From Vision To Action: Mindset And Micro Tweaks For Small Business Owners

Goals don’t stick because they’re loud; they stick because they’re aligned. We sit down with Buffy Andrews, owner of the Made Well Center for Wholeness and Executive Director of Wellness Without Walls, to reset the rushed energy of January and build a saner, more effective plan for February and beyond. 

Together, we unpack how to choose goals that match your values and bandwidth, avoid performative growth, and use small, compounding improvements to move the numbers that matter.

We dig into the real-life rhythm of business ownership—capacity, seasonality, and the honest recalibration that follows sickness, holidays, and shifting priorities. Instead of launching a dozen new offers, we show how micro tweaks across pricing, sales, marketing, operations, and client experience can add up to major gains. Think clearer offers, faster responses, better follow-up, and slight price adjustments that honor your service and stabilize revenue. 

We also draw a bright line between alignment and pressure: how to feel when a decision is off, how to refuse scarcity-based choices, and how to keep vision as your anchor and filter.

You’ll learn the “try, fail quickly, reset” loop that makes experimentation safe and productive—no cold plunges for your business, just thoughtful tests with tight feedback. 

Buffy also shares how Wellness Without Walls connects people in Wilmington, NC, with mental health and wellness resources when finances or insurance fall short, underscoring why sustainable growth and community care go hand in hand. 

If you’re ready to trade comparison for clarity and force for flow, this conversation gives you a practical path to progress that actually fits your life.

If this resonated, follow and subscribe, share with a friend who’s building something brave, and leave a quick review to help more people find the show. 

Learn more about Made Well Center: madewellcenter.org

Learn more and support Wellness Without Walls: wellnesswithoutwalls.co

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Meet your hosts and learn more about Kickstart Collective at kickstartcollective.co

Kickstart Collective is a creative marketing agency based in Wilmington, NC. We offer our clients a creative advantage through creative content and marketing strategies. 

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Reintroduction

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Kickstart Your Week. Buffy, thanks for joining us again on Tucan Talks. You recorded with us when we were next door in the other studio, slightly different format now. But I'm super excited to have you. Thanks for having me again. Kick off February with us. Twocan talks. Twocan talks on Groundhog Day. On groundhog. We just learned. I wonder if twocans talk to groundhogs. Oh, of course they do. Yeah. But you're the owner of Madewell Center for Wholeness here in Wilmington and the executive director of Wellness Without Walls. So we're going to have you talk a little bit just to business owners about mindset, some goals. We'll jump in, but do you have, you know, anything just intro-wise you want to share about yourself and Madewell or Wellness Without Walls?

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Yeah, I mean, Madewell Center, Mental Health and Wellness Center. We've got some new clinicians there, which is exciting. We've started the year off strong, I feel like. It's always a little bit of that roller coaster after Christmas and the holidays and trying to like jump in. So it's kind of cool that we're talking about business and um, you know, kind of sharing maybe tips for business owners and stuff today. But um yeah, I feel like for myself, just mom and overcoming sicknesses. Yeah, it is the season. Yes, season of the sneezing. Oh, yeah, you know?

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Yeah. I mean, I guess I should have mentioned obviously business owner.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Mom, your field. So you've yeah, you got it all. You share it all too. That's all. I mean, you know, that's all people need to know, really. Let's be honest. Yeah. Um, cool. Um, well, so in January, January on the podcast, we talked a lot about setting goals, kind of pausing before you just jump into January craziness of setting goals. Um, so hopefully people did that and didn't, you know, I hope you guys listened. Hope you listened. I hope you set your goals reasonably and you're doing great with them. But let's be honest, let's be honest. Most people and and I'll say America, but probably just most people in general. Um, by the time you hit February, it's like, wait, what was I gonna do?

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Yeah. I'll be honest. I am just now getting to my goals, like setting them.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Yeah, I love yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

I just I feel like honestly, if you're a believer out there, the Lord forced me. He forced me to slow down. I was telling you, oh, I was like at our board meeting that Laura is a part of. Um, I was just saying, like, yeah, all the sickness really like took out my throat and my voice. And I feel like I always, every single year, try so hard to plan, you know, over Christmas, I'm gonna take this time off and then I'm gonna ease into the new year, and I'm trying to be so diligent with my calendar. Yeah. And then I feel like without fail, either something happens with my calendar where it's like an unforeseen event pops up or something in Christmas, or I get sick. Yeah. And it's like, well, you really couldn't actually rest and recharge like you wanted to. And so now I'm like kind of just getting to that, to where that rest and recharge time is where my brain, you know, takes off and can really, I can brainstorm, I can expand on things, you know, just kind of go hard with it. But I'm just getting there. I love it.

Setting Realistic Goals In February

SPEAKER_01 3:24

So speaking from your professional and personal experience, yes. Um when you are working with clients and setting goals, or even for yourself, what are some ways that you're like, okay, let's and maybe it's not everyone needs to be stretched, but like, hey, how for those people that it's like, yeah, let's how do you stretch and reach some goals and make goals that are impactful without it, the goal itself or like getting there being overwhelming? Like, what advice do you have for business owners on?

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Um, usually I would say start small, right? Um for one, know your capacity. You have to know your capacity. You have to know where you at, kind of at your baseline. Um, are you in a groove with some of the goals that you've already been setting? Right. Um, and then if you are, that becomes a good time to say, okay, what is your vision for yourself? Is your vision to stay where you're at? Yeah. Or is your vision to grow? If it's to grow, then we have to say, okay, what's just the next layer to the growth, right? It's not about if you have those kind of big visions, you have to think about what's the next layer to add to that, right? First, it's about kind of understanding that capacity, maximizing where you're at, and then saying, okay, next layer up. And sometimes it's just like little adjustments, you know, um, especially if it's financial goals, right? You can make a little adjustment of, you know, like in my practice, right? It's like if we wanted to make an extra, I'm gonna make up an arbitrary number here, an extra$100,000 a year, right? It's like maybe we just add$10 to everyone's session. Yeah. And that's how we get there. Yeah. Easy. It's not like a crazy like new system, you know, or something like that. It was just like, I'm just gonna tweak a little bit. Yeah. Here, you know. So yeah.

Micro Tweaks And Compounding Gains

SPEAKER_01 5:15

I love that. I there's something I listened to, and I completely forgot until you said that. That basically, like you have sales, you have marketing, you have operations, productivity, all the different layers of the business. And it's if you grew or improved by like 10% in each of those categories, uh you might reach your goals. Like you might not need to like increase sales, you know.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Or add some crazy revenue stream or like, yeah, some other service or something.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Yeah, like the things you already have going, can you just improve those or turn the dial just a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

And it compounds.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Yep, it sure does. I like that.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Yeah, some good stuff. Yeah. Um, cool. What is the difference between goals that are aligned versus goals that are just performative or like should based?

Aligned Goals Vs Performative Goals

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Yeah. Oh, I think goals that are aligned feel good. Like they feel good in your spirit. Yeah. Right. Um, it's like when you're talking to someone who is trying to sell you on something or um, you know, whatever, if you push back and then they don't allow you to push back, yeah, and it feels icky, that doesn't feel aligned. Yeah. Right. Like I literally had this conversation with someone yesterday where I was just learning about their service, about their offerings. Um, and she got to the end of it and she told me how much it was gonna cost me. And I said, something that doesn't feel right. You know, because in my head, I think most of us as we enter into conversations, we kind of know what we're willing to do, yeah, or what we're willing to spend, or what we're willing to sacrifice, maybe, you know, to get what we need. Um, and if something is like way outside the scope of where you are willing to go and that feels unaligned, right? You're gonna notice it in your spirit. And then if there's pushback against that, I feel like even more so it's not aligned, right? If someone's trying to like force you into doing something that you're like, that's just not not where I'm at right now. Right. Right. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I feel like that's kind of like one thing is like you just know you'll kind of feel it in your spirit. But then also checking in with yourself and noticing again, am I being sold something? Am I following someone else on social media or you know, some sort of whatever platform? And I'm just thinking, like, oh, they got a new office space. I need a new office space. Oh, they got a new service. We need to add a new service. Like those are performative things. Yeah. You know, we don't have to, we don't have to enter into that space with those people if that's not where we're at in our business. And also what you do should be different. Yeah. We talked about that last night too. It's like we're refining the message for wellness without walls. And the more we refine it, the more different it feels, which actually feels more aligned. Aligned. Yeah. And feels more like, oh, maybe people can actually join us in this now, you know. For sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Um, yeah, I liked like the comparison part, but then going back to what you first said about like getting to the point, okay, like what's the vision? So then I think if you can figure out like, okay, what is my vision? What do I want? And then yeah, on the front end, then when those moments do pop up, it's like, okay, we can go back and is this aligned with the vision? Right. Sometimes the vision changes, which is fine, but yeah, being like anchored to what that is, I think is important.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Yeah. And you know, having that vision is kind of going back to that first question of like how do you stretch yourself beyond you know where you're at? I think that's kind of how, right? It's like you have the bigger vision, right? Of like Madewell Center. We want to be a holistically integrated mental health and wellness center. Da-da-da. You know, but it's like every time we are able to partner with someone or find something that allows us to offer this to our clients with ease, you know, that's when we're like, oh, okay, I can step into that goal. I can step into that, right? Um, yeah. And I think having that vision is how you stretch yourself, but it's also how you stay anchored into like weeding out the things you don't need, kind of deal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

So we all probably need to like set some good visions.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Yeah. Yeah. Like get that mood board out, get that vision board out.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

You didn't do it in January. Do it in now. Love yourself, February vision for yourself and your business. Get some, get some chocolate and some there you go. Do your vision board. Um okay. So, how can a business owner tell when a goal needs to be adjusted rather than pushed through? Which I think we kind of are like already touching on that.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

But yeah, I think definitely if it's like stretching you beyond your means, um reassess it versus like push through it, right? If you are making unwise choices that are um putting you in a bind, right? Like you should never be making choices out of scarcity mindset, um, out of fear.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Yeah.

Vision As Anchor And Filter

SPEAKER_00 10:17

If you're making choices out of those two places versus like an abundance or versus again, ease or flow, we got to reassess. Yeah. Right. And I am the queen of that. So I feel like I'm really good at helping my clients do that. Um, you know, when I do business building immersions, I have a lot of people that come in and they have these lofty goals or like, I see this business doing this, this, and this. And I'm like, okay, but what about your life? Right. Right? How do we pick the things that go with you and how you operate as a human? I think also as an ADHD person, it's really easy to again get like sidetracked and like bought into all the flashy, you know, kind of things, but you have to just like have your own sort of checks and balances in order to kind of assess where that is. And so yeah, you can kind of like reassess the goals and then get back to what you need. Yeah, make it fit with yourself. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Um, how do you help people determine like, is this just a challenge and you need to like push yourself and grow? Or like, nope, change course. Or that might be a very individual. Yeah, I was gonna say I almost depending on the personality.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Yeah, and it almost depends on the thing too, a little bit. Um like for instance, if it's someone like working out, you know, or trying to be more fit, right? You know, there may be moments there where they need to push themselves a little bit. Right. You need a little self-control, you need a little self-control, or you need a little bit of awareness that you can do something, right? Um, and so sometimes there's those like baby step trial and error things that we can do that we can say, hey, let's try it. Let's let's like dip our toe into the pool. If it's not working, we can get right back out. Right, right. We don't need to cold plunge this. No, we certainly don't. Never in my life am I gonna cold plunge. Never ever. Um women, just like it's not necessary. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

We're cold all the time. Why do we're good all the time?

SPEAKER_00 12:18

We don't need to cold plunge. My toes, I'm literally.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

My hands right now are freaking if we just had some iced hot coffee.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

I have a little um hot, this is a side note. I have a hot pocket like um foot warmer for my bed.

When To Adjust Goals, Not Push Through

SPEAKER_01 12:32

That's a godsend right there. My seven-year-old shout out to their entrepreneurial spirit at their school, but they um had a winter market, but they you know, like the little rice um things, they made ones that you can put your hands in. It's so cute. I bought one. Umtrepreneurial, entrepreneurial kids. You gotta inspire them young. I know. You really do. I know. I really want the seven-year-old. I've thought about this last year and the year before. I want him to do an episode with my gosh, that'd be so cute. He loves um, so I gotta talk him. I don't want to force him, you know. Don't want to make him if it's not aligned with his vision for his business. I don't want to force him to be on the spot if you're gonna in the pool a little bit, invite him on. Let's just like it's a great marketing opportunity for you.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Challenge him in that way.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Yeah, I think he's still young enough to where I'm fun. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think you're fun. Thanks. I'm fun, mom. Cool, mom. Yeah. Um cold, yeah. No, so cold plunging, yeah, nah. We don't need to do that in business.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

We don't need to do that in business. You don't need to cold cold punch your business. We need to dip our toe in the pool. We need to try. I would say with that, um try and fail quickly. Yeah. Right? Like that's the idea. That's the goal. Try things. If it doesn't work, don't keep forcing it, right? Don't fit a square peg and a round hole kind of thing. It's like my son with his little Thomas the train trains. He loves to hook them together, but sometimes he gets frustrated and he's trying to push it too hard in the wrong direction. And it like bends the little hook, right? And so then the trains don't fit together. Yeah. Right. And so it's just this idea of like, try, if that's not working, fail quickly and reset, like regroup and say, let's try something different. Let's approach with a different angle. Like, let's not just keep hammering the same, you know, same angle there is not gonna work. But don't waste time. Don't waste time doing it. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so fail quickly, I feel like is kind of like the way to to do that and try and see, right? Um, yeah. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah. Um well, I know we've been talking a little, well, a little bit, a lot in the last, what, 12, 24 hours about wellness without walls. Yeah. Um, do you want to give the spiel for that just before we wrap up? Just uh Yeah, sure.

Try, Fail Quickly, Reset

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Well, platform moment. Yeah, platform moment. Um yeah, so wellness without walls is a nonprofit here in Wilmington, North Carolina. We provide mental health and wellness resources for people who can't afford it, right? So um people who might have just lost their job, lost their insurance, um, people who maybe their insurance covers one type of service, but doesn't cover a different type of service, right? We want to be able to provide that care for people and really meet them where they're at before things get really bad, right? Um, so you know, you can visit wellnesswithoutwalls.co. You can learn a little bit more. Um yeah, if you need help, we can we can help you. We can connect you to the right resources if we don't have them. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Cool. Well, thank you. Thanks for joining. I think I'll have don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure you're our Joshua first double double guest.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

Oh my gosh, what an honor.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Yeah. I mean, I'll say you should be honored, but that sounds a little prideful. You should you should feel honored. No, we appreciate your willingness to join us again. Um, it's so fun. New format for the episode. Um, so awesome. Well, thank you. We'll put all the links for everything in the show notes. But this was fun. Um yeah, so if you guys enjoy this episode, which I'm sure you did, um you can like and subscribe and all the things to Two Can Talks. Um, and then we'll also put the link for Madewell Center and Wellness with Thought Walls in the show notes so you guys can learn more about those. But thanks again for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Thank you.