IAM426- Business Strategist Works With Entrepreneurs to Strategize Their Growth Plan

Michelle DeNio is a Business Strategist who works with entrepreneurs, business owners, and organizations to create a customized strategic plan for growth resulting in more clients, more profit and more freedom. Having worked in many different industries and possessing expertise in the areas of operations, sales, leadership training, time management, and finance, she will help you come up with a clear, direct path forward, then assess how that plan is working and make adjustments along the way. Michelle believes that life is meant to be lived to the fullest and streamlining your business to give you more free time is crucial to your success.

• CEO Hack: Only follow a couple of mentors
• CEO Nugget: Be in line with you and follow people who align with your goals
• CEO Defined: Owning your life as you choose to define it

Website: https://www.michelledenio.com/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/michelledenio05
www.facebook.com/michelledeniobizstrategist

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/michelledenio
Instagram: www.instagram.com/m_denio

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place, Gresham, Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresham from the I am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today, Michelle DeNio of the show michelledenio.com. Michelle, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Michelle DeNio 0:39

Thank you so much. I'm glad to be here.

Gresham Harkless 0:41

Super excited to have you on and what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Michelle so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Michelle DeNio is a Business Strategist who works with entrepreneurs, business owners and organizations to create a customized strategic plan for growth resulting in more clients, more profit and more freedom.

Having worked in many different industries and possessing expertise in the areas of operation, sales, leadership, training, time management, and finance, she will help you come up with a clear direct path forward, then assess how that plan is working and make adjustments along the way.

Michelle believes that life is meant to be lived to the fullest and streamlining your business to give you more free time is crucial to your overall success. Michelle, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Michelle DeNio 1:24

I am very ready, and super excited to be here.

Gresham Harkless 1:27

Me too. So we're excited to have you on and glad to hear that you're ready. So I wanted to kick everything off by hearing a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to get started with the business?

Michelle DeNio 1:36

Yeah, absolutely my CEO story, I guess is maybe a little bit different. But it really stems back to why I say that life is meant to be lived and loved. And we had a very close friend who passed away through a very short bout with lymphoma. And at that moment in time, I realized that life is really very short.

And you have to love what you're doing. And you have to love the career you're in. And we need to be following our passions. And so that's really what jump-started me to become an entrepreneur and really start my business so that I could live life on my terms. And I wasn't stuck in somebody else's mould.

And so that's what we did. My husband and I moved from New York, we just decided we were going to live in retirement, so we moved to Florida to be three minutes from the beach. And here we are. And it's been amazing. And I'm so happy to make that I made that leap.

Gresham Harkless 2:29

Yeah, I definitely appreciate you for sharing that with us. And obviously sorry to hear you know about your friend. But I think that sometimes we do understand after something like that happens and is traumatic whether it be to us or to our loved ones or family or friends that you know, time is precious, and it doesn't just go on forever.

You know, there's kind of an end to that hourglass, so to speak. And a lot of times we are waiting, or sometimes we think we have, I guess more time than we sometimes do to be able to go after our passions to love our loved ones and things like that.

But it's sad that has to happen, or that does happen. But it's great to hear that you not only had that lesson within you sounds like you've run with it.

Michelle DeNio 3:06

Yeah, yep, exactly. It's one of those things where, you know, life teaches us lessons, whether we want to whether we're ready for them or not. And so it's a matter of what we do with them.

Gresham Harkless 3:16

Exactly, exactly. So I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper. You talked a little bit about your business. And I know I read a little bit about it. Can you tell us a little bit more about what you're doing with your clients?

Michelle DeNio 3:25

Yeah, absolutely. I work from a very strategic standpoint. So as a business strategist, my background is in operations. What I really focus on is helping people grow their business to whatever level they're looking to grow it to. So not everybody's looking for that seven, figure six figure entrepreneur, organization.

And so I really focus on what is your goal. What is your vision? How does that align with the clients you're trying to serve? And then we put a strategic plan in place, whether it's a long-term plan, or a short-term, more of like a 90-day plan, whatever really feels in alignment with you. Because ultimately, if it's not in alignment, and it doesn't feel good, you're not going to do it.

That's the number one thing that leads to procrastination is it just doesn't feel right. So for me focusing on whatever feels right to you in that moment, let's plan accordingly.

Gresham Harkless 4:22

That makes perfect sense. And so it kind of sounds like a lot of times with clients you work with, you kind of have to do that inner work, or maybe even exploratory work on what you want to have in your life and how you want your life to look. And then you're able to kind of sound like get the tools in order to do that.

Michelle DeNio 4:38

Yeah, I always start with the end in mind, I work from the, you know, what are we trying to accomplish? What is the point B? I don't want to start at point A, because if we don't know where we're going, it's very hard to put a map in place. It's no different than getting in your car with a GPS.

I mean, if you just get in your car and start driving, but you don't know where you're going, the GPS isn't going to be able to direct you and so I focus very similar, you know, in business, you've got to know where you're going. And if you don't know where you're going, you cannot put a plan in place.

Gresham Harkless 5:07

Right, I definitely appreciate that. Because I feel like and I usually say this a lot there, a lot of times you eat seem to not sometimes have that time or create that space in order to do that inner work, or create that vision of what we want to have our life look like. And a lot of times we need that so that we can actually execute on a strategy or even have a strategy in place.

But we haven't done that inner work before. It's really hard to get to like you said in that end destination.

Michelle DeNio 5:31

Yeah, absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 5:32

Nice. And, and so now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce, and it could be for you or for your organization. But what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Michelle DeNio 5:41

What sets me apart, in my opinion, is my ability to look from the customer's point of view. And so a lot of times, when you're putting a strategy in place, or you're working with somebody, or you're trying to grow your business, you're looking just from your own eyes. And so when I work with a client, I always try to be a customer of that client.

Because if you aren't, you really don't know how your clients receive the information. So from the back end, it might look really, really great. But then if all of a sudden, if you try to be a customer, it's like, wait a second, that didn't execute well at all.

So for me, if you're not a client of your clients, it's very hard for me to understand exactly the full picture view, and what's really important to me is making sure we have a full picture view of what exactly we're trying to accomplish.

Gresham Harkless 6:30

Absolutely. And I think a lot of times when you know, we have great ideas, we have great visions for what we want to create in the world and and see, you know, built and formed. And I think a lot of times, it's very hard.

And sometimes we need it sounds like you know the help of people like you that are able to kind of bounce ideas off of but see that different perspective, because we're so kind of entrenched in what we see in our vision that sometimes we don't see if it's applicable to, you know, a potential customer or client, or if it's just something that we can only use.

Michelle DeNio 6:57

Yeah, I mean, you've got to understand the language that your clients are speaking. And so even though perhaps, maybe the plan and everything is imperfect play, but if you're not executing or speaking in a language that your clients are understanding it, and sometimes just those small tweaks, so being able to do that market research.

I spent hours doing market research for my clients, and getting inside of different, you know, Facebook groups or communities and just asking questions based on if I was a client to really understand, okay, this is exactly what they're saying. This is how you need to put yourself into the market because this is exactly what your client is saying they're struggling with.

Gresham Harkless 7:34

Absolutely, as someone that may not be familiar with what market research is, is that just the reach the looking into, you know, your potential client, so what they look like, what they're interested in, and things like that, and gathering that information.

Michelle DeNio 7:46

Yeah, Yep, absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 7:48

Awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. This might be an app or book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Michelle DeNio 8:00

One of the things that has changed throughout my career as a CEO and as an entrepreneur, I heard this from somebody else. And it's actually a hack that I have really incorporated and one of that, and that is to only follow. Like a couple of mentors, I think it's so easy. In this online space, we have access to everybody.

We have access to every freebie every download Tony Robbins Gary Vee, I mean, the list goes on and on. And the reality is that can actually be detrimental to your success. So because everybody's got a different varying opinion of how they grow business. So for me, my hack is to pick a few, two, three, maybe you know, that you really really align and resonate with.

Stay super laser-focused on that, if those are the ones that you really resonate with, and you want to use and trust their guidance and mentorship, then stay with that. And don't let the shiny object syndrome of everybody else's opinions because the second you let all of those other opinions in.

And there are other methods and techniques, it's going to get overwhelming and confusing. And you can't really piece together a piece here a piece there, it really doesn't work. So for me, that's been my biggest hack picking the few that you really, really want to resonate with, follow their podcasts, follow their freebies, follow their emails, and stick with it.

Gresham Harkless 9:21

Absolutely, yeah. And it kind of goes back to what you were talking about in the beginning. Because I think a lot of times when we kind of, you know like you said, there's so much information that we have at our fingertips to listen to somebody's podcasts or download their their ebook.

Or whatever that might be we can get so much information and try to incorporate literally every single aspect. But a lot of times we don't also realize that the person that we're getting that download or listen to that podcast from might have a vision for themselves and that might even not be in alignment with what we're kind of hoping to do.

So, I don't know if you find that a lot with the clients that you work with.

Michelle DeNio 9:53

I do and that actually probably leads into the next thought you have but yeah, really for me, it's just because somebody, everybody's definition of success is different. So following somebody's plan and methods and techniques for their vision, if they have a totally different vision of success than you do, their techniques and methods aren't going to work.

And so for me, that's been my biggest habit really, truly is. Follow the people that have the same goals visions and aspirations as you do. And value the same things in your life as you do. So for somebody who doesn't value, enjoying life, like I do, and living retirement and knowing that life is short, I'm not going to follow that person.

Because they probably have a method of, you know, working all day long, hustle, hustle, hustle, that's just not me. So you've got to know what is important to you, what you value, and then follow those people.

Gresham Harkless 10:47

Absolutely, absolutely. And that's kind of like your CEO nugget, what do you feel you would tell your younger business self?

Michelle DeNio 10:52

My see, yeah, and to really be in alignment with you. And I think it's so easy for entrepreneurs, we've all been there, my younger self is like, well, this is what so and so is doing. So I'm gonna follow this lead. And so we become the entrepreneur, life can turn you into somebody that you're not.

And so as my younger business self, I would just say, be yourself, be who you are, be authentic to you. If something doesn't feel authentic if it feels like you really have to try to be something that you're not, don't do it. That's what I mean because we've all tried to fit in this mold of what.

So somebody says an entrepreneur is and it really the definition is different for everybody. So that is absolutely like, if I could tell my younger self, anything, it would be to just be you, do you be you and stay in your lane and feel confident in it.

Feel confident that no matter what, what person you're bringing to the table, is exactly who you should be bringing to the table. And you don't need to alter that for anybody.

Gresham Harkless 11:58

Absolutely, yeah, I think that's so powerful. Just because I think like, like we kind of touched on, you know, a couple of times is that there are so many kinds of external factors that kind of pulled us to do this or dealt with that, or be this or be that, that it's sometimes hard to, I guess, find yourself.

And sometimes you have to do that work in order to do that to find you know, who you are, what makes you unique, what's your secret sauce, so to speak, and then also have an idea of exactly like what that vision is and go through and execute it. But I think that there's so much noise that sometimes we can lose sight of that and maybe not even feel confident in doing that.

Michelle DeNio 12:29

Right? Yeah, I mean it, it can tear you down. But it can also lift you so high. And so find what lifts you up and leave behind the things that really feel like they're tearing you down.

Gresham Harkless 12:41

Absolutely. I love that. And I love that reminder. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. So Michelle, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Michelle DeNio 12:54

Being a CEO, to me is owning my life exactly as I see it. And so, for me, being a CEO is yes, making an impact and impacting the lives of others. But for me, it's owning my life as I choose to define it. And my definition of life is exactly what I want it to be.

And that's being a CEO, when you can define every aspect of your life, you can define how much you work, how much you spend, how, where you live, well how much time you take off, it doesn't matter. But I can define every single aspect of my life as a CEO. And that's what's important. And that's what being a CEO means to me.

Gresham Harkless 13:40

Nice. I love that. And I love how you mentioned the word owning because I think a lot of times, you know, sometimes it's like having a life But owning seems so much more powerful. Because it seems like you have control over it, you can dictate or make decisions based on that.

And you can make the life that you want not somebody else's life or something else that you saw on Instagram or whatever you can actually build the life that you want that's in line with exactly who you are.

Michelle DeNio 14:03

Yeah, and own every aspect of it. I always say that and own your responsibility and own a commitment. And if I make a choice, I get to own that and whether it's good, bad, or indifferent, it doesn't matter. But I've made that choice, and nobody else is dictating that for me.

Gresham Harkless 14:18

Exactly, exactly. And understanding, you know, everything is all in line. It's not necessarily siloed or separate, as well. So, thank you so much, Michelle, I appreciate that definition. And I appreciate your time even more.

What I wanted to do was pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and then of course, how best they can get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

Michelle DeNio 14:38

Yeah, absolutely. I you know, I tend to hang out still on Facebook. I haven't jumped on the Instagram bandwagon yet. So I'd love to have you come and hang out with me and my Facebook community. It's called Find the right clients for your business.

Or you can just reach out my name just listed on both my personal page and my business page on my name and Facebook or you can email me. But yeah, for me, it's just about just enjoying your business. And so I, you know, if you aren't feeling it, and you're ready, like, it's okay to pivot to if you're feeling like you're in business or you've started something, and it's no longer fun.

Take a step back, take a couple of weeks off, and just really think about it and make that pivot. Don't let anybody tell you that pivoting is bad. And business pivoting is, you know, evolution and growth and change. And so, focus on that and make sure that whatever you're doing, you are loving it, and you're having fun, and you're feeling like this is the best thing that ever happened to you.

Because if it doesn't, it's time to take a step back. So I always share all of my life lessons and whatever I can. So if I can inspire or keep you motivated, please, you know, I'd love to stay connected with you on Facebook and see how we can motivate each other.

Gresham Harkless 15:59

Nice, I definitely appreciate that. And you know, they always say success is a team sport. So being able to have people you can lean on and connect with and interact with is always great to increase the likelihood of success. So Michelle, thank you so much again for your time, we will have all your links in the show notes as well so that everybody can follow what's up with you on Facebook and your Facebook community. And thank you so much again. I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Michelle DeNio 16:20

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Outro 16:22

Thank you for listening to the I am CEO podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I am CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE And leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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