IAM1505 – Management Expert Helps Struggling Businesses to become Profitable and Sustainable

Irnise is an experienced nurse and attorney and a Change Management Expert who uses the change management process to assess the goals of her clients who desire to build, operate, and protect their businesses. Irnise has worked with over 100 businesses and assisted them in creating systems, solutions, and success through her 5-Step framework. She has also trained thousands of healthcare providers through her digital courses, webinars, and speaking engagements.

Using her experience, training, and change management skills, Irnise develops cost-effective plans of action for her clients. She works with healthcare organizations and service-based businesses struggling to become sustainable or profitable. She identifies critical issues and uses the change management process to build a strategic plan to help her clients go from struggle to stride and become sustainable and profitable in their business.

• CEO Story: Irnise has a passion for being a nurse and thought she would proceed to medicine, but ended up studying law to understand how to navigate systems and how to build connections and community. Launched nursing and legal firm in 2017 and made a pause. Relaunched in 2020 it is the perfect timing for bridging the gap for direct patient care to do their practice and profession. Over two years, Irnise has really grown her firm, with different clients and opportunities.
• Business Service: Consultation. Clients ask for the legalities and practices of their business. While Irnise will go deeper into asking about the systems and structures, and how to create a business system.
• Secret Sauce: Being a visionary, can see what’s not working. Simplify the process. Turning a mess, into an organized and prioritized strategic action plan.
• CEO Hack: Book mention: One Page Marketing Plan – making marketing so simple, walks you through the marketing process.
• CEO Nugget:  Struggle is data, and data is the key to building a business. Use the things that you’re struggling with and the solutions that you create as data to improve your business. Making your business more valuable.
• CEO Defined: Understanding where the business is going. Share the vision with our team and the people around us.

Website: www.irnisewilliams.com

Facebook: yournurselawyer

Twitter: yournurselawyer

Instagram: yournurselawyer

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Transcription

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00:26 – 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 Harkness 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.

00:54 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. Have Ernest Williams of Ernest Williams, Laura Neist, super excited to have you on the show.

01:04 – Irnise Williams

Thank you, I'm so excited to be here.

01:07 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, absolutely, it should be a phenomenal conversation. Before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Erniece so you can hear about some of the awesome things she's working on. Erniece is an experienced nurse and attorney and a change management expert who uses the change management process to assess the goals of her clients who desire to build, operate, and protect their businesses.

Ernie has worked with over 100 businesses and assisted them in creating systems, solutions, and success through her five-step framework. She has also trained thousands of healthcare providers through her digital courses, webinars, and speaking engagements. Using her experience in training and change management skills, Ernest develops cost-effective plans of action for her clients.

She works with healthcare organizations and service-based businesses struggling to become sustainable or profitable. She identifies critical issues and uses the change management process to build a strategic plan to help her clients go from struggle to stride and become sustainable and profitable in their businesses. Ernice, excited again to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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02:09 – Irnise Williams

Yes, I'm excited to be here.

02:11 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, let's get it started then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit. Here is a little bit more on how you got started. What I call your CEO story.

02:20 – Irnise Williams

Yeah, so I originally went to undergrad for nursing, even though I knew I wanted to do something else later. I thought I wanted to get into medicine, but I realized that the journey is very long. I really loved being a nurse, but I knew there were greater opportunities and things that I wanted to do to have a greater impact. So a couple of years into my nursing career, I went to law school and you really don't go to law school to become a lawyer. You go to law school to understand how to navigate systems and to really understand how to read, how to analyze, and just how to build a community and connection so that you can communicate what is important to you.

I think that some people think like, you go to law school so that you can learn how to litigate. You don't go to law school to learn how to write. All of those things kind of come over time through the processes and assignments that you have. But law school is just a theoretical framework for doing business, right? Of protecting your clients or whatever you choose to do. And so that's why you see lawyers in so many different fields and industries is because it's a framework that essentially can be applied to many things.

After, graduating from law school, I really had a hard time finding a job trying to put both of my nursing and legal careers together. So I stayed in healthcare and launched my own law practice in 2017. I wasn't really happy with how things were going. So I kind of said, well, I'll come back to it. And then I realized 3 years had gone by, it was 2020, the pandemic was happening, and I hadn't quite executed the things that I said I was gonna do.

So I relaunched my law firm in 2020, working with nurses and nurse practitioners in business. That time just happened to be perfect timing because a lot of nurses and nurse practitioners were leaving direct patient care or traditional care to do business ventures. They had a hard time finding people who understood both their practice as well as their profession and putting it all together.

And so I was able to kind of bridge that gap for so many people, while also educating those who are still in direct patient care who felt very lost and unsupported to understand how to navigate the difficult system of being in healthcare and then avoid being sued as well, especially with the way things are now. And so over the last 2 years, things have really grown for me and my law practice. We have expanded, we have lots of different types of clients and clientele, and the opportunities have just kind of grown just because I decided to kind of go after what I knew was my passion, but that nobody could necessarily give a job title for.

04:47 – Gresham Harkless

I absolutely love that. It's definitely the phrase that comes to mind creating your own lane. If there's not something that is built and you have that opportunity to build it, it sounds like you've been able to hit the ground running and do that.

04:59 – Irnise Williams

Definitely, Yes. That's the flexibility of being a lawyer is that you have the ability to see issues from different perspectives and be able to make adjustments based on what you know or what resources you have. And, but I don't think people see it. People think it's like lawyers and you just go down this one road and these are your options. There is no one way and no, you know, for people who are going into the legal industry, you don't have to practice or litigate or go into court to be a lawyer, right? It just essentially gives you the bigger vision to understand facts and how to apply facts and how to apply facts in the favor of you or your clients.

05:35 – Gresham Harkless

I love that you mentioned too about you know building those systems and having those things in place you know correct me if I'm wrong could you take me through a little bit more on how you're serving clients that's a lot of what you do is to help them to have those solid foundations and things in place so that they can accelerate and not have to worry about, oh, do I have this or that in the place?

05:53 – Irnise William

Yeah, so when I was doing a lot of consultations with my clients, originally people were just coming to me to see if their business was legal, and making sure that they were using, were inappropriate scope of practice for their license. But then when I started asking questions about the business, like, okay, do you have a business bank account? Let's look at your website. Do you have the appropriate systems and structure? How do you onboard? How do you train? Are you HIPAA compliant? Like all of, and people were just like, what? I have an LLC, right? That's the big thing. I have an LLC and so I'm here, I can work.

And when people really started to understand if you don't have a marketing plan, you don't have a business. And especially for healthcare workers, that's not anything that we're familiar with. Marketing, people just come. We're just so used to patients just showing up. So for us, we like, oh, I'm building an IV hydration business or a medical aesthetics business. People are just gonna come.

And I'm like, no, that's not how it works. Right. But the industry has us trained that if you build it, people will come in certain circumstances and certain situations, but in entrepreneurship, that isn't true. And so one, I'm trying to show them the difference between using your skills in a system that's already set up and then using your skills in something that you have to create. And so we walk through, how are you gonna build awareness in your business. What is most important to you? Most of us, especially healthcare workers, when we went into the field, we weren't worried about ourselves. We want to help other people.

And so if that meant we had to work night shift, if that meant we had to work weekends, if that meant we had to work holidays, it didn't matter. Like, because that's what we were here to do. That was a part of the job. But when you're creating your own, you have to decide before you start understanding your clients what's most important to you. How do you get to the next level? How do you value your business? How do you build assets and tools to make passive income? How do you get trademarks and copyrights to make sure that your business is protected?

And so we come in and serve as a holistic wrap-around service for our clients. So we start with the foundational legal structures and scope of practice. But then we take them all the way to the next level to ensure that they can sell their business if they want to in a few years. Or if they just want to scale it where they don't necessarily have to work inside of it every single day.

08:06 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, I absolutely love that. I almost feel like you have this ability, like you said, having that experience to be able to kind of see not just what somebody is doing, but sometimes even how they're thinking. And I love that you talking about like as a nurse and having that experience and being able to say that people come in the door just because you know the ambulance comes in and all those things happen that's set up, but not really understanding that as a nurse that's saying okay well I work at this happens that that's not necessarily going to happen.

So do you feel like your ability is to see not just the X's and O's and all the things that are so necessary, but also to understand from a humanistic standpoint of like, in a psychological standpoint of exactly what might help those people, you know, be able to kind of take that next step. Do you think that's your secret sauce? And what's that you a part of?

08:52 – Irnise Williams

Yeah, I think for me, because I'm a visionary, I'm able to see what's not working and how that's going to keep people down. So I have clients who, you know, they're making money, but it's a struggle and it's a hustle and they're working nonstop. And we sit down and we simplify the process. And then you're able to duplicate that and expand on the things that are actually working. And I think it's hard to hear from someone who you feel like they may not understand you, but I get it, right? Like you're trying to balance so much and do so many things.

There's a lot of overhead. There's a lot of experience, your license is on the line. Like it's a lot of things. And then you're trying to figure out the compliance and the regulatory. Like it's a lot. But if you don't actually sit down and do the work to simplify the process, to look at your stats, to look at your data, to look at your analytics, to look at your revenue, you essentially will again never get to the point where you can transform and scale your business, or you may not even be able to make money.

And so I'm able to see the clients who have the ability to do the work, who have the mindset, who have the drive, who lead with excellence, they can do it, but sometimes they just need someone to reel them in, to say, remind them, like, you're doing great work, but let's do the best things first versus doing everything. Like people want to do everything. I want to offer all of these services, but I'm like, what are people coming to you for? So that's what people are coming to you for.

And that's what they're seeking in your community. How do we focus on that? How do we build that? How do we build packages around that? So I think that's what the secret sauce is for me. And when I look at some of my most successful clients, they've come to me with just like a mess. And they're like, here are all of my problems, figure it out. And I'm like, hold on, like, what do we, what do we need to do first? Right.

And I'm able to organize and strategize with them to get them to the point of execution because that's what, that's what holds most businesses back. It's not that they don't have the money or the skillset or the ability, it's the execution. So if I'm telling you to promote and market your business, or I'm telling you to network, or I'm telling you to make these adjustments and you don't do it, we're never gonna be able to receive the data to see if that's working.

I can then take what you're doing and keep refining it and helping you pivot until you find a place that actually makes sense when you do the work. So for me, it's being able to work with people who can execute and then being able to take that data quickly and provide updated solutions. I think That's what I consider my secret sauce.

11:17 – Gresham Harkless

I absolutely love that. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. You might have already touched on this, but it could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

11:29 – Irnise Williams

So the best tool that I felt helped me and still helps me to this day is the 1- Page Marketing Plan. It is a book I share with all of my clients and it is so simple. It makes marketing so simple. It takes you out of the world of only digital marketing and talks about all types of marketing. And then he provides a downloadable tool, which is literally a 1-page marketing plan that helps you that helps people take you from red to yellow to green, which is essentially not your client to potentially being a warm lead to potentially being someone who then refers clients to you. That process, if used in all aspects of a person's business, will help you map out a strategic plan that makes sense and is effective.

And what I find is that when I force clients to actually, cause every client who doesn't do it, they end up back at square one. And when they actually do it, they see the growth because now you already have a plan. And as you get that person, your clients from 1 point to the next, you know, what's going to happen next already. So I always encourage people, The 1-page marketing plan is just great, it's an easy read, but it also has a great resource and tool and it helps you walk people through the marketing process.

12:38 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. So would you consider that to be your CEO Nug, which is a little bit more word of wisdom or a piece of advice? I usually say it might be something you would tell your favorite client, or you might hop into a time machine and tell your younger business.

12:50 – Irnise Williams

I definitely feel that struggle is data and data is actually key to building a business. I think that sometimes we see data as like how much money we're making how many people are liking our posts or how many people are engaging with us. But if you actually step back and look at all of the other aspects of your business, am I able to do this with ease? Am I able to be efficient? How long does it take me? Like really scaling back and say, not the things that people can see or people can actually experience, but what's happening with you as a business owner, that's the data.

So when I realized I was doing the same document over and over and over, why do I need to do that? I need to put this somewhere so that people can have access to it, right? So that's where those systems, automation, and workflows become important because those beginning failures would have never allowed me to create those systems if I didn't have that data and information. And so use that, use the things that you're struggling with and the solutions that you create as data to then improve your business. And that's how you make your business so much more valuable.

13:52 – Gresham Harkless

Arnees, I truly appreciate that. I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show, sir, and at least what just being a CEO means to you.

14:03 – Irnise Williams

For me, being a CEO means understanding where the business is going. I think that many times people start businesses, hire people, and bring people onto the team, and they don't tell them the vision. I just hired my first attorney who's, you know, she's my associate. And I said to her very clearly, this is where we're going to be in 3 years. This is where we're going to be in 5 years. And this is my expectation. You do with that whatever that means for you, right?

I'm not going to bring you into a business and say that I'm going to be here for the next decade doing the same thing. I won't because that's not my vision. And so I think as a CEO, we have to be able to share with our team and to share with the people around us. And even I prepare my clients. I'm not going to be doing the same thing, the weight the same way forever. So let's get what we need to get done now because if this opportunity takes off the way I'm thinking, the way I see it if it takes 3 or 5 years, the business is gonna change.

And I think that that's a true CEO. And I don't see that often where people will bring people into the business to have people commit their life to something that's not going to be long term or their vision changes and they don't share it with their team, that's not right, right? I think that transparency is super important and that leads to vulnerability and people actually leaning in and doing the work when you've actually shared the vision with your team.

15:17 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Well, truly appreciate that definition. And of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get a hold of you about about all the awesome things you're in a team working on.

15:33 – Irnise Williams

Yeah. So if you are a healthcare business owner who is either new in the business or you've been established and you never worked with someone to help you on the legal and compliance side and the strategic business development side, reach out to our team. We have open appointments for all of September and the rest of this year. And we want to help want to help you.

If you are in the med spa or even a new business owner in some other areas, we have a healthcare business starter kit to help you with all the tools that you need to get your business off the ground without having to go to a million places. You can read and learn about me at ErnestWilliams.com or reach out to me on any social media platform as your nurse lawyer and I'd be happy to connect and point you in the right direction.

16:11 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I appreciate you again Ernest to make it even easier. We'll have the links and information in the show notes too, so that everybody can follow up with you. Thank you.

16:19 – Irnise Williams

Thank you so much for having me. I hope this, pops off and it helps a lot of people. Thank you so much.

16:25 – 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.

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