Leigh Howell

[00:06:00] Leigh: like a dream somewhere oh, I was in.

[00:06:03] So when we get to this next step, then I’ll have more time for me. Or when I do this, I’ll be happier or I’ll feel more at ease kind of thing. And so I really do feel like this entrepreneur journey Has fulfilled a, just a different piece that nice of my life that brings joy. Okay. And it’s different enough that,is something that’s mine and, that, I get to do, meet awesome people like yourself and other clients and be part of their lives.

[00:06:37] And in a way that’s very different than [00:06:40] good how I spend my clinical time. And even though it is been a little bit more added to my plate, it’s energy giving, not. Energy taking things happen. Yeah,

[00:06:52] Audra: exactly. Yeah. Which is absolutely, which makes it, there is positive stress and negative stress, so if it’s putting a positive stress on you, that’s okay.

[00:07:00] Your body can handle it mentally, you can handle it emotionally, especially when it gives you energy or charges you up and excited about something new. It fires different, synapses in your brain cuz you’re working on something different than your day-to-day practice where you’ve probably got a lot of root habits going on.

[00:07:18] That’s awesome. So where is it going? What do you wanna do? What does the next year look like? So

[00:07:24] Leigh: this next year I am, I’m really anxious to move towards a hybrid Okay. online core slash group coaching model. something that a lot of my clients, no matter what they come to me for, it.

[00:07:41] It’s very obvious that the need and absence of connection. Okay. Connection with interesting other career moms. And I think that’s something that the, the pandemic has really highlighted. we were all forced to lose some of those connections. And now that we’re trying to get back to normal, whatever normal looks like, I’m not sure that will It’s a new normal, I still feel like though the women that are coming to me are saying, depending on what season they are in their life, they’re really missing out on some of those connections. that’s great. Even at work, in their personal [00:08:20] life with their partners,with their children, especially if they have,older, Teens on into their twenties maybe that are in college or Have moved out of the house. And really working to redefine what success looks like in their lives. Good. And and part of that being the intentional connection with others. so my kind of dream for the end of the year would be to have that up and running with, an opportunity for folks to.

[00:08:49] to have an online course that they can digest. Because we know that this is not something that is easily done as a career mom. you’re doing this at five in the morning or 10 o’clock at night after everything else is done. but then also having a, kinda a group coaching piece built into that

[00:09:08] where folks can experience that support in

[00:09:10] Audra: community. That’s good. That’s a great goal to work towards, especially balancing that kind of stuff. I remember when my kids were little, and I know we briefly touched on this. I was a single parent and it was challenging the hours in the day and I was also going to school while I was self-employed.

[00:09:29] they’d be in bed by nine o’clock, when they were younger. 9, 9, 9 30 ish. It’s oh my gosh, I have a term paper due in two days. Or, I’ve got a test on Friday I’ve gotta study for, and I am just spent, it’s probably lucky that it happened when I was younger, cuz today I would find, I would do, you know what, let me think about that for a second.

[00:09:51] work quite a bit of hours now, but, for me, I don’t get exhausted by it because I wanna do it. So[00:10:00] it’s a different perspective. I’m doing what I wanna do. Yes. And I try to get all the yucky stuff that I don’t love doing in the morning when my energy’s good, right before I go run or something.

[00:10:10] But, too many hours on the screen. I’m just fatigued just mentally from trying to do deep work for too long, but, I can easily take a break, 30 minutes, go outside, get some vitamin D, get some sunshine and some fresh air, and come back and work another six or eight hours. No problem.

[00:10:28] Leigh: and so I think there’s two pieces to that.

[00:10:31] one is you are in a very different season. Yeah. I look back,even five years ago, I, my oldest is almost 17. he has twin brothers that are 13. And rewind five years and the amount of energy that I had that I was, that I love spending on my family it, there was just less in that pot left over for whether it was work or for interacting with.

[00:11:01] Audra: Yeah. Me or friends, family. Yeah.

[00:11:04] Leigh: that, and even though I wouldn’t give anything for those times, I can say now that I have, like you said, a lot more of the mental and emotional margin to be able to tackle some of these things Yeah. Within my own business that I’m not sure I would’ve had that five years ago.

[00:11:23] Yeah. and so I think, everybody’s entrepreneur story will be a little different. I think some of it is, sometimes you do what you have to do, you get scrappy, and when you’re taking care of your family and you’re it, or you’re the major breadwinner, like that is a very different picture than,[00:11:40] if, like for me, I was able to.

[00:11:43] decide to work in clinical medicine part-time and be able to do my business part-time. that may not be the case for some folks. Like you said, they may be burning that midnight oil and you look back on it and have no idea how you made that happen. Lord,

[00:11:56] Audra: somebody definitely had my back there to get through it.

[00:12:01] Leigh: My husband, I said the same thing, like looking back at medical school and residency and I dunno how in the world we did that. I have no idea. If I had to do it again at my age, I don’t think I’d survive.

[00:12:14] Audra: or like you said, you’re a different season, you’d figure it out. Anything that we wanna do, we figure it out.

[00:12:20] It may seem this big, but until we get in it, to it and take that first step, yeah, it’s all is really, is this huge thing is just a series of steps, series of, and take it away at it, accomplishing little things until you get to where you’re trying to get to. And I

[00:12:38] Leigh: think that’s probably the, my favorite thing as a coach to help folks be able to take a, just a step back and be able to see that, that, everything is figure outable.

[00:12:48] and at a one client, her, she would always say, she’s I just need to chunk it down. You chunk it down. And that’s the truth. She’s I’m not sure if that’s even English, but like it’s the truth. You can, yeah, you can figure it out and you can, break it down in a smaller pieces, but sometimes it is hard, some when you’re trying to do things and feel like you’re doing it all by yourself in a silo.

[00:13:10] So I think having those connections, whether it’s, something you feel stuck in terms of starting your business to be able to [00:13:20] have a mentor to ask, or somebody that’s just even a few steps ahead of you, like, how did you figure this out? Or What did you do in this situation? And trying to do something in a silo.

[00:13:32] And I think our humanity we’re not meant to be that. Closed off. And in a silo,

[00:13:37] Audra: take it, both humanity and a business. A business is not built to run in a silo either. I think that’s why so many people fail. we need to look at a business like a very symbiotic ebb and flow.

[00:13:51] Everything connects, everything else that flows together. And I’ve seen, at least since I’ve been in the industry since 2009, we develop everything in a silo. You. Your SEO in one and your social media in another. And I’m getting very in the weeds of it, but it’s a perfect example.

[00:14:11] You’ve got your website in one and everything is running on its own little system and nothing is connected and then people can’t figure out. It’s almost like that plate spinning thing. Yes, you’re doing it high once low, once high once slows down one, but it, but that’s not really how a successful business runs.

[00:14:29] Get rid of the plates cuz you’re doing it the wrong way. Bring the systems together. So you know in an ideal world you would create a business strategy Then you would say, okay, this is my goal, this is what I’m gonna sell, this is what I’m about. The rest of it is just building the blueprint on how to make those things happen.

[00:14:49] Cuz we’ve already decided what we’re trying to achieve, but I build from the top down cuz I know better cuz I’ve been doing this for a hundred years. People, most people build from [00:15:00] the bottom up. And that’s why they struggle because they farm out their s e o, they hire somebody to do their social media.

[00:15:08] Somebody else is writing their blog content and then somebody else is managing their website. None of those people talk. They’re all using their own expertise to create the work for you. And then people are like, I don’t even know what is your brand about? I don’t know anything. They’re doing work, but it’s not building anything that you could build upon to be able to look at somebody’s brand and say, oh, they serve this market.

[00:15:36] This is their audience. This is who they are, this is what they’re about. And they completely missed the mark. And all that effort was for nothing. Or not for nothing, but they could have gotten such better results if they would’ve built it the other way around. And

[00:15:52] Leigh: I think, being the entrepreneur that is much more on the beginning side.

[00:15:57] Yeah. And I totally see myself in what you just said. Yeah. And I think part of it is when you’re getting started, whatever it is, whatever you’re trying to sell, you want to sell this, so you ultimately help your audience, right? And you’re like, okay, what do I need to do that with?

[00:16:16] I need a website. if I’m gonna sell something, then, I need to figure out how people can pay me, and then I need to figure out my billing and, so it’s, it’s almost like you’re trying to do all these things at one time versus saying, like you said, start from the end goal in mind and then work your way backwards.

[00:16:35] because you, do you feel like all those. Mainly cause they’re [00:16:40] tangible. you can see a website. I can direct you to my website. I can direct you to my Instagram page on my blog post and you can see what I’m about. but at some point, probably around that one year mark or so is when I started saying this is, there’s gotta be a different way to do this.

[00:17:00] Audra: this

[00:17:00] Leigh: is not, scalable. this is not gonna get me to, to my end goal. And, and so you do, that’s when you realize I can’t do this all by myself. I do need somebody like you or, watching this podcast or the community you’ve, that you’ve created to be able to say like, how do I, how do I do this?

[00:17:20] big picture, right? But then also be able to say, all right, first this, then that, but then also how do I do that? which is, a wonderful, thing that you’ve created for folks that are in small business, in the small business world.

[00:17:36] Audra: if so, if you think of it this way, if you started the top down, I’ve already decided the plan.

[00:17:42] I already decided what I want my business to do now, then I open up my toolbox and I have lots of options, right? Am I going to accomplish that through social media or through YouTube or through email marketing, right? Your toolbox is full of all these different ways that you could market your business.

[00:18:02] Once you’ve got that plan created, who you hire is not as important because they’re following your. Yes. See, we hired the other way around. We say, I don’t have any experience in seo, so let me go find this really expensive SEO person. Have them [00:18:20] come in and they’re gonna take care of all my problems for me.

[00:18:23] But what’s happened is they bring their experience and they produce content for you in a silo. So that SEO work and all that energy that goes into that could have, benefited every single other channel in your business, but you just hired him for this. So this is all he does. He doesn’t check in on how you show up in social media or what you’re doing for email marketing or what, contents on your website.

[00:18:50] He doesn’t know what your customer journey looks like. So he’s working in a silo. So you spent $5,000 a month to have this person create content. Now remember, SEO is a long game, so it’s gonna be a minute before you get the benefit of the work that they do, right? But if he would’ve said, this is my plan across the board, this is how email fits in, this is how social media fits in, this is how SEO fits in.

[00:19:13] Now I can actually hire B players. I don’t need A players. Yeah. Because I already have the plan. So I’m gonna save myself some money and they’re gonna come in and they’re all gonna work in tandem to get the results that I’ve told them I’m trying to achieve. Yes. And it’s a completely different conversation then.

[00:19:35] Leigh: And and I think part of that, for me, for my journey. I’m a biology and chemistry major. This was not part of my undergraduate experience at UNC Chapel Hill. this was not part, there were folks that got their MBA alongside their, in medical school, and I think if I could rewind a little bit, I would’ve done that.

[00:19:56] however, if this wasn’t part of your wheelhouse [00:20:00] of, you really are having to be really scrappy and figure out Yeah. Either who I should ask, who I can afford to ask, or what other resources do I have? maybe somebody that’s in a similar business model that’s maybe a few steps ahead.

[00:20:18] and I think that would be, for anybody that’s in kind of the space where I am, then that is what I would say to do. Yeah. To do is. To have somebody like, we’re having this conversation now. Yeah. And I’m already taking some mental notes over here of oh, maybe what I could do. absolutely.

[00:20:38] but to have somebody like that, that you can, bounce things off of. and then like you said, have the plan and decide how you best need to hire out or to learn. Either do it yourself or to learn to do it yourself. Yeah.

[00:20:51] Audra: Yeah. Here’s the other thing I see a lot of entrepreneurs make, they focus on the wrong things at the wrong time.

[00:20:59] So if I haven’t launched my business yet, I should not be spending any energy looking at automations. We’re not ready then. business is not a straight line in no shape or form. but there are. General principles that say if you do these things and then you do these things, that the business will progress.

[00:21:24] If you have, everything goes back to the product market fit of course, right? With the right message, with the right audience. But when that is in alignment, there are steps and if you focus your energy on doing the right things in this stage of business that you’re in, you’ll [00:21:40] get so much further.

[00:21:42] But we don’t, we run out, we go to the end, we think we’re going to make that work. Then we realize I did all the mechanical things I was told to do, why isn’t selling? cuz I didn’t spend any time learning about how to get traffic, how to build a community, who my ideal audience is, what my message is.

[00:22:03] I just ran to the end. It took care of all the technical stuff and that. Normally does not

[00:22:08] Leigh: work well. And I think, cause those are, like I said earlier, those are probably the more tangible things Yeah. that you can do in your business. I can totally see that. and who doesn’t wanna like a really cool, pretty shiny website and great looking, blog posts and things like that.

[00:22:25] Of course I want that stuff. but you’re right. Rewinding and, figuring out the messaging piece especially,has been huge. And honestly, if I can say like, where I am currently in my business is. trying to not just get crystal clear on what my goals are, what my plan is, how am I communicating that in all my different content, whether that is an email or whether it’s a blog post, or whether it’s, a video I post on Instagram.

[00:22:59] that if my message isn’t crystal clear, then I’m gonna be confusing who’s gonna hear it, right? Yeah. Or you’re gonna hear it and be like, who’s she talking to? Kinda like her, but I’m not really sure what she’s asking me to do. And so and I have to say, and maybe that’s just because that’s not part of my background.

[00:23:18] My experience [00:23:20] is,

[00:23:20] Audra: sister, we all have to learn it. None of us are born with it. Some it comes a little bit easier, but we still have to learn it. All of us.

[00:23:30] Leigh: and I have to say that is one of the like unsexy parts of business, right? And who wants to learn about getting my message straight and copywriting.

[00:23:38] sorry for all the copywriters out there.

[00:23:40] Audra: I’m,

[00:23:41] Leigh: can those of us not, do not get it or aren’t great at it, or have to work really hard at it? Yeah. so no, I, no, I can fully say that, rewinding a little bit, I think. Even though I heard it early on and opening, starting my business about, messaging, getting crystal clear, is messaging is key.

[00:24:06] I think it. Just takes your own experience and journey to To finally have that aha moment of now I get it. I wish I could have known that a year ago, but Right. Okay. my husband’s grandfather would always say, you can’t learn any younger. So there, yeah, I

[00:24:22] Audra: like that. Just keep moving forward.

[00:24:24] That’s awesome.

[00:24:24] Leigh: there’s a couple things I wish I would’ve,one had that different expectation of a runway and I’m getting started with my business. So for those folks that are still in the,I’m have my side gig running, getting crystal clear, have. A product, a service that you know is working well and is reproducible.

[00:24:48] So you’re giving yourself that runway, before stepping out of your full-time career, Okay. Whether that’s corporate or,like I said, I’m not sure, in [00:25:00] the past three years has told me not to say never, because

[00:25:02] I’m trying to learn not to be that planner. But,I think having that expectation of, the longer runway, making sure that things are, working smoothly, if I ever thought that I would step away from clinical medicine ok. before I ever made that. And then also the idea like you.

[00:25:22] Starting with the end goal in mind and working backwards from there, but not being so focused on, like you said, the, the details. Yeah. Whether it’s your, the email marketing system that you’re using or your website or, those things are wonderful, but until you get crystal clear on and you have to be crystal clear before you can say, this is my plan.

[00:25:47] This is what I want my business to look like. Just like you asked me from the get-go. What do you want your business to look like by the end of the year, early next year? that has to be honed in before, Any of these other things even matter.

[00:25:59] Audra: And it’s unfortunate that we aren’t trained that way.

[00:26:04] I learned that way out of making mistakes and watching my clients make mistake after mistake. I had one client maybe six or seven years ago, actually, she wasn’t even a client, it was just somebody I was mentoring. and she came to me and she needed some help with a marketing strategy.

[00:26:22] So we get talking about her business and where she’s going with it, and she’s I really need to get this messaging thing down because I’ve invested about $50,000 in a website. And I’m like, wait a second, what? So she [00:26:40] was in the pet business. She was trying to build, and like I said, this was probably six years ago or something.

[00:26:46] She was trying to build a, like a pet. Pet Smart or Petco type brand where people could come on and bring their pet products and sell them. So she’d have a central hub and then she It would be productized by other people’s products. like a baby Amazon, but very focused on pets.

[00:27:05] good idea. There wasn’t one of those at the time, and I said, okay, so how many people do you have lined up that are ready to put their product on your site? Oh no,I can’t start doing that until I have the site built, cuz I have to show them and I’m like, sister, you could do screenshots of what it’s gonna look like.

[00:27:23] So you’re telling me you’re spending all this money upfront for an idea. You’ve not even validated to see if there’s a market for Amazon had gotten some market share, but not where it is now. and you’ve already spent $50,000 and you have no buyers and no sellers set up, How scary is that?

[00:27:42] That yeah, that so much money. And I’m like, she’s like, why can’t I unwind this clock now? And I said, you’re right. You can’t cuz you’ve already spent the money. But what I would suggest is you slow it down. You need to focus all your energy on lining up buyers and sellers. That’s it. Nothing but buyers and sellers.

[00:28:01] unless this is a hobby for you and you’ve just got a ton of money, you’re looking to invest in it. unfortunately, her story’s not unique. I have so many stories I could tell you that were like that where a good idea, but just implementing the wrong thing at the wrong time. She could have stuck up a landing page, [00:28:20] stuck up a WordPress install with WooCommerce on there in a weekend and started testing it, getting buyers and sellers on there.

[00:28:29] Then go for a custom site down the road once it’s actually at revenue, at positive revenue. But we don’t know what we don’t know. So we step out there trying to grab a hold of something and we grab things, or at least what I see is they grab things that they feel like they can accomplish.

[00:28:46] Yeah, I need to get some tasks done. I need to check some stuff off my list, that I’m working in that direction without thinking does this actually move my business forward? Or is this just busy work that I’m, so I could check something off my list. Yeah.

[00:29:00] Leigh: And what you just said completely resonates with me.

[00:29:05] you know, I wish that there was like a, a place that if you were even thinking about. Starting a business or you have a business and you’re branching out and trying something new, it like, like where is that button? Where’s the, not that you’re looking necessarily for the easy button.

[00:29:21] It’s not that you don’t wanna do the hard work. but it’s the, like you said, you don’t know what you don’t know. you just wish that there was this like flashing neon sign when you are Googling something at midnight that says, start here. Start

[00:29:33] Audra: here. that’s part of, so I’m writing a book right now called Marketing Reset and what it has in it.

[00:29:42] It’s like over 500 pages. Yeah, I know. But it’s not necessarily a book. Like you’re not gonna sit down and read it. It’s more of a manual. Yeah. And what have I’ve done is I’ve broken down your first 90 days at something. Your first 90 days in email [00:30:00] marketing. Your first 90 days in social media, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:30:03] There’s about 25 different marketing channels that I talked to, and I built a framework around it because this is so important. I’m not trying to, teach people how to be marketers. Most people don’t want to become marketers. They want to be in business. That’s the whole reason why they started one.

[00:30:22] But if they don’t understand how that foundation is supposed to work, regardless if they spend 10 minutes on it to understand the fundamentals of what that process is supposed to look like, hire somebody. But when you hire the wrong person, because you didn’t take the time to educate yourself, that’s still your responsibility, right?

[00:30:43] you can’t farm that out to somebody else if you’re not getting that success. So the goal with this book is to be able to say, here’s the foundation. This is all the fundamentals behind how email marketing is supposed to work. Step one, step two, step three, step four. And then they could take that, somebody could take that and say, oh, okay, I get it.

[00:31:04] So I was doing step 14 and I tried to do two, and then I went to seven and I got it. How the dots are supposed to connect. And I think if people can learn more of that. We’ll see a lot more people get through this startup phase faster and more successful, and not be so overwhelmed with so many options.

[00:31:26] You said it earlier in our, in this conversation, it’s not, the access to resources is ridiculous. There literally are probably a hundred companies that do [00:31:40] tremendously well financially that you can send an email through every one of those a hundred companies is correct. Yeah. But what happens is everybody goes out there and they’re like, okay, I need to send an email.

[00:31:53] And then they go to three or four or five different websites and they’re like, oh my gosh, who do I choose? And which one is right? and this one has this and this is this, is that even important? And they get so overwhelmed by options that they don’t make any, and they go back and they don’t send any emails.

[00:32:10] They’re like, I’m not doing that. We just need one. Start with one, get it to work, and then move on to the next one. And I think if everybody could just simplify stuff like that, we’ll see a lot more success a lot sooner.

[00:32:26] Leigh: when you were talking about your framework, And the, the foundations, that is so much of what I work with my clients on too, but it’s more in terms.

[00:32:38] mindset and, personal foundation,what are my top priorities in life? let’s look at top priorities. Do we know why we’re even doing this? Knowing your why. being able to set boundaries around, whether it’s work or with a partner or with friends and family.

[00:32:55] Yeah. So that you feel in alignment with these core values, and those intentional connections. So whether you’re talking about in business It’s the same, you pick it up and you set it down in your life and, without some of those core foundations, the house might look great, but it ain’t gonna be standing..

[00:33:17] When the foundation cracks, what are you gonna do? or [00:33:20] maybe, in terms of business you noticed. Like in my shoes, I had a lot of success early on in that first year, but then you realize okay, you’ve run out of the warmer leads. Like how do I translate this into Yeah.

[00:33:37] Something that I can market to cold leads, right? especially if you don’t, have a half a million dollars sitting over in an ad budget somewhere,

[00:33:46] Audra: right? For ad, right? and

[00:33:48] Leigh: so yeah, it, it totally makes sense, similar foundation to what I work with my clients on.

[00:33:54] But you pick it up and you put it down in terms of businesses. But you’re right, if you don’t have those foundations, it’s hard to. Build on it. It’s hard to build on it. It’s hard to know where to go next. You feel like you’re running in circles or, especially for those of us who still have our full-time career, and this is just a side gig.

[00:34:13] you don’t have 40 hours plus a week to spend on that. And so figure it out, to figure it out, right? it’s just taken me two and a half weeks to figure this one thing out and now I can do it. it’s, it takes time.

[00:34:27] Audra: Yeah, it takes time. too. Some of it goes back to, I don’t know, a question to ask you.

[00:34:33] I’ll find that a lot of times where I’ll have to say, what are you trying to do? Let’s start with that first. I’m trying to get this to do this. And I’m like, okay, so how that works is we gotta connect this and then this will make that system of that thing you’re trying to get to. Okay.

[00:34:49] But they didn’t know what each one of those other pieces were. they were just going in circles. I don’t know how to connect the dots to get to the end result. Cause I don’t even know how to ask the right question to [00:35:00] get there.

[00:35:01] Leigh: Absolutely. Yeah. and I’ve certainly have seen myself there in the past, two and a half years, whether it’s learning more about SEO or learning about email marketing.

[00:35:12] You don’t know what you don’t know. And sometimes I don’t even know how to ask a, an intelligent enough question and I feel like that’s where some of the intentional connections have come in, in, in terms of seeking out and finding somebody that is. A few steps ahead of you, whether that you join your local small business association.

[00:35:33] I do know that through some of the small business associations A lot of local chapters will, have some kind of free or affordable mentoring, type resources available. And, seeking that out and listening. and listening. Yeah.

[00:35:49] Audra: yeah. Yeah. And I think going back sometimes too, it’s getting offline, meaning when we go out there, or if you’re going to do a go there to be there on purpose, because we’ll start down one rabbit hole and then that will show us something else we need to be doing in our business.

[00:36:09] And then we’ll look at that, and then we’ll spend a bunch of time trying to figure that out. And before you know it, you’re completely frustrated. You’ve got no further in that first thing you were trying to get done, and now you’ve learned that there’s 30 other things that you should be doing that you’re not doing yet.

[00:36:24] Yes. And then it’s okay, that was a good four hours of my day.

[00:36:29] Leigh: And, if you’re, you only have X number of hours, 10, 15, 20 hours that you are able to spend in your business and on your business. it’s a definitely a [00:36:40] hard balance. And I think for me, that kinda gets back to the idea of creating that runway, of recognizing that this does take time.

[00:36:50] that you are gonna make mistakes and that is okay for those of y’all who are perfectionists like me, that was really hard, in my clinical background. what do you mean? we try not to make mistakes in medicine. They drive, we try the opposite of that. And so doing something like this where there are a hundred different ways to do one thing and, just that decision fatigue is Is real. but having some someone,and I don’t mean like another,

[00:37:24] trying to download and do five different courses. Yeah. it, finding a real person that is a few steps ahead of you, to offer some of those. Just willing to, be a good mentor and give Yeah. And give you some input, some good feedback, will make all the difference for

[00:37:42] Audra: sure.

[00:37:42] Okay, so I’m gonna throw a twist in that. So if somebody is an introvert, And they don’t wanna talk to anybody. What’s their option?

[00:37:50] Leigh: Oof.

[00:37:52] Audra: Cause there’s a lot of introverted business owners out there.

[00:37:57] Leigh: I would highly encourage them to step out of that comfort zone. Okay. And find a person that they can mentor with, that they can trust.

[00:38:09] it might take them a little while. maybe they start following someone on social media or maybe they recognize somebody even locally, that they know has a small [00:38:20] business, or whether it’s online or, a brick and mortar kind of business. it may take a while to warm up to that, but I have to say I’m probably

[00:38:28] an extroverted introvert.

[00:38:30] It’s been hard to ask questions and actually admit that I don’t know something. Okay. Or that I don’t get it. that is not normally how I’ve lived my life.

[00:38:40] Audra: most drivers aren’t. this is, that’s a true challenge for all of us. Yeah.

[00:38:45] Leigh: that is, it’s hard to admit that, but letting,telling your ego, your inner critic, whatever you want to call it, to, it is okay to not understand this, it is okay to reach out and ask for help.

[00:38:58] And you may be a blessing to them just as much as their blessing to you. Yeah. Cause you have your own talents and gifts that you can share with them as well. And, okay. That. For some of us who, don’t like to ask for help or who are, like you said, very introverted, pushing past that and recognizing that you have just as much to offer that person as they do to you.

[00:39:24] and take the chance, if we’re taking the chance with our money, to invest into starting a business, then take the chance on somebody being able to, to mentor you through that.

[00:39:39] Audra: Okay. I could get behind that. Definitely. Spending some time following somebody online, even if they don’t wanna reach out, is probably a great place to start for those people.

[00:39:50] Out of all the character traits that entrepreneurs have, what do you think is the most important one for somebody to be successful? Resilience. [00:40:00] Yeah. Yeah,

[00:40:01] Leigh: that’s a good one. You know that it’s, For those of us, like I just said, who don’t like to fail, who don’t like to not understand something or not to get it right the first time.

[00:40:12] being, having the courage to, to say, you know what, I’m gonna, I’m gonna do this anyway. It is much easier for me to remember, you were talking about your client that invests all that money in the website. That’s easier for me to do things like that Than for me to really put myself out there and be vulnerable and risk, quote unquote failing.

[00:40:37] in that resilience, being able to redefine what success looks like for me. Okay. not what. My parents tell me, success looks like not what my friends or my partner, not what I see other coaches success look like. But what does that look like for me?

[00:40:56] And how can I live into that? And so knowing myself and knowing what my core values are and being able to say, if I accomplish this, then I will be successful. and it’s not about the money in my bank account. It’s not about, it’s more about the joy and the presence that, We do feel each day, but allowing it to be a journey and not a straight line path, a race or a straight line path that, you know, or if I try something and it doesn’t work, that’s just feedback. It’s not me failing at my business. It’s not me. failing at life. But having that resilience to, to truly live into to that idea

[00:41:37] is probably, at least to me or [00:41:40] and for me, has been the biggest,

[00:41:42] Audra: necessity. Necessity. That’s a good word. I did an interview a couple weeks ago with a girl that is a, she’s a swim instructor, but she teaches children how to swim and what kind of evolved out of her business was she started helping kids work through fear and then it evolved to helping parents work through fear.

[00:42:06] Cuz remember our parents put their fear on us as children. Oh yeah. And then we grow up with all of that. But she’s become this swim quasi coach, but also a fear-based coach. Very interesting. But she said that’s very interesting. She uses the word practice. We’re just gonna practice. We’re just gonna try it.

[00:42:27] We’re gonna practice love. I was like, what a great way to look at it. So how I got through that challenge that you were talking about, trying something new and failing at it and being so disappointed that you’re a smart person. I should have figured this out. Why is this so hard for me? How I got through that was saying, I’m doing something I’ve never done before in my life.

[00:42:48] Of course, I’m not gonna have all the answers. I’m smart when it comes to other things. So that means that I’m gonna learn it or adapt to it faster. But yes, I still start in kindergarten when I pick up a new language, when I decide to fly an airplane, when I want to go skydiving, when I wanna go scuba diving.

[00:43:07] You still start in kindergarten. Now we progress quickly because we have so much experience in other things, right? But we still have to go at the beginning. And once I realized that, oh, [00:43:20] okay, my skills don’t get to transfer straight across, right? I still have to go back and start at the bottom because this is new.

[00:43:26] Even for me, I was able to give myself a little bit of grace and not be so hard on myself to expect results on my first try. Yes.

[00:43:37] Leigh: Yeah. And I think that like the word grace is, yeah, it’s huge. It’s, absolutely a necessity to, and I think in any career path that you choose, but definitely in entrepreneurship where there are so many, I think about that, that this little toy my kids used to have that were all these gears that they would put together and they would turn if they put ’em in there correctly.

[00:44:03] But like you said, I’m really good at, these other few gears over here. Yeah. how can I stay in my zone of genius While I, like you said, go back to kindergarten and learn how to operate these other gears. Or instead of me just saying, I don’t know, and freezing. Which is so easy and tempting and probably the first thing that most of us would be tempted to do, but to say I do know what resources I have.

[00:44:29] Even if the question is, Hey, can you help me with this? And if you’re not the right person to ask, do you know someone who is I may not know the answer, but I don’t have to stay frozen and stuck because I can use the resources I have. we’re

[00:44:45] Audra: embarrassed. Or there’s no reason to be embarrassed about it, how would you know it?

[00:44:50] Leigh: Like I didn’t, how would I understand how to set up a, an funnel email marketing system or a funnel with background and experience that I’ve had [00:45:00] know I went to business school or something. They wouldn’t even teach you

[00:45:04] Audra: that there.

[00:45:06] Leigh: and also that would’ve been, what, 25 plus years ago, there wasn’t such thing as a funnel.

[00:45:13] Audra: Oh,

[00:45:13] Leigh: no. and giving yourself that grace to to lay the foundations and to grow.

[00:45:18] Audra: I think it’s also our perspective, right? Or the way that we approach it. So we should be approaching it like, I don’t know what I’m getting into, but I’m not afraid to ask questions and this is an adventure and I’m gonna learn a bunch of fun stuff and I’m gonna pick and choose which ones I wanna keep on my plate after I learned them.

[00:45:38] Yes. But I’m gonna learn the basics on how they work and eh, I did love that so much. So I’m gonna give that over here. Ooh, I really like this one. So I’m gonna keep this one and just go through and pick and choose the pieces that you want and farm out the rest. But we get so caught up in this stuff at the beginning with all the, I’ve said it, the technical and the going to the end and I’m gonna just re-engineer it backwards.

[00:46:01] And I’m gonna start a funnel and I’m gonna just throw some copy up. And there it is. The world’s going to come and buy my products and it’s doesn’t work that way. it’s just, it hurts my heart to see. I’m like, oh my gosh, if let’s just, I like, I wanna bring ’em all in and say, okay guys, we need a group hug here because we’re gonna fix this because it’s not this hard.

[00:46:24] And you guys are doing 30 steps when you only need to do three.

[00:46:27] Leigh: And, finding someone, whether it’s you or, somebody else in your current world that can Yeah. Can help you have that lens of perspective, is so necessary. so necessary. [00:46:40] This is so necessary. This is not something we were meant to do, on our own.

[00:46:44] But any

[00:46:44] Audra: means or struggle like this

[00:46:46] Leigh: or to struggle? Yeah, it’s, it is not meant, I’m not saying that it’s easy, as in,

[00:46:54] Audra: oh, it’s not. You’re gonna work. It’s not. And you’ve ever worked really hard.

[00:46:58] Leigh: But, when you reach out to, the resources that. You need. And like I said, some of it for me was laying down some of the pride and saying, I need help.

[00:47:10] that was hard for me. it may not be for other people. but being able to say, I don’t understand how to set up a funnel. why

[00:47:19] Audra: am I doing it to begin with? Why am I, yeah, why

[00:47:22] Leigh: do I even need this? but to be able to say, I need help. I think that goes over into our personal lives too, that yeah, especially us as career moms that are entrepreneur moms, whatever you wanna call us, that we are the ones that people look at for the answers in our lives.

[00:47:39] And when we maintain that, We do feel like we’re either running on the hamster wheel or playing that plate game that you were talking about. They’re trying to keep all the things balanced. We don’t have to do that. we don’t have to do a hundred percent in every area of our life all the time.

[00:47:58] then you have permission to say, I’m gonna focus, I’m feeling really pulled to focus on my health right now. Yeah. I’m really wanting to try to, I wanna run a 5K this summer, or I wanna do a triathlon again, and I get to choose to focus on that and maybe, some other part of my life.

[00:48:18] You’re like, eh, it’s [00:48:20] fine, now is just not the time to focus on that. and giving yourself permission for that, whether it’s in your business or in your personal life, I think is, is huge to agree. Pick top, two or three priorities there. And,given working hard, given that your focus and your all, but being okay with some of these other things, now that you’re ignoring ’em, you know that there’ll be a time for that.

[00:48:45] But it doesn’t have to be right now. It doesn’t have to all be done. right now, whether it’s in your personal life or whether it’s you as an entrepreneur or in your current career.

[00:48:57] Audra: So that prompts me for a question. How do you decide which things you’re gonna work on right now? So your business has been around a couple years, you’ve had some sales, you’ve had some customers looking at your limited time on top of, because, mom, wife, business, three quarter time job.

[00:49:15] How do you decide when you go to sit down at the desk, how do you decide which task you’re gonna work on?

[00:49:21] Leigh: So I think a couple of things. Okay. one is, there’s been a couple of iterations of this, but I’ve found, a fantastic virtual assistant that

[00:49:32] I have learned to be able to say, like you said, this is my plan. Good. right now, early on, when I had some of the warmer leads and, but now I’ve exhausted that, so I really need to look at more how do I bring people into my world that, that are more cold leads? how do I wanna do that?

[00:49:54] Okay. And, but to be able to say to her, I don’t wanna be on all the [00:50:00] platforms. I don’t wanna be on every single one and try to do all of them. Like in my two days a week that I’m trying to do this, what is gonna be the biggest bang for my buck? So if my overarching plan right now is bringing people into my world that could then translate into potential clients, what are the, that do that a, is in alignment for me.

[00:50:24] Yeah. I told her from the get go, I’m like, I am not gonna be the one on Instagram that’s like pointing and dancing and this.

[00:50:30] Audra: Oh, come on, do it.

[00:50:32] Leigh: My kids will tell you I will do a lot of ridiculous stuff. Absolutely. And especially if I know it embarrasses them, I’ll do it. Even more. We do it just for

[00:50:40] Audra: that.

[00:50:41] Yeah, I do it for that. Yeah.

[00:50:43] Leigh: Yeah. But I’m, that’s just not me. That’s, I’m

[00:50:44] Audra: not gonna, yeah, that’s not me do that.

[00:50:47] Leigh: I’m like, but you know what? My favorite part of any of this is connecting with people, whether I’m in clinic or whether I’m talking to you, whether I’m talking to clients or potential clients like that is, that, is, that is one of my core values.

[00:51:03] That’s what I love. And so can I get on and do a five, 10 minute video that My virtual assistant can then post and, create different, blog posts out of it. Absolutely. and if that’s gonna forward, my plan into inviting people into my world, then those are the things that I choose to work on.

[00:51:27] So when I sit down, Typically on, Mondays and Tuesdays, those are what I’m gonna focus on. So am I, providing her with, videos that I can use to then [00:51:40] bring an audience in to experience me? I’m probably not gonna do a whole lot of still post or like the pointing and the dancing.

[00:51:46] I’m not gonna do that. That’s not gonna how I’m gonna spend my time. But, connecting with people on podcasts like this, yeah, that is how I’m gonna spend my time is, if that is my ultimate goal right now of where I am in business. I, I don’t have this huge product suite yet.

[00:52:04] that’s not where I am. And but where I am is inviting people into my world to see. How can I serve you? And, if I can do that by, being on other people’s podcasts or, doing videos,I’ve got a couple of summits that I’m speaking on and coming up. And so in those are the things that I focus my time on.

[00:52:27] Good is how can I do more of that?

[00:52:29] Audra: Good. and if you think about it, the stage that you’re at, so social media works backwards and we’ll wrap up here in a few minutes, but social media works the other way around. So in our early days, we feel like we shouldn’t create a whole bunch of stuff cuz nobody’s paying attention.

[00:52:45] Everybody’s liking it. We haven’t figured out our message. we’re just going out there and, I’m really not congruent with this or this. I don’t wanna do it silly, and I’m not loud. And so I don’t need that attention. I don’t need that. look at me, kind of stuff, right? So we avoid it, right?

[00:53:03] But the challenge is as we stick to our skills and our trade and our passion and our desire to serve, we start serving people. And then when it’s time for people to come and seek us, they look at our social media and [00:53:20] where, and if we showed up, right? If there’s not that much there because you thought, eh, nobody’s paying attention.

[00:53:27] I don’t really know what I wanna say. I’m not a extrovert. I don’t care if anybody looks at me. This is silly. But now somebody that could have hired you won’t because you weren’t showing up there. So there’s a fine balance between, I’m obnoxious on social media, or I’m building a brand where when I get to remember, we get to control that narrative of what people see about us and how we’re going to serve.

[00:53:53] If you don’t show up there, guess what? They’re gonna make up their own mind on who you are and what you’re about. So why not use that to your advantage and say, this is who I am, this is how I show up, and this is how I serve who I serve. Then when yes, somebody sees that and they need you, you’ve already built the blueprint for them to come out and say, I really like her energy, or Yeah, she’s not really talking to me.

[00:54:17] And then people can make better buying decisions. The buyer today is so much savvier than they were 10 years ago. They controlled this conversation. Yes, but we can input by showing up how we wanna show up. So you’re doing the right thing by saying, I’m congruent on this platform. This is my message, this is who I’m serving.

[00:54:40] The win is, and I’m doing it consistently. That’s seating. So when you decide which lane you’re gonna, take off in, you’ve laid that foundation to build on top of.

[00:54:52] Leigh: And and that is something that

[00:54:54] I think getting absolutely crystal clear. And when you think you’re clear [00:55:00] on your messaging and who you’re trying to serve, look at again. Yeah. And ask yourself more questions. Yeah. Yeah. Because I think,especially me coming from a, medical, clinical background. Yeah. Of course, I’ll see you and take care of you.

[00:55:13] I take care of everybody.

[00:55:15] Audra: And yeah. Yeah. Want that in coaching?

[00:55:18] Leigh: No. and I don’t think, again, it was just another step for me to have to realize that, I’m not gonna be everybody’s cup of tea, and that is okay. I’m probably not everybody’s cup of tea as a physician either. They may come and see me and they’re like, oh, I’m not seeing her again.

[00:55:34] But they’re more that do. but in terms of messaging and showing up on platforms, being congruent in, in what I’m about and what I can offer you,I’ve certainly realized that if you’re picking and choosing your way through either my YouTube channel or my Instagram account, you need to be hearing those same messages correct over and over again.

[00:55:59] And if you’re hearing me talk about, something completely off the wall, unless I show up and say, this is completely off the wall, but I’m gonna talk about it today. Yeah. Then you’re just gonna be confused and you’re right. Gonna wander away because there’s a hundred more of me standing in line.

[00:56:18] Audra: Yeah.

[00:56:18] Leigh: and you said five years, I bet. Like even just the three years of the pandemic that it, for those of y’all who were, already doing this and doing that well before the pandemic, you, there’s stuff that you can do on different platforms that made a difference in your business five years ago that just they don’t work now.

[00:56:36] No. And, and that’s hard and it’s frustrating,[00:56:40] for folks that are just starting out and Yeah. just understand that’s part of it. And ask the questions. Don’t be afraid to say, I’m trying this, it’s not working, Do you have another idea? But you can give me to try, yeah.

[00:56:53] Audra: my next book is gonna be called Start With strategy. Everything I do in life starts with what’s a plan first. Why are we doing this if you can’t tell me clearly why you’re doing it, we’re not doing it. Especially in business. We don’t have room for 20 steps when we only have time for two.

[00:57:11] Leigh: and it translates, I feel like to the audience too, if they’re,not that they’re seeing a lot of the backend stuff that we’re doing, but if, if our framework is showing up as very, as a hundred steps versus two for them, that’s overwhelming. Yeah. so some of that I think our clients feel too, if, We don’t initially start with the end in mind.

[00:57:33] Yeah. In the

[00:57:33] Audra: plan. Yeah. All right Leigh, so what’s your last, advice for somebody that is trying to push through the middle here? Maybe they’re doing the same thing as you as balancing a lot of things, maybe, a regular job plus trying to dig into this entrepreneur space. What would be your advice to them?

[00:57:53] Leigh: I am speaking, cause I am a career mom, so I am, that is how I can speak. But, figure out what is the most important thing to you personally. Create boundaries and systems that work for you and your personal life. Okay. And your business to then fit into that. that [00:58:20] you’re not creating this thing, this business that you’re trying to cram yourself into.

[00:58:28] That’s not why you can do it that way, but I guarantee you, you’ll be so burned out in no time. But if you start with your own self first and these are my priorities, these are my core values, this is my, why am I doing this? And creating a business that essentially just lays on top of that.

[00:58:50] And saying, no,I’m not gonna work on Saturdays because I want to be at my kid’s soccer game. or no, I’m not gonna work on the weekends when my. Significant other is home, or my kids are home from school. those are fantastic things to know about yourself. And not give into the pressure of, oh, if I just work this Saturday, or if I just do this, that create, you know, decide the life that you want and create a business that fits that.

[00:59:26] Audra: And it may take a little bit longer or it actually ends up being shorter because you became very clear as to what you’re willing to do and not to, I’ve seen it work both ways. You can make it so confined that a business can’t exist in that, but Right. And I’ll give you an example. I had, real quick.

[00:59:46] I had a client that was launching a, paleo protein supplement. Young kid. Probably in his mid to late twenties. Developed a great product though, and knew the market he wanted to [01:00:00] serve and the audience he wanted to serve, wanted to be an influencer, but didn’t want to do any of the work that went along with it.

[01:00:08] And so he read Tim Ferris’s four hour work week and he said he’s only working four hours a week. Product was not selling because he had built this idea of what a brand new startup could do. And I said, it doesn’t work that way today. Tim Ferris wrote that book 15 years ago. Plus, yeah, today’s a little bit different.

[01:00:28] The competition. There’s more competition, there’s more options. Buyers are smarter. social media didn’t exist back when Tim Ferris created that. We’re in a different generation now. You’re gonna have to put the work in to sell this product. Fast forward two or three years. I see him cuz I just did the initial launch.

[01:00:48] Two or three years later, I see him hawking his stuff on YouTube, he’s running ads, he’s doing commercials. And I’m like, okay. It just took him a little bit longer there to figure out what that was gonna look like cuz his original model wasn’t gonna work.

[01:01:02] Leigh: So yes. And I think there has to be that happy medium, there has to be reasonable expectations of it’s not gonna be easy.

[01:01:09] But it doesn’t have to be so hard that you end up, creating something, creating this business that you just wish you could shut down because you’re so tired of it. there’s got to be a way to, to find that. And it’s not gonna be a straight line, like you said. Yeah. It’s gonna be a journey, it’s gonna be a winding path.

[01:01:30] you’re right. If you say that these are the boundaries I’m putting on it, you might need a longer runway. and that’s okay. That’s okay. That’s okay. those are all, personal choices. [01:01:40] and I think it’s so much easier though when you have your own personal why and core values and goals in front of you and to be able to grow from that versus, piloted in for 60, 70 hours a week completely ignoring all the rest of your life.

[01:02:00] fast forward a couple of years and you have this entity that you’re like, I, you resent, I got what I asked for, but I resent it. Yeah. so I think there’s got to be a happy medium of both. Yeah. and having somebody that you consider a mentor can hopefully help shine some of.

[01:02:19] Lights in the shadow places where you don’t think they’re your blind spots and To have other people’s perspective of you. sure you wanna do that. but to be supportive and but to be able to give you good feedback that you can take and run with it.

[01:02:34] Audra: Good. I think I’m gonna wrap it up with what you just said.

[01:02:37] Yes. You said it’s gonna be hard. No, it’s not gonna be easy, but it doesn’t have to be hard. Yes. That’s it. That is it. thank you so much for being here. This was great. Thank you for having me. Oh, I really enjoyed our conversation. I’m looking forward to see by the end of the year that you’ll have your group coaching go.

[01:02:57] So we’ll have to circle back around and see what we Absolutely will.

[01:03:01] Leigh: Awesome. We absolutely. We’ll keep in touch. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me all, and have a great rest of your

[01:03:05] Audra: week. You as well. You as well. [01:03:20]