Navigating the Challenges of Brick and Mortar Businesses: A Discussion with JoJo Struebing

EP 62 - Navigating the Challenges of Brick and Mortar Businesses: A Discussion with JoJo Struebing

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And welcome back to the Ask Ralph show. Today, we've got a very special guest. Her name is Jojo Struebing and welcome to the show, Jojo.

Thanks, Ralph. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be on today.

Excellent. Well, we appreciate you being here. I want you to talk a little bit about what you do. We had a little bit of a pre interview and you mentioned that you really have two distinct businesses.

Do you want to talk about those?

Yeah, happy to.

So six years ago, my husband and I dove into the world of brick and mortar business. [00:01:00] We opened a CBD franchise, but that evolved into a wellness center, which is called Altered States Wellness. We specialize in float therapy. And through that experience, we realized that brick and mortar business owners need a lot of help and resources that are not out there today.

And so we started a consulting and coaching business called Brick and Mortar, where we Help people get started in the world of brick and mortar business. So, um, it's been really fun and awesome to kind of do both, see both sides of that business there.

So you mentioned the word float therapy. You're going to have to let me know what that means.

Yeah. Yeah. Not too many people are familiar. That's a, we definitely do a lot of education, but so float therapy. Also known as like sensory deprivation float therapy is typically in a cabin like a large cabin filled with salt water. So there's like a thousand pounds of epsom salt in about 11 inches deep [00:02:00]water and you float effortlessly on top of the water.

So you get this nice zero gravity effect where people get a lot of relief from things like pain or spinal issues, and then you soak up all that magnesium. So it's really great for like stress relief and really just an overall like fast track to meditating. I find that, when you cut out all those distractions like that, we constantly have our cell phones and our computers and our kids yelling in the background, and you don't have that anymore.

You're really able to just recenter yourself and focus on you. it's a really neat service. If you have a place near you, I highly recommend checking it out.

So not, not to change the subject, but it kind of sounds like, I don't know if you've ever seen this series stranger things. Yes. It seems to me like there was something like that in stranger things, if I'm thinking about it correctly.

Yes.

Yes. It's not as, scary as sometimes, they make it seem in the shows, but yes, you're right. There was a float tank in stranger things. There was so, but there are a little, ours are a lot larger than that one. So not as cool, no, [00:03:00]

that's very cool. Now how would people reach you? Do you have a website for that business?

Yeah. it's called altered states wellness. we are actually franchising that business now. So we're hoping to be all opening more locations all across the U S.

excellent. And I'll put in our show notes today, a link so people can go to that and take a look.

Now you also mentioned the brick and mortar Academy.

So let's, I've got a few questions to ask you about that based on your profile. You said you work in the typical corporate job and you, then you decided to go off on your own. So let's talk a little bit about that.

So what led you to do that?

Yeah. So right out of college, I started in the tech sales world, started at Hewlett Packard.

It was like. Boiler room style sales hitting the phones all day. and then kind of worked my way up there, then got an opportunity at Microsoft, which was an awesome opportunity. continue to move up on the sales ladder and kind of just hit this point where I realized I wasn't as excited about what I was doing every day [00:04:00] anymore and really wanted to, kind of dabble in the world of entrepreneurship.

I, I had this like strong desire to go see what that was like. that's when we found, the franchise that we've opened our first one. And, once we opened one location, it quickly turned into three locations and we were just off to the races there. And I loved it. I, definitely found a lot more.

Fulfillment through that that I was finding in the corporate world. And, yeah, it's just been, the rest is history from

there.

Clients that have taken a franchise route and that's not an easy route to take because sometimes I don't think you realize just what you're getting into. Did you find that to be the same situation?

Yeah, so we, we did go with a franchise and it was a very low cost to entry, uh, franchise, which was great, but the support definitely resembled that. So, yeah, we found that we weren't getting any resources and help. We had no guidance. we weren't having anyone tell us what not to do or even what to do for that matter.

So, [00:05:00] yeah, after, a year in, we were like, man, Okay. we're stuck in this five year contract and we're not sure, what we're going to do.

 yeah, that's really what prompted us to start Brick and Mortar Academy, which is like our step by step program that walks you through everything you need to know, from idea all the way to grand opening on how to get started opening a business because there's so many resources out there for like online businesses or, People that are in specific trades, but just overall on things like how to find a location or how to design your store, how to place products or where to put your sales desk, things like that, how to host a grand opening.

There's not a lot of resources, so that's what our academy is. And we get to work with all kinds of different product and service based business owners on opening their business.

And I know you mentioned in our pre interview that you struggled even setting up the entity to beginning. You want to talk a little bit about that?

Yeah. in the beginning, I, I just didn't know what I didn't know. And I, [00:06:00] like I said, our franchise was not, very supportive and, So I wound up setting up our LLC and didn't know, how to set it up, were we an S corp, were we a C corp, what were we, and, we actually wound up messing up and putting some things in our name that we shouldn't have, and so we had to go back and redo it all, and it just set us all.

Way far back on as far as like getting our banking and things like that. we had to be really cautious about what we put in our name because we were a CBD store and we had, so we put CBD in the name and we realized we shouldn't have done that because of the banking issues. And, it was a mess. So yeah, it was, we needed a lot more help than we had at the

time.

Yeah. and I deal with clients routinely cause we set up LLCs, S corps, and I always say to clients, it's all about starting with a strong foundation. And, a lot of people don't want to put the money out to do that, but you really need to meet with people and surround yourself with people who've been down that road before.

And it sounds like that's what the Brick and Mortar Academy is all about.

 Yes, absolutely. Yeah. the thing with brick and mortar [00:07:00] business is You're committing to something long term, right? You really got like a five year lease or you're purchasing a commercial property. And if you make that decision and choose the wrong location, that's going to affect you for a really long time.

 those decisions are big ones in the beginning and you need to help, like you said.

So tell me about your process. What do you go through? How would somebody, enter into that academy and what does that process look like?

Yeah, great question. So the academy, the great part is it's all online.

We first started working with people in person. We realized we couldn't reach that many people that way. it is an online program. It's self paced where you get to watch the trainings as quickly as you want, or you can go as slow as you want, but we also have a, in person kind of coaching portion where every month we do live Q and a, so come ask your questions.

If you're stuck somewhere or getting challenged somewhere, we can come, give you some feedback and get you unstuck there. And we also have guest speakers. So people like yourself, Ralph, that are experts in certain areas will bring them in to provide their expertise. So we are there to support. You, for six months, with that [00:08:00] life coaching portion, but you get lifetime access to the live trainings to go back to anytime you need.

Excellent. And what do you charge for that service

 Yeah. So we do, typically to join the academy, it's four 97. we do promotions, everyone's interesting

number. Where did you come up with $497?

Yeah, that's a good question. We, just looked at what other online programs that were similar were out there.

 we do have, like a one on one portion that you can add on if you want more of those one on one sessions. But yeah, 497 and you get access to the program. We also do like payment programs and things like that. So

take me through the process. So Jojo, I decide today, look, I'm tired of the nine to five.

It's time to start thinking about doing something else.

 where does that process start with you folks?

 Yeah. if you, you can enroll in the academy at any time, we keep that open for you to enroll typically. And yeah, if you go through the trainings, we literally provide you every step you need to take from, where you need to start with your legal [00:09:00] documents to how to create a business plan.

To how to go about finding a location, negotiating that lease, what you need to do for your buildout, how to work with contractors. every step of that process, we show you how to start marketing your business and everything under the sun there.

And you really keyed into it. a lot of my clients have said to me, Ralph, it's the things that I don't know that hurt me.

And it's almost impossible to tell them what you don't know. And that's why I always say when I start with a new client, I said, have a good accountant, have a good attorney, have a good insurance agent. And I guess, if you're going to do the brick and mortar, a good realtor. Someone that can work with you directly.

What else would you add to that? Yeah,

 I definitely say like a coach like ourselves, that can kind of coach you on how to bring all those things together. but yeah, and then, don't forget about the marketing aspect. The worst thing you can do is get the doors of your business open and you haven't done any marketing.

 so it's definitely something you want to have a strategy around and start early before you're even

open. And that, that is sometimes contrary to most [00:10:00] people, because what I find is a lot of people going into business are task oriented. They're people who understand how to do a particular task. And then you drop them into SEO and you drop them into email marketing campaigns.

You talk to them about leases and build out and all that, and they just get lost in the shuffle. So it sounds like your academy kind of walks them through from beginning to end and helping them out with that process.

Yeah. It's really nice. in the beginning it was like, I had a million things on this to do list, but I didn't know what order to do them in or when to do them or when to start doing something.

And so, yeah, it's so nice to have just a process laid out for you. Do this before you do that kind of thing. So you're not running around just, spinning your wheels everywhere.

So did you and your husband record all of these videos as a, like an on demand type of training system?

 Yeah. We did.

We did. It took a lot longer than we thought, but now that they're there, they are available and so it's a really nice way to just, have that training out there and available for anybody to access.

So Jojo, here's a tough question for you. So you [00:11:00] work with somebody that has an idea. There's a concept there.

And then you help them do their business plan and the business plan just doesn't make sense. how do you deal with that? what is your advice to that person? how do you broach that?

Yeah. So our first module is all about validating your business idea specifically for brick and mortar business, because a lot of people, Don't think about these things like you can't just sell a product in a store anymore.

It's just not enough to compete online. And for us, it's really about offering an experience in your store. we help you kind of validate what is that experience going to be like? Are you even thinking about that experience or are you only thinking about, your product or service offering?

So I think that, Any idea can be evolved into an experience that is right for brick and mortar. oftentimes the only time I really see an idea that just isn't good, it would be based on the location they're looking at. Like that market just doesn't support it. And that kind of thing.

 you went right to where I was going. So what do [00:12:00] you consider X. Experiential retail, retail, I guess is the right word. And why do you see that's being so important? And I'll say this. I use a massage therapist once a week and she's been talking about getting involved in the salt rooms, I guess for lack of a better term, Himalayan salt.

So, but it sounds like it's an experiencing. So talk about that right now.

Yeah. when you think about an experience like what drives people to get up off of their couch and go to an actual physical storefront, it's usually because they're going to do something there. Like they're going to feel something, they're going to taste something, they're going to touch something, smell something, or learn something while they're there.

 a lot of times it's just so easy for us to click that button on, Amazon and order something or even if you are getting a service. there's so many service based businesses out there. Like, how are you going to compete to the one like your massage lady? How is she going to compete with the massage person across the street?

Right. So really thinking about from the minute you walk through the door, what is the experience like, are you walking into, [00:13:00] calming smells that are, promoting that. sense of calm that you want to get while you get your massage? Are getting treated, with that amazing customer service?

Do you get to taste test things, sample things, or, co create something like what are you doing and how is that experience? Typically with our clients, we'll have them choose one feeling that you want your customer to feel when you go in the store and every decision. That you make based on what colors you design the store with based on what products or services you offer has to, help promote that one feeling, right?

So when you think about experiential retail, it's like, how does, do you want that customer to feel when they leave your business?

 Yeah, and you're absolutely right. I think a lot of people don't realize I was meeting with a client this past weekend They have a typical, retail store and I say, you know How are you competing with the amazons of this world?

Because the truth is you don't have the economies of scale to do it Yeah, it's true. You don't and that's tough, and that's the thing I [00:14:00] don't think people realize is you're gonna have to you know, create a niche for yourself And I think that's what you're saying with this, experiential retail is it's creating a niche

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. And it's more taking your product, more of a premium, service or a product, right? Because they're coming in to do something almost rather than, just make a purchase or a transaction.

Yeah. It takes it away from being a commodity to an experience. Yes, exactly. You mentioned a few minutes ago about, somebody validating their business idea.

So how does that happen? what do you recommend for that? How does somebody validate their brick and mortar idea?

Yeah. So we typically teach like a four part framework for that, where you take a look at your market, your specific location. see what is already out there as far as like your competition.

 and see if there's an actual need if your demographic is within that market. we tell people to take a look at their industry. Is that industry projected to grow? Is it, what is that, Yeah. [00:15:00] Projections look like, and then we have people take a look at their excitement factors as a business.

You actually want to be doing, when I think about five years from now, am I still going to be excited to wake up and go run my float therapy business? Like you gotta think about these things. and then lastly is, your knowledge and expertise in the area.

So, yeah, because it's so easy to get burnout, and being a small business owner, you wear all the hats.

 and that's the complicated part. And I, I deal with clients every day to talk about that, Ralph, I'm just burned out of this, and that is difficult. And I'm sure you're seeing the same thing in your coaching business.

Oh, yes. Yeah. people, it's one of those things that first year you're so excited and then a year in, if you're still running the business every single day, 12 hour days, like that is not setting yourself up for success.

 you've got to learn how to, find the right team and set up the right, processes and procedures to where you're not stuck in that business because like you said, you'll get to that burnout and that's not a [00:16:00] fun place to be.

Yeah.

And right now it is so difficult. I hear this from my clients every day to find employees, to find team members.

Are you feeling the same thing?

Yes. Yes. We're definitely seeing that we got so lucky. with our last employee, she has been phenomenal. But before that we, we had a rough patch of, yeah, it was very difficult to find the right, People for

sure. Yes. A different culture right now. I'm 51 years old and I just feel like things have changed a lot.

I think COVID had a lot to do with that and that had been difficult in an experience based business to get through COVID. How did you do that?

Oh man. Yeah, it was difficult. And it was really hard on brick and mortar business owners. Ton of businesses did not make it. And luckily I'm based in Texas where the restrictions weren't

to the free state of Texas, my oldest son's in the coast guard in a free state of Texas.

So there you go. That's a good place. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah. So it was, we were able to be open, just more restrictions on like how many people in the door. we sold a lot of [00:17:00] products. We did shut down our services, but, we were luckily able to, say, stay alive with the product based side

of the business.

You were able to pivot, which is something I hope you teach in your academy is you have to be ready to pivot.

Oh yeah, absolutely. and that's the nice thing about brick and mortar business is once you're there you can pivot pretty easily. Like you can change what products or service offerings you have in your business based on where things go and the latest trends, you can do that pretty easily with a physical storefront.

You just change what you offer in the store, right, .

So let's address the elephant in the room, and that is, you've got a great idea. You've got a. Validated business idea, but now how do you get the money to do it? Yeah.

Yeah, that's a tough part I mean because with brick and mortar business the upfront cost is much higher than if you're you know Just trying to start an online business, right?

You've got a lot more expenses up front, but There are more ways to fund your business than a lot of people realize and there are financial institutions [00:18:00] We partner with a ton of them that Work with people that to provide loans and business lines of credits or equipment financing and things of that nature.

And it's out there. You just got to find the right people, and get those introductions to the right people to get those. and one of the biggest things that I tell people is when you're budgeting your startup budget is you got to start simple and you can get fancy later. Like I look at some of these people's, Sort up budgets and they are just astronomical, they want the marble countertops and the really nice hardwood floors.

And it's we don't need to go that extravagant from day one. You can always evolve and add things, but, the simpler, the better you can start simple and, and grow with your business.

Yeah, the old adage, if you build it, they will come, sounds good, but when you're talking to the bank about giving you a loan and they're looking at your pro forma financial statements, for those that don't know what pro forma means, basically your perspective financial statements, and you can't show them that they're going to be able to pay this loan.

Yeah. You got to cut back and you got to start on [00:19:00] the lean side. That's for sure. Yeah. Yeah,

absolutely. Yes. Yeah.

You don't need all the fancy bells and whistles to get started. You really don't.

So now we've got the business plan. We've got the business up and running. Tell me about what you advise as far as seeking out a location.

Yeah,

location is so important. And we made that mistake on our first business. We did not choose the right location. And when we opened our second and third, we really chose like much better locations. And we saw how quickly those businesses took off compared to the first one. And I can tell you tenfold, like Really take your time and be patient finding the right location.

You want it to be as visible as possible. You want to put it where the people are, right? So where are those high traffic locations in your city or town? Where are people walking or driving by, think of your storefront as a billboard and how many people are going to see it. that's what you need to be thinking about.

You need to go to those high traffic

areas. Yeah. And see, that's counterintuitive to the whole financial side, because what you've got to tell [00:20:00] people is, listen, yeah, I know you're trying to do this on a shoestring budget, but if you put your place on the wrong side of town, in a bad area or in a place that has zero traffic, it's just not going to work.

Kind of contradictory to what we were talking about a few minutes ago, but I think you're right. It's so important Yeah,

yeah.

Well, and I always tell people if You know spend more on that location you're going to be spending so much less on your marketing like If our location that is kind of hidden and hard to find like we spend Five times as much on marketing than we did for the ones where they were in a better location.

So it will even out in the long run. And you're just going to have so many more people through the doors of your business. It's an expense worth spending.

I'm going to ask you a question that I ask every client. And that is, what do you think is the most effective marketing technique? Oh,

that is a tough one.

 I I've got to say email marketing, I. Yeah,

I mean it's funny. I just released a podcast on that in the last [00:21:00] few days about email marketing because so many people don't understand the nuances to that and The regulations that come along with that, you can't just go out and spam people anymore You gotta pay attention to that.

So I would encourage people if you go to ask ralph podcast. com, you'll see a An episode out there that talks about email marketing, but not to interrupt you.

Sorry about that No, that sounds like a really good episode. I think yeah, it's it's a great it's been a great avenue for us. I think it's an area that brick and mortar business owners specifically don't lead with or think about enough but for us like anytime we run a sale or if we're having a slow day Or we just see our sales are down in general.

We will ramp up our email campaigns and it always results in, getting those regulars and customers back through the

doors. No. And you have to capture that information. What amazes me is how many clients don't capture their customers, email addresses, and then don't segregate them out because, you don't want to send the same email to a new customer as you're sending to a repeat customer, as you're sending to a loyal customer.

So it's not [00:22:00] just as simple as collecting that email. It's collecting it and segregating it. Would you agree with that?

Absolutely. Yeah. And we even like to, there's people that only come for the services and people that only come for the product. They don't want to hear about the other, most of the time.

So yes, segmenting is phenomenal.

All right. So we talked about what works in marketing.

Let's talk about what doesn't work, Jojo. What do you think are the things that just don't work in marketing anymore?

we found in the beginning, we invested a ton in direct mail. And for us, the ROI there just was not worth it.

 yeah, I don't know. I hear that a lot from other brick and mortar business owners. So I would just say in general. The mailers, the direct mail, or the, magazine ads just aren't as effective as they used

to be. Yeah, and it's funny because I think it depends on the industry. I have a client that has an HVAC business.

And for them, like the Clipper magazine, it works great. it's amazing how much of a return they get. But then other businesses, like my business, for example, my tax and accounting practice, Trying to do direct mail is a joke like it just doesn't work [00:23:00] and the scary part is Even email starting to turn that way because email has become so, you know spamified that yeah People just don't look at it so much and I'm just wondering what's going on down the road next, you know I know there's a ton of way to improve that, you know you can use AI tools and that sort of thing to improve those email things but Yeah, you're right.

These salespeople come in, trying to sell you a big, an ad in the Clipper magazine on what you guys have in Texas, but that's a big thing up here. But those direct mail things, and they do a great song and dance about, Oh, you're going to reach 1 million people and so many people are going to see it, but what is the actual penetration of where you actually get people to give you a call?

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I mean, it's just, it's not high, especially when you're talking about them coming to a physical storefront. I haven't seen great results.

All right.

So the next question is this, you've got your business established. You're in a good location. Things are going great. Then all of a sudden somebody figures out Jojo has a great idea.

So Ralph is going to set up the same business a couple of miles away. How do you deal [00:24:00] with that?

Oh, yes. So we had this happen to us. and it was my worst nightmare. That was my biggest fear. Like, oh, somebody's gonna do the same thing as us. And six months in, somebody literally walking distance across the street opened up, the same type of business.

But, You know, to be honest, I was so scared at first, but we kind of went to the drawing board. What do they do versus what do we do? What is their experience like versus what is our experience? And, we knew we had something different. And so we really just honed in on what made us different and made sure that we made sure that.

Customers knew how we were different, and we really didn't see it affect us. And so that's my biggest piece of advice for people that are worried about competition because competition is going to come, if, especially if you're doing something successful and well, like they're going to try to follow in your footsteps, but, really hone in on what makes you different.

And, sometimes that has to evolve when competition comes in, we have to continue to [00:25:00] make sure you're Differentiating yourself. Sorry. No, you're right. And I

always say to clients, maintain your core competencies because it's so easy to get distracted and do things that aren't in your core competencies.

And the other thing I tell every client, I don't care what kind of business you have. It's all about the relationship. And if you can build a relationship with your customers, with the people you provide services for, that is the best advertising you can have.

Yes. Yeah. And people are really loyal. I've found that over the years, like we have customers have been coming in for six plus years and they'll just stop by to say hello.

And yeah, those relationships they built and they're so strong and they become your advocates and out in the community. And so never underestimate the power of those, you know, those relationships.

So we mentioned budgeting a little while ago, and I'll tell you what I have found and I'm going to see if you agree, most people's budget have no concept of what the real costs are going to be.

And usually, and let's talk specifically about a build out. I think this is a good area to discuss. Most people don't know what you, what it [00:26:00] means when you get a, a vanilla shell. So vanilla shell, basically you rent a space. The landlord gives you a vanilla shell. you got four white walls and that's what you got.

And a lot of people don't realize it. What does that. What does that really look like for the build out? So have you had some experience in that area as well? Yeah,

yeah, definitely. I mean, when you get those white box units, like you said, you're talking about plumbing, you're talking about electrical, you got drywall, you've got the whole shebang.

And That stuff can add up and that is the most expensive part. Most of the time for brick and mortar business owners getting started. And, that's why we typically advocate to go look for those second generation units, which are, you know, units where somebody has already been in there. They're already built out.

They already have the plumbing and the electrical. You don't have to do that. And so if you can find something that's structurally similar to what you need, maybe you have to take one or two walls down. Like that's going to benefit you so much in the long run. Especially right now, I have a student that just got a build out quote and it was 300, 000.

And it was for a similar, [00:27:00] like a wellness based business and, only 1, 500 square feet. Like, that's crazy. yeah, the more you can do to lower those build out costs, if you can find those second generation units, you're going to spend a lot less. far less, on those buildouts. But the other option too is to go get your landlord to cover those expenses.

A lot of times they will offset some of those costs. I typically don't see it being the full cost of those buildouts, but you can typically get that expense covered partially.

Yeah, my experience is at least a landlord will add it to the rent and amortize that over the life of the rent. And especially if you're looking at doing an extended lease, a five year lease, you don't get as much.

If you go to a 10 year, you might get more of those things thrown in. That's for sure.

For sure. Yeah. You have a lot more negotiation power with those longer

leases.

And that brings up a good term, negotiation. A lot of people don't realize until they're their own small business person, just how much negotiation there really is.

Would you agree with

that? Oh, man. Yes. Yeah. I think that was something I had to learn myself. It was like, oh man, [00:28:00] you know, I'm in all these tough positions and a lot of times I didn't even know what I could negotiate or should be negotiating. So yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

And it's an eyeopening experience being a small business owner.

I tell clients all the time, you're going to work more hours. You're going to work harder than you've ever worked and you're going to make less money at first. Yeah, that's just true. I mean, if you think you're going to go, I had a client a few years back, she had a doggie daycare and I remember when I met, went to meet with her on site and I don't usually do that, but I said, okay, it was a referral, a friend of a friend type of thing.

And the first thing she said to me, she says, Ralph, I can't find anybody to run my business. Wow. And I said, well, there's your first problem because no one is going to have the passion, the heart, the spirit for it that you have. And if you think you're going to find somebody that's going to take your business and run with it You've lost your mind and sure enough in six months She was out of business because her mentality was well, you know I'm gonna build this so somebody else can run it and I can sit at home and eat bonbons and lay on [00:29:00] the couch Yeah,

no, no that's I am I could I see that I see it because if I Look at my businesses and think I could just hand it over.

I mean, that would be, yeah, I mean, nobody's, nobody's going to work as hard as you, nobody's going to, you know, be that visionary that I think so many entrepreneurs are and, um, yeah.

Yeah, that's it's not for people with weak stomachs. I interviewed a guy. His name is, Brendan Steiner and he's a sports memorabilia guy.

And he, we talked about this on our interview a couple of weeks ago and he said, look, if you're going to be an entrepreneur, it's not for everybody. some people need to work the nine to five cause they just don't have the fortitude to do it. That's for sure. Yeah,

absolutely. Yeah. We see those people all the time that think we're crazy for, our wild hours and we're always, My husband and I are kind of always talking business and, that's the one, caveat of being in business with your husband.

But, yeah, I mean, there's people that just don't get it and it's [00:30:00] just not for them. And then you see those people that are like so entrepreneur spirited and they want, they have that passion and desire to be in their business and working on their business. And yeah. I

Jojo you opened up the door.

So I'm going to go down it and you mentioned about working with your husband and This is not an easy thing And people that say to you that you're going to be a small business person to find work life balance or lying It doesn't work So how have you managed to make it work because i've seen so many unfortunate business marriage failures Because you can't disconnect, but how are you making it work?

Yeah, man. I mean, like you said, there really is no balance for us. The two of us, we don't have kids, yet. So I think that might be a different scenario. So at this point, like our business has been like our, our baby per se. So, um, you know, I mean, we both really, really enjoy what we do. He works more in the business.

Like. He's there at the wellness [00:31:00] center, whereas I'm more like the back end working on, all the administrative stuff. And so I think for us, finding those roles has been really helpful. I'm not like there at the business with him all day, every day, and he's not here telling me how to do payroll and things like that.

So I think really figuring out. What was our role within the business? And then like, now we know, okay, he's responsible for that. He's going to take care of that. and I don't step on his toes there. I think that's the only way we've been able to make it, work in our day to day.

No, and I think that makes sense. It's kind of like know where your space is and stay in your lane. Right.

Yes. Yes. For

sure. For sure. So I have a question for you. How many people have you encountered now that you've been in business for a while that says, you know what, JoJo, I'm going to pay my 497 and in six months I'm going to be a multimillionaire because I'm going to do everything you say and you're going to make this happen for me.

Yeah,

yeah. So we launched Brick and Mortar Academy, over the summer in June. So about six or seven months ago. and we have [00:32:00] about 37 students that have joined since then. So it's been awesome to see it grow and see more and more people. And it's really fun now because, you have people from all kinds of different industries that are there offering insight and advice and all over the country.

 That's really been fun. It's been awesome to see it grow and get to know all these

owners.

Has it become a community for you?

Yes, hugely a community. we have a like small Facebook group that we all, communicate in and every day people are in there, cheering each other on or sharing a struggle or a win and things like that.

And it's been awesome.

It's all about the community. I joined a group called the school of podcasting a couple months ago and a lot of people that do. Oh, it's fantastic. If you get a chance to join, I would highly recommend Dave Jackson is the owner of that. The head coach of that. And it's fantastic.

But the thing I like about it the most, and I think you're getting to this in your academy too, is the, the camaraderie, the community, you can bounce ideas off each other. Have you been able to foster that in your academy as well?

Yeah, I think we've just gotten there, in the [00:33:00] beginning with like five or so people, it was like, okay, but now we're at the point where, you know, with like over 30 people, we've got everybody's freely communicating and finding, feedback from other people necessary and giving feedback and yeah.

I'm with you. I love the community aspect. I'm in a community for digital course creators, and it's been everything for me to get this digital course created. So. Yeah.

And that's not easy work. I wrote two books over the last summer and I can, you know, that was difficult enough, but imagine doing digital stuff must be even more challenging.

Oh, I don't know. I don't know. The book writing, I think I'd have to say it would be more challenging for me.

 like you said, everybody has their strengths and weaknesses. we have things that we do good at and things that we don't do so good at. So it sounds like you and your husband are really come to a good place with that.

And I know you have a podcast. You want to talk about your podcast? Yes,

we do have a podcast for anyone that is aspiring or currently owns a brick and mortar business. It's called the receipt paper podcast. So I

thought that was a cool name, by the way. [00:34:00]

Oh, thank you. Yeah. We thought it was pretty clever.

We're like, ah, receipt paper. we're the only ones with receipt papers.

Yeah. And that's a bigger project than you thought, isn't it?

Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. But we really come to enjoy it. It's fun to, kind of sit down and look back at like our business and, share those like nuggets with people. And we've really learned to enjoy it.

Have

you seen some growth in your listenership? Yeah,

we have. Well, it was so cool. This, we did like, we do a launch, at the beginning of the year for the academy, where we do like a free bootcamp and, and then through that, we promote the academy and. This was the first time that we had people that had heard about us from our podcast.

And so that was cool. So it was like, they already knew us and, they were quoting things we said on the podcast and it was like, Oh wow, people are actually out there listening. yeah, that was really cool. So

would you say that podcasting is a way to get to marketing as well?

Yeah, yeah, [00:35:00] definitely, definitely for the digital course.

You know, we have talked about now, doing a podcast for our wellness center. So we're going to experiment with that and see if it, it also can help be a marketing channel for, local business. Because I think it could be at least for customers to kind of come learn about you and build a relationship with you before they come in.

 I think it will be an interesting project to see.

So I won't keep you too much longer. I'm just going to hit you with one more question.

Yeah, go for it What do you think the hardest part has been with the brick and mortar business? what's the most challenging and difficult part of it? Yeah,

I think still to this day the most challenging thing to get used to is like I say it's like a roller coaster.

 you just you have the busy seasons. You have the slow seasons. You can have, a great week in a rough week. And, I just, for me, I never get used to it. but, as much as you can prepare and plan, it's different, than being in that corporate world where everything's Pretty, pretty much the same.

So it's always changing. It keeps you on your toes [00:36:00] and, I've learned to love parts of it, but it's definitely, you have to have the right mindset for it for sure.

And you have to be willing to go outside your comfort zones. You can't stay in the box. Would you agree with that?

Absolutely. I mean, I was just telling my husband last night, like, okay, sales are like kind of plateaued.

We got, let's do something different. Let's, let's go figure out what's something new that we can do. yeah, always got to think outside the box.

And you

kid in on this, something I say this to clients all the time. You have to daily reinvent what you're doing. Yes, it's because if you stay stagnant the competition is going to take over

Yeah, yep.

 it's they're there and even when you don't know it. So Yeah

Jojo, thank you for joining me today I want to give you a moment to just Let us know where we can get in touch with you And like I said, I will put all these things in the show notes But if you want to take a moment to mention your stories and mention how people get in touch with you Go ahead and do that now Yeah,

thanks, Ralph.

I've really enjoyed the questions you've had today. But for any of you out there that want to learn more, you can [00:37:00] check us out at the receipt paper podcast. You can find that on any podcast provider that you listen to. And then if you go to masterbrickandmortar. com, that's where you can learn about the Academy and join us there.

Excellent.

 Well, Jojo, thanks for joining me today and I wish you all the success. I hope that things continue to improve and I hope the Academy takes off.

Thanks, Ralph. Appreciate it. You're welcome. You take care.

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