Women Conquer Business

Learn why being fearless is a myth and how to make brave leaps.

This interview is about why being fearless is a myth, how to make brave leaps, and why words matter.

We discuss Heather's new book, F*ck Fearless: Making the Brave Leap, and how to have difficult conversations with yourself and others.

There is some explicit language in this episode, so if that's not your thing, you'll want to wait for the next episode.

If you're still here, Buckle up your seatbelts, and get ready for a transformational conversation with Heather Vickery.

• F*ck Fearless: Making the Brave Leap by Heather Vickery
• Brave on Purpose Facebook Group

• Vickery and co.
• The Brave Files podcast

Your strengths are what makes you unique; and, it's easier to create a repeatable process you’re willing to follow through on long-term.

Too often business leaders look to others to develop a business strategy.

It's critical to develop and build a business strategy correctly that plays to your (and your team's!) strengths not only because it's what will make you unique, but also because that's the repeatable process you're willing to follow through on over the long haul.

Regardless of how you're funded, it's likely there's something you're doing to attract your people (and that you love) you can build a strategy around.

Do that.

• Business Risks
• Google My Business
• Mark Schaefer, Cumulative Advantage (book)
• Fancy Sales Funnels
• Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!)

• LinkedIn

As I began recording, a crow zoomed down the chimney and into my fireplace. Learn how these business analogy stories guide better decisions.

Business analogy stories help us sort out the craziest problems we face. For example, as I began recording this show, a crow fell down the chimney and into my fireplace. Learn how this strange occurrence relates to our businesses in this post-COVID world.

• How Women Teen Entrepreneurs Find COVID Silver Lining

• LinkedIn

The future is BRIGHT, my friends! Meet two women teen entrepreneurs who found a pandemic silver lining by creating a global education project.

The future is BRIGHT, my friends! Meet two women teen entrepreneurs who found a silver lining in the pandemic madness by creating a project to help hundreds of elementary students around the globe.

Sarah Shapiro and Skye Loventhal, the two women teen entrepreneurs started the Covid NineTEEN Project, which provides FREE teen-led activities and one-on-one tutoring meant to support elementary school students.

The Covid NineTEEN Project is a group of motivated teens who are using this valuable time to make a difference in the world.

They hope to serve as mentors for elementary school children to help them fill their time and continue to flourish despite the uncertainty of the outside world.

• Covid NineTEEN Project
• Instagram

• Amazing Businesswomen in History: Meet Tenacious Effa Manley
• Who You Are Is The Heart Of Your Business Path
• Woman-Led Startup Raises $3 Million

Explore consumer behavior since COVID-19, what we know right now, and its business implications for the future.

We dive into the new normal. How have things changed since COVID-19 and what does that mean for your business? That’s right. We’re going to talk about consumer behavior since COVID-19, what we know right now and its implications for the future.

If you’re looking for more information about getting started with digital marketing, please go to my digital marketing recommendations for small businesses.

• Think with Google
• Are Recent Trends Here to Stay? Signals of a Mindset Shift

We are taking a break this week. Please enjoy this rebroadcast of one of my favorite episodes from the early days.

Are you in a self-created prison? Are you limiting your success? Jen interviews Brian Fowlie who learned meditation to free his mind while in prison. Now he helps people break through the walls of limitation and develop personal empowerment.

Brian talks about how the prison system helped him see and breakthrough his limitations. You’ll also learn the business mindset benefits of meditation.

About Brian Fowlie

Brian Fowlie left home at 14 years old, becoming a homeless youth. Brian experienced drug and alcohol abuse combined with violence on the streets and soon became part of the juvenile justice system. By the time Brian was 21 years old, he had earned himself a 17-year to life sentence in California’s Department of Corrections. He walked into San Quentin fully expecting to die a convict death.

Brian did not get better in prison, he got worse. He spent the first 9 years building a reputation based on violence, volatility, and prison credibility in order to build what he believed to be walls of protection, keeping him safe and helping him survive in prison.

In 1997 a couple of significant events took place that combined to create the desire for change.

Brian realized that he was miserable and put into action a program that led him to accountability, personal empowerment, spiritual devotion, and uplifting his fellow convicts.

The prison was his home; he was going to live out the rest of his life there and die there, so he set out on a daily path of creating a different culture than the one that had himself and his friends miserable, depressed, self-loathing, and hopeless. He set out to change his view of his world, choosing to practice living each day with personal accountability, love, hope, possibility, inclusion, and peace of mind.

Brian was granted parole by the California Board of Parole Hearings and was released after serving more than 22 years in prison. He was 21 when he committed his crime and he was 43 years old when he walked back out of State prison.

Soon after his release, Brian took a minimum wage job. He was stoked because $8.00 an hour was a huge raise from his prison job, which paid pennies. He continued to strive, finding a better paying job later that year and has continued to progress into a journeyman inside wireman electrician, a trade that he learned in prison.

Brian earned his Bachelor’s of Science in Criminal Justice Administration with a Human Services Focus. He has continued with his graduate studies working toward a Master’s Degree in Peacemaking and Conflict Studies.

While working to provide for his family, going to school to further his education, Brian has also stayed busy serving his community by working with at-risk-youths, Keynote Speaker for the California Coalition for Youth Taking Action Conference 2012, and has even gone back into two prisons and a county jail to work with the prisoners he left behind, sharing his story, successes and challenges he has faced through his transition from a “Lifer” in prison to a citizen and community member in good standing.

I struggled to find my voice this week after the death of George Floyd. I've re-edited an interview from 2018 with Gerald Jones that ties together the history of black businesses, racism, sexism, and what we need to do to change the future.

Support black businesses.

Black Lives Matter. 

Get the top 4 most effective time management strategies you can start today to help you and your team stay focused on the big picture.

Get the top 4 most effective time management strategies you can start today to help you and your team stay focused on the big picture.

This episode is great for personal productivity, within your small business, or even for teams looking to boost their focus.

• Learn why busy is not the same as productive
• Why conducting a time audit is critical
• Tools you can use to conduct a time audit
• How (and why!) minimizing multi-tasking is a MUST
• Why taking breaks can improve your time management
• When to plan your week so you can say "no" when you have to

• How to Stop Confusing Busy with Productive (includes information about our brains and multitasking)
• Time management apps: Todoist and Toggl (both apps have free versions you can use for a simple time audit)
• Mike Tyson's face tattoo (more an FYI than a resource)

[1:19] - Steps to Manage your time better

[2:21] - Step 1 - Time Audit

[3:16] - What a Time Audit really does.

[3:39] - Track time using Spreadsheet or Paper or ToDoist or Toggl

[4:41] - Mike Tyson's Tattoo and Anderson Coopers Boyfriend

[5:40] - Step 2 - Minimize multitasking to become more productive

[6:23] - Only 2.5% of people can multitask - Link.

[6:32] - Stanford researchers say that multitasking, overtaxes our brain and prevents us from concentrating - Link

[8:41] - Step 3 - Taking breaks and Pomodoro Technique

[10:26] - Brain can maintain concentration for 90 minutes

[11:06] - Step 4 - Plan your work week in advance

[12:06] - Knock out the most important during your most productive time (mornings for most)

[13:27] - Saying "No" based on the week’s workload mapped out completely

Learn how to lead with resilience during times of uncertainty.

Let's build those resilience muscles! This episode is about how to lead with resilience during times of uncertainty. Here's what you'll learn:

• Find pieces of gold in the present landscape “the new normal”
• Expand your mind to expand your reach
• Focus on the things you can change (while staying out of busy-ness)
• Promotion in this strange, new world

• Marketing Rebellion by Mark Schaefer (book)
• Learn more about this with management training than can help you adapt to new times applying new practices

• Show up with Empathy & A Growth Mindset with Maria Ross
• Crisis Marketing with Jeremy Miller
• How to Implement Agile to Pivot Quicker with Rose Désauguste

[1:21] – What is Resilient Leadership, Expand vs Contracting and Focus on things to change

[3:14] – Human 2 Human Marketing is actually winning

[4:10] – Resilient Leaders reset on a daily basis and take care of their personal needs first

[5:27] - Be expansive in your thinking when the market is contracting

[6:12] – Resilient leaders are reflective and revise your vision to meet current demands

[7:11] – Resilient leaders gain momentum from what is right and positive happening around them

[8:07] - Focus on the back end of your business right now so it's running smooth, then when you get back into an uptick you have an optimized

[9:08] – Get a pulse on the feelings and emotions of your actual clients, listen and reflect

[10:33] – Resilient Leaders also pivot into market conditions

[12:36] – Resilient leaders produce quickly keeping in alignment to the true North of your business

[14:05] – Resilient Leaders promote with humanity

[16:32] - As a small business, stay tuned into what it is that the humans want because your customers are all humans

[17:37] – Reach customers on a human level as they feel valued as individuals, they understand your product and how your product helps them specifically

Founder, author, speaker, and brand strategist Maria Ross shares how you and your business can show up with empathy and a growth mindset, to pivot with spot-on messaging during challenging times.

Founder, author, speaker, and brand strategist Maria Ross shares how you and your business can show up with empathy and a growth mindset, to pivot with spot-on messaging during challenging times.

• Learn about the intersection of empathy, business, and the current health and economic crisis
• Why showing up will help you be remembered later
• How a growth mindset benefits business owners
• Learn things you need to stop — and start — doing to be successful right now
• How to pivot and adapt your message based on your customer avatar (and what people are saying)

• Maria also appeared on Why Empathy is your Business Edge with Maria Ross

• Red Slice website
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• Facebook