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Making Moves Podcast | Corporate to Successful Entrepreneur

The Making Moves Podcast (with business guru's Seema Alexander & Kelly Lynn Adams) is dedicated to helping 9 to 5'ers, side hustlers & entrepreneurs go from following the rules to creating their own. Get ready to be exposed to weekly bite-size trainings and inspiration about business building, money making, mindset training, and so much more. You will hear from top entrepreneurs and influencers (in all industries) tell the good, the bad and the amazing of the journey from employee to entrepreneur. This is the place to learn more so that you can be, do and have more.
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Dec 26, 2016

In this episode we have Brian Smith, founder of the UGG Australia brand. Graduating in 1978 as a chartered accountant in Australia, Brian came to America looking for the next big opportunity to bring back to Australia. While studying at the UCLA Graduate School of Management he noticed there was no sheep skin footwear in the U.S. With only $500 in capital he imported boot samples and over the next 17 years built the UGG Australia brand into a multi-million dollar international enterprise. He sold it in 1995 and the brand has continued to grow to exceed a billion dollars in annual sales for the past three years.

  • When you decide to jump in, you don’t know everything. Why should you? There are a lot of things Brian didn’t know that would have stopped him had he known. But once you have jumped in and started these then just become obstacles you have to overcome, they don’t become road blocks that stop you from moving.
  • You can’t give birth to adults. Every business started with someone conceiving the idea and then giving birth. The birth of UGG was buying six pairs of samples. But then every business goes through infancy and just lays there and every once in awhile you get a giggle out of it but you keep feeding it and changing the diapers and eventually it will start toddling. The business is getting articles or blog posts and customers are writing reviews and you are getting orders. Then it moves into youth, orders are coming in and production is good. If it’s a really good business it will hit the teen years. You want to be at every party in town. It’s a stupid dangerous phase for a business because it’s tempting to do all these big adult things you aren’t ready for. But eventually you get through that and it becomes a mature adult of a business.
  • You have to figure out what it is your market wants and then design your advertising to make them want to be in the picture. Find out who your target is and in a small way give them credibility so they know your product is what they are looking for.
  • Nearly always your most disappointing disappointments will become your greatest blessings.
  • The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live every day happily as a tadpole. There is nothing you can do to accelerate time, it just has to pass. The key word here is happily. You might as well get on to something you like doing while you’re waiting for the big thing to happen.

Advice

  1. Don’t move out of your day job until you are forced to do it because the new business demands your time.
  2. Try to find out what you can do better than everybody else and do it. Once you start out and really focus on something you will become an expert very quickly. It doesn’t matter what the product or service is, once you become an expert the money will start flowing. If you are going to be an expert on something, it better be something you like.
  3. If you are on the brink of becoming an entrepreneur, you’re about to be born. Just jump in, whatever you have conceived give birth to it. Take the first step but don’t mortgage your life for it. Start small and enjoy the ride because it’s going to be a fun one.

Contacting Brian

Website: www.briansmithspeaker.com

Email: brian@briansmithspeaker

Brian does a small amount of coaching. He won’t coach someone unless he is sure he can help. You can buy the book on the website or on Amazon.

Dec 19, 2016

“When you leave corporate you have to be careful that you don’t bring the lifestyle you used to lead into the lifestyle you are about to lead. There is hustle, grit and reinvestment. If you keep spending money like you did before you will run out of it.”

  • Gena was working in a law firm in New York City and making good money, but she was unhappy. She started meeting a lot of people in the coaching industry who needed help but couldn’t afford or want to work with a law firm.
  • While she was still at her law firm she started coming up with different ideas. She started brain storming different packages she could offer. She hired a web designer and had a website created. The website was ready the day she left her corporate job.
  • Gena almost had to file bankruptcy the first year because of her spending. She was making money; she just wasn’t making smart choices and investments. She was able to turn that around.
  • Gena created a legal program four months into her business that made over $20,000 in its launch.
  • The monetary issues came from investing in too many things. She was hiring coaches, traveling the world, going to workshops, conferences and events and buying different courses. She had a lot of great content but no time to implement it because she was always doing something else.
  • The biggest lesson Gena learned in her first year of business was invest in one thing, commit to it, complete it, implement everything you learn and then move on to the next thing.

When people start a business the first thing they think about is making money. They don’t think about protecting that money and that’s where the legal comes in. The legal is there to protect your business and your brand, your income and your assets both personally and professionally. Gena tries to make law less scary, more approachable and easier for people to understand.

Three website documents it’s important to have at any stage of business.

  1. A website disclaimer: people come on your website and read different articles and it’s important that they understand the role you are taking, who you are and who you are not. I’m not a medical professional, I’m not an accountant, I’m not a therapist etc. If you aren’t a professional you want to tell them that because if you don’t and something happens to that person you could get in trouble.
  2. Privacy policy: This is legally required in several states. But when you have an online business you are technically marketing to every single person in the world. The privacy policy says I won’t sell any of your information or spam you.
  3. Terms and conditions: this protects the content on your website. When people come on your website you are saying your material is yours and they can’t use it.

How to contact Gena

Gena and her wife have a Facebook group for women entrepreneurs called Gena and Jordanna Your Magical Business.

Gena has a lot of freebies on her website www.genashingle.com/sign-up. Her website also lists all the things she does.

Dec 12, 2016

Today we are talking about planning for 2017. We want to share with you five key steps that will really help you plan 2017. These are things we collectively do ourselves that have worked for us.

  1. Review (audit) the year. You really want to see what has worked for you this year. Is it the projects or partnerships or just a clarity in your message? Then you really need to look at the other side. What’s not working for you? A lot of times when things aren’t working for you, you are either not in alignment or you have a missing link somewhere. This audit is critical because it will allow you as you start to plan for next year to really focus on building on your strengths and to look at the things that are not working as opportunities.

 

  1. How do you want to feel next year? Do you want to feel empowered? Do you want to feel motivated? Do you want to feel free? Identify how you want to feel next year because once that clock turns if we haven’t planned well we scramble and get really immersed in the day to day, week to week and month to month activities and we don’t really stop and set the intention of how we want to feel for the whole entire year.

 

 

  1. We all have a million and a half ideas of what we want our year to look like. This is an opportunity for you to write it all out. Do a physical brain dump of everything that you’re potentially thinking that you want to bring to fruition next year. Once you start to put all that together the next step is to categorize it. Then prioritize the top three categories (or top three main projects) that are really going to impact you and make you feel the way that you want to.

 

  1. Pick the top three things you’re going to do in the next 90 days. These need to be tangible things so you see results in 90 days. Once you’ve identified three (you can have 3-5, I would not go more than 5) plan weekly or bi-weekly the tasks that need to get done with each goal. There is something called the Daily Action Planner. You can look it up, it’s an amazing planner. If you’re one of those people who likes to write things down and categorize it will help you with your 90 day planning.

 

 

  1. We’re all entrepreneurs and it’s hard sometimes to keep yourself accountable. One of the biggest issues people have is breaking promises made to ourselves because there is no one keeping us accountable. Find a group of people you respect either in your mastermind if you are part of one (and if you’re not you should really consider it) or other accountability group and declare your goals for next year. Declare them and allow people to give you constructive feedback and challenge you on some of your goals.

 

We’re both coaches, strategists and business people in our own right. A lot of what we do is help people just like you build and grow your brands and scale them, make them profitable and really get you clear on what your goals should be for next year and how to get there. So if you’re looking for additional support check us out. Our websites are www.seemaalexander.com and www.kellylynnadams.com. We also both include a 30 minute free consultation. Whatever you want we are there for you and that’s the whole intention of this. We want you to have an incredible 2017.

 

Dec 5, 2016

Jenny Power’s background is in special events, marketing and PR. She used to work in the non-profit sector raising millions of dollars for worthy causes but working mostly by herself. She didn’t have anyone to bounce ideas off of so she started going to networking events. That’s when she noticed two types of people at these events, neither of which she was looking for. It was either the old boys club, guys drinking beer and hanging out, or it was a sorority mentality where you walk in and feel awkward and look for someone to talk to. She thought there had to be a better way. That is how she came up with the idea for Running with Heels, one of the top exclusive women’s networking organizations in the city.

  • It started out as a dinner party series and has now branched out to a lifestyle business.
  • They do lunches and workshops and masterminds and social events.
  • They are invitation only. They take a lot of time to curate the event and make sure the right people are there. The right people for them are senior level women executives and established business owners.
  • There are a lot of networking events out there. If someone that applies is not a fit for them Jenny will direct them to one of the other events that her friends run.
  • In terms of revenue streams they do ticketed events and an annual membership. Members are invited to events earlier and the events are small so everyone gets personal attention.
  • Members have the opportunity to be profiled in their newsletter and to participate in masterminds called “Running in Circles” which are circles of women that get together in New York once a month.

Networking tips

Jenny wrote an article “The Secret Networking Tip” for Motto by Time, Inc. She was tired of seeing articles telling people to “fake it till you make it” and “just act like the best version of yourself”.

  • Don’t do that imposter thing and pretend to be someone else. It’s too hard to remember all of these acts you are playing.
  • Jenny’s #1 networking tip: love me or hate me, I’m always myself.
  • If you don’t know something, ask a question. So many people are afraid if they don’t understand some industry lingo or someone is talking about something a little out of their range.
  • Ask questions. People love to have those teaching moments. They love to have the chance to teach someone something they know.
  • Act like yourself all the time. It’s okay to be vulnerable. It shows confidence to say I don’t know something and I want to learn it.

Advice

Hire a virtual assistant. You might not want to have a salaries person or someone in your house when you are just starting out.

Immerse yourself in a community of entrepreneurs.

Contacting Jenny

Website: www.running-with-heels.com

Facebook: Running with Heels LLC

Twitter @heelsandspiles

Podcast: Broadcast Broads Building Businesses

Dec 5, 2016

Jenny Power’s background is in special events, marketing and PR. She used to work in the non-profit sector raising millions of dollars for worthy causes but working mostly by herself. She didn’t have anyone to bounce ideas off of so she started going to networking events. That’s when she noticed two types of people at these events, neither of which she was looking for. It was either the old boys club, guys drinking beer and hanging out, or it was a sorority mentality where you walk in and feel awkward and look for someone to talk to. She thought there had to be a better way. That is how she came up with the idea for Running with Heels, one of the top exclusive women’s networking organizations in the city.

  • It started out as a dinner party series and has now branched out to a lifestyle business.
  • They do lunches and workshops and masterminds and social events.
  • They are invitation only. They take a lot of time to curate the event and make sure the right people are there. The right people for them are senior level women executives and established business owners.
  • There are a lot of networking events out there. If someone that applies is not a fit for them Jenny will direct them to one of the other events that her friends run.
  • In terms of revenue streams they do ticketed events and an annual membership. Members are invited to events earlier and the events are small so everyone gets personal attention.
  • Members have the opportunity to be profiled in their newsletter and to participate in masterminds called “Running in Circles” which are circles of women that get together in New York once a month.

Networking tips

Jenny wrote an article “The Secret Networking Tip” for Motto by Time, Inc. She was tired of seeing articles telling people to “fake it till you make it” and “just act like the best version of yourself”.

  • Don’t do that imposter thing and pretend to be someone else. It’s too hard to remember all of these acts you are playing.
  • Jenny’s #1 networking tip: love me or hate me, I’m always myself.
  • If you don’t know something, ask a question. So many people are afraid if they don’t understand some industry lingo or someone is talking about something a little out of their range.
  • Ask questions. People love to have those teaching moments. They love to have the chance to teach someone something they know.
  • Act like yourself all the time. It’s okay to be vulnerable. It shows confidence to say I don’t know something and I want to learn it.
 

Advice

Hire a virtual assistant. You might not want to have a salaries person or someone in your house when you are just starting out.

Immerse yourself in a community of entrepreneurs.

Contacting Jenny

Website: www.running-with-heels.com

Facebook: Running with Heels LLC

Twitter @heelsandspiles

Podcast: Broadcast Broads Building Businesses

Nov 28, 2016

On this episode we are so excited to welcome Mona Patel, a dynamic and engaging entrepreneur with 17 years experience convincing leaders of some of the world’s biggest brands to understand value and optimize their customer’s experiences.

  • Mona didn’t have a business plan when she jumped, she just followed her gut. She didn’t believe in herself and then one day she did. She used that momentum and started sprinting and has been doing that since.
  • The benefit of not having a plan is you’re almost constantly listening for clues to create one.  That early stage for Mona was about figuring out what she wanted to do.
  • Listening helped Mona land her first and second projects. She wasn’t pitching what she could do; she was listening for what they needed.
  • UX stands for User Experience. The field is based around understanding what a user or customer wants and needs from a brand and then designing solutions to meet that need.
  • At Motivate Design their version of UX has always been around using design to motivate people to change their behavior.
  • Mona’s undergrad is in psychology and engineering. It was understanding how people think, memory cognition, behavior and then the application of that to physical product design.

Entrepreneurs, sit down with your team. If you don’t have a team it can be friends and family. Ask them to write down as many what if questions as they can in a three minute period that answers a problem statement that you propose to them.  The first set is not always the best answer so I’m going to ask you to do it three times. Nine minutes total and share in between.  The result will be:

  • You will come up with an answer.
  • You will get unstuck.

If you think about it the number of what if questions you ask are often negative. What if I fail? What if I can’t? What if I lose? What if people make fun of me? What if I have to go back to a job? That’s what holds you back. Use that opening what if for positive.

Shift from what if I can’t to what if I don’t? Working with a coach is really important. But it’s also important to list what you want to get done in your life.

Write down your life goals.  You aren’t going to get there if you don’t know

  1. What your goal is
  2. Why it’s important to you.

If a Ted Talk is one of your goals, when are you going to start? It’s not going to be easier by avoiding it. You can commit to watch one every week and get the rhythm of how it works. You can also get yourself on stages and get a public speaking coach so you’re refining yourself. Maybe it’s journaling everyday so you start to identify your story.

 

Three things to invest in when starting a new business

  1. Get a coach
  2. Don’t create a company around yourself
  3. Networking
 

You can find Mona Patel at:

Website: www.motivatedesign.com

Email:  mona@motivatedesign.com

Nov 21, 2016

In this episode we are talking to a talk show host, wellness and beauty expert and one of my good dear friends Nitikia Chopra.

Nitika Chopra is a certified life coach, wellness entrepreneur, go to resource for young women around the world and motivational lifestyle guru. Nitika’s on a mission to inspire radical self-love.

We all want to get to the place of ease where you are going on vacations or having more time with your kids at night. It’s easy to look at people around you and think “I’m so far from that. What am I doing wrong that I’m not there yet?” But a lot of times people don’t really get honest about what’s happening before they get to those points in their life where there is ease.

Advice for growing in relationships and connections:

  • Nitka came to a place in her career where she was connecting with people out of fear, to realizing the connection had nothing to do with her. What if I came at it from a place of service, where I had no expectations? What can come from that place?
  • They will either like you or they won’t. Come at it from a place of confidence and grace and see how you can provide something for them versus wondering if they are going to like you or not. Then at least you’re showing up as your best self.
  • Act and do your work with the right mentality
  • Instead of creating the niche let it come to you organically over time. There kind of an epidemic of constantly trying to figure things out. Give yourself grace and let things evolve naturally. It’s better to be authentic and real then try to force yourself into something.
  • If you’re side hustling you should have a tremendous amount of pride in that phase of your life.
  • Be grateful for your job, it’s the reason you’re able to hustle for your dreams. Because you don’t have to worry about your dream creating money for you at this moment.  Don’t complain about your job, even if you don’t love it. Have an attitude of gratitude.
  • For the person who has just transitioned, congratulations. It’s okay to be excited but It’s a brick in the house, so don’t stop hustling. Don’t think that’s it because the downfall of that will be harder to come back from.

Contacting Nikita

Website: nitikachopra.com

Instagram: @nitikachopra

Snapchat: @nitikac

Nov 14, 2016

In this episode we have Sybil Amuti. Sybil is an executive brand strategist, podcast producer and cohost,

philanthropist, coach, wife, and mother.

Sybil is also a cohost of the Great Girlfriends show, a podcast conversation series created to connect

women with daily tips and solutions for living a passionate every-day life and building thriving business.

In this podcast, you will hear Sybil discuss:

 How her parents impacted her chartered course from kid-preneurship to corporate

career stability.

 The way she graduated with a master’s degree and moved from New York to New

Orleans only to move back to New York again a year later.

 The impact of taking a break to pursue fashion had on her idea of who she was.

 How she was consistently able to find fantastic positions that paid exceptionally well,

yet always seemed to have something else going on the side.

 The way she built a partnership with her husband and other friends from the ground up.

 How she began to feel that she was being dishonest with herself and others about who

she was, and how that turned her direction toward building up her own legacy.

 What she believes about establishing a clear perception around the mission you seek to

accomplish and how you see yourself doing that in order to focus your brand.

 How she always has a destination in mind, so everything she does has a map that routes

back to the starting point.

 How she used her mission to start her focus on making her services available on the

branding side.

 How she helped to influence small businesses, especially women entrepreneurs who

have passion but really need help with strategy.

 How she used workshops to reach more people at one time.

 The way she made the inspirational connection to women without spending a ton of her

own money while also being able to give it away for free.

 Adding the most value possible from her specific perspective.

 How her friend journeyed with her through her transition into co-creating the Great

Girlfriends podcast.

 The way her powerful friendships with other women has impacted the way she works.

 How she leveraged honesty and vulnerability into creating a community.

 What she has learned about compartmentalizing her hours and keeping strict cut-offs

for work and family in order to optimize her time with clients and make sure everyone is

getting what they need.

 The fact that there is no safety net when working outside of corporate and how that

means it’s time to don your cape and be your own superhero.

 What it means to be where you are now and not discount the present while looking

forward to the future.

 How you deserve the fulfillment that comes with the honesty of being who you are.

 The best tips on partnering with others to grow your business, including deciding that

you are being someone that is worth partnering with.

 How important it is to have a quality character and to choose partners with quality

characters.

 The importance of having partnership agreements drawn up legally to keep each other

in check and to have something to fall back on in times of difficulty.

 How she overcame complete fear to help Tony Robbins re-build his brand and how that

translates to everyone she helps.

 What she has to say to all of us that find ourselves second-guessing and questioning our

competence and abilities.

If you are interested in connecting with Sybil or if you have any questions for her, you can find her in the

following places:

Website: www.legacyrow.co

Website: www.thegreatgirlfriends.com

Twitter: @sybil_amuti

Instagram: sybil_amuti

 Email: sybil@legacyrow.com

Nov 7, 2016

To niche or not to niche is a major question. People think they have to niche and niche and get sales in the door but it’s a process. Entrepreneurship is a journey and we learn as we go.

When you start a business and you may know exactly what you want to do you still need to validate your business idea and you still need to talk to your ideal client avatar. When you go broad it’s good in a way because it allows you the space to test and validate what’s going to work and what’s not going to work. You change as a person along the way so your business might eventually change or get tweaked. It’s good to be okay with where you are at right now wherever you are at because it’s going to evolve and change.

Five steps to understanding how to get your ideal client

  1. Discover yourself and discover who you want to serve: Learn about yourself in the process. It’s a self discovery process of who you are right now and who you want to serve that will give you the best results. Connect the dots with your life to your own niche. Clarity is key and maybe right now you aren’t clear but if you give yourself time and space you might come up with an “aha” moment.
  2. Identify your ideal client. Learn everything there is about them, the usual demographics such as age and gender etc. but also their characteristics. Where do they hang out offline and online? What’s their value system? Know their desires (What do they want? What’s missing for them?) Why have they not gotten there yet?
  3. Create services and products that solve their biggest pain point: Pain points, frustrations or their desires and dreams. This is important but it’s also important to just lead with one. Focus on one pain point and the desired outcome and that will make them really pay attention.
  4. Validate your product: The first year of entrepreneurship is exciting but also humbling because there is a lot you don’t know. Until you realize there is a lot you don’t know this won’t resonate with you. You probably have market research departments in your company and you don’t have that as an entrepreneur. You can do mini focus groups or (once you have identified your ideal client) maybe bring them over to your house, pop open a bottle of wine and ask them questions. Talk to them about their pain point and start to validate.

When you are thinking of your product or service make sure it’s not a niche to have, but a need to have.

Lead with the most relevant service your client needs right now, then as you become more successful you can open it up to the other multi faceted opportunities you are thinking about in your head right now.

  1. Keep learning from them: You are going to keep testing and asking but sometimes your audience changes. People with the most successful businesses say that you need to have products or services that have a lifetime value of what they can keep learning from you. It’s easier to keep a client and “upsell” them or offer them something else that would help them than it is to get a new client.
Oct 30, 2016

Our guest today is Betsy Helmuth, owner and operator of Affordable Interior Design. She has designed over 1500 spaces including apartments in Argentina, a McDonalds in Brooklyn, and a mansion in India.

  • Betsy started out by working for free for Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’s Thom Filicia, while making a living as a bartender. This led to her becoming interested in having her own firm.
  • She reached out to Thom because it was something she wanted to do, but he came back to her and said he needed her help.
  • Sometimes when you see people on big platforms you think they’ve made it in different ways.  If anything, they are probably looking to grow and it’s a really good time to reach out.  
  • Once she got clarity, Betsy’s business grew from an idea to the six-figure mark in a couple of years.
  • Betsy didn’t know anything about SEO when she started blogging but she just kept writing all the time.
  • She would sit down at the beginning of the month and line them all up. She would come up with ideas for different days of the week. She would put a picture up and a couple sentences of what she thought about it.

If you’re going to do something, if you are going to maintain that consistency, then you have to get really passionate about it.  

Nurture your tribe. Put a lot of information out there but when you nurture your prospects and the people they become your tribe.

When you hire someone they are living your brand and you have such a specific trade, how did you manage the process?

I evaluated the way I work.  I have a very specific method for how I work.  It’s the same for every client that I have ever seen.  I do and say the same thing to each client.  So, I teach that to my designers.  Even though all my interior designers have all been to interior design school, unlike me.  Even though they have all worked as paid designers in the field, unlike me.  I also make them train for a month in my method.  So when you get an Affordable Interior Design designer, they are going to do all the steps that I do so that I know that every client is getting the exact same experience.  So, I had to distill this unpredictable design method into a very formulaic.  Which is how I like to work.  Freedom with in a form.  So I have a formula that I do every time and it works every time.

You can find Betsy Helmuth at:

Website: www.affordableinteriordesign.com

Podcast: www.bigdesignsmallbudget.com  

Facebook: Affordable Interior Design.

Oct 24, 2016

Today we’re talking to Susan Vernicek, founder and CEO of Identity Magazine.  She’s an entrepreneur, motivational expert, speaker, and the author of the bestseller Get All A’s in the Game of Life.  Her missions is to provide women with opportunities to discover self-acceptance, appreciation, and achievement.

Identity Magazine is for women who want to read authentic stories.  It’s for women who feel that they want to go somewhere in life without feeling they have to change in any way.  It’s for women who want read about everyday women sharing the good, the bad, the ugly, sharing their personal stories, sharing their successes.  It’s for the woman who doesn’t want to read about diet fads and celebrity gossip.  It’s a place for women to feel supported and validated and that they are not alone.

In this episode Susan talks about:

  • Transitioning from her corporate job working for a medical company.
  • The sacrifices she was willing to make, taking up soccer coaching and bartending to keep herself and her business financially afloat.
  • How she actually worked closely with her boss to slowly transition from her 9 to 5 job to working completely on her own.
  • The small office she paid $200 per month for when she first started.
  • How she leveraged her unemployment payments to help her business grow.
  • How she scheduled her week, working seven days to make ends meet.
  • Going from an advertising focus to learning new methods of monetization.
  • Wondering what was next for the magazine at one point, leading her into her most creative growth.
  • How she took two years of content and created her first book to increase sales.
  • How that first book led her create new financial platforms through speaking and hosting workshops.
  • The question she asked that would launch the beginning of her journey to authoring a bestselling book.
  • What other books inspired her own.
  • How she wanted a book that would be a piece of validation and empowerment for the crazy journey of being an entrepreneur.
  • How she plans to produce more books for single mothers, divorcees, college peers, caretakers, etc.
  • The last ten years of her business and what she looks forward to in the future, including this year’s conference called The Retreat.
  • The possible re-brand of Identity Magazine.
  • The advice she believes every transitioner should know about sacrifice and being willing to do what it takes to succeed and go after their dreams.
  • How she believes we should all focus on our own journey and experiences, not comparing ourselves to others, only using their stories as inspiration and guidance.
  • Where she finds her inspiration to continue her journey even after attaining a measure of success.

 

If you would like to connect with Susan, the best way to find her is at her magazine website: www.identitymagazine.net.  

If you have a story of your own to tell, you are encouraged to submit it to the magazine.

Oct 17, 2016

We’re so excited to have Jenn Scalia today with us as our guest, to share with us her entrepreneurship journey and the valuable skills in creating a 7-figure business. She is a visibility strategist for entrepreneurs who want to make an impact. Known for her tough love, no BS style, she helps entrepreneurs to overhaul their biggest fears and empower them to share their message with the world.

 

Jenn is the coach that has been through what you have been through, but she has successfully snapped out of it and went from rock-bottom to creating a 7-figure business within 3 years. And now she’s here to help others to achieve the same.

 

Today's episode with Jenn is filled with golden nuggets! We have touched on so many areas relating to business, entrepreneurship and coaching, including:

 

Her back story and what triggered her to make the move.

The key to her success in creating a 7-figure business within just 3 years.

The doubts and resistances that she faced throughout her entrepreneurship journey, especially during the initial stages of her business.

How hiring a coach completely changed the way she deal with her business.

The 3 main things that she believed sky-rocketed her business.

What she thinks is the best coaching business model for people to start off with.

What are her thoughts and suggestions on generating Passive Income, or she prefers calling it Leveraged Income.

When exactly is the right time for one to create a membership site.

Useful tips on how to build and eventually grow a list of followers with high engagement rate.

Her opinions on outsourcing during the initial stages of a business.

The importance of creating massive values for your clients or potential clients.

How having the correct mindset and alignment can have huge impact on your business. She also shares what inspires her and keeps her mindset on track.

Her advise to those who plan to or have just made the leap into the world of entrepreneurship.

The common misconceptions among new coaches.

Her recommendations on the issue of pricing and her take on certifications for coaches.

The top tools and resources for business owners.

 

If you are interested in finding out more about Jenn and her coaching services, please visit her website at www.jennscalia.com.

 

Plus, good news for our listeners! Jenn is kind enough to give our listeners a special gift - "Six Figure Success Mindset Mini Course”, where she shares the mindset hacks that she used to achieve her success and the mindset shifts that can unlock one’s unlimited earning potential. Find out more about it at www.jennscalia.com/makingmoves!

Sep 18, 2016

Today we are so excited to speak with Samantha Ettus. Samantha is work-life expert whose goal is to find the spark within each one of us and turn it into a fire. In this episode Samantha talks about:

  • Her book The Experts Guide to 100 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do. One hundred experts each wrote a chapter on their area of expertise. The book became a best seller and she went on to write three more “experts” books.
  • The “elephant in the room” for women which is how to manage personal lives in conjunction with their professional lives.
  • Don’t quit your job until you’re financially stable, especially if you have a family. Even for single women, it’s so critical that you are financially secure and stable before you take a leap.
  • Your personal brand is like an octopus. You are the center of the octopus and then there are all these tentacles like books, speaking, hosting a podcast, hosting a show, whatever it is. Those are tentacles of that main octopus. When you think of it this way, these are distribution channels for your same message and your same mission.
  • Choosing your platform: It has to be something you’re passionate about. It needs to be something you get up every morning excited to do.
  • Live as though you are adhering to a train schedule. You work every day from 9-3 or whatever it is that works for you and your business. You have to watch those hours or you will watch them disappear.

Three tips on how to better manage our life versus work-life balance for more success.

  1. It’s important to choose a partner who will be your equal at home, instead of someone who expects you to do 90% of the work at home and with the children. Once you have a partner it’s about how you manage that relationship.
  2. How are you managing your time? Do all of your errands in the “golden triangle”. These are the three points in between your home, your office and your child’s school.
  3. Always make sure that your building your network continuously. Keep up with your industry, always making new contacts and keeping in touch with current ones. Staying relevant is critical.

Tips on how to become more productive:

If you have kids, it’s essential you have boundaries in terms of the time you’re with them and the time you’re focused on work. A lot of entrepreneurs who are working from home struggle with this. It’s hard when you have kids at home to close the door and focus on your work. It’s pivotal you have some kind of childcare or it’s almost impossible to get a business off the ground.

At home with your loved ones turn off your technology for a couple hours a day. You can give your office or colleague your home phone and say use it in an emergency.

Contacting Samantha

Website: www.samanthaettus.com. You can sign up for her free weekly newsletter where she shares work-life balance tips and her favorite articles and videos about career and lifestyle.

 

Sep 18, 2016

Today we’re going to answer a question we get all the time. Where do I even start?

  • If you’re still working 9-5 is there a part of your job you love to do? Something you would do in your spare time that you would love to do for other people? First start there.
  • Next dial back to what you were passionate about as a child, teenager or in college. This is an exploratory exercise, there’s no right or wrong here.
  • Look at everything you’ve done in life. Start connecting the dots from your experiences to your hobbies, to volunteer work you’ve done plus the parts of your job you like. What’s in your zone of genius?
  • What can you be successful at with a client that is so in your zone of genius that no matter what you’re going to be successful? If you’re starting from scratch it’s good to start with something you’re really good at. Then you can create the momentum earlier on and start to build off of that.

Opportunity ideas you can step into:

  • Service provider
  • Consulting
  • Creating a product
  • Network marketing and direct sales
  • Franchises and start-ups
  • Creating apps

There are so many options and that sometimes scares people. Do you want to open a brick and mortar establishment like a restaurant or do you want to start small and start to build from where you are at today?

Our biggest piece of advice is to make sure whatever idea you have that you incubate it while you’re still working. There is a lot of research and learning that you’re going to need. Don’t take a leap too early. If you have a lot of ideas you can start on one and if it doesn’t work you still have the security of a paycheck coming in.

Purpose before Profit

If you’re going out there to create a business just to make money it’s not going to always work out for the long run. Think about purpose first, then profit. We all want to make money but there has to be a bigger why.

Who do you want to serve?

Who is your ideal client? Who lights you up that you want to serve? Be patient with yourself because if you don’t know who that is just keep working and following your passion and it will unfold as time goes on.

Selling and Marketing

When you have your ideal client in mind it’s the way you sell and market to that person that’s going to make the big difference. If you’re selling features they might not buy from you or you might have a lower conversion. Start to talk about what you’re solving for their pain point.

Zone of Genius

The zone of genius concept is what you are very good at doing skill set wise that just comes naturally to you. If you don’t know what that is send an email to 15-20 friends, family and peers and ask them two questions:

  1. What do you think my zone of genius is?
  2. Where do you think I will be in five years?

Creating a Physical Product

When you have a physical product how do you validate that? There is a process involved when you’re working on a physical product:

  • First validate if the product is useful to your ideal client.
  • You will need a physical proto-type. You will have to invest in the system or in a company that does proto-types for you.
  • Makers Row is a resource to help with proto-typing and manufacturing if you’re serious about a product.

Network Marketing

If you’re doing network marketing don’t get into it just for the money. A lot of people get into network marketing because they want to make extra money but you have to either love the product or the company.

Steps to Focus on Right Now

  • Do a massive brain dump of all the ideas in your head right now. Keep this list running because you might get more ideas as you go throughout your day.
  • Talk to friends and family your ideal client if you know who that is and ask them to tell you what you’re good at, what your strengths are and what they would potentially buy from you. Is it a product or service?
  • Network online or go to networking events and connect with people and develop relationships.

 

 

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Sep 18, 2016

Our guest today is the author of Girl Code and founder of The Champagne Diet Cara Alwill Leyba. In this episode she shares advice about writing your first book and growing your audience.

Cara believes every woman has a story to tell. If you are an entrepreneur, you have what it takes to self-publish a book. You’re not just writing and publishing a book, you are selling it, marketing it and doing PR for it. As a business woman it’s a smart move but there are some things to be aware of.

  • Understand that to be successful it’s got to be a full time endeavor. Cara’s books took a lot out of energy, money and attention out of her. But she put all her time into it because it was her passion.
  • If it’s not your passion, don’t waste your time doing it. It’s a lot of work and takes a lot of time to see revenue come in.
  • Be all in. Be willing to sacrifice a lot for it.

Steps to get moving in the right direction:

  1. Start reading books in your market and industry. If you want to write a novel, understand and get to know your genre.
  2. You want your book to look as professional as possible. Really start to understand what books look and feel like, how they read, how long chapters should be.
  3. Decide how many chapters you want in your book, what you want your content to look like and start writing.
  4. Get an editor.
  5. Make Google your best friend and do a ton of research.

 

How long did it take you to write your first book?

It took me a couple months to write the first book and a lot of that time was spent on research. From the time I first began writing it to the point I published it was probably 6-7 months. Give yourself anywhere from 6-8 months to get that book done.

How much should people invest in an editor?

In terms of finding an editor it’s hard to say but the editing process for each of my books was under $1,000.

Growing an audience

In the beginning when you’re first starting out it’s important to pay attention to quality over quantity. Don’t worry about numbers so much. People get caught up in how many followers they have and how many likes they get. Just nurture the people that are coming to your space. There is so much noise and so much going on out there so if you have ten people who love what you’re doing over serve those people and treat them like they are 100,000 people. Don’t get worried about what you’re missing, focus on what you have.

Contacting Cara:

Website: www.thechampagnediet.com. You will find her blog and books and a place for women to come.

 

Sep 18, 2016

Our guest today, Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche, is quickly becoming America’s favorite personal financial educator. She is also a best-selling author and founder of the Live Richer Challenge.

During the height of the recession in 2009 Tiffany lost her job when the school where she had worked as a preschool teacher for ten years was cut from the budget. For the next two years she stayed with relatives and collected unemployment while trying to figure out what to do next.

She loved educating, and she loved personal finance. She eventually started matching those two passions together and doing it on a volunteer basis at first.

In this episode Tiffany talks to us about:

  • How she went from making $25,000 three years ago to running an almost million-dollar business today.
  • How she didn’t conquer her fear but learned to listen to the other voice that said “do it anyway.” If you’re waiting for the fear to subside first, you’re going to be waiting forever.
  • How she started a business by only putting money into it that would generate money back. She couldn’t afford a website so she had a free blog, she couldn’t afford business cards so she made photocopies.
  • For media coverage she used a website called HARO. She would give simple quotes to reporters and in exchange she was able to use their logo on her website.
  • Logo begets logo. When another reporter sees that it makes them more likely to want to talk to you.
  • Live Richer Challenge. This is something free that they offer every year. It is a month’s worth of free step by step guidance. Sign up on the website and for one month get one easy financial task in your email that will lead you toward a better financial life. People have bought homes, collectively saved 20 million dollars in two years, paid off a million dollars of debt, raised credit scores and more.
  • Tiffany is the best-selling author of The One Week Budget and The Live Richer Challenge.

To build a strong following on social media you have to be a giver. Everyone is always saying buy my book, eat my food, or whatever. Nobody cares, everyone cares about themselves. If you’re talking about you no one cares but you (and maybe your mom). Instead it is your job to give. Tiffany just, for the first time in six years, asked her audience to pay for something.

Tiffany said if there is anything she would go back and invest in it would be online training, like a blogging course. She also wishes she had invested in an assistant since she literally did everything herself.

You’re going to mess up but you want to fail fast, succeed faster.

You can reach Tiffany at:

  • Website: thebudgetnista.com
  • All social media platforms: budgetnista
Sep 18, 2016

What does living a life with purpose means to you? Are you aware of the thoughts and actions that define who you are and who you will be? Many of us are not realizing our full potential in life. Some are trying their best to achieve their goals, some are struggling with it, and some have simply lost their directions in life.

 

Today’s guest is someone who is capable of bringing out the best of us. His name is Jairek Robbins, performance coach, motivational speaker and the author of “Live It”. We are so excited to have him with us today.

 

Jairek has achieved so much at such a young age. At only 23 years old, he was awarded Congressional Award (Gold Medal) from the United States Congress and has conducted training for many organizations, including the U.S. Marines and Air Force, the U.S. Olympics Team and many others.

 

In this exciting episode, Jairek talks about his interesting life journey and how he came about becoming a successful performance coach he is today. From the interview, you’ll learn about:

 

  • His background and his journey of becoming an entrepreneur.
  • The many working experiences he had since the age of 1
  • How his "3-months commitment" motivated him to pursue a life that he is passionate about.
  • How he decided to maximize the potential of his strongest skill - Coaching.
  • How he has successfully built a $100,000 revenue business in his first 8 months of 1-on-1 coaching business.
  • What performance coaching is all about, how it works and why is it important.
  • How performance coaching can push you to your maximum limit and live life to your fullest potential.
  • How those unconscious habits or routines can help you to achieve your goals.
  • He also talks about his book "Live It" and how imagining your "Perfect Day" could help you to visualize your goals.
  • How he views and defines the word "Fear", plus how can we be prepared to face our fear.
  • His opinion on what sets the successful population apart from the others

 

If you find the interview thought-provoking, or if you are interested in finding more about Jairek or his coaching services, connect with him on Facebook and join him on his daily 30-minutes live free training. You can also head over to his websites to learn more about his performance coaching. Details are as below:

 

Facebook       - Jairek Robbins www.facebook.com/JairekRobbinsCompanies

Websites       - www.jairekrobbins.com

          - www.performancecoachuniversity.com

 

Hope you enjoy today's episode!

Sep 18, 2016

This podcast is for you if you are a transitioner. This is the tell-all, TMZ version of the good, bad, and amazing. From following the rules to creating your own.

Transitioners are either:

  • People still on the 9-5 who have a passion. They have a business on the side or want to have a business on the side.
  • People who have already transitioned out of corporate America.

We’re not only going to be talking about how somebody got to success, we’re going to be talking about the journey in-between. There are a lot of us in our 30’s, 40’s, or 50’s having what I call a mid-life awakening. You can stay your path and that’s okay but some of us have this itch to really get out and focus on your own goals and our own purpose. For those of you who are in this next season of your life this podcast is 100% for you.

Co-host Kelly Lynn Adams is a motivational speaker from New Jersey and the founder of the After Five Club. She has risen to the top of the corporate ladder in strategy, finance, and human resources. She currently works full-time with some of the largest retail and fashion industries in the world and has a side business in the coaching, speaking, and writing industry.

Kelly’s passion is to motivate the person, especially women, who wants to work full time, build a business on the side, make it profitable, and know it is possible to succeed. She knows what it takes to manage money and time. She knows the struggles and the success, but most importantly, she knows building a business can be done.

Co-host Seema Ponda Alexander worked her way up the corporate ladder quickly, diligently working to become the Chief Marketing Officer for a Fortune 500 company. About seven years into corporate America, through the contacts she made at her company developing business strategies and opportunities, she began coaching many of the financial finders and agents helping them build their own business strategy. Through working with people on the side, she discovered a lost passion for small business.

Seema is the founder of the Transition Lab, a business that helps women move from corporate America to having a business of their own. She has a passion for exposing women to the possibilities life has to offer, showing them that where there is clarity there is progress and helping them understand that consistency is what it takes to succeed.

This podcast is for all verticals. We’re not just going to interview a million coaches. Some of the things you can expect from this podcast are:

  • Bite-sized “commuter candy” podcasts filled with information that will fit into your schedule and help make your side business stronger, more sustainable, and more profitable.
  • Interviews with top influencers and entrepreneurs who are going to share their stories and insights with you. This will be tangible bits of wisdom you can take with you.
  • We will talk about mindset, money making and revenue strategies, and more topics for all types of industries.
  • With passion, dedication, hard work, and consistency you will receive the keys to success in your life and business. We don’t believe in overnight success. Sometimes it happens, but how sustainable is that?

Make sure you subscribe to our podcast and leave a review. Please don’t forget to tell a fellow transitioner who is also in that mid-life awakening time frame. You will be their hero!

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