910 Julie Perkins:

Melinda Wittstock:

Coming up on Wings of Inspired Business:

Julie Perkins:

You didn’t start a business to be miserable and do a lot of things you didn’t want to do. You did it because you wanted to do something better. So, what position in your company do you want to take and why do you want to be there? You have to take them on this journey of redundancy reposition, redundancy, reposition, Where are you living your values the most? Where are you living the values in the other roles of your life? We look at the values in all positions in their life and then work out where that sits with their business and then work out who they need and what they need to do in order to take that position. That’s when they go, okay, I am good at all the roles. I am living the best if I’m here. And that’s when they get their new set of wings to fly forward.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, are your wings ready to help you soar into the New Year? Entrepreneurial fatigue is a real thing, and all too often because we get overwhelmed and burned out trying to “do it all” rather than focus on our business and lives where there is most joy and alignment. Julie Perkins is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of WyseMinds, a coaching and mentoring business to help female founders get to the next level. Today, as we get ready to say goodbye to what didn’t work so well for us in 2024 and embrace the changes that will make all the difference in 2025, Julie shares her insights on leadership, team dynamics, and how to build cultures that support you, your values and your success with alignment and mutual trust.

Melinda Wittstock:

Hi, I’m Melinda Wittstock, and wishing you all my very best for a prosperous, happy and fulfilling New Year. Welcome to Wings of Inspired Business, where we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I’m all about paying it forward as a five-time serial entrepreneur, so I started this podcast to catalyze an ecosystem where women entrepreneurs mentor, promote, buy from, and invest in each other. Because together we’re stronger, and we all soar higher when we fly together and lift as we climb.

Melinda Wittstock:

Today we meet an inspiring entrepreneur who has made it her business to help other women succeed as entrepreneurs. Julie Perkins is an influential thought leader recognized for her keen perspective on leadership and team dynamics. Founder and CEO of the coaching and mentoring business WyseMinds, Julie shares some important insights you can leverage in 2025 to help you grow your business in alignment with your values and where you derive the most enjoyment in all areas of your life. If you’re stuck in the trap many women find themselves in, trying to do it all, stop and listen closely, because Julie shares important insights on how to focus only on what you love to do, and invest in building a team to do the rest. We also talk about what it takes to build and lead a team aligned in mutual trust, so you can also be freed from the unsustainable burden of constant oversight.

Melinda Wittstock:

Julie will be here in a moment, and first, as we head into the New Year, I’m excited to share that I’m taking my mission to elevate women entrepreneurs to a whole new level as a venture partner in the new fund Zero Limits Capital, a fund devoted to investing in under-supported female founders. We’re looking for seed stage companies with highly scalable solutions and sustainable social impact missions transforming industries across health and FemTech, to education, climate, media, fintech and beyond. I’ll have more to share soon, but if you think you’re a good fit, please follow and tag me on Bluesky at melindawittstock.bsky.social.

Melinda Wittstock:

Entrepreneurship is hard. If it were easy, everyone would do it. That’s why it’s important to realize that any hurdles or challenges you’re facing are simply part of your growth. The stumbles, frustrations and failures are actually opportunities to learn. And if you’re like most entrepreneurs, you need mentoring and coaching along the way.

Melinda Wittstock:

Julie Perkins founded WyseMinds to help founders along their journey, and today she shares her insights on everything from how to overcome fears of failure, even fears of success, to how to reignite your passion if you feel stuck, isolated or simply burned out. A big part of what holds many early-stage entrepreneurs back is not asking for help early enough – whether by building a team or seeking mentorship. Julie shares her insights about what it takes to grow your leadership skills, how and when to step back to let others shine, and the importance of building trust in your team and avoid micromanagement. We talk about the importance of creating a team culture rooted in alignment and mutual trust, empowering team members to take initiative and solve problems independently. This approach not only fosters a more proactive and self-sufficient workforce but also scales more efficiently, freeing you from an even longer to-do list of constant oversight.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, let’s get a start on a successful new year for your business by putting on our wings with the inspiring Julie Perkins and be sure to download the podcast app Podopolo so we can keep the conversation going after the episode.

[INTERVIEW]

Melinda Wittstock:

Julie, welcome to Wings.

Julie Perkins:

Well, thank you very much for having me. I’m looking forward to this conversation.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, you’re doing a lot of good work for women entrepreneurs who, you know, can get stuck, along the journey. Tell me a little bit about what you think is the biggest block for women.

Julie Perkins:

It’s the number one question, one that we try and unfold with the entrepreneurs, because I experienced it myself. It was my failure. And that biggest reason is that we really start to grow our businesses around us rather than sort of grow with our business. We, as our businesses grow, we build them around us. And as we know, the growth of businesses come in a series of waves, but what we do is hold too tight, and then we kind of get stuck. We become the center of everything. And what our business needs is us to have that space to lead it. And I think that really was.

Julie Perkins:

When I was opening a big brand in Europe, was my greatest learning moment. And, you know, it really was the basis of my story. And I was sort of sat at 3am in the morning with the world on my shoulders thinking, what more can I do? And ultimately I learned the point, which was, no, Judy, you have to be doing less. And, you know, what I began to do there, and I will do it now, is to make yourself redundant on a continual basis to keep you as the founder moving. So, I think the biggest point is to release yourself from the business. Have you got space between you and your business space? To look upon it rather than be in it, I think would be number one.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s a tricky thing to do because I suppose there’s like a real emotional component to that, right? This idea that somehow you have to be doing everything or controlling everything. Men don’t have that so much. What do you think the difference is? Why do you think women fall into that trap more than men?

Julie Perkins:

Yes, indeed. I mean, it’s all to do with the traits of ourselves, in my viewpoint. And, you know, women have this beautiful trait of gathering people, gathering people around them in order to achieve something. They have this broader aspect of how they look at life, their responsibilities and responsibilities to the people that they’re also gathering. And I think under pressure, what we do is we hold tighter to that picture. Whereas the more masculine trait is to sort of take that singular viewpoint and plow quickly forward. And I think that’s a really important thing to undo, is if we have space between us and our business, we can take that time to look upon it, rather than this gathering and holding tight this natural trait that we have to control that outcome. I think that’s really super important and a big difference with a lot of the traits of how we lead, and especially in young entrepreneurs, which is mostly who I work with, where they haven’t had so much of that life experience.

Julie Perkins:

You know, their passion has taken them this far, and they’ve achieved quite a lot by the time they get to me. And that ability or understanding how they have to let go is a really big journey for them. So, it’s really important to be guided through that so that they can let go in the right way. You know, people say I need to delegate more. No, that’s not so much of the case. It’s not a fact of delegation. It’s about putting yourself in a position that you trust the people that are around you, trust that situation, that you can align and work together in unity. That gives you the trust to delegate.

Julie Perkins:

And that’s a very important step to begin with, that we work with, especially with young women entrepreneurs who we work a lot with at Wyse Minds.

Melinda Wittstock:

You know, that’s a really interesting and perhaps subtle difference for people. I mean, because delegation implies that you’re giving someone something to do, but then you’ve got to manage or worse, micromanage that to the result you want, rather than, as you mentioned, trust. If you are recruiting and hiring and building the right team culture and there’s alignment, it sets other people up to take a lot more initiative, spot issues and come up with solutions on their own without you having to be, you know, like, doing everything and managing every. You know, just being on top of everything all the time, which. Which really is impossible at scale.

Julie Perkins:

Absolutely, absolutely. We’ll sort of just. I’m a very open person when I’m working with guys. I said nobody was born to do your to do list.

Julie Perkins:

So, you need to create a unified picture that everybody belongs to in some way or form with their values, mapping them onto your values as a company. A clear purpose. And the power above everything is the power of a vision. Because your job as a founder ultimately is to inspire people on that journey with you to create that change picture that you want to make. It doesn’t all have to be change in the world, but just making that difference. And one of the challenges is, of course, when you’re first starting, it’s super exciting. It’s passion, and everyone’s there because it’s really positive energy and they think they’re Going to be part of something that’s going to make a real difference. But after a while, when you’re trying to get onto those new growth waves, the business is asking from something different from you as a founder. So, you have to understand, how can I achieve that leadership? That how can I take this amazing group of people with me without kind of being passionate and emotional about it? And this is this very important part where we’re taking passion into a clearly defined purpose, values and vision. And this is part of this very first step which we take young entrepreneurs on. How do you take what you’re really passionate about and make it something that other people can be a part of, can contribute? You know, people don’t always follow, you know, a singular person, you know, it’s a very dangerous situation to be in. They want to follow and be inspired by making a difference and meaning.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. So, what’s the big idea?

Melinda Wittstock:

The mission and, you know, and also the vision and the values that people. They want to belong to something that’s bigger than themselves. And just following blindly like a founder who, you know, I mean, because often we can have as founders, you know, really an amazing vision, but where we can fall into a trap is thinking that we have to dictate the how. It’s really about the why and casting the vision, because there’s so many different pathways to get to that result, and we all have blind spots as well. This comes back to control. And the root of what makes people think they have to control everything, is it really, at the end of the day, just fear.

Julie Perkins:

Ultimately, I think that’s the core of everything, is the fear that you’re handing something over to somebody else to do that you could do better. Could they do it as well as you? But this is where I sort of work with the founders to sort of say, look at your journey of your business. It’s like the journey of anything that grows and each part of that growing. I know the analogy of the child and growing up the adult is that is often used with businesses. You have to be that different founder at each stage. It’s asking something different from you. So, you have to learn to lead in a different way. And that’s where space comes in.

Julie Perkins:

And where you can unify is values, is the way that you look upon the problem, the vision. And that brings out the best in everybody. Because you’re not sort of looking at tasks you’re saying this is the vision that we’ve got to do, and this is our unique positioning with our values. How can we make that happen? And that’s very important.

Melinda Wittstock:

Values are really, really critical because when you’re building a team, if you have alignment on those values, you can really decide who’s the right, who are the right team members. But also, in terms of the management, is this decision consist with these values, yes or no? So, if you say that, say innovation is one of your highest values, what does that actually mean? To operationalize that value? You have to set people up to be safe to fail as long as they’re learning from the failure, because that’s integral to innovation, for instance. So that kind of mindset. But there’s something else that you said though too is, and this is, this is so important that the founder grows from the time.

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s an idea where you are kind of doing everything right. So that early stage like you are, and then you have to transition to letting go. So that’s that transitional piece where you’re growing, where like you’re suddenly, you’re recruiting, suddenly you’re concerned about like team culture, suddenly you have management responsibilities. Suddenly, you know, you have an HR per. You know what I mean? It’s a very different role. And a lot of people come into entrepreneurship having mastered something as an individual doer and all of a sudden that’s, that’s not them anymore. So, it involves a big kind of transition even in terms of your identity and your ability to grow. So, take me through that process of how you work with your clients, right, who are, you know, early, I guess, early-stage entrepreneurs.

Julie Perkins:

I think you’ve beautifully summed it up and given the best introduction to it, Melinda. You know, it’s about that change of role that you take. And you know, we spend a lot of time not looking at task or, you know, capabilities of what you do or the skill, but actually ensure that the founder is aligned with what they’re doing and they’re in the best position. We always sort of say, you didn’t start a business to be miserable and do a lot of things you didn’t want to do. You did it because you wanted to do something better. So, what position in your company do you want to take and why do you want to be there? How does it help you live the values for being there. Because entrepreneurs love doing. They love doing, but they love doing what they love to do.

Julie Perkins:

So, you have to take them on this journey of redundancy reposition, redundancy, reposition, and we get them to say, what’s that? Where are you living your values the most? But also, where are you living the values in the other roles of your life? I mean, that’s one of the big things with women. We look at all of the roles of our life, trying to find that balance between everything. We look at the values in all positions in their life and then work out where that sits with their business and then work out who they need and what they need to do in order to take that position. And that is, I suppose, you know, the beautiful name of your Wings. You know, that’s when they go, okay, I am good at all the roles. I can be good. I am living the best if I’m here. And that’s when they get their new set of wings to fly forward.

Julie Perkins:

And I think that’s so super, super important. That step is when they really go, yep, I’m in a new position. I can see it and I can feel it again. It’s so important.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yes, it really is. And of course, when you’re helping people to grow, there’s. there can be resistance. You know, like, we want to, but we kind of, like, subconsciously don’t. How do you walk through that with people? And. And what are some of the kind of evidence of resistance that you have to deal with?

Julie Perkins:

Yeah, I think when everybody wants to grow and then you think, oh, my gosh, if I grow, will I still see my friends? Will I still be this amazing person, Mother, friend, you know, daughter, whatever? And that’s why we look at them first and all the different roles in their life to make sure that they’re, you know, said, you’ve only got one set of Values, you’re putting them in all of the areas. So, they’re very comfortable with all areas of their life. The next step is very important, which you’re absolutely right when you say people want to grow and then they panic, or they fear. We get them to actually define what is growth to you. So, we get them to actually define that picture and then break it down 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 3 year on the whole, or however they want to do it, because they need to own it. And once they own it, it can really start to unfold. But no one ever takes that time to say what growth is. We all get enveloped with these big headlines.

Julie Perkins:

You know, I fell asleep last night, made 76 million in my sleep. And that really overwhelms people. So, we kind of break it down. It’s a series of waves, step by step. You know, companies didn’t come what they. You know, what they are today overnight. So actually, getting them to map it out in small steps and then breaking it down. What do I need at each stage is a really important spec to do.

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Melinda Wittstock:

And we’re back with Julie Perkins, founder and CEO of WyseMinds.

[INTERVIEW CONTINUES]

Julie Perkins:

You know, one of the examples, One of the amazing women running a successful business now, she said, when I first met her, “I was offered last week €100,000 to put into my business. And I said no.” Well, I tried to be patient, of course. I said, why’d you say no? She said, “I didn’t know where to spend it.”

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, my God, that’s just breaking my heart. Like, what? No, never turn down. Oh, my God.

Julie Perkins:

It goes back to the word of fear. And actually, when you map it out, she did go on to take it, but she mapped it out. This is what I need. This is what I need. This is what it’s going to cost me. This is what I need to do. And once we can break down that fear into a pathway that we write, then it starts. We own it still, and it’s not.

Julie Perkins:

We can see it, we can feel it, and we can make it happen. And the most important thing for young women founders is always to love what you do and do what you love. You know, that’s that path. And when you write your own growth path, how it’s going to look, it starts to really come alive.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, I think we invent our own glass ceilings, right? I mean, I’ll bring a perspective to the table. I’ve recently become a venture partner of a fund where we look at seed stage companies and and women founders. They tend to return more on capital, just do better with every dollar invested. Like all the stats bear this out and yet women only get about 2% of the venture capital. So, this fund is meant to change that. I sit through a lot of pitches and one of the things that I find myself saying to so many women is their projections tend to be lower than, than, than male projections.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, it becomes less interesting to a VC. So, I find myself saying things like, well, how can you do better than that? Like because they’re like, oh man, like we’re so excited, we might make $2 million next year. And I say things like well, what would you have to do to make 10? Right?

Julie Perkins:

Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

And it’s sort of like they’re not thinking that way. Like they, they almost can’t imagine that it’s possible. And so, if you’re constrained in your own thinking about what’s possible, there’s no way you can get there. So that’s like part of the issue is how can women play a bigger game or imagine something more for their business than, than they’re probably comfortable with. Because a lot of women create great small businesses. Nothing wrong with that. And there’s so much more potential. Do you think women artificially or unnecessarily restrict themselves from how big or transformational their businesses can actually become?

Julie Perkins:

I think they do just that. I think it, it’s such a great little story there, you know, that you’ve told in terms of what you experience because you know, go back two steps before they’re in your office. Let’s say, you know, they’re thinking very small, and they are using when they’re describing their company. I so many times I, and what they do from a very early stage is put themselves on that pathway. And that’s what I said right at the beginning about trying to remove them from that pathway and give them space. Because then they often don’t make the problem big enough. And so, for example, they, you know, they, you know, when we go back to the vision, they don’t make the vision big enough.

Julie Perkins:

Because they think who am I to save, you know, material loss in the world? Who? And I, and I say, well, no, X and X, you probably aren’t those people, but you could inspire whole great group of people to do that. You don’t have to own your business forever. You have to just make that idea come alive enough for maybe somebody else to take it on board or somebody else to come in and to, you know, take it forward. Your job as a founder is to inspire that journey path and, you know, to get off to a really good start and to make sure that it’s clear in those early stages. But once they know it comes in waves and they can break it down. You know, we always say, I actually, I do like a graduation for them, and I put their vision and purpose on a sort of graduation certificate, and I give it to them to put on their wall or send it to them. I said, don’t take that off the wall because that’s the vision of change. You can’t, you know, that’s where you’re going.

Julie Perkins:

And I think sometimes we think, oh, I can’t do it. No, you’re right, you can’t.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, exactly. Because I think if, I mean, so say in this one example where someone is saying, okay, like, it’ll be an amazing year, I can make $2 million next year. What would it take to make 10? Well, what it’s going to take to make 10 is that, no, you don’t have, you don’t have to be doing everything yourself. I mean, it means that you need to understand leverage. You obviously need to hire people, but you need to hire them not just to do something, but to actually return something on the dollar that you’ve invested in them by hiring them. If you invest in your marketing or your sales or like adding a layer of technology to your company that, you know, makes it more efficient or whatever… That requires actually the hiring people.

Julie Perkins:

Absolutely.

Melinda Wittstock:

A lot of women tend to hire too late. Do you, do you have that issue, like where women get to the point where they’re completely overwhelmed and then they don’t even have time to actually hire anybody? That’s just like, oh my God, that’s another thing I have to do.

Julie Perkins:

Absolutely. I think that that’s the point for sure. But there’s a point even before that where we to work and on them forward projecting. And that’s what I mean about that model, to take it one step at a time. Because they said, yeah, Julie, it’s all good and well, you’re putting me in this new position in the company, but who’s going to do what I’m doing now? And I said, but that’s what a strategic plan does. That’s what we do by saying, this is where you want to be, this is where the company needs to be. Then we work back to say how you’re going to get there and how much it’s going to cost you and how do we start budgeting for that and to get them to think beyond today. And that is a very critical point to be.

Julie Perkins:

Quite often we often start with just very, very small little steps with that and to get them used to it. I said, how much do you cost in a day? And they say, well, I cost nothing because half of them are working for free when they’re on my doorstep. I said, but so we start with, you know, that profit first mentality, giving them a salary, getting them to pay themselves even five euros and trying to get them to move forward so that they can put value on themselves, move themselves out of their current position to bring the right people to fill that so that everybody’s positioned for growth. And that’s a big transfer. Trying to think from this moment today to tomorrow. And you know, I always remember one of the entrepreneurs said to me, she summed it up perfectly. She said, yes, but as long as it’s just me and a few others I borrow, my dream is mine. And when I’ve got to actually tell somebody else, you know, am I being judged? Am I being, you know, are people talking about whether I can do it or not? So, there is that fear about what society thinks or what others think.

Julie Perkins:

And I think that’s a really important thing to address in early stage as well.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, tell me a little bit about how you came to create Wise Minds, Julie. You were pretty integral in your family business. What you were doing in it. In it, and then we’ll get into what you learned along the way that led you to WyseMinds.

Julie Perkins:

Yeah, I mean, we were. Well, I’m born into a very high paced entrepreneurial family. So, you know, business, life, family, everything is one big bundle as entrepreneur families are. I was very used to sort of business being in the house and vice versa. I worked very young in that business and then after university I went to work full time and then took the brand into northern Europe, into the Netherlands. And I think when we first opened up, it was going very fast. It was like a startup. We hadn’t opened internationally, outside the mothership of the UK.

Julie Perkins:

And we were learning, and we had to learn fast and so did I. And it started to go well and then we were growing fast in the middle of the Great Recession of 2008 and 9 and it was chugging. And on paper this brand should have been amazing during a recession, but we were chugging and I was sat out in the garden, as I said, hands in the air as if to say, please, can someone give me the answer to what I have to do? And in fact what I had to do was to make myself redundant and to make myself redundant out of the company, to put myself back in at something that brought out the best of me and without, you know, under pressure, holding so tight because I thought that was the way I couldn’t ask anyone to work as hard as I did because it was my company and I must do more. But of course, it doesn’t give the space for others to be the best they could be. So, I did just that, made myself redundant and did what I loved again, which was the front of house, growing the brand. And that year we became market leader in the, in the Netherlands just by moving out and because, oh, that’s not true, trust me, I’m being very open with that. It helped every. We had amazing people, but they couldn’t breathe.

Julie Perkins:

And once everybody could deliver and we unified back, we retrained, we closed all of our stores, retrained on purpose, values and vision. And we had one unified measure, and we went off as targets. We never did that again. And we had one measure which was the likelihood to return to us in two years. And that was something that all 1200 people shared. And that was the year we became market leader, and the growth was huge, and it was amazing. Just basically because I left.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So, when you come from an entrepreneurial family, like I have an entrepreneurial family background as well, and your thinking is automatically sort of different. Like if you see your parents, relatives on that kind of entrepreneurial up and down, it’s just sort of, it becomes sort of integral to just your being and how you think, right? I think about our school systems and, and, and such and socialization is really aimed at turning people into good employees. So, it requires quite a, a mind shift if you haven’t come from that background.

Julie Perkins:

It’s a very good point. I mean, I have stories. I remember me and my parents and my siblings hiding behind the sofa when the bank manager was walking up the driveway. You know, it was, you know, it’s like there was like going, don’t worry, it won’t be for much longer. And you know, it was, it was an adventure. I don’t know what I thought, you know, but it was, you know, those sorts of stories and that’s, those are difficult, you know, when some, when an entrepreneur is saying, I’m struggling, you know, you can’t say, well, don’t worry, it all sort itself out. So, we work very hard with them on financial mantras and budgeting very early, you know, to get them thinking all stages. They have control over that journey and that it is tough.

Julie Perkins:

And especially with some of the big sustainable brands that I’m working with to grow, there is a longer Runway. No matter how much we want to save the world, it is a longer Runway. So having that vision, purpose and values and really believing in it is sometimes the only thing they own. And that’s why we work very much with profit first, to make sure they’re paying themselves something, Even if it’s €10, €15, €20 or dollars or sterling, because that worth, you’ve got to get it in from a very, very early stage. And the vision, you know, because sometimes, as you know, being the five times entrepreneur, the only thing that you’ve got is a vision and a belief.

Melinda Wittstock:

And the worst thing that can happen is that you run out of cash, right? If you haven’t, if you haven’t paid yourself or at least noted down what the company owes you, like maybe you’re, you’re earning, like, but you may not actually choose to pay yourself, but it should be in the balance sheet, right? And you should know the value that you’re contributing to the business. So, there’s that aspect of your own personal finance in, in all of this. But also, another point that you said in terms of the runway, it, it, everything takes longer than you think it’s going to take. This has been one of my most profound lessons because you have this vision in your mind of how it’s all going to go. And of course you don’t anticipate all the things that you can’t control. Something happens in the economy or like there’s just some new competitor out of the blue, or just something goes wrong, you get a lawsuit. I don’t know, like a million things can happen, right, that you haven’t put in your plan because, you know, you couldn’t imagine that happening.

Melinda Wittstock:

But it’s tricky because it’s, it’s how to plan for the things that are unanticipated, which, which are almost like, you know that there are going to be things that come around and hit you. You just don’t know what they are yet. So how to balance that with not becoming too risk adverse either and failing to invest in your business.

Julie Perkins:

It’s a really tight balance. And you know, we talk a lot about entrepreneur resilience and it’s an acceptance that it is a roller coaster. But this is why we say to the founders, you really own your journey. And that resilience and how you face external forces is very, very important to know how to do. And we have this thing called the Powerball which we say, how inflated is your Powerball? It’s actually a very important thing about alignment of four key areas, customer, purpose, team, and how you work. And we have this program that goes around it and we’re saying, if it is inflated, that is what’s going to help you power through a lot of these external forces. If there are curveballs that come in, we actually give them a process about how to sit back, sit, think, values, vision. We actually go back up to the vision to remind themselves of why they’re doing it in the first place.

Julie Perkins:

To kind of build that power to come back down and say, right, what is that best way that I’m dealing with that curveball? Because it’s very important. They’re not being reactive quite often because sometimes there are the unpredictable things. It is a roller coaster. And it doesn’t matter if your business, I mean, Specsavers is 40 years old this year. There are curveballs all the time. It’s about, you got more people to be resilient with, to be fair. But, but it’s still the same process. You still have to be able to understand the process of why you’re doing it, the vision.

Julie Perkins:

And then how do you face the problem that’s come in unexpectedly?

Melinda Wittstock:

So, when you’re working with people, you, you start to think about all the different things at different stages of the business.

Melinda Wittstock:

Especially like before that time where you’ve achieved, you know, product market fit. Okay, so you built a product or a service, but you don’t really know your pricing yet. You’re still sort of testing things out. You’re not quite ready to double down and scale something because it’s just there’s more that you don’t know than you do. Talk to me about planning in that context. How do you help people through that particular stage of the business?

Julie Perkins:

Well, first of all, the acceptance that what we do is we try and work out which growth wave they’re on, whereabouts that they are and that knowledge and how aligned they still are to purpose is very, very important. Because if you misalign to purpose, whether it’s your customer gets knocked out from the golden thread or your team, you’re recruiting wrong or you’re working in the wrong way, the first thing we do with them is we not clear them out. We have a very expression which is just shake the tree of what it is. We liken it to Mount Everest, which is the clearest way of describing. And if you’re at Camp 4 and you’re trying to get to the summit, if you haven’t let go of stuff at Camp 4, you’re climbing too heavy. So, what we do is we take them back down and re and relook at whether purpose, customer, who you’re doing it for, who you’re doing it with, is light enough and lean enough to climb up onto that next wave. So basically, we have a huge clear out and then once we’ve done that, then we start, begin to plan how do you get to that next stage of your vision? And we look at three capabilities, we don’t look at all of them. We look at what’s the organizational structure that’s supporting you once you’re aligned, your value creation.

Julie Perkins:

Quite often they’ve over engineered their product so we un-engineer it. I don’t know what the word is for that. Sorry. And then lastly we look at how they make decisions in that business. And quite often we work on terms of if they’re at a certain growth stage and they’re still the founder is the person making all the decisions. We work aligning that back up to the growth wave that they’re in. And then we begin to plan in terms of strategic planning because a lot of them haven’t looked into the future. How do you break a vision down into 6-month chunks, 3-month chunks? How do you create a budget? So that’s the end result.

Julie Perkins:

But first of all, we ensure that they’re still aligned to purpose, vision, values. What do they have to do? Why are they heavy? What are they carrying with them? And then we realign how the company works, organizational structure, will they create value and how are decisions made? Because quite often it’s still with the founder, which is quite dangerous.

Julie Perkins:

I think the main point of me is to take advice when you’re trying to get onto a next growth wave, even if it’s mentoring. I’m not selling myself here. It’s quite often the biggest relief for a founder is finding out that the way they feel isn’t their fault. And that is a huge thing because businesses grow in certain patterns and quite often that founder is exhausted because they’re fighting the natural pattern of growth. So quite often if they actually take advice, they can be told that you go, oh my goodness, it’s not me then. No, it’s not you. You’re in exactly the right place.

Julie Perkins:

You should be kind of, you know, feeling awkward because your business is talking to you. That’s the most important thing.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, 100%. So, Julie, I want to make sure that women who are listening to the show that need help. Because we all need coaches, we all need mentors. Right? Like we, and, and we need different ones at different stages of our business and whatnot. But like, for any. Anyone listening that this is really resonating. How do you work with people?

Melinda Wittstock:

Tell, tell me about your program.

Julie Perkins:

Our program is all online, but it’s a mixture. We believe that founders know all the answers once they’re released. From their certain situation so they can call upon us as their guides. So, we do it the other way around. They work online and if they get stuck or they need that certain help and assistance, they can book an appointment with us as their guides. But the most important thing is we start off with purpose alignment of those four key growth areas. Who does it suit? It’s those people that just feel struggle.

Julie Perkins:

They feel they’re stuck in their business and they’re stuttering so often very early stage and they’re trying to work out. I need to get onto that growth wave. But I feel if I don’t get a new hit of excitement, I might give up. Those are the people that we can help is to say you’re in exactly the right place that you should be. And if we can alter a few things, we can make a more seamless path for you to continue your journey. So, it’s kind of more is don’t go into early maturity quite yet. You still love your business. It’s just shouting at you at this moment.

Julie Perkins:

And if we can align stuff, we can create more seamless path that you can actually lead that business back again.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yes, 100%. And so, what’s the best way for people to find you, Julie, and get in touch with you and see if it’s a good fit?

Julie Perkins:

Yeah, well, our website’s wyseminds.com and it’s wise with a why. So, they can look us up on there and our programs there. We’ve got an amazing free introductory offer because my mission in life is I never want to lose great ideas ever. And even if you did that free introductory offer and we never saw you again, which would obviously break my heart, but you can still gain a lot from getting your story straight and getting yourself back on that path just with that as an offer. It’s a good starting point. But you can read other stories there of other entrepreneurs that have been already with us.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, I’ll have all of that in the show notes for everybody as well. Julie, thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us today.

Julie Perkins:

Thank you so much for having me. Melinda. Really loved our conversation.

[INTERVIEW ENDS]

Melinda Wittstock:

Julie Perkins is the founder and CEO of the mentoring and coaching company WyseMinds.

Melinda Wittstock:

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Melinda Wittstock:

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