The Entrepreneur's Blueprint

52. How Scott Woods Built a Consulting Business Entirely on Relationships

Scott Woods is back. If you caught his first appearance on the show, you already know the depth he brings. This time, we got into the operational and spiritual realities of running a values-driven consulting business for over a decade, including the stuff most business owners never talk about out loud.   Scott leads Advocatus Consulting and Silverback Ventures, where he helps companies unlock growth through operational clarity, strong culture, and financial health. He has over 30 years of C-suite experience, has mentored more than 100 students through Clemson University's College of Business, and speaks regularly to entrepreneurs across the Southeast.   In this episode, we covered:   How Scott built a thriving consulting pipeline for 10 years with zero paid advertising. His entire model is built on referral relationships with trusted advisors, and he walks through exactly how he identifies the right partners, nurtures those relationships, and gives before he ever expects to receive.   What it actually looks like to fire a client. Scott ended an engagement when the client's values shifted from solving a problem to chasing profit at any cost. He talks about the financial fear of walking away from a significant revenue source and how God provided something better within two months, at double the rate.   The Conquering Everest framework. Scott's onboarding process uses a mountain climbing analogy to help business owners identify the problem they exist to solve, build backward from that destination, and use their core values as the guardrails that keep them on the path even when obstacles appear.   Ikigai. The ancient Japanese concept that translates to "reason for being." Scott breaks down what it means for founders and how it applies directly to building a business with clarity and purpose, not just revenue.   What founders are getting wrong right now. With AI disruption and economic uncertainty pulling attention in every direction, Scott has a direct message: lead with a servant's heart, take care of your people, and do not stop moving.   Episode Links Advocatus Consulting: www.advocatusconsulting.com [http://www.advocatusconsulting.com] Silverback Ventures: www.silverbackventures.org [http://www.silverbackventures.org] Scott Woods on LinkedIn: Scott Woods, Advocatus Consulting [https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-woods-9689b21/] Monarch COO: www.monarchcoo.com [http://www.monarchcoo.com] Courtney on Instagram: @monarchcoo Get your Roadmap here [monarchcoo.com/ops-health-check]

51. What It Looks Like to Have a Roadmap

Episode 51 is a solo episode, and Courtney is bringing you into something she is right in the middle of with a real client. The client has a loyal customer base, products people love, and years of hard work behind her. From the outside, the business looks fine. On the inside, she is constantly reacting, second-guessing decisions she used to make with conviction, and opening her laptop every morning without knowing what to do first. If that sounds familiar, this episode is for you. Courtney breaks down what that specific kind of operational exhaustion actually looks like, why it is not a passion problem or a work ethic problem, and what she did when she sat down with this client for a full Ops Health Check. The result was a 12-page prioritized roadmap that told this founder exactly where to focus in the next 90 days, and changed her whole posture as a leader. She also pulls from Luke 6:46-49, the parable of the two foundations, and connects it directly to what happens when founders chase revenue without building the operational foundation underneath it first. Courtney has three spots open in May to do this exact Ops Health Check for three founders at $397. Once those spots are filled, the price goes to $500. Episode Links Book your Ops Health Check: monarchcoo.com/ops-health-check Monarch COO website: www.monarchcoo.com Monarch COO on Instagram: @monarchcoo

50. Will & Courtney Kassner: The Best Day at Work Is the Day the Boss Stays Home

Will and Courtney Kassner founded Crew + Co in 2015 out of a passion for faith-based products — custom leather Bibles and family devotionals sold online. Ten years later, they're running a nine-person operation in a small town just outside of Memphis, Tennessee, and their building now includes a coffee shop that has become something of a community anchor. They sat down with me to talk about what it actually looks like to hand the business over to your team, what COVID growth taught them the hard way, and why Will describes their coffee shop as something closer to a church plant than a retail operation.   In this episode we cover:   * How Crew + Co grew from a purely online business into a brick-and-mortar coffee shop and what surprised them most operationally in year one * The hardest part of stepping back from daily operations when you've been the ones holding everything together * Why Will moved his computer home, and what changed when he did * The question they asked their employees that made them realize they were the bottleneck * How they think about preserving culture as the team takes on more ownership * What the COVID sales spike taught them about comparison, contentment, and calling * Working, building, and staying married to the same person through all of it * The seminary moment that became the through-line for everything they've built   Episode Links: Crew + Co: crewandco.com Crew + Co on Instagram: @crewandco Monarch COO: www.monarchcoo.com [http://www.monarchcoo.com] Monarch COO on Instagram: @monarchcoo   Monarch COO Inquiry Form [https://hello.dubsado.com/public/form/view/69b4af9e3ac23b55897ce038]

49. Revenue Is Not the Finish Line

Revenue is the loudest number in your business. It's on the Instagram graphic, it's what people ask about at conferences, and it feels like proof that what you're building is real. But it is one data point, and if it's the only one you're tracking with any emotional investment, you are missing most of the story.   In this solo episode, Courtney breaks down the four numbers that together actually tell you how your business is doing: revenue, expenses, profit, and cash flow. She explains why growing revenue can quietly grow you into a cash crisis, what your net profit margin is really telling you, and why the gap between profit and cash flow is where businesses go to die.   She also pulls from Luke 14:28, where Jesus uses a financial illustration to make a point about counting the cost before you build. Knowing your numbers and trusting God are not in conflict. The counting and the trusting happen at the same time.   Topics covered in this episode: * Why revenue going up does not mean your business is getting healthier * How to track operating expenses as a percentage of revenue * The difference between net profit margin and cash flow and why it matters * Two real-world scenarios where cash flow catches founders off guard * Three action steps to take this week   Episode Links Monarch COO: www.monarchcoo.com [http://www.monarchcoo.com] Courtney on Instagram: @monarchcoo

48. Jessi Bixler: Two Businesses, One Book, and Learning to Be Led

This episode is dropping during SAAM, and it could not be more fitting. Jessi Bixler is the author of The Story We Share, a multi-perspective memoir about surviving sexual assault, and she also runs Bixler Consulting, an eight-year-old marketing and AI-driven sales agency she built without full-time employees. This conversation covers how she built both, what she had to stop doing to protect her focus, and what she is actually asking God right now as she tries to steward it all.   In this episode, Courtney and Jessi cover:   How Jessi built Bixler Consulting to a point of stability using a contractor network instead of full-time employees, and why she made that call from the start. How her husband joining the business changed what she has capacity to focus on. The pivot into AI-driven lead recovery for blue-collar industries. Why The Story We Share is structured the way it is, giving secondary survivors their own chapters in their own words. What it meant to have conversations with family members she had never had before. How she is discerning where to spend her time between two businesses that serve completely different audiences. What leaders can do practically when someone on their team is carrying something they are not ready to say out loud. The practice of building from alignment instead of pressure, and what that actually looks like when you are a self-described doer.   Episode Links The Story We Share: www.thestoryweshare.com [http://www.thestoryweshare.com] The Story We Share on Facebook: www.facebook.com/thestorywesharebook [http://www.facebook.com/thestorywesharebook] Bixler Consulting: www.bixlerconsultingllc.com [http://www.bixlerconsultingllc.com] Monarch COO: www.monarchcoo.com [http://www.monarchcoo.com] Courtney on Instagram: @monarchcoo Monarch COO Inquiry Form [https://hello.dubsado.com/public/form/view/69b4af9e3ac23b55897ce038]