We were lucky to catch up with Amanda M. Ferris recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Amanda M., thanks for joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

The Messy Version

As tempting as it is to give a candy-coated account of one concept to completion, success as I define it today would not exist without a series of false starts and failures I had to build on. In hindsight, we can make any story linear. But we don’t know what will produce our desired results when we initiate a new idea. So in service to anyone who is living those beginning stages in real-time as it unfolds with each passing moment of uncertainty: I hope this helps you reflect on your own experiences of all kinds, to grab hold of the answers you already have to leverage and launch into the idea stirring in your heart- or something even better.

Failed Good Ideas Make Room for the Great

The “big idea” seldom comes first, and we rarely feel ready before we begin. The best concepts are born out of real-world problems, and taking action, however haphazard it may appear. Even as a young child, I always wanted to operate my own business, though it started with a vague end goal of making a positive difference while also making money in mind. So for decades, I read and followed personal development titans like Stephen Covey, Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Og Mandino, and Robert Kiyosaki, while mentally pushing that goal further out into a faint future oasis. My ideas lived in the land of “someday when” I gathered enough resources through a J-O-B to invest in real estate, create a media empire, or whatever whimsical fantasy followed a believable blueprint modeled by these men appearing to have all the answers. I was waiting for the eureka moment, a divine stroke of genius, until the magical moment I was supposed to feel and be ready. Guess what those books never taught me?

Fire. Aim. Ready.

At the potentially worst possible time to start a business, with little-to-no resources and even fewer concepts of how to build something (of marketable value) out of nothing, a lesson from my father gnawed at my curiosity until taking action seemed the only alternative to pervasive, spiraling thoughts. For as long as I can remember, anytime I had an idea or wanted something (like creating a video game featuring my favorite cartoon, turning my drawings of motorcycles into mass production, taking an out-of-state kids’ trip with my cousins, getting an after-school job, or enrolling in driver’s ed, to name a few examples) my parents asked me to create a proposal and present it to them. When funding was a roadblock, my dad often advised, “When you do the things no one else wants to do, and do it with enthusiasm, you’ll never be short of money.” As a kid, that meant picking up extra chores or offering services to my parents’ friends like babysitting, lawn care, or small artwork commissions; as a late 20-something before the “gig economy” entered the collective lexicon, I wasn’t sure I had anything to offer, at least without major capital expense. Looking around my house for the groan-worthy tasks others likely shared, my sweet boxer, Angel, whimpered to go outside. Waiting for her to finish and come inside, I thought about the months ahead, when the Minnesota winter temperatures often drop below zero and dog owners abandon yard cleanup until the snow covering melts in time for spring grilling. With almost no overhead or major equipment purchases needed to solve that problem, unDOO dog waste cleanup services started that day as a free listing on Craigslist, a temporary vehicle meant to bootstrap the next steps of my business-building activity. Adding Angel’s Walk In The Bark pet care services and saying “yes” to other services requested by my clients, I found a profitable-from-day-one model I could operate from the trunk of my car. In hindsight, I could have (and probably should have) stuck with it and grown, but my ego swayed me from being known as the “dog-crap lady”.

Enter: Two Steps Back

I [foolishly] used my earnings to prematurely pursue filing a patent for a consumer product concept, leaving the attorney’s office deep in the hole before I could even produce a prototype or set up distribution channels. “Dog-crap lady” would have been an upgrade, but my failure felt like it drew a permanent billboard on my forehead, and I needed a win to recover some confidence. I was introduced to a new friend who found success in network marketing with a company whose products I used and loved; learning more fundamentals through business mentorship (plus a generous product discount) was enough to overcome the stigmatized MLM ick factor and experience a pseudo-paid-internship to myself. Meanwhile, connections in my network sought my short-term guidance for small business operations as a freelance consultant, an idea I would have never considered.

Options Hiding in Plain Sight

My entrepreneurial spirit was well-trained into common pitfalls of employment thinking: trading time for paychecks, innovative ideas for proverbial head-pats, and company loyalty for comfortable benefits. I hadn’t made the obvious connection to do the things I already knew how to do professionally, as a service to businesses rather than as an employee. As a consultant, I would be accountable for producing results, and instead of waiting for someone to tell me what to do, when, I could find solutions for everyday problems without being tethered to an office or punching a time clock. The more value I provided, the more I would be paid. Especially in the beginning, I struggled to find an appropriate work cadence and either bit off more than I could chew or failed to adequately market my services throughout the year, resulting in a few years of feast-or-famine cycles. But for the first time in three years, I was making consistent, significant strides in creating positive client outcomes and staying profitable.

This new experience of productive profitability allowed me more time and resources to learn better ways to do my work in the business, plus the benefit of spending time around successful people who would help me develop my skills working on the business. If the work volume had not matched profitability during that time, I would not have had the opportunity to grow the critically important skills to sustain it. I needed the hard-won, real-world lessons acquired through false starts and failures, which all helped shape what we are today and inform where we are going tomorrow. Even when I lost it all and had to begin the building process again, I learned I wasn’t starting over from nothing, I was starting from experience. Each bounce-back was more successful and valuable than the last. Each mistake and failure I felt shame for was more relevant and relatable to the next client to help them succeed. Personal development and technical trade books are great tools, but the lessons learned from real-world experience often outweighed most, and were directly proportionate to the billable value I could offer clients. In fifteen years, my clients have never asked me what solutions I’ve read about, but I have had plenty of conversations along the lines of what I have seen work or based on my experience, what I recommend.

One of the biggest transformations in my business had more to do with trusting myself and the wisdom of my life’s experiences than outsourcing decision-making to people however successful they appear outwardly; they were on different paths, held other priorities, and had zero clue what my unique set of abilities might bring when I choose to nurture instead of abandon them. That said, the friction created between differing opinions, conventional guidance, and my intuitive sensibilities sparked a greater internal desire for learning and discovery, not to mention more frequent check-ins with my target audience and what they need. Participating at Tony Robbins’ Unleash The Power Within live event had a synchronistic and exponential impact on my life and business in ways that can only be described as nothing short of miraculous. An old friend gifted me a copy of Outrageous Openness by Tosha Silver for my birthday around the time this next-level awareness of my potential started to sink in. The reading content wasn’t what I expected, and was more than what I needed at just the right time.

Just a few short months later, every area of my life had tangible imprints of this radical integration. My own peak performance and remarkable client results came together faster than I imagined after several years of slogging through self-doubt, unnecessarily hard work and long hours, and more failures than I can count. Tactically, one might credit the simultaneous learning and rapid implementation, paying attention to feedback loops, then tweaking my response and updating “the plan” as I went (rather than overpreparing, over-researching, or over-outsourcing a concrete plan imagined outside of real-time and real-world applications). Holistically, it was so much more than just making it happen, mindset shifts, and continuous professional development. Adaptability is tantamount to positive cash flow in order to keep the dream alive, and growing the idea beyond its initial execution. The goalposts will move, customer needs will change, proven methods may fail, you might run out of money, businesses will have detours, and good plans will need to die to make room for the extraordinary results available on the other side of our rigidity.

I learned how to be willing to be painfully (sometimes publicly) wrong about a thing, learn all I can, and figure out how to win anyway. Rinse and repeat. Falling in love with this part of the process is what makes entrepreneurship hard, and the most fun, even when it totally sucks. Just when I thought I hit my stride, helping a major client overseas scale to maximize a well-earned exit, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. I was ready to leapfrog into the next exciting venture and instead, was sent back to the beginning of the game. Soon after, two seven-figure deals in the works went bust, a new business partnership dissolved, and the home I purchased, along with my sanity, hung in the balance. Taking on risks in the early days was difficult, but the stakes seemed so much higher with more on the line to lose. I found myself in the familiar place of starting over, this time with more tools in the toolbox and self-knowing that I would find the next step solution for my business, as long as I kept going.

What If You Could?

Earlier, I mentioned that this process of going from idea to execution isn’t really linear, except in hindsight. Now I see it like a spiral staircase, concentric circles up and down. Looking back on all of it so far, there are well-defined patterns that we all have and can use to our advantage, or if we choose to dismiss and ignore them we miss out on a treasure trove of cheat codes for the next thing. I’m constantly asking myself, What worked? What didn’t? What will I do differently? What could work again? Is this helpful? Does it align with who I am? Is this worth my time, money, and energy? Is this just another idea, or is this potentially a big role in the legacy I want to create?

When I stopped working in traditional employment roles, I stopped wasting time and effort on improving my weaknesses in a conventional sense: the ROI for developing strengths, natural talents, and propensities is much higher than spending more time and energy on getting “weaknesses” up to par. In some cases, I’ve doubled down on my quirkiness, while in other “challenged areas” I consider if changing or improving a habit will be worth the price of admission. I fully embrace and accept some areas will not achieve main-stage focus, and I get to either ask others for help, outsource certain tasks, or live with “sub-standard” or “good enough” outcomes. Personal development is highly personal, so along with our goals and our definition of success, it should take more of the individual into consideration than work output, although that certainly can be a primary byproduct of how we think and feel about ourselves in relation to our lives. For instance, losing weight “to be healthy” is a great Sunday School answer to the more private “I want to look better naked” or “I want to feel more energized and confident like I did when I was younger,” just like hitting top marks on a semi-annual performance appraisal is, shocker, not about the potential 3% salary increase if we’re getting down to the heart of things. It’s great to be healthy, it’s nice to get the raise, but we are made for immeasurably more, and deep inside we KNOW IT. We’ve gotta align ourselves to those deeper reasons (yes, our “why”) to blow the lid off of the success we deserve. Using those example goals of “getting healthy” or checking all of the boxes on a performance appraisal: does it feel better if it is something someone else tells us we should do, even if we agree? Or does it feel better as a self-initiated goal? What ideals are we wasting energy on that aren’t even our own? We all desire to be acknowledged, appreciated, and contribute in meaningful ways, and we all likely have a different definition of what that looks like in all stages of life. What if everything we’re hoping our idea will achieve could transpire naturally and joyfully when we decide to tap into that self-context first, no matter our employment status? Outside feedback can help shape our self awareness, identify blindspots, and color our perception of shortcomings so we can grow and challenge ourselves; yet generally, life’s built-in feedback loop through situational consequences has a strong tendency to inform us of those areas that could benefit from focused support (relationships, financial results, Newton’s 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, any universal law for that matter, and so on)- so figuring out what you want and how you want to BE about it in the process, who you want to become and how you want to show up, all can help you define success in each life domain, not just work or business. [Deletes sidebar on antiquated talent and performance management strategies]

Get Out of Your Own Way

Each passing year I’ve cozied up more and more to caring less about what others think of me, and focused more on attuning to living the (my) best version of myself. I know I am here to serve, create, and love, and I’m not everyone’s cuppa tea. When my thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors flipped- from being driven by others’ perspectives to internally driven motivations- answers come more readily on what to do next in my execution. It was a big shift to make, but critical. Imagine how incredibly different and empowering it could be to see things more clearly in your life and business, without the distracting mental chatter? For me, identifying which paths to explore seemed easier, even though it still takes hard work and a ton of learning, I removed the internal wrestling match and extra layers of energy to get out of my own way more frequently. Ever since, my experience has brought far more desirable outcomes the more I choose to love and accept myself (flaws and all). I’m not saying one can merely love themselves from an idea’s inception to magically manifesting its execution. But when we don’t [accept ourselves], we will find endless ways to self sabotage whatever success we do achieve simply because we don’t believe we deserve it. We need to take aligned action, and we will get further faster without the mental gymnastics of doing things out of obligation, others’ opinions, or service to our wounded ego. So if you’re a recovering people pleaser like me, take heart, and take the lid off of those perceived limits by being okay with (or even embracing) rejection and failure. Let it signal you to the next thing or if it’s worth having another go. Let your freak flag fly, my friends. The marketplace is crowded with unoriginal copycat meh-ness, you’ll stay in the game longer the more you embrace being unabashedly you, and that’s a beautiful thing. Take action, trust yourself, assess, learn, integrate, then start again.

Clearer Mind, Clearer Path

Peering over the railing, keeping with the spiral staircase metaphor, I see many times early on where the delays and setbacks had everything to do with my fear and hesitation. Afraid of looking new, or stupid, or even being seen at all. When I sat with an idea long enough to see it would help people and was within the realm of possibility, the sooner I took action- meaning I spoke with potential clients, booked calls, shadowed an expert in the field, asked questions, created a minimum viable product- the sooner I created results, either by feedback, sales, pushback and roadblocks, or raving fans and referrals. [This is the part I should probably state a legal disclaimer, but using common sense, if legal or regulatory requirements are involved, by all means, please follow the obvious channels; I don’t want an amateur surgeon operating on me, either] It amazes me how many smart, capable people get stuck at the taking action part, and it honestly breaks my heart because I have met a ton of talented, brilliant people who have so much to offer the world but are too scared to take a step off of the beaten path. When I work with small business owners, we discuss, pre-empt, and triage failures just as much as we work towards generating scaleable success. Failure is an important part of growth, so let it teach you how to be better next time, and stick with it.

Doing the actual work and limiting work-like activities (such as designing a business card, a website, or posting on social media) will put you ahead of the pack. Stay focused and keep serving your audience. When I worked at Famous Dave’s throughout my teens and 20’s, we had a catchphrase training both front-of-house and back-of-house staff on customer service: “YES is the answer, what is the question!” I love this and it is etched forever in my heart because it is all about doing the right thing, and it freaking works. When was the last time you paid for a service (any service) and the delivery was so outstanding it blew you away? Most people, if they even show up for work, do the bare minimum to get by, so the good news is that your idea- whether it is a service, product, or something about to change the world- has the odds stacked in its favor when that idea is delivered with an unusually high level of care. The world needs what you have, and even great ideas fail miserably if nobody knows about it or the quality of delivery waivers. I was so afraid for YEARS to self-promote; had I taken marketing as seriously as the service itself, it would have been a game changer. Get those raving fans to promote and refer you as bonus business, rather than rely on word of mouth as the primary way to let others know you and your idea are happening. Ask for feedback kindly and those loyal followers will give it, and being open to a new approach or service can lead to strategic partnerships and pleasurable growth opportunities, not to mention increased profitability. It’s more selfish not to self-promote. If we don’t promote our services, we’re doing our audience a huge disservice… unless, of course, we don’t believe we can really help them (READ: rhetorical stomach-churner- that is NOT us).

It’s important to evaluate along the way with the project’s unique performance metrics and by checking in with yourself, too. I loved doing voice-over work, for example, but it isn’t the main event. When I have the opportunity to narrate my audiobooks or create digital training programs, it’s a blast to revisit the skillset, and surprisingly satisfying to put it back on the proverbial shelf to get back to the primary business services my clients want and need. Graciously accepting the natural ebb and flow of the marketplace helps minimize wasted time and valuable resources, which helps us better show up in the execution. Reflecting on the times I held on to elements that were more for me than my audience, I can see how my ego was getting the best of me, and the better choice would have been to transfer those me-directed activities into after-work recreation instead of having them muddy the business focus. Enjoying parts of the idea whose time has passed isn’t a character indictment. Sometimes it is a project that is simply complete: if my manuscript has gone through the editing process, the interior formatted, the cover designed, it’s time to go to print and unleash it into the world- there is no use in keeping the status in process. That’s the funny part about seeing an idea from its initial spark to taking on a life of its own; we get emotionally attached to building and creating, and forget that a successful execution often means, if we’ve done our job right, letting others take the lead as we step aside or step out entirely so it can truly thrive with new, broader horizons. Observe, reflect, appreciate, then bless and release. The next idea to move up the staircase is calling.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

We [Clover & Kind] are one-thousand-percent team mom-and-pop, single-shingle, main street business all the way. I help businesses scale their impact and results without adding more “hats” or endless busywork to the day. As an operations consultant & marketing technology integrator, my approach leans on real-world, tested solutions that any-sized business can implement for profitable growth and maximum fulfillment.

Host of The Goal Next Door Podcast, and author of 8+ books including, YOU: THE STING OPERATIVE- 100 Tactics to Change the World, Right From Your Own Neighborhive, and children’s picture book, Big, Bad Beeple Bumps, I absolutely love helping aspiring creators bring their dream into a tangible reality. Your story matters, and whether you choose to share it in a book or walking out your wisdom in life, the world needs what you have.

At Clover & Kind, we believe building your dream business shouldn’t feel like a nightmare, and you deserve to spend time on what’s meaningful, instead of tasks that take you away from what you do best. Most companies simply manage the symptoms of operational challenges, C&K MTE Integrators go after the root cause. By integrating marketing, technology, and education, we help deliver measurable improvement to your operation and bottom line, while you enjoy the process.

I love when clients tell me we 10X-ed their business, or that they have more time to spend with their kids, or travel, or work their hobby because of what we accomplished in their business together. Our proven track record is the result of decades working in operations, marketing, and training, and our carefully selected industry partners to ensure your business generates sustainable success. I enjoy bringing in partner experts and suppliers to help clients get results in other business disciplines to create those win-win-win scenarios- it’s a great opportunity for me to keep learning on the job from other industry leaders. Clover & Kind’s curated team of suppliers supports your business processes without multi-vendor confusion so you can benefit from an experienced lens as you enjoy more time, growth, and satisfaction. We can help you create or refresh your marketing strategy, fine-tune your brand messaging, create content, build your brand’s website, grow your team and audience through digital learning courses, email marketing, reputation management, community engagement, brand activation events, streamline your business workflows to scale, and more. We love working with purpose-driven brands who genuinely care about people, giving back to the community, and creating sustainable profitability.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

We’re discussing this at the end of 2024, but it feels like going back to that period is in some ways, twenty years ago. I’ve touched a bit on how the pandemic impacted our business, and I’ll color it in with more detail.

For context, January 2020 I felt on top of the world, and was indulging in a bit of a victory lap traveling around the world. Not to give you whiplash or anything, less than ten years before, unfortunate circumstances caused me to drive away from my life suddenly with only a handful of personal belongings and my dog beside me. The short version includes no money, no phone, nowhere to go, so I slept in my car until a friend invited me to stay while I found work to get back on my feet. I learned homelessness can happen to anyone, and asking for (or accepting help) is often more difficult than we think. I still get choked up- not thinking about how scary everything was back then, though it was utterly terrifying- with overwhelming gratitude for my friend’s generosity, for the people who hired me to work when I was desperate, the many unexpected, sometimes anonymous gestures along the way that culminated in me getting through it as an entirely new person. The borrowed faith and courage from colleagues, acquaintances, and strangers allowed me to survive a horrible experience, work my tail off, and (re)build my consulting business. Rocky start, tough lessons, some choices made out of survival mode, but I moved through the emotional trauma with a ton of help- I also moved more times than I can count- and eventually, went abroad to consult onsite for my primary clients.

Fast forward back to January 2020: my client successfully sold their business, so the work wrapped up quickly. I had a small runway of a few months to line up new clients, start exciting personal projects, pay off all of my debt, and plan a celebratory trip before a short visit back to the US where I remotely closed on a condo in my hometown. I intended to renovate it eventually for long-term rental and use it as personal storage and crash pad in the meantime, but my travel itinerary meant I wouldn’t be back until March. Who was I, this person in this new life I was creating? Some days I still can’t believe this is my story. And yet, these parts are still some of the hardest to openly share. When I returned home (no longer a loaded four-letter word that pierced my heart) I cried tears of joy every night and every morning for weeks, I have a permanent address and it’s mine! My dear out-of-state friends familiar with the more tender parts of my journey laughed and joked on the phone, “It features full floor-to-ceiling walls, complete with ceiling… and an indoor bathroom!” If you’ve ever been through trauma or loss, you know the feeling, I’m not sure if it ever leaves you. New clients nearing signing their service agreement took slightly longer than usual, but I didn’t mind, I had a real home to set up and I was having the time of my life. At least, that is, until the airlines shut down, and you probably know the rest of that part.

Those new clients didn’t sign, and the rest of my roster dropped off. How long is this going to last? How bad will it get? Am I prepared either way? At that point, I only had conducted a handful of remote service engagements, with my bread and butter work all taking place onsite, in-person. I knew I could pivot my business, but how fast? Some businesses were beyond busy and could use my help, but most potential clients in my direct orbit put a hard stop to outside consultants, after all, fractional layoffs and pay cuts seemed safe enough to keep the current workforce on hand. I did my fair share of prospecting and then some, but it was clear this bounce back would take more time than I initially thought. I still did soft outreach, and took the opportunity to upskill online, alongside other “pandemic projects”. As I increased my outreach and scrappy tactics like freelance listings on Upwork, I became more present to my shrinking bank account. It was time to start applying for jobs, in case the trends kept up. What seemed to arrive out of nowhere, a distant contact in my network reached out with a curious proposition: “Will you be my business partner?” He described the business model, the different consumer audiences, the investor backing, the pitch, collaborations with name brands and even United Nations in the works, and what my role in the partnership would entail. It was a complex deal involving at least three businesses I’d be working directly in, all the time. So many intersecting interests and worthy causes. What’s more, all of my previous clients seemed to have this similar profile of multidimensional chaos to orchestrate and order, an environment in which I loved and freaking thrived. With a few key client deals already inked, it seemed like an opportunity worth my time and confidence. Good thing my schedule was mostly cleared: I was in.

Have you ever worked a job where you didn’t get paid, for months? That’s business ownership, baby. We take the bad with the good, but when a good deal goes bad, it’s time to cut bait. One of our primary clients who were contractually obligated to pay us a monthly retainer plus a percentage of their business… how do I say this… got weird. When there are that many commas involved, I can’t say I blame them, I was, however, surprised with how it went down- like a slow-motion car crash- and a bit shocked that our willingness to renegotiate and work on goodwill was met with… bizarre differences and unusual behavior I’ve never witnessed before- in real life or fiction. My business partner and I discussed all the ways it might play out, but at the end of the day, my risk capacity was tapped. The other client deals would potentially take years to see a bankable return. It happens, unfortunately, but what I learned the hard way with my first couple of clients: a) your gut instincts are (almost) always right, b) agreements made with untrustworthy people never hold up, and c) if a and b have shown themselves to be true, it is better to leave peacefully as soon as you know rather than keep working and hoping it will improve (it won’t). I communicated my decision to leave with my business partner and stayed on for another month to document workflows and complete the handover, while inside, I felt like this might be the beginning of the end. It was the end of the partnership, but my personal situation was beginning to feel more grave: my bank account had a month’s worth of bills left until I was back to broke.

Gotta rip off the bandaid: Three times. T-H-R-E-E T-I-M-E-S I almost lost my home the following year. I did get a little help, but what I really needed was a divine lifeline. The writing seemed to be on the wall as many of my contacts’ businesses and restaurants closed permanently. I was willing to do pretty much anything legal if it meant keeping my home. I wasn’t spending anything, and aside from my overseas work excursion pre-covid, I learned to live on close to nothing. My business took hit after hit, then I got hit with covid. For nearly a year, I spent my time in bed. I could barely walk the short distance from my bedroom to the kitchen without collapsing. When client work began to pick up again, I realized remote engagements were the only option I could do the work. I was flat out the rest of the time. Also, because of what happened with the failed partnership and new startup business I almost immediately had to shut down, I had to get creative and flexible in my service pricing so clients could stick around long enough to see the value I bring, but not to the point of having a normally full roster because I physically didn’t have the capacity. I needed to work with people whom I could trust, doing meaningful work if possible, to have a bigger reason to get out of bed than paying my bills.

Until this point, I hadn’t considered using strategic partnerships as a way to earn affiliate revenue though I helped clients do this with the services and products they loved. Referral commissions were another untapped stream I would have kicked myself for missing, had I any energy. These tiny, but mighty realizations helped steer me back on track as my health slowly bounced back. Soon after, I officially added ghostwriting and PR/Reporter Outreach services to my repertoire and wondered why it took me so long to figure out why I hadn’t seen such an obvious need in the marketplace when everyone’s businesses were rebounding, in need of improved SEO, content creation, social proof, reputation management, and messaging. Knowing what I know now, I would have started my business on these services alone!

Spoiler alert: my business recovered, albeit much changed. I am so grateful to be in my home. Health is improved, but still on the mend. This post-covid season has a different set of effects on us all, and I genuinely hope that if you’re reading this and in business, you’re finding your way through with ease and success. If you find the challenges remain, or persist under a different name (longer sales cycles, lower conversions, over-regulation, turnover, etc), I can tell you with absolute certainty and confidence that it will be okay and you will find your footing as long as you commit yourself to going the distance. If you are weary, rest. If you need cash flow, it’s okay to take a job or a side gig or whatever you need to do to support YOU. Some of those detours hold valuable lessons that pay off in the long run- much like learning how to do PR/Reporter Outreach did for me. I felt like a fraud, to be in a position where I needed to take on outside work; from celebrating the business I built into high-highs only to fall into prolonged, unexpected woes. I know in my heart that you are doing the best you can with the information and resources available. It’s easy for us to self-criticize in hindsight and play the shoulda, coulda, woulda game, but it’s not helpful. These setbacks are an important part of the journey. You will make money again. You will add value to clients again. Possibly in new, better ways- ways that you enjoy and free up your time to dream a different dream, or pare down the operation because you realize you don’t need what you thought you needed, and a simpler business is better for your well-being, and that of your family’s. Those glory days will pass just like seasons with fallow fields. Keep going, I am telling you, better days are ahead and I will be so glad to meet you there… no matter what your business looks like.

Former boss, friend, and original Famous Dave’s franchisee shared an interesting story with me: creating new menu items for the restaurant, one might guess what the crowd pleasers will be, legendary hits, or potential duds. Experience and sales trends may convince you what the big winner will be, but only when you launch it, to be surprised the garnish outshines the main dish, though it takes far more skill, time, and meticulous preparation, and is the main thing after all! Anyone who has seen Famous Dave’s Hellfire Pickle Chips in the grocery store knows they really stand out, and though the restaurant is the most award-winning in history and every menu item is prepared with great care, that little jar of pickles is the thing many parts of the country know the brand for- not the barbeque. So just when you think you have things figured out in your business, whether it is a service menu, delivery modality, ideal client, or marketplace need, remember that your big winner might be the garnish- the little thing you do with a special flair that makes a world of difference, especially when you need to pivot.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Physical book production quality varies broadly from printer to printer, when the projects closest to my heart were ready to begin the publishing process, I worried the vendor options would be limited or overpriced to get the desired outcome. Print-on-demand books at the time resembled something close to homemade, so I was concerned something of this caliber would diminish how the public received the final product, or worse, I would be stuck with an unsellable substandard inventory of offset printed books from a foreign press. Other projects I published with printers previously were arranged by third parties, and left me disappointed- even embarrassed- to show anyone my contributions. The printing blemishes and lack of concern for what I viewed as basic quality checks seemed sloppy and unprofessional, not at all what I wanted to represent me or my business out in the world. Publishing, printing, and distributing books can require significant upfront capital, so when quality controls are somewhat out of one’s direct control, it’s time to call in reinforcements.

One of my mentors used a local partner publisher for their books, and suggested I reach out to see if it would be a good match. I thank my lucky stars each time I pick up my books, because the end result far exceeded my hopes and expectations. Beaver’s Pond Press played such a huge role in publishing, as well as managing the vendor selection process so I didn’t have to worry about price gouging, quality assurance, or having a pile of regret sitting in my garage. They asked great questions early on in the process, and also helped me set up third-party distribution channels that expanded my books’ reach more than what I could have done on my own time. Their expert team provided me with upfront answers to important questions I didn’t know to ask. Having an experienced, local publishing partner to help guide the critical steps of printing and distribution was the best decision I could have made, and they’ve become a go-to resource for subsequent projects, using different printing press vendors depending on the bespoke needs and priorities of each book. I still see great value in doing some things yourself, but the night-and-day difference speaks for itself; working with professionals invested in my success is worth its weight in gold, and even for authors who are happy with print-on-demand, I can’t recommend Beaver’s Pond Press more highly.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cloverandkind.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clover.kind
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amandaferrisofficial
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-m-ferris/
• Twitter: https://x.com/AmandaMFerris
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@amandamferris?si=-ilB5jOe4CqdiZqd
• Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-goal-next-door-podcast/id1549370665

Image Credits

Christa Reed Photography