#awinewith Lou Barkle
MEET Lou Barkle, Founder of Plan + Do HQ
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:00):
You are listening to Spark tv, where we bring you daily interviews with real women in business at all stages. I'm your host, Danielle Lewis, and I am so grateful to have you here. So good. Lou, welcome to Spark tv.
Lou Barkle (00:13):
Thank you. So excited to be here.
Danielle Lewis (00:18):
I'm so excited to have you here because we have been hanging out in the Spark community for a little while now. So I've gotten to know your story. I've gotten to see how you support other women in the community, so I'm super excited to share all of your wisdom with our amazing sparks.
Lou Barkle (00:38):
Yeah, so excited. I can't wait to really share some of the ups and downs.
Danielle Lewis (00:43):
Yeah, totally. Oh my god, I might've need a stronger drink for this green tea. Might not be cutting it today. Well, let's start out by telling everyone who you are and what you do. That way we can get into the juicy stuff.
Lou Barkle (00:58):
Sure. So I am Lou Baral from Plan and Do hq. I've been in business for about seven years now, and over that period of time there's been a lot of evolution, but these days I guess I roll under the title of being a business consultant and a strategist. But what we really do is we help people build real plans and then we roll off our sleeves and help them implement the changes because we know that's always a big problem for business owners who are busy doing the doing.
Danielle Lewis (01:27):
Totally. And do you dive into all areas of business or is it mainly a function like a marketing or an ops or a finance, or do you do everything? Do
Lou Barkle (01:39):
You have a special? So we kind of do the overarching business strategy. So we do dive down and do marketing strategies and sales strategies and that sort of stuff, but we also know that there are other people who are experts out in those fields. So it really depends on the size of the business that we're working with because sometimes we work with businesses who are solo operators and other times we're working with businesses who have anywhere from five to 20 staff. So it kind of depends on where that business is at and what they're doing. We will never say that we do it all because we'd probably just break businesses if we did that. Whereas, so if we do the overarching business strategy and the goal setting and understanding what the actual purpose and where the business wants to go, including the exit strategy, then we have some really great strategic partners in our business that we can then call on if needed to pull people together.
Danielle Lewis (02:38):
I love that and I think it's so valuable because I think of myself as a business owner and having someone like you come in and kind of shine a light on what's going on. I feel like as business owners sometimes we are just so overwhelmed by all of the things that we've got to do. You just really do need someone who's a bit more objective and who has that experience to come in and help you see what you can't see.
Lou Barkle (03:06):
And I think it's really hard when we're in that state of overwhelm or a bit burnt out to be sitting there and say, what do I actually want from this business? And I have recently sat down with a mechanic who he was saying, I just want to shut up shop. I don't want to do this anymore. And I was like, well, do you not love being a mechanic? He was like, yeah, but I don't love having staff and I don't love having a team. And so what we've actually done is worked with him to reimagine his business, to take it into a mobile mechanic business where his staff aren't actually in the workshop with him and they get to go out. And so he hasn't dropped revenue, he hasn't dropped any of that sort of thing, but he gives the team, so it's more almost like an electrical plumbing business now where he gives the team their jobs off they go, they do their jobs, they're responsible, they come back at the day with the feedback kind of thing. So in terms of that leadership and management, it looks completely different for him. So that stress level is significantly reduced.
Danielle Lewis (04:00):
Wow, that is so cool. And I can just guarantee that he would never have thought of that himself being in that he would've just been like, oh my God, can't stand it anymore. I'm out.
Lou Barkle (04:11):
He was literally about to sack staff. That's where he was at when he came to me.
Danielle Lewis (04:16):
Oh my God, that's awesome.
Lou Barkle (04:17):
I was like, stop. Please stop.
Danielle Lewis (04:19):
Time out. Time out. Let's chat first. Wow. So how did you even get into this being in business for seven years?
Lou Barkle (04:29):
Yeah, seven years. And I don't have a seven year itch that people say you get to because I think when you're a business owner, it's always evolving and as long as you kind of rolling with the punches, it doesn't get boring. But no, I think I was always destined to do business and run a business. My parents are very entrepreneurial and innovative. They were farmers, they're retired now, but they were farmers. And my dad was always looking at different ways to optimize how the farm was running and how, this sounds really odd, but how he moved when the cattle would have carbs so that they would be born at a time where there was more feed and things available. And so that's the sort of life I grew up with. And so my parents were very just try, just test and try and see what you can do.
(05:16):
And then I found I was quite good at business operational type stuff. And so I went into high level corporate roles and lived in Sydney and worked for quite a large financial institution. And then when my husband and I got married and we're like, oh, this life's just not really long-term for us. So we moved back to Western Australia, regional western Australia where I was from and got a chance to start fresh and went, you know what? Let's just help people have good lives, stuff out there that they don't know about that I've experienced, and why not just test and try? So we did.
Danielle Lewis (05:47):
Wow. I love that so much. And isn't it amazing that at any point in your life you can just do that? You can just go, no, Adam, this isn't working for me anymore. And totally changed your life. It's awesome.
Lou Barkle (06:03):
Yeah, it's so good. And I'm very lucky. My parents are super supportive and my husband is, although if you asked my husband what I did, and I'm sure there's lots of people who would watch this, well understand if you asked him what I did, he'd be like, I don't know. She does stuff, but I'm always learning and studying and taking on new information and doing micro learning as well. So although I had a really strong operational background and understood the strategic side of things, I needed to go off and learn more about that so that I wasn't just putting band-aids on businesses because that's something we see a lot is they go, oh, I just need a virtual assistant. And so they put a bandaid on and they haven't really solved what the actual bigger problem is. So I was seeing a lot of that. So I went and studied into business strategy and planning and that sort of stuff, and now we kind of offer both sort of streams of
Danielle Lewis (06:50):
That. Yeah. Well, it makes me think, I mean, I'm just reflecting on our last Spark networking call, and you were really vocal about actually in a good way, I mean in a good way, about actually leveraging your data and understanding what's working and what's not working inside your business before you actually make a change. And we were talking about that in context of marketing. So someone was kind of like, oh, down on themselves, I need to do more social media. And we were all like, well, does social media even work? Do you need to do more or do you actually need to understand what's moving the needle for your business? And so I love that it sounds like a result of all of that study and experience and working with your clients is you would be amazing at actually taking that critical thinking and asking those hard questions and looking at the data to help them construct a plan.
Lou Barkle (07:46):
And I'm really fortunate, I do have a team and one of my team members is my sister and her background is all analytics and data and logistics. So she really compliments the business so well that I can look at the data and I can interpret it, but she can then actually write the reports and results to make it a bit more human. So I look at it and I just go, oh, that's what's happening and that's what's happening. And she goes, yeah. And now we're going to put that into something that the client will understand as well. So because they can listen to me talk about it, but when they also get it written in a way that it makes it really valuable. And so yeah, data is king in terms of what we do because without it, it's really hard to determine what that next needle moving step is.
Danielle Lewis (08:37):
Yeah, exactly. And it's interesting because the other monthly call we have is our CEO time, which is an opportunity for people to look at their metrics. And it's always shocked me how some people arrive on that call and they're like, oh, well, I've never measured anything before. And I'm like, what whatcha doing?
Lou Barkle (08:56):
Yeah, I love that CEO time. And it's something we do something really similar with our clients, but it's quite funny. As a business owner, I was having my clients do a reflection type thing, but I wasn't doing it for myself until I joined Spark. And so that's the funny thing about being a business owner, there's things that you're telling people to do that sometimes you go, oh yeah, I know what's happening in my business. It's not a priority. And then when you actually carve out that time, you're like, whoa, actually, that's really valuable and really important.
Danielle Lewis (09:26):
Literally the reason I invented it was so I could do it. So I do it with everyone else, do my in the journaling, do my journaling in the see time. I go through all of my analytics and okay, what plan for the next month? I just think sometimes it's so easy to get lost in your to-do list as a business owner, you need someone to nudge you along a little bit and not force, but encourage you to keep that consistency and have that more high level objective view of your business.
Lou Barkle (09:56):
And so many people don't know their data, they don't know their KPIs, and I think they look at a lot of things on social media about it, and they're buying those. They're either buying all those little quick cheap downloads or free downloads and then going, I dunno what I'm supposed to do with that. Or they're going, oh, that's not for me. They're just either avoiding it or they think they should do it and then don't do it. So yeah, I think that doing it in Spark and having that carved out time is actually, it's been really important for my business as well this year.
Danielle Lewis (10:27):
Oh, I love it. I love it. So spill the tea, spill the champagne because we don't spill tea here. Tell us what's been some of the challenges that you have found over the last seven years that maybe no one ever told you about?
Lou Barkle (10:43):
Oh, look, there's so much in business that people don't talk about, and social media is such a highlight reel that I think the biggest challenge I think was being okay with change. Not that I'm change averse, but just that things change and being adaptable and being able to move at such a fast pace is really important. And I know a lot of women who are mothers and business owners and that sort of thing, and they're like, I really struggle with my kid's uniform changing at school, and so changing something in my business is even harder because I'm too busy thinking about what's happening at school to worry about what's happening here and they can find it really challenging. And I definitely found that challenging. One of the challenges I personally encountered was that my husband and I, when we moved to WA, thought we'd instantly start a family, and that wasn't something that happened easily for us.
(11:42):
But having said that, as we ventured down and did have success with IVF, thank goodness, oh my God, no. I was really fortunate that I came across somebody in that world that said to me, just when you're really challenged, do what you're good at. And that has lived with me forever since then. And I think that person wasn't in business, they weren't a business owner that was a medical professional who was just like, if this is really hard, just do something you're good at. And I think to them it was a throwaway comment, but that really landed with me because then obviously we've experienced, and so what do you do when that's a challenge is you throw yourself into what you're good at. And I think that was a really big challenge for me personally to go through and to understand that in business we are whole people. We're not just business owners. There are personal things. And so yeah, that was a big challenge. Another one that I didn't really expect is that everyone tells you to get a business coach or a mentor or something can.
Danielle Lewis (12:46):
Oh, yes.
Lou Barkle (12:48):
And so I had avoided that for five years, and then in year six I thought, right, I'm ready. I'm going to do this. I've got my miracle child, I'm ready to grow the business. And I won't lie, I was scammed. I was scammed. I lost some money and it took time to recover. And I had done my due diligence on them I thought, or at least I thought I had. So I think it was just knowing to pick myself up, dust myself off, and follow my intuition on things, not just blindly follow other people.
Danielle Lewis (13:21):
And look, you are not the first person to say that to me. So I personally have not had a business coach. I've definitely had mentors. I've definitely tapped into experts for niche things in my business, but not ever had a high level business coach. But it has shocked me how many people have said the same thing that they've gotten into this environment where it's usually a lot of money because we're further along in our businesses. So we have that. There's this mentality that you've got to invest and you've got to level up. If I hear the fucking term level up on your time, right? Oh my God, but then those people don't deliver, haven't done it before, give you a cookie cutter approach. It's just really disheartening because I also think that it really impacts the people who are good at what they do.
Lou Barkle (14:16):
And I think it makes it really hard to then identify who is good at what they do because the ones that are good aren't
Danielle Lewis (14:23):
Loud. Oh my God,
Lou Barkle (14:25):
That's probably the thing that I get from it is the people that are good at coaching and mentoring are not loud about it, and they're definitely not talking about money.
Danielle Lewis (14:34):
Yeah. Yes. Oh my God, it's really interesting. I follow on Instagram, obviously so many different people in business, and I think just over the years it's really skewed to a lot of people who are there leveraging their personal brand to sell coaching and courses and bits and pieces across, whether it's marketing or business or whatever. And the more content I see now, the more I go, I don't want to do that to my brand. I can just think of nothing worse than putting up a bloody tile of me with how to make a billion dollars in 17 seconds. I think the state of social media and business coaches is just in a really dark place at the moment,
Lou Barkle (15:23):
And I thought I could step into that because I have done study and qualifications and I haven't owned a business for 30 seconds. And to be honest, trying to step into that, I actually found that I was just more frustrated by telling people tailor made approaches to how to grow in business and then them not deliver them, not do the implementation. So for me, I took that journey of stepping away from the doing work to move more into that advisory type work to then go, oh, it really frustrates me personally to not see people get the results that I know they can get. So I am just going to add that doing work back into what we were doing, but it's a journey. Being in business is a journey. And yeah, definitely social media skews the view of lots of things, that's for sure.
Danielle Lewis (16:11):
Totally. But I do love that you said that as well because that's another thing I think that shocked me in business was how many people don't action, don't take action, and whether they have issues that are holding them back, usually mental imposter syndrome and what will everyone think of me and fear and all of this kind of stuff. That's one thing that really blew my mind. So I'm a sales person by trade, so I like rejections my jam. I don't care. I'll just reach out to more people than anyone else. I'll post the thing because I don't care. That's what I've grown up with essentially in my career. So that in business, I just adopted the same attitude. I'll just try everything and see what works and then do more of the stuff that works and happy days. And it's funny, I too, people would then be like, oh, can you teach me how to sell? And I started doing that and I was like, I keep telling people what to do and they just don't do it. So that's something that really blew my mind. It's kind of like when people then ask me now what the secret to success is, I'm like, just do stuff. Just actually take action.
Lou Barkle (17:19):
Take action, stop thinking about it. Just do what's the worst that's going to happen.
Danielle Lewis (17:25):
It doesn't work. Who cares? It doesn't
Lou Barkle (17:26):
Work. In my case, I tried to have a coach. I lost some money. Yes, it took a massive hit to my confidence and things, but I dusted myself off and I try it again. And we try and we try and we try
Danielle Lewis (17:41):
Totally. And I think it builds your character and resume as well, because even when you are going into other businesses and giving them advice and doing, you have that lens now of also what bad looks like.
Lou Barkle (17:56):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Do you know what though? It did also give me this BS radar for clients as well.
Danielle Lewis (18:04):
Yeah.
Lou Barkle (18:07):
So it helps me identify who's not the right client for me very quickly.
Danielle Lewis (18:11):
Yeah, I love that. So what has been the secret to your growth? So when you talk about talking to a client and saying no to some wild, you're allowed to do that. What has been the way you've found customers grow on your customer base growing over the last seven years?
Lou Barkle (18:33):
So I think I'm just really clear on who I want to work with. And I think I was really, I have definitely gone through periods of time where I'm like, oh, I just need the next client and please just work with me. And I'm sure we've all experienced that and there'll probably be a time in the future that that may happen again, but I'm aware of it. And sometime that's short term, but I'm really lucky that right now I'm in a position where I'm so clear on who I'm working with. And it's not about demographics. It's not about age or any of that sort of stuff or industry or anything. It's really, I love working with family businesses and they have to have some certain personality traits and behavioral traits, and they have to be purpose driven. I say this to people and it's almost like I actually straight out asked two inquiries that I had this week. I was like, if you want piles of money, I'm not your person. That's not what I'm about. I want to know that you want to make an impact and what is that impact? And it was funny because one of 'em said, but I do want piles of money. And I was like, well, that's nice. There's the door. See you later. Because it's just not who I am.
(19:44):
So I guess I'm so clear on what my values are and that my clients need to have some sort of alignment with my values and these golden threads that join them that I go, I know exactly who I'm working with. So when I'm having conversations, although sometimes it's really clunky when I talk about what I do, and I am working on getting better at that, but I think because you're always evolving, you've always got to work on that. Yes,
Danielle Lewis (20:09):
Definitely, definitely.
Lou Barkle (20:10):
But yeah, I mostly find people through word of mouth and strategic partnerships. I spend a lot of time and people who do live regionally will understand this, is that it's really important to have relationships. But when you take that next step and create strategic partnerships where they are saying, this is our human and this is what we do, and this is how she works with our business to give you a better outcome when you spend that time on those strategic partnerships, and it works two ways, the work just comes somehow, people find you. I get phone calls every week where people ring me and they say, I actually don't know what you do, but I've been told I need you. And I go, okay, let's talk about that. That's magical. But I think that's the power of strategic partnerships is someone will talk about you.
(21:00):
And so you instantly have that know and trust and credibility there. And that is, that's the step past networking. It's the step past. It's building that relationship. And some people do that in structured networking formats where they go to groups and associations and stuff. But I've done that really organically. And so I think it's more powerful than social media. But because social media piggybacks off that, I don't have to show up that often on social media because I've got people talking about me. And when I do talk on social media, people are either that hits or it doesn't, and she's either my personal, they're not. And then the beauty of that is people tag you in Facebook groups. And that's actually how I built my business to start with was people tagging me in Facebook
Danielle Lewis (21:49):
Groups. Wow. I love it. I couldn't agree with you more. And I think that it's really interesting because I feel like sometimes social media, we want the instant gratification. We want to poster reel, we want it to go viral and we want to sell out whatever it is we're selling. But strategic partnerships are long-term. You do have to network, meet the person, build a relationship, actually do what you said you were going to do and deliver value for them, and then that solidifies you. But I just think there's so much more power in that because you're so right. In the world of social media where things are noisy, having someone vouch for you is like gold.
Lou Barkle (22:31):
Yeah. Yeah. I think that's the key to winning a business because then if someone else has said that you, you're good,
(22:39):
Then the moment you have a conversation with them, they already know what they're listening for. They already know what they're going to hear from you. And so as long as you sing from the same playbook, people understand. And a great example of that is I was supposed to be at a networking thing this morning. Unfortunately, my 3-year-old son is unwell. Hello mom life. That's the thing, right? That's it. And you just roll with it. And I messaged and said, sorry guys, I'm not going to make it. And then I got a message after and was like, oh no, there's people that want to talk to you. And I actually ended up getting three messages from people I've never had contact with before and I wasn't even in the room. So that's just to talk about the power of that step. I think there's a lot of people who miss that step when they're doing service-based businesses.
Danielle Lewis (23:25):
Oh, totally. And I think that it is hard and time consuming in the beginning, but welcome to business. It's always hard and always time consuming.
Lou Barkle (23:36):
That's right. The people that thought they were coming into business to work less hours, sorry, it's a lie.
Danielle Lewis (23:42):
Oh my God, no, you'll wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it wake. It's really interesting. And I love, so earlier as well, you also talked about and used the word exit, which is really interesting. I feel like we all switch between different camps. We kind of go, maybe it's a lifestyle business, maybe it's something that we're going to hold onto for the rest of our lives. Maybe it's under our personal brand. And then there are people that do build to exit. But what's your opinion on it all? How do you work with people for thinking about what an exit might look like for their business? What should someone be thinking about for that long term?
Lou Barkle (24:24):
Yeah, so I think when people talk about it being a lifestyle business, and a lot of women especially go, I just want something for me. And so then they start a business and they run and they're quite successful, which is amazing. But they never really think about, well, what happens when I don't want to work anymore? Or what happens? Because ultimately I think it's really dangerous to be in business and have this opinion that you're going to work until you die. And I actually met another business strategist in our region, a gentleman, and I said to him, what's your exit strategy? And he said, I'll work the morning that they put me in the ground, right? No, thank you. And so then I was like, oh, this has to be a foundation in what I'm talking about with clients. Because
(25:15):
The thing is that we're humans, unfortunately, we do experience ill health and we have family things and we have children and we have elderly parents. This whole thing that we actually have to know what our plan is for when that day comes, whatever that day is, whether that day is in 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, whatever it is, you actually have to know what you're building towards. And that's part of a foundation of a business strategy is knowing what your actual outcome is. Often in family businesses, I do work with a lot of family businesses. They're like, I'd really love for my child to succeed me. And you go, okay, cool. So we need to make that, okay. How do we make it exciting for them? How do we bring that them along the journey? And I have a client right now, their daughter is 16, and she's very much like, I want to take over this business. And I'm like, great. Well, you have to actually show up and be present and be a part of it. But it's great because her parents are like, yeah, we actually want her to take it
Danielle Lewis (26:08):
Over.
Lou Barkle (26:10):
Whereas I've had got another family business client who he is the second generation, and he doesn't have any children and he's never married. So I had to say to him the other day, let's review the exit strategy. Clearly not a succession. Like your nieces aren't coming to save the day. What's the plan? And he said, you know what? The plan is a sale. And so when you start looking at a business in the sense of an exit strategy is you may just close the doors, you may sell, you may have a succession plan, or you might have a share sale where you retain a portion of the business. And I know for a lot of people who are solopreneurs, this might seem like really big thinking, but it's ultimately what we're growing towards is our futures. It is a really old mentality to think that your business is your superannuation. So anyone watching that, if you're thinking that, please, let's have a conversation, please. It's not how it's going to work. And so I'm always asking my clients, what's the plan? What do you want to do? When do you want to retire? How old do you want to be? When does it want to be that you want to be traveling around the world, or do you want to be living on a farm in a rocking chair type thing? What does that future look like?
(27:27):
Because what we build for clients in sense of their systems and technology and stuff that we do, that all has to be in a way that it can be if it is for a sale, that it's all packaged up in a pretty bow and a part of it. And we've actually worked with our business recently where, because I do work with business brokers, they're a client of mine, so I understand the whole buy sell process, share sales, that sort of stuff. We helped a business add an extra a hundred thousand dollars to their sale price. Wow. Just by tidying up their systems and technology and website. That's new. That's for a smaller business. But when you start looking at the 20, 30 million businesses, you could be adding up to 5 million on a price at that range. So an exit strategy is really important to think about because otherwise, if you're just sticky taping stuff together and you think, I'm going to sell one day, that sale may take you three or four years because you've got to build that other bit or you could lose money.
Danielle Lewis (28:31):
And I think that's just such an important point to pin, is that you do have to think long-term. Yes, we are so, oh my God, got to answer the emails, got to do the things. Stress, stress, stress, got to make money, got to pay the bills. But you are so right. What are we doing here? What are you doing here? And if there is a long-term longterm strategy, planning for it now and having systems and processes in place, cleaning things up, preparing in the early days just saves you so much time. And to your point, can make you so much more money if you are a little bit more prepared.
Lou Barkle (29:08):
And if you're a company, if your business is structured as a company, it actually enables you to be able to have a share sale where you could retain a portion of shares and still earn money when you're retired and not have to do a single thing. So yeah, I just think if we're not thinking about what the whole purpose is of our lives,
Danielle Lewis (29:26):
Then
Lou Barkle (29:27):
We are kind of just running on a hamster wheel hoping that we're going to get somewhere.
Danielle Lewis (29:31):
Yeah. Oh my God, I love that so much. It's just so important to talk about because I think, again, with social media, the majority of the conversation is coaches how to get a reel to go viral. Such short-term thinking there. This, are we all here building empires? What does our future look like? What is that succession? How is it here are your options. I've got to admit, if I reflected all of the content that I have consumed in the last month, none of it has been about long-term thinking. Perhaps there'd be some goal setting stuff, but that's about it.
Lou Barkle (30:07):
But even then, when I do goal setting with clients, we really only look at the 12 month goals because as women especially, we can't really think much further past there. We might have the whole schooling strategy picked out for our kids and what that looks like. But for ourselves, that's a whole different story. Usually we've got spicy brains and we like to move around a bit. So I don't do goal setting further than that, but I want to know what your ultimate goal is. Do you want to be off sailing a yacht and earning millions of dollars without doing anything? Cool. Let's
Danielle Lewis (30:38):
Figure out how we get there. Can I always like that one? I want that one.
Lou Barkle (30:41):
I just did one like that not that long ago for a client.
Danielle Lewis (30:43):
Oh my God, that's so cool. And I love it. This is why I love business, right? Because you can pick something crazy and make it happen.
Lou Barkle (30:52):
Yeah. Yes, exactly.
Danielle Lewis (30:55):
So cool.
Lou Barkle (30:55):
But you've got to know what that crazy is, right? You have to know the crazy.
Danielle Lewis (30:59):
Yeah, totally. Oh my God, I could talk to you all day, but I always love to wrap up these podcasts with one last piece of advice. So reflecting on your time in business, what would be a piece of advice that you would give to another woman on her business journey?
Lou Barkle (31:18):
So I did think about this and I prepared because I didn't want to be the Nike, just do it, although that's very helpful. But in business, you get to define your own success. You don't have to look at social media, you don't have to look at your friends. You don't have to look at someone else doing the same thing as you get to decide what success and freedom is. So just decide and make it happen. And that's my advice.
Danielle Lewis (31:42):
Oh my God, that is incredible. Lou, I think you are just amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your journey and all with us and your insights and your wisdom. I just know I got so much out of that. So everyone listening in will have as well.
Lou Barkle (31:59):
Thank you so much. This was so much fun.
Danielle Lewis (32:02):
That wraps another episode of Spark tv. Shout out to Spark TV sponsor IP Australia for their amazing support of the Spark Podcast and women in business. And if no one tells you today, you've got this.
✨ Thank you to IP Australia for supporting the SPARK podcast and women in business ✨
