We are mere weeks away from the new year - we made it! With 2021 around the corner, we know many people are getting their goals in order. For some, finally starting their own online business (or shifting to a new focus) is toward the top of the list. We put together a list of online business ideas to consider. These span a variety of backgrounds and skill levels, so we bet there's a few that may spark some inspiration. For your convenience, we've included a download where you can grab a checklis...
Dec 15, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 40
This week we have Dr. Andrea Luise, owner of Lakeway Spine Center and author. Andrea has been a practicing chiropractor for 17 years and for the past 8 years has been the sole owner of her practice and a single mom. An insightful question from her daughter two years ago sent her down the path of becoming a published author. The Start School focused on the science of chiropractic even though they were told 60% of chiropractors fail in business…there was no business aspect of their education Pract...
Dec 08, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 39
This week features an excerpt from a Facebook Live training we did a little while back. It's a quick training on finding the right niche for your business, and therefore your content. We cover: The intersection of what your audience needs and the direction of the market What your audience wants and what you can anticipate they'll need Focusing on one ICA even though you may serve several Choosing the most effective and needed niche Niching up - it's not a perfect science! Absorbing your niche Gi...
Dec 01, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 38
In one week we will enter the last month of 2020. In a few days millions in America will celebrate Thanksgiving, perhaps in ways they never thought they would, but celebrate and give thanks nonetheless. As such, we thought it fitting to take this time to reflect on a positive that this year has brought to small businesses. We reached out to previous guests on this podcast and asked them to share what they are grateful they have learned that has impacted their business this year. We are grateful ...
Nov 24, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 37
Many of you may already have your content strategy in place to handle the holiday season the best way possible - showcasing how your product or service can serve your target audience. With Thanksgiving around the corner, though, we thought we’d go over some best practices and key insights, especially for those that are still putting their plan in place. No shade thrown or judgement cast - this is a crazy time and 2020 has been topsy turvy at best. Discussion Highlights: How 2020 has impacted con...
Nov 17, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Mel Afflerbach is a self-described 'health nut, yoga teacher and mama who drinks green juice with a dash of Tequila'. A serial entrepreneur at heart, Mel has created and built multiple businesses in the health and wellness arena, from yoga instructor to women's retreat creator, to prepared meals chef and podcast host…Mel is not afraid to blur the lines of entrepreneurship. We dove right in, discussing what made her jump in to her small business journey and how COVID-19 put a wrench into things b...
Nov 10, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 35
We met Mo Pittle at his Austin brick and mortar restaurant, JewBoy Burgers. While born in Cleveland, Mo grew up in El Paso, Texas and meandered his way to Austin. From pre-med to advertising to now owning one of the most sought after and talked about diners in the Austin area, Mo has a wide breadth of knowledge in business - both starting and scaling. Let's dive in. The Start Started pre-med in university Left school a few years in, worked at Club Med in Cancun Back to El Paso, played in the ban...
Nov 03, 2020•58 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Our guest this week, Claire Davis, started out as a corporate warrior. After multiple lay-off situations (we joked that this episode was more like a cautionary tale) she turned to entrepreneurship. Claire founded Traction Resumes and began focusing on being a career coach and resume writer for professionals. She shows them how to expand their network strategically, what to include in a compelling resume, and how to interview for success. We discuss how all of this translates for small business o...
Oct 27, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Lauren Kilgore has found a perfect intersection of two online businesses - selling a product and teaching others how to sell products…on one of the most popular platforms out there. Lauren founded Beautiful Wreaths and Etsy Expertise after fielding many questions around the Etsy platform via her successful wreath making business. The Start Accountant by trade, made wreaths for fun on the side Started as a wreath maker in 2014 after encouragement from family and friends Started an Etsy shop and F...
Oct 20, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 32
If you haven't heard the name Krystal Proffitt yet, you will. She is fast becoming one of the most sought after educators in podcasting. Her digital course, Proffitt Podcasting, is a step-by-step plan for entrepreneurs who want to learn how to start, launch, and market their podcasts with confidence. The Poddy People monthly membership brings together a community of podcasters to collaborate and innovate, taking their podcasts to the next level. Krystal shares with us how this career came to be,...
Oct 13, 2020•49 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Our guest this week, Jodi Hume; who focuses on decision support for entrepreneurs growing their businesses, grew up in a family of entrepreneurs dating back to her grandparents. How cool to have such a background that you can ask your grandma what it was like to run a business in the 1940s? After college, Jodi found herself employed at an architecture firm where she stayed for 17 years moving up the ranks from Marketing Director to COO. Anything that wasn't architecture at the firm, Jodi ran it....
Oct 06, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Our guest this week, Nadine Fonseca, is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Mighty Kind. This beautiful publication, available in both print and digital versions, is a 'kid's magazine that focuses on developing kindness and empathy as a foundation for anti-bias education, global citizenship, and service.' Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Nadine was surrounded by a thriving atmosphere of diversity and colorful culture. Having moved out of state with her husband and kiddos to the...
Sep 29, 2020•40 min•Season 1Ep. 29
This week's topic is one that every small business owner needs to listen to, and learn more about: pitching to media. Ashley M. Biggers, founder of 'How to Pitch Media' started her company when she realized that so many great stories were not being told because small business owners didn't have the means or the know-how to get themselves covered in the press. A journalist by trade, entrepreneurs hold a special place in Ashley's heart, so she decided to become an educator and help others on the o...
Sep 22, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Paul Totaro may be a CPA by trade, but he's a small business owner devotee at heart. Before getting his CPA license, he was a business broker because he specifically wanted to work with business owners. He went on to purchase his own firm, now Bargsley, Totaro, Andrews & Steinbach, CPAs, LLC, and while they support individuals with their tax preparation and planning, they also focus on entrepreneurs. We had a lively conversation that included top actions entrepreneurs should take when settin...
Sep 15, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 26
For many, working a 9-5 job or one with inflexible hours is just reality. Once something disrupts our flow, such as having children, we realize…hey, wait a minute. There are other, higher priority things I want to be doing with my time. This was the predicament of today's guest Salome Schillack, CEO/Founder of Shine and Succeed. Working as a pharmaceutical rep, Salome was tired of choosing between her income and her family. After attempting a coaching business, Salome dove into online course cre...
Sep 08, 2020•52 min•Season 1Ep. 26
You know when you meet someone and in the first five minutes you're like, 'oh yeah, we're gonna be friends'? That's Jamie Trull. (by the way, her name is not pronounced 'troll' and I know that…but listening to this in playback I totally pronounced it like that! Why?!) Anyway. Jamie is a corporate CFO and CPA-turned entrepreneur. After working for years for corporations with 90 hour work weeks during multi-billion dollar mergers, she had an epiphany - time is the most valuable commodity. She star...
Sep 01, 2020•58 min•Season 1Ep. 25
I first heard of Genia Stephen when she had landed a 5-figure contract with an organization that wanted to not only purchase her digital course, but roll it out across their org. When I dug further to see what she was up to, I learned that her business 'Good Things in Life' was completely centered on supporting parents with kids that have disabilities. Some of you may be aware, but this tugged on my heartstrings as my parents (after having 8 of us biologically) adopted 12 children from varying b...
Aug 25, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 24
When chatting with our guest this week, you would haze zero idea that she has overcome such adversity in her life. Or maybe you would, maybe her sunny yet determined outlook on life is one that would only come after such obstacles. We are overjoyed to welcome Mindy Henderson of Mindy Henderson Speaks to the show - professional speaker, coach, and writer focused on overcoming adversity. At 15 months old, she was diagnosed with a neuromuscular condition called spinal muscular atrophy. Her parents ...
Aug 18, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Growing a group on Facebook can be a powerful tool in scaling a business, and, in the case of our guest this week, it can be the foundation of the business itself. Erica Marie created and runs Erica's Steals & Finds VIP Group . We met via another successful entrepreneur and social media guru, Jasmine Star, who runs the company and group Social Curator . Erica is a mom of four boys and when her youngest headed off to school, she realized she needed to do something for herself. Like many stay-...
Aug 11, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 22
If you've ever thought about starting a blog, or have a blog but are stumped as to how to keep it growing…this episode is for you. This week we chat with Alex Cook, creator of the It's Not Complicated recipe blog. After leaving her career in in real estate and aviation, Alex started a blog combining her two passions - cooking and writing. She assumed it would be a hobby on the side, but within four months of starting her blog it was growing so quickly that it needed her full-time attention. Two ...
Aug 04, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Imagine you own a beautiful brick and mortar boutique a gem of the neighborhood. COVID-19 hits, you face a mandatory shutdown of your business. Three months later you are preparing to reopen, getting all safety requirements in place, abuzz with excitement. Then a phone call at 3AM, a mere two weeks before the reopening date, changes everything. The neighboring business that shares a wall with yours is on fire. You race down there to find the worst has happened. This is the reality that Alta Alex...
Jul 28, 2020•53 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Lorena (Lo) Hixson is not only a full-time nurse who at one point practiced in ER and Trauma, she's also the founder of a powerful monthly subscription box, Passion & Growth. The idea to combine two of her favorite things - receiving something fun in the mail and helping to empower women to accept who they are, expand their mindset, and change their narrative - came to her while at a winery in Fredericksburg. (side note: if you are ever in the Austin area, we do have quite the array of winer...
Jul 21, 2020•40 min•Season 1Ep. 19
This week we chat with Wendy Jensen and Linda Sidhu of The Email Collection. This duo left full-time executive roles in their respective corporate careers to jump into entrepreneurship for something most of us crave - more time and schedule flexibility. What they found, after spending some time in an MLM, was that they could impact small business owners with the business acumen they absorbed along their career path. While most entrepreneurs were leveraging the hamster wheel of social media to gr...
Jul 14, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 18
This power couple each run two completely different businesses, but their biggest commonality is building them based on acts of service - the key marker of a true entrepreneur. We welcome Laney and John Sturdivant, owners of Back Office Drafting and One People's Kitchen. Perhaps one of the biggest examples of confidence in a relationship is to have not one, but both members take the entrepreneurial path. Laney started her own company, Back Office Drafting, over a decade ago to fill a need for at...
Jul 07, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Raise your hand if you have dealt with the following struggles whether in your professional or personal life: accomplishing goals you thought you were 'supposed' to go after, making sure outward appearances on your life come across as polished and perfect, trying to handle every single thing yourself, wondering why you're left feeling unhappy and unfulfilled. We are not only raising our hands over here, but are waving them in the air like we just don't care. Sara Palmer of Sara Palmer Speaks is ...
Jun 30, 2020•49 min•Season 1Ep. 16
As we continue to explore the role that content plays in a successfully scaling business, this week we chat about creating a solid content marketing plan. Without a clearly documented path, consider your content marketing strategy dead in the water. In this mini-episode we take a look at what could be the missing piece - content. This is a HUGE topic, so we are breaking it down into bite-sized pieces and sprinkling them throughout our podcast series. Content marketing is one of the most powerful...
Jun 23, 2020•7 min•Season 1Ep. 15
As an entrepreneur, many times it may feel as though you have multiple plates spinning in the air. You are doing so much, stoking so many fires and yet your business isn't scaling as you'd like it to. In this mini-episode we take a look at what could be the missing piece - content. This is a HUGE topic, so we are breaking it down into bite-sized pieces and sprinkling them throughout our podcast. Here we explore the top content types to consider to attract your key audience. As stated in the podc...
Jun 23, 2020•8 min•Season 1Ep. 14
This week we chat with Danira (Dani) Cancinos of Dani's Dulce Confections. Dani and I met as students of Amy Porterfield via her Digital Course Academy and Momentum Membership. Dani's story is one of true determination that resulted in breaking the economic and scarcity mindset cycle that was keeping her family from getting ahead. Dani tells us how she went from making $20,000 a year working a part-time job to earning a six-figure income from building her own business. Starting in 2012, Dani wou...
Jun 16, 2020•50 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Sometimes you run across someone in life and you feel the nudge to reach out and get to know them better. Nicie Andrew is one of those people. We were reading an article on Austin Monthly, ' Black-Owned Businesses to Support in Austin ' and saw that her business was featured. The more we learned about her via our Google searches, the more we wanted to meet her. We reached out via Instagram DM, and here we are. Nicie is 25 years old and is already shaping up to be a serial entrepreneur. In additi...
Jun 09, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 12
We all know, either from first-hand experience or via media coverage, how hard New York has been hit with COVID-19. This week we speak with Melissa McLoughlin owner of MB Studio Salon & Spa in Rochester, NY. Since the time of this recording, hair salons in certain regions have been able to reopen in NY as part of phase 2 announced May 29. We discuss the impact of COVID-19 on Melissa's business, the impact on her staff, and how the salon experience will change for clients upon re-opening. In ...
Jun 02, 2020•47 min•Season 1Ep. 11
