The Boss Mom Podcast

Subscription programs are rising in popularity, but it's a model that works better for some than others. What's the best way to test the waters before launching products? What are the two business models that work for subscriptions? What types of subscription businesses are more likely to succeed? In this episode, Julie Ball talks about how she became a boss mom by building a subscription-based company. Product discovery is a big reason why people like subscription boxes. -Julie Ball 3 Things We Learned From This Episode Build an audience before launching the product (09:40:08:40) We buy from companies we feel connected to, and one of the best way to connect with potential clients is to give them a sneak peek inside our business. To do so, we can use email campaigns where we share our business journey, ask for feedback, etc. This gets us in front of people and helps us build trust before we invest any money in building our products. Subscriptions programs have a unique draw (10:00-13:00) People love subscription programs because there's a joy of discovery. There's always something new. Plus, once you set it up, you can forget about it and the packages will still arrive. However, if we want to start a business like this, we have to narrow down our niche. Pick one business model and stick with it (15:50-17:30) In the subscription space, we have to know what our business model is from the start. Should we go for subscriptions that are focused on brief periods of our clients' lives, such as expecting a child? Should we focus on aspects of people's lives that are unlikely to change, like motherhood or entrepreneurship? Figuring this out allows us to determine whether we need to focus more on retaining our current clients or chasing new ones. Why create a product before we know whether our audience will like it? We need to engage with potential clients first and ask for feedback before launching our product. This way, we get to know what our clients really want without wasting money on developing products that won't sell. Email campaigns are a great way to connect with potential clients and launch a pre-sale to gather the funds first. Guest Bio Julie Ball is the CEO of Sparkle Hustle Grow, speaker, and community builder, and author. She's been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, Thrive Global, POPSUGAR, Mashable, and Buzzfeed. Julie ran an all female website design and development firm but wanted to make the switch to working from home and being there for her daughter, and this is how her online business was born. Today, she runs a subscription business for female entrepreneurs with the purpose of bringing positivity and words of encouragement to their lives.

Media appearances aren't just for celebrities and big companies. Small businesses can leverage them as well. What are the first steps we should take towards exposure in the media? Are a few appearances enough to generate leads for years to come? How does the media cycle impact the number of times we need to be seen to stay relevant? In this episode, Christina Nicholson shares why media appearances are superior to advertising and how we can leverage them. You have to continue to put yourself out there because the cycle is always moving and changing. -Christina Nicholson 3 Things We Learned From This Episode Why it's beneficial to make the transition from freelancer to business owner (13:00-14:00) Being a freelancer and a business owner is almost the same thing, but people perceive these words differently. Plus, when we make the shift, we can add more people to our team who can help us out and free up our time. How to leverage media appearances (17:37-19:20) People assume that once they appear in the media everyone is going to see it and clients will flock to them. We still have to do our own PR and promote our appearances. The importance of continually investing in media (24:01-25:08) Like the stock market, we can't just invest money, make a small win, and retire. We have to continue to invest in our PR efforts or we won't get leads on a consistent basis. Our media appearances only stay relevant for so long, making it important to pursue and create new opportunities for exposure. Earned media is different from advertising because our audience knows we're getting the coverage because of our value. Anyone can pay for ads, but it takes a certain level of skill and expertise to be featured on a major media outlet. This is why PR is so important for our businesses. It gives our audience clues about our value and what we can bring to the table. What makes earned media different from advertising is our audience knowing that it's because of our value that we get coverage. Anyone can pay for ads, but it takes a certain level of skill and expertise to be featured on a major media outlet, and this is why PR is so important for our businesses. It gives our audience clues about our value and how much we can bring to the table. Guest Bio Christina Nicholson is a former TV reporter and anchor who has worked in markets from New York City to Miami. She is still telling stories, but instead of doing it for a newscast, she's doing it to help businesses grow. With her business, Media Maven, she helps entrepreneurs reach thousands, even millions, of their ideal customers or clients in minutes instead of months through the power of media without spending big bucks on advertising. You can still see her in front of the camera as a host on Lifetime TV, in national commercials, and read her work online in Huff Post, Inc. Magazine, and Fast Company. Christina also has a local lifestyle and family blog, Christina All Day. She lives in South Florida with her husband and two young children. Go to https://www.mediamavenandmore.com/ for more information, find her on Facebook http://Facebook.com/MediaMavenAndMore and follow @ChristinaAllDay on social media.

We often think of childbirth as a physical process, but it's a lot about the mind too. How can we find the balance between mind and body to make labor less stressful? What can a doula teach us about birthing, motherhood and shifting our paradigms about labor? How can a better understanding of manifestation help us to guide our thoughts and actions into the life we want? On this episode, Chelsea Alders shares on her journey to becoming a mother, a doula, and a business owner. The more your brain tries to jump in and interrupt, the less your body and intuition will take over. - Chelsea Alders 3 Things We Learned From This Episode The universe manifests what you ask of it (14:47- 15:09) What you think and what you say out loud is a lot of what will manifest for you. You'll find that the universe often seems to do what you want. It's important that our actions line up with what we want in our lives. Manifesting vs. gut instincts (16:17 - 16:49) There's always going to be a push-and-pull between creating our reality by manifesting it or following what our gut tells us we're capable of. How we can breathe our pain away (17:15-19:08) When we're scared and stressed, our bodies contract, which makes labor so much harder. Hypnobirth leans on the fact that we're more at ease when we breathe, which decentralizes the pain. When we offer breath to an ache, it eases it. Our bodies let go, and they can be in a space to do what they're meant to do. We all have paradigms shaped by our experiences, and they can often be very limiting. The more well-rounded experiences we have, the more we expand our options and ideas about what works for us. Guest Bio Chelsea Alders is a mom of 3, owner of Sun Dreams Productions, a corporate entertainment and artist agency, running and coordinating entertainment for companies like Nordstrom, UGG Australia, Ted Baker, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, Dillards, etc. She is the Co-owner of Om Mamas Blog, Owner of Om Mamas Doulas, and a Labor Doula, Placenta Specialist and licensed HypnoBirthing® Practitioner. Go to https://www.ommamas.com/ for more information.

We love solving problems, but what happens when our clients need something else from us? Perhaps support or just someone who can listen to their problems? How can we identify ways to better serve our clients? When should we give advice and when should we just listen as a friend? In this episode, I talk about when we're needed as coaches and when we should just sit back and acknowledge our clients issues. The answer is not always to solve the problem. Sometimes, the answer is to listen. -Dana Malstaff 3 Things We Learned From This Episode As business owners on a sales call, the first instinct we have is to identify the problem, diagnose the root of it, and deliver the solution. But because we run a business, we need to stop solving problems for free. We should only give a free diagnosis. At times, our clients aren't necessarily looking for solutions to their problem. They just want someone to listen to them and acknowledge how hard the whole process is. Many of us are frustrated when we don't have people like us to engage with. This could happen to our clients as well. Maybe they need someone in their lives who they can vent to about their journey. How do we know if we're helpful when our clients come to us? How do we identify if they need a solution or just someone who listens and supports them? One of the indicators of what clients need is how open they are to the idea of taking action. For example, consider a situation where we inform a client how to solve their problem but they ignore it. If they begin to vent, it's probably a sign that they need our support, not business advice.

Negative experiences in our lives come with emotional scars, baggage, and other burdens. How can we unpack these things and overcome the emotional consequences of what we've faced? How do we bring a bit more confidence and bravery into our daily lives? How do we know when a fear is serious and needs to be addressed? On this episode, founder of In-Courage Living and professional encourager, Sarah Humes, shares how she's healed from the tragedies in her life and how she's empowering people to live in freedom, confidence, and bravery every day. Challenging circumstances come with emotional consequences. -Sarah Humes 3 Things We Learned From This Episode Fear comes in many different packages (09:24 - 09:48)There are different shades of fear, whether it's lack of confidence or more severe emotional obstacles. There's a big difference between a bit of nervousness and the kind of paralyzing, debilitating fear that makes it impossible for us to do what we need to do. Childhood experiences affect us more than we care to admit (11:35 -14:46)People try to pretend that we're not affected by the things that happen to us when we're growing up, but our childhood undoubtedly impacts how we see the world or what we expect out of life's events. As an adult, it's important to try to unpack early life experiences that may be negatively affecting us today. Use compliments as affirmations (24:11 - 24:43 )Affirmations work well, but sometimes we need something different to really give us encouragement. When our friends and loved ones give us compliments, we can actually start writing them down and using them as affirmations. When fear stops us from doing everyday things like making dinner for our families or going after our goals, it's time to look inward and perhaps talk to someone who can help us unpack all this. We all have fears, insecurities, and negative experiences that have shaped us, but we can also overcome them and start living brave and confident lives. Bravery isn't about not being afraid— it's about pushing through it. Confidence is security in who we are, and it doesn't have to be based on what we look like or sound like. It's just about what we believe our value is—and we are all valuable. Tapping into that makes us happier, helps with what we contribute to the world, and it heals us. Guest Bio- Sarah is a professional encourager and the founder of In-Courage Living. After struggling with anxiety and fear, In-Courage Living was born out of the desire to share her experiences with others to help them realize they they are strong. Over the past 5 years, she has taught small audiences and groups many different life skills to deal with life's little problems. Go to https://www.sarahrosehumes.com/ or find her on Facebook https://facebook.com/incourageliving.com or on Instagram @HumesSarah for more information.

Have a failed launch in your past? It happens to the best of us, and it can make us dread the idea of launching a new product or service. How do we get to the point where we no longer need launches to generate income? What are the most common mistakes we make when we launch, and why should we avoid "soft" launches? In this episode, I talk about why we fear launches so much and how we can build a business that doesn't rely solely on launching new products or services to generate revenue. If you have a nurture system, then you won't be holding onto the launch. -Dana Malstaff 3 Things We Learned From This Episode Most of the time, the reason why businesses fail is because they believe their product or service alone is good enough so investing in marketing isn't needed. The truth is people need to be persuaded before they buy. Even big companies like Apple have spent billions on their marketing efforts. A successful company isn't built on perpetual launches but on constantly tweaking products and having a nurture system that consistently converts leads into buyers. When we find something that works, it's better to improve what we already have instead of always chasing something new. This way, we get even better at what we do and we can create businesses that don't rely on stressful launches but on nurturing systems that always convert leads into sales in the background.

Funding is a common challenge for many of us, but how can platforms like Kickstarter get our products in front of people? How do we determine if there's a market for our products? What role does storytelling play in promoting our Kickstarter campaigns? On this episode, the founders of Love Powered Co., Anna Lozano and Lindy Sood, share how they built a six-figure business by selling positive affirmation cards made for children, and they give insights on successful crowdfunding. Running a 30-day Kickstarter campaign is like running a marathon. We had to strategically map out the pre-launch, launch, and post-launch. -Anna Lozano 3 Things We Learned From This Episode More and more parents are interested in self-development (10:00-12:30) The modern mom wants to do more than provide shelter and food for her children. There's a demand for self-improvement materials, even for children. There's also a large market out there for methods of instilling confidence in children from an early age because adults know difficult life can be without it. The impact of affirmations on both parents and children (15:00-16:30) Affirmations are beneficial for adults, too. Also, parents will often spread the word about the products they just purchased, giving added reach for your brand. Your campaign has to have a message and a mission (18:00-19:30) Successful Kickstarter campaigns are more about the brand message and less about the product. The first thing our audience sees is the solution we provide and how we want to make a small change around us. If we just promote a commodity, we won't stand out. We have tell a story of how our product can improve the lives of the people who purchase it.. A Kickstarter campaign is not a sprint, but a marathon. Many of us make the mistake of just launching the product or service when we need to map out the pre-launch, the launch, and what happens after. This usually means we need to craft an entire brand message that will be sent to our audience. It is a lot of work, but it is worth it for an impactful and effective campaign. Guest Bio- Anna Lozano and Lindy Sood are the founders of Love Powered Co., a card company that uses positive affirmations to empower children in their own journey. You can find their positive affirmations cards and downloadable prints here. Follow them on social media Instagram.com/lovepoweredco and facebook.com/lovepoweredco.

We're all aware that routines can make our personal lives easier, but what about business routines? Do you have a daily business routine that doesn't focus on just mundane tasks but also on specific steps that lead to more sales? How is a routine like this built? How can we use it to measure whether our current actions are beneficial for our business? In this episode, I talk about why successful entrepreneurs have a business routine and how we can build one for ourselves. It's in the repetitive act of doing that we see success. -Dana Malstaff 3 Things We Learned From This Episode After interviewing many successful people, I've found that the people who are most successful have a routine. A routine doesn't always involve doing repetitive tasks. In the end, what makes a business successful is finding actions that attract clients and make more sales, then putting those actions on repeat. Routines can help us measure success and productivity. When we focus on the same things over a prolonged period, it's easier to find out what works, what doesn't, and where we should make some tweaks. When we don't have a routine in place, we can only guess what we're doing wrong because our actions are inconsistent. It can also help our productivity, as we're most likely to put in the work if we create a daily habit out of it.

More and more people are looking for straightforward, streamlined and uncomplicated content. Is this something you can do in your own business? Are people willing to pay for content that was once published for free? If so, under what conditions? What are the steps you can take to make sure your content marketing strategy thrives? In this episode, Allie Casazza talks about how she turned her life around by living a simpler life and how she brought this to her business, too. Writing for virality can be done on purpose. -Allie Casazza 3 Things We Learned From This Episode People are willing to pay for curated, straight-forward content (10:40-11:20) Just as many people want minimalism in their homes, they also want a more simple approach to information. Often, business owners mistakenly of believe that once they put a lot of content out there for free, nobody will be willing to pay for a course. However, there is additional value in having information compiled and easily accessible. Virality is not a matter of luck (14:30-15:20) Don't merely wish for success and increased online exposure— work for it. There are many tools like BuzzSumo that can help you find out what goes viral in your niche. You can use this information to get a grasp of what your potential clients want. You can carve out your own niche in the industry (18:00-19:20) Being early to the party isn't the only way you can stand out in business. There will always be competition, but what can set you apart is carving your own niche and finding what's different about your approach to solving a problem. It's easy for us to lose out on great growth opportunities when we underestimate people's desire for simpler content. Instead of trying to churn out as much content as possible, why not curate and streamline our offering? There is so much value in curation of content and crafting a course that saves time, yet keeps the essentials. This makes it worth the money for our audience, because they don't have to go through pages and pages to find what they need. Guest Bio- Allie Casazza is an entrepreneur and a mother of four who started her business journey 7 years ago by blogging. Today, she runs a full-blown business with staff all over the country while helping other busy moms get more done with less effort by embracing a minimalist lifestyle. You can get your free minimalist kit here.

There are certain types of stories that have been told for thousands of years but never get old because we relate with them so well. How can the discovery of archetypes by Jung help you create content that always resonates with your audience? What are the 7 archetypes? In this episode, I discuss why story archetypes are everywhere around us and share how you can use a template to take advantage of them. 3 Things We Learned From This Episode All successful marketers use archetypes because our subconscious connects with them, and it's easier to persuade when you help the reader relate. The seven archetypes are: the quest, the underdog, the rebirth, the comedy, the tragedy, and the rags to riches. Each archetypes comes with a unique, relatable pattern that can be used in a variety of mediums. For example, the quest is one of the most commonly used archetypes in the world of digital marketing. All you need to do is to find the right archetype that fits your story and the story of your audience. Archetypes are used by all successful online storytellers. They serve as tools to make your content more relatable. We see archetypes everywhere-- in books and movies, as well as call to actions, sales pages, and social media content. The trick is to find the archetype that resonates best with your audience and personality.