170: The Scarlet Thread Origin Story
170: The Scarlet Thread Origin Story
with Michele Williams
On the podcast today I’m going to share my origin story. Some of you have reached out to me and asked me to share more and that you want to hear more. And so I thought it would be a great thing to just put my story out there beginning to end. That's what I'm going to do today. I hope that there's something that you can take away from it and that it inspires you.
Topics Mentioned:
Your Why
Strengths
Experiences
Uniqueness
Listen to the Episode
Michele 00:00
Hello, my name is Michele, and you're listening to Profit is a Choice. On the podcast today I’m going to share my origin story. Some of you have reached out to me and asked me to share more that you want to hear more. And so I thought it would be a great thing to just put my story out there beginning to end. And so that's what I'm going to do today, I hope that there's something that you can take away from it and that it inspires you.
Michele 00:33
Every day, empowered entrepreneurs are taking ownership of their company financial health, and enjoying the rewards of reduce stress and more creativity. With my background, as a financial software developer, owner of multiple businesses in the interior design, industry, educator, and speaker, I coach women in the interior design industry, to increase their profits, regain ownership of their bottom line, and to have fun again in their business. Welcome to Profit is a Choice.
Michele 01:08
All the way back in Episode One, I shared with you all why I started this podcast. And I started it really because I had been in the business for a while and had really started to see the effects of a lack of profitability, really a high tolerance for low pay, not understanding the numbers and what they meant in the business. And so I really just wanted to jump in and help people think about things like what does it mean to be consciously profitable? Or, you know, what types of forms does profitability take? And how do we plan for repeatable profit. But you know, that's not where my story started worrying all about or thinking all about or being consumed with that.
Michele 02:01
My story started way before that. You've heard glimpses of it, maybe in Episode 125, where I shared my why we're in Episode 77, where I invited you in to meet my sons. That was a fun podcast, or perhaps Episode 64, where my husband shared what it was like to be married to an entrepreneur. So my story is sprinkled throughout the podcast. And I thought I would give you a little bit more of a chronological sequence. Just because I want to be able to show you that your story impacts what you do, and how you do it. And maybe if you can see how my story has brought me to where I am today, you'll be able to see some parallels in your own life.
Michele 02:49
So I'll start all the way back with the fact that I was raised in South Carolina, I loved teaching my dolls and teddy bears, I would line them up and teach them a lesson. I loved playing bank, or some type of money teller, I loved playing with money. I remember my mom getting me one of the, you know, like the registers that you used to use when we actually wrote checks, and we kept up with everything in a check register, she would give me extra check registers, and I just, oh my goodness, the columns in that just the order of it, it just made my heart sing. My sister had the whole kitchen set all the way with the, you know, where you can use the cash register. And I used to beg to be the cash register person just so I could deal with money. My dad was in it. And he loved math and very critical thinking and problem solving. That was what he did on the day to day, my mother was a science teacher. So you can kind of see where this is going. And my dad saw that I loved math. I love numbers I'll order. And so he started teaching me base eight and base 16 even when I was an elementary school, and I can remember I probably freaked out all of my math teachers. But I can remember going in and being excited that I knew how to add letters, not just numbers. I remember learning about negative numbers. And so when the teacher would say you can't subtract three from two, I would raise my hand and say yes, you can you get negative one. And she's like, Michele, we've not covered that yet. So it just always made sense to me. And I loved it.
Michele 04:33
And my parents were awesome. And they really supported the science and the math that I enjoyed. But what was so interesting is at the time, we were pushed more in some directions towards English and the humanities. And you know, again, nothing wrong with that. It just wasn't where my heart was. And so when I went to college, I had exempted a year from high school. That was back AP courses had just started. And so I entered college as a sophomore, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. And so I just went into general business. And all of a sudden they said to me, Michele, you're getting ready to graduate in the next year, you have to finalize what you're going to do. So I looked at everything that I had already done, looked at the classes that I loved. And I decided that management information systems and administrative management was what I really, really loved. And so I double majored in that.
Michele 05:36
I moved to Atlanta, Georgia, from small town, South Carolina, University of South Carolina, graduate, to take a job with a company called Management Science America. Now some of you have also heard me say that, when I was in college, my first thought was, I think I'll go into accounting, and I was in two weeks of accounting. And I just didn't think that that was going to be my path. And it just didn't feel right to me. And so while I still took all the accounting classes and loved them, I just knew that doing accounting in and of itself as a full time, job was not going to bring me joy. But what was so interesting was my first job at Management Science, America was doing support for accounts payable, I had only been at that job for three months, and our company was bought out by Dun and Bradstreet software. So you know, quickly, I was in the middle of a buyout situation, thankfully retain my job.
Michele 06:32
I went on to support accounts payable. Also, I supported the integration between accounts payable in general ledger and purchasing inventory, which is so interesting when you look at everything that we do today. And I guess now 30 years ago, that's what I was doing. I know, I just probably told you at my age when we did that there, right. But through that, I also moved from supporting it to becoming a business analyst. And then I moved into the creation of our project accounting system. And that was a two year build, where I started off as a business analyst with the developers, and then moved into actually the director of managing that entire project. When that project finished, our company was bought out again.
Michele 07:22
At that point, they were deciding not to continue with building new, but instead to kind of manage what they already had. And so they were, of course, reducing. And I was on that reduction list. And so I came home, and I had a one year old and a three year old, many of you've heard that story, and just hung out with my kids for a few minutes to look for another job. And then realize that that wasn't what I wanted to do was go back into the corporate rat race. And so we had only moved in our home three weeks before I lost my job and came home. So I had all of these bare windows, and I just started making window treatments and designing in our home like many of you do, this was back in 1998.
Michele 08:10
And so you know, we didn't have Pinterest, we didn't have pictures of everything. We didn't have Instagram, we didn't have all those things. So, you know, the best that we could do was take our magazines and rip out pages or go sit in Barnes and Noble or the library and dig through books and magazines. And that's what we did. That's what I did. Anyway, fast forward a little bit the next year. So that would have been I started doing our home and around 99 in the year. Well let me back up here. So in 99, I'm over here fixing up my home. And that was the year 2000 my husband had lost his job because they thought that the world was ending. And so we're both sitting here with no jobs looking at each other. And I remembered that I just had been praying Psalms 25 which is a life song for me and it says teach me your way you know, and my prayer was just show me what you want me to do and I'll go do it just tell me if it means I need to go about corporate or go corporate if it means I need to start side hustle.
Michele 09:18
Even though we didn't know that term back then that's what I'll do. And in January of 2000, my doorbell rang and two of my neighbors were standing there and one had a bolt of fabric and she said to me if you will make window treatments for my home like you've made in your home I'll pay you and my neighbor beside her, ran out to the fabric store and bought fabric and brought it to me and asked me if I could make hers too. Well we'd only been in our home for a year at that point. And you know we had 88 homes in our subdivision. So I just started going home to home, making everybody's window treatments and helping them with paint colors and you know the small accessories and pulling the rooms together. And that's how my business started up in upstairs and the sitting room of our bedroom.
Michele 10:06
I think I've mentioned on the podcast before, my husband always teases me about the fact that we started off or I started off working in the bedroom. And then all of a sudden, we were sleeping in my workroom. And so we had to build out a space in our basement, walkout area for me to be able to run that company. And so the first two years of that company, I loved what I did, I enjoyed it, I was learning a lot about design and about scale and proportion and you know, fabrics, and all of those things construction engineering. But I also realized at the end of the second year that I didn't make any money. And so I was devastated. Because my whole goal in this had been to make money to relieve some of the pressure from my husband, when I had taken six figures out of our family income by not going back to a corporate job. And so that was what led me to my crisis to figure out the pricing and profitability and to realize that it was my issue and nobody else's. That was when I learned that I needed to be a business and not a hobby. And I made all of the changes that I teach about really sitting down and taking full ownership of everything. And once I did that, I redefined my business started making money. And then I started sharing it and teaching it with people around me because I thought, Oh, my goodness, you know, I have a business great.
Michele 11:29
But again, I didn't know how to apply it into a small business. I didn't even think that way at the time. And I had to take a step back and really be intentional. But then I saw my fellow workers and designers that were struggling with the same darn thing. And my first thought wasn't, oh, gosh, I got something you don't it was let me share this, let me tell you. So all the way back and I want to say 2007 I think it was I started sharing and teaching on pricing and profitability. And so that's been a long time now that's probably what 14 years, something like that almost 15 years. And I was going in through WCA meetings, online forums wherever I could get in and share what I knew. I was trying to do that. In 2008, I was asked to be on the board of directors for the WCA Atlanta chapter and actually was asked to be president. So I was president of Atlanta for 2008 and 2009. So that started shifting me and my business. And then in 2009, I was asked to be on the board of directors for WCA national the window covering Association of America. I also was asked to teach at the custom home furnishings Academy, early in 2009. And the thing that I wanted to teach there was a pricing class. That was what was so important to me.
Michele 12:58
Later in 2009, I went in with a couple of other investors and we created a partnership for the day to day running of the custom home furnishings Academy. So now at that point in 2009, I not only had my part time business, which is what it had become, because of my other diversions here in Atlanta, you know, workroom. And like the time I also now was a partner in a 9000 square foot facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, that taught custom window treatments, we taught installation, we had decorating and design classes, staging classes, installation classes, upholstery, and I was going back and forth every month for at least a week to manage that business. As part of my role and responsibility. In that management situation. I was putting out a magazine and producing a magazine every other month with information on design and how to do window treatments and, and you know, of course ad space. And then I was also producing a webinar every month for teaching. And so I did that for four years. And I was also responsible for creating all of the relationships with the vendors that were either giving us items for the magazine or for the webinars or whatever we were doing. And to be honest with you, I loved every bit of that. It was definitely a hard time because it was during the 2008, 2009, 2010 recession. And I was traveling a lot, certainly not as much as some of my other partners. They some of them traveled even more than I did. But I was traveling my kids were I think in the sixth grade and the ninth grade at that point. So I was leaving my home. I was also traveling around the United States to teach my pricing class, while also running a part time window treatment business here and being on the board of directors. For WCA. and, needless to say, my help took a huge, huge crash. And so in February of 2012, I had gone to speak in Raleigh at the WC a, and that rally triangle area, and one of my board members who I was staying with, she said to me, Michele, something's not right. You don't, you don't look good. And I had lost a lot of weight, like probably 30 pounds, and I was already small, my hair had started falling out, I was having trouble breathing like rapid heartbeat. I'm just probably I was gray.
Michele 15:42
And this didn't feel good, but I just kept moving. And she said to me, Michele, if you don't call while you're at my house, to get a doctor's appointment, I'm going to call your husband and we're going to get you to a doctor's, you've got to go home and go to the doctor. And so I agreed, and called from her house made a doctor's appointment for the day, I got back, barely got home, to be honest, really struggled, didn't know why I kept trying to fall asleep, couldn't hold my head up. Anyway, I came home and on February the 28th 2012, I went to the doctor, and they told me I had diabetes, and that my A-1-C was 12.9. A normal a one C is usually between like 4.6 and 5.2. And so you can see that mine was extremely high. And I was in danger of going into a coma and having some other issues. And so that day, I had to start insulin.
Michele 16:40
And they also realize I couldn't get a blood pressure in my right arm. And in addition to that, they realized that my heart something was off. So they sent me to a cardiologist The next day, so February 29, which is so interesting that we had an extra day in February that year. And I was diagnosed with a stenosis in my artery that feeds my right arm. So what that means is I had very, very little blood flow to my right arm, it was in danger of losing it. And so within two days, everything in my world got turned upside down. Within a month, I had bypass surgery. So they went in and did a subclavian to brachial bypass, took the vein out of my leg, and pretty much gave me restored blood flow to my right arm. But what that did was created another issue where I had nerve damage, I couldn't use my arm and straighten it out. And so that led to me having to take stock of everything. And I think I've shared this on the podcast before. But one of the things my cardiologist said to me, and I say it to all of my clients, she said, Michele, you didn't get into all of this overnight, and you're not going to get out overnight, but you can get out.
Michele 18:06
And so when people come to me and their business is either growing around them, or it's too big or too little, they're in a mess, or things aren't going well, I share that same sentiment with them, you didn't get into this overnight, you're not going to get out overnight, but we can help you get out. And so that's exactly what I did, I went back to my partners and said, the time has come, I need to sell my portion and get out. And thankfully, they all felt the same way. So we are sold together, which was really nice. I slowed down my business here in Atlanta, because I didn't have the strength in the arm mobility to be able to lift the fabrics and do the things that I was doing. And I was really struggling at that point to be honest with. So now what am I going to do? How am I going to have a business when the two things that I've been doing are coming to an end. And during all that time I had, of course been teaching classes, like I said since 2007, and eight with a very heavy focus in 2009 10 and 11.
Michele 19:13
And so some of my prior students had been emailing me and asking me to help them and to guide them forward. And what would you do here? And can I pay you for your time here? And I was really trying to figure out what do I want to do? Do I want to go back to school and be a counselor and work with women. And I investigated a lot, talked to a lot of people, talked to my pastor, talked to other people and other locations about their experiences. And I decided that I wanted to go into coaching because I really wanted to move forward and I wanted to do business coaching for women.
Michele 19:52
So I started taking classes and doing that. And in December of 2012 I remember thinking I'm not real sure how I'm going to find all of my clients, but that's okay, I'm still in recovery mode, I'm going to give it some time. And I really felt on my heart that I needed to offer a Bible study in my home. And so I opened up my home for a Bible study, and sent out a note through Facebook and said in January and then started about a study, and 30 women responded. And what was so funny was, half of them said they wanted to come in the morning, and half of them said they wanted to come at night. And I was like, Okay, great, I'm gonna do that. And finally, I just thought, okay, fine, I'll do it, I'll do it. As long as it's the same Bible study. So I'm not having to, you know, go through three or four different studies, I can do that.
Michele 20:43
So I opened my home in January of 2013, for a Bible study. And I want to say this was I think it was like the very first week right after the kids went back to school. And I had a young mom come into my home, who I'd never met before, who was invited by a friend. And she said to me, as we were sharing who we are, and what we do, she's like, Michele, I have a designer friend that's local to you, that has said, she wants a business coach, just like what you're explaining, I want to connect you. So she connected us. And we spoke that day, it was a Wednesday. And by Friday, I had finished my website had all of my business, I'd already been working on all of it. But I pulled it all together and had my first client in January of 2013, simply because I met somebody through a Bible study that I didn't even know that I was going to have.
Michele 21:38
And so I met all of these people that I didn't know, this sweet designer, I start working with her. And then she opens up her home, and invites a whole group of designers into her home, and says, Hey, I want you to automate Michele, you she introduces me and gives me a chance to speak to them. And I coached a really large number of all of those designers. And then the business started taking off from there. I have always focused on helping people understand the money and the numbers in the business because I think I'm definitely a more left brain logical person, right brained creative, so that when I think about a problem, I think first logically, what do we do, and then I try to get creative in my problem solving, I do have that whole Maximizer thing going. But when I can see the light bulbs go off, and people really understand their business and the money and the numbers, I just can't even tell you what that does.
Michele 22:34
And so in 2015, after I had started my coaching business, I found Profit First, one of my friends on the board of directors. So Michele, you have got to read this book, this guy talks like you, he's some of the same examples. And what he is sharing is very similar to what you teach in your pricing class. And so I read the book and called and immediately connected with them and started coaching under their umbrella. And I gotta tell you, you know, that's the whole reason we have the whole podcast and everything else is because when you really understand your numbers, and you make them work for you, you can create profit, to make the business sustainable. And that is my heart is to help and encourage and to give financial fluency and understanding to every one of you whether it's through the free medium of a podcast, whether it's through one of my you know, pricing without emotion, understanding your financials, or mastery or profit courses, or whether it's through some type of coaching. With me, my goal here is to help you remove the stress around the money, and to help give you back some ownership and confidence in your business.
Michele 23:43
You know, I go all the way back to my why that I mentioned to you. And it is the same one that I developed back in 2008. Before I even knew that creating your y was a thing. And it's to equip and empower women to use their God given talents and strengths to support themselves and the ones they love. And, you know, sometimes it's nice to just kind of go back down memory lane and see how all these different pieces come together. All the way from the fact that I was teaching my teddy bears in the front yard. I loved math and numbers and banking and organization. I have an MS degree and administrative management degree. I worked in software, I worked with accounts payable and financial systems, I created an interiors business. And then I learned how to take all of that business and put it into what I do and then share it with somebody else in teaching again. And so I just I just love how nothing has been wasted. And I my prior experience coupled with my gifts, my talents and my strengths, allow me to do what I do. And the same is true for you. I want to invite you to take time to remember your own origin story. Write it down Think about it, even make notes, you'll see how far you've come. You may even see connections now that you never saw when you were in it, you never saw them. You know, maybe we looked at something as I was going through my life and thought this is a diversion. But now I can see how it's a puzzle piece that fits together so perfectly to have me where I am right now. What have you done? Where have you been?
Michele 25:24
What have you accomplished, because all of that is your origin story. And that's what makes you unique. You know, that's what makes people couple you. There are a lot of coaches out there. And I am not the coach for everybody, just like you're not the designer for everybody, or you're not the workroom for everybody. But people resonate with your story, they're going to resonate with your offer, they're going to resonate with what you do, and how you care and what you put out into the world.
Michele 25:51
And so I I'm just a firm believer that if I am honest and true, telling my story, what I know what I do, and how I do it, then people who want to work that way, or run a business that way and be helped that way. They're the ones that are going to reach out to me. And when you tell your origin story, what you do, how you do it, you live it, it fits into your values, people are going to resonate with that, in addition, of course, to your aesthetic, and all of those things. And so, maybe reconnect with that as we wrap up this year. Because what you know, we ask all the time, what is your differentiator in the marketing, and this is your differentiator, this is my differentiator, I've lifted this stuff, right? I'm not just coming at it, because I read a lot of books, which I do, I have lived it, where I've made money, I've lived it where I didn't make money. I've lived it, where I had a small company where I had a medium sized company where I worked in corporate, I've bought a company and I've sold a company. And so when you've gone through all of the pieces and parts, I've got a story to tell around all of those, you have stories to tell around all of your experiences, and all of your choices and everything that's happened to you. And so when we use all those things, and let them feel less, it allows us to continue to build a business that we love. I want you to build a business that you love.
Michele 27:15
And so if that is something that you want to do, and you need help doing it, and maybe my origin story, you know has sparked interest in you, I would love an opportunity to talk to you. I have a couple more openings in my Inner Circle Program for this year. And so please fill out a discovery form and let's talk you can find that on my website at ScarletThreadConsulting.com on the work with me page. I would love to help you create a business that is unique to you where you can be profitable and everything because profit doesn't happen by accident. Profit is a Choice is proud to be part of the designnetwork.org where you can discover more design media reaching creative listeners. Thanks for listening, and stay creative and business-minded.
Key Thoughts:
I started this business because I had been in the business for a while and had really started to see the effects of a lack of profitability, a high tolerance for low pay, not understanding the numbers and what they meant in the business. Michele (1:08)
I started going home to home, making everybody's window treatments and helping them with paint colors and the small accessories and pulling the rooms together. That's how my business started up in upstairs and the sitting room of our bedroom. Michele (9:51)
I have always focused on helping people understand money and numbers in their business because I'm definitely a more left-brain logical person, right-brained creative; so, when I think about a problem I think first logically, what do we do, and then try to get creative in my problem-solving. Michele (22:04)
Contact Michele:
Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting
Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL
Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com
LinkedIn: Michele Williams
References and Resources:
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