Catalyst Conversations

In this episode, I speak with Jessica Culligan, operations expert and Operations Director for Cocoknits.com. She is a prolific maker and business logistics guru who is passionate about helping female entrepreneurs bring their vision into reality

We talk about:

+ what operations is and why it’s important to document your systems

+ the red flags that your operations aren’t effective

+ the value of standardized processes (even if you’re a solopreneur)

+ forecasting and the numbers you need to look at regularly

Show Notes + Resources:

https://brandwithcatalyst.com/operations-101

Dr. Alysondra Duke is a Seattle-based Psychologist, Women’s Empowerment Coach, and Founder of Seattle Lady Bosses.

In this episode we talk about:

+ what entrepreneurship entails for women from a spiritual perspective and how self-employment holds a greater opportunity for processing our self-doubt and challenges with relationships, money and worthiness.

+ what she’s learned from working with women entrepreneurs

+ how she helps her clients overcome fear and self-doubt – both of which she battles herself

+ why she founded Seattle Lady Bosses and why she thinks it has been explosively successful

+ the common topics discussed in the group, including how to have difficult conversations, balancing motherhood or illness with entrepreneurship and so much more

Show Notes + Resources:

http://www.brandwithcatalyst.com/process-self-doubt

Kavita J Patel is a renowned relationship coach who has studied ancient eastern philosophy for 20 years, and combines those practices with her studies and experiences in family systems and human behavior to create her own transformational process, called The Parent Work™. She shares that our relationships with lovers, spouses, kids, money, and our bodies, are all affected by things that happened between us and our parents or those that raised us in our childhood.

We talk about

+ How your parents impact your decisions, and your relationships at home and at work

+ The 3 questions you can ask your parents – and yourself – for more insight on why you are where you’re at in adulthood

+ How focusing on your relationship with your parents and your kids can help you move through the fears and blocks that are holding you back in your business

Show Notes + Resources:

http://www.brandwithcatalyst.com/how-parents-impact-success

I’ve had the privilege of meeting some extraordinary women through the course of recording this podcast, and Ashlee Piper is no exception. Ashlee is a political strategist turned eco-lifestyle journalist, and the author of the recently released sustainable living book, Give a Sh*t: Do Good. Live Better. Save the Planet (Hachette, 2018). She shares her passion for easy sustainable living, how she transitioned from politics to becoming a successful television personality and author – the road was bumpy along the way.

We talk about:

+ why a sustainable lifestyle is so important -- Ashley shares tips for easy steps you can take today

+ how she got started pitching major publications and TV outlets  (and how you can, too!)

+ the entire process she went though to publish her first book, from beginning to end

Show Notes + Resources:

brandwithcatalyst.com/successful-media-pitching

Jarrett is the self-professed Nonprofit Nerd. She and her company, The Rayvan Group, have been working exclusively with nonprofits across the US since 2009 and have helped them raise millions of dollars since. Jarrett holds an MBA in business and a Certificate of Grant Writing from The Grantsmanship Center Institute, and her accolades include being named an AZ Central Who's Next
Nominee, and a Greater Phoenix Athena Nominee, and she received the Global Women's Summit Leadership Award just to name a few highlights.

We talk about:
+ why she is so passionate about serving the non-profit sector
+ the keys to her success as she scaled her business from start up to six figures AND she did it as a single mom!
+ the common thinking and challenges that plague non-profits
+ her top tips for non-profit fundraising success

Show Notes + Resources:
brandwithcatalyst.com/self-care-for-success

In today’s episode, I speak with web designer and strategist Christina Petrie. She has a unique perspectiveand a diverse background in software development, teaching, project management, photography and aMasters Business Administration.

She stumbled into her career when she was searching for a job and friends and family kept asking her to fix their terrible websites. She quickly realized the potential to help them understand what they were missing and to help them start fresh with a website that would convert customers and generate value.

When she’s not designing awesome websites and helping clients grow their business you can find her trail running in one of my favorite places - Seattle, taking a group fitness class, reading a book, listening to
podcasts or spending time with the people she loves.
This episode is jam packed with her tips for overcoming limiting beliefs, getting up the courage to put
yourself out there authentically on your website, what your website should do for your business and the
questions you should ask a web designer before you work with them.

In this episode we talk about:
+ The three keys to building a strategic website that leads to new business.
+ The questions you should ask when choosing a web designer, and the questions they should be asking you.
+ How she overcame her own limiting beliefs and learned to put herself out there more authentically.
+ Her tips for how to make your website stand out from the competition.

Christina shares, “Something was missing. I realized that everyone thinks that their website and their business are each in their own corned doing their own thing. But the truth is the two are so integrated you can’t really look at one without looking at
the other.

I realized that the missing part [in building her own website when she started her business] was doing a deep dive into my business first and reflecting those key objectives on to my website.

There is this term called strategic web design, and I call myself a web designer and strategist because the strategy is the critical part you have to have total clarity around your business before you build
your website. That strategy is going to dictate that web design. That’s where the magic happens, that’s how you build a website that’s going to build your website.”

Resources from this episode
Simon Sinek Explains the Golden Circle (or leading with “Why”)

Want to connect with Christina?  You can reach out to her here:
https://christinapetrie.com/
https://www.instagram.com/cepetrie/
https://www.facebook.com/petriechristina
https://www.pinterest.com/christinapetriedesigns/

In today’s episode, I talk with Heather Simpson, who mentors women in Leadership roles, and is a thought leader and entrepreneur driven to help women find success in both business and life.

Through her own experiences and life trials, she is devoted to supporting women through her company, She Leads Me.

Heather is a friend, and a member of the Catalyst Founders Group for women entrepreneurs. After a recent private sessions, we agreed to this intensely personal conversation about our experiences with business relationships that went bad.

We discuss:
+ why women take too long to leave work and personal relationships that aren’t working out despite the obvious signs.
+ how women tend to look for their own fault rather than looking at the personalities and circumstances involved.
+ how staying in shock and refusing to believe we’ve been betrayed keeps us stuck – but only if we let it.
+ and our survival tips for what to do when business relationships go bad.

This was an amazingly raw, honest and cathartic conversation about something I haven’t shared with many people over the years. Our goal in sharing our stories is to help move other women forward who are struggling with dysfunctional business relationships.

In this episode, I talk with Blair Glaser, an executive consultant and leadershipmentor.

She is also a licensed psychotherapist and has been transforming individuals,teams, entrepreneurs and couples with her unique mentoring process for more than 20 years.

Blair has consulted with executives and teams at corporations such as Estee Lauder, JPMorgan Chase, and Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York and a host of nonprofit organizations.

We talk about:
+ delegation and decision-making, why it’s tough for women entrepreneurs, and “authorizing yourself” to take control.
+ the myth of balance and setting expectations and boundaries in your relationships.
+ how not to let imposter syndrome and self-esteem issues get in the way of growing your business.

Blair is a fascinaging guest and I jam packed so many of your questions into this episode, it’s a do-not-miss. Enjoy!

Allison Hardy is a Business Strategist for Mompreneurs and helps women grow their businesses while they are raising their families, so that they can live life by design.  She specializes in monetizing with Facebook Groups, building communities around her clients' brands, automation and email marketing.

Allison is the creator of the Life by Design Podcast, is a Huffington Post Contributor, has been featured in YFS Magazine, and was named one of Washington, D.C.'s most influential professionals under 40 by Washington Life Magazine.

In this episode we discuss:

+ how she uses Facebook Groups to activate her audience and grow her roster of clients
+ the #1 thing you need to know about leveraging Facebook Groups to grow your business
+ how she has monetizes with Facebook Groups
+ the challenges she overcame to grow a successful business, including overcoming self-doubt with staying true to her purpose

Allison shares, “I view Facebook Groups as important as your email list. Right now, and for the past 2-3 years, my Facebook Group has been the single best thing I’ve spent time on in addition to my email list. Both of them are my jam. Your Facebook group should build your email list and if someone is on your email list they should be in your Facebook Group. The reason I say that is bc the more touch points you have with someone, the more likely they are to know, like and trust you, the more likely they are to buy from you and the more likely they are to be your biggest fan."

Links:

http://www.allisonhardy.com/

Podcast: http://www.allisonhardy.com/blog/

Tisha M. Pelletier took the entrepreneurial leap in 2004, has run four different businesses, planned hundreds of events and facilitated over 300 masterminds.

She is the president of Tisha Marie Enterprises, LLC and she empowers entrepreneurs to make their business successful through mentoring, her online course the Startup Entrepreneur Academy, and the Social Connect Business Happy Hour. Her newest book What Are the Odds – A mom shares her good, bad and what the f*ck moments in life and business can be found on Amazon and Audible.

In this episode, we talk about a LOT of the things I hear regularly from women entrepreneurs, including the challenges of balancing marriages, raising kids and building businesses, the fear she had around developing her personal brand and why she had to push past that fear, knowing when to pivot in business and how to know when to trust well-meaning advice.

We talk about:

+ her passion for supporting founders

+ the fears she had around building a personal brand

+ how she learned the hard way not to always trust well-meaning advice

+ why authenticity so important, and incredibly powerful, especially today

Tisha shares,”I’m always going to do what I say - I find that that is challenging for a lot of people. There are a lot of people who are ‘sayers,’ they don’t do. I think by sharing that experience with people of, I set out to do it, it was a personal challenge or a professional challenge, I set out to do it and I did it. And here’s what happened. In telling them the story that I had to keep working at this and I had to keep going. I think you only get that through experience, and experience is your greatest teacher.”

Jennifer shares, “I think specifically with women, we’re so challenged by dealing with self-image and what we put out there and feeling like it’s got to look good,  it’s got to the look the way someone else is doing it on social media... Or we’re horrified by our headshots, the hair isn’t right, the weight isn’t right. There’s all these crazy things, right, but ultimately while personal branding can be such a struggle and challenge to manage it all, and the fear of having the ultimate responsibility of ‘yes, I am the person behind the company, and the buck stops here.” But, I think the really positive bright side of it is, just like you said, people are already talking about you. You’re already out there and people are talking about you, wouldn’t you want to be the person that ultimately manages that perception of other people with your personal brand? That’s your opportunity to provide that message that you want people to see.”

Resources from this episode

Bit.ly/virtuallatte – schedule a chat with Tisha

Tisha’s Book: What Are the Odds – A mom shares her good, bad and what the f*ck moments in life and business

Tisha’s links:

https://www.tishamarieenterprises.com/

https://www.facebook.com/tishamarieenterprises/

https://www.instagram.com/startupbusinessmentor/