tandem talks

HIGHLIGHTS

02:40 Creating the number 1 incubator for startups

05:34 Deciding when your side hustle is good enough to go full-time

10:10 Hunting for demand and finding the best people

15:05 Ask, don't tell: A winning culture on empowering your team

21:08 How to secure venture capital and close deals

32:08 The real work after securing funding: Hire the best and don't be cheap

38:54 Connect with Steven 

QUOTES

06:36 "What are their problems? What's keeping them up at night? What are their dreams? What are their goals? Do you align with these? If you don't align with the top three priorities of your potential customers, you're off their radar."

08:20 "I always say the entrepreneur's job, and especially when you're doing a side hustle, is really to gather as much information as possible information. Information. Data about the real world. What's really going on, where the market is. That will inform you."

19:02 "A lot of entrepreneurs think it's their job to have all the ideas, to figure out the whole plan to do everything. It's not your job. Your job is to go to your employees and get them doing that, getting them to think, and then really supporting them."

22:15 "(Venture capital) are really good at giving you money to acquire more customers, basically like to grow that business, to grab more customers and then to meet the need by hiring more people. Like that's what the venture money is for. It's not to figure it out."

28:10 "The thing that makes investors close more than anything is one thing. It's fear, but it's also greed, right? You need to make the investor more afraid of losing the deal than they are afraid of losing their money. So it's this balance."

You can find out more about Steven in the links below:

• Website - https://www.foundersspace.com/
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/foundersspace/
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/foundersspace
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/foundersspace/
• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/foundersspace

Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Be sure to visit our website at https://www.tandemconsulting.co/.

HIGHLIGHTS

01:30 Updates on Ashley's life and being a mom and executive

05:27 Successful moms today also have side hustles

07:13 Early mistakes in business and nurturing the entrepreneurial mindset

16:02 Frontloading risk and learning through experience 

19:30 Delegating and prioritizing your time for what's truly important

23:43 Ashley's 7 best business decisions

29:22 Connect with Ashley

QUOTES

05:34 "There are lots of women, especially moms, who are doing amazing things in their jobs. Like really making a big impact. And then coming home and everybody has a side hustle."

07:59 "My business just got eaten by the recession and I was sort of spit out from that experience feeling like well, that was a gigantic mistake. I couldn't quite see that it had gotten me into tech and taught me to be a programmer."

10:38 "You think of it like side hustles, and I think of it like I have 24 hours in a day and I really don't want to be dedicated to just 1 thing. Because that's boring and also I'm a multifaceted person."

12:21 "I actually have a hard and fast rule, but I don't create anything until I've sold it. There's no point putting your time and effort into something that you haven't validated as being something someone will buy."

25:06 "The reason that I started VA agency is because I kept looking over the shoulders of my clients and saying, I don't understand how you're going to get anything done. You are smired in admin and someone else can be doing this for you."

Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Be sure to visit our website at https://www.tandemconsulting.co/.

HIGHLIGHTS

02:43 Personal development: Learning through the experience of entrepreneurship

05:48 Knowing when it's time to take action and not fearing failure

09:27 Following mentors and inspirations on social media 

17:36 Discerning your own values and disagreeing with content creators

21:07 Using time blocks and being mindful of energy levels to stay focused 

26:25 Mentors versus general counsel: Getting advice based on your needs right now

28:19 Books you should be reading

QUOTES

03:25 "Entrepreneurship is the best form of self-development out there because it challenges you and you have to go and create something. And experiential learning is ultimately more powerful than, most of the time, academic learning."

04:29 "Take massive amounts of action. The more I've been around business owners and entrepreneurs, they're just like always taking action. They don't allow fear to paralyze them, they allow fear to temper them."

07:16 "I just see so many people gripped by fear of failing or looking silly, and I think we just have to embrace that you will look silly. So get out there and also win while you're doing it versus just reading a book on the bench."

18:01 "We have to get good at thinking for ourselves and really sorting through what is relevant to us and what we believe in. It sometimes feels like this package deal like you buy into Mel Robbins or you don't."

22:32 "Maybe it's a timer, maybe it's just very well-defined time blocks in your calendar, maybe you have a to-do list on social media or online, wherever you're doing your things. But having almost your own curriculum and roadmap can be so, so powerful."

Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Be sure to visit our website at https://www.tandemconsulting.co/.

HIGHLIGHTS

01:21 The serendipitous beginnings of vChief

04:51 vChief: Connecting independent chiefs of staff to your business

09:01 Starting out: Creating autonomy and overcoming obstacles

14:50 Finding trustworthy talent and learning to let go

18:11 Networking and coaching prepared Madeleine to scale up 

24:19 Set boundaries and delegate to free up time to do the most important tasks

31:28 Common mistakes: Doing everything and not keeping the right people

38:06 Work shenanigans in Vietnam and future plans

QUOTES

04:15 "I think what I saw when I started that hustle and the networking, who can I work with? The demand was just so clearly bigger than what I could personally do. But that's when it sort of became, what could this business be?"

06:28 "They all work with the aim of helping a leader really prioritize the things where they can have the most impact, and be able to have someone who they can just say, okay you deal with this, you deal with this, you deal with this."

12:49 "You're the one doing the hustle, you're the one who has the relationships, and therefore people want to work with you. So how do you shift that client's mindset to, I have built this business full of equally amazing people and you would be great with them?"

26:12 "We're getting to the stage of organization that other people need to be making decisions and I can't be involved in every decision. How do I pull myself up and out of that and empower other people to drive those decisions?"

32:51 "Figuring out how to delegate and automate things is incredibly important to a leader and figuring out where they can have the biggest impact towards getting to that vision, whether that's a lot of growth or whatever they want."

Learn more and connect with Madeleine in the links below.

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/madeleineniebauer/
• Website - https://www.virtualchiefofstaff.com/

Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Be sure to visit our website at https://www.tandemconsulting.co/.

HIGHLIGHTS

01:42 Teaming up and founding Infinite Design House

09:06 Obstacles in scaling: How to spend your time wisely and choose your projects

21:55 Building the mental skills to be successful in entrepreneurship

28:42 For side hustlers: Branding and content tips to get started

35:29 Deciding on the right mentor takes a mix of data and gut feel

40:41 Take ownership of your business and think big

47:02 How to connect with Lisa and Eric

QUOTES

10:29 "It goes back to getting really clear on the things that you and only you can do in your business. So when I do X, income, impact, joy, goes up in the business. When I do X, I don't even need to be doing X, someone else could do X or it sucks the life out of me."

11:42 "Nobody knows our content. Sure, they can. Sometimes they make it even better than you could have ever made it. But it's letting go of that control."

27:06 "I realize the way I was speaking to myself and, when you don't have self-worth and you don't value yourself, you don't charge what you're worth. You don't put yourself in rooms where you're making moves."

42:06 "We think it has to look a certain way or be a certain way and we're hoping somebody else is going to create it or someone else is going to give us the answer. You have all the tools to create whatever that thing is."

43:38 "Think massive and then just take one tiny step to starting that thinking, projecting that way."

Learn more and connect with Lisa & Eric Pezik in the links below.

• LinkedIn (Lisa) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisapezik/
• LinkedIn (Eric) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/epezik/
• Website (Lisa) - https://www.lisapezik.com/
• Website (Infinite Design House) - https://infinitedesignhouse.com/

Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Be sure to visit our website at https://www.tandemconsulting.co/.

HIGHLIGHTS

02:32 Circumstances introduce Chris to web design and podcasting

07:48 Powering through obstacles and motivating yourself with your passion

13:41 Community and networking propels your side hustle unlike any other 

20:16 People should trust their capacity to reinvent themselves

25:37 Don't fear failure for it is a necessary part of success

28:21 Normalizing mental health has a positive ripple effect in all aspects of your life

36:51 How to use Upwork as your main sales platform 

QUOTES

08:55 "You need to figure out, what's the carrot that's going to keep you moving forward? For me, it was finding and saying yes to projects before I knew what I was doing."

15:32 "The thing that we tend to neglect is that community aspect. If anything, the community aspect is probably one of the biggest reasons why people make it as business owners, entrepreneurs, or side hustlers."

19:08 "Soft skills and hard skills are all something that should be learned and should be developed on an ongoing basis."

26:03 "Failure... it's not a normal part, it's a necessary part of success. You fail forward towards success. You don't win towards success. Failures will teach you more than any success that you have."

30:29  "The only way to get real lasting recovery is to make sure you're addressing some of those things that have happened in your life."

Learn more and connect with Chris Misterek in the links below.

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-misterek/
• Website - https://selfmadewebdesigner.com/
• Upwork for Web Designers - https://www.upworkfordwebesigners.com/

Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Be sure to visit our website at https://www.tandemconsulting.co/.

Carrie and Craig scaled their first side hustle, Click Global LLC, to $3MM+ in US revenues. The firm focused on building & monetizing online communities using already existing business systems to launch, scale, & duplicate more efficiently than real estate or traditional franchising.

After stabilizing a majority of these revenues, they achieved their primary goal of stepping away from Corporate America, in their 20s/30s, respectively. They now consider themselves full-time parents & entrepreneurs. They invest the majority of their days into their children, traveling, & love playing "entrepreneur" with the skills they have developed.

In 2013, they launched CC Global, LLC to coach & educate others on how to emulate their results. After assisting several professionals in building $1MM+ businesses, they began running larger seminars & speaking events across the US, Canada, UK, Caribbean & Australia. They have the privilege of speaking to 20K+ people a year & coaching a few dozen individuals annually. They believe real empowerment occurs through personalized mentorship, not necessarily by acquiring more degrees or getting lost consuming random self-improvement or motivational content.

They are thrilled to announce they launched their first non-profit, TandemGiving, Inc., at the close of 2019. The organization is designed to raise funds for children in need.

Tandem Talks is a podcast meant to empower you to live your life, your way. Join us as we go deeper with entrepreneurs and their journey creating success in business and life.

Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Be sure to visit our website at https://www.tandemconsulting.co/.

Chelsea Haines is a Gut Health Coach at A Mindful Life, LLC. She helps heal physical pain, mental anxiety and harness a strong gut instinct using the power of intuitive eating, the abundance mindset, and the science of the gut-brain axis in order for you to live the life promised to you: easeful, downstream, profitable, joyful, and full of FREEDOM!

Chelsea is also the show host of the podcast called Let’s Start Health. A podcast that is willing to start the awkward, vulnerable, weird, or even hard conversations needed to break through stigmas of mental and physical health and educate and inspire those on a healing journey.

Learn more and connect with Chelsea Haines on the following links below.

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theyogiyachtie/
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseahaines/
• Website - http://www.chelseahainescoaching.com/

Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Be sure to visit our website at https://www.tandemconsulting.co/.

Jackie Hermes is the Founder and CEO of Accelity, a B2B SaaS marketing solutions company that services clients from planning to execution and offers: Inbound marketing strategy & execution, Inbound software implementation & management—Hubspot, Online lead generation & qualification, Content marketing (blogging + email marketing + social media), and Website design & management.

Prior to establishing her own company, Jackie started her entrepreneurial journey with a cookie company, Sweet Monkees, where she turned four vegan cookie recipes into a business - from baking them, to designing the brand’s packaging, to finding a kitchen that would increase its production, and all the way to marketing and distribution. After successfully building this business from the ground-up and selling to over 10 grocery chains, she sold the business to establish Accelity. 

Ryan Calton, on the other hand, is an Executive Finance and Strategic Advisor who is the CEO of a growth-oriented fractional CFO consultancy - RC MKE LLC, a company he founded for the simple reason that he wishes to shift the trend for most CFOs where instead of focusing on cost-saving strategies, he wishes to impart the focus on building sustained growth and increasing shareholder value. With this, he works with small to mid-sized companies that wish to increase their revenue, profitability, and enterprise value.

Prior to founding his own consultancy, Ryan was the Vice President of Finance and Operations at The Brewer Company, a medical device innovations company. And before that, he was also the Chief Financial Officer at Hampel Corp.,  a manufacturer of thermoformed plastics. 

Learn more and connect with Jackie Hermes & Ryan Calton through their LinkedIn: 

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejackiehermes/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryancalton/

Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Be sure to visit our website at https://www.tandemconsulting.co/.

Marcus Chan is the Founder and President of the Venli Consulting Group, a professional training and coaching platform that specializes in helping businesses, sales professionals, sales leaders, and everyone else who wishes to achieve supercharged results. 

A professional who achieved a lot in the course of his career, Marcus is an Executive Member on the Forbes Business Council and has also been featured in Forbes, Yahoo! Finance, MarketWatch, and LinkedIn Top Voice. He’s also recognized by Salesforce as the Top Sales Influencer to Follow.

Growing up in a scarce environment, Marcus put himself through college earning his MBA a few years into the workforce. After achieving the point where he’s leveled the playing field, he eventually got the chance to work for two international Fortune 500 companies and was promoted 10 times in the 10 years he’s worked for them. During his 14+ years of tenure in Corporate America, he won countless awards and has been ranked in the top percentile every single year and in his last role, he led one of the top sales regions in the company with over 110 employees. He was 22 when he built his first multi-million dollar business and when he was in his early 30s he led a team that generated over $700+ million dollars in contracting new business sales. 

With the tide of his success, Marcus eventually left the corporate world to pursue his passion of wanting to do something greater and to give back to the world. 

Learn more and connect with Marcus Chan through the below links: 

• Websites:
  • https://www.sixfiguresalesacademy.com/home-1
  • https://venliconsulting.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcuschanmba/

Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Be sure to visit our website at https://www.tandemconsulting.co/

Chantel Soumis is the Founder and Creative Director of Stardust Creative who is also an internationally recognized speaker, personal brand expert, and social media influencer. 

Stardust Creative is a full service corporate and personal branding agency founded in 2018 that aims to level up their client’s brands to align with their unique proposition and values. Focused on embracing differences through personal and corporate branding, their services stretch from developing design, to establishing the voice of influence, to crafting social media strategy, and all the way to media production styling.

Coinciding with her own tagline - anything is possible, Chantel represents the differently-abled community from a tiny town in midwest who has made global headlines with her personal branding prowess. She is a recognized Top LinkedIn Creator with over 86,000 organic followers to date with her insider secrets and a wealth of marketing experience to help others achieve a strong digital presence. 

Apart from being a keynote speaker for multiple international conferences across the globe, Chantel has experienced training with celebrities on PR best practices. She’s even worked with teams from Fortune 500 organizations in terms of mastering digital reputations for executives and building inclusive environments for leadership teams.

Learn more and connect with Chantel Soumis and Stardust Creative through the below links: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chantelsoumis/
• Websites: 
  • https://www.stardustcreative.com/
  • http://www.chantelsoumis.com/#

Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Be sure to visit our website at https://www.tandemconsulting.co/.

Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang is the professor-turned-entrepreneur CEO and Founder of Classroom Without Walls, a Life Accelerator Program dedicated to young adults as it serves to supplement lessons that are not standardly taught in average schools. Through a tested and proven framework that makes learning more interactive, relevant, and transformative, their students are able to start developing the much-needed skills, knowledge, and mindset to help them become more prepared to face their future.

Having been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Today Show, Pearson Education, etc, Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang’s experience also stretched as an Adobe Education Leader, Adobe Insider, and HubSpot Academy Instructor. She received her MA and Ph.D. in Communication from Syracuse University and the University of Maryland. As a thought leader in online education, one of her distinctive specialties is incorporating social media and creative technologies into the traditional curriculum for the purpose of enhancing student engagement and acquiring 21st-century know-how. 

Furthermore, Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang hosts two weekly live streaming shows, where she interviews industry leaders in Business and Education, like Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki. She also serves as a SEMrush Webinar guest and host and frequently speaks at academic and industry conferences including Inbound, VidCon, SEMrush Global Marketing Day, Social Media Day, Social Media Week Lima (the largest social media marketing conference in the midwest), and others.

Learn more and connect with Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang and Classroom Without Walls through the below links: 

• Website: https://www.classroomwithoutwalls.ai/welcome-page
• Email: aiaddysonzhang@gmail.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aiaddysonzhang

Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Be sure to visit our website at https://www.tandemconsulting.co/.

Teresa Quinlan is a coach, leadership specialist, master facilitator and speaker. She is the founder and CEO of IQ+EQ=TQ, a human-centric company that specializes in executive coaching and leadership development. IQ+EQ=TQ stands for Intelligence Quotient + Emotional Quotient = Talent Quotient. 

Teresa has 22 years of experience in leadership and 16 years of experience creating leadership programming and training leaders. Being in numerous leadership roles at such a young age, she developed her practice based on the principle that Emotional Intelligence is the foundation for greater levels of well-being, with happiness being the key predictor for success. 

Teresa stands as the HumansFirst Community Ambassador and is the co-author of You Belong Here: HumansFirst Stories that’s available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. She also co-hosts TNT 2.0, a podcast that tackles personal development, leadership, emotional intelligence, and humanity - available in all major podcast channels. 

Learn more and connect with Teresa Quinlan and IQ+EQ=TQ through the below links: 

• Website: https://www.iqeqtq.com/
• Email: teresa@iqeqtq.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresaquinlan12/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcNKSvpFs_JanJy6UtNIlGQ   

Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Be sure to visit our website at https://www.tandemconsulting.co/.

Kevin Wichman is currently the Investor Relations/Business Development Executive at SARA Investments Real Estate. They raise investment capital for commercial real estate projects with individual investors, institutions, and wealth managers. Diverse portfolio opportunities currently include industrial, laboratory, office, and mixed-use properties in the Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Missouri markets.

Kevin is a strategic business development entrepreneur with a diverse background in small business ownership. Over 30 years of direct and passive real estate investing and portfolio management. Exceptional sales success and leadership experience in corporate 100 companies. 

You can learn more and connect with Kevin Wichman on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-wichman-8953726/.

Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Be sure to visit our website at https://www.tandemconsulting.co/.

Amy Blaschka is a Social Media Ghostwriter and Career Storyteller. She helps leaders craft their stories to communicate and connect better through ghostwritten social media posts, magnifying their reach and impact. She also writes engaging, original, and authentic career stories for her clients to position them for success and change how others perceive, pay, partner with, and promote them.

Amy is also a contributor at Forbes. She writes for Forbes under Leadership, covering personal transformation and its impact on career growth. 

You can learn more about Amy Blaschka and find her content on the following links below.

• Website - https://www.amyblaschka.com/
• Newsletter - https://amyblaschka.substack.com/
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyblaschka/
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/stories/amyblaschka/2501070049538580965/
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/amyblaschka

Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Be sure to visit our website at https://www.tandemconsulting.co/.

Frank B. Mengert is the Founder/Creative Visionary at EBM in North Haven, Connecticut. EBM is the premier provider of intelligent employee benefits technology solutions.

Frank is also a member of the Young Entrepreneur Council. YEC is an invitation-only organization comprised of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, aged 45 and younger. YEC represents nearly every industry, generates billions of dollars in revenue each year, and has created tens of thousands of jobs since its inception.

You can find out more about Frank Mengert and connect with him on the following links below.

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankmengert/
• YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/tregnem
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/frankmengert_/

Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Be sure to visit our website at https://www.tandemconsulting.co/.

Steve Wohlenhaus is the Owner and CEO of Weatherology. Weatherology is a world leader in audio weather dissemination to individuals and the broadcast industry. Weatherology serves thousands of radio stations with content for their terrestrial and digital assets, plus an army of individuals equipped with the Weatherology mobile app.

Steve is also an Author and Podcast Host of the program called “Anatomy of Success.”

You can find out more about Steve Wohlenhaus and Weatherology on his website at http://www.weatherology.com/. You can grab the mobile app on the website as well. You can also follow Weatherology on the following links below.

• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Weatherology/
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/weatherology/
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/weatherology/
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/weatherology
• YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/weatherology

Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Be sure to visit our website at https://www.tandemconsulting.co/.