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Welcome to Make Your Passion Pay, hosted by LuAnn Buechler, a seasoned leader with a master’s degree in Hospitality Administration and a recipient of the TLC Award for Leadership. This podcast is designed for business owners who have left toxic environments to create their own thriving workplaces but find themselves struggling with team building and mindset. Join LuAnn as she shares insights and strategies to help you cultivate joy and a positive mindset in your business and personal life. Drawing from her experience working with renowned leaders like Dr. Ivan Misner, LuAnn guides you in building a supportive community and mastering the art of people management. Each episode offers practical advice and inspiring stories to empower you to transform your work environment into one that reflects your values and passions. Tune in to discover how to lead with joy, foster meaningful connections, and truly make your passion pay.
Hi everybody. It's LuAnn Buechler with Make Your Passion Pay podcast. We focus on the sixes of the playbook to make your passions pay. Those are clarity, connection, community, collaboration, creativity and commitment, and so many more come up over our conversations. And today, I'm going to have a conversation with Suzanne Allen. Suzanne and I have known each other, oh, I don't know, for years through the BNI organization, and my audience knows I'm a BNI member. Suzanne Allen is a fractional CFO and president of Allen CFO Services, helping business owners understand what their numbers are really saying and what to do about it. That's the key. With over 25 years in finance, she brings both sides of the brain to the party. We totally need that pairing: data-driven insight with creative thinking to drive smarter decisions and stronger results. She is a proud new grandma, an avid reader and a musician, because spreadsheets aren't the only form of rhythm. Oh, I love that. And your new grandma—me too! Well, my youngest is nine months old.
(00:06:23.049) Suzanne Allen: She's 11 months old. She's adorable.
(00:06:26.149) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: So you can still call yourself a new grandma. So can I? Yeah, so I think Suzanne, you were the first person to introduce me to the language of fractional CFO. And now I hear fractional
(00:06:44.449) Suzanne Allen: all the time
(00:06:45.849) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: in all kinds of professional titles.
(00:06:50.649) Suzanne Allen: Yep.
(00:06:51.149) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: But tell us what that means to you.
(00:06:54.349) Suzanne Allen: Yeah. What a fractional executive or fractional CFO specifically does is work with smaller companies who may want the additional strategic help in executive roles, but they're not quite ready to hire a full-time CFO, or HR, or whatever the function happens to be. In my case, it's a CFO, and hiring a full-time CFO is a lot for a smaller organization. But if they can get the benefit of the strategic thinking, the forward look, the cash visibility, all the things that are so critical, and really at a fraction of the cost, a company stands to gain a lot in terms of, you know, that forward look, the strategy. I'll talk more about the forward-looking and what that means to me as we move through the podcast here.
(00:08:01.949) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: I am never caught this before, but I love words, right? Words matter. And you just said at a fraction of the cost,
(00:08:12.649) Suzanne Allen: that's right.
(00:08:14.649) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: I thought of fractional CFO, whatever, as that person that's not sitting in the same building with you, and so they're serving multiple clients, business owners. Correct?
(00:08:28.549) Suzanne Allen: Correct
(00:08:29.449) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Correct. So they're just doing a fraction of the work, but the cost—I love that.
(00:08:35.249) Suzanne Allen: There's
(00:08:36.149) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: So many small business owners that I work with have no sort of separate financial component. They're doing it all themselves.
(00:08:46.749) Suzanne Allen: Yeah.
(00:08:47.649) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: When is the right time for a business owner to bring in a fractional CFO,
(00:08:54.949) Suzanne Allen: Um, there are several signs that it's the right time. One is if the owner is doing the bookkeeping and doing the taxes and all the day-to-day and just sort of wearing that hat. They could bring in a fractional CFO, but the first thing that I would do is help them find a bookkeeper because what many owners are tempted to do is wear too many hats and keep that control, and it's very freeing to have someone else, you know, have a bookkeeper come in or an accountant of some type just to do the day-to-day accounting work.
(00:09:41.149) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Okay. But that for a minute?
(00:09:43.849) Suzanne Allen: Yeah.
(00:09:44.449) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: I think this is really important, and depending on where you're at in your business, you may be confusing these terms. My goodness, I've been in business for myself for almost 20 years and I can still get confused on the difference between a CFO, a CPA, a bookkeeper. I just talked to Anna today.
(00:10:08.749) Suzanne Allen: Yay,
(00:10:10.949) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: is a bookkeeper.
(00:10:13.749) Suzanne Allen: and she
(00:10:14.349) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Very clearly delineated out what she does versus the other two. So you tell us from your perspective, Suzanne.
(00:10:22.449) Suzanne Allen: Yeah. From my perspective, the bookkeeper in a smaller company, or it could be a small accounting staff and accounting technician, something along those lines, but the person who is doing the day-to-day bookkeeping, worker, accounting entries, that is a very transaction-oriented, past-focused task. It's very important. It's critical to have that done and have that done right. So, the first thing I would do as a CFO coming in to help a business owner is help them find a bookkeeper because you want to have good solid books that you can rely on. Often, smaller companies will also work with a CPA. The CPA is going to often file tax returns for the owner and the business and help with some tax planning for the owner and the business. So where a CFO comes in—well, and I should say too, there's also a controller role that you might see in some organizations, and that controller is typically responsible, if there is one, for pulling together the financial reporting. Now, the CFO oversees these roles, and the CFO also then, in a smaller organization, is going to take—if there's a controller, is going to take those financial reports and analyze them, look for where there's opportunities, look for patterns, look for trends. And then the CFO, as I mentioned earlier, is looking forward, looking for—while making sure that an owner knows their numbers and where they've been, you know, so all those transactions and everything that rolls into those financial statements, it's important that they know their numbers. But what's arguably even more important is that they are looking ahead to where they're going, and that's where you take your financial statements and you take your strategy and you have a CFO sort of mush all that together and come up with a rolling forecast. I use a rolling forecast. Some people like to just have a static budget, but a rolling forecast means each month you get new data that you can use to drive that forecast forward another month, so you're always looking ahead and learning from where you've been. So, you put all that together and you can see how it's so critical to have all of those roles. And a person will know that they're ready when they're feeling overwhelmed by having to get all of the stuff pulled together each month. And if they're not seeing where their cash is, or maybe they have net income but they don't have enough cash and they don't understand, it starts to get overwhelming when you're wearing too many hats. And so, if an owner needs some help to just decipher that and take something off of their shoulders, that can be money very well spent, particularly if it gets them feeling good about where they're heading in the future.
(00:13:52.249) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Right? I'm visualizing one of my clients right now and he has a bookkeeper who did his taxes. We're not sure who did them, right? So that's probably a moment right now.
(00:14:13.149) Suzanne Allen: That's a moment.
(00:14:14.049) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: And, um, he's overwhelmed with keeping the day-to-day operation going, let alone having to digest the financials and then make decisions from them.
(00:14:30.149) Suzanne Allen: Yeah,
(00:14:30.849) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Yeah. So how does financial data actually help us make good business decisions?
(00:14:38.249) Suzanne Allen: Well, there's a couple different ways I can answer that, and one of them, you know, I mentioned earlier about taking the strategy and the numbers. Well, where does the strategy come from? Often mission, vision, values, which I know is something you help your clients with in a big way. And so making sure that that strategy is aligned with mission, vision, values is really important. And then you put all that together so that you've got that data going forward, now to use the numbers to make decisions. You know, let's say, for example, a business owner wants to add a product, and we can go through and model what we think that might look like, which means estimating sales, estimating cost to produce if that's appropriate, you know, and putting that all into the financial model. So there's always a little bit of art involved with modeling when you're looking forward. If someone wants to grow, for example, Apple, and they just want to hire a salesperson to help them grow, how they're going to ramp that salesperson up, who's going to train the salesperson, how are they going to compensate the salesperson? I mean, those are big decisions and that
(00:16:01.849) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: can work to bring on a
(00:16:03.449) Suzanne Allen: sales. Can you afford to bring on a
(00:16:05.949) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: sales? What do we have to generate in revenue to ensure that we're paying that person's salary
(00:16:12.049) Suzanne Allen: and over what period of time? That's what I mean by a ramp-up period. There's some period of time where they need to learn the business, they need to learn the relationships, they need to understand the product strategy and all, and the mission, vision, values, all that good stuff,
(00:16:27.749) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: And
(00:16:28.549) Suzanne Allen: Understand all that and get ramped up, but then the rubber's got to meet the road. At some point, they've got to start showing that they're growing and that they're bringing in some sales. They're not going to go from 0 to 60 overnight; it just doesn't work that way. So being able to model all that out for an owner is really powerful. Maybe they want to buy some equipment. Same thing. Is that equipment going to return, and we can model that. Yeah,
(00:17:00.649) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Model that. So that language is
(00:17:05.249) Suzanne Allen: Jargony a little bit.
(00:17:06.449) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Yeah,
(00:17:07.449) Suzanne Allen: Yeah.
(00:17:08.049) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Creating a visual.
(00:17:11.849) Suzanne Allen: We take the forecast and then we, and then we layer in the purchase. And how that's going to roll through the numbers over time. And then you've got your investment for, whatever that piece of equipment is and I mean, a computer isn't a good example, it would be something bigger, you know, maybe two or three vehicles or something like that. Where, where you might, you would I set it again but you would take that, and, and layer it into the forecast, so that, you can see if they provide a return.
(00:17:44.549) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: So it's creating a visual
(00:17:47.549) Suzanne Allen: Yeah. With numbers, it's painting a picture with numbers.
(00:17:52.049) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Painting a picture. I love that. Right, mission, vision, values, right? Yeah. And in my world, it's your unique contribution statement based on your values and then your vision of where you want to go. Yeah. And I love it because one of the taglines I used to use is aligning your actions with your values. Well, then you need to know what your values are. And what you're saying is you also need to know what your numbers are.
(00:18:25.749) Suzanne Allen: That's right.
(00:18:26.649) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: And then we take informed action.
(00:18:30.549) Suzanne Allen: Yeah.
(00:18:32.349) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: I love that. So they need both of us, don't they?
(00:18:34.849) Suzanne Allen: Suzanne? Absolutely.
(00:18:37.849) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Isn't that beautiful?
(00:18:38.649) Suzanne Allen: It would be fun to work
(00:18:42.849) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: With us together, it would be a blast. If you don't figure aligning your actions with your values and your financial numbers, then yeah, give us a call. It'll be in the show notes how to get a hold of both Suzanne and me. So what is the biggest mistake business owners make with their numbers?
(00:19:05.749) Suzanne Allen: Um, not spending enough time with them,
(00:19:08.449) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Mmm, avoiding.
(00:19:11.049) Suzanne Allen: Avoiding, avoiding them. Yeah. There's
(00:19:14.849) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Some, uh, identifier of how you, how people individually associate with money. Right? And
(00:19:24.549) Suzanne Allen: There's to be intimidating,
(00:19:27.549) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: There's the overspend. There's, I mean, there's some
(00:19:30.249) Suzanne Allen: Yep. It's a
(00:19:32.549) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Big out there.
(00:19:33.949) Suzanne Allen: And you know when you did, it also can be very emotional,
(00:19:38.049) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: you know.
(00:19:39.149) Suzanne Allen: Yeah. And it takes a really strong business owner to basically say, I need some help with this. You know, I need someone who can help translate what these financial statements mean, and sometimes we have to sort of go back and look at their—I don't want to get too technical—but there's a chart of accounts that drives how things get accounted for in the books. And if that isn't set up in a way that they can see margin by product, for example, or certain categories of spend grouped together so that it's easier to see how things are doing, then you wind up having to go through and do some of that work.
(00:20:30.949) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Yeah,
(00:20:32.749) Suzanne Allen: The journey to get to that point where the numbers mean something. And if you just take the chart of accounts that QuickBooks serves up, it's not going to be tailored to your business and it's going to be a lot harder for someone who doesn't love digging into numbers. Like I might, it would take a lot of effort for them to try to go through and piece together, well, where's all my payroll expense? Where is all my technology expense going? You know, it's up here, it's over here, so it can really help to have some eyeballs on that to focus the financial statements and interpret.
(00:21:20.349) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Let's be clear, right? I know historically either, but that in there I am an avoider, right? Like, I'm just going to look at them and hopefully it'll all come out okay, right? And it is much more powerful to spend time looking at them.
(00:21:37.549) Suzanne Allen: Yes.
(00:21:38.249) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: And so we need to empower past the fear of looking at them, but it really helps if you have an advisor outside of yourself. A Suzanne, a CPA, right? I don't care who it is, that can really speak to those numbers and is not emotionally attached to them the way that you are as a business owner, so they can logically look at them and give you outside expertise—that's the word I wanted for that, right? It's the same value as a business coach, right? You, as a business owner, are often lost in the—I love this word—lost in the configuration of the daily activities and can't see the forest through the trees anymore, right? And so, simply having someone outside of your organization looking in, that third party factor is so important. And yeah, HR, oh yeah, full fractional CFO, all of the above, and it's a matter of which one is the most important for your particular business at this time. But I will remind my audience, and I tell them this all the time: no one builds a business alone, no one, but no one can do this alone and be successful. And so know that and ask for the right kind of help. Suzanne, I'm sure you give a free assessment or consultation or let's see to understand what's going on and if it's the right time for them to bring you in. Would that be true?
(00:23:26.949) Suzanne Allen: Absolutely, I always will do a free consultation with every potential client or, you know, maybe they just want to bounce something off me. I'm always open to that. So
(00:23:40.549) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: You know, here's one that recently came up and I wish I'd have sent this person to you, but I want to ask you now if it would be appropriate. So if it happens again I can help them, and that is, they're going through a particularly slow time and were struggling with, do I lay off my staff or not?
(00:24:01.649) Suzanne Allen: Yeah.
(00:24:03.349) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Is that a place where you could advise people, Suzanne?
(00:24:06.749) Suzanne Allen: Yeah, because we'd start with the forecast right here and if things have slowed down, we're going to look at the forecast. And then, it's really tempting to just say, well, where can I cut costs? And I won't say it's easy, because it's not, but compared to having to lay people off, going through and just scrubbing your spend and making sure that you're not paying for things that you're not using anymore, and let's face it, I mean, that's something you hear about all the time. With all of the software that's out there that you sign up for and the bill just keeps coming whether you use it or not, you know, that stuff can get forgotten and we're all human, right? So being able to go through and just scrub the spend is important, and then is there a way that revenues can increase? You know, and really digging into that. Is there a way that revenues can increase? What are your promotions or your offers that you're planning to put out there? Is that going to make a difference? And if not, I mean, often in some companies, in manufacturing maybe not as much, but in some companies people are the biggest expense and so it could be that's what you come down to. You know, we have to be really
(00:25:28.649) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: That there's someone like, you know, the numbers and asking those good questions.
(00:25:34.349) Suzanne Allen: Yeah,
(00:25:35.249) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: You know, and as soon as you said that, I'm thinking, are they really digging into their client database?
(00:25:42.449) Suzanne Allen: Yeah,
(00:25:43.449) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Making calls is easier to serve clients you've already served than to go find new ones.
(00:25:51.249) Suzanne Allen: right?
(00:25:52.049) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: And as that crossed my mind, I thought, how about you, LuAnn? Are you doing that? Time, I'm coaching people, interviewing people, and the messages that come out are messages that I needed to hear just as much as my audience.
(00:26:10.149) Suzanne Allen: So you know what really struck me is when you said you've been known to be a fighter for your numbers, and it takes some, I mean, you have to dig deep and just own it, and an owner's got to get to that part, and it's okay.
(00:26:26.349) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: I mean,
(00:26:26.949) Suzanne Allen: running a business. So you got a million other things to do,
(00:26:30.349) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Let me share a little bit more about my experience with that because I was doing it all right, and I was trying to do it all by myself. And the accountant that came into my life back then not only helped me see the need for the accountant—the bookkeeper really is what she was—but also said to me, build a group of advisors around you, mentors in professional areas that you're not good at, that you can bounce ideas off of. And I consciously created those people in my life that were experts in marketing, accounting, and legal so that I had those advisors around me. And the other thing she did is made me start to see a profit and loss statement every month. Yeah, how helpful is that, right?
(00:27:29.849) Suzanne Allen: Yeah,
(00:27:30.449) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: And I love this scrubbing spend, that laying language, right? Because it is so easy for those auto pays to keep on opening, and you say that. I keep hearing about this tool called Rocket Money. I'm sure there are others out there.
(00:27:51.049) Suzanne Allen: Yeah
(00:27:51.749) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Does that help you identify? Do you recommend any of those, Suzanne?
(00:27:57.149) Suzanne Allen: Well, those are for personal Rocket Money. For example, it is for personal spend, so, and I believe,
(00:28:03.949) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: you know, an important thing to monitor.
(00:28:05.749) Suzanne Allen: Yeah, it is. But I, and I want to say that that's owned by Intuit.
(00:28:12.549) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Yeah, could be, I don't know,
(00:28:13.749) Suzanne Allen: it might be but
(00:28:15.449) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: There's another thing that I would like to talk about, Suzanne. Some of us historically failed to separate our personal and our
(00:28:28.249) Suzanne Allen: okay,
(00:28:29.549) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: They're all in one bucket.
(00:28:33.149) Suzanne Allen: Yes. Yeah,
(00:28:35.549) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: yeah
(00:28:36.249) Suzanne Allen: and that can be a problem.
(00:28:39.749) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Especially solopreneurs, right?
(00:28:41.349) Suzanne Allen: Yeah,
(00:28:41.949) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Solopreneurs, home-based businesses that aren't really running them as separate entities, they're not paying themselves. I know you're out there in my audience.
(00:28:54.249) Suzanne Allen: know
(00:28:55.949) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: You're listening, you're going. Oh, that's me. And that's okay, right. We've all made those mistakes. Been there. Done that.
(00:29:03.149) Suzanne Allen: And it can be fixed.
(00:29:04.549) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: No judgment. It can fix you. Just got to go to the right people and, you know, I'm all about being a connector, right? Connection is one of the Cs, being a connector of people to the resources that they need to support them and make them successful because we never do this alone. Alright, so please, audience, always remember that. I love to connect you to any resource that you need. You know how to find me, luannb.com. There's always that free consultation on my website as well, and if Suzanne is the right person for you, I'll connect you or jump on and we'll have it in the show notes for a consultation with Suzanne so you can jump in with her as well. So what does a good financial strategy look like for a growing small business owner?
(00:29:57.149) Suzanne Allen: A good financial strategy for a growing business owner is to look at your numbers. Be realistic about where your business is going. Look ahead. Look forward.
(00:30:16.249) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Forecast.
(00:30:16.849) Suzanne Allen: Yeah, forecast and stay on top of cash.
(00:30:22.949) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: And
(00:30:23.249) Suzanne Allen: when I say, stay on top of cash. And again, I don't want to get super technical, but there are certain things that roll through the financial statements. That create or use cash? And so, I mean number one, if you've got cash in your hand and you put it in the bank, you've got cash, but if you have issued an invoice to a customer and that customer hasn't paid. You that customer has your cash. So that's that's the potential for cash. It needs to get collected
(00:30:55.149) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: So that's accounts receivable.
(00:30:57.449) Suzanne Allen: That's accounts receivable. And
(00:31:00.149) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Top of your accounts receivable.
(00:31:02.349) Suzanne Allen: Yep, accounts receivable is the potential for cash. And if they don't pay or if you don't invoice promptly, you know, if the
(00:31:13.449) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Job.
(00:31:13.649) Suzanne Allen: Has been done for a couple months and then you send the invoice, you just cost yourself two months' worth of pay. You know, they weren't asked to pay, they're not going to pay until they get the invoice,
(00:31:24.249) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Right.
(00:31:24.849) Suzanne Allen: So that's, you know, invoice promptly and then stay on top of it and make sure that you're making phone calls if they don't pay on time.
(00:31:34.249) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: I love the imagery that they've got your cash. They've got your cash and you need that cash to pay your team, to buy the products that help you do your job, the supplies and what have you. Yeah, that's great imagery.
(00:31:53.449) Suzanne Allen: Another aspect of cash that is an asset on the balance sheet, as well as inventory. So you made the point that
(00:32:04.349) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: if
(00:32:04.649) Suzanne Allen: You know, if you are not getting paid, you can't buy the products you might need. If that gets booked as inventory, and now, you know, there's lots of different kinds of businesses. Most solopreneurs aren't going to have inventory and this isn't an issue, but a retail store or a restaurant, a manufacturer, I mean, they're going to have inventory.
(00:32:25.649) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: the tradespeople,
(00:32:26.749) Suzanne Allen: the tradespeople. Yeah, absolutely. And if they are buying too soon and sitting on that inventory, and not, they call it turning it over, but if they are just sitting on the inventory and it sits there too long, that's using cash.
(00:32:46.949) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Yeah,
(00:32:47.849) Suzanne Allen: because you gotta pay for it. And then the last aspect of cash that most people can manage and put their arms around is their accounts payable. So if you get a bill today and it's not due for 30 days, why are you putting it on a credit card today? You know what,
(00:33:10.249) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: mmm
(00:33:11.149) Suzanne Allen: it when it's due don't pay it early.
(00:33:19.649) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: You know, I'm so glad there are people like you, Suzanne, in the world who love numbers.
(00:33:27.749) Suzanne Allen: and
(00:33:29.349) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Get it all because that is not me. I am the creative, the people person, and I got that for you, my friends. But Suzanne, she's got the numbers, man. She's got the numbers, and you know, it speaks to the strength finder again, which I talk about all the time, right? We all have certain strengths. Understand what your strengths are, play to your strengths, use those, right? Make your passions pay around that which you're good at doing and you love to do, you
(00:34:03.749) Suzanne Allen: know, guess
(00:34:04.249) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: what?
(00:34:04.449) Suzanne Allen: My number one, I was gonna say, guess what my number one strength is
(00:34:08.949) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: what
(00:34:09.749) Suzanne Allen: responsibility.
(00:34:11.349) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Oh my god, we're gonna have to have this conversation offline because I want to know what your paragraph reads. So now we got to do the strength here. It's all good for the audience, so
(00:34:23.849) Suzanne Allen: you know,
(00:34:24.149) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Right. So your number one is responsibility. Number two,
(00:34:29.349) Suzanne Allen: Um, I don't know if I'm gonna get them in order, but they have adaptability, ideation, arranger, responsibility. I'm missing one.
(00:34:41.149) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: They all speak to that analysis of the numbers.
(00:34:45.549) Suzanne Allen: Yeah.
(00:34:46.249) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Creatively adjusting.
(00:34:48.249) Suzanne Allen: Yeah. Yeah.
(00:34:51.249) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: So we'll go to mine. My number one is Woo, winning others.
(00:34:54.949) Suzanne Allen: Oh yes, I'm always jealous of people who have Woo. I want Woo.
(00:35:02.249) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: You know, we'll make it happen. Just put it on your list, you know.
(00:35:05.749) Suzanne Allen: just, okay,
(00:35:06.349) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: That's number one, it's always been. Number two is positivity. Number three is communication. Number four is responsibility, and I was like, no way. I'm not responsible, I'm fun, I'm creative, I'm spontaneous, you know. And then I read my paragraph on responsibility, and it said, when you take something on, you're completely passionate about it, you give it 150% and you don't stop till it's done. Yeah, and my friend, that is exactly what I do. I was like, oh my gosh, they nailed it. Yeah, as you know with the strengths finder, what it's doing is comparing all five of them and writing those paragraphs.
(00:35:52.149) Suzanne Allen: and
(00:35:52.749) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Building your identity, so your paragraph will read much different than mine. Yeah, and then my number five, for my audience to know, is strategic.
(00:36:01.949) Suzanne Allen: Oh, perfect,
(00:36:04.749) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Strategically, but I need other people to get those strategies done.
(00:36:09.749) Suzanne Allen: Yeah,
(00:36:10.449) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Right. I can think strategically. I come up with creative ideas. Strategic partnerships is one of my favorite things to help people create, to think about, and it's in the giver's gain model, right? How can we support one another? And you know you and I both serve the small business owner.
(00:36:30.149) Suzanne Allen: Yeah.
(00:36:30.749) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: And so understanding what you do versus what I do and how we serve them is so important, that we can serve the same clientele and help them be successful. I love that so much. Again, I'm so glad you love numbers. Not in my strengths at all.
(00:36:50.849) Suzanne Allen: I do they're fun to work with
(00:36:52.549) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: Yes, I love that. And so audience, if you do not like the numbers, you're like me and you tend to have a voice of your numbers rather than fully understanding them. You need to find someone fun, like Suzanne. Call Suzanne, get on her free consultation, have a conversation because you can see she's fun like me. And got to have fun. Life's too short to do it any other way than having fun. Absolutely. Make your passions pay, have fun, do what you love in service to people who love what you do. Suzanne, I know that's what you do. Thanks for being here today.
(00:37:33.549) Suzanne Allen: My pleasure.
(00:37:36.949) LuAnn Buechler, BNI Chapter Success Coach: We likely have to do it again sometime. And tell them, everybody have a great day.