Unlocking Business Growth: The Secretsos™ Grant & Academy with April Porter and Jared Moss

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[: 00:00:16

If you guys have been keeping up with me, I recently won a grant, and we have the people here from the organization. here to talk about it so you can learn more about the grant and the different opportunities that are out there for you as a business owner. So I want to welcome Edward Porter and Jared Moss.

How are you? Fantastic.

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[00:00:48] Brianna: excited to be here. All right. So as you guys know, we do not have interviews. We have genuine conversations. So we're going to go ahead and get to it. So usually start off with every episode. Who is the guest? So we're going to start first. Who is April and who is Jared? You can go first.

Oh, well,

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[00:01:28] April: Awesome. Okay. How about you? I'm April Porter and I'm the founder of Secretsos™, the business intelligence agency. And that consists of both the academy and the foundation. And we have a mission to save small businesses from the failure rates that plague small businesses here in America. People don't really talk

[: 00:01:49

Yes. So I definitely want to dive right into that because For one, me coming from a freelancer to now working as getting a business together. I've learned that with everybody saying that businesses don't survive, you know, the five year mark, and it's like more, I think it's like they could try to scare you a little bit, but there's so many benefits when it comes to funding and networking and understanding those resources to help us.

So how did you guys come together to say, hey, we see that this is a problem. How can we do to support, like what can we do to support these business owners?

[: 00:02:26

And I thought that's what the franchisor was going to teach me. And so I invested in a kickboxing franchise, and I found out that the franchisor was going to teach me how to kickbox. Not necessarily how to wear all the hats that a small business owner has to wear in order to make a business not just survive, But to scale it, right?

And I had a big vision. I wanted to own multiple locations because I knew that that would build a lifestyle that was different from what I could attain by being an attorney. Right? So it had to be bigger. But I couldn't do that because I didn't have the skills. And my franchisor wasn't teaching me. And so I, um, I actually, leaned a little bit on my attorney skills and um, started to create a lot of proprietary systems and started developing my own employees and then hit a plateau and I had to get an executive coach to really understand what I didn't know that I didn't know.

And once I did that, then we scaled to four locations in less than three years. Uh, we became one of St. Louis fastest growing companies three years in a row. Congratulations. Thank you. And, but that is when all the other franchisees in our system who had the same model, I mean our gyms looked the same, we were teaching the same workout, we were selling the same memberships.

But they weren't seeing the same success. And so they were reaching out and saying, Well, what are you doing differently? And I realized that the Secretsos™ was me. Right? We all had everything the same. And I'd gone out and I had changed who I was so that I could apply new skills, new strategies, new ways of thinking about problems and decision making.

to that brand. And that's what allowed me to scale. And that's where it really was like, Whoa, this is missing for most people. And in a franchise, people have already invested hundreds of thousands of dollars just to own it. And then they're like, sitting there not paying themselves and working so many more hours than they ever did working for somebody else.

And it's like, Ooh, what did you do that for? Right?

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[00:04:58] April: so different. So that's really where I started to have a real passion for, um, helping those people understand what the missing piece was and that they're in full control of it. Um, unfortunately many people don't realize it until they've run out of capital and they can't afford the help.

Yes. Right? So, so, long story long, uh, we're now here at SecretSauce and that's one piece of our mission is to make that accessible to people with a, um, um, an affordable dollar amount so that they can get the help to get out of that, you know, plateau or out of the rut. And start to actually have a viable business where it's paying them a living wage, they're not working themselves to death, they're not missing out on time with their family, right?

And they're building a business that can lead to true wealth and a true lifestyle that's meaningful for them. I

[: 00:05:57

I'm only thinking about a line of credit. I'm only thinking about these options because When you hear grants, you always say, oh, I need a grant writer, or I need this, I need this, and you don't think that that may be possible for you to get a grant, because you may have to hire that grant writer, right? So I'm going to talk to you about when it comes to funding, and what those opportunities look like, and what made you come together for Secretsos™ to provide that resources or funding.

[: 00:06:35

Uh, for the entire year. So it's four grants, uh, per donor. And what we've done is we've gone out to the community and said, hey, this is an opportunity to give back to your community and really uplift and empower other business owners in your community. So now we have three. So we've got the Secretsos™ Small Business Grant.

We have one for HVAC business owners in the state of Utah. Okay. And then the third one is for Native American business owners throughout the entire U. S.

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[00:07:36] Jared: Really, it was just reaching out into our network. Uh, and going to our donor base and asking them to participate and how it came about was on the HVAC business for Utah Business Center, this is actually a past legal client of mine.

So their dad passed away, he was a prominent figure in the HVAC industry, actually rose all the way up to become a donor. on the national board of a really large HVAC association. So he, he became someone that became a legacy and the family wanted to do a grant in honor of him.

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[00:08:15] Jared: And so it's really to give back to the community, help build the trades community, but at the same time really.

You know, true legacy in that industry, which is really fun. That's beautiful. I love that.

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[00:08:39] April: Oh, gosh. I mean, that's, that's kind of, I guess, just really what we're all about, right?

I mean, um, This is truly a, for us, both of us, uh, a mission of passion, right? Um, we're both attorneys, and so we're very much aligned in when we see a problem that we can make an impact with, a positive impact with. We're not the people who are like, you know, somebody should do something about that. You know, that's just not who we are.

It's like, hey, what could we do about this? And then it's back and forth and back and forth and we have ideas for days, like most entrepreneurs, right? You gotta focus, focus, on, uh, the next thing. Stay on your mission, don't get distracted. Um, but, uh, yeah. So, so for the community aspect, what I've really noticed with small business owners is that part of being a small business owner, especially when you're just getting started, even when you, you network, and even when you have great people around you in your network, often you can feel very alone because, um, Your business is unique to you, and so there's a lot of, you know, am I doing enough, um, is, is this, am I, is, am I where, am I where I should be at this moment in time, right, or should I, should I have made more money, should I have more clients, um, so it's a lot of I don't know what I don't know, which feels really, really lonely, and, um, I truly believe that one of the ingredients It's Um, success is surrounding yourself with people who are like, Oh, I felt the exact same way, you know, like, you know, well, let's take a look at your numbers and then helping you understand how to measure and quantify things.

Which is really intimidating, right? Numbers are intimidating. But once you understand how to do that, then it actually takes a lot of the worry away, and it takes a lot of the, uh, that loneliness away because you're not just guessing anymore. You're not internalizing this feeling of inadequacy just simply because you don't know if you're doing well or not.

And I, so I think that that's, um, That's what we really hope to achieve through community is letting people know that you're not alone. It's very normal. This is the path that we all must go on until we find the better way to do it. The better way to do it is definitely not on your own. And the last thing I'll say about this, cause I think it's important to say, is so many business owners, I think, coming from being an employee, typically, of someone else, before you venture into business ownership, I think a lot of times we fool ourselves into thinking that, you know, if I'm going to be my own boss, And I'm going to be in charge of everything, then that means I have to do it alone.

Because if somebody's telling me what to do, then I'm just trading one boss for another. So it's like, subconsciously we kind of repel the idea of getting a coach or a mentor or getting help. Because that means we already failed. We're not doing it on our own. And that couldn't be further from the truth.

In fact, you're doing yourself a disservice, because when you have someone to teach you, um, what not to do, right? You save yourself so much time, so much money, so much headache, so much stress, and it actually accelerates you to your goals. So I would love it if we could start to really educate people in that, you know, you get to be your own boss, but you don't have to do it on your own.

[: 00:12:16

And she was like, well, Rupert, you know I'm here to help you, and I'm like, you are. And I have to let loose of that, in a sense, because it's like, this is my baby, I want it this way. You know, you just have that mindset that you want a certain structure. And so, when I reach out to her, I'm like, okay, don't be scared.

You know, she's been doing this for a long time. Take that pressure off of you. If anything, you're going to learn. And so, I definitely agree with that. I think a lot of times we just Um, and then we have our businesses on a choke hold, we want everything to ourselves, or we feel like we have to, and it lessens us as a business owner if we do reach out to somebody else, so, I absolutely agree.

Okay, what are your thoughts, Jared?

[: 00:13:11

Well, how do you do that? Um, so, what I did is I actually went into my network, and I asked all my clients, who I thought were the most successful in whatever they were doing, and I said, I just want to be around you. Let me be on your board, be my mentor. Ask for help. And I just learned. It took three years for me to transition out of being a lawyer, until I had my first opportunity to be a CEO of a company, and then from there, just made that transition, and being around great experts, and that's what we've done here with Secretsos™.

We put the best of the best inside, for all these business owners to access, and get the help they need.

[: 00:14:28

Even when it comes to mentors. Hey, can I just sit down with you? See if I can learn a little something for me today, even buy you coffee, whatever the case may be to get those experiences. So I love that. Thank you for sharing that. Okay, so let's get into the Secretsos™ itself. I don't know where the name came from.

Was that a combination of the both of you? Because even now that I'm, of course, in my orientation, I was like, I feel like I am a little bit. Part of an agent, like yeah, I feel like I am, um, captain Brianna doing this, doing all of these different missions. So I wanna know a little bit behind the story of how the name came about and the academy as

[: 00:15:21

Uh, well, the name was actually, um, years ago in 2018. I started a similar company with another partner, a different partner, but the technology didn't exist for us to really get it up off the ground in the way that we did, in the way that we have now. And, um, and so that didn't work out, but it was a great opportunity.

And there's no hard feelings. It wasn't a, you know, drama story that people hear when, uh, things don't work out. So when Jared and I got together and said, Hey, let's, let's do this academy and, and, um, we'd actually, I'd actually been hired by a company that Jared was a board of di on the board of directors for, to create a global learning academy.

And that was another thing that didn't quite work out, but. Jared and I, that's how we met. And then he, um, as we were talking, well let's just do it on our own. We'll create this Global Learning Academy on our own. I said, you know, I've got this name that I used a few years ago. It's called Secretsos™. And, um, it's meant to be like the Secretsos™ in business.

And it's also meant to be, um, The secret, like, SOS, originally stood for strategies, opportunities, and solutions, like, it's like a little code inside the name, right? And, um, it allows us to do the secret agent theme, which then helps us organize and gamify. The way people move through the content, which we actually find helps create patterns and behavior and behavioral change.

Oh, this was all intentional. Oh yes. It's all intentional.

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[00:16:59] April: Yeah. So, um, so the name and the secret agent theme and all of that goes together as far as how we create the deprogramming of being an employee and then reprogramming what it takes. To be an elite entrepreneur, that makes

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[00:17:15] Brianna: Did you

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[00:17:16] Brianna: any, anything you want to add to it?

No, I mean that's really the genesis

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Right. Yeah. And then. You get inside of the Secretsos™ Academy, and you uncover, whoa, all these experts have all these secrets. But then when you really get down into implementation, you have the secrets. You have all the power. You have been gifted with it. You have your own gifts. What is your secret? For your business.

That's

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[00:18:03] Jared: about. The full circle total. Yes! I love

[: 00:18:06

That's where we're recording and After that, I was just like if they're doing stuff like this There has to be other ways of funding businesses getting resources and I signed up for HelloSkip. HelloSkip is just a plethora of different grants, right? So with HelloSkip when you sign up for different grants, they'll let you know the criteria or the What are certain questions that's going to be asked, so you can kind of prepare for it.

And then it'll send you an external link to the actual website, so you can get a feel for the businesses and things of that nature. And so, at the time, I was a little nervous. Cause I'm like, I'm just a podcast production agent, so I don't know if I'm going to make an impact. And I was just really in my head on if I should, if I shouldn't.

And so, um, As you guys know, I'm very faith based and I was like, okay, God, you done brought me here to all these different grids. There has to be a reason why I'm connected to this one specifically. So after all, going through HelloSkip, registering, because it's a free account, I went to their, uh, the external link that went to their website, Secretsos™, and I signed up.

I mean, it was literally one, two, three, it wasn't anything like, um, anything crazy. It wasn't, it just. Pretty much you have to have a business plan and I tell people now that reach out to me if you don't have a business plan I don't know How do you expect for people to buy into you if you don't even know who you're selling to right?

So I legit was fresh creating my business plan creating what I want for my audience bringing that type of value So it was easier for me to follow through but legit. It's Just about your business. What can you do for your community? Where do you bring into your audience? Questions like that. So I want you guys to dial in a little bit more on who are you guys looking for?

What type of things when it comes to winning and also why me?

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It's like, that doesn't tell us anything about your plan, and, and part of our job is to ensure that those funds are used, you know, appropriately and, and to actually build a business, and so it's fiscally responsible for us. And for the person who's writing it, to be detailed in how are you going to use these funds to increase the survival probability and the thriving probability of your business.

That makes a lot

[: 00:21:15

Second is it has to be for a charitable purpose, and so that's also another eligibility requirement. And then the most important part, not the most, but one of the really you. One of the most important parts is the community empowerment. How is this grant applicant going to empower their community? Right?

And so, why you? Well, one, you're amazing. so much. Dead on point, and it just hit all of the right criteria, um, but your stories and how you're going to use podcasts, which is a medium of community empowerment, is just aligned perfectly with this quarter's grant. So congratulations.

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[00:22:31] Jared: We're just so excited to see how much you're going to bring to this community and what you can do to empower others.

So we're excited. See your journey.

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[00:22:51] Brianna: out to LinkToAnimate. LinkToAnimate. Yes. Because right now, and that's the reason why I was so happy that you guys were going to come into town so you can see everything is because like right now I'm working on doing those audits.

And it's absolutely free. After that, you know, seeing what people's pain points are, I'm going to ultimately create a course. And that's going to be here, and we're going to do it live. So I'm just so happy that you guys can actually see that it's going to be used. Right. You know, like, this is, Not just something I'll put on paper.

Like I'm really trying to figure out how I'm going to do this intentionally. 2, 500. We did, did we say the amount? Yes. Okay, 2, 500. That is not. That's not anything small. But. Yeah. Here is the check. So this is credibility. It's real. Okay. It's absolutely real. But I'm just really thankful because at the end of the day I don't know.

As business owners, we work so hard and to know that there are organizations like you guys that support us, it's just, I don't want to get emotional, but it's, it feels very gratifying and I'm just really thankful for y'all coming together, creating this. Through your stories, I'm hearing a lot of seeds being planted to where you got to today.

So I'm just so thankful to April and to Jerry. Thank you guys so much. I am so happy. Wish you all

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[00:24:24] Brianna: Thank you. So I just want to let you guys do your spiel. Let People know how to find you LinkedIn, anything in the future that's happening. And also I don't think we mentioned, it's not only the 2, 500.

We talked about the Academy. There's a scholarship that's included for one year. So let's just give a little bit more details of how to get in contact, how to sign up for the grant. And

[: 00:24:45

One, you can find the grant application, and number two, you can also find a form on there to get into our newsletter. So then you're connected to us, and you know what events we have going on. I'm not sure when this is It's airing, but like next week we're having a free event about writing a stellar grant application.

Not just for us, but for others, and we're going to give you tips and really understand how to formulate your applications to improve the chances that you will actually receive a grant. So we do think, we do free events like that. And then in addition, there is the Academy, and the Academy is where all of our experts come together, we all provide curriculum that teaches you not just what you need to do in your business, but the actual how to practical steps, A, B, C, in order to get it implemented, to get it done.

So you lay a really solid foundation. Once you have that solid foundation laid, we can start piling on some really fun, advanced growth strategies that can help you leapfrog in your business growth and your revenue and in your impact. So, um, so that's what the academy is about. But you can find out all the information at SecretSauce.

net. And of course, you can follow me or connect with me on LinkedIn, April Porter, as well.

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net, we would appreciate any Any, uh, business owner that wants to give back to their community and support a annual grant, we have a Distinguished Ally Program. And so, with the Distinguished Ally Program, you can sponsor a grant for the entire year. There comes with that a lot of press and give back and media, which is really exciting.

And more importantly, you get to support business owners just like this.

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[00:27:04] April: Well, we have a sneak peek. We do have a sneak peek. Um, so part of our academy right now, we have a simple AI tool in there, but we are building an AI tool that is going to be in the academy and accessible by all small business owners in there that actually, um, helps you implement everything you're learning, but it combines your own business information and then templates so you can create SOPs and job descriptions and all the things that you need.

Without having to get a VA or other stuff like that, which AI does, but if you go to ChatGPT, it might give you something that's inconsistent with the way you learned how to do it, right? So, so that's, that's coming. That's something that we're, and you're the first to hear about it. That is not,

[: 00:27:55

Here first on What's Good podcast, . Well, I just wanna thank you guys so much, April and Jared from Secretsos™. Make sure y'all tap in. They gave you all the information and it's quarterly so you don't miss, like it's not just a one time thing, it's quarterly and I think I read if you win you can keep applying, right?

Yeah. Yes. Keep applying. Wink, wink to me, but to everyone that is applying. You can always continue and try. Try and try and try so. Just make sure y'all type in, give y'all all the resources, give you guys all the links and it'll be in the show description as well. But thank you guys so much. If you're listening to this morning, noon, evening or night, thank you for tuning in and we'll see you guys next time.