Lighting for Profits - Episode 183

This week on the show we welcome, Angela Chanowsky, a visionary entrepreneur, founder of Unique Genius Virtual Assistants, and a dynamic business coach with 25+ years of experience. She empowers entrepreneurs to thrive in their "unique genius" through strategic innovation, transformative leadership, and bold insights shared via her Amazon best-seller, The Courageous Mind, and her engaging podcasts. A sought-after speaker, Angela inspires audiences worldwide to embrace courage, achieve success, and create lasting impact.

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Episode Transcript

Welcome to Lighting for Profits. Your number one source for all things landscape lighting

Welcome to Lighting for Profits. All lightied. All lightied. All lie. Powered by Emory Allen. Get rid of your excuses. Your number one source for all things landscape lighting. That's where the magic can happen, really. Scale of business. We really had to show up for each other. From lighting design, install sales, and marketing. You're a scaredy cat salesmanr. We discuss everything you need to know to start and grow a successful landscape lighting business. What do you think a hippo has to do with your business? Right. Usually it's a weird childhood thing. Some bully kicks your b***.

I think the key factor here is trust.

Ryan Lee: If you're looking to start or grow a landscape lighting business

Here is your host, Ryan Lee. Oh, lot a lot of light. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the number one landscape lighting show in Hampstead, North Carolina. I tell you what, we're gonna have an awesome show today. I'm so excited, guys. If you're looking to start or grow a landscape lighting business, you're definitely in the right place. We're here to educate, here to motivate, to help you dominate. So, thanks for joining in. I absolutely love what I do. I get to, hang out with awesome guests, and, that's what we're gonna do today. So we got Angela, and I'm like, wait, is this a new name? Angela Cheanowski. What? Angela Cheanowski with unique genius virtual assistant. So, so excited to have her on. She's gonna join us in just a few minutes and, we're gonna talk about, you know, man, I think five years ago, I don't even know if I had heard of what a VA is. A virtual assistant. What? I don't even know what that was. Now it's like, kind of becoming mainstream. Like, if you don't have a VA in your business, I mean, do you even own a business? So, we're going to talk about, some of the things that you can do and why you should hire a va. So I'm really excited. they can do so many different things. I have a couple VAs that work for me right now, and, got that through, Angela. So excited to have her on. We'll have her on in just a few minutes.

Light it Up Expo is coming up in just a few weeks

Before I do, I want. Guys, I want to remind you guys that we've got, Light it Up Expo coming up in just a few weeks. So if you guys have not gotten your ticket, you're missing out. Light it upxpo. com. get your ticket. Now. We're bringing together the holiday lighting, the permanent lighting, and the landscape lighting industry. So if you're looking to bolt on any one of those segments to your businesses and make a lot of money doing that. We're not just gon toa teach you how to do it, but how to make money doing it. So we're gonna have breakouts, we're gonna have speakers, there's gonna be networking, the vendor area. And what's special about this show is we've decided to partner with home service workshop. So actually it's like one flight, one hotel, and five shows. And, we'll talk about that in a little bit with, Angela. But there's five other shows that you can experience as well. And the vendor floor is shared. You get lunch included. It's going to be the networking session of the year. So I hope to see you guys there. Get your ticket now. Light it upxpo. com. don't miss out. I'm telling you, a lot of people asking me, how much is it? I'm like, no, no, you're asking their ownong question. It's not how much does it cost? It's how much does it cost you to not show up? Okay? Because I promise you it's going to cost you way more. And you're going to be filled with regret if you're not there. So get your ticket now. Light it UPX Expo. com. and again, guys, we're going to have Angela join me in just a few minutes.

If you want to grow your business, you need a team

I've got to get something off my chest, though, and actually it ties in perfectly. I'm like, wait, I'm going to talk about this. And we're going to have Angela. So, my friend Dan Plata told me, you know, I told him what ABC stands for Always be closing. He goes, no, it's always be creten, always be crten. And, you know, when I had my business guys, my lighting business, I was really focused on sales. And I'm really good at marketing and I'm really good at sales. But the thing that always was a challenge was how do I get good people? Because I could sell and get booked out. But then I'm like, man, I'm having a hard time keeping people. And, you know, if you want your business to get to where you know it needs to be for you to get the freedom that you're chasing as an entrepreneur. Well, you can't do it alone. O and listen, if you want to be self employed forever, well, then maybe you don't need to recruit. Maybe you don't need to hire. Maybe you don't need to train because you own a job. And that's fine. There's a lot of people that are perfectly happy to do that. They're self employed. But if you want to build a business that doesn't rely on you to do everything, to do the design, to do the saless, to do the installation, to do the maintenance, to answer the calls, to do the billing, to do all the stuff, then you're going to need to get really, really good at hiring really, really good people. Okay? And you know what? Like, this is the hardest part of business, I think, because for me, like the pricing, the sales and marketing, like it's just easy for me. But it's hard finding good people. And so if you want to grow your business this year and you want to get to the goals, you're going to need a team. Even my business now, Landscape, lighting, secrets. We've experienced a lot of growth, but it's only because I've hired a team and I can't be the best person in all the positions of my company. I hire people that are better than me at doing those things. And so that's what this game is all about. I'm telling you right now, if you can find good team members, your life will change. Like, business can be fun again. Business is a drain. If you're constantly trying to like get people involved and build culture and it's just not working. Like, it's very depressing, okay? But when you have a good team around you, it's actually a lot of fun. And I've experienced both and I know which one I like the better. But if you continue to neglect this area of your life, of your business, I'm telling you right now, you're going to continue to suffer. And I'm sorry. And it sucks and I've suffered and I will suffer with you. I will be there for you. But there's a better way. So, I've heard people say this. I might have been guilty of saying this. I'm not sure that sells solves everything. Well, it doesn't solve this because I've sold millions of dollars of things and you still need good people. Okay? So, I'm telling you right now, it's in my experience it's much easier running a bigger business than it is a smaller business. And the problem is when we have a small business, when we only have like one or two people, three, four people, right, you have these headaches and you naturally think like, well, geesh, if I was to double in size, I would have double the headaches. I don't think I can handle that. And that's normal to think like that, but in reality, that's not what happens because you hire people. Like, I read the book Em Myth, and it talks about how, like, there's a technician and there's a manager and an entrepreneur. And that was so liberating for me to read because I'm like, oh, I don't have to be good at managing. I don't have to be good at the technician. I can just be an entrepreneur. Like, that was awesome because I thought I had to be good at everything to be a good entrepreneur. And that's just simply not true. And so as you grow your business, you'll scale your business. You'll have people that are better technicians than you, better managers than you. You might even partner with someone who's a better entrepreneur than you. Okay? But, finding out really what you're good at and then hire out the rest, this is the key. This is the way to not just growing your business, but being happy with the growth of your business. So once you guys figure this out and start really focusing on not just the sales and marketing, which, you know, probably my falllt, because I'm always talking about sales and marketing. But I'm just telling you right now, you have to pair that up with an awesome team. Oh, my gosh, life is awesome. It is epic. And you'll have people that, like, buy into your vision, buy into your dream, and you help them fulfill their dream. So it's not just a matter of, like, finding a body, a human, to get work done. It's really about building a culture of success and supporting their dreams, and they support yours. Because most of us own, like, 100% equity of our business. Our employees, our team members don't. So we gotta make sure that we're putting everyone in an environment that they feel like they're able to accomplish their dreams as well. So that's what I was, like, literally thinking about, this last, like, week. And then all of a sudden, I see that we got Angela coming on. This was like, a couple days ago. When I start to prepare my notes and stuff. I'm like, this is perfect because we're going to be talking about these same things with Angela. So super excited. again, she's going to join us in just a minute. Before we have her on, I do want to play, some funky music for a second. Is that.

Emory Allen believes customer satisfaction should be the top priority with lighting projects

Okay, guys, where is it? Listen. Hey, what sets Emery Allen apart? Well, bulbs aside, they believe customer satisfaction should be the top priority. Always. In fact, Emory Allen goes out of the way to ensure lighting professionals have access to the best light sources built with the highest quality components suited specifically for the landscape lighting industry. So at the end of the day, listen, it's what's on the inside that counts. So take advantage of Emory Allen's world class customer service and get hooked up today. Here's what you need to do. Don't go to their website unless you hate money and you want to spend more money. If you want the best pricing, just email Tom G at emeryalln. com. he will hook you up with that discounted contractor pricing mention that you heard about him from Ryan Lee Lighting for Profits. He will hook you up. And, again, it's just emailing tomg emeryalln. com. you're one email away from an awesome experience. They have that single source led, super crisp, super clear. Make sure projects look phenomenal. There's something about just playing funky music every once in a while.

Angela Cheanowski is the founder of Unique Genius virtual assistants

All right, guys, are you ready? I think I'm ready. Let's get to Angela. The reason we do this show is for our guests. So let's get her coming on. Let's find the music and, what do you guys say? Let's go maybe. All right. Welcome to the show, Ms. Angela Cheanowski.

Thank you. It is a new name and I love intro music. Like walking on the stage music.

Yes. We got to get pumped up. You know, sometimes when you start talking too much business and tactics strategy, it can get boring. So we, we got to make it fun. We got. I like to say we'we're. In the edutainment business. We're trying to like, educate and entertain at the same time.

I like it.

Well, super excited to have you on. I've literally been talking, I've been like, thinking about, like, man. Re questioning some of my life's decisions. Like, man, I could have been a bit better leader had I known a lot of these things. Right. And so u. maybe Angela just you, you've been on the show before, but do just a quick introduction of yourself and who is Angela and, then we'll go from there.

Yes. So new name. Angela Chnowski. We keep saying that, but I just got married to J.C. a little over three weeks ago. so my first appearance with a new name.

That is awesome. Now, congratulations. You guys are. I mean, I look up to you guys so much. You're. You're setting the. You're setting the pace. You guys are doing so many cool things. You're Like, I don't know, I saw someone say power couple. That's what I feel like because you guys are both trying to take over the world and on your own and then now you're doing it together. So it's pretty upic. Congrats.

Thank you. incredible. He's an incredible partner. We both build each other up and, doing great things, in business and in life. So that's the exciting new thing in my life. And as Ryan mentioned, I'm the founder of Unique Genius virtual Assistants. I've been a lifelong entrepreneur. I say I started my first business right out of college, a dance studio and then soon found my passion for helping other business owners. I found that, a lot of dance studio owners were great artists but didn't necessarily know how to run profitable businesses. So added ono that I, got to travel around the country helping dance studio owners be more successful. And like I said, that really was my passion first for helping other business owners. So I've done lots of business coaching and consulting over the years and then added, virtual assistants in one of my favorite ways to help business owners. And that's working in their unique genius and focusing on that.

Emmanuel says the key to success is focusing on your unique genius

I love that you mentioned the book, Em. It's one of my favorite, for entrepreneurs. And so often as business owners we try and wear all of the hats, we go by like this old badge of honor. I think it was used to be a badge of honor to be busy and I think we were superheroes and we're the best if we spent more hours working on our business and the more that we could do in our business, the more hats that we could wear and helping people realize that if you really hyper focused on. We believe Unique Genius is your strengths, what lights you up and what aligns, with your ultimate mission, vision and goals. And it has to be all three of those and figure out a way to delegate, delete or automate the rest that you can really create the most, not only the most successful business that have the most impact and joy in your life if you focus and really hyper focus just on that and figure out a way to delegate the rest.

Dude, I love everything about that. When I started my business, I there, there wasn't like, here's how to be an entrepreneur, you know, like, you just do it. And so I thought that Badge of honor, like, I just thought like I didn't have a strategy, I didn't have tactics. So I was like, dude, I can outwork anyone. Like someone could probably keepat me up in a fight, but I'll still keep fighting. You know, like there's just this grit I have. And so I didn't know anything. So I wore that badge of honor. Like, yeah, I'll just outwork you. And there's like, you can succeed with that but it sucks. It's really hard. and I love what you came up with. You know, delete, delegate or automate the rest. and what lights you up? I mean there's so many good things about it. Just because I love lighting. how the heck did you even get into like VA? Like hiring and training VAs?

Yeah. So I had always like part of that coaching was always that like how do you delegate, delete and automate the rest? I kind of branded the unique genius name when I wrote my book a few years ago. But then it was like whether it be house help, whether you get a house manager, who in your business are you delegating it to? Like stop doing the things that, that aren't yourique genius. I learned about offshoring, help which is really what virtual assistants are, is somebody that is not physically in your office. And we do it through offshoring to the Philippines. When I was doing working with an accounting firm and working in EOS implementation with an accounting firm, the accounting world was a very early adopter to outsourcing because of the shortage of CPAs in the US and so outsourcing and finding high level level CPAs from the Philippines. And so I met some phenomenal people years ago at ah, that company from the Philippines. Got to have it a great mentor who has a company with CPAs with thousands of people from the Philippines outsourced to the US And I was like this is it. This is the golden nugget of being able to help business owners with a very economical solution to do that to offload those things. Whether it be. We first started out as in working with an executive assistant. So helping business owners or CEOs with an executive assistant, we call them executive partners that you're literally just having a partner that you can offload your email, your calendar, projects, anything so that you can work at your maximum efficiency. And then soon started to help in businesses and really focus more in the home service, home contracting area. That virtual assistants could be a great tool as an admin in a business. So as CSRs, project managers, marketing assistants, just anything you can imagine in an admin in the home service space.

It's so, it's so awesome. I U I think about. So I, I think I learned about VAs. I'm not exactly sure but like maybe four years ago and I didn't know you, I didn't know Unique Genius. I just like, I think I actually bought a course and they're like, here's how to hire a va. That's how I did it. And, and it worked. Like I hired this VA out of the Philippines and she was awesome. She could do everything. But the challenge I came, I ran into was all of a sudden I like, was supposed to have work for and I didn't have anything. Like, it was in my head and I was like, yeah, now it's okay. Cause I'm only paying like five bucks an hour or something like that. And so I just justified all this stuff. Well, I've learned a lot about different cultures and stuff now too. Like they can't stand that. Like they want to serve, they want to be busy, they want to be productive and all this stuff. And I ended up getting ghosted, like just disappeared. Like, don't even, I still don't know today, like what happened. And I look at that as like a failure, epic failure of leadership. You know, I'm like, she just kind of like ran out of tasks. Even though I had a ton of stuff, but I just was whatever.

Unique Genius helps clients find the best virtual assistant on their own

So talk to me about that process. Like, what is it like when you hire a VA and what is it like if you go on your own like I did, and just like find someone direct or maybe pay a little bit more and go through Unique Genius? Like what's the difference going to be?

Yeah. So there are all kinds of places to get a virtual assistant. Like you said, you can get one on your own. there's different places to get one. What? We spent a really long time building a very robust culture in the Philippines. So I met this great team in the Philippines. They helped me and I bought this company, very slowly in the beginning so that we could build this rock solid foundation and culture and get that right. and that enables us to attract the very top talent because it is competitive. There's a lot of places they can go online, people can find them online. They could get different jobs, collect all these jobs, get different money. And we wanted to, create this culture that was incredible for them. A place that they were proud to work, that they felt took care of them career wise so that we could attract again career based individuals, college educated professionals. So that's the first thing is you get a different caliber of individual. You don't have to sift through and wonder like, what am I actually searching for here? how do I do the interview process that they're very highly vetted. We use all kinds of analysis to find you the best person in best match. So a client gets a needs analysis. We match you with a person that is best for you and then we provide that ongoing support. So we do a big in person summit in the Philippines. J.C. and I will go over again this summer and get everyone together, fly them in together. just the power of an in person event. We do quarterly in person events over there. All kinds of ongoing training that we have this family like tribe, and that, ongoing professional development so that those things like ghosting don't happen. That they feel that they are taken care of and want to be part of this tribe and have that second layer besides their client. It's important for so many reasons because you don't know why your person ghosted you. They could have been bored, they could have had a family emergency that they didn't feel comfortable coming to you about. So this tribe and extra people, they have mentors, it just provides so much more that they have supporting them so that not only do they feel taken care of so that they are sticky and'll stay with your company forever, but when they get the opportunity to be a part of this and are elevating their mindset every day, getting the latest on industry trends, AI things like that, that they can bring the very best back to their clients as well.

So am I, am I the only person ever to get ghosted by just havinging a VA on your own?

It's a very common thing.

I didn't know the way you were reacting. I was like, wait, is this, am I the only guy that sucks?

Happens all the time. So people come to us with horror stories of like, I got ghosted. Different thing happened. All my think I, like, I had no idea. And it's very common because you don't have another layer of a layer in there with them. And it happens for many, many reasons culturally. Like whatever they had happened, they might have been embarrassed to talk to you about.

Yeah.

so our whole leadership team is on the ground in the Philippines and it makes a big difference to be able to have coaches and mentors there, part of their culture that they feel that they can be vulnerable with, you know, and can come to with.

Anything that's so huge. I mean most of us, I mean my business is different. My business now every, everyone's Remote. You know, I'm in my home office right now, okay, so everyone's remote. But when I had my landscape lighting business and most of these home services, like all your teams there, so you interact literally on a daily basis. You can tell if someone's happy, you can tell if someone's sad, you can tell what they're going through. You can put your arm around them and, you know, help them out, whatever. But when you get a virtual person, you might talk to them every day or message them, but you're not having this, the visual. You're not having that emotional connection with people that you do when you're in person. So I think this is just. I really want to hit on this because, again, I failed to even recognize that when I hired my first va. And now we have Kim, that, we used your company, and she's amazing. And I think, like, I mean, I think the other person was amazing too, but I think I failed. So just having you guys as that support to make sure that, like, we know, like, what roles and responsibilities that she's in charge of, and we have KPIs and we have all that stuff, and she's doing a great job, but still, it's hard to connect with people when they're on the other side of the world. So to know that you guys have that going on, not only just to know that it's happening, but I can feel it. I can see it. Like, she is a very integral member of our team, and I don't think we could provide her that emotional support connection that you guys are doing. I mean, I know we couldn't because I already tried it and I failed.

Yeah, it is so valuable. And even though, like, you guys do a great job and once you have someone, they are an integral part of your team, and they are like, you provide them that culture support, and they know what winning looks like in KPIs. but it just is so important for so many aspects, like I said, to be able to take care of them, to have other people on the ground in their culture doing it. They feel so much less isolated. and it's another place to celebrate winning. Like, that's a big thing in our culture. You know, we're having daily huddles, weekly heddles, all celebrating each other's wins, which makes a big difference in the mindset they're coming back to you with and want to win. And then to be able to be part of cohorts of other people doing the same thing, whether it be other People that are running podcasts or in a home service that other people that are in the lighting industry and being a part of a small group of other people that are admins in lighting businesses, to be able to have that idea exchange, we know how fast social media is changing, how fast AI changes things. So to be able to have that idea exchange and come back, and say, hey, you know, our CRM changed and there's these new updates that make it more efficient or, you know, we have this new software that we're using or this new email campaign we use to book some new clients. That's huge as well. Because a lot of times in a home service business this virtual assistant is the only admin. And so, that can be isolate, you know, the business owners, like, I don't know, I tried to figure out the CRM.

Yeah.

so now they have a community of, of people they can go to for questions and ideas as well.

Yeah, that's killer.

You mentioned hiring someone to do outbound calls and answer phone calls

So what are some, I mean, you mentioned some of them. My guess, like the executive partner, you call it the CSR marketing. Like if someone's in the home service industry and they're like, okay, I think I'm going to try this out. Is the ad like an admin role, kind of the first one that people start, with?

Yeah. And so what we do is a discovery call if someone's interested in it. I, and right now I love working with business owners, so I still do most of discovery costs and talk and just see, like, what, what does your business operation look like? what admin things are you still doing? What admin things should you be doing but your business doesn't have the capacity to do? Are you doing happy calls? Are you calling your clients after the service, checking in with them, making sure they were 100% satisfied, asking for reviews, asking for referrals, things like that. So seeing what is happening in the business, what maybe needs to happen and then what an admin, what skills an admin would need and need to take on. And that just depends on the size of the business. So a lot of times people get a virtual assistant as their very first admin hire and they don't have a lot of processes in place. We have to help them put those processes in place for this admin or somebody might be replacing, a current admin they have, or they have an office manager, they have one and they now want a second one. They want to make sure phone calls aren't missed or they want to do some organic social media marketing. so we kind of, it depends on the business size of the business and what all that they want that person to do.

That's cool. I'm going to go out on a limb here and maybe I'm wrong, but I think most people are listening to this, going, okay, I thought, I knew, I thought you could hire someone for marketing and maybe do some back office admin. But you said that someone could do outbound calls for me and do happy calls and someone could answer calls. What, someone from another country? How is that even possible? How is that even possible?

So we get people that have great, not just great English, but great American English that sound great and that you are proud of answering the phone for you. That doesn't sound like Mike from India that we've all been frustrated with, but somebody that has a great trained American voice that you'll be proud of answering the phone. And so yeah, it's a great solution to make sure that your phone is, always answered. Far too many people have phone calls that aren't answered. And we all know the value of a phone call. so great for inbound calls, those outbound calls, two clients getting them scheduled, they can do virtually everything. People are surprised by the phone skills of that, the answering the phones, the outbound calls for happy calls. The other outbound calls that are my favorite are calling to get things scheduled. Like when you are, maybe need to get your calendar, filled up that you're calling past customers, maybe people that you haven't seen in a couple of years or calling some referral sources. So they're great for doing outbound calls to fill up your calendar. Outbound calls, to drum up sales as well.

Yeah. All those things you mentioned are like, well not all, but most of them are like revenue generating activities. The cool thing about a lot of this stuff is the ROI is like a no brainer. and plus I want to point out the fact that you said they virtually can do anything. I thought that was cool. man, I love it, man, I'm ah, the other thing people will say is, but I looked up the, the Philippines time right now and it's 14 hours ahead. How are they, how are they going to answer phone calls for me? How are they going to work my.

In your time? Whatever time that is, they are like 12 hours ahead of Eastern time. So they're working the night shift. but it's very common in the Philippines. It's what everybody else is doing. They're at high level in their career working for US Businesses. So they design their lifestyle around it. It's not like they're up living their life all day and then working at night. They design their family's life around this, and this is their career. But whatever time zone you're in, Eastern Mountain Pacific, we find someone that will work in your time zone.

That's awesome. Yeah. So right now, we've got a VA that's just like, admin. Like, she's gonna help upload this podcast right when it's done. Like, she does so much stuff that, like, could I do? Well, no, because I have other stuff I'm working on now. Right. But in the past, I did those things. And, she does all sorts of things. And then what's nice is, like, these people are not just human beings. They're like, her bodies. They're human beings. Like, she. She'll be like, hey, anything else I can do? She s like, they're proactive. Like, it's just so nice to have a team member that's willing to do all this stuff. but also I have one that does video editing, social media. And then now I need to get one. Angela, we need to talk separate off of this is I want to get an nea. I need, like, an executive assistant one. Some of the things that gone through my mind in the past are like, what about, like, I need them to, like, book flights and, like, do hotel stuff. And hopefully my wife's not listening, but, like. But my wife flowers and, you know, stuff like that. How do you transition all, like, that type of stuff onto someone else's plate?

Yeah.

Getting an executive assistant right can transform a business owner's life

So the executive partner is one of my favorite things because it feels like magic, like, transforming, a business owner's life. Like, it literally brings me to TES when I think about it, because we still take on so much of that stuff. Like, as a business owner, even when we've offloaded things in our business, there are so many things that are going on in our head. And very often as business owners, we feel like we are the one holding all of the spinning plates. So when you can get that partnership right with an executive partner, it, finally feels like you're not responsible for holding up all spinning plates yourself. That, like, you can finally take a breath. And for many of us, like, you don't remember the last time you felt that way because you just had to make sure so many, you know, as soon as you offload things, new ideas come. and, you know, we're visionaries that, like, go to bed and Wake up in the morning and think of a thousand things, and they're all urgent now that we're going to put in into place. And so it takes a while to develop that partnership. But we have a program, that not only trains the entrepreneur training program that our executive partners go through. A lot of it's based on, Dan Martell's book, buyb back your time.

I was just thinking, like, I read that book a few months ago, and like, that's like, I swear, like, the biggest takeaway. He's like, dude, if you're making over 100 grand a year, you. Everybody, everybody needs an EA.

Yeah. And it helps you work in that genius. It helps you like you are. I say as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, so many people in our lives have been that, like, we're assigned to their leadership. all the leaders, all the people in your organization, Ryan, all the people that you are coaching, your family, your wife, all of these people that we could have a greater impact on if we would choose to fully live in our unique genius. And so if people think of it that way, not even as like, oh, I deserve one, I need more time. I could relax more, be happier more. I could be more efficient. But if you really thought of the impact that you can have and the greater impact that you can have by doing this, it is so significant. And mostly because of. Not of the time, but because of the energy. Because we spend far too much time in our lives doing things that suck our energy. And so that's why we believe that unique genius entails the things that light you up. Love it, that, you know, ignite your passion and that you're really good at and then align with your goals. So we have people go through a unique genius exercise. You figure out the things that you are doing in your business and in your life, because it includes your personal life, too. I mean, are you, Are you the one in your house shopping for groceries? everything that you're doing that doesn't qualify with all three of those things, then how do you delegate, delete or automate them? So an executive assistant looks different for different people based on what they need to get off their plate. But you said buy flowers for your wife, like one of the things. One of the pillars. We have people go through pillars in their life. So not only their business, that financial, spiritual, personal growth, fitness and relationships. And how does your partner. How do you communicate? Like, these are the pillars of my life. These are the things that are important to me in the pillars. These are My goals in moving all of these pillars forward and advancing these, and how can they help you make sure and not drop the ball? And so for me, one of those is like, I have adult kids that I no longer live in the same city as, and I really want to be the best mom still in their life, but it's easy to A, week go by, and I maybe forget to do the right things to support them. So it is one of the things that my executive partner helps me do to make sure that I am showing up consistently in their life and moving that ball forward.

I was trying to figure out what button to hit for mic drop because you said a bunch of things. I was like, mic drop, mic drop, mic drop. So let's try this one. That was all, like, amazing stuff. Seriously, like, you. You went on this roll this, man. It was like. It was perfect.

Didn't know where to stop.

No, it was just, like, going. And it's like, that's where you find your unique genius, and it lights you up and da, da, da. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Send me the link. I'm in. which, by the way, send me the link. I'm in. I do need an ea. So,

All right, let's talk about a couple other things. Um, here's my list. Tell us about your new husband

All right, let's talk about a couple other things. here's my list. Just so we're gonna talk about. I said, tell us about your book. Tell us about your podcast. Podcast. Tell us about your new husband. Tell us about sales boost. So let's talk about those things.

Angela Schroeder wrote a book on unique genius

Okay, Tell us about your book.

Yes. So I wrote a book. it seems like this different chapter of my life in book, but it had been a lifelong dream on my heart to write a book. And I got connected to an incredible program a few years ago, with a professor at Georgetown. And if anyone has writing a book on your heart, please reach out to me. this program is worth it because there's so many ways to write a book out there, and I'm not discounting it, but people are publishing. You know, you can self publish a book on Amazon. You can write a book on Chat, GBT and put it on Amazon and be a published author. But this program, like, really taught you how to write, and it took a year to do, but you got to work with coaches. One of my coaches was, in our program was Simon Sinek. you have to be on Zoom and get things back and forth from him and then learn what it really looked like to edit your work. And really edit your work. Not like copyrite, edit your work, but Rewrite and rewrite. So, it was an incredible process. The book is called the Courageous Mind. And I'm working on the second book because now that book was published as Angela Schroeder and was the, you know, book of my life, the story of my life and other entrepreneurs that I wanted to write about that we take risks more often as entrepreneurs. But I wrote just a little chapter in that book on unique genius. And now as you can tell from my last tangent, hoping people live in their unique genius and one be brave enough to find it. Like often your unique genius is baried you forget what you're good at or you don't know what lights you up anymore. So hoping people really live in their unique genius will be my next book with my new name.

Dude, I love it. I will buy a copy. I. You already like are talking about your book even in this podcast. I follow you on social media, all of your messages. I'm like, man, she, she is on to it. Like, just follow Angela, listen to what she says, implement half if you can, and you're going to have a great life.

Well, thank you.

Yeah, good stuff. I'm excited for the unique Genius book.

J.C. and Dan have a podcast called Boots on the Ground Radio

talk about your podcast you're on. You got the radio show, you got the podcast you do at jc. What are some of those about?

Yeah, so I have a radio show, on a new station, called Boots on the Ground Radio.

I'm not, by the way, I'm not mad about that. It's a good choice.

yeah, we're excited. Dan and I both switched over to Boots on the Ground Radio. So, a new show, new show, new radio station. It was branded again under my courage brand. Now is unleash your unique genius. And because it's a radio show, it's live. So it's live on Wednesdays at 1:00 Eastern. And we'talk about different things, around living in your unique genior. Sometimes it's a topic. I was talking to Kurt Kempseton and we're talking about something like a tool. Just like you and I were talking about Vas, we'talking about his tool. And then it led to like a deep conversation and tears of him being a great dad, being able to create a bigger impact in his kids life because he's able to put his business off to one side. So that. And then J.C. and I have a podcast, together called in the Foxhole. And that's a lot of fun. We started it literally a couple months into dating and there's nothing like doing everything big together. it is so fun because we. It's the anti highlight reel, so we dig deep into the trenches. It gets pretty vulnerable and emotional. But talk about moments that, we are in the trenches in our entrepreneurialhipip journey and what got us out, what helps us not get there again, and who helps us.

Very cool. That's awesome. Yeah, you guys, you guys put out some amazing content. I swear, one day I'm like, I wonder if these guys should just be like, travel influencers. I'm like, if you guys just go on trips and like, show the cool places and the cool things you do, I'm like, I would. I would pay to follow that.

I know. We, we say that too. We need to get a better job of filming travel and stuff like that. We love to travel. But it's so true that you. Even though that is a passion, it's like we always go back to our passion of entrepreneurship. So we need to, like, figure out how to talk about entrepreneurship and travel.

Like, yeah, well, maybe that's it. You just do like a podcast on the beach or something. Cause I'm kind of the same way. I'm like, I've actually discovered ways where I could make money faster. But, like, it sounds boring and it just like, I'm not interested in at all. Like, you have to do the thing that lights you up. So. Yeah, u. I guess finally, let's talk about sales boost. we got this u, event home service workshop. I think it was like one. One flight, one hotel, five shows. talk about sales boost. Let's. Let's do this.

So this is so fun. We get to do a show together.

I know it's going to be epic. We have. I feel like we have a lot of synergy, obviously, m between us and like, how we think and what our missions are and impact and all these different things. But same with, like, the people that we're talking to and our clients. And, so I think, like, the perfect experience is literally like, go to Sales Boost for a couple of days and go to Light It Up Expo. Because they're just. There's just. There's just a lot of synergy there.

Yes. so, so exciting to be coming together and doing this event. J.C. and I took over, ah, sales boost from Pat Clark last year. So we had our very first event last year in Wilmington and so powerful. so we're so excited for year two. Just one of the, crazy things we did. I said we met two months later we did a podcast. Three months later we took on an event together. That's awes. I. What?

Well, I went last year and it was awesome. That was my first time going to Sals Boost. I know Pat Clark. I've gotten to know him better over the years. But I mean, you guys did a phenomenal job. It was a great show. People were engaged, amazing speakers. Not just like good content, like, hey, be better and work harder, like actual actionable items to take away from the speakers. I was honored to be to speaker. I get to speak again, which I'm super stoked for. So, yeah, you guys do a great job.

We have an incredible lineup again, this year. some of our, speakers. Michael Burnoff. We're excited for him to be there. He's an incredible, best sellling author, has a great program. he is like a well sought after speaker. So we're super excited to bring him to the stage. And then we've got some other people that aren't typical in these industries. Sam, Tiger, Chuck Toky. they are phenomenal and full of energy. And the fun thing is our audiences don't get to hear from them as often.

Michael Burn: One of the most powerful things of events is making connections

And there are people like I love to hear and learn from. We just came off of a conference with Sam, tons of other people you are speaking. Dave Carroll, Dan Plata, Michael Gregory, Caleb Wegar. I can't even remember all the speakers.

That's awesome.

I've forgotten a ton of others. But the great thing, like you said of conferences together is we all bring something different. So we have a lot of different speakers and breakout sessions and like, powerful inspiration, but things that you're going to go home and take away. And then you can go wr in, to your show. You can go into some hacking rooms. the great thing about all these things together is you can pick what you want to do. So go to sales booth, go to Lighted Up Expo. And then you're also going to be in the same place at home service workshop, with other shows and other people. So one of the most powerful things of events, I always believe, like I am a firm believer in the power of the gathering and the magic of getting the right people in the right room is this is where people will be. These are the right people in the right room and you don't want to miss it. Often all these shows are broken up and so we're all across the country all broken up and everybody has to decide. Maybe people can't make it work with their family and go to all five of these shows. So some people are going to each one. They're all five together. So all of the right people are going to be in the right room and you don't want to miss it.

Yeah, well said that that's really the power of it. And as, as like show creators, we're always like worried about the content we're going to overel deliver and stuff like that. But then it's kind of like deflating sometimes when you're like, so what was your favorite part? You know, was it me when I spoke and they're like, oh, no. I met some guy, random guy in the hallway and he like told me a couple things and now I'GOING toa be able to add another 500k revenue. Like what? Like it really is that. And that's the cool thing about it is like, you're not just going to one show. You're truly getting access to attendees of five different shows. That's pretty epic.

Yeah. And that is where the magic is, in the connections of the people that you will meet. I mean, you guys watching of all seen us, you see us together. I met J.C. i met my husband at an event.

Aw.

We werees speaking at, ah, a lighting event. And that's where we met and that's where we have now all met some of our best friends that we do life with is at an event. It's in the hallway, at dinner, you know, when you're having those conversations outside of the room. So like you said, as show creators, we try and come up with the best things to get you guys here. But those are the most powerful things is showing up to this energy and making connections that aren't just about who you learn from in that moment, but those connections become your tribe. And it's one of the most important things for entrepreneurs to develop that strong tribe that not only give you ideas and aren't only people that you can celebrate rooftop experiences with, but people that you can lean on when you are in the trenches. And those relationships that you develop aren't people that are in your hometown in order to have those. That tribe, which is I believe, one of the most key things you can have as an entrepreneur. You have to put yourself in these rooms.

Yeah. And it's uncomfortable for a lot of people to go out and talk to new people and, and even come to an event. It's like, well, I mean, I don't know, I don't have any friends going. It's like well, that's a, that's a good thing. You know, like, you're going to have to leave some friends behind. quick story. You mentioned Michael Burnoff, who's speaking at Sales Boost. I was speaking at an event that he was speaking at. And you know, he's like, he's a big deal. So he was talking to like a hundred people for every one person I was talking to. Like, not only did we speak, but then at the booths and stuff like that. And I'm sitting there eating, dinner. Most people think that like, I'm this huge extrovert and I'm just a party guy and everything. I'm like, no. Like, I speak and I just want to go, like, hide in my hotel room. So I go to the steakhouse, I'm eating at the bar by myself and my voice is like shot right? And I have to speak the next day. And I'm paranoid. I'm like, what am I gonna do? I can barely even talk and I haven't even done my big presentation yet. Michael Burnoff comes in and I don't remember how, but we started talking. It was, Jeremy, M.E. was there with him. And I was like, what's up? You know, whatever. And he's like, you okay? I'm like, yeah, my throat, you know, whatever. And he goes, oh, dude, do you have this tea? Do you have this like, thing? I'm like, no, I don't have anything. I have like halls, cough drops, you know. And he's like, oh, hold on, hold on. Well, we were in the Gay Lord in Nashville. That place is not small. So he runs to his room, which was like 15 minutes away. Comes back. I just want people to know this, that these people aren't just speakers, they're not just influencers. Like, these are real people that care about you, dude. He saved my life that night. Like the next day I was like healed. I was ready to like dominate this speech all, because he like went and served me. He went and got me to this tea, he went and got me this golf drop. He's like, take this one hour before you will be totally fine. It will numb your throat, all this stuff. Like heck yeah. So yeah, like, you got toa get like uncomfortable, like go talk to people. Because everyone's here not just to speak, not just to make money or anything like that. They're here to serve you at the highest level.

That's so true. That's such a great story of Michael and fun of his heart yeah, yeah.

Such a good dude. He could have been like, yeah, drink some tea

Such a good dude. And he. I mean, he. I don't even know if he'd remember that. Like, he. I don't know him. You know, we're not, like, friends.

He had no. No reason to do that. He could have been like, yeah, you know, drink some tea. And I'd been like, oh, thanks, thanks. You know, that. That would have been fine, but. And by the way, if you guys go to the G******, there's that steakhouse in there in Nashville. Get the cream corn. That cream corn is really, really good. Yeah, pro tip. Pro tip.

Michael Burno wants to be on JC's podcast

Well, we met Michael. I met Michael just at the huge. Like, I was just walking by, honestly, kind of ignoring him. I hadn't heard him speak. I didn't know who he was. I was just walking by his booth, and he's like, hey, that's awesome.

He's like, you know, the average sucks. Yeah.

I mean, something. And I started talking to him, and he's like, you have a podcast? yeah. Can I be on your podcast?

It was like, okay, that's rad.

But I still didn't know who he was. And so then I got his card, and he texted me. And then I went up to JC And I was just like, hey, some Michael Burno guy wants to be on our podcast.

That's rad. Yeah, no big deal.

Yeah, no big. JC Was like, what?

What? Yeah, well, you're. I mean, you got, like, this infectious personality. You have the servant attitude. Like, you lead with value. we were just at Sam. You know, you guys invited me. I went to Sam Taggart's event, Door to Door Con, and, yeah, I can just see it. Like, you've got this, infectious personality. And people, you re. You really practice what you preach. Like, you found your unique genius, and you're helping other people find their unique genius, and it's freaking amazing. So thanks for. Thanks for doing that for me and for everybody.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, it's awesome.

We talked a lot about virtual assistants and how to use them

all right, did we. Do we need to cover anything else? Did we get through all the stuff?

I think we did. We talked a lot about virtual assistants, and, really, the power of what I'm most passionate about is however you do it, figuring out how to live in your unique genius, whoever it is that you're delegating to. We believe that virtual assistants are an amazing tool, an economic tool, to do that. But however you can figure it out makes your life so much better.

Awesome. Well, you guys, I highly, highly recommend Reach out To Angela. we're doing some internal trainings in landscape lighting secrets, which I'm excited about. But just reach out to Angela. Get started. Get a va. it'll make your life so much easier. So, if people want to reach out to you, what's the best way to get in touch?

Yeah, my email is Angela uniqueash genus. com do and I guess I have a new place to find me on social media. It's Angelaowski.

What? and then how about, tickets for sales boost? What's the best way to get tickets to that?

Yeah, so tickets for sales boost. that's a good question.

That's good. I know. You can go to homerviceworkshop. com do home workshop.

I was like, we used to have our own directive, but now we direct people to there. So, yeah, homeserviceworkshop. com. get tickets, get sales boost, and light it, up.

Yeah, that's a good point. You can get. If you guys want to just go to one and you just want to go to sales boost, that's totally fine. But if you're like, actually, maybe I should go to both, There are some, show hopper passes where you can buy just one show or you can buy one, ah, one pass. It gets you into all five shows, which is pretty cool. so take a look. If you go to homeiceshop workshop. com and you click shows, you could just go there, click sales boost, buy a ticket. If you want to explore around and consider buying different options, you guys can do that as well. So. Well, All right, well, thanks, Angela. That was great. I appreciate you taking time out of your day and sharing your unique genius with us.

Yes. Thanks so much for having me.

All right, everyone, go get it done. All that va. Call Angela, email, text, all the stuff. See you guys.