1001: CODING with creativity and a focus on PEOPLE to unlock business success w/ Julie Silvestri

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Hey, what is up?

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Welcome to this episode of the Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

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As always, I'm your host, brian LoFermento, and I'm so excited about today's episode because I think that it's going to be a story that so many of us relate to, because today's entrepreneur we're going to hear all about her journey of finding her passion and a hobby, since she was a child literally, which, for so many of us that flame starts super young.

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Then she went to school.

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She built a career, building up all those skills and utilizing all the things she's learned, but there was always this little idea in the back of her mind about starting her business.

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So that's exactly what she did.

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Let me tell you all about today's guest and entrepreneur.

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Her name is Julie Silvestri.

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Julie learned computer programming by accident as an 11-year-old and went on to spend all of her spare money on computer parts and programming books After majoring in theoretical math at Harvard.

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Yes, I'm from Boston, so I can certify her as wicked smart.

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She spent over a decade working at startups, in finance to ed tech and managing cross-national teams.

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Julie wanted to take her combination of creativity, software development and management skills to market as her own business, and that's where it was born.

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Inside Out Box has been a name on her mind for many years, as it describes how she approaches every new challenge.

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She loves thinking outside the box and working with her team to deliver a solid, stable and maintainable product For all of us who are technical people or not technical people.

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We're going to learn so much from the way that Julie approaches all of these problems and solutions that she builds, so I'm not going to say anything else.

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Let's dive straight into my interview with Julie Silvestri.

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All right, julie, I'm so excited that you're here with us today.

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First things first.

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Welcome to the show.

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Cool thanks.

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It's great to meet you, heck.

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Yes, julie.

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I love the fact that your bio starts out by saying you learned computer programming by accident.

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You've got to start taking us beyond the bio.

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Who the heck is Julie?

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How'd you start doing all these cool things?

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Yes, so I think we got our first computer when I was like seven, and it was mainly for my dad to write, and he then, I think, read that there was a computer camp nearby our house.

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So they let me go for one week thinking I'd learn how to use computers, not realizing it was actually computer programming.

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So after that one week I decided I loved it and, as I said, literally spent all my money on computer books and they decided it was so expensive they wouldn't send me back for two years.

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So I spent two years like practicing and learning and then went back again and finally they let me go a couple more times and that is how I came to love computer programming.

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Yes, I love that overview.

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Loving it as a child, though, is one thing.

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Having that follow you throughout your schooling, your career now as an entrepreneur, that's a whole different thing.

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So walk us through that progression.

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From there.

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A lot of people realize, julie, you've got some high value skills, and they realize I can build a great career out of this, which is exactly what you did.

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How did that eventually spin into your own business?

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Yes, so I think always I'm a people person which is kind of this odd at least in the US combination of you don't really expect a software developer to also like spending a lot of time with people.

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I'm a bit more of an extrovert.

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So the struggle I've always had is like when I first started a program I was like I don't want to sit by myself all day at a desk and I do really value the people I work with.

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I, you know, have managed many people over the years and colleagues and such, and so that has always been a passion.

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And how that turned into a business is, first of all, I also have four kids, which definitely adds some spice to my life and to kind of balancing work and home and so kind of trying to figure out how do I be a good mom at home as well as also use the skills I have, and I think creativity is also just a strength of mine.

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I always like new ideas and I think sometimes people can stand with those new ideas, kind of just being up in their head and not implementing them.

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But I'm also pretty practical.

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So all that kind of came together to say, hey, let me just try this out, see if we can get some movement, use a lot of the skills I've learned over the years and then also get a team together based on many of the people I've worked with over the last decade plus.

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Yes, julie, I'll tell you as a fellow extrovert, I love the fact that that made its way into what you just shared with us there, because I would imagine that it does make your entire approach different.

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You see things differently.

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I agree with you that that's a super rare combo in your industry, because a lot of us we face a lot of tech troubles.

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We face a lot of tech questions, a lot of hopefully good tech solutions in all of our businesses.

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How does being an extrovert and having that natural love for people, how does that make your approach a bit different?

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Yeah.

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So I mean, I really do think connecting with the people I work with is really important to me, not on a fake level, but a real level.

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I know people have told me that my smile is definitely cheers up their day.

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But I think, especially working with kind of the mid size, smaller mid size business world, they're frequently too small to have the attention of really large companies and so to be able to come in and say, hey, I want to get who you are, I want to understand your business.

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I don't want to waste time on stuff you don't care about.

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But if you're going to be really particular about something that nobody else would value, I'm happy to hear that and I'm happy to make that important to me.

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Yeah, which.

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There you go.

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Now.

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I'm hearing the intersection of really three things in our conversation this early on, which is we're talking about technology, we're talking about people, but obviously underlying all of that is, of course, the actual businesses.

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So I'd love to hear from your perspective just knowing because obviously, ahead of you and I chatting today, I've gone so deep into all the wonderful work that you've done even before you started your own business and you had such a successful career in the world of operating tech for big and small businesses alike, as well as tech startups and within the educational world.

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So, julie, with those questions in mind, talk to us about that business focus, because you talk about really identifying the stuff that matters.

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What is that approach?

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Do you first go business considerations, then people considerations, vice versa, do they all work together?

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Help us navigate that.

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That's a good question.

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I think it's always doing a combination of everything.

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So I think back to when I did some ed tech for a while, and when I first started it was much more of a startup and it kind of grew over time, and so it's both within the company itself understanding people's priorities and strengths and trying to let those come out, even if they're things that don't maybe sound great to me at the moment, while also then digging into, I think very frequently with my clients today and back then.

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The question is what is the big picture here Like?

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Are we getting towards our target?

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Do we know what our target is, which, for a startup, is frequently the question, is frequently the question, and making sure that I don't just kind of push through to where I want to get without bringing everyone with me, because that's not really going to work very well.

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Yeah, let's ask that question then.

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It's obviously a big, broad question and it depends very much on the business, the industry, what stage of growth that they're in.

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But I know, having interacted with so many of our listeners all around the world, is that some people have that tendency of saying, gosh, tech is a struggle for me, it's something that holds me back, it's not something that unlocks that growth.

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So, julie, when you think about the role of tech and how it's supposed to help us in our growth journeys, what does that big picture look like?

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What is that thing that technology can unlock for us on our growth paths?

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Yeah, I really think of it as taking away from the frustrations of your day-to-day work, so that ideally, it is not your stumbling block or the thing you're like why this again?

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But that it's actually making your day easier.

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And so that informs how I work on a daily basis.

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Even with one of my clients who uses their software to run their whole business is if they run into any issue like that is immediately my top priority, because I don't want a single one of their employees feeling like, hey, this slowed down my day.

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Actually, I wanted to speed up their day and make it easier.

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Yeah for sure, definitely the goal for all of us easier yeah for sure, definitely the goal for all of us.

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But, julie, it leads me to asking you this question, which, as someone who not only works with the technology that powers business growth, but someone who really appreciates the humans behind all of it, what are some of those questions that you ask them when you even start to assess the landscape of how tech can unlock further growth for them?

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What types of questions do you ask to even for you as the subject matter expert start to identify?

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Oh, we can make some improvements here, we can layer on something that they didn't even think of.

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I'd love to hear some of those real life questions.

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It's a good question.

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So one thing I've started doing is I actually usually do more of a paid like design process to start, so that it's not just like, hey, let's spend three hours and I'll come up with a solution, because I feel like frequently that's going to miss the point.

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And so usually I do a lot more of a deep dive into what is their business process right now.

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Some of my clients I visited in person, particularly the ones that run factories where understanding their factory process is important, and so then from there it's understanding kind of their dreams like the way far out there, kind of like, hey, can we do this?

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And then tying that down as well to, okay, what's the budget?

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What is easiest?

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Like sometimes it surprises them, hey, this is easy, but unfortunately this part might be harder.

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So trying to keep that world of dreams and possibilities and then also trying to figure out how can we attack this in a way that has the biggest strength or biggest impact compared to the budget and time that they have.

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Yeah, I love the fact that I mean this is the real stuff in your projects that you uncover side by side with your clients.

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But, julie, a lot of our listeners are probably tuning in thinking gosh, you serve as a CTO.

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You help other CTOs understand their roles and how to better perform there.

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You fill in that gap for companies who may not have that role inside of their businesses.

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What does that look like?

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What do these out of the box solutions look like for all those companies who have never even considered let's not even talk budget, let's just say they've never even realized and considered the fact that they can have some custom solutions for their business?

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Yeah, yeah.

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So, um, this is where I think I bring the years of experience working with startups especially into the room, and so I guess the way I think of it is it's both like a teaching or sometimes in management it's called like managing app, like helping the leadership understand how can they create a good tech environment for future employees or for future people they work with, as well as really helping to capture their vision and run with it and then find slightly creative solutions.

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So, as a programmer, I tend on the side of being pretty particular about quality code not to an extreme degree, but probably on the higher, slightly higher end and so helping manage that and make sure that I'm producing quality code and also seeing when shortcuts are necessary and being very clear about that and making those plans and seeing how that fits into their long-term goals.

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Because I think it's when you're trying to get something started or see like what it can be, occasionally you take like non-traditional routes or see like what it can be.

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Occasionally you take like non-traditional routes such as like hard coding some things or using interns to help upload data and things like that that may not seem as techie or as cool, but actually allow you to have a really cool solution.

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Yeah, or even hearing you talk about that in my mind.

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I'm like how many people these days probably hop onto ChatGPT and they think that that in and of itself can completely solve all of their problems?

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Let's talk about that, Julie.

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How has AI, and especially with open AI and ChatGPT bringing it more mainstream than it's ever been before?

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How has that impacted your industry?

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So the funny part about that is I do have a client who probably once every like six to eight weeks, is like can we just do this all with chat GBT?

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And then I'm like, well, if you want to give all your data away, then yes, but it's kind of private financial data, so I don't think you want to do that.

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There's some, there's some caveats to that.

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In some ways you can make it a little more private.

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But AI is definitely what every one of my clients I would say everyone except one has in their mind.

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We are actually writing a chatbot for one of our clients in the next couple of months and we do machine learning, we do OCR, and so I would say that it's definitely a challenge as a business to make sure for me, because it's changing so quickly, to make sure that we are, with integrity, providing the best we can for our clients, while also recognizing we don't have time to pay somebody to be in training 24-7 to realize what the latest technology is.

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So we do a few different things to keep up with that, but it's definitely what's on everybody's mind.

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Yeah, and speaking of that, where do you see?

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Obviously, I know it's a hard question to ask, but I have to ask it because it is for sure the number one question that our listeners ask with regards to their own businesses is where's AI going?

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We see it developing at a rapid rate, julie.

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There's so many different AI tools that are even launching, such as AI chatbot agents, that they can supposedly do the work for us.

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I'm still a bit unclear on how all of that works, julie, but what's the direction?

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Where do you see AI going and how does it fit in with real life businesses, which are, of course, powered by real Even thinking back recently, I was realizing the email was still like slightly on the new side when I went to college is that there are many steps in the history of human development that have made work easier and faster, and I think AI is hopefully going to take us to that next step, where it takes some of that initial thought like hey, I'm about to write a presentation, rather than spend three hours procrastinating about where do I start, maybe I type it into chat GPT, how do I talk about this, and it gives some talking points or whatever comes after chat GPT and but from there I use all my knowledge and my creativity to actually come up with something that is awesome.

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So I think it just kind of takes some of that initial administrative work that we might not even see as like the non-thinking work that we do right now and makes that part simpler.

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Yeah, julie, you used a word that I'm so excited you interjected into today's conversation, because the more that I looked about your business, the more that word popped up, and that is creativity.

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You creatively find solutions for these businesses.

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It looks to me from the outside, looking in, that you have a really awesome team that also somehow finds a way to make all of this stuff fun, I'm sure, both internally and externally with your clients.

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Talk to us about the benefit of growing your business and having a multinational team at this point and how all those different perspectives and backgrounds and tools and skills that you all have, how that helps contribute to the creative solutions that you find.

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That's a great point.

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So I mean I have, so I have a team in the Philippines and then some contractors I work with across Europe and a little bit of Asia.

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So I think that honestly they have different strengths, even just kind of culturally, which cultures focus on which kinds of technologies.

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And so I really appreciated one guy in Asia Eastern Europe right now who just is really great at Amazon and kind of has an interest in that and has helped us get up to speed with some of the new Amazon infrastructure In the Philippines.

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I have somebody who's great at machine learning and so I think to me that adds from a technical perspective.

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And then personally I love cultures.

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If I could speak 100 languages I would and so I just feel like it brings a lot of enthusiasm and excitement.

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There's a person actually in Kyrgyzstan who works for me and he was actually at his home one day doing an interview and he had this humongous flower on the wall and I had no idea.

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I guess Kyrgyzstan, just they like flowers and that's part of their culture and I just feel like that enriches everything kind of about daily life, just to know what different cultures enjoy and what helps them thrive.

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Yeah, I definitely relate to that.

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My mom.

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Her fifth language is English, and so that's.

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I've grown up just hearing her effortlessly weave through languages and I thought to myself that's cool.

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It gives you such a unique perspective.

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It gives you such a unique ability to connect to people of all different backgrounds and experiences and perspectives, so I love the fact that that's made its way into the way that you build your team, Julie.

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Which leads me to ask you you're not just a computer programmer these days, You're not just an entrepreneur.

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These days, you also are managing a team, and I know that you've had management responsibilities in your past careers and in your professional career.

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What does that look like?

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Was that a conscious choice for you when you set out to start your own business, of saying I want a team, I want to hire, I don't just want these projects?

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I'd love to hear that progression are slightly similar to kids and I was like, in some ways, maybe having a little personal time where I'm not doing that would be better.

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But as the business started to grow, I realized that just being one person was not going to work well for me or for the solutions I want, and so some of that was a surprise.

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But the flip side of it is, I mean, it's really fun.

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The woman who's kind of the top manager for me right now is somebody who worked for me over a decade ago and so we've known each other for a very long time.

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And actually another employee is about to marry somebody who used to work for me, so that part has been fun.

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It's definitely, I think, a little bit of a responsibility as well, which I think you know I don't want to make it sound all glorious in that right, Like if somebody gets sick, then it means that I'm doing extra work.

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But then the flip side is, you know, if I'm busy one week, they can cover it for me as well.

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So yeah, Julie, I'll tell you what.

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Hearing you talk about your team and just imagining all these amazing programmers creating cool solutions behind the scenes, what's it look like for your own business?

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Do you all just deploy custom tech for your own business?

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Are you all kind of tinkering on some fun projects just to refine your skills?

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How do you sharpen your tools behind the scenes?

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That's a great question.

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So for actually I sent some people to Singapore in the spring actually for the last two years to do an Amazon conference, and so that has been kind of our main like special week long.

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I mean it's basically a week of intensive growth In terms of kind of the daily growth.

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I guess the way I think we all approach it is when we run into something that's like a little unique or you kind of get that feeling as a programmer like hey, there's probably a better way to do this.

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That's kind of like when we dive deeper and so personally I found that always to be the most effective for me, and sometimes I'll listen into conferences or whatnot.

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But it's more like when I actually have the problem and I know that there's a better way.

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Then it gives me the incentive and the real life example of saying, hey, I better figure out how to do this better.

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Yeah, and speaking of doing things better, I'm a big fan of systematizing things.

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I'm of the firm belief that if I do something 10 times, then there's probably a way that I can find to automate it or systematize it or offload it to somebody else.

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I'm a big fan of looking at my workflows and always looking for those edges.

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Julie, what are those things?

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Is it pain points in your workflows that make you reflect and say wait, hold on.

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There's got to be a better way and let's apply technology to this.

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What's that sort of decision making process look like in your own mind?

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So to me, I think this gets to really some of the skill that comes from being a programmer and a manager for a while in the programming world is, for instance, to give a really practical example, we have unit tests for one of our clients well, multiple clients but one specific client and for many for over a year we'd had them running on GitHub and then they just started breaking more and more and so as a manager kind of, the decision point had to be how much time do I invest into fixing those?

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Is that worth it to the client?

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If we're to build them, do we have free time to do it on our those?

00:20:53.887 --> 00:20:54.183
Is that worth it to the client?

00:20:54.183 --> 00:20:55.991
If we're to build them, do we have free time to do it on our own?

00:20:55.991 --> 00:20:59.497
And I think one of the hard decisions is to figure out.

00:20:59.497 --> 00:21:04.554
Actually, right now it's not worth it to do those tests on GitHub.

00:21:04.554 --> 00:21:06.479
We do run them locally before we deploy.

00:21:06.479 --> 00:21:08.443
So we always make sure our unit tests are working.

00:21:08.904 --> 00:21:27.234
But I really feel that some of the balance that comes with doing this for a while is figuring out where the value is and just making those hard decisions for somebody who likes everything to run perfectly and likes it to work well, to know when to invest that time and when not to.

00:21:28.275 --> 00:21:29.518
Yeah, julie, I'll tell you what.

00:21:29.518 --> 00:21:38.278
I want to switch gears a little bit, because in these conversations I always love hearing your perspectives as a subject matter expert, but also I openly acknowledge that you're one of us.

00:21:38.278 --> 00:21:56.587
You are a fellow entrepreneur and business owner, and so with that in mind, I can't help but think about your career, and the fact that I mean I saw it right there in your bio is that you always had the name on your mind of inside out box, which to me suggests you've always kind of had that entrepreneurial seedling planted there in your mind.

00:21:56.587 --> 00:21:57.669
What did that look like?

00:21:57.669 --> 00:21:58.529
Where did that come from?

00:21:58.529 --> 00:22:02.061
Is there a line of entrepreneurs in your family that planted that seed?

00:22:02.061 --> 00:22:06.863
Is it something that you saw other co-workers of yours in the past branch out on your own?

00:22:06.863 --> 00:22:08.988
What sparked that transformation?

00:22:09.555 --> 00:22:10.457
That's a great question.

00:22:10.457 --> 00:22:18.069
I honestly think it was from when I was little, and so my parents are not, I would say, maybe my dad slightly, but not necessarily by nature entrepreneurial.

00:22:18.069 --> 00:22:23.865
I mean they were both lawyers and not in a sort of just more traditional spaces.

00:22:23.865 --> 00:22:30.876
I remember when I was little we had this little magnet set I forget what it was called and I came up with this invention for my dad.

00:22:30.876 --> 00:22:37.670
I was like you know what, if cars had reverse magnets or the same pole of magnets together, I bet they wouldn't get in crashes.

00:22:37.670 --> 00:22:39.362
And so I did a whole demo to him.

00:22:39.934 --> 00:22:50.375
This is with magnets that are meant for a three-year-old, that you can't even swallow, and he was kind of like okay, and so I think there's just been that inventive spirit since I was little.

00:22:50.375 --> 00:22:53.076
I know my sister was like you were always meant to invent inventive spirit.

00:22:53.076 --> 00:22:54.919
Since I was little, I know my sister was like you were always meant to invent, like.

00:22:54.919 --> 00:22:57.785
So I honestly didn't know a lot of people who did that.

00:22:57.785 --> 00:23:06.229
My parents are on the more risk adverse side and I have had colleagues who actually have gone on to create businesses.

00:23:06.229 --> 00:23:17.507
I don't know if you've ever heard of Toast, but those are some former colleagues of mine, and so some of that has encouraged it, but I do think it's something, since I was little, that I've always wanted to do.

00:23:18.107 --> 00:23:29.087
Yeah, and I'm going to tack on to that, because not only have you done it you left your career and started your own business but, julie, you're also doing it while being a mom of four kids, which is no small feat.

00:23:29.087 --> 00:23:36.696
Talk to us about how you manage that workload, because I love the fact that, when we were talking about your team, you mentioned the fact that, yeah, it does increase your responsibilities.

00:23:36.696 --> 00:23:45.252
There's a lot of people who create these rosy pictures of what the life of an entrepreneur looks like, but, julie, give us the reality here in today's episode.

00:23:45.252 --> 00:23:48.999
What is that actual workload and work life balance, if you will?

00:23:48.999 --> 00:23:51.522
What does it look like in the life of Julie Silvestri?

00:23:51.903 --> 00:24:01.045
Yeah, that's a great question and I think for me I think COVID actually helped and then people have been a little more flexible in their minds of like having kids around the house.

00:24:01.045 --> 00:24:11.282
I do value professionalism a lot so for my kids, like on days they're home, I definitely I tell them these are the meetings you absolutely can't come into.

00:24:11.282 --> 00:24:17.392
My youngest is six now and so he has definitely sat on my lap through meetings with the people who work for me.

00:24:17.392 --> 00:24:25.759
Just because he's muted it at the time, he has occasionally invaded meetings with clients, which has been rather uncomfortable for me.

00:24:25.759 --> 00:24:28.324
It's only happened once or twice.

00:24:28.324 --> 00:24:38.381
So some of that is just like you know, accepting like my first job as a mom and I set some boundaries and try and make sure like my oldest can watch the younger ones.

00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:40.702
But um, that's some of the reality.

00:24:40.702 --> 00:24:46.866
I mean, if you want to hear the real reality is yesterday, I guess, verizon phones went down so I ended up changing the plans.

00:24:46.866 --> 00:24:57.795
But my initial plan was to do a meeting with a client from the car tethered, so I would be there in time to pick up one of my daughters from piano lesson from the car tethered, so I would be there in time to pick up one of my daughters from piano lesson.

00:24:57.795 --> 00:25:02.097
So it's a little bit of a juggling act.

00:25:02.097 --> 00:25:06.673
I try not to have meetings when my kids are home, just because it's easier on the kids and less stress and less chance of being interrupted.

00:25:06.673 --> 00:25:09.260
But yeah, it's definitely a juggling act.

00:25:09.260 --> 00:25:21.800
I sometimes work at odd hours and make it clear to my own employees that's not my expectation of them, but when the bus drops the kids off, I want to be there at the bus, and so that means that I'm not always working very much in the afternoons.

00:25:22.563 --> 00:25:24.207
Yes, you do what it takes, Julie.

00:25:24.207 --> 00:25:35.817
That's exactly what I'm hearing from you, and so I want to ask you this next question because, thinking about the fact that you do work in an industry that is so future focused as an entrepreneur, what does your time horizon look like?

00:25:35.817 --> 00:25:44.118
Are you sitting down during your executive time and saying what's our business going to look like a year from now, three years from now, five years from now, or are you operating?

00:25:44.118 --> 00:25:46.044
I personally, I love quarterly bases.

00:25:46.044 --> 00:25:52.482
I'm a big fan of 30, 60, 90 days because, gosh, we can implement a lot of things and make a lot of positive changes in that time frame.

00:25:52.482 --> 00:25:56.509
But obviously it is that balance of short term versus long, longer term thinking.

00:25:56.509 --> 00:25:58.882
I'd love to hear where your strategic mind goes.

00:25:59.765 --> 00:26:00.046
Yeah.

00:26:00.046 --> 00:26:06.538
So I would say I, on kind of a more immediate basis, like making budget, would be more of a six month kind of timeline.

00:26:06.538 --> 00:26:13.723
For me is that usually our projects are at least six months long, so it's kind of like making sure that, hey, are we good for the next six months or not?

00:26:13.723 --> 00:26:20.865
From that space, I'm really trying to make sure that we get into a niche that is healthy for our business.

00:26:20.865 --> 00:26:25.561
So it means turning down some opportunities that I think would lead us away from that.

00:26:25.561 --> 00:26:46.211
Like I really wanna stay to this kind of core idea that we're providing like deep value to our clients, that we're using some of the skillset that both myself and others have, um, you know some really strong programming skills that are beyond just like, hey, can you fix up this website or can you just fix some things in a database?

00:26:46.211 --> 00:26:51.067
That's not really our niche, um, and so yeah.

00:26:51.067 --> 00:27:00.239
So I think the long term is more is am I pointing our business in the direction that will allow us to acquire more clientele, um, in a way that it will go?

00:27:00.298 --> 00:27:03.892
I think the other aspect of this is figuring out my own bandwidth.

00:27:03.892 --> 00:27:15.015
So the one downside of having an international team is I'm the only one in the US right now, and so some of the management I've had trouble balancing with the international team.

00:27:15.015 --> 00:27:21.154
And so if everything falls to me at some point, there is a true limit of how many projects I want to take on.

00:27:21.154 --> 00:27:23.017
And that's partially because I'm a mom and that again is a true limit of how many projects I want to take on.

00:27:23.017 --> 00:27:28.478
And that's partially because I'm a mom and that again is a high priority to me, and partially because I'm human and limited as well.

00:27:29.405 --> 00:27:36.093
Yeah, I really appreciate that transparent insight into your business and the way that your executive mind thinks, because that's the real stuff.

00:27:36.192 --> 00:27:37.846
I personally find it in my own businesses.

00:27:37.885 --> 00:27:59.314
I'm on year 16 of being an entrepreneur and for most of us in college in college we all learned I went to business school actually right down the road from where you went to school, Julie, and one of the things I always heard my professors talk about was that 10-year plan, and now actually I'm just going to say 2020 proved to all of us that a 10-year plan is mostly made up and it's not really going to happen because things change.

00:27:59.374 --> 00:28:14.056
So I really appreciate that insight of, yeah, you make sure your sales are pointed in the right way and that's the direction you want to go, but then you follow it and you navigate the waters based on the way that the wind is blowing, and I think that that's a real life glimpse into how business works and probably how life works as well.

00:28:14.056 --> 00:28:15.426
We could extrapolate that there.

00:28:15.426 --> 00:28:27.496
But, Julie, it makes me want to ask you, with regards to the fact that you are doing all of this stuff on your own these days, and you've talked about the additional workload and responsibilities how has it differed.

00:28:27.496 --> 00:28:35.615
Is it everything that you dreamed of when it came to starting your own business, or are there things that have surprised you and love to hear your thoughts there yeah, that's a good question.

00:28:35.757 --> 00:28:50.890
I mean, I think in some sense there's a part of me that's actually shocked that it's working and sometimes I'm like feel nervous to say that you know, it's been two and a half years, so definitely um fortunately have been profitable uh since the first year, which is uh great.

00:28:50.890 --> 00:29:04.192
But yeah, I think um surprise would be just being able to get into the niche that I enjoy working in so quickly.

00:29:04.192 --> 00:29:11.481
I would say another surprise would be I would have thought I liked the clients, but I actually like them way more than I anticipated.

00:29:11.481 --> 00:29:15.035
I mean, I really appreciate the breadth of like I work.

00:29:15.035 --> 00:29:27.875
I have one client that's like a large restaurant or medium maybe medium restaurant chain, you'd say and just the personality of those people is so different from, like, the people who manufacture lock hardware and it's just.

00:29:27.875 --> 00:29:33.395
I really enjoy just spending time with them and getting to know different sorts of people.

00:29:34.246 --> 00:29:37.419
Yeah, julie, I'll tell you what I knew that time would fly by here today.

00:29:37.419 --> 00:30:01.873
But I do want to squeeze in two more questions while we have you here, and the first one is it's a word that you brought into our conversation I'm so grateful that you did, because we actually haven't talked about it just yet explicitly and that is, of course, your niche, or your niche niching down, and so I remember there was a time in all of my businesses where, julia, I would take on any and all projects, quite frankly, if someone said I'll pay you this amount, I figured out a way to deliver on that project.

00:30:01.873 --> 00:30:07.690
Obviously, it's something that a lot of newer businesses and newer entrepreneurs face, but talk to us about that progression.

00:30:07.690 --> 00:30:09.674
Was there a time like that in your business?

00:30:09.674 --> 00:30:12.291
And then, what is that niche that you identified?

00:30:12.291 --> 00:30:13.877
And give us the reality.

00:30:13.877 --> 00:30:21.796
How tough is it sometimes to stay disciplined and say, no, there's work here on the table, but I want to make sure we're always going in this direction.

00:30:22.457 --> 00:30:23.558
Yes, that's a great point.

00:30:23.704 --> 00:30:48.816
I mean, when I first started, so the first year, I definitely kind of networked into finding somebody who does IT and then he was bringing me for various opportunities and there was one that, like I went, I drove a ways to and just like I knew I could have done the work, but it really was more like consulting in tech in a way that wasn't I wouldn't say like my, wasn't.

00:30:48.855 --> 00:30:59.795
Something I was passionate about was for a business that I wasn't passionate about and I like almost would have said yes and that took a lot to say no.

00:30:59.795 --> 00:31:16.718
I think that having had said no to that and honestly I think, just some personal things, some cancer diagnoses in the extended family, were enough to like push me over to say no for that one, which I'm grateful for, because then it has been easier to say no since.

00:31:16.718 --> 00:31:31.346
But I have had an offer that is within the niche that would be very helpful but there would be a very high like referral fee and having to decide to say no on that has also taken taken some strength to say you know what.

00:31:31.346 --> 00:31:39.570
This just will not set our company up for success financially, even though this would be within our niche and um.

00:31:39.570 --> 00:31:47.732
Realizing it means I might have to do some more like work to get some clients for that like nine, 12 months from now, but I know it's worth it.

00:31:48.535 --> 00:31:53.692
Yeah, strength, discipline, faith a lot of ingredients that go into the entrepreneurial story.

00:31:53.692 --> 00:32:01.912
I'm so grateful for all of your transparent, authentic insights, julie, and I always love asking this question at the end of episodes because it's super broad.

00:32:01.912 --> 00:32:03.887
You can take it in any direction that you want.

00:32:03.887 --> 00:32:18.729
I have no idea which way you'll go with this question, and that is what's your one best piece of advice or that one takeaway knowing that we're being listened to by entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs at all different stages of their business growth journeys, with all different sorts of obstacles and things on their mind.

00:32:18.729 --> 00:32:21.532
What's that one thing that you want to leave them with here today?

00:32:21.553 --> 00:32:38.109
That's a great question, I would say, to go for it and also have a plan, and in that sense, yeah, I would just say that it's fun to go for it and I think that there are so many opportunities you can't imagine.

00:32:38.109 --> 00:32:49.113
But doing it just assuming it will work out is probably not going to get you as far as coming up with about 10 different plans, and hopefully one of those will get you there.

00:32:49.794 --> 00:32:52.888
Yes, I love that, Honestly, up until the very end.

00:32:52.888 --> 00:32:54.433
That's the real stuff, julie.

00:32:54.433 --> 00:33:05.938
It's things that you and I have experienced in our own business growth journeys, and it's just the reality of things are never going to work out exactly as we think they will, and that's why we just need to be adaptable, flexible, nimble.

00:33:05.938 --> 00:33:11.349
I'm sure that so many of those programming principles also make their way into your business and strategy mind.

00:33:11.349 --> 00:33:12.790
So huge thanks to you.

00:33:12.790 --> 00:33:14.612
You've got to drop those links on us, julie.

00:33:14.612 --> 00:33:25.199
I personally have really enjoyed going through all the great work that your company is putting out into the world and on your website, how clearly you lay out hey, we've got software solutions, we've got CTO consulting.

00:33:25.199 --> 00:33:27.507
We can help you ramp up the things that you're doing.

00:33:27.507 --> 00:33:32.409
So, julie, for listeners who want to go deeper into all the great work that you're doing, drop those links on us.

00:33:32.409 --> 00:33:33.632
Where should they go from here?

00:33:34.314 --> 00:33:43.979
Yes, insideoutboxcom is a great place to start, or you can find us on LinkedIn or Alignable, and you're always welcome to email me at julie at insideoutboxcom.

00:33:44.684 --> 00:33:51.176
Yes, listeners, and you already know the drill we are making it as easy as possible for you to find all of those links down below in the show notes.

00:33:51.176 --> 00:33:55.010
Wherever it is that you're tuning into today's episode, don't be shy in reaching out to Julie.

00:33:55.010 --> 00:33:58.426
We talk so much here today about custom solutions.

00:33:58.426 --> 00:34:07.480
Julie probably sees things that we can't see in our own businesses, so if you want to continue the conversation with her personally, definitely check the links in the show notes.

00:34:07.480 --> 00:34:12.965
Otherwise, julie, on behalf of myself and all the listeners worldwide, thanks so much for coming on the show today.

00:34:13.967 --> 00:34:14.309
Awesome.

00:34:14.309 --> 00:34:15.070
Thank you so much.

00:34:15.070 --> 00:34:16.072
It's been great to meet you.

00:34:17.635 --> 00:34:23.137
Hey, it's Brian here, and thanks for tuning in to yet another episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

00:34:23.137 --> 00:34:27.175
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00:34:27.175 --> 00:34:36.414
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00:34:36.414 --> 00:34:45.193
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00:34:52.322 --> 00:35:03.286
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00:35:03.286 --> 00:35:11.744
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00:35:11.744 --> 00:35:13.128
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00:35:13.128 --> 00:35:16.956
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00:35:16.956 --> 00:35:19.168
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00:35:19.168 --> 00:35:28.583
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