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the information presented is for general information purposes only. Into It QuickBooks does not have any responsibility for updating or advising any information presented. Listeners should verify statements before relying on them. QuickBooks Money is a standalone Into It offering banking services provided by Green Dot Bank member FDIC. Hi everyone, I'm jinnyse Torres.
And I'm Austin Hankwitz, and welcome to another episode of Mind the Business Small Business Success Stories, a podcast brought to you by Ruby Studios from iHeartMedia and Into It QuickBooks.
In each episode, we chat with entrepreneurs and small business owners as they share their stories about the successes and challenges of owning and growing a business. This episode is a very special episode.
That's right, this is our own personal holiday gift to you. This is a bonus episode, but it's not just any bonus episode. We recorded our interview with business and leadership coach mary Ella de la Mora live from the Into It Innovation Summit, and we're really excited because at the summit we talked to Mariyella about a very unique type of entrepreneurship, and that's solopreneurship.
Yes, and Austin, even though you and I now work with other people at this point in our career, we are both very familiar with solopreneurship as it's how we operated for so long and for so many people. Growth does not include employees or building a staff. For freelancers and artists and many others, it makes the most sense to remain a solopreneur. But I'm curious, Austin, when you were a solopreneur, how did you define success for your business?
For me, I define success as progress.
Right.
So rewind three years ago and Austin Hankwitz is over there, pluging away, trying to write the best newsletter he could host the best live streams possible and begin to monetize his audience in a meaningful way. And as solopreneurs, we aren't given a playbook. No one's saying go do this, now, go do this, and now go do that. Right, we
have to make those decisions for ourselves. So when I'm thinking to myself, Okay, I just quit my job, what should I be doing now, keeping that idea of consistent progress and one step at a time in mind was paramount for my success. But Jenius, I know solopreneurship means a lot of different things for a lot of different people. What does success mean to you as a solopreneur?
For me, it means doing more of what you enjoy and less of what you don't because you are on your own. So in the beginning of my journey, I was trying to throw so many different things at the wall, and not everything was necessarily worth my time and effort, and especially not when you're trying to piecemeal a paycheck with a bunch of different tasks and opportunities. So I started getting really clear on what are those things that I enjoy doing, What are those things that have a
higher return on investment for my time? And then what's the stuff that I can automate to maybe a software or maybe just removing it from my business processes altogether that are going to allow me to make more while not also working more. And I like to tell newbie entrepreneurs and especially the solopreneurs, if you create a rat race, that's your fault at this point because this is your business. So you have to be the one that dictates where those boundaries exist.
One hundred percent. Now what do you say? We jump into our great conversation that was recorded live from the Intuit Innovation Summit with our guest solopreneur Mary Ella de la Mora.
Absolutely, and a quick note to our listeners, don't forget to keep listening after the interview, as Austin and I share some major mind the business news with you at the end of the episode.
Let's get into it.
Hey everyone, I'm Austin Hankwotz and I am Janice Torres and this is Mine the Business Small Business Success Stories, a podcast brought to you by Into It QuickBooks and iHeartRadio, and we're coming to you live from the Innovation Summit in Northern California. Austin, I don't know about you, but I am so excited for two reasons. First Off, this is my first visit to like a tech company, and
I'm just like, I get it. I totally get why y'all are doing this, okay, and honestly, from a creator's perspective, we couldn't do what we do without companies like you. We literally rely on software and the brilliant people that build it to do what we do. So thank you first of all for everything that you do for creators like us. And I'm excited because we're talking about things that are near and dear to our hearts. Solopreneurship and defining success in a different.
Way, absolutely right. And to help us dive into these topics, we are joined by mary Ella de la Mora. Maryelle is an EQ certified business and leadership coach, helping women of color grow their businesses and their teams through proven
identity specific mindset and leadership practices. Prior to her solopreneurship journey, Mariella worked as a director of marketing for sixteen years, where she helped build multi billion dollar companies and startups help them build their profitable brands while growing and leading
award nominated marketing teams all around the world. Today, she helps entrepreneurs and working professionals become competent and empowered leaders by infusing identity specific mindset, emotional intelligence, and business strategy. Mary Ella.
Welcome to the show.
Yea. So let's rewind to the early days of the business.
HM.
You know, you have this great experience working for these multi billion dollar companies and the startups. You've done this for sixteen years. Now, where do the idea for this business really stem from? And as you were sort of getting your reps in, were there any really big obstacles that you had to overcome that were like, wait a second, if I could do that, maybe I can actually do this for a living.
Yeah, the idea for the business it isn't like one aha moment. I don't know. I rarely see that that's the case. I think we all start with one small thing. It's kind of like you just know to plant a seed and then you just start watering that seed and you're like, I don't really know if this is a seed for like a fruit tree or a plant, Like I don't really know what this is, but I'm just
going to start doing it. So I really just started by a discovering that coaching was so much bigger than like executive coaching, sports coaches, you know, things like that, Like there was coaches for so many different areas of life, and I just started sharing my story and you know, helping people with marketing because that was a transferable skill. So I was like, cool, what's my most obvious transferable skill?
And I talked about marketing and then I talked about this other thing that I saw as separate, which was like, how my identity was being challenged by trying to do this thing. And then I found this is like where the community came in because I had already built the community that I had so many people that just had followed me for that that they were like me too.
And that's what brought up the curiosity around why are all of these brilliant, successful, high achieving people all having similar struggles that I don't necessarily see to the same degree outside of our community. It definitely self doubt exists for everyone, but that's really what it was. It's like
starting to think about sharing your story. A lot of the times will show certain things, but I really was always kind of looking at what is like an unmet need that I'm seeing happening that I'm curious about solving.
You know, one thing I found with solopreneurs is like that first time that you're successful. You don't actually believe that you did that. Oh yeah, you think it's like a fluke, and you're like, I don't have any idea how this happened, don't ask me. Yeah, and if someone asks you, okay, let's do it again, You're.
Like, I don't know.
I don't even know what to do.
Okay, So how do you combat those feelings to actually own the success that you created.
It took me a while because it's still happens. It does not matter how much evidence you have. You're just like, that's it.
It's over.
Like I ran out stuff to say, so I have had to because this is my marketing brain. That's like, we need data, we need data. What is the data that now? Because I've had to coach so many of my clients through like yeah, but like I'm scared and like I'm not booking sales calls and I'm just like, but didn't you just do this thing like last quarter?
Like yeah, but it's only because like if someone referred that person and this other person like heard about me from someone else, and I'm like, but they wouldn't work with you if you were like bad at what you do. So I've literally had to create data. So like I created something for my clients called success receipts, and it's like if you were to go to a restaurant, it's like what did you buy? Like what did you do? So I'm like what did you do? Like what did
you do for marketing? How many offers did you make? What thoughts were you having? What unhelpful thoughts were you having? Did you get coached? What did you surrender? Like what did you stop worrying about? Because success always comes with like you let something go. You're just like, you know what, I'm so tied. I'm just gonna like let it be. And when they document it, like they've been able to go back and be like, oh, I'm literally just not
making offers. And sometimes the answer is a lot simpler than our minds want to make it. So I really am an advocate of like document the things that are working for you, because you are going to forget and you're going to think it's over and you want to show your brain evidence. Showing your brain evidence is like a literal entrepreneurial skill because it'll say some crazy stuff to you when it's scared.
I love the idea of those success per seats I need to check that one out for myself.
Yeah, in your recollection, what is felt like the big break for you in business when where you're just like, ooh, there's something happening here.
Oof.
Okay.
So I started my coaching business right before the pandemic, and I just remember it took so long to get my first client that I think at a certain point you think like, I don't know, this is my take forever. And I think a couple months in, I feel like I found my groove, like I found my message, and then it started to come back to back and I remember telling myself if I land three clients in two months, I'm going to quit my job. And I kind of said that because I was like that's crazy, like that's
probably not going to happen. And then it did happen, and so I think that was the moment where I was like, oh, this is the thing. It can happen a lot faster than you think, and it's not linear.
Absolutely. So I guess my first question right is we're both solopreneurs, myself and Genia's here, So what does it mean to you to be a solopreneur? Like what are the advantages and the disadvantages that come with that title.
Well, first thing that came to mind was solopreneur is like I came from corporate sixteen years. I was like, oh, so your marketing, you're like product development, you are research and development, your HR, you're like all the things. So I think being a solopreneur really means like being agile, learning, teaching yourself things, getting it wrong, kind of just being willing to like messily wear all of the hats and know that you're just going to do the best you
can because you're just learning. When you work for a company, you kind of have to like vet things and there's like layers, right, But when it's you, you're like I can decide if I want to try again, if I want to do something differently. So I feel like your brain kind of clicks to become like a scientist in a way. So I feel like the disadvantages it's all on you, but the advantages is also all on you,
and you can just learn really quickly. And I think for me, there's a lot of advantages in the sense that like, part of the reason that I worked for myself was that I'm a single parent. My daughter is six, and I had climbed high enough up on the corporate ladder that I knew it was never going to be chill for me. So I'm able to like be the PTA mom, go volunteer at school and like do those things with her, and I can decide that I want to take a month off in July to take her
on trips. So it really is the freedom, but it is also like two sides of the coin of it all being on you. Yeah.
I always tell people, if you on the fastest path to personal development, go start business, yep, because you're going to confront every toxic narrative that's floating through your mind in one way or another, either by yourself or with the help of a therapist. Right.
Yeah, therapy is like a mandatory when you have a business. I feel like it should be a business expense, honestly. So what does success mean to you and your business and how has that changed over time? I think now it means feeling at peace and feeling like I'm in control.
I have freedom, I can make the decisions. That's also difficult sometimes, but that and also feeling like I'm making an impact and something that like really really really matters to me and that's something that I didn't have before. So I served first chen and I'm a daughter of immigrants, so I feel like it just couldn't possibly be more meaningful because I'm the one that decided, like what the meaning is and who I wanted to help and what problem I really like on fire to solve and think
about every single day. So that's what success means now. But it used to mean like getting the accolades and like my job title and how much money I made and my grades. And it changed from some other system deciding like what was good versus me sort of setting that standard. And that's just huge because children of immigrants, like we really just want to make our parents proud,
like we want to be their American dream, right. So I think that's been the biggest shift, is like me defining what that looks like for myself.
I think a lot of solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, small business owners, especially entrepreneurs and solopreneurs. Right, we see the headlines of that one person who raised twenty million dollars at this billion you know whatever, right, and we kind of benchmark ourselves against that. It's like, wait, should I be doing that? They're younger than me, They're all like whatever that looks like the dynamic in actuality, like just having that self reflection and saying what am I doing this for? What
is my path? Like? That's so powerful?
Absolutely, So we know that the road to entrepreneurship is a bit lonely. So how do you find the support when you're self employed? And how or in his community been to you in your business? Oh man, you absolutely like need your community. I think that one thing that I didn't realize I was doing early on, like before
I had ever made any money. I found community mostly because I knew in my mind, this is a little delusional to everything that I was raised to be like, which is hard working, like he the hardest worker in the room, you know, make your parents proud. And I was like, I just want to go find other delusional people who are like asking themselves the same questions, who are like having this existential crisis, but they're all about it.
And they're like, yeah, like this is what I'm thinking of doing. And so I actually knew to find community
before I knew what I was selling. So I found courses that had Facebook groups that had communities built in, and I just like met as many people as possible, and that helped to change my brain to say, maybe I'm not so crazy, Like there's other people that are asking themselves similar questions, and I don't think that I could have done it honestly if that wasn't normalized for me, Because I think that when you're doing something that you've
never done before, that maybe your family like hasn't modeled before. It's so easy to go back and say like I'm not cut out for this, or this doesn't make sense, or it's taking too long, or I'm doing something wrong, but your community will remind you like, no, this is just part of what comes with the territory. Are you the eldest daughter by anygs? Okay, yeah, I thought so too, my eldest daughter.
Problems, Yes, so mary Ella, What would you say to the small business owner or solopreneurs specifically right now listening who just got started. Maybe they just you know, hit that first goal. It's their big break, but they have no idea where to start. As it relates to building relationships, finding community, is it a conference? Is it the Facebook groups? Like? How truly step by step? Can someone go out and find those people?
Oh? Man? I always think about like where are people like me that are also like looking for the same answers. So for me and what I've seen, it is like these events in person, going to meet people. Some of it could be online summits, it could be going to join a group, even if it's just for the community, Like there are these early stage entrepreneur groups where like you're finding out what your thing is and like how to monetize it, just anything where other like minded people are.
So I know that during the pandemic we couldn't go and meet each other in person. I think that's why I joined so many groups during that time. But yeah, I honestly think that get on the email lists too of like anything related to personal development and entrepreneurship, because sometimes that's how you find out that there's like something going on that you can join. So that's what I did. I just plugged myself into email lists, podcasts, summits in person.
So here's a fun question. Have you ever like looked at your community for answers where like you didn't think about something when then someone chimed in and said, oh, actually you should think about it this way, and you like took their advice and it worked.
I feel like my business was kind of always the result of feedback to some extent, not permission, but more like validating yes, I have this need too. I also struggle with this that really hit, that really resonated. So I think your community will tell you what they need,
I guess in that sense. And that's still the case because sometimes you'll see a problem or you'll see something you want to do for them, but then they'll tell you how they're thinking about it, which is kind of like when I think about my marketing brain, I always think about like speaking in your client's language. So a lot of what you do learn in like building community and listening to community is like how do they think about that thing that you want to help them with?
So I think that's been really impactful too. I mean, I think that.
Makes a lot of sense because you're kind of using your community as that like test group, right, So you're not just building a product and hoping you're going to find people that are going to buy it. You're actually building the excitement because you're building for the community after you've received their feedback.
Yes, that's really key because I think that's one I don't gonna say like mistake, but I think that that's an idea that I had at the beginning, is you need to come up with the course and who it's for. But it's like you haven't necessarily gotten that like validated yet. So it's like the community does come first, honestly, and
not everyone thinks about it that way. But I hope that that's like empowering to hear to start the community first because you don't need to have the answers, but you can start the community now just by talking about the need that you want to solve for or starting to share your story. And that actually, I think keeps a lot of people like in waiting because they think that they need to have the solution outlined one hundred percent.
So something I've struggled with, you know, as a solopreneur is scaling. I only have so much time every day, oh yeah, and I can only lean in on so many productivity tools to help me achieve more in that twenty four hour period. So as a solopreneur, what does it mean to scale your business? How do you scale? And does scale even exist?
To me?
I found like scaling comes in so many ways it almost seems like it's this big system or something, but I think scaling a lot of times is like how do I do what I'm doing more efficiently, better with less of my time. So in a small way, one of the things that helped me scale even without a
team is I'm a coach. So there have been eras of my life for a long time where I was like on fourteen coaching calls a week, but in order to get to fourteen coaching calls a week, I had to struggle with six because I was spending so much time I was trying to figure out how to help them and solve their problems. And then what would happen is, oh,
I'm having three different clients have a similar problem. I just created a framework, you know, and like a lot of times, you're doing it live, and then that framework helps you help the other clients, so you're spending less time, people are getting better results. So scaling could literally just be getting better at what you do, delivering it faster, better, and then eventually it's also things like using systems, like I have content going out today that I'm not posting,
you know what I mean. It's things like that. It's using you know, software and systems to help you automate and schedule that actually pushes some of those things out for you.
Yeah. Delegation, right, really being able to identify what you might be really good at but also might not be that great at, and then hiring people that can really help support you there. Yeah, I think sort of a lesson that I've learned throughout my solopreneurship journey connect conspective. What you said earlier is, you know, it's not about making more money a solopreneur, Like that's eventually going to cap out because I have so many hours a day.
It comes back to am I able to drive my vision, my purpose, reasons why I'm doing this and feel good about that and be able to hit the mark every single day on that Like that to me is scale.
Yeah. I like that. It's consistency. It's almost like creating a system for that. Yeah.
I mean I think I would argue too, that it would involve raising your prices so that you're actually making more by not necessarily working more. Yes, because I think that's a mistake that a lot of entrepreneurs make. We tend to undervalue our skill set because we've been kind of programmed to see our abilities as like a dollar per hour. You know when we're trying to figure out how to scale. It's also how do I charge for the transformation versus the time?
Yes, yeah, that's so important.
Coming up on Mind the Business Small Business success.
Stories, Playing it safe actually works against me because I'm not giving myself or my business what it needs, like cutting off the oxygen to the business. And there have been times where I've pulled back and been like, Okay, we need to cut here and I need to stop doing this, and then I actually struggled more. We'll be right back after the break.
Welcome back to Mind the Business Small Business Success Stories, brought to you by iHeartRadio and Into It QuickBooks. So, as a solopreneur, what are the essential tools and resources you use to run your business? How did you find them? How are you implementing them? Give us the play by play.
Yeah, this is where community is important because you'll go in and it's like, what do you guys use for this? And then people will give you their two cents because there's just there's just so much. So I do use QuickBooks for my bookkeeping. I do have an accountant though, because I don't know that I should be trusted with that. But oh my gosh. We use Canva for design, Zoom for meetings, squadcasts for podcasts, and dscript to do like AI automatic transcripts. So like I love now. I'm just like,
how could we do this better and faster? How could we take a coaching call and immediately extract snippets are used Slack for like my community and I have a little hub for everything, and I think it helps me feel like I can do it all without doing.
It all one hundred percent, right. Having that tech stack is really important.
Yeah, it's true, And I think one of the things that scares people about this solopreneur journey is when you are starting to think about hiring help. Yeah, it doesn't always have to be people right away. It can be the software, absolutely. You know, something as simple as like calendarly or squarespace scheduling can take those minutes that you're spending going back and forth when can we hop on a call? Those things all can help you scale without necessarily having to hire too.
Exactly. I'm thinking of flow desk to have an automated email sequence that when someone opts in, they get three emails or five emails introducing them to you and your brand, and how you can help them like that is kind of scaling and then having the calendlies and we use later for prescheduling, social media and all those things. So
like these things can also like work for you. And as a solopreneur, I feel like we also are like the most adept at getting the most done with those resources because we don't default to just hiring, so you'll become like an accidental like tech x.
Well, actually, you know, speaking of QuickBooks, QuickBooks money is going to be a game changer for solopreneurs. Right is offering business banking tools with a game changing five percent annual percentage yield. It allows entrepreneurs and business owners to business differently. So I'm curious, Mary Ella, how do you set yourself apart from your competitors? How do you do business differently?
I think that a big part of what I do is, like I focus on what my specific community needs, meaning like how their backgrounds and their lived experiences are creating specific challenges that I can solve. So I'm a leadership coach, I'm a business coach, and I'm a leadership coach. I kind of give you an example that when I was certified as a leadership coach. We were taught someone has a certain emotional intelligence ranking in a certain area, how
do we build it? But I always come in with the curiosity of, like, why is this particularly hard for my people? And then if you can solve a niche problem for your people. That's what I think sets me apart is that I really do center the first gen community. I don't just say I want to help them because I'm first gen. I'm actually like studying them and studying their brain, studying why do they struggle with the things that they do, why are they so great at the
things that they're great at? And how can I become the best person with that lens. That's I think how anyone can set themselves apart is really thinking about like your specific person. But that's always been it for me.
That's so powerful.
Yeah, I really love that approach. So I know you've probably learned a lot of lessons along the way as a solopreneur. What do you wish you'd known at the beginning? That's a good question. I think it's that I'm going to learn how to hold ups and downs and like I don't want to say positive emotions or nega of
emotions because there aren't. But I wish that I knew that solopreneurship was going to introduce me to like the full human experience, because I think that for such a long time, and many of us think like, something's wrong with you because you're having a hard time or because you have self doubt, but it really is part of the process, and so I think, instead of judging it, it's like, Okay, well, what do I need? How can community help me? How can a coach or literally going
to therapy? And I don't really see them as like positive or negative anymore. Sometimes I even look at what you would perceive to be negative emotion, like something like imposter syndrome, right, and being like, okay, imposter syndrome is showing me that, like I'm doing something that passed me, didn't think was possible, and now I'm like, okay, bring it up. Now. This is telling me I'm adding in
the right direction. It's getting comfortable being uncomfortable, yeah, constantly, and then what feels comfortable, You're like, what's next?
Yeah, what's been the hardest lesson that you've had to learn? Because you know, despite what social media says entrepreneurship, it's not always unicorns and rainbows.
Man, there's been a lot. I don't know if it's like a lesson. I'd say that, like, my relationship with money is probably tested more than anything in my entire life because you don't have a paycheck. I mean, I'm an escorp now, so I have a paycheck, but I'm also the person who provides the money for the paycheck. The hardest part for me, and I think this is very much like a first gen thing and being a single parent that I'm like, I have to learn how
to trust myself. And I think the harder lesson was more that sometimes like playing it safe actually works against me because I'm not giving myself or my business what it needs, like cutting off the oxygen to the business. And there have been times where I've pulled back and been like, Okay, we need to cut here and I need to stop doing this, and then I actually struggled more. So I think that that is probably one of the
hardest lessons. Was like, your relationship with money is an entrepreneurial skill.
One hundred percent. So I struggle with this, But I really want to hear your answer, especially for the person listening right now who is also probably struggling with this problem. I've got contractors, I've got vendors, I've got all these things that I'm managing behind the scenes as a solopreneur. What tips, tricks, hacks, ideas, how do you really hone in on that skill and be able to sort of organize that and keep it flowing. So you're scaling your.
Business with like getting everybody kind of doing well exactly needs to be done. I have just found like one of the biggest challenges is like there isn't actually like clear written expectations. It's kind of like you bring someone in and then you're like, Okay, I'm just going to like verbally explain it to them, but you don't have like standards like do we have a policy on like what have I actually documented what it is that I want?
And that's part of scaling is almost like turning a decision into a policy and so bringing people into your business like having clear like this is exactly what I want you to do by when how do we know that we're actually giving clear instruction? So I think is
that's like part of it. And I think also just clear priorities because I think part of even where like contractors will struggle is like we'll tell them this is what we're doing, but then we'll come in with like a bunch of conflicting other things and then we're not planning far enough ahead sometimes and you know, things happen. But I think that just leaders will send conflicting messages to like their teams, and then that's kind of what
keeps everybody scrambling, and it's inevitable. But I think creating systems of like and then how do you want to be kept informed when all those things and you're not going to know all that stuff up front? Literally every single time something goes wrong, every single time, I'm always like, cool, do I need to make a decision about this? And if so, I'm going to document it. And if something went wrong, why what is the root cause of this
so we can solve it one time forever. So I think a big part of leadership is like what's the root cause? Instead of just being like, oh, we forgot to loop in this person, it's like, how can we make sure that this doesn't happen in the future. And even when I give back to contractors, it's never about like why did you do this? It's like what happened in like the process that this was missed, and like, how can we make sure that like we clean this up. I love it.
I feel like you have a bit of an engineering brain because I'm thinking, like, it sounds like you're talking about SOPs or standard operating procedures, right, Yeah, And that's one of those things I had to figure out too, when I was looking at getting additional support, Like I mean, we have an SOP for how to record a podcast episode or like how to book a podcast guest, and you don't think about how many steps you have to
take personally to do this. But then when you're trying to explain to somebody else like how this actually works, writing things down is very very useful.
Yeah, and then you actually get to empty your brain, because that's the thing about when you have a business. Your brain is such a busy place that I think about an SOP as like emptying it out. And if I'm going to give directions, sometimes what I'll do is like, hey, we forgot to do this, or I'm like I we literally didn't forget. I never told you to do it, And then I'm like, can you write that down for me? You don't even have to be the person doing it
if you have somebody supporting me. I'm just a big visionary thinker and I don't like writing words down, but you can actually ask for help to be like, can we just document that this is going to be like our decision moving forward on how we want to do stuff.
So I guess my last question here really that I'm super curious about is if I rewind my solopreneurship journey about two years ago. Now, it was so hard for me to like really stay on track, and so I had a time box. I'm not sure if you guys seen that, be like sort of figure out when am I going to do specific things on my to do list? What time a day I'm going to accomplish those things. That's how I was able to stay on track, knowing that I didn't have a boss to, you know, report to,
and no one was really holding me accountable. So I want to hear from you now, talking to the solopreneur out there listening, how can you sort of share your experience of staying on task, staying productive, making sure that you're holding yourself accountable. How have you able to achieve those specific things? Yeah, without having someone micro manager and you know kind of keeck you into gear.
It's funny because I would have struggled to answer this question like even six months ago, a year ago, because I feel like I don't like to use this smart but I was, like I felt like I was like a hot mess all the time. So I've had to figure out how to be more efficient because I'm scaling, so it couldn't just be like me back and forth with like my assistant all the time or just figuring
it out day to day. Now what really helps me is like I go into the week more peacefully when I spend Monday mornings meeting with my assistant going through last week's stuff. So we go into clickup, which we use for project management. So I use Mondays for decisions and delegating, and then I get coached and then I have time to just like work on my stuff, so
like I don't take client calls on Mondays. So I think having like designated focuses for the day really helps because task switching it just takes a lot out of me. And I think for most people, you're using like different skill sets and different parts of your brain. So now it's like Monday's decision day, Delegation Day, CEO day. I coach on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Wednesdays are mostly for me to just do work in my business. Friday, I'll mostly take that for like wrapping stuff up and then taking
the afternoon off before my daughter gets off school. So I think sprints like dedicated focuses and planning up front so that you're not sitting down at your computer going, oh my god, what am I going to do? Like, Okay, I need to work on my business, but there's twenty different things. You're not spending that time making those decisions. You're making those decisions up front.
So one of the themes that I've heard you speak on several times throughout our conversation is this idea of mindset. So what's your favorite mantra or quo or something that you like look back at when you need that extra motivation.
There's so many. I literally made a deck of cards with my mantras on it if I get to my clients. But I think the one that I lean into the most, that gives me the most piece is like, my success is inevitable. And I say that from this perspective of like if you just keep problem solving and showing up to solve that problem, it's impossible for it not to work.
I wanted to say that again one more time.
My success is inevitable, and if you keep showing up to solve the problem, there's no way that it's not going to work. It's like, literally impossible. How could you feasibly spend your entire life trying to figure out how to make this thing happen and not make it happen. It's literally impossible. So whenever I'm like, oh my god, this is taking too long, oh my gosh, like maybe I shouldn't do this, it's like, it's okay, it's inevitable.
You're just freaking out because it's not happening now. But when that thing happens, you're going to be worried about another thing, another goalpost or another problem. Every level has new problems. That's another one. Every level has new problems, and you are solving the problems you are equipped to solve right now. So don't wish on problems that you're not.
You don't even want those problems right now. Because I think we always think it's going to be better when we get to like some other place, and then you get to that place and you're like, oh wait, that was easy, like the stuff I was worried about. And not to scare you, but that's just part of like you become a different person who can handle different stuff.
My success is inevitable. Yeah, I like get that as a tattoo, right, My success is inevitable. That is so cool doing chills right now. Just listen about that. That's incredible.
I mean, I think that's the quotable quote of the day. Y'all. Mary Ella, thank you so much for being here. It's been a total pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
Wow. I mean, what an experience and what a conversation to share it with our first live audience for Mind the Business. Mary Ella really shared some very meaningful insights and wisdom on that stage. We had so many people coming up to us after and saying how they felt like they needed to hire mary Ella as their life coach after this discussion, Austin, what resonated most with you?
I may or may not have been one of those people trying to hire mary Ella now as a life coach. Oh my goodness, she was incredible. I think a couple of things stood out to me first was community. Right, at the end of the day, being a solopreneur is very lonely, and it takes a toll on our mental health for sure. And so by identifying and surrounding yourself with people who are also solopreneurs, learning from them, from their mistakes, from their accomplishments, everyone has a unique experience
and something to share. Another thing that really really stood out to me was her comment around consistency. Right, if you stay consistent over time, success is inevitable. At the end of the day, we're putting in hours upon hours of hard work to achieve this goal in our dreams, and just by doing that, we are setting ourselves up for long term success. I also think there's something to
be said about the imposter syndrome, especially myself. I'm definitely on the younger side, right, and so what I'm surrounded by all these successful solopreneurs like yourself Jennie's, it just gets me so excited and really puts a lot in perspective.
Yeah, I think it's important for us as solopreneurs to really believe that the success that you've achieved is not just an accident, It's not just a fluke. It really is about what you did, Like you mentioned Austin showing up consistently. And I think one of the really key points that mary Ella shared with us is write down all of the things that you do in your business.
Start to standardize those things, because inevitably, you know you may want to look for additional support at some point down the road, depending on where you are in your journey, and being able to pass on that knowledge in a really formalized way through procedures is super useful. And also I think it just helps you understand, like, what are all these different things that are happening in my business
versus trying to keep everything in your head. It's important as a solopreneur to make sure that you are leveraging resources. Technology is our friend, and software like QuickBooks money is one of those really key tools that you can use to make sure you're not wasting time chasing somebody for an invoice and you can get back to doing the thing you're supposed to be doing, which is growing that business.
Now for our exciting news, Jennie's give me a quick little drum roll please, We.
Are coming back with season two at the beginning of twenty twenty four. We'll have brand new episodes featuring more solopreneurs sharing their stories of struggle and success. Subscribe and follow the show and keep an eye on the feed so you don't miss out on the amazing insights and knowledge from these business owners.
I cannot be more excited. This series has been so eye opening for myself as a small business owner, solopreneur, entrepreneur. I've had so many people reach out to me saying that they've learned so much from the incredible entrepreneurs that we've interviewed over the last several months, and twenty twenty four is going to be a blast.
I am so excited for season two. I just have gotten so much incredible feedback from folks that are tuning into the show, learning so much, and most importantly remembering that this is not a sprint. This journey through solopreneurship is a marathon, and we are here to support you every step of the way.
Well that's it for our very first live episode. You can find me on social media at Austin Hankwitz.
And you can find me at jokierro Dineto podcast.
You can learn more about mary Yella by visiting her website Marielladala Mora dot com or on Instagram Atmaryella dot Dala Mora. You can follow Into It QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks. To get the tools you need to start, run and grow your business, head to QuickBooks dot com today.
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This podcast is a production of Ruby Studios from iHeartMedia and Into It QuickBooks.
Our executive producer is Mollisosha, Our supervising producer is Nikkia Swinton.
Our head of post production is James Foster.
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