#170: Mompreneur on a mission with Amy Traugh

It's something that she's very passionate about it . You can hear a lot of her stories inside this episode . Some of my key takeaway from this episode is that sometimes , being an entrepreneur , as a coach , as a woman it can be really lonely sometimes .

I think it's very important to have that clarity as to what do you want your lifestyle to look like , how do you design your entrepreneurship and how do you design being a lady boss in your life . That would allow you to set up a lot of boundaries and designing your coach's life so much easier .

The other thing is that I think what Amy has shared in this episode is so valuable in the fact that having a community who can support you , where you can ask for help , is such a game-changing decision and feeling that you can have in your business , Because , honestly , no one can do it all . So enjoy this episode .

Hey there , welcome to the Make it Visible podcast . I'm your host , Michelle Kui . I am a visibility and marketing coach , and this is our special spot for female coaches who might be feeling a little bit lost in the crowd , especially if you're introverted . We're here to help you to stand out .

So join us as we share stories , tips and fun chat that will help you shine . Whether you are new or perhaps you've been coaching for a while , this is going to be your go-to place to be seen and heard . So get comfy and grab your coffee . Let's get started . Hi everyone , I'm super excited to introduce our guest for the week , Amy Trough .

She is a self-proclaimed chaos coordinator I'm so interested in hearing what that term means . Who is on a mission to make sure that no woman feels alone in her entrepreneur journey ? Amy is a powerhouse . She builds not one , but two highly successful business from scratch .

She is the host of the top 5% globally ranked podcast , the motivated mompreneur and also the founder of the mom on the mission community .

Amy pivoted from a 16-year career in healthcare to entrepreneurship and she's all about empowering and educating people to achieve their goals , Something she's very passionate about her entire career and , trust me , you don't want to miss this episode . Her energy is just very infectious .

The moment I meet her , I can already feel that this is going to be a great conversation . So , without further ado , please join me and welcome Amy .

So why don't you give us a little quick spiel of how you got into coaching business and how did you get started ?

I was living my dream life . I had success on paper , and then the year 2020 happened and everything shut down and I was faced with a decision . My kids were in kindergarten and preschool at the time and I go oh boy , what are we going to do ? We have daycare . We don't have school . I was going to school them . What are we going to do ?

Well , doing what every woman does we figure it out . It's our strength as entrepreneurs we figure things out . So , luckily , my employer since I was outpatient was like you know what ? We need to cut staff by 50% , okay .

So I volunteered to take it further and we are going through the motions of , you know , the home , school and peace , and let me tell you that was a challenge in and of itself , like kudos to teachers , like I am not meant to be an elementary or preschool teacher . I learned that very early on in the home schooling process .

So once we made it through that , still remember there was one day I was sitting in the yard watching my kids ride their bikes and I'm going . You know what ? I'm missing this . I am in such hustle mode . I am missing my kids grow up . I'm watching life just pass me by .

I'm going through the motions , I'm doing what I thought I always wanted to do , but at the end of the day I finally had the time and the space to stop , pause and ask myself what do I really want out of this life ? Like , isn't there more to life than this constant hustle mode ?

Sure , the money is great , but no amount of money will buy back this time that I have with my kids right now . So I , on a leap of faith , said you know what ? I've always thought about starting my own whole residential organizing business . That was something you know .

Getting rid of the clutter really helped me gain so much control when my kids were first born . It really brought me so much peace and I'm like , anyway , I want to share this with others . I want to help others create that same feeling that I have . So I did it .

I learned a lot and the business grew and it grew fast and I'm going oh my gosh , what the heck am I doing ? You know , a foster syndrome starts to kick in because it's like who am I Like ? Who am I to be running this business ? I'm making really good money running this business and I really had to overcome those self-limiting beliefs .

So this business is growing . We're chugging along , and part of growing a business they always say network . You have network people in your community , network with those around you . So I would get on a lot of these local network meetings with , like , my chamber of commerce , different groups in my area , like , okay , this is great .

But then in the meantime again , I was constantly told you know what you have to choose . If you want to be a successful business owner , you really have to compartmentalize . You can have both . You can either be a really awesome present mom or you can have a successful business . You can't do both well at the same time . It's just not going to work .

And so I found myself just kind of like going really really like I don't know . I feel like the strengths of being a mom really helped me be a better business owner , so many of those like innate strengths that we possess . I mean , have you ever negotiated with a three-year-old ? Those are some incredible skills .

So , you know , I was like , okay , this just isn't the right table for me . So , on a whim , I built my own . I was like you know what , if I feel this way , I'm sure there's probably at least one other person out there . Oh , I started a Facebook group Women in my Local Community it's on a whim and it started to grow . And then it kept growing .

And then we started doing these master classes . We were sharing our strengths , we were collaborating , we were doing all of these things and what I found myself doing was mentoring these women . How are you judging it all ? How have you been able to grow this business without a business tour ? How are you doing this ?

And so I was mentoring them and I didn't realize it at the time because I'm like I teach you what I know . I'm like you know there's room for everybody , and I fell in love with it . They were seeing buttons and that just brought me so much joy .

When I take the time to look back now , what I realize is I'm doing now what I've done my whole entire career , which is empowering and educating . I worked in an outpatient orthopedic version of the therapy , so we would take patients day one after a knee replacement through 12 weeks out . You have to set a goal , you have to reverse engineer it .

There's going to be ups and downs , there's going to be self-limiting beliefs , there's going to be challenges that pop up . So now I'm able to do what I loved about that job empowering and educating others to create the success that they desire .

I think , walking into being an entrepreneur as a mom , it feels like if I were to have a successful business , I would have to sacrifice some of my time with my family or the time that I need to be with my kids and go into networking , event collaboration and doing all these busy work . And I had to choose between the two .

How did you cross that mindset of I have to choose , rather seeing that as a choice but like embracing it with the fact that I can balance the two , why not have the two ?

Yet society is telling me this . But here's what I really feel . And if I'm feeling it , you know , sometimes we have to be vulnerable and be the one to go first and say , hey , no , I don't agree with that , and that's okay . I respect you , I respect your opinion , but I see things differently and here's why .

So let's challenge that a little bit , let's create some change . So it wasn't easy because , I will completely be upfront , I am an introvert like through and through . I was never gone social media until I started my business .

I felt alone and it was really like in digging inward and go okay , if I feel this way , I'm sure someone else died , and so do I want her to continue to feel alone .

No , because I feel alone , let's link arms together and change that narrative , because by changing the narrative then we can make such a big impact , not only for us , but for our families , for our kids , for future generations .

Being for help is the highest form of subcare that you can give yourself , because you are not meant to do it alone . And this doesn't even just go for business . This involves asking your kids for help . I mean , even when they're tiny , they're way more capable than we give them credit for .

We can show them , we can teach them how to contribute to the family , because we're a team . I run up my family , I love to do my business , so we have yes , I have the business plan , but we also have a family plan . That we're all on the same page .

We have our mission statement , we have our vision , our values , our roles , our responsibilities , so that we're sharing the load , so that not one of us feels resentful to the other like you're not doing enough because I can't . I can't do it all , and even taking advantage of some of the wonderful things that did come out of the pandemic .

I mean , look at how my far grocery pickup has become . Things like that that save us time . It's okay to take advantage of those services , and a lot of times we stop and we go into the Yelp mode like , well , that costs so much .

Okay , well , I know , when I'm pushing the cart through the aisles of Aldi I'm going to be throwing a whole bunch of things in from that idle of shame that I don't need . So in reality it's saving me money because now I'm buying all those extra things . Number two I'm really able , then , to take back so much time .

Instead of taking 15 minutes to drive there , the hour to get the groceries , the 15 minutes to drive back home , now I've just reclaimed an hour and a half of my time that I can literally invest into income producing activities within my business I'm so adamant about . Hey , you're not in this alone , ask for help .

Really , take the time and look at your calendar and see where you can ask for help .

I imagine your life is pretty filled with effective and being productive . How do you balance between your business hour versus your work hour ? What does it look like for you in terms of your day to day calendar ?

So for me it was Establishing working hours Okay , I'm working from this time and till this time , being intentional then of how I'm spending my time within those hours . So often we see entrepreneurs quitting the nine to five store 24 seven . It does not have to be that way . You just need to be intentional about how you're using your time .

And then going a step deeper . If you are a mom , if you are a parent , if you have other demands in your life , it's important to realize what season of life that you are in .

If you have an infant at home that is going to require so much more time and energy from you , you can't expect your business grow as fast as someone like me that I have kids in school during the school year , or six and a half hours out of the day .

So I have that six and a half hours to just have pure focus and then again , within that time , really being intentional . Being intentional about Using income producing activities versus chasing shiny objects .

I think this is where a lot of us get hung up , because we think that we're scrolling for inspiration on Instagram to find our next brilliant post idea , or that we need another course , we need more certifications . Well , when it comes down to it , you need to spend your time Doing those activities that are actually going to move the needle forward .

So I literally have Three daily non-negotiables that are scheduled all my calendar that , even if I don't want to do them , this is my business . I'm still showing up . I'm treating my business like a business because a lot of times , let's be honest , when we're at home , it's easy to oh , I'll just do some laundry .

You know , while I'm on this networking meeting , I'll go load in . You know well like . Treat your business like a business when you're working , even if you won't have an hour a day , let's focus on one task that will move the needle forward . It's all about consistency .

Consistency of doing those over and over and over , because you don't just wake up one day with the business . You're constantly learning . You're constantly having to look at your data and see , all right , what's working , let's do more of this . All right , this didn't go so well .

How can we address , like last summer I did terrible when my kids were home for the summer , I Struggled . So this year I didn't do any podcast recordings over the summer . I I zoomed out . Okay , how can we make this work ?

I batched , I batched a ton of content Before the kids were out of school for the summer and then also I had a setter to have hope on Certain days so that I could have that focus on my business . Because what I find is I was so scattered . You know , I'm trying to focus on task at hand . Yeah , I'm getting . Hey , she hit me . Hey , I need a snack .

Hey , she's doing this . Like you know , it was that constant mom , mom , mom . My brain can switch tasks like that . I Need that focus time and I think just really being self-aware of how do you function best is so , so critical .

Well , I was just talking about how did you lie launch ? I was expecting more signed up , but it wasn't that the way that it was , and I got into my own way . I'm thinking , oh my gosh , I need to change everything . I got a revamp everything . So what's your tip in terms of how do we get out of our way ?

And just not looking at the outcome , but rather than doing something else , I yeah , it goes back to mindset .

Okay , guess what that happens ? I've had silent lunches . I think every single entrepreneur out there has had a lunch that didn't go well . That's okay . I mean , this doesn't happen just once , it's happened multiple times . But what do you do ? It's consistently showing up , zooming out and looking at the data . Okay , was it just a bad time of year ?

For my target audience , you know , is sometimes our people do traveling a lot . Are they on vacation ? We always make it about ourselves when you can really detach and be like you know what . No , this was a bad time of year . I really didn't talk about it as much as I thought I would . I didn't have a solid email process .

Maybe there was a glitch with one of the signup links . You're really leveraging that data and detaching . You know what . This tells me ? Nothing about my worth as a human being . It's just data . What can I do a little different next time to make it even better ? And I'll tell you what .

Every single time I've had a silent lunch my next lunch typically is one of my most successful then , Because I use what I learned , I identify those gaps and then you fill them and you make it even better .

So the membership is perfect for that early stage entrepreneur . It's like you know what ? I just need some of that strategy . I need some of that knowledge . We've got guest experts that come in every single month and teach us the newest , the latest , the greatest , because , let's face it , things are constantly changing in business and just like in healthcare .

That's why you do continuing education . But here's the key you have to implement what you know .

I feel like we're living in such a world of consumptive act mode we're consuming , consuming , consuming . We have all these wonderful ideas but we're not actually taking action , we're not implementing what we know .

And that's the hard part it's consistently doing the thing , especially when you're not seeing results at first , but doing it over and over and over , because I am such a firm believer in that if you have a solution to a problem that someone has , it's your responsibility to share it with the world .

That person is out there and if you can sell it to one person , you can share that solution with hundreds of people . It's just a matter of standing out in a really , really noisy world . So that's what the membership's there for . It's just there to empower you with the resources you need for success . And then one-on-one clients .

I take on clients that are more established in business , that have that business but they're not being the consistent income . They're hitting the five-month , the one-k-month , the three-k-month , just all over the place . So what we do is we really dive into number one clarity . What do you want your business to look like ?

Let's get , how does that comparison mode Really start ? Reverse engineering all of those goals , figuring out what we can automate , what we can get off of your plate , how we can make your business work around your life versus your life around your business .

So giving you that control back so that you can craft the freedom and the flexibility you desire , because at the end of the day , this is your business . You can run it in whatever capacity you want . I think it's so often thrown around , on social media especially .

It's like oh , if you're not making a 10k month , if you're not having $100,000 a year you're not doing well . Well , no , what do you want your business to look like ? Maybe that's just having enough extra money to pay for your kids dance lessons , to take your family on a vacation . What do you want ?

And once you know what you want , that's kind of like our GPS destination that you're putting in there . We know where you're at , we know where you want to be and we take stats to get there . And if we go off first , we have a plan to analyze and re-calculate so that we stay on track and get to where we want to go . Yeah .

If you're not doing this , then you're not doing it well or you're doing it wrong , and so we start to lose focus of exactly what is it that we wanted when we first got into entrepreneurship .

And I find that a lot of my clients too and they don't have that clarity , exactly what they want , and they lose the focus and they're just like trying everything and it makes sense why you don't get any result or outcome that you want because you're trying everything . So I love everything that you just share , yeah .

You could do all of these different things and achieve the same outcome . The key is finding a way that works for you , that's sustainable for you , that feels good to you , because this is your business , you get to call the shots .

Learn from them , borrow the belief they're there to show you what you want is possible . Link arms with those beside you because they get you . They understand exactly what you were going through . You are not meant to build this business alone and then be the light for those behind you .

Make their journey a little bit easier , because at the end of the day , it is so fulfilling to be able and go hey , I was where you were . I recognize that you're having a hard time . What can I help you ? Like really being there to serve , to serve others , not to sell others . Serve them and help them on this journey , because it's not easy .

But if we can help each other , we will create such a beautiful world .

Oh my gosh , that's so beautifully said . Thank you so much .

If we can be there to encourage each other and help each other , gosh , it gets so much easier .

I'm so glad to have you on the show . Thank you so much for coming . Thank you so much for coming .

Filling the gaps in your marketing strategies , creating a simple and easy to follow system so you can accelerate on the path of coaching business that you love to wake up to . Head over to ElevateLiveCoachingorg and grab a free strategy out today .