The Modern LeadHer Way

[113] Strategy With A Warm Heart with Julie Williams

• Emma Clayton • Season 4 • Episode 113

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Strategy shouldn’t feel like a cold spreadsheet. When Julie Williams sits down with a business, she brings the steady mind of an outsourced CFO and the heart of a partner who cares about people, profit, and the culture that binds them. We dig into how to diagnose the real problem behind the noise, use simple cash and capacity controls to avoid “uncontrolled growth,” and deliver hard messages with diplomacy so leaders can act without panic or shame.

Our conversation travels from Julie’s early days learning growth through acquisitions to her modern take on sustainable scaling - where trust and transparency are non-negotiable and every role, from CEO to cleaner, matters. We unpack money management that actually supports decision-making, the difference between expansion and fragility, and the way culture turns strategy into daily behaviour customers can feel. If you’ve ever wondered why some businesses accelerate while others stall at the brink, this is a clear-eyed, compassionate map.

We also explore the evolution from offline consultancy to the online arena. Instead of chasing every platform, Julie chose depth over noise - networking with intent, publishing when it counts, and translating offline credibility into online value. Along the way, we call out inflated promises, celebrate coaches who truly deliver, and show how transferable skills like cash discipline and planning cadence work anywhere. For those seeking a formal edge, we highlight the Certified Business Strategist accreditation Julie champions - complete with a robust methodology and CPD backing - so owners, consultants, and corporate leaders can add structure, credibility, and pricing power without losing their voice. Check out the details here: https://cbs.thebusinesssuccesscompany.com/?affiliate=juliewillo

If you’re ready to lead your way - with empathy, clarity, and strategy that sticks - tune in, take notes, and decide what you’ll simplify first. Enjoyed the conversation? Follow the show, share it with a colleague who’s scaling, and leave a quick review to help more leaders find us.

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SPEAKER_00:

This is The Modern Lead Her Way, a podcast for ambitious, driven career women who will feel good on the way to the job. I'm Emma Clayton and I'll be sharing with you tangible advice to help you stop sacrificing your soul in the name of success and experience more balance, confidence, and fulfilment both in and out of work. Hello and welcome back to the Modern Leader Way where I'm joined by the lovely Julie Williams today. Hello, Julie. Hello. So happy to have this very special guest on because, as you're going to hear, Julie and I only met this summer, actually, on a retreat, but we have some exciting plans that we are cooking up behind the scenes. And I wanted to invite her on at this point as I'm helping her behind the scenes to shift from having a very successful offline business to bringing some of those services online. And we shall get so far, I think, today, and then we'll probably have a follow-up conversation when our plans transpire a little bit further down the line. But why don't you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about who's Julie? Where are you in the world and what it is that you do with your work?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, so lovely to be here. So lovely to be on here. So I feel privileged to have met you in this retreat earlier on in the year. It was just great because I think we just sort of aligned, as you said, straight away. So I'm based in Cardiff, as you know, and I've been a business consultant now for 30 odd years, predominantly working with um troubled and gross businesses. I tend to work with businesses that sort of just need a little bit of help and they need the handholding. I always say the business owners love what they do, the actual operations, but they hate the business kind of stuff. And we're not just the finances and the VAT returns, I mean the whole of the business things. So I am almost like your um your right-hand man for um, or right-hand woman, should I say, for the for the last few years. So it's it's like an outsourced CFO role where I work alongside somebody in relation to whatever it is they need, you know, very often is that um the problems they have is, you know, things like money management, cash flows, those kind of things, and trying to facilitate certain things that they need to do. So that's really my key job is right, what is it this business needs? I'm very good at identifying the problem, so which is good, but yeah, been doing it a long time.

SPEAKER_00:

Um and what I know of you from what little time we've known each other, it does feel like we've known each other for a lot longer, yeah. Um, is that you just so you have this way of just making it feel like it's not as big a deal, like whatever this problem is, you have this beautiful way of just like and we'll deal with it. Like you kind of wrap it up in this like warm hug and say it's okay, come here, we're gonna, we're gonna sort this out without saying it that way. So I love that about you, and I'm sure that's why you've been very successful, and people have you back, like companies have you back all the time, like to sort of plug that gap and play that role for them. So, what are some of the common things that you do? I mean, I'm guessing you don't have a typical day in the life of Julie.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh, I wish sometimes I think, oh, wouldn't it be nice to just go and you know, just stack shelves or whatever it is for a little while, but no, my I think the the biggest thing, and do you know what you've sort of summed it up there, really, because sometimes I have to deliver really difficult messages, but it's the way that you deliver them. You can deliver messages with with diplomacy, and that's that's how I work. And the fact is that you know, especially when it's to do with money and cash flows and stuff with businesses, and I'm talking like small business owners and and much much larger businesses as well, is that obviously there isn't a typical day, but the biggest thing is very often is somebody will think, oh my gosh, I've got all these problems, and then when I review their business, actually they're the easy fixes. There are other things underlying that you know that we can identify and say, Well, look, they're the easy, but I don't really um I I don't like saying this, but I don't really sweat the small stuff either. I mean, I came home from holidays last week to a problem at home, and I was really frustrated, felt really, you know, sort of, oh, for a day. And then I thought, you know what? It's it's just a household item, don't worry about it. So after feeling that little bit of emotion for a short period, then I thought, well, it is just that. So I I'm pretty good at always putting the spin of what's the worst that can happen, or what's the worst, and even when we need to deal with really difficult conversations where businesses are folded and it's the right thing because business is insolvent, it's about making them understand actually this is the best thing for them and their their, you know, their mental health and their families, and because that has happened as well, you know. I have come across businesses where we're already past recovering, but you know, the growth thing is what I like more than anything. I do love being able to most of my clients will always say to me, um, oh, here she goes, uncontrolled growth. But I that's huge for me. I don't want anybody to grow uncontrollably because that's when they hit the issues. So yeah, it's about having a bit of a little bit of control of your business.

SPEAKER_00:

And I guess so. Going back to this like diplomatic approach, I would add in that you are very compassionate as well. Yeah, and I think that's something perhaps that businesses aren't used to, right? They don't necessarily receive that from their consultants or from their outside. The empathy, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I do feel part of the business. So most like most of my clients, I feel part of their business. I want them to succeed. I want people to go and make these huge empires or wherever it is they go. And I really, really want people to do that. Me and my friends always say I never don't have a jealous bone in my body. I literally want people to succeed, whether that's again small business or or larger business owners. I want them and I want them to sort of lead the path for them, if I can, of just my experience, you know, just my experience of saying, right, okay, you know, let's try it a bit of a different way. It doesn't mean that it needs to be, look, I know I'm not that conservative that goes in and this is what we're going to do, and this is one way. I want to brainstorm with somebody, I want to brainstorm, I want to understand about their business, and I want to feel part of it. I want to feel part of their journey and then celebrate their success at the end. That's that's just my natural personality.

SPEAKER_00:

Very collaborative.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So how did you get into this kind of work? So you've been doing it for 30 years, but where did it all start?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I was really lucky as a really early starting. So obviously, I didn't go to uni and I started my first job at 17, but I was really lucky. I had wonderful employers with a fantastic culture, and at that time it was um, I've talked about this before on a podcast where it was the boom where we were buying in acquiring companies, so there was huge growth through acquisition, we were having intercompanies, we were um global trading. So I learned quite a lot in an industry rather than in a corporate environment, and that was really nice because it's very different culture changes in between the industry and corporate, as we both know. Well, you know, we've discussed that, but I was really lucky that they taught me everything, and and I always feel um privileged again that they trusted me to teach me stuff and teach me sort of the right way to do things, because I especially in my industry, I see so many people who um don't do this the right way. It's almost like right, like I said, there's a one one-way approach, a real cookie-cutted approach to staff, and that's not how it should be because also all clients are different, you know. All clients are different in the fact that when you're um dealing with people, people are different, so you have to deal with people in different ways. But I do think I have um uh I have a unique way of wanting to, and I recognize this in other people, and I really like this in other people, and I think this is part of where we connected and what we like is that the CEO is important of the business, but so is the cleaner. The clean, you know, no, they make the environment that we work in clean. So the idea is I will give everybody my time because um they're still doing a job, so it's irrelevant whether they're earning 150 grand a year or on 1221 an hour, you know. It's I do want everyone to feel to feel good about themselves.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I definitely get that from you, and I feel like this is where you know, when I talk about the modern leader way, it is basically your way, yeah, versus my way. Like my way is the modern leader way, and it's not necessarily the way I was modelled it, no, taught how to do it, or like saw it happen, right? It's it's like me actually finding my natural, most natural nature and letting that come out through my role, whatever it is that I'm doing, and I think that's what you you have been talking about so far, is like your way is the empathic way, yeah. That's right, passion and the care for all, and also this very collaborative approach. So I think that just drawing out some of the kind of qualities that you've highlighted there in terms of like what your way is. Um so plans for going online, so I know you've been like immersing yourself in the online business world for the last few years now, and you are very well networked and very well loved within your network. And so, what are the plans for you taking some of your offline skills sets and the way you work into an online model?

SPEAKER_01:

I think um obviously COVID made a big change for different people. I've seen that in my industry where you know I actually fell into sort of exit planning in the fact that people, you know, um wanted to exit their businesses and different stuff. And it's almost like, and I came into the online space with, I mean, you've really helped me with understand different things and of how systems work in the online space. Um, one of the things I, you know, I've shared with you is being time poor. And you know, I think I always feel if I had more time, I would be able to do this stuff. However, I'm always I'm also um wary that people can do it better than you can. So I would always go and look for that expert because we only know what we know, right? You know what I mean? We only know what we know. So finding that expert who can um help you to do things is really important. And as you say about collaboration, I love collaboration. You know, I'm I feel really, and I am gonna plug it, but I am feel really proud to have been um, you know, a president of for three years of uh you know, UK network and taking it to number one in the UK, but it wasn't about it's not just about me, it's about the teamwork that you do. So in the online space, I think that people um people lack confidence a little bit in the online space. There's there's a little bit of, you know, they're not quite sure of, and also it's it's very noisy. Let's be honest, it's very noisy in the when we're in an offline environment, we get well, obviously we can choose our clients anyway, but we get to choose the people that we want to work with because we have a personal approach for people, and but in the online space, you you're getting to know people. So what I've sort of done is uh I feel like I've done it the right way, in a way, really, because what I've done is sort of parked, selling loads of stuff to people, and literally uh just networked for the last few years, and I've just really enjoyed networking, getting to know people, and um understanding that really sort of business is business, right? Business is business, whether it's online or offline, it doesn't really matter. I mean, what I have found is that um there are things that don't get delivered in the online space where people so people call out different things and you know people want, well, I mean, we'll charge more sometimes in the online space for for different work, and it just amazes me of some things that are I and I and I'd really like to be and be amongst the people, and I've tried to find this really well be amongst the people within the online space to make a difference in the online space because they aren't all charging loads of money and not delivering, you know, there are some amazing coaches and stuff out there in the online field, and I actually have worked with some incredible people in the online space where they've literally um, you know, sort of um made me check in on my own mindset. We're talking, you know, um things where they plug the gaps for my knowledge, so I didn't even know what um, if I'm honest with you, two two years ago I didn't even know what a product suite was. You know, I'm like, what's what is this product suite thing? Because it's also yeah, exactly, you know, and and actually it's been really exciting learning the different stuff, and now I'm feeling ah, I'm getting it now. And actually, there are so many people who need the skills that you because all I feel, especially coming from uh you know, starting my business early dose as a direct selling world, our skills are transferable. Our skills are transferable, and as I said, we only know what we know. So the idea is finding the right people, and I do think the online space needs more consultants and coaches who have the qualities that I want to show as in empathy and compassion. It isn't about just buy my program or just buy this thing for that, and there isn't any, there isn't any thought behind that, you know, what you want from it at the end. I was asked today, you know, how long will I be able to as a mentor? Because, you know, I've been mentored for business in Wales for a few years, and almost like, you know, if you were mentoring, what um, you know, how long will you get? Well, you get me, but I'm not going away. So it could send me a message, and my WhatsApp is still there, and I think that's the that's the thing I'd like to be shouting out more about the online that really we can be as good as the offline space is. We can be. It's not all full of because it's just there's just a very small number of people, and I think that who are highly successful in the online world, but I think it's because I believe because it's saturated, people think, oh, I can do this, this is easy, and actually they're not bringing the transferable skills that they need from business. They do, you know, think well, okay. I can set this up, I'll create a lead map and magnet, get a few clients. And action, we all know the place is changing. You know, people are becoming far more shrewder than they ever were about getting your, you know, giving you their email addresses and stuff. They're far more wary. So that I just want to sort of plug that gap and to say that you can bring those transferable skills into this business, particularly around money management and all those kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, huge.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm looking forward to that. So I got a podcast which again is launching this this quarter, so that's really nice. I'm really looking forward to launching that this autumn. So that'll be fun.

SPEAKER_00:

And I think the thing that I know you and I are really aligned in as well is like this authenticity piece around like whatever it is that you decide to do, do it as you, do it in your way, as you. And that's gonna require a little like leg up every now and again to be a bit brave and courageous to put yourself out there online because that's oftentimes the the differentiating piece is it's not just networking in your circles in person, but it is actually putting yourself out on social media or on like LinkedIn, for example.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's scary, and it's scary. Yeah, it is, it is scary. I know that you know, people, you know, we and the but you know what the biggest thing I think about online, and this is the big thing, is that people say, Oh, you need to do this, you need to be on Twitter, you need to be on TikTok, you need to do all this. But actually, you don't. You don't need you need sometimes to simplify things, people overcomplicate stuff, and it's like that in the you know, the outside world sometimes, you know, we like I see it a lot in offline. A lot of the businesses I work for is that they overcomplicate stuff when they grow in, but in the online space, very much so is that we need to be on all these different platforms, we need to be putting ourselves out there every single day. And actually, I think I've proved that you really don't. You don't what people want is that when they're looking for you. I want them to be when I don't want them to have an email off me every day. I want them to have the email. Then, oh, Julie, I want to read it. That's what I want, and I think that is you're you're coming with a message of of like, and it is different to what lots of other coaches tell you, but idea is uh, I suppose, you know, I'm more of a consultant than a coach anyway. I want to do it with you, I want to do this journey with you, I want to be able to do it, what you want to do, and say that's okay, because the problem is we have like, okay, this is what you need to do, and that's okay to have a step, it's good to have a model and a method. Um, however, your USP, the what you bring to it is the most important thing. It's the most important thing for people to want to deal with you, and they want to be able to. There's only two things that I always ask for when I'm dealing with people, and that's trust and transparency. I just want those two things: trust and transparency. Everything else will fall into place, you know. So yeah, I'm really looking forward to working more in the online space, doing some programs and different things of my own that I know business owners need. I know they need.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's very like there's loads of stuff coming, which is super exciting, which is why I said we'll have another conversation when we can share more on that. But right now, actually, um, timing-wise, is perfect because you are promoting um a course at the moment. Do you want to talk about the certified business strategist?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I am really excited. So, two years ago, I became a certified strategist, and it was really weird because I've been doing this stuff for two for like 30 odd years, and but it what it did for me was brought some structure into what I was doing. You know, like you know, sometimes we don't grow our businesses because the foundations aren't there, you know what I mean? People are afraid to employ people or whatever it is that it is holding you back. But when I did the certified strategist course, it actually helped me um gave some structure into what I do. I knew about like SWOT analysis and and you know, steeple analysis and all those kind of things from doing funding, you know, from coming from a bank, a little bit of a banking background. I knew a lot about this kind of stuff anyway, but actually it just doing this um CBS, it came which was the the course, it came, it gave me a proper method methodology of like planning, developing, and executing. And I will always work on goal setting where I'll almost like right, okay, where do we is where we want to be, and then we're gonna just reverse engineer how we're gonna get there. But it's really interesting to have this model into how we're gonna do it because also it is, you know, we've spoken previously about culture being everything, it's strategy is so important, but culture is absolutely everything, and when you have the strategy in place, you can develop that into the culture of your organization. So if you're be it's you're about your behaviors, isn't it? The end of the day, I'm behaving in a certain way, so my people will want to deal with me from a customer perspective, and what I, you know, it's dealing with it's dealing with integrity or whatever it is that you know your behaviors and your values are, but it's almost making sure they are rolled down to your team, so your team are behavior because actually they're part of your business, so you all need to be aligned. You know, this is why you and I uh sort of hit it off because we're aligned in relation to our values, our authenticity. You you know, I don't want somebody to try and be somebody else because normally you it stands out a mile. If you try and behave like somebody else that's taught you, it stands out a mile. If you're just being yourself, whether it be like a Welsh, really strong Welsh accent or whatever it is, people will resonate with that because they just want to be themselves. And I think we need to encourage that more. We need to encourage that, and I think the strategy course just gives us for me, especially delivering it. I mean, obviously, you're part of our you're part of um my team delivering this with me and supporting these people because actually I know that together we've got you know the skill set that we can help these people achieve what it is they want to achieve. And I'm really excited about that. Really excited. It's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_00:

So the certified business strategist is really for anyone that wants to get better at being a strategist themselves for their own business or in their own like work that they're doing, yeah. Also if they want to help others with their strategy, right? So consult with that. So um doors are open to this right now. There is a very short window, it closes on the 6th of October, and then if someone is listening to this further down the line, the chances are it will be open again. So we'll make sure your links and everything are included in the show notes so that if you are interested in this and learning more, you can reach out to Julie in that way. Is there anything else you want to say about that before we close?

SPEAKER_01:

I think you hit the nail on the head, really. You can either use it for your own business because you become certified. This course isn't simple, that's why it has a 65 point CPD as a accreditation around it. You know, it does give you credibility to be able to understand what you're doing because of, like I said, it's that structure. But also, what I've done when I've done it, it's not about just becoming a certified strategist because you can do that, but also you can add it to your current business. So, this is exactly what I've done is I've literally I already had a business model and I've just added my accreditation and what I do into this, so I'm it's almost adding value for my clients. So whether that means that I can charge more prices or whatever it is that you want to do, but it's almost like the three ways you're doing it for yourself, you're doing it on its own, or you're adding it to something is existing, and I think that's what people sort of need to understand. Actually, you might not want to be a certified strategist, but imagine how much credibility it does give you in relation to the clients that you're dealing with now, because they're gonna want to deal with you know, somebody who actually knows what they're doing, and that's why it makes you stand out in a crowd. So, yeah, I'm really excited. There's got a week to go now, and yeah, it's had some really good interest, so it should be good.

SPEAKER_00:

Um yeah, brilliant. I and I'm just thinking back to when I got my last role I I took on as um head of operations, and then my my MD just said to me, Your strategy and operations now. And I was like, Okay, um, I need to go on a strategy course. It's like it's that kind of thing. I can see people sat in their corporate jobs actually going, oh, this actually might benefit me too, and it might well benefit you if you're also thinking about potentially leaving your corporate job one day and do your own thing, so give you that instant credibility coming from a strategic corporate background into this kind of role is kind of a done deal almost. So yeah, it's good. Yeah, well, Julie, thank you for coming on and sharing your brilliance with us. And like I said, there's more to be seen from the pair of us moving forward. So very excited. Um stay tuned for the next instalment. But until next time, um, take care and we'll speak to you that thanks, Julie.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you.

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