Cut The Tie | Own Your Success
Define success on your terms, then, "Cut The Tie" to whatever is holding you back from achieving that success.
Inspiring stories from real entrepreneurs sharing their definition of success and how they cut ties to what is holding them back.
This is not your typical podcast. This is a deeper dive into the entrepreneurial spirit, the journey, and what it feels like to achieve success.
Each episode is inspirational, motivational, and most importantly - actionable. You'll gain real strategies and mindset shifts you can immediately apply to your own life and business.
Visit podcast.CutTheTie.Com to connect with others on the same journey or become a guest on the show.
Subscribe to our growing YouTube channel with over 1 million subscribers at youtube.com/@cutthetie
Own your success.
Cut The Tie
Thomas Helfrich
Host & Founder
Cut The Tie | Own Your Success
“The Bee Goes to the Flower—Not the Other Way Around”—Donna Chiacchia on Attracting Clients Instead of Chasing Them
Cut The Tie Podcast with Donna Chiacchia
What happens when you stop chasing clients and instead let them come to you? In this episode of Cut The Tie, host Thomas Helfrich sits down with Donna Chiacchia, founder of 1 Advantage Consulting, to explore her journey from ballet to boardroom to entrepreneurship. Donna shares how discipline, resilience, and a powerful mindset shift—“I’m the flower, the clients are the bees”—changed how she built her business and defined success on her own terms.
From cutting ties with misaligned clients to creating sustainable revenue streams, Donna’s story is a masterclass in courage, clarity, and self-leadership for entrepreneurs ready to stop chasing and start attracting.
About Donna Chiacchia
Donna Chiacchia is the founder of 1 Advantage Consulting, a boutique firm helping executives and entrepreneurs design strategies for growth, leadership, and business transformation. With a background in ballet and decades of experience in management consulting, Donna brings discipline, creativity, and authenticity to her work with clients. She believes in building businesses with integrity, creating impact, and defining success through the value delivered to others.
In this episode, Thomas and Donna discuss:
- From ballet to business
How the discipline of dance laid the foundation for Donna’s career in consulting and eventually, entrepreneurship. - The flower and the bee mindset
The pivotal realization that clients are drawn to you when you stand in your value, rather than chasing them down. - Cutting ties with misaligned clients
Why walking away from big contracts is sometimes the smartest—and bravest—business decision. - The power of authenticity
Donna shares how knowing and expressing your true self can transform both your life and business relationships. - Building diverse revenue streams
Why entrepreneurs must create multiple income paths—consulting, courses, books—to thrive long-term.
Key Takeaways
- Attraction beats chasing
Position yourself as the flower and let the right clients—your bees—come to you. - Value is measured by results
Success is defined by the transformation you create for others, not your own accolades. - Integrity matters most
Cutting ties with bad-fit clients protects your energy and opens the door to better opportunities. - Self-awareness fuels success
Authenticity and clarity about your strengths are your greatest entrepreneurial assets. - Diversify early
Don’t wait until one income stream dries up—create multiple paths to stability and growth.
Connect with Donna Chiacchia
📎 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnachiacchia
🌐 Website: https://www.1advantageconsulting.com
📧 Email: AskDonna@1AdvantageConsulting.com
Connect with Thomas Helfrich
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelfrich
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cutthetie
📎 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomashelfich
🌐 Website: https://www.cutthetie.com
📧 Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com
🚀 Instantly Relevant: https://instantlyrelevant.com
Serious about LinkedIn Lead Generation? Stop Guessing what to do on LinkedIn and ignite revenue from relevance with Instantly Relevant Lead System
Welcome to Cut the Tide podcast. I'm your host, thomas Elfrick. We are back. We're going to help you cut a tie or whatever it is holding you back in chasing and achieving what you have defined as success. And first, I say this every time if you haven't defined your own success, you need to, because then you're chasing somebody else. You haven't defined it, so do that. Today, I am joined by Donna Kiyakia. Hello Donna, how are you?
Speaker 2:Great, how are you Tom?
Speaker 1:I Hi Kia, hello Donna, how are you Great? How are you Tom? I smell wonderful, so life is good. I appreciate that. Thank you for asking. I often kid that throughout the year I get cheekier, but throughout the day I also get cheekier, and it's like June-ish, am I sure, when this will air. So I'm mid-cheeky here about mid-cheek point. Donna, take a moment to introduce yourself and what it is you do.
Speaker 2:Okay, thank you, tom. I'm Donna Kiyakia. I am the founder of One Advantage Consulting. I founded this company several decades ago because I wanted to offer my then contracting clients an opportunity to either go through an agency or they could go directly through me. So I created the company and it evolved over the years from a space where I would contract through recruiting agencies up until it evolved into a pure agency in and of itself that my clients directly to, and we specialize in program and project management for several different industries, primarily financial services, cybersecurity, this type and I am now currently transitioning this company into a solopreneurship where, yes, my virtual team will always be available to me if we come across projects that need more than my direct involvement, but I feel as though I would like to transition this into a solopreneurship, which is part of the journey Still on, it will always be on it. There's no such thing as retiring, and that, in a nutshell, is what I do where we're at and how we're marching forward.
Speaker 1:I love it. So I always ask you know it's a way so people can stalk you while you're talking today. Give me the one link someone should go check out right now so they can learn a little bit about you. So, as you're going through your interview, someone with a little attention to ADB can go read about you why they listen to you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, definitely, because I would be that person. I recommend they go to LinkedIn and check me out there. So I don't know what that. That's, donna Kiyokia. I'd have to look at that.
Speaker 1:We'll put it up. We'll put it with show notes. Kiyakia is C-H-I-A-C-C-H-I-A, I think, the only person with that last name. That's not directly related to you. So you're in a very competitive space, and so, before we kind of get into your success and your journey a little bit, tell me the one reason why people do pick you for your services.
Speaker 2:Typically we're selected because we absolutely obliterate the status quo. There is no status quo with us. We take everything from scratch. We do what everybody thinks is impossible. We do what everyone else does not want to take on it's messy, it's crappy, it's never going to be enough money for the amount of work they have to put into it. So you know we're very different that way. We're not into this whole. You know, $500 an hour, fancy schmancy, consulting rate. We look at it from a holistic and transformative point of view. They have a problem. We identify that we can fix it. And what is it costing them? And so usually it's natural for anybody in a personal or professional environment to want to immediately go from pain to pleasure. I'm on this island of pain with this crappy method and process and system and everything else, and I want to go to my pleasure Island where everything works smoothly, and I just want to get it to work smoothly once and then. How do we make that repeatable? What's it going to take to make it repeatable?
Speaker 1:So, on your journey, you've had to define success for yourself. How do you define success in your terms?
Speaker 2:I define success for myself as a group of happy clients. I'm not successful because I'm able to wordsmith all of the accomplishments of my company. I'm successful because my clients say so.
Speaker 1:They, they are the heroes, they're the whole reason that the company exists I think you're the first person to answer that way that the clients define my success. I like that, believe it or not, an original answer after hundreds of interviews. Thank you for that. Okay, so tell me about your journey a little bit. So, on your journey to get that success, it seems like you've and it's a recent thing, you've cut a tie of sorts. So what is the most recent metaphoric tie you've cut to achieve that success in the terms and how you defined it?
Speaker 2:I've cut the tie. In this way, I am a. I am staying firm on one of our mottos that we have and it was coined by one of my mentors early on in my career and he explained to me when I wasn't getting the success that I wanted, success that I wanted. He explained to me Donna, the bee goes to the flower, the flower does not go to the bee. He said. The problem here is you think you are the bee. You're not the bee, you are the flower. The bees are your clients, they come to you.
Speaker 1:I like your analogy. I used to say Muhammad went to the mountain, the mountain didn't go to Muhammad. Some people that gets lost. I hear the word Muhammad and they flip out. So we're going to go with bee and flower Fenella. We're going to make a more American, christian-based analogies around here. God damn it, that's the easiest way to do it. Here in the south he'd want you to say being flower, because that's the first. The jesus character has come out for the first time on the show. Anyway, um, that's actually not jesus, that's, uh, the preacher, jesus the chief. Anyway, it it's gonna make the cut because I own the show. It's gonna be to be great. All right, here we go, donna, along that path. You had to have realized the moment. Do you have a moment when you knew you were going to go become a flower? Was it that conversation? Was the conversation given to you? Then later on, you're like, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:What was the moment? Well, you know, the moment didn't actually happen, tom, in that career. The moment happened in my first career, which was the performing arts, which was the ballet.
Speaker 2:And my mentor was simply reminding me of the fact that I was the flower. And when you're dancing, when you're performing, you are the flower. The audience came to you, the audience you know. You didn't run around up and down the street in between classes and rehearsals saying, oh please, buy a ticket. No, they bought a ticket intentionally to sit in that seat and watch you perform. And if they like it and they're happy, they clap, they clap a lot, they stand up, they shout brava, and then they go and buy another ticket, and then they go and buy another ticket. So it was in that moment I understood that I was the flower and then I was reminded of that with my mentor.
Speaker 1:So I always ask the question. It's one thing to identify and do all you know and be like, oh, this is who I am. Then there's the how.
Speaker 2:Talk about how you made sure that mindset, that kind of high, so to speak, state cut. How I did that was through Organization, discipline, focus, creativity. You know I just every single day was. It was like the football the football plays. You know we run these 12 plays. This is what we do, we practice these and you know we had a playbook that I created these systems, these methods, and it was based those. And when the client is unwilling or not aligning or simply can't get it, that's when I have to cut a tie. I had to walk away from multi-hundred dollar contracts. I'm like I'm sorry we're ultimately not going to be able to help you and we want you to be successful and there is a way that you will be successful and I'm sure that we're not going to be the company to provide it and that is painful. Oh, that is painful Because you know owning your own business, you know you want to make it work but it's just not going to work.
Speaker 1:If you haven't been to FSA, you will. One time I've had to go through it, I was, you know. For us it was like I was about to lose a whole team, my entire team, because this one client. I'm like, I'm not doing that, that's not worth it, so I get it. Um, what are you most grateful for?
Speaker 2:I would. I would have to say I am most grateful for my upbringing, for my mother and how she brought me up and guided me, and now my husband um, I'd be nowhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did you, did you realize that gratefulness during the time? You know, as you're getting brought up, typically like what I mean is you don't realize. Sometimes later in life you're like, oh, I'm so grateful that she didn't let me do this or told me to push me this way, or I'm so pissed about that. But then as an adult you're like, oh man, she nailed it. Did you have that realization?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I will tell you that it was mommy and me always. She was a progressive single parent. My parents were divorced in the 50s and that was not that common then. But my mother and father I didn't even know my parents were divorced until I was eight years old and some kid in school told me we can't play with you because your parents are divorced. I'm like, oh, I go home and I say, mommy, are you and daddy divorced? She said yes, yes, we are. She said, yes, yes, we are. Well, some kid told me they can't play with me because you and daddy are divorced. So of course, this is a pretty detailed discussion to have with an eight-year-old kid, but anyway, we had it and I'm like, oh OK, you know, I didn't know any better.
Speaker 1:By the way, it's definitely a member of some poll club or some elitist group, like for sure. There's no question about it well, what was that again?
Speaker 1:please that kid is definitely some part of some elitist club like a polo club or some some snooty thing. Some somebody's farting a glass and they smell it. But that's probably what that kid did. That's who he became, or she became. I I'm just cautious at times. I mean, you know that kid sucks and I think we're going to bring out the Jesus preacher God character again. He forgives you, but I don't. Okay, here we go. All right, sum something up for me. Give me two lines as a lesson for the listener. Whole life, whole business life, put it together in one advice line.
Speaker 2:Lesson for the listener Know thyself Truly know thyself Truly know thyself and share it willingly with others. At the end of the day, that's everything you've got is yourself. So know thyself truly know thyself and share it with others.
Speaker 1:What? Uh, you can do some kind of rapid fires here. So what's been the best business advice you've ever received?
Speaker 2:Um, the bee goes to the flower, the flower does not go to the bee I assumed as much I want to.
Speaker 1:I want to, you know, ruin your thunder there or steal your honey. Oh, should I did there? Who gives you inspiration?
Speaker 2:oh, let's see. Well, I'd have to, I'd have to say that, uh. Well, I'd have to say that again. That'd be my mom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I figured that was the queen bee. I'm coming back to it every time. Now she's the queen bee. Yeah, you're so good, but there's always a new queen bee. It seems like you're the one new enough. What's the must-read book you would throw out there. Someone goes, hey, where do I start? What's the book? You say People go read this one.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, we should get my husband here because he's the book reader. I would say that my must-read book. It's a chestnut, but it's the the seven habits of highly effective people. I've read that literally five times. I love it. I love it. That's a great book.
Speaker 1:I agree with you. That's one of the. That's a fantastic book reading and it's worth going back to visit because it's a reminder that you'll keep forgetting seven of the seven. Every time you go back like, oh yeah, I gotta do that which tells you you're not highly effective, you should just accept it. Remember, know thyself. That's the advice. If you had to start over today and you could go back to any point in your timeline, when would you go back and what would you do differently?
Speaker 2:I go back to my very early 30s. I would go back to the time that I joined AT Hudson, which was a boutique consulting firm boutique consulting firm and what I would do differently is I would take, I would take everything that I was learning and I would stuff and I would have, um, I would have two and three and four revenue streams, not just the consulting. That is that is what I would definitely, uh, do different. Uh, because without doing that, you're really cutting yourself short and then you get in a circumstance where, oh, this well is dried up and now you need other things. That's what I would do too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some risk aversion, it's a smart thing. Lessons out there right here is, uh. If there's one question I should ask you today, I didn't, what would that question have been and how would you have answered it?
Speaker 2:the question would be where are you at right this moment? And my answer in a very intentional journey to transition successfully. Journey to transition successfully, ultimately what I would like to do when I'm retired, which is never drives me crazy, that word. Here's another phrase that drives me crazy at this age Huh, what.
Speaker 1:You mean now, at this age is Huh. What you mean now, at this age, is also known as now.
Speaker 2:Now, yes, now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not at that age. It could be anything, but at this age yeah. Right, I mean now yes.
Speaker 1:Now, yeah, now Don't retire. But what, what, what? Because as soon as your mind shuts down, you shut off, I mean. So so what's the I love you go to solopreneur. I know you touched about that earlier. Is your path to simplify your model, reduce some of the load, risk and enjoy your work as you kind of? You know, not retire, but like you know you're, you're in a new mode of of being. You can, you don't make as much and you can kind of be better spot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my, my goal is to to ultimately um have 85% or more of my income revenue be passive, and that this is feeding the philanthropy that I want to do. I will be establishing a charitable foundation in honor of my parents called the Legend and the Lamb, and this will be a foundation that is making all kinds of philanthropic work throughout the things that were important to my parents.
Speaker 1:That's great. I love it, donna. Thank you so much for coming on Once again. How should people get a hold of you?
Speaker 2:I think that people should get a hold of me at the link that I provided you in the private chat, and also they can get a hold of me at AskDonna at OneAdvantageConsultingcom.
Speaker 1:Love it, the linkedincom slash in slash. Donna, chia, chia chia. No, it's C-H-I-A-C-C-H-I-A. I love it. I must pronounce your name intentionally, just because it's fun. It's a great marketing technique too. But I appreciate you coming on today, donna, you rock. Listen for anybody who's still here, which I hope it's lots, because this show is all about cutting the tie to something, holding you back and learning from other entrepreneurs where they are in their journey and what they're doing to find success. To find it and go chase it and let nothing stop them from getting it at any point. At that age, at this age, now or then, get out there, go cut a tie to something holding you back. No-transcript.
