Bio:
Michelle Neujahr is the owner, founder, and lead consultant at nu•yar—a no-nonsense firm uniquely focused on business growth.
Michelle works with small businesses and large, multimillion-dollar companies—primarily in the trades, finance, and professional services—to help them overcome challenges that may be holding them back. Maybe it’s a revenue plateau; maybe it’s the need to reorganize internal systems; maybe it’s something else. Whatever the need, Michelle listens, asks tough questions, and helps develop and execute strategic plans for success.
Having owned three businesses herself, Michelle knows that running and growing a business is not a straight, predictable path. It’s messy, often terrifying, and can cause a business owner enormous anxiety. So when she works with business owners and executive teams, her goal is always to develop an honest professional relationship built on trust. In that way, she can execute a plan that builds confidence, clarifies purpose, and propels action.
A genuine connector of people and ideas and a tireless advocate for her clients, Michelle has the unique ability to help business owners feel more comfortable in who they are and what they are trying to do by helping them create, implement, and maintain successful strategies for growth.
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Resource List:
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Episode Transcript:
Katie (00:01):
Hi everyone. Thank you for tuning into the Hustlenomics podcast. I’m your host, Katie. And today I am so excited to be talking with Michelle Neujahr. She’s the founder of nu•yar, a no nonsense business consulting company, uniquely focused on growth. Michelle is serious about helping businesses grow and she brings a depth and breadth of real business experience to each one of her clients, whether they be a small business owner or a multi-million dollar corporation. So, Michelle, thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Michelle (00:29):
Thank you so much for having me, Katie. It’s awesome to be here.
Katie (00:32):
Absolutely. So I would love to learn a little bit more about you and your background and how you got to where you are today.
Michelle (00:38):
I would say to people, I think I was born an entrepreneur. I, I had this thinking from the time I was very young. It’s kind of seeing outside the box being fascinated with business, fascinating with how things worked. And so I grew up in Minnesota and now on the East coast I’m in Maine and love it out here probably will always be here. But I went to high school, graduated from college and the bottom line was, I couldn’t find a job. And I ended up as an entrepreneur first in direct sales. And then as a speaker one of my childhood passions was listening to motivational speakers and studying them. I grew up listening to Norman, Vincent Peale and Les Brown and Zig Ziglar and reading, you know, books like think and grow rich as a kid. And so I had, h vision that I would become a speaker or a trainer at some point. And that was really where I kind of kicked off my career in direct sales. I’d also done some speaking as a teenager. Um was a teen mom and back then, that was a really huge topic. And so I just really had no idea how to start a business or what that meant. I kind of found myself in the role of being an entrepreneur or a business owner without really even knowing without really doing that on purpose.
Katie (02:02):
Oh yeah. I could definitely relate. So in that process of kind of figuring out how to become an entrepreneur, you mentioned you were listening to motivational speakers and reading a bunch of books, but did you take any courses or anything like that to kind of teach you some of those foundational things about being an entrepreneur?
Michelle (02:20):
I had gone to college and gotten a degree in mass communication, got at a college and couldn’t find a job. And it was then that I got into direct sales. So during that season I was taking as many courses as I could. I had a mentor, I was going to a woman’s networking event that we called grow. Back in the day it was stood for giving referrals to other women. And then I joined the national speakers association when I was in my early twenties and did a two year apprenticeship program with NSA and the focus of that program. Wasn’t to train you to be a good speaker, it was to train you how to run business of speaking. And I have been since that time, just a connoisseur of learning and whether that’s mentors or mastermind groups or working with coaches or reading, I believe that I’m never going to stop growing. And as a consultant, I, I believe it’s my job to continue to learn and develop myself so that I can help my clients, grow, and bring out the best of what they have in their business.
Katie (03:26):
Absolutely. And I definitely want to talk about new yard and your business now, but I would love to kind of touch on your speaking experience. I find that such a fascinating field, and as you mentioned, there’s a difference between being a good speaker and understanding the business of speaking. So do you mind kind of elaborating on what that means for people who might not be very familiar with it?
Michelle (03:46):
Yeah, so I mean being a good speaker, I can go to Toastmasters or I can be an executive or a CEO and give a great presentation. And a lot of people have talent or have developed that talent. I believe becoming a better speaker is something we can all develop. The business side of speaking is the marketing, the business development, making the phone calls, making the connections, managing your money charging enough, having contracts. It’s all of the other pieces that are really more important or as important as how good you do on the platform, because I’ve watched a lot of speakers, consultants, you know, other entrepreneurs who are really good at a craft, but were not able to manage the business. And they eventually went out of business a lot of times, just from poor cashflow management or not enough consistency with business development. Because I think as an entrepreneur, it’s really easy when things get busy to take my foot off the gas with marketing and business development. And if I do that, I’m in danger of waking up one day and going, Oh wow, I don’t have any business and I don’t have anything in the pipeline.
Katie (05:00):
Right. Yeah. I’m so glad you mentioned that because, you know, speaking, it’s such an interesting thing, but a lot of people don’t realize how much work is going on in the backend and behind the scenes to actually make that happen. So you know, for, as someone who I’m, I’m interested in possibly doing some speaking in the future, it’s nothing I’ve ever done, you know, outside of school and graduate school, anything like that. So if there’s anybody else listening, who’s maybe thinking, Hey, that sounds like something I would want to do. What are some first steps that they could take to kind of start sourcing those speaking opportunities and also making sure that they’re taking care of the business side of it as well. So
Michelle (05:36):
I had, this is so funny. I mean, this is, you know, 30 years ago, but what I did is I made a list of everybody that I knew in the business world who was part of any association who was part of any company. And I sent out a letter, I think it was just over 500 to each of these persons saying I was beginning of speaking, here were my topics. I would love to come in and do a free lunch and learn 45 minute program for your group. Let me know if you’re interested. And then I followed up with all of those people via phone calls, you know, old fashioned marketing, but I believe that same thing would work today as well, because we’re all trying to push ourselves out through social media and, and email newsletters and people aren’t necessarily paying attention. So I think some of that traditional old school marketing would still work today.
Michelle (06:31):
The other thing I would say to somebody I’m thinking about getting into the speaking business, it’s number one, it’s phenomenal, fabulous industry. I learned so much in my years at NSA. So I would also say join the national speakers association and get a really good mentor or business coach who’s been in the industry or who is in the industry because like any industry, it has its kind of ins and outs. And I am so grateful for the training that I learned both at NSA and through some of my early mentors and really helping me maybe avoid some of the pitfalls that I might’ve done, you know, I probably would have done on my own. There were definitely still enough mistakes and pitfalls along the way, but I think some of those were avoided just by having really good mentorship and good feedback.
Katie (07:21):
Yeah, absolutely. And are there any things that you could share that you might’ve avoided those pitfalls and mistakes that you could pass on to some of the listeners who maybe they could avoid them as well?
Michelle (07:33):
I would say, and people told me this and I didn’t listen. Katie narrow your lane niche be specific either to your topic or the markets that you speak in. I was a generalist and I liked shiny things. I still do. I still have to rein myself back in from the shiny things that I want to chase all the time, but I tried to be too wide and then you’re not really an expert at anything. And the term, you know, motivational speaker, that’s very broad. And so what specifically does that mean? What specific topics am I an expert at? What specific groups in my niche working with? And that’s one thing I wish I would have done. I’ve done that today in my business that I run today, but I didn’t do that back then. And I think it probably cost me a lot of opportunities and probably didn’t allow me to scale as much as I could have.
Katie (08:27):
Yeah. That’s fantastic advice. I’ll definitely take that to heart as well. And so I’d love to kind of talk about the journey to starting new yard. You mentioned you had been working in direct sales before. So what was the inspiration to start this specific company?
Michelle (08:41):
I was in direct sales for a couple of years. Really started having an opportunity to grow pretty quickly and had an opportunity to start speaking and doing training. And it was at that point a few years in that I, I started on my own as a speaker and I always believed that I would spend my life speaking keynoting, traveling around the country. And I had the opportunity to do that for a long time. In the process of being a speaker, my husband and I also had started a construction company that we no longer own, but we had that company for seven or eight years in Minnesota. And so I was working in the business along with my husband and being a speaker. And what I began to find is that I was really good at taking strategic planning within the company and setting up processes and setting up goals and structures and timelines for how to move that business forward and how to grow that business.
Michelle (09:40):
And we had success in our business, which led to other people saying, Hey, would you coach or consult with me? And I would say, no, I don’t do that. I’m a speaker. And I actually had one woman who came with her checkbook and she said, I you’re going to, I’m going to hire you, tell me what you’ll charge. And that’s why I don’t do that. I don’t want to be a consultant. I want to be a speaker fast forward. Almost 16 years ago when we moved to Maine, I was tired of being on the road of speaking as a fabulous career. But a lot of times it was a one and done. I would sell a keynote or a keynote with a few breakout sessions. I would do a great job. And then I was done and I was constantly having to go out and get more work.
Michelle (10:28):
And that even if you were fabulous, it’s, you know, they want somebody new and different next year for the keynote. And at the same time was just really kind of relooking at my life. I had been doing quite a bit of, you know, the coaching and consulting started growing over the years, but it was primarily still I identified as a speaker and when we moved to Maine 16 years ago I was tired. I had had a little bit of a health scare on my appendix had ruptured and I was out of commission for a few months and I had a lot of time to think. And one of the things that I came to was that I didn’t any longer want to be on airplanes and I didn’t want to miss anymore of the kids’ lives. One was out of the house. We had two more that were, you know, one in junior high and, and one in elementary school. And I really wanted to make some changes. And it was at that point, I began to pivot my business from being 80% speaker, 20% consultant. My goal was to flip that, and now I fast forward to 2020. I’m about 90% consulting, about 10% speaking. Wow.
Katie (11:32):
Oh, okay. That’s so interesting. And so starting this kind of shift this pivot on what were some things that really surprised you that were different from maybe starting your business or careers in the past,
Michelle (11:42):
I asked why didn’t have a reputation as a consultant. People saw me as a speaker. And so it was shifting that and that’s taken a lot of time going to clients and saying, in addition to what you know, me as here’s some of the other things that I have been doing, you know, those things weren’t new, but I wasn’t marketing what I was doing for strategic planning and business growth consulting. It was kind of all, it was kind of a, this thing that was happening on the side that I wasn’t talking about in public, that wasn’t on my website. My website was very, you know, speaker heavy. So it was a really it, and it was some slow years when I started saying no to speaking, I started to like, you kind of get that like, Oh my goodness. Okay, now the calendar is empty. And having to be okay and sit with that and knew that it would take time as I began to really network and market myself in that new direction or expand the direction that I’d already, you know, kind of space I’d already been working in.
Katie (12:48):
Yeah, that’s super interesting. I was just talking to someone today about the fact that they’re moving to a new city. Their business is still pretty young and they’re like, how in the world am I going to establish myself in this new place? I I’m having to start over again. Which is a scary thing, but obviously there are some strategies that you can use to kind of establish, establish yourself as an expert in your field. Anywhere you are. Do you have any tips for, for that person or for anybody listening who might be in the same situation?
Michelle (13:15):
Well, I think one of the things that we have is even if we’re pivoting, we’re not completely starting over because we have this, this expertise and this experience that, you know, I already had 20 years of experience of, you know, not quite 20 years, but mean 15 years of experience doing this. And so looking at what it took to grow a direct sales business, and then a speaking business and also a construction business, I kind of put those same strategies to place. Okay, well, what did I do? Okay. I rewrote my marketing material. I went out and I researched the market. I asked questions, you know, what are you needing? What are you missing? Instead of asking, meeting planners that now I was asking business owners and executive teams, you know, what were you getting from consultants and what is missing and what are the types of the things that your organization could need?
Michelle (14:08):
So I applied a lot of those same principles is working on my marketing material while doing market research. And I think that is an ongoing for any of us who are in business for ourselves. We’ve got to continue to do that. And then it’s just getting out there and being willing to, in some ways, be a beginner. Again, when I moved to Maine, I wasn’t having to do a lot of networking for either of our businesses. It, we had a good pipeline. I had a solid system. And when I moved to Maine, I was having to knock on doors and attend networking events and show up and shake hands and meet people and really let them know who I was. And I hadn’t had to do in that way for a lot of years.
Katie (14:52):
Right. So just be willing to go out and do the work. And I’m glad you mentioned market research because sometimes especially people like me who work a hundred percent online it kind of feels like we’re working in a bubble sometimes if we forget to look around and look at what’s happening and what new trends are out there and what people are asking for. So I always think that’s a great reminder that it’s so valuable to get that market research. And it’s really super helpful when you’re trying to build a business.
Michelle (15:16):
Yeah. And I think it’s, it’s something that the majority of us as business owners don’t do well and don’t do often enough. And the answers are often much closer than we think we’re too busy doing business that it doesn’t always pop up on the radar. I think that’s where, you know, having some quarterly or annual planning, whatever that looks like for your business to include some kind of check in with yourself of market research helps to keep it kind of front. Right.
Katie (15:46):
Absolutely. And that kind of gets me right into my next question to ask about something that you offer in your business, which is strategic planning. And obviously I’m, I love strategy. It’s one of my favorite things, but as somebody who’s really new, that word might be daunting and confusing and they don’t even really know what it means. So when you talk about strategic planning, or a strategy planning process for a business, what does that exactly mean?
Michelle (16:14):
So obviously it depends on the size of the business. When my husband and I ran our construction company, we would go away Katie for weekends and do what we call strategic planning. At that point, we really call it a goal setting. So we would look at, okay, where’s the company at? Where’s the goal? Where are we trying to get to? And what do we need to do to get there? And so as many new businesses, or, you know, prior to startup, they’ll write a business plan, a strategic plan is really just looking out into the future and you don’t want to go more than a couple of years because things are changing way too fast. But to look at where have we been, what’s working, what could work better? Where do we want to go? And what are the things that we need to do to get there?
Michelle (16:59):
And there are certain pieces that most companies will look at, you know, their marketing plan and maybe do a simple SWOT analysis and do a little bit of market research, but it can be very simple. I mean, for nu•yar, I have a three-page strategic plan and I update it. I’m, I’m it, you know, I have my daughter works with me. She does all of my social media and a lot of my marketing and various other things, but pretty much it’s me. And so I sit down with myself and my daughter and I will chat about it as well. But, you know, look at, you know, my, my own strategic plan of, you know, kind of where am I going and what strategies did I use this year? What strategies do I need to keep doing? And which ones do I maybe need to tweak, change or get rid of. Right. I love that you broke it
Katie (17:50):
Down in such a simple way, because like I mentioned, it can kind of seem like a daunting thing. It sounds like I could never do that, but I mean, what you just said, it’s very easy to do and anyone, no matter kind of what stage they’re at can, can ask themselves those questions. So I love that. That’s fantastic. And you mentioned that it’s you and your daughter kind of handling all the things. And as an entrepreneur, we have to kind of wear a lot of hats at once. And so it can get a little overwhelming. So how have you kind of managed that, the fact that you, as a business owner, you kind of have to do everything yourself and have you outsourced anything since you began your business?
Michelle (18:26):
I’ve outsourced lots of things over the years from, you know, marketing to, you know, outsource all my bookkeeping and accounting. I’ve outsourced business development, lead generation list building, and there’s a lot. And I, and I will check in with myself occasionally. Okay. What, what am I, you know, how, how full is my plate? And are there things that I can outsource? Are there things you, my daughter just works part time but are there things that I can give to her? I’ve actually, you know, hired other you know, subcontractors for projects, if I’ve had a big project that I’m working on. And I think also what’s helped is I’ve really narrowed my lane over the last few years. And I’ve said no to a lot more work than I’ve said yes to. And that has allowed me to be more purposeful.
Michelle (19:18):
I couldn’t have done that in the beginning because I had to take what I needed to, you know, almost had to take everything because I needed the revenue. And now that the revenue and been in business for a long time, things are settled and I’ve got, you know, regular retainer clients. I’ve been able to be more choosy and more cautious with what I’m saying yes to, which has really helped to manage that time. And after, you know, having done this for a lot of years, there’s, there’s some things that are automatic and they’re very systematized. I work with clients on a daily basis, just, you know, asking the question, what can you automate? What can you put in a system? So that you’re not working harder than you need to, or repeating processes that could be simplified or automated.
Katie (20:09):
Yes. A hundred percent. I love automation and all that kind of stuff. I mean, it’s something that I just started about a year ago, but it’s saved so much time in my business. And I would love to kind of hear some, some of the processes that you’ve implemented or anything that you’ve automated. Maybe it’ll spark an idea in somebody listening that they could do that too.
Michelle (20:26):
One of the things is I have a quiz on my website that I have owners take, and it gives me a really good snapshot of where they might be at, in their strategic planning process. So when they, you know, even call to say, Hey, I want to do a strategic planning process with you. They go to my website, they take the quiz, it immediately spits back to me. And then I plug it. UI have a strategic planning template that goes with a workbook and I’m able then to pull out the pieces, you know, I have kind of its modules of how I have all of my content organized. And we’ve been able to systemize that where I can put together a program that’s very individual for a company, but that doesn’t take me days and days to put together. So I think that’s one that, you know, we think about automating emails and, and, you know, some of our social accounts and those kinds of things. But for me, it was the managing of the project from the time it was sold. really up until after a client has completed a strategic planning process.
Katie (21:33):
I love that. Yeah. That’s so smart. So smart. And speaking of strategy one thing that I’ve noticed is moving forward with a strategic plan is kind of difficult if you don’t have those foundational blocks set in place to start out with. And I talk about this a lot. When I first started my business, I jumped into what I call all the sexy stuff, the website, the social media, the, the fun stuff. Right. and I kind of skipped right over the things like my mission statement, my values and my vision and things like that. And I had to go back and redo it when I rebranded myself a little while ago. So, I always encourage people to get that stuff done first, before you jump into all the fun stuff, and I’m sure you work with that with your clients. And do you have any tips and tricks that you use to help them really refine that mission and vision and values early on so they can move forward kind of on the right path. So
Michelle (22:23):
I do, I have this, if it’s something I’ve been working on for years, so I have a template that I can send out to, you know, if any of your listeners want to give me a, you know, shoot me an email, I would be more than glad to send them that template. And I go, one step farther. I have clients do a mission and a vision, but then I also have them write a legacy statement. Is what’s it going to matter that you were in business and when you’re gone, what impact will you have made? And so I would be more than glad to share that with you on your website or with your listeners. UI think it’s such an important piece. I was with a client this morning and one of the board members said, you know, without that we really can’t make the decisions that we need to make. That being said, sometimes business owners look at, Oh, that’s the fluffy stuff I want to get into growth. I want to get into, you know, marketing, bringing in more business. And, and the woman there just, as the look on her face today was like, yes, this like wraps everything else. It helps us our values help us to make decisions, our mission, you know, should flavor everything we do. And it also helps us to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace. Yes,
Katie (23:35):
Yes, absolutely. I love that legacy part that is so important. And especially, I’m just definitely going to add that onto kind of what I do for myself. And I’m sure it evolves over the years, but I’m just doing that head on that gives you such a great place to move forward. Fantastic. Do you have any recommendations when it comes to tools, apps, books, podcasts, anything out there that you use to kind of help you be a better business owner or just in personal development that you would recommend to the listeners?
Michelle (24:01):
I have journaled most days for most of my life and maybe it’s five, 10 minutes in the morning, that is a practice that just has helped me keep the mind clutter. I call it, you know, getting, getting rid of the dryer, lint of the brain. So that’s a practice. And then to use my vehicle, I travel a lot just within Maine. I happen to live out in the boonies. So I spend a lot of time in my car and I listen to podcasts pretty much continually. And I, my goal is, you know, I have a few that I’ll listen to you know, HBR idea cast and cool things entrepreneurs do. And there’s a, there’s kind of a stable of entrepreneurial podcasts that I listen to, but usually three or four times a week, I just try to pull something random because like your show, there’s so many good shows out there that I’ve tried to make it my, my mission to listen to as much new stuff as I can. I find I’m reading a lot less because I’m using a lot more podcasts,
Katie (25:05):
You know, that’s funny you say that I have the same experience. I have always been an avid reader, but the minute I start into podcasts, I’m like, Oh, that’s all I do these days. So it’s so funny that that kind of transfers. That’s fantastic. Yeah. I’ll link to all of those in the show notes and I’m sure everybody is going to want to check you out and follow your journey. And so can you tell them how to find you online?
Michelle (25:27):
Yep. So you can go to N U hyphen Y a r.com on the homepage. They will find are you ready to grow your business? There’s a link. If you, your listeners are more than welcome to fill out the quiz, I’m not going to bug them or contact them, but it will give them really an assessment of, are they ready to grow or do they still need to do some work shoring up their business in order to get ready to grow. So would welcome listeners to check that out or connect with me online and you hyphen Y a R I’m on all social media platforms. Fantastic.
Katie (26:02):
Thank you so much. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show today. I really appreciate you taking the time and it’s been such a pleasure to talk to you.
Michelle (26:09):
Thank you, Katie. Have a great day.
