Denise Pomaski from the Granilla Bar has been cooking for most of her life! For the past 3 years, she has been working on exciting new Paleo recipes that infuse recipes from her Itailian heritage with the Paleo lifestyle! As well as being what we like to call our at home "Paleo chef", Denise is a CrossFit athlete, as well as, Crossfit Level 1 certified and a certified Crossfit kids Coach.

Denise was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. However, she currently lives in Houston, Texas with her four children, loving husband, Kevin and her two Mastiffs Izzy and Odin.

What is your biggest flop/disappointment?

Not being able to move forward due to lack of finances. The inability to just access money is probably been my biggest struggle.Whole Foods approached me a year ago and they wanted me in their store which was fabulous news. But we couldn't do it because of our packaging. We're still waiting to do it because I need to change my wrappers so that they're heat sealed. This takes a lot of money that I just don't have until I can get a solid investor.

How did you come up with your sales strategy?

I just went with it. My husband helped me and we worked together on trying to just do everything we logically thought we would need to do. At the Slim Palate Cook book signing, I met quite a few people and one of them was April LeMaster. (April works for Diane Sanfilippo's). She sat with me in that book signing and she gave me advice. She said 'you need to be at Paleo FX this year, you need to make sure you have an Instagram account, you need to make sure that you need to have a Facebook account that's not just your personal one, you need to have a Twitter account, you need to go home and set up a website that's able to you to make money even if you have one order a week,'. She kind of set my path that way and from that I kind of start posting things on Instagram.

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CHEAT SHEET: Reduce Stress + Get Focused!

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Back to talking about focus. I've been going on a bit of a tear about things that are really important to me and I hope they're inspiring you. So far we're talked about the power of no, priorities, stress...and today is more about focus. Focus is something that I'm really working on because in order to work better and be more successful, I need to improve my focus. If focus is something you need to work on then I have a few thing for you to try!

Stop with Shiny Object Syndrome

As entrepreneurs, I think a lot of us have shiny object syndrome. We are always looking for the next best thing. We're always kind of popping around from thing to thing and multi-tasking and doing a million things. My goal for myself and for you is to really get away from that. We need to stop the multi-tasking honestly, I want you to think about where do you need to focus. We need to stop being all over the place and we need to focus on one thing at a time. If you feel like you are doing so many things and you keep adding things in and you're feeling overwhelmed because you're doing too much, then we need to stop! I've talked about figuring out your priorities and always going back to saying no. It's all kind of in alignment. Have your priorities, say no to things that don't fit with your priorities and get focused. If you're feeling stuck in your business and you feel like you're doing too many things then let's try out some of these exercises.

I love this quote from Chalene Johnson says, "When you don't focus, you’re cheating yourself of success and the life you deserve and your life's purpose."

Now what? We need to focus.

CHEAT SHEET: Reduce Stress + Get Focused!

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Danielle Liss, Esq. is a partner and founder of Businessese. She is also the owner of Hashtag Legal, a law firm that focuses on social media law. Danielle is also the former Chief Marketing Officer of FitFluential, an influencer network concentrating on health and wellness initiatives. She's been blogging since 2004 at Kitten a Go-Go. Danielle lives in Las Vegas. Danielle and her partner started Businessese with one goal in mind, to make it easier for you to run your small business. Danielle is an attorney and experience business leader who has a lot of experience from running small businesses. Today we are going to talk to Danielle all about her specialty dealing with the fine print of business. When we go to Businessese, what are we gonna find?

Right now it's very focused on bloggers and social media influencers but we'll be expanding in the very near future. We will also be offering different types of consulting services, for example, how to price services. Our goal is to offer different types of legal templates, business forms, things that you need on a regular basis that you know we're made for you.

What advice do you have to help people figure out how to price their services?

Pricing is based on more than reach. When you are talking about pricing you really want to make sure that you can, first of all, achieve success for your partner. Find out what their goals are and then second, make sure that its something that's going to resonate with your audience. Never take it just because of the money. Make sure that you are going to keep your audience's trust and that it's going to engage. You want to see those shares and the comments. People are looking more at engagement rate and cost per engagement than they are just impressions.

What should entrepreneurs know about trademarks?

Trademarks are such a nuanced area of law but it so important. The first thing we want is for people to know what our trademark is. I think that there sometimes is confusion between trademark and copyright. I've seen people say, "This person took my image online they're violating my trademark..." If it's just a picture that doesn't have a logo or your name on it that's about a copyright not necessarily a trademark. A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design or a combination of those things that identifies and distinguishes goods or services from others in the market place. It's essentially designed to protect against consumer confusion. I can't create another running sneaker that has the Nike swoosh on it. I can't go out and create a granola that's called like Blissful Beats and say it's got a music theme cause I think that would be very confusing toward your product.

If you are just starting out and you're thinking about your business name, go to the US Patent and Trade website to search and see if there's anything comparable out there. Do your research prior to setting up your business and setting up your domain because it can save you so much time and money if there something similar already out there. For a physical product that you are going to be packaging (particularly for food entrepreneurs), make sure there's absolutely nothing out there that you are potentially going to infringe upon. You could also hire an attorney to do just a trademark search prior to all of that set up that way you can rest easy that what you are doing is going to be yours alone.

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Nicole Chaszar founded Splendid Spoon to take the hard work out of eating well. Like many women today, she is driven by living a full life, and she felt exasperated by all the conflicting messages in the wellness industry. Diet programs were confusing, cooking every meal was time consuming and ready-to-eat ‘health’ foods were highly processed. Splendid Spoon creates simple, plant-based plans and mindfulness exercises that are amazingly effective at establishing healthy eating habits. Splendid Spoon is committed to making women's wellness goals a reality through the science of soup, the power of plants, and the art of mindfulness. Nicole is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute, a former media executive at Conde Nast's WIRED and The New Yorker, and the author of the upcoming Soup Cleanse Cookbook, due August 2016. She lives with her family in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

How did you get started with Splendid Spoon?

When I was pregnant with my first son in 2013, it was kind of a wake up call of like: ‘Oh my gosh! I just finished culinary school and I had been experimenting with starting a business and testing all sorts of recipes. Ironically, the food and the habits around my food were really not so great. It was kind of manic with a lot of really intense restaurant style cooking. Exercising a lot on the weekends and not a lot of balance and I thought that was something needed to be fixed. I created the business and developed a really peaceful program around it to help ease anxiety. It was the genesis of Splendid Spoon.

What does your company embody and what does health mean to you?

Health to me is being really connected to your food choices so that you don’t feel that they are separate from you. I really believe food is joy and we are what we eat. I really think that you should embrace food for nourishing you and that is what Splendid Spoon is about. We started with soup because everyone has really nice memories of people cooking for them and it’s also really unique and helps stay fuller longer. It’s really easy to get more vegetables into a serving of soup because you are cooking them down, so you’re getting a really concentrated hit of pure vegetable ingredients while also having something that slows you down a little bit. That is what also really helps you connect your actions and sitting down and feeding yourself to what’s going on in your mind and reminding yourself that this is something that is taking care of you.

What is your proud moment so far?

Having my two kids while running the business. I try to be focused on just what I’m doing and to know what my boundaries are. I really don’t try to do everything all at once and I really accept that I can’t do everything perfectly. When I’m work, I’m at work and I try to be pretty disciplined about my schedule and then when I’m home, I’m home.

It can be easy to keep piling things on and to multi-task because you just keep going. I think women kind of like keep going. But there’s simplicity in boundaries, there’s simplicity in focusing at one thing at a time and it creates a much more peaceful mindset and daily experience.

What is your business book that you recommend?

Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith. I haven’t finished it but he’s an executive coach and he’s worked on a lot of huge corporations. I like it not only for myself as a business person and a leader, but also for an understanding of habits and habit formation. It’s all about how a lot of us want to evolve or change or adopt new behaviors that will get us closer to where we want to go or keep us on the path where we want to be going but it always seems so difficult. It’s also about identifying the different triggers and environmental elements that are going on around you that will either keep you in one place or derail you. It also has really practical advice for recognizing triggers and shifting your personal perception or reaction to them so that you can stay to your path towards your goal.

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Does it go back to you taking on too many things? We've been talking about the Power of saying No and figuring out your priorities on some of the other Fast Friday episodes, so it's all kind of in alignment. Are you saying no to enough things? And do you have your priorities figured out? When we take on too many things it leads to a lot of stress and stress has some serious ramifications. Stress can cause headaches, stomach aches to major illnesses. It ages you, it can cause insomnia, it can increase blood pressure and more. I encourage you to figure out what is causing you stress and how to reduce it.

One thing that causes you stress is multi-tasking. I used to take pride in the fact I am serial multi-tasker until a few months ago I didn't realize how bad it was to actually multi-task. Multi-tasking alone causes stress because your brain is constantly scanning when you're multi-tasking. If you have your phone out and you have a million tabs open on your computer and you have your iPad and you have so many things that you’re doing while you’re working it's just TOO MUCH. Every time something pops up, your brain actually has to make a decision to engage or not engage even if you don't pick up your phone your brain still has to say, "No, I'm not going to pick up my phone." I want you to think of multi-tasking and how often you engage in it. You actually can't do more than one thing at a time. Your brain toggles back and forth between the two activities you are doing.

When you're making decisions you are actually using energy. If you have Facebook notifications up, you have that chime on your phone going off or a vibration, your brain is actually using energy overtime you hear that. What I found really interesting is that it requires the same amount of energy to make a big decision or a small decision. So just keep that in mind if you are multi-tasking and you're doing a few things at one time. When I'm playing with my kids and have my phone out I've heard my 3-year-old say to me, "Put down your phone." It’s always a big reminder that I shouldn't be doing more than one thing at once and that's just a small example. We've all been guilty of the notifications and having all the tabs open but I really encourage you to try to stop multi-tasking.

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Heather Blackmon is an endurance coach and marketing consultant with over 14 years of experience in the digital space. Her goal is to help everyday athletes reach their goals in running and triathlon, while giving them the energy and confidence to fully live life. She offers a 30 Day Marketing Academy to help endurance coaches learn the marketing strategies and tactics to grow their businesses – helping to impact the lives of even more athletes.

CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT A LEAD MAGNET IS AND WHY YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED ONE?

A lead magnet is basically something that you’re bartering for or giving to that person visiting your website in exchange for their email address. Now you can follow up with them in the future. Technically, it’s something of value that someone else is going to want to get from you and those can take a million different shapes and forms. Most commonly it’s a PDF download that you are offering or a video series, something that is available for someone to get instantly online. It answers a basic need.

HOW DO YOU FIGURE OUT EXACTLY WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE AS YOUR LEAD MAGNET?

I’m gonna touch this in 2 different ways. If you’re somebody who has an established website and has some good history behind it, I think a great place to start is to go look at what your most popular topics on your website are today. (As long as it aligns with what you’re offering.)

If you’re brand new, this is something you don’t really have and you’re gonna go back to that avatar that you’ve created, that ideal customer. Brainstorm all the different things that they’re interested in and understand what their major problems are. From there you can actually create something from scratch and probably test a couple of different items to understand what really resonates with that audience.

HOW DO WE FIGURE OUT WHERE TO PUT THE DIFFERENT INCENTIVES?

I like to try things in many different places and then see what works. Honestly I’m always going to offer things in multiple places because every person who visits your website is likely gonna go through a slightly different flow. You want to be able to cater the experience to them. One I believed that works the best is if you’re reading a post about a certain topic having an incentive specifically related to that topic, in my experience, works the best. Otherwise, pop-ups are great. It is a great way to get in front of your audience fast and I’ve never actually seen that it’s hurt the performance of a website that I’ve used that on.

Cheatsheet to figure out your priorities and balance your life here.

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Lindsay Cotter is a gluten free guru over at CotterCrunch.com she's a fitness professional and nutrition specialist for gluten free eating. Her goal is to fuel you with easy gluten free recipes nutrition tips and lots of no bake healthy bite recipes. She does her best to share proper health tips and tricks to keep your life in balance!

Tips for someone who is starting out or someone who wants to make the transition towards working with brands and getting sponsorships:

Companies like to approach you, but they want you to approach them as well and say 'hey! this is what I have to offer, this is what I think is going to be great. I mean I have a huge following but my reach is really high, I have an authentic voice and I will do my best and whether that'll be sponsored content or if you want to do it for free that's totally up to you but there's usually a budget and usually there's a way to work together but it's just all making that connection so I just say reach out. Keep reaching out and being kind to each other.

Reach out to those who are willing to help. You can always trade. Like if you have a specialty with something you can just, 'hey, you teach me this, I'll be happy to do this...'

Cheatsheet to figure out your priorities and balance your life here.

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Do you believe in balance? Are you living the life you want to live? Figure out your priorities and make sure you are HAPPY.

Cheatsheet to figure out your priorities and balance your life here.

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Amanda is a digital marketing consultant, mom of two, and personal trainer. Amanda has spent over 10 years helping women get fit and healthy and now she enjoys the privilege of helping female entrepreneurs in the wellness industry generate significant income with the purpose of recirculating wealth back out to their family, church, and community. Amanda uses her expertise in digital marketing and passion for wellness to empower female entrepreneurs to succeed with their small business.

Can you explain why having a unique purpose is so important?

As entrepreneurs we will inevitably hit up against challenges and hurdles, and if we have a purpose statement it really helps us to push past those challenges and hurdles. It also helps other people understand why they should invest in our business.

What is one or two action items to help us figure out our unique purpose?

This is definitely not something that will come immediately. If the listeners sit down immediately today for an hour and think, ‘Gosh! I need to land on this purpose that drives me? It most likely won’t come immediately. In fact for me it’s been a process over the past several years where I’ve really thought, ‘Gosh? What wakes me up in the morning? What truly fires me up? Whose problems do I really want to solve? What makes me angry?’

But I have to say, it’s important for people to be honest with themselves as well. Maybe a few people heard my purpose and they thought, ‘Wow? That sounds so great. I’m just going to make my purpose be that purpose.’ It really doesn’t work like that; we have to be honest with ourselves and really got to sit back and think, ‘Why am I gonna continue serving my audience even when I hit up against enormous challenges?’ In fact my husband even earlier this year he said to me after I hit up against major, major issues he said: ‘Anyone else I know would have quit. They would have thrown in the towel but because you have such a deep unique purpose that drives you, you continue on in spite of it and you are stronger for it.’ And frankly this has been my most successful year because I was laser focus on my purpose.

Book Recommendation: Entreleadership by Dave Ramsey

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Erika Welsh is the co-founder of Wild Friends Foods, an all-natural foods company that makes both flavored and plain nut & seed butters. She started this company serendipitously back in 2011 when she and her college roommate were munching on peanut butter and celery and ran out of peanut butter! Instead of going to the store to buy more, they pulled out their food processor and a bag of peanuts they just so happened to have in their pantry. Once the food processor was running, they started combining all sorts of ingredients into the peanut butter and came up with many flavors that they immediately put in jars with a label and gave away to all of their friends! What was intended to be an afternoon project quickly snowballed into a business and the girls never looked back! They left school to pursue their dreams of everyone having the opportunity to try Wild Friends! In 2012, Erika and Keeley appeared on Shark Tank which helped them gain tons of national exposure and has helped them go from farmer's markets to 9,000 stores in just about 5 years!

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