Conversation: Jessica Millhiser on Getting Back to the Basics

In this episode of This Is Nothing New™️, Michelle sits down with Jessica Millhiser, owner of JMills Consulting, to talk about what it really means to get back to the basics in business.

They explore defining success for yourself, building a business around the life you actually want, and why sustainable growth requires more intention—not more trends, tools, or platforms. Jessica also shares the practices that keep her grounded, from protecting her calendar to removing social media from her phone, and explains why every service-based business is ultimately in the business of hospitality.

The reminder is simple: slow down, gain clarity, and take action toward the business and life you actually want.

More about Jessica Millhiser:

Jessica is the owner of JMills Consulting, where she helps entrepreneurs build better businesses through stronger structure, clearer strategy, and intentional growth.

With nearly 20 years of experience in operations, administration, and leadership, Jessica works with service-based business owners to create the internal foundation their businesses need to grow sustainably. Her work focuses on operational clarity, client experience, strategic planning, and building systems that support long-term growth.

Jessica holds a master’s degree in Coaching & Administration and is known for her collaborative, direct, and action-oriented approach. She currently lives in Colorado with her husband and their two cats.

Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn.

Learn more about JMills Consulting.

Connect with Michelle:

Website: michellegruening.com
Instagram: @michellegruening
LinkedIn: Michelle Gruening

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Hey y'all, and welcome to This of Nothing New. I'm your host, Michelle Grooning, and this is the podcast where we drop the trends, get back to the basics, and remember those lessons hiding in everyday life. Today I am absolutely thrilled to be welcoming Jessica Milheiser to have a special guest conversation with me. Jessica is the owner of J. Mills Consulting, where she helps entrepreneurs build better businesses through stronger structure, clearer strategy, and intentional growth. She has nearly 20 years of experience in operations, administration, and leadership. She works with service-based business owners to create internal foundation their businesses need to grow sustainably. Jessica, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Hey, Michelle. I'm super pumped to be here.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

One of the places I would love to start is in your work, you talk a lot about helping people get back to the basics of their business. And I want to know what does that mean for you?

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Yeah, that's a great place to start. So what I find is when I'm working with entrepreneurs, clients, peers, colleagues, all that, a lot of people immediately go external. I need to network, I need to go to social media, I need clients, I need revenue, all the things. And to be fair, those things are super important, right? But when I say get back to the basics, what I really mean is what does your business actually look like? How are you designing it? How are you shaping it? What are your services? What are your offers? What are you really good at? How are you structuring your business more intentionally? So really the focus is coming back internally, focusing on the internal foundation of your business because that's ultimately what will allow you to grow your business sustainably.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

And what I hear is the basics involve getting clear on what it is you actually want, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Yes, 100%. What do you actually want? So we can tie in things like how do you actually define success? Are you chasing somebody else's idea of success? Are you chasing this idea, this vision that other people have? And you're like, well, I gotta keep up, I gotta catch up, I gotta go get that. But like, do you actually want that? Is that what success looks like to you? So I feel like that's really the one of the primary foundational pieces is what does success look like to you? And then you can design and shape your business accordingly. A lot of that comes down to structure, to time and calendar management, to who you're trying to serve, to what you want the quality of your life to actually look like. Like I have this idea of, well, for me, mine is really kind of a lifestyle business, if we're talking personally, right? Like I have an idea of what success looks like to me. And part of that really entails a high quality of life, more free time, time to travel, time to take care of myself and my family. So it's really what do you want it to look like? And then taking action on shaping it, thusly.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

And I love that perspective because I think that you make a good point that these basics, kind of what I heard is that when we're talking about getting back to the basics, even if we are a business owner or an entrepreneur, that also includes your regular life. Yes. I mean, if if we talk about the comparison traps that we all fall into, like you and I are both in the space of serving service-based businesses. And a lot of the times people set these goals because that's what somebody with a high amount of Facebook followers is doing. And then they realize they're exhausted two years later because they're running a race they don't even want to be in.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Yes. And I think that comes through the clarity of how do you define success as like the foundational layer from which everything else grows?

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Do you think that? And in a moment, I want you to define. I would love to know what your definition of success is for yourself. But if we're talking about, we have personal versions of success and we have professional versions of success. Do you find that one of those is more important to set before the other?

SPEAKER_00 4:24

That's a great question. And I've actually never been asked that specifically. Um, I don't know. I think they're both really important. And I would almost say your personal definition trumps your professional definition. Because at the end of the day, like personally, like your life is your life. And what do you want that quality of life to look like? And how does your professional, whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you're uh in a in a career, you know, whatever that looks like, how does that tie into your personal definition of success? So I think personal first.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

Yeah. And it's for sure. I mean, that answer sounds as good to me as any, but I I think it's just an interesting place to be because there's that there's that quote that I don't know who said it, but it's like, we don't need to live to work. We can work to live. And there's, I mean, I'm thinking of all of these metaphors and quotes that come up where it's like people are on their deathbed in their last days, they're not saying, man, I wish I took one more client.

unknown 5:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

They're saying lived more, traveled more, done more, experienced more.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Yeah. And I have seen you set a really beautiful example of what rhythm, I don't love the work-life balance phrasing because it feels like if one is high, the other one's forgotten. It's more of like a rhythm.

unknown 5:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Like how we move throughout the year. So I feel like you set a really uh you live a really beautiful example of what a an intentional rhythm looks like between work and life. So coming back to that question of how do you do what does success look like for you?

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Yeah, so I've been thinking a lot about this. And what I will say is I also believe that it evolves over time. I think that it is something that, you know, I'm five and a half years in my business currently. And when I first started out, the first year or two, success looked like I have a couple clients and I'm making some money and I'm doing okay. Like that was my definition at the time. But then I very intentionally curated the business, my business, my life, in a way that was like, I want to make decent money. I want to help good people, I want to make an impact, and I want to be able to take time off. I want to be able to travel the world. I want to be able to not take my first client until 9:30 or 10 o'clock in the mornings. I want to be able to take Thursdays and Fridays off in July. Last year I took nine weeks off total in my business, and I my business grew by, I think, 34%, right? So it's very intentionally curated into what feels good, what brings me joy, how am I making an impact? And am I bringing in enough financial support to feel good about what I'm contributing to my family?

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Yeah. And those are all very personal, subjective definitions of what is some of the things that I heard you say was like make decent money. That is totally subjective to who is who is saying it. And so I think that's a really good reminder to focus on number one here, like ourselves, our families, our businesses. Because there are so many, I feel like some of the biggest trends right now are sign up for my course to 20x your business in a month.

unknown 8:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

People I really can't, I really disdain stuff like that. Because there are way too many variables at play. Like what worked for that person is highly unlikely to work for you because you're a completely different person with completely different circumstances. So I really don't like that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

Yeah. I'm with you because if somebody 20x their business, they would crumble.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Yeah, but the foundation is not set.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Yeah. And part of that foundation that I think is it's not as sexy, it's not as flashy, and it's not as good to put on social media are the boring, timeless, everyday habits. Consistency, essentially. That nobody wants to talk about. So for you, what you so you have gotten yourself and are continuing to grow. Also, congratulations on five and a half years, girl. Getting it.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Thank you. It does feel like a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

It is a big deal. It's absolutely a big deal. So, you know what? I'm gonna pause here because one of my core values is encouragement. And I freaking love to make a big deal out of people's celebrations. So, when you think about five and a half years in business, what are some of like the biggest lessons that you have taken out of this time as an entrepreneur that you think people need to be reminded of?

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Yeah, great question. What I will say is get comfortable with a constant evolution. Get comfortable with every year bringing different challenges, different opportunities, because every year you're growing in some way, shape, or form. And with that growth always comes challenges, opportunities that you have to work through. So get comfortable with that. And I think one of the biggest things for me also was recognizing because price points, figuring out what you want to charge for your business, for your rates, for your packages, whatever. Again, that is always evolving. That is always a challenge. Get comfortable with just the constant evolution of this package is evolving this way, this pricing is evolving this way. There's no right or wrong, there's no like trick to, okay, well, if you price it at this point, everyone's gonna buy it. No, that's not really how it works. You have to start somewhere, get comfortable, get a few clients, and then, oh, okay, I feel really good about maybe charging more. So getting comfortable with the constant evolution there. And then I think one of the other ones I would say, well, maybe two, I would say, is consistency is incredibly important. Consistency with your finances, consistency with your structure, with your with excuse me, with your tracking, with just showing up. Consistency is a really big piece of that growth. And then lastly, I would say in terms of visibility, I have found that what you enjoy, what you love, you will be more successful at. So if you're like, I freaking hate being on social media, don't do social media, man. Try something else. So, like, find out what feels good for you, what feels like is working, and then stick with that.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

And how so when you work with folks, I all of those things that you just said, I'm sure are part of the conversation at some point when you're working with them. How do you encourage other people to identify what those timeless practices are for themselves when there's so much noise about what people should be doing?

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Yeah, one of the biggest things I really try to ingrain with people, whether I'm just speaking or writing or working with people, is slow down. Can you slow down? Can you create time blocks? Can you find space on your calendar on a weekly or monthly basis where you're slowing down and you're actually thinking about what do you want your business to look like? What would be a really cool project to undertake over the next one, two, or three months that's gonna move the needle forward and intentionally shaping what you want this to look like. So slowing down, because so many people are in this do, do, do, go, go, go, more, more, more mindset. Again, keeping up with the Joneses and all of that stuff, right? But if you slow down, pause and actually think what makes me happy, what brings me joy, what feels like is working, what's the next right move given the information I have, and then make those steps intentionally and strategically.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

It's one of the things we've talked about before is that people seem to constantly be in a hurry to grow. Like they're in a hurry to get to the next achievement, they're in a hurry to get to the next benchmark, but that growth really has no finish line. And so they're just constantly setting themselves up to like spin around on this hamster wheel. And so part of what you just said was helping people find out like, what do you love? What brings you joy? What is most important to you? I would love to hear you, as Jessica, what are some of the things that bring you joy? What are some of the things you love and maybe some of those boring practices you do for yourself to keep your foundation strong?

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Yeah, so kind of this is personal and professional, right? So I would say personally, one of the things that most people are like, oh wow, you guys do that? Like my husband and I have a weekly commitment on Sunday mornings, or we'd call it our weekly family meeting. So we sit down every Sunday morning, usually with a little cup of coffee or whatever, and we kind of talk through like what's coming up this week, uh, what are our finances looking like? And we really comb through our finances just about every week. Where did we spend? Where did we bring in? How are we feeling? Um, all of that stuff. And then also what's coming up? Are we traveling? Do we need pet needs, house needs, projects, whatever? So our weekly family meeting is pretty sacred at this point. We've been doing it, I want to say two or three years at this point, pretty consistently. And it really allows us to stay on track, to stay focused, to stay in good communication in terms of what's happening and what's coming. So personally, we do that. And then I think professionally, I am very good about time and calendar management. I am somebody that is naturally very disciplined. Um, and that has proved me very well throughout my life in a lot of different ways, health and wellness as well. And so I am very much curating, like July, for example. I knew in January that I was gonna take Thursdays and Fridays off. I had to plan, execute, and commit to make that happen throughout the past six months. So there's a lot of little things, right? It's just coming down to what's important, what matters, what brings you joy, how do you want your life to look like? And so I'm always trying to make sure I'm building in time for creativity, time for friends, time for paddle boarding, time to write, time to travel, all the while maintaining a solid client load with clients that I'm really helping and making an impact for.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

And that sounds like a massive level of success to me.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Yes, I would agree. I feel dynamite about where things are at right now.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Yeah. And I think one of the things that maybe a lot of people don't know that you instituted maybe, I don't know, a few months ago or so is you took social media off your phone.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Oh, I did. Yeah, I did. I did that back in December 2025.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

Mm-hmm. So you are several months into that. And I will say I am one of the people who, when I think about taking social media off my phone, the excuse I use is, oh, but I need it for my business, which I know is not necessarily true. Fully self-aware here. Um, but I think it's a good example that you, as someone who has a growing business, you're growing consistently and steadily. I feel like this is one of the ways that you're like a trend that everyone is saying is have every social media platform on your phone and be on it all of the time. That's the only way to grow your business. And it sounds like you were like, no, I'm not gonna do that.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

What I realized is I was I was on it all the time, like all the time. And the real, the real instigator for me was we were in New Zealand. We were in New Zealand for about three weeks, and I was, I went into the trip being like, I'm gonna take a phone break, I'm gonna be off socials. Turns out I did not do that. I was on my phone, I was taking pictures, I was posting stories, I was seeing if people looked at it, if people commented, all the things. And I'm like, oh my God, why am I doing this? I'm on vacation. I'm in this amazing, incredible country. This is my 40th birthday trip. This is a bucket list trip. Why am I spending as much time as I'm spending on social media? I was really upset with myself, actually, in that moment. I was like having a moment with myself. So I was kind of like, F this. I'm Josh, delete my apps. I had I handed him my phone and I was like, delete my apps. I got they've got to go. And so I will say the first like couple of weeks, I was kind of like, ooh, because you have this habit built up. And you're like, oh, I want to take this picture and I want to post it on socials. Oh, I want to take this picture and post it on socials. The first couple of weeks I realized I was like, oh, I have like a little bit of an addiction, like withdrawal happening here. But after I got past that first couple of weeks, oh my God, I felt so much better. There was less distraction, less pressure, less like I'm on my phone all the time. And so it was really kind of an experiment. I was like, let me just test it, let me just try it. And now it's, you know, we're in early July, and I am thrilled that I don't have them on my phone. That's not to say I'm not on social media, but I have intentionally said I'm only gonna be active on social media during working hours on my computer when I'm at my desk. And so I've allocated, you know, 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there, whatever. So I'm still active, but it's just a very different um structure, very different engagement.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

Yeah. And when it comes to those habits, like, so I heard a lot of lessons that in that story of social media, also everyone listening, it is possible. You can delete your social media off your phone, not saying delete it altogether, but off your phone, grow your business and maybe uh discover some new hobbies that you like even more than scrolling. But so I heard a lot of lessons in that. And one of the things I heard is that it is coming back to basically personal habits and how we're setting ourselves up for personal success. So, in that example, the end goal was to be on social media less or be on it more intentionally, we'll say. And in order to do that, there was, it sounds like there was a moment of self-awareness that you had to go through. But then you took an action. I think that's the biggest piece that a lot of stuff is missing is we're all self-aware enough, but then we're not doing anything with it. So when you had your husband delete the apps off your phone, you added a layer of friction that really felt, it sounds like a little icky for the first couple of weeks. But when you allowed yourself to consistently see that through, you were able to see that success on the other side. And I would imagine that, especially like when you work with clients too, there are probably some suggestions that you make that you know long-term are going to be fruitful for them. But the first couple of weeks, if not the first couple of months, are going to be filled with friction. So, how do you encourage people to keep pushing through that friction to get to the rewards waiting for them on the other side?

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Yeah, and that's always something I come up against, and in particular around time and calendar management, because it's so easy for entrepreneurs, business owners, people living busy full lives to be like, okay, I'm committed, I'm doing X. You know, maybe X is I'm starting Mondays with like a weekly prep, or I'm doing Fridays as like a recap, reflect, and whatever it is. But then like life, and they're like, well, I needed to get this thing done. Well, this client needed something. Well, my kids had this activity, whatever, whatever, whatever. And then all of a sudden you're constantly paving over this time that you've allocated for yourself to move whether it's your personal life or your professional life forward. And so that's one of the biggest habits that I'm constantly butting up against with people is trying to get them to understand. If you are not honoring your time commitments to yourself, if you are not honoring your boundaries for yourself, for your own satisfaction, health, wellness, professionalism, whatever, you are doing yourself a huge disservice because you're no longer taking into account that you are a priority to, your life, your business is a priority to. So what I say in those things is I try to remind them what are you working towards? Why are we doing this? What's the point of this all? And if you're not committed to doing this, why are we here? And then always, always, always saying, give things time to test. You can't try things for a week or two and be like, oh, well, it didn't work. I guess I'm trying something else. No, that's not how it works. You have to commit the time. And depending on what the thing is, let's just take time blocking, for example, or a time management routine, for example. I always say commit to four weeks. Commit to four weeks of whatever said time management routine is. Really commit, really honor, really stick to it. And then at the end of that four weeks, evaluate what worked, what didn't work, what needs to change, make those changes and commit to another four weeks. Time management routines in particular, take time to build, take time to find the routine that works for you because there's no one size fits all. It's what works for you and how do you work? And then depending on, like, let's say we're trying some kind of strategy. Maybe it's a visibility strategy, maybe it's, you know, whatever. For those things, I like to say 90 days. Can you commit to doing this thing for 90 days to actually see what becomes fruitful? So most of the time, people are not giving enough time to test. They're not giving it enough consistency, and that's where they end up continually faltering.

SPEAKER_02 23:25

And I feel like a trend I've seen, and I'm very curious on your perspective with this, is a trend I've seen is, oh, I'm just going to automate everything. I'm going to sign up for these massive CRMs because it can do all of the things for me. And I don't have to time block. But if we're automating a broken system, isn't that just going to turn into a disaster? I don't know. That's a trend I'm seeing that I think really deserves a closer look. And I would love to hear your opinion on that.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

Yeah, so I have lots of thoughts on that. And I'm kind of with you in that camp as well. Like, just because you can get this tech platform with all the flashy things doesn't mean you necessarily should get this fancy tech platform with all the flashy things. And it comes back to again what does your business look like? How does it actually operate? How does it actually function? What do you need it to do? And which platform actually makes sense for you to invest in, to move forward with. Because I gotta tell you, changing tech, installing tech, moving into dirt certain tech things, that is not easy. And oftentimes it's a huge headache. It takes time, it's very confusing. It's I have had clients in this space and they've done it intentionally, and it was still very frustrating for them. So don't just hop on the bandwagon of everybody's getting go high level. I'm calling it out because I am. I'm gonna get go high level too. Okay, but like do you actually need it? You know, and it comes back to again being thoughtful, being intentional, intentional, sorry, about the moves you're really making and why.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

Yeah, and I feel like I've seen that platform name like all over the dang place. And I'm not, you know, we're not saying everyone that it doesn't have its place and it's not valuable at the right stage.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

But I think about sorry to cut, I didn't mean to cut you off, and or where you're going. Like if your business is built in a way where you need all of that stuff and you know where you're going in the next year or two, absolutely that makes sense. And again, I'm not trying to poo-poo that platform exactly, but I've seen too many entrepreneurs, I've actually had conversations with too many entrepreneurs who were like, I'm gonna do get go high level. I'm gonna get go high level. I'm like, why? You don't need it. But they're, you know, so anyway, it's just it's become a pain point for some people, and that makes me really like upset because I feel like people are just jumping on the bandwagon without thinking about it more intentionally.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

And it's that I feel like that's something people do in a lot of areas of life, of they go from, oh, I have this idea to do this thing. Now let me get the absolute most expensive, highly involved solution for that.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

And I also want to say, like, this is not to stymie people from dreaming big, from going to get it, from being driven and ambitious. And I'm like, my business is growing and I need, I'm, I know I'm gonna need this. This is not to necessarily stymie people from like the growth and the drive and the ambition. This is just to really bring it back to think about it first, be intentional with it next.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

And it comes back to one of your your focal points for the work that you do is sustainable growth. And if we and and I agree, I love that disclaimer of like, we're not discouraging people to like go get after it. Like, heck, heck yeah. We need more entrepreneurs, we need more people out there doing really great work and serving people. But take a moment to just intentionally think about what is that next shiny thing that is trending, that is like the hot thing right now.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

What will that actually give you? I have another example actually that I'm that as we're talking through this is Substack. Substack is currently making a huge, I don't know why, I don't know if I want to say comeback or whatever, but there's a lot of people that are all of a sudden like, I'm getting on Substack, I'm getting on Substack, I'm getting on Substack. And I'm like, okay, why? How is that different from LinkedIn articles? How is that different from your mailing list? Like, what is this gonna do for you that those other two things are not doing for you? And if you can like come up with a real reasonable like response, answer, whatever, and it fits into your like 12 to 24 month vision, great, have at it. But don't just get on Substack, have another task or thing to do just because, oh, well, the new hot thing is Substack.

SPEAKER_02 28:33

Yeah. And I I think in that example, I kind of from my person. So I've heard the Substack thing too. Everyone and their brother is on Substack right now. And I get it from people are thinking, this is my opinion. People are thinking, well, there's millions of people on Substack. So millions of people are going to see my work. Not true. Uh, Instagram, there's billions of people on social media, on other social media platforms. It's all about the consistency. So, like, I feel like sometimes people are like, I, and I've fallen into this boat too, y'all. So I'm not saying that's from like a place of I've got it all figured out, but I've definitely fallen into this place before where I'm like, oh, I'm gonna start um, I don't know, I'm gonna start a paid online community where I share more behind the scenes high-level content when I hadn't been writing consistent content, anyways. So it was like sometimes I do think sometimes people need that big jump. Like there are some people that operate off of massive leaps instead of small steps, but I think they are the minority.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

Sure. And again, not to say that SubSact is not necessarily the right platform for you. Maybe it's a great idea for you, but just keeping in mind that it's another thing to market, it's another thing to promote, it's another thing to give your time and energy to, it's another thing, it's essentially another visibility strategy. And is that something that fits what you're shooting for or not?

unknown 30:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:15

So again, never trying to discourage these jumps, these leaps, these drives, these, these goals, but just doing them thoughtfully. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

And that's that's what this whole conversation has been about. It's just how do we encourage people to come back to the basics and also maybe define what those basics are for them.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

Yeah, I would agree with that. Getting back not just chasing, just to chase.

SPEAKER_02 30:43

Yes. Like let's get sustainable, let's get intentional. And one of the things that you help your clients with and you talk a lot about when you do speaking engagements and and you have these types of conversations is you're really focused on helping people elevate their client experience. And one of the things I've heard you say recently is you want to bring hospitality back to the forefront of that experience. Will you explain a little bit about what that means?

SPEAKER_00 31:16

Absolutely. And I love that you brought that up because it's something I'm actually really passionate about. And full disclosure, I was in the hospitality industry for a very long time. So basically, my through line has always been operations and hospitality. That's kind of always been my jam. And I think the hospitality component really started to resurface with that book by Will Ghidaro, Unreasonable Hospitality. It's a great read if you haven't read it. Um, but really the premise is in that book, but also in this piece of my work, is remembering that your clients are your greatest asset. And what are you doing to make them feel that way? How are you curating your client experience? Because that's a twofold, twofold, you know, um, through way, essentially. You've got the operational logistics and you've got the client-facing side. Everything you do on the back end of your business is going to directly impact the client-facing side. So always thinking about those tweaks, changes, pivots, adjustments through the lens of if I do X, what is that going to mean for my client experience? So really just more thoughtfully curating the experience of your client. I could talk about this forever, but high level, like consultation through off-boarding. Like, what are all of those pieces? How is the client feeling seen, heard, valued, appreciated? Where can you go above and beyond? Right. Because that's essentially going to increase client satisfaction, increase client longevity, referrals, raving fans, which at the end of the day for service-based businesses is what we're all looking for.

SPEAKER_02 33:02

And I love that idea of hospitality. And a lot of people may hear the word hospitality and be like, do you mean hotels? And like, that's part of the hospitality industry. But with this being something that you're really passionate about, what are some recent ways you have elevated hospitality in your own work?

SPEAKER_00 33:21

Yeah, absolutely. So when I say hospitality in business, like if you're a service-based business owner in particular, you are in hospitality. I don't want anybody to be confused by that because you absolutely are. You are in the business of taking care of your people. So for me personally, I always want to make sure that there is a huge amount of clarity around what is happening with my clients as they're moving through their work with me. And a huge part of client experience is really clear communication. Where have we been? Where are we now? Where are we going? So I'm always very clear in my communication for that, clarifying expectations, um, making a seamless onboarding experience, right? So that it's easily repeatable, it's consistent whether you're doing it or somebody else is doing it. So really thinking about all the small components that go into the client experience, consultation, onboarding, deliverables, offboarding. What are each of those pieces in someone's business? What are the different operational logistics? What are the different client touch points in each of those spaces? And how can you enhance them? And then also remembering the human component of the relationship, right? Like your clients are humans, they have big, full lives, maybe they've got aging parents, maybe they've got young children or teenagers, maybe there are big milestones happening somewhere, right? Like just remembering that there's a human on the other side of that client relationship. And are you paying attention? And how can you show up for them when and where appropriate?

SPEAKER_02 35:05

I love that reminder to remember that this is a human-to-human interaction. It's not a transaction. Like we're in the business of helping people transform. So that shift of moving from transactional to transformational is a really big opportunity, I think, that people have in this space.

SPEAKER_00 35:26

Absolutely. And you're the driver. Like you, as the business owner, are in charge of all of that. You can shape that to what you want that to look like. And you can give gifts, or you can send texts, or you can, you know, just focus on clear communication, whatever that is for you. I'm not trying to break your bank. You know what I mean? Like, so again, like paying attention and showing up where and how you can.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

It's amazing. I feel like we could talk on this um for hours. But as we are kind of coming up to the close of our show, one of the things I love to have my guests do is close out the show by answering one question. And that is, what is one reminder you want today's listeners to take away from this conversation?

SPEAKER_00 36:11

Okay, this is a really hard question to put it down to one, but I guess I would You can say a couple if you want.

unknown 36:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

I guess I would really just remind people to slow down, take some time for yourself, and really think about what do you want your life to look like? What do you want your business to look like? What do you want the next 12 to 24 months to really look like? And then figure out how to take action towards that vision.

SPEAKER_02 36:47

Beautiful. Slow down, gain clarity, take action. Yep, 100%. So, Jessica, thank you so much for this conversation and for getting honest and transparent and really sharing your knowledge with us.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_02 37:04

Absolutely. So, y'all, once again, thank you to Jessica Milheiser. All of her contact information is going to be in the show notes, but you can also connect with her on LinkedIn. She has a fantastic newsletter that you can subscribe to as well. So make sure you give her a follow. So, with everything that we talked about today, y'all, none of this was new. None of this was revolutionary. We were getting back to the timeless basics. So remember, slow down, gain clarity, and take action, like Jessica said. And until next time, I'll catch y'all later.