935 Judy Weber:

Wings of Inspired Business podcast EP935 – Host Melinda Wittstock Interviews Judy Weber

Melinda Wittstock:

Coming up on Wings of Inspired Business:

Judy Weber:

I use the acronym of B.O.L.D. to cultivate boldness. So, to be bold, to cultivate boldness, first, you need B, belief. You need to believe in you, your calling, and all that you’re capable of and not sway from that. Then O is obedience. For me, it’s obeying the Lord. Hey, I follow his wisdom. The L is leadership. Women, Melinda, need to unapologetically step up to your leadership position, because people that are looking for someone like you, they’re looking for a leader. And then D, that’s a trifecta. Diligence, discipline and determination. We need to be diligent. We need to dig in. We got to keep going. We got to do well. Second, discipline. We got to do what we don’t want to do when we don’t want to do it, because that’s the way to succeed. And finally, determination. That idea that there is no plan B and nothing is going to stop me.

Melinda Wittstock:

Entrepreneurial success comes to the boldest of vision, boldness of execution, and boldness of determination, so why not dare to be bold. Judy Weber is a successful serial entrepreneur, former trial lawyer, and a business coach to women of faith. So today we break down all the components of her BOLD acronym, the role of faith in business, and what success in the courtroom can tell us about success in the boardroom.

Melinda Wittstock:

Hi, I’m Melinda Wittstock and 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 serial entrepreneur who successfully reinvented herself to build businesses across marketing, real estate and interior design after a successful career as a trial attorney. Judy Weber is now a sought-after business coach, known for her strategic acumen, relentless drive to win, and faith-fueled approach to helping others to their “business miracles”. In just a moment we’re going to deep dive with Judy into what trial lawyers can teach entrepreneurs about strategizing, simplifying complex information, and leveraging great storytelling to scale a business—from building a dream team tied to revenue-building metrics to creating intentional offer suites.

Melinda Wittstock:

Judy will be here in a moment, and first:

[PROMO CREDIT]

We all know it: Women founders face challenges men don’t. Less funding.
More juggling. Constant second-guessing. And a world that tells us to “play nice” and not ask for too much. So. let’s stop playing small. If you’re feeling stuck right now — plateaued, under pressure, isolated, exhausted — I get it. It’s not easy leading a team or raising investment in a male-dominated space, navigating complex markets, AI disruption, economic headwinds all while balancing family, relationships, and your own wellbeing. But the problem isn’t you. It’s that you’re trying to do it all alone. That’s a recipe for burnout, not breakthroughs. That’s why I’m inviting you to join the Zero Limits Growth Club. It’s led by VC investor and serial entrepreneur Steve Little, who’s built 6 of his own businesses to 9-figure exits, helped 470+ companies more than 20X their value, and now also invests in female-founded businesses. I’ve known Steve for a decade, and what I’ve learned from him along the way has been nothing short of transformational. Here’s what you get: A 24-Point Value Growth Assessment—custom-crafted for your business to uncover hidden risks and unearth hidden opportunities along with a custom Growth Strategy—built just for you and the impact you want to have on the world – all with monthly masterminds with other mission-driven founders and CEOs, office hours for real-time decision-making, Steve’s personal guidance and access to bold supportive founders like you, plus allies and investors. So, if you’re waiting for the “perfect time” – spoiler:  it never comes. This is for women who are done with guesswork, isolation, and being underestimated. Because you deserve more than a seat at the table. You deserve to OWN the table. Check it out at growthclub.zerolimitsventures.com and hope to see you on the inside.

Melinda Wittstock:

Ever feel like you’re “winging it” from day-to-day, or worse, “white knuckling it”, never knowing what’s coming next and reacting to every new challenge? Reality is, that’s the trap most business owners and entrepreneurs fall into, before they learn how to think and act more strategically.

Melinda Wittstock:

Turns out there is a lot we can all learn from how trial attorney’s win cases that applies to how we can get better at closing sales, motivating a team, or raising investment capital. Watch any courtroom drama and you’ll see how the best lawyers blend storytelling with active listening, strategic questioning and an ability to make the complex simple—all skills any entrepreneur needs to grow and scale their business.

Melinda Wittstock:

Today Judy Weber takes us through her transformation from accomplished trial lawyer to serial entrepreneur to business coach. Judy teaches women with service businesses how to craft winning strategies, emphasizing the importance of planning and perseverance, as well as the role of faith in manifesting success. Host of the Bold Business Bold Faith podcast, Judy also shares how she’s overcome countless challenges including domestic violence and a life-threatening car crash—and how this led her to return to God as a non-denominational Christian and set her on a mission to focus on assisting Christian women business leaders. She says success is inevitable when one operates from a faith-based place of calm, confidence and certainty.

Melinda Wittstock:

Let’s put on our wings with the inspiring Judy Weber.

[INTERVIEW]

Melinda Wittstock:

Judy, welcome to Wings.

Judy Weber:

Thank you so much, Melinda. Excited to be here.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, your background is so varied and kind of rich in all the different things that you bring to helping people expand your businesses. And I want to start with your trial attorney years and how that specifically informed your success in entrepreneurship. What’s the link?

Judy Weber:

Yes. Oh, my goodness. I firmly believe that if there’s any lawyers out there looking to lead big law, entrepreneurship is going to be an easier transition for you because of the skills, you know, as a trial attorney, really any attorney. But I do think, in particular, trial attorney. Let’s start with the strategizing to win. If you have ever met a trial attorney, you know, we hate to lose, and so we strategize to win. And as a business coach, that’s something that I’m known for. I teach my clients how to strategize to win.

Judy Weber:

I don’t just teach them, hey, follow this framework. But I teach them how to think because it’s. Well, I’ll tell you this story, Melinda. This is so funny. The very first day that I walked into Villanova Law, the dean said, okay, you’re about to be handed the keys to the kingdom. And she said, I’m like, whoa, what does that mean? And she goes, you’re going to learn how to think here. And can I be really honest, Melinda? I’m like, wait, I’m going to be spending six figures to learn how to think? Like, what is. What am I here for? Like, this is insane, but it’s true.

Judy Weber:

Think. Thinking is the work that allows everything that you do to work the strategy. So that may sound subtle, and there are some nuances there, but what I find are too many business owners just winging it.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s very true. And you end up being driven by events in that case, and you don’t really have a clear plan. Now, sometimes external events are going to happen that take you off your plan, but then you have to be able to adapt and have the resilience to do that, but also the critical thinking skills to be able to do that as well. In other words, play to win.

Judy Weber:

Yes, play to win. Absolutely. And I’m just excited to say I am sure that every woman that’s listening here is super smart. And what I found after working with hundreds of clients over the last seven years as a business coach is that smart women have succeeded in many things in life by the seat of their pants. Because they’re sharp, they can think well on their Feet. But that is not sustainable to get you to seven figures in business, you just can’t wing it. That’s why we need that strategy.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So, I get that with a trial lawyer, you want to go in and you want to know. You need all the information at your fingertips to know what are all the scenarios, what are all the things that could happen. You’re representing a client in, like you. You’re being judged whether you win or not, you know, that case. So, you know, having that plan and strategizing to win. So totally get that. What’s the next thing?

Judy Weber:

Yeah, a couple things. I was a medical malpractice defense attorney, and so one of the skills that I honed that absolutely transitions into entrepreneurship is taking the complex and making it simple. Simple. You know, I had mountains of medical records to review and to make sense of. And thankfully, we had, you know, medical experts to help us simplify it. But if we don’t take what could feel hard and really beyond the brains of the people sitting in the jury or even the judge, then we’ll never win our case. And similarly, in business a lot of times, you know, we all work with experts, and so the experts can get into the details as they are looking to sell and even market their services.

Judy Weber:

And if we get into the weeds, if we talk expertise, you know, expert, like, legalese expertise, and we don’t really break it down to the simple and show our clients how absolutely doable it is to go from where they are now to where they want to go, you know, it’s not going to land.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, you have to really simplify and be able to tell a story, right? That allows your clients or customers to really see themselves in that solution. I found that’s true. Like whenever, you know, as a founder, say, you have a really exciting technology or this exciting thing and you built it, so you’re really excited to talk about all the cool things that it does. It’s such an easy trap to fall into the complexity in that sale because you’re. I mean, it. It’s exciting, all these things that it does. So, you’ve got this kind of builder mentality, but then transfer from that into actually being able to sell it. You really have to get into more simplicity and storytelling.

Judy Weber:

Yes. And that’s two different things there. I love that you said that on the simplicity. When it comes to sales, we can’t talk about all the things they get. And I’m thinking specifically about my coaches and consultants. Oh, you’re going to get this, you’re going to get that. They don’t care about that. It’s what they get out of what they get.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right.

Judy Weber:

So, you know, we have to simplify how that’s going to happen and also paint for them, as you said, the vivid picture of here’s your after. You’re not. You’re living in your before, but here’s this beautiful after, this possibility of after. And then the second thing is story. Story is how we connect, and story is how you are remembered. And so, as a trial attorney, which again, is similarly over into entrepreneurship, we. We have to take what could sound dry and boring and tell a story.

Judy Weber:

And that’s how we show them, not just tell them. You know, like we can say, I am the best. You know, I don’t know. I’m the best accountant out there. Well, that’s fine. Every accountant says that. What stories are you going to tell? I’m using that as an example. What stories are you going to tell? Client stories.

Judy Weber:

Your stories in order to make your right people, your audience waiting to find, you know, how are you going to bring them in? How are you going to draw them in? How are you going to speak to their experiences and be relatable? That’s. It’s ginormous.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So, I can see all these things in the courtroom, these three in particular. Is there anything else, anything else from your experience that wow, like, if I hadn’t had that, I wouldn’t have been nearly as good at all the businesses that I’ve built?

Judy Weber:

Yeah. I will say two things. First, expectant problem solving. Really what I find is that women, especially Christian women, they don’t want to sell. They almost feel like, ooh, selling is gross. Selling is pushy. And I’m like, wait a minute, wait a minute. 

Judy Weber:

Let’s change the frame on that. All selling is, is problem solving. You are, as I say, diagnosing what is the problem. Because sometimes our clients don’t realize their problem. They think it’s something else. So, we’ve gotten enlighten them on, on what’s going on. But we won’t be able to do that until we identify the problem and then, you know, proactively solve that for them. So that’s the next thing. And then the final thing is, is decision making. That is certain.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right? Because if you’re overthinking something or getting too into the weeds and into all the like, decisiveness is critical in business. Like just being an action, making a decision now might be the wrong Decision, but then, you know, being able to course correct. Make another decision. Right?

Judy Weber:

Yeah, yeah. And I, it’s so fun. I, I like to say that I don’t know that there’s any decision that’s wrong per se because to your point, entrepreneurship is all about the, the tweaking and the evaluating and then changing things. So, what I find, and this is not just in the earlier stage of business, but even those at the multi six figures getting closer to that seven figures, they, they doubt themselves. They like want to, oh, I want to make this perfect before I put it out. Wait, what’s perfect? Perfect doesn’t exist. We’ve got to take action. Put it out there and we’ll know if we’ve got it right.

Judy Weber:

Quote unquote, when things start converting, when our messaging, when our content starts converting and when we’re actually converting leads to sales.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. It’s to borrow on the trial bit. It is trial and error.

Judy Weber:

Oh, yes. Good.

Melinda Wittstock:

You know what I mean? Because entrepreneurship is great for learning personal humility because you know, you have these, you have these theories, you know, say a theory of the case. Okay. Like I’m solving this problem for this subset of people or these following avatars or whatever. And you know, you have to learn about them, you have to really understand their problem. You have to really and make sure that your solution fits. And a lot of entrepreneurs go into this with something like maybe they’ve solved something personally for themselves or they just have a theory that this would be a really cool thing to have and assuming that other people want to buy what they’ve created without really having done that deep work. Right. Or without having really listened to what’s, you know, going on. I imagine as a trial attorney you have to be a very good listener as well.

Judy Weber:

Yes, absolutely. You’ve got to be an active listener. Because as you are especially cross examining a witness, sometimes you’d be surprised what comes out of their mouth on the direct. And if you miss it, you miss an opportunity.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. So, this is true in so many things in life. Whether it’s, you know, winning a case, winning a sale, you know, getting product market fit. You know what I mean? It’s something that a lot of people miss. I remember I had a business coach, you know, who was telling me on, on sales calls, you know that, that the most effective sales call, like if you were doing a lot of the talking, you were probably losing, you know, 100%.

Judy Weber:

100%. I always like to say, you know, 70%, they should be talking. 30%, you’re talking, because they’re going to tell you what they want and what they need to buy. So, we’ve got to be listening.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. Oh, my goodness. Okay, so there’s so many things here. This is, this is fascinating. Anything else? Anything else that I’m, I’m, I’m missing about, you know, so I just, I just, I think of all the courtroom dramas that I’ve watched.

Judy Weber:

No, who doesn’t love a great courtroom movie or, or TV show? I love it. The one last thing I’ll say is, and it relates to sales, Melinda, is this idea of highlighting what you want and maybe minimizing what we know they don’t want. Right. So, going back to what I said earlier, we need to really listen to what the other person, the prospect, is saying on the call so that we can highlight and pull out from our services what would be, you know, a direct answer to what they’re telling you. And at the same time, we want to minimize what they don’t want. You know, so people want the easy button, let’s be honest, right? And they want the quicker path.

Judy Weber:

So, if we say, you know, some people brag, well, I’ve got 50 modules and 35 who knows what’s. And it’s like you just killed yourself there because…

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, yeah, because how many people want to sit there? Oh, my God, that’s so much work.

Judy Weber:

Yeah, for sure.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So, it’s again, benefit, benefit, benefit. But honing in on what is the specific thing? What about for people who don’t actually know what they want, like they have a problem. Say you’re, you’re selling business to business. Right. And maybe it’s like an enterprise sale or it’s just a business sale and the person thinks they really want or need something, but it’s actually having listened to them, it’s, it’s actually not the solution. Like, they, they, they either don’t know what they really want or, or they don’t know how to. They’re talking to you because they don’t actually know how to solve their own problem. And persuasiveness is going to be very important there too.

Judy Weber:

Yeah, I love it. This is something where I look at these things as mic drop moments and I don’t hesitate. I’m bold in that, and I encourage my clients to as well. And that is if people want to hire leaders, people want to hire experts. And so there’s a way to very tactfully, but yet forcefully, like, let them know you think it’s this, you think this is the problem, but it’s really that, you know, as an example for me, a lot of my clients come to me and they think if I, if I just had more leads, Jude, if I had more leads, I’d have more sales. And I just love to say, actually that’s not true and let me prove it to you. And then just to say really short, what I, what I show them is you have leads sitting in your current audience, whether it’s email, social, podcast, wherever it is, you have buyers there. And so, you think you need more of these potential buyers, but what you really need is you need to hone your sales skills.

Judy Weber:

And even before that, you’re messaging so you’re truly drawing in those people who are ready for change, ready to get that result they say they want.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. You know, it occurs to me another part of the whole trial lawyer thing is when you think, when you’re thinking of your selection of juries and in how you read people in terms of what are they likely to do or how are they likely to respond, I imagine a huge amount of work, you know, obviously goes into that and I could see that having some applicability, especially say if you are selling a product to a room of, of executives where no one ever got fired for saying no, right? You know, but you have a lot of different personalities to persuade and you don’t know the dynamics between them all. And it’s just like incredibly complex in that kind of situation. How does some of your trial law experience play into that scenario?

Judy Weber:

Yeah, I mean, it depends on so many different factors, but among them, before every meeting, B2B. Right. We need to get some information ahead of time so that we understand their problems even as they see it, and also the decision makers involved. So that’s a big miss that I find with so many that they go into a meeting blind and the better informed you are, even doing your own investigation on the company and different things there. And with the Internet, we’re able to do that in so many different ways. But we really need to come to the party, if you will, with as much of an understanding of how they’re thinking ahead of time. When you mentioned that, I was thinking how pivotal it is that we as entrepreneurs, as business owners, we get uber clarity on who our best client really is.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, 100%. Yeah. Like you picking your own jury.

Judy Weber:

Yeah. And, and, and we need to not apologize for saying, you know what, I work with these people, but not these people. Or you’re not quite ready for this. Let me. Let me refer you to somebody else who can help you better at that level. I mean, like I said, it’s this issue of boldness. The name of my podcast is Bold Business, Bold Faith, because bold is the only way that you’re going to make it in business, especially in this market. If you are timid, it ain’t going to work.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, boldness also connotes confidence. Right? So, you know, when you’re working with your clients, particularly women, I think it’s tricky for women to figure out how to be. I like that word. Bold, how to be that way, because I think we have a lot of fear around that. Like, are we going to be confused with the other B word, you know what I mean? Or like, you know, what’s assertive for a man, it’s sort of aggressive for a woman, and, you know, all these kinds of things. So, when you’re working with, you know, female CEOs and executives and entrepreneurs, how do you help them navigate that? I think there’s a lot of fear around that that stops women from being as bold as they can and should be.

Judy Weber:

Yeah, it is. It can be sticky for women, the way we’re conditioned. And, you know, I work with Christian women, so, you know, it’s like, oh, well, I need to be humble. Well, hang on a second. Humility. There is a quiet strength to that. And so, I came up with an acronym. I use the acronym of B.O.L.D. to cultivate boldness.

Judy Weber:

So, I want to briefly go through that. So. So to be bold, to cultivate boldness, first, you need B, belief. You need to believe in you, your calling, and all that you’re capable of and not sway from that. Then O is obedience. For me, it’s obeying the Lord. Hey, I follow his wisdom. The L is leadership.

Judy Weber:

Women, Melinda, need to unapologetically step up to your leadership position, because again, people that are looking for someone like you, they’re looking for a leader. And then D, that’s a trifecta. Diligence, discipline and determination. We need to be diligent. We need to dig in. We got to keep going. We got to do well. Second, discipline.

Judy Weber:

We got to do what we don’t want to do when we don’t want to do it, because that’s the way to succeed. And finally, determination. That idea that there is no plan B and nothing is going to stop me.

Melinda Wittstock:

100%, a recipe for success. That’s amazing. So, there’s so many things I want to talk to you about. Let’s pick up on the Christian angle, particularly the role of faith in business. We talk on this podcast a lot about things like mindset, you know, but also, also faith, you know, whatever your faith is, how does that help and what kind of role sort of in your own life and, and, and, and, and for other women and, and men who are approaching business from whether it’s a more moral or faith or just kind of connected to sort, I don’t know, whatever language we’re going to put around it, right?

Judy Weber:

Yep. I love this question. For me, as you look at as, as we would consider anybody, we admire those influencers in your space that we all know one thing’s in common, that faith they have. Faith is the number one determiner of success in business and in your career and anything. Why? Because it keeps you grounded. Faith. To me, in my work, faith is the business strategy. 

[PROMO CREDIT]

Eight years ago, I started this podcast because I wanted to help women succeed as entrepreneurs. Over the years, I’ve driven more than $10 million in sales to the women I’ve featured on this show, and this year I’ve taken my investment in female founders to a whole new level as a venture partner of the new firm Zero Limits Capital, where we’re dedicated to investing in highly scalable seed stage startups founded by women and diverse teams. We’re looking for mission-driven innovators with exciting new applications of AI, Blockchain and other emerging technologies that make a social and sustainable impact to change the world. If this is you, please take a moment and tell us about your opportunity at bit.ly/ZLCintake – that’s bit.dot.ly/ZLCintake – capital ZLC lowercase intake. 

Melinda Wittstock:

And we’re back with Judy Weber, serial entrepreneur, former trial lawyer, business coach and host of the podcast, Bold Business Bold Faith.

[INTERVIEW CONTINUES]

Judy Weber:

Because I always say success comes as a result of who you believe yourself to be. And so, for me, you know, as a Christ follower, like my Christ identity, I’m going to fully embrace that because in him, nothing is impossible. That’s huge, right? I understand not everybody here would be a Christian. There are different things that you believe in, but ultimately faith is what’s going to keep you going when things don’t appear to be working on, you know, your way. Because faith in Hebrews 11 is, you know, it’s the evidence of things not seen. So, we can’t change our minds.

Judy Weber:

I see this happen all the time. And I’ll give you this quick example. I see all the time women changing their minds, whether it’s about their offer, whether it’s about their marketing. If things in the natural don’t seem to be working there, all of a sudden, oh, it must be something wrong with my offer. Maybe I’ll change the price or, you know, maybe my marketing’s not right and they keep changing what they’re calling themselves. And so, it’s so unstable and uncertain. You’re, you’re killing yourself. And so there has to be that faith, that, that stability, that certainty in this is who I am, this is what I believe.

Judy Weber:

And if I have to stand alone, which by the way, is a very good thing, if I have to stand alone and say something that nobody else is saying, I am not going to waver from that.

Melinda Wittstock:

You know, the best entrepreneurs have that. And whether they’re active, practicing Christians or, or any other faith or wherever that derives from, very best have that. Because the best businesses are often innovating, I mean, they’re doing something different than has been done before. So, somebody has to lead and stand alone at some phase of that business. I mean, again, if it’s a truly innovative business, because sometimes you start, you know, something, especially game changing, and people around you think, oh, that’s crazy, that’ll never work, or what, like that’s, you know, what makes you think you can do that, you know, all that kind of stuff, right?

Judy Weber:

I totally agree. I totally agree. And in 2025, there, you just won’t survive. You’ll reach a plateau or God forbid, go out of business. If you are not polarizing in your marketing, if you are not being so clear who you’re for and who you’re not, and if you’re not provocative, if you’re, if you’re, if your content, wherever you’re putting it out, looks like everybody else’s. I encourage you this weekend, this week, this month, that you spend some time as I call power, thinking and saying, what is my position? How am I different than everybody else in my space? Because you need to unapologetically claim that corner of the market. That’s how I call it, your corner of the market. If you don’t claim it, you’re going to become a commodity.

Judy Weber:

And we know that’s a race to the bottom.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, this is really true. Gosh, very, very inspiring rich advice. Right? Because that differentiation, oh my God, there’s so many entrepreneurs that think, oh, my product is for everybody. And maybe one day you might be Google, but, you know, no one starts that way, right?

Judy Weber:

Well, if they do, they’re going to struggle. They’re going to struggle.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. Because maybe you have a vision where you can see all the ways and all the people that you can help over time. And you have this expansive vision, but at these earlier stages. Yeah. Getting very clear and focused and taking a stand. Now in our society, you mentioned 2025 and you think of the country and how divided it is and like even to the point where people have totally different information systems, not just totally different beliefs, but different facts, different ways. I mean, just in navigating that environment, just even the, the political side of things, or even the debate about DEI, like, are you Costco or are you Target? 

Melinda Wittstock:

No matter what your perspective is, it’s, it’s tougher on everybody. Because it’s, it’s difficult to know how to navigate that. Especially if you have a business that, you know, you know, you’re taking a stand on something like that. Like you believe in diverse workforce or whatever, or whatever it is you believe in doing, right?

Judy Weber:

Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, because, because I’m a Christian business coach, so if you don’t know Jesus Christ, you would hate my program because I point to him at every turn. And so, I would encourage everybody out there to not, not seek to offend. Right. But at the same time, not unapologetic. You know, don’t be apologetic about voicing your opinions, because my clients come to me and they say, Jude, I love how bold you are for Christ. I love how you speak your, you know, faith based and faith fueled opinions.

Judy Weber:

And so, I don’t mean to offend anybody who doesn’t know the Lord, but at the same time, I gotta be me. And that’s, that’s one thing I just wanted to emphasize here, Melinda, that we need to be ourselves. And again, with a kind heart, loving all, but drawing that, that best client and, and speaking to them in a way that they’re going to be like, oh my gosh, where has she been all my life? Where has he been all my life?

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. You know, and it’s so interesting because I think there are a lot of people, you know, I grew up Christian, you know, I’m Canadian, so I would call it Anglican, but I guess it’s Episcopalian, right? Faith has always been very personal to me and it’s always been a driving factor of my life. You know, I feel very close to God in that sense, but I’m not really very much an organized religion person.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So just speaking personally, but I really understand what you’re saying. It resonates with me.

Judy Weber:

Yeah. I mean, and that’s why we have to, again, in marketing, we have to do what comes, what comes very unnatural to women, which is take a side, be decisive. You know what I mean? Because this is what we’re doing. We’re being, we’re talking about being decisive and saying, I am going to be an excellent marketer and do what might feel uncomfortable because I know that is the quickest way to be able to serve the people I’m meant to serve.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So, when you’re, when you’re, I mean, I’m just curious about this. When you’re. There are so many different types of Christianity. There are so many different approaches to it, you know, like from the mega church, to say someone like me, you know, and, and all of that does that. Is that ever an issue for you in terms of like, which denominator, you know, how all that works.

Judy Weber:

Yeah, it’s so fun because I was raised a Lutheran and now, I consider myself, I am a staunch non-denominational person. I only go, I only attend really on the regular for myself, non- denominational churches because I’m all about, it’s Jesus in the Bible. I don’t want to add any other layers to it.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, thank you for saying that. 

Judy Weber:

Yeah, yeah. So, so an organized church and we see these and I don’t want to go into a side thing here, but really, it’s, it’s, it just breaks my heart to see men in the pulpit do ugly things, ungodly things. We’re all, we’re all human, we all fall down. But you know, when they have affairs and do other crazy stuff, it just, it just minimizes like to the world that doesn’t know Jesus, they’re like, well, I don’t want any of that if that’s the leader. So that’s really right.

Melinda Wittstock:

People see the hypocrisy in it and it pushes people away. And, it’s actually, you know, very sad. I mean, there’s a lot of, I guess, false prophets or whatever. But I like, I mean that, that whole Lutheran piece is that you have this personal connection, right?

Judy Weber:

See, well, that’s why I say I’m non-denominational. I know Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior. Hallelujah. And so, so to me, I don’t put any other layers on that.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right.

Judy Weber:

I do think it’s important to go to church. Although I’ll be honest, when I moved to Florida recently, it’s hard for me to find a church I can plug into that. So again, I’m not perfect. I’m not sitting in judgment. But my clients, I say that if you know Jesus Christ as Lord, you’re going to love this because he is going to be what drives you. I say you’re the CEO, but he’s the chairman of the board. Like, we execute after conversation with him on. Okay, Lord, help me to download.

Judy Weber:

He’s downloaded all of the frameworks that I have. He’s downloaded like everything that I, that I’m teaching my clients. So yeah, I don’t, I don’t say you must be this type of Christian or the other.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, what you’re talking about too is opening yourself up to divine inspiration. I mean, even if you approach this from a, I don’t know, field theory, our thoughts are all we’re all connected. Our thoughts are all connected. There’s this collective unconscious. I personally get downloads of inspiration.

Melinda Wittstock:

The best ideas, the best inspiration happens when, you know, I’m in nature. I’m not working quote, you know, air quotes around that, right? Where I’ve actually let myself be open to inspiration. Whether it’s coming from, if you believe in God, it’s coming from God, or it’s coming from Source, or it’s coming from somewhere; It’s not you.

Melinda Wittstock:

Sometimes I feel with my businesses and in my life. I’m just the instrument. 

Judy Weber:

I’m the vehicle, I’m the vessel.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. But creating those spaces, like, again, we talk about this a lot on this show is like how to create for an entrepreneur to create those quiet spaces to be able to receive or even open yourself up to actually be able to receive. And receiving is something generally that women have a lot of trouble with. Right. Even receiving a compliment.

Judy Weber:

And you know what’s fun? I mean, women, we’re the encouragers. We’re the helpers. We’re the servers, the empathetic people who always want to serve other people. And so, it almost feels guilty when we sit quietly and power thing, because I like to say, like, you know, like, we need to strategize. We need to, as you say, sit with the Lord and say, okay, God, what do you have for me? And you may not hear from him. And that’s okay.

Judy Weber:

So, we need to slow down. As I tell my clients who are looking to scale from 2, 3, 400,000 on up to the million, I said, the best thing you can do is slow down. Slow down to scale fast.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. Actually, that’s very important. So, Judy, this is a great segue into talking about what you do, which is help businesses scale. And there are so many challenges that come with scaling. So, let’s just break this down.

Melinda Wittstock:

What is the biggest one, do you think that entrepreneurs face when they’re at that point where people are buying their product and, you know, they’ve taken their idea, they have a business, and now it’s time to grow and scale? What are their biggest challenges?

Judy Weber:

Yeah, I will say number one, Melinda, is team. Your team will make or break you in business because as a solo entrepreneur, you can do a lot, but at some point, you’ll run out of hours, you run out of energy, you’ll run out of capacity. So, one of the primary things that I love working with clients on is building a team of revenue generators. And there’s so much into that. And I’d love to talk about this a little bit. We’ll go as deep as you like. But your team is not an expense when you approach it the right way. Your team, that is your profit source.

Judy Weber:

Because as I work with my clients, we need to make sure that every team member has KPIs, key performance indicators, and every single one of them drives revenue, whether directly or indirectly. So, I’ll take a breath there, because that’s a mouthful.

Melinda Wittstock:

No, but you’re absolutely right. Like, I think a lot of people look at hiring as, oh, man, I’m just increasing my payroll. It’s an expense. And they’re not looking at those people as an investment. And they’re hiring people to do something, but not to deliver a result, right? So having real clarity about who you need what result, and. And expressing clarity to them about what they’re actually aiming to do.

Melinda Wittstock:

Because a lot of people hire people, and the people on the team don’t really know what success is.

Judy Weber:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

Read the founder’s mind or something, you know?

Judy Weber:

Yeah. So true. I’ll give you a ready example. So many people have a social media manager, and they’re paying them thousands of dollars a month, which really, it doesn’t matter what you pay them, as long as what they bring to you is more than that. But what I find when I work with my clients, when they first start coming to me, they’re paying them thousands. And I’m like, okay, great. What are their KPIs, they’re like, what’s a KPI? And then they say, well, they, they, she posts, you know, two times a day and does five stories a day or whatever the case.

Judy Weber:

And I say, okay, that’s beautiful. To me, that is not a KPI. That is an expectation. So, a KPI is more like you’re going to drive X number of leads or get X number of downloads to my freebie, or generate X number of sales calls, whatever the case, that those specific things I mentioned, they’re KPI because they relate to revenue coming into the business, not tasks, but results.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. This is the, I think this is the, the biggest mistake that most businesses make. And so, when you’re working with a client, I mean, you’ve expressed this very, very clearly. What kind of pushback do you get? I mean, is it, is it tricky to really make that land?

Judy Weber:

Oh God, they love it. No, they’re like, oh my gosh, thank you for telling me that. You know, my payroll, which, depending on, you know, where they are in business, could be anywhere from 5,000 to 20 and $30,000 a month. And they’re like, you know, I’m generating great money, but why am I always feeling the crunch on the cash flow? Why do I always feel like my CEO pay isn’t even as much as I pay some of my team members? I’m like, well, wait, we’ve got to look at that. Because a lot of times as I evaluate their team, what I’m seeing is they’re way overpaying, especially in light of the lack of results. And they often have too many people on their team.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right, right. Yeah. Because we think, oh, we need someone to do this. I’m going to do that. Yeah, exactly. Okay. So, in building a team, there’s lots of things that can go wrong from, like, the selection of the people. Like, first of all, knowing who you need and knowing those KPIs, finding the right people and then onboarding them and giving them feedback.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, the role of a founder changes at a certain point. It started, it was just you, you were doing everything. And now you’ve got to relinquish a little bit of control. Like your role as a CEO really changes at a certain place in a company. And who you’re being and what you’re focused on necessarily has to change. There are all kinds of things that go wrong there because people want to have control and they can’t control everything anymore. They’ve got to Be able to trust in their team, all these sorts of things. So how do you help companies navigate walking through that? Because that, that’s where a lot of businesses go wrong.

Judy Weber:

Yeah, for sure. So here a couple things just piggybacking on finishing what we were just talking about, how I work with my clients is I take them through my dream team protocol because we don’t hire like by people by, by person per se, we hire by skill set. So often what I find is the admin person is doing things that are way above her pay scale, meaning she’s doing techie things. That’s really not her zone of genius. So, when you approach team in the right way, you’re hiring by like skill set, not by some general non-specific, ‘not customizable to you’ framework. You know, so that’s really important. But to your point, once you have your team, you’ve got to lead them and manage them well. And so, when there has to be a great system of onboarding.

Judy Weber:

I’m a big proponent of SOPs. One of the, when people come to me on my team, they’re like, I have never worked with a company that had SOPs so dialed in. But can I be really honest? I feel, I still feel like it’s messy and I remember the days when I didn’t have SOPs and I’m like, oh, just when I hear that word, it used to scare me. Like oh my gosh, what does that mean? You know. But sops, you just can’t overthink it. But that’s huge. But as I was saying, you need the onboarding system. How am I going to bring this person on? What am I going to present to her so that she knows what it looks like to succeed? And we have to, until we hire somebody else to, to manage the person which comes at a certain level.

Judy Weber:

Until you have that, if you’re earlier of hiring or you don’t have a right hand, then you need to be the one to set them up to win with the SOPs, with the check ins to say okay and end of day, for example, tell me what you did today briefly and tell me what you have questions about. Because we don’t want them to. We can’t let them fly solo right away. We need to guide them; we need to lead them. And again, when we’re CEOs and we’re thinking wait a minute, I just hired somebody so that they could do it, yes, but we have to make sure that they know how to do things your way before we give them carte Blanche, you know, right?

Melinda Wittstock:

This is very true. And also knowing your own skills as a CEO. So, some CEOs very, very, you know, visionary. And not necessarily great at the detail, right? You know, some may be really great on product, but not great on sales.

Melinda Wittstock:

There was a book I read years ago called Rocket Fuel essentially saying that every visionary CEO needs an integrator like, you know, you know, real operations person. That is very rare, that in one person. And so how do you navigate that? Because it’s kind of like knowing yourself, like, where is, where are you best placed and where do you need to fill in the gaps, like for yourself even as you’re building a team? Like, do you need a chief of staff? Do you need somebody else that’s really going to help you with this? Or an outside consultant? Like what. What do you personally need as a CEO to kind of go build that team correctly as you’re out there selling it and doing a million other things?

Judy Weber:

So good. I love this question and it is so timely because I just released today on the state of recording a 10 minute down and dirty video on my YouTube talking about why are you feeling overwhelmed and burned out even if you have a team? And one of the things I talk about in there is you need to hire first, not necessarily with an admin assistant, but you need to hire somebody with your weakness to take over your weakness. And to your point, Melinda, you nailed it. Most of the women that I’ve worked with, they are visionaries and they don’t lack for ideas. They’ve got ideas coming out of their ears. What they don’t have is this backend SOP operational expertise. So that’s what I find. You know, could be something that would be a great first position to hire someone that actually owns, as I say, they own that area.

Judy Weber:

I’m going to hire a director of ops; whatever you want to call them. There’s lots of different names for it, but. But this person is going to own. And if you don’t have SOPs now or if they’re a mess, that’s okay because her primary responsibility is something that you’re not good at. She is great at this. Let her rock with it.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. This is so important and so scaling beyond the, you know, the team. I agree that’s the most critical thing to get right. The team, the SOPs, all these systems, all that in place. And it’s also thinking about Things like diversification of revenue, for instance. There’s a lot of people who do sort of single point of sale type thing when they could have recurring revenue, membership revenue, like other things where you start to build a bit of a flywheel in your business, where a certain component part is leveraged for the next and the other the next one is leverage for the next. So, they all kind of fit together in that way. It sort of requires a systems thinking brain to actually see that.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, does this come up in your business where a business is literally missing like an easy way to either increase their margins or just add recurring revenue or just really grow value in their business in, in that way through those sorts of efficiencies?

Judy Weber:

And this is probably the second thing I look at with clients at this higher level is their offer suite and their funnels. I teach my clients to build three very specific funnels that are driving leads into your pipeline and driving revenue into the business. But the offer suite has to be intentional. What I find is that less is often more. But again, we’re going back to how we started strategically setting up an offer suite so that you have these delicious and wonderful points of entry into your world. And when you do this right, Melinda, this is the thing I get most excited about. You can tell I’m leaning on the edge of my seat here. I get most excited because when you do this right, and you have an offer suite and you have these funnels working, so there’s automation for you, then you can literally shrink the buying cycle by this intentional approach.

Judy Weber:

And again, we’re going to go back to something else we’ve said messaging and positioning for you, identifying your category of one, becoming known for something very specific and standing alone as the obvious choice. All of this works together, but it begins with that offer suite and your funnels.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly right. And, and so getting, getting all that in place and obviously building a funnel, I mean, there’s a lot of testing, there’s a lot of, you know, you know, to just get that whole, you know, that whole mechanism, you know, working and working well. So, say a client comes to you and they’re in that phase where they’ve established some sort of product market fit. I mean, people are paying for their product or service. But their systems, their funnels aren’t really calibrated quite in the way that you’re like, there’s a lot of stuff they have to go do. So, tell me how you walk, how you help them get through that process. 

Judy Weber:

Yes. I love this question. And it is all about the testing, entrepreneurship. You know, I’m sure you know, the definition of entrepreneurship is risk taking, you know, at the level that most people aren’t willing to do. And testing it is trying new things. And I don’t like the word try, except for this trying. And I say trying because in the earlier stages of business, some women say, well, I’m going to try this out and see what happens. No, no, no, no.

Judy Weber:

You’re in business because you’ve decided that is a choice and a commitment. I’m going all in. There ain’t no plan B. But in the way of testing that is trying things out. And so, I love to look at each funnel of my clients and identify where the gap is because in any one funnel there, there are points, touch points that we need to see like what’s really happening. So, so you might be getting lots of opt ins on, on something on a low-ticket offer, for example. But what happens after that? What are your touch points after that? What does that look like? What’s the frequency? And how about a freebie? Okay, someone downloads a freebie. Okay, what happens next? You know, are they actually walking through the client journey that you’ve established? Is there a way we could tweak that? Is there an additional touch point we can put in? Can we personalize it? Can it be something that you as or somebody on your team would deliver a personal note instead of a rote copy and paste kind of thing? So, it is looking at things with a microscope and do it with joy and fun because this is, this is fun to just, just try different things and see what works.

Judy Weber:

That is the way you make a funnel work.

Melinda Wittstock:

This is such valuable content. Thank you. Tell me about your clients, at what stage they normally come to you and what’s your before and after like on average? You know the type of businesses that you. Tell me a little bit about the types of businesses that, that you serve and, and where they are and, and, and how they work with you over what kind of time period and, and what tend to be the results.

Judy Weber:

Thank you. Thank you so much for this opportunity, Melinda. So, I help Christian women produce miraculous results as they scale their businesses that are changing the world. And so, I talk about offer suite few. I have two. I have my foundational offer which helps women. And by the way, I only work with service-based businesses, whether online or offline. 

Judy Weber:

So, my foundational offers are for those in the earlier stage. They’ve launched their business but they haven’t yet hit consistent 10k months. That is what I call breakthrough, the incubator. That is a six-month done with you program where we send up their offer, we plug in their marketing. I ascribe to a leveraged one to many marketing and visibility strategy that allows you to get in front of hundreds of clients at one time without killing yourself, without live launching and without grinding on social media. So that is my breakthrough and then my higher-level clients that we’ve been talking about for most of the part today is miraculous. The mastermind. That is a 12-month container where we are all about helping you grow to 500k and beyond.

Judy Weber:

When we look at your marketing, your sales, we want to sell at scale and we want to have what I call easy lift events. Not these long drawn-out challenges, but these fun, truly fun sales events that are one too many, that are super high converting because of, well, because of my secret sauce. And so those are those two, those are those two things. And so, my clients have. I’ll just talk about one of my, one of my mastermind clients. She came to me at her highest ticket item was 5,000, but she was a brand strategist that worked with seven and eight figure businesses. And I’m like, wait a minute, okay, if I’m in seven figure business, I’m not going to expect that I’m going to find an expert like you for under like 20 grand. So, we need to, you know, you, number one, you need to see your own genius and your own value.

Judy Weber:

And number two, we need to really and establish the positioning so that the world knows all of your, as I say, you’re A to Z. And so, we create a $15,000 offer. And I never forget when she said Jude, I had to gulp right before I was about to announce the price. But I remember what you said and I said, you’re going to do this. Her, her name is Heather. She goes, I’m going to do this with confidence and she’s going to say yes. And you know what’s crazy, Melinda? She said, yes, that would be great.

Judy Weber:

It’s $15,000 paying in full. Would you want to move forward? She said, yes, let’s go. Like within an instant, she didn’t even hesitate. So that’s just one example of when you’re approaching business strategically, intentionally and with the right mindset. Oh my goodness. Like she’s on her way to blow her own mind this year with her revenue.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, that’s amazing. I want to make sure people know the best way to find you and work with you. Assuming they’re a service-based business at that, that phase and, and they’re Christian and whatnot. What’s the best, what’s the best way?

Judy Weber:

Well, thank you for that. Okay, so one great way is to listen to my podcast, Bold Business, Bold Faith. That’s everywhere. I’m in my fifth year that is dedicated to life and business for Christian women. So that’s a great resource. You can find me. I would love to connect with you on social. I’m on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook @judyweberco. And then for those that are hearing about our discussion of team and you want to learn more, I have an ultimate hiring guide. This takes all the guesswork out of strategic hiring. Inside, you’re going to learn who to hire, when to hire, what to pay, and where to find the right people. So, you can go to Judy Weber co slash hiring guide again, Judy Weber co hiring guide. And you can grab that resource for free.

Melinda Wittstock:

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us, Julie. Sorry, excuse me, I’m gonna say that again. Well, thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us today, Judy.

Judy Weber:

Thank you, Melinda. This has been a blast. I can’t believe that went so quickly.

[INTERVIEW ENDS]

Melinda Wittstock:

Judy Weber is a serial entrepreneur, former trial lawyer, business coach and host of the podcast, Bold Business Bold Faith.

Melinda Wittstock:

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Melinda Wittstock:

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