Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: A house isn't built without a blueprint and measuring twice and cutting once. And a business has to be the same way. You have to start off slow and grow sustainably because you don't want to burn out. I had a client who wanted to post daily on social media, and that's a great goal. But it's not sustainable to start at seven days a week. You start with one day.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Welcome to the society Gal podcast, where trailblazing female entrepreneurs and creatives come together to spark change and build their dreams. This is where your passion meets purpose. And together we're crafting a future where everyone has the tools to succeed.
Welcome to the society Gal podcast. We are so excited to have Vanessa here with us today to talk all about simplifying and slowing down to scale all the things we have. A lot of awesome things we're going to talk about today. But first, we're going to learn a little bit more about Vanessa. Vanessa, tell me how you got to where you are today and what you do today and how you help people.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: Awesome. Thank you so much, Dana. So my career started as an executive assistant at the age of 19. So over the course of 20 years, I gained a lot of experience managing different businesses, whether it was a business owner, a small business owner, an executive director, or president of a company. And because of COVID I started my VA business, virtual assistant business. But then, and when I lost my dad, who was my mentor for business and life in 2022, I felt like I needed to pivot and really share the wisdom that he gave me through empowerment. I like to help business owners become organized through systems and strategies. So I call myself a business muse, which, similar to an art muse, I can help bring out the ideas and cultivate those ideas that you have, turning your dreams into reality using systems and strategies. So I help clients who are overwhelmed with tasks, looking to automate because we're in that technology age and we need to focus on what you need to get done to get the results through. Simplifying.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: I love that. Awesome. Well, thank you for sharing that with us. And you have a lot of experience. I know you just kind of touched on. Well, I just worked, you know, I just did this. You have a lot of years and years. I mean, how many years have you been doing this in the online business world as far as, like, experience in business and online business?
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Yeah. So I have over 20 years experience as an executive assistant with business management. I also have my master's degree in business management. Totally forgot to mention that. And then I also have been running my own business for the past four years.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: Yeah, so you have. I love how, how much experience you have beyond just the online business and so many other businesses, which I think just you can bring so much, especially to this podcast brings so much to everyone who's listening to this as far as how you know, with your mass vast experience in all different businesses and how you can make their business simple.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: Yes. Simple is best. Work smarter, not harder.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: Love that. All right, so let's, let's dig in on how we can simplify our business. So let's first talk about what are small businesses doing that is over complicating their business? Because I think we have so much technology nowadays, just a massive amount of technological resources, almost too much amount too much. And information where it's like, okay, what do we do with this? What's going to work for us? And we just kind of taste test all these things and try trying to do 20 things at once. So what, what are small businesses doing really, that is really over overcomplicating their business? I'll go from there.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: Yes, they jump from one technology to another thinking that it's going to be their catch all. But sometimes there's not one platform, one software that can do everything that you need to do. And depending on where you are in your foundation, in your building of your business, you will not have the bandwidth, the capacity to really use that tool to its full potential.
[00:04:13] Speaker B: Yeah. And I felt that before, too, is really like, oh, I mean, with really good marketing from those systems, from those companies, it makes you feel like you're going to go in there and be like, yeah, it's going to solve all my problems. But I mean, I've personally found it's how you use it, and it needs longer time to be used to make it work for your business, you know, for that to happen. So what are other things are people doing that are over complicating their business that you see often?
[00:04:37] Speaker A: They keep pushing forward without looking at what they've done in the past. So some things could work that they've already tried, but now that they've come across a new technology or a new framework that they can use to apply in that process, it could make it successful. But they keep churning and they keep going for the next greatest thing of everyone selling their framework. Oh, you can get to where I'm at if you use this framework, but that's only one portion of the business. And so there's a lot of gaps being developed, and I see a lot of the entrepreneurs especially creative female entrepreneurs struggling to stay relevant. And they're trying to build bridges without knowing how to build a bridge without knowing where the gaps are, and they don't know what they need. And having a coach or a business muse can really help them unpack everything and make sure there's enough room in their bucket when repacking it.
[00:05:47] Speaker B: Yeah. So people are not reflecting enough before they move forward. Right. And I think, like you said, I think a lot of us try to keep pushing forward because we think if we just keep working on anything, we're going to get forward. But I think that's when we get stagnant or we can't move forward is because we're not looking at what we have right now. Right. Like, what is, what do we have right now? And where are the gaps? What can we analyze, which we're going to talk about in a minute. But, like, what can I work on right now instead of looking, like you said, for somebody else to give you another app or another coach to just give you the specific framework that worked for their business, that may not work for yours. So I think every business is so customized, even though we may not think it is, but I think it is. And our values are different and how we work and our heart brain works and everything, like a whole map that's so different for every person.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Oh, most definitely. And depending on who your target audience is, will really establish how automated your business can be. I have a client who her audience doesn't trust automation. They need more of the people interaction. So her business declined when she tried to automate, and it was just a huge learning curve for her and her team to realize that her target audience isn't into automation.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: You teach the wrong thing. I like how you said, you know, when we were in the prep call before, is people working on things they're not ready for. So explain that a little bit more. Like people who are not ready for something and they keep working on it.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: Right. Okay, so I have a client who has a product that she sells, a tangible product, and she wants to track inventory, but she doesn't have any inventory to track because everything is still in production phase. There's no fulfillment yet because her system is to fulfill as the orders come in. But how do you know how many orders you can accept if you don't have inventory? And so she wanted me to develop this system to track the inventory, but there was no data, no information to put into the system because she had no tangible inventory.
[00:08:01] Speaker B: And, like, what was your solution from there?
[00:08:03] Speaker A: Our solution was to break down how many tins she can make of her product and based on the amount of ingredients she has. So that way she has an idea of when she needs to order. So again, it's going step further back of like, okay, let's look at the ingredients, the individual ingredients that you need to make this product instead of looking at how much of the product you have.
[00:08:30] Speaker B: Yeah, like the final product. And that's. I love how, you know, we think we need something, or, like, let me just put all my effort into this, and it just turns into nothing for your business because it's the wrong thing to focus on. And so all these things we're talking about, which is just how we're all, we're complicating our business with certain systems or our strategies or things that are not working for us. And I love the example you gave and what we can do to figure out what is the right thing. So how can we ask the right questions to build a strong and sustainable business to scale? Like, how can we scale scale nicely? And what are the questions we need to ask ourselves?
[00:09:05] Speaker A: Yes. So I love the questions that start with who, what, when, why and how and where. There's so many W's. But some of the questions you would ask is who is your target audience? What are they struggling with? Where do they spend their time? Because if all your target audience is on Instagram but you're posting on LinkedIn, you're not going to reach them. They're not going to know that you exist and why do they need you? What are you going to offer them that can really help? And when is the best time for them to connect with you or for you to connect with them? Because everyone is in a different journey in their business. So you really need to understand whether you are dealing with those that have a good idea of what they want or just know that they want to be their own boss, that they want to have their own business. And being an entrepreneur, so you really have to understand and reflect on every aspect of the business in order to establish a strong foundation. And that way, once you have the foundation, you're able to clear away some of the busyness, some of the debris that was created in building, but you have it in your back pocket. So you're going to be able to implement that bathroom renovation when you're ready, when you have the following, when you have the audience's attention.
[00:10:37] Speaker B: Yeah, it's really common that I think a lot of us just go into business and almost skip over the foundation. We're just like, let me just, I'm starting to get sales. I'm starting to get this. So, you know, what I'm doing is working, but that doesn't work for a long period of time. Right? I'm sure you.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: Yes, you want to develop something that's sustainable. Like, I had a client who wanted to post daily on social media, and that's a great goal. But it's not sustainable to start at seven days a week. You start with one day and you do that until it doesn't take as much effort as it first did. Then you add a second day and a third day after a while could be weeks or months. You're posting seven days. So you reach that level of comfort where you don't feel like you're spending energy in order to do something for your business. It's just second nature.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Building those habits. And it really is. When we talked about it before, even just the slow path to scaling is so much better. It is. And I've had to break down my business and rescale it to get down to that foundation because you're right. You kind of talked about that. You get debris, all this, like these layers that start building, that become trash in your business, that become like all this, you know, the fog, the trash that's in your business. And sometimes I think as entrepreneurs, I think many entrepreneurs have done this, is you have to break your business down to build it back up. And for those who are listening, who or newer, it's nice to start out slow in the beginning so that those foundational pieces you're talking about, Vanessa, are coming together and your business is at a better place to take on more clients or to take on more work or to do that new offer or something. But it does start in all that foundational work. And again, right. Just because you're getting sale doesn't mean your business is going to last more than a year. And even if you get some people have a problem with too many sales, and then you can't, you know, you can't hold on to your business because you're so overwhelmed with sales. And so, like you said, systems help us do that and automations and things like that. But I love those questions of who, what, where, why and when and asking those questions. And so can you give me an example or an example of like, a client that you kind of took this process with that may have had, you know, this kind of business that was messy and, you know, you've helped them, like, ask those questions to themselves and get them to a better, clearer place.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Yeah. So with my client, who has a tangible product, we really had to determine why she was selling what she was selling. We needed to establish her mission and her vision for her business. And those are key factors of, like, identifying your. Why? Why are you doing this? Do you want to have a job, or do you want to have a business? Do you want to work for your business, or do you want your business to work for you?
Those are huge, differentiating ideas, because you want to not have your business, your work, feel like work, because you love it and you don't want to get burnt out by it. You want your business to be sustainable so that way you can live your best life and your dream life.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: I love these questions because I think often, as entrepreneurs, we forget that we run our own business, so we get to make it what it needs to be, what it needs to do, like, make it how we want to make it, and how does it affect our life and all those things we have control over. And I think it is hard when we have so much control over it, we forget. And almost, we want to almost be in that employee feeling of like, oh, did someone just tell me what to do? Someone just tell me what to do? And I think a lot of entrepreneurs are like, let's go find a restaurant job. Let's just have someone tell us what to do for a second, because it's hard to be the one that has to be told. We tell ourselves what to do, figure it out, and give it ourselves direction. And so that's why, when you see these questions, that's why it's so important to have these questions, because you have to figure out what you really want, you know, being that owner and leader and also, you know, almost the employee of your own business all in one person, as many of us are solopreneurs. Right. Hey, this is Dana from society gal, and I wanted to take a quick break to tell you about the society gal Academy, the exclusive membership that helps entrepreneurs like you launch, grow, and scale your business. Join weekly expert led workshops, access to on demand courses, and connect with a supportive network of go getters just like you. Are you ready to elevate your business? Visit society Gal Academy today.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: Yes. Like, you build off of plans. A house isn't built without a blueprint and measuring twice and cutting once. And a business has to be the same way. You have to start off slow and grow sustainably because you don't want to burn out. And that's where the research comes in, because I feel very lucky and blessed to have my. The experience that I do and the degree that I do. But a lot of people don't have that. And I see them struggling, and I just want to help them, because being an entrepreneur doesn't have to be as difficult as it seems.
[00:15:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it can be very simple. And so what are some ways that you've helped people simplify? Like, you know, where some simple way, like, way you've had them. Like, how has simplifying helped them get scale bigger?
[00:15:52] Speaker A: So I do analyze the systems that they use. For one client, she went into go high level, and I told her that she was not ready for go high level.
[00:16:03] Speaker B: That's crazy. It's a crazy one. That's a crazy one. I can handle. I love systems and stuff like that, but, man, for someone to be new going to high level, I get that.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: Yes. And I was like, you're not ready for go high level. You don't have a team. You don't have an agency. You need to start small. And she fought me a little bit on the go high level, but then she realized that the systems that she had in place when she was making $10,000 months was working. So she's been spending the last few months getting back to that point, and it was just a simple conversation of, hey, you're putting in all this time and effort to learn something that isn't working for you.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: So she already had systems in place that were working. Or how did you help her simplify that?
[00:16:48] Speaker A: So she had systems in place that were working, giving her $10,000 months. But I took it a step further to relieve her of that overwhelm of, like, okay, let's start off small. Let's focus on one event a month to build up your audience again. And so that's what she's been doing. And going back to the tools that she has used of an Evergreen model for that webinar or on demand, actually, she's able to grow her audience to be her $10,000 months again.
[00:17:21] Speaker B: And I feel like it often takes literally, someone telling you, just do this step. You know, just do this one thing. I mean, I personally, my business have, you know, I just like to do everything at once. Like, that feels good. That sounds good. Let's just do it. Let's just do it. But, man has that, like, you know, as those let's just do it moments happen. It builds up all this extra stuff, and then you're like, wait, how'd I get to this place of overworking? And, you know, doing all this extra stuff to manage that. Now I have this system and this system and this system and this project and this project, and you're like, well, now I'm just stuck. Like, you know, it's almost, it's almost. When you get to those like ten k months is when you're like, it really. You really start feeling it. When you're making those like hundred k years, it really, it, like, you start feeling it at that point because you're like, whoa. Like, all this work, all this management of this company, now we're doing it by myself. What I just do, you know.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: Right. And that's where looking at the financials of like, how much do you want to charge? How often do you want to charge, who do you want to charge? Those questions can. And how many hours do you want to work?
[00:18:27] Speaker B: What does it cost to do that service? Right, right.
[00:18:33] Speaker A: And I love spreadsheets and analyzing data where I can determine how much I would make or forecast a year, working x amount of hours at this rate, and making sure that I never work more than I would at a full time position. And it's a beautiful thing, being able to decide whether you're going to work from your bed, your backyard, the beach, or on a trip.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: Yeah. I like how you said these questions help you understand what money means. Almost. You bring the money in, but what does it mean in your life?
It's always taking a step backwards of like, how do I want to work? How many hours do I want to work? How about, you know, what are my priorities, my family? You know, I need to be available at nights to read books to my kids, things like that. That, like, I have no eyesight of my business, but it took me a while to get to that place of like, you know, I don't need to work my butt off at 24 hours a day. That's not what I wanted to do. Like, yeah, I think there's a time for that sometimes, but I don't think that should be consistent thing that happens over five plus years of just non stop working and never being there, you know, because I feel like we have to, like, we have to be working and hustling that whole hustle culture. Like, we have to hustle to get to where we want to be. But I don't think that's necessarily true.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: Yeah, and that brings a lot of overwhelm, too, especially when you're trying to do multiple different tasks at once because you've set up these systems, but now you're stuck doing them. Last year I myself had two podcasts going, one released on Monday and one released on Friday every week. And then I was like, no, I don't want to have to do that anymore. So I went down to one podcast a week. And you're allowed to do that. It's your business.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: It is. It is. And you test something and you make it work for you. Like, wait, why? This is preventing me from doing this, which is my, you know, a really high priority thing in my life. And that's when you can make those decisions is like, what are my priorities? What are my values? You know? So I really love those reflection, a continual reflection of what is this doing for me, what is it not doing for me, and what do I need right now? Which truly is a daily thing. Like, it truly is. And when I think when we're in that awareness stage, we can really build a business that works for us and not and really just step out of that hustle culture of scaling really into the slow scaling. So slow scaling is so peaceful and it feels good. And, you know, there's just simple, like how you keep saying one thing at a time, one thing at a time, because it really is. When you make that one thing really amazing, that's scaling, make that one thing really amazing. So then you can go to the next thing to make it really amazing. But it's all that, like whole multitasking of. Yeah, you can do 25 tasks at once, but you're gonna do it at like 20% energy compared to one at hundred percent. And we really want that quality bill, right?
[00:21:21] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. And example, I know that we're probably all moms listening to the podcast, but my son was doing his homework packet last night, and he was counting the pages that he had left to do. And it was. I could sense that it was overwhelming him. And I was like, just focus on the one that's in front of you. Don't worry about the other ones. They'll get done eventually. Worry about the one that's in front of you. And I actually created a little framework, daily planner, where you brain dump everything that you need to do, and then you choose three things from that list to focus on for the day. Everything else can wait until the next day.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: I truly can't. I do the top three, too. I do my top three always. I saw, I look at my planner right now, has my top one to three. Sometimes I don't put three. My, all I need to do is this one thing today, but it truly is like, you feel like you, you feel like it's not possible. But it is. And so many things can wait. So many things can wait. They can. So I love that, like, really prioritizing. Look at one thing at a time, because when you complete that one thing, you feel really good and it makes you want to do the next thing.
[00:22:27] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: Awesome. So let's. Let's dig into. We're still, you know, talking about the right questions to ask ourselves when we're scaling, when we're growing our business. So the next thing is like the. The smart goals, which I think we've all heard of smart goals. But how do you think it's still essential to our business? And how do you use them with your clients or really encourage other people to use them?
[00:22:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I love smart goals because it's part of work. Smarter, not harder. And smart stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound. So you have to ask those who, what, where, why, and how questions to find out if your goal is specific enough. An example could be, I need to post more on social media. Okay, but that's not specific. I need to post more videos on my Instagram reels on a regular basis. So that's more specific, measurable. You use measurable to have the analytics and the data to see what's working and what's not working. So you can track it by views, or you can track it by insights or depending on what you are working on. That's what you track it on. Enrollments, sign ups, downloads for your lead magnet. There's many different ways to measure things. You want to make it attainable. You don't want to start off by setting a goal that you're going to post seven times a day.
[00:23:55] Speaker B: I'll highlight the attainable one. Attainable. Attainable. Highlight extra highlight.
[00:24:00] Speaker A: Attainable is huge and relevant. You don't want to be spending time doing work that isn't going to help you in the long run. An example is a client of mine is making tea. She wants to expand to other blends, but she shouldn't expand to other products, not yet. So it's not relevant for her to start selling t shirts or bags when she's selling chai tea.
[00:24:30] Speaker B: Ooh, I want some chai tea right now, y'all. All different flavors of chai tea. Give me all the flavors. Give me all the mixes.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: Yes, yes. And then time bound. The t sets a time limit, so you can set it by the end of the week, by the end of the day, by the end of the month, quarter, the year.
What do you want to accomplish in this timeframe. And that's how you use smart goals.
[00:24:57] Speaker B: I love that. And that's. I mean, that's why we learned it in school, everybody. I mean, I know I learned it in school. There's a reason why they're teaching us this. I mean, because. And now in business, these smart goals make a lot of more sense than it did in, let's say, high school when they're trying to teach it to us. But in business, it really is. These are literally the questions, even subconsciously. You know, I ask myself when I'm trying to create a goal or a system or something, but I really love. I mean, the acronym just really helps remind you to stay on the right path when you are creating a project or a goal or something like that and highlighting attainable under there, because we all want to. We all want to do more than we can actually handle sometimes, but everything really helps us do those small little steps and make it achievable. So I love that. And is there any other examples you have, like, helping someone with this? I mean, it sounds like you just kind of bring people through, right, this kind of system and help them ask that question of why are you doing what you're doing? And is this attainable? Is this, you know, kind of the person in the ear be like, wait, is this the right thing to do? Yeah.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: And I love process improvement. I have always been trying to work smarter, not harder. Like, how many times do I have touch this piece of paper? How many times do I have to touch this file? How many times do I have to do this task in this many steps? Is there an easier way? And that's when I start researching for tools to help me automate.
[00:26:21] Speaker B: Yeah. And figure out those things. Well, I love that. I really love all your examples of, you know, just being able to work on one thing at a time and really focus on the simplest way we can do things. And not the most best app strategy that we need, but more of, like, what's the simplest way we could do this? One thing that doesn't take a lot of our energy. And I think that's, like, the biggest question you want to ask yourself, what's the simplest way to do this? Am I making this too complicated? Because I know, like me and probably many others that are listening to this over complicate one simple thing we need to do, and I'm sure you find that with all your clients, is we're overcomplicating it because we're second guessing ourselves or doubting ourselves or we, you know, we want to be like somebody else, but I think it all goes back down to our values. Right. And wanting to make sure it aligns with us. So I love that. Awesome. Just like, just to end the podcast, what's a failure turn learning lesson or a learning lesson you've had in your business that you want to share with everybody?
[00:27:16] Speaker A: Yeah. So I recently had a team of interns, six interns, all unpaid interns that I had coordinated with a San Diego State University. And last semester I only had one, one turn. So I went from one to six. And I quickly learned that that was too many to manage going from one. So it was definitely a learning lesson of not following my own advice of starting off small. But the biggest thing was having enough.
[00:27:49] Speaker B: Work for them to do. Yeah, yeah. And just being ready to get to that point. Yeah. Because I feel like we can just get so in our head of, like, that sounds so great, but the whole execution part is what we forget to remind ourselves. Like, our other, our logical part of our brain is, like, doesn't get there yet. It's just kind of lagging, you know?
[00:28:06] Speaker A: Right, right. So next term, I'm gonna probably only have two interns.
[00:28:11] Speaker B: Yes. And we learn. Right.
[00:28:13] Speaker A: We.
[00:28:13] Speaker B: So that's why I always love this question. That's usually at the end of the podcast, because we all, that's just part of entrepreneurship. It's part of life. Like, we're going to fail. We're gonna do something wrong. And, you know, the best we can do is look at it and see how we can improve. Right. That's the best way we can go. Go forward with it. So I love that. Awesome. Where can everyone connect with you and find you and Isdev, if there's anything else you're working on or a new project, also share that as well.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: Awesome. Yeah. So I have an event coming up that you can find on eventbrite through mariposasources.com. and it is for creative thinking of how to think outside of the box, for problem solving solutions.
[00:28:50] Speaker B: Love that. And where can they find you? On social media and stuff.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: So, on social media, Mariposa sources is my handle for Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, everything.
[00:29:02] Speaker B: And you have a podcast, right?
[00:29:03] Speaker A: Yes, I have a podcast that's available through Spotify, Google Podcast, Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen to your podcast.
[00:29:11] Speaker B: What can people learn from that podcast?
[00:29:13] Speaker A: On my podcast, empowered entrepreneur, I interview different guests myself and really probe their experience, their expertise, whether it's marketing, email marketing, website design, or just how they've grown their business. All empowering entrepreneurs. Love that.
[00:29:34] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on, Vanessa. It was so good to have you.
[00:29:38] Speaker A: Thank you, Dana.
