Clarity Over Chaos: Smarter Business Funding | Sue Schuster

Welcome to Wickedly Branded: Marketing, Magic, and The Messy Middle, the podcast where real conversations meet real strategies. I'm your host, Beverly Cornell, founder and fairy godmother of brand clarity at Wickedly Branded. With over 25 years of experience, I’ve helped hundreds of entrepreneurs awaken their brand magic, attract the right people, and build businesses that light them up.

In this grounded and empowering episode, Sue Schuster, business coach and partnership lead at BizFi, shares how she went from building and selling a thriving swim school to helping entrepreneurs unlock funding, protect their personal credit, and grow businesses that actually let them sleep at night.

We talk business credit, financial confidence, values-led growth, relationship-driven visibility, and why clarity, not hustle or fear, has been the real catalyst behind Sue’s success. From navigating lonely leadership moments to redefining what smart funding really looks like, this conversation reframes money as a tool for freedom, not stress.

Three Key Marketing Topics Discussed:

Clarity That Builds Financial Confidence: Sue explains how understanding business credit and funding options gives entrepreneurs clarity, reduces fear, and creates room to make aligned growth decisions.

Relationship-Driven Visibility Over Hard Selling: We explore why networking, connection, and service-first conversations have been Sue’s most effective marketing strategy and how showing up human builds trust faster than pressure ever could.

Systems, Support, and Sustainable Growth: From partnerships to smart funding strategies, Sue shares how putting the right systems and support in place allows entrepreneurs to scale responsibly without burnout or sleepless nights.

Follow Sue: 

Sue | LinkedIn
BizFi.IO | Website

Dare to be Wickedly Branded

Transcript

Beverly: 0:11

Did you know that nearly 45% of small business owners are denied funding because they rely solely on personal credit? Today's guest helps entrepreneurs change that story by building corporate credit that creates freedom and not fear. I'm your host, Beverly Cornell. I am the founder and fairy godmother of brand Clarity here at Wickedly Branded, and we've helped hundreds of overwhelmed overachieving consultants, creatives, and coaches awaken their brand magic and boldly bring their marketing to life so that they feel more confident. We all need that and attract their absolute most favorite and profitable clients. And today I'm joined by Sue Schuster. She is the powerhouse behind BizFi, a business, coaching company that helps entrepreneurs unlock funding, accelerate profits, and grow. With more than 20 years of entrepreneurial experience she built and sold a successful swim school before turning her expertise toward helping business owners protect their personal credit and build true financial independence. Thank you so much for joining me today, Sue. Talk a little bit about how you started the business. Talk about the spark that started the businesses and how it's evolved over time.

Sue Schuster: 1:15

I was a PE teacher at the time, which was fun trying to find a new job when you have to move. The spark came from my mother, definitely a woman driven group we have over here, my mom started the swim school and then I was like, Hey, that's a great gig. You don't get to just be a PE teacher. I came on board like two, three months after we opened, and I took the company and skyrocketed it. So we had 600 kids a week each. That was a lot of kids when we start and you're like, what are our systems? What are we doing? then we grew that to almost 2000 kids a week before we sold. my experience as a. Entrepreneur all comes from the school of hard knocks. As a swim school, we built it, grew it and tried to figure it out while it was flying. All the regular things that us entrepreneurs do.

Beverly: 2:01

You jumped in the deep end, Sue.

Sue Schuster: 2:02

Don't we all do that? We all jump in thinking we know what's going on until we figure out that we don't and then we have to figure that out.

Beverly: 2:08

You think that just because you love something. Have a passion for something that it's gonna be a great business you don't think about all the systems and the things that happen and a lot of times you're building it on the fly. Was there a turning point that said, this is successful, did you realize that and were able to sell it?

Sue Schuster: 2:24

As we're growing the business, we're figuring out the systems. A child would come in thinking they're having a swim lesson. So you got a quick get in your suit. You're doing all the things. So not only are you learning your systems, and as we go into our business, whatever you do, your craft, you're great at that. Except being a business owner is a different skillset. And when you take your best salesperson and make'em head of sales, that's a different skillset. Now you're not selling, now you're teaching. Sometimes. What you think you're really good at and you think you can teach others sometimes you struggle and really learn. In some cases if you take your best salesperson and put'em in a new role, now you have a bad administrator and one less great salesperson. All of those things go into it. You have to learn on the fly be able to pivot and hopefully have somebody that you can talk to. Being the owner is lonely because you can't talk to the people that you employ because you lose credibility. And if you're the middle person in your business, you can't talk to the uppers because they think you're not capable of your job. So who do you talk to? So it's lonely wherever you look and you have to look outside your business sometimes, either at your spouse, a coach, or a close friend that can help you.

Beverly: 3:34

Marketing is one of the first vendors people hire, right? We oftentimes feel that at a deep level with our clients they have been carrying this for so long it's so hard and they felt very lonely in the process. And once somebody actually asks questions and helps'em get some clarity, and it's like this relief as deep sigh of ah, thank you, somebody gets it. We understand what you're faced with. I am also a coach, consultant, and creative. I've lived it and I think that is the lifesaver in the pool when somebody can say, Hey, I got you for a minute let me help you get this thing figured out so you can figure out other things in your business. We do a thing called a brand spark. It's like a 90 minute, deep dive in the beginning of our relationship with our clients. And, we say it's business therapy. I can't tell you how many times people have cried during it because they're just in need of support.

Sue Schuster: 4:29

I get that, on a different level with funding because they come to me and I love to have the people who are ready to scale and grow. Those people are easy. But I also get the ones who are not ready to scale and grow. They made a mistake and they're like, oh my God, if I had an extra 10,000, a hundred thousand dollars, I can sleep at night. And that's why I do what I do. I still am teaching people, I still am helping them. I'm still giving them a life skill. It's not, give them a fish, it's teach'em to fish.

Beverly: 4:57

I tell my clients to raise their prices once they have a new website and all that stuff. There's so much pushback on raising prices I have to break it down for them based on how I know them if you make more money you can support your community even better. There's so many things that happen when you do this for yourself.

Sue Schuster: 5:14

The program that we utilize, we can tell them, Hey, if you raise your prices by 3% and you lose this many clients out of how many they have, you're gonna break even. When you rated your prices, you might lose a few, but you didn't want them anyway.

Beverly: 5:27

This is so good, Sue, because they're always so afraid. This fear that takes over about, I'm gonna lose a client. And I'm like, if you lose them, they're probably not the perfect client for you anyway. They don't value you and what you have to offer. You recently transitioned from one business to a new business called BizFi. Talk about that transition a little bit.

Sue Schuster: 5:47

Being an athlete I always want to be part of a team. It's something I crave. Who I work with is important to me. I want to work with people I trust. I want to work with people who can challenge me and get me to the next level.'Cause you'd never wanna be the smartest person in the room. You wanna be surrounded by people who are smarter than you with different cultures, different ideas, different is good. I found I meshed better with the people of BizFi that I liked better, that I could follow, that paid. It just was a better match. I've transitioned, I'm still doing corporate credit, I'm still doing coaching. Bizfit.IO was already doing lending and well established in that space, and I really like you people. So that's why I made the transition and hanging my hat there.

Beverly: 6:29

Who do you serve? You talked a little bit about the people that you like to work with. What it's like to work with you and what you can provide to them?

Sue Schuster: 6:35

I'm gonna come at that from two angles. So I work a lot with sellers, people who sell things like equipment. Equipment financing is some of the easiest financing, obviously. Because now there's an asset. So whether it is, something on wheels, heavy machines trailers, trucks. I partner with the sellers and it makes it turnkey for them. As they're talking to their client, who's gonna buy something, they're like I don't have the money. Here, go click that button, and they'll set you up. So it's really just turnkey. We just put financing on their website and they click the button. That one's just transactional, not as much fun. But the one I really is I'm the head of partnerships at Bizfit io, and that means that I partner with coaches, consultants, fractionals, bookkeepers, accountants, anybody looking under the hood of their people. They're helping their clients, and when they're ready to scale and grow, like, all right, I need a new key employee. How do I get a key employee? We have to hire one. I don't have the money to hire them. Whenever that answer is, I don't have the money to change it, go down a different route because I need the cash flow to do that. Or hire somebody or get a different piece of equipment get out of some MCA loans. Or SBA loans. When I work with the coaches to help their clients, not only does it help their coach give some credibility. And sometimes when they have the big ticket offers, they're offering their coaching for 20, 30 grand and the people are like, I really want to, I really need to, but. I can help, as long as that business is solvent in over a year and all the little things, I can help that coach, we can help the clients when they're ready to scale and grow and the money is the roadblock. That's the two avenues I prefer. I'm the head of partnerships. I want to partner with coaches, consultants, fractionals to help their clients get where they really want to be.

Beverly: 8:18

If I have a client who needs to get a new website and their brand done to be able to be visible as an investment, it's their business. Is that something that you could help them finance

Sue Schuster: 8:28

as long as it's over$10,000? Yes.

Beverly: 8:31

Interesting. So even for our female founders who are listening who have a business and they have clients who might need potential funding, BizFi is an option. So many business owners don't understand this concept. It's an interesting way to do business that I think will allow you to grow. If you want to grow and get beyond where you are right now, this is a possibility. For sure, my coach really helped me see the light for that particular choice. And I've been able to grow this year. I've grown 30% using some of that. It can really make a big difference for sure.

Sue Schuster: 9:03

And I'll comment to this from the female point of view, we. Weren't quite taught money, although many of us are the heads of the household with money. I believe it's a school problem. Nobody was ever taught this in school. They don't know how to use life insurance. What is the stock market? How does that even work? They teach'em how to balance their checkbook. Who actually does that? Nowadays? Your computer does that. The whole concept of money is not taught in schools. Anybody who needs a business idea out there, make a curriculum for high schools. About all these things.'cause they need it, these kids need it.

Beverly: 9:33

There is a program, but I don't know if they do it in high school I am a volunteer for Junior Achievement. Have you heard of it? It is, elementary school and middle school. But they talk about taxes, government. When you start a business, inventory, it's all very business commerce related and how your community is connected through those things. Yeah, I never learned that in, in elementary school. That wasn't the thing. And so I helped teach it because it's really an entrepreneurship program for kids. It's a great program for your community and I loved, being a volunteer teacher for that. They are trying to do more of those kinds of things and I do know that they wanna get more girls into math and stuff like that, which would be great. My son is way more prepared than I ever was.

Sue Schuster: 10:15

My children as well. I can't even tell you how, just to go on the. Volunteer program. So I was a SCORE mentor. I did that for a while and then I got too busy with my own business.

Beverly: 10:24

Explain what SCORE is. Maybe some of my listeners don't know what SCORE is. It is a great program.

Sue Schuster: 10:27

Is a free mentorship program that is county led. You can look for your local score and they've got all kinds of, mentors who can help and webinars and all kinds of information that you can get. Now, keep in mind it is a free program. Some of the SCORE mentors will take you by the hand and help you write a business plan. They are gonna take you for an SBA loan. Because they don't have other types of loans. They'll walk you through the whole process. However, look at it like a free service.

Beverly: 10:55

If you don't have any place to start, there's great resources there. It's a great place to start, I feel For sure. They can even have a network of people. You mentioned networking and connecting.

Sue Schuster: 11:05

Yes.

Beverly: 11:06

It seems to be a big part of your growth specifically. I'm an introvert and I love these kinds of conversations, and I have two or three of them every single week. So I am intentionally connecting with people outside of my current network. But how do you navigate the pressure of showing up online and in person?

Sue Schuster: 11:23

The fun thing about being a swim school instructor person you see your kids and you see your families outside of the school. My joke would be, oh, you didn't recognize me with my clothes on. Super fun. That's the point of view I'm coming from in some networking events, if you are not into it, don't go because there's gonna be a new person there. If you are not into it or you're sick don't go take a look for the next time. For me, I've gotten to the point where if you know a million people but you don't know four, you really don't know anyone. Although my network is of course expanding every conversation I have, I put it in my Rolodex in my head or my spreadsheet, or my CRM after pretty much every phone call I will introduce them to three people. Who do you wanna know? How can I help you? You don't need funding right now? Okay, cool. How else can I help you grow your business or let you sleep at night so I'll connect them with three people, but I've got my, top 25. These are the people if I connect you with this person, I know they're gonna take care of you.

Beverly: 12:18

I literally love to connect and I do the same thing. Like I just connected one my clients to three different people that I thought you need to talk to these three people. I love that. And I genuinely care about people. I just don't do well with small talk. I think that's part of it. There's a lot to it. For a long time I just wanna do the work and not have to like, talk about it. I just wanted to do the work and not worry about it. When I talk to my clients now, when they first come to me and say I don't wanna do that because I don't know, we give them the elevator speech. We give them all the things they need to show up in a way that's very authentic to them. And that's half the battle too, is I don't wanna go and like spew sales puke on someone. I wanna go and connect. And so there's a lot of that they're worried about. Is there one tip or a way that you navigate that?

Sue Schuster: 13:02

For sure. When you go into a networking event, especially in person or even, I mean I'm in Montana, so there's not very many people, so there's not very well back in Pennsylvania I did a ton of them. And when you go in there with a mindset, I need to sell. I need to walk outta here with a contract. I need to sell. Yeah, you will. You will not only not sell, but you will not make friends either. No. Because nobody wants to hear that. No. Keep in mind, when you go to networking, everybody's there to sell. Nobody's there to buy. So when you go in with that mindset, I'm here to find some great people. Whether I can help them. I wanna give them value because I know something they don't know and they know something I don't know. So I wanna give value, whatever that means. And even if it's just a, Hey, you look pretty today. I'd love your hair or whatever. Just giving somebody a compliment. Your smile's great. I love your shoes. Hey, I heard you on the radio, that can build up somebody else. And just because you sell this, that, or the other thing.'cause we all do. But when you make a real connection. And it's not based on the thing that you're selling, there's the human inside. Yeah. That's really where it comes out. So if you're going with the mindset, I'm going to sell and I was not successful and I didn't sell, you will not be successful.

Beverly: 14:19

No, absolutely. I have a servit heart, not a seller's heart. So that is, I was go into it with that. The one thing that I think is a challenge for female founders specifically, and I'm not, I love men, so don't get me wrong. I'm married to a man. I have two boys. I have lived an experience as a female founder that I think is very valuable and valid. I do think sometimes the networking events are a bit of a bro approach, not necessarily, which is a little bit more a hard sell, not a relational connection. But really

Sue Schuster: 14:48

how success. I can't do the hard sales. I really can't. I can't either. And

Beverly: 14:50

that's one of the reasons why it's so hard for me to go is I don't wanna do that.

Sue Schuster: 14:54

The first question I ask myself is, what value am I bringing today? What tip am I gonna give everybody out there paying attention and I'm not just yelling into the window. What value can I can do now in their own business? That's the question I ask myself before every post. And occasionally I'm just like, this post I'm selling. But all the other posts, you should at least 20%,

Beverly: 15:14

you should be doing at least a clear call to action of what you want them to do, right? From a branding and marketing perspective. But 80% should be entertaining, informational, educational, authority building or positioning of social proof, things like that. All that should be part of that. You still need to ask for this. You're doing a business, but you can do it in a way that makes sense. For sure. I agree with you. So I have a magic hat round, it's got lots of questions. This is my version of the rapid fire lightning round. So the universe decide what the questions are gonna be. Okay. So the first question is, how do you want your customers to feel after working with you?

Sue Schuster: 15:50

Relaxed. In a space that I am okay with me and my business and I can sleep at night and I was successful at getting to the next level.

Beverly: 16:00

Have you ever thought about quitting and what pulled you back?

Sue Schuster: 16:03

Oh yeah. Somebody else's dime is usually better than my dime. Have I ever thought about quitting? Of course, but especially in this entrepreneurial space of coaching and whatnot where it's hard. If you give yourself a certain amount of time, like I gave myself a year. If I can't grow this business and get where I wanna be and feel like I'm getting distraction within a year, then I'm going to reevaluate. But there's some days that you're the windshield and other days you're the bug. And when you're the bug and you're just like, I've been hit so many times, what am I doing? How many times I gonna hit my head against the wall before I don't make a change? But you just keep going. And especially in this type of business being a consultant or a coach when you're trying to find new people, if you've made two or three really good connections or really good sales, we'll call it a sale in a month or a week, then you're doing fantastic. So you just have to set that right expectations. So that's what kind of pulls me back. I've been the business owner, had the employees, did all the things. I was I am tired of the buck stopping here. I want to eat dinner and not worry about the phone ringing that I have to pick up and run off to work. I don't wanna do that anymore. This is where I'm gonna be. And one of the big problems with being coach, consultant, other things is people do it as a interim. I'm out of work job, so it gives all of us a bad name. Are you gonna be around in two weeks, a month? There's a roundabout version.

Beverly: 17:28

One thing people overcomplicate about marketing that actually is really simple for you?

Sue Schuster: 17:32

In what way? When you talk to the person, sometimes when you're in the weeds, you can't see them. When you talk to somebody else and they keep asking you why it's the annoying 3-year-old why? When you ask enough whys, you actually get to the real answer. Why are you doing what you're doing? I wanna sell widgets. Why do you wanna sell the widgets? I use widgets. They're really good. And you just start going down the path and finding the message and the heart of why they're doing whatever they're doing. It's powerful for their direction their verbiage their mission. Everybody should have a mission statement. Huge fan of traction.

Beverly: 18:06

EOS company.

Sue Schuster: 18:07

Love them.

Beverly: 18:08

Yeah. Gino was our coach at one of the businesses I worked with. Gino the one who wrote Traction, was our coach.

Sue Schuster: 18:13

Suggested to me before COVID, I read the book. That's great. I did the book and then COVID happened and then I implemented a lot of the book. Not all of the book, but a lot of it. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Going with the E os coaches is better, but if you don't have that option, just go read the book. That's where it is finding your meaning and your message.'cause once you know what it is, then you can tell what it is when you don't know what it is, which is many of us. And in fact, me as a starting business coach, I have no idea. So I floundered and I had the wrong message talked to the wrong people, and didn't get anywhere. Surprise.

Beverly: 18:45

Yes.

Sue Schuster: 18:46

But then as I was growing and learning more and getting partnered with the right people and had a good base behind me, then the message got better. My resolve got better, my communication got better. So when somebody left a conversation, they weren't involved, like I don't know what she does.

Beverly: 19:02

If you've got clarity you can have confidence momentum and all kinds of things that come from that. Correct. Our brand Spark experiences essentially, that it's helping you get that clarity for your message and your mission core values the direction you wanna go and who you're talking to because sometimes when you're in it. You're too close to that message. It's so hard, i'm a creative person. I do this for a living. I help everybody else find their magic. It was really hard for me to find my own magic, when you're in it, it's just really hard. So my coaches helped me pull that out. Everybody who wants to be a high performer, who wants more results, who wants better success, who wants to have more control over their time and day and things like that, bring someone on to help you with that. That can be really freeing and liberating for yourself. So for sure,

Sue Schuster: 19:48

I agree with everything you

Beverly: 19:49

What's a common misconception about your industry that you'd love to debunk?

Sue Schuster: 19:53

Wow, there's a ton of places I can go with that. So I'm gonna talk about corporate credit first because I haven't much. Corporate credit is the ability to get credit on your EIN number and not personally or lessen the personal guarantees. Corporate just means EIN. EIN numbers have the ability to get sued. They can get into contracts, they can have bank accounts, they can get their own credit. So I teach people the ability to do that. Now, it is a longer runway. So if you think of yourself as an 18-year-old, you couldn't buy a house, you couldn't do all these things. You were just establishing credit by the time you were 19 years old, you weren't much better off than when you were 18 years old, even if you knew what you were doing. Businesses are different. Once they establish a good business and let Dun and Bradstreet, Experian and Equifax know they exist, they start getting vendor lines. Banks that report credit cards, that actually report things that actually report. And there's a whole list that aren't only about 5% of the things are reporting. So I teach people how to do that, and they just wanna go right to the vendors. I just want my stuff. The Secretary of State doesn't really know. It says you're a lawyer, but you sell widgets. So that doesn't work. And the addresses are in 12 different places that is a misconception. Then you can go for vendor lines to try to establish your corporate credit, I can teach people and guide them through that.'Cause then you can get trade lines of credit that are literally on your business and not on your house.

Beverly: 21:14

Yep.

Sue Schuster: 21:14

That's a cool thing. The other thing is that, that is bad. That is not always bad.

Beverly: 21:19

Right.

Sue Schuster: 21:19

We've already talked about that a bit. The problem with that world is there's all kinds of people who want your money and they don't care. They don't care if they put you into debt that you will never get out of. They don't care if you lose your house. But they got a commission so they're happy. And they go for the win-lose.

Beverly: 22:45

I feel like that gives everybody in your industry a bad name there are people who just slap up a website and don't do the work they don't do the SEO or they don't create like the way it's supposed to be structured in the backend. And they don't do those things for the clients.'cause the clients don't know what they don't know. And they take advantage of that. That hurts my heart because it doesn't have to be that way it can be good. I feel like there's probably the same situation for you. Oh, for sure. Honey.

Sue Schuster: 23:07

A fire can warm your house and burn it down.

Beverly: 23:10

Right.

Sue Schuster: 23:11

So

Beverly: 23:11

guess that's

Sue Schuster: 23:11

Any industry, I

Beverly: 23:12

That's a great analogy. It can warm your house or burn it down.

Sue Schuster: 23:15

You got the people who are doing plastic surgery. There's great people and there's bad people. I think that's in every industry. So you just have to vet who you're talking to.

Beverly: 23:23

That's why I tell my clients all the time, social proof is so important showing the stories of how you've helped people in their own words. I use video, my clients talk in video because it's not you just saying I'm great, it's everybody else saying what their experience has been like for you. So it's how to differentiate in a world where it can be a little challenging sometimes that was my last question in the magic hot round. But because I'm the fairy godmother of brand clarity. I also have a wand.

Sue Schuster: 23:46

Oh,

Beverly: 23:46

of course part of the wand. It can take us back. In time and forward in time. And so I'm going to wave the one and we're going to go back to Sue when she just started, working with the swimming business. What advice would you give her?

Sue Schuster: 24:01

Careful who you partner with. So I was partnered with my family to begin with and then that was challenging because you partner with your family and you go to Christmas and you still talk shop if you work with your folks. As a parent, I look at my children differently than, and they're 21 and soon to be 19. I look at them as my children. But I'll look at another 21-year-old, 18, 19-year-old. Completely different. Oh, they're capable. So when you're like 40 and dealing with your folks they're still looking at you like their kid. Which is challenging, but I partnered with somebody else that I thought was going to take me to the next level and legally was a co-owner with them it didn't work out. So my tip to you guys is be very careful who you partner with when you're looking for equity in your company. You're starting out and you're like, I need some private investors. I need some equity, I need some money. You're also giving away your company. Yeah. So Uber. Careful with that. If you can get away with a loan and keep your company,

Beverly: 25:06

do that,

Sue Schuster: 25:06

So I would say if you're exiting your company, just exit it. Don't hold on. cause then you might be in a lawsuit two years old and going nowhere

Beverly: 25:17

sad. So sad. What would she think of you now that young Sue and where you are now?

Sue Schuster: 25:22

I think she'd be proud of me. I hope she would be. My kids are proud of me. I'll go with that. Yeah. My kids. Both are doing excellent. And they're both in college. In some questions I ask them like the Duluth commercials online. With the training pants somebody thought that was a good idea. They had a whole group of somebody else's thought. That was a good idea. Yes. Then we go and make the, so it goes through a ton of people to come with this product. Why is the traffic light, red, yellow, and green? Somebody came up with that and that's a different concept. Why are we Americans? Because, somebody came up with that. Just making everything human

Beverly: 25:57

Yes.

Sue Schuster: 25:58

And somebody's idea is actually really empowering. Yes. Because then you can be like, Hey, somebody came up with that. They could have been right or wrong, and now we need to change and pivot. Another example of that is my child was very into gymnastics and the coach and her were not getting along. So she did a back walk over and her toes weren't pointed and she got yelled at and then she did another back walk over and toes weren't pointed and she got yelled at the coach said, if you do it again like that, you're climbing the rope. So she did it again and it didn't, she said, go climb the rope. And my 8-year-old, had to sit in. She's no, you're wrong. I'm trying my best and you're punishing me for trying my best. So she had to sit in and I was witnessing this entire thing as my 8-year-old is now toe. To toe with her coach. That was pretty much the end of gymnastics, but that's okay. Gymnastics is a great start. Bad finish. Can teach you all kinds of things. Male, female. Yes. But she learned at that point that even adults can make mistakes and have poor judgment. And so now it just empowered her to be like, Hey, let's step back and look at this. Is this the right place? Are we acting appropriately? Is this what's supposed to be going on?

Beverly: 27:02

Agency, which is nice sometimes my 10-year-old has too much agency with my husband though.

Sue Schuster: 27:07

You learn to navigate my coach in high school, a ton of sports. I think sports teaches you life he gave me a little note as a freshman in high school and he said, humility. That was the note. Just, the word humility I was like, I don't know what that is. Okay, fine. So I went back and looked it up, so I looked it up and was like, oh. Let's self-reflect here for a second. I'm being a schmuck. People will guide you, maybe not nicely all the time, but if you lose, this just happened.

Beverly: 27:35

This just happened with my 10-year-old. He was playing tackle football for the first year, and he's played three years of flag football and did really well. Tackle's just harder. His coach sidelined him for a whole game. He played one play maybe, and the team won their first game without him, he came off and was like, I didn't get to play. I was like, but your team won. And he was like. I didn't get to play. And I said, but your team won. And I wouldn't let him sit in this selfish space of your coach knows what needs to happen in the moment and whatever your coach decides is what you need to be okay with. And when your team is doing well, do you cheer them or do you pout because you're not doing the thing? Maybe next time you get to do the thing and they're cheering for you. He was spoiled because he was doing the touchdowns when flag football and it was a really good moment of humbleness that he needed to understand. And the next game, he played a lot more and did really well and he got some of the cheers, but they lost and he was still upset. Every single game is an opportunity to learn, is an opportunity to grow, is an opportunity to understand. But they only lost by two. Their defense was amazing. You guys played the best game you've ever played. I know you didn't win, but do you realize how you stopped a team that walked all over you the first round? This was a great game. He is learning all those things now, which makes you a better team player as an adult, so you're totally right. I was a dancer, I learned it from my dance teacher and as a group and the recitals and all the things it was a little bit different, but it is a sport you do together with other people and you get feedback all the time.

Sue Schuster: 29:11

I was talking to my HR when I was at the swim school he did all his masters and all that stuff he's either be heavily involved in sport, doesn't matter the sport. Or get your PhD in psychology they get to the same place. Some sports are really expensive. Ice hockey. Ridiculous. Yes. A anyway, yeah, you can do either way, but a huge proponent of sport.

Beverly: 29:29

Yeah, I agree with you. Sports is really a really good thing for kids. He's essentially only a child being 10 years younger than his older brother. And I think he needs that far more. Especially being a COVID kid. He was a kindergartner in COVID and they are a little bit more feral because they didn't get the time together with other children for almost two years. I know. At a very important critical time of development, by the way. So yes, it's very interesting. But I'm gonna wave my wine and we're gonna go far in the future. We're gonna be at your funeral and someone's gonna give you eulogy. And what are they gonna say has been your biggest impact through your work? What are they gonna talk about?

Sue Schuster: 30:06

That's a tough one because although I love helping people and I love work, I think definitely it's going to be my children and their legacy. That's always been the focus for me anyway. Their first work would be second and then husband would be third. It's the same here.

Beverly: 30:24

Has your work impacted the girl or your kids hugely. How is it filtered through them

Sue Schuster: 30:29

so my mother and I, and even my grandmother, definitely outgoing, smart women who really drove their way into their business and made a mark. I've taught almost thousands of kids to swim. That's gonna go on in their family. So not only does a kid know how to swim, but now the kid's kid is gonna know to swim saving lives that way is, I can't even tell you in the 18, 19 years we were there, just the stories on how we were saving people's lives outside of the swim school. So that's huge. But my children, just the way they were brought up. They're not scared. I know they're gonna be very successful women'cause they're girls in their whatever they choose to be. I think they can also empower other people. I love to empower women and it's not exactly how I'm affecting them directly. But either a nugget I gave them, or even just a outlook or Hey, this is gonna be okay. And just'cause you're a woman or in this situation now doesn't mean that will be your thing. When I was a teenager growing up, I had one teacher who said, I'm gonna work for you someday. It's like fifth grade. It was fifth grade. And I was like, okay. He was working for me. Yeah. You don't know where you're gonna be. I'm a proud owner of an excavator. Who thought that would be a thing. So you just keep going and keep your head up and keep going the route you're going take a left. Sometimes that's a good idea. And just keep going and don't get bogged down in the, oh, this sucks. Because maybe it does, but it won't forever.

Beverly: 32:08

It won't forever. And it's probably teaching you something you need to learn.

Sue Schuster: 32:11

Yeah. Failures are not failures. They're opportunities to learn. But when you're in the failure or the low place it sucks.

Beverly: 32:18

It's so hard. It is so hard. Failure and fear. Your two biggest teachers always.

Sue Schuster: 32:24

Okay. Says the person who's not going out and networking. I am just not very

Beverly: 32:29

I feel attacked. No. It's so true though. And when I have a conversation about it, it makes me go and do it. So it's always good. I am willing to have a chat about it because I do know it's something that I carry with me for sure. Absolutely. 100%.

Sue Schuster: 32:44

I got a gal who can help.

Beverly: 32:45

I'm gonna wave my wand again and I'm going to take us back to present time. Okay. And because it is a magical wand and I do branding and marketing, is there one thing for your branding and marketing that I could wave my magical wand on right now to fix what's one thing you're struggling with right now that I may be able to fix for you?

Sue Schuster: 33:03

I am having a great time connecting with coaches, consultants, all the people. In the networking groups. It's a little bit harder to get to the clients.

Beverly: 33:11

In what way?

Sue Schuster: 33:11

They're not, sometimes they're looking for money or sometimes they're so scared that they're not looking for money. And then they just latch onto the first thing they say. They don't actually go shopping around. So I want them to know that I'm out there even when they're not looking. You have to get in front of them. This is perfect.

Beverly: 33:28

This is perfect. These kinds of things.

Sue Schuster: 33:30

Yeah. So that's where it is. I wanna help the clients and I love the coaches and I help them all the time, but I'd like to go a little bit more to the clients and work directly with them.

Beverly: 33:39

Do you have social proof related to that? Do you have videos and testimonials, things like that? Do you have a bank of them? I could grow it as always, so I would really lean more into the client side of it. Getting as much as you can. One thing that I teach with my clients is you get your testimonial right when they're the happiest. So as soon as you deliver the thing, you're on a video call, you record it on Zoom, edit it later. You don't even say you're getting a testimony. You'll say, how are you doing? You get all the feedback and then you say, can I use this as a testimonial? They're like, totally. Now they're not overthinking it and having to say some eloquent phrase and you're able to get their true reaction, which is Wonderful. One thing that I might do if I was you, is on those calls when they're the happiest, when you deliver that line of credit or whatever it is make sure you have a follow-up call with them zoom it and record it say, do you have any questions? When you came to me you wanted this and now we have this, how are you feeling? Have them talk about it. Then use that clip in your content, on your landing page, in your email newsletters to help people see the story that will connect with them

Sue Schuster: 34:44

that.

Beverly: 34:44

So awesome. Done waving the wand and giving some magical marketing advice. Sue, the last question is, what does it mean to be wickedly branded to you? How do you show up Wickedly branded and what advice would you give our listeners to be more wickedly branded?

Sue Schuster: 35:00

To be wickedly branded is to have clarity in what you're saying and clarity in who you're talking to. Who is your brand? So I'm sure Beverly can help. You would be wickedly branded and yeah, it really makes a huge difference. Branding can grow your company like no other.

Beverly: 35:19

Absolutely. Being clear in your messaging, who you are, who you serve, and the transformation you offer, for your business is incredibly powerful, to talk about and to connect with people who need it the most. Clarity is huge. I love it. Sue, where can our listeners connect with you and learn more about Biz Fi and all the things you can offer related to Monday funding and money Monday.

Sue Schuster: 35:43

My name, I'm a tongue twister. Best place to find me is actually on LinkedIn. Okay. I did throw another name in there. So it's Sue Pantano Schuster. The other way is email, which is sue at biz BIZF i.io. I live on email.

Beverly: 36:00

Perfect. Thank you so much, Sue for joining us today. We appreciate you.

Sue Schuster: 36:04

Thank you.

Beverly: 36:05

To my listeners. I hope today's episode helped you see money and credit and finance a little different and gave you some new ideas and opportunities, but most of all maybe inspired you to take action, take a step, maybe follow Sue on LinkedIn, or maybe do some shopping for some credit opportunities, out there because there are options for you. Your message matters. Your business matters, your work matters, and the world needs to hear what you have to say and share with the world. So marketing and branding isn't just about visibility, it's about the impact that you can make. It's about the connecting with the right people in the way that feels true to you. Just like what Sue said about connecting with the clients and getting to the people who really need the help. I want you to keep showing up. Keep sharing your brilliance and keep making magic in the world. If you ever feel stuck. You don't have to do this alone. You can ask for help from Sue, you can ask for help from me. We are here to help you turn your spark into a wildfire. But until next time, I always dare you to be wickedly branded.