The Profit is a Choice Podcast

Owning every choice in your business is not for the faint of heart. Each Monday, join Michele Williams, strategic profitability coach for the interior design industry as she interviews guests who are taking control of their business one decision at a time to increase their profits. If you are an entrepreneur who wants to make money while working in your passion, this is the podcast for you.

Systems & Strategies Michele Williams Systems & Strategies Michele Williams

239: Creating a Vision for Your Life and Business

With me on the podcast today is Kathy Geffen of Kathy Geffen Designs and Fine Tune Coaching. Kathy has had an amazing 25-year career in corporate America doing all types of organizational management, started a drapery workroom in 2015, and has recently launched Fine Tune Coaching. We’re going to have a great conversation about what it's like to overlap with different areas of business, what makes it so important to be connected to your goals, and to be able to organize them in a way that they can be achieved. There is really great information in this podcast, and I hope you enjoy it.

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238: Diversifying Your Business

With us today is Anastasia Harrison of AHD&CO as well as with AHD Trade. Anastasia is a licensed architect and an interior designer with a primary location in New Jersey. Her business has grown and changed since she first started and we're going to be talking about how it has diversified with a trade-only showroom. Join us and listen in. I hope there are some great takeaways for you. 

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236: How to Work with a Tax Strategist

On the podcast today is Shauna Wekherlien, CPA lovingly known as the Tax Goddess. Shauna is in the top 1% of tax strategists in the nation. Her clients employ the tax strategies she recommends and her firm has an average of 6.9% tax rate. We are going to have a great discussion about taxes, how CPAs and strategists work together, and about the IRS Dirty Dozen. 

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235: How to be Eternally Optimistic about Your Finances

Joining me today is Matt Drinkhahn of the Eternal Optimist Podcast and Pro Coach Advisors. Matt is full of information, enthusiasm, and excitement about understanding our numbers, especially surrounding financial literacy. Matt is going to share about his journey including some of his embarrassment at not knowing his numbers and then harnessing the power behind those numbers to scale and grow businesses. This is a fun enjoyable conversation, and I invite you to listen in and take notes. 

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234: How to Manage My Money in My Firm

Joining me on the podcast today is Kelcee with Elite Ops. She has been with us before and we are going to dig into some questions all around the financial aspects of business, how to manage your money, and my program. Thank you for sending in your questions and please continue to do that as we continue working through this series.

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233: How to Remove Summer Stress

Every year around this time when my kids were young, I would be thinking about how we would handle our summer plans. Which camps were they going to and when? How could I have a more relaxed schedule at work while moving projects along but also being mom? Maybe you don’t have kids, but do want a more relaxed summer schedule – no matter what, listen in to this episode originally recorded in 2019. The lessons in time management and project expectations still apply. 

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231: Q & A with Michele

Today I have with me Kelcee Sparks, who is with Elite Ops Support. She has a team of people that support designers and other industries with operational support, VA support, and she also provides operations support for me personally. She's going to ask me some questions today so that we can share a little bit more information on some of the questions that you all have been sending in and have asked. Enjoy the podcast.

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230: Become Your Own Banker to Control Your Finances

Joining me on the podcast today is Mark Willis. He's the owner of Lake Growth Financial Services, a financial firm in Chicago, Illinois. Mark is going to lead us on the journey of understanding our financials better. We're going to be looking at how to be the bank for our company, what it means to take back ownership, money, and lending instead of being a slave to the banks or to somebody else holding a note over our head or having so much debt that we don't know how to get out from under it.

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229: The Journey of Buying a Business

With us on the podcast today is Julie Murphy. Julie is the Owner of Designer Draperies of Boston, a full service to the trade workroom. She began as a home-based business in 2006. In 2014 she purchased Designer Draperies of Boston and merged the 2 businesses. She has tripled the size of her team as well as sales since transfer of ownership. She attributes her growth and continued success on 3 things: Quality, Effective Communication and Exemplary Customer Service. 

Today we will focus on her journey to make a business acquisition – the highs and the lows.  

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228: Why Attending Industry Events is Profitable

How many of you go to an industry conference at least once a year? On our podcast today, I am just returning from the International Window Coverings Expo. And I'm going to share with you 10 things that really stood out to me while I was there.  

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227: Using Your Past to Create Your Story

Joining me on the podcast today is Ericka Saurit. She is the founder of Saurit Creative, which is a boutique brand marketing agency. This is really going to be such a fun discussion. We’re going to talk about story, leaning into your story and inviting people in. Ericka has such an honest and curious approach. I love that. I really think you're going to learn a lot not only about your brand and marketing, but about being able to invite people in to share your story and to feel a part of it, and to use words and emotions to do that. Enjoy the podcast. 

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226: Using Strategy to Inform Your Marketing

Joining me today is Brooke Chapman. She's the executive director of Three by 3 and Nine Boxes. Brooke has a proven track record in helping small businesses really create a strategy around their marketing. Today we're going to be talking about strategy versus tactics in your business with regard to marketing. Brooke uses a phrase that made me laugh, she calls it random acts of marketing. That's when we're just doing tactical work instead of strategy work. So listen today and see if there are some changes that you can make to your business to be more strategic.

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224: Delegating to Free Your Time

Joining me today on the podcast is Dominique Deraiche, with Designer Elite. She is a co-founder of Designer Elite, which provides Operations and Support for interior designers. Dom and I are going to have an awesome conversation on how to get help, how to determine when we're in overwhelm, and how to ask for support and delegate without dumping. Enjoy.

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223: Functional Fitness for the Health of your Body and Business

Joining us on the podcast today is Barbi Burris. Barbi is the owner of Full Well Fitness and has a signature program the Well Stretched Life. She is a Christ follower, a flight attendant, a certified fitness instructor - she does all the things. She knows what it's like to have a very busy life and to try to work in being fit at the same time. And you know, that's the life that many of us have, we're really, really busy. We need to take care of ourselves. Our conversation today is going to be centered on how we can take fitness and put it into our life in doable doses and why that's so important. Welcome to the podcast.

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Leadership Michele Williams Leadership Michele Williams

222: Quiet Quitting in the Workplace

Have you heard of quiet quitting? Maybe you have seen or felt it in your business or when speaking with a colleague. Quiet quitting is defined as an emotional quitting instead of physically doing so. On the podcast today we are exploring quiet quitting. What it is, how it occurs, how to spot it and hopefully stop it before it escalates. 

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221: Niching in Your Design Business From the Start

Joining me on the podcast today is Kaitlin Brophy with Brook and Elm. What I love about the conversation that we're about to have is that it's going to be focused on creating a niche company from the very beginning, using skill sets from a prior career, and also just building a business with intentionality. So I hope you enjoy the podcast.

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