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Speaker 1: banking services provided by Green Dot Bank member FDIC. Hi everyone,
Speaker 1: I'm jinnyse Torres.
Speaker 2: And I'm Austin Hankwitz, and welcome to another episode of
Speaker 2: Mind the Business Small Business Success Stories, a podcast brought
Speaker 2: to you by Ruby Studios from iHeartMedia and Into It QuickBooks.
Speaker 1: In each episode, we chat with entrepreneurs and small business
Speaker 1: owners as they share their stories about the successes and
Speaker 1: challenges of owning and growing a business. This episode is
Speaker 1: a very special episode.
Speaker 2: That's right, this is our own personal holiday gift to you.
Speaker 2: This is a bonus episode, but it's not just any
Speaker 2: bonus episode. We recorded our interview with business and leadership
Speaker 2: coach mary Ella de la Mora live from the Into
Speaker 2: It Innovation Summit, and we're really excited because at the
Speaker 2: summit we talked to Mariyella about a very unique type
Speaker 2: of entrepreneurship, and that's solopreneurship.
Speaker 1: Yes, and Austin, even though you and I now work
Speaker 1: with other people at this point in our career, we
Speaker 1: are both very familiar with solopreneurship as it's how we
Speaker 1: operated for so long and for so many people. Growth
Speaker 1: does not include employees or building a staff. For freelancers
Speaker 1: and artists and many others, it makes the most sense
Speaker 1: to remain a solopreneur. But I'm curious, Austin, when you
Speaker 1: were a solopreneur, how did you define success for your business?
Speaker 2: For me, I define success as progress.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: So rewind three years ago and Austin Hankwitz is over there,
Speaker 2: pluging away, trying to write the best newsletter he could
Speaker 2: host the best live streams possible and begin to monetize
Speaker 2: his audience in a meaningful way. And as solopreneurs, we
Speaker 2: aren't given a playbook. No one's saying go do this, now,
Speaker 2: go do this, and now go do that. Right, we
Speaker 2: have to make those decisions for ourselves. So when I'm
Speaker 2: thinking to myself, Okay, I just quit my job, what
Speaker 2: should I be doing now, keeping that idea of consistent
Speaker 2: progress and one step at a time in mind was
Speaker 2: paramount for my success. But Jenius, I know solopreneurship means
Speaker 2: a lot of different things for a lot of different people.
Speaker 2: What does success mean to you as a solopreneur?
Speaker 1: For me, it means doing more of what you enjoy
Speaker 1: and less of what you don't because you are on
Speaker 1: your own. So in the beginning of my journey, I
Speaker 1: was trying to throw so many different things at the wall,
Speaker 1: and not everything was necessarily worth my time and effort,
Speaker 1: and especially not when you're trying to piecemeal a paycheck
Speaker 1: with a bunch of different tasks and opportunities. So I
Speaker 1: started getting really clear on what are those things that
Speaker 1: I enjoy doing, What are those things that have a
Speaker 1: higher return on investment for my time? And then what's
Speaker 1: the stuff that I can automate to maybe a software
Speaker 1: or maybe just removing it from my business processes altogether
Speaker 1: that are going to allow me to make more while
Speaker 1: not also working more. And I like to tell newbie
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and especially the solopreneurs, if you create a rat race,
Speaker 1: that's your fault at this point because this is your business.
Speaker 1: So you have to be the one that dictates where
Speaker 1: those boundaries exist.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. Now what do you say? We jump
Speaker 2: into our great conversation that was recorded live from the
Speaker 2: Intuit Innovation Summit with our guest solopreneur Mary Ella de
Speaker 2: la Mora.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and a quick note to our listeners, don't forget
Speaker 1: to keep listening after the interview, as Austin and I
Speaker 1: share some major mind the business news with you at
Speaker 1: the end of the episode.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
Speaker 1: Hey everyone, I'm Austin Hankwotz and I am Janice Torres
Speaker 1: and this is Mine the Business Small Business Success Stories,
Speaker 1: a podcast brought to you by Into It QuickBooks and iHeartRadio,
Speaker 1: and we're coming to you live from the Innovation Summit
Speaker 1: in Northern California. Austin, I don't know about you, but
Speaker 1: I am so excited for two reasons. First Off, this
Speaker 1: is my first visit to like a tech company, and
Speaker 1: I'm just like, I get it. I totally get why
Speaker 1: y'all are doing this, okay, and honestly, from a creator's perspective,
Speaker 1: we couldn't do what we do without companies like you.
Speaker 1: We literally rely on software and the brilliant people that
Speaker 1: build it to do what we do. So thank you
Speaker 1: first of all for everything that you do for creators
Speaker 1: like us. And I'm excited because we're talking about things
Speaker 1: that are near and dear to our hearts. Solopreneurship and
Speaker 1: defining success in a different.
Speaker 2: Way, absolutely right. And to help us dive into these topics,
Speaker 2: we are joined by mary Ella de la Mora. Maryelle
Speaker 2: is an EQ certified business and leadership coach, helping women
Speaker 2: of color grow their businesses and their teams through proven
Speaker 2: identity specific mindset and leadership practices. Prior to her solopreneurship journey,
Speaker 2: Mariella worked as a director of marketing for sixteen years,
Speaker 2: where she helped build multi billion dollar companies and startups
Speaker 2: help them build their profitable brands while growing and leading
Speaker 2: award nominated marketing teams all around the world. Today, she
Speaker 2: helps entrepreneurs and working professionals become competent and empowered leaders
Speaker 2: by infusing identity specific mindset, emotional intelligence, and business strategy.
Speaker 2: Mary Ella.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Yea. So let's rewind to the early days of the business.
Speaker 1: HM.
Speaker 2: You know, you have this great experience working for these
Speaker 2: multi billion dollar companies and the startups. You've done this
Speaker 2: for sixteen years. Now, where do the idea for this
Speaker 2: business really stem from? And as you were sort of
Speaker 2: getting your reps in, were there any really big obstacles
Speaker 2: that you had to overcome that were like, wait a second,
Speaker 2: if I could do that, maybe I can actually do
Speaker 2: this for a living.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the idea for the business it isn't like one
Speaker 3: aha moment. I don't know. I rarely see that that's
Speaker 3: the case. I think we all start with one small thing.
Speaker 3: It's kind of like you just know to plant a
Speaker 3: seed and then you just start watering that seed and
Speaker 3: you're like, I don't really know if this is a
Speaker 3: seed for like a fruit tree or a plant, Like
Speaker 3: I don't really know what this is, but I'm just
Speaker 3: going to start doing it. So I really just started
Speaker 3: by a discovering that coaching was so much bigger than
Speaker 3: like executive coaching, sports coaches, you know, things like that,
Speaker 3: Like there was coaches for so many different areas of life,
Speaker 3: and I just started sharing my story and you know,
Speaker 3: helping people with marketing because that was a transferable skill.
Speaker 3: So I was like, cool, what's my most obvious transferable skill?
Speaker 3: And I talked about marketing and then I talked about
Speaker 3: this other thing that I saw as separate, which was like,
Speaker 3: how my identity was being challenged by trying to do
Speaker 3: this thing. And then I found this is like where
Speaker 3: the community came in because I had already built the
Speaker 3: community that I had so many people that just had
Speaker 3: followed me for that that they were like me too.
Speaker 3: And that's what brought up the curiosity around why are
Speaker 3: all of these brilliant, successful, high achieving people all having
Speaker 3: similar struggles that I don't necessarily see to the same
Speaker 3: degree outside of our community. It definitely self doubt exists
Speaker 3: for everyone, but that's really what it was. It's like
Speaker 3: starting to think about sharing your story. A lot of
Speaker 3: the times will show certain things, but I really was
Speaker 3: always kind of looking at what is like an unmet
Speaker 3: need that I'm seeing happening that I'm curious about solving.
Speaker 1: You know, one thing I found with solopreneurs is like
Speaker 1: that first time that you're successful. You don't actually believe
Speaker 1: that you did that. Oh yeah, you think it's like
Speaker 1: a fluke, and you're like, I don't have any idea
Speaker 1: how this happened, don't ask me. Yeah, and if someone
Speaker 1: asks you, okay, let's do it again, You're.
Speaker 3: Like, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't even know what to do.
Speaker 1: Okay, So how do you combat those feelings to actually
Speaker 1: own the success that you created.
Speaker 3: It took me a while because it's still happens. It
Speaker 3: does not matter how much evidence you have. You're just like,
Speaker 3: that's it.
Speaker 2: It's over.
Speaker 3: Like I ran out stuff to say, so I have
Speaker 3: had to because this is my marketing brain. That's like,
Speaker 3: we need data, we need data. What is the data
Speaker 3: that now? Because I've had to coach so many of
Speaker 3: my clients through like yeah, but like I'm scared and
Speaker 3: like I'm not booking sales calls and I'm just like,
Speaker 3: but didn't you just do this thing like last quarter?
Speaker 3: Like yeah, but it's only because like if someone referred
Speaker 3: that person and this other person like heard about me
Speaker 3: from someone else, and I'm like, but they wouldn't work
Speaker 3: with you if you were like bad at what you do.
Speaker 3: So I've literally had to create data. So like I
Speaker 3: created something for my clients called success receipts, and it's
Speaker 3: like if you were to go to a restaurant, it's
Speaker 3: like what did you buy? Like what did you do?
Speaker 3: So I'm like what did you do? Like what did
Speaker 3: you do for marketing? How many offers did you make?
Speaker 3: What thoughts were you having? What unhelpful thoughts were you having?
Speaker 3: Did you get coached? What did you surrender? Like what
Speaker 3: did you stop worrying about? Because success always comes with
Speaker 3: like you let something go. You're just like, you know what,
Speaker 3: I'm so tied. I'm just gonna like let it be.
Speaker 3: And when they document it, like they've been able to
Speaker 3: go back and be like, oh, I'm literally just not
Speaker 3: making offers. And sometimes the answer is a lot simpler
Speaker 3: than our minds want to make it. So I really
Speaker 3: am an advocate of like document the things that are
Speaker 3: working for you, because you are going to forget and
Speaker 3: you're going to think it's over and you want to
Speaker 3: show your brain evidence. Showing your brain evidence is like
Speaker 3: a literal entrepreneurial skill because it'll say some crazy stuff
Speaker 3: to you when it's scared.
Speaker 2: I love the idea of those success per seats I
Speaker 2: need to check that one out for myself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in your recollection, what is felt like the big
Speaker 1: break for you in business when where you're just like, ooh,
Speaker 1: there's something happening here.
Speaker 3: Oof.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: So I started my coaching business right before the pandemic,
Speaker 3: and I just remember it took so long to get
Speaker 3: my first client that I think at a certain point
Speaker 3: you think like, I don't know, this is my take forever.
Speaker 3: And I think a couple months in, I feel like
Speaker 3: I found my groove, like I found my message, and
Speaker 3: then it started to come back to back and I
Speaker 3: remember telling myself if I land three clients in two months,
Speaker 3: I'm going to quit my job. And I kind of
Speaker 3: said that because I was like that's crazy, like that's
Speaker 3: probably not going to happen. And then it did happen,
Speaker 3: and so I think that was the moment where I
Speaker 3: was like, oh, this is the thing. It can happen
Speaker 3: a lot faster than you think, and it's not linear.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. So I guess my first question right is we're
Speaker 2: both solopreneurs, myself and Genia's here, So what does it
Speaker 2: mean to you to be a solopreneur? Like what are
Speaker 2: the advantages and the disadvantages that come with that title.
Speaker 3: Well, first thing that came to mind was solopreneur is
Speaker 3: like I came from corporate sixteen years. I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: so your marketing, you're like product development, you are research
Speaker 3: and development, your HR, you're like all the things. So
Speaker 3: I think being a solopreneur really means like being agile, learning,
Speaker 3: teaching yourself things, getting it wrong, kind of just being
Speaker 3: willing to like messily wear all of the hats and
Speaker 3: know that you're just going to do the best you
Speaker 3: can because you're just learning. When you work for a company,
Speaker 3: you kind of have to like vet things and there's
Speaker 3: like layers, right, But when it's you, you're like I
Speaker 3: can decide if I want to try again, if I
Speaker 3: want to do something differently. So I feel like your
Speaker 3: brain kind of clicks to become like a scientist in
Speaker 3: a way. So I feel like the disadvantages it's all
Speaker 3: on you, but the advantages is also all on you,
Speaker 3: and you can just learn really quickly. And I think
Speaker 3: for me, there's a lot of advantages in the sense
Speaker 3: that like, part of the reason that I worked for
Speaker 3: myself was that I'm a single parent. My daughter is six,
Speaker 3: and I had climbed high enough up on the corporate
Speaker 3: ladder that I knew it was never going to be
Speaker 3: chill for me. So I'm able to like be the
Speaker 3: PTA mom, go volunteer at school and like do those
Speaker 3: things with her, and I can decide that I want
Speaker 3: to take a month off in July to take her
Speaker 3: on trips. So it really is the freedom, but it
Speaker 3: is also like two sides of the coin of it
Speaker 3: all being on you. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I always tell people, if you on the fastest path
Speaker 1: to personal development, go start business, yep, because you're going
Speaker 1: to confront every toxic narrative that's floating through your mind
Speaker 1: in one way or another, either by yourself or with
Speaker 1: the help of a therapist. Right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, therapy is like a mandatory when you have a business.
Speaker 3: I feel like it should be a business expense, honestly.
Speaker 3: So what does success mean to you and your business
Speaker 3: and how has that changed over time? I think now
Speaker 3: it means feeling at peace and feeling like I'm in control.
Speaker 3: I have freedom, I can make the decisions. That's also
Speaker 3: difficult sometimes, but that and also feeling like I'm making
Speaker 3: an impact and something that like really really really matters
Speaker 3: to me and that's something that I didn't have before.
Speaker 3: So I served first chen and I'm a daughter of immigrants,
Speaker 3: so I feel like it just couldn't possibly be more
Speaker 3: meaningful because I'm the one that decided, like what the
Speaker 3: meaning is and who I wanted to help and what
Speaker 3: problem I really like on fire to solve and think
Speaker 3: about every single day. So that's what success means now.
Speaker 3: But it used to mean like getting the accolades and
Speaker 3: like my job title and how much money I made
Speaker 3: and my grades. And it changed from some other system
Speaker 3: deciding like what was good versus me sort of setting
Speaker 3: that standard. And that's just huge because children of immigrants,
Speaker 3: like we really just want to make our parents proud,
Speaker 3: like we want to be their American dream, right. So
Speaker 3: I think that's been the biggest shift, is like me
Speaker 3: defining what that looks like for myself.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, small business owners,
Speaker 2: especially entrepreneurs and solopreneurs. Right, we see the headlines of
Speaker 2: that one person who raised twenty million dollars at this
Speaker 2: billion you know whatever, right, and we kind of benchmark
Speaker 2: ourselves against that. It's like, wait, should I be doing that?
Speaker 2: They're younger than me, They're all like whatever that looks
Speaker 2: like the dynamic in actuality, like just having that self
Speaker 2: reflection and saying what am I doing this for? What
Speaker 2: is my path? Like? That's so powerful?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, So we know that the road to entrepreneurship is
Speaker 1: a bit lonely. So how do you find the support
Speaker 1: when you're self employed? And how or in his community
Speaker 1: been to you in your business? Oh man, you absolutely
Speaker 1: like need your community. I think that one thing that
Speaker 1: I didn't realize I was doing early on, like before
Speaker 1: I had ever made any money. I found community mostly
Speaker 1: because I knew in my mind, this is a little
Speaker 1: delusional to everything that I was raised to be like,
Speaker 1: which is hard working, like he the hardest worker in
Speaker 1: the room, you know, make your parents proud. And I
Speaker 1: was like, I just want to go find other delusional
Speaker 1: people who are like asking themselves the same questions, who
Speaker 1: are like having this existential crisis, but they're all about it.
Speaker 3: And they're like, yeah, like this is what I'm thinking
Speaker 3: of doing. And so I actually knew to find community
Speaker 3: before I knew what I was selling. So I found
Speaker 3: courses that had Facebook groups that had communities built in,
Speaker 3: and I just like met as many people as possible,
Speaker 3: and that helped to change my brain to say, maybe
Speaker 3: I'm not so crazy, Like there's other people that are
Speaker 3: asking themselves similar questions, and I don't think that I
Speaker 3: could have done it honestly if that wasn't normalized for me,
Speaker 3: Because I think that when you're doing something that you've
Speaker 3: never done before, that maybe your family like hasn't modeled before.
Speaker 3: It's so easy to go back and say like I'm
Speaker 3: not cut out for this, or this doesn't make sense,
Speaker 3: or it's taking too long, or I'm doing something wrong,
Speaker 3: but your community will remind you like, no, this is
Speaker 3: just part of what comes with the territory. Are you
Speaker 3: the eldest daughter by anygs? Okay, yeah, I thought so too,
Speaker 3: my eldest daughter.
Speaker 2: Problems, Yes, so mary Ella, What would you say to
Speaker 2: the small business owner or solopreneurs specifically right now listening
Speaker 2: who just got started. Maybe they just you know, hit
Speaker 2: that first goal. It's their big break, but they have
Speaker 2: no idea where to start. As it relates to building relationships,
Speaker 2: finding community, is it a conference? Is it the Facebook groups? Like?
Speaker 2: How truly step by step? Can someone go out and
Speaker 2: find those people?
Speaker 3: Oh? Man? I always think about like where are people
Speaker 3: like me that are also like looking for the same answers.
Speaker 3: So for me and what I've seen, it is like
Speaker 3: these events in person, going to meet people. Some of
Speaker 3: it could be online summits, it could be going to
Speaker 3: join a group, even if it's just for the community,
Speaker 3: Like there are these early stage entrepreneur groups where like
Speaker 3: you're finding out what your thing is and like how
Speaker 3: to monetize it, just anything where other like minded people are.
Speaker 3: So I know that during the pandemic we couldn't go
Speaker 3: and meet each other in person. I think that's why
Speaker 3: I joined so many groups during that time. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I honestly think that get on the email lists too
Speaker 3: of like anything related to personal development and entrepreneurship, because
Speaker 3: sometimes that's how you find out that there's like something
Speaker 3: going on that you can join. So that's what I did.
Speaker 3: I just plugged myself into email lists, podcasts, summits in person.
Speaker 2: So here's a fun question. Have you ever like looked
Speaker 2: at your community for answers where like you didn't think
Speaker 2: about something when then someone chimed in and said, oh,
Speaker 2: actually you should think about it this way, and you
Speaker 2: like took their advice and it worked.
Speaker 3: I feel like my business was kind of always the
Speaker 3: result of feedback to some extent, not permission, but more
Speaker 3: like validating yes, I have this need too. I also
Speaker 3: struggle with this that really hit, that really resonated. So
Speaker 3: I think your community will tell you what they need,
Speaker 3: I guess in that sense. And that's still the case
Speaker 3: because sometimes you'll see a problem or you'll see something
Speaker 3: you want to do for them, but then they'll tell
Speaker 3: you how they're thinking about it, which is kind of
Speaker 3: like when I think about my marketing brain, I always
Speaker 3: think about like speaking in your client's language. So a
Speaker 3: lot of what you do learn in like building community
Speaker 3: and listening to community is like how do they think
Speaker 3: about that thing that you want to help them with?
Speaker 3: So I think that's been really impactful too. I mean,
Speaker 3: I think that.
Speaker 1: Makes a lot of sense because you're kind of using
Speaker 1: your community as that like test group, right, So you're
Speaker 1: not just building a product and hoping you're going to
Speaker 1: find people that are going to buy it. You're actually
Speaker 1: building the excitement because you're building for the community after
Speaker 1: you've received their feedback.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's really key because I think that's one I
Speaker 3: don't gonna say like mistake, but I think that that's
Speaker 3: an idea that I had at the beginning, is you
Speaker 3: need to come up with the course and who it's for.
Speaker 3: But it's like you haven't necessarily gotten that like validated yet.
Speaker 3: So it's like the community does come first, honestly, and
Speaker 3: not everyone thinks about it that way. But I hope
Speaker 3: that that's like empowering to hear to start the community
Speaker 3: first because you don't need to have the answers, but
Speaker 3: you can start the community now just by talking about
Speaker 3: the need that you want to solve for or starting
Speaker 3: to share your story. And that actually, I think keeps
Speaker 3: a lot of people like in waiting because they think
Speaker 3: that they need to have the solution outlined one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: So something I've struggled with, you know, as a solopreneur
Speaker 2: is scaling. I only have so much time every day,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, and I can only lean in on so
Speaker 2: many productivity tools to help me achieve more in that
Speaker 2: twenty four hour period. So as a solopreneur, what does
Speaker 2: it mean to scale your business? How do you scale?
Speaker 2: And does scale even exist?
Speaker 1: To me?
Speaker 3: I found like scaling comes in so many ways it
Speaker 3: almost seems like it's this big system or something, but
Speaker 3: I think scaling a lot of times is like how
Speaker 3: do I do what I'm doing more efficiently, better with
Speaker 3: less of my time. So in a small way, one
Speaker 3: of the things that helped me scale even without a
Speaker 3: team is I'm a coach. So there have been eras
Speaker 3: of my life for a long time where I was
Speaker 3: like on fourteen coaching calls a week, but in order
Speaker 3: to get to fourteen coaching calls a week, I had
Speaker 3: to struggle with six because I was spending so much
Speaker 3: time I was trying to figure out how to help
Speaker 3: them and solve their problems. And then what would happen is, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm having three different clients have a similar problem. I
Speaker 3: just created a framework, you know, and like a lot
Speaker 3: of times, you're doing it live, and then that framework
Speaker 3: helps you help the other clients, so you're spending less time,
Speaker 3: people are getting better results. So scaling could literally just
Speaker 3: be getting better at what you do, delivering it faster, better,
Speaker 3: and then eventually it's also things like using systems, like
Speaker 3: I have content going out today that I'm not posting,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. It's things like that. It's
Speaker 3: using you know, software and systems to help you automate
Speaker 3: and schedule that actually pushes some of those things out
Speaker 3: for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Delegation, right, really being able to identify what you
Speaker 2: might be really good at but also might not be
Speaker 2: that great at, and then hiring people that can really
Speaker 2: help support you there. Yeah, I think sort of a
Speaker 2: lesson that I've learned throughout my solopreneurship journey connect conspective.
Speaker 2: What you said earlier is, you know, it's not about
Speaker 2: making more money a solopreneur, Like that's eventually going to
Speaker 2: cap out because I have so many hours a day.
Speaker 2: It comes back to am I able to drive my vision,
Speaker 2: my purpose, reasons why I'm doing this and feel good
Speaker 2: about that and be able to hit the mark every
Speaker 2: single day on that Like that to me is scale.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I like that. It's consistency. It's almost like creating
Speaker 3: a system for that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean I think I would argue too, that it
Speaker 1: would involve raising your prices so that you're actually making
Speaker 1: more by not necessarily working more. Yes, because I think
Speaker 1: that's a mistake that a lot of entrepreneurs make. We
Speaker 1: tend to undervalue our skill set because we've been kind
Speaker 1: of programmed to see our abilities as like a dollar
Speaker 1: per hour. You know when we're trying to figure out
Speaker 1: how to scale. It's also how do I charge for
Speaker 1: the transformation versus the time?
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, that's so important.
Speaker 1: Coming up on Mind the Business Small Business success.
Speaker 3: Stories, Playing it safe actually works against me because I'm
Speaker 3: not giving myself or my business what it needs, like
Speaker 3: cutting off the oxygen to the business. And there have
Speaker 3: been times where I've pulled back and been like, Okay,
Speaker 3: we need to cut here and I need to stop
Speaker 3: doing this, and then I actually struggled more. We'll be
Speaker 3: right back after the break.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Mind the Business Small Business Success Stories,
Speaker 2: brought to you by iHeartRadio and Into It QuickBooks. So,
Speaker 2: as a solopreneur, what are the essential tools and resources
Speaker 2: you use to run your business? How did you find them?
Speaker 2: How are you implementing them? Give us the play by play.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is where community is important because you'll go
Speaker 3: in and it's like, what do you guys use for this?
Speaker 3: And then people will give you their two cents because
Speaker 3: there's just there's just so much. So I do use
Speaker 3: QuickBooks for my bookkeeping. I do have an accountant though,
Speaker 3: because I don't know that I should be trusted with that.
Speaker 3: But oh my gosh. We use Canva for design, Zoom
Speaker 3: for meetings, squadcasts for podcasts, and dscript to do like
Speaker 3: AI automatic transcripts. So like I love now. I'm just like,
Speaker 3: how could we do this better and faster? How could
Speaker 3: we take a coaching call and immediately extract snippets are
Speaker 3: used Slack for like my community and I have a
Speaker 3: little hub for everything, and I think it helps me
Speaker 3: feel like I can do it all without doing.
Speaker 2: It all one hundred percent, right. Having that tech stack
Speaker 2: is really important.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true, And I think one of the things
Speaker 1: that scares people about this solopreneur journey is when you
Speaker 1: are starting to think about hiring help. Yeah, it doesn't
Speaker 1: always have to be people right away. It can be
Speaker 1: the software, absolutely. You know, something as simple as like
Speaker 1: calendarly or squarespace scheduling can take those minutes that you're
Speaker 1: spending going back and forth when can we hop on
Speaker 1: a call? Those things all can help you scale without
Speaker 1: necessarily having to hire too.
Speaker 3: Exactly. I'm thinking of flow desk to have an automated
Speaker 3: email sequence that when someone opts in, they get three
Speaker 3: emails or five emails introducing them to you and your brand,
Speaker 3: and how you can help them like that is kind
Speaker 3: of scaling and then having the calendlies and we use
Speaker 3: later for prescheduling, social media and all those things. So
Speaker 3: like these things can also like work for you. And
Speaker 3: as a solopreneur, I feel like we also are like
Speaker 3: the most adept at getting the most done with those
Speaker 3: resources because we don't default to just hiring, so you'll
Speaker 3: become like an accidental like tech x.
Speaker 2: Well, actually, you know, speaking of QuickBooks, QuickBooks money is
Speaker 2: going to be a game changer for solopreneurs. Right is
Speaker 2: offering business banking tools with a game changing five percent
Speaker 2: annual percentage yield. It allows entrepreneurs and business owners to
Speaker 2: business differently. So I'm curious, Mary Ella, how do you
Speaker 2: set yourself apart from your competitors? How do you do
Speaker 2: business differently?
Speaker 3: I think that a big part of what I do is,
Speaker 3: like I focus on what my specific community needs, meaning
Speaker 3: like how their backgrounds and their lived experiences are creating
Speaker 3: specific challenges that I can solve. So I'm a leadership coach,
Speaker 3: I'm a business coach, and I'm a leadership coach. I
Speaker 3: kind of give you an example that when I was
Speaker 3: certified as a leadership coach. We were taught someone has
Speaker 3: a certain emotional intelligence ranking in a certain area, how
Speaker 3: do we build it? But I always come in with
Speaker 3: the curiosity of, like, why is this particularly hard for
Speaker 3: my people? And then if you can solve a niche
Speaker 3: problem for your people. That's what I think sets me
Speaker 3: apart is that I really do center the first gen community.
Speaker 3: I don't just say I want to help them because
Speaker 3: I'm first gen. I'm actually like studying them and studying
Speaker 3: their brain, studying why do they struggle with the things
Speaker 3: that they do, why are they so great at the
Speaker 3: things that they're great at? And how can I become
Speaker 3: the best person with that lens. That's I think how
Speaker 3: anyone can set themselves apart is really thinking about like
Speaker 3: your specific person. But that's always been it for me.
Speaker 2: That's so powerful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I really love that approach. So I know you've
Speaker 3: probably learned a lot of lessons along the way as
Speaker 3: a solopreneur. What do you wish you'd known at the beginning?
Speaker 3: That's a good question. I think it's that I'm going
Speaker 3: to learn how to hold ups and downs and like
Speaker 3: I don't want to say positive emotions or nega of
Speaker 3: emotions because there aren't. But I wish that I knew
Speaker 3: that solopreneurship was going to introduce me to like the
Speaker 3: full human experience, because I think that for such a
Speaker 3: long time, and many of us think like, something's wrong
Speaker 3: with you because you're having a hard time or because
Speaker 3: you have self doubt, but it really is part of
Speaker 3: the process, and so I think, instead of judging it,
Speaker 3: it's like, Okay, well, what do I need? How can
Speaker 3: community help me? How can a coach or literally going
Speaker 3: to therapy? And I don't really see them as like
Speaker 3: positive or negative anymore. Sometimes I even look at what
Speaker 3: you would perceive to be negative emotion, like something like
Speaker 3: imposter syndrome, right, and being like, okay, imposter syndrome is
Speaker 3: showing me that, like I'm doing something that passed me,
Speaker 3: didn't think was possible, and now I'm like, okay, bring
Speaker 3: it up. Now. This is telling me I'm adding in
Speaker 3: the right direction. It's getting comfortable being uncomfortable, yeah, constantly,
Speaker 3: and then what feels comfortable, You're like, what's next?
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's been the hardest lesson that you've had to learn?
Speaker 1: Because you know, despite what social media says entrepreneurship, it's
Speaker 1: not always unicorns and rainbows.
Speaker 3: Man, there's been a lot. I don't know if it's
Speaker 3: like a lesson. I'd say that, like, my relationship with
Speaker 3: money is probably tested more than anything in my entire
Speaker 3: life because you don't have a paycheck. I mean, I'm
Speaker 3: an escorp now, so I have a paycheck, but I'm
Speaker 3: also the person who provides the money for the paycheck.
Speaker 3: The hardest part for me, and I think this is
Speaker 3: very much like a first gen thing and being a
Speaker 3: single parent that I'm like, I have to learn how
Speaker 3: to trust myself. And I think the harder lesson was
Speaker 3: more that sometimes like playing it safe actually works against
Speaker 3: me because I'm not giving myself or my business what
Speaker 3: it needs, like cutting off the oxygen to the business.
Speaker 3: And there have been times where I've pulled back and
Speaker 3: been like, Okay, we need to cut here and I
Speaker 3: need to stop doing this, and then I actually struggled more.
Speaker 3: So I think that that is probably one of the
Speaker 3: hardest lessons. Was like, your relationship with money is an
Speaker 3: entrepreneurial skill.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. So I struggle with this, But I
Speaker 2: really want to hear your answer, especially for the person
Speaker 2: listening right now who is also probably struggling with this problem.
Speaker 2: I've got contractors, I've got vendors, I've got all these
Speaker 2: things that I'm managing behind the scenes as a solopreneur.
Speaker 2: What tips, tricks, hacks, ideas, how do you really hone
Speaker 2: in on that skill and be able to sort of
Speaker 2: organize that and keep it flowing. So you're scaling your.
Speaker 3: Business with like getting everybody kind of doing well exactly
Speaker 3: needs to be done. I have just found like one
Speaker 3: of the biggest challenges is like there isn't actually like
Speaker 3: clear written expectations. It's kind of like you bring someone
Speaker 3: in and then you're like, Okay, I'm just going to
Speaker 3: like verbally explain it to them, but you don't have
Speaker 3: like standards like do we have a policy on like
Speaker 3: what have I actually documented what it is that I want?
Speaker 3: And that's part of scaling is almost like turning a
Speaker 3: decision into a policy and so bringing people into your
Speaker 3: business like having clear like this is exactly what I
Speaker 3: want you to do by when how do we know
Speaker 3: that we're actually giving clear instruction? So I think is
Speaker 3: that's like part of it. And I think also just
Speaker 3: clear priorities because I think part of even where like
Speaker 3: contractors will struggle is like we'll tell them this is
Speaker 3: what we're doing, but then we'll come in with like
Speaker 3: a bunch of conflicting other things and then we're not
Speaker 3: planning far enough ahead sometimes and you know, things happen.
Speaker 3: But I think that just leaders will send conflicting messages
Speaker 3: to like their teams, and then that's kind of what
Speaker 3: keeps everybody scrambling, and it's inevitable. But I think creating
Speaker 3: systems of like and then how do you want to
Speaker 3: be kept informed when all those things and you're not
Speaker 3: going to know all that stuff up front? Literally every
Speaker 3: single time something goes wrong, every single time, I'm always like, cool,
Speaker 3: do I need to make a decision about this? And
Speaker 3: if so, I'm going to document it. And if something
Speaker 3: went wrong, why what is the root cause of this
Speaker 3: so we can solve it one time forever. So I
Speaker 3: think a big part of leadership is like what's the
Speaker 3: root cause? Instead of just being like, oh, we forgot
Speaker 3: to loop in this person, it's like, how can we
Speaker 3: make sure that this doesn't happen in the future. And
Speaker 3: even when I give back to contractors, it's never about
Speaker 3: like why did you do this? It's like what happened
Speaker 3: in like the process that this was missed, and like,
Speaker 3: how can we make sure that like we clean this up.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 1: I feel like you have a bit of an engineering
Speaker 1: brain because I'm thinking, like, it sounds like you're talking
Speaker 1: about SOPs or standard operating procedures, right, Yeah, And that's
Speaker 1: one of those things I had to figure out too,
Speaker 1: when I was looking at getting additional support, Like I mean,
Speaker 1: we have an SOP for how to record a podcast
Speaker 1: episode or like how to book a podcast guest, and
Speaker 1: you don't think about how many steps you have to
Speaker 1: take personally to do this. But then when you're trying
Speaker 1: to explain to somebody else like how this actually works,
Speaker 1: writing things down is very very useful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then you actually get to empty your brain,
Speaker 3: because that's the thing about when you have a business.
Speaker 3: Your brain is such a busy place that I think
Speaker 3: about an SOP as like emptying it out. And if
Speaker 3: I'm going to give directions, sometimes what I'll do is like, hey,
Speaker 3: we forgot to do this, or I'm like I we
Speaker 3: literally didn't forget. I never told you to do it,
Speaker 3: And then I'm like, can you write that down for me?
Speaker 3: You don't even have to be the person doing it
Speaker 3: if you have somebody supporting me. I'm just a big
Speaker 3: visionary thinker and I don't like writing words down, but
Speaker 3: you can actually ask for help to be like, can
Speaker 3: we just document that this is going to be like
Speaker 3: our decision moving forward on how we want to do stuff.
Speaker 2: So I guess my last question here really that I'm
Speaker 2: super curious about is if I rewind my solopreneurship journey
Speaker 2: about two years ago. Now, it was so hard for
Speaker 2: me to like really stay on track, and so I
Speaker 2: had a time box. I'm not sure if you guys
Speaker 2: seen that, be like sort of figure out when am
Speaker 2: I going to do specific things on my to do list?
Speaker 2: What time a day I'm going to accomplish those things.
Speaker 2: That's how I was able to stay on track, knowing
Speaker 2: that I didn't have a boss to, you know, report to,
Speaker 2: and no one was really holding me accountable. So I
Speaker 2: want to hear from you now, talking to the solopreneur
Speaker 2: out there listening, how can you sort of share your
Speaker 2: experience of staying on task, staying productive, making sure that
Speaker 2: you're holding yourself accountable. How have you able to achieve
Speaker 2: those specific things? Yeah, without having someone micro manager and
Speaker 2: you know kind of keeck you into gear.
Speaker 3: It's funny because I would have struggled to answer this
Speaker 3: question like even six months ago, a year ago, because
Speaker 3: I feel like I don't like to use this smart
Speaker 3: but I was, like I felt like I was like
Speaker 3: a hot mess all the time. So I've had to
Speaker 3: figure out how to be more efficient because I'm scaling,
Speaker 3: so it couldn't just be like me back and forth
Speaker 3: with like my assistant all the time or just figuring
Speaker 3: it out day to day. Now what really helps me
Speaker 3: is like I go into the week more peacefully when
Speaker 3: I spend Monday mornings meeting with my assistant going through
Speaker 3: last week's stuff. So we go into clickup, which we
Speaker 3: use for project management. So I use Mondays for decisions
Speaker 3: and delegating, and then I get coached and then I
Speaker 3: have time to just like work on my stuff, so
Speaker 3: like I don't take client calls on Mondays. So I
Speaker 3: think having like designated focuses for the day really helps
Speaker 3: because task switching it just takes a lot out of me.
Speaker 3: And I think for most people, you're using like different
Speaker 3: skill sets and different parts of your brain. So now
Speaker 3: it's like Monday's decision day, Delegation Day, CEO day. I
Speaker 3: coach on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Wednesdays are mostly for me
Speaker 3: to just do work in my business. Friday, I'll mostly
Speaker 3: take that for like wrapping stuff up and then taking
Speaker 3: the afternoon off before my daughter gets off school. So
Speaker 3: I think sprints like dedicated focuses and planning up front
Speaker 3: so that you're not sitting down at your computer going,
Speaker 3: oh my god, what am I going to do? Like, Okay,
Speaker 3: I need to work on my business, but there's twenty
Speaker 3: different things. You're not spending that time making those decisions.
Speaker 3: You're making those decisions up front.
Speaker 1: So one of the themes that I've heard you speak
Speaker 1: on several times throughout our conversation is this idea of mindset.
Speaker 1: So what's your favorite mantra or quo or something that
Speaker 1: you like look back at when you need that extra motivation.
Speaker 3: There's so many. I literally made a deck of cards
Speaker 3: with my mantras on it if I get to my clients.
Speaker 3: But I think the one that I lean into the most,
Speaker 3: that gives me the most piece is like, my success
Speaker 3: is inevitable. And I say that from this perspective of
Speaker 3: like if you just keep problem solving and showing up
Speaker 3: to solve that problem, it's impossible for it not to work.
Speaker 2: I wanted to say that again one more time.
Speaker 3: My success is inevitable, and if you keep showing up
Speaker 3: to solve the problem, there's no way that it's not
Speaker 3: going to work. It's like, literally impossible. How could you
Speaker 3: feasibly spend your entire life trying to figure out how
Speaker 3: to make this thing happen and not make it happen.
Speaker 3: It's literally impossible. So whenever I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: this is taking too long, oh my gosh, like maybe
Speaker 3: I shouldn't do this, it's like, it's okay, it's inevitable.
Speaker 3: You're just freaking out because it's not happening now. But
Speaker 3: when that thing happens, you're going to be worried about
Speaker 3: another thing, another goalpost or another problem. Every level has
Speaker 3: new problems. That's another one. Every level has new problems,
Speaker 3: and you are solving the problems you are equipped to
Speaker 3: solve right now. So don't wish on problems that you're not.
Speaker 3: You don't even want those problems right now. Because I
Speaker 3: think we always think it's going to be better when
Speaker 3: we get to like some other place, and then you
Speaker 3: get to that place and you're like, oh wait, that
Speaker 3: was easy, like the stuff I was worried about. And
Speaker 3: not to scare you, but that's just part of like
Speaker 3: you become a different person who can handle different stuff.
Speaker 2: My success is inevitable. Yeah, I like get that as
Speaker 2: a tattoo, right, My success is inevitable. That is so
Speaker 2: cool doing chills right now. Just listen about that. That's incredible.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think that's the quotable quote of the day. Y'all.
Speaker 3: Mary Ella, thank you so much for being here. It's
Speaker 3: been a total pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: Wow. I mean, what an experience and what a conversation
Speaker 1: to share it with our first live audience for Mind
Speaker 1: the Business. Mary Ella really shared some very meaningful insights
Speaker 1: and wisdom on that stage. We had so many people
Speaker 1: coming up to us after and saying how they felt
Speaker 1: like they needed to hire mary Ella as their life
Speaker 1: coach after this discussion, Austin, what resonated most with you?
Speaker 2: I may or may not have been one of those
Speaker 2: people trying to hire mary Ella now as a life coach.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, she was incredible. I think a couple
Speaker 2: of things stood out to me first was community. Right,
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, being a solopreneur is
Speaker 2: very lonely, and it takes a toll on our mental
Speaker 2: health for sure. And so by identifying and surrounding yourself
Speaker 2: with people who are also solopreneurs, learning from them, from
Speaker 2: their mistakes, from their accomplishments, everyone has a unique experience
Speaker 2: and something to share. Another thing that really really stood
Speaker 2: out to me was her comment around consistency. Right, if
Speaker 2: you stay consistent over time, success is inevitable. At the
Speaker 2: end of the day, we're putting in hours upon hours
Speaker 2: of hard work to achieve this goal in our dreams,
Speaker 2: and just by doing that, we are setting ourselves up
Speaker 2: for long term success. I also think there's something to
Speaker 2: be said about the imposter syndrome, especially myself. I'm definitely
Speaker 2: on the younger side, right, and so what I'm surrounded
Speaker 2: by all these successful solopreneurs like yourself Jennie's, it just
Speaker 2: gets me so excited and really puts a lot in perspective.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's important for us as solopreneurs to
Speaker 1: really believe that the success that you've achieved is not
Speaker 1: just an accident, It's not just a fluke. It really
Speaker 1: is about what you did, Like you mentioned Austin showing
Speaker 1: up consistently. And I think one of the really key
Speaker 1: points that mary Ella shared with us is write down
Speaker 1: all of the things that you do in your business.
Speaker 1: Start to standardize those things, because inevitably, you know you
Speaker 1: may want to look for additional support at some point
Speaker 1: down the road, depending on where you are in your journey,
Speaker 1: and being able to pass on that knowledge in a
Speaker 1: really formalized way through procedures is super useful. And also
Speaker 1: I think it just helps you understand, like, what are
Speaker 1: all these different things that are happening in my business
Speaker 1: versus trying to keep everything in your head. It's important
Speaker 1: as a solopreneur to make sure that you are leveraging resources.
Speaker 1: Technology is our friend, and software like QuickBooks money is
Speaker 1: one of those really key tools that you can use
Speaker 1: to make sure you're not wasting time chasing somebody for
Speaker 1: an invoice and you can get back to doing the
Speaker 1: thing you're supposed to be doing, which is growing that business.
Speaker 2: Now for our exciting news, Jennie's give me a quick
Speaker 2: little drum roll please, We.
Speaker 1: Are coming back with season two at the beginning of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. We'll have brand new episodes featuring more
Speaker 1: solopreneurs sharing their stories of struggle and success. Subscribe and
Speaker 1: follow the show and keep an eye on the feed
Speaker 1: so you don't miss out on the amazing insights and
Speaker 1: knowledge from these business owners.
Speaker 2: I cannot be more excited. This series has been so
Speaker 2: eye opening for myself as a small business owner, solopreneur, entrepreneur.
Speaker 2: I've had so many people reach out to me saying
Speaker 2: that they've learned so much from the incredible entrepreneurs that
Speaker 2: we've interviewed over the last several months, and twenty twenty
Speaker 2: four is going to be a blast.
Speaker 1: I am so excited for season two. I just have
Speaker 1: gotten so much incredible feedback from folks that are tuning
Speaker 1: into the show, learning so much, and most importantly remembering
Speaker 1: that this is not a sprint. This journey through solopreneurship
Speaker 1: is a marathon, and we are here to support you
Speaker 1: every step of the way.
Speaker 2: Well that's it for our very first live episode. You
Speaker 2: can find me on social media at Austin Hankwitz.
Speaker 1: And you can find me at jokierro Dineto podcast.
Speaker 2: You can learn more about mary Yella by visiting her
Speaker 2: website Marielladala Mora dot com or on Instagram Atmaryella dot
Speaker 2: Dala Mora. You can follow Into It QuickBooks on all
Speaker 2: social media at QuickBooks. To get the tools you need
Speaker 2: to start, run and grow your business, head to QuickBooks
Speaker 2: dot com today.
Speaker 1: We also want to hear from you, so be sure
Speaker 1: to leave a rating and review.
Speaker 2: This podcast is a production of Ruby Studios from iHeartMedia
Speaker 2: and Into It QuickBooks.
Speaker 1: Our executive producer is Mollisosha, Our supervising producer is Nikkia Swinton.
Speaker 2: Our head of post production is James Foster.
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