Driving Business Growth through Leadership and Website Optimization, with Lindy Nowak

Prepare to be inspired as we sit down with the dynamic Lindy Nowak, founder and CEO of Up in a Day, a game-changing turnkey website product. Lindy unravels her journey, highlighting the importance of leadership, team dynamics, and the power of maintaining a stress-free environment in the pursuit of high-quality results. It's a deep dive into how a leader can empower a creative team under pressure while keeping a firm eye on quality.

As we journey through the world of AI and SaaS products with Lindy, get ready to gain insights into the vital role of streamlining business processes. We candidly discuss the highs and lows of being an entrepreneur, shedding light on the reality of business growth. We'll get you thinking about how many products you use in your business, and whether there's room to streamline for greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Then, we shine a spotlight on the fundamental pillars of business growth and website optimization. Lindy shares precious nuggets on identifying profitable markets, setting clear objectives, and the common pitfalls business owners face with their websites. And, as a bonus, Lindy even offers some glimpses into the future of the website agency services industry, including the prospect of AI-built websites. So join us for this enlightening conversation, where we explore not just the importance of a professional website for businesses, but also how Up in a Day is helping small businesses and entrepreneurs establish the online presence they need to thrive.

I want to invite you to check out the Committed Mastermind, a community I help lead along with world-class leaders like JC and Karen Hite, Vinnie Fisher, and Jonathan Mast, plus incredible mentors like Dr. Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages, and many others.

This is for entrepreneurs who want to build a thriving business without sacrificing their faith, their family, or their health.

Check out the Committed Mastermind at https://committedmastermind.com/

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Transcript

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Building Leadership Skills With Lindy Nowak

Speaker 1 1:24

Welcome to Catalytic Leadership , the podcast designed to help leaders intentionally grow and thrive . Here is your host author and leadership and executive coach , dr William Attaway .

Speaker 2 1:38

Hey , it's William and welcome to today's episode of the Catalytic Leadership podcast . Each week , we tackle a topic related to the field of leadership . My goal is to ensure that you have actionable steps you can take from each episode to grow in your own leadership . Growth doesn't just happen . My goal is to help you become intentional about it . Each week , we spotlight leaders from a variety of fields , organizations and locations . My goal is for you to see that leaders can be catalytic , no matter where they are or what they lead . I draw inspiration from the stories and journeys of these leaders , and I hear from many of you that you do too .

Speaker 2 2:19

Let's jump in to today's interview . It is such an honor today to have Lindy Nowak on the podcast . Lindy has spent over 15 years as a creative director in New York City , working for multiple brands , including LaRielle , bon Appetit , entertainment Weekly and Women's Health magazines . Today , she's the founder and CEO of Up in a Day , a turnkey website product that helps CPAs , mortgage brokers , restaurant owners , therapists and tech startups get a great website up and running quickly , on budget and with very little effort from them . I can't wait to hear more about this . Lindy , thank you for being on the show .

Speaker 3 2:58

Thank you so much for having me . I'm excited to be here .

Speaker 2 3:01

Lindy , I would love for you to share some of your story with our listeners , particularly around your journey and your development as a leader . How did you get started ?

Speaker 3 3:10

Well , when I , I would say , graduated from corporate and decided to go off on my own as an entrepreneur , I started up in a day with a well-rounded past , if you will an experience of being a manager , leader of small teams , large teams , of course that is on the brand side and then extended into publishing , which is where I left my career in corporate at Women's Health Magazine . When I started up in a day , one of the values that I wrote down was the management value , that's , the internal values for our company . That is , to always have fun and always be open and communicative .

Speaker 2 4:04

Always have fun . I love that . That's not something that you often hear in the entrepreneurial space , maybe anecdotally , maybe aspirationally , but is that really a core value for you ?

Speaker 3 4:19

It is . The reason why is because my staff , my designers they're all creatives . We design all a lot of websites . A lot of people come in the door and leave . Therefore , there is a certain amount of pressure , if you will , in order to turn these websites around in time , With the processes and the systems that we have in place in order to do that . Part of that and part of that management style and leadership style is really ensuring that the designers are stress-free , that they're enjoying what they're doing , that they're being well taken care of , because what happens with creatives ? If they're stressed , if they're upset , if they're not inspired , then the execution is coming out through the websites . That's what we're providing to our clients . That suffers . It's really important on the core level to make sure that the staff is very happy .

Speaker 2 5:25

I love that . From your perspective , now coming out of corporate and now being the leader of this team , how would you define leadership ?

Speaker 3 5:35

I would define it as a value in which there is a level of trust and communication between the teams . I like to be a very open book . I like to be very open with my team , whichever level , whichever department that we're working with . With that being said , I also feel like leadership is a place of inspiration . It's where , as a leader , as the owner of this company , I probably don't want to be here forever . I want to keep my staff as long as possible and build the relationships , build their skills , help them to become better at what they do so that they can move up and possibly become my number two or maybe , in fact , become number one . Hiring staff can be very expensive . The time cost associated with that is obviously extensive . Hiring well is really important . When you're hiring well , you also have to be a very strong leader , I believe .

Speaker 2 6:49

Absolutely 100% . I want to talk about up in a day . Why did you start up in a day ?

Speaker 3 6:57

That's a great question and thank you for asking . When I left corporate , I decided to go off on my own . As I mentioned earlier , when I started , I had this small digital marketing agency called Lina Creative . We did a lot of 360 branding , if you will a lot of digital marketing , a lot of brand presence , a lot of messaging . I also come from an extensive marketing background .

Speaker 3 7:25

What was happening was we were getting a ton of referrals of small business owners solopreneurs , people pivoting in their business , starting new businesses , seasoned business owners , one to five person shops that were coming to us desperate for help with their website . They needed it yesterday . Of course , small businesses , they're tech startups , so they're on a budget , a tight budget . We just did not have it in our processes and our margins to help these people . Along with that , I have always dreamt of creating a product-sized service , something that's new to the market .

Speaker 3 8:09

One day , I was watching a webinar and they were talking about productizing your services . I was listening . I was like sat back and I'm like , okay , the juices are flowing , the gears are starting to warm up . The host asked what is the one thing you love doing , can you do it well and can you make money from that I started thinking well , we do a lot of very big websites Shopify , score , space very complex sites . We can actually do them really fast and we do them really well . We make a lot of businesses very profitable and very happy . Well , there it is . We can actually do these in a day . The simpler websites there it is , lo and behold , up in a day was born Literally . The name came at that same time . We can build websites really quickly . Actually , we can build websites in a day . Wait , up in a day . That's how it started . It was so exciting because all of a sudden I woke up the next morning and I'm like , oh , wow , this is good , let's get going .

Speaker 2 10:35

I love that epiphany moment . That's so brilliant . When we talked earlier , you said one of the challenges that you saw in the market was that people were complaining that it was taking months and months to get a website up and running .

Speaker 3 10:49

Yes , I saw a huge gap in the market for that , because a lot of the people that were coming to us then and 90% of the clients that come to us today have gotten burned in the past from one reason or another . Their developer disappeared . They paid $10,000 for a three-paid website that's not showing up on Google or they're . We hear this a lot . I designed my own website , or my son designed my website and I'm stuck , or even if it's a relative designing your website and the relationship that gets a little hairy when you're trying to give feedback and then they're dragging their feed and then it doesn't get done . The gap in the market was turn around time , costs and satisfaction . Those three pillars are what I solved with the up-in-a-day model .

Speaker 2 11:43

You talk about the importance of developing strategies that work without investing your time . I would love to talk a little bit about that , because I think a lot of people are interested in strategies that work . Every business owner , every entrepreneur , they're all about that but so many of them are just tondrains . What do you mean by what you're describing ?

Speaker 3 12:06

When I talk about strategy and in relation to time , what I mean by that is when you have a good idea , the first thing you think of is like , oh my gosh , this is the best idea , everybody's going to love it , they're all going to come flooding in the door . Of course , that didn't happen . You always wish With the strategy . It's really realizing that when you start a company , it's important to walk before you run . I'm not saying I did that because I learned the hard way . The strategies I developed in order to save my time were based off of timeframes . Within those by weeks . Actually , let me trickle down year , quarter , week . What am I tackling that week ? What am I tackling that quarter ? Am I meeting those goals ? Then , of course , the year end .

Speaker 3 13:04

Then you break that down further . Then you're working on the business model . You're working on the systems and processes a little bit each day , hitting those little mini pillars and spending the time and figuring out is this executional , can I actually get this done today ? Can I actually get this done this week ? And just going slow and really thinking about your next steps strategically . I know I'm going backwards and saying oh yeah , but there's not much time . You do end up , saving a lot of time , even though it's taking you time and you're walking before you're running . You are actually cutting down on hours and hours of stress , hours of work , hours sitting behind the computer emailing , because you have everything in bullet points , your to-do list , if you will , right in front of you , your goals to hit .

Speaker 2 13:59

Linda , that's so good . I think that's so intentional . I think this is a piece that so many business owners , so many agency owners and entrepreneurs really miss . They start trying to run .

Speaker 3 14:13

I did . I had a really good business coach that taught me all of this . By the way , I'm happy to share everything that I did . One of the texts that I had to finish when I came up with the idea of up in a day was how are we going to get these done ? How do we scale the way I did that ? I said , okay , what is my big hairy goal ? I believe that's from the book Traction . Right , I read it US Traction , all of the above . I read them . I was a little too small for a lot of their principles , but I still adopted them , ready to go for the future . Absolutely yeah . The big hairy goal was an X million by year five or year 10 or whatever their number was . The number has since changed because your business evolves . Then you work backwards from there and you start hitting benchmarks . How do you hit those benchmarks ? Well , you start creating the business model . How do you create the business model ? You create processes . What is the process to get all of these websites done ? What is the systems in place in order to do that ? Do you automate ? Do you keep people behind the business for behind all of the systems and processes for a little while , just to see if it's working , Get the machine churning . Then , once that's in place , then you keep working forward .

Speaker 3 15:42

I remember after I started working on the processes , I got a little discombobulated about wait , what are we doing ? I had to take a step back and I opened a notebook and I wrote our values . The values really are our pillars still today . This is actually pretty cool . The business coach I was working with at the time had me do . I came to him with my three values . He said well , who are these values for ? I said well , I guess for everyone . That's how we operate . He said well , I want you to think about your true values . What are your internal company values ? What are those ? What are your values for your customers ? Then , most importantly , what are the values for operating , which is personal values , to operate the company and to make sure it's going in the direction to that big , hairy goal , without spinning out of control , without hiring too fast , with just coming back thinking , okay , am I on track ?

Speaker 2 16:55

Yeah , I love the fact that you put these systems in place and the systems are tied to your values . I tell clients all the time you will rise or you will fall to the level of your systems . I think Ed Deming was spot on . You don't like the results you're currently getting . You can't keep doing what you're doing . You have to do it differently , and systems are how you make sure that you're doing it consistently and repeatedly . That's the key .

Speaker 3 17:21

That is definitely the key . I mean , I feel like we work with a lot of coaches and consultants as well , and I feel like systems is such a keyword right now . It's very popular and a lot of people feel overwhelmed when they hear systems . Well , what do you mean by systems ? Systems could mean anything , so for us , systems as a service provider with a term , key service product , if you will systems are mechanisms in which allow us to provide really great customer service and automate our onboarding process all the way to execution and deliverables to the customer and how seamless that needs to be . And that's another keyword that I love right now is strategy Strategies , too , systems and seamlessness .

Speaker 3 18:21

For us , it's an efficiencies , and right now there are .

Speaker 3 18:26

We're talking about AI . I'm not gonna go down that rabbit hole , but now we have AI and we have all of these SaaS products ,

Streamlining SaaS Products in Business

Speaker 3 18:33

and I was talking to my business coach today and we were talking about that big , hairy goal again and I said one thing I'm starting to see is that we're really need to hone down on all of these SaaS products that we have , because our systems are getting out of control right , if we want all of our systems to talk to one another and you wanna have as little as possible . So let's say you have your sauna , your Calendly , right , and then whatever else , your CRM . Do they talk to each other ? How much are you spending a month on this stuff ? That's huge . You start looking at your business credit card on a monthly basis and you're like , oh my gosh , $30 here and $90 there and it's like , wow , all of a sudden you're spending $30,000 a month on all of these SaaS products . Let's take a step back and see can we reduce this to be better , to be more efficient and to be more cost effective .

Speaker 2 19:35

So good , so practical , and something every entrepreneur that I've talked to deals with . Like you sign up for this , you sign up for this , you sign up for this , and they all products that you use mostly , but do they integrate ? Is it a simple system that is simple for your employees , for your team ? Is it simple for your clients to use ? Is it accomplishing the goal , your big , hairy , audacious goal ? There's your question , right ?

Speaker 2 20:02

I love that you're so honest and transparent about the struggles as well as the successes . I think that's so helpful and for people who are listening , who are entrepreneurs or agency owners or leaders who have started something , it's so easy to just see the highlight reel online . It's so easy to just see the highlight reel . And yes , I climbed 14 mountains in the last three days . Okay , really , like , is that possible ? I just keep winning , all I do is win , and they don't see the struggles . And so far , you have been so honest about your struggles . I'm just curious is there anything else that you would say ? Hey , I've really struggled with this , you know , particularly at the beginning or as you were beginning to grow ?

Speaker 3 20:45

I would say one of the struggles I had and I said this earlier was that when I started up in Indiana and I had the first round of processes and systems in place and the people that I believed that what we offered was so needed that everybody was gonna start talking about it and flood the doors , and the first month that did happen by way of just organic marketing , but then it really just like trickled and died off . And then I wouldn't say I made any mistakes , but I had to . You know , I dabbled in NPR ads , I dabbled in some Google ads . I can't believe . I just said that yeah , and I come from a digital marketing background , so I should know better . But and then I really started getting the stress . I wasn't sleeping at night . I couldn't figure out how to get sales in the door . I couldn't figure out .

Speaker 3 21:52

Ours is like a huge brand awareness play right . So how do we get out there ? And I had this vision like I know I can see us on billboards , but we just weren't there yet . You have to have your product , a ton of product , under your belt service .

Successful Business Growth and Website Optimization

Speaker 3 22:09

I mean , I'm not sure if you can see it , but I'm not sure you have to have your belt service , whatever it is , clients you have to have , you have to have experience . You have to prove that the product is working and the product works . If your system's working , the people are happy . Also , is the price work . It's the price right for the market , your market , who is your market ? Well , when you start a new service and it could kind of go to anybody then where do you choose that ?

Speaker 3 22:43

My suggestion is and this is what we did and I'm very happy we went this route is just choose one or two niches that sound great , that sound fun to work with , with deep pockets . And so we did that . We went after those two markets . They brought us a lot of sales , a lot of websites under our belt and the business started evolving and it was so fun and the process is starting evolving . And Then we started just marketing towards other types of industries and it took a long time .

Speaker 3 23:25

So , going back to where I struggled personally was that running before I walked . But it took a lot of business coaching therapy to get me to a point where I was like , okay , just pillars . That's when I started those weekly benchmarks . That went into quarters and I had a piece of paper with three column or four columns sorry quarter . One , two , three , four , and then it was broken down by week and in each week I had the one or two pillars that I had goals I had to meet . And then it keeps your brain sane , or at least for me . I'm a checklist kind of person and I like to write things down . I feel funny . We're on computers all day long , especially me , yeah right .

Speaker 3 24:09

And I have papers galore . All of my coaching papers are in a notebook , a three ring binder . That's awesome . And the other thing I wanted to share I just realized today is when I started coaching . I got a business coach when I first started the business , so that was , oh my goodness , three and a half , four years ago .

Speaker 1 24:39

Yeah .

Speaker 3 24:40

And two weeks ago , for some reason , I just felt like I needed to go back to all of those coaching papers . So when I go to my coaching sessions I write down what I want to talk about and then every single thing that he is helping me with and all the solutions and ideas , and I started going back to those really early on coaching session pages and all of the things that had forgotten that I would be ready for three years later . We're there , wow . So now I'm getting all of those ideas back and I'm like we can do this now . Now we're ready for growth .

Speaker 2 25:20

I love that . How intentional is that ? To go back and review and find oh , I tell clients all the time there's no such thing as a wasted experience . You may not be ready for it yet , but it will help you , it will benefit you or it will benefit people around you . See every experience for what it is something that's either going to help you or somebody else . I love that . I love the intentionality of that . What are some of the biggest problems ? You talk to a lot of small business owners . What are some of the main problems that you see small business owners having today ?

Speaker 3 25:58

The top three with their websites or just in their business in general ? Sure , With their websites , OK . Well , of course , we're talking websites here , right ? The first one is that they aren't getting any inbound traffic . That's number one . Number two they have too much or too little content on their website . Number three they're not quite sure if their messaging is speaking to their target audience , their ideal client , mostly because they're not getting traffic to their website .

Speaker 3 26:37

And so what we do is we do a deep dive , we look into their site and messaging and try to help them . That way , when we're building our websites for these small business owners , we take a step back and we really get to know their business inside and out . Where they want to be in six months , a year , five years ? Who do they work with now ? Is their business evolving ? Are they going to do they want to work with other people ? Are their services going to change in a year's time or even , like two months time ?

Speaker 3 27:12

A lot of coaches we talk to will have services that they're working on at that time but just not ready to launch , and then we build the website specifically for that , so that the website has longevity A lot of the other thing that we see with business owners that I talk to is that they have old websites and they don't know who to talk to , where to turn to get a redesign , because there are millions of website agencies out there and you already have like cold feet so you're not quite sure . So you just kind of put it on the back burner and go work on something else right Business owners .

Speaker 3 27:54

They don't want

Importance of Websites for Business Owners

Speaker 3 27:55

to pay attention to their website mostly , for the most part , I should say they know it has issues and could use improvement , but it's a daunting task to get in there and try to figure out why , and most of it we're so stuck in our own heads with our business and the day to day and what needs to get done . When we look at our own website it's just like we cannot even comprehend what we're looking at here because we're just like so in it .

Speaker 2 28:23

Well , it's very difficult to see the whole picture when you're in the frame . Yes , that's where you need somebody from the outside who can look at it objectively and evaluate it and help you see what you simply cannot see .

Speaker 3 28:37

Yeah , that's right , that's exactly true .

Speaker 2 28:42

So what industries do you serve ? Websites in a day to .

Speaker 3 28:47

Tech , startups , consultants and coaches , restaurants , finance , so CPAs , bookkeepers , people that need a high impact online presence . Website is confirmation right . People are most likely coming to their website from a referral source , whether it's a person or place , and they're checking them out . They're shopping online . They're doing some comparison shopping . They're looking to see if you solve their problems . Where are you located , how much does it cost , what's the engagement look like , what is the value that you provide ? And they're making a decision from there .

Speaker 2 29:31

I like that . It's a confirmation . I like that thinking because if I go to somebody's website from checking , and I go to their website and it's so obviously out of date , so obviously nobody's touched it in a while , that says something . Or if I go to it and it doesn't have a professional look to it , that says something . Better for worse or indifferent they may be fantastic at what they do , but it communicates something .

Speaker 3 30:01

Exactly . I mean , if you got on a dentist's website and it was old , old and clunky like super 1999 , I mean , would you call them ? I wouldn't , I don't want them touching my teeth .

Speaker 2 30:16

No , no , no , no , no . Where do you see the website agency service industry going from here ?

Speaker 3 30:25

Hopefully where I'm going , fast , speedy quality .

Speaker 2 30:29

Love that .

Speaker 3 30:30

I feel like now , in today's modern website building world , you can build websites through website platforms , and there are a lot of them out there .

Speaker 3 30:42

We specifically use Squarespace because at the end of the build-out it's like okay , now I have this great website , how do I update it ? So that platform in general is pretty easy to make updates to on one's own . I feel like right now I don't have a great answer for that because AI is moving so fast and there are a lot of products out there that will promise you whatever they do in automation , but they're not quite there yet , but it is happening fast . So I'm not saying website builders and AI or anything or maybe there are a couple trying but if that does happen and products come out there that promise to build a website with whatever you tell them to do with a prompt , the truth of the matter is you need somebody who understands your business to really and marketing and design to execute your marketing tool in which people convert on , which right now , ai can't do that , and having the right people behind the website , just so that you're not turning around and spending another $10,000 in six months to get another website , is really important , absolutely .

Speaker 2 32:09

Particularly for small businesses and entrepreneurs who are bootstrapping . They can't just keep cycling through again and again hoping that well , eventually I'll find gold . They have to think intentionally and be strategic about this .

Speaker 3 32:25

I know and you don't know . Until you know , you don't know what you don't know . A lot of people we talk to are coming to us saying I've redesigned this thing six times and then I really , really want to work with you . How much does it cost ? We tell them , and they just don't have it in their budget at that point , yeah , we try to . I don't know . It's a struggle for sure , no doubt . That's why we're here and that's why I started up in a day to truly and that's what I'm saying as a brand awareness play because we're truly here to help small businesses get really great online presences that their businesses deserve , because there's no reason why you have to wait months to get a website anymore . It's just the economy moves too fast , the markets move too fast , business moves too fast and we are here to hopefully provide their online solution . It's not for everybody .

Speaker 3 33:27

Of course , some people need complex websites , but there are a lot of people that just need nice and simple websites too , just to be there and present .

Speaker 2 33:40

What are some necessities that you think people need to have on their websites ? Think in entrepreneurs , think in small business owners . What are things that absolutely have to have this ?

Speaker 3 33:49

I think you have to have clear call to actions , meaning the buttons on your website and in strategic places and as high as possible , so that if it is a referral and they're coming to your website and they read that headline and tagline on your homepage and they're like this looks good . I mean , that's like me . I want to . Let's just book a call . One call to action message . So instead of let's talk and then another button says book a call and another button says contact , that's confusing and people are going to bounce . So just having that really clear , just like for kindergartners , literally because people like to be told what to do on websites . I know that sounds a little silly , but next time you're on a website and you're scrolling around and you're looking for a service , just tell me what you do and how do I get it . How do I get it ? Now ?

Speaker 3 34:48

We do a lot of website reviews and one of the things I always say is when I'm talking to myself in the loom video is and I'm scrolling through the client's website , I'm like look , I was like here's the thing in modern day and age , the way people scroll through websites . They don't read them like books , they're skimming and they're going fast . They're on social media all day . They're on LinkedIn and they're on Instagram . And what are they looking for when they're going so fast ? They're looking for those keywords , those key phrases and those images that they relate to , that solve their problem , that make them stop . So what needs to be next to that ? The call to action . I need it now . How do I get it ?

Speaker 2 35:28

That's so good , Lenny , how did you stay on top of your game ? How do you level up with new leadership skills ? Because obviously this is a goal for you and you're constantly having to lead at a different level because things are growing and you're finding new levels that you need to lead at . How do you do that ?

Speaker 3 35:50

I read a lot of books . I skim a lot of books as well . I read a lot of old sales and leadership books just to see what used to be practice , and then I move into what new publications help you with as a leader .

Speaker 3 36:17

I would say it's also built into our systems . It's something that I used to do also . I have back when I was in corporate and I had , when I was managing teams just being their kind of friend the communication , having once a week meetings with them . Even if I am so busy , I make sure that I'm speaking to everybody on my team and when I'm speaking to them , I'm very clear that they can be very transparent with me , because it goes back to your staff satisfaction . Are they happy ? Are they enjoying this ?

Speaker 3 37:04

What can we do better ? Ask them their feedback . That's huge for me . What can we do to make your life easier , your work easier ? I don't have a huge team , but I don't have a small team either , so it's really easy for me to be able to do that . I'm sure it's very difficult for people who have larger businesses , of course , but if they have a number two that can do that , I just started using assembly and that records all of my staff meetings so I can go back and look at the notes . It's really cool . It's a SaaS product .

Speaker 3 37:41

But , it transcribes your Zoom call .

Speaker 3 37:45

Or whatever you're using and then what it does is it will basically using AI . It outlines what you talked about in a clear , concise way and then it bullet points tasks that you need to do . It is amazing and that really is so busy . It just keeps me having to go back and listen to a whole meeting , or it keeps me from making notes on my computer or on a piece of paper . It's all right there and then I can go back and do whatever I need to do for that designer or copywriter .

Speaker 2 38:22

That is really good . I was next for you , like where do you want to go from here ? Where do you want to see your business , your company , go from here ?

Speaker 3 38:30

We are going to start offering new services . So there'll be services I'm not going to give it away . There'll be services that tie in with the website for those who need it . So extending the offering beyond the website . I do some consulting on the side and I help business owners kind of get where they need to be once they have their website up . Like , how do I , now that I have this great website , how do I now , what do I do ? How do I get in front of the right audience ? Well , how do I use this website ? So part of what I'm learning from those consulting sessions is what they need . They need more than the website . So we're working on what that looks like for the next phase probably Q1 . 2024 of up in a day . So it's very exciting . And , yeah , just continue growth , keep reaching those benchmarks and keep walking .

Speaker 2 39:30

Love it If you could go back and talk to yourself when you were 22, . Knowing what you know now , what would you love to tell yourself ?

Speaker 3 39:41

When I was that age , I was a graphic designer and I set a desk and I was told what I needed to design for that company every single day . And if I could go back and tell that self , where I am now is that you are going to be in a place you're going to be okay , You're going to be , you're going to have freedom freedom with money , time but most of all , you're going to make , you're going to impact a lot of people's lives in a really positive way , doing what you love .

Speaker 2 40:18

I love that you said you read a lot . Is there a book that stands out that you would recommend that everybody listening put on there to read list ?

Speaker 3 40:30

The first book I read impacted my entire journey , and that is EOS by Gina Wickman Excellent .

Speaker 2 40:38

And you think everybody should , everybody would benefit from this .

Speaker 3 40:42

I think so . He focuses on small businesses , number one , and teaches you how to separate yourself from the business and find methods over time to work on the business as opposed to in the business . How to find the right people , how to train them , how do you get there ? How do you set yourself up for growth ? And one of the , I guess , ideas that he kind of goes in and out of is like setting your business up for a franchise , and that's the systems and processes that he drilled in my head that I needed to do , because when I started up in a day I said , well , I'm not going to do this for the rest of my life . Eventually I want to sell this thing , so how do you sell it ? So that was really impactful and that helped to set the benchmarks that I have in place .

Speaker 2 41:38

I'm not familiar with this book . I'll have to check it out .

Speaker 3 41:40

That's very good .

Speaker 2 41:42

Linnie , I know people are going to want to stay connected with you and continue to learn from you . What is the best way for them to do that ?

Speaker 3 41:49

You can find me on LinkedIn it's LinkedIn , obviously , and then the handle is lindi-nowak and you can also follow up in a day . And you can find us on our website , which is upinadayco , got it .

Speaker 2 42:08

Well , I'm looking forward to checking that out and I know a lot of our listeners are going to as well To be . Thank you for your time and the insights that you've shared today . This has been so helpful , I know , not just for me , but for everybody listening .

Speaker 3 42:20

Thank you so much , I really appreciate it .

Speaker 2 42:25

Thanks for joining me for this episode today . As we wrap up , I'd love for you to do two things . First , subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode , and if you find value here , I'd love it if you would rate it and review it . That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast . Second , if you don't have a copy of my newest book , catalytic Leadership , I'd love to put a copy in your hands . If you go to catalyticleadershipbookcom , you can get a copy for free . Just pay the shipping so I can get it to you and we'll get one right out .

Speaker 2 43:01

My goal is to put this into the hands of as many leaders as possible . This book captures principles that I've learned in 20 plus years of coaching leaders in the entrepreneurial space , in business , government , nonprofits , education and the local church . You can also connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about . If you're ready to take a next step with a coach to help you intentionally grow and thrive as a leader , I'd be honored to help you . Just go to catalyticleadershipnet to book a call with me . Stay tuned for our next episode next week . Until then , as always , leaders choose to be catalytic .

Speaker 1 43:46

Thanks for listening to Catalytic Leadership with Dr William Attaway . Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode . Want more ? Go to catalyticleadershipnet .