332 Alejandra Santos

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Alejandra Santos is the founder and CEO of Startup Tandem. Alejandra comes with 14 plus years of experience in accounting and finance consulting. She landed in Miami from Honduras at the age of 17 with no support, money, or family. Her drive and resilience kept her going forward. She knew in her core that she was destined to create amazing things. She earned her executive master's degree from Pepperdine University.

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Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. And for all you founders, entrepreneurs, business owners out there, let me ask you something. Do you think that mindset is important or is it something that's airy fairy? It's kind of out there. Another rhetorical question. Do you want to increase Your profits, the value of your business.

And of course you said, yes. Well, hang on to your hats. We have a terrific guest with us today. We're going to tackle all those things and more. Alejandra, welcome to Deep Wealth Podcast. [00:03:00] And I'm curious, Alejandra, there's always a story behind the story. What's your story? What got you from where you were to where you are today?

Alejandra Santos: Well, thank you, Jeffrey, for having me in your podcast to help entrepreneurs and business owners change their mindset about business. But what got me here is a series of events. A lot of personal stories that got me to where I am, but mainly to, as a business coach and as a business consultant and as business, being the person next to the business owner to help them, make their dreams come true, basically.

What really keeps me pushing forward is the story about my father, how he built a business his whole life. He basically did that. He went from high school to building a very successful business. And unfortunately, at the age of 60, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. And he's family took his business from his hands.

He could, I mean, completely just wiped him down. He could have sold that business. He could have exited this business in a more lucrative way. He could have seen this as an opportunity [00:04:00] to, make other. Projects or their investments or instead it was just wiped down. And the reason why I like, to work with business owners is because I want to make them understand that a business is, if you are a business owner, your whole wealth is attached to that business.

In particular, you don't have a nice 401k. Probably you don't have an employer that's going to give you a retirement plan or vouch for you when, when your years come. But you do are sitting on a lot of wealth and you can use that wealth. To position yourself to really have the life that you deserve after that business.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. Alejandra, firstly, thank you for being so open and vulnerable and sharing that with us and my heart out to you and the family on that. Let me ask you though, growing up in an entrepreneurial family. Did that change you? Like when you look at you, you look at your friends, perhaps who weren't in that kind of entrepreneurial environment, how did that shape you growing up?

Alejandra Santos: Oh, that's a good question. So I started doing business handshakes at the age of three. I started doing [00:05:00] inventory with my father shortly after that. It really gives you that, mind that you can do anything you want. And and he really shaped me thinking, you know, I'd rather be the head of a cat and then Tail of a lion.

That's what I used to call it. So it just really prepares you to have no fear and to just dive in, in, in the nitty gritty of having a business.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. I love that. So at the age of three, you're doing some handshakes. You're doing some business. What did that look like? What was that?

Alejandra Santos: Yeah, that was quite an experience. I still remember the day, you know, when my father was like, you gotta shake hard and look at the eyes. And, he brought me to his negotiation meetings for me to have, a little bit of exposure to what he was doing because the goal was for me to take over the business.

Whenever he was able to give it away if it wasn't unfortunate for the circumstances that happened. But yeah, I mean it's really you know, very powerful to be raised by entrepreneurs because people don't know this, but being an employer, being. A business owner, you have so much power, but over anything, [00:06:00] over creating an impact in the world over creating jobs over, you know, other people's lives, but most importantly, you have any power over your own life ?

Where you have that power, you possess that power, nobody else has that power over what you can do without wealth. Then it's just very empowering to grow in that, whole mindset.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so I'm fast forwarding a little bit here as you look back as a child growing up in an entrepreneurial family. And so for our listeners today, maybe they're parents, maybe they're going to be parents. What advice would you give them from your perspective when it comes to their children of both what to do, but also what not to do?

I mean, no one's perfect. There's always things that can be done better or things that should have been done that weren't done at all. What would you say in terms of, Hey, if you want your child to be like you entrepreneurial, resilient. Think about these things. What would that be?

 I'm not a parent, so I, cannot speak as a parent, but as daughter, I can definitely say that what worked in our scenario was really exposure and really understanding the [00:07:00] value of money, but most importantly, not only the value of money, but the value of hard work.

Alejandra Santos: And having good work ethic is really important because money comes and goes ? That's something that I was taught from the very early stages of my life. But the work ethic is really how you will face life challenges and how you will solve problems. So really work ethic, you know, and like really have those values in mind.

My whole company and who I am are based around. Those values of loyalty, transparency, just because those were the values that were, put into myself when I was really young. So I would suggest that to whoever, anybody that's raising a child in the entrepreneurship world I've seen entrepreneurs that make it or break it because of their work ethic ? And that just comes from parenthood.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Work ethic. Absolutely. Value that. That's some terrific advice that's going on there. And so Alejandra, it sounds like for better, for worse, something in between, you really saw both sides of the coin. You saw on the one hand, building a business, how can that business become successful? And then on the other hand, very unfortunate [00:08:00] where things didn't quite go as planned.

And so now when you're working with business owners as their coach, as their consultant, Plan and take that business to the next level. How does that fit into your overall strategies? What's going on with that?

Alejandra Santos: Yeah, so, you know, it's interesting. When I started my business, I've been doing this since 2006 ? I've been working as a consultant and, either a CFO side or COO side or, just a regular consultant for, since 2006. What I've seen throughout my years is that there's a lot of education that needs to be, first.

Involve ? Business owners. Back in the day, entrepreneurship wasn't as high as it is right now ? Times have changed. So back in the day, we have your mom and pop shops, your, you know, more generational businesses that passed over from, mom and dad. Now you have really new business owners, new entrepreneurs coming with an idea with no education, perhaps, or maybe with a lot of education ?

At all ages. But there's [00:09:00] always a chance to educate some more because what I see is that they don't see that importance in a lot of business functions that actually model how the business will perform in the long run. And not only that, but also the mindset is so important. Seeing that business as, yes, I'm just going to You know, I get it.

Entrepreneurship. You build a company. I'm there. I've been there ? I've seen it my whole life. You are always thinking about cashflow. It's the number one thing that you think about because you have to pay people, you have to pay yourself, you have to grow the business. It makes sense. But at some point, you need to start thinking about what am I just going on a hamster wheel or what is this doing for me?

What is the end goal here? And that's when the mindset really needs to be geared into creating this business value. That's going to give you a business that you can have the life that you want. It's going to be less depending on you. And then also give you the wealth that you want during the business and after the business is gone.

So

Jeffrey Feldberg: It's interesting. And so let me ask you this. Some people, Alejandro, they call it the 80 20 rule or Pareto's law. And what they're saying is [00:10:00] 20 percent of the same, we'll call them root issues or root problems, are creating the same headaches that keep us up at night, the same problems, and so going back to what you've been doing over the years where you're helping business owners.

Are you seeing that same kind of thing where, hey, these 20 percent of problems, they keep on coming up time and time again, and they're creating so many issues. What would those be? What would be maybe the top one or two if you're seeing that? 

Alejandra Santos: When you're a business owner, you have to really take care of your mind. I have to go back to that a lot because it is, like I said, I have being a business owner, I am one. I have. Two businesses right now, I'm doing another third one. So like, you have to take care of your mind. And by that, I mean, you have to take care of how much rest you have.

I have a coach that helps me with my energy. I have a coach that helps me. I have a therapist, a coach for energy, a coach for relationships. I have so many coaches. And the reason why I want that and need that is because like you take care of your body. You workout, you eat [00:11:00] healthy. You also have to take care of what's going on in your mind of everything, of the negative thoughts, of the positive thoughts, and that really affects how you perform in business.

That really affects how you see problems. That really affects how you solve problems. If you're stressed, you're not gonna solve any problems. You're actually gonna create them more. If you're fearful, you're not gonna probably take that opportunity. You want it because you have fear. So everything starts within ourselves.

That's the one number one thing that I see people get in the way of their own success? And when they're ready to really turn that table, like to turn that page over, then they're able to really make a difference in their business. I mean, I can give so many strategies to help you solve problems. I can do the research with you.

I can sit down, I can be your accountability partner. I can do systems, I can do methodologies. I can do process, but if you're really not there in your mind, waste of my time and a waste of your time.

Jeffrey Feldberg: you are preaching to the choir here at Deep Wealth because we often say our health, that's our first wealth. And if we don't have the health, [00:12:00] all the zeros in the bank, all the success, all the accolades about the success mean nothing. Because we don't have the energy, the focus. But I know as I say that, there's people in Deep Wealth community that are saying, okay, yeah, Alejandro, Jeffrey, I hear you.

But you don't know what it's like, even though Alejandro, you and I do know what it's like. But you don't know what it's like. I'm building this business. I have so many things to do. I have more things to do than time itself. I'm, yeah, I'm up early. I'm going to bed late. I'm not getting a lot of sleep. Who needs sleep?

I'll get to sleep when I get to sleep. So with that narrative, Tell us, what's wrong with that narrative and what could be one or two things that we can stop doing right away to get us to a better place health wise?

Alejandra Santos: Well, one of the things uh, that I've seen as a problem is that most business owners, create a business without doing the research. They don't do market research. They don't do competitor research. You just want to Start a product line or whatever the case scenario would be. And that's one of the things that I've seen that there's a lot of pitfalls.

Because once you start developing a strategy and your strategy doesn't work, it's because you haven't really made [00:13:00] the research to why, what strategy you need to do ? Strategy becomes from research. The other thing is that they, entrepreneurs and business owners, they switch gears really fast.

They want to see something, give you money right away, but you're not really. execute a strategy, you got tactics on it, but you're not really giving it time to see if that is the correct way to do things or not. You just want to switch gears every week. I've seen that a lot with my business owners that are my clients.

I have to gear them up and be like, okay, guys, like we did this last week. We're going to let it grow. Let us see what's going on. Because they just want to change, Oh, but this is better, but this is going on. So there's a lot of different kinds of business owners out there. The ones that I experienced a lot are the ones that are very unexperienced in being a business owner.

And that can be for many numbers reasons ? Maybe because they don't have a background doing businesses, maybe that this first business, maybe they don't have business education, or maybe they do have business education, but they don't really know. How to create a business and be a CEO and make you grow a company.

So those are like the big pitfalls that I see are like a common denominator.[00:14:00]

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so Alejandro, let me ask you this, because at the start of our conversation, you said a few key things. And one of the things that you said, and you talk a lot about, it's the mindset. And then we're now going to tie the health into the mindset. And again, you can tell me, Jeffrey, off base, on base, you're got it right, or you don't have it right.

What I'm hearing you say is, hey, if I have the right health, I have the clarity. I have the energy. I can make better decisions. I can do the right kind of strategy. I'm not going to be making the mistakes. And you mentioned as an example, you're working on your health, particularly in sleep. And I've done a deep dive onto sleep and I've come to really appreciate and respect One of our superpowers, it's sleep.

If we did nothing else but improve our sleep, so many areas of our life and our health would really go through the roof. So from a sleep perspective, what would be some tried and true strategies that members of the Deep Wealth community listening to you, Alejandra? Could do to improve their sleep.

Alejandra Santos: I mean, everybody should have their own routine ? I can only speak for my routine and what works for me. So what has worked for me [00:15:00] is basically, you know, take like one of those magnesium drinks that you make before you go to sleep and then get rid of your phone, get rid of your tablet for like at least an hour before you go to sleep.

I actually do infrared saunas as well almost every night. I have one at home, so that's really important. So, I think that's really important, because that makes me really calm. It's all about also meditating ? If you have the time to meditate, that actually makes you sleep well and better.

I mean, there's so many things that you can do. a sleep app, that you can, see what works for you. But those are the things that work for me.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Horrific. And I know our listeners are saying, Jeffrey, Alejandro, what's going on here? I thought this is a business show. What are you talking about? Health and sleep and different magnesium drinks and infrared saunas. How does everything to do with business? Because you're absolutely right, Alejandro. When we got it right internally, when we have it right on the inside, everything then really manifests the right way externally in the business and how we think in our clarity, in our energy and all those other kinds of things.

So Alejandro, talk to us about value creation. What are you [00:16:00] doing with your clients of how we're increasing value, how we're increasing the profits of the business? What's going on there?

Alejandra Santos: Well, I mean, there's different ways depending on where you are in your business life cycle ? If you have you know, a steady clientele base, if you have a business model that is actually giving you some revenue already your cash flow positive by that, I mean, you have an actually positive EBITDA, so then you have to hone in to what Where the value of your business comes in and what areas you have to improve.

And there's different ways ? You can look at your customers. Is your money coming from a few customers or a lot of customers? Or there's also do you have recurring revenue in your business model? Or are you hunting for clients every month ? New business, or are you having like new product lines, you know, that give you more revenue than others?

There's Different ways to break down a business and see, first, I like to see what's performing good, and then I like to see what's not performing, because what's performing good, well, that's something I don't like to tackle right away because you can always make it better, and that's not giving you a problem.

What's not performing, though? [00:17:00] Why is it not performing? Is it leadership from the top? Is it employees? Is it the team management? Is it Customer base, like I said, is a marketing problem, and then from there, fix in order to create that more value. What people don't understand is that they think value is, what do they say, reducing expenses?

No, value is about how every business function in your company works really well together. And that includes the main hubs, which is suppliers, customers, team management, all of what makes a business.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Alejandro, let's go back to something that you said when most business owners hear it, they either gloss over it or it puts them to sleep, or they don't really understand what's there. And it's cashflow. And why I want to circle back to cashflow is a company can be really successful and profitable, but if they're not doing things right with the cashflow, they can go out of business.

And after the fact, they're always saying, I don't understand, we were profitable. And then things just stopped. So from a cashflow perspective, what are you [00:18:00] looking for and what should we know?

Alejandra Santos: Well, I mean, I look for, first of all, there's a thing as growing broke too fast. I don't know if people know about this term, but basically means, when a business is taking off really fast, growing exponentially and what is driving that, that growth. Yes, a business can be profitable, but what is driving that growth?

growth is one of the things. Is it debt? what do you have? Is it investor money? Does the business belongs more to an investor or to the bank or to the owner itself? Those are the things that I look at. And then obviously, when you look at the profit and P& L, you know, you basically see the relationship of every experience.

Expense according to revenue growth. If your revenue's growing by your marketing expenses growing too well you have a problem ? Your business is driven by marketing dollars more than organic dollars. So your business can go bankrupt if you're not really managing correct your money that's coming in and putting it into places that are actually creating organic value over, marketing value.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And as you're saying that, what you're reminding me of, and I suspect this is something [00:19:00] that you hold near and dear for yourself, oftentimes, again, going back to these stories that we tell ourselves as founders, entrepreneurs, business owners are saying, I'm too busy for this stuff. I will just have my accountant or my bookkeeper, or maybe I'm fortunate enough to have a CFO or a fractional CFO.

I'll just let them worry about that. And they'll just tell me things as they happen, or as I need to know what's wrong with that narrative, Alejandro, what are you telling your really your clients? Hey. Don't do that. Get involved. Here's why.

Alejandra Santos: You know, It's interesting, business owners think a bookkeeper can do what a CFO can do. To me, that baffles me, honestly because what I've seen one of our services that we provide is CFO Consulting and also Accounting Consulting, but we do a very financial comprehensive CFO Consulting service, because we work with a lot of VC backed up startups, so we have to do a lot of investigative diligence.

But what I've seen in this industry is that when you introduce yourself to business owners, they're like, oh. The bookkeeper can do that, referring to a CFO, and to me that baffles me, because [00:20:00] a bookkeeper is somebody that's not experienced enough to really speak to the numbers and really help you understand what you need to improve in your business in order to make it a healthier business.

and more organic business doesn't really help your stakeholders. So that's number one thing. Everybody needs to change their opinion about a bookkeeper and a CFO because those are very two different positions ? Number two is, yes, these are people that are going to help you in, understanding your business, how we should operate, but it's always a CEO that needs to determine if that's the right.

Strategy or tactic to take on when I get involved with the business, I always say, I suggest, I will never tell you, you need to do this. No, I will give you the solutions. I will put you in the right direction, ask you the right questions, but if you want to take it in another direction, Then that is up to the CEO.

The CEO needs to get involved at every step because ultimately this is your business and it will continue being your business until it becomes in a place that it doesn't rely on you. And so basically it's organically operating [00:21:00] itself.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so when it comes to finance, and I know this is one of your specialties where you're coming in, you're helping on the finance side, you're building out that team or their KPIs or their processes, just to get them to where they should be getting, what's the all too common mistake, generally speaking? I know every company is different.

And well, Jeffrey, it depends on the company, how big they are, what industry they're in. But again, generally speaking, when it comes to finances, where are we making the mistakes? Whether we're a startup, whether we're a well entrenched company.

Alejandra Santos: So even now, I mean, even companies that have been around for five, six years act like startups. So it really is startup and that's another thing that I really want people to understand is that a startup is not a company that's coming from the ground up. A startup is a company that acts like a startup because it doesn't have the right infrastructure, the right policies, the right procedures, the right processes.

They don't do things the right way. So they are still acting like a solopreneur or maybe mom and pop shop. need to treat your business, you know, accordingly, and a startup is exactly what those things have said. So the things [00:22:00] that I've seen the most in financials are You know, not really taking care of your financials I mean, I picked up, we have picked up some clients from CPAs that really do not understand how to develop financial statements according to investors ?

It's a very different way ? I mean, CPAs, they look at bookkeeping, they just put transactions in, transaction out them categorized according to taxes. There's a thing that's called tax financials and there's a thing that's called financials for investors. And what we do is financials for investors and not only for investors, but for any kind of stakeholder ?

Tells you a story. A lot of the people, business owners, they fall into the CPA. Tax financials. I'm only going to do financials to file my taxes. I really don't care the story that business is telling me. I really don't care what areas I need to improve. I'm just going to do tax financials. So we, present both ?

Because also my company side does taxes. So we do both of them, but I only talk about. Financials for Investors and Stakeholders because that's the [00:23:00] narrative that you want to hear as a business owner.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely love what you're doing on that side. And along with the financial side, the financial team, having that financial outlook tied into that, it's a really big area, but it's just as important. It's culture. I know that's one of the areas that you also focus on. So culture, from your perspective, what's going on with culture?

What are you seeing? What aren't you seeing?

Alejandra Santos: climate that we live at Jeffrey, there's a lot of things happening. Culture is really important. It's one of those intangible assets that actually drives the value of your business. It's one of the ones that has the most high impact on the value of your business, believe it or not, and it's one of those assets that you cannot measure.

But it does measure quantitatively in everything else of your business, like how the profits move, the revenue generating team management problems, like any time efficiencies. So culture, it really depends on the founder. It really depends on what kind of business you want to create. Establishing those values from the very beginning and really establishing those questions when you're doing the hiring process that will [00:24:00] match your personality and what you want from your business.

It's why it's so important to have a vision on what your business wants to be some people are very teamwork oriented. Some people are more individualistic ? But culture is about running the business by itself.

That's what's going to keep you away from your business the longest. And that is the most, the highest like value of your company.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so Alejandra, I'm thinking again, someone in the community who's saying, yes, I agree with you. We're not there though, our culture, if anything, it's toxic, it's not thriving, it's not rich, it's not a great culture. What would be some steps that someone could do? How have you helped businesses go from where they are to where they want to be?

Alejandra Santos: Yeah ideally, if you want to do it yourself, that's great, but ideal is to bring somebody that's a third party that has an independent opinion of the owner and the team, but you want them to kind of have like, a conversation with your team at an individual level and also as a team and see what the problems are not really look at them like problems, like really have that space where people can express [00:25:00] themselves is very important And then start tackling from there.

That's toxic environment. Toxic environments are harder to turn around than actually creating an environment of positivity from the very beginning. So if you are a company with a very established company and you're having some culture problems then it will take about five to 10 years to turn around the culture rather than creating a culture from the very beginning that is going to be very inexpensive and it's going to be very faster to actually make.

People like, you know, adhere to it so that would be number one, bring a third person, talk to your team, analyze what's going on maybe create some culture events, team working team events, working outside that can be paid and people can participate on that way they feel motivated to, to be part of those maybe start creating, bringing people more into strategy development or Problem solving, maybe they need to be included.

It really depends on what the problem is, but those are the first things that we do.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so we've created a [00:26:00] foundation of some of the really important areas that you, the team, are focusing on. I'm Alejandro? So a company comes to you, okay, Alejandro, we need some help. Come on in, do what you do. What does that look like? Firstly, how long does it take? What are you doing and where are we going to get to with that?

Alejandra Santos: When somebody comes to me, they're with me, I mean, I have clients with me for five years, they're with me for a while. And the reason of that is because it really depends on where the company is. If somebody comes and says you're a very established company, they're making over 5 million in revenue, very positive, but they need some help with their team or leadership, or maybe.

be just creating more value. I definitely break down analysis on every like what we spoke about on the eight drivers of the business on those eight drivers that create value. We do an analysis. I do a questionnaire with the owner. I work with the owners first. I identify the value that's in the company.

I assess the risks that the company has. I go ahead and manage the risk, managing risk is very important for me because you cannot create more [00:27:00] value on top of risk. You have to de risk the company first. So I'm going to de risk the company it's a process ? It's not overnight. So that's why I say, clients that are with me, they're with me for a while.

Once we accomplish all of that, we create goals with the owner. We create a vision plan, we remodel the hold, where you want to be personally and in business wise. Then we go ahead and create frameworks, we do metrics, and then after that we go with the team. So it's a whole process, yeah.

And then we reassess, we continue reassessing over 90 days is what I call it. We reassess reassess until we get, where we want to get and we want to see more profits. Obviously the metrics is going to reflect on the numbers the end of the day.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so de risking, what does that look like? It's on the surface, it sounds really simple. I'm going to de risk this company, not a big deal, but I know there's a lot more that's going on behind the scenes. So what does that look like? And again, I know every company is different and it's situational.

Generally speaking though, what are typically the kinds of things, Alejandro, that you're doing when you're de risking a company?

Alejandra Santos: Yeah [00:28:00] like, like you said, every company is very different but risk can happen at different levels. Risk with suppliers, risk with customers, risk with your employees, risk with contracts. There's a lot of risk. When you're a business owner, you have a lot of risk, you bear a lot of risk. That's what it is.

So you just have to see where the problem is. If it's like getting a lawyer and draft more contracts. I had once this client that was depending solely on one supplier and the supplier was doing the design and the product development and the formulation and everything ?

At the end of the day, this business owner depends so much on the supplier, if the supplier went out of business, there was no business. So this re skim would be, bringing more suppliers into the table diversify the portfolio of suppliers and products. That way, if something happens with one of them, then the business still goes on have a little bit more ownership on the supplier owner relationship before it was a supplier was having more power.

Gaining a little bit more of that power into the company is really important. Yeah, I mean, just a few examples that I would say.[00:29:00]

Jeffrey Feldberg: Alejandro, I know I'm really all over the map. There is a method to the madness, I promise you. And so taking a step back, we've talked about really a CFO or fractional CFO. We've talked about accounting. We've talked about culture, HR. One area that I know you focus on, that for a lot of business owners, it's really a blind spot.

It's something that comes up out of the blue and it can literally put them out of business. It's the area of taxes. And there's been a lot of change, particularly for online companies. With taxes at the state level. So what's going on with taxes? What can you share with our listeners at the tax level that they may not be aware of, but they should be.

Alejandra Santos: So that's a good question. So I defer all tax questions to my CPAs and to my enrolled agents of my team because I am not really a CPA and to be quite honest, I would never want to be one, but

Jeffrey Feldberg: No, no offense to the CPAs listening.

Alejandra Santos: No, no offense. My personality is very different. I respect a lot everybody that does a profession.

It's a really hard profession. But when it comes to taxes, I would just say, there's a lot of these deadlines that people they're not aware of. I'm always [00:30:00] coming across into businesses that are like, oh my God, you're You owe this franchise tax or you haven't filed your statement of information and like all of these things that, the state can actually suspend you or you don't even have a foreign qualification.

if you're an e commerce business and you're selling to different states, then you have to like file all this foreign qualifications. Or if you have employees in different states, it becomes like really tangle there. So yes, multi state regulations is very important for online businesses.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So much there to unpack and absolutely, and I think the takeaway there is, hey, someone like yourself, maybe it's not you directly, it's one of the team members, but really for the community, speak to someone who's in the know, who does this day in, day out, and they'll tell you what's going on, what's not going on, and really what you need to know.

And so Alejandra, before we go into the wrap up mode here, with every episode, wherever possible, we like there to be one, we'll call it a low hanging fruit, low effort, high return on investment. Where before they go to the next meeting or email, phone call, activity, whatever's going to be going on, [00:31:00] if you could say one thing, and I know I'm putting you on the spot here, but if there's one action, one strategy that a listener could do that could really move the dial on the business, what do you think that would be?

What's coming to mind?

Alejandra Santos: Yes, I'm going out of the box on this one, just ramp up the volume up on the music sing the best way or dance for 15 minutes and you'll be good to go for your next meeting. You're going to be all powerful and ready to tackle it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So dancing like no one's watching, you know, you're looking, everyone's looking, saying, Oh my gosh, Jeffrey or Alejandro, they're crazy. Look at what's going on here. What are they taking? What's going on with that, Alejandro? I love that strategy. Hey, just dance, sing, put the music up. Just enjoy yourself for 15 minutes.

What's the method behind the madness on that one?

Alejandra Santos: Well, you know, we have two brains ? We have the creativity side and the analytical side, and we tap into our business side all the time, and we need a little bit of balance. So whenever I can tap to my creative side and my free flow motion side, I do that just because it really makes me [00:32:00] feel more empowered and free, honestly.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so I'm going to use the F word, the fun word, which is really what you're talking about. Hey, go have some fun, whether it's cranking up the music or dancing or who knows what, doing something else. What's really the key to this? It's how do we build more fun into the schedule? Because we're in circles, Alejandra.

It's so easy. To put that off, I don't have time for that right now. I've got to get this done. I've got to get that done. And as soon as we get to the top of one mountain, instead of celebrating right away, we're climbing the next mountain. So any suggestions of how we build that F word fun into the schedule?

Alejandra Santos: I love my clients for that reason, because they're so creative, and talking to them is like having a drink, because it's like, it's fun for me, because talking to somebody so creative it's like a little spark in my day but for myself, I am very business oriented, very analytical, the way I like to have fun is really, This is going to sound like hocus pocus, but it's really tapping into my inner [00:33:00] child and be a child whenever I can be a child because I am very creative as well, and being in this business is so analytical and I am a Libra.

I don't know if people are into horoscopes or whatnot, but I am a Libra. I need my balance. So I do tap into my inner child whenever I can.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Oh, it's interesting about that, Alejandra. We started off the conversation, we're talking about mindset and having the right mindset. We're more open. We're more in the flow, if I can use that word. And for all the listeners out there that are really analytical, you're on the financial side. Well, hey.

Alejandra is as well, but she's talking about this, so there really is something that's with that. The science actually backs everything up, so it's not just hocus pocus. Alejandra, I know you'd agree with me on that one, and so really having some kind of an outlet, laughing, singing, dancing, just having some fun, taking some time off.

It's interesting, Alejandra, I don't know about you, I know as you're talking about that, I'm just going back and I'm thinking some of my biggest, I'll call them breakthroughs, came really right after doing anything but business. I wasn't even thinking about business. I was [00:34:00] relaxing. I was doing something completely different.

Have again, that effort, having some fun doing that. And then right afterwards, Oh, wow, what an amazing idea. And you go on and create that next market disruption. And perhaps that's why as a, you know, I'm free flowing here a little bit with you, but even people that are in the shower, they have these breakthrough ideas because we're not thinking about business.

We give the mind in his. Weird and magical ways to really do what it does best to put these very disparate pieces of information together into something that actually works. I would love your thoughts on that.

Alejandra Santos: Yeah, I like to dance around my dog. I like to take the walk along the park, honestly, walk along the beach. All of those things really help me. To me, it's really important. Like I said, the brain is not just okay, we're gonna do ? The brain wants to think. The brain wants to design, create, be the creator.

But we need to give it space to do that, and we do not give it space. We give it a space by sitting in a computer and looking at the numbers and telling people what to do. We give it a space by being in a place where we feel comfortable to, to just be who we are, really. And that's exactly what you're talking [00:35:00] about, Jeffrey.

That inner child is what I'm saying. It's play with your dog, play with your kid, go outside, put your feet on the water. Do whatever it is that's gonna bring you to that state of clarity to be creative, to create.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. Find that inner child. If you have trouble doing it yourself, hang around some people who will help do it for you. And all of you can have some fun together. Well, Alejandro, before we go into wrap up mode, let me ask you this. Is there a question that I didn't ask or a topic we haven't spoken about, or even a message that you want to take out to the community?

Alejandra Santos: Oh, yes. Thank you, Jeffrey. So my whole educational right now is like really making business owners and entrepreneurs and new business owners that are coming in understand that business is a fountain of wealth. You really have the power to recreate and redesign your life.

Not like Instagram or Facebook says, make 50, 000 in one month or 50, 000 in a day. No, you gotta really grow. and build that business. But once you do that, it is a, it's an engine that, works itself and you can exit it at any time if you have created the value or give [00:36:00] it to your daughter or kids or employees and it's going to be a business that's going to be passed in generations or you're going to have a great life in Italy drinking and eating some pizza.

Jeffrey Feldberg: All sounds really good, as I'm sure it does for our listeners as well. Well, Alejandro, It's a tradition here on the Deep Wealth Podcast where every guest, I have the, really the privilege, the honor of asking the same question. It's a fun one.

I'm going to set this up for you. So Alejandro, when you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have that magical DeLorean car that will take you to Any point in time. So now imagine it's tomorrow morning. This is the fun part. Alejandra, you look outside your window. Not only is the DeLorean car there, but the door is open and it's waiting for you to hop on in, which you do.

And you're now going to go to any point in your life. Alejandra, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time it would be, what would you tell your younger self in terms of life wisdom or life lessons? Or, hey, Alejandra, do this, but don't do that. What would that sound like? Terrific.

Alejandra Santos: I would tell young Alejandra to keep going and like really be very focused and if you do [00:37:00] want to do something, stay with it and just continue working on it you know, I've done businesses and I have done many ventures and things that I really lose emotion or motivation and I just let it go, but I would say that young girl, and usually there are things that are not even in the market or in the industry and I'm the newcomer, but I would say the young girl, just stay at it and just work hard and just be focused on that one thing you want to do.

Stay

Jeffrey Feldberg: So keep going, stay the course, stay focused.

Alejandra Santos: course, stay the course. And that's my goal as a coach as well, to motivate and keep people accountable and looking at the big picture rather than falling back and say, Oh my God, this is so hard. Or I'm the new person in the industry. I'm breaking disruptive industry. Being a disruptor is hard.

Because you have to explain to people that messaging, that communication that comes along, but once you're in it, you're in it. So just, helping those people, like really stay on the course.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific advice. And let me ask you this, Alejandra, for a listener who wants to learn more, they want to work with you and the team, what is the best place online that [00:38:00] they can find you?

Alejandra Santos: So LinkedIn I will share with you my LinkedIn. You can send me there any message. I always. Just respond or connect with me through LinkedIn and then you can always find me on social media as well. You can find me by my company, Startup Tandem, or you can find my other company, The Educated CEO but LinkedIn will be the best way.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific. And for our listeners, we'll make it really easy. It's all in the show notes. It's a point and click. You don't have to think about anything. Just go there. It'll all be there for you. Well, Alejandra, firstly, congratulations. It's official. This 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.

Alejandra Santos: Thank you, Jeffrey. 

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.

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 [00:39:00] and keep these episodes coming to you.

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