Stacy Tuschl Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast
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Introducing Stacy Tuschl
Stacy Tuschl is our guest today, on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots free podcast interview.
She is an lady who seems to have the entrepreneurial genes from birth.
She is an Entrepreneur and Business Performance Strategist who started her first business in her parents’ backyard at the age of 18 and turned that company into a 7 figure business.
When she launched her performing arts business in 2002 from her parents’ backyard, she was a wide-eyed 18-year-old.
By the time she was a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, her small, backyard business had turned her life upside down. She incorporated, rented space, and threw herself into her entrepreneurial dream.
How The Dots Joined Up For Stacy
Over the next 10 years, she expanded into a custom-built facility, a second location, and grew the business into 7 figures.
Now the beauty of this story was she didn’t go after the money, but she built her business around her passion.
She found the task that she loved and looked for a way to share that with others.
And this is when it starts getting good, as viewing this success people started approaching her for business advice, and she then found a new passion: guiding women entrepreneurs to greater business success.
She is the author of the book “Is Your Business Worth Saving?” where she reveals proven strategies for pulling entrepreneurs out of a rut and launching them toward business success and the host of the Business Rescue Road Map podcast.
And she is youthful, lovely looking and looks like she hasn’t got a care in the world.
So how has she managed to push through to such success without getting the bags under the eyes, and the hunched shoulders from sitting in front of her pc for hours upon hours?
And is it as simple as finding the passion before you start working on creating a business, or much more than that?
Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Stacy Tuschl
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Stacy Tuschl such as:
How she faced the pivotal point in her business where her success wasn’t enough, a new challenge was required.
Why it is so important to find something that you are passionate about before you ever start looking for money. It helps push through the hard-times.
How all ideas should have a swat analysis of other competitors to make sure that there is a need for that business.
and lastly….
Why she has a dream to inspire her children to go the entrepreneurial route by showing them a lifestyle that is a wow, and can’t be taken away from them.
Stacy Tuschl Books
How To Connect With Stacy Tuschl
Return To The Top Of Stacy Tuschl
You can also check our extensive podcast archive by clicking here – enjoy
Full Transcription Of Stacy Tuschl Interview
Intro [0:10]
When we’re young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here’s your host live from the back of his garden in the UK. David Ralph.
David Ralph [0:35]
Yes, hello there. Good morning to you. Good morning to you lovely listeners of Join Up Dots wherever you are. Thank you very much for john. Jeremiah. I think that was your name but sending me a really lengthy email the other day. I appreciate you listening me I really do And believe me, we will connect. I will connect personally with you. And we’re talking about what you’re doing because it sounds amazing. As is what to Today’s guest is doing because she is a lady who I would say she seems to have the entrepreneurial genes maybe from birth, maybe later who knows who asked. She’s an entrepreneur and business performance strategist who started her first business in her parents backyard yet not the gavage or the garage as the Americans say. But at the age of 18. She went into her backyard and turned a company into a seven figure business and when she launched her Performing Arts business in 2002, from her parents backyard, she was a wide eyed 18 year old and by the time she was a junior at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, a small backyard business had turned her life upside down. She incorporated rented space and herself into her entreprenuer or dream and over the next 10 years, she expanded into a custom built facility a second location and grew the business into seven figures. Now the beauty of this story was she didn’t go after the money but she built her business around her passion, she found the tasks that she loved, and then look for a way to share that with others. And this is when it starts Getting good. As viewing is success, people started approaching her for business advice. And she then found a new passion guiding women entrepreneurs to greater business success. She’s the author of the book is your business worth saving where she reveals proven strategies for pulling entrepreneurs out of a rut and launching them towards business success, and she’s the host of the business rescue roadmap podcast, and it’s a good one. It’s a good and go over them and listen, not while you’re listening to this show straight afterwards. She is youthful. She’s lovely looking and she looks like she hasn’t got a care in the world. So how has she managed to push through to such success without getting the bags under the eyes and hung shoulders from sitting in front of a PC for hours upon hours? And is it as simple as finding the passion before you start working on creating a business or much more than that? Well, let’s find out as we bring them to the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Stacy Tuschl. Good morning to you Stacy, how are you?
Stacy Tuschl [2:56]
Hi David. Thank you so much for having me today.
David Ralph [3:00]
But how are you? I’m being polite Stacy.
Stacy Tuschl [3:04]
I’m good. I’m great. I am loving life loving business and things are really well I’m really really in a great spot right now.
David Ralph [3:13]
I think you are because I’ve been looking around the Stacy world and as I said in the introduction You seem to have like the the the perfect work life balance. You’re creating a business which is very profitable for you, you’re helping other people do the same, but you’re having a bit of a life as well. You’re seeing people you’re seeing trees, you’re walking around. How are you doing this? How are you doing this?
Stacy Tuschl [3:37]
Well, I Oh, I haven’t always had it. I definitely, you know, started young. Yes, there was that hustle stage for me. But even now I feel I really have this second chance at this other business now where I am really fueled and passionate. And when I say that, it’s because with my first business, it I still own it, but it grew and grew and we built systems and An amazing team. And all of a sudden, things were really easy. And I was very comfortable, but I wasn’t challenged anymore. And I needed that challenge. So for me, I, you know, I started my second business and the online space coaching other entrepreneurs. And I still feel like I am working, not a lot. I definitely not working 40 hours a week, but I’m making sure that I’m working, loving it, and then having time to be with my kids, my family and enjoying life.
David Ralph [4:28]
So do you ever stay safe? Be honest with me, your family’s not listening. But do you ever use use business as an escape from the family? If you can juggle it all around? And your kids are saying, Come on? What’s the school play? Do you ever think oh, that’s the last thing I want. Oh, I’m suddenly busy.
Stacy Tuschl [4:46]
I always make time when there’s something I have little ones. So right now we’re talking preschool field trips, things like that. But I do I want to be there. So I really make sure that I scheduled work around it and vice versa. So Even planning, you know, trips and things like that I’m going, Oh, I want to make sure I’m back for this or I need to be back in time for, you know, one of my little ones. But yes, I really make sure that I’m able to be mom.
David Ralph [5:10]
So what takes priority? Is it the family? Or is it the business? Because I think when you start, as you say that early hustle is pretty much its business business business. And I fell into that trap where it was. Now, I’d love to, but I can’t I’ve got to do this. But I look back on it, I think, did I really need to do that? So what takes priority boy?
Stacy Tuschl [5:30]
For me, it’s absolutely family, but I have to separate the two. So I have specific days and times that the kids go off to an in home daycare, and then I’m just working 100% so it’s even though I’m working 100% in the business, the business is not the first priority. I’m working in my business, or I should say on my business so that I can provide for my family and do amazing things for them.
David Ralph [5:56]
Right So you started your business in your back garden. Oh, back yard, as you say, in America, and yeah, 18 years old, was was there ever a kind of entrepreneurial hustle in you before? Then did you used to go out and shovel snow and mow lawns and do all the kind of things that kids do?
Stacy Tuschl [6:15]
Yeah, I think I always had that entrepreneurial background in me and I did grow up in an entrepreneurial family. So it’s not a first generation, I shouldn’t say that. It was actually my grandparents who started a business. So my parents were employees in my grandparents business, so a little bit of a different situation. But that really kind of set the path for me because when I decided that I eventually had a business, my family was very supportive in that aspect, because it wasn’t, you know, out of our wheelhouse. We had always been in a family business. So that was really, really great. But even growing up, I remember I was so competitive, you know, there would be a fundraiser and there’d be a first place prize and I had to fundraise and sell the most so I can win that prize. So I’ve always had that competitive drive inside of me.
David Ralph [7:04]
Well, you annoying Why are you annoying Stacy? The people go Oh God, she she’s, she’s on the case we win. We’re not gonna do anything.
Stacy Tuschl [7:14]
I don’t know if I would use that word. But I definitely was driven. I had a purpose. I always wanted to be the leader, I would say I might have been a little bossy at times. But you know, that was that is my personality. I like to take charge.
David Ralph [7:29]
And so as that translated that bossiness well into your business.
Stacy Tuschl [7:34]
Well, I think for me, yes, it translated because I can lead I can manage. However, there’s a lot of things when you’re building a team that you have to realise a leader isn’t just the person who’s in charge, and it’s their way or the highway, you now have to really kind of negotiate compromise and make sure that you’re looking out for the best interest of your business and not just for yourself because I’m
David Ralph [7:56]
fascinated on the solopreneur Against entrepreneur against team building, like as you would do, I’m doing that quota keeping with my finger Stacy about building a proper business when you suddenly have staff, and I kind of wonder why anybody would want staff anymore with this sort of online systems and things that you can sort of operate, isn’t it better just to be able to sort of just close the doors and walk out and not have to sort of guide anyone?
Stacy Tuschl [8:28]
Well, I think because in my online business, I have all contractors, I’m outsourcing and in my brick and mortar, I have 100% employees guess we do outsource to a few people, but most people are in house. And I really think that every business is different. And either way, no matter whether you’re a contractor or you’re an employee, I’m still guiding and leading and trying to you know, build a team with you. You know, even if you have your own company, there is still some guidance and leadership that comes out and be to make sure that Really are working together.
David Ralph [9:02]
Because I have an online brick and mortar business. And I also have this, I’d much rather read this every day of the week, the fact that you can just be in total control, and you’re not dealing with people who suddenly phoned up and said, oh, I’ve got flu I can’t come in today in all those kind of hassles that you have to deal with. It’s, it’s better to be online in
Stacy Tuschl [9:23]
it. I, I probably would have said that a few years ago when I was in that phase of, Okay, great. We don’t have the best people on the, you know, the right people on the right seats. But now, I mean, we’re talking our business 14 years later, we really are a well oiled machine. And we’re really able to, you know, everybody has departments and they know what their roles are, and they know what the systems are and what they need to do. And yes, there definitely comes other issues with employees and things like that. But when you find the right people, it makes a lot of sense.
David Ralph [9:57]
And how do you know that you’ve got the right people or the You just test them out and then get rid of them. And little by little, you get the ones that are good and you keep them.
Stacy Tuschl [10:06]
Yeah, well, here’s the thing. It is always, you know, trial and error. Even if you have the best interview with somebody and you hire them, you think they’re the perfect person, you know, things happen. And and here’s the thing too, people change. Sometimes you have amazing employees that have been amazing for 10 years. And then all of a sudden, there’s some problems going on and may think, you know, they’ve been there long enough. They don’t have to listen to the rules anymore, things like that. So yeah, I think it’s definitely keeping the really great people happy. But then making sure that you have those boundaries and those guidelines so that they stay following what we’re looking for.
David Ralph [10:40]
So when when your clients come to you, are they all looking at online businesses, or are they looking at brick and mortar as well? And how would you advise them with your experience and your feet in both camps?
Stacy Tuschl [10:53]
I would say I really have a pretty good mix of brick and mortar and online that come to me but the The commonality between them is they’re all looking to build their business from home. So even though they have a brick and mortar business, they’re looking to build systems and everything so that they can run it remotely. They don’t have to be in that physical location,
David Ralph [11:15]
which is a utopia, isn’t it? I think that’s what everyone wants to be able to just lift their laptop, take it on a plane, and then every now and again, just sort of flip your lid open and do a little bit of work. I think that’s what that is the the new future, isn’t it?
Stacy Tuschl [11:30]
Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more.
Unknown Speaker [11:33]
That’s excellent. You
David Ralph [11:34]
does that that the ability to be because it’s a double edged sword. I’ll tell you where I’ve come from. I’m now at a point that we’ve Join Up Dots. I literally turn off my PC. That’s it. I can’t do anything about I had to make sure that it wasn’t transferable because I was going on holiday and vacation and taking my laptop with me and just working all the time. And I suddenly realised no Hang on, I’ve got to get the processes in so that I could switch it off. Is that That kind of utopia or being able to carry it around? Is it a double edged sword? Does it just mean that you’re working all the time?
Stacy Tuschl [12:06]
Well, I think you just have to make sure you have boundaries and you’ve set them up and you know what your priorities are. So for me, it’s not rare for me to open up my computer on a holiday or on a weekend or things like that. Because, you know, if I’m hanging around my house, I have nothing to do and maybe the kids are napping and and like I said, I’ve just kind of sitting there. I love working so much that I absolutely might hop on my computer and start doing a little bit of work. But there definitely needs to be that balance. And you can’t be solely focused on your business. You need to have other passions and hobbies and be able to do things and live that lifestyle.
David Ralph [12:43]
So while your passions and your hobbies away from your business because you sound on fire. You sound like an Entrepreneur on Fire and I don’t want to use that phrase too many times. But yes. So what’s your views?
Stacy Tuschl [12:57]
Okay, so for me, I feel like They’re very limited because I am I’m so busy I have, I’m with my kids, I’m at work and then I have that little time to sneak in. But for me, one of my hobbies is really just working out. And it’s a great way for me to have that release. And just to kind of clear my head, I’m not thinking about I can I can really turn off work when I’m working out. So it’s one of those things where I need to be working out to make sure that my brain gets a little bit of a break. I love to travel I love to go places and see see the world and really make sure that yes, I do a lot of travelling for business, but I like to sneak a little bit of pleasure in there somewhere if I can.
David Ralph [13:38]
Oh, sneaking the old pleasure in that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? And yes, and do you class as a business expense or business pleasure? How would you advise the taxman that you’ll get in business pleasure?
Stacy Tuschl [13:52]
Well, it depends what I’m doing or what I’m going to be going for. But when you it’s, you know, when you extend a trip a couple days to kind of sightsee and things Like that if you’re ever not sure I have an amazing CPA, or I’ll just flat out say, here’s what I did, what do you advise me to do? And then they’ll kind of fill that in and help me. So we have a great system and I never make decisions without making sure that my CPA is is on the same page with me.
David Ralph [14:18]
I think it’s the most brilliant bonus that I’ve discovered doing this, but I can literally fly on fly first class. I don’t actually because I’ve still got that kind of economy mentality. Yeah. Who am I to go first class. I don’t do that. So I still go sort of economy. But I just love the fact that you can do it do a bit of work at the other end and you claim it back? Yeah, claim me back. It’s free. It’s free travel. You don’t get that in employee land,
Stacy Tuschl [14:43]
are you? Not at all?
David Ralph [14:47]
Where is your right? Okay, I’m gonna step back actually, because I’ve got so many ideas going through my head when you were about 18 year old girl and you’re in the back yard and you’re starting to sort of put things together. Was it possible But it was gonna become a business or was it just something to do? How did that actually sort of take hold of you.
Stacy Tuschl [15:07]
So it was absolutely strictly my passion, it was just going to be something for fun, just a hobby. And I was actually going to school at the same time to a university to get my business degree. So I didn’t know until about, I would say four years in, that it was actually going to be a business.
David Ralph [15:27]
This is fascinating, right? Okay. So you found something that you’re passionate about, which is, which is once again, I use that phrase, it’s a utopia. That’s what everyone says, if, if you find your passion, you’re never work again. And you were willing to work on it for four years without actually sort of making it into a business. So what did you think in those four years you were doing? Just something to pass the time?
Stacy Tuschl [15:50]
Yeah, it was just something fun for me. As you know, as I grew up, it was I was always taking dance classes. And then when I graduated from high school, I thought, Okay, great. I’m going to teach it. I’m going to teach To these middle school kids, so I started this dance team. I was loving it. The kids were loving it. We grew from 17 kids that first year, and within three years I had 100 kids still coming in my parents backyard. And that’s when I said, Okay, maybe I should start turning this into a business. I was about to graduate from school. You know, my mind started turning up. What do I want to do? I can’t imagine working for somebody I, I really liked to be my own boss. And that’s how it kind of evolved into what it is today.
David Ralph [16:33]
And did your dad not say for God’s sake, Stacy 100 kids. I got past five in my back garden, I’d start saying something.
Stacy Tuschl [16:43]
Yes. And what’s so funny is so we live in Wisconsin, and our weather here is awful. So in the summer, it’s beautiful. However, that’s the only time we really have grass. And my parents left these kids just destroy their grass every single summer. I mean, it was there. Just so supportive. Even today, I mean, even now I’m grown up there still anything I need. They’re there to help me.
David Ralph [17:07]
So how’s your dad got his lawn back? Is it his point of joy now?
Stacy Tuschl [17:11]
Yes, yes. So after, after year three in business, I decided to start to go and rent a space. Okay, so that was when I finally started bringing in an income I was actually charging them because in the beginning, I was doing this for free because I loved it that much. So when I started charging, I went out got a rental space, we were only there for three years. And we were just growing so much that we were able to build our own custom a 9000 square foot facility.
David Ralph [17:39]
Right. Okay, so being devil’s advocate, what wasn’t good about you? Why were all these kids coming to you because I, my daughter has been in many different dance classes. And you’re lucky if you get into double figures. There’s normally one or two players that look like they’re going to be doing it professionally and others that look like them. They just going there because their mom and dad’s put them there. So how did you get back from going into 203? Hundred? This? This is an empire. Yeah.
Stacy Tuschl [18:08]
Right. And now we’re at a we’re over 900. So I mean, it is really growing and growing, and we will definitely reach over 1000 within the next I would say two years or so. But yeah, it is it is pretty crazy. And I think what I what I’m looking at, and what I can really take away from this is, we make sure that we really provide value, even though we are this big. I mean, we’re we are very large compared to other Performing Arts academies. However, we make sure that our people, our teachers, our employees, that there really is this connection with them, and they’re really going out of their way. It’s a way to reach out to these kids and make them feel, you know, like they are seeing that they are heard and they’re not just a number that they really are one of the dancers and part of our team. So I just think that we’ve always been that way and we’ve always really cared about these students and had them feel like a family. I think when you when people see that, and they feel that and they realise how much you’re giving them, then it is worth it to come back year after year because you want to be included in that. And we’re the most expensive in our area, and we are the largest. So I think that really does say something about the products we’re putting out there.
David Ralph [19:18]
Well, let’s play some words. Now then we’re gonna delve back into this because this this empire of with advancing kids going across Wisconsin, it’s beyond belief. Here’s Jim Carrey.
Jim Carrey [19:28]
My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn’t believe that that was possible for him. And so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job. And our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want. So you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.
David Ralph [19:55]
So all those words that you would live by now, I like the kind of words that you will Get your kids to listen to.
Stacy Tuschl [20:02]
Yes, absolutely. And I love that you bring up the kids because for me, I would love nothing more for them to want to become an entrepreneur, but I don’t want to make them or put that in their heads. I want them to see the lifestyle we’re living and how I’m able to be at things for them. And I don’t miss that kind of stuff. And I want them to want that for themselves. I mean, that that is one of my biggest hopes is that they see it and know that that’s the lifestyle they want to live as well.
David Ralph [20:28]
No, I agree. I’ve got kids, three of them have grown up. The last two are going through what you call high school now 14 and 11. And so they’ve got you know, education, they’ve got exams to take, and I want them to do really well. But I also kind of go, Oh, it’s more important what you do when you get out on the street afterwards, you know, and I kind of have to hold myself back because I don’t really want them to go the route that I did and just walk into a bank and get a job in an insurance company. I want them to be creative because I totally Believe. But if you put that three years in or four years in or whatever, you can create something that can never be taken away from you.
Stacy Tuschl [21:09]
Yeah, I agree. 100%. And, you know, they always do say that entrepreneurship is so risky, but really like, I mean, like the Jim Carrey story, you think you have this safe, secure job, and then you’re laid off. And it’s really, that’s a really risky choice, because they usually only have, you know, one job at one location, and that’s where they’re working. So when they’re laid off, all of their other income is shut off. There’s nothing else coming in. So for me, I don’t just have one source of income. I actually have a couple different businesses and other real estate and investments coming in. So my eggs are not in one basket.
David Ralph [21:44]
It is madness, isn’t it, Stacy, it’s totally madness, how the whole world looks for the job for life where quite frankly, it’s not there anymore. The only job for life is one that you can create yourself and I can see it and hopefully through these nearly 800 episodes. We’ve recorded and released, people are going to start getting the understanding of it’s not going to happen overnight. Even if you see these gurus that say, buy my product and press this button, and within six weeks, you’re going to be making six figures. I always say six figures. It’s not going to take it’s not going to be an easy route to it, but it’s doable. It’s not just doable. It’s highly doable if you’ve got a passion
Stacy Tuschl [22:23]
Yeah, absolutely. I 100% agree and and that’s the thing you have to have that passion. So I want my kids to grow up and really find something that they love to do. And then I want to help them really make money with that and figure out how they can make that into their career.
David Ralph [22:39]
So if I come up to you and they came with a really bizarre that they wanted to be an underwater knitter or something like that. So what do you got? Well, I believe that you can create anything that’s a business as long as the passions bear or would you go No, hang on kids, that that’s lunacy even be you. It’s lunacy, how would you advise them?
Stacy Tuschl [23:02]
Well, even if they were my kids or my clients, when anybody comes to me with an idea or things that they want to do, we always do a competitor, a SWOT analysis where, you know, you’re looking at the strengths, the weaknesses, the opportunities, the threats here, and one of the things is you need to make sure that there’s a need in the market, right? So if it’s so crazy, and so out there, does anybody even want it? That’s something that we have to figure out.
David Ralph [23:27]
And did you do that with your dance troupe? I can’t imagine you did you just ploughed into
Stacy Tuschl [23:32]
No, I just yeah, it was because it wasn’t going to I didn’t think it was going to be a business. So for me, this was just something fun.
David Ralph [23:39]
So going back in time, would you do that kind of thing?
Stacy Tuschl [23:44]
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I would if I had somebody, a coach or somebody there to help me do that. I absolutely would have worked through this and figure it out. Because there were things that I did those things, but years later, so it took a lot longer to hit those levels of success. I was looking for those milestones. Because I wasn’t aware of any of this stuff. I mean, it took me a little while to get educated to go to online events and to go to live conferences and read business books. And once that all started happening, my business just took off
David Ralph [24:16]
is astonishing. We hear this time and time again. And I’ve gone through a path where I was, it wasn’t frightened to go to conferences, but at the beginning, I was thinking, you know, these are their proper adults. These people know what they’re doing. I’m just kind of making it up as I go along. But once you do, and once you start connecting, it’s just a blueprint for success, isn’t it? Pay for a coach who’s been there beforehand, learn from their mistakes and steam through but people don’t do it because they basically bootstrap.
Stacy Tuschl [24:47]
Yeah, it was just in a Facebook group. And yesterday, somebody said, I’m thinking about maybe getting a coach, I’ve never had one before. Do you recommend it? And it was this overwhelming response of everybody saying yes, yes, yes. You knew to coach. I mean, I’ve had a business coach for the last 11 years. And I can’t imagine not having one. While I have a business. I mean, every time that I’m, you know, taking on new projects or new things where, okay, I’m reaching a different level of success, I still get a coach, I just maybe move to a different coach that can help me get to that point that I want to hit. So even the more and more successful I get, I still will have a coach, they will just be more and more successful as well.
David Ralph [25:26]
So how would you sell it to one of the listeners out here, they’re hearing this and they’ve got that credit card in their hand, but they don’t want to take a risk. They don’t want to go to me, they don’t want to go to you because they don’t know us from Adam. Really? How will somebody kind of test that coach to know that it’s right for them?
Stacy Tuschl [25:45]
Well, I think there’s so many ways right now. I mean, there’s so much free content out there that you can get to know somebody so quickly, watch their videos, listen to their podcasts, read their books. I have people that have heard me on it. podcast one time, that immediately go and reach out to me and sign up with me because they resonate with me. So I think that every single person out there has it has their own unique style of teaching and coaching and somebody will resonate with it and somebody will not. And it doesn’t matter because you don’t have to serve everybody. So I think if you find somebody that you really like listening to you really enjoy them, you’re resonating with them, they’re at a place where you want to be, that’s the type of person you hire.
David Ralph [26:33]
And when you got to that point in your career when the dance troupe is doing great, but you’re getting a bit bored, and you wanted a new challenge, was it a challenge that was there waiting for you I EV idea of actually coaching and training other ladies and gentlemen, I assume you do gentlemen as well to build businesses, or was it something that people kept on saying to you, you should be doing this? You should be doing that? Oh, I don’t know. I don’t know. Was it was it natural fit for you, or did you have to be pushed into it?
Stacy Tuschl [27:03]
Well, I actually had known for a long time that at some point I would want to be coaching. But I think it was a, it’s so funny because I still remember, I would always say, oh, when I’m 35, like that was just the number in my head. Because I started I was about 21, when I started going to coaches and conferences and things like that. So for me, I felt like when I’m 35, I’m gonna reach that level of success where I can start to teach other people what I’m doing. So it had been a really, really long time coming of me wanting to do it. And then already with my late 20s, people were coming to me and asking me, Hey, can I pick your brain? Can I take you to lunch? I would love somebody actually said I would love to pay you for a Skype consult, just to talk about how your business is this successful and what I can do to scale mine to be at that level. And that’s when I said okay, maybe I don’t need to wait as long as I was thinking, you know, people already asking me for it. I will Teaching I love. I was going to lunch with people all the time sharing free advice, because again, I just loved it so much that it was such a great fit for me. And it was fun and it was a challenge.
David Ralph [28:11]
Okay, so you got across that bridge, you’re giving the advice out for free, which is more about proving in your mind that you have value to offer. And that’s the journey that we all have to go through. Yes. When did you suddenly decide? No, actually, I’m going to start charging for this. And how did you choose your bigger?
Stacy Tuschl [28:30]
Well, I started I think about two years ago is when I really went, Okay, I’m doing this I started writing my book, I started figuring out what my message was going to be. When you’re talking about charging what you’re worth, that is something that you will evolve and as you evolve, your prices will raise. So just like in my brick and mortar business, you know, we kind of throw out a number and we started there. And as you started to fill up the classrooms and all of a sudden we’re having wait lists and things like that. You raise your rates. And that’s what I’ve been doing in the online space as well. So I actually came into the space and said, I sorted a little bit higher than somebody typically would, because I already had a lot of that business experience. Yeah. So I came in and said, Okay, I can’t give up my time for less than $200 an hour, because I was already making, you know, a pretty decent amount of money in my brick and mortar business. And I had to make sure I wasn’t just, you know, under valuing myself, because then you’re finding clients that don’t appreciate you either. So since then, my rates just have been increasing at the more and more people that sign up with me or the more and more times I get a waitlist or just you can tell that you’re reaching different people every time you change that price point.
David Ralph [29:44]
Well, absolutely. And you get the kind of people that really want to get their money’s worth. I hear it all the time where people basically go low, and they get the time wasters and they get the people that don’t even use the information. So it is it is common sense. I remember listening to an episode with Pat Flynn and Chris Ducker and he they had these guys these couples lined up who were having these successful businesses but they had no time. They had no time they were spending all their time with their clients. And literally every single one Chris Ducker just said, WI fi’s Wi Fi phase, and now we’re going well, but if we definitely have phase we will lose half our clients and you were saying, Yeah, but you’ll still be at the same amount of money, W Emmys and it was a real mindset that I had to go through and literally to a man and a woman I came back about six months later and they said you know, scary times we doubled it. We lost half of them, but we lost the rubbish ones. And then we filled it up with good stuff. I mean, it just seems logical doesn’t it Stacy but it is scary. It is scary times.
Stacy Tuschl [30:48]
It is and you know I have a story I can share with you. So I recently had a free community event for my brick and mortar business. And it was completely free. Just tonnes of things for kids to do. And I had One mom come up and actually say, Where do I buy the tickets for all of these things like she expected that everything she was seeing, there’s no way it could be free. Right? So she was blown away when we told her No, you can, you know, go in the bounce house, go do this, everything’s included. And then we had a same person come up or another person come up to us and say, Where is the rest of the things like what else is here, expecting so much more when it was a free event to begin with. So you could just tell the client we actually want to be working with us and the clients that we’re not going to waste our time on, when they’re expecting so much when they paid zero dollars.
David Ralph [31:39]
Well, let’s bring on a man now who left us with some amazing words and will always lead us to the last part of the episode.
Steve Jobs [31:46]
Steve Jobs. Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards. 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path. And that will make all the difference.
David Ralph [32:22]
So can you join up your dots, Stacey?
Stacy Tuschl [32:26]
That’s a really great, I don’t think I’ve ever heard Steve Jobs with that specific piece. So I’m interested that that that’s the one you picked. But yeah, that’s a really good point. I think when you’re looking ahead, yes, you have visions, and you have goals. But sometimes those things change and you evolve and all of a sudden, something you picked that you wanted to happen. It doesn’t exist anymore for you. It’s not something that’s on your vision board or in your mind that you want to accomplish. But yes, you know, looking back, you can figure out how this does all makes sense. And this does really lead you from one place to the next. But yes, there are these futures For me that I have on my vision board, and I have written goals, but that’s just something that you have to really figure out for yourself Make sense? And that it’s really something deep down that you actually want and that you actually want not that other people want for you.
David Ralph [33:16]
So do you have a big.in your life when you look back, and you can kind of go? Yeah, I think that was that was when stuff really started flying for me.
Stacy Tuschl [33:24]
For me, it was absolutely when I went to my first business conference, and that was back in 2006. And it was just eye opening. That was the day that I realised I have a business here. And it’s a real business that can make real money where I don’t have to get another job and have this be more of a hobby.
David Ralph [33:44]
And what was it that sort of changed your mindset for that conference? Was it the people that you met? Was it the presentations? What was it about it?
Stacy Tuschl [33:52]
I would say a little bit of both, but definitely the people that were there in that room with me, people that were making real income from it and they didn’t have another Job and mail and they left their business and the business was okay. Whereas I was there, you know, checking my phone all the time making sure that nobody else needed anything from me while I was gone, they had these self run businesses producing some amazing revenues. And they were so generous with that they were, you know, donating to charities and different communities and just giving back their time and their their money as well.
David Ralph [34:23]
Did you feel in place fair or out of place? Were you sort of looking around thinking they’ve got all the answers, and I’m just making it up.
Stacy Tuschl [34:31]
I felt like I was still so young and naive, but I definitely was out of place. But I think I was so inspired. I didn’t care. I was so excited to be there. And to know that that could be my future. It didn’t bother me that I was definitely the low man on the totem pole.
David Ralph [34:47]
And the interest with the vision boards now You seem to be somebody that is very action taking but vision boards have a kind of connection with the law of attraction and the kind of woowoo Do you believe into any of that? Or is it just purely focus, you can see what you want. So every morning you look at it and drives you forward.
Stacy Tuschl [35:09]
I think with a vision board, yes, it is absolutely me seeing it. It’s a remembrance, it’s motivation, it’s really inspiring for me to get to work and know what I’m working for. But I do believe in putting that out there and really manifesting your future and and whatever you you know, talk about and you you share your goals, your big beliefs, those things come back to you. And I do that all the time, because I really, truly believe you need to put it out there.
David Ralph [35:35]
And it is simply that isn’t it. I say this time and time again to everyone. Once you start taking action, it is amazing the miracles that happen and you can put it down to anything you can put it down to the universe joining up, but it’s just it’s only happened because you’ve gone out there and you’ve done it and the more conversations you have with people, the more people that they can connect you with and then you get things come into your email and you think oh my god, how did this happen? But it’s all those little dots, those conversations that all join up.
Stacy Tuschl [36:04]
Mm hmm. Absolutely.
David Ralph [36:07]
I was very profound, Stacy, wasn’t it? I feel profound. I feel like I’m so profound. I’m gonna bring it to the end because this is a bit of the show that we’ve been leading up to. And this is the bit we call it a sermon on the mic when we send you back in time to have a one on one with your younger self. And if you could go back in time and speak to young Stacy, what age would you choose and what advice would you give? Well, we’re going to find out because we’re going to play the theme tune and when it fades you up. This is the Sermon on the mind.
Unknown Speaker [36:41]
We go with the best bit of the show.
Stacy Tuschl [37:00]
I would go back to my younger self at the age of 18. And I would I picked that moment because for me, that was a, that could have been a much bigger turning point. And it could have been, it could have fast tracked me a little bit more. So I would tell my younger self to look at what’s out there, and you have the entire world and all of these opportunities. And don’t don’t overlook certain things because I didn’t realise that I could be building this passion into a business at that age. And I was so focused on just getting through school to get that degree to get that real job when the real job was sitting in front of me all of the time. And I really would love to say, you know, get out of your comfort zone, do things that might feel a little risky or scary, but now’s the time I was. I was a young child living in my parents home still. That’s the time when you can take risks, and you don’t have a family to think about our little ones at home. So really dream big and go for it at that young Ah,
David Ralph [38:01]
and would you give the advice of buy a Data Loader grass seed? Would you? Would you give advice?
Stacy Tuschl [38:07]
Yes, I absolutely would. And you know what I would definitely say to to really be grateful and understand the people that are in the, you know, backing you in that corner or backing you in your corner, helping you supporting you, motivating you, because those are the people that are going to give you the strength when you don’t have that strength to want to move forward.
David Ralph [38:27]
Absolutely. Well, Stacy, what’s the number one best way that our audience can connect with you?
Stacy Tuschl [38:33]
Well, you can catch me on my podcast business rescue roadmap, or on my website, which is just Stacey social calm, and that’s SCYTU s ch l. I know that’s a little bit difficult to spell. But those are just really the two best ways. I love. I’m on Facebook, a tonne. I have a Facebook group, a private group of over 400 entrepreneurs looking to take their business to that next level. And that’s that level up tribe.com
David Ralph [39:00]
We’ll have all the links on the show notes. Stacey, thank you so much for spending time with us today, joining up those dots. Please come back again when you have more dots to join up, because I do believe that by joining up the dots and connecting our past is the best way to build our futures. Stacey tissue. Thank you so much.
Stacy Tuschl [39:16]
Oh, David, thank you so much. I appreciate being here today.
David Ralph [39:21]
So she started a business and it was just built on passion for years in the backyard working on something until she realised Hey, this is popular. And could you do that? Could you give up four years of your life Where’s a lot easier when you have found something that you like doing because the hobby becomes a business and so on so forth. But it is a difficult thing to find that so you need to look into yourself and ask your friends and family. What do I like doing? What What can I bring to the table? What’s my super talent, and once you find that more often than not, there’s a kind of business attached to it somehow. Thank you so much for listening to Join Up Dots. I am enjoying this, you know I am I’m never gonna give up. I’m never gonna get this up. I’m never gonna let it go. So no. See you again soon. Cheers. Bye bye.
Outro [40:09]
David doesn’t want you to become a faded version of the brilliant self you or wants to become. So he’s put together an amazing guide for you called the eight pieces of advice that every successful entrepreneur practices, including the two that changed his life. Head over to Join Up dots.com to download this amazing guide for free and we’ll see you tomorrow on Join Up Dots.
