Ep. 72 The Stern Truth: The Missing E in STRAT GY With Daria Ionescu

Daria Ionescu knows strategy. She actually started off her career with in-house marketing. A little bit of branding, digital marketing, and some social media. What she found was missing in all of this was the real strategy behind it, so she started her own company.

Now, her strategy consulting business, Lume Strategy, takes people from Point A to Point B to hit their target audience. Even though she’s been in business for less than a year, one Stern Truth Daria learned is how introspective entrepreneurship can make you.

In this episode, we also get into falling in love with the process. As small business owners, the best thing you can do is to NOT do the things that drain you. My advice to Daria (and all of you) is to write down those drains so that when the time comes to add in team members, those tasks can easily be passed to them.

Daria gets into the age-old business question, “What is strategy?" Empathize with your team. Understand where they’re coming from. Find the solutions for them, get to the root of the issue, then make a plan—a strategy—to fix it.

One of Daria’s many other Stern Truths is that as an entrepreneur, your brain never stops. It can feel like you’re never off the clock. Being more disciplined, using strategies like time-blocking, and being able to adapt can all help you manage a mind that never seems to turn off.

Daria reminds us of something we all know but sometimes forget—marketing is very psychological. Knowing the motivations of why people take actions, or why they don’t, is a big part of any strategy, and it starts with empathy, that missing E in strategy. After that comes the trust, the most important part of the entrepreneurial puzzle. 

Connect with Daria here:

Website: www.lumestrategy.ca
Email: daria@lumestrategy.ca
IG: @itslumestrategy
LinkedIn: @daria-ionescu-492098232

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I encourage you to reach out with feedback, topic suggestions, and share your own entrepreneurial challenges.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Marshall Stern: Okay, so this episode today is all about strategy, but there's something missing for most of us. Everyone talks about business strategy, having a marketing strategy, strategy, strategy, strategy. Today's episode, today's sit down, is so powerful. Daria and I had this deep conversation about one of the things that is most missing with business owners.

[00:00:28] And leaders when they and their team start to work on the strategy, whether it's the overall business strategy or the marketing strategy, this is the missing E for so many businesses. Grab your pad of paper, my friends, and enjoy the takeaways from my sit down with the amazing Daria.

[00:00:53] Hi, I'm Marshall Stern and I've spent over 35 years leading and growing multiple small businesses. I know firsthand the struggles of entrepreneurship, feeling isolated, lonely, overwhelmed, and feeling like you have to do it all by yourself. I've been through multiple recessions, and I have felt the highs and the lows.

[00:01:12] I've been there, and I get it. This podcast is here to change that. Every week I will bring you straight talking advice, real world strategies, and honest conversations about what it takes to succeed in business without the fluff, the gimmicks, or the sugar-coated. If you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and start making real progress, then you are in the right place.

[00:01:36] This is the Stern Truth. 

[00:01:40] Marshall Stern: Alright, welcome back everyone, to another episode of the Stern Truth Business Unfiltered, and it's another special guest episode and I'd love to introduce you to Daria. How are you today, Daria? 

[00:01:52] Daria Ionescu: I'm doing well, thank you. How are you? 

[00:01:55] Marshall Stern: I am doing – most people don't ask me that, so thank you.

[00:01:58] I'm doing really well. Okay. Tell our audience all the amazing things about who Daria is, what you do, and how you help your clients. 

[00:02:10] Daria Ionescu: Alright, so who Daria is, that's a little bit of a loaded question. Daria, I guess, would be somebody who has kind of, like, started out in, in an industry like marketing. I, I started my career out in, in-house marketing and really worked around social media, digital marketing, and like helping people kind of put together their brand when it comes to marketing online.

[00:02:36] Right? So I necess-I didn't necessarily put together like the messaging all the time, but I took all of their ideas and kind of put it into a cohesive lens, you know, and then that turned into kind of like managing social media, going online and really learning more about that. In my experience in in-house marketing, I noticed that there was a little bit of, like, a push to just post, post, post and not to, like, understand exactly what your company was about.

[00:03:03] So I actually broke off on my own and started my own strategy consulting business because I realized that I really liked helping people kind of, like, take their ideas and turn it into like a cohesive train of thought or a strategy to go from point A to point B and kind of like help their target audience.

[00:03:20] So I started a strategy consultancy called Lume Strategy about eight months ago, and it's been very brand new. Right now, I’m just helping my clients kind of take exactly what they want to do and how to reach their audience and apply that with a digital lens. I also really love business development because when you think about strategy, it's really something that, it does help you get to your goals.

[00:03:42] Achieve that growth that you're looking for. So, business development is something that I love when it comes from a digital lens, like what tech stack you should be using, what is the software and what is going to make that software connect with each other? Is there a third-party service? And a lot of business owners and other, my clients don't really know about all of that.

[00:04:00] So I feel like my kind of, like, digital native style of doing that really helps them out. So, I help with the business development as well as marketing. So, yeah. 

[00:04:11] Marshall Stern: Okay. Wow. Okay. So, and you just started this business last, last year? 

[00:04:16] Daria Ionescu: Yes. In May of 2025. Very, very new. 

[00:04:19] Marshall Stern: Very new. 

[00:04:20] Daria Ionescu: So, very  new for me. 

[00:04:20] Marshall Stern: Okay. So welcome to the world of entrepreneurship.

[00:04:23] How has – let's talk about the Stern Truths. Before we, before we get any further into it, I want to hear from you, what has been your strength with on the ups and downs of your first year? 

[00:04:36] Daria Ionescu: Oh my God, there's been so many. So many. So, I guess a Stern Truth was to be like, understand that becoming an entrepreneur is very introspective.

[00:04:47] You have to understand what makes you tick, what doesn't make you tick, and what really motivates you, you know, and how to stay motivated doing the things that you need to do as an entrepreneur, basically. In a way that allows you to do it, but not to, like, hate it, and then you stay motivated, you know?

[00:05:08] So, you're doing it and you know you don't like it, but you're appreciative that you're doing it because you're like, I deserve to be a good entrepreneur. I deserve to have a good business. Right? And using that motivation to say like, yeah, I deserve this in a way that you're like, this is something that I want.

[00:05:24] So, you have to understand what you want and like dive into yourself, basically. So, that's one of the Stern Truths, I would say. 

[00:05:34] Marshall Stern: Well, I love that because this really covers a lot of things that I do talk about here on the podcast and, and, and also with my coaching clients, is that we need to get, we need to really understand ourselves and be, get clarity on our why, why we're doing this and, and then the what, like what we want our business and our life to look like three, four years down the road.

[00:05:53] I like to use that three-year window, but then also, then also, kind of like what you said – and I talked about this the other day in, in, I think one of the webinars that, that you were at was that, we need to fall in love with the process. We need to stop – like, there's stuff that we do, and I'm sure there's a lot -  some things that you do that drain you, but there's some of the things that you do that you just might not like.

[00:06:16] Some things we do as entrepreneurs that we shouldn't do anymore. We should – and as your business evolves, you will have other people do. You'll outsource or automate. We talked about that before we got on about automation. 

[00:06:27] Daria Ionescu: Yeah. 

[00:06:28] Marshall Stern: But if we're constantly, oh, I hate this, I hate this, I hate this. And you're just focusing on the goal, it's going to be really, really hard.

[00:06:35] Daria Ionescu: Oh yeah. 

[00:06:36] Marshall Stern: So, there's, especially at the beginning, there's going to be some stuff. And for our listeners, if, if you're newer in business like Daria is, yeah, there are going to be – I'm not saying build your team from day one but think about it. So, this is one thing, this is just sort of some mentorship for you. I'm going to – a little Stern Truth for you, or golden nugget for you is, as you are going through your business this year, you're, you're finishing your first year and going into your second year of business is the activities that are draining you, the activities that are not necessarily in your sweet spot, diarize them.

[00:07:07] Think about who or what you can do as you build your business so that you are no longer having to do that. But, but in the meantime, fall in love with the process because it's the process that is going to get you traction. The, and the momentum was we talked about earlier, so that you can achieve what you want to achieve.

[00:07:25] Daria Ionescu: Yeah. And you'd be very surprised how easy it is to think about everything, but once you put it down on pen and paper, you really realize, you're like, oh, okay. This is what I meant. Because your body is a lot more physical than you think. Like, we always talk about, like, how, like, entrepreneurs, your brain is going a mile a, a minute, you know?

[00:07:45] So, you really feel like you're doing a good, like, you're doing a good job. Like you're doing a service by thinking about everything. But once you start writing down everything, you realize, oh, I was forgetting about something. Because when you're in your head, you don't see it all clearly unless you're like an insanely good visualizer.

[00:08:02] But not everybody is like that. So, by kind of creating a diagram, like what you were saying, putting it on paper is definitely something that I would also recommend, and thank you for that. Thank you for that Stern Truth. That golden nugget. 

[00:08:15] Marshall Stern: The Stern Truth. 

[00:08:16] Daria Ionescu: Yeah. 

[00:08:16] Marshall Stern: So I, I want to, I want to hear your Stern Truth. We talked a little bit earlier about it, but I want to hear your Stern Truth on what you do, like the strategy side of it.

[00:08:24] Okay. There – look, because I know I work with clients, I work on not necessarily marketing strategy, but business strategy, operations, strategy. Where do a lot of people get it wrong when it comes to – I mean, strategy is such a big word. Like, what the hell is strategy, right? And what, where do they get it wrong?

[00:08:41] Because everyone's selling strategy. Everyone and everyone buys strategy. I need a strategy. I need someone to help me with strategy. I want to hear your thoughts on strategy. 

[00:08:50] Daria Ionescu: Ooh. Okay. So, a lot of the time I noticed that when people are kind of looking at strategy wrong, it's because they are focused on the goal, kind of like what we were talking about literally five minutes ago, where you focus on the goal and you're not focused on the reality around you.

[00:09:07] So, the reality around you is you are thinking of the future, but there are certain factors that are stopping you from getting there. And they're consistent. They could be in your head, they could be actually like a physical block, you know? But most of the time when you think about it, you have to understand and empathize.

[00:09:27] What am I doing? What is my team doing? What is my current business doing, and how do I understand them and empathize with them fully? By empathy, I mean put that, yourself in their shoes to be able to get to the goal. So, let's say my team isn't organized enough. Well, why isn't your team organized enough?

[00:09:45] Is there a specific person? Maybe talk to every person in your team, get their opinions. This way, you understand, like, and empathize with each person in your team and find a solution for them. And if that's a little bit tough for you, you can get an outside third party to do that for you. You know, like someone like me, right?

[00:10:05] Where I'm helping you kind of understand and put yourself in the shoes of, let's say, with marketing strategy, your target audience or with business development, your team or your kind of, like, digital tech stack. Like, ah, I'm having problems with my inventory management system. Well, is it because you are categorizing it by a supplier or by what kind of, like, item it is and it's like, oh, well I didn't really think of it that way because I was just kind of putting them in as they came from the invoices.

[00:10:35] Right? So, then you're like, okay, well let's think about it. What's your goal? Do you want your inventory to be something ,like, clean and organized that you can easily use any other software to get reporting and analytics from so that we can prepare promotions and do the fun, exciting marketing stuff? Yes.

[00:10:53] So then we also have to think about what is your organizational kind of categorizing to be able to keep that organized? And this way by me empathizing with the owner and then the owner empathizing with their own situation because a lot of people don't have self-empathy. They're hard on themselves or they don't think about it.

[00:11:13] Then we create a strategy that actually connects with their goals, you know, or their target audience, right? So, that's where I think a lot of people don't think about that with strategy or get it wrong because they really have to understand and observe themselves and the place that they want to get to, to be able to get from point A to point B.

[00:11:32] Right. 

[00:11:33] Marshall Stern: Okay. But let, let's, okay, here's more Stern Truths. Let, let's be honest, okay? You go into LinkedIn. If we go into LinkedIn right now, you go into your inbox, you probably have messages that we were talking about this earlier, but you probably have messages from people who are not empathizing with you.

[00:11:47] They don't care about you. They just want you to buy from them. They want you, they want to get you as a client, right? They see you in this market – okay, I, I talked about this before. I'm going to – I don’t know if I ever told you this story. So, when I started the podcast, because it's obviously here, people are watching us, it's on YouTube as well, as well, Spotify, Amazon, apple, all that stuff.

[00:12:09] I had my first comment – I was so excited – on YouTube back in March, right? And I clicked on, I looked, looked it up, got the email notification, went in, looked at it, and this woman said to me, awesome podcast episode. Love it. I could, I could help you rank higher. 

[00:12:24] Daria Ionescu: I have a million of those in my inbox on LinkedIn.

[00:12:27] And also get comments on my post like that too. It's kind of annoying.

[00:12:31] Marshall Stern: So, it, it didn't stop at that. So, my friends out there, if you're listening to this, watching this, do not do what this person did. First of all, she's from over, she was from overseas, and most of these do come, and I had listeners and viewers from overseas.

[00:12:43] That's fine. Overseas means overseas. It could be Europe, it could be the Middle East, it could be anywhere. Australia, overseas came from overseas. I still get them all the time, but this is the worst ever. This is called stalk-ish. Oh, within – Daria, my friends, within five minutes, she did the post on YouTube.

[00:13:03] She reached out on LinkedIn for a connection request. I'm not done yet. Facebook, Instagram, okay. And I thought that was, that was a lot. 

[00:13:13] Daria Ionescu: Did she send you a letter in the mail? 

[00:13:15] Marshall Stern: Are you ready for this? Okay, let's, she called, she called me on WhatsApp. 

[00:13:19] Daria Ionescu: Ah, that's a little weird. Like, send a text or something first if you're going to be that stalker.

[00:13:24] Like, don't call. 

[00:13:26] Marshall Stern: I thought she was going – I knew she was from overseas, but if not, I mean, I was like, what's next? She's going to be at my front door? All within five minutes. So, my next step was –  

[00:13:36] Daria Ionescu: Wow. 

[00:13:36] Marshall Stern: Block. Block. 

[00:13:37] Daria Ionescu: Within five minutes, 

[00:13:38] Marshall Stern: Within five minutes. 

[00:13:40] Daria Ionescu: Okay. I thought this was maybe, like a, like a multiple days, kind of like lead gen strategy.

[00:13:46] Marshall Stern: Nope. Five minutes. Five minutes. My friends, a piece of advice. Don't do that. 

[00:13:51] Daria Ionescu: Oh yeah. 

[00:13:52] Marshall Stern: Don't do that. That's a little stalk-ish. 

[00:13:54] Daria Ionescu: Mm-hmm. 

[00:13:56] Marshall Stern: So, but there is, there's a lot of, maybe not to that degree, but there are a lot of people out there that aren't. So, I love what you're talking about, empathy, because a lot of people aren't thinking that way. 

[00:14:04] Daria Ionescu: With sales and lead gen, definitely.

[00:14:07] Like, this is something that I have to see, that I have to talk about when it comes to marketing. Like, a lot of people, they identify a target audience, so they do the research, they, like, observe, they understand like, okay, I want to reach, like, people who are budding entrepreneurs, you know?

[00:14:19] In your example, for people who are entrepreneurs and need a little bit of, like, advice and coaching, right? But their mistake is, is that they don't look and try to find out, okay, who is actually the archetype between, like when you have an entrepreneur, there's multiple archetypes of an entrepreneur, right?

[00:14:38] People are very individualistic and different, right? So, you understand that people have different motivations, and this is where the psychology part of marketing comes in and strategy, because business is made by humans, it's run by humans. If it's not psychological, I don't know what that, what it is, then, you know, so when you take a look at the psychology part, you really have to understand what motivates your target audience and the different types within your target audience.

[00:15:06] Right? Profiles, I would, you would call them in a traditional marketing sense, right? So, if you are getting that wrong and you're creating a blanket strategy to reach all of them, you're going to actually lose more leads than get leads. You know, so those blanket like LinkedIn messages where you're just spamming everybody that seems to fall within your target audience category, you need to take the time to get to know them, especially as somebody who, like, wants to offer a service.

[00:15:36] When you're talking about service and service-based industry, you really have to create trust. That's the psychological factor. So, I would say that that's a Stern Truth. Create that trust and understand, use your empathy. Okay. 

[00:15:51] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:15:52] Daria Ionescu: So. 

[00:15:52] Marshall Stern: But, but how as business owners, we're so busy being busy, right? How do we step back?

[00:15:58] Okay. So let's say the goal, I want to enroll three new clients this month. 

[00:16:04] Daria Ionescu: Mm-hmm. 

[00:16:05] Marshall Stern: Okay. I want to go onto LinkedIn. I want to go onto whatever. I want to go to networking. Like, in person and online events, how do I actually step back from the “what's in it for me?” mentality, mindset and step into more of that empathy?

[00:16:23] And I mean, I'm all of being of service to others, but empathy is taking it a step. Like, it's not something we normally think about. How do we actually do that? 

[00:16:32] Daria Ionescu: I know this sounds, this sounds a little strange because a lot of people are like, don't mix friends with business. Business is not, this is – actually, I wrote an article about this, about how a lot of people are like, it's business.

[00:16:44] It's not personal. Make it personal. 

[00:16:47] Marshall Stern: Mm-hmm. 

[00:16:47] Daria Ionescu: Read it like a social interaction, because at the end of the day, whether or not you're providing a business, like a service, or you're selling a product, you're still a human talking to another human. So, if you're not, if that's not a social aspect, I don't know what is.

[00:17:04] And I think like it's demonstrated in our social media and online interactions nowadays, people are so willing to socialize with brands. Why are brands in my TikTok comments, acting like a 13-year-old girl to be relatable because they're creating that social human aspect of it. I, I researched a lot about how your brain actually has a cue.

[00:17:29] So, like when you feel hungry, your brain creates a physical cue that you need food. So, your brain actually has a physical cue for social interaction and loneliness. So, when you feel lonely, there's a physical, physical reaction in your body that causes you to crave social interaction.

[00:17:47] Why do you think social media and marketing is so good at capturing your attention? Because they capitalize on that social aspect. They make business personal. They find out what motivates you and makes it a social connection. 

[00:18:02] Marshall Stern: But then there's the opposite because you're going onto to LinkedIn and you're, you, you open up your LinkedIn feed and you're scrolling and you see, and I'm curious, I want to get your feedback on this.

[00:18:10] I want your Stern Truth. This long format, these people posting these long format posts and you know they're ChatGPT-ed because they haven't taken this step. To take the hyphens out. You know with ChatGPT –  

[00:18:21] Daria Ionescu: Yeah. The em-dashes. 

[00:18:22] Marshall Stern: Yeah, the em-dashes. Right. I think you're the one who told me that you could take that out, or some, someone recently told me you could, you can program your AI to take them out, but still a lot of people don't.

[00:18:30] So you know it, the em-dash, you know it's AI. 

[00:18:32] Daria Ionescu: I'm actually, I hate the death of the em-dash. I used it, them all the time in my writing before AI, it makes me so mad. I love, like, a dramatic pause in a sentence. Come on. Like. 

[00:18:41] Marshall Stern: But, but you, but you know, and you're like, well, using AI, okay, if it's in your voice, but people like read it before you post.

[00:18:49] And so I, I'm curious, what is your thoughts on the long format posts? 

[00:18:55] Daria Ionescu: Long format posts? Okay. So it depends on your audience because a lot, like you're seeing a lot of trends right now where long format content is becoming way more popular. YouTube videos now are on average like over 10 minutes. Also, because YouTube is incentivizing them, like you get more ads within long form content, but also because people are consuming more long form content, they are getting a little bit tired of the short form, like, I would say unsustainable way of being on social media, right?

[00:19:30] People are craving that analog life. I don't know if you've seen all of the trends, but everywhere in 2026, like 2026 is the year of analog. Let me post about the fact that I'm going analog, which is a little funny to me. 

[00:19:42] Marshall Stern: Yeah, yeah.

[00:19:42] Daria Ionescu: Yeah. It's like, okay. And so, it's very...

[00:19:48] These long form pieces that use AI. If you're using AI, and it's clearly AI, and people who know about AI, which is everybody nowadays can tell that it's AI, you're alienating your audience. But if you're doing it in a way that actually creates that connection and kind of, lik,e talks about how,  everything, everything that you're saying could potentially actually be relatable because it comes from you, you know?

[00:20:14] Then you're actually doing yourself a service. Because you're doing what's on trend. 

[00:20:20] You are also figuring out through long form content, what exactly are the themes, because with short form content, you don't know what's making it relatable. People just say, haha, so funny. Or you're right, or whatever.

[00:20:31] But with long form content, usually the comments or the interactions are like, oh my God, I really liked this idea about Section A. You know? And then you're like, okay, well I can create more posts now about Section A and get that kind of, like, profile of my target audience from that, you know? So, it's a really good, from a research standpoint and also from, like, a blanket audience kind of relatability standpoint.

[00:20:55] The only thing is though, is that people don't usually have time to do long form so they use AI and it doesn't work. So, that's something where you're lacking empathy, I guess. You're lacking that connection because you're just trying to do something quickly and you're not actually, you're alienating your audience instead of doing something that would actually help you. 

[00:21:14] Marshall Stern: So, what I've noticed with, for me, on social media with my, and I post on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram a few times on TikTok, but it's really not my place. I mean, maybe it should be, you could talk, you could talk to me into it afterward maybe, but, is that the most traction?

[00:21:31] The most responses I've ever received are always when I post an authentic post about my experience, whether it's in a coaching session or, and, and I'm not one – like I just posted one the other day. It was an amazing - it wasn't even, I guess it was testimonial. It was from someone who, who posted in one of my Facebook groups, thanking me, shout out to me.

[00:21:53] I, she never paid me 1 cent, and I had a session with her a year ago. And she was starting own business in the web space, and she was just thanking me for, that they're booked solid now. And just that like, that I was giving of my time and all this stuff and, and the love that was, and I didn't post it.

[00:22:10] And I even said, I'm not posting it to impress anyone. I'm – I was posting it to just show that if you just be of service to people without expecting anything in return. 

[00:22:20] Daria Ionescu: Yeah. Making it social. 

[00:22:21] Marshall Stern: Mm-hmm. So I posted her post on LinkedIn, on Facebook, and so many comments. Right? So much feedback whenever I posted about me or if I posted a picture of me and my dog or something like that.

[00:22:33] Like making it reel or video. Like it's a reel of me with my dog, taking my dog for a walk, because people love dogs. Dogs and babies. Dogs and babies and, and cats. I'm not a cat person. Sorry, cat people.  That's what it makes it real. Because it's people, right. 

[00:22:53] Daria Ionescu: Definitely. 

[00:22:54] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:22:54] Daria Ionescu: And I mean like people love to see like your like, kind of like personal life when it comes to like your dog or something like that, but they, they're craving something more, especially since social media has kind of turned into this like, look at me and all of my achievements kind of thing.

[00:23:11] Especially LinkedIn. Especially LinkedIn. So, when people – there was this post that went viral that I read in this. Summer. It went viral a few months before the summer, but I came over it in the summer, and it was like a how to guide from fucking working from home. Excuse me for, for saying the F-word.

[00:23:28] Marshall Stern: No, it's so good. 

[00:23:29] Daria Ionescu: But, but that was the actual title of the page and it was just this misspelled rant from a woman who works from home talking about her, talking about her, like, children and working from home and how hard it is to stay focused and all this stuff. And it went viral and you could see the typos because she had written it angrily and just quickly just to post on her.

[00:23:51] And it was so, it was perfect. It was relatable, it was entertaining. because it, her anger was a little bit of a spectacle and people really were like, nobody, everybody glamorizes working from home. 

[00:24:03] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:24:03] Daria Ionescu: Everybody glamorizes working from home. 

[00:24:05] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:24:05] Daria Ionescu: But in reality, you're so much more distracted and it's so much harder because you're doing it all by yourself.

[00:24:10] You know, you don't have an office where you can say, hey, like, do you think you could send this email for me? Or something like that. Like, within your team. So. 

[00:24:17] Marshall Stern: Yeah, you, you're doing it all and you're doing the laundry, you. You know and putting the dishes in the dishwasher or washing the dishes and then, yeah.

[00:24:24] Daria Ionescu: Or maybe I should reorganize my office because it's not so messy. It's kind of messy right now, you know? I can do that later. Like you don't really have an end, like at the office, you end at five or five thirty, or whatever, you know? 

[00:24:35] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:24:35] Daria Ionescu: But when you're working from home, especially as an entrepreneur, that's a Stern Truth that I'm going to tell you guys about.

[00:24:40] Your brain never turns off when it comes to your business, you know? 

[00:24:44] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:24:45] Daria Ionescu: You're not off the clock. 

[00:24:47] Marshall Stern: That's honestly, that is, that is so true. And that is the biggest thing I've noticed since I sold my company, my sign company, two and a half years ago. Okay. Because I would be in there and in the last couple years I would, well it was still, I was there four days a week.

[00:25:02] Okay. Let's be honest, mostly five days a week but I was going into an office and it was the biggest shift I've seen in, right? Working now remote, working from home. I have a home office and I love it. But there is, you have to be much more disciplined. You – it's not it. It's great that I don't have to do the commute every day, get up early and do the commute.

[00:25:23] Okay. I mean, my kids are in university, so there's no taking them to school, but then I still have to do the commute. Love it that I don't have to. My commute is to the kitchen to get my coffee. But then it's so easy for us to just, okay, I don't have a, I don't have a call till 10 or 11, so I'm going to sit on the couch now and take my laptop.

[00:25:40] I'll work. But then you get comfortable because you're laying on a couch doing your work. Okay. It's freedom, people. But you have to know, okay, get outside. 

[00:25:49] Daria Ionescu: Yeah. 

[00:25:50] Marshall Stern: Go to, go to the gym if you want to have freedom. Go get some exercise, get some fresh air. Right. Do the work we talked about earlier, block the time and all that kind of stuff because it's not, oh, it's, it's not, it can just – it's 24 7, like, it's like, okay, it's nine o'clock at night.

[00:26:04] Okay. Well, I laid on the couch for an hour during the day, so I'm going to go work now at nine o'clock at night. 

[00:26:10] Daria Ionescu: Oh yeah, definitely. Like I, I'll be, like, working on, I have an international client who's based out of Europe. So, I have, like, midnight meetings with her sometimes. And so, for me it's like, okay, well I guess I'm like staying up late anyway to take the meetings.

[00:26:27] So like I, I can do some work and then, like, I take my break or take my time off, like during, like, you know, the hours where you would normally be eating dinner. Five to, like, eight. And then from there, from eight onwards, I'm just like, night owling it. But then the next day when I wake up, I have, like, stuff to do in the morning with my other clients and then I'm like, oh, oh.

[00:26:48] You know, so you, you really don't have a set time, but if you actually kind of like what we were talking about earlier. And I love that you said exercise. So, like, you know how you had talked about writing down the things that you need to do as an entrepreneur, right? Like, like creating a diorama of like, oh, like what energizes me?

[00:27:09] What doesn't energize me? And how do I continue moving forward through that? Exercise is also that physical reaction. So, like by writing something down, you're doing something physically. Exercise is the same thing. So, like sometimes when I'm really trying to think through a problem, and I actually got this from the First Wives Club movie that, like, with Goldie Hawn.

[00:27:28] And Bette Midler and whatever. Goldie Hawn is working on a, like a StairMaster or a treadmill and there she's like, I get good ideas when I'm exercising, you know, and she comes up with this great idea and I was like, why don't I do that? You know? So sometimes when I'm actually, like, when I'm alone, because my partner's in the apartment some of the time and I don't want to seem like a crazy person when I'm alone.

[00:27:49] Sometimes I, I, like, squat or try to, like, do jumping jacks and say like, okay, I'm not stressed about this. This is what I can think about. This is what I'm doing. You know? And most of the time after you force your body to do something physical or write something down or whatever, yeah. It's so much more disciplined in your thinking.

[00:28:09] Because you're not, you're focusing in, you know, you're not thinking, oh my God, what if I fail? What if I can't think through this? You know? Yeah. 

[00:28:17] Marshall Stern: Well, changing it, change – Tony Robbins talks about that whether you love him or don't like him, changing your physiological state. So, whether it's getting up and doing jumping jacks or listening to some music and going for a jog, or just dancing like in, you know, dancing, which you won't catch me doing.

[00:28:31] Daria Ionescu: Oh, come on. I feel like you're a good dancer. 

[00:28:34] Marshall Stern: In front of a camera or, or behind the camera, you will not see that. There's a hidden camera in my house. You would not see me dancing. But for me it's, it is going, it's going for a walk. No air pods. Okay. I take my dog for a walk. No. Okay. Let's be honest. She's like a little chihuahua dachshund.

[00:28:49] It's more like a, a stroll stop. Stroll stop, stroll, sniff. Okay. But still no AirPods. because I just want to be with my own, like, thoughts. Right. And just –

[00:29:00] It's, it's, I have time. Right. But then I'll go to the gym, listen to some music, listen to a podcast, whatever. But then I'll go for a swim or I'll go in the hot tub.

[00:29:08] And that is, honestly, that's, that's my, that's my, that's my creative place. That's where the, the I, because I'm out of my environment. 

[00:29:17] Daria Ionescu: Yeah. 

[00:29:18] Marshall Stern: So, change – I would even just highly urge you. I know it might be a little bit cool where you are right now or snowy where you are, but just get outside or go to a gym.

[00:29:28] And the one thing I find about going out to a gym, which I used to hate, hate going to, I used to hate going to a gym. I love it now. Because I'm not around people physically during the day. Right. So when I go to a gym, even though I'm not talking to people, sometimes in the hot tub, but when I'm on the exercise bike or, or doing weights, it's just, there's people around me.

[00:29:50] It's just psychological. You just have people.

[00:29:52] Daria Ionescu: It's that social connection that I was telling you about that like loneliness cue, you know, and not saying that like, as a business owner, you're lonely or anything, but your –

[00:30:00] Marshall Stern: Daria, Daria, Daria, the Stern Truth. Come on. 

[00:30:04] Daria Ionescu: Okay. Yes. I get way less social interaction now that I work from home and I am my own business like – but you can make up for it by, like, attending events or.

[00:30:15] I actually, I call my mom who's a mentor of mine because she's also a little bit of an entrepreneur. Entrepreneur. I call her a lot actually. So. 

[00:30:23] Marshall Stern: Nice, nice. 

[00:30:24] Daria Ionescu: Being on the phone helps and yes. Going outside, going to a cafe, I sometimes, most of the time my work requires that I have two screens, but sometimes I just go to a cafe just to, like, sit down and, you know, do my work..

[00:30:37] It's nice to just be around people, right? We're social creatures. Yes. That's why strategy needs empathy. You need to understand and be around those people. Right? 

[00:30:44] Marshall Stern: And it – yes, a hundred percent. And just changing your environment. Because we get stuck, even if you have an office that you're at.

[00:30:50] Right. Many of my clients who actually have a physical space, they're stuck. Like, the door people are knocking at their door. Staff are like wanting their attention when they're in the office all the time. So, what I do and I hold them accountable to it, and I, I like, I'm bold with them, like, why the hell do need you to do this?

[00:31:06] They get out the office one or two times a week, go to a coffee shop, take your laptop, take your notepad. That's where you can start to strategize and plan and think, because when they're at their office, when they're in their space, it's like I'm doing, doing, doing, doing. 

[00:31:21] Daria Ionescu: Yeah. Yeah. You're in go mode. Right?

[00:31:23] So, like, go mode is different than, like, think mode, you know, like than plan mode, right? So, like, I think that what's great about that is that remember when you asked me about, like, what are things that people do wrong when it comes to strategy? Even thinking about your environment in a way of like, okay, my office is too disruptive.

[00:31:42] That's you understanding your environment. 

[00:31:45] And empathizing with yourself that, like, I need a space where I'm not disrupted, you know, like I'm not interrupted, you know? So, then you strategize by deciding to go out of the office and they - you help them strategize by telling them, Hey, you need to get out of your office.

[00:32:04] Right? 

[00:32:05] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:32:05] Daria Ionescu: So through that understanding and the empathy from you, because you understand what they're going through, they then had their, that self-empathy to then take the next step and strategize to go out of the office, right? Strategy is everywhere. You know, anything that you plan to do, that is what strategy is.

[00:32:22] I, I would say that that's what you asked me also as well earlier, what is strategy? Anytime you think ahead of something, anytime. 

[00:32:30] So, people need to think of it that way, rather than like a big plan or a spreadsheet or a project management plan, you know? 

[00:32:38] Marshall Stern: But I think that's how a lot of people see it, unfortunately, right? As this sort of like, it's very business – I mean, it is business, well, strategy in our life as well. Right. 

[00:32:47] Daria Ionescu: It dates back, so like war strategy, it, it's been a huge thing in history. Chess, all this stuff. It's games, it's, it's everything that, I guess, human thought is, you know.

[00:32:58] More philosophical in that way, but a lot of people see it in a business sense. And I think that comes from like the hyper interest industry from like the eighties we've seen on where it's just been like business, business, business. You know that yuppie culture of – 

[00:33:11] Marshall Stern: Well, yeah. A hundred percent.

[00:33:13] A hundred percent. And then you, you get all the books. All the books and strategy and all the, all the so-called experts out there pushing strategy and, strat – you know, maybe I'll rename – so, I think I call one of my sessions Clarity slash Strategy session. Maybe I'll take the word strategy out of it.

[00:33:28] Okay, before we go, what, two, two questions for you. 

[00:33:33] You've already given a lot – I talk about golden nuggets. Okay. My, my late father used to say, if you go to a seminar, because this was before the internet when he, when he passed. If you go to a seminar, you read a book, you see, like, you see a speaker or whatever, or back then listen to a cassette tape.

[00:33:46] You probably don't even know what cassette tapes are. 

[00:33:49] Daria Ionescu: I do, I do.

[00:33:50] Marshall Stern: But one golden nugget. If you could take one golden nugget, it's been worth your time. What would be one? You talk about strategy requires empathy. Another golden nugget could even be within that. But what would be a golden nugget? You could share with our business owner audience.

[00:34:03] Daria Ionescu: Hmm. Okay. I would say that another gold nugget is to spend time understanding yourself. Like I had said earlier, business is an introspective process. You need to understand yourself fully, and you'll never do you. You never will. It won't be, like, full in the way of like a hundred percent because you are constantly changing every day.

[00:34:27] And you're evolving with your business, right? But how do you know if you're evolving or changing if you're not using a reference point of already knowing yourself, you know? How do you know that you've changed? If you haven't been tracking it, how do you know that you've been growing? If you haven't been looking back, you know, and you need to understand where do my motivations come from?

[00:34:47] What, what am I like emotionally? What am I like physically? What do I like to do with my time? And how do I get myself to go from point A to point B in a way that suits me best? This is what I mean by like, understand yourself. Right. Take the time to spend time with yourself. A lot of people don't like to do that.

[00:35:08] They're like, oh, and I was one of those people. Being, becoming a business owner has made me like that. I used to be one of those people that constantly had music going or constantly had my headphones in. because I was like, I do I me alone with my thoughts. No, thank you. You know? 

[00:35:24] Marshall Stern: Okay, well, okay. We can have a whole – I’ll tell you.

[00:35:27] We can have a whole topic on this. Maybe I'll have you back and we'll do that because, yeah, because that is the challenge, especially with now I'm aging myself here, the younger generation is, is that they are scared to be with their own thoughts. 

[00:35:39] Daria Ionescu: Distraction, I would say. 

[00:35:41] Marshall Stern: They're living in 

[00:35:42] Daria Ionescu: Easily distracted. Yeah. 

[00:35:43] Marshall Stern: They live in distraction on the phone. 

[00:35:45] Constantly. Right. 

[00:35:48] Daria Ionescu: I mean, hey, like the marketing agencies make it so that you're like that, you know, like they use Las Vegas style marketing with like – 

[00:35:57] Marshall Stern: The over stimulus. 

[00:35:58] Daria Ionescu: To keep you on your phone. Yeah, yeah. 

[00:35:59] Marshall Stern: Yep. Yep. Mm-hmm. And that, and now, because you've said that, because you use Las Vegas, I'm going to open up my Facebook and there's going to be like an Expedia ad for Vegas or something.

[00:36:08] Daria Ionescu: Yeah, exactly. Definitely. So, I mean, it's kind of like catered against you and I've also noticed that like even older generations, like now I'm in the, I'm in the kind of like the research portion of it. I've also noticed that older generations are living in distraction too. Whether it be you're distracted with your phone or you're distracted with your day-to-day life.

[00:36:28] That's something that I've noticed with a lot of older generations. They're like, they're stuck in the kind of routine that they want to be in, but they're unhappy, you know? 

[00:36:35] Marshall Stern: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Just sometimes we just need to be, be with ourselves. It's not so scary, people. It's not so scary. Okay, before we go, last question.

[00:36:46] Okay. How do I put this? Because, okay. Because you're young, younger than me by a few years. What would be one thing that you wish someone had told you? Told the younger Daria, pre-business starting pre-entrepreneurial life to now? I know it's only been a year, first year of business, something that you wish you had maybe known maybe.

[00:37:07] And there maybe there's nothing but maybe a year ago to now.

[00:37:12] Daria Ionescu: Yeah, a year ago at this time I was a very different person, so I think I would shake myself by the shoulders and say, Hey, kind of sternly, Stern Truth vibes, I guess, on everything goes according to plan. As much as we like to sit here and say that strategy is like, yeah, I, I'm a strategy consultant.

[00:37:32] Okay. But the - what makes a best strategist is your ability to adapt. It's your ability to adapt. Not everything goes according to plan. And stop, stop freaking out when it does because you're doing yourself a disservice. You know, like, and I know that sounds so much easier done, said than done. You know, and I was a victim of this hugely, but it really took me time.

[00:37:58] I think that's why it took me a while to also get, like, really cemented into the idea and identity that I was, like, an entrepreneur or business owner. 

[00:38:05] Marshall Stern: Mm-hmm. 

[00:38:06] Daria Ionescu: Because I was like, well this is kind of something that I just, like, did, like randomly and I don't, you know, it wasn't like part of my plan. It wasn't like I was going to be the corporate girl and working marketing and then work my way up the ladder and potentially get a job overseas and blah, blah blah.

[00:38:22] And I was like, why don't I create my own job overseas? And start my own business, you know, so. 

[00:38:28] Marshall Stern: That my friends is a huge golden nugget, which, don't, you just shared with us, because that is, okay, that's the biggest Stern Truth. Not every, well aside from the empathy aspect of it, that's the number one for this episode.

[00:38:41] But not everything does go according to plan, everyone, come on and don't freak, freak out about it. That's the one of the things about what I do and what you do in the way you do it. So, how I do it, like when I'm working with the leaders and the, the founder CEOs, the owners, is help them navigate because nothing – it's not growth.

[00:38:59] You've heard this, it's just a thing, A phrase growth is, is not linear. It's not, yeah. But what we can do is if we surround ourselves with the right people, if we have the right mindset, if we have the empathy mindset and we just keep doing the right activities and focusing and not being so distracted and all this stuff. 

[00:39:19] It's just, I, I think it's so untapped what we can all achieve if we could just freaking slow down. 

[00:39:28] Daria Ionescu: Yeah. 

[00:39:29] Marshall Stern: And really look at what's around us. 

[00:39:32] Daria Ionescu: I think so too. I think so too. Because if you, if you take that time to slow down, you're realizing what's distracting me, you're having empathy for yourself. You're like, what's distracting me?

[00:39:41] You know? Is there a common theme? Is it because I'm not listening to myself and what's distracting me is actually what I want to be doing? 

[00:39:49] Is that what's energizing me? You know? 

[00:39:52] Marshall Stern: Yep. 

[00:39:52] Daria Ionescu: To bring it back to what you were talking about, what energizes you and what doesn't energize you, you know? 

[00:39:58] Marshall Stern: Yeah.

[00:39:58] Daria Ionescu: And if you have that empathy of like, well, that's not according to my plan, like I didn't plan to like this thing, or to be distracted by this and want to do this. 

[00:40:07] You then have empathy with yourself of like, okay, well, I'm not freaking out about it anymore because. If that's what I want to do, why would I be mad at myself for changing my mind?

[00:40:16] And I then, like, adapt. Same thing with like a situation where it's not about you, it's about somebody else, something else, like something goes wrong with a client or a plan, you know, you, have empathy, like, well, why did the client forget to do this thing or whatever, you know? Well, maybe the client is very busy, or maybe someone on the client's team had, like, some extreme circumstance, you know?

[00:40:41] So like, you then have that like, okay, well understanding empathy, and you become way more, instead of being like this, you become more like this. 

[00:40:51] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:40:51] Daria Ionescu: And that's where you, like, reach, like, like, think state. You know, go state isn't the same as think state, right? So, when you're strategizing you need to be like this, but when you're going it's like this.

[00:41:04] But you observe what the flat line is, you know, you observe what the average is to be able to plan around it. Right. 

[00:41:11] Marshall Stern: I love that. Okay. So, are you taking on new clients? 

[00:41:16] Daria Ionescu: Yes, I am. I am, I'm a little busy this month, but depending on when this episode comes out. 

[00:41:22] Marshall Stern: Okay. 

[00:41:22] Daria Ionescu: Yes, is the answer. 

[00:41:23] Marshall Stern: Okay, as of the recording of this? Yes. 

[00:41:23] So, I'll put the, your contact information in the show notes. But maybe just one in case people don't want to scroll down, what's the best way to get in touch with you, connect with you, even if it's not, maybe it, you offer a strategy session. I don't know what you'd offer. You can tell us. And then how to get in touch with you.

[00:41:42] Daria Ionescu: Right now I'm kind of doing digital audits, but I was actually thinking of pivoting away from that because people don't – I'm having empathy. People don't love to see what's wrong with them. They want to see a solution first. So, I was actually thinking of just saying my email, because I check it almost all the time.

[00:42:00] And if you want to email me, go ahead. Say, Hey, I am so and so, and I'll be like, how can I help you? I've worked in the service industry for a long time, so strategy consulting is the same thing. I'm always, I love to hear his story. So. 

[00:42:15] Marshall Stern: What's your email? 

[00:42:17] Daria Ionescu: My email is Daria, so my name daria@lumestrategy.ca.  

[00:42:24] Marshall Stern: So it's L-U-M-E-S?-L-U-M.

[00:42:26] Daria Ionescu: LUMEST. 

[00:42:28] Marshall Stern: Yeah. RES. Yeah. Yeah. Loomis? 

[00:42:31] Daria Ionescu: No, no, just one. Just Lume. 

[00:42:34] Marshall Stern: Oh, Lume. L-U-M-E-S. 

[00:42:36] Daria Ionescu: Yeah. LUME. And then Strategy.

[00:42:38] Marshall Stern: LUME Strategy. Lume Strategy. I'll put it in the show notes. Dot C-A. 

[00:42:42] Daria Ionescu: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

[00:42:42] Marshall Stern: Don't go to.com. Dot ca. 

[00:42:43] Daria Ionescu: Mm-hmm. 

[00:42:44] Marshall Stern: Okay, perfect. And they can reach out and connect with you on LinkedIn, but just don't spam.

[00:42:50] Daria Ionescu: Yes. 

[00:42:51] Marshall Stern: Don't spam you. Don't spam you. 

[00:42:52] Daria Ionescu: Of course, of course. But LinkedIn is definitely a good place as well. 

[00:42:56] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:42:56] Daria Ionescu: Even my Instagram, you could DM me. 

[00:42:58] Marshall Stern: With empathy. 

[00:42:59] Daria Ionescu: Yes. Yes. With empathy though. 

[00:43:01] Marshall Stern: With empathy. Okay. And Its Lume Strategy. 

[00:43:05] Daria Ionescu: My Instagram is, Its Lume Strategy. 

[00:43:07] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Its Lume Strategy. Yeah.

[00:43:08] Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 

[00:43:10] Daria Ionescu: Of course. Well, thank you, Marshall. It was so fun chatting with you. Just this didn't even feel like a, like a podcast recording or episode? 

[00:43:17] Marshall Stern: Well, I can, I, I forgot to press record, so. No, I'm kidding. I didn't. This isn’t recording. 

[00:43:22] Daria Ionescu: Great. 

[00:43:23] Marshall Stern: This is great. Okay. So, thank you so much and we're going to, with your permission, we're going to invite you back in the future.

[00:43:30] Daria Ionescu: Oh, I'd love that. Thank you so much. '

[00:43:32] Marshall Stern: Because I think there's so much more. Well, there's so much more you're going to do, but to share with us. So, my friends, I want you to go right now, this is my, this, I'm being bold today. Okay. And enough with just listening. I want you to go, if you're listening to this on the, if you're listening, because I don't think you do this on YouTube.

[00:43:51] If you're on YouTube like it and put a comment, okay. If you're listening to this on Spotify, Amazon, or Apple or whatever it is, five-star review. Now I'm not saying give five-star review to me. Okay? I don't care. But the more people who give it a five-star review, the more other people are going to see this episode.

[00:44:07] And this episode has so much value for other business owners. So, by you giving it a five-star review, you're also helping other business owners to find this episode and get these amazing gold nuggets from this amazing business person. And subscribe as well and share this with your family, friends, aunts, grandparents, all that kind of stuff.

[00:44:29] And Daria, thank you. Thank you. So we'll see everyone else again next week on another episode of the Stern Truth Business Unfiltered, and let's just go forward, my friends with empathy. Let's try that for a little while and see how that works. Bye for now.

[00:44:47] Marshall Stern: Thank you so much for tuning in to the Stern Truth. If you found today's episode helpful, we would love to hear from you. Please like, share, and leave us a review. Also, if you'd like to be a guest in an upcoming episode or join us in one of our Moment Accountability Group sessions, simply email me to marshall@marshallstern.net.

[00:45:07] That's marshall@marshallstern.net. And don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode. Until next time, keep pushing forward and leading with confidence.