The Foureva Podcast
Welcome to The Foureva Podcast, where we break barriers and redefine success!
Join host Jamar Jones, a dynamic entrepreneur, national speaker, and author of "Change Your Circle, Change Your Life," as he takes you on an extraordinary journey of inspiration and motivation.
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The Foureva Podcast
Creative Services That Actually Convert: Rebecca’s 3-Tier Pricing Model Revealed
Ready to elevate your leadership game and grow your business?
In this episode, Rebecca Prejean, a seasoned professional and business coach, shares invaluable insights on leadership, mindset, and entrepreneurship.
Rebecca has helped countless leaders break through their own barriers, scale their businesses, and navigate the challenges of leadership. With her expertise in business coaching and personal development, she’s worked with entrepreneurs at all stages of their journey, helping them build more impactful and profitable businesses.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
✅ How to lead with confidence and integrity
✅ The mindset shifts that set successful leaders apart
✅ Strategies for scaling your business without sacrificing your well-being
✅ Why understanding your purpose is key to unlocking your full potential
✅ How to balance business growth with personal development
Rebecca also shares her personal journey, including how she transitioned from a traditional corporate career to a flourishing coaching business, and the lessons she learned along the way.
🚀 If you’re a leader, entrepreneur, or coach seeking to break through the next level of success, this episode is packed with actionable advice.
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It's beginning accessibility. So if they have a website, documents, something that they're like, hey, we don't know where to start, can you help us? I'll audit whatever they've chosen. Give them kind of an action item list of, hey, these are the things you can do, and more of a kind of goal plan that they can kind of put into place. If you want me for a week, you get a little extra fun, so you'll have your accessibility audit on the same level as the one day, but then we throw in some workshops.
Speaker 2:What's up? What's going on? Rebecca's in the house. What's going on?
Speaker 1:How you doing. Good, it's Monday, I'm okay with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's good, that's good. I'm excited for this episode. We got a lot to talk about. We got a lot to talk about, but first let everybody know who you are and what you do.
Speaker 1:So my name is Rebecca Prejean, I actually own a company and we, I will say, specialize in accessible design, so that can mean anything from graphic design to multimedia. So videos, regular graphics, animations, the whole range and we make it so that people that have ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dysgraphia, all the neurodivergent pieces of the rainbow can actually use these things effectively in different organizations. So nothing but a mixed bag of fun is what I say.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. What kind of companies do you work with?
Speaker 1:I work with startups, I work with nonprofits, I work with tech companies. I have no filter on what company I will work with. If they want to make their things accessible, I'm there for it. As long as you have a subject matter expert, I can take care of it.
Speaker 2:Okay, and how in your mind? How needed is this and how in your mind.
Speaker 1:How needed is this? Supremely needed. And it's not just because it's a personal thing my son has autism. It's because companies are missing out on all of the possibilities that these people can give them. They are really a strategic advantage.
Speaker 1:You have people that have ADHD, who have hyper focus, so they are the ones that have really good productivity. They also think outside of the box. People with autism are the same. You know, I think sometimes when we start talking about these things, we get really wrapped up into what we see on TV or what we see in the media in terms of who, what somebody that has ADHD will look like, or what somebody with autism will look like, or how they will act or can they talk, because some people have heard of autistic people being nonverbal and there is that set of autism. You know that exists on the spectrum, but there's a whole other range of people that have a whole different range of gifts, and so I think it really boils down to businesses taking their minds out of that stereotype, out of that stereotypical realm, and bringing it into their workplaces, because you have people I promise you employees that have these conditions. Whether they disclose it or not, they're absolutely there.
Speaker 2:And what's the real benefit for an organization to do this?
Speaker 1:Plenty of benefits, most of it. I always like to boil it down to revenue, because you can actually increase your revenue, because you're going to increase your productivity. Usually, on average, about 30% is what they are seeing in most of these studies. So you're looking at that, you're looking at increased innovation, you're looking at increased efficiency and you're looking at reduced turnover rate and, as we all know, training somebody new costs a whole lot more than retaining people.
Speaker 2:So at the end of, the day.
Speaker 1:and why do you want to do that? Like, do you really want to bring a whole new slew of people through onboarding? I wouldn't. But it really all boils down to that At the end of the day there is a return on investment. Even if you're not seeing it at first, like it's not obvious. It's things that come out in the wash when people are doing your audits for taxes or you're at the end of the year looking at how much you did per quarter. So there's a lot of benefits to it. I just think you know people don't really make that connection very well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's one of the biggest transformations that you've seen? Working with the company as far as like what, where were they at? And then, after the implementation of this, where do they get to?
Speaker 1:Where they started was pretty much a non-accessible situation. So no closed captions, no alt text, crazy colors, you name it. They were doing it. It was crazy and they came to me for a few reasons. They came to me because somebody was threatening them with a lawsuit, because that's also a part of this. Right, there are different acts, there are different laws that are put in place and if you're not compliant, if you're not doing these things, you can get sued. So they came to me so they wouldn't get sued. I looked at a bunch of different things.
Speaker 1:They had productivity that might have been about, I think, 30 percent company wide when we first started at a very high turnover rate, right at about a good 30 to 40 percent turnover rate. By the time we actually completely went through and wiped everything. We were looking at 60 to 70 percent productivity. We were looking at maybe a 25% reduction in workforce you know just a bunch of different things and of course that translated into what they were making money-wise as well. You also kind of heard a lot of these more soft benefits, so better collaboration. In meetings People were a little bit more apt to speak out. They were a little bit more prepared, because part of being accessible means finding some different ways to get people information in ways that they can digest.
Speaker 1:So obviously, if you're doing that, you're meeting more people where they are, and so they're going to be able to use those wonderful, wonderful benefits to think up new ideas and bring your company kind of to a different place, a better place.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. That's absolutely amazing. So I'm asking a lot of questions too, because I want people to. I want people to understand, like, what you do and why it's important, so when we can kind of dive into it a little bit more. One thing I love about what you do is that you have a niche. So a lot of designers, the reason why they kind of mess up, is that they don't have a niche in what they do, so they're a commodity, they're just like. I mean, what's the difference between choosing them or going on Fiverr? You know like it's? I know I. Every designer, every, every designer, always does that. Don't say them words.
Speaker 1:Not Fiverr. I mean, there are differences, but it's going to be harder to show those differences If unless your portfolio is really great, and then yeah, you probably will be able to do some things. But even at that point it becomes a more level playing field, because if I'm looking for money, only your portfolio might look great. But I'm going to go over here and try this first.
Speaker 2:Which they're not your ideal customers. Anyways, if they're're gonna pay you five bucks, I call it five bucks and a headache.
Speaker 1:Five bucks and a headache that's exactly what it is like that combo deal, cheap prices and a crazy headache at the end of it. And you're just thinking why did I even do this? Like what was like that was wild? Why did I make that decision? Like what was like that was wild?
Speaker 2:Why did I make that decision? Exactly exactly what? Um? So how do you for your business? How do you determine your pricing as a designer? This is a really big issue in the creative services world, where creative people don't know how to charge for what they do.
Speaker 1:Where creative people don't know how to charge for what they do. Very, very good question, and for me it did take a while because I was trying some things out. I was like, well, you know, I do all these different things, so let me find an hourly rate that works and quickly realize that is not the way to go for this Because of scope, right, scope creep. People will say I want this, like I want this piece of cake, but in reality they want the whole cake and they want it decorated and they want it with fondant Sorry to anybody who's like fondant's nasty, but you get the point. So they mostly want it fancy and then you're ending up with just tons of money that people are having to spend and they're like oh, I didn't expect it to be that much so for me. I boiled it down to three different packages. Now this is still experimental. We're going to see how it works in the next few months.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about it, but it's been doing OK so far. But, like the, it's like one week, no one day. One week and one month. So if somebody wants me for a day, essentially not a big deal, it's beginning accessibility. So if they have a website, documents, something that they're like, hey, we don't know where to start. Can you help us? I'll audit whatever they've chosen. Give them kind of an action item list of hey, these are the things you can do and more of a kind of goal plan that they can kind of put. Action item list of hey, these are the things you can do and more of a kind of goal plan that they can kind of put into place.
Speaker 1:If you want me for a week, you get a little extra fun, so you'll have your accessibility audit on the same level as the one day. But then we throw in some workshops. You get to pick about two to three workshops. I have a list of about 10 that you can choose from, like a menu, and I'll do your workshops for you. We'll talk about neurodiversity, we'll talk about inclusion, we'll talk about accessibility. There's all kinds of options for them. And, like I said, you still get to do the accessibility piece.
Speaker 1:And then, if you just want a full transformation, not a big deal. We'll do a whole month. You get workshops, you get the accessibility audit and then you get some more customized things. So you can customize with some graphics, you can add in some more video and things like that. I do have some a la carte options that people are like well, I just want one video. I got that too, but primarily it's these three options that people can choose from, and it makes it easier for them to decide, because they're not looking at what a lot of designers do, where we're just like yeah, so I've got this and this and this and this, and before you know it, it's like this treasure trove of stuff yeah you just have to pick from one of the three which, no, that's that's fantastic.
Speaker 2:Um man, a lot, a lot of good things to break down with that uh for for everybody listening and watching um. One is I love how you have like the good, better, best uh model. Um, so that way people can. You know, oftentimes people will choose in the middle if there's three options. Also that you're doing it on value of what you're giving them. It's more of a consultative approach instead of like okay, you know this design for this many hours and this you know consultation and like it's it's. It's packaged in a way where you're actually producing results on you're meeting the client where they're at, which is incredible, incredible, which is incredible. So you say you're just been trying this now for a few months.
Speaker 1:You said yeah, and if so far it's been okay. You know there's always additional questions. I don't think that you're ever going to find a client who doesn't have additional questions. I always say if a client doesn't have questions, then you need to be questioning them about.
Speaker 1:If they understand questions, then you need to be questioning them about if they understand what is happening, because you should always have questions, you know, from that kind of perspective. But people just find it really easy to kind of navigate and oddly they like to pick off the menu of workshops. Like people get really excited about it and I'm just thinking I love doing the workshop, so that's fine.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I'm like it's not like I'm gonna give you like a five piece meal from like a KFC or something Necessarily KFC. Hey, I knew I should have said Popeyes or something else.
Speaker 2:I was thinking we take it up to like Chili's or TJ Fridays or something at least. Fast food, fast food.
Speaker 1:Look, we are in America. People absolutely eat fast food. We eat like we have free health care here, so I know there are people who identify with KFC.
Speaker 2:All right, so your pricing, hi, are you can you share uh with us your pricing model of those uh, of each one of those tiers, just so people understand? Also because I think what you do is really unique where I don't, you know, throughout my day I don't come across somebody doing the work that you do, which is, but it's so needed, it's so so needed. But can you share kind of the pricing model, just so people can understand, like how you package and how like what's, what's the jump?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the first kind of one day is 1500.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I kind of based that off of yes, we're going to have our consultation kind of thing, our consultative call, but in truth it's eight hours.
Speaker 1:Like that's what they got me for. So it's not usually going to be a huge amount of work. It's not usually that intensive. So $1,500, not a big deal. Package number two is $4,000. So $1,500, not a big deal. Package number two is $4,000.
Speaker 1:Now if they add on some of these a la carte things, you know it might skew a bit. But again it's two to three workshops. A lot of them I already have, I've built before, I've done them before. So I don't have to do like all of the labor intensive part anymore, it's just the facilitation piece of it and, of course, the accessibility component. So again, something that really aligns more with are you doing the labor intensive part or is it now you're just kind of facilitating in my world, and then for the 30 day it can range anywhere from 10,000 to $15,000. And that's because, again, you have the workshops, you have the accessibility audit component. But then you might end up having that well, can you make us a video, can you do an animation, can you make a custom graphic, and that's that stuff that gets time intensive, that's the things that take revisions and rounds and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:And for me, making an animation, making a video, doesn't take horribly long, depending on the length of the video, and we definitely talk about the length of the video Going through the pricing component there's no way on that and I will say, for people who are really wondering at the end of this all, after I've decided what you're going to get, or we've decided in collaboration I have a very specific process to how that is divvied out to them and how they sign their contracts, because you get a client time and cost analysis which breaks all this down. So it's going to tell them exactly what they ordered, exactly what they got, you know, and it's detailed. So this is why it's priced this way. Each piece is labeled out and that sounds really time intensive, but it will save you every time, because then, if they're like, well, I thought we purchased this, well, let's go back to that client time and cost analysis that you signed. See this here this is what you ordered, so this is what it is.
Speaker 1:Now, if you want to add that component, I agree, it's fantastic. We can add in that for an extra X amount, but they sign that. And then they sign like my statement of work, which is my contract, right, which sounds like overall price, and refund stuff, which I don't normally do fees, you know all of those things. So adding that extra step has really saved me, especially when we talk about like scope creep.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, cause they, they be creeping.
Speaker 1:The scope, and it does it sometimes in a way that you don't even notice until it's too late and you're like, how did we get here? Like when did this start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause it's uh, and oftentimes they don't even know that they're doing it because they're learning with you throughout the process. So they're not meaning to do it intentionally, uh, but it happens. You got to catch it quick because they can get blown out or you might want to do what, uh, a lot of people do is like okay, let me, let me just, you know, do this, maybe to add a little extra value, or, you know, because they really need it right now and I don't want to go through the whole process again of you know, charging them and all that stuff. So you, but then nine times out of ten, it's like a small thing and it doesn't just end there.
Speaker 1:It usually goes well, because now you've shown them everything you can do, and what I tell people is it's always going to be hard to get that not scope creep once you add something in, because they can't visualize it like you can.
Speaker 1:And so what you've just done is you've turned on some light switches. They're like, oh, he can do that, or she can do that, can do that. Maybe they would be willing to do it. Or can we do that here too? And they're not doing it in a mean way, they're not doing it in a malicious way to harm you or your business or take advantage. It's just straight up. They can see it and now they can visualize it and they're like that would look so good here, here and here yeah, so yeah, yeah, 100, 100.
Speaker 2:What? Um? What's the number one objection that you get with working with you?
Speaker 1:oh, the number one.
Speaker 1:There's always so many no, like the top, I want the top, top, top one excuses, um, I would say the one I have received more often than not, especially in accessibility, is you know, I feel like that's just a nice to have, like it doesn't impact us at all, and that can be because of the industry they're in, that could be because of the size of their business, because you know, there's some rules that say you don't have to have this if your company is this size. Right, people forget that's just one type of accessibility. There's like a whole array of accessibility types. So let me sit you down and explain why you need this. Partially because in I think it's next year I say april, but I can't think of the top of my head right now they actually have like web accessibility guidelines that are about to go into place for not just here in the us but also for the eu. So that's going to affect people, it's going to impact them. They just don't see that yet and so I just have to explain.
Speaker 2:Just don't see that yet, and so I just have to explain it to them and then they're okay. Okay so, and I could see that being a a big objection. So so you're more of uh would you?
Speaker 1:call yourself like a compliance designer, not that word. Um, like compliance is because like I'm like not compliance is a thing, because like I'm like not the same word.
Speaker 2:Because I'm and I'm more thinking of myself in the shoes of the audience that are listening to this. Because, like, so if I own a business, but there's certain guidelines that I need to follow and I'm not following those guidelines but you could come in to get me corrected in those guidelines. Which is compliant, yeah, compliant, is that a compliance?
Speaker 1:designer. Here's what I'll say. Technically, yes. However, I don't like to use that because I want people to understand it's so much more than just compliance. Like when people think compliance, they think those modules or whatnot, like usually no offense to anybody who designs them, but usually kind of boring modules that people sit through or they skip through just to check a box at the end of the year. And accessibility is so much more than that. So, yes, we're keeping in compliance with the ADA and all of those guidelines. However, we want people to elevate, we want people to start elevating this idea of accessibility and take it from just well, I need you for my compliance modules, but I don't know if I need you for my new hire training to. I need to set a foundation. I need to level set with my people, with my teams, and make sure that I'm supporting them so that they can support me in being successful as a business owner.
Speaker 2:And that's why you also mentioned in the beginning of this with the revenue, because you're like it's revenue producing. There's 30% uptick in revenue if you implement it correctly. Okay, okay, I'm okay, okay, I'm tracking, I'm tracking. Uh, this is good. This is good because there's um, I know there's a lot, of, a lot of people that have these creative services and they're trying to figure out how to, how to package their services, and that's why I think that this uh episode is going to be really impactful for a lot of people to learn how you package your services and how they could take pieces of what you've done and then be able to apply it to to their business.
Speaker 2:Um, I and and I know that you don't want to put it in the compliance bucket, but the one thing I like about that is that it's it's a need, so it's not like. I know they might say it's a nice to have. Well, that's like a lot of things, though it really is. It's a lot of things where it's uh, it's a nice to have until you absolutely need it and it becomes a problem. That's why, that's why you said before that you worked with a company that literally had some legal trouble, and that's why they hired you, because now it becomes a pain. It's a pain point.
Speaker 2:And now they absolutely want to get that pain resolved and they want to get it healed, and so in business, a lot of times we have to look at when is the potential customer going to be in pain and do I have a solution for them? And also can I offer some services before the pain hits that are proactive services instead of reactive services services. But know that you're probably going to make most of your money through the reactive services because it just don't hurt that much until it hurts Right.
Speaker 1:Am I wrong? It never hurts until it hurts. And that's the truth. Like you know, it's kind of almost like insurance in some ways. Right, we're driving around and we're paying for insurance and we always gripe about insurance every month. Everybody does, whether it's home owners insurance, car insurance. We're like why do I need this? I never get in accidents. I drive so great and then somebody else hits you and then all of a sudden, oh. I'm glad I had that insurance.
Speaker 2:Because don't say you didn't have any. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's, it's so, it's so true, so true and uh. But but I think the work that you're doing, like you said it's, it's bigger than just the compliance, it's even bigger than just the the revenue side of it. But I know that that's what companies are gonna um really look for what. What are, what are the type of companies that you um like? Is there a certain size? It's like what? What kind of companies do you work with?
Speaker 1:I have worked with companies as big as fortune 500 companies. I've worked with household brand names but I've worked with small mom and pops that are just honestly, they are more susceptible to being sued because of their lack of accessibility.
Speaker 1:They are so smaller companies are definitely kind of almost not my bread and butter, but I like them a lot and I think it's because my dad was a small business owner for years, like back in the day, and I realized just how much help they probably would have needed today to kind of have that same success, and so I like kind of that feel to it. But no, I've worked with people that are Fortune 500. I've worked with all sizes. I don't discriminate. Everybody needs accessibility, everybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's true. Should you should have like a long list of clients I mean that you can work with, or, um, yeah, yeah, it could be. Really, everybody needs it. Everybody needs it. Um, what was I gonna say? Uh, so, uh, so, with this. So you said that there's something coming out next year, that that this hat like this is going to be stamped. Where you have to have this.
Speaker 1:Like your websites. Anything that's on the web needs to become accessible. Folks, and I mean some people, are like well, I mean, we have so much longer. Can't we just do it like a couple months before and it'll be okay? I'm telling you now you don't want to do that. You absolutely can. You can try it, but, as we all know, quick costs money, like, if you want it fast, quick costs money.
Speaker 2:Are you talking about the triangle? What is that thing? Either you could have it.
Speaker 1:Quality fast or good, fast or cheap Good, fast, cheap, cheap. There you go, thank you. And the reality is that if you come to a designer of any kind, or even anything really, and you say I need this done, like in the next month or in the next week, we're going to say yes, but we're going to add on some extra money because it's going to. We have to prioritize this, like I have to maybe shift some clients away or I have to kind of say no to some people to get your stuff done, which is fine, all's fair money. But you don't want to do that with something like this, because you don't really know where you're starting. You could have a complete website that you love and there are a hundred different inaccessible things that are going to have to be fixed. You don't want to wait till that long, if nothing else, to get an audit. Like at least know what you're working with. So you can be like, oh, my stuff is already pretty accessible, fantastic.
Speaker 1:Or you can be like, oh, no, I have absolutely nothing and now I need rebecca to make videos and stuff, but right right but at the end of the day it's it's going to be important and people are going to have to actually buy into this Like it's no longer going to be an option folks.
Speaker 2:You're going to have to do it. So what is your number one channel for leads that come?
Speaker 1:in LinkedIn LinkedIn.
Speaker 2:LinkedIn all day.
Speaker 1:And Rebecca, linkedin, linkedin, linkedin, linkedin all day, and Rebecca loves LinkedIn. We had this conversation in the green room. Jamar, I am a LinkedIn conversion is what I would say. I have converted to the LinkedIn shrine. I am not the hugest fan, but I think some of that is just me and who I am, and I'm usually a little bit more introverted. I know it's hard to believe that, but no, no, like, oh my goodness, like, having to be posting and really kind of getting in is not my natural state of being. It's really not. I'm much more of the behind the scenes, hence why I'm a designer. Like from you. I had the computer, I'm great, I'm happy as a clam, but as a business owner, you have to get out there. Like Jamar says, you have to build your brand because people are buying you, they're buying you, they're buying your brand and so you have to create that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, and so you said LinkedIn. So you're putting out content. Do you DM Any DMs? Or how are you using LinkedIn to?
Speaker 1:For me. People will request services from me, they will direct message me, they'll connect with me, all the good fun stuff, so to speak. Some people have even have even asked me to come out with a newsletter and I'm like, oh, that's a lot of work right now, so, but it really does help me from the DM perspective, because they're asking me for things, they're telling me what they want, they're telling me the things that right now are really needed for people who are interested in this space, and that's great, I mean.
Speaker 1:that just gives me more things to think about in terms of what I want to do long-term and short-term.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, for sure. It sounds like you're really in the education business.
Speaker 1:I feel that way, I feel like I'm in the education, slightly advocacy, I guess you could say as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, advocacy for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, advocacy and education, and those are places. If you had asked me, gosh, 12, 13 years ago, I'd be like heck.
Speaker 2:No, I'm not going to be in any of those?
Speaker 1:What are you talking about? Yeah, and advocacy just wasn't on my mind at that point, but life changes and who we are as people changes.
Speaker 2:And, speaking of that, it's a perfect segue into why is this such a passion of yours.
Speaker 1:Like I said, for me it changed when my son was born. He is obviously my world, he's fantastic. Every mom says that, right. But before we even had him, he had told us he wouldn't walk, he wouldn't talk, he would be a vegetable because he had hydrocephalus, which is additional fluid in your brain, and so when he was born, we were all kinds of worried. But hey, he came out okay, didn't have any of the things that they said he would have.
Speaker 1:Probably when he was about two ish, one and a half to two and a half, somewhere in there, we started to notice signs of more that were more autism related. So, not wanting to stare people in the face, some some verbal delays, just some fine motor skill things, just things that we noticed as parents. And it took another two years for him to actually get diagnosed. But he is on the spectrum and the one thing I always tell people about the story is we were ready to collaborate with people and we found out quickly they were not ready to collaborate with us in terms of getting him services, getting him, you know, therapy, getting him different accommodations in school, those things that we usually take for granted, like if you don't have any of these things. If you don't have a child with disabilities, you don't have a family member with that, your automatic thought process is this should be easy because these are things that are built in to, like the school system. These are things that are built into certain businesses and you start to find out it's not that way. So we advocate a lot for him and since I was working and learning in development already, I started to see the parallels between the way he needed to learn, the supports he needed, and what people were just experiencing in training rooms. We were telling them you have to be this good to keep this job and get through training, but we weren't supplying them with what they needed. We're like pretty much assuming they're cut from the same cloth and they're not. Everybody's different, everybody's an individual Right, but there's people who just need a little bit more support. We weren't giving it to them and instead of that, instead of supporting, we're in a room like well, are we going to keep Susie Because she's struggling in this training class and I don't know why she can't get it, so if she doesn't get it on this test, we're going to let her go? And have definitely seen people be fired.
Speaker 1:I have been in the room when people have been fired and I tell people all the time I come from that, so I have not always been aware of disabilities, and that's not something I'm ashamed to say, because sometimes you don't know what you don't know Right. You just don't know, right, just didn't know. But once I made that connection I was like what have I been doing? It was a real moment of introspection. It was a real moment of awareness for me in terms of what have we been doing? How could I treat people like that, just from a human perspective? And it really has spurred me to do more and to do better, because once you know more, you do better. That's just the way it is. That's why it's personal for me. I've seen it myself. And then I have a neurodivergent butterfly in my house every day and he keeps me on my toes, I bet, and he keeps me on my toes, I bet.
Speaker 1:He is, so his personality is just so amazing, and so I'll say it's sassy. It's a little bit of sass and attitude in him and I'm just like Ethan you can't say those things to people, honey Like you can't sit there and tell your teacher how about no, when she asks you to do something like you can't do that and that absolutely happened, wow, but but that's it.
Speaker 1:But that's just something through that you're gonna have to, kind of situations that you're gonna have to go through, right yeah, we just we work it out, and every school year is a little different because you know it's different teachers, different kids, different environments, and you, just you just deal with it. Even if he doesn't have like therapies that are available right now because of the wait list being so long, we're just going to figure it out. So I create lessons for him, I create worksheets for him, I do all the extra things because you got to fill in the gaps.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and how are you using that story to market your business?
Speaker 1:Good question For me. I usually just relate it to when you see him. If you were just to see him on the outside, you would not know that he's autistic at all, except for like those itty bitty kind of triggers and things that you might think. But I tell people all the time, just because you don't see them as autistic, kind of like we talked about earlier, doesn't mean that they're not. Just because you don't see what you think is ADHD doesn't mean that they are not. So essentially, the employees that you have, a lot of them are neurodivergent, A lot of them need accommodations.
Speaker 1:They're not saying it because they are scared. They're scared of retribution, they're scared of being singled out. They are scared of those things. I see it in my eight year old, who is singled out. He just doesn't care. Honestly, he's completely like I don't care, single me out, that's fine. He likes being the center of attention. But in the adult world we think of things differently, right, we think this job is going to help me keep my house, or this job is going to help me feed my family, feed my kids, and so we don't want to. We don't want to be singled out that way. We don't want to be seen as a potential person to chop. If you need to cut costs because I need these accommodations, you know it's those things. So just because people aren't talking about it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist in your business in this moment.
Speaker 2:And and how are you so it's such a great point. I mean that that to a business owner or somebody that's running a department, looking at this, it definitely shows like, okay, so this might be a problem that I don't even know exists, but it's definitely there, just because I I'm not, I'm not looking for it. Um, how do you, how do you put that into your, into your marketing? So like, do you, do you put out videos, do you put out content, do you host events? I guess how does that story and that message for these organizations, how does that translate into them finding out about you?
Speaker 1:I do a lot of conferences, so I do speak a lot.
Speaker 2:Oh, conferences Okay.
Speaker 1:I do a lot of conferences, do a lot of public speaking, and it puts it in a different realm, right, because for me at a conference, it's not a sales opportunity type of thing, like it's just we're having a conversation.
Speaker 1:Today I'm going to talk to you about something I know about. I'm going to explain why it's important to you. And if it's business owners that are there, obviously it's that light bulb going and they're like oh, these things are happening. You know, because some leaders, some business owners, they're not down here all the time, so they're not knowing what employees might be going through, what leaders might be frustrated with all of these things, and so it really brings that awareness to them and they're like hey, can you look at this for us? I didn't even think about that. Yeah, do this for me.
Speaker 1:So I do a lot of conferences, I do a lot of public speaking. You know the introverted me, and then I will also do some webinars. I try to put out videos. Sometimes it doesn't really happen the way I want it to. I'm a perfectionist in that way, but definitely I'm on the, I'm on the like, I don't. I am not the stare at the screen and as I'm saying it, I'm like I'm going to try that tomorrow. Stare at the screen, do like a TikTok or Instagram story Perfectionist in the building.
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, there's a lot of us that are perfectionists, but it sounds like because of that, perfection is in you. You go into other areas that you know that you can impact, but for everybody listening and watching, that also means that you should. You know it doesn't mean you should run away from those opportunities, because the energy to go well public speaking is incredible, but the energy for you to go public speak and webinars and all that um, versus creating a video once and then posting it multiple times different ways, all that stuff, uh, you definitely you know you can get a lot more value out of that. Uh, duplicate yourself. I'm like I don't even disagree with you, but public speaking is incredible. Actually, speaking of that, you're speaking at DevLearn 2024, las Vegas.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm going to go to Las Vegas. I spoke there last year too. This year, though, we're talking about accessible gamification, so essentially, how to make learning games, educational games, accessible for organizations, and somebody might be like well, I don't even understand why that's necessary. Everybody likes to get into this workplace training and they're like can we make it a game? We really want to have fun with it. Like, even if you have like the trivia stuff during in-person training, everybody's like oh, can we play Jeopardy? You know a bunch of 30, 40 year olds wanting to play Jeopardy based off a product in training. That's really what this is. It's just teaching people how to make things accessible, whether it's online or, you know, through in-person Jeopardy, which I I won't lie I absolutely love.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. And how did? How did you get? How did you get the Vegas gig?
Speaker 1:I applied, I put in my ideas all that good thing and they selected me and I was happy about it. Is that how you get gigs Sometimes? Yes, I've been asked to do a few, which is fine. I've also been asked to do a couple of articles that will be coming out next year. So that's great. But a lot of the time I go search and I know some people are like, oh, I don't know where to go. Google folks.
Speaker 2:Google is your friends.
Speaker 1:Put your put conference speaker application or call for speakers and then like the field or the topic that you're looking to kind of get into and you will be shocked at the number of options that are available both in person and online. And sometimes what I tell people is, depending on what time of year you apply, you might see a lot of closed applications. But that's OK, because then you know at least this conference exists and if it's something you're interested in then you just write it down and schedule to make sure you do this next year. You just kind of go a couple of months out and be like I need to check this next year and put it on my planner or whatever out and be like I need to check this next year and put it on my planner or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, the best thing to do is to create that list, especially if you're, you know, like if you find out a conference is next week and you're like, oh well, it's not enough time to apply, but if you put that down in Excel spreadsheet, jot it down, go back to it later, so that way, every year you're building up this kind of Rolodex of places you can go speak and then you kind of keep building on that Super smart, super smart. Well, I think you're going to have a lot of fun in Vegas. Vegas is very overwhelming. Have you ever been to Vegas?
Speaker 1:I went last year and I brought my sister with me because I was like this is going to be super overwhelming for me, all the people, and it did not disappoint. We had my conference session and then the night before we were going to leave, my sister was like oh, I want to go see I think it was Immersive Van Gogh or whatever I want to go see it.
Speaker 2:Van Gogh. Yes, wait a minute. Invincible Van Gogh. Yeah, let me check my calendar. Hold on a second. I'm going there this Thursday. Oh, you're going to love it. Van Gogh experience, you're going to love it.
Speaker 1:Immersion, you're going to love it. I loved it. And I love Vincent van Gogh. I truly do. He's a madman, but he was a genius.
Speaker 1:Man, I'm excited now, like it was so fun. But when we went to it we loved it and then we were going back to our hotel because we stayed at the venetian and I just noticed that as the sun set, things just got so much more strange the further we walked down the strip. You had people just singing karaoke, singing their their little hearts out, and you're just like, oh my goodness, somebody was singing Miss Jones and we heard that thing several blocks down the way after we passed that man. You see some violinists, you hear karaoke bars, you see people trying to get you to take tickets to things and you're like I don't even know what this is, I don't want it. It was sensorily overwhelming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they come out, at night they come out. The wild comes out.
Speaker 1:The wild. We got to get back to the room because this is too much.
Speaker 2:I purposely did not stay out super late, just because. Why choice? I think it's just the older I get, man, I just don't need to be out there. You know, like I personally, I don't judge anybody that wants to go out there, but for me personally I don't wants to go out there. But for me personally I don't need to be out there. No, during the day cool dinner time. Cool, it hits about 9 10 pm, 9 10 pm what that's.
Speaker 1:I'm like dinner's at seven. We're back up before nine.
Speaker 2:Oh, before nine. Oh, my goodness, I was going to say 10 o'clock to cut off. I've heard, I've heard from there's a, an Uber driver when I went last year and he was like 10 o'clock is when it shifts. Just be back in your room, 10 o'clock and it's every day. It's every day. There's no like slow days. It's every day, every night. It's going down. You can find something that's going down.
Speaker 1:I absolutely believe it. I'm just just walking down that strip was enough for me to be a believer. But I'm like nah, the older I get, like you said, I'm not look everybody, live your best life, no judgment. You do what makes you happy, what makes me happy is not being around the chaos and the wild and the crazy and being in my relaxed room.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, my TV and my wi-fi before and I don't, and I don't blame you one bit no, somebody's like how old are you that you want to be back in at nine?
Speaker 1:old enough to know? Old enough, old enough to know?
Speaker 2:nothing good happens after a certain yeah, when you've already experienced so much, you don't need to go back out there. You know, I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't have any desires, no, I'm good, I'm good I'm like, even if I wasn't a mom, I'm good, um yeah yeah everybody else well, so you've been.
Speaker 2:You've been doing this for 12 years. Um, what's one piece of advice you could give to everybody that runs their own business and, let's say, in the creative space? Uh, what's one piece of advice that you can give a crucial learning lesson?
Speaker 1:that you can give a crucial learning lesson.
Speaker 1:I'll give a piece of advice and I will give just some truth as well. Talk to me In terms of truth. You need to understand it's hard. Having your own business is hard. There is this thought process of, well, give me work-life balance, I'll be able to set my own hours. It looks like this holy grail of life. That's how we've positioned a lot of these things owning your own business.
Speaker 1:And while there are definite components of that, the truth is this junk is hard and there are going to be days where you're like why did I make this choice? I feel like I want to go back to corporate. I'd rather somebody else worry about all the things, because it's on you, it's on your shoulders Taxes, employees, payroll, all of it's on you and it feels heavy at times. It is not a mantle, I don't want to say for the weak, but it is not a true decision that good or bad. I'm going to fight through this, I'm going to push through this. That's a piece of truth, piece of advice I would tell people get organized, creative people.
Speaker 1:We're not always the most organized bunch on the planet. We're not hugging our planners usually, and all of these things, because our brains are just different. Get organized, folks. Whatever that looks like for you, for me, I don't necessarily have like a paper planner. I have like 10 of them in my closet and have never used them. Some of them are from 2022 and even further back than that. I don't use them because they don't work for me. So I'm very dedicated to at least one calendar, and it's digital and it's my outlook. Anything and everything is on that calendar.
Speaker 1:You need to get organized, though not just for that, for your business itself, for taxes. Find somebody who can help you with your taxes people. Uncle Sam wants your money. You better be organized or they're going to audit you. Like that's the way that it goes, because you'll do things if you're not organized and make mistakes and you're like, why did I do that? And Uncle Sam is knocking at your door like, hey, things, things, exactly Things don't seem like they're too right. Let's, let's take a look. Things, exactly, things don't seem like they're too right. Let's, let's take a look.
Speaker 1:So organization is for you in terms of making sure you have the clients that you want. Know when you're getting your clients. You create that kind of pipeline situation, so you don't have to maybe worry as much, but it's also just for you to know what's going on in your business, know about your books, be organized enough to know what's coming in and going out and be able to plan for those things. If you are not an organized soul, that needs to be your priority. And I'm telling people this as somebody who is not a natural organized soul Like that ain't me. I have a sister who's like that. That is absolutely not me. It's like why does it need to be on a calendar? I can remember it in my mind and then I forget it Like it's a mess 100% Great, great advice.
Speaker 2:It's advice from somebody that has been in the trenches Like for real, has been in the trenches Like for real, like you know because you know I'm in the trenches. Yeah, you know, when you talk to them early entrepreneurs that you know it's all sunshine and rainbows for them. It's all you know.
Speaker 1:good feeling it's new, it feels great.
Speaker 2:I'm real excited, and don't lose it, don't lose it, don't lose it, don't lose it.
Speaker 1:Don't lose it, like Jamar said, like continue to be. Continue to be excited about your business, so much so that you look into different ways to enhance your business. Like even I am still excited about my business, so I'm still always drawing by hand. I'm taking drawing classes on some and like learning different techniques of digital drawing and I've been drawing since I was five, so I don't necessarily need like classes. People would be like why are you taking classes? My own mother was like why are you taking art classes? Like you should be teaching the class, but there are some techniques that I don't know. Yeah, always yeah. And people being willing to say I don't know or I need to learn more about this will help you in your business so much because you're not sitting there trying to pretend like you know something and you know absolutely nothing. A lot of people would be doing that Like I've absolutely done it and every time, every time no fail, you will get caught.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:In some way, yeah, and that will damage your brand, it will damage your business, because then people cannot trust you.
Speaker 2:Yep, just talk on what you know and then just keep and keep learning, keep learning, and if you're not learning, you're going to slowly be decaying and just fading away. Especially for creative services too. You can't just, yes, what got you there may be great, but trends evolve. If you're not looking into some of these trends I'm not saying you have to be a master expert at all this stuff, like, if you're not looking into some of these trends, I'm not saying you have to be a master expert at all this stuff, but I'm just saying constantly keep evolving, changing learning and then finding new ways to adapt. You may find some different ways that you didn't think about before. Things you can add to your skill set, add to your services.
Speaker 2:It's business is constantly evolution, constantly evolution. So, no, this is great advice, great advice. It's business is constant, constantly evolution, constantly evolution. So, um, no, this is great advice, great advice. Um, so, real, quick and uh, as we wrap up here, I'm uh, I have I got a couple questions that I want to see it. I want to see if you're, if you're doing currently, because I feel like, after talking with you for almost nearly an hour, that there's a couple easy wins that could like blow up your business, but I don't know yet. So I'm going to ask first do you work with website partners?
Speaker 1:Clarify.
Speaker 2:So do you form partnerships where, essentially, you're the fries to the burger?
Speaker 1:Yes, I do have some partnerships that are like that. They are few and far in between right now, and part of that is just me, so also as a business owner folks, you got to learn how to give up a little control.
Speaker 2:So, but hold on, though. I was actually thinking about in reverse. So I'm thinking about, let's say, and I'm not, but let's just say that I'm a website shop. Right, I build websites for companies or I revamp websites for companies, um, but through that and through that quoting process, we may uncover that they need to be compliant. I do this because you don't want to be called compliant. You don't want to be called compliant, so you need to be compliant, right, and then you'd be more accessible. Right Now, a lot of times, these website shops don't do that. No, right, they can design a good website for you, but it may not be compliant or accessible to all different types of groups. So, do you have partnerships in that way where you're literally the fries to their, they're the burger? Right, they got the, they got the website, but they just hit you up and say, hey, rebecca, we got another one. You know we need that 10K package. Come over here and do the accessibility.
Speaker 1:I have just started to get some of those just through networking or whatnot, and I've started to see that that's a plausible avenue. As always, keep learning folks. So I'm going to start to try to do at how. What with what I do? How can it be?
Speaker 2:a great service to somebody else that is in the same field, but it's like adjacent right it's it's not exactly what I do, but that we complement each other very well. And a lot of services do this like essentially so, like the um, the crm services. They always have like, hey, you need bookkeeping, you need this, you need this. They have all these partners that they don't do it. But once you're in their portal, they say here are the resources we have and they get a commission every time you go. Every time you go there, they get a little little little kickback.
Speaker 2:So I immediately thought about websites and then if you went to website conferences or developer conferences, like that kind of like what you're going to, you start to meet a lot of these website shops and if they don't do that, that's an easy win. Win for for both, because there's probably not many people doing the accessibility piece of it. And then the other part is the compliance. Like back on the compliance part of it, if there's organizations that companies then reach out to to figure out if they are compliant, to become partners with those places, to say, well, you're going to work with our vendor to get compliant, now that I don't do, okay, okay, because like, like these now that you mention it.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna do it right because, like these companies, um, they to get compliant, they go somewhere. Yeah, right, and if, if there's some big names or something I don't know any off the top of my head, that's not my world, but there's probably big names or something I don't know any off the top of my head, that's not my world, but there's probably big names in that space that you work your way into those companies and say, hey, I could be a great vendor for you to help with this thing that's coming up next year or whatever. And any time a company hits you up or wants to go down that path, like I could be one of the bunch to help with that.
Speaker 1:It makes perfect sense, and I'm saying it took him an hour to figure that out. I haven't even thought of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's all right. It's all right, it's. Sometimes people get a different perspective, different point of view, and then they look at something. And so you know, even me, I got a business coach, I got other people I go to to see things that I don't even see, and you know, even in my own business. But so it's not to say that it's easier to look outside in, but you know, I have a different, maybe, lens than what you're looking at it.
Speaker 1:Right Like yeah, everybody has a different lens and that's why it's like other people can bring so much.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:If you start reaching out.
Speaker 2:And the last piece is your story with with with your son. Your story with your son. Like you should be cranking out content about that, I know, like cranking all different types of you know pieces and ways, and also getting in conversations with other people that are going through similar you know similar situations and bringing them on doing LinkedIn Lives, doing I don't know. It should be like every day, all day. I should see you everywhere that story, because that story is going to get interest and it's already happening for you organically. But that story, the more that you're pumping out that content and getting people in into that story, it's like, oh, maybe I should check my company out. Oh, I don't have anybody to do this, let's go to rebecca. Like it's, it's a very natural thing.
Speaker 1:um, I'll start posting um instagram lives of my son's baking um explorations, like that's his thing right now there you go. He's baking For anybody who's like oh so you're like a southern down home, martha Stewart? No, I am not. I only go and buy flour and sugar and all that because he now likes to bake every single week and it does help him with his fine motor skills and stuff. It was one of our gap fillers.
Speaker 1:I guess you can say and it's just so don't be surprised if you see me posting a cake on um there you go, come on, come on, make it happen, make it happen.
Speaker 2:I can't wait, I I won't be. I'll be hitting you up like oh, where's that? Where's that cooking session? Where's that cake? Oh lord, where's the cooking session? Where's that cake?
Speaker 1:Oh, Lord, where's the baking session? Like a horribly frosted cake, I don't do that.
Speaker 2:Hey, it's content, it's good content.
Speaker 1:It's going to look just like I did it, not like my mother. We're in the South, so it's like my mom bakes, like these beautiful pies, these almost award-winning looking cakes that I'm like calling her mom. Can I substitute margarine for butter and does it need to be the same thing?
Speaker 2:yeah, have her on the hotline.
Speaker 1:Like Mom, can you tell people how to make this properly, Because obviously I did it wrong again.
Speaker 2:Well, we can't wait to see it. Rebecca, it's been awesome having you on the Forever Podcast. I think people have learned a lot from this episode. Just a deep dive into your business. Thanks for sharing kind of different ways and approaches to the creative business, but also giving us a lot of insights into accessibility and learning how our companies can become more accessible and also the impact that that really has on people, which is just incredible. We're going to have all the socials and everything once we actually put this out there for people to find you. But I really, really enjoyed this conversation. There was a couple of questions, but it wasn't necessarily people more agreeing with what's going on. There are some people that, since we bounced around and we're live people are like what's the main topic that this thing's about? Are?
Speaker 1:we talking about baking? Are we talking about accessibility? What are we talking?
Speaker 2:about. That's the problem about lives.
Speaker 1:Accessibility is life. Are we talking about? That's the problem about life Accessibility is life, it's life. That's how I look at it. It's life. And so you can look at almost anything as needing to be accessible, because everybody should be able to do the things right, so even his baking stuff. We need to kind of do some different things there to make sure he's able to do stuff. Give him a few at home. So it's life.
Speaker 2:We're just talking about life out here just talk about life and they, because the problem with live is that they also keep jumping in and out. So that's the other. The other thing it's not like they're watching the whole thing, but that once we actually post the episode, that's when people will be really be tapped in. So, but, thank you so much for being on the on the podcast Everybody listening, watching Please subscribe, comment, like, share.
Speaker 2:Share this with somebody who needs to hear this today. If any of this message resonated with you, please share it with somebody. Don't be stingy, you know. Don't be holding on to this good information. Share it with somebody. And don't forget reach out to Rebecca if you have any questions, because if you change your circle, you can change your life. So thank you so much for hopping in on another episode and we'll catch you on the next one, peace. Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe, and don't forget to hit that notification bell for more amazing content that we're going to be putting out. And don't forget you can change your circle to change your life. Bye.
