Building Your Roundtable

Welcome to The Business Animal podcast. Saddle up for a

gallop to the top of the animal industry, where you'll learn how

to tame your wild business beast, with tips, techniques,

and tools that will take overwhelm to obedience school,

and have you wagging your tail with joy. And now your hosts,

Kim Beer, and Cara Taylor Swift.

Hey there business animals. It's Kim with

Be More Business

and Cara with Fast Horse photography. Hi, Kim.

Hey, Cara, how are you today?

I'm doing okay, the dogs are exceptionally

barky today. So I'm just keeping my fingers crossed. We can get

through this without a ton of barking, howling whimpering it's

just a lot of drama in the Swift household today from the canine

family members. Lots of drama.

It is earlier Rondo was it was barking in the

hallway where there's like no windows. And no, there's

no reason for it. He's just old and he's got

some dementia. And he just sometimes needs to bark a little

bit. And then he gets the I call her the puppy, the almost two

year old howling mournfully. And then the other Labrador, who's

middle aged Labrador, he thinks something must be going on. So

he's very active, and he has the big bark. So it's been a lot of

drama over here. And it seems to be nonstop, because there's just

constant action in front of the house.

You need to get those people across the street

from you to get whatever they're getting done done so that your

life can go back to being peace, and the dogs can quit worrying

about everything

I know. They said one month, they'd had the

house done in a month. So hopefully that'll help but I

don't know, maybe not because then they're gonna be living

there and causing a scene out but in front of my house. For

those that don't know, I've never I live in a neighborhood.

But I've never had anyone in front of my house, we just had a

big, empty, beautiful wooded lot. And now they're building a

house there. So my dogs have this big window that they sit

in, and they watch the action all day long, and comment on it.

And so they hadn't had as much action. But now we have a lot of

action. Because there's workers coming in and out the house

builders are always outside the homeowners are showing up and

checking it. So it's pretty loud. It's been an adjustment

around here been an adjustment. Oh,

nice. Their TV channels switch, they have a new

season. And it's very exciting. So yay, it is what are we

talking about today?

I don't you know, I'm gonna be honest with

you, you came up with this topic, building your round table

is what we're talking about today to think a little bit

about this one. So I'm excited to get your take Kim, tell us

what a round table is. And why do we need one for our small

animal based business,

I so want to be sarcastic and just say a round

table is a round table that you have in your house. However, in

this particular case, it is a metaphor for having a table of

advisors and it probably the name if you want to get really

trivia related comes from the King Arthur legend, where they

sit at the round table and plan for the kingdom. So if you are

the king of your business, this is your ability or your

opportunity to build a group of people that can sit at that

table with you. In a metaphorical sense, not a

literal sense, but a metaphorical sense. They can sit

at the table with you, and advise you in how to better run

your business. So for me, this is a critical piece of business

building that a lot of people miss. In my first business when

I started my first business that did end up in bankruptcy court,

I will be flat out honest with that I didn't have a roundtable

I didn't have advisors, I didn't have anybody that I could go to.

And I didn't actively seek those people out. For one thing, I was

25 and thought I knew everything. So I have since

learned that I've gotten less knowledgeable every single year

of my life, it seems like I have a better understanding of what

it is I don't know. And the round table is there to help you

know what you don't know or to be there to support you when you

need a question answered, or you need to have support in some

way. So this is a part of your network in my networking

workbook. And we've done episodes around this. It's

called your sustainability squad. This particular group is

what I call advisors, but a lot of people do refer them to them

as a roundtable. And I think it's very fitting, even when we

go back to that our theory and legend where we're looking at

that round table with all of the wisdom of the kingdom sitting

there to help the king make better decision. Does that help

explain it a little bit?

Yeah, it really does. And when I think

about the examples that we're getting ready to cover of people

that might be in your round table, it just makes me think

that this is also so essential because it allows you to do the

actual work that you need to do to run your business and it

reminds me that there's no reason for us to first of all,

do everything and that we're not the experts on every single

piece of every little part of this industry or industries that

are connected to ours, and it's crazy, like you said, when you

were 25 years old to think that you can do everything, and that

you don't need these people in your life, and that you really

do need to be actively seeking them. So yeah, this is gonna be

a great discussion for some people. And it also makes me

think that it makes me remember, okay, these are the folks on my

round table. And here are some areas that I could probably add

a couple more seats to the table.

Okay, so the more seats you have at the table, the

more well chosen seats that you have at the table, let me put it

that way. Because if you get too many voices involved, it becomes

confusing. But the more well chosen seats that you have at

the table, the more well rounded, you're going to be to

be able to rise to the challenges that your business

presents you or to sustain growth moving forward, both of

which are incredibly important in growing up business. So let's

go over the big three, I'll run over that real quickly. So the

first one of the big three is when you're choosing the people,

for your roundtable, choose for people that are going to invest

their expertise in you. So there is a little bit of an investment

from your behalf, possibly to pay some of these people for

their services. However, you're also going to ask a little bit

more of them, and ask them to invest with you to make that

relationship better. So I'll get into that with an example if

that feels a little bit strange as a as an introduction to one

of these. And then the second of the big three is to make it a

practice to stay in touch with your roundtable. So for just for

your knowledge, these are not businesses that you Google write

down the phone number or keep them in a little book on the

side of your desk. Your round table are people that you

actually spend time with, it may be not in a group setting, but

in a one on one setting. And then the final of the big three

is to keep a record of that roundtable so you can reach out

to them without thinking if you need them for a specific

situation. So I'll go ahead and start in on the first of the big

three. And then Caras got some great examples here for you. So

first of the big three is to look for people who are going to

invest that expertise in you, and do realize if they are

professionals, you may be paying them. So for examples for this

for people would be maybe an insurance agent. So I know for

me, I actually have more than one insurance agent because I

have more than one thing I need to ensure that I'll talk

specifically about an insurance agent that Cara and I both share

a relationship with her her name is Briana, and she is with great

American Insurance. I can't remember the the actual agency

name it shifted from Hayes companies to something else

recently. But Briana, is it's important to occasionally have a

discussion with Brianna, about insurance or if we have a

question about insuring something specific like Kira is

working on insuring a workshop that's coming up. And she has a

specific insurance question about that workshop. She needs

to feel comfortable with emailing Briana and saying, Hey,

I need your expertise on this. What are your thoughts around

it? Is this covered under my policy? Can you translate it for

me? So that it makes sense because insurance is hard? It's

not something that we completely understand. And it's it's

something we know hope we never have to use. But there are

people whose lives are centered around understanding insurance

and making sure that you are insured. And yes, we pay Briana

for her time and effort by purchasing a policy through her.

But in in a lot of capacities. Even though I don't think either

of us have formally asked her to sit on a round table with us,

which is part of the process you should probably do here. But to

be able to have that person that you can reach out to and say I

have an insurance question that I need to ask you need to be

comfortable enough with your insurance agent to be able to do

that to know that that person is there to be able to support you

that they're not just going to take your money, provide the

base of the service and then not get involved further. And it's

my understanding from the people that I have had said on my

roundtable over the years in this capacity like an insurance

agent or an attorney or a bookkeeper or somebody like

that, that they actually like this investment from the person

that is hiring them because it means that they'll be able to

better do their job because I'm more engaged and attached to

them. In other words, that relationship helps us both. It

helps me get the answers I need the advice I need the forward

motion that I need. and it helps them know my business and me

better so that they can provide whatever happens to be that

service better. I know, for attorneys in particular, you

know, it's like, I wish sometimes you come back to them

and they'll it I wish you would have told me you were doing

that. So that I would have known how to advise you in in being

able to do it to a way that would not open you up to

whatever situation that you're in. So it's just nice to be able

to have those people on board. And I want to run over a very

specific example of of a business that would have a

roundtable member. So we talked a lot about this before the

podcast and we picked having an equine boarding facility as our

example for this. So let's say you're the manager, owner of the

equine boarding facility, there are people that you would want

to have sit on your roundtable, obviously the attorney, the

accountant, the bookkeeper the insurance person, but beyond

that, you might have an equine body worker that is on your

round table. And if you have a horse, let's say in your charge

that you're taking care of is on full board with you. And you

notice that horse has a certain lameness. And you maybe want to

have a discussion with the owner about the lameness. Maybe the

horse came with the lameness. But before you do, you want to

be able to intelligently talk about it, you might be able to

have that person that equine body worker who comes to your

barn often, they have a good relationship with you, you might

want to be able to pick up a phone and say, Hey, I just have

a question. Here's what I observe in this horse on a day

to day basis, what should I advise the owner to do in my

capacity of being able to do that, and in that case, you're

kind of sitting on the owners roundtable, as well. So these

sort of stack up in concentric rings with each other in this

example, but having that person that you could reach out to and

be able to make contact with and know well enough that they could

advise you on what you should do. Because if you're taking

care of a horse that comes with lameness that could open up you

to liabilities that could open up you to situations that would

put your business at risk and wanting to be able to have that

discussion with somebody is really key and INTERCAL. So

other examples that that particular individual might

choose would be a vet or a farrier, equine dentist, the

equine photographer, of course, everybody needs an equine

photographer on their roundtable. Well, yeah, I had to

make sure that was in there. The trainer's equine therapies,

animal communicators, transporters, saddle fitters.

All of those are people that you might want to invite to your

roundtables. So you have them to be able to consult and speak with.

Yeah, absolutely. And I just think you

said that so well, you took our example and really, really

showed a way that that would be useful. And I think what it

comes down to is it's like, once again, you don't have to be the

expert on everything. If you have incredible people at your

round table that can help guide you that you can refer to that

you can outsource to that sort of thing. And it's always nice

to have a fresh set of eyes or outside opinion, even to

challenge you when you need it. And having people that are

willing to say hold on, let's look at this, from a different

perspective can be such a valuable thing. They can bring

different ideas, diverse perspectives, people who are

from different backgrounds, or maybe have different experiences

in the industry, different skill sets, I mean, you can't have

every skill set, you can't have all the education. So having

those people that have some of those other pieces that kind of

help brown that out. Having people that have different areas

of influence in your industry in the community can be really

huge. And then just always the connection side of things like

making connections, we all know how one connection can lead to

more connections down the road, either that is through new

clients or for new potential vendors, just new people, we can

work with new clients, all of that sometimes something as

simple as just having people out there that can validate you in

your business to their center of influence. So a great example is

when we go back to our original example of someone who maybe

owns a boarding facility or runs a boarding facility. If they

have a good relationship with an equine dentist and they've been

working with them for a while. And then one of the equine

dentist clients needs a place to board their horse like that's

coming up different and you're someone that they can be a

center of influence around and can validate you as a business

owner and can direct those people to you. So that is a nice

way that that kind of all comes from full circle. I mean, I just

don't think that the networking piece of that can be understated

as well. No, yeah, absolutely. And there are areas where

members of your table of your round table can provide

financial support for you as well. There may be opportunities

for that, where they want to invest in your business or they

want to invest in helping you grow your business in a certain

way. And that could be because they believe in you, or maybe

being a part of your round table makes you part of their round

table. And it benefits their business as well.

Absolutely, all of those are great things to

look at, and to understand about building out your round table

and knowing who these people are. And I'm going to reiterate,

again, the big three item here that I think is the most

important for the people you choose here. Make sure that

there are people that are willing to invest their

expertise in you that are going to show up in this capacity. Not

every vendor or advisor that you work with, is willing to do that

there are ones that just simply aren't. And if you want to go

with that company as your Chosen Company to work with, then maybe

look for somebody else to be an advisor in that area. Sometimes

we have friends that are in this areas that show up, you know,

maybe they're an insurance agents, but they don't do

insurance that would cover your specific business, but they have

a good understanding of insurance. And you can feel like

it's okay to ask them the question. So it's ideal if you

can match the two things up. But sometimes it just doesn't work

that way, because some people do not want to sit in that advisory

capacity. So just be super mindful of that and don't

encroach on somebody else, just because you do business with

them. Yeah, they may not have the time. Yeah, that could be

altogether true. Another set of people that you might be

interested in, in having an advisory capacity around are

like a marketing expert, where they are able to help guide you

in your marketing. I know that's a big one for a lot of the

people that I know, and I actually serve in that capacity

for several people, including some people who are not my

clients. And I'm not going to spend six hours on the phone

with them or do a full program. But if they have a question, I'm

okay with them calling and asking that question. Because I

really, truly do want to see most people be successful all

people be successful. Yeah. So that that helps us understand.

And another thing too, so for our boarding example, that

person who would send out that the horse that's lame to be able

to give that person a avenue by which to get their horse sound,

again, in a very good way. All right, let's move on to number

two, to make it a practice to stay in touch with those people

that are on your roundtable. So a relationship, you guys

requires two individuals to communicate with each other. In

other words, it can't be just one sided, you can't decide that

this individual is on your round table, and then never speak to

them unless you need them for something very specific.

Sometimes you have to reach out and just to have coffee. And

again, a lot of these people, you know, if you're asking the

question, pick up the tab for coffee or lunch or see if you

can get a 15 minute Zoom meeting be super respectful of their

time. But just a touch base isn't I want to just say hi and

see how your business is going and see what's up in your world.

And make sure that you build that relationship over time. And

also with the people that are also providing you with services

like your insurance agent, it's a good idea to do an insurance

audit every single year to go sit with your agent for a few

minutes and say, Hey, am I sufficiently covered? This is

what's changed in my business? What's changed in insurance law,

which you know, and that's true with attorneys and accountants

and bookkeepers, and all of those people. I mean,

accountants in specific the tax laws shift and move every single

year. Now, do not call your accountant during tax season and

say, Would you like to have coffee with me? Call them in in

a different time of year when they're not buried with clients

that they have to get a April 15 deadline or March 15 for

business taxes deadline, make sure you get in touch with him

outside of that period of time and say, Hey, let's sit and have

coffee. And can you tell me a little bit about what shifted

and changed in your world. And I'll explain the same for my

end. So it's building a relationship with the people

that we work with. We do not own our businesses in a vacuum. It

may feel like we work as solopreneurs particularly alone

a lot, but we're really not. There's a whole team of people

out there that's involved with our business and it's important

to keep in touch with them.

And Kim mentioned several like bigger

things like going to coffee scheduling meetings. I think

there's a lot of other small things that you can do to

continually nurture and kind of just be on their mind so that

when you do need them, they're there things like including your

roundtable folks and your holiday card. You know, if you

send out cards, sending you know if you make referrals to them,

like I make referrals to people on my roundtable all the time. I

am always sending people in their direction and I will shoot

them a quick email or a text message and say, hey, just a

heads up I'm sending so and so your direction if she pops in,

just wanted to let you know, little things like that just

letting them know that you're supporting them and that you're

thinking of them. If you send out holiday gifts to your

clients, think about the people in your roundtable too. Is there

a gift you can send to them? Just something to kind of

nurture those relationships and let them know that you

appreciate the work that they do for you the thought that they

put into you the fact that they'll take your phone calls,

when you need someone to take a phone call quickly? or answer a

question quickly. I can't tell you how many times I've needed a

quick answer. I've shot a text to one of my advisors and just

said, I just need this answer really quick. I'm super sorry,

can you and they'll respond to me, because I've taken the time

to nurture in advance, and I've been there for them if they've

needed me that sort of thing.

Absolutely. It's just it's so important to build

relationships with the people in your kingdom in your business's

kingdom, it's critical to be able to do that. Alright, so the

last one of our big three is to keep a record of your round

table so that you can reach out without thinking if needed. And

this if you do number two, to be honest with you, number three

should come really easily. However, there are times that we

don't always have time to keep up with number two, and things

happen. So make sure that you cognitively keep track of the

people in your roundtable. And I advise you to ask that person to

say when you put a person in your advisory committee, don't

install them without their permission, make sure you say I

am building a resource for my business. And I would like to

add you to that resource list. Are you good with that? And

please do not get offended? If the answer is no. Sometimes

people like your said don't have time or they don't have the

bandwidth. Or maybe they don't feel like they're quite at the

level that they need to be in your specific situation as well

informed in your specific situation. So animal based

businesses in particular, there are a lot of nuances that are

specific industries and even the industries within our industry

need to know about and somebody may say no, I'm not comfortable

with advising you there. Because I just don't know all of those

nuances. And it wouldn't be appropriate for me to do that.

So make sure you invite the person and then once they have

agreed, then I highly recommend that you put their information

somewhere where you can always lay your hands on it, maybe give

them a special designation in your phone contacts, or possibly

keep a private Google Doc that has their contact information in

it. So if you need to get in touch with them, you can get in

touch with them very easily and quickly without having to think

about it. So if you've done number one, and you've chosen

people who want to invest their expertise in you, and you've

done number two and kept up with your contacts, if you get in a

situation where somebody has an accident on your property, God

forbid, and now they're saying I'm going to sue you for this,

now's the time that you need to be able to contact your attorney

and your insurance agent and have them both in your pocket to

be able to say this is what happened today. And I need

advice. What are my next best steps? You don't want to be

fumbling around going, oh gosh, you know, I lost that attorneys

phone number. And then I haven't kept in touch with them. And

they've moved offices to somewhere else or my insurance

agency has like shifted and moved to somewhere else. And I

don't know my agents name or phone numbers. So I've seen

businesses that don't know either of those things. And it's

like, really, how do you walk the road while I have insurance?

You do have insurance. But the problem is, is you don't know

your agents name. So who are you going to call? And who's going

to be on the other end? And will they even be the type of person

to have a vested interest in what you're doing? Yeah, and

I would I would take it a step further, if

there's someone you're thinking you're going to have to refer

potentially clients to, you know, going back to our original

example of the boarding facility owner, find out how they want to

be communicated with so that if you're going to be referring

people to them, that way, you know immediately how to give

them the correct phone number, maybe they prefer email or maybe

they have a different system that they want you to use. And

you're really going to endear yourself to them. If you aren't

scrambling or sending clients to their personal cell phone number

when they want it to go through a business number. Or if they

have a contact form on their website. They want everyone to

fill out prior to engagement. If you can find out that kind of

stuff that's going to make a big difference in kind of making

them someone that that they want to continue to work with. Also

ask them to include you in updates if they change their

contact information or they change how they want to be

communicated with. Or if they leave the business that they

were working with, that you were using, or if they move to a new

location if you want to keep working with them. This is big,

nothing used to frustrate me more in my previous career than

when I would have a list of resources that I regularly

referred people to crisis in, only to find out that my client

contacted them, and they were either no longer in service, no

longer providing that service, they no longer worked there,

their phone number had changed, that is so essential. And it

really helps credibility on both ends.

Absolutely. And also, you don't want to have a

problem arise in your world that you need an advisor for, and

call your advisor and your advisor is no longer at the

company. That's shocking as all get out. So that actually

happened to me this last year, the banker that I have been

using for many, many years retired, and I didn't get a

notification or I didn't see the notification that could be too,

because he retired in the fall when we're in the middle of all

of our travel season. And when I called to talk about my loan

payment and wanting to make a change to a different payment

arrangement, I called and asked for him and they're like, he's

retired, and I felt so lost. And I was like dirted, and I kicked

myself because I'm like, normally I check in with him

every six months or so. And I felt really bad because I hadn't

checked in because I'd been through some health crisis and

some other things. And it really was shocking. And it took me a

moment to get to know the new person that had taken over. And,

and so I was I now have to have a different email address and

all of those kinds of things. So yeah, I totally agree. Make sure

that one you keep up the relationship on your end, but to

if you're somebody who sits as an advisor, for other people,

make sure you let them know if there's a change in your world

or a change in your job or you're retiring or moving.

Because you may not realize how many lives you impact. And how

shocking that is on the other side to like, pick up the phone

and say, you know, I want to talk to this individual and be

told that they're no longer there. You don't

want to be an emergency situation either. And

then have to re explain your entire business model and what

you do and your connection to the organization all over again,

when you really just need a quick answer because you've got

a problem. And if you're one of the few Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Yeah. You don't want your life life history to

the next new person that's in line. So yeah, absolutely.

roundtables are it's one of those things, I think that we

feel like we can neglect as business owners because it's

like, okay, I don't have a specific need right now, or I've

fulfilled those needs. And but I don't know what that

relationship is with that organization. And I don't know

if I want to call them up and find out at this point. But the

truth is, is that these are the people that support our

business. They are our fellow members at that table. And it's

important for the health of the kingdom for all of us that we

keep in touch with them, and that we build those

relationships and do our part. And then also hold them

accountable for doing their part. That's right.

All right. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed

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