Meet Quest Maker Marjorie Treu
Quest Makers are women in their 40s and beyond who've declared
"now it's my time," and then set off on their own journeys to realize their dreams. Every month a Quest Maker is featured in the FREE e-newsletter, Your Next Quest Chronicles. Click here to enjoy archived issues.
Quest Maker Marjorie Treu
"I just decided to take control."
Marjorie Treu is a woman who wears many entrepreneurial hats. As CEO of Team Fusion, she helps chief executives and human resource managers to develop staff. As author of The 78 Biggest Mistakes that New Managers Make, What You Need to Know to Avoid Career Suicide, she helps new managers learn from others' mistake. As a professional speaker Marjorie keynotes at conferences and retreats across the country. And last, but not least, as a coach she helps entrepreneurs start their businesses quickly with Smart Start Your Consulting.
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What led you to start Team Fusion in 2007?
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That was actually the culmination of many businesses that I had started. Back when I was 16, I was a piano teacher and that was actually my first introduction to being an entrepreneur, but when you’re 16 you don’t think of yourself as that.
I was also an event planner. In 2007 after years of being promoted and fired twice and downsized and right-sized and acquired I was tired. I was tired of having the economy dictate what happened. I was tired of having bosses who arbitrarily made decisions dictate what happened to me. I just decided to take control.
I have more faith in myself than in all those other external things. Sure, there were challenges, but I had control over the kind of work I do, who I really wanted to serve, and how I wanted to set up that business.
Team Fusion started out of my love for helping managers create these teams that didn’t have conflicts in them, where people were happy to come to work, where people were performing and customers loved them.
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Marjorie working group through an issue |
As a corporate trainer, I had created modules on coaching, giving feedback, dealing with conflict resolution and how to handle difficult personalities and developed them into a weekly course. I bundled the modules into what I do best, which is experiential training—activities that attendees can use back on the job site; it’s not just talking at people.
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Marjorie debriefing a group |
At the time you started Team Fusion you were very actively involved in a professional organization. Would you tell me more about that?
The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) has a national association with local chapters. I became involved, because I believe in professional development. That education piece, whether you’re an entrepreneur or not, is really critical to keeping you motivated and engaged in life. For me ASTD provided that. I was able to connect with peers.
I just can’t sit back and only be a member; I have to volunteer in some way. So, I went through a little bit of training there and eventually got to be the president of that chapter in southeastern Wisconsin. ASTD was key to how I developed Team Fusion.
It wasn't just about being president, that’s kind of the ego part of it, but it was really connecting into the folks that were in the chapter. Where did they work? What were the issues that they were facing day to day? As I started having conversations with training managers, I was able to connect with companies like Harley Davidson, Miller Brewing, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and realize that the performance issues on the job had similarities among all the corporations.
What helped you jumpstart Team Fusion?
It was actually through my connections and working in the ASTD chapter that allowed me to jumpstart my business, because you don’t just sit back when you volunteer, you become engaged.
The number one way to grow your business is in person networking. I’m here to tell you it is because I got referrals. Somebody knew somebody. They saw you, they liked you, they perhaps liked your product or service. There was something endearing about your personality that drew them into you.
What is interesting is that nowhere in all the training out there do they teach you how to network. And there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it. What if you are an entrepreneur who has a brilliant idea, but your personality is quieter and shyer? Those are really the entrepreneurs that come to me for the coaching piece. They’re passionate about talking about their product or service, but they almost feel like, “I don’t like to brag on myself. How do I transition from really stating what I do versus making it seem like I’m an egomaniac?” That is a different skill set.
Do you find that a reluctance to be perceived as bragging on themselves is problem that women have or do you think that’s something is more common to introverts in general?
I think it’s more common to the introverts. I think women have an extra layer in there that says, “I need to be selfless, because I will promote my family, my husband,” and they are staying in the background being those nurturers. They don’t have necessarily the skills to step up and say, “I’m here. I have a face and I have a voice and I have something to say.”
I think sometimes when they are trained they look to the male trainers out there, the men that are entrepreneurs or these very forceful women and say, “I need to be like that. I need to be out there like Oprah or Donald Trump.” If that’s not authentic to who they are as a person it will fall flat and they’re going to create a different kind of reputation than what they probably intend.
When you started Team Fusion to now, did you encounter obstacles?
It happened kind of quickly, at least I think it was quickly. In 2007 and 2008 I had great years because I was riding that wave of being a volunteer at ASTD, I had those connections, I worked them, and then as you know, the economy bottomed out.
Companies were folding, house prices were just taking a tailspin. I can remember going from daily phone calls for inquiries to a dead phone and it happened in 30 days. I thought, “Oh my goodness, what have I not been paying attention to?”
They tell you if you’re an entrepreneur, you’re a visionary. Well, if I were a visionary, I should have seen that one coming. It’s a difference between working in your business while working on your business – and we only have so many hours in the day.
I realized that while I was working with all these clients I had done two things. One was I had kind of let some of that networking to fill my funnel go; I probably was doing half as much as I had been doing. And I was not checking in with my clients and asking: “What is your business doing?”
Who knew that Harley Davidson would be closing plants? That Miller Brewing would be bought out by Coors and move to Chicago? That The Journal Sentinel was going to have three layoffs in a year? It was devastating. I went from this robust business to one that I felt was teetering.
I looked around and I said, “What don’t I want to do?” I didn’t want to take out loans on the house. I didn’t want to go back full time. I knew what I didn’t want to do or what didn’t make financial sense for me.
I said, “What do I have control over?” Remember, that’s why I started Team Fusion in the first place. So, instead of looking at the negative I started thinking, “What is possible?” I thought if the clients are not here could I maybe partner with somebody in the area where we would still retain 50% control. What could I do?"
I decided, “Let’s look at the country. Where would I want to live?” So, in my early 50's I moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta. I do have a brother here; I had him and that was it.
When I moved, I supplemented with some contract work while the economy was recovering, because people were dumping their in-house training departments, yet they still needed to do training. That meant networking in Atlanta, getting my face known here, at the same time.
You need to be comfortable with change, rapid change and being flexible enough. So, while you may not see the trend or see the vision of what’s out there, you still have many choices on how you can cope with how rapidly those changes come.
Do you have any strategies for handling the ups and downs?
You need some down time in order to become resilient when life is throwing everything at you, when you’re thinking, “Oh my goodness, I don’t have a job now and if I start my own business what will I do?” or “I started my own business, how am I going to finance it? How am I going to pay that utility bill?”
When all those thoughts come at you, I do something I call "going underground." I take one weekend a quarter and I simply decompress.
I turn off all media, I turn off my phone, I turn off my computer and I just get in touch with me, with my feelings, and I just think and I journal. It is actually out of journaling that a lot of my entrepreneurial ideas come. That's how I started Smart Start Your Consulting.
How long have you been going underground?
I’ve been doing it since 2005. It’s a way to get rejuvenated. You can stay home, you can go away. Here’s the thing; I talk to nobody but myself. It’s like totally not getting distracted by radio, by anything, and just having to be comfortable in your own skin and listening to your thoughts, getting them down, eliminating the ones that are garbage and looking at the nuggets that remain and saying, “Is this something viable that I could do in a business? That I could add value to clients? That adds value to my life that I could contribute back?”
What’s one thing you wish you had known then as you set off on your entrepreneurial journey that you know now in hindsight?
I think when we start out a business we don’t know what we don’t know. I wish there could have been one place that could have given me a master plan on what you need to do to start, what things you need to pay attention to.
I knew things like financing and I thought, “I’m going to finance this privately,” so I didn’t need a business plan, so I kind of knew some things. However, I got a website way too early. Everyone was saying, “You need a website.” Yeah, maybe you don’t need a website your first year or two in business. You don’t know that.
Plus, I’m an education addict; if there’s a conference I want to be at it. So those first two years, I attended a lot of them. The information was all out of order, it came too early or it came too late.
If somebody could have handed me a plan for being a soloprenuer, that would have helped. I know one thing, I do not want to have employees. I don’t want to get big. I want to remain a micro business. That is something I already know about me, which is different entrepreneur from someone like Ray Kroc. When he started McDonald's, his business model was franchises.
I know I want to remain a micro business. It's why I started the Smart Start program to help people who are interested in being solopreneurs like me kick off their business easily in the first six months. If in the first six months you’re not making money then something is wrong; something needs to be changed or you’re doing the wrong thing.
Smart Start is actually a program under the Team Fusion umbrella; it’s a way for me to give back and to learn. I’ve done it wrong, let me show you what I did wrong and then let me help you start off better.
If you are in a management position and you think you’re doing it right, but human resources is getting complaints from your team members saying you’re not a good manager, we can fix that, we can help turn that around so you become credible again. Same thing with a business.
Here is the big thing. “Ask for help. It’s okay to ask for help.” If your business is suffering or it seems hard and you’re struggling to understand it, it can be turned around in that first six months. If anyone had said that to me, then maybe I would have asked for help earlier in 2008 and the surprise of 2009 would not have been as surprising, frankly.
In your experience, would you say there’s one essential quality that you think would be a good idea for women to pack in their own knapsack for their own quest?
I would say two things. I would say be passionate about what you do, not what somebody else wants you to do. If you don’t like what you’re doing every day then do something else. Have a real passion either for the service that you provide or the people that you serve. Then be very clear. Have the sense of clarity around who you do serve.
Those two things, if you know what you want to do and you know exactly who you want to do it for, that will sustain your business.
Part of your journey has been to write a book. What led to The 78 Biggest Mistakes New Managers Make?
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How do I get people to get to know me quickly when my target audience is human resource managers inside corporations that have roughly 400 employees or less? That is my sweet spot. Usually these people are overworked. The company with 400 employees may not be able to afford their own training manager or a training department and they’re looking for that outside help.
I asked myself: "How can I show them the broad spectrum of what I do without taking two years to develop that relationship?" My answer was my book. I had been writing a monthly ezine for my Team Fusion followers for years so I packaged all of that information into short readable chapters.
I also surveyed my readers and I asked them: “Tell me the biggest mistake you’ve made in your career was and why.” The same trends about how “I got fired because I did this” kept coming up. I can tell you I made half of those mistakes myself and you can turn it around.
How do you use the book to grow your business?
The book has now become what I call my big business card. When I’m in front of an HR person, it is a way for me to say, “You don’t know me and I have no idea what your challenges are, but I’d like to have a conversation." When we have a chat, I can add value because I leave the book for them as a thank you for spending that 15 minutes with me.
It first started as a way for me to thank the people as I was gathering information, because as an entrepreneur even though you might be passionate about something you don’t know whether people will buy it.
It's also how I designed my Team Fusion program. If I have an idea, I will start asking questions to see if somebody will buy that workshop or buy that kind of training.
The other way I use the book is as a giveaway to conference attendees when I’m a keynote speaker. It's a way for me to continue the relationship. A lot of times you hear me speak for 45 or 60 minutes and think, “Oh, I really like her,” but who is going to remember my name? Nobody. It's different if I gift them with a book that they didn’t have to buy. It’s about adding value and that’s how I add value in my business.
What changes has being an entrepreneur brought to you?
There’s a negative one and a positive one.
The negative one is I had to become comfortable with what I call with the fear quotient. Because there is a sense of “Where is the next paycheck coming from?" "Where is the next client coming from?" No one is calling me. So, there is a sense of fear.
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I heard an interview with actor Kurt Russell and he said this: “Everyone is going to have fear, but on the other side of fear is you.” It was realizing I have to get through the fear and face myself at the other side. So, the change to that negative kind of aspect was interesting.
There’s also book by Susan Jeffers on this topic: "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway." She takes you through this process of the win-win decision and picking up gold nuggets along the way. So, it was actually facing fear and not shopping my way through fear or eating my way through fear, which are the destructive habits that I have. To be really be with that fear. My underground weekends help with that.
What is the positive change?
The positive change is the flexibility in my schedule. If I don’t want to work tomorrow I don’t book tomorrow. I can spend it with my family. I’ve gotten to know my brother in Atlanta in a whole different way than had he only been regulated to weekends and maybe every once in awhile.
My stepdad in Milwaukee has since passed, and now I have a different kind of relationship with Mom. If she needs me I can go up there and just take care of her.
It’s just a different way of interacting with my environment than when it was limited to after 7:00 at night when I got home, on the weekends and maybe on a vacation. I’m enjoying life so much more because I see more of it!
Would you say that it’s education or other qualities that have helped you to continue to grow Team Fusion in new directions?
Education is a huge piece, and not just seminars or workshops, but it is really looking at who is further along on the journey than I am. Whose business do I admire? Who is living what they’re saying they’re doing? It’s really getting coached and mentored one-on-one.
Seminars are great, but they’re very generic, so to speak. Remember, I told you I was shy. I like the personal connection of being able to work with a smaller group, two or three people in a mastermind whose businesses are a little bit further ahead than mine, who are willing to share their knowledge and then simultaneously my giving back people that are just starting. I know I’m further ahead of some people on the journey and I can look back and say, “It’s going to be okay. I know some things and I’m going to share them with you.” So, it’s also helping those are that are coming up behind you.
Do you think there is a secret to reaching your goals?
Yes. An accountability buddy. I’m a great planner, I’ve got daydreams, I’ve got visions, look in my journal, I’ve got photos and I’ve got all these ideas. When I told them to my accountability buddy, I remember she looked at me and asked: “And how many have you done?” It’s like, “Oh!”
On the planning side I can take a calendar and say, “On this date I’m going to implement it.” I’ll work that calendar backwards and say, “Here’s what’s going to happen.” Then Monday morning comes and I don’t pick up the phone or I don’t do something and then a week has gone by.
So, to really have somebody who is in your corner, who is that little cheerleader, who holds your feet to the fire, who holds you accountable and says, “So, Marjorie, did you make your 10 phone calls today? Did you write that letter? Did you book your speech? What did you do?” It was the implementation. Part of the goal was the planning and some people are not good at planning and need help with that. For me, I’m a great planner, but I needed somebody to say, “Now go do it!”
What keeps me focused on my goals is to take the first step, take the big project and break it down. I have a three year plan, a one year plan, and every quarter I also relook at my goals. Now I’m adjusting to the marketplace quicker.
Along the way what’s the best advice you’ve received?
It was "Don’t use your own money." I think a lot of times you start a business and say, “How is this going to be financed, how is it going to be funded?” They said you can use part of your own money to get started, but if you don’t know how to pay yourself back in 30 days that might not be the wise thing to do. Can you get a small business loan?
I know in Wisconsin when I started Team Fusion, the state had a great workforce development center, so I’m thinking all the states probably have some sort of center that is attached to like a community college that is just resources for people to start their business.
[Editor's note: To find your own state's workforce development center, type "(state name) workforce development center" into a search engine.]
Yes. Tap into that, first thing. Best advice, tap into that. Then really look at your funding. If you’re even thinking of starting a business make sure you have at least six months worth of savings in the bank before striking out on your own.
Do you have any new quests around the corner?
Actually, I am looking at putting together a book on women in leadership. I think there’s a lot out there for the guys. You’ve got all these gurus, you’ve got John Maxwell, you’ve got Malcolm Gladwell, they’re all out there. But who is mentoring women who are coming up in the next generation? How are they getting plugged into knowing that they can do it? That you can get married; you can do whatever you want; that women are needed in leadership and you can get past that glass ceiling.
I’m toying with this idea of women in leadership for GenY and how that looks when you’re 20-something and a new manager.These are women that I think would be great in management, but they’re not always given the chance to become the managers baaed on who they are versus who their parents were.
To get in touch with Marjorie, you can send her an email or visit one of the following websites:
TeamFusion.net is geared toward corporations and leadership coaching.
If you are a solopreneur about to start your own business or have been in business under two years and are struggling a bit, there is SmartStartYourConsulting.
Learn more about her book 78 Biggest Mistakes New Managers Make.
If you’re looking for a keynote speaker to speak on leadership, women, and entrepreneurism, visit MarjorieSpeaks.com.
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