340 Julie Perkins

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Whatever your business problems may be, Julie Perkins has lived them and learned how to look forward and survive. From picking herself up after sixth form, to witnessing the ins and outs of a business founded in a spare room, and launched onto the world stage. From surviving cancer, to writing books, and hosting her own podcast, she is sought after for her advice and guidance, not only as a business leader, but as a thought leader. 

And before we start this episode, a quick word from our sponsor, Deep Wealth and the 90 Day Deep Wealth Mastery Program. Here's Jane, a graduate who says, and I quote, the Deep Wealth Mastery Program prevented me from making what would have been one of the biggest mistakes of my career. I almost signed on the dotted line with an unsolicited offer that I now realized would have shortchanged my hard work and my future had I accepted that offer. Deep Wealth Mastery has tilted the playing field to my advantage.

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So what do you think?

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Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. We have a fellow entrepreneur, thought leader, terrific all around person in the Deep Wealth house today. So Julie, welcome to the podcast. An absolute pleasure to have you with us. And Julie, I'm always curious of all of the guests because there's always a story behind the [00:04:00] story.

Julie, what's your story? What brought you from where you were to where you are today?

Julie Perkins: Well, I hope my story doesn't disappoint and thank you very much for having me, Jeffrey, and we're looking forward to our conversation. So what's the story? Well, I came from a big corporate organization and now I support women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. forward. But mine wasn't just a corporate I come from a big fast moving entrepreneurial family which always brings a lot of fun a lot of stories.

And I went to grow that business or to support growing that business into the Netherlands and Northern Europe. And. So I think I'm a mixture of family entrepreneurship, curiosity a lot of fun, success, but also my greatest learnings are from the failures and learnings. I was a very young leader doing fast moving projects.

And I think that couldn't have been. Best course I could have ever been on. So that's a little [00:05:00] bit about me. And I left the family business. I'm still obviously involved slightly, but and I thought, do I want to do? I want to take this learnings, very much like yourself, I'm sure. I want to take these learnings and see if I can fast track a few amazing women to do things quicker, faster, and smarter.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Julie, so much to unpack there as we were talking about offline. So for all of our female listeners out there, hey, stay tuned, hang on to your hats. We're going to be talking about some terrific things, but you know what? For all the guys out there, do not tune us out because best practices are best practices.

Julie and I were talking about this offline, and although, Julie, you're focused with female founders, particularly early stage. Which I'm all about. We need more women in business. I think it's really something that we have to really, all of us as entrepreneurs make a big push to get that out there for all you guys out there, listen in because these are strategies from the trenches.

But Julie, let's go back here for a minute to you growing up. So very interesting. You grew up in an entrepreneurial family. [00:06:00] And then you also find yourself in a corporate environment.

Wow, what a polar opposite. So how was that for you? I can only imagine, but what was it like for you?

Julie Perkins: Well, I mean, growth happens with companies, as you know, in a series of waves. So you're forming, you're surviving and then you're establishing ground. And with myself working in a family business, the entrepreneurial business, when I say corporate, it means that business that they started, my parents started, grew and grew rapidly.

So, I saw every stage of it. I saw the board table that was the table tennis table. There went my table tennis career because it became the board table, that very typical garage format. And it grew, and obviously when I was old enough to join the company it was a corporate organization. It was an incredible.

Business still is that I grew up with, and I learned a lot from being a part of an entrepreneurial family, [00:07:00] which is about. Things like working with the right people, surrounding yourself and, coming back and understanding that work or growth should be fun. I mean, if you're an entrepreneur, you walk through the door and you don't see it as a failure.

You kind of go, right, how can we do this better? How can we do it better? Who do we need? And that's the attitude. Whereas, sometimes for work, it's oh my goodness, another day. It never happened in our house. Every failure was a challenge and it was exciting, interesting people coming around, great parties coming around, and I think that spirit about sharing success and growth is embedded in me.

And I think that is a The most important lesson of all, as you're growing companies, and I know it's overkilled, but what I mean is, surround yourself and share success, but share wealth as well. And I think that's something I really try and work with with the [00:08:00] entrepreneurs on, is who Is the team and how do you align and have that incredible alignment to the vision with those people, especially when you can't pay them a lot of money, that's hard.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. You're reminding me of my bootstrapping days. I call that the cockroach startup mindset, where you better have a good vision because you probably can't write the check for that world class talent. You better come up with other things to keep people interested. Julia, you used the F word, failure.

And for a lot of people, when they come across what seemingly seems like failure, For them, it's the downfall. And for you, it sounds like it was quite the opposite. So, for failure, when you look back, and I'm with you on this, because I know for myself, the so called failures, my success, I wasn't ready for that.

I had to go through those failures for myself. So I could really prepare and show up for the success that was there, but I had to be schooled in, okay, Jeffrey, how do you take yourself to the next level? So for our listeners out there, when you went through those [00:09:00] so called failures, what you saw with your family business with the so called failures, what were some of your big takeaways that you can share with the audience?

Julie Perkins: Yeah, absolutely. We came, Netherlands was the very first country we opened up in and I came out to work that through. We got here. Incredibly competitive marketplace. And I think my failure was because of the pressure. The first mothership country had been so successful. There was a massive amount of pressure.

And I think under pressure as a young leader. Or any leader, you tend to often hold tighter and all this about bringing the people in starts to go by the wayside. And really, as the company was growing, I was holding tighter. So in the end, I was turning over in its initial year, it's 78 million a year.

On my shoulders, which is looking back on it, it's crazy, but my intention was very good. And I was sat out in this very garden outside, [00:10:00] you can't see beyond my little podcast thing, but with my hands in the air at 3am in the morning, and I thought, What more can I do? And of course, hindsight's a wonderful thing, do less, but I'd gone into the company and I realized that in fact, it wasn't my fault.

And I think this is one thing we think it's us, so we do more and more, but companies grow in a series of waves and my company was fighting with me because I was still treating it like this small baby child. And it was trying to. Set itself free with these incredible, amazing people I'd employed.

And I think that was my very first learning. Learning number one, make yourself redundant every six months. And I still do it to this day in terms of if I wasn't here, and of course, don't make yourself redundant and the question is very important, the very first question is very important.

Do I still love what I do? And it's amazing as an entrepreneur, because you're [00:11:00] so caught up in the vision, how long you can kid yourself with are you having fun? And you can persuade, this is it. I've got to keep going, but you've got to be really honest with yourself. Do you still love what you do?

And where do you reposition yourself in order to get that back? You are so critical in the leadership of it. And if you're trapped in it that's very important, but it's not just early stage. I do it every six months and I did it every six months thereafter, and it gives people the space. Because you've moved and given them the space go, Oh, I can't delegate.

So I'm going to go on to lesson number two, where do you have that moment? But that's number one, make yourself redundant and be hard.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Love that lesson. Lesson number one, make yourself redundant. Julia is just talking about that in Deep Wealth in our 90 day program. Step number two, X Factors. That's one of the questions that we actually ask at the very beginning. [00:12:00] Julie, Jeffrey, does your business run without you? No ums or buts or let me think about it.

Well, let me tell you, yes or no. And for most business owners, the answer is no, even if they have a management team. Oftentimes, the management team still needs to run everything through that owner. So, for our listeners, and you know who you are, you know that your business doesn't run without you, and it should, regardless of whether you're a startup, or whether you've been in business for decades, the one question I often get, Julie, and maybe you have some insights on this, okay, I know the business needs to run without me, I want it to run without me, I don't want those golden handcuffs, I know a future investor or buyer will not want a second full time job, otherwise known as running the company.

But I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to get myself out of the mix or I don't trust people to get that good feeling of, okay, I can walk away and the business is still going to be standing. What would you say to those listeners?

Julie Perkins: love the word trust because there's no worse word for an entrepreneur. Then the word you must delegate more, actually it's more than one [00:13:00] word, but you know what I mean. It's all about trust. And my greatest advice would be in order to create that trust, you need to ask yourself obviously the first position about, do you still love what you do? the very first thing you need to do is to understand how alive your vision, purpose and values are. Because. If running a business is about trusting somebody, then it's always going to be so personal. But actually, if you're united on purpose, values, and vision, your trust comes from, are we all contributing successfully to what the vision of change is I'm trying to achieve? And that helps to understand trust, because if you've got people that believe the same as you, they're never going to believe in the same way, but stand by the same picture of change that you want, you are more liable to have that trust. To hand over and let go. [00:14:00] It's not about delegating tasks because the people you need in a company are roles and contributions.

But what do you unite on? Do you trust them that they believe the same change is possible? And we spoke right at the beginning about goodwill and the joy of valuing goodwill after sale. And what I encourage my entrepreneurs to do is we've got this method of Looking at the goodwill as you grow, and we call it the Powerball, the goodwill, don't look at it and value it after you're going to get out.

Look at it as how you're building your team, where you are, because if you're trapped in your company, you ain't good for anybody. So that decreases it. The way you work. Your customers, your relationship with them, and we monitor that goodwill as you're growing your business. And that means that entrepreneur always give the space [00:15:00] and keep repositioning themselves and have that trust with a united purpose, vision, and values.

So how alive is your vision, purpose, and values would be my point two.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so going to point two, going to the goodwill, just before we do that, though, my takeaway and you can say, Jeffrey, you're on base or off base, what I'm hearing you say, if you want to fire yourself from the business, other people will be doing it, maybe better than you, maybe not as good as you, but it's good enough.

If you can't do that, look within because there are some trust issues. Maybe the trust issues are really there and you have the wrong people, or maybe it's within that you have to work on your mindset. How am I doing with that so far?

Julie Perkins: I think you're spot on. I think, as with yours, we focus so much on the founder, so many incubators and places, look at the business model, but the founder and the actual leader of it is key. And I spent, again, let's throw in a second failure. It's failure, it's a harsh word. But you know, I spent.

I [00:16:00] think a good majority of 10 years, not speaking with my own voice. If you remember, I said, I come from a very high paced entrepreneurial family. So I had the role model of. Mother and father, real drivers. And of course, when you have that as your role model, you're naturally, as a young person, trying to mimic that role model.

And what I learned the hard way was, that's great, use them as the role models, but what does it mean to you? And developing your own voice with your personal values and how you translate that into your life is, actually solves. 80 percent of the problem that any entrepreneur has when they come to me, if they always come and go, Whoa, growth slowed down.

Oh my goodness. It is. I go, okay. Growth begins with you. I obviously say it better than this, but you know what I mean? Growth begins with you. And I can see their face going, I can't believe you're starting here. I've got a crisis [00:17:00] out here. Actually, it's their voice. It's the alignment of how they are leading and what they believe.

And quite often, if you look at it as a bit of an umbilical cord between them and the company, it's severed. And all you have to do, you don't have to be your company, but it needs an essence of you. And then their voice comes. Stronger into those choices that they make and once they can do that, it's like you're shaking a tree and all of the rubbish falls off and you're left with what truly matters.

But if I tell an entrepreneur that day one, they go, this sounds like a very sort of course I don't want to be on. I need to find the market here. Where are they? But it's not. So it's, it is the, I know it, I've lived it. I

Jeffrey Feldberg: And it's really not surprising because as the founder, as the visionary, everything starts with us. Even if we're out there, we're a titan of business and we have thousands, tens of [00:18:00] thousands of team members out there, it always comes back to us. It tends to reflect who we are, what we're thinking, what we're doing, not doing as an organization.

And Julie, let me ask you this. With the best practices, with the strategies that you've shared with us so far, Would you differentiate, of perhaps different circumstances, of how this would apply to a woman versus a man, or is it really one and the same, anything we should know about that? 

Julie Perkins: Think it's a really interesting question and answered. We all live in the same world. And I think it's how we look upon life and the values, whether we're a man, woman, are exactly the same power. It's the lens through which we see life are the greatest four values in which we normally make decisions by.

But the challenge with the more feminine traits of a woman, which often sit with the woman, sorry, but I actually do say that my mother has more masculine traits than my father, but that's another story. It's not necessarily gender related, [00:19:00] but we tend to look at things broader. We tend to look at a broader picture where we're very collaborative and we're more likely to build family.

Ties, and have that sort of gathering sense in a business. So therefore how we look upon values in our voice is incredibly important because, that lens through which we see life helps make decisions when we're sat in a very sort of broad picture. And it helps us clarify. It doesn't mean it doesn't help more masculine treated leaders.

Make those decisions, but it's more important to gain clarity if you are looking at leadership as this broad, collaborative way, which is a very fem more feminine treated leadership style. Very much needed in today's world, by the way, but that [00:20:00] lens and the importance of that strategy of defining your voice plays. Key role in deciding what's important, whereas a masculine trait is more single minded. Having that lens is very important. That's why I say to every woman entrepreneur, you need that lens because under pressure, you need to be able to take choices under very complex situations, normally complex situations you've caused.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting, as you're going through all of that, and let me ask you, I know I'm all over the map, but there is a method to the madness here, I promise you. So, while we're

talking about looking within, and the vision, the mission You said something that, for a lot of listeners, they may have glossed over.

It's very subtle, but it's very important, and it's the term goodwill. And I know, offline, you and I were talking quite a bit about that. So, for our listeners who are saying, yeah, goodwill, I hear my accountants mention it every now and again, but I don't pay much attention to it. What's going on with goodwill?

What do you want us to know of? Why goodwill? We should know everything [00:21:00] about this and why it's so important.

Julie Perkins: Well, I mean, goodwill is obviously the value that you have that's not on the, direct financial situation. And if you look at today's world, I always love using COVID as the example, is You noticed the companies that responded quickest to their customer in a real time of need when there was no other choices.

And those were companies that were absolutely more connected to their purpose, vision, and values, because if they're connected to it, it's real and they know their customer, they understand what their needs and they can respond quickly. And effectively towards the needs of the customer.

And those companies that probably were on this immediate moment of now and turnover and sales found it difficult because they had to dig deep to find back out what their purpose and their worth was. And I think in [00:22:00] goodwill terms, it taught us the power. And the value of companies that really are truly purpose led, not the ones that did stuff for COVID, but the ones who acted quickly for COVID, because that value of deep rooted purpose and values is absolutely priceless.

And that is the part that I talk about goodwill and we measure it. Throughout the entrepreneur's journey with us, what's the purpose? How aligned they are to their customers, how quick they are to respond, the way that they work. Is it unique? Does it form a competitive advantage? These are all parts of goodwill.

I mean, I know not necessarily from a P& L, but if you are going to sell or you want to sell, and obviously as you make yourself redundant, you should think about selling every six months, but not. These are incredible, precious things. COVID taught us that. And these are things that today's world need because customers demand it.

They command [00:23:00] aligned stakeholders good care, welfare of everybody involved in building businesses, and also what you put back into the world. So I think that goodwill is incredibly important to look at as we go on even growing our businesses now. Don't wait to sell.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It's interesting, Julie, as you're talking about goodwill, for me, we are in the art side of business. And I know for the financial folks out there, this drives them nuts because to what we've been talking about, it doesn't show up in a spreadsheet. Yet I would say, and again, you can say, Jeffrey, you're off base or on base, this intangible, you can't touch it, you can't see it, this thing that we're calling goodwill, I would suspect that oftentimes this is the difference of a customer staying with us.

Versus going to the competition or picking up a new customer. They're saying, you know what, this company is different. I can see myself being taken care of for many years. And this is where I want to be. One question for you, authenticity. And Goodwill, because there's companies out there, we've all been there, something just is off, [00:24:00] it seems as though they don't really mean it, they're talking about these things, they want to be fashionable like everyone else, it wasn't that far back that all these businesses were saying, okay, yes, we are going to have a percentage of sales go towards a charity, and in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, well, some of them really are authentic, and I get it, and others, I just don't see it, there's nothing to do with the business, are you just trying to buy my business by making me feel good?

So, where's that authenticity dial and how do we make sure that it's actually in alignment, the goodwill with what we're doing and our intentions?

Julie Perkins: Absolutely. I mean, I don't see charity as a goodwill unless it's associated with a charitable cause associated with the meaning of your company or vision. I mean, it's a lovely thing to do and it's great, but by the authenticity, which is a really good question, it's about. Is your purpose embedded in your company?

So you can't move without it. In fact, it's moving you, your vision in there. [00:25:00] And I said, I came from a big entrepreneurial family. My parents embedded purpose and values in Specsavers, which probably in it's a bit like Pearl Vision out there. They embedded it in. Partnership, customer, it was in the way that the company was built in its actual bones in terms of partnership and sharing wealth and sharing success and committing to the community.

And in times of COVID you can't move without doing purpose and values. It gives you the answer. So when you've got a question, if you want to check you're really purpose led, who are you asking the question to? CFO, your team, or actually, I know this sounds strange, are you asking the question to your vision, purpose, and values?

Because if it's embedded. It will give you the answer. And that's why I was saying to a couple of entrepreneurs I took out last night, and she said, is this it? Is this as good as it gets? What do I do with this? [00:26:00] And I said, but what's your question and who are you answering it to? Because you can answer back to your company, and it will give you the answers.

And that is when purpose is embedded in a company. And that's when it's authentic. In your customer, the way that you work, the people you gather. Especially in this world where we are now working in big ecosystems, especially in sustainable solutions, which is a lot what I work in with Amsterdam, you're working with a lot of people you don't own.

So how do you connect? How do it is basically on shared values and they have to be embedded in order for it to move like a machine that feels like it's one. And that's authenticity for me.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And it sounds as though, Julie, with the authenticity and the goodwill and just who we're asking, it's really our North Star. of who we are and what we represent. But let me ask you this, you've been sharing some strategies from the trenches, absolutely love that. I know though, particularly when [00:27:00] you're working with startups, early days, when we talk about growth, when we talk about performance and profitability, those are huge because if we don't get that There is no tomorrow, there is no next week or next month, we've really got to make sure that we are hitting those milestones and those key targets.

So what's your system like? Someone begins to work with you and the team, and by the way, for our listeners in the show notes we'll have the links, you can go to WiseMinds, the website, all kinds of resources there. But Julie, what's your secret sauce? What happens when someone begins to work with you and how long would that take?

What do we begin to see?

Julie Perkins: Well, normally it's about it's three months from start to finish. I never say I'm going to do the whole journey. I'm good at what I'm good at. And we stay on track, which is extracting the founder, whether you've been around for two months, two years, five years from their company and trying to get them to work on what no longer serves.

And often that's. By refinding the purpose and the values back [00:28:00] again, that's the starting point. And then when you get, you quite often find that they've got the space to continue just from doing that. And it makes them clearer. It makes their message clearer because sometimes people come to me, I'm going to be very honest they say, I didn't get the investment I wanted.

And I thought, what on earth were you selling? I mean, of course, I'm slightly better, more uplifting coach than that, because you know, I just think, what were you saying? Because you can't, talking so quickly, et cetera, et cetera, because you need to be clearer and going back down. I always say it's Mount Everest.

Four camps and the summit, they've been stuck on camp four goodness knows how long. And they've watched everybody walk past. So they're starting to question themselves and they're stuck on, they're too heavy to climb. They, they won't let go of anything and they're trying to climb to the summit, but they haven't got the lightness that you need.

So we take them back down, redo their purpose and values. [00:29:00] We do it with their team and actually they'll normally accelerate themselves from there because they're free. The founder is free. She's like going, oh my goodness, have I got time to do everything else? Have I, I'm just on my business.

No, because when you know yourself, you are yourself for your family. Your friends, your hobbies, your business, yourself, and you've got the freedom. It's not about doing less, it's about just seeing where you sit in life. And that's basically what we do. Sometimes it's so quick and I do half online as well, and workshops, one to ones with me, and sometimes about three months, but, three months, there should be.

Back flying, clear messages and then they can go to their marketing agency communications and say, this is who I am. This is what I want. And they normally get a better response back.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, it sounds so obvious, it really isn't. As you're talking about that, it really leads to another question for you. Some people call it Pareto's Law, other people [00:30:00] know it as the 80 20 principle. And Julia, I know, every company is different. And you can say, well, Jeffrey, it depends on the founder and the industry and what's going on.

The question though is this, are you seeing the same, let's call it 20%, the same 20 percent of either root causes or problems or issues that are causing for most businesses 80 percent of the headaches or things just taking so much longer than what they otherwise should and is there one or two that you might be able to share of what we should know and how we can overcome that?

Julie Perkins: Absolutely. Obviously on top of what I've said, because it's all an extension from that over engineering where it's not required because we step our feet into the shoes of ourselves rather than our customer. So that we think we know our customer, but actually it's something that we're just passionate about that we think is cool.

And we do a lot of work. On making that space between the [00:31:00] founder and purpose space, but the customer, and quite often it's so complicated, they've lost the point. And for some reason people are allergic to the word niche and I always have to remind them that. Niche is Latin from to nest. And if you look at niche as this, where are you nesting in your industry?

And nesting doesn't tell you it's a small nest. It says, where are you shouting loud and clear from? Where are you positioning yourself? And actually when they can do those two things, actually put space for the customer and actually understand the pains of the customer, but how you solve them, how you're going to make life better.

And obviously, to quote the customer is the hero. But also stop being afraid of the word niche and really define niche as a nest in a huge web. Make sure it's very clear that your nest is brighter, bolder, and clearer than anybody else's. [00:32:00] And you'll be surprised on in with the external forces at the moment where we're not really sure everyone seems to be doing.

They must be better is don't. Basically stick things onto that nest. That's what I mean by Camp 4 and Everest. Shake that tree, get rid, and be light enough to climb.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Such wonderful advice. Always easier said than done. What you're saying, though, makes so much sense. And I would also imagine, again, you could say Jeffrey, on base or off base, oftentimes, as entrepreneurs, we are the perfectionists. Oh, it's got to be perfect before it goes to market. Whereas DUNN, in my books anyways, DUNN is always better than perfect, just getting out there, getting market feedback, doing it now, not three weeks from now, or three months from now, because we may have missed the market opportunity by that point, that DUNN's better than perfect, yeah, there'll be improvements, and sure, it won't be as great, but let's just get this out there, begin to get some business and some feedback.

What do you think about that?

Julie Perkins: Oh, without a doubt. Choose the one thing you're going to change for the customer. And I always say to them I had [00:33:00] an entrepreneur yesterday and she said, Oh, what do you think of the words? I said, they're fine. She said, I don't know. I said, if you think it's too right, you'll never want to change it. So let it flow, and it's never going to be right, it never should be right.

As long as the world changes, so does that. So don't ever think it's beautiful and it's perfect, because it should never be that. Because if it's perfect, which is impossible, but they don't know that, if it's perfect, you won't ever look to move it. And it needs to move because the world is fast moving and you need to be driving it from your internal purpose, values, of course, but the world is swapping and changing and you need to be as agile as possible.

And with the resilience of yourself, that agility can happen, but don't wait for perfection. I'm talking from a. Ex perfectionist my neighbor's a film director next door, and in the summer he goes, you're going to come round for a drink, Jodie, and he goes still working on the last 5 [00:34:00] percent that no one really cares about, and I went, yep, that'll be me and I thought, that sums it up, that sums it up.

Never forget it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So true. And Julie, speaking of change, when you're working with other entrepreneurs and founders, you and the team, as we record this podcast, artificial intelligence, generative artificial intelligence to be specific, is really front page headlines now. Changing business as we know, life as we know.

So what are you seeing generally speaking with that? It's changing so quickly, it's anyone's guess where this is going. What do you think we should know as business owners based on what you've seen on the frontlines?

Julie Perkins: Well, I think the important thing is knowing what you need to use it for, where it fits into your customer journey, and where it doesn't need to change. Because, of course, the world is super and it's fast moving and it's exciting. But as a business you need to know exactly where to change and that's where a very once you know [00:35:00] your customer change, a very detailed customer journey, where you ask yourself two questions, where can I make it better for me and my team?

So where can we get efficiencies in chat dbt, stuff like that? And what can't we change the team? And what about for the customer? And actually look at it from both sets of eyes to see where it fits in. And I always remember, I don't know if I've got this. This is the greatest book of all time. Can I name a book?

this is one of my favorite books. And it's post written as well. Digital Darwinism. And in there, it's one of my favorite books because it tells the story of the light bulb. And I know the world is there. He says, do you know how long it took the light bulb to come in to how we work?

And it was, until they built new factories, it was like 50 years or something like that. And the point isn't about the light bulb because of course the world's fast moving now. The point is about taking stock and realising the day won't change tomorrow, so [00:36:00] you have time to make, to see how it can work for you.

It's not like the world, you're going to wake up and your competitors will suddenly go, oh, we're all A1 now. It's evolving. And also you have to find out what's important to your customer, what's important to your team. it doesn't have to fit everywhere, but you can work out where it fits in and where it changes.

And again, make yourself redundant on a six monthly basis and review that timeline to have a look at it because the world's changing. Today it's this, today it's that. So you need to understand, what fits for you as well. And that's very important for you and your business. And your customer.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Julie, what you're sharing with us is so important, because as we know, there's a saying, the only thing constant, both in life and business, is change itself. But my takeaway from what you're saying is, it's AI today, tomorrow it will be something else, whatever that's going to be. But as long as we know who we are, what's the DNA [00:37:00] of our company, our vision, our mission, what we're representing to the marketplace, the problem that we're solving, who we are to the team, that when we know that, that our North Star, the goodwill, all the things that we spoke about.

We can then take that in a really focused way and then pour that into whatever happens to be there on the business front that can help us take things to the next level. So, your example, the digital Darwinism, and by the way, for our listeners in the show notes, we'll put a link to that book so you can check out Julie's favorite book, Sure, When the Lightbulb Came Around.

It changed life and society as we knew it. I would imagine back in the day, as a business owner, if you knew what you were about as a business, you could adapt and adjust and really fit that into what you're doing. What do you think about that? How am I doing with that?

Julie Perkins: I think it's really important because that overwhelm and making the wrong choices is or not making the choices from yourself can actually be an early demise as well. Because if you take a wrong decision, I must have [00:38:00] that. I must have that. And there's nothing that entrepreneurs love more than shiny new things.

Trust me, love the shiny new things. So what you have to do is to not over engineer and to be careful with those. Shiny new things and ask yourself what you need, what your customer needs. My father taught me that. He said, always look at the customer in five years time. And he's done that all his life.

And of course, right from the beginning he obviously used to carry it on a Little sort of ring binder, now he's progressed slightly to an iPad, but it's a very simple piece of advice. When you're looking at everything spinning, ask your customer, probably not so much five years now, but in two, three years time, especially in the health industry, Which we're in, have a look about what their needs are. What's the changing population. And and occasionally fill out a political economic one that is called the PEST one, which he uses very much just to review it, just to keep an eye on it, but take good choices for your customer and see what they [00:39:00] need.

Cause there's a lot going on, quite a lot of the smaller companies that. I'm working with now, especially on sustainability and some of the big goals of that. They'll become companies that are interesting to larger companies cause they're solving the problems that sometimes big companies just too big to solve, some of the new initiatives.

And actually that is this beautiful way of. Going into an acquisition situation in the future as well. You don't need to know all of the answers. Perhaps the corporates that you join or join into, they may have the A1 solution. So it's about sticking to your knitting, as my mother would say.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It's some terrific advice. And Julie, the truth is, the strategies, and we've just scratched the surface on the strategies. There are so many more that are there. Each one of them could be an episode on its own. That said, your insight, your wisdom, we're beginning to bump up against time. I want to ask you this.

Is there a question that I didn't ask? Is there a topic we haven't covered? Is there a message [00:40:00] you want to share with the community before we go into wrap up mode? Ha,

Julie Perkins: Oh my goodness, that's a great question. trying to think, I think we've probably solved a lot about world peace in this last 30 minutes. I've very much enjoyed the conversation and I think my greatest advice is to stick to who you are and ask those questions. If you are feeling In any way overwhelmed, come back to yourself, sit, purpose, values, they can tell you a lot.

And I once asked my mother who they now on next Wednesday, they celebrate the 40 years and a company that turns over four billion. And I said to her what letter would you have written to your founding self? And she said, Oh my goodness, I'd never have said how big it would have got. She said that would have been absolutely terrified her to death.

And I thought there's a really good lesson in there. It's not about size. It's not about where it's going to end up. It's about every day turning up as the change that you want to make. And that would be my [00:41:00] greatest piece of advice. And I can't argue with an 80 year old who's done it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. You know what, all that life experience and the insights from there, that is just invaluable. And speaking of insights and life experience, it's a perfect segue for the wrap up question. It's a tradition here on the Deep Wealth Podcast, right? Really, it's an honor, it's a privilege to ask every guest the same question.

Let me set up the question. It's a fun one, Julie. When you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have this wonderful DeLorean car that will take you to any point in time. Julie, the fun part is, it's tomorrow morning. You look outside your window, not only is DeLorean car curbside, the door is open, it's waiting for you to hop on in, which you do, and you're now gonna go to any point in your life.

Julie, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time that would be, Julie, what are you telling your younger self in terms of life lessons or life wisdom, or hey, Julie, do this, but don't do that. What would that sound like?

Julie Perkins: What I have to say is to understand your own voice. It's as simple as that. And really from an earlier [00:42:00] stage, start defining what that is. we have this amazing education, but we are institutionalized. If we only were able to understand what our values and voice was at an earlier stage, I think that is a great path for all young people into.

Entrepreneurship, of course, which is what I'm passionate about. And I think it just would provide a lot more clarity, but there again, I think maybe I wouldn't have had so many bumps in the road. Maybe it wouldn't have been so much fun.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting. Yes. You know what? That's a common theme. Jeffrey, I would perhaps change this. That said, though, I wouldn't be where I am today, and I really love where I am today, and it's a struggle between the two. So great minds think alike with that. Well, Julie, let me ask you this. Before we wrap up, a listener has a question.

They want to go through your program. They want to get some coaching. They want to learn more. Where would be the best place online to reach you?

Julie Perkins: Okay. Our website, wise with a Y. Not with an I. Because a young person told me if I did it with an I, I would come across as [00:43:00] too old. So, I changed it to Y and so we sorted that one out very quickly. YsWines. com. And on there's loads of free stuff. You can fill out a growth evaluation to look at how ready you are for growth, all about alignment. Find out the value of your goodwill. That would be the greatest thing I would do. Go and test it. confidential. It's yours. You can put your figures in and it shows you how aligned you are and how much more goodwill you could make if you were a bit more aligned.

A fun thing to do and no obligations. A lot of fun.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And for listeners, as always, it doesn't get any easier. It's a point and click. Go to the show notes. It's all there. Get that goodwill valuation done. Check out the free resources. Well, Julie, it's official. Congratulations. This episode is a wrap. And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe.

Thank you so much.

Julie Perkins: Thank you so much for having me, Geoffrey. Been brilliant. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.

[00:44:00] Actually, it's more of a personal favor. Did you find this episode helpful? Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey? And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out and keep these episodes coming to you.

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