Entrepreneur

Ever Wonder Why You Keep Ignoring That Feeling?

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This morning, I found myself thinking about the quiet voice inside us all.

The one that says, “Do this,” even when logic tells you not to. Or the one that says, “Walk away,” even when everything looks shiny on the outside.

That voice isn’t loud or dramatic, but it carries an unshakable certainty. I call it my gut. You might call it intuition, inner knowing, divine download, or simply a feeling.

Yet most of us don’t listen.

We drown it out with spreadsheets, pros and cons lists, and everyone else’s opinions. We mute it under the constant noise of social media and the barrage of advice telling us how to live.

But your gut – that inner knowing – is rarely wrong. It may not guide you down the easiest path, but it will always lead you to the truest one.

That’s what I explored on my latest podcast episode. I shared stories about trusting my gut, ignoring it, and what happened each time. It’s honest, raw, and might remind you of your own moments of knowing. Or maybe it will just make you feel better about the craziness of your own life.

Over 62 years of building companies, coaching high performers, raising kids, loving deeply, and picking myself up over and over, I’ve learned:

Courage isn’t about fearlessness. It’s about doing the hard things despite the fear.

Trusting your gut is an act of courage. So is living a life that feels right instead of one that just looks right.

That’s why I created my Courage Formula Foundations program. Over the past few months, I’ve refined it with powerful frameworks, real-world practices, and a Field Guide & Journal to help you build unshakable courage, clarity, and self-trust.

Here’s what I believe:

  • You already have courage within you. It just needs to be activated.
  • You already know what you want and don’t want. You may just be afraid to admit it.
  • You already know what to do next. You’re just waiting for permission.

If your gut is whispering right now, pay attention. It might be saying, “This is your next step.”

So today, before your calendar takes over, ask yourself:

What is my gut telling me today?

Listen. Trust it. Act on it.

That’s where your courage lives.

Ready to build deeper self-trust and courage? Learn more about Courage Formula Foundations starting September 3 HERE

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When Success Stops Feeling Good: A Wake-Up Call for High Achievers

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There was a moment when I almost walked away from it all.

Not in a dramatic, burn-it-down kind of way.

More like a slow, quiet unraveling.

I was checking the boxes. Showing up. Growing my company. Hitting milestones.

And still feeling… nothing.

From the outside, it looked like success.

But inside, something was off. Not burnout. Not boredom. Just a persistent question I couldn’t shake:

Why am I still doing this?

It’s a hard thing to admit when you’re known as “the driver.”

The strategist. The doer. The woman who always finds a way.

But I wasn’t in love with the vision anymore.

And I was too attached to the hustle to say it out loud.

I realized I wasn’t just addicted to the pace. I was addicted to the identity that came with it.

The one where people constantly asked, “How do you do it all?”

The one where I felt valuable because I was busy, visible, and always in motion.

Letting go didn’t feel like an option—until it became the only option.

Here’s what finally made me shift:

I felt more excited about starting something new than growing what I had. My wins felt flat.

I started fantasizing about retirement. My body was tired, and I was ignoring it.

I didn’t know what I wanted, but I knew it wasn’t this

And yes, I’m talking about Red Barn Consulting.

The company I built from scratch. The one that supported my lifestyle and brought me so much pride.

Until suddenly, it didn’t.

This wasn’t a crisis. It was a call to realignment.

So I paused. I asked better questions.

Am I still building something I believe in?

Or am I holding on because I don’t know who I am without it?

No one teaches us how to evolve with grace. We’re taught to grind.

But the truth? Sometimes staying is the real mistake.

I didn’t burn it all down. I restructured.

I let go of clients who no longer fit.

I made space for new vision.

And I created something more honest and aligned.

The version of Red Barn I run today is completely different than the one I launched in 2012.

Because I let it grow as I grew.

This is the work behind The Courage Formula: Foundations.

It’s the program I created during my pivot. Twelve weeks. Ten individuals. Real conversations, deep clarity, and powerful realignment.

If this is hitting you where you live right now, you’re not alone.

You don’t have to carry what no longer fits.

You’re allowed to want something different.

It’s not giving up. It’s growing forward.

When Success Stops Feeling Good: A Wake-Up Call for High Achievers Read More »

experience

How’s your Customer’s Experience?

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Ah, the customer experience. When you are the customer, it’s very easy to describe your experience with a business – what you liked, what you didn’t like, what you wish they did differently or did more of – the list goes on. However, as a business owner or employee – trying to figure out your customer’s experience – and making sure it’s a good one – can be really hard.

Let’s first define what “Customer Experience” actually means – it’s the impression your customers have of your brand as a whole throughout all aspects of the buyer\’s journey. It results in their view of your brand and impacts factors related to your bottom-line including revenue.

The two primary touchpoints that create the customer experience are people and products/services. Positive customer experiences are crucial to the success of a business – not only do you get loyal customers, but they can also refer you more business! There is no better marketing than a customer who is willing to promote your business for you via word of mouth and is a brand advocate.

Creating an excellent customer experience is something that you should obsess over.

When it comes to purchasing products and services, it’s not the business owner who has the power, it’s the buyer. Why? Because customers not only have the internet at their fingertips to research anything and everything, but they have options – usually both locally and online when it comes to purchasing products or services.

It’s not about getting just ONE sale from a customer, it’s about creating sticky customers – repeat buyers. If you want customers to continue doing business with you, then you need to provide a remarkable experience and make them WANT to continue doing business with you.

 How to you measure your customer experience?

  1. Send surveys – Use customer satisfaction surveys on a regular basis, and at meaningful times through the customer journey – to get insights into your customers’ experiences with your brand, people, and product/service. This is where that Net Promoter Score comes in handy! Analyzing NPS from multiple touchpoints across the customer journey will tell you what you need to improve and where you\’re providing an excellent experience already while showing customers you\’re listening to them and care about what they have to say.
  2. Look at customer trends – Look at your churn rate. How often and how many one and done customers do you have – and why? You need to understand if your rate of churn is increasing or decreasing and why so you can prevent it from continuing. Is it a faulty product, is your time to perform service to long, is it a bad employee experience, did they move, etc.
  3. Look at your FAQs and support tickets/returns. If you are constantly being asked the same questions from customers, be proactive, and put more information on your website or in your brick and mortar to make their experience better. Are you getting a lot of return requests or service issues about certain products/services? You need to analyze all this information and distill how you can make a streamlined and enjoyable experience for customers.

Want to make a great customer experience? Make a customer journey map, create buyer personas, establish a positive connection with customers, ask for and act on feedback, create helpful content, and build a community.

How’s your Customer’s Experience? Read More »

Three P's

The Three P’s – Policy, Process, Procedure

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The Three P’s are kind of a big deal here at Red Barn. However, many people don’t quite understand what the difference is between a Policy, a Process, and a Procedure. In fact, many people use the terms interchangeably, and often incorrectly. Regardless of how you use them, it’s important to know that they are a vital part of your Operations. How can you hold yourself and your team accountable if you don’t have everything outlined, documented, and available?

Everything we do at work is governed by the Three P’s. Having unclear, undefined P’s is not so bad if you are a solopreneur, but if you have employees, vendors or contractors, and clients – you need clearly defined and documented P’s for everyone to follow.

So what do the Three P’s stand for?

The policy is the Rules and Standards that your company adheres to.

The process is the What, Who, and When.

The procedure is How and Where.

The Policy

Policies are at the top level of the Operational System. They state the principles by which your business will operate. You should aim to have a written Policy for every one of your business operations.

The Policy defines the RULES within which everyone involved in the activity will operate. It can also define minimum STANDARDS to be delivered. An example of a policy may be that the time clock is required to be used to document working hours – no handwritten time slips will be accepted.

The Process

The Process sits one level down from the Policy. It outlines how the rules and standards set by the Policy will be achieved by listing the tasks to be done, who does them, and when they do them.

The Process is the WHAT, WHO, and WHEN. An example of this would be that all hourly employees (who) are required to use the time clock to document their working hours (what) by punching in and out at the start and end of their shift and lunch breaks (when). Managers (who) are responsible for checking the timeclock log (what) on a daily basis (when) for missed punches.

This isn’t where all the details live. It’s simply just the tasks involved in the process. The process should make sure it covers all the rules and standards defined by the Policy. Not every Process needs to have a Procedure. The Procedure is where the details live, so if you need more information outlined than listed in the Process, spend a little more time documenting the Procedure for each task.

The Procedure

Procedures support the Process by defining exactly how you want each task to be executed.  It lists the step by steps tasks to complete the process. It captures the HOW the task is done and WHERE to find the resources to do the task.

The level of detail to put into your Procedures depends on your level of comfort, who will be doing the task, and any requirements based on your company’s industry and certifications – like manufacturing and ISO certifications require very detailed procedures.

In our example of using the time clock, for the hourly employees, we would detail how to use the timeclock – do they swipe a card or enter a code, what buttons do they need to push to get their punches to register, what is the process if they miss a punch, are their rules on how early or late they can punch in without discipline, etc. You must also outline the tasks for the Managers – how do they check the log, what do they do if an employee is too early or late, how do they record a missed punch, etc. Who do they contact if there are issues with the timeclock?

A Procedure addresses a single task performed by a single person, so it should be relatively succinct, but complete enough that the person doing the task does not need to ask questions.

You will note that the Procedure is strictly the set of steps, and where to find the resources needed to complete the task. There’s no When and there’s no Who because that information is in the Process. The Procedure is designed to be picked up and carried out by anyone assigned to the task.

Spending time documenting your Three P’s will result in improved efficiency, less confusion, and mistakes, and allow you to delegate tasks or onboard new employees faster. Overall, better operations mean happier customers.

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How to handle a Bad Review or Post on Social Media

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Working your brand on social media is GREAT until it isn’t – ugh, a bad review comes in.

As business owners we are all human, which means we make mistakes.  Perhaps we were late delivering on a promise, or a job we promised to be perfect ended up taking a wrong turn or we have an employee that does something inappropriate – it happens more often than we like, or think.

So what happens when the dirty laundry shows up on social media in the form of a bad review, a nasty-gram post, or the troll that just goes all out and posts everywhere how horrible you are.

Well there is a right way…and a terribly WRONG way to handle it.

  1. Own it. If you’ve done something wrong, if you have an unhappy customer just own it.  Don’t make excuses, don’t blame someone else. As the owner, it’s your role to take the hits 100% of the time.
  2. Understand that most unhappy customers just want to be validated and have you take ownership (see #1).
  3. Address the situation PUBLICALLY – so say, “Annie – I’m so terribly sorry you are upset and this happened to you, I’m sending you a private message now so we can get to the bottom of it”. Of course, pen the response according to the situation.
  4. Take it OFFLINE – you don’t want to get in a pissing match with someone in a Facebook feed. Take it off line – call them, email – whatever it takes.
  5. Get to the bottom of the issue – because we all know it could just be they were having a bad day and a minute little mishap has now turned into catastrophe! If you can – make amends.
  6. If you can fix things – ask them to kindly remove the post. It’s better if they do it versus you deleting it.

And more…..

What if they are a troll just trying to make your life miserable? Delete the post and block them.  That’s not to say they won’t find another place to vent. You can’t fix it all.

What about bad Google Reviews?  Unscrupulous competitors will leave negative fake reviews just to be jerks.  Even if it’s FAKE do the following:

  • Address the complaint and apologize for whatever they are complaining about
  • State you can’t seem to find them in your records as being a customer
  • Offer to fix whatever is the problem, give them contact information to whomever is the “fixer”
  • Flag or report the review as fraudulent

NOTE: *Even if you flagged the review, prospects and customers may still see it, or it may not be removed—this is why you ALWAYS respond.

 The big answer: RESPOND.  100% of the Time. 

 If you ignore or just delete, it’s only going to fuel the fire.  If you find yourself in a bad situation and the complaints are piling up – this of course is a bigger problem.  Turn off the review option on social media and watch Google, Yelp and other platforms like a hawk.  Be honest – “we are overwhelmed with orders and are doing our best to catch up” – etc.

In the end, negative reviews are usually overpowered by the GREAT ones! So It’s in your best interest to get as many 5 Stars as you can. So the best response to a negative response is not to have any in the first place.  Make sure you understand your customer journey, your staff is properly trained and your operations are in check.

Struggling?  Give us a call.  We won’t manage your negative press, but we will get you in tip-top shape!

How to handle a Bad Review or Post on Social Media Read More »

clients

How to Get the BEST Clients

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This month in our private  “The Thursday Club” we are diving into the Law of Attraction – think friends, clients, acquaintances, etc..  What you put forth, you attract. What you say, you become.

I’m coaching on how to create a personal brand that attracts the right people and clients into their inner circle.  Because you are who you surround yourself with – yes your Mama was right.

Here’s where many businesses go wrong – they think that brand trumps people.  When your brand excludes the people connection it becomes a commodity and then often the price is the point.  Not always – but often.

How to attract the BEST clients?  Be authentic.  Don’t fake it.  Be honest, be real and deliver on what you promise.

 Some stories…..

I’d like to share why I bought a Tiffin Motorhome. 

I did a bunch of research and found that it is a family-owned business, that customer service was their #1 priority and they stood by their word.

ALL of their marketing talks about it.

ALL of their social media screams to it.

ALL of their EMPLOYEES honor those values.

Their tag line is “Roughing it Smoothly” – it just sings to me.

They have Clubs and Get Togethers for Tiffin owners – and again they go above and beyond.

They charge a premium for their products, and I’m willing to pay that because I want to be able to pick up the phone and talk to Bob or Trent Tiffin if there is a problem.

Their brand is ALL about the people!  Their employees – their owners – their family. 

Not everyone cares about the level of customer service I do – some are more concerned about the price – and that’s ok!

Not everyone wants the RV I have – again that’s ok.

Tiffin Motorhomes is a prime example of using Attraction Marketing to woo people like me.

What they put forth – they attracted.  They think of all the little details and they have an avatar of ME in mind.

Now let’s take my company  Red Barn Consulting

 If you look at our marketing, what we put forth, who we are – we are very intentional.

We aren’t for everyone.  We know that.

We want to work with people who we like, who we can bring value to and who can afford us.

Jenn and I are not corporate, we are more country than city – and there isn’t a suit in either of our closets.  We go above and beyond to make sure our clients are happy and if you aren’t for us, we will let you know.

So if you attracting clients who aren’t a good fit and your “perfect client” eludes you – go back to your marketing and your messaging – there is something off.

Tell YOUR story – make it about people, not your logo.  You’ll see a shift.

How to Get the BEST Clients Read More »

improve sales

Improve your sales skills even if you aren’t in sales

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Sales, regardless if you are an actual salesperson or not, is just part of life and your career. Sales doesn’t always mean selling a product or service to a customer, in fact, you are probably giving sales pitches just about every day. That’s right, every time you pitch an idea, make a suggestion, or even go on a job interview, you are “pitching” yourself. So how can you improve your sales skills if you don’t pitch people often?

First off, selling kinda has a bad rap. You typically think of a sleazy used car salesperson, telemarketer, or door to door salesperson. But if you think about it, sales is really the most fundamental life skill. People think sales is pushing someone to buy something they don’t need, want, or can afford. But really, sales is moving someone to take action. And if you think about everything you did today, I’d bet quite a few of your actions involved selling. Am I right?

People are often uncomfortable with sales because they 1. Don’t understand it and 2. Can’t get past the used car salesman cliché. Selling is all about persuading, inspiring, and leading. It’s about collaboration and driving change. The best salespeople make you feel like the sale was your idea. Why? Because you trusted them, they had a genuine interest in your problem, they provided a solution that they knew would fix your problem. You wanted to buy from them.

People often buy for 2 reasons, to gain pleasure or avoid pain. Your job is to figure out which one it is. Sales really is about networking and listening to your customers. Find out who the decision-makers are, learn as much about them ahead of time as you can. When you talk to them take an empathic approach, one that focuses on understanding the other person and what they need. Serve, not sell.

What do the best salespeople have in common? They plan and practice. You wouldn’t show up to a golf tournament and expect to win having never swung a golf club in your life, right? The best in the biz have mentors and coaches who help them practice and make sure their conversation flows – they help them improve their delivery. Practice on friends, peers, coworkers, family, etc. until you get your pitch just right.

Making your “pitch” can be very nerve-wracking at times, but even with all that adrenaline flowing, it’s important to stay calm and not ramble. People don’t want to listen to someone drone on and on about how great something is. Selling should be a conversation, not a lecture.

A good salesperson knows when to fold ‘em and when to walk away. Yes, the late, great Kenny Rogers knew what he was talking about. Most salespeople hear no at least a few times before they make a sale, but they know when to press on, because that no is really a “not yet”, and when to throw in the towel. They are flexible and understand the path that their customer has to take in order to move forward.

Sales is a numbers game – it’s highly possible you will fail more than you succeed. However, it’s important that you don’t quit. You need courage and to always remember the long game. Sales is never rarely a one and done deal, and most times it’s actually not about you. If a customer is happy where they, they won’t get pleasure from buying and aren’t experiencing pain, then now is not the time. Check back in 3 months.

Have any great sales advice to add, we’d love to hear it! We also wrote a blog on increasing sales without a sales team, check it out.

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The Power of Flexible Work Schedules

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At the Red Barn, we have a standard 8-4 schedule, but we still consider it a flexible work schedule – meaning Jenn and I will typically log in to Skype around 8 am EST to connect and Jenn usually checks out around 4 pm to head to the gym but that’s about as structured as we get.

I learned early on in my career that my most productive and creative time is before the sun comes up.  (I’m writing this before 5 am)  I also know that by 2 pm on most days my brain is done for the day – mainly because I’m up at 4 and I’ve put in a good 8 hour day.  I try my best not to schedule meetings in the afternoon – but that doesn’t always happen because like any business I have customers and it’s important that I meet them where they need to be!

I know the productive times of my team and I let them work when they are in the zone and I surely don’t push them to do work when I know it will be a struggle – unless we are in an all hands on deck situation for a client.  PS – we try to avoid those moments but it happens!

Knowing your team is critical.  Knowing when they are productive is key if you want to run an efficient and effective ship.  This also includes watching for the “I need a mental health day” cues.  Everyone has a bad day or even a day when you just “can’t” for whatever reason – I just hone in on those cues and give my team the option to go home, quit early or run away from life for a few hours if that’s what they need to do.

In the end, I focus on getting GOOD work out the door – I really don’t care when that work gets done. I do care HOW it turns out.  I don’t care if someone wants to not work on Monday and would prefer to work on Sunday – I just need to know ahead of time.  I also don’t really care about the number of PTO days taken – in fact, I usually have to remind team members to take their vacation time.  Because I don’t hang PTO over their head and I only track it because I have to for HR reasons – the PTO time never gets abused.  Well, at least it hasn’t up to this point.

The flexible work schedule doesn’t work for every employee or for every business – but if you are open to trying it and seriously letting go of the corporate structure mindset – you just might be amazed at the results. Need an example – look at Microsoft – they had a 40% productivity boost when they switched to a 4 day work week.

Happy Employees = Happy Clients = Increased Revenues

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Social Media – Quality vs. Quantity

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Does even thinking about posting to social media stress you out? How many times to post, what to post, when to post, etc.? Are you putting content out just for the sake of putting content out on social media? Are your followers just not engaging and your audience isn’t growing? When it comes to social media posts, quality beats quantity every time.

The norm has always been that consumers expect companies to have content readily available to consume – blogs, social media, enewsletters, downloadable ebooks, white papers, etc. They still look for this type of content, however just having a large library of stuff isn’t enough – consumers want quality of resources from companies they do business with – not just fluff.

First, we need to back up and define what quality means to consumers – it’s targeted, more personalized, highly creative messaging. Content that is focused on better understanding and interacting with your clients. Even small brands can easily produce content that looks just as good as the big dogs.

When a prospect is looking to learn more about your company, yes, they will Google you and visit your website, but they will also look to see what social media channels you are on, the type of content that you post, and how long ago you posted. Just throwing posts up that your customers and prospects don’t care about is not going to help you engage with them. However, one good quality post on Facebook can do way better than five poor quality posts.

Some tips to posting high quality content are:

  • Photos – they don’t need to be done professionally, but make sure they are well lit, not blurred or grainy.
  • Videos – also need good lighting and good sound.
  • Sharing Blogs – need to be interesting and relevant topics but also have good spelling, punctuation and grammar. It should be around 500 words or more to keep readers on your website for longer which is a good SEO signal to Google.
  • Sharing 3rd Party Content – share content from reputable sources that don’t require signing up for memberships. Articles from newspapers, magazines, etc. are usually good sources
  • Your content – only 20% of your content should be around your business – if you are constantly pushing a sale people will unfollow you

I get asked a lot about the best times to post on social media. There is no concrete answer to this. You need to post when and where your audience is going to see your posts. Why post on Twitter if your audience is on Facebook? If your audience primarily engages in the mornings, don’t wait to post until the afternoon.

Don’t get hung up on the numbers. Many people will engage in campaigns to buy likes or followers. This might seem great in the short term, but these people are most likely not your ideal clients and will never engage with you. At the end of the day, your goal is to be seen as an expert, a trusted advisor, and of course to get traffic to your website as that is where the sale is. If your engagement is low, then ask yourself if it is the quality of the post or is that the content isn’t resonating with your audience.

When it comes to social media posts quality will always beat quantity. You aren’t Gary V or Jenna Kutcher – you don’t need to keep up with the quantity of posts that they put out daily – they have teams of people who do this for them. For the DIYers – just focus on the quality. That’s all you need to do.

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