Announcer: Welcome to behind the mic presented in part by CAPS, the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. This podcast is dedicated to recognizing excellence in speaking through fascinating stories and interesting conversations with the people who make the speaking world come alive. Now please welcome your behind the mic hosts, Roxanne Durhodge and Carl Richards.

Roxanne Derhodge: Everyone is Roxanne Durhodge. Welcome to behind the mic yet another week. Today we have a special guest Tammy Johnston, and Tammy is one of our supplier members, and we're gonna tell you a little bit more about her. I'll I'll pass it over to Carl who will tell you all the amazing things that she's been doing out there in the business world. So Carl, over to you.

Carl Richards: Thank you very much, Roxanne. Yes. Tammy Johnston is the hold your hand and kick your ass business business coach. She has been working with small businesses since 2002 to help them build sustainable and successful businesses. Now Tammy believes that business done right, honestly, ethically, and morally, has the power to make the world a better place for our customers, our families, and of course our communities.

Carl Richards: She doesn't promise a magic bullet because there is no such thing, but she does teach all the basic foundational skills you need to first survive and then thrive. Now she only deals in real practical, put it to use training and advice that has been tested in battle. We're glad she's here today. Tammy, welcome to Behind the Mic, and as we found out earlier, behind the scenes, but seriously, Behind the Mic, welcome.

Tammy Johnston: It's great to be here.

Roxanne Derhodge: Tammy, let me tell you my first impression. I met Tammy, goodness, going back a couple of years ago. And the first thing that I remember, and I probably should have brought in one of her cards. Ever since I met Tammy, the one thing that she does, and I don't know how many cards I get from Tammy, it's something just tapping on me. And I I tell you, Tammy, that is such a nice touch.

Roxanne Derhodge: So it's about something. It may not be even be related to anything speaking or whatever, but something an event that's coming up. And that's a touch that you offer your clients. I can imagine what a special experience you give to your clients.

Tammy Johnston: I'm glad you enjoyed it. I have a lot of fun doing it because it's a nice way to just keep in touch because we get so busy and you blink and months, if not years go by and you're going, how we just talked like a week ago. No. It was like six years ago. So me doing the regular cards for the goofy little holidays and stuff is just a way for me to remember and to build relationship and connection with the people that I have met.

Carl Richards: It's also not what I like about it too is it's not something that we see like we did say twenty, thirty years ago. We just don't get cards like we used to, but now all of a sudden there's this resurgence in or this going back to sending a card because it keeps you top of mind, especially if it's something, you know, that's cute or fun or remembering a birthday or whatever it is. It just really makes you top of mind. And I think that's one of the keys that is true with the work you do is if you're in business, you need to be top of mind. Otherwise, where are you landing in people's busy inboxes and what have you?

Tammy Johnston: And it take it takes a little bit of time, and everybody goes, why don't you do digital? I'm going, well, I don't know about you, but I get, like, hundreds of emails a day and the texts and the DMs and stuff. And even, like, it's just too much noise where what do you still get in the mail? Bills and a bit of junk. So if you actually get something that's fun or nice, it stands out a bit more.

Roxanne Derhodge: So that touch, I would assume. Right? If you think of being, like you said, you are working with mostly companies that are starting up within a couple of years. What are some of the strategies that you have seen that really help people set a right pace? Like, you're looking you you talk about connection, right, which is key.

Roxanne Derhodge: You said standing out from the white noise. Who would like to learn more about that? What are some of the things that you teach your clients when you meet them that really kind of helps them to kind of plant themselves and start to make the proper steps to progress along as a beginning business or startup?

Tammy Johnston: The big thing that I teach them is play the long game because there's so many people that are chasing the instant gratification. I need to make money now. I need to get that gig right now and stuff like that. And then you're putting out this air of desperation and you are repelling rather than attracting. And what I have learned from being doing this for over twenty three years now is there's a lot of people that won't do business with you until you've been in business for at least three years.

Tammy Johnston: Because number one, they wanna make sure that you're serious about this, that this is that you're not a flash in the pan, that this is not the flavor of the month, and it takes time because we have so many demands on our time and our attention that we have to, I say drip until people get wet or tell you to buzz off. And my personal record for having somebody meet me and then become a client is fourteen years. Wow. And I've had everything in between because I just, you know what? I'm not going to trace you.

Tammy Johnston: I'm not going to harass you. I'm going to put myself out there and reminding you and being there and then it comes. And then it comes. And as soon as you take off that, like you said, that desperation, you calm down and you think, okay. How do I want my business to look twenty years from now?

Tammy Johnston: What are the things that I can be doing? And you start putting those systems into place, and then it starts to come to you. And it's different. Doesn't matter what business you're in. If you're speaker or coach, I work with tradespeople.

Tammy Johnston: I've worked with artists. I've worked with people in the medical, like, everything. It's the same no matter what your business is.

Carl Richards: And it's definitely you hit the nail on the head there. It is a long game, not a short game. And I think that when we're new in business, I remember when I was new in business, and my business was part time when I started, I had the luxury of not feeling like I had to rush or hustle that hard, but there's still that understanding of you need to have a certain amount of touch points. And I know that metric keeps changing all the time. In the early twenty ten, 2011, it was about six to 12 touch points.

Carl Richards: And now it's, I don't know, 18 to 24 or something like that. The number keeps going up and you need to be able to, as you say, give yourself the time. And time is also there, believe, and tell me if I'm wrong, but it's, as you say, there by design to help you not grow too quickly, like grow at a pace that is, I'll say comfortable, but I know in business we need to be uncomfortable to be comfortable. Let's not get into that analogy. But we need to grow at a pace that is as right for where we need to be in business right now, and then scale as necessary.

Carl Richards: Does that does that make sense?

Tammy Johnston: Oh, ab absolutely. I tell a lot of people, like I said, yes. You can have the best marketing, but if you can't deliver on what you've sold, you have just imploded. Yes. It it paces.

Tammy Johnston: Like, I love going to caps and the conventions and seeing, like, the absolute superstars, and it's inspiring, but it's also going, I'm not ready to play at that level. I need to do this, and I wanna aim for that. But if I try to play at that level, I'm going I'm it's not going to work. It's going to implode because I need to personally build up to that level.

Roxanne Derhodge: I mean that's a good example Tammy because I think you know any of us, like I even think about me when I joined CAPS, right? So I've been in consulting for years. I've done kind of the coaching, the speaking and all those things and I'm entering the business. I'm new my second career but new to building the background of my business. And then I'm seeing you, like you said, I'm meeting the people that are you know kind of getting the attention.

Roxanne Derhodge: I'm like woah, know what's it gonna take for me? Because I wanna sprint. That's my personality. But realizing that I need to be tethered because I'm gonna go out and do things that might actually repel me back and impact kind of the the brand that I'm trying to create. I would assume then, Tammy, with saying that, some of your coaching is about mindset.

Roxanne Derhodge: Am I correct in saying that?

Tammy Johnston: Oh, that's the first thing that we have to deal with. Okay. Like, changing their thinking from being an employee to being an entrepreneur, it is vastly different. And I've actually had over the more than twenty years that I've been teaching my small business class, I've had a few people come in and after spending the weekend with me go, you know what, now that I actually understand how much is involved and all the things that I'm going to have to, I don't want to start a business and I'm going, that is the best thing ever. I've saved you years and tens of thousands of dollars and grief because it is not for everybody but for the ones that do want to do it and are willing to learn and go to the effort.

Tammy Johnston: There's nothing better. There is nothing better. But you have to be ready for it.

Carl Richards: It is such a different mindset though altogether. And it's, I think the biggest struggle, if I could just even be a little bit vulnerable and share a little bit of my story, is that the hardest thing was understanding when you are in a JOB, your employer controls your value. When you are in business, your value is what you put on it, right? And obviously the market as well. But there is no one putting a cap on you.

Carl Richards: Any cap that's there, you're putting there. That's I think the biggest mindset shift for me was understanding that, yeah, I can ask 10,000, 15,000, whatever the dollar amount is, it doesn't matter. I can ask that because I don't have a boss now saying, nope, sorry, you're not worth that. That's a tough one though.

Tammy Johnston: I would say another, like the biggest one for a lot of people is, yes, when you have a job, you have a boss telling you what to do, when to do it, where to do it, like all of that stuff. And when you're on your own, like, hey, I'm now an entrepreneur. I'm doing this. You determine what you're doing. But a lot of people go, okay, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing.

Tammy Johnston: Most people are technicians. They technically are brilliant at their product or service and they are lacking the business skills. So they get busy doing what is fun, what is right in front of them, what they feel naturally pulled to, and they are missing all of the stuff in the background and they're wondering why they're like the hamster on the wheel and they're going faster and faster and nothing's changing. So I have to teach them, hey. How do you spend your day?

Tammy Johnston: Are you working on the stuff that's effective or just efficient? Because there's a lot of people that are spending a lot of time fussing over the arrangement of the deck chairs on the Titanic when they really should be avoiding the freaking iceberg.

Carl Richards: That's why you hire a business coach to help you navigate through the

Tammy Johnston: choppy waters. Coach that understands where you are and can help you where you are. Because there's a lot of amazing business coaches that people are going to but they're not ready for them and going, you're trying to go to Usain Bolt's running coach when your fat ass can't get across the 100 meter dash right now. Let's work on where you are.

Carl Richards: Thanks for speaking to me personally about that.

Roxanne Derhodge: Are you two the comedic pair this week? Because I'm being sidestepped here.

Carl Richards: Okay, Roxanne. Let me lob them all to you, Roxanne, because I know you wanna weigh in here for sure.

Roxanne Derhodge: But, you know, what I hear is, and I I want you to speak, this is an interesting conversation I'm on the board. And what we're finding is that there's a lot of people taking the business starter track, which is a track. So it's interesting because you say you work with people that are just building a business. What we're finding is that people or people that are coming in, there is a dramatic need to learn the fundamentals because most people have had a j o b. Right?

Roxanne Derhodge: They would have been like me that had been in corporate consulting. Everything was given to me. Here's a marketing plan. Here's a p and l. Here's the new research.

Roxanne Derhodge: Here's the stats. And I would just prep, go out, deliver, and come back, and then it would be given to me again. So and then I came, started my own business. I was like, woah. Well, want me to do what?

Roxanne Derhodge: I'm not so good at that. I don't wanna do this one. I I like you're right. I wanted to do the things that were fun. What I thought.

Tammy Johnston: Yeah. Other other people looked after the other things. You didn't even you didn't even know all the stuff you didn't know. And I'm going, that's the stuff that bites you in the arse.

Roxanne Derhodge: Right. And my executive assistants made me look really, really good because they kept me away from things that I was really bad at. There was a lot of it. And all the things that I was good at, they just kept pumping more at it so I could go out and be front foot facing with the customer. So going back again, I want you to speak to some of the things that you would be teaching someone that's that may be in this business now that you can with the speak with the six, we have all the different personas.

Roxanne Derhodge: Right? Coaches, speakers, trainers, consultants, influencers, all that. What kinds of things would you fundamentally be sharing with them? Once the mindset is set and they're not going after every little hairy thing that's shiny thing, what were some of the fund basic fundamentals you'd be teaching them?

Tammy Johnston: I say that there's eight fundamentals for every business, regardless of, like you said, product service, speakers, coaches, medical, whatever. It's all the same. So mindset, big one. Goal setting and habits. So, how are you spending your time?

Tammy Johnston: Are you working on the stuff that actually matters? Are you spinning your wheels? Are you setting goals that are going to stretch you but still keep you involved or are you aiming so big, so fast that you're just going to be disappointed and crash out and burn out. Then marketing. Like no marketing, no nothing, and everybody go, okay, you see somebody that I need to do their thing.

Tammy Johnston: No, there's 27 different ways to market your business. You need to find the few things like two, three, four things that you are going to do consistently so that you get good. So many people are doing the spray and pray. I'm going to try this this week and put it all out. Oh, well, that didn't bring me in 50 speaking gigs.

Tammy Johnston: So I'm gonna try something else, and I'm try something else, and they never get any traction, and they don't have any systems for doing it. They're always playing behind the game. So how do we get set up so they're doing effective marketing on a consistent basis that builds. Advisory team. Most people are getting their business advice from their broke ass friends and family who have never set foot in the arena.

Tammy Johnston: And then they're wondering why it's not working. You no matter how brilliant you are you need to have good people around you. Which is one of the reasons I absolutely love Taps. I it's one of the few places that I go and I am always taking notes and learning because I'm good at what I do but I cannot know everything. No one can.

Tammy Johnston: So I love surrounding myself with people that do know what they're doing and are sharing and stuff like that. Then like you said accountants and lawyers, we need good people around us. Who do you put on your advisory team and how do you learn if they actually know what they're talking about and sincerely want to help you? And then we have financials. Are you paying attention to your numbers?

Tammy Johnston: Are you learning the stories that your numbers are telling you? That is the number one area that I find that all businesses, it's the first one that they abdicate. Oh, I'm bringing a little bit. I'm going to bring bring in the bookkeeper or whatever and I'm never going to look at it again and then they wonder why they're not doing as well as they could because they think, oh it's complicated and it's scary and unless I've got millions of dollars coming in I don't even want to look at it. And I'm going, can you count, add, subtract, multiply, divide?

Tammy Johnston: That's all you need to do on the technical side. But becoming familiar and like you said, I teach them, okay, here's the stories your numbers can tell you and then, how can you help this user business? And when they start, well, this is fun. Then, they get into it and then, systems. No systems, no business.

Tammy Johnston: It's just a job that owns you. Most people, okay, they've been in business a while and they're good enough. They're but they're professional plate spinners. They're doing everything themselves and they're running around And as long as they nothing gets in the way so they can keep spinning all of those plates, everything's fine. But the moment anything comes up, everything comes crashing down.

Tammy Johnston: Systems allow you to do more, do better, and make more money with less effort and provide a much better client and customer experience. Like, I am systems, systems, systems, and they never end. You're always building. Business for over two decades now and I've been building my systems all throughout and they just keep getting better and improving. And then cash flow.

Tammy Johnston: Cash flow is the blood of our business. So there's a lot of people that you could be very profitable but if you don't have regular cash flow because everybody has regular bills, you're not going to stay in the game. And then lastly, profit because there's a lot of people that have the cash flow, but they're going, how come I have nothing left at the end? Because you don't understand your numbers and you're not actually bringing in any profit. My background is actually financial services.

Tammy Johnston: I've been in financial services for over thirty two years and when I first started my own business like twenty four years ago, I would get called in a lot by accountants going, okay, my client has payroll on Friday. It's Tuesday and they have no money in the account. Can you please go in and smack them around a little bit? And I go in and start talking and asking simple things like, tell me about your invoicing and they're going oh I've been so busy that doing stuff that I haven't sent an invoice in three months and I'm going that's why you have no money in the bank and then I start going through and ask okay what's your profit margin on things like that and oh it's this And and then they're forgetting, oh, I forgot my WCB. I forgot my insurance.

Tammy Johnston: I got all this stuff. And I'm going, okay, when we actually figure out what your costs are, what your overhead is, you're making like this much profit on one thing and you're losing everywhere else. No wonder you're broke. But we've got cash flow. You need to have both and they are different things.

Tammy Johnston: So doesn't matter what the business is. You need to have those eight pieces. And the more of them that you are missing, the harder and faster you're going to crash. No ifs, ands, or buts. The harder and faster you're going to crash.

Carl Richards: And I think that there's some overwhelm with that too. So you expressed that a little bit that folks don't want to look at their numbers, for example, but at the appropriate time. And by the way, if you are a brand new in business, some of this might be extremely overwhelming, but you still need to be able to, at the appropriate time, take those steps. So if you're a solopreneur, it's probably a little bit easier, but as you are leveling up, growing, developing a team, having an advisory board, bringing on an accountant doing it. And also depends on what your business is, but I'm assuming that you need to be able to take it one step at a time, but also make sure that as you're taking it one step at a time, that you're realizing at this stage of my business, ah, this is where I need legal or this is where I need an account or this is where I need am I renting

Tammy Johnston: There's that so much of it that's like interconnected. Like, if I like, and I love what you said. Yes. It's it's baby steps. It's learning when you've got a brand new baby, baby, you put them on their back and they're not really going anywhere, but eventually they learn to roll over and then they learn to crawl.

Tammy Johnston: And if you've ever been through a toddler, you know that they move faster than Olympic sprinters.

Carl Richards: Oh, they do.

Tammy Johnston: But it's it's going through those steps. And like you said, having the advisory team, and when I say advisory team, it doesn't necessarily mean like people that you've officially hired, like an accountant and a lawyer and stuff. It is having like good people around you at CAPS. One of the first things that I had to do was change my social circle when I started my business. Because when I started my business, all of my social circle were employees.

Tammy Johnston: Wonderful, nice, amazing people. But I couldn't talk to them in my business. They looked at me like I had three heads. Like they could not comprehend. So I started going out and networking and meeting other small business people.

Tammy Johnston: And within two years my social circle had basically completely changed. And I would learn an awful lot of stuff just going for lunch with them or having dinner with them at a networking event, hearing what's going on in their business and stuff. I'm learning all of this. Oh, didn't know about that. I'm starting to have this problem and they've already been through that.

Tammy Johnston: How did they do it? Can I talk to them a bit more? And it's all interconnected. It's not like, okay, build this one pillar and then I move on to the next next one. We grow them all together.

Roxanne Derhodge: I love that because that's probably what the beginning small business owner is going through. And all the while they still maybe have to keep a roof over their head, they have to take care of their kids, they have to There's a lot of overwhelm I would think. Like the one thing that I learned really quickly is I had to learn, okay, I had to focus my optimal energy on the things that were gonna matter that day. And because I'm like everybody else, I wanna go after everything that's new and big and oh my goodness, so and so is doing this. Then I realized, my Lord, I'm gonna burn out and be out of business really quickly if I continue with that pattern.

Roxanne Derhodge: And to your point, that's what started to happen is when I started to go to CAPS meetings, that's what started to happen. Then I really started to hear about people talking about, oh, don't do that. I did that the first year, and that happened. And do not and then I'm like, you just saved me $20,000 there. So I think you're right.

Roxanne Derhodge: The environment that you're around is so key is to get immersed so that people can, you can share obviously, you can share as well but you're gonna be gaining. And that's what happens every time I go, obviously, and have meetings or when I went to convention or I ended up going to speaker training events, started to coach with people within CAPS. That's what I ended up doing. And then I got immersed into it as well.

Tammy Johnston: Another thing I would throw in because I see this a lot with speakers and a few years ago I was a presenter at the Professional Photographers Association of Canada. And I was at their convention and one of the things that blew me away because the keyword that I'm going point out is supposed to be professional which is this is what they do to make money. And they had probably a 100 different sessions, and there was me and one other person talking about business. Everybody else was talking about lighting Lightroom and lighting and posing and Photoshop, like, all of the technical aspects. But I'm going, okay.

Tammy Johnston: Out of out of the few thousand people that are here, you might have 25 people that are actually making money doing this because of it, for most of them, it's a glorified hobby and I'm going, you have me and one other person talking about business and I was presenting on how to attract your ideal client. I started off my presentation going, I'm not a photographer. Like, you're doing good if I'm pointing the right end of the camera. Like, this is not but I know business. I had two people get up and walk out.

Tammy Johnston: Because I wasn't a photographer. But then we started going through and very quickly people going oh my goodness. Okay. We started learning. I got mobbed at the end of it.

Tammy Johnston: You go over my business card and all of this stuff. Why are people not they're focusing on the technical aspects. Yes, you need to be good. Yes, we want to learn that. But if you are not making money so that you can stay in business, what's the point?

Roxanne Derhodge: Because your stress level is high. If you're not learning the actual practical pragmatic steps and learning to apply it and, like you said, getting the support systems around you, then eventually you're gonna burn out, and then you're gonna run out of money on top of it. So right so that's why they say the average business fails within the first three to five years of being around kind of thing. What's the next step for you? What where are you going with your business, and how has your space supported you to make the accelerated steps that you're gonna make in the next little while?

Tammy Johnston: Well, one of the big things that I'm working on is, like, I am on a mission to drastically improve the success rate of new businesses. And so I'm working a lot on changing my marketing. Because when I started, I did small speaking engagements. I did in person networking and things like that. And it was it was going quite well.

Tammy Johnston: And then COVID hit and everything got shut down and I moved because I was in Calgary for thirty two years and now I'm in the lovely Okanagan which I call the middle of beautiful nowhere. So I'm having to learn how to do all this digital stuff. I've been doing tons of podcasting. I'm upping my social media and learning all of this stuff. So that's one of the fabulous things I've been learning from CAPS especially from my Alberta chapter because we bring in the best speakers on how to do video and all of this stuff and put it out there so that I can reach more people on a consistent basis.

Tammy Johnston: I'm also working on getting back in I've done a ton of media appearances. Like I've built up a very good relationship with different media and they would call me up by going, can you be at the studio at 06:00 tomorrow morning? I'm not in Calgary anymore, so I'm working on rebuilding those things. Hey, here's what we do. Here's what we do.

Carl Richards: Yeah, and I think CAPS gives you a huge opportunity as well as you indicated earlier, get some of that support, that advisory support. And even if you're learning it organically from just attending events and such, that's phenomenal. But also gives you the opportunity to, even if I can be so bold as to say, as a supplier member, just even test things out to see what's going to land for you, be of assistance to others.

Roxanne Derhodge: Amazing. Tammy, this has been an amazing talk. And any last words before we let you go off on your merry way and enjoy the beautiful Okanagan today? Any last words for

Tammy Johnston: Love caps. Go to your super Saturdays, get involved, and go to convention. You and I met at my first convention in Calgary because you were doing one of the table talks that I absolutely loved, and I've been to Quebec City and Costa Rica last year which was au magnific and looking forward to Halifax because not just the technical stuff you learn, the energy that you will get and the pumping up and going, you know what, we're in this together. I haven't met anybody at CAPS that I didn't think was awesome and I'm a grumpy hard to please person, so that says a lot.

Roxanne Derhodge: But I remembered you at my meet the experts and I got those cards and I kept thinking who's Tammy? Oh my goodness this is and then I would see your kick ass on your card. And I'm like, I know her. I know her. And I kept saying, gotta pick up the phone and talk to her.

Roxanne Derhodge: That's kind of where So whatever you're doing, Tammy, you're memorable and love having you in my space. And thanks for sharing all your wisdom today with us. And I will hand it over to Carl, who will slide us off.

Carl Richards: Thanks, Tammy. It has been phenomenal chatting with you. I didn't, for some reason, meet you in Quebec City or Costa Rica, but I will definitely see you in Halifax. I'm looking forward I'm to hoping also to make the Sunday night photo, the last-

Roxanne Derhodge: Well, the survivor

Carl Richards: photo. Survivor photo. That's it. Thank you. I'm hoping to make that, but if I don't, it's okay.

Roxanne Derhodge: I'll meet you too at the survivor photo because I'm making out.

Tammy Johnston: That's a date. So I'll help you both.

Carl Richards: And help then make sure I toddler off to bed and get Hey, some if this has been of inspiration or has been something that has had your ears perk up, canadianspeakers.org. We have tons of fun within the organization, but as we've talked about today and we've talked about in our past episodes, it's a very supportive organization. So if speaking is something that you are aspiring to do, there's so many great things within the CAPS organization. We're here to have a conversation with you. So reach out canadianspeakers.org.

Carl Richards: There's a ton of resources there and the folks that you can connect with. We will see you next month for yet another edition of Behind the Mic. Take care.

Roxanne Derhodge: Take care. Bye bye.

Announcer: Thanks for listening to Behind the Mic presented in part by CAPS where members are driven by the four pillars of Learn, Share, Grow and Belong If you liked what you heard today, leave us

Carl Richards: a comment or a review.

Announcer: And so that you never miss an episode, please subscribe to our channel. Be sure to join us again soon for the next edition of behind the mic.