Have you ever felt that daring tug to exchange your corporate badge for the entrepreneurial rollercoaster? Chelle Temple did exactly this... being the ONLY breadwinner in the household it was a huge risk that led her on an amazing journey and repeating 6 figure years in her business.
We also dive deep into the complexities of managing a business among life struggles like going through a divorce. Chelle opens up about her experience and shares her lessons through this process.
This is an episode you won't want to miss!! Watch the full episode here
Thank you for being a part of The Konnection Hub Podcast. Please share your takeaways with us here on Instagram and rate on whatever platform you are listening on. I appreciate every one of you!
Chelle Temple is a Fractional COO, co-founder of The Business Whispers, believes planning is a love language and champagne should be infused into everything. Since 2015, Chelle has been on a mission to support online business owners by strategizing and expanding operational infrastructures that will support increasing revenue goals while also complimenting the CEO’s lifestyle. As a mother of three (almost) grown children and one beautiful grandbaby, Chelle is no stranger to the juggling act of running multi-million dollar businesses while chasing toddlers and changing diapers at the same time. With over 25 years of corporate management and entrepreneurship experience, Chelle’s mission is to be the unwavering strategy anchor, sage advocate and empathetic leader that these CEO’s need as their business transitions, scales and thrives.
Catch snippets of her work, motherhood and beach life on @chellelynntemple and @thebusinesswhisperers
Have you ever felt that daring tug to exchange your corporate badge for the entrepreneurial rollercoaster? Chelle Temple did exactly this... being the ONLY breadwinner in the household it was a huge risk that led her on an amazing journey and repeating 6 figure years in her business.
We also dive deep into the complexities of managing a business among life struggles like going through a divorce. Chelle opens up about her experience and shares her lessons through this process.
This is an episode you won't want to miss!! Watch the full episode here
Thank you for being a part of The Konnection Hub Podcast. Please share your takeaways with us here on Instagram and rate on whatever platform you are listening on. I appreciate every one of you!
Chelle Temple is a Fractional COO, co-founder of The Business Whispers, believes planning is a love language and champagne should be infused into everything. Since 2015, Chelle has been on a mission to support online business owners by strategizing and expanding operational infrastructures that will support increasing revenue goals while also complimenting the CEO’s lifestyle. As a mother of three (almost) grown children and one beautiful grandbaby, Chelle is no stranger to the juggling act of running multi-million dollar businesses while chasing toddlers and changing diapers at the same time. With over 25 years of corporate management and entrepreneurship experience, Chelle’s mission is to be the unwavering strategy anchor, sage advocate and empathetic leader that these CEO’s need as their business transitions, scales and thrives.
Catch snippets of her work, motherhood and beach life on @chellelynntemple and @thebusinesswhisperers
Hi and welcome to the Connection Hub podcast. My name is Cassandra and I'm so happy that you're here. This is a space where we are having real conversations with real entrepreneurs. We aren't here to sugarcoat the realities of being your own CEO. We are all about raw, uncensored conversations that dive into the triumphs, struggles and secrets of real life business owners I'm so happy you're here and secrets of real-life business owners. I'm so happy you're here and I hope you enjoy this episode. Hello everyone and welcome back to the Connection Hub podcast. My name is Cassandra and I'm your host. Today we have the beautiful Shelly joining us. Shelly joining us. Shelly is an online business strategist and a mom of three, but I will allow her to introduce herself because she does it best. So, shelly, tell us more about you and what you're up to.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you for having me. This is so much fun. My name is Shelly Temple, obviously, and I am a online business strategist for online businesses and offline businesses too. I have worked with some offline businesses over the years. I'm a mother of three, but I only have one left in the nest. I'm almost an empty nester. Can you believe that? Oh, my goodness, I also have one grandbaby, so I am. It's so interesting because I am now, like officially, the oldest person. On almost every team I work on, I'm the oldest person in the room and I'm not even that old. But yeah, I'm the one with the grandbaby and I have a bougie little dog that might pop in here every once in a while. But yeah, I'm the one with the grandbaby and I have a bougie little dog that might pop in here every once in a while. But yeah, I live in California. I love it here. I am a sun girl and a beach girl and all the things.
Speaker 1:I love it, it's so good to have you on the podcast and I love that you are the oldest on the team, but also just like so fun, so youthful, have so much like you're not old at all. So all of us youngins are coming into the online space.
Speaker 2:I love it. When I say I have a grandbaby, most people are like. When I say I have a grandbaby, most people are like literally what?
Speaker 1:Yes, we do. Crazy, crazy, Okay so tell us more about your business journey and how you've gotten to where you are today and kind of what led you there.
Speaker 2:So I mean there's like waves to it. It's literally like the ocean, it's like coming waves. And I would say I started my career in healthcare. I have a degree in healthcare management. I started out in healthcare. I worked my way up literally from mopping a floor in an operating room to being on the executive team for a large multi-location healthcare organization and then I worked for a school of medicine for a while in the executive team.
Speaker 2:So I worked my way up that ladder and what happened was I eventually hit this like ceiling where I wasn't going to be able to move into any other position without getting an MBA and that was holding me back. And I'm like I had three small kids at the time and I was working 40 plus hours a day or a day a week and a commute and three kids I couldn't add going back to school at that time on top of everything. So there was that and then, like I said, I was working so much and commuting so much that I literally wasn't at home to raise my kids. I felt like my kids were being raised by someone else and I was missing out. So one day I had a toxic boss situation at my very last corporate job and I just made the decision and said I'm done and I walked out.
Speaker 2:I cashed out a small one of my small 401ks. I cashed it out which is probably the worst thing you could ever do, according to financial advisors and I floated myself. I was the only person bringing in an income. I was the breadwinner of the family, so there was myself, my husband and three children and I was the only one that brought in an income benefits, all those things and all of a sudden, we had nothing coming in and I floated us for a few months while I figured out what to do and I found the online space and just basically transferred my skill sets over and learned, learned as much as I could as fast as I could, stumbled upon you know doing some jobs, for I did a couple of jobs for free. You know doing some jobs, for I did a couple of jobs for free, but I just networked my butt off and got, you know, landed a couple of small opportunities and it grew from there.
Speaker 1:Wow, what a risk to take to know that you're the only breadwinner and you're like yeah, this is not for me, and to know that about yourself as well, I think is a really huge like, whether you're a business, like whether you're a business owner, or whether you're a corporate or wherever you're at, like that's a huge realization. To know this just no longer suits me, this no longer feels good for me, this is not the place that I need to be, and you know, in the moment I'm sure it was very scary to get to that point and say, okay, you know what I'm done with this, but also, like, look at the future that you've built out of that risk, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And you know, you see the books, take the leap. And you hear people say, you know, take the leap, jump off the cliff. You know, quit your day job and do this. I look back at that time and that decision and I'm like, ooh, I probably could have done that a little less risky. Uh but, and I wouldn't tell somebody today, in today's world is even so different from even nine, 10 years ago. I wouldn't tell someone today to do what I did, but I'm glad I did it. I I've landed where I'm at now because of that decision, but it was a very risky decision at the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's huge and I think that sometimes we can. We can always get caught up inside of what ifs and well, should I and what, what would happen? And there is there. There comes a moment where you have to make a decision, right like there becomes a choice point in it and so, yes, you can stay inside of the job that has the comfortable benefits, has the salary, has those pieces that you know you're, you know you're going to get paid every week, or you know you can take this thing that you've either started to build or this side hustle that's now kind of taking off, and choose that and choose the risky part of it.
Speaker 1:But that can be like you know, the sky's the limit there. There is no cap, there is no moving up in the company. You are the company and so there is a really important piece around. You know when do you take that decision and when do you take that risk, and it's going to be different for everyone and you as a person are the one who gets to decide that and has to decide that. And I think sometimes we can just kind of get stuck in a comfort zone, right, because it feels good to stay in the nine to five, and you know that there's stability in that, but that's never going to get you to the point where you want to be inside of your business as well. And that's what Marco said to me very early on. He was like either you're going to do this or you're not going to do it, and I was like, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So within that, you know, with this boss you had boundaries. You realized inside of yourself like this just doesn't feel like a good fit anymore. This is not where I want to be. How do you continue to communicate boundaries that you have in your own business now as your own boss, with your clients, with your teams that you work with? How do you, how do you share your boundaries with people?
Speaker 2:That's probably been its own process in and of itself, just being number one learning what your boundaries are. That can take some time, like learning, because at first you want to be everywhere and you want to be day, because you'll lose yourself in all of that. You'll look up one day and realize I have no personal life. I never leave my computer or my phone, I never see the sun Like you. Literally will just like all of a sudden realize it and by the time you realize it, you are so deep in not having boundaries that it can be really hard to dig yourself out without doing like a complete hard reset which, as a business owner, can be a little challenging when you've established boundaries and established relationships with people, your clients, your customers.
Speaker 2:So I would say that first it just took me a while to learn what, where do I need to have boundaries? Like I was completely new to the online space. I didn't even realize like, oh, I'm going to have to have boundaries around, like when clients can talk to me and how clients can talk to me and where clients can talk to me. Like those things never even occurred to me because I was used to going into an office and everybody talks to everybody in an office all the time till you leave. And so I think that learning where to have boundaries was number one, and then number two, actually setting them for yourself and what is going to work for you.
Speaker 2:I personally, I probably have pretty laxed boundaries, but I only work with a handful of people at any given time, so it's not like I'm trying to juggle 500 people in a group program, because I don't do that right now. So I think that For me I am pretty clear about how and when and where I'm available to be communicated with, and then on a respect level, like how I'm, what I will tolerate, and that is outlined in my contracts now. It wasn't in the beginning, it's outlined in my contracts now. It wasn't in the beginning, it's outlined in my contracts now. So it is actually a way for me to get out of working with someone. That's not a good fit if the communication is breached, and then I think that pretty much covers boundaries. Like for communication. There's other boundaries, but communication is just like the biggest one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's huge, especially in the online space, right? Because, like you said, when you work in a traditional nine to five or even just in an office, you go to the office, you communicate and you come home and you turn off, you unplug. But when you're your own business owner, when you're your own boss, when you have your own client load, the phone is there 24 hours a day. You don't throw your phone out the window at four o'clock and say see you tomorrow, right? So all of a sudden it becomes this element of always being on, and that in itself can be very exhausting for a lot of people.
Speaker 1:I know myself like I'm very social, I like to talk, and then when four o'clock hits and I get some downtime, like I'm like ready for a nap because I've been doing it, I've been on all day, right. And so when you're constantly on and you're pushing the limits of your own boundaries, like oh you know what, I'll just work a little bit later tonight. Or oh you know what, it's Saturday, I'm with the kids, but I'm just going you start to just kind of dwindle back into that, right. And so I think it's really a good point to make around being able to actually turn off and shut down and put the phone away and realize that you know, in the majority of businesses that we're in, in the majority of industries that we're in, the world is not on fire. We are not saving people Like it's. We're not heart surgeons. It's going to be okay if we put our phone away for the afternoon on Saturday while we spend it with the kids.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I think that one of the things that was easy for me to do was this phone. It was at first. I had all the notifications on. I wanted to know when clients were reaching out to me or needed something, and what I didn't realize, I think, at the time, was I was training them to reach out anytime and that I would respond at any time. And I don't know.
Speaker 2:A few years back I was like no wait, this is backwards, and so I turned off all notifications on my phone. I removed all client email inboxes from my phone. I can't check their inbox or whatever. You follow up with anything in their inboxes on my phone Like I used to. Um, I do have Slack on my phone, but I don't have any of the notifications turned on. I only see it when I go in there. So I think that was really big was turning off all the notifications. Number one. And when I say turn off the notifications, you know there's so many ways to do that, and what I did was I don't like to see that little number, that little red number, on any apps. I turn that off on every app. Do not put that number because that right there. If I see it, I'm going to open it and I can't. I have no self-control.
Speaker 1:So I'm anxiety inducing.
Speaker 2:Open it. So I just I remove that trigger to open the app so that allows me to decide when I'm going to open it. And I think that's that was the big thing was removing those little number notifications. And then I keep my phone on silent all the time, like I think most people in nowadays do, because I can't, I can't listen to it or I will again be triggered to open it. There's that whole thing with Slack and a lot of people got burnt on the little, the default noise that Slack has that noise, yes, and then they started implementing new times that you can pick and I actually use those times to identify who is sending me a slack. So each client I set a different time to so I can know audibly who is reaching out to me when I'm on my computer, who is reaching out to me when I'm on my computer. But that little and the Voxer notification, ptsd from all of those. They have to turn all that off.
Speaker 1:Literally, I was going to say I have anxiety from that notification, but that's huge right. It's like that was one thing when I opened my business. My phone, as as you upload, like so I do social media for clients, and so I have all of my clients' Instagram accounts on my phone, and so you can imagine, not only am I getting my followers' comments messages, but I'm getting all of theirs as well.
Speaker 2:I don't know how you do it.
Speaker 1:And that's exactly it, right. That was the first thing I did. I was like that can't happen. Turn everything off. That's exactly it, right. That was the first thing I did. I was like that can't happen. Turn everything off, like I am not about to sit here and get 500 million messages a day coming through this one app, and so, for myself, all my notifications are off. I check it when I want to go in there. The only thing I've got on is, if you call me, that's that's going to come through, and you know my emergency contacts and do not disturb, otherwise. I will come to you when I am ready to come through and you know my emergency contacts and do not disturb Otherwise. I will come to you when I am ready to come to you.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it. It's huge, right. And so I think like, especially in the social media world and as people are growing their business and as there's more people coming into their business, there's more messages that you're getting inundated with, I think it's important to have that boundary around. Okay, when am I actually? Because it snaps you out of your zone too, if you're working on something and ding, you're like oh wait, focus, focus your energy. Turn off the notifications. They will be there when you're ready to answer them. They will be there in an hour. Just turn them off. I think that's really huge around communication and flip your phone Always If you have your phone.
Speaker 2:If you're like, oh, I have all my notifications off, but you set your phone like this next to you, you visually see it every time something happens, flip your phone this way, literally.
Speaker 1:Or put it in the bedroom, like, if you like, I always flip my phone over, like I'm like I don't want to see anything that's happening there. When I want to see it, I will go to it totally. I love that. Okay, so a little more of a juicy topic. I know this personally about you, but I would love to talk a little bit about this in your business. So I know that you have a divorce and how has that developed, affected, impacted your business in any way? I know there's lots of people, um, that you know it's a little more of a taboo topic if we want to say and so some people aren't willing to open up about it, but I think that your stories are really interesting and valuable and people need to hear these things. So if you're open for it, I would love to chat a little more about it.
Speaker 2:Totally so. Yeah, I went through a divorce. Let's see, I started my business in 2015, 2016. I can't remember the exact year and I got divorced 20, well, let's say it was an 18 month long divorce. Okay, so it was a year and a half and we separated in early 2020 when the pandemic started, yep, and then our divorce was not final until 18 months later. Wow, and you know it was. It was rough. It was a really, it was a really rough divorce.
Speaker 2:I ended up leaving the state that I was in to another state for my own sanity safety, all the things, and, um, that also meant that, uh, I, my children stayed well, I had one that was in the Navy at that time, so I only had two at home and my children stayed in the other state. Uh, because they and my children stayed in the other state because they this, I was divorcing, not their father, but a second husband, right, and so they stayed with their dad. And while I basically moved to another state and they, they thought it was great because they got to fly back and forth to Las Vegas all the time. So they felt like they were going on vacation all the time because they were playing for $47 back then and go spend the week with mom or the weekend with mom and then fly back home. It was great, but it allowed me the space to come back to me because I had lost so much of who I was.
Speaker 2:Well, how it impacts my business, that's a whole story, because I realized a lot of things going through the divorce of how businesses are viewed as property in different states. So at the time I was in Colorado. That was where our divorce originated out of. That was where I started my business. I'd been in Colorado for years, like my whole life. I'm born and raised years like my whole life. I'm born and raised and in the state of Colorado they view a single person LLC or a single person business as community property if it is created within the time period of the marriage.
Speaker 2:So, as I started my business while I was married. Colorado views the business as community property, so I couldn't just say, okay, we're getting a divorce, I'm going to take my business, you take your job and we split up the furniture and whatever, whatever, because we could if he was going to agree to that. Fortunately, he did not want to agree to that and he wanted 50% of my business. He wanted 50% of my business. Now, as you can imagine, that's I mean, that's a lot 50% of your business. Yeah, and I had to fight to prove that number one, as a consultant or a coach or a course creator, that I was the business.
Speaker 2:As a single filing, a single person entity, a single person LLC, you are the business. If you get hit by a bus tomorrow, god forbid. There's no business. There's no assets to sell. You don't own a building, you don't, you're not a bakery, you don't own a bunch of equipment, you don't have employees, there's no assets other than cash. And you are the business. The contracts are made with you for your services, for your services. So you, you know how do you separate that? How do you 50% yourself? And every state's different. This is what I realized Every state's different. So in some of the Northeastern states, they view single person LLCs as just um as as what they are, as just um as as what they are. They are no matter when they were created. They are um. They're not truly a business with assets to be split. It's not like you own a chain of restaurants and you can say I'm going to split 50% down the road down here of the value of the business and I'm going to pay you out your 50% and I'm going to take my restaurants and go over. Here it's. I have these contracts as an online business strategist. I have these contracts with these clients and they're contracting for my services.
Speaker 2:So it was really hard to number one. It was a learning curve, a big learning curve, to understand the importance of filing for your business correctly with the state, understanding what that actually means if you're creating your business inside of a marriage and knowing by what state you're in is it considered community property or not? And if because we none of us like to think like, oh we're, I'm going to get divorced, I need to research this. But it's so important to know the facts before you have to pay an attorney thousands of dollars to teach you the facts and all the information is right online. You can literally just go to your Secretary of State's website or a small business development website for your state and it's got all the information you could possibly ever need.
Speaker 2:But I did not know this, I never thought about it and so I just, you know, filed for an LLC in Colorado it cost me 10 bucks at the time Created a business and you know, nine years later well, at the time I think it was six years later had a really successful multiple six figure business and you know, I was turning multiple six figures by year two. He got used to that income and he did not work. It's a whole nother story. And uh, so when I left, he wanted half of that income and he was legally. He legally could fight for that.
Speaker 2:At the end of the day, I proved my case. There were a lot of other factors involved. I proved my case, but we went through four court dates, two mediators and it finally got resolved in what's called mediation with arbitration, where you go into mediation and then the mediator is a judge and when they decide, okay, this couple is no longer is, they're not going to come to a resolution, they flip their hat around to judge. Right there in the Zoom room. They flip their hat around to judge and then they say, okay, I'm going to make the decision and here's your settlement.
Speaker 1:Right, wow, wow, I would never have thought that, especially because you file under yourself, especially as like an LLC, right, because you're filing under yourself, like you said, you are the business. If you were to get hurt, the business dies with you, like I am, unless you know you have other pieces in place, like you are the business, in the same way that I am the business, it's me, people see me, and so that's really interesting and what a learning curve to kind of go through, amongst all the other things that you know divorce brings.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you're, you're dealing with the emotions of like, like, just your heart and logistics. I moved to another state. I started over with nothing. I had to go buy forks and pots and pans and sheets and towels. I left with the clothes that I had and a few items in a very small little U-Haul truck by myself and I started completely over and I was.
Speaker 2:I was fine to do that, but I was dealing with all of that, the emotions and whatnot, while also learning all this legal stuff. And you know, I ended up with a about I think it was around a $35,000, $40,000, um invoice from my attorney at the end of the day and I was ordered to pay um spousal support for a year. Wow, because my income was so high to to kind of, I guess, even out the playing field. You know, the the judge heard, heard everybody outright, both sides and said the business is the business. We can't split this up. But to make this evened out as much, I got all of the debt that had accumulated during our marriage put on my shoulders, so any credit card debt that we had. There was a little bit of tax debt for the business. That all became my responsibility, tax debt for the business. That all became my responsibility.
Speaker 2:He got released from all debt and then I was ordered to pay for one year, a monthly spousal payment that was not low and that was in addition to what I had been paying during our separation that I was ordered to pay by the court. So yeah, as a business owner who retired her husband and all the things, I am so anti-retire your husband now, and I mean I won't yuck anybody else's yum. But there are things that I think that are glorified in regards to let me retire my husband or that. I think that's great to be able to do that, but I think there's a lot that's glorified that is not actually explained, like the legalities of it and what happens if and I think those are the things that are really really important and often are learned way too late.
Speaker 1:Well, and that makes such a good point right Is that, if you're, I mean, nobody wants to think of separation, nobody wants to think of breaking up, nobody wants to think of divorce, but the to think of breaking up, nobody wants to think of divorce, but the reality is that that's a possibility and so, like you said around, it's a protection of yourself and your business. So, yes, you've built your business in a way that's successful for you, and now to have to hand not hand it over, but hand parts of that over to someone, or to feel like that's how it is legally feels very unfair and so, like you said, okay, there's so many posts out there all the time retire, I retired my husband and it's all good and it's great and I love that for you. If you can do that, amazing. But in that sentence, that's something you've got to think about is like legally, what does that actually look like long term?
Speaker 1:Like in the same way that, like when you move in with a partner, right, okay, so what's the agreement? Are we both on the mortgage? Are you gonna rent from me? Are we gonna have a lease agreement? Like you have to have some sort of mutual understanding and some sort of to me like a written understanding of these. This is is what this is going to look like, so that when things do happen, you can understand, like and looking into those pieces that you probably I would never have known, that that you now own half the business because you created it when I was around, like that's just so crazy to me. So that's a really interesting story and you know hard lesson, but I think that that's a really something I have never even heard of and so that's really really interesting to hear that and have other people think about that and think about how they're going to navigate pieces of this legally and, you know, financially and to protect themselves and their entities as well.
Speaker 2:So wow, yeah, protect yourself, and the thing is is you don't know what you don't know, right, there's that level of consciousness that you don't know what you don't know, and I think that it's. If you're going to go into business, you need to know how to protect yourself. You need to understand the legalities of the state you live in. It's not universal, it's not national. These are state regulated situations, and so understanding how your state works is so important, because not all states are community property states and not all states recognize a single person LLC as a standalone entity versus a full-fledged company, and they treat you differently depending on how they view you. So, yeah, absolutely. And then how you manage your money is so important too. That was a part of this learning curve, too was how the money was managed inside of the business Making sure that you are having all of your money that is coming in through your business going into a business bank account.
Speaker 2:It is so simple, and it's one thing that people drag their feet on is going down to the bank and setting up. You don't even have to go to the bank to do this anymore. You can do it online. You can set up another bank account. I did it with Chase online. It took me like five minutes and they sent me a card. It was so easy. And then you just change your Stripe and your PayPal to dump all that money into that account and then set all your expenses to go on that debit card, then pay yourself, whether that is you're taking a draw as an LLC or you're running your payroll to yourself as an S corp, whatever that looks like. Have all that money go into one account, the expenses come out of that account and then pay yourself out of that account. Because then then pay yourself out of that account? Because then you're showing the court, if need be, that you are operating this as a separate financial entity and you're just paying yourself technically as the owner slash employee of the business.
Speaker 1:It makes a world of difference, that tiny step that's huge and, like you said, you can do all these things online like we don't have to if you don't go to the bank, you can open up another account and it's so important because and and just for your own brain, just for your own like sanity to see what money is going where. Because if you lump every if you have you ever had a stripe payment come through it's like okay, well, once they take off the fees and the taxes and this, and that, if you charge them $500, 472 cents is $472 is coming into your account. It's already a headache and so if you can see that coming into a separate account that is your business account, it's not the safe way and the this and the that and your friend sent you an e-transfer and like all of these things coming into one account, it can be very simple, right, like it's not happening, um, and so it's very easy to set it up and then it's very clear distinction.
Speaker 1:That has been something that, like I, that's the first thing I did when I was like, okay, I got, I got the business license and now I'm getting a business bank account. It costs me $5 a month to have it and everything is funneled into there. So when I do my taxes, it gets taken out of there. When I do like, all of that is in the business account and, like you said, protecting yourself across the board. So, yes, protecting yourself against people that are around you, but also protecting yourself from, not from, but protecting yourself when it comes to clients. So having client contracts and agreements in place, having payment systems that are secure and safe, like all of these things are really important because we live in a world of, you know, drop it like it's hot and move on, or I'm going to sue you, or or I'm going to charge back, and that is not a thing. And so just having agreements in place to say here's the work that I'm going to present you and here's what I expect you to pay me and that you know it doesn't have to be super complex, but it's important to have those agreements in place so that if and when it ever does come down to I had a client when I first started my business, so that if and when it ever does come down to.
Speaker 1:I had a client when I first started my business $800 invoice. She's like no, I'm not paying that. Yes, you are. You signed this agreement and we fought back and forth and we didn't, luckily, have to go to legal, but we very well could have. Here's the presentation of my work. Here's the lack of invoice coming my way, and so I think it's really important to keep those things in mind as you're building the foundations of your business. Or, if you don't have them yet today, go find a draft up. You need it, you need it, you need it, you need it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there are. There are companies out there. The contract shop is great. They have templates. You literally pay, download, change the name in all the little highlighted yellow sections and boom, 10 minutes later you have your own terms of service or your own contract or whatever it is that you needed, and it's that simple. I think that it feels overwhelming. It feels really big, it's legal, it it's money, it's finance and and I think women tend to do this more than men of that feels and I'm probably gonna get heat for saying that, but I think it's true that feels heavy and I don't want to do that stuff. But you want to own a business, so act accordingly. I love that. I have it literally above my desk. Act accordingly Like I'm the boss. I will act accordingly with integrity, innovation, kindness, all the things, but act accordingly. You want to be the boss. Set your business up like a boss, right?
Speaker 1:Like done, yes, that's so important. And I think like we just get lost in, like, okay, well, I'm just like a little entrepreneur, I'm just like doing this little thing, but like no, you need to protect yourself. You like you are a business entity, like you have. It's actually crazy, when you think about it, that people are physically paying Cassandra Arsenault, as a human being, for services that I provide. Like they're not paying a big cut, they're not playing Netflix, they're not, they're paying you.
Speaker 1:And so you now need to step up into this next level identity around what you're going to like all of the pieces, what you're going to allow into your business, what boundaries you're going to have, what you're going to charge, how you're going to run your business, how you're going to protect yourself. You are the owner, you get to, you are the owner, you get to decide these things. But you've got to decide and you've got to implement those pieces. And so when a client comes to you, what, what do they get? Invoice, contract, welcome package, boom, done, handled, so that all those pieces are covered up front and you're not like six months into a relationship and things kind of feel weird. And then all of a sudden you're like, oh crap, I need something now. No, straight up here it is.
Speaker 2:And if and if you feel like you can't get that done I don't know where to start with that I it just feels too hard or too overwhelming, or whatever, then get help to do it, but don't not, don't, don't, not do it, don't put it on the back burner until you are burned.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't wait to learn that lesson the hard way. Listen to the people who have learned the lesson.
Speaker 2:I have about 14 t-shirts in my closet from it oh, my goodness, that is so wild.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for sharing that story. Thank you so much, shelly, as always, for being here. Tell us more about the work you do, how to find you? Obviously I'll drop everything in the show notes, but anything you want to close off this conversation with um, go ahead. The the mic is yours.
Speaker 2:Oh well, you can find me in a couple of places. So I own CLT Consulting, which is at ShellyLynnTemplecom. I also co-founded the Business Whisperers. I have a business partner. We're both online strategists, but my partner focuses more on messaging and she's just freaking brilliant when it comes to copy and messaging and like communicating and I'm the nerd over here that does all the back end kind of strategy, does all the back end kind of strategy. So you can find me in both of those places.
Speaker 2:I'm really not a Facebook girl, but I'm totally on the gram. So if you want to follow personal stuff on the gram see my grandbaby and all the things that I do on the side then follow me in stories over on the gram, because that is pretty much where I play the most and I like to. You won't see a lot of tips and tricks and salesy stuff on my Instagram. You'll see my personal life and I think that's so important to just be.
Speaker 2:It's really a core value for me is integrity and transparency, and I love what I do and I love supporting women in making millions of dollars and doing it with ease, because everybody's got their own individual circumstances and there is no cookie cutter that will possibly work for everybody. So I love working with moms, new moms, women who are about to be moms. I tend to attract all of them and I think it's because I'm a little bit older and have, you know, three grown kids. But I also just love trying to help them get out of the weeds so they can focus on their babies while they're, you know, making millions with their baby, and it's, it's so much fun. I absolutely love what I do, but you can find me over in those two places, or just come join me on the gram where I kind of play and have fun and you get to see the beach.
Speaker 1:I love it all. Okay, wait, I have a couple fast action questions. I forgot to ask you, okay, favorite book or podcast?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you're making me look on my phone. I will tell you that right now I'm back in my master's degree program and I am in a class a master's degree class reading a fable and I'm absolutely loving this. It's about change management, but it's it's called our iceberg is melting and if you want to like, like learn with pictures, it's literally a picture book. It's like a fourth grade reader. It'll take you like less than a day to read this book, but it is so good around like how to get large groups of people to see the vision and understand how to tackle it, and it's told like a fourth grade story about penguins on an iceberg.
Speaker 2:I love this I love it.
Speaker 1:I love it. That's amazing. Okay, what is your go to morning drink?
Speaker 2:Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee and more coffee.
Speaker 1:Any type of coffee we're on it Pretty much. And then what's your favorite way to unwind after a crazy work week?
Speaker 2:Oh, a crazy work week. Well, I think that my go to at any time crazy work week or work day or whatever is I need vitamin D and I need to hear the water. So I live in California, so you always find me at the beach. I don't get in the water, but I do like to just go and sit and listen and become one with the waves.
Speaker 1:I love that, me neither.
Speaker 2:I'm like.
Speaker 1:I'm not really going to get in there, but I'll sit here all night. I'm good just to enjoy the, the scenery and the sounds. Yes, yes, exactly, uh, thank you so much, shelly, as always, you're an amazing human being. This was such a good conversation, so important, and yeah, I'll tag everything in the show notes for you guys to catch up on. As always, please let us know when you're listening and give us a rating. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you.