Nicole Stanley's Tips for Moms Starting Their Own Business | Ep. 334 - podcast episode cover

Nicole Stanley's Tips for Moms Starting Their Own Business | Ep. 334

Sep 06, 202417 minEp. 334
--:--
--:--
Listen in podcast apps:

Episode description

In this Money Talk With Tiff episode, Tiffany Grant sits down with financial coach and entrepreneur Nicole Stanley to discuss the intersection of motherhood and business ownership. Nicole shares her journey from corporate sales and youth ministry to becoming a stay-at-home mom and eventually launching her financial coaching business in 2020.

Tiffany and Nicole delve into the challenges and triumphs of balancing entrepreneurship and motherhood, offering valuable insights and tips for moms who are looking to start their own businesses.

Tune in for an inspiring conversation about pursuing your passions while managing family life.

Check out the blog post: https://moneytalkwitht.com/podcast-show-notes/motherhood-and-entrepreneurship/

About Our Guest

Nicole Stanley, the visionary founder of Arise Financial Coaching, has profoundly impacted countless lives through her innovative Money Momentum Method. Her journey began with a personal struggle against debilitating financial anxiety in her early twenties.

Determined to overcome this, she enrolled in a personal finance course, transforming her situation from $30,000 in debt to a thriving net worth exceeding a quarter-million dollars by just 27—achieved solely through her dedication and strategic planning.

Connect with Nicole

Website: https://www.arise.financial/

Instagram: @arise.financial.coaching

Facebook: Arise Financial Coaching

Connect with Tiffany

Website: https://www.moneytalkwitht.com

Facebook: Money Talk With Tiff

Twitter: @moneytalkwitht

Instagram: @moneytalkwitht

LinkedIn: Tiffany Grant

YouTube: Money Talk With Tiff

Pinterest: @moneytalkwitht

TikTok: @moneytalkwitht

Subscribe & Follow
  • Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.
  • Follow on all social media platforms.

What's Next?
  • Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or your platform of choice.
  • Join the conversation online with #MoneyTalkWithTiff.

Disclaimer: The contents of this podcast are for informational purposes only and do not constitute professional financial advice. Always consult a financial advisor before making financial decisions.

Support this Podcast

Copyright 2024 Tiffany Grant

Transcript

You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk money with your money nerd and financial coach. Now, tighten those purse strings and open those ears. It's the money talk with Tiff podcast. Hey, everyone. I'm so excited because I have Nicole Stanley on the line, and I brought Nicole on because we're going to talk about the intersection of motherhood and being a business owner. So. Hey, Nicole, how are

you? Hey, Tiffany. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much for joining me for this important topic, because I feel like, like I said before, we hit record, we don't talk about this enough. Yeah, I would agree that motherhood is one of those things that you kind of just pretend isn't going on when you start a business sometimes. And so I'm sure a lot of your listeners might either be moms or they currently have businesses, or even if they're working moms. My hope is that

they can get something from this episode. For sure. For sure. So let's hop right in. Let's talk a little bit about your journey first, just so we can have a good, solid background. I know people know most of mine, but of course, I'll share throughout. So how did you become a business owner? Like,

what sparked that interest? Yeah, so I was working before I had my first child in 2017, and I worked first in corporate sales, and then I worked in youth ministry, and I decided to stay home with my first just because I thought that this what I should want to do. And I really struggled, actually, with being a stay at home mom, just my personality. And I started writing about personal finance. My husband and I had been on a personal finance journey from when we got married in 2015.

And I would say that learning about personal finance really changed the course of our life. We were, you know, pretty average couple. Just stressed, had student loans, some car debt. But I found that our financial stress really affected most of our engagement, our early marriage, and we decided to get educated about personal finance. And that's when we first started to dive in. We took our first course, and I became obsessed. So I was actually writing a personal finance

blog for fun. And I did not know that financial coaching was a thing or, you know, any of the business kind of stuff. I didn't even have that on my radar. It wasn't until I started just naturally helping friends and family for free that I started to realize, oh, my gosh, this is actually wildly fun. People can make amazing progress with their money when they have somebody, you know, on their side, somebody to help them plan, strategize, make good

decisions. And I. I kind of put that little nugget in my head as to, oh, I wonder if I did this and I made it a business. And it wasn't until 2020 when my husband was furloughed from his job where we kind of looked at each other and said, okay, well, we don't have any income, so why don't we start charging people? And that's really when I kind of dove headfirst into learning about becoming a business owner. I got trained as a financial coach, and I had

my second child. He was about three months old when I launched my company in 2020. And since then, I been able to build the business to have two other full time employees outside of myself on the team. And I've been able to help hundreds of clients all over the world become more confident and successful with their money through financial coaching. Wow, awesome. And, you know, as you're talking, I'm just thinking about how similar our stories are. I mean, different in ways, but very

similar. And I always tell people, like, necessity breaches innovation. So it was like, you know, it came about that he got furloughed and you're like, okay, well, let's try this, and then just kind of went for it. So I love that aspect of the story. So let's talk about being a mom while all of this is going on, because I know for me, for instance, when I went full time entrepreneurship back in, what, 2019, a lot of people were concerned, like,

Tiffany, you're a single mom. You have two kids. What are you going to do? You know, all of that stuff. So what type of things did you think about as you were preparing? You know, you didn't have much of a headway, but as you were preparing to do this, what were some things. You considered when I was starting my business? One of the big questions for me was how I could balance being a mom and doing something else. I grew up believing that kind of being a mom was, like, the only thing you

were doing when you were a mom. And that kind of sucks up everything. And I, for me personally, that was a little bit difficult because I actually became a much more fulfilled mom when I had something I could do that was around my own interests, that reminded me that I'm still a person. Right. And I think that's different for everybody. Right. But in my own life, I realized that me having something as a woman and as an individual to be interested in helped me

be even more present as a mom. So while I initially struggled with some guilt, because going from stay at home mom to full time entrepreneur means I'm going to be spending less time with my kids, right. I'm going to be having other things that I'm doing. And I think that's really hard for a lot of people because many women feel like we have to be moms and almost

nothing else, and that makes us somehow less than a mom. And so my husband and I talked a lot about kind of the difference between just time with my kids versus who I am when I get to be with my kids. And I think that that's why women pursuing what they're passionate about actually brings a lot of life to the family. And that's what I found in mine. At least to your point. You know, a lot of people think that when you're an entrepreneur, you just have all this time in the world.

You know, you could spend more time with your kids and things like that, which could be true to a certain extent. But I always warn people, like, be prepared to work your butt off at first. Oh, yeah. Especially when you first start. And so I'm glad that you mentioned that that was part of your story as well. And personally, like just this week, I got a babysitter in my new environment.

And I have been more productive in the past, what, two to three days now than I've been the whole entire time I've been here. So I highly recommend, like, I usually when I was back home, I would work outside the home. Or, you know, just having that separation, I feel really helps as a

business owner. Yeah, it really does. And I think it helps having, you know, the ability to have childcare because, you know, when I first started my business, it was my husband and I kind of passing our kids back and forth during COVID and I know a lot of women who are working and starting a business, they're doing that. And that's a very valid part of starting up

is when you don't have childcare yet because you don't have the income. And I think that's probably one of the biggest barriers to women starting a business because we don't have that necessarily built in. Absolutely. And honestly, like, I had many a long night just so I can work on my business. Like, I would be early mornings in early mornings, right? Two or 03:00 in the morning, waking up at six to get them on the bus, you know, all of those different things just to make sure

that I realize this dream. But to the point that you said before, I feel like me having this passion project really have infused in my kids more love, more caring, more being in the moment at times and also sharing with them. So, like my sons and, well, my daughter's too little now, but my sons, they've expressed interest in being entrepreneurs as well because they seed mom doing it. So it really has a lot of

benefits when it comes to entrepreneurship. Now, we hit a little bit on some of the struggles and some of the things that you've thought about during this process. What is one thing that if you could go back, you would do differently as a business owner? Okay, that's a good question. I think that if I could go back and do something differently, it would probably be to not agonize so much over getting help. At the beginning, when I started my business, I had invested in, like, a financial

coaching training program. And at the time, it was a really large investment for me. Right. I didn't have clients yet. I didn't have know what I was going to be when I would get clients. I was literally about to pop with my second, and I remember just agonizing over it. I think it took me about a year, and once I, you know, got the training, I finally had the confidence and I was able to get clients. And so looking back, I think that

year was probably too long for agonizing. And so I could have started a lot sooner because I wouldn't have just been, like, hemming and hawing over the idea of spending money on myself or spending money on my own development, which I think is really hard when you're starting a business. Yeah, absolutely. Because you're like, is this going to work out? I have bills coming up.

Is this a good investment? There's so much that goes into that thought process when you're first starting and you don't want to waste money because everything is essential, every dime, every penny is essential to a small business when you're first starting. So I can definitely agree with that. I think for me, I wish I would have hired help sooner. So it wasn't until I was three years into my business, like two or three years into my business when I hired my first

person. And honestly, like, hindsight looking, hindsight 2020, now I'm like, oh, I should have hired somebody sooner because I am a self proclaimed perfectionist. But letting go of that perfection is really what helped me move forward, for sure. Yeah, I totally identify with that as well. Okay, we talked about trials. Let's talk about triumphs. What would you say is your biggest thing that you've accomplished while being an entrepreneur and a mom? And it can be related to family or it

could be related to business. But what is the biggest thing that I would say being an entrepreneur has helped you do when it comes to your family or your business? Yeah, I think entrepreneurship has a way of really, like, refining perfectionism in the sense of when I look back at my life before I started my business, I just was so paralyzed

by what others thought of me. And I remember just agonizing over the first Instagram posts and the first times that I got on stories or the first blog posts that I wrote because I was so afraid of what others would think about me. And I wasn't really thinking about the people that I wanted to help. I was thinking more about how I appeared, where now I feel

almost totally on the other side of that. Like, I'm able to really speak to the people who need financial coaching services more so than I'm thinking about how my friends or family might be perceiving me at the time. And I think that that's spread, like, a lot of confidence in other places in my life where I've kind of realized that people can disagree with you, they can, you know, not care whatever it might be, and, like, life still

goes on. So I feel like the stakes of kind of how I was living became a lot lower, if that makes sense, like, the stakes of making a mistake. I see that as a triumph because when I look back at myself before I started a business, I see someone who is really scared, you know, somebody who was just so concerned about what others thought. And I think the other thing that I look at as a huge triumph is I have a full time coach on my team.

And for the longest time, it was like, I want to become the best financial coach to help the most amount of people that I can. And then you kind of hit that limit of how many people you're able to help because there's only so many hours in the day. And so my next goal became, well, how can I train someone to be an even better coach than I am so that both her and I can be helping people? And it kind of multiplies. Right. And I would say that really getting to that point with the people on my

team has been like a slow and steady process. But now that we're there, where I can say, oh, my gosh, I'm so happy to see that somebody else is able to give people amazing results, that's able to get clients, you know, saving more. All of that, like, that feels like something that I never would have dreamt of a few years ago. Yes. And not only that, you're given someone else

opportunity as well. Like, when you're hiring someone, whether they're a contractor or employee, you're either helping their business or you're helping their family as well, while they're helping other families. So it's like the gift that keeps on giving. So

I definitely agree with that. Now, one more question I have for you before we wrap it up, and that is if you could give my listeners, if someone was listening and they're like, I'm a mom, and I want to be an entrepreneur, or I'm a beginner entrepreneur, what is one tip that you would give them? I would say my first tip is, don't ask people who haven't done it if you can do it. It would be to search for other women, other moms who are doing the types of things that you want to do and start to

surround yourself with those voices. Because the worst kind of poison for a new business is all the objections that other people have about the business. Right? Like, people who don't run businesses. All they have are the reasons why moms can't do it. Where if you start to surround yourself with other moms who have, what you're going to find is they found solutions that they can share with you. They

have encouragement. They can also empathize with you, with what you're going through, because starting a business is not a walk in the park. And if anybody's selling you an idea that it's a walk in the park, they're probably full of crap. So, you know, you need to have other moms, other women in your life who you're able to talk to about the struggles that you're going through so they can

help you brainstorm. You know, I think that surrounding yourself with those women can be the difference between a business that never gets off, off the ground and a business that's really successful because you were able to get through those hard beginnings, right? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And I'm so glad that you mentioned that because I tell people all the time, like, who you surround yourself with really has an effect on how you currently see yourself, but also your future self as well.

So definitely agree with that tip, and thank you so much for sharing. Now, if people were interested, so if somebody's like, okay, Nicole, I want to take your tip and use it now, and I want you to be part of my team. How could people find you or, you know, follow you on social media? Yeah. So you can find us on Instagram at Arise financial coaching, we put out free financial information for

women for small business owners. And if you're a small business owner currently and you feel like your finances are holding you back, that might be a time to reach out to a financial coach. So you can always book a call with us. We can talk about whether or not financial coaching is what you need. But we make sure that people use their money in a way that helps them achieve the things they want and not look at money as the thing that's holding them back. I love it. I

love it. And if you all are listening and you didn't catch all of that, I will have all of that in the show notes as well. And you have two examples right here. Me and Nicole, we're mothers and we're doing entrepreneurship, so you know it's possible. And so just get the help that you need, if you need any. So thank you so much, Nicole, for coming on the show today, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Thanks for having me, Tiffany. Bye.

Thank you for listening, joining and being a part of the Money Talk with TIFF podcast this week. You can check Tif out every Thursday for a new Money talk podcast. But if you just can't wait until next week, you can listen to previous podcast [email protected] or follow TIFF on all social media platforms at moneytalkwitht. Until next time, spend wise by spending less than you make a word to the money wise is always sufficient.

Transcript source: Provided by creator in RSS feed: download file