IAM834- Founder Helps Business Owners Work Less and Earn More

Deborah Pretty a.k.a. (P.Y.) is the lady behind PYTalkBiz.com. Deborah has been a business owner for 40 years. She'd founded and started 5 businesses in 5 different industries.

Currently, she's running a property preservation business with their son Tae, which is what sparked her new business endeavor. Although Deborah ran a successful business, she found herself working 24/7. One day she worked all night; processing and invoicing work orders. She realized something had to change.

After a few simple changes, she increased their average bid invoice amount by 35%, reduced her working hours by more than 50%, hired a vendor manager and processor, and incorporated ACH services. Those simple cost-efficient changes dramatically improved productivity and profits.

Her goal now is to help other small business owners to work less and earn more! She hopes to reach the masses via her online resource. Deborah built a website designed specifically to help other small business owners learn from her many years of costly mistakes.

• CEO Hack: Reading books to find new and simpler ways to do my work
• CEO Nugget: Read a lot, do what you love and follow your passion
• CEO Defined: Being a good example to others

Website: https://PYTalkBiz.com

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/PYTalkBiz

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Transcription

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00:02 – Intro

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.

00:30 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Deborah Pretty of PYTtalkbiz.com. Deborah, it's awesome having you on the show.

00:40 – Deborah Pretty

Thank you so much Gresh for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

00:45 – Gresham Harkless

Definitely super excited to have you on as well too. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Deborah so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Deborah, aka PY, is the lady behind PYTalkBiz.com. Deborah has been a business owner for 40 years. She founded and started 5 businesses in 5 different industries. Currently, she's running a property preservation business with her son Tay, which is what sparked her new business endeavor. Although Deborah ran a successful business, she found herself working 24/7. 1 day she worked all night processing and invoicing work orders, and she realized something had to change.

After a few simple changes, she increased their average bid invoice amount by 35%, reduced her working hours by more than 50%, hired a vendor, manager, and processor, and incorporated ACH services. Those simple cost-efficient changes dramatically improved productivity and profits. Her goal now is to help other small business owners to work less and earn more. She hopes to reach the masses via her online resource. Debra built a website designed specifically to help other small business owners learn from her many years of costly mistakes. Deborah, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:52 – Deborah Pretty

I am. That was excellent. I mean, you said it all.

01:56 – Gresham Harkless

Exactly, that's awesome to say. The mic drops at the end.

01:59 – Deborah Pretty:

Absolutely- Oh my God. That was great.

02:02 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I absolutely love everything that you're doing to help out those business owners. And I know I kind of touched on it a little bit when I read your bio in the beginning. Could you take us through exactly how you guys are where you are now? Could you take us through your CEO story? We'll let you get started with all the awesome things you're working on.

02:15 – Deborah Pretty

Okay, well basically, like you said, Gresh, it was just, I was just working all the time and I was really getting overwhelmed and frustrated. And I remember one of my favorite business development books, which is Michael Gerber. Are you familiar with him? Yes. I love that book, the E-Myth. And that E-Myth, if you've never read it before, it's a must-read. But if you have read it, you can't hide from the facts. And that book tells the truth. It says that most small business owners are having entrepreneurial seizures. I don't know if you remember that or not, but that stuck with me for years. And that's what I was doing. I was having an entrepreneurial seizure. And I was just working for myself, by myself.

I mean, at this business, I'm working with my son Tay. But we were basically doing all the work. And I probably like most other business, small business owners, again, I couldn't see myself taking a foot off of the first base. I had both feet on first base. I couldn't I couldn't see myself take it. I was so scared. I couldn't take my foot off. But I just kept telling myself, Deborah, if you don't do something, nothing's gonna change. And I was like, oh my God, I have to do something. So I said, okay, what I'm gonna do is, I'm just gonna jump out there and I'm gonna do something. I wanted a CRM. And probably like most people have heard of the number one CRM that was out there at the time.

And it just seemed like, oh my God, it's going to be so expensive. It's going to be so much, you know, a learning curve. It's just going to take up a bunch of time. And I was like, okay, I don't have time not to do it. So long story short, that's how I first got started in automation technology. I say if I can find something to help me, you know, to take away, to give me more time, That's where I want to start. Long story short, I got started with a piece of technology and it's one that we use specifically in the industry that we're in. I'm pretty sure other businesses, and industries use this particular one as well, but we use it a lot in property preservation. And I always say, and it may be on the bio, or you probably read it too, because I say the same thing.

It's funny because what I'm doing is real life. I mean, this is not something that happened last year. This is everyday stuff that I'm talking about. But what I was going to say was when I got to CRM, I mean, I sounded like a commercial because I would say the same thing people would say in a commercial. Oh my god. Changed my life. I mean, the stuff that would take me an hour or 2 hours, I could actually do like in 5 minutes. So, oh my God. So that's how I got started. And like with anything else, once you do 1 thing, it gives you the confidence to move on and do other things. So that's kind of how I got started with coming outside of the box, incorporating technology and automation into the traditional businesses.

05:24 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I definitely appreciate that. And I love how you said that. It's real life. And that's what I love about the E-Meth too because, like you said, you can't hide from the truth. And you start to, if you haven't checked out that book, it's so valuable because it talks about a lot of the speed bumps or even potholes or whatever you might want to call them of business and how you often will create a job really out of what you're doing, not really create a business and the difference between them and different aspects of that. So I love that, I'm sorry, obviously, you had to go through it, but I love that you've been able to kind of solve it for yourself and in your business, and then also help so many business owners kind of do the same. And so I know you touched on it a little bit. Could you take us through a little bit more on how you're supporting the clients you work with, and what exactly that process looks like?

06:09 – Deborah Pretty:

Yeah, so basically what I'm doing now, and I just got started really with my online business, which is PY Talk Biz. As you stated in the bio, I started because I wanted to be a voice and be a place where other small business owners could go to get real-life situations and solutions and strategies that they can use like right now. And just to share my stories, because I'm pretty sure most people, a lot of business owners are going through the same things that I'm going through. So basically, that website is a resource. And not every day, but often, I'm putting more information up there. And of course now with everything that's going on with the pandemic, you know, everybody's into the virtual call.

So more of that information is being added to the site. I talk about something that you probably read as well. One of the other things that I talk about is OPK. And that's other people's knowledge. And that's one thing that I got when I started outsourcing and hiring processors. And that's something that, you know, sometimes like you say with small business owners, again, I hate to keep saying that, is that we try to do everything ourselves for a number of reasons. And, you know, a lot of times we think other people can't do it, or they might not do it, it's as good as you can, or whatever we may think. But actually, some people could probably do stuff a lot better than we can. So one of my mottos is, mottos is do what you love to do and outsource everything else.

And in the business that we're in, property preservation is a business where you can't really afford to make mistakes and errors, you know, which a lot of people can't in our businesses, but it could be costly if you do. So we have to watch everything. So that's why I was kind of afraid of hiring outside, you know, processors and things of that nature. But then I was like, okay, well I can't grow if I don't. Where I am again, both feet on first base. I want to scale and grow, but I can't do any more because like you said, I'm up all night trying to process what I'm doing myself. So if I add other vendors and more work, then I mean, where do I go? So here I am stuck again. So I was like, okay, I have to be able to hire processors.

Again once I did that that opened up a whole new world you know it's like I liken it to you know say if you were if you run an engineering firm and you hire an engineer and you got a little small company, you hire an engineer, but this engineer came from a huge Fortune 500 company. What is that engineer going to bring to your establishment? You know what I mean? All kinds of experience and just stuff that I mean that you probably couldn't even imagine. And that's actually what happened. That's what happened with the processor because the processors process so that's all they do. So they're faster, they're better, they're more knowledgeable and I've learned so much from the processors. So I mean what I bring to the table is just a real-life experience. This is what's happening. This is what has helped me and these types of things can help you too.

09:45 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I absolutely love that and I love the acronym OPK. I think so many times as you said, I actually heard somebody say which is the same concept where a lot of times business is like being on the jungle gym, and you have both your hands on 2 separate rungs, but you want to go to the next rung, but you never want to let go of the rung before you. And you'll never ever go forward. Just like as you were talking about, you know, being on that base and having both of those feet there and never wanting to take the steps there, but relying on and understanding that there is the knowledge that other people have and given that opportunity to be able to leverage that for them to succeed, but also gives you that opportunity to grow and expand and be in your zone of genius or lane.

So I absolutely love that. And so I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. And you might have already touched on this, But what do you feel is the thing that you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you or your organization unique?

10:35 – Deborah Pretty

I think the secret sauce is trying to Move even when you're fearful just just get just move just do something move your feet, you know move your feet And you have to make some hard decisions. And you have to be real with yourself. I think 1 of the first things is, am I really running a business? Or Am I an entrepreneur having a, you know, an employee having an entrepreneur seizure? And if so, what do I need to do? So I think those things are the first thing. I think that's the first thing. The secret is I need to get serious about what am I going to do to get to where I am, from where I am to where I'm going.

And I think the other secret sauce is not to be afraid to implore other people because, you know, like I said, you don't know what those persons know that can actually help you. The last thing I want to say is like I said before what is do what you love and outsource everything else because you'd be good if you did what you love and if you don't love doing it most of the time you are not as good at it. So do what you love and outsource everything else.

11:52 – Gresham Harkless

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

12:03 – Deborah Pretty

Of course the book. I love reading and learning. I would say I try to keep an open mind and I am always trying to look for quicker faster and better ways of doing stuff because I know there's always stuff out there. So I think that I know that there's technology, there's always something moving. So again, keep moving.

12:27 – Gresham Harkless

Now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. This could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice it might be something you would tell a client or if you hopped into a time machine you might tell your younger business self.

12:38 – Deborah Pretty

A nugget, one of my nuggets would be like the same thing, reading. Reading is fundamental as they say and you know what Do what you love and follow your passion.

12:55 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And so 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 Debra, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:06 – Deborah Pretty

It means really time and freedom. It would be an example to other people to show people, okay, If she can do that, I can too. I mean, she's no different. She's no smarter. She's no, you know, whatever. She's a human being who started putting 1 foot in front of the other. And you know, all the other stuff that comes between all that said and goes all that, but I'm human. I'm human and, you know, okay, I can make mistakes or whatever, just to want to say, okay, I just want to be an example. I just want to be a simple, plain example of what's possible.

13:42 – Gresham Harkless

I love that definition and that perspective. And I appreciate that. 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 of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.

13:58 – Deborah Pretty

Oh, okay, perfect. Thank you so much. Yeah, again, PY Talk Biz is live. It's things that I go through like right now in my business. So everything that I learn, the new technologies that I use, the new automation, and the tricks and strategies and solutions, I always put the information on my website. It's funny because the people that I know personally that read it, my friends, family members that read it, everybody always say, oh my God, this is, I love it. It's so interesting. Even though what you read, probably that first page is a long page, they say, you know what, but it's not boring. I just want to say that that information is there to help.

And I dare to say, if people just read that website, they would definitely benefit from that. And I talk about, I want to go into that, but it's something I've learned. So basically, I'm talking about like, like you read the many mistakes that I made, help people minimize those mistakes just by reading that information. So yeah, so pytalkviz.com is a resource for a small business owner, and it's just, it's just going to get better and better as more technology comes out, you know, different tools. We're just going to keep adding and just, we want to make it like, okay, you have got to go here. You know, it's almost like you want a friend not to go. So that's basically all I would like to share this time but appreciate that.

15:44 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah well, I definitely appreciate that We will have the links and information in the show notes. And I appreciate you for sharing so much wisdom and knowledge with us today, but also, of course, making it available on your website. And I love how you spoke a couple of times about how important it is to put 1 foot in front of the other and take action. I think so many times we forget we get all this good knowledge and information. We have the how-tos, but we never take action. So I love that charge that you kind of spoke to today as well too, and getting that information, getting that knowledge, being able to use other people's knowledge and be able to take action with that. So I appreciate that reminder and appreciate your time again. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:22 – Outro

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.