FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #126 Numbers Matter For Local Growth
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What if one word on a test—or one poorly written survey question—cost your students points or pushed your customers away? We sit down with Dr. Jones, founder of Numbers Matter LLC, to unpack how psychometrics and smart data practices help schools, agencies, and local businesses make confident, evidence-based decisions.
Dr. Jones shares the origin of Numbers Matter, her path from federal psychometrician to entrepreneur, and the purpose behind the name. We dig into clear examples of how language bias skews results—like the “soda vs pop” trap—and how small changes in wording, sequencing, and item design can dramatically improve fairness and accuracy. You’ll hear how her team builds tight, 10-question electronic surveys, runs the right analyses, and converts findings into practical moves for small businesses: better lighting, clearer signage, streamlined checkout, and more. The focus is always the same—measure what matters, then act with precision.
We also talk candidly about starting and sustaining a young company. Dr. Jones lays out grounded advice: do your homework on demand and trademarks, prepare for slow seasons with cash buffers or part-time anchors, and find two or three mentors who’ll challenge your assumptions. Most of all, test your why. A strong purpose steadies you when the inbox is quiet and the to-do list is loud.
Whether you lead a shop on Main Street, manage a training program, or oversee high-stakes exams, this conversation offers a blueprint for turning messy feedback into better outcomes. If you’re ready to replace hunches with honest signals and move from data to decisions, this one’s for you.
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Dr. Jones
Numbers Matter LLC
571-866-1662
Welcome & Guest Introduction
SpeakerThis is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
What Numbers Matter Does
Speaker 1Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I have a special guest joining me today. We've got Dr. Jones joining us, and she is with Numbers Matter LLC. Dr. Jones, welcome to the podcast. Thank you, thank you, thank you for having me. Happy to be here. Well, thank you for joining me. I'm really excited about this interview and excited to learn more about you and your business. So let's start there. Share with us what is Numbers Matter LLC?
Speaker 2Numbers Matter LLC is a small business. It's woman-owned. It's owned by myself. And it's a small business. We specialize in psychometrics, uh, IT software training, data analytics, um, a little bit of instructional design, uh, evaluation and training programs. We can do those kinds of things, survey design. Uh, we were founded in 2024. We've been open two years as of February 2nd, 26th.
Speaker 1So I'm excited about that, definitely. Well, congratulations on the two-year anniversary. That's an important milestone. I love what you're doing. I would love to learn a little bit more about you and your background. So tell us, how did you get into this?
Speaker 2Oh, wow. Uh so when I was a small girl, I had two dreams, and that was to be a doctor, and that was to run my own business. And I always told myself, hey, I want to run my business. I run around my business. You know, it was just a constant thing that I wanted to do, as well as getting my doctorate. Um, I used to be a psychometrician for a federal client, and I found that I truly love numbers. And as a kid, not so much, but now I truly love numbers. And so I said, you know, hmm, what do I want to name my business? I spoke to the Lord and he told me, he said, hey, numbers matter. Comes from the book of numbers, numbers matter. And so that's why I named the business numbers matter.
Speaker 1I love that. I love that. And so tell me, who is your ideal client? So for the listeners out there, you know, kind of wondering, is this something that she could help me with with my business? Talk to me a little bit about that. Sure.
Speaker 2Uh, we have we could do federal, state, city, local, commercial. We don't we don't have just one in particular client. We can render these services across um different organizations and agencies, but not just the federal space. So it could be federal, it could be state, it could be local, city, it can even be commercial business.
Founder’s Story & Naming
Speaker 1Amazing. So I have a lot of uh local business owners who listen to the podcast. And so um let's kind of focus on that for just a second. Give me some examples of how you can help a local small business.
Speaker 2Uh let's say they're wanting to understand a little bit better uh the needs of their customers. We can go in as numbers matter, we can design a survey for them to push out, give me a 10-question survey to push out to their customer or clientele or customer base. They fill out the survey, we can make it electronic, of course. Everything today is electronic. We get it back, we can actually crunch those numbers and using different uh statistical formulas and derive at certain answers according to how they answered on the survey. And then we can then come up with different things uh that they can put in place or implement within their company, uh, such as, hey, uh have better lighting around the store, uh, things of that nature. And we can say, hey, you know what, now you have this, so you can make these informed decisions, and you are able to um uh incorporate the information from the survey into your decision making. So those are just some of the things we can do.
Who They Serve
Speaker 1I love that. Thank you for explaining that to me. I appreciate that. And it's um such a helpful service for businesses to make sure that they are making the right decisions and not making decisions that might be um, you know, sometimes I think you hear from that one squeaky wheel and then you make a decision. This is uh rooted in analytics, and I love that that that's something that you can help businesses navigate.
Speaker 3Yes.
Speaker 1Wonderful. So, do you find that there are any myths or misconceptions about what you do?
Helping Local Businesses With Surveys
Speaker 2Many don't understand what a psychometrician is. Many say, hey, it's just a data analyst. It's a little bit of a difference between the data analyst and the psychometrician. Psychometrician, in short, looks at numbers from a psychological standpoint. And that's exactly what a psychometrician is. We can look at tests. I can go into a school system and look at a test or an exam and say, hey, how are you writing the questions? Why are students getting number five and seven wrong? Let's look at how the questions are written. How can we reword the questions to make it better for the student, for them to recall and apply in their answering to what they learned? And so those are just some of the things that, you know, again, we can do, but that's the difference between a psychometrician and a data analyst. Data analyst is just numbers, crunch, numbers, crunch, numbers, crunch, numbers. Whereas to we take a deeper look into things and we can say, hey, you may want to kind of revamp your, you know, um exam. And we can help do that by saying, hey, what type of questions are you asking? How about we're asking these questions or ask this instead of this? And then let's do a pilot to see, hey, are the students getting questions five and seven right?
Speaker 1So yeah. Very cool, very cool. I love that. Because I uh before meeting you had not heard of a psycho matrician before. So many haven't.
Speaker 2They're like psycho matrician. Okay, okay, you know, but yeah, people get it very mixed up. We can look at exams, tests, high sec exams, anything the exam related or not, and say, hey, yeah, let's really look at how are you designing your tests. Uh, they looked at a medical study uh a while ago for medical students, and when they take the med test at the end, their exam, and they stated on there just the simplest things. They had down uh a question about um soda. Well, up north, they don't call soda soda, they call it pop. Down south, they call it soda, and they found that students were they were getting the question wrong because many didn't know what pop was, and many didn't know what soda was. So we as psychometricians, we can look at those things and say, hey, what's the best language here to use? And so I found that to be very interesting. I've done a lot of research on how to do test exams and and what questions to ask, um, how you should not start each question with, you know, uh, like the exam, have you um, sorry, a survey, have you ever been? Have you ever been, you know, no, switch up the language so when you have the survey taker taking that survey, he or she can say, Wow, this is a new question in their brain. And they won't become disengaged and say, uh, I'll just answer this question. Who cares? Answer that by saying that, answer just to get done with it. So yeah. I can tell that you really love what you do. I do, I do, I do. It's fun. I get a chance to think critically, and I think today we don't um we don't take an opportunity sometime to think critically and to think through things. And so I love what I do because it gives me a chance to do just that.
Speaker 1I love that. And people, you know, a lot of business owners they don't have time to think through things like that because you know they're busy running the day-to-day. So it's really nice that you can be a partner with businesses and come in and you can be that one to think critically for them while they're busy running their day-to-day. Absolutely. Absolutely. I love that. So clearly running a new business is hard and it and it's and it takes a lot of time and and hard work. So, what advice would you give someone who's thinking about starting their own business?
Myths About Psychometrics
Speaker 2Uh, great question. Do your homework first. Not just about competition, but do your homework, whether it be about trademark, whether it be about, hey, um, what's the clientele out there for, you know, as far as the need? Uh do your homework and know that it's a long haul. So really ask yourself before you even pick up a pen, paper, open up your computer, create a name. Actually, ask yourself, is this something I really want? Do thick and thin. Do I want this here? Do I want this? Me personally, the first one of the first things I did was I spoke with the Lord and I spoke with my husband, and I said, hey, you know, this is something I really want to do, you know, and I want to construct it this way. You know, a lot of the times we have grand ideas, but those ideals don't really get you many places. You know, it's just a grand idea. Or I saw it on TV, so I'm gonna try it, you know. Really sit down and really, because no one tells you the horrors about, hey, what do you do when you have no work? How do you market yourself? Uh, how do you get out and as simple as making business cards and saying, hey, you know, those are the things that um I think I could have slowed down and did a little bit more above, you know, but I did do my homework. I was doing my homework though, as I was building the business. Yeah. So it was like, oh, okay, don't do this, do that. So it's a lot of learning, and you'll have that. You won't know everything up front. I would, I would never um tell people not to start a business. I think it could be very uh self-fulfilling. However, do your homework. Do your ask yourself if you really want this and do your homework. That means whether it's you know on the computer, networking, um, maybe speaking to someone who already have a business or they had a business, you know, because they can give you their perspective and don't just get one person you talk to, get multiple people. I didn't say 10, but maybe two, three. So you can get those different perspectives along the way. So yeah, that's what I would say.
Speaker 1I love that you said ask yourself that you really want this because you have to have a really strong why for wanting your business so that it carries you through those hard times.
Real-World Test Design Pitfalls
Speaker 2Correct. And right now, you know, we're kind of in hard times, and it's like, hey, business may get slow. You know, what do you do when business is slow? You know, uh, make sure you have a stockpile of money, or hey, I have a client where I have a long-term part-time, you know, gig with, you know, those things matter, you know, uh, and I think it's just sometimes those things are not towed, but they matter, you know, and so if I could give that advice, I would say, do it. There's a plethora of information out here, and it's very confusing. And so that's why I said if you really um see someone or know someone, or or even meet someone and see someone, you know, hey, and you guys get to talking and you, hey, I'm a business owner too. Hey, you know, and if you once you establish that healthy relationship with them, then saying, hey, you know what, can you take me under your wing so I can understand? You could tell me these are the things that I that where I went wrong, or uh think about these 15 things before you start, you know. But yeah, I would say definitely it, you know, think within first, definitely.
Speaker 1Yeah, really great advice. Thank you for that. Thank you. So, what is something that you wish the listeners knew about numbers matter?
Speaker 2Hmm, but I wish they knew that psychometricians are people who can truly help you with your tests, your exams, any type of high stake exams, and that it's only one percent last I checked, could be a different number now. That's been well, way long ago. It's not that many psychometricians in the world, and so it's definitely something I think people um people, I think once they understand what it is, it's a needed and necessary service. So if I could say it's people who help you with your exams and your tests, uh any kind of high stakes stakes exam, and uh, but it's a portion of it whereas to we crunch numbers again, so you're able to make those informed decisions and implement the things that we um we may get from those numerical values.
Speaker 1Such an important service that you have to offer.
Speaker 2Thank you.
Speaker 1Yes. So if the listeners want to learn more from you, if they want to connect with you, where can they find you?
Speaker 2Sure. Um, well, I am not a big social media person. Uh, but if you want to, um my cell phone number is uh 571-866-1662. You can also go to my website, which is www.numbersmatterlc.net. That's www.numbers. That's with a s matterlc.net.
Speaker 1Amazing. Dr. Jones, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today and sharing numbers matter with us.
Speaker 2You're welcome. You know what? I want to also add my email address. Okay. Dr. Jones at numbersmatterlc.net. Dr. Jones at numbersmatterlc.net.
Speaker 1Amazing. Thank you so much, Dr. Jones.
Speaker 2You're welcome. Have a great day.
SpeakerThank you. Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to FXBG NeighborsPodcast.com.