The Boss Mom Podcast

As human beings, we all want validation. For entrepreneurs, no validation is as great as knowing there's a demand for the problem we solve. Why is it so important to be clear on what we want to be known for? How can we drill down to that problem and turn it into something we can sell or share with clients? On this episode, I talk about some strategies you can implement to define your service and package. You have to fall in love with the problem you solve, not the thing you sell. -Dana Malstaff 3 Things We Learned From This Episode Rushing makes you slower. You'll spend more time putting out fires from mistakes, you won't give strategies enough time to grow legs, and you might end up relaunching. If your name isn't associated with what you should be known for, you're facing an uphill battle. Think about what you want people to know from you and how you can bottle it into an educational package you can sell. Businesses and brands that stand the test of time and make money in the long run are built on solving one key problem and really honing in on it. It's important for us to work towards what we want people to know us for. We must also know the key intellectual property we have that solves a problem for our clients. You don't have to know what it is right this second, but you can start getting clarity by thinking of what you're constantly teaching, doing, or creating that could be packaged into a course. That will improve your messaging because you can start talking about the problem so you're not just creating content without a purpose.

If the goal of an online business is to make money while we sleep, online courses are one of the most powerful ways to do this. What are the clues that tell us we have something we can build a profitable course on? How do courses help us free up more time to be more creative, systematize our expertise, and give value en masse? Why is it so key for us to nurture an audience while we work on the course? On this episode, Amy Porterfield is back to talk about how to create an online course that can become a stream of income and boost our business. What will genuinely make you money in a course is taking the results that you have created for yourself or other people and put it together in a system, a roadmap, or a process. That's what sells. -Amy Porterfield 3 Things We Learned From This Episode How to know we're ready to create a course (01:52 - 02:34 ) You know you're ready to make a course when you keep repeating yourself to different people over and over again. You also know you're ready when you create results for yourself and other people. Can we create a course if our clients have unique problems? (VIDEO 2 - 01:32 - 04:19) Even when people have unique problems, they they are still in need of our system or roadmap we create to solving a problem. Many of the people enrolled in our courses will hit the finish line, but even those who don't will still be completely satisfied because of the community around the course. The community is where you get to add that one-on-one advice that's more personalized and unique. How to market our courses and get people to want them (VIDEO 2 - 10:28 - 16:00) The best way to market our online course is to use a vehicle that allows us to give value and earn our right to sell the course. Our course needs to be stellar and our marketing must be good and true. Marketing our course start with social media content that leads into our email list because that's the audience that will buy from us. We do this by posting content consistently, and pointing people to our really cool freebies while we're creating our courses at the same time. After running a service business or doing one-on-one coaching, courses are a really cool way for us to transition into another method of making money and growing our business. Success leaves clues. If we've been able to get results for ourselves or somebody else, that is the area we should make the course about. What people pay for is the road map, system, or process we offer, and our unique way of solving a problem. To make sure this course can actually succeed, we have to nurture our audience through social media and build the list of people who will want to buy it as soon as we launch. We nurture that community by posting content that lends itself to our core message. If we have one course that creates consistent revenue, we'll be able to say "no" to the things that drag us down, and "yes" to more of the things that light us up. Guest Bio- Amy is an entrepreneur, coach, speaker, author and podcaster. She runs a top-ranked business podcast and runs best-selling online courses.She teaches business owners, educators and entrepreneurs the profitable action steps for building a highly engaged email list, creating online training courses, and using online marketing strategies to sell with ease. For more information and to check out Amy's podcast go to https://www.amyporterfield.com/. Watch Amy's first Boss Mom Podcast Interview here https://boss-mom.com/episode-320-tweaking-vs-pivoting-overcoming-camera-shyness-being-consistent-w-amy-porterfield/.

Many of us spend a lot of time in social media, but we don't actually know what we're getting from it. As a result, the content we put out ends up achieving very little or nothing. What are two of the biggest mistakes people make with their content calendars? How can our content calendars actually lose us business and money? On this episode, I talk about how to actually make our content calendars help our marketing efforts— not hinder them. It's better to post less, guide people the right way, and position yourself the right way than to just put out a lot of stuff for the sake of consistency of content. -Dana Malstaff 3 Things We Learned From This Episode Just putting a lot of content out there can confuse the market. They end up not knowing what to come to us for. Our content has to position us to show our expertise and point of view. If you're sending your audience to other people's blog posts and that person has a great opt-in, you're only helping them make money (unless you're part of their affiliate program). If parts of our sales pages became part of our content calendars, we would be sharing what we do and how we solve problems. Our content calendars must not be taken lightly. It's not just about putting out as much content as possible. It's about having a structure and a strategy to reveal our point of view and establish ourselves as a worthy solution to the problems we're trying to solve. A content calendar that's too general won't get you half as far as a content calendar that is really specific and strategic about where we want to drive people.

Sometimes life forces us to make scary choices and bold moves to get what we want. Going through this can be challenging and emotional. How does entrepreneurship make us more equipped to deal with challenges and differences with other people? What are some of the lessons that have come from going through a divorce, co-parenting, and remaining a family even after a split? On this episode, founder of the Divorced Mommy Podcast, Julie Ciardi, shares her story and how she got through the rough times. You have to be strong and focused on the kids without sacrificing who you are or your happiness. -Julie Ciardi 3 Things We Learned From This Episode Why it's so hard to walk away from something that isn't bad (07:13 - 08:01) Sometimes something is too comfortable for us to get out of. Whether it's a job, a relationship, or a business, it's harder to walk away from something that isn't terrible than to get out of something that's really bad. Sometimes we have to be forced into an uncomfortable place so we can make a decision. The power of still wanting the best for our exes (24:22 - 25:52) Many people are concerned about what happens when our former spouses inevitably move on with other people. When we care about our former spouse and trust that they will make good decisions, this isn't something that should worry us. Through splitting up, we both get to learn what we really want. Our exes will find people that will make them happy, and that's what we want for them. How to be more compassionate (34:43 - 36:10) There's never perfect in anything— whether it's relationships, motherhood or business. In any relationship, you will bump heads. The big thing is, we have to want to fix it and care about the happiness of the other person in the outcome as much as ours. We bump heads in relationships because we see the world differently, and we just have to be compassionate. Whether we're walking away from a job we've known for years, a relationship, or a business that isn't making us happy, we're sometimes going to be forced to make a scary change in our our lives. We have to know that it takes work to overcome that, but things can be so amazing on the other side. As entrepreneurs, we already have a leg up. There's so much mindset work and personal development that comes with the entrepreneurial journey that we're more equipped to handle these moments. The more we do work on ourselves, the more compassion and responsibility we have in talking to other people. What we learn as entrepreneurs can be applied everywhere else in our lives and enrich all our relationships. Guest Bio- Julie is the founder of the Divorced Mommy podcast and blog. She is a mom of 3, divorced & remarried. She has a very modern blended family that she has worked very hard for. She took the leap from corporate, leaving a high paying multi-six figure executive salary to be an entrepreneur with 2 businesses. She launched a brick & mortar women's boutique styling moms for their daily hustle called Haven Boutique She launched her podcast to help divorced moms with their mindset & long term vision to create the life they want & their children need. Find the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher. Go to https://divorcedmommy.blog/, and follow her on Instagram @divorcedmommy. To read a blog post by Julie's daughter about what parents should know about co-parenting, sign up for Julie's mailing list.

When dealing with prospects, it can be tough to figure out when our advice should be paid for, and how much we should give away so people fall in love with us and want more from us. How we find the right balance between coaching and selling so we're giving value but not giving away what we should be paid for? When is coaching the best way to sell or when should you just plain sell our program? On this episode, I talk about how to coach someone when they are still a prospect. When you're with a prospect, you have to be a walking sales letter. -Dana Malstaff 3 Things We Learned From This Episode 6 elements of sales pages: frustration, transformation, will they gain the most from what you have to offer, how do you fit into solving their frustration, what are the benefits and features of what they are getting and what is your social proof. If someone says, "I have a lot to think about, this has been a great call," you have given too much away. A coach guides people to come to their own conclusions. A consultant tells you what to do and gives you a recommended course of action. In everything we do, we are the sales rep of our businesses. This is especially true when we're talking to prospects, how we interact with them depends on our goals, the problems we're solving and frustrations and challenges our prospect is facing. What we need to learn to balance is giving value to bring people into our world and giving just enough of that away that people still want to buy from us. We have to fill in their gaps to show our value and then when they see our value, we can ask them to invest in us.

Communicating with animals is something we think only very few people can do, but we all have the ability. How do we tap into that gift and come into collaboration and partnership with our pets? How do we create a better family communication structure with our animals and help our children communicate with them? What are the techniques we can use to communicate better with animals and people? On this episode, I talk to The Real Dr. Doolittle, Val Heart about better communication and solving behavior problems collaboratively. Animals are really like our angels, teachers, guides and healers. -Val Heart 3 Things We Learned From This Episode Why animals are so important in our lives (03:24 - 03:55) Animals serve a very important purpose in our lives. They are our angels, teachers, guides and healers. When we learn to recognize, respect and revere them for who they truly are, they help us become the best versions of ourselves. Why we shouldn't treat animals like they need to be fixed (15:38 - 15:48) When we come at something with the idea of trying to fix someone it sets us as an authority when we're actually supposed to be in partnership and on one even playing field. How not to treat our animals like property we own (16:26 - 18:04) It's easy to treat our animals like something we just own, but this is the wrong way to go about it. When we treat animals, or even other people like we own them or like they are a problem to be fixed, it immediately creates resistance and pushback. We're not owners, we're caretakers and guardians. We all have the ability to talk with animals, and if we know how to tap into it, it would help even how we communicate with other people. When we communicate with animals, we have to approach animals from a neutral, witness, observer space. How we do this is to start by hearing the animal without judgement, evaluating the issue, taking action to change what's not working, relief and clearing resistance and teamwork and trust. If we want to communicate with our animals we have to see it, feel it and say it. This is a gift we've all been given and can start using now. Guest Bio- Val Heart, aka The Real Dr. Doolittle is the world's leading animal whisperer. She is the CEO of Heart Communication Enterprises Inc, Founder of The HEART System™ for solving problems with pets. She is the bestselling author and a featured expert on ABC, NBC and Fox News, as well as in People Magazine, My S.A., and Great Day S.A. She solves problem with pets & teaches cat, dog, horse & animal communication. Val fell in love with horses when she was five years old and began her long term relationship getting to know and understand horses. Her work with horses led to intensive study in developing her gifts with animal communication and other supporting healing techniques. Go to https://www.valheart.com for more information.

When we're trying to grow our businesses, it can feel like we need to invest in and buy #allthethings to get to that next level. Whether it's coaching or a course, it can be hard to commit to just one thing. How can we make sure we're investing only in what we need? What steps can we take to create decision confidence? On this episode, I talk about the 5 questions we need to ask ourselves in order to get clarity on what we should be investing money, time and effort in. If you ask these 5 questions, you're going to have a more confident and easy time knowing what to invest in for your business so that you are investing in the right things. -Dana Malstaff 3 Things We Learned From This Episode Sometimes it's the discomfort of putting money down on something that gets you to commit to the success of an investment. Invest in something only when it makes sense for your business. Think about your current resources and whether you are utilizing them to their fullest. That last thing you want to do is resource hop. Ask yourself: What emotional, financial and environmental factors would ensure the success of the commitment? On the other hand, what emotional, financial and environmental factors would stop it from succeeding? In order to invest in something that will actually help our business, we have to have a clear goal of what we want that thing to achieve. We need to know where we're most challenged in reaching that goal, and whether we're really maximizing on current resources. We also need to know the things that will fuel the success of this investment and the potential roadblocks we can plan to overcome. Remember, we also have to ask ourselves if we're willing to get uncomfortable in the commitment so that it actually works.

As moms and entrepreneurs, one thing we're often guilty of is putting ourselves at the bottom of our long to-do lists. How does this negatively impact our kids and businesses? Why should we treat self-care as an urgent essential in our lives? Why are systems the only way we can grow a business that won't burn us out? On this episode, business growth coach and author, Kelly Roach, shares the mindset shifts that changed her life and how to add systems and leverage into our businesses to give ourselves more freedom. . Our kids don't listen to us—they model after us. And the best way to be a great mom is by being a happy person. -Kelly Roach 3 Things We Learned From This Episode Life isn't perfect, but we can find beauty in it (04:23 - 04:53) The human experience is filled with crisis, turmoil, and juggling acts all mixed with the good stuff. You can find reason to be sad or wish your life was perfect, but you also have the opportunity to find the beauty in life and dig deep to make the best of it. Put self-care in the "essential" category, not a luxury we can do without (08:28 - 09:15) Most of us categorize working out as a luxury, but we have to make the mindset shift that it is an essential. Kelly works out during the business day, and she considers training a business priority. Exercise is essential to our happiness, our health, and how we show up as parents and business owners. Take care of the most precious asset in your business (12:27 - 13:14) It's no coincidence that the most successful online entrepreneurs are very healthy people. Because we are our personal brands, we are our most expensive assets. Anytime you're too tired or stressed to be productive, you are losing money in your business. One of the biggest mistakes we make in life and business is not prioritizing our own self-care or having so much work on our plates that it leads to misery. There is nothing wrong with us asking for and getting help, and setting boundaries so we're healthier and happier. The best thing our kids can see is us at our very best. If we're miserable and frustrated, they will model themselves after that. If we want to instill the right habits into our kids, we have to prioritize our own self-care and build businesses that don't burn us out. Guest Bio Kelly Roach is a highly sought after business growth strategist on a mission to help 1,000,000 entrepreneurs launch and scale their dream business… without compromising their quality of life or going broke in the process. From NFL Cheerleader to Fortune 500 exec and now million dollar mogul, Kelly is the author of the #1 international bestselling book and the new book, Bigger Than You. Kelly has been featured in Inc, Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, and ABC Good Day. Go to https://kellyroachcoaching.com/ to get a copy of the book or for more information and check out her podcast, Unstoppable Success Radio here https://kellyroachcoaching.com/podcasts/.

Staying focused is hard, especially when we start a business and have kids running around. Is focus something that can be maintained consistently? Why are we more focused on certain parts of the day or certain days of the week, and how can we leverage this? What actions can we take in our business to generate more income using the power of focus? In this episode, I talk about how to stop getting pulled in so many directions and focus on what's important for you and your business! There is a cycle to our ability to stay focused. -Dana Malstaff 3 Things We Learned From This Episode Focus is cyclical. As a consequence, we shouldn't blame ourselves for not being able to work at 100% all the time, because nobody can give their best nonstop. After a while, our focus and attention wear off. Because focus comes and goes, we should find out the pattern. What parts of the day are we more likely to stay focused? What days of the week are we more productive? Once we find out the answers to these questions, we can reschedule the work that needs the most focus on the days we do tend to be more focused. This tactic not only helps us get better at what we already do, but it also forces us to push unimportant tasks to the side. Our business requires focus, but we can't stay focused if we're trying to do too many things at once. There are many things that could help our business grow, but we have to limit our options if we want to perfect what we're currently doing. When we're laser-focused on one thing, that endpoint can generate more income than spreading our focus out across several areas.

As entrepreneurs, we often feel like something is holding us back from getting to the next level. In a lot of the cases, it's our own minds and negative stories we tell ourselves about taking a certain action. How does the way we mentally and emotionally process a challenge or opportunity impact whether we execute on it or not? What can we do to start telling and believing a story that's more beneficial to us? On this episode, I talk to mindset mastery coach and consultant, Tracy Bech about how we create reality with our thoughts, and how to overcome the mental stumbling blocks in our businesses. At some point you have to engage a certain mindset in order to deal with and process the opportunities and challenges you're presented with. -Tracy Bech 3 Things We Learned From This Episode The real reason we struggle to take action (17:16 - 19:01) When we find ourselves not taking action on something, it's the thoughts we've attached to the task that prohibit us from doing it. There's something underneath we haven't voiced outwardly, our your subconscious is protecting us from whatever it is we don't want to experience. When we attach a negative story to taking that action, that's going to hold us back. Why we shouldn't leave a decision open-ended (22:39 - 23:15) We need to put a finite amount of time on how much we're going to research and figure out before we make a decision. The more unmade decisions we have, the more stressed out and indecisive we're going to feel. Indecision stacks up which makes it chaotic and makes us feel like we have no control. The science behind how our subconscious tells us things that aren't true (25:40 - 28:04) Human beings can only process so much data and information, and on a daily basis, we're inundated with so much of it. Our brains will start to generalize, distort and delete as much data as possible, and the stories we tell ourselves are a huge part of that. Once we believe the world is an overwhelming place, our minds will generalize and distort everything that happens to get to that conclusion, and they will delete anything that doesn't support that. The challenges we face as business owners are often unique to entrepreneurship, we have to push through a lot of obstacles, and we have to do it with a brave face. When doing a certain task feels unbearable it tells us that there's something we're not expressing that's keeping us from doing it. In our subconscious we've planted a story about the task causing us to self-sabotage. In order to overcome, we have to remove the blinders we move through life with, and opt for a lens that's more optimistic and supporting of the goal we have for our businesses and lives. If we clean that up subconsciously, nothing will stop us. Guest Bio- Tracy is a mindset mastery coach, consultant and the founder of Good Path Consulting. For more information, go to goodpathconsulting.com and follow @goodpathconsulting on Instagram.