Hi there, listener! It’s just me today answering the number one question I get. “I have this idea. I want to start a business. Where do I start?” I’m taking the time to chat on getting started and building that solid foundation. Starting a business can be scary! You are in a vulnerable and sometimes lonely position as an entrepreneur.  Here are my six strategies to get you started on the right path. Mindset is key. Do you know your worth and value? What makes you uniquely qualified and gifted to start this business? Take a strengths test. Have fun with personality tests like the Enneagram. Who are your people? Know who will be in your corner to surround and encourage you. What can you learn from them? What do you know to be true? Write down what keeps you inspired and motivated in the exciting early days of your business, and refer back to them. What type of business will you have? Are you offering a product or service? Get clear on exactly what problem you are trying to solve for people. What product or service will you offer? Get clear on what you will offer and what makes you unique. Set goals. What drives and motivates you? Get some practical goals down on paper for the next one to three years. But dream big, too! Write down those audacious goals for 10 years down the line. I mentioned my getting started in business guide which I will link here.  Of course a big part of success is building community and there’s no better place to do that than by joining a local Empower Her collective. Learn more at EmpowerHer.co and don’t forget to register for the Summit, happening this month in Tiffin, Iowa. Whether you are just dreaming or you have been in business for years, this is the Midwest’s premier personal and professional development conference.

Today I’m happy to bring back two great guests.  We at Empower Her Co are in the thick of prepping for THE event of the year: Our 2022 Summit! (P.S. It’s not too late to get your ticket!)   We are taking this opportunity to share some clips of our most popular episodes with Melissa King of Dupaco Credit Union and Katie Merkes of GoodLife Integrative Veterinary Care.    Melissa shares her story of working her way up in financials. She loves to work alongside businesses and guide them to personalized financial solutions. She is an amazing leader in our community but emphasizes the importance of working as a team. Speaking of your team, remember to visit your four key business partners at least annually: Your financial office, attorney, accountant, and insurance agent.   Katie has such an amazing story of following her dreams… but also being open to challenges. She started in equine veterinary medicine, added a small animal focus, and now offers integrative and preventative health solutions for pets. She went from a mobile unit to a brick-and-mortar. She went from a crazy-hours-working vet to a more balanced mama. Such an inspirational model of someone following their passion and finding success even with constant change. Follow for More Follow Empower Her Co on Facebook and Instagram or visit our website Empower Her Summit 2022 Hey friend! Empower Her Co is bringing together powerhouse female business owners in a highly sought after business and professional development experience. Join us for this one day of inspiration and community August 25 at Bella Sala in Tiffin, Iowa. Details are at EmpowerHer.co. See you there!

Hi there, listener! Today I’m so excited to welcome Emily Steele to the podcast. She does so many exciting things, but today our conversation focuses mostly on her role as the founder of tech startup The Hummingbirds.   Yes, tech startup. No, she’s not techy. But you’ll see you don’t need to be. Such inspiring words from Emily. I hope you are empowered by this conversation to dream big and make things happen! Key Takeaways

• Emily was born and raised in Pella, Iowa, where her understanding of entrepreneurship meant having a bakery. She studied marketing and communications in Des Moines and landed in the nonprofit world because she thought it was the way to make a difference.
• Through her nonprofit work Emily became interested in revitalization and the impact of small businesses and started to wonder if she could make a change that way.
• Emily tried a lot of things but has found great success with The Hummingbirds which connects brands to hyperlocal content creators.
• Emily noticed that just posting about her daily life in Des Moines was driving awareness and sales for small businesses. She created a community of people interested in peer-to-peer marketing.
• Her original goal was to build community and she used simple tools like Google Forms. With investor dollars she collaborated with a software developer to build software. Their new software integrates social media profiles of members and lists events and opportunities.
• She is continuing to raise capital to develop new software. Version 2.0 allow businesses communicate with Hummingbirds directly and remove the extra step of acting like a marketing agency.
• At first Emily thought the Iowa Startup Accelerator just wanted to help small businesses, but now she realizes she had a real, scaleable business model with potential for big future gains. The Hummingbirds has already expanded to Omaha and Milwaukee and will be reaching more Midwest cities in the future.
• Emily “does it all” by acknowledging that some things just can’t be a priority. She celebrates little wins and looks for ways to delegate and simplify.
• Emily encourages women to seek out venture capital. Know your vision and why you are different, but it’s okay to not feel completely ready!

Quotes “People power brands and I think it’s the future of how brands will do their marketing and really move the needle in terms of authenticity and impact.” “Let’s talk about venture capital in Iowa.” “That ripple effect is so powerful… that can literally change someone’s life.” “I hate to see when people’s ideas just live inside them forever” Connect with Emily Emily is most active on Instagram. You can follow her at emily.steele or learn more about The Hummingbirds at hummingbirdshq. Empower Her Summit 2022 Hey friend! Empower Her Co is bringing together powerhouse female business owners in a highly sought after business and professional development experience. Join us for this one day of inspiration and community August 25 at Bella Sala in Tiffin, Iowa. Details are at EmpowerHer.co and code ehsummit2022 takes $30 off your ticket! See you there!

I’m so excited to welcome Nicole Powers, owner of Simply Organized Dubuque!   Nicole offers luxury hands on decluttering and organizing services to Dubuque and the surrounding areas. Although she’s fairly new to her business, she has a lot of insights to share on the show today!   Key takeaways

• Nicole started her business in April of 2021. She has three children aged 6, 4, and 2. She started to consider life outside of the home after her youngest was born in April of 2020.
• 2020 made Nicole reevaluate things in life. She worked as a nurse for six years and a nurse practitioner for two, but did not want to return. She considered professional organization and pediatric sleep coaching.
• Nicole has always been organized! When she babysat as a kid she would organize homes when the kids went to sleep.
• Nicole loves to organize kitchens and pantries most, then closets.
• Nicole says Empower Her is one of the best investments she has made. She loves the education and mentorship from women in different areas and levels of business.
• Nicole took courses to be certified with the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals. She appreciates their mentorship and education.
• Addie, another organizer, joined the team last November.
• In the future Nicole would like to add designers and carpenters to offer a more full scale service. She would love a warehouse to store product!
• Nicole juggles her many responsibilities by limiting herself to three sessions each week, setting boundaries, and learning to say no.
• Nicole’s favorite organizing tips include
• • Maintenance is key! Once a space is organized, it takes maintenance to keep it that way.
  • Edit first, then buy product.
  • Create boundaries for items
  • Be aware of buying habits
• Organization lowers stress and increases overall happiness!

Connect with Nicole Follow Nicole on Instagram or visit her website. Empower Her Summit 2022 Hey friend! Empower Her Co is bringing together powerhouse female business owners in a highly sought after business and professional development experience. Join us for this one day of inspiration and community August 25 at Bella Sala in Tiffin, Iowa. Details are at EmpowerHer.co and code ehsummit2022 takes $30 off your ticket! See you there!

In this episode of the Empower Her Podcast I’m excited to welcome Val Duvick of Val Marlene Creative. Val is a business coach for female creative entrepreneurs and got her start as a small business owner herself.  I learned so much from our chat together and know you will too.  Key Takeaways

• Val has tried her hand at a variety of creative careers including floral design, wedding planning, and graphic design. This gives her a unique perspective when coaching creative business clients. 
• Val is passionate about defining individual success. Although many creatives love wedding photography, Val realized it didn’t provide the balanced life she wanted. She took a chance on a Facebook ad and took a class to learn how to start her own coaching business.
• Val encourages you to build a business around your life and uses her Balanced Business Framework as a guide.
• • Success: Clarify and define your OWN vision of success, not what you see on social media.
  • Structure: Have clear and effective systems for prioritizing time, energy, and finances.
  • Strategy: This refers to day to day productivity and growth, but emphasizes putting on your blinders and concentrating on what works for you!
  • Satisfaction includes both client satisfaction AND personal boundaries to prevent burnout.
• Val lost her Instagram account just days before a big launch! Her community pulled through and it was still a success. Re-building her Instagram has given her a more true audience. Although it was really scary for awhile, she is happy with where she is now. It’s a good reminder “not to put all of your eggs in one basket!”
• Val recommends the book Profit First by Mike Michalowicz and says it made a big impact on sustainable business.
• Val is currently reading Slow Growth Equals Strong Roots by Mary Marantz and Find Your People by Jennie Allen. Both good picks for finding community!

Connect with Val Find Val on her website, follow her blog, or find her on Instagram. Empower Her Summit 2022 Val is attending the Empower Her Summit and I hope you are too! Find details and information on the website.

I’m thrilled to welcome Amanda Skora of AJ’s Boutique to the podcast today!   You can find AJ’s Boutique on Lower Main in Downtown Dubuque. AJ’s offers sizes XS-3X so everyone can enjoy casual clothing with a bohemian twist.   Amanda says her path to AJ’s Boutique is not linear, it takes a few different avenues, but it sure makes for a fun episode! I loved hearing her interesting backstory.   Amanda has great style! It’s what led her to open her business in 2020 and is a big part of her success. Make sure to follow her on the socials linked below and check out her look. She’s one to watch! Key Takeaways

• Amanda grew up near Dubuque about five miles away in Wisconsin. She graduated from the University of Dubuque after studying business.
• After some time working in graphic design in Dallas, Texas, Amanda returned to the Dubuque area because “home is home!”
• Amanda got her start with AJ’s Boutique while drawing on her iPad and she discovered her logo. As she says, the rest is history!
• Amanda opened her brick and mortar shop in downtown Dubuque in November of 2020. She has a great website but loves her physical storefront for breaking through the dense online market space.
• Amanda is learning to stock what customers will buy instead of what she personally loves. She enjoys that the Midwest is somewhat behind on trends because it gives her time to stock and prepare.
• She loves the education and seminars at market but says it is easy to overbuy!
• Amanda says her best investment is size inclusivity which means taking her own photos with diverse models.
• Things she’s loving right now: 90’s style, the book Own the Day, Own Your Life by Aubrey Marcus, and the podcast Drama Queens. She’s doing 75 Hard which is a very rigorous health discipline and cuts out her beloved chips, salsa, and queso!
• Her dream for her business is to open another location and maybe design some day!

Connect with Amanda Shop online at AJ’s Boutique for local pickup or worldwide shipping. Follow on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok Empower Her Summit Friends, I don’t want you to miss out! The Empower Her Summit at Bella Sala in Tiffin, Iowa on August 25 will be the. thing. of the year! The speakers and women in the room are downright amazing. You will get so much value, inspiration and motivation! Tickets are live now on the website. Don’t miss it!

Today I’m excited to share my interview with Megan Gross!   Megan is not only a nurse midwife, she is a one-woman show running her own practice in Dubuque, Iowa. She specializes in hormone health and loves helping women through different stages of life: Pre-fertility, postpartum, and menopause.   So in addition to being totally brilliant in her field, she also does all of the work of a small business owner! Megan is also mom to three littles ages 8, 5, and 2 1/2. She’s definitely in a busy season and loves her community. Key Takeaways:

• Megan started off studying pre-med, then switched to nursing, then studied to be a nurse midwife. Her husband’s job took them to Dubuque, Iowa where she currently has an independent practice.
• Megan has always been an independent practitioner and has adjusted her business along with her life. Being on call 24/7 for home births just doesn’t work with kids at home!
• Megan focuses now on regulating women’s hormones and shares so much interesting information! Did you realize that our society is set to men’s circadian rhythm? Or that hormonal birth control completely changes women’s hormones?
• Megan says it is so important to be open about struggles and seeking help. Nothing is TMI or shameful in her office!
• The Tend and Befriend theory was so cool! Some animals, including humans, regulated stress by leaning on community. 
• Megan mentions some of her favorites: Girls, Goals, and Gong Shows on Instagram, the Office Ladies podcast, Taylor Swift, and Mines of Spain in Dubuque. 

Connect with Megan Contact Megan through her website or on Instagram Empower Her Summit Friends, I don’t want you to miss out! The Empower Her Summit at Bella Sala in Tiffin, Iowa on August 25 will be the. thing. of the year! The speakers and women in the room are downright amazing. You will get so much value, inspiration and motivation! Tickets are live now on the website. Don’t miss it!

It’s finally here!    Well, it’s not here yet. But ticket sales are now open for the Empower Her 2022 Conference! We have to wait until August 25 for the big event.   This year’s lineup is off the chain, quite honestly. We’re welcoming speakers Maddie Peschong, Lindsay Leahy, Jade Boyd, Andrea Mausser, and Arica Ohloff! Laura VandeBerg is our emcee and the whole shebang is hosted by yours truly.    I’m just so excited. I hope you can join us!   Today on the podcasts I welcome two of last year’s attendees and we chat about just how awesome this summit is. Ally Billhorn

• Ally is a food blogger at Sweet Savory Eats and a former EH podcast guest. 
• Ally says a highlight for her was meeting people she had “kind of been Instagram stalking.”
• Ally networked and did a collaboration with Chilled Freezer Meals. 
• The Empower Her summit welcomes women from all industries and businesses with common goals. It’s so cool to learn from everyone there!

Ana Schmidt

• Ana is the creator behind Lovely Little Light where she “spreads joy and Jesus with pretty letters and handmade goods.”
• For Ana, attending the summit in 2021 was “a total God thing.” She won her ticket in a giveaway! Being on a weekday she almost skipped it, but, because it landed on her birthday, she treated herself to a personal day from her full-time job as a teacher. She made amazing connections and feels like it was exactly what she was called to do!
• Ana shares stories from the day that just kept piling up to make her feel like the Empower Her Summit was just what God intended for her! Seriously good stuff.

Join us for the summit! The Empower Her 2022 Summit will be at Bella Sala in Tiffin, Iowa on August 25. I so hope you can make it! Tickets are on sale here. Follow us on all of the socials where we’re counting down the days until we meet in person! Follow for More Follow Empower Her Co on Facebook and Instagram or visit our website for more information if you’re a woman looking to grow your business in a nurturing community.

I’m so excited to welcome my friend Ally Billhorn to the podcast today! She’s the wonder woman behind the recipe blog Sweet & Savory Eats. But she says lots people in her small town still think she’s a stay-at-home mom!   She’s so great at collaborating. Lucky for me (and other folks who just bookmark recipes for “someday”) she even worked with Chilled Freezer Meals to make a recipe for their April menu! Key Takeaways

• Ally is one of the O.G. bloggers and started waaay back in 2009. She was lonely in a new town with a new baby and started blogging for a creative outlet! She now blogs as a full time business!
• Ally started out posting a new recipe every. single. day. Now her readers depend on her for something new every Thursday!
• She says a lot has changes since she first started blogging and her biggest challenge is photography. People eat with their eyes! She has great people who help with the “backend stuff” of blogging but otherwise considers herself a one-woman show.
• Blogging success doesn’t happen overnight. Consistency is so important. She says her best success comes from considering what her readers need.
• Collaboration is so important! Ally likes to partner with brands that bring her content to a new audience. But she NEVER shares something she wouldn’t actually use, and she negotiates fair pay.
• She used to think she wanted to publish a cookbook, and she still might, but she is so content with the path she’s on!
• In her free time she loves to read and watch her kids play sports.
• Of course we’re linking to those recipes she mentioned! Ally’s on a pizza kick at the moment and has shared recipes for a crab rangoon and cheeseburger version. She also mentioned creamy beef burritos. YUM!

  Connect with Ally on her blog or “everywhere” at sweetsavoryeats. 

I’m so excited to bring you my interview with Sarah Knabel of Bob & Lou’s Coffee!   Sarah is just 25 (!) but is already doing big things in the tiniest, cutest way. Her business, Bob & Lou’s, started in a camper! She has recently added a brick-and-mortar walk up shop in Dubuque and has a team of seven people. She dreams of opening a sit down shop someday and I’ll be the first customer in line!   I love having Sarah as an Empower Her Co leader and member. She is such an amazing community builder! Key takeaways

• Sarah is an Iowa State University grad with a degree in marketing and public relations. She worked in coffee shops through college and has always loved it! After college she moved to LA for an internship and loved visiting the cute shops on the coast. I can totally see why she says her aesthetic for Bob & Lou’s was inspired by this time. I love her open, welcoming vibe!
• Sarah got homesick and moved to Des Moines, Iowa for a job at a large magazine corporation. She learned the cubicle life was NOT for her but she made great friends who encouraged her to open her own coffee shop someday!
• Sarah’s job was downsized due to Covid so she started putting her coffee shop dream to work. Her sister planted the idea of a coffee camper after visiting a Philidelphia farmer’s market. Bob & Lou’s was born in August 2020!
• Sarah says her best business strategy is reaching out to entrepreneur friends and building community. She is so proud of her product and spent FOREVER picking the perfect coffee! She wants only the best for her customers and is always accepting of their input.
• Big events coming at Bob & Lou’s including a lemonade tasting and their spring tasting. Be sure to follow them on socials because tickets sell out FAST!

Join Empower Her Co   Empower Her now has collectives in four Iowa cities: Solon, Cascade, Dyersville, and Dubuque! If you are in or near these areas (or don’t mind a bit of a drive!), come join us! We meet twice each month for about 90 minutes. Our first session will have a valuable training to you as a woman in business. Our second is a roundtable for CELEBRATION, challenges, and real honesty from other female entrepreneurs. We’d love to have you join! Learn more by reaching out to us on our socials or shooting an email to [email protected] Connect with Sarah  Find Bob & Lou’s online or follow on Facebook and Instagram.  Follow for More Follow Empower Her Co on Facebook and Instagram or visit our website for more information if you’re a woman looking to grow your business in a nurturing community.