Hello, thank you for joining us. Inside the green room today, I'm Blair, Brian Nichols, your co-host. And today we're going to be live with Susie Carter. Susy's known as the millionaire maker. And today she talks about one, how to get to the right combination of team support and growth to breaking down fear as a flag of the unknown and the risk of standing still. Three, the biggest difference between businesses that succeed and those who end up closing their doors for how Susie became a self-made millionaire.

And five, the three questions to evaluate how well you are managing your team versus underperforming and much, much more. I did want to give you a heads up, though, before we jump in. Susie's audio cuts out every once in a while during this interview, but trust me, it doesn't stop this episode from being incredible.

Also, she shares a powerful analogy about a lock, like a combination lock that you'd use on your locker at school or at the gym and how it relates to business, because I know those of you listening to this podcast can't see her holding that up.

It's part of our video interview. I just wanted to share that with you. You know, if you did want to join us live and our Your Events Matter Facebook group, you'd be able to see all of our interviews when they're recorded live on video and be part of the conversation. So if you're a meeting planner or event organizer, just remember, join our Facebook group. Your events matter. Now, let's dive into the greenroom with Suzy.

Welcome to Inside the Green Room with Peevey three each week. Pete Vargus third. Yes, that's me. Let's you inside his virtual green room to hang out and learn from the meeting planners who control the most prestigious stages in the world and from the speakers who use those stages to increase their income and impact. Now let's dive into the griever. Hello and welcome to Inside the Greenroom with PV three.

I'm your co-host, Blair, Brian Nichols. And today we are back live in the Events Matter Facebook group with Susie Carter. Susie is a profit coach and is truly a self-made millionaire. She started with one salon and health spa and built it into one of the most successful businesses in the country. She then founded and sold three profitable companies, the last of which sold for eight figures to engage. Susie has guided hundreds of companies to develop personalized operation systems and finance, sales and marketing.

An international speaker, Susie Spitfire personality, sharp wit and heartwarming stories are beautifully woven in her decades of business knowledge to educate and compel audiences toward financial freedom. Susie is currently a consultant of Lisa Nichols Motivating the Masses, a global transformation and training company and author of nine books and multiple training programs. Her best selling book, Living Proof, co-authored with Lisa and Power Your Profits How to Take Your Business from ten Thousand to ten Million is available today. Welcome, Susie.

Thank you.

Thanks for having me. Thanks for being who you are in the industry and sharing the most amazing people on the planet with your community.

Well, thank you again, because we're excited just from the bio. You can tell why we wanted to have Susie on the show. She's helped a lot of different entrepreneurs and companies, which I know a lot of you out there are, as well as using speaking and a really successful speaker that's helped build her business and expand her reach as well. So, you know, I always like to get started with, you know, sharing kind of your origin story with our audience.

So tell us a little bit about how you got started in this industry or what in what brought you to moving out on your own and empowering other entrepreneurs?

Well, I got to take you way back. Right. So the first business, my vocation, I do have my Ph.D. because a lot of people want like the credibility piece, which is my public high school diploma. So let's be clear. I'm a serial entrepreneur. Right. And just, you know, from a love of first of all, I don't want anyone being the boss of me belayer. Let's just be real. But I knew I wanted to make a difference.

And as a hairdresser, I did a quarter of a million dollars a year, working three days a week where the average hairdresser made thirty thousand dollars a year, working 40 hours a week. And so when I learned how to create systems and structure around my business, then people would start to say, Susie, how did you do that? And for me, I'm a natural teacher. I'm like, oh, let me show you how I didn't have a system like I didn't have.

Like, I'm going to be a trainer, I'm going to be a speaker. I just did it from the lab and wanting to bless my community. Right.

I had to learn early on how to make money because I found myself as a single mom of two little girls raising money with no alimony, no child support. I got figure this money thing out. Right. And all businesses, when I look at our financial well-being, 15 percent of our financial success is based on our technical ability. The other eighty five percent is what I help clients do. That's a sales marketing operations. Who are they being? Their communication.

So being in that in the beauty industry, I learned that early on. It's not just the vacation piece. You've got to be able to run a business to be profitable. So when clients said, how did you do that? I started teaching and then found that I had a love for it. So having a love affair, they go, oh, my God, Suzy, do you have a book?

No, I don't have a book there, like if you wrote a book, we would buy it. I'm like, I'm going to write a book. I know how to write a book. Blair, I'm out to do any of this, but I have tenacity and I'm like, OK, I'm going to do it. So I figured out how to write a book. I became a best seller in that industry. That was my first book. And then I said, Oh, we love the book, we hate to read.

I'm like, really? They're like, do you have an audio? I'm like, No, I don't have an audio. I just wrote this book like that was so my clients propelled me. They just kept asking. Right, I would share something. They're like, Do you have that written down? Do you have a product? I'm like, no, but I will. And then here was my strategy. Right. And I see a lot of entrepreneurs doing this.

You would ask. So I brought my systems guide, you know, showing how do you build a multi-million dollar business? I brought the my systems and the systems. They're like, oh, my God, can I buy that? But it's my systems are like, we don't care. We just we just won it. I'm like, really? Well, how much would you pay for that? They're like, we would easily pay nine hundred ninety nine dollars.

So that day I didn't have the product made. I sold twenty thousand dollars because they just raised their hand like I'll buy one, I'll buy one, I'll buy one. I became his friends and I'm like, I love this game. This is so fun because it's just doing what I do and helping other people do it. Then we built the largest training and development company in the beauty industry. And just like that, not on accident. Right.

We started to get more strategic, but really from my customer saying, Suzy, do you have this? Do you have that? Do you have this? Then we got a little more sophisticated and put projections together in business plans together. But in the business, in the beginning, it wasn't like that. It was like most entrepreneurs, 80 percent of entrepreneurs are only doing a hundred grand a year. Right. Which is sad. Let's make a million dollars in only one point five percent are doing a million.

My job is to make you a millionaire, right? I'm the millionaire maker. I like to make people millions of dollars. And it's a couple, you know, it's like this combination lock, you know. Remember these from school? Yeah. One little take off and this sucker would not open. Right.

Remember that you'd stand that you're guarding it. Right. You can't open it and you're all frustrated trying to get it. Well, that's business. I find that in marketing, sales and team like one little tick off. Right. So this is the access to your money. The access to your freedom is what's the business combination. Right. And just from my trial and error is doing it wrong. Figuring out doing it right. Right. I always had to create my own financial well-being.

I was a single mom. Right. I didn't have an option. I see a lot of entrepreneurs right now.

We have a back door like, oh, they have a spouse or they have family that's giving them money or they maybe they save. I don't have that right. I was just using my hustle muscle. So now I run global training company supports entrepreneurs and how how to build a multimillion dollar company in a very systematic way. It's not ideas. It's not a concept is do this, get this, do this this long way to say what's the origin story to go.

I really started my passion. If you're not passionate about what you do with that, find something else, because I don't ever work for me. Working with my clients doesn't work for me. It's like a puzzle. And looking at how do I where is the money?

Because there's money everywhere. It's how what money are you leaving on the table? Where is it in your business, you know, that we can leverage, just like Mike told me to go. Can I buy that? How much would you pay for that? I don't want that to be my client's formula for their pricing. Well, how much will you pay for that?

Juicy, juicy. So my new book, Power Your Profits, published by Simon and Schuster, that has that's the thirty years of what it took to build ten multimillion dollar companies. Right. How do I help my clients become millionaires and take their company to the next level? Is everything in this book right?

Just the foundation of step one, step two. And you don't need to start in chapter one. I get to put you need to get the money. Go to Chapter eight. Don't wait. You don't it's not as like a story. It's it's a very systemic. So go to Chapter eight, read Chapter eight, implement Chapter eight. And if you need marketing, go back to Chapter four. Right. So I designed it in a way that would really help people take radical action in their business and get immediate results.

Awesome. And yet I want to talk more about the book. But as you're describing it, you know, you're known as a profit coach and nickname the million dollar coach. So how did you get that nickname? And tell us a little bit more about what what is a profit, coach?

Well, when I was putting my business plan together and really looking at, you know, launching a brand, I was I had a focus group of clients that I had been working with for several years. And then, like I consider myself a strategist, that's kind of boring to people. Whatever. Everybody is a strategist. And like Susie, you know what you are and I'm like a strategist and how you're the profit coach.

Every customer in my in our community, I find the money right, because Thurley is money everywhere. And so my because I know as a business person, if I'm going to pay you to do something for me, I got to figure out how do I pay you right now? I know that when somebody hires me, they have to pay me to keep me as a as a coach. So I've got to find the money first, so I learned early on and business is I'm not going to pay for something if I can't figure out how to, because most people are running from, you know, to month.

You know, most of them are negative. And I don't want that for my my customer. So my clients gave me that name. And it really comes from a vat of 90 percent. Clients don't want the money stick their head in the sand. They don't want to look at their their PNL, their it's their right, but they're not looking at it strategically.

And so for me, I had to as a business owner, I remember my partner saying, don't come home unless you sell thirty thousand dollars.

Right. I'm like, OK, we have payroll, we have this. We don't come home.

I was like, OK, as you hustle a little bit differently than if you're like, yeah, I did ten thousand dollars or Yeah. Whatever the number is.

Right. So the reality was, you know, helping client that and not be afraid of the money. I had to create these spreadsheets because I would meet with my CPA, I would meet with my accountant and I would fuse when I feel stupid and say, oh, I'm confused. So let me figure out how I can make these numbers so that it propels me versus Scarer.

So when you look at in the book, I give you all my spreadsheets, I give you all my secret weapons that I designed for me because I started designing them. And then I would be on a coaching call with someone like you. And I'm showing you, OK, if we do like I have something called the cash calculator that shows me exactly based on a price point, based on the number of gross sales that I want, how many qualified leads, not just leads because leads are fans, qualified leads are buyer.

So it shows you exactly how many qualified leads you need to hit that number. Game changer for my clients, simple formula. But when you can finally see and go, oh, I need fifty qualified leads to hit my revenue goal. Right if I'm doing my goals a half a million, you know, and the product is, you know, ten thousand. OK, we need fifty people that are qualified that could write that check. Swipe that card.

Right. That can pay for them. People are like can I have that spreadsheet. I'm like you want my spreadsheet. Sure. I just did it for me because I can figure out how many people that I need. A lot of people are looking at, you know, just how many lives do I need to come in? But you and I both know they're they're not all buyers. And so quit marketing to fans and let's market to qualified leads.

And so that one spreadsheet, complete game changer for people, game changer for me, game changer for them. So I take these complicated business topics. You know, I'm not a CPA, I'm not an accountant. I'm not a financial advisor. I'm a rogue entrepreneur. I told you I have my Ph.D. Everything I learned is from bloodiness, bloody elbows, losing money, making money. Right. It's not from sitting in a classroom. My my businesses are my classroom.

My clients are the classroom. Right. Last night I was I have a client in Japan and when I got our spreadsheet, it's all in yen. Right. I'm again, I don't know anything about you. Well, OK, let me do my homework. Converted it from yen to dollars so I could coach her effectively versus going. I don't know that. Right. So it takes just a couple little couple little tweaks, a couple little ticks, one tick off.

That money is not going to open. Right. So that's how I got the name profit coach just by really systematically showing people an easier way. Right. An easier way to look at the numbers. Be OK with the numbers. A lot of us in this industry are creative and money is very creative. Right. Most most people don't relate. It is creative. They relate it as linear. Yes, there's a linear approach to it. But money is intention.

Money is reward for the work we do in the world. Right. So part of it is self-esteem and part of its intention and energy. And so when when creatives realize that and it can be fun, just like the vacation piece is fun, there's a huge breakthrough in their own responsibility. We work first on a top line, then we work on it. Right, because a business, a doing a million, but spending a million, one that's not profitable, that's an expensive hobby because you're just running money through to go.

What is that number on the bottom. But I first got to get you to get money on the top. Right. Let's go make some money then you feel excited like most of my are so happy to talk to me because we're just making money everywhere.

Another client last night where there are manufacturing company and looking at their lazy in their in their sales. And I'm like, if you double what you're doing, that's in dollars a year just by putting two more quotes and three more quotes out, like it was such a huge breakthrough that they're like, I am being sold and taking for granted what's just coming in versus being intentional. You know, sometimes attacks get a little bit differently. And so now you have a three to nine sitting right in front of you.

You're just being lazy, right? Because we took the existing contracts that they were already doing, not any more. But what contracts they won were. They lost nine times out of ten, they lost it because they were slow and follow up. That was three year leaving on the table because you're like this for you, does not work for you, not work for you. I'm not going to be wrong. I just want you to see what you're doing.

The money on the table.

Yeah, I love Gypsy and I love how you start that out with, like a cash calculator and helping people look at what they really need to make the money that they're looking to actually make a profit on. We have a similar calculation at NYR We use like the S we call SVI, the stage value indicator. And that's just how we look at how many attendees are going to be there and how many do we think would actually be buyers. And just crunching those numbers, it's pretty simple formula, but people kind of neglect.

They just hear like, oh, there's going to be 500 people there. Like, that's going to be you know, you have to be conservative. You have to trim it back to who is actually going to buy, how many can you actually convert and base your estimates off that. So, you know, I know that you've had a lot of success also building your own stages and speaking and selling from stage. And as we're talking about the stage value indicator and and where you get leads from and generate those.

So I want to hear about how you got into the speaking business and started to use stages to build your business as well.

Well, actually, I started it unconsciously as a hairdresser, right. Because I found myself as a single mom with no alimony, no child support. And no, there's no you don't get a salary for that. You're on a commission. So where can I go where there's a bunch of women that I could share when I do like I created a seminar about the reality is 20 percent women and men that groom themselves professionally earn on average 20 percent more than people that don't.

So I just give you a 20 percent raise. Right. If I look at this, I had to figure out how to how does this relate to a business person? So I started doing these lunch and learns. Right. Oh, I'm horrible. Blair. I wasn't a public speaker. Horrible. Never took a class. I just had undercity. Right. I had I had spunk. I'm like, I'm going to go do this first. The first time I went literally, I was with Hewlett-Packard.

They're a technology company, right? They're kind of a Microsoft of the day. That's how I'm seasoning myself right now. The first time I did, I was so scared. I drove around the building four times. Right. Because I was so scared to go in. And then I called the person and and I don't know what happened. I I'm like, oh, my God. I just need to tell you that my aunt died today and I can't make it.

She's like, oh my God, I'm so sorry. I'm like, I'm so sorry too. But we can reschedule too. Don't worry about it. Call me when you're better because I was so petrified. Right. The number one fear in life is public speaking. The number two is death by fire. So I was feeling death by fire, like I'm not doing this. So then the next time I schedule it two weeks out, I rehearsed again.

Again, I wake up just nervous driving around the block, driving around the block, because back in the day there was no advance your reach. Right. There was no people teaching. Here's how you speak. Here's how you convert. Here's how you you know, here's what you do. Right. Here's your conversion rate. Here's what you should close. Here's your average ticket. No. Was teaching that, you know, and here's how you really leverage the stage.

So I got up there, I closed five clients out of fifty, so I'm like, OK, ten percent if I do this right. So I got five clients that day, clients at three hundred and fifty dollars. A person made a big difference in my paycheck that week. So I started doing these little cluster classes and then realized once you get through the fear, it's very exciting. It's very like, oh my gosh, I made a difference.

People took action. This is phenomenal. How do I do more of that? And then the beauty industry. One of my first clients was Paul Mitchell, how one of the largest companies in the country. I partnered with them and started doing cluster classes with them. So they they would be they would bring me their customers. They would bring five thousand customers. I would convert them into our products to help them be a profitable business. So it really started very organically because I've been in this business for thirty years.

Back then, there wasn't you know, it is still behind the curtain. Nobody was teaching what they did. You have to kind of sit in different speakers, classrooms and watch what they did and watch the conversion and figure it out. You know, I didn't get my first speaking coach until nineteen ninety five. And he taught me, if you're a professional speaker, my expectation is you convert twenty five percent of the room. If you're not converting twenty five percent of the room, it's all about you.

How that hurt. Right. Because of me I'm a great speaker and who cares. Is their life transformed if their life isn't transformed? You haven't done your work. That's all about your ego or your ego in my instance. So that was my first experience of that was the bar from that day on. Right. So on cold audiences will call. Thirty three percent on. Warm audience will close. Eighty five percent. So just measuring those numbers so that I can see, did I make a difference.

Are they implementing what you're teaching. Right. And so I started just rogue and organic and then learn the system when you follow a system that allows. You just create predictable results like you're your stage value, like you can see with each trainer that you have what their closing percentages, what's possible if they close five percent more in 10 percent more? That is enormous in this industry because a lot of people don't know. Still, I work with a lot of coaches, speakers, authors, writers, and they just don't know.

They don't like to sell. OK, but I'm not selling them serving if they take action.

And it might take I think you have to get over the ego part. And, you know, I would go from city to city to city to city. I was traveling every weekend away from my family and going, this is fun and I'm being paid well. But did I make a difference? Right. Are they doing it? I think that's where you get that higher level. Like if you look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs and the top level is self actualization, where you're just done surviving belonging.

Right. Looking for credibility. It's like I truly want to make a difference. And that's where I live is in that highest level. If you don't win, I don't win. So how do I make sure you do this work? Right. How do I make sure that you implement it so that your life is better, your children's life is better, right.

From the work that you're doing inside the world. So it sounds a little altruistic, but that's just my viewpoint and my passion, because if you don't have that viewpoint and you don't want to create that, find something you do. We all have that inside of us, you know, what are you put here to do?

I think there's a knocking right that people like that not.

That's your calling. Right. But we ignore it. We push it to the side because we're doing what's safe. We're doing what I know how to do. No, let's look at what's that thing, because we are all called to do an assignment, right? I call it God. You can call it whatever you want, but I'm on a God assignment. This is why I'm put on this earth to take this complicated issue, to help simplify it, to motivate people to do good work in the world, make a profound difference in the world, and then get paid well for it.

Let's not on jobs. Let's own businesses where we're providing for other families and we're making a profound difference in the world and giving back to our communities. I think that's our responsibility as entrepreneurs.

I love that and I love that. Now we're at the point where I can just start repeating things on this show because I keep hearing these themes come up from successful speakers. So I think it bears repeating. One of my first bosses said speaking is not a vocation, it's an avocation. You have to have a message. You have to have a reason to get out there. The people who just try to make it, you know, a paycheck and just get out on stage.

And they think it's a quick, you know, keynote fee. And that's also, you know, where Pete really kind of blew my mind with how much money can be left on the table by just chasing a keynote fee and not having anything to offer.

But also what like you're saying, what you're missing then is is actually making a real impact because people will listen to a keynote speech and they might feel inspired. But, you know, ninety, maybe ninety nine percent of them aren't going to do much different, you know, once that feeling fades and there's nothing to help reinforce or continue that. So I love how you're framing it and how you've gotten to that place, because I think these are really the people that have the most success that they shift from, you know, the ego and just the adoration from the crowd and like the adulation that they they get.

But actually having products or services or things that are going to make that impact in that want to see you succeed. So thank you for bringing kind of your story to life there, because I think it's just such an and another amazing example of the power of speaking and how people can approach it in a way that is increasing fulfillment and not just being a road warrior and feeling kind of drained at the end of it all, because what did it what did it all mean?

So I want to shift back to, like, your work with businesses and and how you're helping them succeed in different ways. And they're probably not all getting out there on stages, but I imagine you're you're helping them in and myriad ways. So what is the biggest difference between businesses that succeed and those that end up closing their doors, as I know the majority of small businesses do?

Yeah. So if I look at the latest stats that I've seen with this with the pandemic we're in right now. One hundred and fifty thousand businesses have closed since March. And those are the ones that are reported. Right? Those aren't the ones that aren't reported. And so when I look at that, I really looked at what is the difference with my clients that succeed and my clients that don't succeed. Right. And the clients that don't succeed. What I see is they're sitting back waiting for me to do it, waiting for somebody else to do it, waiting for the opportunity.

You have to go get that opportunity. Right. And I know you don't like sales and I know you don't like bothering people. Right. That's most people. But the reality at the end of the day, nothing happens until you do something. You have to have that belief in what you do to go get that. So I have doctors, I have attorneys, I have graphic designers. I have manufacturing companies. Like I have a ton of different companies.

And I tell them all to go get on a stage just like me. Back in the day when I was a hairdresser, I didn't know how to. But I got five clients the first day, right? If I look at that, that was a huge day. So with each client, my doctors, I have hormone's doctors, I have wellness doctors, I have. So I could go find a group of people that are your ideal client.

It could be a Rotary Groups Harassment, Soroptimist Chamber of Commerce. It doesn't have to be you don't have to be a motivational speaker. You have to be able to influence people, any small business. We are in the influence business to get them to take action. Right. Only 10 percent of my revenue in my millions of dollars of revenue with 10 percent of that is my speaking. The other 90 percent is our global leadership program, is our boot camp, is our power.

Your profit program. Right. Is my executive coaching. So it doesn't come from speaking. I love that you said speaking as an avocation. Right. So finding your community, finding the qualified lead. Right. Don't just speak to speak, speak to influence a market. We are influencers in this industry. You hear it like I want to be an influencer. OK, go influence. Get off your Hynie right. Put the foundation in place, which is the business plan.

Eighty five percent of the customers that come to me, they've never written a business plan or the business plan is in their head. They'll say, I have a business plan of my great, send it to me. Oh it's in my head. OK, that's not a business plan. That's an idea. That's a concept. Let's get it out of your head and on paper and let's see how we're going to make this work. Right.

That's why we can make money so fast, is because we put the financial plan together. And I again, made one of my spreadsheets because people were like, they don't know what to do with it. It's all lumped into one thing now I need to look at. I find people can move units or they can manage dollars. They can't manage both. So my my financial forecast has how many units do we need to sell to get this financial forecast?

So now, instead of looking at I want to do a million dollars, I want to do a half a million dollars, whatever the number is. No, I just need to sell five of these each month. I just need to sell ten of these each month. I find when you take the number away, it takes the scary away. When you take the gross number, write that five of these could be fifty thousand dollars. But if I say Blair, go sell fifty thousand dollars, most people go, how.

No, no, no, don't sell fifty. Go sell five of these at ten thousand dollars. Right. Let's do that, let's start there. And so by giving breaking it down to whatever their learning style is. Right, I think that's important. There's no way around you not being fiscally responsible for your business. The only way you're truly going to have financial success, financial freedom is to be one with what does that look like and make it fun for you?

It is fun for me. I love to do it. My projections when covid hit, I had my goal. This year was four million dollars. Last year we did one point three. That was our first year launching this brand. Right. And so I knew I had thirty three live events scheduled for the year. Well, those went away overnight. Well, don't I just go to bed. Right. I wanted to write.

Everybody wanted to freak out. No, I went to my financial spreadsheet. Go how am I going to replace that. How am I going to go from live to online. What are other people doing? What can I generate for myself? What events can I do? We've been doing virtual events, you know, for ten, twelve years. Right. But now we're just doing on a bigger scale. And the interesting thing is the conversions weren't as high on our virtual events pre covid.

But now I want to take those live events away. Our conversion rates went up because I didn't have an option. Right.

So the numbers tell a story about what you're doing and not doing right. And I love that you guys do the stage value that just tells me a story where each speakers at and how can I help them get to the next level? How can I get them to increase by five percent, 10 percent write what what do we need to change in their presentation? What do we need to change in who they're being? What do we need? Like how do we get people to run for the opportunity?

Right.

And not not manipulating because you have to believe I believe my product makes a profound difference. Right. I'm not just selling to sell. I'm selling to make a difference.

Right. And I love that. One of the bone and one of the amazing bonuses with your book, When People Purchase through your website, is a training about moving your events online. And, you know, you beat me to it just talking about what what your strategy was this year. But I'd love to hear if you've got any other tips or kind of a taste of what you teach in that and how people can think about their virtual events. I know we've talked about it a lot on this show, but since, you know, since you just mentioned you're having such great success with it, I'd love to know what your thoughts are and on how you've made that shift and how you've really optimized them this year to increase those conversions.

Perfect. So one of the things that we did or do is a challenge. We do a five day challenge to an event. The five day challenge is free. And so I believe in the marketplace right now. People have covered fatigue, right? They've they're doing a lot of events. They may not. Be implementing anything or, you know, they're they're tired. So in my marketing, I speak to that. When we launched our book, our book was originally pre covid.

Well, we had to go back and change all the language because now it's like just make money. No, how do you pivot? How do you change? How do you leverage? How do you sustain? So a five day challenge to an event from the event. Now I do more handholding in mind because my my price point is higher. So we do a pre questionnaire. So I understand who's in my room. I don't need a lot of people, Blair.

I need the right people. I think a lot of speakers go, I just want a thousand people. I want a hundred people or five hundred people. Do you. Because if you're only closing 20 percent of them, don't we just want the 20 percent? Then we can have an 80 percent conversion rate. So it's really pinpointing. I pay more for my leads. I only speak on stages or now, you know, this is considered a stage.

My podcasts, our stage, my virtual trainings are stage that my ideal client sits in. It doesn't make any sense for me to go speak. I don't need experience speaking. I need to I need to influence and convert people into wanting to build and grow a business. And that's not for everybody. Right? Some people just want the fun. I want the woo. I want the motivation. Motivation is a byproduct when you come to my training because I'm fun.

I know that math is money and money is fun. So I got to make it fun.

I got to make it funny to get people engaged and entertained. Right. So that's how we shifted. And so everything markets to those pinnacle events. Right. So I think people are are putting all their eggs in one basket like, oh, I'm going to be at this training and that's going to that's just one again. Ten percent of our income is speaking fees. Right. And if I look at our events, we're closing million dollars with less than one hundred people in our events so that when you follow the system in the strategy, the conversion can be higher versus just creating a bunch of fans.

We don't need any more fans. You've got fans on your Facebook, fans on Instagram. We need them to convert to consumers. But I want to teach buyers. I want to teach potential customers, because then I know those are the people they're going to take action. So free works if there's you got to show enough value. So in our five days, we're giving value, value, value. We're not just selling. Right. If you think about clients are saying, wow, if they're doing that for free, what are they going to do if I pay?

Right.

What's that process? What's that look like? And so many people are afraid to give their secrets away for free. They're not going to retain it. Think about how long it takes you to really own a skill set. Right. We know historically they've got to do it for thirty days to create a new habit, 90 days to create it in their well-being and for them to own it if they're doing it right. I always say to my clients, look, I won't make you money if you do the work, mom.

I'm not doing the work for you. Right.

And a lot of people, when I'm doing my events, they'll edify me. I'm like I'm just I'm just the messenger. You have to implement it. Don't give that all to me, because if you give it to me, you'll give away your power. Then you can't duplicate it if it is me. But you're doing the work because I don't. People think it's sprinkle fairy dust. No business is work. Roll up your sleeves, do the work you need to do.

Right.

But I find a lot of people like do this. I'm going to make money this year. Not like.

All right.

Oh yeah. It's a magic eight ball. Right. And you're just looking at what's my what's to my future. OK, let's put a plan together and a plan that you're excited about. Like last night working with my manufacturing company, he's like, I'm working on my free time because he does real estate investment as well. I want you to do that. But just think if we close two more contracts, right, every day, that's three million dollars.

Now you can go buy that property cash like that if he's burnt out doing what he's doing. So I've got a remotivate him to go do his real estate investment. Right. You know, the light bulb just shifts differently to go. What's that thing that's going to motivate the consumer to take action with you? You've got to get into their world right. Speak to make a difference for them. Don't speak to speak. What's going to make the biggest difference for them so that they take radical action?

Whatever your program is, whatever your product is, that that becomes what's the result? Let's sell the result, not the product. Right. I'm not selling your problem. Right. I'm not selling power products. I'm selling a book.

I'm selling a multimillion dollar business. If you want a multimillion dollar business, invest in the book. It's a twenty eight dollar book. And I could say by my book, Who cares, there's a hundred bucks. Right? So and as a speaker building your credibility, you have to have a book. But a book is an expensive business card because people go, oh, I need to write a book and I'll be famous. Look, I thought that too.

I thought that you were my first book. It was so hard to write and I had to get through all my fear. And literally the truck came and dropped off two thousand.

Into my driveway and two thousand on paper is a whole different thing than visually seeing two thousand books I dropped in my driveway like, holy cow, and I have to sell these things. Oh, my God. Two thousand books to a publisher is not a big deal.

So I'm like, oh, wow, this is crazy. So I learned early on that you have to have the book for the credibility. The credibility gets you on different stages because somebody would much rather have a best selling author than just a speaker. Right.

What's the credibility? Let's sell your results. Let's sell your credibility. Not Soozie. You don't care who Suzy is. You care what I do. Because on my help you do that. I care what Pete does. I care what you guys do because you help me do that, right. I'm buying the result. I'm not buying Blair. I'm not buying Pete. I'm buying the result that you guys help us create.

Right? Yeah. And the book helps really distill what's the core message? What's the real topic for meeting planners, event organizers? Books have just been an easier way for them to say this is the right expert. You know, anyone can say I speak on X, Y, Z and all these things. But if it's hard to really credential that without some other sort of backup or some sort of thought leadership that can really help establish you. So I love what you're saying about that.

And I think a lot of what you're saying with targeting the right audiences, knowing who your ideal audience is, getting that clarity on who you really want to speak to. You know, because in the speaking business with bureaus, if people that's been their avenue to getting on stages, but bureaus will sell you to any audience, they're not they're not considering who's your ideal audience, anyone that can pay the fee. And that's almost speakers feel they're like, oh, I speak to all types of people and and that can be great.

But again, if you're only interested in 10, 20 thousand dollar keynote fees and you're not trying to sell anything more, then that's great. But you're going to spend your time running all over the place, traveling all over the place, you know, for picking up those checks when you can do a lot less and make a lot more. So I love what you're talking about, that focus, that ideal audience and and having, you know, the presence of mind to go after it.

So, you know, I love how we target proactively for our clients the stages that they should be on because it's the audience they want to speak to.

It's not any stage that will take them or any stage that will pay. You know, it's a lot more focus.

So I love how you lay that out for everyone. I think it's so, so valuable. So is there anything else that you do to help small business owners grow to their next level? And then I want to ask some of our concluding questions. This time is just flying by. I know. It's so fun, isn't it?

Yeah. Yeah. So we look at the whole business systemically, right? So finances is the foundation of your business. But then we need to look at how are you selling that? What's your sell through. Right. If you look at most speakers, their average closing rate is 10 percent. Well, that's that's not good. Like I don't really DM US speaker like a really transformational leader we're into or at a minimum of twenty five percent and there's a system for that.

Right. Once I learn the system then I'm following the system versus do they like me, do they not like this. Business can be very egotistical. Right. I remember that we did evaluations at every event, go back to my hotel room and cry if I got a three. Right. So we were doing a rating from one to five. Right. Five was the best one you socked. Right. And if somebody gave me a three, I just I would be broken.

And the reality is you're not going to get the majority vote, right? You're not going to get there's always going to be somebody. But I want to look at that feedback and go, is there any truth to that? Right. Did I do something? Did I not do something? I think most speakers, we don't look at what worked, what didn't work. We look at what worked. We looked at ourselves. I got OK, I'll do better next time.

But there's more value in looking at what can I improve upon. How can I say that differently? So I'm always looking at my training and the result training and the result to see did I make that impact. And so part of that is in the sales and the sales conversion now team just as much as you, because now you've got to bring it off of you and to look at what does each team member need to produce. So, again, you know, I gave you my handy dandy system because I got tired of managing people from feelings it feels like right.

Or just kind of hammering them on. We need to have a higher closing ratio. So I have something called a sales team member analysis where you look at what should every sales team member produce? What's that expectation if you're not giving your team clear guidelines and I expect you to do this and they're not going to perform. I don't know if I don't know. And a lot of us don't want to hold people accountable because we don't want to be rude.

We don't want to be the bad boss, want to be the good boss. But the reality is holding people accountable honors the dignity of their human spirit. So from leading a team, just like your finances is a system. And when you follow the system, it leaves the emotion out. I can't manage my team's emotion. I can only manage what they're producing.

So that's. A huge distinction I had took me years, I used to cry when people would leave because I'm trying to be the best boss. Then I realized I'm doing them a disservice because I'm not giving them my expectation and finding out what their expectation is. So I'm looking at your team, because once you are successful, you've got to get off you. You've got to hire the players. You got to hire the kiddies. You've got to hear the seeds.

And are they producing what they need to produce? And you don't know? Most entrepreneurs don't know. Well, let's get clear so that you can hold him accountable to what they're doing or not doing. That is just that's juice. Right. And one of the things I learned early on, a leader is something called the cap method. So the cap methods. Are you clear? Are you holding accountable and are you training? So let's say there's a breakdown with you and I and I'm upset about something.

I look at me first. Was I clear with Blair? I was clear. Did I hold him accountable? Not really. That I trained him? Not really. I can't be mad at you. I'm just I'm still responsible. I'm not mad, but you know what I mean. Upset. Have a I can't give you a written warning. It's not your fault. It's mine as the leader. Right. And so then if I do that, do it again and something happens.

Was I clear? Yes. I hold them accountable. Yes. I give them all the training to produce that result. You now a lot of times we just fly off the handle because it's not getting done. It's not getting done. I'm not doing my job and managing something. And so when I'm a hundred percent accountable for what's working and not working first before I go after my team, before I go after a breakdown, you won't have the foundation of a business just in my plan of reviews with my team Blair and what I love, that came because I asked several questions on the first one is what do you think you're doing?

Well, in the organization allows me to see am I seeing what they're doing? Because you don't know? I'm busy being busy managing my clients, producing results. So that tells me and then tells me why I need to acknowledge them for then the next one is where do you think the company can improve? So now that they get them opportunity because they see more than see. Right. Because they're interacting differently so they can see hole that I might not see.

Then the next question is, what area do you think you can improve upon and then what action will you take? Right. So when they looked at what do they love working with the companies, they said, I love our culture, I love that we care. I love that we care about our clients. I love that we care about each other. And it's not just a conversation we truly care. And I love that they said we, not me.

Right, because we are supporting each other in this conversation. But that's a culture I created because that's what I want. Right. That's my fingerprint in my business. And a lot of people are just going after the dollar versus my team is my first customer. My second customer are the people buying books. The people are buying our global leadership program. Are people buying our boot camp? That's my second customer. And I know if I take care of my first customer, just like you guys did when my daughter went the hospital, you sent her balloons.

Like how generous it didn't take but a little bit of time on your side. But that says they really care to go, oh, OK. They're walking their the tongue in their mouth and their tongue in their shoe are going in the right direction where a lot of times the tongue in your mouth, your tongue and you are going in a different direction, meaning do as I say, not as I do. And you see a lot of companies that way when I'm working with because I'm working with the heads of the company to go away.

You're forgetting about your most important customer and those most important customers, like training my assistant. I said that conversation is a thousand of our conversation, not a conversation. And just having her see that has her serve them differently, has them look at them differently. Right. Or looking at the lifetime value of our customer, lifetime value of our customers. A half a million dollars. Right. So I'm not don't look at it. This is a five thousand conversation.

It could be a half a million dollars. And so when you know that and train your team that right, it opens up the possibility. So everybody's making money, just not you, right? Their job is to serve, to save and to sell. Right. So the saving is making sure that they're retaining and they're staying and they're happy. And there will always be breakdown in business. You're dysfunctional. Your company is dysfunctional. My company is dysfunctional.

Do you know the dysfunction? If I'm aware of the dysfunction, then I can address the dysfunction. If I'm not aware of the dysfunction, that's where I see businesses blow up. Right. The owners not being responsible for who they are inside of the organization. I could go on all day long.

Oh, my God. Let me tell you about this. Oh, my God. Let me tell you about that. Because it's so it's all it's all one tech right up and down.

And she's she's got a combination lock again for our listeners, those who aren't watching us live.

And I'm glad you brought it back to that because and that you're talking about team, because the when you first brought that out, it triggered a memory for me and it brought me back my very first day of high school, I.

Walked in and I had all my books because in my backpacks full, but there's so many books that I even had my arms full and I was carrying my lunch and kind of swinging it as I was going up to my locker. And there was a water bottle that was had condensation. So the lunch bag broke apart and it flew all over the floor. So I'm like this freshman kid trying to pick up my lunch, pick up my books and get to my locker.

And then I couldn't get the lock open. I hadn't practiced up it never used a combination lock.

And then it's the bells ringing. I have to get to class. So I had to go to class with my backpack full, my arms full of every book and my lunch piled on top. And it just makes me think about entrepreneurs. Yes, I try to do everything and they carry everything and they don't ask for help and they don't. And they don't always know how to get to that right combination. And so I love that you use that analogy because it made me think about that and that being kind of a pivotal moment for me.

I don't know, maybe it's just a traumatic moment.

But but it speaks to, I think, the power of a team when you've got a team around you that can help and not just doing everything on your own and how you evolve in that. So thanks for letting me share my my traumatic trauma from a story from high school, but I'd love to hear you also take it back a little bit for you as we withdraw towards the close and ask, you know, is there a speaker is there someone that kind of made a big impact on you somewhere in your journey, personally or professionally?

I just always like to ask so people can be reminded of all the amazing people out there that have made an impact on them.

Absolutely. I would say the first speaker that I really fell in love with was Barbara DeAngelis. And she teaches a course called Making Love All The Time. And what I loved about her was transparency. I learned how powerful the transparency could be because she would be teaching and then she would immediately go in the process with the room and just start doing her stuff. And I was like, this was new because this suited and booted speaker is right and she's really being vulnerable and sharing and then put you in an exercise.

And so that vulnerability as a speaker, I learned that from her. Right. And then Esther Hicks, I love her. And if you studied in your personal right, but she talks about the power of intention and drawing to and we're drawing to both positive and negative. So whatever you have in your life as a result from what you're drawing to or resisting, and so to be able to watch her be, because that's that being that she she's not there's no bells.

There's no whistles. There's no parade. There's no it's just being her content, being the message. And that's powerful because as an effective speaker, I can't just give my shtick. The shtick will produce results. You've got to tell your your drama stories. You got to tell when you have bloodiness. I've got to talk about my failures. I've got to talk about what I did wrong so that people can see that I'm on the same journey. I didn't just get here.

This this journey has been like up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down. And when I look at most people in life, they want their life to be steady. They want their life to be even keeled. I just want balance. No, you don't. If I'm in a hospital and I have balance, meaning I have a straight line, I'm dead, and I find that in business owners, they're just I'm trying to get balance.

No, up and down is where the life of the businesses up and down is. Where I love you. I hate you. Right. I love my clients. I hate my clients. That's where the passion grows. The tenacity grows. The the fun grows, the wealth grows. It's not in the study. It's not in the I can have steady. I can create harmony. I can create harmony versus balance. Harmony is when I'm working on one thing, something's going to drop.

Like if I'm so focused on my business, I'm sure my family life is going to drop. I've got to be aware. And so I think each speaker has really taught me the being part because that's the most important. Before you get into content is can you be with your clients and with your audience?

I love that and such a great thing for speakers and and everyone to keep in mind and whether they own a business or not or you're just getting started. Suzy, you've shared so much wealth of information today. Is there one thing that you would like to leave our audience with and let us know where where should they go to find out more? Or just go straight to purchasing the book and finding out about all the bonuses?

So I think that Blair, the thing that I see that stops most people is fear. Right. And fear leads you to believe that where you are right now is a safe place. And going forward is a risk when the truth is you're always at risk, risk of stagnating, but more importantly, risk of standing still. So when I look at looking at the fear, looking at I look at fear as a flag, a flag of the unknown, a flag, the possibility, a flag of what's to come.

And then if I hold fear and courage in either and jump. And recognizable, I should not am in life, I don't have the degree, I don't have the pedigree, I don't have the connections. I grew up with nine brothers and sisters. Right. We were poor. Every in my upbringing says I should be where I'm at and I am where I'm at because I held that fear and held that courage. Don't. In the face of fear, in the face of known, in the face of possibility and going, I hope I land, I hope I have a parachute, I hope this works out and it is worked out.

But it's always been a blessing. It's always been a transition. So I know that nervousness, like I had to drive around that block from that first speaking event, you know, throwing up and going to the bathroom. That fear is what propelled me to get up and do it again and do it again. If you're not a little fear, if you're not a little afraid, you're not playing big enough.

And so you can get a hold of me and so you can get a hold of me from my website, which is Susie Carter dot com. But to really order the book and because this community, when you book, you get about sixty five hundred dollars worth of bonuses. I know Bananarama, but that's the kind of girl I am. Let me show you what I'll give you for free so that you can see if this is a great community for you.

So the book is twenty eight dollars. If you're going to power your profits book Acom and buy the book will give you sixty five hundred dollars with content for free. So let me tell you what's in that six of my most favorite spreadsheets, the cash calculator, the average ticket worksheet, the the financial projection worksheet that I just talked about. So you don't have to make them up yourself. I want to give you the you need to grow your business.

You need to have the life that you love and make a profound difference in the world. I love that.

Well, thank you again, Susie, for joining us. Everyone, check out Power Your Profits book, Dotcom, and take advantage of that amazing deal. And thank you all for joining us inside the Green Room. I'm your co-host, Blair Bryant Nichols, and we've also been live in your Events Matter Facebook group. So if you're an event planner or meeting planner, please join us there and you can be part of our next discussion live. You can always find out more about us and check out our resources tab on Inside the Green Room podcast.

Dotcom, thank you again. And we'll see you next time, guys.

Hey, thanks for listening to Inside the Green Room with PV three. If you liked our show, make sure you never miss an episode. Subscribe and leave a review. Wherever you listen to podcasts to see the full show notes and more resources go to Inside the Green Room podcast dotcom. Make sure to join us next week for more cutting edge actionable tips from the meeting planners who control the most prestigious stages and the speakers who use those stages to increase their income and their impact.