CEO Stories: Entrepreneurship, Business Strategy, and Online Marketing

The best businesses solve problems, and the most successful businesses are great at getting that problem-solving power in front of the right people. For Business Coach Safia Sattaur that looks like creating signature programs and connecting like crazy. Let's learn how she crafts programs that convert and how you can too.

• Safia's number one strategy is connection and relationship building.
• You can run facebook adds and send them into your sales funnel, but without walking them through and nurturing the client, they might not continue to do so.
• She nurtured her clients through her offers.  She knows her clientele so that she knows where they are and where they want to go.  
• Safia regularly asks herself- What do my people really need right now?  How can I align myself to help them achieve this?
• To help businesses do this, she coaches them to find market research and ask the right questions to come up with what the people in their business need.
• To find your zone of genius ask these strength sourcing questions- What is the thing that I know that I am really good at?  What comes to me naturally and easily? What am I very passionate about?
• The next step after finding what customers need, start working with people.  All people. Just start. After a while then you can niche down to the ideal client, the good client, and the ones you know you can't work with.  
• Don't forget to do the competitor research.  See what is out there.
• Finally figure out how to package and mesh what you know you are capable of doing with what the people want and what aligns with your values.  
• Nothing creates a higher level of connection when you are face to face.
• It is a longer process to build the like and trust factor online.  It takes a lot more authority and convincing to get the first sale than it does in a face to face meeting.
• Once you have had a face to face meeting, connect with your people.  Make sure they do not feel like they are just a number. They need to feel value.
• Make people feel like you are not just trying to make money off of them, but that you genuinely care about their problems and solutions for them.  
• Successful people have new problems.  
• Don't make people keep coming back if they do not need to.  If you solve their current problem, celebrate that.
• Find a way to them connected in different parts of their journey.  

As entrepreneurs, our most valuable piece of real estate is the space we create in our brains for good ideas. When you're starting out, the hustle makes it feel like letting go isn't possible, but it's in outsourcing and cutting back that you find the inspiration to make bold moves as a CEO. Safia Sattaur is sharing her story of creating her CEO space and her tips for you to find it as well.

• To be a CEO, you have to be a leader.  A leader inspires and motivates actions in other by their example.  
• We all have leadership abilities and traits within us, but it takes time, energy, and nurturing to grow that.  
• The CEO shows up to lead the team.  You are not a boss. You are a leader.
• Safia feels that people want to be led.  Even leaders like to be led.
• Knowing what your strengths are and knowing where you need help is part of being a self-leader.  Asking for support is not a weakness.
• If you can't lead yourself, you can't lead others.
• A leader has emotional intelligence with empathy and compassion and will make a person feel seen, heard, and valued.  A leader sends people off with inspiration and empowerment. They make their people feel included.
• One of the biggest CEO decisions she has made was outsourcing.
• Her biggest priority is to make sure that the existing customers are thriving, and that the existing prospects are being nurtured.
• Safia knows her customers and list very well, and she makes sure to meet them at different points in their journey.  She leads them along to take the next step.
• Having people to help her keeps her from burning out.  If you don't serve yourself, you can't serve anybody else.
• Safia was never the person to schedule self-care, but now she is focusing on doing so.  3 times a week she goes outside for a walk, and she puts music on while working.
• She has cut off times every day and Fridays off to have some down time before kicking into mom mode.  
• The great ideas tend to come when you finally have the mental space.  
• Make your business work with your life to fight the value complexes.  
• Little changes and shifts in the business can actually make big differences to your life.

How would it feel to have a sales call for the biggest sale of your life so far? What if you got so close and watched it slip away instantly? That's what happened to Safia because of her self-doubt and it's what drove her to choose to leave comparison-itis behind and step into her confidence. Today she'll share how she did it.

• Safia does not believe in failures or mistakes.  Nothing happens to you. Everything happens for you.  
• Failure is not the end and it isn't really failure if you get something out of it.  
• Safia thrives on authenticity.  
• She had a potential to have one of the largest clients that she would have ever had.  After the first meeting, everything was aligned and in sync.
• They had an actual sales call, and she knew how big this win would be.  She started to leave what felt natural for her and try to look bigger when the self-doubt kicked in.  She basically presented herself completely differently, and she did not get hired.
• Safia learned how important it was to have self-trust and just be yourself.  
• The self-doubt came in because she did not know if she had enough experience.  She did not feel like being herself would close the deal.
• You need the no moments to bring you back.  
• Safia stopped comparing herself to others.  She stopped subscribing to things that would be a temptation to do that.
• She started reminding herself why others have come to her.  
• Tune out the things that are not serving you and tune into how you connect, how you do sales, and how you do your business.  
• Lean into the pieces of you that you know work.  
• Safia does not feel the need to do what everybody else is doing.  That builds the confidence and reduces the feelings of self-doubt.
• The moment she feels that funk and it lingers, that is when it is time to check in.  She asks herself the following questions: What feels true for me? What feels authentic to me?  Am I leaning into that? What do I need to do to accomplish this? How do I tap into what actually feels good for me and my business?
• Safia used to hate to do videos, but she loves to connect with people.  She started an online video show to get comfortable with this.
• There is almost nothing you can put out there that has not already been done before.  Look at it and see how you can put your own feel on it.

We've all had "the moment," the one where we know there's no going back to corporate. For Safia Sattaur, that was the birth of her son. Today we'll dive into her journey of going from the world of finance and law into working for herself as a business coach.

• Safia is a business coach.  
• She grew up with entrepreneur parents, so she did not know any other way.  She worked in corporate for a while, but she knew it was not her path.
• She is from Guyana, South America.  They had a family store that sold all car parts.  It was the only store in the country that did this.  
• Safia remembers growing up that her dad worked very hard, but they always had the availability to take time off on weekends or important events.  
• They left Guyana when she a teenage and moved to California.  Her dad opened up a computer store just before the silicon valley boom
• After graduating from high school, she was given a computer store from her dad to run at the same time she was going to college.  After a few years, she focused on school.
• Safia took a job at the bank after college.  She lasted about a year there, because she got married and moved to New York.
• She started working for one of the largest law firms in the world.  She loved her corporate job, but Safia always felt like there was always something more.
• At 8 months pregnant, she was written up for being 10 minutes late after going through subway troubles.  She knew that she did not want to work for people without empathy and compassion.
• She had her baby, held him, and knew she was not going back to work for someone else.  Entrepreneurship was the way to achieve this.
• At such an early age, she was able to run the business because she had the confidence knowing her dad trusted her judgement.  
• Her biggest value comes down to the way you make people feel.  Make people feel valued.
• Business is all about the human connection.    
• Safia has a journalism background, so she decided to do freelance writing.  
• She started working for one publication and then got smart and added 5 other publication places covering stories.  She kept cranking out lots of articles and got very good at it.
• After the second baby, freelance writers stopped being paid at her company.  She connected with a previous coach she had interviewed. This lady pointed out that Safia should start coaching.  
• She got a coaching certification, launched her business on her 30th birthday, within 3 weeks she hosted a live in person workshop with 30 people for 45 minutes, and at the end of this she received her first 2 prepaid clients.  
• She has now been a coach for 4 years.
• Her first year she was hired to teach at the coaching school she received her certificate.  She did this while trying to get clients. She focused on life purpose coaching and in person workshops.
• New coaches then started coming to her to for help launching their coaching business.
• This led her to getting into business coaching and then moving things online.

Erin Kelly is a relationship marketing whiz, and she's sharing her insights on how to use email to build relationships, connect with your audience, and generate more revenue by personalizing the email experience.

• Personalization is her key word.  
• People want to feel like you are paying attention to them and not just blasting messages.  
• Include people's first names in their email.  You can't just have it in the greeting. It needs to be written throughout.  
• Member Vault actually added the client's names in the user interface.  
• Triggered emails are big.  They result in 320% more revenue than blast campaigns.  It makes the email seem more relevant.
• Examples of trigger emails:  Congratulations, thank them for clicking, reminding them to complete something, or mission bonuses.
• Get the user to the end goal while making them feel welcome and not manipulated.
• People like the feeling of a real human encounter.  
• Know your list.  Make sure that you have a clean list of people that are actually engaged.  
• Send special gifts to the biggest fans.  
• The quality of the list is better.  The engagement rate is much more important than the size of the list.  
• The biggest mistake is consistency. When you drop off, it decreases people's trust in you.
• Do not over think your emails.  If you just want to engage, just share a story, check in, or ask them a question.
• You can field test with Instagram and then go big with your email list.
• Save time with Google docs.  
• Set up automations to keep your lists clean.

We all are challenged at balancing our real life relationships with our business ambitions, but what if your spouse was your business partner? Erin Kelly talks about how she and her husband made the tough call to go all in with their software company and how they keep a strong partnership at home and in business.

• Erin thinks that the CEO looks at the tough decisions; they forecast and make decisions on the long term foundation they have built.  
• Now that she realized Member Vault is here to stay, she started forecasting and thinking long term goals and launches.
• When she was in OBM, it was just her.  She did not have to do a lot of marketing.  She did not have to build a long term structure.  Moving into Member Vault, she now has a responsibility to the users.  Member Vault had an OBM while Erin was working in her other business, but when she went fulltime they had to cut the OBM.  It was a tough decision that she had to make as a CEO.
• Forecasting for Member Vault now is about launching long term features.  These are updates that will take 6 months. She actually talks to clients now about things they want in the app.
• Erin is also looking to hire someone for the customer service aspect to be maintained while they have their baby.
• They really make sure that additions help engagement of their clients.
• Now they have a planning meeting every month.  Her and her husband are creating a structure on updates and prioritize.  When they grow and bring people on, they do not want employees to be left out of all the conversations and ideas.
• Moving forward, getting childcare is a big thing that is going to help get their time structured.
• In having partner CEO's, the number one key is to respect each other's role in each person's expertise.  In those areas, they have the final say so that you do not burn out.
• In being a husband wife team, they like being able to have this together.  You just have to balance life and business. You need to protect the relationship space.   
• Their big mission is empowerment.  Education resources are very important to them.  Open, fast communication with their clients is key.  They believe in doing good and supporting up and coming businesses.  In addition, they want to be able to take time when they want it.

High achievers often struggle to cut back and put up boundaries. MemberVault Co-Founder Erin Kelly is no exception. After years and seasons of pushing hard, she's learning to say no so she has room to say the right yes and she's sharing her advice with us today.

• Erin had an 8 month old, she had not left him yet, but she had an opportunity to go down to a mastermind conference.  She really struggled over mom versus business owner. She decided to go and even pump in the bathroom at the airport. She ended up growing a lot on the trip, and it was really good for her.
• After the intense weekend, she was really frazzled and vulnerable.  There was an opportunity to join a mastermind podcast startup.
• She knew the opportunity did not feel right, but she said yes and pushed through anyways.  She knew she looked like a hot mess on the call and was really hard on herself. She judged and shamed herself.  
• After the call, she sat back and realized that she did not need this opportunity at this point.  She had to step back and send an email that she had to back out.
• Don't say yes and drain your energy to something that does not make sense for your business at that time.  
• A lot of high achieving entrepreneurs do push through on things that seem scary and may be a stretch.  Adding the thoughts of "am I enough" just made her take on something that she couldn't take on.
• Just recently Erin turned down a summit that she knew would be good for her business.  She had committed her boundaries that her afternoons would be for her toddler. The only time the summit would be available was the afternoon slot.  She stuck to her boundaries, and Erin was able to say no. It actually felt good to say no.
• Just because you say no does not mean you are killing an opportunity.  The right thing will then have the availability and space to come in.
• She was terrified that having a child would be a bad thing for her business.  After meeting her husband, they talked, and she realized that was not necessarily the case.  Becoming a mom actually has helped her pay more attention to the value of time. A lot of her ideas come when she is with her child or meditating while he is napping.  
• They thrive on the unconventional lifestyle.  Being on the road, staying in camp grounds, juggling life, has been her normal.  Erin is looking forward to putting down some roots with this second child.
• To combat the feelings of being not enough- Erin is reading a happiness book right now.  One of the things is a gratitude practice. This helps her see how much she does have. The next part is meditating and quieting her brain.  You control your own thoughts.

Erin Kelly has always felt like an entrepreneur, but her journey to actually get there didn't look like a straight line. From being underpaid and unsure of what to do to co-founding a rapidly growing software company, Erin has finally found her lane and isn't turning back.

• Erin is the CEO of Member Vault.
• Erin has always had an entrepreneur brain.  She was in 4H selling bunnies as a kid.
• She did go into corporate world to work for Disney.  
• She did not know she would own her own business, but she always had ideas.  When she got tired of corporate, so she jumped into retail and then dog walking.  She eventually got into web design and her and her husband started their own business together.  It just kind of happened.
• When her and her husband started they were a hot mess working with anyone without a solid plan.  They threw a lot out there to see what stuck. They wanted to give small businesses help that could not quite afford it.  They charged too little in their original pricing. They eventually worked with a lot of high level clients, helped on their marketing, and then Erin fell into the OBM business.
• The pricing help came with experience and seeing their value with their customers.  They saw how good the companies were doing with their help. They knew they were doing people well and had to raise their prices to stay in business.  
• She started helping customers with marketing.  She met someone in the blog world. Erin started home side blogging.  She and her friend dappled into coaching. She would get really frustrated trying to help clients in the execution.  She found OBM, asked a friend their opinion, and they said I would be your first client. And so it started!
• OBM is online business manager.  They work at a higher level that a virtual assistant.  The OBM is the executor of your team and help manage the team.
• After a lot of frustration in the management systems, she was venting to her husband, and he actually created an app to manage OBMs.  Clients started using it and referring it to other clients. They decided it was time to really launch this app. Her husband quit his job, started putting his time into it, and they started Member Vault.  Erin quit doing her OBM work except for her number one client and focused on Member Vault.
• Member Vault had unlimited content available.  They watched how the customers were using the system and developed it to match these tools.
• Member Vault loves to listen to the customers and evolve with their clients.
• Erin just recently let go of her final OBM clients and went fulltime into Member Fault.
• She is pregnant and they have been travelling in an RV for 10 months with their toddler.  The travelling will be coming to an end.
• They want Member Vault to keep growing.  They are overhauling their documentation trying to make everything even more user friendly.
• A few years ago Erin would have never imagined she would be in in this place.  Her advice looking back would have been to not be so hard on herself and enjoy the journey.

Kate Crocco built her business by getting comfortable getting visible. By taking the time to practice and focusing on service, she found her visibility style that helped her grow a six figure business fast and with more ease than she thought possible. She's sharing her best advice for going from invisible to impactful today.

• For Kate, her top strategy is being visible and showing up.  In the local business, you can hide behind your screen or just call referrals.  Come into the online world, show your face, share your story, and put it out there.
• During her first video, Kate was terrified.  She over prepared for everything, and her dog actually choked during her video.  She still posted it because she knew that she had to start somewhere.
• You must build your confidence through consistency.
• The more you do it; the better off you will feel about each one.
• During her first year, she tried to get as many videos, interviews, podcasts, and experiences in as she could to just practice.  She knew that eventually it would get easier, and now Kate actually enjoys these things.
• To get these interviews and things early on, her online business manager put a post out in a group about a coffee chat.  Kate agreed to do it. She built an awesome relationship with her and things sky rocketed.
• Kate would just offer to assist people with advice.  Just be proactive about asking people.
• Build up little by little.  As an entrepreneur you need a little of your story in your business.  Start with something small and don't feel like you are just exposing yourself unnaturally.  
• Before sharing, she asks herself if it is a scar or a wound.  If it is something she is still working through, she will not share the information.  
• She waits until she can find the good in the situation before she shares the scar.  
• To balance the content, she makes sure that she is connected.  She uses more stories and less strategy. She knew it was time to trade from teaching to just being present when she had the baby.  She decided to test out her feeling on this.
• Trust yourself and do what feels right at the moment.  
• Start where you feel comfortable.  Just step out of your comfort zone a little.  
• Never say never!!!  

If you're feeling like your business is running you instead of the other way around, it's time to re-evaluate. For Kate that meant putting in some major boundaries and learning to trust others with her business baby while preparing to give birth to a human baby. Today she's sharing how she put on her CEO hat and you can too.

• To Kate being a CEO means her feeling like she runs the show and not the show running her.
• Boundaries are key!  
• She really shifted to CEO when she was pregnant and had a baby on the way.  She did not know how she was going to make this work.
• Early on in her business, Kate gave away a lot of things.  Free coaching, advice, calls, scholarships, etc.… It helped her build her confidence.  Her mentor had her give away 30 free coaching calls in 30 days in the month of December.  She learned who she wanted to work with and what she wanted to focus on.
• She knew that being pregnant she had to shift her business model.  She knew she would not have the time to give away free calls and feedback.  Kate set up the boundaries in year two. She stopped doing discover calls. If people wanted to join, they had to start with an intensive meeting and go from there.
• Just because you are doing something in this season, it does not mean that you have to do it in the next season.
• She has now changed to break through calls for her master mind launch.  It is kind of in between a discover call and an intensive meeting.
• This launch she is not putting together a sales page.  She knows that it drains her and takes all the excitement out of her.
• Kate tries to take out the "I have to" and "I need to" words before taking time off.  It keeps her from worrying about taking off and gives her more creative energy when she does take the time off.  
• When you do take off, do not feel guilty about it.  If you do, then you will not be completely rested when you do come back.  
• While you are having fun and away, you may get inspiration ideas.  Pull out the journal or email yourself to keep the idea for later.
• Kate does not schedule in her self-care.  Everything is about feeling and what she wants to do.
• Kate does take Fridays for her baby.  She tries to not work and focus on her little girl every Friday.
• The vision for the future is to be available for more people.  She wants her message to spread to women in careers, high school, and college.  She does not necessarily want to go back to doing therapy but speaking on women's empowerment.  She wants to achieve this through book writing, public speaking, and big women's events.
• She sees herself training other women to then go on and lead other women.