Scaling Businesses And Increasing Cash Flow With Sheles Wallace

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Work at Home Rockstar podcast.

Excited for today’s guest. She is a profit accelerator coach and she helps her clients to increase cash flow, uh, identify and retain the best talent and be able to have more time to spend with family. Uh, ready to rock out here today with shales, uh, Wallace. Hey, shales. You ready to.

Sheles Wallace: I am ready and excited to be here with you.

Thank you so much, Tim, for having me.

Tim Melanson: No problem. So we always start off here on a good note. So tell me a story of success in your business that we can be ex uh, inspired by. Thank

Sheles Wallace: you so much for asking. You know, a story of success in my business is when I was able to help a client. I have a coaching client and I remember when she first started with us, she had just started her business.

She was only in business for a year, not even a full year. And I told her [00:01:00] something at that first meeting that we had. And then fast forward about three years later, I was in another meeting with her and she was bawling. She was in tears and she was crying and she said, you told me that I would get here.

You told me that my business will become a multimillion dollar business. And I didn’t believe it. She was like, you believe in me when I didn’t believe in myself and to me, oh my goodness, if I can have those over and over and over. That’s why I do what I do, because it’s life changing. When you can help other people achieve their goals, that is a success story for

Tim Melanson: me.

I agree. Yeah. And it is interesting how that works. I mean, we sort of borrow the belief of our coach, right? And that makes sense, right? Because our coaches, like, you know, our coaches has got a different view, you know, they can see the road that you’re on, and so they can see way ahead. So they believe that you’re gonna get there because all you have to do is just follow the path that they took, right?

Uh, but for [00:02:00] us, I mean, we can’t see that. So it, it makes sense that we don’t have the same type of belief. Um, but yeah, when we do you. Hire the right, , the right people, and have the right help and we can get there for sure. Um, so Celeste, you know, it’s not e everything always doesn’t go as planned. Sometimes there’s things that don’t go as planned, and I wanna make sure that people understand that we all do make mistakes and we all do hit bad notes.

And so I’m wondering, is there something that you can share with us that did not go as planned? And how did you recover?

Sheles Wallace: Now the question becomes, which of those stories am I going to share? Because I’ve had more than my share of those stories. But I’ll just tell you when I first started out, right? So I had a job, my husband, you know, we were both working and we were both, um, six figure income earners, not. Saying that that’s the highest in the world is all relative.

But at the end of the day, we had a home. The cars were able to help people go [00:03:00] out living the lifestyle, right? And so when we decided to jump into this entrepreneurship journey at the wrong time, by the way, I’m just gonna tell you, the economy was horrible, but we didn’t see that because we were actually doing good.

And I remember having money saved, like really being prepared for this. And then one day I looked up. and I had to choose between bread and rice because I could not afford both, and I had to actually go. And get food stamps for the first time ever in my life. And it just made me feel so defeated and so frustrated and asking myself, how did I get here?

And knowing that I would never be there again. And that was the last time I went and stood in that line because it was humiliating, it felt horrible, and I had so much success in corporate America, and I just thought that it was gonna, [00:04:00] Absolutely migrate to success and entrepreneurship, and it didn’t. And I would say that was the lowest point in my life.

Now, it doesn’t mean that it shot up 100%. You know, we had ups and downs, ups and downs, but that’s the story that I remember the most. That was most devastating, and I really had to figure out the tools to get out of that situation.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Wow. Yeah. It is interesting that there are some skills that do transfer from a corporate career to a entrepreneurship, but there is a lot that don’t, that don’t, and I think I was telling you even before this, uh, this, this show started is that, you know, I spent some time in the cubicle too, doing quite well.

And when you started business. you think, you think you’re good at something. And so you wanna start a business doing that. And you sort of look at, you know, the box and go like, oh, that guy’s just making a whole bunch of money off of my work. You know, , you think he didn’t even do anything. And uh, but then when you start your own business you realize real quick that.

There’s a lot of stuff that that person [00:05:00] is doing that you don’t know that they’re doing. Right. Um, and so, you know, there’s a lot more to it than you might think, and you have to figure it all out when you’re an entrepreneur or you have to find somebody that can help you figure it out. Right. So what was it that you did like, ho what was like the turning point for you of like something that you started doing differently?

Sheles Wallace: Well, I’m, I’m just laughing at your story because it’s so true. Like we always start off as saying our boss is a jerk. We can do so much better than our boss. Right. And it’s so much that we are unaware of when you first start out, so I totally get that 100%. You know, I would say that I was always reading the books, constantly reading the books I showed up at every single conference that I knew about.

I did all of the personal development. All of that happened for me, right? I was never that person that someone had to say, do personal development. I was doing it from day one. The turning point for me was when I got into a community of [00:06:00] like-minded businesses, business owners, right? Because entrepreneurship is lonely, like the people that’s all around.

They have jobs they don’t understand. They have good intentions, but they’re like, just go back to work. Just go back to work. Right? And I did that two, maybe three times, but the turning point for me was two things. Number one, I drew a line in a sand that said that this is. The way, or there is no way. So there was no going back.

The ships were burned. I was not going back. That was number one. And the second way, getting in a community of like-minded individuals, but also hiring a coach. To help me bridge the gap from where I was to where I wanted to get to faster, you know? Yeah. A lot of times people think I can just read a book and I can get all the information we should be reading and we can’t get a lot of information.

But if that was the case, Michael Jordan was [00:07:00] already great. He could have just ran the books. Right, but what brought the championships was Phil Jackson was his coach that brought all the pieces together that was able to share the blind spots that he didn’t see. And so for me, drawing the line in the sand, getting involved in the community, and most of all, hiring a coach to help me fill the gap faster.

Wow.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, absolutely. You know, if I, I can use an analogy with music. If you’ve ever tried to learn, uh, an instrument to learn how to play music, it, it’s kind of similar because, I mean, not exactly because it’s, uh, you know, there are some big differences, but, you know, trying to learn an instrument from reading a tab, from reading music, it’s not gonna get you very.

you’re gonna be like, oh, I don’t understand how this is applied. You know, things got better when YouTube videos started to come out, cuz then you could see somebody playing it, right? So that’s a lot better. But then when you have that one-on-one support from somebody who’s actually sitting across from you and saying, no, no, no.

Put your [00:08:00] fingers here. Put your fingers here. Put your fingers here, and actually showing you the ropes is so much faster. It’s very similar. You know, a lot of people are like, well, yeah, I can play, you know, I can play an instrument. Look, the, the music is available, right? Or I can learn how to do this. Look, the book’s right there, I can just read the book and it’ll be fine.

But once you start to, uh, you know, maybe take group coaching that takes it to another level. Now you see a little bit more about how things are going, then you get to the next level of one-on-one coaching, and this person actually shows you how it applies in your life.

Sheles Wallace: Absolutely. And I remember when I was young, like not even in high school yet, I took piano and organ lessons, right?

And I had a coach that I would’ve to go see every single week to help me. And you know, the other piece that people miss when it comes to music. And business is if you don’t have that support system, it’s so easy to give up, right? It’s so easy to stop. Like I cannot read a sheet of [00:09:00] music today because I stopped seeing my coach, my trainer, who was helping me, and then I gave up.

Right. And so it’s one thing to give up when you’re, you know, 10 years old and you haven’t figured out quite what you want, but to give up on your dream when you know this is something you wanna do. Yes, I completely agree. You forget, you forget the notes, you forget understanding, you know, and what you need to listen for when you don’t, um, practice.

And that’s exactly how music.

Tim Melanson: Yep. Speaking of which, so how do you approach practicing in your business? How, like do you, you know, keep up to date on things like h How do you get good and stay good at what you do?

Sheles Wallace: I think one of the mistakes that we make in the in business is we tend to practice on our customers and our clients.

Right. So, for example, I believe that we’re all in some form of sales, right? And I mean, I sell, I sell my husband on, he needed to marry me, right? I [00:10:00] sell my daughter on, you know, why she needs to do or not do the things that she, that she’s doing. But at the end of the day, we have to practice our craft and appreciate the craft that we’re in and not just wing it in that moment.

So for me, I read a book a week. I’m listening to about 14 hours of personal development. I’m at all the conferences I can possibly get to based on, you know, my budget, right? Don’t have unlimited, but at the end of the day, I’m always striving to learn more and I’m practicing and I’m reviewing and just really focused on how do I implement the things that I’m teaching my clients as well.

If it’s something new that I haven’t implemented. You know, building a business is successfully is something that I’ve done before, right? But you still need to practice on how you’re gonna help other people, because businesses are different and people are individuals, and they need different help. [00:11:00] So how do

Tim Melanson: you decide, like, cuz there, I mean that’s the thing about today’s day and age.

I mean there you can learn anything really, um, you know, especially with the internet. So how do you decide which topics you wanna keep learning and which topics you want to put off for now?

Sheles Wallace: Yeah, I think that’s a good question, right? Because we can get overwhelmed with all of the data and all of the information that’s out there.

For me, I prioritize what I wanna get done and what’s most important at the moment, right? So specifically inside of my business. So not necessarily coaching, but let’s just say inside of my business, right? If I know that I really wanna get good at Instagram, right? I put in my calendar that I’m going to study Instagram.

This month or however long it’s going to take, and I’m gonna spend a couple hours, I’m gonna invest in programs that people have [00:12:00] already put together and they already understand Instagram. Cause I wanna do it fast, right? You know, I can spend years trying to learn a platform or I can find someone that’s already done it.

and see how they can help me. But I decide based on my priorities, what’s the most important thing, because I really try to make sure that I stick to my work as much as possible. And you just have to prioritize because you can’t do everything. You can’t learn everything at one time. You have to say no to things.

So what is it that you’re trying to accomplish? And that’s how you decide where you should spend your time. Love

it.

Tim Melanson: Love it. Right on. Okay, so now what about the band? Uh, I mean, at some point, you know, most of us kind of start as solopreneurs. You know, you, you, you, you kind of dive into it. Maybe it’s you and your, and your spouse, but, um, after a while, uh, things, if they continue to get big, you start to think about, okay, well who else can I bring into this mix for me?

And I’m wondering like, what did [00:13:00] you do? Like, do you delegate anything? And if you do delegate, What did you decide to delegate?

Sheles Wallace: I will tell you that I did not do it in the proper order. , so lemme just say that first and foremost so I can tell you and people can learn from my experience. Okay. So what I know is the, the first thing that I would’ve delegated when I first started is making sure that I had an in-house assistant or a virtual assistant in some type of capacity.

That would’ve been the very first thing that I would’ve delegated. Okay. Um, Having an assistant that’s really, really good will save you so much time and so much money and avoid pain and heartache really, because we’re still trying to figure out how to do all the different pieces. And an assistant can come in and do it immediately for you if you hire the right one.

And then here’s another thing. I don’t know if you or your audience have ever seen [00:14:00] the um, sitcoms. Suit the TV series suit. Yep. Everybody wants a Donna, right? So Donna, is this an amazing assistant. I’m not sure if that’s exactly what they call her on this show, but she is fantastic. She knows how to do everything and she can read, um, the person she’s working with instantly, and that’s what we all want.

but that is not realistic. So don’t let TV fool you. It is not realistic. So what I learned to do is to break down the most repetitive tasks that I need to do, like the top 10, and I would find assistance that can handle one or two of those areas that I was able to delegate. That’s how I started the process instead of.

Find someone to do it all. And the good thing about being in a virtual community is that you can find an assistant that’s really good at CRMs, right? Managing your database or an assistant [00:15:00] that’s fantastic at social media. So it really is understanding that the days of one assistant being able to do everything for you, it really doesn’t exist in the world that we live in.

So figure out what’s most important and then delegate

Tim Melanson: that. Hey, rockstar. I hope you’re enjoying this episode of the Work at Home Rockstar Podcast. If you didn’t know already. My business is Creative Crew agency. We build websites now, let’s talk about your website for a minute. Most people realize that at this day and age, we need a website, but we don’t really know what the website’s supposed to do, and sometimes you’ll just go and build a website for the sake of building a website.

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Now, when you’re setting your website, you have to be very mindful that the visitor doesn’t know what to do. and so you have to provide them with a [00:16:00] roadmap that leads them down a path to wherever you want them to go. On my website, I want them to be on a free consultation, so that’s why when you go to creative crew agency.com, you’ll see information about scheduling a free consultation.

Now for you though, I’m gonna provide you with an extra link so that you can get your free website audit. Go to creative crew agency.com/free website audit and schedule an audit with me and I’ll go through your website live and determine what we can do to improve your conversions and make sure that you’re getting the business from your website.

Go to crave crew agency.com and we’ll see you there. Love it. Love it. Okay. That’s awesome. And I did watch Suits as well, and it is funny that, uh, yeah, the, the, the Donna, like it’s a TV show. Come on, . Uh, you know, but basically Donna could have been running that business now. Um, okay. So right on. So I, I like what you’re saying there.

Now, when it comes to, uh, to learning from the best and to. , you know, you [00:17:00] mentioned a coach a few times actually, and you mentioned that you also coach too. And so, uh, I think that what you said is you want to be able to compress time, get things done faster by using the experience of somebody else. Um, but now what about like, other ways to learn?

So we mentioned courses already, but what about masterminds? Like what, what kinds of things did you get involved in and what ones did you find were the best, uh, return on the time that you were?

Sheles Wallace: That’s a great question. Thank you. I believe masterminds, everyone should try to be a part of a good mastermind if possible.

Everyone should, because here’s the thing with masterminds, you get in the room with people. The biggest thing you wanna do is try to get in the room with people that have more than you. They have already established more because you don’t know what you don’t know, like you can get in the room and one of those individuals, imagine being in a mastermind with Elon Musk, right?

And you get in the room with him and he says [00:18:00] one thing that can completely change your life. Well, most of us may not get in the room with Elon Musk, some of us will, but there are people now that are offering masterminds that can change your life and help you reach all of your dreams. And so for me, I wanna get in the room with people that I see are, that are out there like yourself, Tim.

You know, you’re out there, you’re making things happen, you’re helping people. Those are the people that you wanna get in the rooms with. You wanna collaborate with those individuals and see how you can also bring value to them and continue to maintain those relationships. So I would say some of my best masterminds that I’ve been a part of is, um, several around.

Man, I’ve been, I’ve been in so many groups, but I would say the biggest ones have been around teaching ideas around social media, teaching ideas, around mastering your time and thinking out. Side of the box [00:19:00] because the world is changing so fast, and most of us didn’t see it until Covid hit. When Covid hit, we were like, oh my goodness.

We need to think about how things are changing. And the best way to see that is being surrounded by other people and sharing the different ideas that you have.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, and I mean, you mentioned right at the very beginning of this interview that you. You got around like minds too, because I mean, it’s a very different mindset.

Uh, being an employee versus being a business owner. Right? And, um, and you know, that’s not to say that you, you know, you’ve gotten everybody out. doesn’t, that doesn’t think the way you think, uh, because it’s valuable to have all those different perspectives all the time. Especially if you are in a business that’s hiring staff.

It’s very good to be able to understand how the staff thinks. , you know, as opposed to. . But the, uh, but working from home, especially working from home, it can be a lonely place. Uh, and you know, [00:20:00] when you don’t have that support around you of people that are experiencing the same things that you’re experiencing, uh, you know, sometimes just having somebody to talk to about the things that are going, cuz you can’t talk to your staff about that

Right. Uh, and you know, there are certain people that I think we have in our lives that are there to support us no matter what we do. And that is not always. Useful as well, because sometimes we need to be challenged. We need someone that’s gonna say, no, no, no, you’re doing it. You know, stop doing it that way.

Stop thinking that this is how you should be doing things. Right. And, you know, we need all those different types of people in our lives too. And I think you, you, you’re hitting on it with a mastermind cuz a mastermind is typically, uh, people that are sort of, you know, there could be some people that are at your level, some people that are ahead of you, and some people that are also behind you that you could help to mentor as well.

Right? So you, you have that mix of people.

Sheles Wallace: Absolutely. Because you wanna give, right? You wanna help other people as well. So, so two things around that. I remember, I think it was, um, Mr. [00:21:00] Darnell’s self. I went to a conference and he said, good news you can share down with your team. Bad news, you gotta share up, right?

You have to talk to someone that’s up. You can never really share all the bad stuff going down. But another thing is if you are not able to get in a Mastermind, you should go to conferences. And don’t go to the conference and leave. Like go to the conference, sit at the bar, go lunchtime. Don’t sit and talk to someone you already know.

Try to find someone you don’t know because when you’re sitting around having lunch or breakfast or the happy hour afterwards, it’s amazing. The type of information that people are willing to share when you are at a conference because you guys are talking about the same things, so take advantage of that as well if you are not able to attend a mastermind at the moment.

Or attend a mastermind, go to a conference, but also maximize the people that you’re meeting at the conference.

Tim Melanson: [00:22:00] Love it. I’m so glad you mentioned that too, because that is a huge resource, and you’re right, sometimes it might be hard to find and break into, you know, a mastermind or to like a business group.

But if you go to a conference or to some sort of, uh, speaking engagement with, you know, a lot of business people there, or even like a Chamber of Commerce or something like that, you’re gonna get yourself around other business owners and, you know, naturally they’re gonna, especially if you keep going, you’re gonna start to make friends and you’re gonna start to be able to, uh, network with them that way.

Uh, that might be the easiest way to get in. That’s a really good idea. Thank you for.

Sheles Wallace: In the chamber. I love the chamber. I believe every business owner should be a part of their local chamber. If you’re a business owner, especially starting out, but even the large businesses, many of them are still have some type of presence inside of the local chamber in the community and get involved.

You know, don’t look on the directory and say, oh my goodness, there’s someone else here that has a similar business. That doesn’t matter. Get involved, join the [00:23:00] committees, get on the board. It’s amazing how much information you get. And honestly, if you are on a board of directors for a Chamber of Commerce or a non-for-profit, Tim, It’s like a mini mastermind right there because you have no idea who else is on that board and what they have to share with you in addition to what you’re sharing as well.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, love it. Absolutely. Great, great tips. So now it’s time for your guest solo. So tell me what’s exciting in your business.

Sheles Wallace: My business is exciting because we are helping more people. So one of the things that we’re doing differently is we wanna be able to help more people. And so now we’re starting to do more of a membership program where the people that we’re coaching, they all get to come together on a regular basis so that they can interact with each other, they can share leads with each other, they can collaborate.

So we’re really just focused on making sure that we are bringing the community together, not only who we are serving, but also so that they [00:24:00] can connect with each other and see how they can bring value to each other as well. Um, ways to truly. Bridge the gap that we haven’t talked about is your relationships, right?

So if you build fantastic strategic partnerships, that bridges the gap to where you are as a startup business to where you’re trying to go, because now you get to lean on their relationships and their trust, which means that inherently that’s going to help you have more leads. It’s gonna help you increase your conversion rate without increasing your acquisi.

Great. And so for us, we’re just really focused on building that community and we’re doing conferences on a regular basis. So we have two conferences that are coming up as we speak in the Houston area and in the St. Louis area, all about building the community and bringing people together.

Tim Melanson: Wow. So you’re like building a mastermind ,

Sheles Wallace: right?

Yes, yes, yes. Absolutely. [00:25:00] Absolutely. So who do

Tim Melanson: you think would be the. Optimal person that would get the most out of, you know, becoming part of your, your community? Like where would they be on their.

Sheles Wallace: That’s a great question. The good thing about what we offer is, the first thing that we do is we either have you come to a workshop, you know, a complimentary workshop where you spend time with us for about three hours, learning some tips to grow your business.

We have people that maybe, um, Startup businesses all the way to people that, you know, their business is 10 million plus that show up at some of these events. Right? And then based on that, they decide which direction inside of our community should they go. So we have people that we help, and their businesses are already 10 million plus.

So they’re a part of the entire community, but we focus with them in certain areas, right. And then we may have people that have been in business ideally. Um, our client bases, they’ve been in business for three to five years. They have multiple employees already, [00:26:00] but we also serve the community that’s just getting started with programs that are suited for what they need.

One of the things that we really, really focus on, and this is where coaching makes a difference, right? When you’re just going to the conferences alone or when you’re just reading the books, which we all should be doing, or when you’re just looking at, you know, one video on YouTube. Yeah, you don’t know where to start.

You don’t know what to prioritize. And so a coach comes in. Once you get in, a coach is gonna come and help you say, this is what you need to focus on based on your goals. This is the area that you need to spend most of the time in. You know, um, but the biggest thing, no matter what level you’re in, we really focus on helping our clients to build partnerships.

And strategic relationships. Um, so the, the code here, it’s a, um, ebook to help you maximize your networking. So if anyone is looking to go to the next level and not just, I’m gonna show up at the [00:27:00] chamber meeting. If you know someone introduce them to me. If I know someone, I’ll introduce them. Those aren’t real relationships.

You never see any fruit from those, right? You’re just kind of spinning your wheels. We want people to really learn how to maximize their re relationships and build a three W. A three W is a triple win, a win for you, a win for your strategic partner, and a win for your shared clients.

Tim Melanson: Right on. Love it. And you know what?

I’ve heard this quote before. The best time to build your network is before you need it . So if you’re thinking, I don’t need a network right now, well now’s the time. You need the network . It’s the right time to start learning how to do these things cuz you’re not under pressure, you know? And that’s the thing, I think a lot of people end up at a networking event because they’re desperate.

And it really does show. But if you were to just sort of, you know, get started and go out to these events when you’re, when your business is going well, or when you’re thinking about starting your business, well now you’re gonna be more relaxed. You’re gonna be able to find out [00:28:00] more about what they want.

Because you know, that’s what people wanna talk about, , they wanna talk about themselves. So if you’re more focused on finding out who these people are and finding out which ones do you think you connect best with, then that’s gonna be more valuable by the time you need your network.

Sheles Wallace: Absolutely. I’ve seen people in networking events that are in transition and they’re like trying to decide if they wanna start a business, right?

Or they’re trying to decide if they wanna get another job. I think it’s so brave of them to say, I’m coming here. I’m not working, but I’m trying to decide if I’m gonna start another business. Right. That’s really brave. Most of the time people are afraid to let people know that they’re in transition until they decide that they’re gonna do something differently.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I agree a hundred percent. So how do we find out more? We can click that code of course, but if, uh, if someone’s listening to this, where do they?

Sheles Wallace: So you can definitely click this code and this code is gonna just give you access to the free ebook, but it’s also gonna have all of my [00:29:00] information for you to reach out to me.

Or you can go directly to our website, which is billionaire thoughts.com. So billionaire. Is, you know, billionaire Thoughts is all about your thoughts. Like you can’t get to success if you don’t believe that you can get there. You know, that’s the most important thing is what do you believe is possible. So they can go directly to our website, billionaire thoughts.com, and I’m sure that you’ll have that linked in the video below, or.

Just go and get this free resource as well, and you’ll get our information there. And also, when you go here for the resource, there’s an opportunity if you wanna have a 15 minute discovery call, if you have like a challenge that you just wanna mention, we’re all about giving value first and foremost. And then at that point, we can talk about other options.

Tim Melanson: Love it. Love it. Billionaire thoughts.com. That’s really, really, really, really cool. So thank you so much for rocking out with me today, Celeste. This has been a lot of fun.

Sheles Wallace: Tim, thank you. And thank you for what you are doing in the community. [00:30:00] Seriously. Um, you’re making it fun, the music you’re bringing in with it, and business, business is supposed to be fun and give you more life.

So thank you for making sure your community is having a good time as you’re sharing with them how they can continue to improve and grow their business.

Tim Melanson: Well, thank you so much and to the listeners, make sure you subscribe right and comment and, uh, we’ll see you next time on the Work at Home Rockstar podcast.

Thanks for listening

Sheles Wallace: To learn how you can become a work at home rockstar or become a better one, head on over to workathomerockstar.com today.