In this week’s podcast episode, Emily chats with Ciara Landroma, an entrepreneur, coach and van-lifer who finally said yes to her dreams and shed the expectations of other people a year ago to set off on her own adventure traveling the country, working on the road, and supporting women with finding financial freedom. She joins Emily to chat more about letting go of goals that weren’t really hers to begin with, selling it all and living in a van, and her new found love for content creation.

A corporate, ladder-climbing professional got to the top and didn’t like anything she saw. So, she said goodbye to it all and drove away. Literally. Ciara Ladroma moves with a purpose to share how life can be absolutely delicious when you start to choose yourself. Ciara lives full-time in her campervan as she works and plays as a 100% digital nomad with her partner and their dog. Ciara creates wealth for Women, Queer Folx, BIPOC through budget & business coaching, as well as, a curator of multi-media content that inspires viewers to choose themselves and choose joy. 

 Tune in for topics like:

• Shifting from a work-first mindset to finding joy
• The collection of moments that led to a radical shift in Ciara’s life
• Why a month long challenge turned into 3 years of sober living
• Pivoting to focus on content creation
• The question we should be asking ourselves regularly
• Navigating others’ opinions of your decisions
• The Daily Moment program

Links from the episode:

• The Daily Moment program
• Ciara’s website
• Ciara’s Instagram
• The Megan Ciara Show Instagram

Follow me (Emily Steele) (Love Local) on Instagram for a little business + a little life, and a whole lot of positive energy!

In this week’s podcast episode, Emily chats with Tobi Parks, an entertainment and intellectual property attorney, majority owner and CEO of xBk, a Des Moines-based music venue, and Board Vice President for the National Independent Venue Association Foundation.

Listen in as Tobi & Emily chat through Tobi’s experiences in the music world, both as an artist and on the business side. Tobi shares how her journey led her from rural Missouri to New York City and details her decade in the city working for Sony Music, touring with bands, marrying her wife and having children. Ultimately, a desire for a better city to raise kids and be closer to family led Tobi and her family to Des Moines, Iowa, where she immediately immersed herself in the music scene.

Tobi walks listeners through her experience opening up xBk in the Drake neighborhood, her vision, the obstacles she had to overcome and what’s next for her (hint: it may just be right next door and involve cocktails). 

Tune in for topics like:

• Tobi’s background and music experience
• Moving to NYC and spending a decade in the music industry there
• The trip that made Tobi change her mind about Des Moines
• The vision for xBk
• Why the Drake neighborhood was chosen for a music venue
• What’s next for Tobi & xBk

Links from the episode:

• xBk website
• xBk Instagram
• xBk Facebook

Follow me (Emily Steele) (Love Local) on Instagram for a little business + a little life, and a whole lot of positive energy!

In this week’s podcast episode, Emily chats with Sue Honkamp, founder of Real Food 4 Kids, a brand dedicated to offering food education and hands-on cooking classes for kids and teens. Sue is passionate about getting kids involved in the kitchen and teaching them how to create wholesome, tasty meals for themselves and others.

Listen in as Sue & Emily talk about Sue’s background at Oscar Meyer that led to a career shift and motivation to investigate the foods she and her family were consuming and the ingredients inside. Sue shares more about how she started her business, her pivots during the pandemic and all she has planned for the future, including new summer camps and cooking courses for teens.

Tune in for topics like:

• Sue’s experience as a brand manager at Oscar Meyer
• Why Sue was motivated to create her own food when her daughter required a feeding tube
• The one thing Sue hopes kids take away from her cooking classes
• How to encourage your kids to try new foods
• Sue’s latest launch: Real Food 4 Life
• Key takeaways from 6 years in business

Links from the episode:

• Real Food 4 Life Teens Cooking Course
• Real Food 4 Kids website
• Real Food 4 Kids Facebook
• Real Food 4 Kids Instagram

Follow me (Emily Steele) (Love Local) on Instagram for a little business + a little life, and a whole lot of positive energy!

In this week’s podcast episode, Emily chats with Grace Rigdon, co-founder and COO of Deetz. Deetz is an app that you can use to see what’s happening around you right now in your very own community. As a fellow tech co-founder on a mission to support local businesses in every community they’re in, Emily and Grace dive into Grace’s journey into the startup space, her first business that led to Deetz, and how Deetz supports its users and small business subscribers.

Tune in for topics like:

• Grace’s focus and ambitions as she started college
• How Grace started her first business by stumbling into an entrepreneurship class
• What joining a tech startup company looks like
• What Deetz is and how it works

Links from the episode:

• Deetz app 
• Deetz plans and pricing
• Find a credit union to partner with by visiting the Iowa Credit Union Foundation

Follow me (Emily Steele) (Love Local) on Instagram for a little business + a little life, and a whole lot of positive energy!

In this week’s podcast episode, Emily chats with Jackie Reses and Lauren Weinberg, co-authors of new release, Self-Made Boss, a book designed to give small business owners an essential survival guide with stories and experiences from business owners and advice from industry experts. Whether you’ve been in business for 30 years or have been noodling on a new idea, this book will offer you tangible, actionable advice you can implement right away.

Jackie & Lauren join Emily to discuss their experiences working with small business owners everywhere that led to the creation of Self-Made Boss. Jackie & Lauren scoured the marketplace for books that gave small business owners a holistic approach to running their business, but found very few. So they decided to write their own. They compiled stories and advice from business owners and experts, distilling them down into bite-size educational pieces that allowed readers to gain a new perspective on all aspects of running a small business from marketing to hiring to operations to taxes and beyond. Their writing style is approachable, offering pragmatic advice for anyone who picks up a copy.

Listen to the episode to learn more about what you can expect from picking up a copy of Self-Made Boss and the journey Jackie & Lauren undertook to write it! 

Find Self-Made Boss at your local bookstore, Amazon, or wherever you find your books.

About The Authors:

Jackie Reses

Jackie Reses is the Chief Executive Officer of Luna Financial Group, a fintech building banking-related financial infrastructure for tech and crypto companies and the Chair of the Economic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.  Previously, she was the Executive Chairperson of Square Financial Services and Capital Lead and Head of the People Team at Square.  She has been named one of Forbes “Self Made Women,” Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business” and American Banker’s  “Most Powerful Woman in Finance.”  She has held leadership positions at Yahoo! and was a Partner at Apax Partners Worldwide, one of the largest private equity firms in the world.  Reses serves on the board of directors of Endeavor, Affirm, and Nubank.   

Lauren Weinberg

Lauren Weinberg is the Chief Marketing Officer of Square, where she leads global Marketing and Communications for the $100B company that provides business solutions for millions of small business owners all over the world.  She has been named on Forbes “CMO Next,” Brand Innovators “Top Women in Marketing,” and Fintech Hub’s “30 Most Influential Fintech Marketers.” Weinberg has held leadership roles at Yahoo!, MTV, and AOL.  She is an Adweek Executive Mentor and advises early stage startups.

Tune in for topics like:

• Lauren & Jackie’s backgrounds and how they ended up at Square
• The inspiration behind the book
• What’s inside and how to read Self-Made Boss 
• Who they had in mind when writing the book
• What Jackie & Lauren hope readers take away

Links from the episode:

• Self-Made Boss website
• Download your free excerpt here
• Buy Self-Made Boss here
• Find a credit union to partner with by visiting the Iowa Credit Union Foundation

Follow me (Emily Steele) (Love Local) on Instagram for a little business + a little life, and a whole lot of positive energy!

In this week’s podcast episode, Emily chats with Lisa Even, founder of Even Connection and corporate culture junkie turned entrepreneur. Lisa joins to share more about her one million interview mission, upcoming conference, and how she’s striving to build more connection opportunities in the world.

Lisa founded Even Connection in 2019 after years of building strong team cultures in the medical and financial industries. She decided it was time to take her expertise to more people so she opened up the virtual doors of Even Connection with the goal of helping people create positive ripple effects at work and beyond. 

Now her offerings have expanded to include:

- Speaking (keynotes, conferences, retreats, breakout sessions, teams and departments)

- Coaching (1x1) with people who want to create a greater ripple effect at work and beyond

- Wave Workshops - work with teams on engagement, motivation, culture, and communication

- Connection Conferences - one-day connection conferences, Rising Tides, for leaders and entrepreneurs who want to be inspired, connected, and impactful.

Listen in as Lisa shares more about building her online business and the mission she’s on to interview one million souls. The next Rising Tide conference is coming up on April 28th in Des Moines, Iowa. Emily will be speaking! If you’re interested in attending, find the link to grab your ticket below.

Tune in for topics like:

• Questions Lisa asks in every one million interview
• The Rising Tides Conference
• Why you should read the Go Giver
• Creating roles and responsibilities in hiring
• Why knowing where your strengths lie is crucial to your success

Links from the episode:

• Even Connection website
• Lisa Instagram Instagram
• Even Connection Facebook
• Lisa LinkedIn
• Buy a ticket for the April 28th Rising Tides Conference
• Find a credit union to partner with by visiting the Iowa Credit Union Foundation

Follow me (Emily Steele) (Love Local) on Instagram for a little business + a little life, and a whole lot of positive energy!

In this week’s podcast episode, Emily chats with Brooke Happe, owner of b.e. happe designs, an evergreen apparel brand. Brooke joins to share more about her unconventional business and life path, running b.e. happe as she travels the country with her family in an RV, crocheting hats and producing products.

In 2015, Brooke stepped away from her role as a Doctor of Physical Therapy and opted to stay home with her two young boys and a daughter on the way. She started crocheting hats to keep her hands strong, intending to go back to work one day. But then more and more people started asking for the hats they saw Brooke wearing and b.e. happe was born. 

In 2019, Brooke and her husband decided they wanted to enjoy this season of life with young children for as long as possible so they sold almost all of their belongings, bought an RV and have been traveling the country ever since. She’s continued to grow her business from a one-woman-show to a team of twelve, selling her products directly to her consumers and through wholesale. 

Brooke joins to chat more about taking the leap and choosing a path that’s a little less traveled. She shares the experiences that led up to the change in her life and how she’s continued to stay happy on the road. Brooke explains why b.e. happe also offers a portion of their profits to children’s hospitals and child life services. Listen for a peek into her business and the reason why flexibility is such an important trait to have as an entrepreneur. Brooke hopes to dispel any misconceptions our listeners may have about believing you need to have all the tools, space and processes ready to go before you start. Just start! 

If you’re someone who likes to venture off the predictable path and do things a little differently, tune in to this episode with Brooke!

Tune in for topics like:

• Brooke’s leap into entrepreneurship
• What it’s like to sell everything and live the RV lifestyle
• How to tap into the resources you already have
• External factors to be aware of in your business
• How to live without regrets

Links from the episode:

• b.e. happe website
• b.e. happe Instagram
• b.e. happe Facebook

Follow me (Emily Steele) (Love Local) on Instagram for a little business + a little life, and a whole lot of positive energy!

In this week’s podcast episode, Emily chats with Jessi Shuraleff, host of the podcast, This is My Truth and coach for women seeking to reclaim their stories and their voice. Jessi joins to share more about storytelling and how to actually use it in your business to drive sales and connections.

At the age of 33, Jessi was handed a pivotal moment when her husband asked her one morning - are you happy? Her answer changed the course of her path. In that moment, she realized that while on the outside it looked like she had it all - successful leadership career at Google, two kids, supportive partner, beautiful house in the city of Chicago - on the inside she had become a shell of herself. She had lost her own voice. It was at that moment she realized she held the power to write her own story and that she would do everything in her power to reclaim her voice, own her story & always speak her truth.

An effective storyteller & passionate people-first leader, Jessi spent 13.5 years at Google effectively building and leading strong sales & marketing teams partnering with some of the largest global brands in the world. Creating, building, and maintaining relationships is at the core of who she is and authenticity, vulnerability and storytelling have been the cornerstone of her skillset to get her to where she is today as a leader, a podcaster & a mom.

Jessi walks listeners through how to discover their own stories and how to find the meaningful moments in your life. She breaks down the importance of writing your story down and how you should go about sharing it. Jessi also shares how you can use storytelling in your marketing strategy and why it’s one of the most cost-effective tools in your arsenal of tactics. She offers advice for cultivating know, like, and trust factors in your business that will draw in your ideal customer.

If you’ve been curious about how to actually incorporate storytelling into your strategy, listen to this episode with Jessi!

Tune in for topics like:

• Jessi’s moment of truth that spurred her into entrepreneurship
• How to get curious with yourself
• Why it’s important to write down your story and read it out loud (even if you never plan to share it all)
• Where to find your business why
• Showing up on your personal profile versus your business profile
• How to create little touchpoints in your business that will set you apart

Links from the episode:

• Jessi’s website
• Jessi’s Instagram
• Jessi’s LinkedIn
• Moment of Truth podcast

Follow me (Emily Steele) (Love Local) on Instagram for a little business + a little life, and a whole lot of positive energy!

In this week’s podcast episode, Emily dives into five different areas all local business owners can do some “spring cleaning.” If your business operates in a local community and you want to find organic, sustainable growth, these are the things to focus on not only in the spring, but a few times a year!

Here are five areas Emily dives into:

1. ONLINE PROFILES

Your online profiles such as Instagram, Facebook, Google, and Yelp likely have an opportunity to get a little clean up. Whether you’re adding fresh photos to Google or you’re ensuring your tagline is succinct & consistent across all platforms, take a moment to look at everywhere you exist to ensure all new and repeat visitors are seeing the same thing.

2. SYSTEMS

Emily dives into two of her absolute favorite systems for business operations: Notion and LastPass. But this is an opportunity to look at your own systems. What tools are working for you? What can you ditch? Maybe upgrading your email marketing system will allow you to access more features that increase your revenue. Perhaps deleting those apps you got on your iPhone will free you from feeling obligated to do things that you keep ya know, not doing. Be intentional about the systems you choose and remove what no longer works.

3. ANALYTICS

Take a look at your Google Analytics and social media insights at least once a quarter so you can get an idea of what is resonating with your audience, where you can optimize your website, and where you can bake in some social proof. Analytics give us a snapshot of data to understand how our customers walk through our brand journey. Making decisions based on this can impact the bottom line of your business, while simultaneously adding more value to your potential and current customers.

4. REVIEWS

Reviews are essential in building trust and authority in your community and/or your industry. Take an opportunity once a quarter (or once a month) to ask your customers for a review in the places that people discover you. For example, if you see 75% of website traffic coming from Facebook, might be best to get more reviews there. If 90% of your traffic comes from Google, get reviews there. Take those reviews and implement them in your content to get the most impact!

5. JOY CHECK

How are you doing as a human? Are your services working for you? Your hours? Do you need to hire a part-time VA or intern to support some of the small tasks weighing you down? Is it time to find a bookkeeper? Business ownership is hard because of all the hats you need to wear. Ditch what no longer works, hire where you need help, or make a plan to take action when certain things line up in your business. 

If you’ve been looking for ways to grow your local business, you’ll love this episode! If you feel like you need more support, accountability, and how-to trainings, Local Business School was MADE for you. 🤩

Links from the episode:

• LOCAL BUSINESS SCHOOL 🤩
• Notion
• LastPass

Follow me (Emily Steele) (Love Local) on Instagram for a little business + a little life, and follow up with any ideas or questions that came from today’s episode. I’m all ears!

In this week’s podcast episode, Emily chats with Morgan Chicchelly, founder of Des Moines Girl, a blog dedicated to all things Des Moines. Morgan joins the podcast to share more about building a local media brand that’s helped so many people discover new brands, places, and things to do in their city. Not in dsm? This story is still jam packed with value for anyone interested in building a micro media or online brand from scratch. 

Morgan grew up in Des Moines but spent the majority of her twenties on the East Coast. After returning to her hometown like so many did during the pandemic she discovered that so much had changed about the city she grew up in. She wanted to get to know her city better but struggled to find a place to discover new brands and activities beyond her own searches on Instagram and Google. So she decided to create her own, a blog and brand called Des Moines Girl.

With a full-time corporate job, Morgan slowly built Des Moines Girl on the side, investing first in branding and then creating her website and social media presence on her own. She started by sharing topics she was interested in herself like all the happy hours in Des Moines, or best brunch spots or upcoming weekend activities and quickly gained a loyal audience.

Morgan walks our listeners through how she creates a two way conversation with her followers and tips she has for others looking to build an engaged community primed to act. She also shares her advice for those just starting out and how to avoid burnout by learning how to fill the gaps between your weaknesses and strengths. 

If you’ve been curious about starting a local blog or social media account highlighting spots in your city, listen to this episode with Morgan! 

Tune in for topics like:

• The searches that spurred Morgan to create Des Moines Girl
• Why it’s important to anchor your social media presence with a website
• What to do first when you’re ready to launch your brand
• A pivotal conversation & a question Morgan hadn’t considered before
• The reason to wait before monetizing your brand
• How to keep your why at the forefront of your business

Links from the episode:

• Des Moines Girl website
• Des Moines Girl Instagram
• Des Moines Girl Facebook
• Join Local Business School! 

Follow me (Emily Steele) (Love Local) on Instagram for a little business + a little life, and a whole lot of positive energy!