Embarking on the Entrepreneurial Odyssey: Realities of Building a Business and Personal Branding on a Budget

Welcome to our first episode. We may be shifting topics, but we are still sharing our best tips and advice. This is Scale Up Strategies: The Business Growth Podcast for Coaches, Consultants, and Speakers.

How it started:
Ever embarked on a path that led you somewhere completely unexpected? That's the story of our entrepreneurial voyage—a tapestry woven with threads of triumphs and trials. 

We strip down the glitz of business ownership and get real about the feast-or-famine cycles, the flexibility it brings, and the cherished autonomy that comes with it. Whether it was a childhood spent watching family businesses ebb and flow or a longing for more moments with loved ones, this episode peels back the layers of our business lives to share the raw, unfiltered reality of starting and nurturing a company from scratch.

Transitioning from doers to owners, we open up about the art of personal branding and its critical role for women making their mark in the business world. 

From confronting corporate misconceptions to fostering genuine client connections, our candid conversation provides a wealth of insights. For those with an entrepreneurial itch and a thin wallet, we offer practical advice on launching a business without breaking the bank. 

We unpack the strategy behind a swift market entry, the value of a minimum viable online presence, and the iterative process that turns a shoestring budget into a thriving business. Join us as we share these chapters of our journey, aiming to inspire your entrepreneurial endeavors.

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Transcript

Mary Fain Brandt: 0:03

you're listening to scale up strategies the business growth podcast for coaches, consultants and speakers.

Laura Bashore: 0:11

We're your hosts and business coach experts mary fane, grant and laura bay shore we're sharing all our insider tips from 20 plus years in business, including how we successfully scaled our businesses without losing our minds or our husbands.

Mary Fain Brandt: 0:28

Sure, you can piece it together and try to DIY your way to success. Or you can listen to us every week and learn the shortcuts, because we promise they're really awesome.

Laura Bashore: 0:39

So grab your favorite cup of coffee, tune in and let's start the show.

Mary Fain Brandt: 0:43

Hey Laura. Let's do a show about why we became entrepreneurs. Do you think our audience wants to hear our journey?

Laura Bashore: 0:54

Well, maybe I mean, everybody has their own journey but I think it's really hard to visualize yourself as a business owner, especially if it may not have been your plan, if you've kind of just fallen into it, like a lot of business owners have.

Mary Fain Brandt: 1:11

Really, Right, Not everyone grows up going. I'm going to own my own business. I know that you and I have very different entrepreneur paths. I never wanted to be a business owner. I saw my dad. He had a real estate appraisal business and it was feast or famine. And you know, I went to college later and then I was like, oh, I'm just going to keep working. I had a great job, I was making good money, Um, and then my world fell apart when my mom got sick. She had dementia and Alzheimer's and that is when I decided to launch my own coaching business and I knew nothing about owning a business. I didn't have entrepreneur classes or anything like that in college, where they do now, which I think is amazing.

Laura Bashore: 1:59

But our stories are so different.

Laura Bashore: 2:02

They're different but they're similar Because, remember, I never wanted to own my own business because, also, my father owned his own business, he was a mechanic and we took one family vacation when I was little, one which was to San Diego and now I live in San Diego because on that one family vacation I decided I wanted to move here. That's a whole different topic, uh, but, like you, I've never went to school for uh, anything business related. Well, as far as like owning your own business, but it just naturally occurred for me and, and although it was by different circumstances, it was still family driven, which probably happens to a lot of women, honestly. So you know, mine was, I started a family and my child, my first son, did not do well in daycare and so I decided to stay home and then things just kind of naturally progressed from there. So I think, interesting topic, and I, I, yeah, I think we should share it with our uh, with our audience. So what a great way to start off this new rebrand of our show.

Mary Fain Brandt: 3:25

So let's just talk about what we love about owning our own businesses, what maybe we wish we would have known sooner, and maybe what we don't love about owning a business, because it's not all rainbows and sunshine and unicorns, Like you know. People are like oh, you own your own business, you work from home, you never have to get dressed, you uh watch soap operas, or you know whatever you want.

Mary Fain Brandt: 3:58

I'm like no, that is. That is not what it's about. Um, some of the pros, though, are the flexibility. You know, I was able to spend time with my mom for two years before she passed. I was able to be there, take her out of the facility and, just you know, for me having those two years of being able to go in and spend time with my mom when it was a good time to visit her Because with Alzheimer's, you know, there's good times of the day and not so good times of the day- yeah, and you never know, it's not a set schedule in that way.

Laura Bashore: 4:27

So I know, I understand that as someone who's had family members who've gone through that too. Um, I liked the flexibility as well too. So when I started my business, uh, so I uh had a, uh, so I uh had a. Let's see here, I guess he was a little bit over one year old, my first son. And then, four months into starting my business, I was pregnant with my second son. So I was like, okay, that's what we're doing, but speaking about your flexibility, so I was able to go to appointments when I needed to, I was able to nap when I needed to, and then when my voice got oh no really. And then when my voice got a little bit older, um, we also got like passes to the zoo in Legoland and we were able to go during the day when nobody else was there and then work our schedules around that.

Mary Fain Brandt: 5:25

So that was kind of cool yeah, I love that and I've been able to um go visit like my dad and like Cavasu take off on a Thursday and I, you know, I'm famous for posting pictures of me working in the car because I'll be on my laptop like I can get a blog done or an article, or you know something easy in the car, because my husband's blasting his music to do the drive when we were driving from San Diego to Lake Havasu. So there is the flexibility. You know what?

Laura Bashore: 5:56

I could not do that, though, just so you know, I'm really carsick and you don't know, because even though we've now traveled together, we've not, yes, carpooled together. We have notoriously carsick. If I look at my phone for too long just to like follow direction, it's probably why I'm lost all the time.

Mary Fain Brandt: 6:15

I'm gonna let you all in on a secret of why I work because my husband driving. He doesn't like to get stuck behind anyone, so it scares the bejeebies out of me For my husband is actually, he's like just keep working.

Mary Fain Brandt: 6:29

Because if I'm looking at him trying to pass cars on the two lane and big and like big rigs, I'm like I'm like this. So for me, working in the car, social media, whatever it is so much better for our travel. We, we learned the hard way. Um, you know what? You know what is odd, I guess, being an entrepreneur owning your own business, or holidays, like I, really people are off. I'm like, well, I have some work to do, like I can choose to take the day off, but I typically don't unless we have plans.

Laura Bashore: 7:02

Yes, or sometimes what I'll do is I'm not actually taking the day off, but I have my out of office responder on in my email and then I am doing some much needed admin catch up or working on the next project that I have coming to fruition. So, yeah, it's hard to, because you're trying to work in with everybody else's schedule, so like your husband's schedule, who does not own his own business right or with my husband's schedule, so since we ship things in his business, his e commerce business I would kind of work around like well, is USPS closed? And FedEx? Or like what are we doing here?

Mary Fain Brandt: 7:52

Yeah, the other thing that I find is like vacations. Like when you're at a nine to five job, you schedule those vacations and when you go on vacation you forget about work. As a business owner, I think that's harder. I've become better at it, but I remember the early years of taking time off always having a laptop.

Mary Fain Brandt: 8:13

Like. I got to take the laptop because a client could come through or you know which, in retrospect, was unnecessary. Out of office. Reminders, linkedin, out of office, and just you know. If you have clients letting them know. Hey, I have a week vacation coming up, I'll be out of the office. Is there anything you need to take care of before? So I find like vacations and holidays are very different when you're an entrepreneur.

Laura Bashore: 8:41

I think I did too much like what you're saying. At the beginning of my business I was much less, you know, I felt like it was, um, you know, famine or flushed Right yeah, and I just had it and I would plan consultations. I'm on the East coast visiting my husband's side of the family. I'm trying to do consultations. My calendar is all messed up because it adapts to wherever location you're at and I just so I don't do that anymore I take the full vacation. I now am the one telling my husband like leave your electronics.

Laura Bashore: 9:16

We're not doing anything. So we just got back from Vegas celebrating my birthday and, yeah, I did not take my laptop. I let everyone know I'm available by emergency, like for my directors, for my team business. I'm available by text if you really need me, but I have no computer access, so don't ask me for anything intense.

Mary Fain Brandt: 9:36

It's just not happening. I think it's important for us to unplug, to recharge, right, I know that kind of sounds weird, but you've got to unplug from tech, from your business, and you need to go have time outside. So your brain isn't always thinking about business. And I think a lot of business owners when they start so that first five years right, you're building your business and they say it takes five years right to get past that hump. Five years right To get past that hump.

Mary Fain Brandt: 10:06

Um yeah, so you, yeah, it's really hard, but I would encourage people take some holidays, um, plan a vacation and put out of office reminders on and don't worry. So what always happens to me, laura, this is pretty funny when I go on vacation, I get clients. So my husband's like it's time to, it's time to book a trip. Let's get you some clients. Because every time we go on a week vacation like hey, you have consultation calls, you just got paid I'm like, yes, but that takes time to build up, it doesn't happen overnight, hey and and before we go any further, you know what I just realized?

Laura Bashore: 10:43

What we said, that we're business owners, but we haven't said what we do. We're just like we own businesses.

Mary Fain Brandt: 10:50

This is true, so Mary People might want to know what we do.

Laura Bashore: 10:54

They might want to know what kind of business. So, mary, what is your business, how long have you been doing it, and who are your ideal clients?

Mary Fain Brandt: 12:11

Oh, thank you for asking Laura. So it and who are your ideal clients? Oh, thank you for asking Laura. So, hi everyone. I'm Mary Fane Brandt. I've been in business for 10 years. I started off as a career coach. I still help career professionals position themselves on LinkedIn. All my career clients back in the day needed help on LinkedIn, so I became a LinkedIn expert. I love creating a profile, optimizing it so that you stand out in this sea of sameness. I also help with content and building your network out on LinkedIn. And then I also became a certified AI consultant late last year in 2023. And I love helping coaches, consultants, speakers, small business owners and CEOs harness the power of AI not just for content for many things. So that's what I do. I am also becoming this business coach as I'm finding that I am coaching more and more consultants and a lot of consultants and coaches, consultants and a lot of consultants and coaches. So that's why we're doing this podcast. So, laura, tell everyone what it is that you do and who you're working with.

Laura Bashore: 13:22

All right, so I'm Laura Bayshore and I have two different businesses, so one of my businesses is I am an executive coach, so I also work with those on resumes, linkedin profiles, interviewing skills and then public speaking. What ended up happening is, as I started networking to grow my business by joining a networking organization and then also going out into different chambers and different venues, I started getting clients who were business owners themselves, and I recently, in 2023 took over a networking organization called Team Referral Network, where I work with entrepreneurs, ceos, small business owners on all things relating to growing their business through networking. So how do you network appropriately, how do you leverage referrals? And in that space, I realized I, too, have been merging into a business coach, and so I also just got certified as an AI specialist.

Mary Fain Brandt: 14:37

I'm very excited about it.

Laura Bashore: 14:39

Yes, and I will say Mary knows that I was hesitant about it at first because I fancy myself a writer and was like no, thank you. But to Mary's point, it's so much more than just writing. It's about utilizing that so that now I can optimize my business. I can help others optimize their business, set in processes and get things done so much faster so I can be out doing what I need to do, which is, in fact, continuing to scale my businesses. So my ideal clients are what this podcast is about, which is why we decided to move in this direction those who are looking to scale and want some help on getting it done without going through, frankly, the landmines that maybe we've come across, and figuring out how to place yourself as an expert and an authority so that you can start to get the dream clients that you want.

Mary Fain Brandt: 15:34

Yeah. So AI, you guys, is just a productivity tool, don't be scared of it. And I'm so excited that you decided to take the full plunge, after we work together on your own AI, and become a certified AI consultant. So now we have so much more to talk about. We'll do a whole episode on how to use AI in your business. But let's get back to you know our journey on entrepreneurship. So we talked a little bit about what we do the holidays vacation. You know I love to. I'd love for us to cover, um, what's been hardest for you, laura, in this business journey.

Laura Bashore: 16:17

Well, I think one of the things for me is, when you're starting a business, you are doing everything. You have to be in there. You're doing it, you're wearing all the hats, but even though I had been a manager and director in every single career in industry where I held a position before, I had never done it for myself. So how do you start to position yourself, from being a doer to an owner and the different things you have to be able to let go of, because it's hard, you know, to figure out what that boundary is, what to do, and so I think that was really hard for me because, while I was great at what I did at the beginning of my career as an owner, I didn't know how to position myself. I didn't know, I mean right? I think that's one of the hardest things for those to do because, as you said at the beginning of our podcast, you know, we didn't go to school specifically to own a business. We started owning our businesses because we were really great at what we did.

Mary Fain Brandt: 17:30

So, yeah, it's hard. I find that, even though I help people with branding personal branding I find that it's really hard to do your own personal branding.

Mary Fain Brandt: 17:39

And you know I know that we're going to talk about branding in a different episode. We're going to talk about branding in a in a different episode. For me, the being clear on my branding because and here's why mine's a little different I want to be seen as an expert and professional, but I'm very fun, casual and conversational. So how do I blend those two? Coming off as my unique, authentic self, right so for for I'm going to say this for my age group growing up in corporate right, you're like in this box, you don't talk about certain things, and now that I'm an entrepreneur, I want to be my authentic self and I want to help women find their voice in their businesses, and that was a really. That continues to be something that I work on how to be my authentic self while still coming across as this smart, savvy business person.

Laura Bashore: 18:37

I agree. No, I agree, and I think you know I don't even know that that is an age reason. I think it's more of a personality and driven by being an achiever.

Mary Fain Brandt: 18:53

I think we like that we're going to go with that one instead.

Laura Bashore: 18:58

Well, I'll just say, because in my own experience, mary, you know, I was the same way, like I didn't understand how I could come across professional and still be myself. I shared this with you before privately, but you know, people used to think I was a prude at work. And then they'd go out and hang out with me after and they would tell me he said oh, I thought you were such this prude, you're so much fun. You're just really professional at work.

Mary Fain Brandt: 19:27

Yeah, yeah, nothing wrong with being professional, but how do we? You know, that's something that we've both worked on how to be smart, savvy, business professional, professional, business owners, but still be our authentic selves and to your point, I think a lot of women struggle with that.

Laura Bashore: 19:52

Well, and you know, when you and I first met, it was, I saw what you were doing on LinkedIn. You had put out something that you wanted someone to come on to one of your LinkedIn lives and share some information with your audience, and when I thought what you were doing, I was like, yeah, she looks fun. I also respect what she's doing. How do I make sure that I get myself that way, you know, and um, so through meeting you and then agreeing to do a uh, a session with you, like one of the biggest things that you helped change for me was figuring out how to put some more of my personality so that people could connect with me and want to do business with me and you'll see it audience. If you guys go to my linkedin profile, you'll see I'm talking about music and if you know me, that's legit. But what's funny is that when potential clients reach out to me, most of them comment on my musical taste and that that's why they want to work with me.

Mary Fain Brandt: 20:51

Yeah, because now, now you've been, you've made yourself more relatable and human, and that is what I love to do with my clients Like, and I think that's so hard.

Laura Bashore: 21:03

You know which is something that we're both talking about. That's so hard. You know which is something that we're both talking about, which is marketing yourself. It's so hard, and you really do need somebody to batch your ideas off of and bring that out, because everything is social selling now. It doesn't matter what product or service you're selling, and so if people can't connect with you, they're not going to do business with you.

Mary Fain Brandt: 21:27

I agree, I agree. So let's talk about a couple more things before we wrap up, about our career journeys and how we've gotten here. How about let's talk about one thing that you would do differently, and I actually I'm going to start this one and then let you take it over For me. I would have launched quicker, without everything having to be perfect. So real quick. I'm on my third business name, third website, third set of logos and my first one. I thought it had to be perfect, and what I've learned is done is better than perfect. I don't need a five page website. I could have started with a landing page and a calendar link, right, and so I and it's probably from being a high achiever everything has to be perfect before I present myself to the world. So if you get nothing else, my tip is launch. You're going to figure it out as you go. So I wouldn't have it perfect, I would get it done. What is one thing that you would have done differently?

Laura Bashore: 22:36

Well, first I just want to say I completely agree with that. So one thing that I did have in place was I'm a researcher, I love research, and so I researched what it would take for me to launch immediately. What did I need as a bare minimum to start to secure my positioning? And so I quickly. I had somebody do a website for me for $500. I needed to have a website. I had somebody do a website for me for $500. I needed to have a website. I, first and foremost, I created a business plan.

Laura Bashore: 23:10

I just went to the um, the uh, sba. So the small business association found a template, did my business plan, did that. So. But one thing I would have changed is because so for those who really came out the gate with their marketing and those things that I would see, I had imposter syndrome, like I felt like I'm not an expert. But I what I realized was, had I done more research on my competition, I would have easily been able to see that I was there as the expert and that I just needed to, you know, work more on feeling that in myself, starting my business 10 years ago, I'd been in career services and in this sphere for like eight years before I did it. So it wasn't. What I found was how I was pricing myself was much lower than I needed to be and that the quality of what I did was much more than those who were triple quadruple my pricing at the time. So throw out the imposter syndrome. How you become an expert is by working through the processes, going through and moving forward.

Mary Fain Brandt: 24:35

Well, and speaking of processes, something that I wish I would have done from day one is to really create the process and the systems to scale. And I know we're going to do an episode all about like project management and tools, but you know and wait, I'm going to show you guys like post-it notes. This is not a system. So, if you're watching this, this is not a system. I still use post-it notes and I love them, but I wish I would have had, you know, and I did start.

Mary Fain Brandt: 25:06

Maybe a couple of years after I had launched my business, I started using Trello with my friend, amy, who was doing my Facebook page, managing that for me. So, get something. Yeah, you can get something to get started, but from day one, get a project management tool to track your ideas, to track discount codes. I have everything in there. So I would set up from day one. What processes should I start with? And that doesn't mean that you have to stay with that. So I'm on my third tool and I love the one I'm on now because it's much more robust and, of course, now it has AI built into it. So that's something I think is important, and when we start off as business owners, we think, oh, I'm just starting, I don't have a lot to track yet.

Mary Fain Brandt: 25:53

And then when you get into it all of a sudden it blows up and you're like, okay, what was my pricing? What was that package? My pricing? What was that package when you know where's my taxes, where's my business plan?

Laura Bashore: 26:16

Where's my proposals? The last thing that I'll add into this is start networking. I think we can both agree on this, like networking is so important, and that doesn't mean like just signing up and joining a chamber and not doing anything. It means going in and finding an organization that can also help to support you with these tools. Because one of the reasons why I took over and became a franchise owner for Team Referral Network, which is category exclusive networking for business owners in B2B and B2C very exclusive networking for business owners and B2B and B2C is that there were things in there to help me position myself. So my speaker intro that I use on all my speaking gigs. Every time I walk off stage I get told oh my God, I love your speaker intro.

Laura Bashore: 27:01

It's just really good and I said, yeah, well, I got the outline for that from team and then I built upon it and it's something that I can use on any stage, but it's a way for people to connect with me instead of just the straight and narrow. But anyways, though, I think networking is just so important. You're going to build those business relationships and start to get referrals into your business that you're not paying for.

Mary Fain Brandt: 27:27

Yeah, and.

Mary Fain Brandt: 27:28

I think, you need to explore all kinds of networking opportunities, so find a couple of good ones. But as you're starting your business or if you're in that scale stage, you need to, you know, be networking more than you think. So my business coach is like you should be networking twice a week and I'm going to share that. When I'm out networking, I not only am I growing my network to support me now and in the future, so I'm all about a strategic network. I'm always getting new opportunities.

Mary Fain Brandt: 28:03

So, whether I just landed two podcasts that I'm going to be on this week just by going to networking events consultation, call, you know, speaking opportunities. So networking is essential and we're going to do a whole episode on networking, the do's and don'ts, three easy steps, because networking doesn't come naturally to everyone, and we were talking before we hit record how I just had a bad networking experience and we're going to tell you or show you the power of leaving and saying no. So we don't want you to waste your time. This isn't telling you to go network, network, network. It's telling. Our networking episode will be a strategic advice on how to network Right.

Laura Bashore: 28:51

So what else?

Mary Fain Brandt: 28:53

do we want to share about our journeys? Well, I want to say find a business bestie, an accountability partner. So Laura and I, organically, have come together and we've partnered up on so many things and I love Laura to death. She is an expert in her own right. I wouldn't do this podcast with anyone else. I have other business besties where I live because we don't live in the same city anymore, but I think it's important to have a couple business and I say business besties because they are accountability partners that you can bounce ideas off of and that you trust. It has to be someone that you trust and you can tell the good, the bad and the ugly, because being a business owner is not rainbows and unicorns. There's the ugly part too.

Laura Bashore: 29:45

And I think one of the ways you can do that the easiest is that you know I can trust Mary with any of my clients and in fact, we work with clients together. Now, because of that, don't partner up with somebody who you don't feel like you could just open your client Rolodex to and it would be fine, because that's not the right person for you. Find someone who you connect with. You understand each other's journey, where you want to go and I think that's probably the biggest thing that you could take away from this episode is find somebody who you can trust and work well with, because you can't do it on your own.

Laura Bashore: 30:26

Even if you fancy yourself a solopreneur oh, do you like on my light, just like shown on me I don't know what happened there, um, but you can't. You can't do it on your own. You need somebody to bounce ideas off of, because the tricky secret is that none of us do this on our own and then start to figure out your brand and your voice, because that's how people are going to connect with you. And, lastly, is start moving, just start moving. Take forward, yep, take action.

Mary Fain Brandt: 30:59

That's how you're going to be able to start the success and it's, you know, one day at a time right, mary, I listen to our podcast every week because we are going to take you through the journey of what it's like to own a business, scale a business, and we're going to show. We're going to talk about the mistakes and the ugly side too, so we both have stories to share and you know what Our goal is to help you scale faster, easier and without the ugly, if possible. Right, laura?

Laura Bashore: 31:29

yeah, exactly, we are going to give you those shortcuts and help you avoid those landmines. And, like we said, uh, you know we both have family, we're busy, we're running, doing everything, but let's get an roi, let's take this from being a hobby into a scalable revenue stream for you, and the only way you can do that is by having trusted advice and following through on those actions.

Mary Fain Brandt: 31:53

So I can't wait to continue to share with everybody and let you know that we are available to help all right, make sure that you follow us and share this podcast out, and we'll see you on the next episode. If you enjoyed the podcast, show us some love. Please rate, review and subscribe to our podcast, and if you have any feedback, go ahead and share that with us too, because we want to hear from you. Until then, stay focused, stay motivated and stay caffeinated.