This week we sit down with entrepreneur, consultant and trainer Sarah Wolters of Sarah Wolters Company and learn how to make sure the right voices are heard within your organization so you can be successful. In today’s marketing tip, a quick word about why you want to be in the top 3 search positions.
https://www.sarahwoltersco.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahmorefield/
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to the Small Business Miracles podcast.
I’m Jeff Randolph. This small business podcast
is brought to you by EAG Advertising and Marketing.
We’re going to talk about marketing, and we’re
also here to celebrate entrepreneurs. We have
marketing news and advice that business owners
can use to keep moving forward. Today, we’re
talking to Sarah Wolters. She’s the entrepreneur
and consultant and trainer behind the Sarah Wolters
Company. But first, we’ve got another small business
marketing tip to talk about. Another great search
engine optimization tip for small businesses
today, and that is to know your keywords. What
are the keywords or phrases that your customers
would use to find you? I’m not talking about
your brand name here. They’ll only know to look
for you by your brand name if you have good brand
awareness, and that’s a topic for a different
day. I’m talking about the words a potential
customer or business prospect would use to find
your business, because the words and phrases
they would use are the ones you should think
about, plan content around, and optimize for.
And you’ll want to improve your rank for those
terms to be in the top three positions, if at
all possible. Now, why? That’s a good question.
I’m glad you asked. It’s because about % of
all clicks in a search go to the top three positions.
You don’t have to own every possible search,
but you want to be in the top three for the ones
that bring customers your way. And that is our
small business marketing tip for this week. Welcome
back to our featured… interview section of
the podcast, I’m here with Sarah Wolters, a consultant
and trainer at the Sarah Wolters Company, appropriately
named. Sarah, welcome to the show. Thank you.
Thank you for having me. We’re excited to have
you here. So consultant, trainer, the Sarah Wolters
Company. What is it you’d say you do? How do
you describe the business to other people? Because
you do a couple different things, and I want
to talk about both of them. Yeah, absolutely.
So I’m a former educator, elementary special
education teacher. And so my life has always
been in the education realm. And so I would say
what I do now is the adult version of what I’ve
always done. So I work with some youth now, but
predominantly adults in the training space, focusing
either on the education world. So working with
other adult professionals who are in typically
the. informal education so before after school
camps extracurriculars where they have these
great human beings with a passion to work for
youth but don’t have a formal background so I
bring my formal background to help them skill
up and see how I can make their jobs easier given
the time constraints that they have it’s not
a classroom setting but what we can bring from
that and then the second kind of path of that
is working with, again, both youth and adults
in the intercultural competence, which is a long
word to say how we process and understand the
differences and the similarities around us. And
so I train and consult and how we can do that
within organizations to improve our relationships,
our efficiency, all that good stuff. Outstanding.
And it sounds like, so the last… phrase that
you used was intercultural competence. And is
that a different way to say the DEI thing? Is
that what we’re saying or something else? Yes
and yes. It’s a realm of DEI. So it is a way
to approach the diversity, equity, and inclusion
conversation. I use a specific tool called the
intercultural development. inventory. And so
it is a different angle to look at how our brain
is processing differences, which will speak to
the DEI efforts and training and programs. I
think just the educator in me, I appreciate the
developmental perspective. So it’s the tool I
enjoy. If you’ve got a tool and a framework,
that’s educators. We just go, ooh. Yes, that’s
the fun part. And so I like to speak to it from
that lens, but that is absolutely within that
DEI. Yes. Should we talk about that? In these
troubled times, should we talk about the DEI
thing? Yes. not necessarily embraced by certainly
the administration. But that throws a monkey
wrench into a small business, doesn’t it? It
does. It does indeed. You know, I’ve gotten mixed
advice about whether or not I should pull back,
focus on education, things like that. The reality
is I’m very passionate about it. I also am a
firm believer that it is a soft skill. It is
no different than leadership training, communication
training, all of these things that we think are
acceptable. Unfortunately, right now, there’s
a lot of misperceptions of what DEI is, and it
has a target on its back for being something
more. I don’t know, I guess, aggressive than
it is. When the people think DEI, they think,
you know, they think race. They think gender.
They think these big conversations where someone’s
right, someone’s wrong. We have a huge history
of conflict. And in reality, DEI is neurodivergent.
It’s different able bodies. It’s ages, generations.
It’s all sorts of different aspects, religion,
everything like that. And so much of that. I
would argue, I can’t claim this for fact, most
people who oppose DEI don’t actually oppose DEI.
Most people who oppose DEI probably identify
with the majority group. And are probably in
a position where they fear being told they’re
the bad guy or they’re wrong. Rightfully so.
I mean, everybody deserves to be passionate about
their beliefs. Everybody deserves to have that
valued. And when you come into a space with the
assumption that your values are wrong and you’re
going to be told that, nobody wants to hear that.
And so that’s something that why I like the tool
I like. is because it does talk about how your
brain is processing it and why. And so there
is no right or wrong answer. You can be the most
interculturally competent person, and you’re
still going to see something and say, oh, I don’t
like that. That’s wrong. The difference is how
we process and understand and how we respect
each other. So just because I don’t agree with
you doesn’t mean I can’t take a minute to hear
you out and understand and to think, okay, this
is why he thinks it. I think that’s wild, but
I understand it comes from, you know, XYZ perspective.
What a tremendous skill that humans should have
is the ability to do that now. That would be
great if we could do that. It would make a world
of a difference in this world. And I think that’s
why I, for better or worse, haven’t taken it
off my website. On your website, you rightly
point out a McKinsey stat that is saying companies
in the top quartile of diversity are % more
likely to outperform their peers in profitability
largely due to the diverse perspectives they
bring to problem solving. And if we all are the
same, if we all are the, you know, if we seek
no difference of opinion, we’re going to get
exactly one answer. And so from a company performance
standpoint, it seems like having other voices
in the room makes a lot of sense and being able
to learn how to listen to those voices. Completely,
because you’re going to get lucky some of the
times and that one answer is the right answer.
And that’s great. And you’ll get a win. But that’s
not always. I mean, just think about yourself
as an individual and what you do well and what
you don’t do well. And if there’s no one there
to offset what you don’t do well, you’re stuck
in a rut. Whether it’s a personal relationship,
whether it’s a professional relationship. You
know, I think about it, especially having someone
who’s changed careers, and I’m very familiar
with people who have done that as well. I have
an education background, not a business background.
It gives me a very different perspective. In
some ways, it gives me strengths. I’ve always
been around people. I’ve always been able to
articulate my thoughts and plan through how I
want to approach things. But I have weaknesses.
And if I didn’t invite someone to the table to
help talk through the finances and the logistics
and the taxes, I mean, I couldn’t go anywhere.
And so that diversity of thought, I think, is
A, critical and B, overlooked as part of DEI.
And that’s just another piece of the puzzle.
I’m hoping I can get a little more concrete even
on the tool itself that you use and what is that
outcome that a business gets when you start working
with them? Absolutely. What does that look like?
Yeah. And so it’s an assessment. So it’s a
-minute assessment. And you take it as an
individual, but we can look at your score individually
or as an organization. And so it allows a personal
development if your company buys in and wants
to spend the time to say, hey, let’s have these
one -on -one conversations and really talk about
where you are. But from a company perspective,
it gives us a group profile to say, as an organization,
this is how you’re handling. differences and
similarities. You’re maybe leaning into similarities
so much so that you have forgotten the value
of differences. So most people globally fall
in what’s called minimization, and I joke that
that’s elementary school. That’s when you find
something in common and you’re best friends,
and that’s all you need to know. Hey, we both
eat glue. Yes. This is wonderful. Right. Mom,
why is everyone on my birthday list? Because
they’re all my best friends. Why are they my
best friends? Because we’re all seven. Right.
So you find that commonality and that brings
you together, which in a lot of ways is wonderful.
But if we are so focused on that, we forget the
value that you brought, which is something different.
And so as an organization, we look at, OK, where
are you right now? What does that mean? Every
orientation has a strength. There’s a reason
to be there. And so it’s not my job to tell you
where you should be. It’s my job for you to understand
where you are and why you’re there. And then
you tell me, is this serving you? And if it’s
not serving you, then I help move you forward.
I think it’s valuable as a company to understand
that difference of opinion and how we work together,
what that brings to you as an organization. I
recently gave a presentation about DEI and by
recently it was, you know, or something,
right? So it was a couple of years ago. But the
stats at the time, I was going through some glass
door statistics on companies and really hiring
and what each of the generations finds important.
And it was something like, you know, % of
workers, plus. could really understood and
embraced and looked for dei initiatives in the
workplace as being hey this is important to me
um but that’s only you know of workers
plus when you go into the younger generations
when you the younger you get and and the more
non -white you get um of people who are
to to said they would turn down a job
offer if if the company didn’t um support dei
initiatives like if they thought that diversity
did not matter to them and so i think you know
there’s a there’s a future generation and hiring
thing now what will what will today’s you know
kerfuffle do how will that impact these stats
but those are those are legit stats about what
the younger generation believes and thinks and
values so you combine that with the change in
our racial makeup so i think It’s in my blog.
I think it’s maybe. You should check that
blog. Go to the blog. We’ll put it on there.
I don’t even quote myself. There’s a statistic
from our census saying that within the next,
I think it’s five years. We will be, which I
think this is a hilarious term, we will be a
minority -majority nation, which really means
that the minority is the majority. We flip, but
we’re not saying that, so it’s a minority -majority.
And then that also changes it, because if you
think about people who have not always been the
majority, typically have a different perspective
on the conversation because it’s impacted them
differently, which is not right or wrong on either
side. It’s just what you’ve experienced. So as
we’re trending with our younger generation, being
more open about it and caring more about it.
And then we’re changing our racial diversity
makeup. You’ve got two different possibilities
here that are both leaning towards this is becoming
more valuable. Right. And I understand the pressure.
I understand the pressure that especially federally
funded funding is hard. Yes, I get it. But, you
know, hey, there are a lot of stats out there.
We should we should be taking a look at those.
Great conversation. Let me let me pivot off of
that just a little bit and talk about the kinds
of companies that that where you are just a rock
star. Do you have companies that are like a great
fit? This is where you are a superhero to them.
Absolutely. Or I hope so. Anyways, I hope so.
I would say that my ideal client really falls
typically in that small to medium business. They’re
large enough to have a budget for training to
be able to afford those sorts of initiatives.
And they’re small enough that… I can still
reach them on a personal level. I am currently
a one -person show. I have friends who I can
call and contract in, but I typically do things
on my own. And so I have certainly worked with
larger companies, and we can do things and adapt
things. But I would say when we get those more…
personal groups, whether it’s a portion of the
company, or it’s just a smaller company. A lot
of the people I work with are in the nonprofit
sector are youth or education related, just because
it’s what I know and what I love. So we tend
to find that commonality. But I have worked corporate,
federal, universities, nonprofits, etc. Gotcha.
Okay, good, good fit, good fit. Listen for your
own self in that statement, whether or not you’re
a good fit. Let’s Let’s talk about the power
of positive feedback for a minute because I was
interested. It makes me happy when I see these
kind of things because people love what you do.
You get great reviews. But about a month ago,
you re -shared a four -star review out of five
stars. But it was really important to you that
you share that four -star. Tell us why, because
I think there’s a good lesson there. Yeah, and
so this would go back to my teaching days, actually
my student teaching days. I’ve always been very
reflective, and I think that that’s something
that’s encouraged and taught, especially in the
education world, because you’re working with
humans that are constantly changing, and a good
idea sometimes isn’t as good as you thought it
was. And so, you know, we always kept journals,
we always had reflection activities, and I…
have held on to that that reflection is very
important even though i consider myself very
knowledgeable in what i do i i have degrees i
have credentials i have all those skills and
experiences i don’t ever think that i know everything
and so when i’m presenting in a way that i think
is going to work and someone gives me feedback
that it didn’t work as well as they thought it
did That is crucial to me because I need to know
that to adapt and evolve and to continue to think
about how could I do this differently? How could
I do this better? And so when I got that four
-star review, I was really grateful because sometimes
people don’t give reviews if they’re not five
stars. True. Right? They assume that, oh, if
I don’t have % positive things to say, they
don’t want to hear it. And that’s the complete
opposite. I love constructive criticism and feedback.
Obviously, I would like you to be nice to me
and be respectful about it. And this person definitely
was. But they brought up a really good point.
And a lot of what I talk about, especially this
person happened to be a client within the DEI
space. And it’s heavy. And it’s a lot to process.
And it’s a lot to think about. And we have a
time constraint. And for them, it was too much
too fast. They felt like they couldn’t keep up
with the conversation. And that gives me really
good input into the conversation I have with
my clients as to hey, I can’t do all that in
that amount of time. So do you want to stretch
it out or do you want me to do a little less?
Because it’s hard to process. This is feedback
that I’ve been given. And so I have always been
very reflective and I appreciate if it’s not
just my own two cents that I’m processing. So
that was why that was important for me to share
that and hopefully encourage people that, especially
within my clients, but generally speaking, that
I do want to hear all the feedback, not just
the five stars, we love you feedback. I think
that is spectacular. information. Because if
we look at all those reviews, I’ll back up and
use a full sentence at some point. When we’re
looking at statistics for reviews, they’re important.
% of people will read a review before they
shop at your place or do business with you. Only
% of people will leave a review. And so when
you look at just that % of your customers who
will leave a review, How many of them are going
to be leaving a review because I’m passionately
angry and then I am passionately thrilled? And
so you’re right. It does typically fall somewhere
on either extreme. But if we hear any kind of
positive – any kind of good constructive feedback,
listening to that is the best thing you could
possibly do. Absolutely. You should be open to
that and you should – if there is a problem there.
be self -reflective, fix that problem. And you’re
going to succeed more because of that. Yeah.
I feel like just reading your five -star reviews
is putting some serious blinders on. It would
be very presumptuous to say I’ve never done anything
wrong or I couldn’t do anything better. And so
for me, that helps me iron out the details of,
okay, what can I change? Man, love it. Spectacular.
Tell me what’s next for the Sarah Wolters company.
You know, that’s a great question. So my journey
into entrepreneurship was a little Unorthodox,
to say the least. We all get into it, however
we get there. It’s fine. So my husband and I
actually adopted a wonderful little boy, but
we had no prospect of said adoption when I started
my company. So I thought, you know, I’ll get
this all sorted out. I’ll learn the ropes, figure
it out. Less than three weeks later, our son
came. Surprise, surprise. And I survived. I had
some really wonderful clients that I’m incredibly
grateful for that were stable enough that I could
figure out the new mom life and the business
life. And so for me, what I’ve been telling people
is I feel like I’m doing all the things I should
have done when I started. So I’m reintroducing
myself. I am being intentional with my marketing,
with my social media. I’ve started my blog, doing
all these things that… I thought I would do
day one. And turns out a newborn is not conducive
to said to -do list. Or sleep. Or a routine.
Best case scenario, we couldn’t be happier. We
had a wonderful adoption. Everything was beautiful.
But just timing was not what I planned. So for
me, I mean, obviously any business owner, I’m
looking to grow. I’m always looking to find new
clients and find the right fit. But a lot of
what I’ve been doing the last couple months as
I look at is just, intentionally resetting
am I doing the right things have I forgotten
something do I have things set up so that it’s
easy for people to find me and know me and so
that’s kind of been my focus right now I’m going
to use that to launch into the lightning round
because I do have a question about that. It’s
something that most entrepreneurs have to deal
with, and that is how do you balance business
ownership and parenthood? It’s a daily routine
that needs to change, and you have all kinds
of curveballs thrown at you all the time. So
I am very fortunate. We have an amazing community
behind us that supports us. My toddler is currently
with my parents. It takes a village. Anyone who
says it doesn’t, I don’t know how you do it.
And so for me, I focus my work on three days
a week where I have childcare. And then I try
to focus my mom time on the other two days a
week. And so far. That’s working. And then I
said, I’d give it a shot. And if it fails, it
fails. But right now I’m going to keep that going.
And I think protecting that time is what’s most
important. When I can say, no, I have my son,
I am not taking calls unless it’s an emergency
or it’s nap time, then I’m fully present with
him and then I can do the same thing on my daycare
days. I’m not afraid to drop him off early and
pick him up late because those are my daycare
days. Those are the days where I’m fully
% with him. Does it always work? Of course not.
Have I apologized to people because my child
is home? Absolutely. I would say the other thing
is just… talking to other parents and creating
that support and asking questions. And, you know,
what did you do when school was canceled? Or
how did you handle, you know, this? I actually
presented at Global Entrepreneurship Week this
past November with two other parents. And this
was the exact conversation we talked about balancing
parents and business. Because there’s no right
answer. But I think having a supportive family
and having child care set. With some sort of
stability, I will say I picked a child care facility
that doesn’t follow the school calendar. Oh,
school calendars are hard. And I know that as
a teacher. So, you know, that was a big plus
for me having an organization that wasn’t going
to close for a week and then two weeks and things
like that. So, you know, I wish I had a better
answer for that. But oh, no, that is a great
answer. I think you’re all over it. That is that
is that is a great first foray into the lightning
round. Well done. Okay, well, thank you. And
I’ll continue with the lightning round with some
quicker things like a networking event or meet
for coffee. What would you prefer? Oh, so I do
love a good networking event, but I would say
meet for coffee because it depends on the networking
event how much I’m actually going to get to talk
to anybody and I’m guaranteed for conversation
at a coffee. Oh, at a coffee. Sure, sure. Yeah,
no, that makes sense. Although I don’t drink
coffee, so I drink tea. So for somebody, this
is one of the, I’m going to out EAG CEO Michelle
Markham on this one because, yeah, she doesn’t
drink coffee. She’s not a coffee person. No.
Hasn’t ever been. I thought a toddler would bring
that to my life and they haven’t. So I always
say, hey, do you want to meet for a coffee? Knowing
that I fall, I’ll don’t drink coffee. You will
go tea or water. But it’s not normal to say,
hey, you want to meet for a tea? No, no, it is
not. Not in this culture anyway. We’ll see how
that changes over the course of time. Let me
go into this question. It’s a very simple either
or. Okay. Pie or cake? Oh, pie. Pie. Fruit pie
homemade. That’s very specific. Any particular
fruit? Or are we just all over the place? We
can admire all of them. Cherry is a classic.
Gooseberry, my grandma made it. Because then
she knows how to sweeten it so that you’re not
completely tart. Oh, that’s good. And apple’s
a classic. Gotcha. Yeah, I did read on your website
that the best pie is messy because it’s homemade.
And so at a competition, look for that one. That’s
what my grandma always taught me at church picnics
and things. You know you’re going to get the
real one if it looks a little messy. Yes. If
it looks too pretty, it’s going to taste fake.
Because it probably is. Somebody took it out
of a box and put it in the oven and it was a
whole thing. As you’ve been on this entrepreneurial
journey, what’s the best business advice that
you’ve gotten? You know, I think that valuing
your relationships and seeing the value in connections.
I know that not every industry is as collaborative
as education is. And I am so grateful that that’s
where I started because I do look at things much
more collaboratively versus competitively. And
I don’t know where I would be without my network.
And so whether that is. You know, someone who
introduced me to someone else or someone who
answered a question, someone who sent me an invite.
I just, I think their relationships are critical.
And so viewing those as collaborative as much
as humanly possible. I mean, I know there’s some
competition out there and business is business,
but that’s been probably the single most valuable
thing for me. You know, in the nonprofit world,
we have that phrase of coopetition. Yes. And
it’s because we. typically are forced to work
with other organizations to get grant funding
or whatever circumstances bring it together.
Co -opetition is an interesting kind of concept.
I like that phrase. And here’s my last lightning
round question. One of the things that I caught
you as a quote was, if I can show off my favorite
small businesses in my wardrobe, jewelry, and
destination, it’s a good day, which is just so
supportive of small businesses. I love it. Tell
us why that’s so important to you. You know,
I think it started, or at least according to
my in -laws, they’ll say my parents started it.
My family is big on brand loyalty and paying
attention to customer service and who treats
us right. And I grew up, my husband will tell
you, in a family that doesn’t eat at chain restaurants.
And I didn’t realize how weird that was until
I married someone who did eat at chain restaurants.
And, you know, just we always looked for something
new and something different and something local.
You know, my dad’s an entrepreneur, and so he
appreciates that. And that just kind of was instilled
in us. And I think that that was what started
it. And then as an adult, I’ve had the opportunity
to invest in those relationships and those people
where I can tell you people by name who own businesses.
And if I’m spending my money. I’d just rather
spend it somewhere where I know the person and
they know me and I know it’s making their day.
I know I’ve made a difference. And so I try to
be very vocal about all my favorites and I try
to leave reviews. I’m one of those %. I am.
My mom got me into Yelp Elite. And so I try to
leave reviews everywhere and give people, I try
to check in when we’re driving all over just
because, I don’t know, those are the people that
are holding our community up. And at the end
of the day, I mean, look at everything. going
on right now and all of the the federal funding
conversations and the what do we do corporate
conversations and the who do we support and at
the end of the day if I was always leading with
small businesses I already know what they do
and what they believe and it makes my life a
little easier right now outstanding and and Great.
Again, great answer. Great answer to that question.
I’ll take you out of the lightning round. You’ve
made it. You’ve survived. Tell people where they
can find you if they need to get in touch, if
they want to take that assessment, if they want
to go ahead and improve the way they communicate.
Absolutely. So I do have a website. It’s sarahWoltersco
.com. And everything is there. You can reach
me there. There’s a connect form. All of that
is on there. I am on Instagram as well. Handle
matches my website. My LinkedIn is under my maiden
name because my married name was already taken.
Jerks. I know. So my maiden name is Sarah Moorfield.
So my LinkedIn is under there, but you can still
find it. There’s Sarah Wolters Co. If you just
start there, it’ll get you to all the right places.
But I do have two names out in the social media
world still. Gotcha. All right. Sarah Wolters,
consultant and trainer at Sarah Wolters Company.
Thanks for joining us today. Thank you so much.
And that is our show. Thanks so much to Sarah
Wolters and thank you for listening to the Small
Business Miracles podcast. Remember to subscribe,
leave us a five -star rating and review. Drop
us a line on the website at eagadv .com if you
have any thoughts. Until then, we’ll be out here
helping entrepreneurs with another small business
miracle.