Small Business Stories

Welcome to Small Business Stories, the podcast where we celebrate the real-life journeys of small business owners. We dig into inspiring tales of triumphs, challenges, and the tough lessons we learned along the way. Each episode is packed with relatable anecdotes and practical tips that you can use to fuel your own entrepreneurial dreams. Whether you're just starting out or looking to grow your business, you'll find motivation and insight in every story. Tune in and get ready to be inspired by the heart and hustle of small business owners just like you! We say it like it is - no filters. Being an SMB owner isn't easy, but we're compelled to do it.

Small Business Stories is a business podcast hosted by Loralyn Mears, PhD, with 200 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Loralyn Mears, PhD hosts Small Business Stories, a business show with 200 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #86

  How an Overlooked Service Business & Dirty Job Makes Money with Mark Regan

  Oct 2, 202632 minS6

  S6:E86 The businesses people overlook may be the ones worth examining. Especially those ew - yucky - services! Entrepreneurship culture gives enormous attention to innovation, technology, and businesses that sound impressive. Mark Regan built something very different: a recurring-revenue company around a simple problem many people do not want to solve themselves. In this episode of Small Business Stories , Mark and Dr. LL unpack what it actually takes to turn an unglamorous idea into a durable service business from pricing and route density to customer retention, franchising, and the unexpected challenge of getting AI to understand what kind of business you actually are. If people don't understand what you do, they may underestimate its value. If AI doesn't understand what you do, you may never surface when someone is looking for it. Loralyn Mears, PhD, aka "Dr. LL ," brings you thoughtful conversations with entrepreneurs and small business leaders navigating visibility, leadership, and growth. Thank you for being here. Guest Mark Regan Co-founder, Poop Away Service-business operations, recurring revenue, customer retention, and franchising ⚠️ Core Problems • Looking past viable businesses because they lack status or glamour • Mistaking revenue for profitability without understanding the operating math • Getting categorized incorrectly when a business crosses traditional industry boundaries Practical Takeaways • Start with a problem people genuinely want solved. • Recurring revenue only works when the operating economics work. • Customer trust can become a competitive advantage even in a seemingly transactional service. • In the AI-search era, business categorization is becoming part of business strategy. ⏱️ Timestamps 03:15 — "Who would pay for that?" becomes a business 07:35 — The operating mistakes Mark wishes they had avoided 11:29 — Customer service as a retention strategy 21:16 — The operator mindset required for franchising 23:27 — Misinterpretation risk meets AI search Who This Episode Is For Entrepreneurs searching for realistic business opportunities, service-business owners trying to build recurring revenue, and founders whose businesses do not fit comfortably inside one familiar category. At STEERus, we study what happens when the value is real, but the signals people and machines use to interpret that value are not clear enough. Subscribe to Small Business Stories for more real-world conversations about what it actually takes to build, operate, and sustain a business and share this episode with an entrepreneur who may be overlooking the opportunity right in front of them. ✅ Subscribe for weekly conversations on entrepreneurship Share this episode with someone who needs to be heard Follow STEERus on social media: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrLLSmallBusiness Instagram: https://instagram.com/steerus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/steerus Twitter: https://x.com/steerus_io #entrepreneurship #smallbusiness #podcast #dogs

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  Episode #85

  The Ripple Effect of Intentional Leadership with Lisa Even

  Sep 30, 202631 minS6

  S6:E85 People experience your leadership long before you make a formal leadership decision. It's in how you enter a room. How you react when you're stressed. Whether you acknowledge someone. The story you tell. The difficult interaction you choose not to pass along to the next person. Lisa Even calls it the ripple effect: everything we say and do creates one, whether we're consciously choosing it or not. In this episode, Lisa and Dr. LL explore intentional leadership, workplace culture, experimentation, small moments of human connection, and why impact doesn't have to be enormous to become meaningful. If people don't trust what version of you is going to walk into the room, they start preparing for you. If employees repeatedly experience something different from the leadership values an organization claims, those interactions become more credible than the words. And if we're unaware of the signals we're continually sending, other people are left to interpret them for themselves. Loralyn Mears, PhD, aka "Dr. LL ," brings you thoughtful conversations with entrepreneurs and small business leaders navigating visibility, leadership, and growth. Thank you for being here. Guest Lisa Even Founder, Lisa Even International Leadership, workplace culture, intentional impact, and keynote speaking ⚠️ Core Problems Discussed • How stress and chaos affect the energy leaders bring into interactions • Why employees remember small experiences that leaders may barely notice • The difficulty of influencing people when you may never see the downstream outcome • Leading different people as individuals rather than using one leadership approach for everyone • Perfectionism preventing leaders and entrepreneurs from testing new approaches • Passivity creating outcomes leaders never consciously chose • Assuming meaningful impact requires a grand gesture Practical Takeaways • Everything you say and do creates a ripple, even when you never see where it travels. • Stories can make abstract leadership principles easier for people to remember and apply. • Small experiments give entrepreneurs permission to learn without needing perfection. • Different employees may require different questions, communication styles, and approaches. • Intentional leadership doesn't guarantee outcomes, but it makes those outcomes less accidental. • Small interactions can become disproportionately memorable. • Think of your energy like weather: people may already be preparing themselves for what you bring into the room. ⏱️ Timestamps 01:34 What "ripple effect" actually means 04:08 The coffee-shop encounter that illustrates how behavior travels 07:15 Choosing your impact even when you never see the result 09:32 How to gently interrupt someone's negative ripple 15:53 Why Lisa treats business like a laboratory 17:21 Different people require different leadership experiments 18:35 Intentional versus accidental leadership 19:56 What happens when leaders become passive about outcomes 23:24 Mr. Dale and the tiny interaction Lisa's family remembered 26:32 Lisa's "weather" experiment for leaders Who This Episode Is For Leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, and business owners who want to create stronger relationships and healthier cultures without turning leadership into another overwhelming initiative. At STEERus, we see Accidental Signaling as a recurring source of misinterpretation risk. Organizations carefully manage what they intend to communicate, but trust is often formed through hundreds of smaller signals nobody thought to manage at all. Subscribe and share Small Business Stories for grounded conversations about entrepreneurship, leadership, visibility, trust, and building businesses people can understand. ✅ Subscribe for weekly conversations on entrepreneurship Share this episode with someone who needs to be heard Follow STEERus on social media: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrLLSmallBusiness Instagram: https://instagram.com/steerus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/steerus Twitter: https://x.com/steerus_io #entrepreneurship #smallbusiness #podcast #leadership #personalbranding

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  Episode #84

  How to Become an Expert in Your Field with Katrena Friel

  Sep 26, 202640 minS6

  S6:E84 It has never been easier to look like an expert. That may be precisely why genuine expertise matters more. AI can help produce polished content, sophisticated branding, books, social posts, and an increasingly convincing professional presence. But none of those things automatically demonstrate depth, judgment, experience, or the ability to create results. In this episode, Katrena Friel , founder of Becoming the Expert, joins Dr. LL to explore the increasingly important difference between being visible and being trusted. In my opinion, Katrena is AMAZING. She speaks her truth and knows her subject. If people don't trust the evidence behind your expertise, reach alone won't create authority. If your personal brand requires you to perform someone you're not, consistency eventually becomes exhausting. And if AI makes everyone sound increasingly polished, the messy, specific, deeply human evidence of real expertise may become even more important. Loralyn Mears, PhD, aka "Dr. LL ," brings you thoughtful conversations with entrepreneurs and small business leaders navigating visibility, leadership, and growth. Thank you for being here. Guest Katrena Friel Founder, Becoming the Expert Expert positioning, personal branding, business ecosystems, and entrepreneurship ⚠️ Core Problems Discussed • Mistaking influence or reach for genuine authority • Building audiences that don't translate into meaningful business • Using AI to create polished content without substantive expertise underneath it • Chasing automation and low-touch products when clients may want direct access to expertise • Becoming indistinguishable inside increasingly similar AI-generated content • Building multiple revenue streams that fragment rather than reinforce a core business • Performing a personal brand that doesn't feel authentic Practical Takeaways • Authority is deeper than visibility; evidence and substance matter. • Social media can support due diligence without needing to become the entire business strategy. • A book can function as positioning even when it isn't primarily a revenue generator. • Multiple offers work better when they're expressions of one underlying philosophy. • Authenticity doesn't mean eliminating strategy; Katrena describes it as strategically "editing" distractions without becoming someone else. • AI can save enormous amounts of time without needing to replace the human voice or expertise itself. • Longevity comes from refining durable expertise rather than continually chasing the next shiny object. ⏱️ Timestamps 01:18 Influence versus authority 02:31 Visibility isn't the same as being trusted 04:45 "Cardboard cutouts" and performed expertise 07:15 Why Katrena believes high-touch expertise is returning 11:49 AI and Dr. LL's "sea of sameness" 15:05 Building multiple revenue streams from expertise 19:32 Personal branding without becoming a persona 25:10 Can we still trust content in an AI-generated world? 29:48 Seven revenue streams but one philosophy 32:34 Where authority building actually begins Who This Episode Is For Experienced consultants, coaches, speakers, founders, and subject-matter experts trying to turn what they genuinely know into a clearer, more sustainable business. At STEERus, we see Authority Theater as an emerging misinterpretation risk: the digital signals associated with expertise are becoming easier to reproduce while the underlying substance remains much harder to manufacture. Visibility works best when the signals people and AI encounter accurately represent the expertise behind them. Subscribe and share Small Business Stories for thoughtful conversations about entrepreneurship, visibility, leadership, AI, and building businesses people can understand and trust. ✅ Subscribe for weekly conversations on entrepreneurship Share this episode with someone who needs to be heard Follow STEERus on social media: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrLLSmallBusiness nstagram: https://instagram.com/steerus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/steerus Twitter: https://x.com/steerus_io #entrepreneurship #smallbusiness #podcast #AI #mentorship

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  Episode #83

  Why Your Small Business Isn't Scaling with Joseph Shalaby

  Sep 23, 202626 minS6

  S6:E83 How do you know when persistence is serving the business? Or at what point does attachment to what you've built prevent you from seeing it clearly? Joseph Shalaby knows something about operating through uncertainty. As founder of eMortgage Capital, he has built within an industry shaped by economic cycles, regulation, changing consumer expectations, and a persistent trust problem. But this conversation goes well beyond mortgages. Joseph and Dr. LL explore what ownership means from buying a home to building a company and the responsibility that comes with both. They discuss financial literacy, entrepreneurship, faith, service, consistency, and one of the most uncomfortable questions an owner can confront: Is what I've built actually working? If people don't trust your industry, credentials alone may not change their perception. If owners don't trust—or confront—the evidence inside their own businesses, they can mistake persistence for progress. And when what we believe becomes stronger than what the evidence shows, misinterpretation can begin with us . Loralyn Mears, PhD, aka "Dr. LL ," brings you thoughtful conversations with entrepreneurs and small business leaders navigating visibility, leadership, and growth. Thank you for being here. Guest Joseph Shalaby Founder, eMortgage Capital Mortgage lending, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and business growth ⚠️ Core Problems Discussed • Homeownership feeling increasingly out of reach for many consumers • The long-standing trust and perception problem surrounding the mortgage industry • Entrepreneurs becoming emotionally attached to companies that may no longer support their goals • Scaling while facing regulatory, operational, and financial complexity • Building consistency when results and market conditions aren't predictable • Separating personal identity from objective business performance • Using faith and service as guiding principles through uncertainty Practical Takeaways • Financial literacy can reveal options that assumptions hide. • Growth requires more than determination; infrastructure, resources, and repeatable systems matter. • Ask measurable questions: Are you profitable? Growing? Retaining talent? Creating value? • Past investment doesn't automatically justify continuing the same model. • Trust has to be rebuilt through evidence, particularly in industries carrying historical skepticism. • Consistency and adaptation aren't opposites. • Service can provide a durable organizing principle beyond short-term revenue. ⏱️ Timestamps 04:39 Financial literacy and the possibility of homeownership 06:11 Why Joseph sees ownership as more than an asset 10:52 Innovation and building for growth 13:14 Why the mortgage industry has a perception problem 15:39 Faith as Joseph's foundation through volatility 17:11 "I'm just a servant": Joseph's philosophy of service 18:35 The questions struggling owners need to confront 20:09 What Joseph wants his legacy to mean 21:41 Education as the first step toward changing financial trajectory Who This Episode Is For Entrepreneurs navigating uncertainty, founders struggling to separate their identity from the company they've built, and business owners thinking seriously about what sustainable growth requires. At STEERus, we see Ownership Blind Spot as one way misinterpretation risk begins inside the business. When identity, history, and investment overpower contradictory evidence, the signals owners send outward can stop matching the reality customers, employees, partners, and increasingly AI encounter. Subscribe and share Small Business Stories for grounded conversations about entrepreneurship, visibility, leadership, AI, and the realities behind building something that lasts. ✅ Subscribe for weekly conversations on entrepreneurship Share this episode with someone who needs to be heard Follow STEERus on social media: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrLLSmallBusiness Instagram: https://instagram.com/steerus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/steerus Twitter: https://x.com/steerus_io #entrepreneurship #smallbusiness #podcast #businessgrowth #scaling #finance

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  Episode #82

  Why You're Wasting Money on Google Ads with Andy Janaitis

  Sep 18, 202633 minS6

  S6:E82 Better Data, Better Decisions with Andy Janaitis What if your advertising dashboard says you're succeeding but your bank account says otherwise? That's not necessarily a marketing problem. It may be an interpretation problem. Queue up this episode of Small Business Stories with Andy Janaitis, founder of PPC Pitbulls , for a grounded look at what increasingly automated advertising requires from small businesses: better data, clearer objectives, and enough human judgment to know whether the algorithm is optimizing the right thing. Andy began his career in data science, where he learned an enduring lesson: sophisticated models cannot rescue bad inputs. Today, he sees the same problem playing out inside Google Ads, Meta, CRMs, e-commerce platforms, and increasingly AI. A platform can report a conversion without that conversion becoming meaningful revenue. A business can optimize for cheap clicks and attract the lowest-quality traffic. Two systems can report different versions of the same result. And a founder can spend tens of thousands of dollars before realizing the metric everyone celebrated wasn't measuring what mattered. If people don't trust the numbers, they can't confidently act on them. If leadership misunderstands what a metric actually represents, better technology can accelerate the wrong decision. And if AI interprets an incomplete picture of the business, "mostly right" may still be wrong enough to make the right customer effectively invisible. Loralyn Mears, PhD, aka "Dr. LL, " brings you thoughtful conversations with entrepreneurs and small business leaders navigating visibility, leadership, and growth. Thank you for being here. Guest Andy Janaitis Founder, PPC Pitbulls Data scientist turned PPC strategist specializing in paid advertising performance ⚠️ Core Problems • Starting with an advertising tactic instead of a business objective • Optimizing for cheap traffic rather than valuable customers • Feeding automated systems incomplete or incorrect conversion signals • Trusting platform dashboards without examining what the numbers actually represent • Different systems producing conflicting versions of performance • Attribution becoming more complicated across AI search, organic search, social, and paid channels • DIY AI advertising removing too much human judgment from the process Practical Takeaways • Start with the outcome: what does the business actually need the advertising to accomplish? • Cheap clicks aren't necessarily good clicks; algorithms optimize for what you ask them to optimize. • Validate what a "conversion" actually represents before treating it as success. • Establish one source of truth for the business outcome that matters. • Revenue and profit are not interchangeable measures of advertising success. • Omnichannel attribution is complicated, but small businesses don't need perfect modeling before they begin measuring. • Automation works best when strong data signals are paired with human oversight. • AI-generated understanding that is mostly correct can still miss the nuance that differentiates the right customer from the wrong one. ⏱️ Timestamps 01:10 Why "we need ads" is the wrong starting point 03:12 How PPC shifted from manual targeting to automation 04:51 When to trust the algorithm and when not to 07:13 Why advertising automation lives or dies on data 09:38 Rebuilding trust after businesses have been burned by agencies 13:24 Garbage in, garbage out: Andy's data-science lesson 16:07 Amplifying weak signals with more marketing 17:24 The metrics that actually matter 20:36 What's a realistic return on ad spend? 23:33 AI search, omnichannel discovery, and attribution 26:17 Why DIY AI still needs business strategy 29:09 The 20% AI gets wrong Who This Episode Is For Founders and small business owners who want to understand whether their advertising is producing real business value rather than simply producing attractive dashboard metrics. At STEERus, we see False Signal Confidence as an increasingly consequential form of misinterpretation risk. A signal doesn't become trustworthy simply because it is measurable and once AI begins acting on a misunderstood signal, the error can become faster, cheaper, and easier to scale. Subscribe and share Small Business Stories for grounded conversations about entrepreneurship, visibility, leadership, AI, and making better business decisions. ✅ Subscribe for weekly conversations on entrepreneurship Share this episode with someone who needs to be heard Follow STEERus on social media: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrLLSmallBusiness Instagram: https://instagram.com/steerus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/steerus Twitter: https://x.com/steerus_io #entrepreneurship #smallbusiness #podcast #advertising #ppc #Googleads

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