. I was definitely on the early side of like how business was done and in accounting and like how we offered things that other accountants didn’t offer. And I can see, you know, a few years later that now other people are doing that. And so I see us continuing to make change, positive change that way. And like, “This is what really actually drives impact for customers.” So I think the more visible and the more people we can help, the more it’ll force others to kind of step up and really ask themselves how they’re driving results for their clients. So one of our goals is about, you know, the number of clients we’re serving, because to me, that means it’s like we’re doing well for clients and we’re changing the industry. The other thing is we’re talking about some software development to like really support in doing that so that not only do we have a 1 to 1 service, but we can also find other ways where like especially earlier on, you can get some of the advice that maybe you don’t have the budget or maybe I’d argue you shouldn’t even be putting budget towards it yet, but you can get it from a software to help you get further faster. At the end of the day, I would really just love for there to be better education on what it takes to run a business, so that we don’t have 50% failing in the first couple of years that people go in with their eyes wide open and that the narrative becomes like small businesses are a success, that they’re attainable and achievable. And, you know, if we knew the right things, we can go in and really have success doing it. 

Patricia [00:57:08] And how do you envision the future of business consulting and coaching? 

Staci Millard [00:57:14] I’ve been known to be a little bit vocal about my thoughts on the business consulting. I think that there’s no regulation and the advice that’s given. And I think that one of the things that we see so like we need visibility for business and then we need to understand how to use the finances and we end up with a lot of people in marketing that are coaches because they’re used to getting people visibility. But I think one of the challenges like they’re not getting people results because they’ve had success themselves, but they don’t know how to then translate teaching other people how to do that. So I actually think that the industry in general is now starting to demand more clients, and customers are becoming more – they’re like more diligent with asking the right questions. They’re, you know, I think that industry is actually going to contract that people will probably lean into instead of like just being a general business coach, they’ll like lean into their skillsets more. And that’s really what I hope to see from the industry, is that people demand better results and that also that the investment gets right sized because, you know, I’ve even paid to be in rooms that it’s like, you know, thousand dollars for one day and it’s like, did I get a return on my investment? Like, we should not be investing in things in business that aren’t getting us a return. And so I think we’re going to be pushing for people to, you know, really provide results better than what they have in the past. 

Patricia [00:58:39] And just one last question before I let you go. What legacy do you hope to leave behind in the business world for your client? 

Staci Millard [00:58:47] Yeah, I really want to see that vision change where small businesses are achievable, that they’re all very successful. And I’d love to leave behind a sort of like a business that drives that, that’s bigger than me, that culture is at its core where it sort of holds other people accountable to really delivering on real results. 

Patricia [00:59:13] Thank you so much, Staci Millard, for joining us today on an episode of An Entrepreneur’s Vibes! Is there anything you’d like to leave to our audience? Like any advice? Final words?

Staci Millard [00:59:23] Yeah, I just – I really want to say that anything is possible in business, and that’s like the biggest blessing. And if I had a piece of encouragement, it is to get around other business owners, hear what’s possible, and then start playing with the advice. Because really, business is just like basically failing a whole bunch of times and learning to do better. And if you can adopt that mindset of like, “Okay, I’m gonna fail,” and just make it a game, that’s where the real fun begins. 

Patricia [00:59:54] Thank you so much for the valuable insights you’ve shared with us today and taking the time to grace our podcast. We really appreciate it. And of course, thank you to our listeners and everyone who has been with us throughout this journey. It’s been your host, Patricia. And don’t forget, for all your technical and business writing needs, there’s only one way to go, and that’s with The Write Direction. See you guys soon! Goodbye, Staci! Thank you so much for being here again. We appreciate it! 

Staci Millard [01:00:18] Thank you so much! 

Patricia [01:00:19] Thank you! Have a great day ahead! 

Staci Millard [01:00:21] You too! 

Patricia [01:00:21] Bye!