Creating a Business that's Fun and Profitable - Conversation with Coach Wendy Muzzy

Can you have a business that's fun and profitable?

Business coach, Wendy Muzzy, says "yes" and talks about how she helps women business owners address money issues and create more joy in their businesses.

Visit Wendy's website to learn more about her and her services. WendyMuzzy.com.

If you find the Marketing Root Work podcast valuable, please become a subscriber! 

My mission is to change the way small business owners market themselves and it’s very important to me that I reach as many people as possible.

Transcript

Marketing Root Work Podcast - 
Wendy Muzzy

TRANSCRIPT

Judy Murdoch

Hello and welcome to the Marketing Rootwork podcast. I am your host, Judy Murdoch, and today I am so happy to be introducing Wendy Muzzy. Wendy, I've been looking forward to this. And, let's start by you just introducing yourself, talking a little bit about who you are and a little bit about your business. 


Wendy Muzzy

First of all, Judy, thank you so much for having me. I think the world of you, and I'm so grateful to be on the other side of the camera and just have this conversation with other people who get to listen as well. 


I'm Wendy Muzzy. I am a certified money coach, online business strategist. I'm a former academic in my history. 


That's my life as academic research. And I help women entrepreneurs create fun and profitable online businesses. I help them understand they don't have to be opposite of each other. We can marry the two and actually get phenomenal results. So that's what I do. That's who I am.  


Judy Murdoch

That was one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you is because you know, like this idea of profit and fun. 


We don't naturally think those go together. We usually think we have to. Right? We have to suffer for our money. So tell me, you said that you used to be an academic right Before we started to record, you shared with me you grew up on a horse farm.  


Wendy Muzzy

Oh my gosh. There's so much stuff there. 


Judy Murdoch

Yeah. Tell me just a little bit about your journey. How did you end up doing what you do now? 


Wendy Muzzy

Wonderful question. I, um, an academic, I loved my job. It was wonderful, but I often describe it as like the golden handcuffs. I felt a little stuck. I started my first business the day I turned 18, like literally, 18 years old went down to the business office, got my business license, which was pony parties for children. Grew up on a horse farm. 


Judy Murdoch

Yes. 


Wendy Muzzy

That made sense. That was the natural extension. Went into academic whenever my family was growing and doing their thing. And in 2020 I realized I just needed that entrepreneur spirit back in my life. 


I'm meant to be an entrepreneur. I love entrepreneurship. It is just like my passion. And I kind of was circling like, where do I land? What do I do? So at that point, I decided I was gonna be a life coach, and I didn't really know what that meant. And I laugh as I say that. Went through all the certifications, got an advanced certification, loved it, did great things. 


And in the middle of that I realized money mindset was a huge part of this. It's so I got my money Mindset certification.  


Judy Murdoch

Yeah.  


Wendy Muzzy

And then many of my people were business owners. And so naturally, once we're in possibilities of money mindset, how does that play into my business? How can I bring that into my business? 


So then strategy really became my sweet spot of all of my life experiences.  


Judy Murdoch

That's a great answer. It sparked a couple additional questions. So my first question is, what is it about entrepreneurship for you that lights you up? Like what is it that you love so much? 


Wendy Muzzy

Oh, it's the possibility. 


I live in a place of possibility, and that's what I help my clients do, is understand there's so much possibility out there because  


Judy Murdoch

Mm-hmm.  


Wendy Muzzy

I kind of think naturally we're told there's limitations. You can't do that, don't touch this, don't do that. Like, I mean, from a young age, we're taught limitations. 


Judy Murdoch

Exactly. 


Wendy Muzzy

And if we can really understand that the door is so much more open than just what we can't do, it's really what we can do. So I think it really taps into that. And also my academic research did that as well. It was identifying a problem, figuring out a solution and in that space of possibility, but it was a little different. 


Judy Murdoch

Yeah. 


Wendy Muzzy

Right.  


Judy Murdoch

Yeah. There's something else you said too, that I wanted to ask you about... you had talked about strategy, and strategy is a word like clearly you understand what it is. I have my understanding of strategy. How do you define strategy?  


Wendy Muzzy

Love that question. 


It's interesting as you say that, 'cause how do we define strategy? I think it's the intersection of our mindset and our actions. So, as I think through this, again, it goes to possibilities. We can see all the possibilities or we can see the limitations, and then we have to marry it with our actions and make sure our actions align with what our mindset is. 


Judy Murdoch

Right. 


Wendy Muzzy

And that's really what I see. Strategy at the core of what it is. Now, if I come up with another answer after we get off, I'm gonna email you and be like, one more second. I see something else to that. But that's really what I think it is as I think through that.  


Judy Murdoch

Okay. I mean, generally speaking, when I think about strategy- and people will often refer to me as a marketing strategist. 


The way I think about it is more from - and not, this is not disagreeing with you at all- but from the perspective of, what is it that you wanna create? You know, I always wanna begin with that question of, what outcomes do you want? What do you want to create? Because oftentimes when people think of marketing particularly, they immediately, like when you say marketing, people think, oh, it's SEO or it is social media, or it's, you know, I need to redo my website. 


And those are vehicles. But that's not marketing, that those are marketing delivery systems.  


Wendy Muzzy

Mm-hmm.  


Judy Murdoch

And, you know, the strategic thought also with the mindset is often for me, let's do something you like. Let's do something that you already like to do, rather than me telling you like you have to be on, you know, Facebook and the client says, "I hate Facebook. Do I really have to do this?" 


Wendy Muzzy

”Why?!" 


Judy Murdoch

Exactly. 


Wendy Muzzy

That's a really good perspective and I can agree a hundred percent with you, but they don't feel like they're in conflict as you're talking. No, I see those kind of being in the same camp.  


Judy Murdoch

I do as well. Just I wanted to share kind of the marketing strategy perspective. 


Okay. So, one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you is because you talk about joy and profit, or fun and profit. And tell me a little bit, and maybe this will play into the marketing, the money mindset on your side, but what kind of like for you kind of sparked this idea of like, oh, you know, joy is kind of an issue for my clients? And, you know, related to that then, like what kinds of issues do clients bring to you that you work with them to maybe come up with like creative possibilities? 


Wendy Muzzy

Wonderful. Part of it stems from this notion- and this is one of my core beliefs- is our best work and our best ideas and our cleanest decisions come from a place of joy. 


It's that positive place. Again, I go to possibilities, but it's even different than that, it's like a "the glass is half full" kind of place. Optimism, we can replace any word we want with fun, joy, optimism. I put often those in the same category, but I think joy is more of that state of being. There's also a magnetism. We know people who are joyful. We know people who are fun. And there's a magnetism. And as we're doing our business... 


Judy Murdoch

That's very true.  


Wendy Muzzy

We both need possibilities, clean decisions, magnetism, there's so many parts of that. 


So this has naturally folded into my work. This is not what I started off with with day one. This was not where I was. I was like, oh, let's help you really work on your limitations and kind of stay in that place, which is incredibly important, but there's also an evolution as we build our business as we go. 


So that is that piece of it. Um, and then it also marries that profitability piece of it, because. If we're not making money in our business, what are we doing? I mean, and, and I don't mean that to great people.  


Judy Murdoch

No, I agree. Agree. 


Wendy Muzzy

We need to be moving towards something. Otherwise it's just a hobby. So often my clients will come to me, "I'm spitting my wheels. I feel like I'm in a hamster wheel. I can't get traction. I'm trying all the things and none of the things are working." There's some black and white thinking often at the onset. 


Judy Murdoch

Yeah. 


Wendy Muzzy

There's also- I think it stems from a lack of trust in ourselves- there's pressure. "I've gotta make this business work. If this business doesn't work, all of these 3,200 things are gonna go wrong in my life." 


And we kind of, we sit down, really get them grounded and really help them understand what they need from their business and how we can get there together. And, oftentimes, it's finding that joy, finding that pleasure, finding that reason to keep going and working 'cause business is hard sometimes.  


Judy Murdoch

Having own business is really hard.  


Wendy Muzzy

It's so hard. 


Judy Murdoch

It's very challenging. 


Wendy Muzzy

You start a business, you can really get all of your stuff to come right to the surface and understand what you need to work through.  


Judy Murdoch

Sure. I think sometimes it's like the fastest route to therapy. Or the need for coaching and therapy, because it really does make us come up against all of our gremlins or demons or whatever you wanna call them. And the money thing, man, that is just, that kicks... I can't help people with marketing if they can't, like, charge enough, for example. You know, they just can't. It's like, "dude, you gotta charge something." It's just interesting how those things can come up. 


You can know the right thing to do, but that doesn't mean you're gonna do it. Right?  


Wendy Muzzy

And we all have a money story. Every person that's on the planet has a money story. Even if you've never touched money, you've exchanged, you bartered, you know value. Like, there's some story that we all have as it pertains to that. 


Judy Murdoch

Yeah. 


Wendy Muzzy

And really getting to the root of that. And how that is influencing our decisions. And we can decide if we wanna continue whatever beliefs we have. 


Judy Murdoch

For sure. 


Wendy Muzzy

Or we can decide if we wanna make a change. And I will say I started the money mindset work. 'cause I needed to work on it. I didn't realize it at the start. We all just need to be aware of it. We all need to understand we have a money story and decide what we wanna carry and what we wanna change.  


Judy Murdoch

Yeah. And Wendy, I think too, the other thing that I have often run into, we both typically work with women who are solopreneurs or business owners. 


And I find that our culture- I've had a conversation with a couple other people who have areas of expertise related, but a little different. Um, our culture does not teach women how to fully own the fact that you are a business owner. Part of owning a business is, you know, the definition is you are making a profit. 


Wendy Muzzy

Mm-hmm.  


Judy Murdoch

Income should be higher than your costs. You know, these seem like really simple, straightforward things. I mean, I have an MBA so I understand how this works, but you know, you can intellectually underst. Stand it. And then, at the same time, I know I have these weird blind spots about like, " wait, me? Getting money?" You know, like there, there can be like a really weird detachment. Like, you see money in the bank and you're like, "how did that show up?" This weird stuff of not quite connecting, like who you are as a business owner with the fact that yes, you earn money and I don't see the show up with men. 


Men have their own issues, their own set of issues, but I see this largely showing up with women. It doesn't matter how smart they are, doesn't matter how talented they are, doesn't matter. It's just kind of this weird cultural thing.  


Wendy Muzzy

And I have seen it showing up with some men just for full disclosure. 


Judy Murdoch

Interesting. 


Wendy Muzzy

It is an interesting place where that is. But there is this notion that, " I need to give so much." Like you go to motherhood, you go to your relationship, all these different categories and we're supposed to pour out rather than look at this balance and this exchange. And a lot of times I will just work with clients and just, " can we just talk about it being exchange of energy? The money's coming to you as energy. You're giving out time as energy. Can we, can we go that route?" And whenever they can start to boil that idea down, then they can look at it differently, and we can go deep into their story where Uncle Joe said Aunt Patty was wrong for all these reasons. I mean, whatever the case may be, there's a story generally there that sits at the table. 


Judy Murdoch

Yeah. You know what you just made me think about too is just if you are a service oriented person, I'm very service oriented, so very, like my orientation is very much like... yes, I like being a business owner. Yes, I like making money. For me, the real joy comes from making a positive difference for people 


Wendy Muzzy

wonder. Hundred percent. 


Judy Murdoch

You know, that's really where the joy comes from, and that can also get in the way of, you know, the money issues. And something I have to remind myself of is, "you're in a business. Your business needs to make money. If you're not making money, you don't have a business and you can't help people." 


Wendy Muzzy

And your impact gets to go further the more money you make. You're not gonna just ho your money and put underneath your mattress and be like, "okay, Judy's got a thousand bajillion shells underneath her mattress. Everything's fine." No, you can give to other people. There's a notion that we're selfish if we make money, if we make a significant amount, we all have a dollar amount, there's a threshold. And um, we can pretty much quickly find that in conversations with business owners what their threshold is. And that's generally, until they do the work, that's where they're gonna stay capped. 


And it's very, very fascinating to me. I love the work, I love helping people see there's some simple shifts we can do. There's some simple mindset shifts we can do. There's some simple idea shifts we can do, and if you wanna stay that way, it's also okay. There's no one judging you. I'm not gonna wiggle a finger and be like, you're wrong for those thoughts. No, you can have 'em. But bring em to the surface.  


Judy Murdoch

Can you gimme like maybe an example or two? Um, you know, please keep it confidential, but of clients you've worked with, maybe share a little bit of like what they came to you with and a little bit about, like how did you help them and what kinds of results did they get? 


Wendy Muzzy

Definitely. One client that immediately comes to mind is she just didn't know what to do. She was working all day, every day on her business, but she was not making any money. Whenever I see any money, I mean no money. Yeah. This was about four to six months into her business. 


So we developed a plan. Very personalized. For you. Here's what we're gonna do. And these are things that are gonna move your business forward. So as we're doing this work, she starts bringing in money and she's feeling really good. 


Judy Murdoch

Wow. 


Wendy Muzzy

But then, she was meeting with some resistance of, "I think I should be making X dollar amount." 


And it was a very large dollar amount, and we had to really narrow in on that gap of what you're making now and what you wanna make definitely possible, but we need to make sure we're staying in that zone of work effort and make sure we're not looking at what we don't have, but what we do have. 


And by the end, she was making a very good salary. She still wants to make more. She's still increasing. And not where that dream dollar amount was. But it's still this notion that her goals create her actions, which creates her results, which creates her money and allows her to have the lifestyle that she's hoping to have. Does that make sense?  


Judy Murdoch

It makes perfect sense. 


The question that came up for me was, can you give some examples of what types of things did you have her doing differently, because you said she's working her butt off. 


Wendy Muzzy

So we do what, what I call the "no matter what" list. These are three to five things that are very personalized to her. 


Hers was send out her weekly emails she was sending out once every three to four weeks. Sometimes she'd do it every three days, like depends on if she had something to promote, a workshop she had to promote, she had a offer to sell, whatever that was. So every single week, no matter what, you're gonna send an email, you're gonna let people know that you're gonna just be in their inbox. If you wanna sell, we can definitely do three emails in a day if you want, but you need to make sure you're doing things consistently. 


The other thing that she was doing what I call a visibility tour. She was going around and making sure herself more visible. So what does that look like? And we came up with her list of visibility tour items. 


The other thing is making consistent offer and having a call to action tied to everything that she was doing as opposed to just doing visibility for visibility's sake. Let's actually draw them to something. 


Her email list was already pretty large, but she needed to clean it out and make sure these were people that met her where she was rather than where she had been or where she potentially thought she was going at one point. 


So those were the main things was her "no matter what" list, making sure there was a purpose to her visibility to her, and ensuring that her goals were driving those actions that she was doing. 


Judy Murdoch

Got it. Okay. Yeah, what you just said about making sure there's an offer and clear, call to action. That's a real tricky one for people, I find. I get a lot of emails from people. A lot of them are really thoughtful and well done, but you read it, and you might say, "wow, that was a great article," but they're not taking you anywhere. 


Wendy Muzzy

Definitely. And I think it also goes back to the money mindset. I'm wrong for wanting to sell to you. I'm wrong for wanting to have you want to buy from me. I'm wrong for all of these things. And hers, there was a money mindset story there. There was a definite story that we could definitely target and understand and, um, what she could see that clearly and look at it from all different angles, a lot of things clicked for her and she could start to see that selling was a service rather than an ask. I'm doing this in service of you. I can't just automatically assume you don't wanna buy from me. 


Judy Murdoch

Yeah. 


Wendy Muzzy

I need, I need to actually be able to help you, 'cause I wanna help you. And it was really a beautiful revelation for her. 


Judy Murdoch

Yeah, I like this idea thinking about selling as you're being in service to people. You're not bugging people.  


Wendy Muzzy

Yeah.  


Judy Murdoch

Because, there's also like a certain level of sensitivity, I think, for people. And I get where that comes from, you know, we're bombarded, right? 


Like from every single angle to be buying things all the time. So, I know for myself, I can get kind of hung up on that sort of like, I don't wanna pester them. I don't wanna pitch slap somebody, you know? It feels like to me a little bit like a maturity thing and a self-identity thing. 


Wendy Muzzy

Well, and I think it often comes from, I don't wanna say judgment, 'cause judgment feels a little heavy to me. We can all think of at least five guys on the top of our heads that do all the bro marketing. 


Judy Murdoch

Exactly. 


Wendy Muzzy

So this guy trying to sell me again. What I get curious about is, what makes me want to click his email? 


He can sell to me if he wants, but let me get curious about my actions and then use that to inform some potential decisions in the future. There's some very specific patterns that I've caught from these bro marketers, 'cause some of them are in my inbox. I don't dislike it. I don't read every single email, but there are some of them that actually get my attention. 


And so, I think staying in that place of curiosity in our own behavior rather than judgment of their behavior. And I'm not saying you're judging them at all. Please don't hear that, Judy. But, that's the stance I've started to take of just noticing my responses. 


Judy Murdoch

Yeah. I think what came up for me was, what you're saying is, does it feel good? When you read the email. Like, do you feel good? Like, do you feel like, "oh, this sounds interesting," or, "oh, I could really use this"? To me that is good marketing. You know, when people feel understood, they feel like you're offering them something that would be genuinely useful. You're not like selling at them. 


Wendy Muzzy

100%. And I have a variety of people in my inbox, and I do also put them off. I do email folders. I have to keep organization. My brain just works better that way. And I'll digest them all in one sitting, generally once a week. And I'll be like, huh, that's an interesting thought. What? That evoked a thought in me I hadn't really thought for. Oh, I clicked this one because the subject line was whatever. And I think that really is the biggest helpful thing as a business owner is- we're not our ideal client all the time- but to actually think through our own behavior and why we do certain things. We get a whole valuable bit of information, this brain of ours, so we should use it to benefit us and see how it helps us. 


Judy Murdoch

Yeah, no, I totally agree. 


Wendy Muzzy

Such a tangent. 


Judy Murdoch

No, no, no, no. That's totally okay. Um, what is one thing- could be more than one thing- you wish that your clients knew when they come to you?  


Wendy Muzzy

I think there's probably a couple things, but let me... if your business feels heavy right now, there's nothing wrong. There's nothing wrong and it's fixable. 


Some of my clients first come to me. There's a lot of shame or there's pressure. There's a lot of pressure. My husband says I need to make $300 this week. Or, you know, x, y, and Z problems. 


Judy Murdoch

Yeah. 


3: And I think whatever we put anything under pressure minus coal and diamonds, I guess, um, it causes a lot of just unnecessary tension. And whenever we can really take that tension out, we can see such tremendous progress and we can really grow to the place that we wanna grow. And again, it could be whatever we want. There's no judgment, there's no right or wrong answer. And I think I want people to know fun and profit don't have to be in conflict. 


If they want to be, if you want them to be in conflict, by all means. Hold it. I don't need to argue with you, but they don't have to be in conflict if we don't want it to be. And that is, the sweet spot of a really, really amazing business. Enjoy. 


Judy Murdoch

So a question for you, Wendy, how do you help your clients experience more joy? Like what types of things do you help them do?  


Wendy Muzzy

Some of it's mindset shifting. Naturally, i'm an optimistic person. I'm very grateful for that. So I can bring some of that energy in without much effort. 


The other thing I have my clients do is really take inventory of how they feel. How do you feel after a client call? How do you feel after a podcast interview? How do you feel after a networking call? And really identify does it give you energy or does it drain you? If it drains you, you don't have to do them. They don't have to go on your "no matter what" list, you get to decide what goes on that list. We all get a choice of what we wanna do, which is why we're business owners. And how fortunate are we. We also create joy list. There's moments throughout our day that we need just a little microdose of joy, just a snitch bit. Yeah. It might be a walk, it might be a call with a friend. It might be a warm cup of coffee on the back porch. Whatever it is. But we need to create that list of those go-to activities to help us find joy. 


And then we start talking about removing friction through business. Generally when we're avoiding or procrastinating, there's a little bit of friction. So we find systems around removing that friction, and then we do commitment to follow through on ourselves. I say, "I'm gonna do this." Okay, this is what I'm gonna do, this is my plan to make it happen. These are the structures that I have in place to make that a reality. So that's kind of the whole nutshell of a continued process of working one-on-one with my clients that we do. 


Judy Murdoch

Wendy- one of the things that you were talking about being an entrepreneur, and this is something I really love about being a business owner- do you generally find that people do not see all the possibilities? And what I'm trying to get at is I am a big believer in creative options. 


Like I am a big believer that, generally speaking, there are a lot more ways to get to something than we are aware of. And so, one of the places I think coaches can be so helpful is helping people see things that perhaps they didn't see.  


Wendy Muzzy

There is that. Now, whenever I'm in full coaching mode, I'm not brainstorming with you. 

I'm just helping you undercover. What's going on? Here's what I'm hearing. Lemme shine a flashlight over here. Let me help you see a blind spot. My business strategy, we do a little bit more brainstorming and possibility focus, and in that space, it's more of the, I hear some limitations. 


Could this be another way we could look at this? And sometimes I hear no, arms crossed, no, I don't wanna do that. Wonderful. We just took 30 things off the list. This was just as productive as finding 30 things you wanted on the list. But, I think it's a hard part and I am, I'm finding myself mentally editing as I'm talking, coaching and strategy to me are different things. 


I bring my coaching hat to strategy and I bring sometimes strategy to my coaching calls, but i'm very clear whenever I merge the two, because I think they are different. Strategy feels a little bit more advice giving and 


Judy Murdoch

I agree. 


Wendy Muzzy

I think my coaching program would be like, you got it. 


Like, that was what we drilled in for two years straight. That's not a advice giving. That's just uncovering, that's lifting up the rocks and what do we find underneath there? How does that land for you?  


Judy Murdoch

That was a really good answer, and it was a good way to make that discernment between coaching and strategy, and I'm one of those persons that I'm comfortable playing in gray areas with people.  


Wendy Muzzy

Mm-hmm.  


Judy Murdoch

But again as people who are coaches, again, it's being a little careful about moving too much into the, you know, lecture education mode as opposed to letting people kind of figure out their own solutions that... 


Wendy Muzzy

oh, definitely. 


Judy Murdoch

That they will fully own.  


Wendy Muzzy

Yes. And I have a coach. I meet with her every two weeks and she's such a good example of... at first, I just wanted to brainstorm with her. I was like, can we brainstorm? And she would not let me go in that space. 


Judy Murdoch

Wow. 


Wendy Muzzy

And I didn't understand it until I got to the other side. 


I was like, I totally get it. Sometimes she'll say, oh, here could be a potential blind spot, a potential pothole on your road trip of life. But, um, I'm not gonna tell you that that's a definite one. It's just a potential one. And I think that's an important aspect as we go through this process. Sometimes I ask people what they need. Do you need ideas right now or do you need to hear what I'm hearing? And to help them decide what they want because  


Judy Murdoch

Agreed.  


Wendy Muzzy

It just doesn't work as black and white as we'd like sometimes.  


Judy Murdoch

Right. No, it's a very empowering way to be with people. 


Wendy Muzzy

Yes.  


Judy Murdoch

Yeah. Yeah. Do you have any go-to resources, like books or workshops or it can be your own things that if somebody were listening to us right now and thinking like, "wow, I really wanna like dip my toe more into this." Um, any suggestions for people?  


Wendy Muzzy

I would give a book that changed my life. "The illusion of money" I love.  


Judy Murdoch

Yeah?  


Wendy Muzzy

He's a comedian. He's not really, but that's okay. But the book changed my perspective on money and I think 


Judy Murdoch

interest 


Wendy Muzzy

Combination with communication with my coach at the time was where I realized money mindset was where I needed to spend a lot of my effort on the onset. 


Judy Murdoch

Yeah. 


Wendy Muzzy

So I would say that. I also have a podcast, your Fun and Profitable online business. I do believe in things being quick. There are less than 10 minute episodes you leave with an actionable strategy and perhaps, hopefully, a different way to think through whatever you may be thinking through. So that's another thing. 


I also have I call it "your fun and profitable five minute moves" and it's five minute activities. They're around visibility, joy, whatever it may be. You can go to windy muzzy.com/moves and grab that. Um, it's just, I think there's 120 things on there. You can personalize it. I like things to be random so you can randomize it and it allows you to kind of get in that action state and kind of start to create that momentum to get your business to kind of get moving. 


Judy Murdoch

 That sounds really great, Wendy. 


Anything that you would love to talk about that you and I have not yet touched on? 


Wendy Muzzy

Hmm. Let me see. Oh, that's a good question. I. I'm often intrigued. I have a push-pull with social media. So, my audience knows. I used to say it was hate, hate. I'm like, it's not hate, hate, it's just push-pull. We're gonna rephrase that a little bit, but whenever you think about visibility with your clients and joy, we're gonna talk about joy and visibility, kind of the marriage of the two. What do you think is the avenue that people find most joy in their marketing or visibility? 


Judy Murdoch

 Interesting. Yeah, I love that question. I love that question a lot because one of the things that I have a goal with, you know, from the perspective of marketing is I really want marketing to be delightful. For the person doing it and for the people who are experiencing it. I just think marketing has such a bad rap, and it really doesn't need to. Marketing is really about human relationships and establishing trust. And, you know, I am always thinking about, in fact, my newsletter this week I interviewed somebody who is an animal like communicator and we talked about how we felt our cats are like the best marketers in the world. And so, the conversation was about the best marketing advice from the best marketers in the world, because, you know, I always tell people cats own the internet and they don't do anything whatsoever. They could care less. It's the humans, it's us. We do their marketing for them. Yeah. And we enjoy it, right? I don't know if you're a pet owner, but it could be your dog or a snake, whatever it is that you love. But you know, again, I'm just always looking for a what fun things we can do to make people smile? And give them a little bit of delight in their day. 


Wendy Muzzy

Well, I think that's a two-way street. If we can bring other people joy and it brings us joy, like it, it almost comes out in the process. Now I do have three chickens. And then I do have a cat who, she's an outdoor kitty Kitty. And she, um, very much has opinions. So 


Judy Murdoch

Right? 


Wendy Muzzy

She can articulate what she needs very quickly. No hesitation, no pausing. We live on a lot of land and there's a pond and there's just all kinds of things. So, the animals and the wildlife get to interact with us. 


Judy Murdoch

Isn't that awesome? Yeah. I love that.  


Wendy Muzzy

Yeah.  


Judy Murdoch

Yeah.  


Wendy Muzzy

Um, but I do think animals are a great avenue for all of that, 'cause they do bring us joy. They do, um, light up our lives in different kind of ways. So, I like that.  


Judy Murdoch

And their needs are entirely different. Like, you know, as I said, my cat could care less about marketing, you know, oblivious to marketing, but my cat does like me to pay attention to him, and one of the things I like is the message I often will get from him. 


You might get this from your chickens and your as well. It is sort of like you're thinking way too much. You are way too in your head. How about if we just hang out and, you know, like, I want a tummy rub right now. You know? And it's like, "oh yeah. That's right." You know, there's a whole big world out there and they could care less about this stuff. 


Wendy Muzzy

And it really boils down to what moves the needle for Kitty Kitty, for your cat. It could be belly rubs, a little bit of food, perhaps some undivided attention. I think through, as you're saying that the same thing is true with business. We need to do the things that really move the needle, that get us to whatever our goals are, and understand and keep those upfront and center. The other things are important if they bring us joy, but they don't necessarily have to be the things that we do all day every day. The lessons from a cat in business, I like it.  


Judy Murdoch

Yeah, I do too. Just 'cause it's also a little snarky. 'Cause cats really don't care. But, I think cats are just by nature, kind of fun.  


Wendy Muzzy

I think they want you to think they don't care. I really think at the core they do. 


Judy Murdoch

Oh, they do a good job. 


Wendy Muzzy

Right. We left for a month. We had a house sitter. And Kitty kitty was, like, devastated. Whenever I came back, she was thrilled that I was home. So I mean, she was good. She was taken care of and she was loved. 


Judy Murdoch

No, no, I get it. Well, that's good. That's cool then. Then you're her favorite human.  


Wendy Muzzy

Oh, i'm definitely her favorite human. She makes it known to everybody.  


Judy Murdoch

And that's a privilege.  


Wendy Muzzy

It is some days. Some days I'm like, no kitty. She also likes to leave us presents on the front porch, but I digress. 


Judy Murdoch

Oh, all right. Even more of an honor, right?  


Wendy Muzzy

Yes.  


Judy Murdoch

Okay. So Wendy, for folks who would like to get to know you better, see what kind of resources you are putting out there, how do folks find out about you? 


Wendy Muzzy

You go to wendy muzzy.com. My podcast is on there. I host most weeks CEO hour for an hour every Wednesday. We all just come together and cowork, it's free. It's just to do some of the things with other people and get out of this isolation space that we can sometimes be in. They can join my email list, whatever, however they wanna interact with me, they can interact with me. 


You can also just be a consumer of my information. Podcast is out there. Um, come join CEO hour and just just be a good friend. I'm here for it.  


Judy Murdoch

Cool. Wendy. Thank you so much. I really enjoyed being with you.  


Wendy Muzzy

I enjoyed being with you too, Judy.