Deborah Shane, founder of Train with Shane and The Metropolis Radio Show, is a master motivator and educator, whose passion it is to create and offer engaging and fun seminars and workshops, dynamic motivational speaking, customized corporate training programs and consulting programs. She takes the sales, marketing and motivational process and fundamentals and make them relevant with regard to your changing consumer, your new market environment and your business dynamics. We spoke about her work with entrepreneurs, the growing number of start-up businesses with women as their founders, her tips for social media use and how small businesses can best deal with the current economy.
You can listen in streaming on-demand at this link.
What are you doing and what are you most excited about?
I started my business in 2007 and I completely did not think about what was happening and what has challenging. I am excited about how my business is evolving and changing. The model I started out with was mostly sales and training and customer service. It has really evolved dramatically to a balance of in person training and now I am getting into more virtual products and services. I am expanding to other markets next year as well.
You said when you began your business you said you didn’t know things would become so much more challenging. I think that is a common theme when people start their business. Would you have started your business if you knew those challenges were waiting for you around the corner?
My particular business, I would answer yes. When I thought about what was happening, I knew professional development and education, skill upgrade and being able to function and navigate in a new mentality, temperament, market, and new business was going to be essential. I knew what I put together and what I could offer in this kind of scenario would be useful if I found where I could deliver it to people – where they had the most pain and need. I have been right on for the most part. As you know, I have developed some niches in this education process which is Women in Business and Career Transition. Two and one half years ago when I started my business, I saw this looming trend of laid off downsized white collar educated professionals who had become obsolete because there was no reason for them to keep their skills upgraded or for them to stay really relevant. They always thought they would be at these jobs for a really long time, but they woke up one morning to find they had been laid off.
What was the biggest most surprising challenge along your journey?
I think what always tends to surprise me is that I think I have a great idea and I think I know what people need, but it may not be what THEY need. It may be more of what I think they need. The first part of my developing content, I put out things I thought they absolutely needed, but they weren’t ready to say, “this is really something I need to jump on right now. “ I think people were really stunned. They wanted to see what was going to happen. I think sometimes we think we know what the answers are on behalf of others as opposed to what they actually need. I did a few things that didn’t actually work. At that time, I couldn’t figure out why they weren’t working, but it is what I thought they needed at that time.
11:10
Erika Andersen uses the term reasonable aspiration or hoped-for goal in her book, Being Strategic. What was your reasonable aspiration or hoped for goal in 2007 when you founded your business?
That’s a great question. And it’s an important question, I ask this question of people I council in career transition as well, the thing for me is I came from a career in a 30 year career in radio broadcast media, education, sales and marketing and promotion background and the thing when I moved to the west coast of Florida it was kind of a self imposed career and lifestyle change it wasn’t that I was forced to do it. It was time to do it. I saw the winds of change blowing in my industry, in my career and I thought, “oh it is time to go to the next part of the journey, not sure what it is but it will be revealed.”
I got an opportunity, it seemed good, but did not workout, it was not a good mutual fit.
So, there I was on a 2 month non-compete hiatus and didn’t know anybody and I didn’t know what to do next, but thought I would figure it out. One Thursday afternoon I remember this pretty clearly, I was sitting on my lanai and looking out at this forest view I have here. I kept asking myself this one question “what do you really want to do”. The reasonable aspiration was to take all of my skills, gifts and passions and put all that together into something I could do to continue my love of education training and mentoring.
Have you reached your hoped-for goal?
You know I think in life I don’t know that you ever reach your goals 100% I mean I think you keep working toward your goals and for me my goals continue to evolve and change as I do and as life and market conditions change. I will share this aha moment with you from last August and this was before the market, the banking industry completely fell off the face of the earth. I had been on a really good run with this business and I got to the end of the summer last year right around August and I had this series I did and it was a struggle to get people to come and support it. And I thought, okay I need to take a step back here and really reevaluate this whole thing, and again my instincts said not only is this a challenging year, I think some really challenging stuff is about to happen. I just felt it because when you are inside the business world, my brother is in the financial business and we talk a lot and he is pretty instinctual and so I sort of took a stance and said, here are my perfect scenario goals moving forward that I would like to see happen for myself personally and professionally. And there were 4-5 things I put in this master perfect plan last August and then looking at that plan in the last few months things have unfolded quite amazingly.
I have to say that, and not always in the time I wanted to, not always in the exact way that I wanted to. But all of these things I wanted to develop business outside of Southwest Florida, I wanted to get the publishing things done, and I wanted to get more virtual, all these things are now unfolding because I made plans, goals and I surrounded myself with awesome professionals who know more than I do in areas that I don’t know as much as they do.
That point you bring up, surrounding yourself with awesome people, is a key point. Why sometimes does that seem to be the biggest challenge for entrepreneurs, that they don’t always surround themselves with awesome people who know more than we do.
Great question – truthfully I think it’s fear and a little bit of ego that says, I don’t want them to know I don’t know this. One of my biggest caveats is that while I file, I don’t always file like I am supposed to – so I found someone who could use some part time hours and I hired this person to get my files and data management in order because I don’t always have the time to do that. I admit I don’t do a good job at that, but it is important to do keep yourself organized like that. I really think it is fear and ego and people are funny like that with all the phenomenal talent that is out there in all the areas now you and I have talked about this. Look at this virtual assistant thing, which is totally a function of this online marketing and virtual business and education out there. It is fantastic; these assistants are sitting in their jammies, working in their jammies doing all that work for you. So you don’t have to pay for gas and human capital you don’t have to pay for if you hired somebody, it’s phenomenal.
Now, let’s see. You list women in business first on your list of specialties and I regularly read articles of the growing numbers of women in the entrepreneur ranks, woman are starting twice as many businesses as men. Would you agree with that?
Those are the statistics: women are starting businesses 2-1 more than any other ethnic group. This has been a statistic that has been out there for almost the last two years. Going back a couple of steps, I have been in the corporate world and entrepreneur. I have been out there in business since 13 years old and I have watched this path for women and in the last 10 years the shift in terms of women in the workplaces, shift in the types of life situations women are in right now. Married with children, single working moms, single women that have no children or not married, retired women who are not done yet – there are so many scenarios for women out there.
Just to share a few statistics:
Women make up 51.5 % of the FT workforce right now. Just by sheer numbers, women are adding an enormous amount of energy into the globe and the work place.
Women comprise 66% of the consumer global spending. Boston Consulting Group came out a couple of months ago with these numbers: 66%. That will increase exponentially.
Women control $12 Trillion of an $18 Trillion of the global consumer spending . That’s expected to grow exponentially by $5 trillion a year.
That is extraordinary. There are demographers out there, one of them is Ken Gronbach he`s written a book called The Age Curve and anyone who really wants to get an awakening here should really get that book.
He talks about women and Hispanics as the new power demographics. There is a new article from the Boston Consulting group I was talking about called “Cater to Women if you want Success” and the whole article talks about the study and that marketers are failing to meet the needs of women in 5 key areas. He talks about failure to tailor products to women`s unique needs instead they are doing this `One Size Fits All` he talks about clumsy sales and marketing targeting women with dated stereotypes – it is really compelling stuff. It is our time (women) to be autonomous and independent and to really do and be what we want to be. One more point that I would like to make about this is that women have always done whatever they need to do to survive and take care of their families.
What is driving this trend, for women to start 2 times as many businesses as men?
It is part of what I said, necessity, but the other things that are really important are that they have a natural ability to communicate and gather people together with emotional intelligence. They are very social and very good at making connections. They want to control their lives and time management they need to be in business, make a living and have a family. More independence and be autonomous now not to rely only on men to support them. It is a very Jurassic idea these days. In history - the 50s and 60s and some of the 70s they were left for the younger woman and it seemed they’d filled their usefulness. I think women are just sort of over that, they are realizing the opportunity they have today is unparalleled and it is a time for great progress.
Speaking of wanting autonomy, self sufficiency and control of one’s destiny, another article I found said that 1.7% of women started businesses are VC funded. It is fascinating to me that twice as many business are started by women as those started by men and 50 times tas many businesses started by men turn to VC funding as those started by women. When you talk about wanting autonomy, self sufficiency and control of one’s destiny, not needing outside financial assistance is key.
I totally agree with you. It is startling. In a couple of other articles, women use their own money and self fund themselves in business if they can before going to a bank or venture capitalist. I don’t know that I can give you a great psychological answer, except that again, independence and autonomy and that they can do it with their own resources. One article talks about what do women want:
1. Love and connection
2. Fulfillment
3. Time and work-life balance, money as its own marker, money is a means to an end but not the focus of why they work.
29:26
Women are mothers, breeders, purpose in life is to take care of kids and (I’m not saying every woman is a mother) but there are certain unique and instinctual things women are genetically. Women are care takers, multi-taskers, social beings, connectors, emotional intelligence, business has shifted from sales focus to serve focus, you cannot be pushing products and services on people unless they make an emotional connection with you and women have a great ability to do that.
Not to bash men, we honor ourselves but also the men who support us, our independence makes our relationships better and take pressure off of men too. The evolution of both of us might leave men lagging on a couple of things but that is the nature of the beast, and men are evolving too. My friend Ken and I talk about women and I asked, what is up with the power in women in business today. He correlated something, except for Hispanic, breeding is not on the high end these days and he talked about a correlation to people with high percentages of internet connections with a low amount of breeding. People on line are spending less time in person making babies.
The fact that there are more divorces today and independent women who are not breeding as much. Interesting trend and psycho graphics.
What are the three big differences between men and women entrepreneurs? We talked about the self-reliant aspect, the data that shows men are more comfortable, dependent or seeking outside funding. What are two other differences?
What woman want, out of what out of what they do and what men want are just different. Women work for different fulfillment goals. They are always struggling with work life balance. Whether they are working or not, the familial care-taking all falls on women. I think there is just a lot of those dynamics that come into play.
Money is another. Men have a different perception of money than women. Women have a problem asking for more money. When I work with women, I always help them to feel more confident and asking for what they are worth.
I think companies are now identifying and working with women on their key strengths. Sometimes a woman may take more risk and don’t hold back like men do. Women need to use their instincts to put together their businesses and programs. They have what it takes.
You have a BTR Show. The Metropolis Show. How long have you had this show?
We will have our one year anniversary in December. I have been in the radio industry for years and it is a comfortable place to share ideas and continue to communicate. I wanted to bring people together in any format to help support one another in these uncharted waters. Most people are going through this for the first time in their lives. The radio show is about bringing people together: being the solution, living in the business world, having an impact.
What were your goals? Why did you decide to do a radio show, other than your background in radio?
I thought it would be another avenue of communication and I have created my metropolis and in that category are my radio show, newsletter and blog. These are additional avenues to share information and serve others with ideas, resources and tips – all for free. We live in a content marketing world where you need to give a lot away for free.
Women are going to have such a global presence in the next 5-10-15 years. Women are outpacing men in receiving college degrees: women constitute 60% of the people in college. Those stats are compelling. Women are outpacing men.
Which is your favorite social media platform?
Twitter has just delighted me. You have to see what intrigues you most. What do you enjoy using most? You don’t want it to be a struggle. I love to write and post great articles. For me, everything I do works together.
My biggest disappointment with social media? I haven’t been really disappointed with anything I have been committed too.
50:17
Give us three tips for us about to enter the social media pool. You mentioned two already:
1. Find a resource you enjoy use.
2. Pick one or two and master them.
What would be a third tip?
I will say two more.
1. Make sure you create and define YOUR brand in the social media that you choose. Clearly communicate your spirit. Makes sure you are very clear.
2. Serve! Always be serving and giving. Be consistent and post regularly.
Small business remains the leading source of layoffs. Our economy won't recover until small business becomes the leading source of job creation. When will that change?
That is a great question. I think it is the Achilles’ heal right now. I think there are many good indicators on several levels-there are a lot of buying going on now. The employment market is the Achilles’ heal right now. There is hiring go on right now in medical and education right now. People who have been laid off must take a serious look at their skills and possibly re-evaluate themselves and their direction. They may need to go back to school or repurpose their strengths. Everything will shift even more as the employment environment continues to improve.
What can small businesses do in this economy?
We have to get into an accept reality mode at all times. We cannot be in a “la la land.” We have to see what is really happening. Also, don’t lose confidence in who you are and what value you bring to the table. Everything around you may have changed, but the person has not. Believe in yourself.
Secondly and most importantly, upgrade your skills. I have seen too many educated professionals become obsolete. Businesses are also taking a look at these things. They are finding out what they need to offer better customer service and be more competitive.
Make a plan to upgrade your skills: personal, professional, technical. Take these classes in professional development – adding value and a greater skillset.
Thirdly: branding and focus on what your niche market is. Who is your core market? Your core customer? Perfect this!
Lastly: Never forget the power of the personal connection. All of the virtual and online activity is strictly a bridge to get close and upfront with people.
You share a lot of great quotes on your website, Train with Shane. What is your favorite quote among all these?
Ruth Vincent Peale: “Find the need and fill it.” When you serve, give, and share, this is one of the most powerful relationship building tools.
Thanks, Shane.
Be sure to follow Shane on Twitter at DeborahShane
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