Ep #318: How I Solved…Running a Business Living in Two Countries

Stacey Brown Randall: This is our final episode in the summer series as we have been talking to business owners about how they solved a pressing problem in their business that was out of their zone of genius. Meaning they had to figure it out.

For our final episode, we’re going to focus on solving something I consider to be more of a dream to solve versus a problem to solve. Let’s get to it.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 318 of the Roadmap to Referrals podcast, a show about helping you build a referable business. I am your host, Stacey Brown Randall. My journey from a business failure to a successful business now 10 years in, I know generating referrals naturally and consistently has made all the difference. Working with clients around the world, we leverage the science of referrals, protect relationships above all else, and help you build a referable business.

Oh my goodness, am I so excited to introduce you to Sheila M. Wilkinson. This is going to be a fun, dreamy conversation. Sheila is actually going to be talking to us about how she solved the problem. I mean, really, is it a problem? I just don’t think it’s a problem. But about how she solved the problem of running a business while living in two countries.

It’s so fun to listen to her talk about how she splits her time between living in New Orleans and living in Brussels. Yep, so living in the States and then living in Europe. So I am very excited for us to dive into this conversation.

Now, I’m going to first have Sheila, as I’ve done with all of our guests, tell you a little bit about her and the work that she does. Because she was like made to live in these two countries and figure out how to run a business. Because it is a lot about what she talks about from a boundaries perspective. And you’ll hear us talk about that.

But the tactics of figuring out time zone changes and dealing and communicating that to clients and the type of work that she would do and all the tactical operational pieces that come into place is one of the things that we are going to talk a lot about in this episode. So I’m excited for you to hear it.

So if you’ve ever thought, I maybe want to live in another country while still running my business or maybe come back and forth, between the states and somewhere else and run my business while I’m doing it, this is a must listen to episode.

And if you’ve never thought about it, but it sounds really cool, well, then this is a must listen to episode because who knows? Right? Who knows what will pop up for you and what will percolate in your mind as you listen to this conversation that Sheila and I have. So let’s get to it.

Stacey Brown Randall: Sheila, I am so excited to have you on the podcast for this episode. I got to tell you, what we are about to dig into and dive into is extremely intriguing for me. And it’s not, it’s one I think that for me personally, I feel like is around me more and more than it’s ever been before. So I cannot wait for us to dig into this.

But before we start talking about the problem and then how you solved it, why don’t you share with my audience just a little bit about like what you do, what your business is so they can also learn a little bit about what you do and who you work with.

Sheila M. Wilkinson: Sure. So, hi everybody. I’m Sheila. I work with professionals and business owners who struggle with three main things. They struggle with making aligned decisions. They struggle with resetting expectations with everyone around them about what can be expected from them, including themselves. And I help them to set boundaries.

To help them to set the boundaries, not just saying no, but saying what they can do, what they want to do, what they will do, what they will not do. And so that they can have those boundaries that will actually stick. So that’s the main piece of what I’m doing on a day-to-day basis.

From a title perspective, I’m an attorney, but I’m also a coach and a consultant and educator. I’m a speaker. But those are really the three main things that I’m helping people with on a day-to-day basis.

Stacey Brown Randall: Awesome. All good things that we could probably have another whole episode about because I’m really big on, I love me some boundaries. Boundaries make the world go round and they make me very, very happy.

But that’s not what we’re talking about here today. Well, we’re talking about, I guess, about boundaries and a completely different sense. Right? I mean, yeah, it’s a different sense.

Okay. As most people who’ve been listening to the series on the podcast, they kind of have figured out that we have a structure to how we talk about, like, what’s the problem? How long is it a problem? Why did you decide to solve it? And then how did you solve that problem?

But this isn’t like, I mean, this is a problem and I’m using air quotes that no one can see because I feel like this is a good problem to have. Most of the time we’ve been talking about like bad problems, like things I really need to solve because they’re creating stress or there means I’m not getting something done. And this is totally different.

So this is about learning how to live and run your business when you’re living on two different continents, which are two different boundaries from that perspective. So why don’t I have you kind of dig in to really explain the problem.

Like, how did this start for you to make the decision, you guys, you and your husband wanted to live in two different countries and kind of just talk about that problem. I know I am using “problem”, it’s kind of an issue for me with this one.

Sheila M. Wilkinson: Opportunity.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yes. I love it, this opportunity. But like talk about the decision to, I think what my listeners need to hear, and what I think I would like to hear is the, why did you decide you wanted to live in two different countries? And then we’ll get into the, okay, now how in the world do you actually do that? So can you, can we kind of start with the, what led to this decision for you guys to make that choice?

Sheila M. Wilkinson: Sure. Absolutely. So when I, I’ll give you the short version. So when I was a kid, my parents passed away. My dad died when I was 12 and my mom when I was 16. And I raised my sister, who is eight years younger than I am. And so I always work full time, went to school full time, did all the things that I was supposed to do.

I got the good grades. I went to the good school. I got all the degrees. I checked all the boxes. And then Hurricane Katrina came. I live here in New Orleans and I’m currently in New Orleans right now, but heading off to Brussels soon, which we’re going to talk about.

And it wasn’t until Katrina, when my sister turned 18 and I was finishing grad school that I said, okay, I want to go to law school. And I did my master’s in social work and then said, okay, I’m going to go to law school.

And during law school, I didn’t have anybody else to be responsible for but myself. And it was pretty amazing to not have somebody else that I was responsible for. And so I studied abroad.

I did Vienna one summer, Vienna and Prague the next summer, I did Budapest, and then I did an EU seminar tour. And the EU seminar tour, the European Union tour, basically, we went to Brussels, we went to Luxembourg, we went to Strasbourg, and we went to Paris.

And when I was in Brussels, it was December 10th, 2008. I remember it like it was yesterday. And I was sitting in the White and Case conference room, this huge international law firm in Brussels. And I just kind of looked around and I said, you know what? I really love being in Europe. Like, I want to make this happen. This is going to happen.

And I said, all right, I said to myself, five years from now, and I’m still sitting in the conference room, right, with all my friends, my colleagues and lawyers all around me. And I was like, saying to myself, I said, okay, five years from now, I’m going to be in Europe full time. And it’s either going to be full time working or full time going back to school.

And so from that moment forward, I made this commitment to myself. And every single step that I made going towards, you know, going forward was going towards that goal. And so that meant leaving the multimillion-dollar law firm that I had built from scratch because the partner that I was working with, the managing partner, wasn’t on board with what I wanted with my life, even though I’d built this multimillion-dollar law firm together.

And I just made I made the decision in that moment, but because it felt good. Right? And at that point, I hadn’t even met my husband at that point when I realized that this was something that I could do.

And yeah, so I made the decision and then I said, okay, well, what do I need to do to make that happen. And I started to create all of the structures in my life that would allow me to start shifting away from the quote unquote traditional way of being, you know, a butt in a seat doing the work to being able to live on two continents.

And so for me, it really kind of turned into really just taking the next right step, the next baby step that needed to be taken to make things happen. And so by 2011, so about three years later, and I could have done this in two years, but I chose five because it felt good.

It felt like it was enough time, but not too much time, because I knew that there were things that needed to happen in my life and in work and in saving money and setting up the financial structures and those sorts of things that needed to happen and that just takes time.

And since I’d already been abroad and lived abroad while I studied abroad for two, three, four months at a time, I knew kind of what I was going to get ….. done it alone. So even though I was studying abroad, I didn’t bring anybody with me. I was with my friends, my colleagues in class, but I wasn’t actually, I was living on my own, feeding myself, you know, those sorts of things.

And so it was the first time I’d ever been on my own ever in my whole life and only responsible for me. And it was pretty amazing. And so that just really emboldened me to say, okay, this is what I want.

And more than just being alone, but knowing that I could do it for myself and that I had the strength and I had the wherewithal and I had the ability to do the thing that I actually wanted to do because I’d done all of these other things that I thought that I was supposed to do all that time, right? Like I’d followed this path that led me to the place of, okay, I’m gonna live on two continents.

Stacey Brown Randall: I think that is like, So I didn’t know that story, which I think is really cool in terms of like what your childhood was like and then what your early adulthood was like and raising your sister and then making these choices to do things differently because of what your life had been.

And I think it’s such a beautiful story in terms of really paying attention to like, and we talk about this a lot, like really thinking through like, what is it that I ultimately want, and what does that look like? And for some people, it’s big plans and for other ones, it’s like small plans. And a lot of times it has everything to do with what we’ve experienced in the first 20 something years of our life as to what we want on the back, you know, decades that we’re going to have.

Okay, so you make this decision, I’m going to be operating on two continents. And I have heard about like, I have, there’s somebody in a group that I’m in that like moved his whole family, like two elementary, I believe they’re elementary-aged kids, he and his wife and they moved to like Spain. And I find that fascinating because I’m like, oh my gosh, I would love to do that.

Now, my children are in high school. That is not the time you do something like that. Particularly if one’s like playing high school ball, that is something that they probably would never forgive you for. I’m sure. So from that perspective…

Sheila M. Wilkinson: You never know. You never know.

Stacey Brown Randall: There’s some truth there. But with that being said, so I’m hearing about this more and more, and I have another client who’s actually, I have one who spends a lot of time in France, in Paris throughout each year.

I have another client that is actually moving. I can’t remember where she’s moving in Europe, but I am surrounded with this more. I’m like, I feel like God’s universe is like, hey, just keep in mind. Hey, just keep in mind.

But regardless, this does create issues, right? This does create challenges about living in two places where there are different time zones, right? It’s not just like, hey, I live part of the time on the West Coast and part of the time on the East Coast.

Sheila M. Wilkinson: It’s just a couple hours, right?

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah. No big deal. Like this is like, there’s travel, there’s balancing those time zones. There is figuring out how to work with clients that are back in the States when you’re in Europe and vice versa.

So there’s a lot of concerns or issues and just things you have to deal with, right? That kind of come up. So how long would you say that until you got this like locked and loaded, like this is the rhythm, this is the routine, how long would you say that this need to solve this living on two continents kind of took for you to get it all fully panned out?

Stacey Brown Randall: Hey there, pardon the interruption. I hope that you’re enjoying our business series this summer focused on having extraordinary business owners talk about how they solved problems in their business that they didn’t know how to solve because it was out of their zone of genius. Don’t worry, we’ll be back on our topic of referrals when we wrap up this summer series.

Speaking of referrals, though, it is crazy to think that you could be just 90 days away from starting to double, triple, or quadruple your referrals. The roadmap and the support plus the accountability that you need, it’s just waiting on you. It’s all inside my coaching program, Building a Referable Business, which we call BRB for short.

Just go to StaceyBrownRandall.com/referable to learn about the program. And then if you’re interested, click on the link to submit your application. I personally review all applications and I’ll let you know if you’re a fit for the program. Then you can learn more and make your decision. Alright. Now back to the episode.

Sheila M. Wilkinson: Sure. Well, that’s a great question, obviously, because I think we think, oh, it’ll be so easy, and it takes time. I would say that it probably took me close to two years to get it fully panned out exactly where everything is just smooth sailing.

But because I’d already been in Brussels, because I already had some space there, one of the things that I did not mention is that in the five-year plan of saying, okay, I’m going to be in Brussels full-time working or going back to school, I decided to go back to school. I went and got a Master of Law in international and European business law.

And when I did that, I did that on a student visa, right? And that takes time to do that. to get the visa, right? And then once you’re there, you have the visa. And then it was a matter of, okay, what do I need to do to actually stay?

So the actual stay is what took about two years to get it fully planned out. Because I’d been living in Europe, you know, for a couple of years prior to that. And once I made the decision, I was going back and forth pretty regularly. So that way I could figure out where I wanted to live, who I, you know, what neighborhoods did I want to live in, you know, the kind of get a feel for the space before I actually did it.

And so it took about two years to get it fully panned out, but that included doing an advanced law program and converting my student visa to a work visa. And I actually had a Belgian enterprise. I opened a Belgian company, which allowed me then to have that residency. So it took about two years to get it fully panned out, I’d say.

Stacey Brown Randall: How long would you say though, that it took you to like get those systems and structures in place in terms of like, hey, for the, like the next year or six months or four months or whatever the time zone, I’m in this time zone and I’m operating this way. Like talk about like, okay. So for me, what really gets me all excited and I kind of get like really into is really understanding how you made the tactical work.

Sheila M. Wilkinson: Sure. Yeah, I’d still say it was in that two years, right? Because it was the having the residency, and then really shifting, because at that point, I was still litigating. So I didn’t stop litigating till about 2017.

And so a big part of that decision was about, okay, who are the who are the kinds of people I want to work with? What are the kinds of projects that I need? What’s the pay that I need, right, the clients, the compensation, the cases. And that took time to let clients go and to attract the kinds of clients that believed in me and trusted me that they didn’t need to be seeing my butt in a seat in front of them across the table, right?

And so I’m not really sure if it was ever like a decision that I needed to like, quote unquote, solve something, right? It’s that I was living the experiment of being in the moment and being very clear, and this is one of the reasons why boundaries, expectations and decisions are my three things. These are my jam, right?

Because I had to reset boundaries with everyone. I had to reset expectations with everyone, my clients, the people, my friends, family, whatever. And then continue to make decisions based on what was in front of me and tech now versus tech then. And so it was kind of digital nomadism, you know, before it was such a thing.

And so all of the tech that goes with that, a lot of it was just, you know, just honestly saying, okay, is this going to work? Let me do the research. Okay, let me ask some people who know what’s going on. Let me ask somebody who also lives abroad and or also is doing, you know, kind of this digital nomad slash, you know, who’s also working remotely.

What’s the tech I need and how can I do it as simply and smoothly and streamlined as possible? And that takes time to know what works and what doesn’t work for you. So like my processes work for me, but that doesn’t necessarily mean my processes are going to work for someone else. You have to figure out what processes work for you, right?

And so having those processes, when I say, you know, like time zones, you mentioned time zones. Well, now I have a two-parter day. So we wake up in the morning and we work for about three or four hours. Then we have about four hours off while everybody here in America is starting to wake up. We do all of our really focused work in the morning before anybody wakes up.

Then we have a couple of hours as people are waking up and processing what we’ve sent to them. And then we work for another three, four, or five hours in the afternoon and into the evening that then we can be present with the people, you know, quote unquote present, right, on the computer virtually, with people to kind of put that stuff into place.

So I’d still say that it took a couple of years to really make things smooth and streamlined, but it wasn’t just throwing something against the wall and, you know, hoping the spaghetti sticks.

It was doing the research, asking people what works for them, what resources that they have, and then trying them, trying the tools and then saying, okay, this works, this doesn’t work, this is how I would tweak that. And then constant incremental improvement and tweaking. Yeah, so it takes time.

Stacey Brown Randall: When you are dealing like, so you’re there, it’s within those first two years, as you’re figuring everything out, as you’re trying to figure out how you’re going to like bifurcate your day and what that looks like, depending on where you are, and kind of managing that. What kind of communication did you do with your clients that were kind of like living the experiment with you because they were a client with you during those two years?

Sheila M. Wilkinson: Yeah, well, a big part of it first was saying to them, Hi, I love you. You have been my client for a long time, and I appreciate your trust. And this is, we’re entering a new chapter of my professional and personal life.

This is what is going to happen going forward. I’m going to be only in New Orleans, you know, two or three months out of the year. If you need me to continue being with you once a month or, you know, every other week to meet with you in your office, go and I’ll give you some recommendations to another attorney, to another consultant.

Really just saying, this is what’s happening, and then giving them the choice of, do you want to stay with me, even though you’re not going to see me sitting across your table? Or can we keep working together? What does that look like?

And if they didn’t want that, that was fine. I would say that I transitioned out about, I don’t know, close to 20, 25 legal clients. All of my consulting clients stayed, all of my coaching clients stayed because they were like, that’s fine. I’ll keep talking to you on the computer. It’s not a problem, Sheila.

And those who really valued my way of believing that we can have the life that we want to have, and we can build a life that we want to have, those clients were already aligned. So it was a no-brainer for them.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah, I think about that like in a small microcosm of that, not like that’s a big one, like I’m now living on two continents. But I think about that when I changed almost four years ago, like how I work with clients and what that looks like.

And for some, it was like, we’ve been waiting on this, like what took you so long? And for others, it was like, wait, I’m used to you being in this one box that I’ve put you in. Right. And this is how I work with you. And this is what it’s going to look like. And now you’re changing the box and that’s not going to work for me, which is the reality, right?

Like some clients are like, what took you so long? The other clients are like, I think it’s time for us to like not work together anymore. And it’s all right. And I think there’s a level of competence that you have to have that what you’re creating is the right thing for you.

I mean, for me, it was just how I worked with my clients. So there had to be a piece of, well, my clients get better value, right? And we’ll have better success because of the new model that I’m creating. In addition to that’s how I want to show up.

And I think when you have those pieces in place, it’s always a win-win, even though it may not look the way somebody else wants it to look. But I think when you’re making these big shifts and changes from a like life perspective as well, I think there’s just a little bit more, obviously, that goes into it.

And then just trying to get other folks, it’s like giving them a minute just to wrap their head around it. And then I would imagine you found most of the time people are like, oh, that’s really cool. That gives me hope to know that I can do that one day as well.

Sheila M. Wilkinson: Well, and that’s exactly it. The people who wanted to also have this kind of quality of life, stayed. Of course they did. Right? Because they’re like, okay, but I’m here along for the ride. I want to also support you. And also, when I’m ready to make this shift, when I’m ready to make this change, then like, I want to have you in my fold. I want to know that you’re there and I can ask you those questions.

And it’s not to say that those other clients weren’t aligned. They were amazing clients. They were some of my earliest clients that I’d had for over a decade. However, they just needed me to be there at their table with them.

And I still talk to them. I still meet with them. I still have coffee and those sorts of things with them. I just don’t serve them in a professional capacity anymore, right?

But instead of just saying, okay, this is my decision, my autonomy, and you just have to do what I say, it’s, hey, this is my decision. Let me know what works best for you. And then they get to make their informed decision.

But the thing is, which is actually funny, is that when I’m in Brussels, you get more communication from me, you’re going to get more communication from me, probably, than when I’m currently in New Orleans.

Because when I’m in New Orleans, we have our regular calls. But when I’m abroad, I’m doing Loom videos, right? And I’m like, hey, you know, I remember you emailed me about this thing the other day, and I said this, this and this. And I’ve been thinking about this.

I woke up this morning and it’s three o’clock in the morning. I don’t want to, you know, call you at three o’clock in the morning, but I want to let you know, this is what I’m thinking, blah, blah, blah.

And then they, when they wake up, they have this video from me, and it doesn’t feel like I’m gone. It feels like I’m closer to them. And so I’m an early adopter in this way. I will happily try something. And if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. I let it go. I don’t hold on to things just because I’ve paid for it or whatever.

And I think that that helps me to serve them better by also creating the space that I need for my brain to process the things so that they get the information when it’s convenient for them as well, instead of saying, okay, we are going to meet on Tuesday at 10 o’clock and that’s how it’s going to be. You know, it’s a more flexible way of living.

And I think to expect that people are always going to show up at a certain time on a certain day and it’s, it can be too rigid. And not everybody can handle flow like that.

And I think that big part of that communication was really about what does that look like? What does it look like for them? How do they want to be served? And how do I want to serve them? And how do I want to serve myself first?

Because when I take care of myself and I take care of how I structure my own days for my own personal health, my physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, overall health, then I can show up and serve them better. And being in New Orleans full time is just, I mean, I get an itch. It’s like six weeks. I’m like, let’s go. Why am I here? We got to get out of here.

Stacey Brown Randall: You’re like, it’s time to get moving. And you can just pick up and go because you have all those processes and where am I going? Where am I living? And all those things kind of mapped out, which I think is great.

And, you know, you said something earlier about when you kind of created this model and the boundaries were in place, but the structure and the flow looked different.

It made me think about when I made the shift to just how I work with my clients, particularly within my coaching program, that the idea behind the coaching program is that we have a weekly, like one hour office hour, you know, not every single week, obviously I take vacations and travel and things like that, but pretty regularly on a monthly basis, they’re going to have like two or at least usually three Q&A calls with me every month.

And when I created that boundary of like, this is when I’m going to get on and answer your questions. And I created that boundary. And then some other things were put into place. I found myself being actually more responsive because I knew when I would be working and when I wouldn’t be working. And I knew what that looked like.

And I had those, and there’s some other boundaries that were in place to make this work. And so I found myself, like it used to be when you email me, I’ll hold your email and then answer your question on the next Q&A call, which I do for the benefit of everyone to hear the answer.

But most of the time it’s like, well, I got the time and I want to, and I’m actually more responsive and getting back to them with the answer that they need. And then just sharing at the next Q&A call for the benefit of the other members in the program what my answer was.

So I feel like creating those boundaries and boiling it down to like, what does this need to look like so they get what they need and I get what I need, actually created I think for me, like I’m a better business owner and I’m more responsive to my clients because I never feel like I’m drowning.

Like, oh my gosh, I got 30 emails. I got to respond to, right. Because I’ve got all these things that, because I haven’t had time to get to anything. And when you eliminate that, to your point, like you said, making the Loom videos and giving time to think about things, that happens to me all the time.

I mean, I’m like, oh, wait, I’ve been thinking about this. Let’s do it this way because there’s space, because there’s boundaries. And I really think within the boundaries, you find freedom. Yours, of course, came being on two continents and having to live like that. Mine just came because I wanted to change how I worked with my clients.

But any of that, I think gives us a lot of opportunity to create a different way of showing up. And as long as that’s for the benefit of our clients, I think it’s, you know, it’s fabulous. It’s certainly been for me and my business.

Sheila M. Wilkinson: Yeah. I mean, it has been for me, certainly. I mean, yes, to all of the things that you just said. Yeah, because the boundary, and like I said earlier, right, the boundary isn’t just saying no to people. It’s about saying what you can do, what you want to do, what you will do, what you will not do. And that means communicating.

That means communicating your expectations. That means telling people, look, this is what I’ve decided. This is why I have decided it. Are you still in? And giving people the opportunity to say, yes, of course I’m still in.

But usually what happens is business owners and professionals too, right? But they come from a place of, oh, but what if they say no? But what if they say yes? They’re going to say yes, because if they’re in your space and they love you and they value you and they respect you and they trust you, they’re going to be excited that you’re excited about something.

And that does make you want to show up with those people because your values are aligned. And so all of those things, yeah, all of those things. So yeah. And now, you know, honestly, Stacey, I have clients who live literally a half a mile from me that I had never met in person. I don’t need to.

We talk to each other on Zoom. We have meetings. We see each other. And then when we do our in-person meetups once, twice a year, then I’m like, oh, here you are. Let me hug you. It’s like, oh, you’re a lot taller than I thought you’d be.

Stacey Brown Randall: That’s always my favorite thing is like, I have seen you on a camera for like six years and they’re like, oh, wow, like you are taller than I thought or whatever. Like, it’s just, that’s probably one of my favorite things.

So, okay. So if you had to give like one tiny tip to somebody who like, I’m sure there’s a lot of people listening and they’re like, that was amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that. I can live vicariously through you, but I’m probably never going to do that for whatever reason. Right?

But there’s probably some people in my audience that are like, okay, now we’re stoking the fire. Now we’re really starting to think about things about what I want to do. And if there was one tiny tip, like tiny brief tip that someone could walk away with as to what they should do now that this may be an idea percolating in their brain, what would that tiny tip be for them that you have for them?

Sheila M. Wilkinson: Yeah. I think the good tiny tip is looking at what expectations you actually have of yourself and then considering whether those expectations actually came from you.

Because often what happens is we assume, right? I said in the beginning, I went to work, I worked full time. I went to school full time. I raised a kid that was not mine. I did all the things I was supposed to do. But that doesn’t necessarily mean I did the things I wanted to do.

And so just sit and say, okay, what expectations do I have of myself? And write all of those things down. Just make a long list and then look at each one and say, but does this actually belong to me? Like where did this come from?

And you’ll probably find that most of the expectations didn’t actually come from you to begin with. They came from somebody else, a position of authority, a parent, a clergy member, a community, you know, somebody else said, oh, you’d be really great at that thing. You should do that thing.

And we tend to live other people’s versions of us. And what I really want is for people to live their own versions of themselves. So it’s a good place to start.

Stacey Brown Randall: Love that. Yep. I completely agree. All right. Thank you so much for sharing this. I think this is fascinating for people to start thinking about kind of like what this would look like potentially, if that’s something that they want to do.

But there may be other people who are like, you know, when she introduced herself at the very beginning, she talked about what she did for a living. I’d actually like to learn more about that. So if my audience wants to learn more about how to get in touch with you, where can they go find you?

Sheila M. Wilkinson: Sure. I actually have two podcasts. The What Would Sheila Say podcast, because my clients say, when they’re on their own, and they’re trying to make decisions, and it’s three o’clock in the morning, they’re like, but what would Sheila say to do? She would just say, do what you want to do. So I have a podcast called What Would Sheila Say.

And if you’re a lawyer, and you’re listening, I have one specifically for you called Build Your Joyful and Thriving Lawyer Life. That’s a good place to just start diving in and getting my perspective and starting to think about how you can start reflecting and applying the information.

But you can always connect with me on Instagram at Sheila M. Wilkinson. I like to hang out on Instagram. I never thought that I would ever say such a thing, but that’s the truth. I’m also on LinkedIn, but I actually, if you send me a note, just say, hey, I heard you on Stacey’s podcast, so that way we can kind of start the conversation and I know that you’re not trying to cold pitch me something.

Stacey Brown Randall: Which is the worst.

Sheila M. Wilkinson: It’s the worst.

Stacey Brown Randall: Don’t cold pitch me in the DMs, please. Thank you.

Sheila M. Wilkinson: Yes, absolutely. And if you are a lawyer, I have a quiz that will help you to figure out what the next best step is. And I’m working on one for non-lawyers right now.

And yeah, I’m excited because I feel like it’s really as so simple, but people think that it needs to be complicated and it doesn’t have to be. Like tapping back into who you are, what you want and actually why you want that thing and that the why is for the right reason. You can do anything.

And so yeah, come find me. I’m on the internet. All you have to do is Google Sheila, New Orleans, Brussels, you will find me. And I’ve been very careful about my SEO for the last 15 years. And yeah, I’m here. I’m an open book. Let me know how I can help you.

Stacey Brown Randall: That’s awesome. Well, we will link to those in the show notes page, of course, for this episode. So Sheila, thank you so much for joining us today on the show as part of our summer series, having business owners share how they solved a particular problem, or in your case, opportunity within their business that was completely out of their zone of genius. And I’m so glad that you were here with us today. Thank you.

Sheila M. Wilkinson: Thanks, Stacey. Thanks for inviting me. I’m really so, so excited about this and I know we could keep talking, so I’m going to stop talking now.

Stacey Brown Randall: I appreciate you. Thank you.

Sheila M. Wilkinson: Thank you so much.

Stacey Brown Randall: I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. I know I was really letting myself kind of just, my mind like wander and be like, what would that look like?

Now, for those of you who have been longtime listeners to this podcast, you know that I have children. And so this is not anything that’s happening anytime soon. But I am not that far away from empty nesting.

I think there’s a difference between empty nesting when your kids are in college versus empty nesting when your kids have graduated college. I’m definitely learning there is a difference. So we’ll see what happens. I don’t know what I can be able to talk Norm, my husband, into, but we shall see.

But I loved this conversation with Sheila because it really does give us permission to be like, you know what, we can figure some things out and then things can look different than they look today, and the business will still be successful in the process.

And I think like sometimes we have to ask ourselves, what’s the worst that could happen? And then ask ourselves, can we live with that if that happens? And if it happened, how would we solve the problem or fix it?

And I think understanding that as you make a massive change like Sheila did, and thinking the worst could happen is that all my clients would leave. Of course, that’s probably never going to happen. And then figuring out how you would handle that. It kind of helps you process that, yeah, there’s reality here, and maybe we should make this happen. So I hope you enjoyed that episode as much as I did.

The show notes page for this episode, where you can find all the ways to connect with Sheila and learn more about the actual work that she does, because, of course, all we really talked about was how she runs a business from two countries, can be found on the show notes page for this episode at StaceyBrownRandall.com/318.

We are back with another great episode next week. And we are back on the topic of referrals, my friends. So if you’ve missed this topic while we’ve been on a little summer hiatus talking about business problems with business owners during our summer series, don’t worry. We’re coming back next week on the topic of referrals. And we have a great lineup of episodes coming your way over the next few weeks, months, and until the rest of the end of this year.

So I can’t wait to have you back here next week. Until then, you know what to do, my friend. Take control of your referrals and build a referable business. Bye for now.