Best of Being Boss

Emily Thompson 0:01
Hello, and welcome to Being Boss, episode number 100. This episode is brought to you by fresh books cloud accounting.

Unknown Speaker 0:22
Hello, and

Kathleen Shannon 0:23
welcome to being boss,

Emily Thompson 0:25
a podcast for creative entrepreneurs. I'm Emily Thompson.

Kathleen Shannon 0:28
And I'm Kathleen Shannon. Hey guys, Kathleen. Here we are recording episode number 100. Today,

we cannot believe that we just started as a little idea to start a podcast is now into 100 episodes. And before we move on to record 100 more episodes, we wanted to take a little look back at where we've been. So we asked our community and brainstormed ourselves some of our favorite top of mine episodes number we think of being boss, it's so hard to choose just a handful to feature we've spoken with so many amazing guests and experts and small business owners and creative entrepreneurs. I mean, that's been my favorite part of my job. So far, it's just getting to talk to so many brilliant people and learn so much from them. So if you are new here to being boss, this episode will be a good chance to kind of catch up on where we've come from and who we've chatted with. But if you've been with us since the beginning, this will also be a little walk down memory lane together. We just want to thank you guys so much for hanging out with us. And we appreciate you. First off, did you notice that new music, Emily and I thought that we would refresh the intro a little bit and make it a lot shorter, and bring in some more boss music. I hope you guys like it. As always, you can find all the tools, books and links we reference on the show notes at being boss club. We're mentioning a lot of different podcast episodes, and you can find them all in the show notes there. Okay, you guys get ready for the simplest way to be more productive, organized, and more importantly, get paid quickly. Fresh books cloud accounting is so it's simple. Even if you're not a numbers person, actually, especially if you're not a numbers person, fresh books, cloud accounting is for you. This is for creative business owners, not accountants, and so freshbooks has designed their platform with you in mind. It's easy to invoice your clients, it's easy to import your expenses. You can even track your time using fresh books, cloud accounting, it's super mobile friendly. And I just can't get over how easy and how intuitive and how visual freshbooks makes it for creative entrepreneurs to get paid faster. Try it for free by going to freshbooks comm slash being boss and enter being boss in the How did you hear about us section to try it for free today? All right, you guys, Episode 100.

Emily Thompson 3:20
I'm super stoked.

Kathleen Shannon 3:22
What's funny is that we've actually recorded maybe almost 200 episodes if you take into account the minisodes.

Emily Thompson 3:29
God bless us, right at all the content.

Kathleen Shannon 3:34
This is officially our 100th full length episode. And so we thought we would do something a little bit fun and kind of create a best of retrospective look at where we've come from. So we have brought on our editorial director, Caitlin. Hey, Caitlin.

So Caitlin is going to be playing the role of our producer today. If anyone is more familiar with our content than even us it is Caitlyn.

Emily Thompson 4:05
No. And Caitlin is definitely more familiar with our content than we are like, there are many occasions where I get on slack. And I'm like, hey, I need something to do with this thing. And she's like, oh, that'll be episode number, whatever. I'm just like, you are magical. She has like the being boss library in her brain. And it is super amazing to me.

Caitlin Brehm 4:26
I wish I could do that with everything in my life. Oh, that brings

Kathleen Shannon 4:31
out a long, long time. Right.

Unknown Speaker 4:33
I

Kathleen Shannon 4:34
love it. Okay, so let's just jump in. I think what we're planning on doing here is taking a look back at some of our very favorite episodes. We want to give you guys a sneak peek into what went into recording that episode, how it's changed us along the way and maybe even places where we've changed our minds a little bit. So let's get started. My whenever I Think about being boss and where we came from. One of the most exciting things that has happened out of our podcast has been our relationship with Paul Jarvis and Jason Zook, our boss boyfriends. I was so excited. I've been such a longtime fan of Paul Jarvis. And to get it, bring them on the show and then become friends and then create an offering together, which is podcast LIKE A BOSS calm has been super duper fun. Yeah, I

Emily Thompson 5:30
agree. It's funny. I'd sort of seen Paul Jarvis around the internet here and there, but I was not as into him. I guess. No offense, Paul, as Kathleen whenever she like she sent me an email one day and she's like, Hey, we need to have pajamas. And I'm like, whatever. But okay. And then we got him on and chatting with them. And we've at this point, what done for three or four

Unknown Speaker 5:56
episodes of feel like a lot, how many,

Emily Thompson 5:58
like practically half a year of episodes with Paul Wright, thank you. Um, he's definitely like one of our whenever I favorite one of our favorite bosses, Boss boyfriend, the first one, he introduced us to Jason Zook, our second boss boyfriend. And we've created an offering with the two of them with just podcast like a boss. And so for me, Paul's episode was number 15. We did finding your rap people with him. That was the first time we chatted with him. And it all started with just a conversation that we recorded and published because that's how Kathleen and I roll. But it was a relationship and we were chatting with him on slack yesterday, a relationship that grew out of a conversation. And as we talk about, you know, business besties a lot here at being boss. And we have the clubhouse, which is a place where we hope people can cultivate those relationships. We do talk about how it all starts with a conversation how you meet at a conference, or you're, you know, commenting on each other's blog posts, or Instagram posts or whatever, like it just begins really small and can grow into anything. And I think for us, Paul is the perfect example of that. Well, Kathleen, and I just the two of us are a really great example of that. But then it snowballs into more relationships. And we've certainly grown lasting relationships with several of the other people that we interviewed. But Paul really was like the first one for us. It was the first conversation and has grown into, you know, a nice business and personal relationship that I think we all cherish.

Kathleen Shannon 7:40
Well, let's take a listen to what Paul has to say about setting goals, and about enjoying the process along the way.

Paul Jarvis 7:53
Yeah, maybe that's even what like the back of a Gita talks about how you're entitled to the labor, not the fruits of your labor. So turning that into creative speak, it's like if you don't like the process, and it doesn't really matter what the outcome is, because he didn't really like doing it in the first place. So yeah, I'm kind of of two minds, because I feel like, I'm more for my own stuff. I'm more just like, let's just see how this goes. I like doing this stuff. Because with my clients, it's like, holy shit, they're paying me a lot of money to like track and metric eyes and figure out everything to make it do better. So with my own stuff, I'm just like, let's just,

Kathleen Shannon 8:32
let's just make these still track your stuff, right?

Paul Jarvis 8:35
I do it, I don't do that much about it. Unless I feel like for me, I feel more like, if I'm aligned with the direction I'm going, then I don't care about the goal. Like I don't care about setting goals. If I'm like, if it's fulfilling me financially and otherwise, and it's working, then I'm just going to keep trying in that general direction and not really, like set anything like when I wrote my first book, I was like, if I had said like, Okay, my goal is to be a writer or to sell like 100 copies of my book, I'd be like, that seems like work. Let's not do that. So I was just like, I'm not a writer, but I get to write a book anyways and release it. And then the book did really well. But if I had gone into it with goals and like, Okay, my goal is to be like a best selling author or a published writer or something like that, I probably would have talked myself out of it.

Caitlin Brehm 9:33
So the interesting thing for me when you guys talk about Paul Jarvis is that, I mean, in my role in being boss is that I'm on the inside. So I see you guys having these conversations about who should we invite on and sometimes I'm part of those conversations too. But even if I didn't work with you guys, I would still listen to the podcast. Like I'm also a fan of the podcast. And from the rat people episode. That was Episode 15. That was pretty early on. So I wasn't At that point as involved with planning episodes, so just kind of from a listener perspective, I didn't realize that you guys weren't already really good friends with Paul at that time. And I think that's a really just interesting thing to think of, for anyone out there from their business perspective is sometimes those conversations, it can feel really scary to reach out to somebody and say, Hey, I'm really into you, I want to have a conversation with you. But that wasn't that long ago. And now you guys are already business partners with Paul Jarvis on one project, or I don't know if you'd say business partners, but you've, you've had several conversations, you share a lot of the same audience. So it just kind of goes to show how those relationships can really grow quickly and strongly.

Kathleen Shannon 10:48
Well, speaking of growing relationships, and being afraid to start those conversations, asking Bernie brown to come on the show, was one of the most anxiety inducing moments of my life. And you guys, Renee Brown is my client. I literally have her phone number in my cell phone, like it shouldn't have been a big deal. But I was sweating bullets, because I know that she's an incredibly busy woman. And at the time, we were only 42 episodes in, not a big deal. And so asking her to come on the show was a big, big win for us, personally, and professionally. And a lot of our listeners really loved that show.

Caitlin Brehm 11:32
Yeah, I was actually looking through the Facebook comments, trying to find specific things that people said, and we got so much feedback about that episode. It's I mean, looking through Google Analytics, it's our top episode. And we got so much feedback, but it's always just kind of general. Like I think it was just such a long Mic drop Amen. Episode that people are like, Yes, all of it. It's the best. I can't even name one part. Yeah, I

Emily Thompson 11:59
agree. And I think that's, I think that's something that

Unknown Speaker 12:03
whenever,

Emily Thompson 12:04
whenever people hear us like interviewing people, they're having these moments of like, genuine Aha, pause. But I think that what a lot of people don't or may not recognize is that Kathleen and I, while we're interviewing these people have the exact same experience. I mean, I certainly feel like the beaten boss journey for Kathleen and I have given us just as much as it's given our listeners and bearnaise episode was absolutely an example of how like, we were sitting here just as like, enthralled and amazed and Tingley with bearnaise wisdom as everyone who was listening.

Kathleen Shannon 12:42
I mean, the woman speaks in tweets. So let's go ahead and read from her.

Brena Brown 12:54
And I interviewed them for a very simple reason. And I think I learned because falling down is an everyday part of the creative life. And so when you go into a book writing, you know, when you go into a research study asking what do men and women who fall and get back up, and who have even more courage and tenacity after rising? What do they share in common? You know, it's so weird because the people who held the most information for me and the most truth were creatives, Special Ops, military, veterans and entrepreneurs. Wow. Which is right, which is, but if you see it first you think, oh, what a weird group. But if you step back and think about it, what you realize is those are people who have who do work every day we're falling is built in. You don't get to be a creative and not fall on a regular basis every time you show someone your work. And so the sooner you can get to the place where you know what? No, I don't like that. That's not what I was thinking at all. The sooner that becomes part of your process, the sooner the sooner. As soon as crickets become a part of your process. The further you can move into I think, doing what you want to do and doing what you can contribute. To me, I guess it comes down to this headline. He or she who has the greatest capacity for discomfort rises the strongest and the fastest. And so creativity is all about straddling the tension, leaning into the discomfort and finding your way through the dark. And that's why when we see creativity, we have so much profound we have a love affair with it really. Because we know that people on the other end of it. spend a lot of time in the dark.

Kathleen Shannon 14:59
Oh, Okay, nothing beats getting face to face with our audience and the first time we did this was recording a live podcast from New Orleans in front of what is it called a live live recorded? What do they call it?

Emily Thompson 15:16
a live studio audience?

Kathleen Shannon 15:17
Yes a live studio audience.

Emily Thompson 15:20
A clap real was not inserted That shit was real. Um, yes, I think that recording live may be one of my very favorite things. I mean, whenever we we have tons of fun sort of behind the scenes goofing off and saying stupid shit and getting Cory to cut it out for sure. But I do love the energy that comes from recording live in front of people in New Orleans was the first time that we did it to a crowd of about 75 bosses, which I thought was so spectacular. And then we did it again in Miami and then again recently in Toronto, and I I love them I love recording live. But I think my favorite of the three of those. Actually, though I don't even think I can really claim my favorites. But I think like content wise, my favorite was Miami. Because we were able to succinctly break down our being boss, peer appears tears Kivalina, whatever we started creating content, we knew the buckets of content that we were sharing, we had these categories of like, Boss mindset and boundaries and habits and routines and those sorts of things. And we certainly address them in every episode, or at least most episodes, but we had never just came out and said what they were. So we took Miami and doing it live in front of our live studio audience as the opportunity for us to finally break down that content, which for me was a really big boss moment.

Caitlin Brehm 16:51
I think the coolest thing too, about those live recordings. And I don't know if you guys noticed this from the front of the room. But it was so cool to see the mic drop moments hit people live and see their reactions. And there were so many times. I wasn't at Toronto, but both Toronto sorry. I only been there for that. But in Miami and New Orleans, especially since people had notepads sitting right in front of them. You could see them receive that information and immediately write it down. Like so many people say I listened to that episode twice. I took notes and that's amazing to hear so many people say that in the Facebook group, but to watch it happen. It's like yeah, that hit me too. I can see that hit you too if

Kathleen Shannon 17:36
that was really cool. Yeah, and there's nothing that we love more than seeing people taking notes of episodes and sharing quotes on Instagram. So if you take notes Feel free to hashtag it being boss podcast or at mentioned us being boss club, or hashtag I am being boss. We would love to see how you guys are being boss. So feel free to share. So one of our listeners and Nola attendees Caitlin Horton mentioned that she loved hearing my story of auditioning for America's Next Top Model which I had my sister helped me share live from New Orleans

Unknown Speaker 18:19
Har Har Har.

Emily Thompson 18:22
What I really sad about you guys like just listening to the clip and for anyone who wasn't there. What you totally Miss is Kathleen getting up and catwalk stomping because Kathleen is a stomper by nature, down the middle aisle of our conference room and New Orleans. It was it was truly one of my favorite moments ever.

Kathleen Shannon 18:43
So let's listen to that clip. All right, I'm getting asked to share the story about the time I audition for America's Next Top Model.

You guys want to hear this is where it

Unknown Speaker 19:01
gets hysterical and I bring tears to tell a story with me.

Emily Thompson 19:06
Tara come and tell this

Unknown Speaker 19:07
story.

Tara Street 19:16
Okay, we can get in the mindset think about this day.

Kathleen Shannon 19:20
And we can go back and forth. But basically, let's say I think I was about 21 or 22 and it was cycle six of America's Next Top Model. So this is at the very beginning of reality shows like maybe in TVs what is that show

Unknown Speaker 19:38
called? The real world oh my god knows is way past then. Okay, so his past then yeah, but

Kathleen Shannon 19:44
it was like it was still at the height of like there wasn't a reality show for everything. So cycle six of America's Next Top Model.

Unknown Speaker 19:52
I love the show.

Kathleen Shannon 19:54
I was a big fan. I love Tyra and the smizing. And the girls crying about cutting off their hair. And I'm like, what's the I would cut off my hair in a minute, I would jump out of a plane in a minute. Like all those things, I could do this. Um, so I was about 21 or 22. I was working on an alt weekly. So like an alternative newspaper. Every week, a new paper came out I was actually working with her husband

Unknown Speaker 20:19
was so wrong about.

Kathleen Shannon 20:24
So anyway, there was a lot of ads in the paper about auditioning for America's Next Top Model. Everyone I worked with was like, Oh my

Tara Street 20:33
god, Kathleen, you have to do it. So I did it. I mean, that's the story. You can tell yourself. I mean, like your whole life, or like, why am I not that girl? Why am I not on TV? Why am I not in the barn? coyote? Ugly? I'm like, why am I not Jim Henson?

Or gelfling? Whatever. Um, okay, so this day was like, Yeah, let's do it. Right. And so I think that's how they do they do the auditions where they do local city auditions, and they were doing it at a car dealership. But it was a Volkswagen dealership. So it's cool. It's really beautiful. They're not sponsored, it was really beautiful and modern and cool. So we had to get there at maybe eight or 9am. And you had to thought this application online, right. And all the paperwork. I think this is fascinating. I would love to see like more behind the scenes of how reality shows are produced, I'm sure that exists. But and I had to provide

Kathleen Shannon 21:37
photos, I didn't have as many photographer friends then as I do now. So literally taking photos, I forgot that I needed to provide one in my bikini, like in my underwear in the bathroom.

Tara Street 21:53
With my Canon power shot,

Kathleen Shannon 21:56
it's like a yellow and yellow tire. It was just what is fine.

Tara Street 22:03
Okay, so to get a mental picture, Katelyn has always changed her hair whole life. Like that's what's consistent about Kathleen's hair is always different. So this point was really, really straight and really red. And you can have a really rockabilly style. So we thought you would make a really great character on this reality. Like, we were really acknowledging that you have to be a character, right? Yeah. So even then, it was like personal branding. I'll be the girl mixing it up. So we kind of went into that, you know, whatever. So we get there. And we have our paperwork and you get out and I'm with her like her companion. And I bring an umbrella because I bring an umbrella with me because it's so hot and sunny

Unknown Speaker 22:41
that day.

Tara Street 22:42
And so I'm like here and I have the umbrella open like so she doesn't get sunburned are standing in line outside. And I'm

Unknown Speaker 22:49
so wise and

Kathleen Shannon 22:52
all the other girls auditioning are beautiful, dark skinned, African American. And gals like I was one of the few really likes can really go there. And so I'm like this umbrella. I feel like I didn't feel like a door. No,

Tara Street 23:11
I was like getting this umbrella. And I'd be like the other girls really get it as umbrella and they were like you are you free? Because we were so nice. And then the local news showed up. So we're all in this long line as always taking it really seriously. Except for maybe you are but you're pretending like you weren't cuz I was with you. I felt pretty serious. Like I really thought it was hilarious.

Unknown Speaker 23:35
You know, so the news guy comes and he's filming all the girls in line for America's Next Top audition. And all these girls look like models. They're gorgeous. Everyone's gorgeous. I'm like you are gorgeous in real life cap.

Unknown Speaker 23:48
I'm such a

Tara Street 23:52
loser if you don't get in it just because it's not translating like in

Unknown Speaker 23:55
real life are gorgeous.

Unknown Speaker 23:56
I know. I'm awful.

Tara Street 23:59
So then that news camera comes right? Yeah, all the girls are like, you know, sucking it in and being all furious and cabling turns here. She's getting up. She makes eye contact with the camera guy and she starts stomping.

Unknown Speaker 24:20
Yeah.

Tara Street 24:26
She starts stomp, walking out towards the camera man who's eating up and all the other girls immediately hate her guts.

Then we decided to turn to the girl behind us and be like, hey, come he's like,

Unknown Speaker 24:46
do you want to have a fake fight?

Unknown Speaker 24:51
And she goes,

Unknown Speaker 24:52
Oh girl, if

Kathleen Shannon 24:53
I'm fighting you on fighting

Unknown Speaker 25:04
I take it back

Unknown Speaker 25:07
into my store

Unknown Speaker 25:08
because then you went into the room.

Unknown Speaker 25:09
Okay, so then

Kathleen Shannon 25:13
I get to the next phase. And we're in a room, I can hardly remember. But we're in a room. And they're telling us all the rules about going into the room with the camera. And you're going to be standing there for 20 seconds, and then turn to the side. And then the other side. And I started really getting worried about how much I weighed, because like, I'm thin, but I'm not model fit. I probably could have lost like 20 or 30 pounds before auditioning for this thing. And I was worrying about like how symmetrical My face was, but it was fine. I was still being funny. And so they wanted to hear personal stories. And I literally went skydiving the week before just so I could talk about it for you. I didn't tell her I skydiving until after I landed and I called her and I said

Tara Street 26:08
I just went skydiving. You crazy a little. Wait. Do you think there's a confidentiality agreement you signed when? You? Hey,

Kathleen Shannon 26:30
you can't say that? Surely. So. It was just local reps kind of hosting the audition. And they were really nice. They were like, I think you're going to get it. So then I really thought

Unknown Speaker 26:41
I

Tara Street 26:42
was going to be on America's Next Top Model. Cycle six comes out. There's a beautiful girl on there named Molly. Do you guys

Kathleen Shannon 26:48
remember she had short hair and like really blue eyes? That was supposed to be me.

Unknown Speaker 26:55
Like that flat, you would have filled? Yeah.

Kathleen Shannon 27:04
So speaking of Tara Street, my sister we've had a lot of terrorists on the podcast, by the way.

Emily Thompson 27:10
I know as I was going through everyone's feedback about episodes, they just kept talking about all the Teras and I hadn't realized that we had had three which actually we have two Tera and a Tarah. So there's that. Tara is maybe one of my favorite people. No, she is one of my favorite people. Tara street is one of my very favorite people. She's fantastic. I could listen to her tell stories all damn day, which is why I'm so glad that you got her on to tell about your America's Next Top Model adventure. But I think that her episode is definitely one of my personal favorites as well. She's a total boss, and the conversation that she had with us about owning your creative expertise was one that thankfully I don't so much struggle with anymore. But I absolutely knew that as she was saying that saying those things that people were scribbling notes, or at least like enjoying their own Mic drop moments, because owning your creative expertise is one of the pain points that our people experiences. And Tara has done such a good job of really owning hers and helping all of her clients own theirs as well.

Kathleen Shannon 28:18
Yeah, I mean, Kara is not only my business partner, she's my sister, we started braid creative together. And I can honestly say she's one of the smartest people I know. And she is truly gifted at telling stories. Sometimes I won't even go see a movie, I'll just have her go watch the movie, and then tell me about it. Like sometimes her interpretation is even better than seeing the actual show. And so she can turn anything into such an amazing story. I wish that she was still personal blogging. So here's a behind the scenes. Tara was personal blogging for a while at kind of a sideshow.blogspot.com. And it's kind of memoir, personal essay style of sharing the story of three creative siblings. So that would be me, my sister and my brother who is a sideshow performer, we need to have Donnie on the show next.

Emily Thompson 29:13
I know I read her blog religiously when she was writing it too, because she is such a great storyteller and your family is just hysterically nuts. And amazing.

Kathleen Shannon 29:23
Let us hear what Tara had to say about positioning yourself as an expert.

Tara Street 29:34
Like, especially goes back to the girl on the diving horse. So this is a story I sent out earlier where this idea of you know you go to the circus or I imagine like a 1940s little Carnival that comes to town right? And they've got the big top and they've got you know, the strong man, they've got all that stuff going on. And then there's the girl on the diving horse. I think this is probably a movie we saw, like in the 90s or something. But anyway, so the girl on the diving horse right? she climbs up the ladder on the wrong shooting in so many emails about that movie. Like I feel all of our Yeah, wild horses,

Unknown Speaker 30:08
wild hearts can't be broken. Oh.

Tara Street 30:13
Anyways, ideas thinking about, like your competition are the people who do everything for everyone or even yourself trying to be everything to everyone in a three ring circus and throwing it all in, right to make everyone happy. And to make sure you get hired and make sure you make money, you're throwing it all into the big top right, you're trying to do everything, a jack of all trades. Whereas we really coach and guide people to think of themselves as the girl on the dining horse where a seat maybe not as many people, but still, some people are coming over to your little area, right and your bleachers, and they're sitting down to the girl on the diving horse. And that's you and you're going up the ladder and half the half the drama is going up the ladder. So those are the steps of your process, right? You're getting you're young, you're building anticipation, you're going up the rungs, whatever the steps that you're taking to deliver, that's you going up the ladder. And then you have the outfit I was think of that as like your personal brand. And you've got the horse, I was thinking the horse. Now this is where we get the comments because it's a horrible animal cruelty. Taking a horse died off a diving board, they don't do that anymore. I don't think that anyone would ever romanticizing it. So the horse is like your tools, like you're a photographer, you're a writer, you're whatever, the horse is just the tool that you're the expert, you're the girl on the diving horse, and you're the one that's going to jump for your clients or for your audience. And you take the leap Hooray. And everyone remembers the girl on the diving horse, right? And then you do it again. And then you do it again. And every time you do it, it's like you just become more and more known for that. And some people may call that being niche or niche. And we don't push being niche or niche. We don't push being specialized, so hard that we don't let you break your rules, right. But it definitely is something to think about when you think about what do I want to be known for. And that's also another way of thinking of what kind of expert do I want to be and just trusting that the more times you practice it and practice it and practice it, the better you get. But some people they've already been practicing it for a long time. And now it's about owning it. So that's the other side of it. You may be transitioning into finally doing what you want to do. Not just thinking of it as work but as we're calling. And so how do you own that and not just be an order taker, to your clients or jack of all trades will take on any project that comes along?

Kathleen Shannon 32:34
Okay, one of my all time favorites, and someone who has impacted my life in a major way personally and professionally is my own coach Jay Pryor. So we had Jay on the show for episode number 48. And we got so much good feedback from our listeners about it.

Caitlin Brehm 32:54
Okay, so one of our listeners in the Facebook group A while ago, just listened to the episode Dre Pryor and holy cow, I'm feeling so empowered. I did not realize how much of a worrier I was till I actively shifted my thoughts to pre paving ones just traded at the airport. And instead of worrying about my bag, not making it I envisioned it popping right out of the bag claim. And it did. So thanks for that comment, Jill, Julie. But that's also something that really struck me too. Pre paving is something that me personally, I think about all the time. And I love that we kind of have this j Pryor episode in our bucket because both of you are pretty Whoo. I don't think that's a surprise to any of the listeners. And it comes in and out of dominate the episodes. We have different guests who are more woo than others. But you listen to those and then you come back to Jay Pryor's episode, and you listen, especially this pre paving part and it's all the same thing. It's just maybe a more practical way of thinking it of really getting in that boss mindset and allowing those good things to come to you and to happen.

Kathleen Shannon 34:05
We really needed this today because we are hosting a online retreat tomorrow. So not really tomorrow for those of you who are listening, but as of the date that we're recording this we're hosting a big online retreat for our clubhouse members, which is something that we're doing every so often. So if you're interested in joining us for that retreat, go to being boss dot club slash clubhouse. And you can learn more about that. But today we hosted just a fun, podcast chat get together, and the check was crapping out. Mercury is not even in retrograde. so bad. So I'm kind of all in a tizzy about prepping for this online retreat tomorrow that really relies on this platform. And Caitlin goes Kathleen, you've got to pre pave it. You've got to pre pave it. So this is definitely a tool that I use on the regular Yeah, so let's let Jay explain what pre paving is. And let's listen to that.

Jay Pryor 35:13
Especially if being driven as your default mode, you know, being determined those kind of things, those are all great qualities, and all of us assume and think. And I think we've been trained in our Western culture to believe that being driven and being determined is the way to massively produce. But the reality is, those are not vibrations that really attract I mean, those are, if you feel the energy of determination, and, um, you can even you know, dripping driven those things, there's resistance there, right, it feels like you want to shake your fists, because I'm so determined, when really what you want to be as open and positive, and, you know, happy and, you know, I've got a client right now who's just told me that one of the things she's very clear about is that she's not supposed to be doing anything, but just having a great time. And she's doing that. And it's really working for us, that's just coming to her because she's getting into a vibe of just being true to herself and doing what is calling to her. And that is 40 her business way more than getting down and being driven and being determined. So I think the first thing is to understand that it's all about vibration, it's all about how you feel, you can't be pissed off and freaked out and expect stuff to start coming your way. You know, you want to get yourself and do whatever that takes. And that's why for it's a, it's different for everybody. And depending on your past and all the things you might need a chef shake loose, there may be some work to do. But you really want to shed yourself of anything that keeps you in that little bit freaked out driven. And you know that scared and scarcity are like the same word. Basically, when you're coming from a place of scarcity, you're coming from scared, you're coming from fear. And that doesn't serve you in terms of what you want to attract. So really creating abundance is about getting into that place where you're already feeling the abundance in terms of being grateful for what you already have already feeling powerful and fantastic. And then stuff just starts to flow in. Does that make sense? I hope

Kathleen Shannon 37:13
totally one of the metaphors I love for thinking about prosperity and abundance is that abundance is like a lake. And you can fill that lake up. But you have to have a source, right? So I like to think of prosperity as kind of the stream feeding into the lake, right? And then there are different things that can cut off that stream of prosperity, there are things that can make that lake go stale. So I I think a lot about prosperity and abundance in terms of money, because that's just an easy, sure. And measurement of energy. Right. So one of the things that I really like to do to really tap into prosperity and abundance, well, there's two things. One is I like to support other creatives, I like to spend my money in places that I support. And I feel like that starts the flow a little bit, it kind of gets some of the stagnant water out so that there's room for fresh abundance and prosperity. And then another thing that I like to do is focus on and everyone's heard me say this before, as well as focus on just making $100. Today, I think that so many of us are so focused on creating the six figure business that we lose sight of the first small step, which might be just make $100 today, and sometimes I find even that taps the flow of prosperity a little bit more than really focusing on how am I going to make my millions?

Jay Pryor 38:43
Absolutely. And it's those baby steps that then keep adding on that, you know, it's powerful. I like your analogy of the stream. I heard somebody gave me one recently that I'm really using and I'm a fan of myself. And that's the the universe is like a sunbeam always on you. And the only thing blocking it is when you put up the umbrella. And you're the one with the umbrella. And that you just have to figure out what is it that I'm doing that I'm blocking it because it's always there. It's not like you know, it's something you have to go find. It's always there. We just have to tap into it. And you know, sometimes I'm in the flow and sometimes I'm not. So what I have to do is not make it wrong when I'm not I mean the biggest thing and you know this is my my very first coaching principle is whatever is happening, stop making it wrong. So that then something can be possible. Because what we have a tendency to do as humans is whatever is happening if it's not, you know exactly how we want it to be. We make it wrong we should all over ourselves and then that just makes it worse. Instead of just getting that oh, you know, life is fun. This could be fun. This could be an adventure could be look at what can I learn from this thing coming at me right now and not make it wrong but getting the inquiry around? How is this serving me because down the road you're going I look back and go, Oh, no wonder I had that challenge because it was exactly the thing I needed to learn to be able to be where I am right now.

Caitlin Brehm 40:13
But we also, of course, have to recognize that Jay was the one who introduced you to the chalkboard method, which has been a huge, huge thing for our clubhouse members. And that's another thing that we love seeing on Instagram is your photos of your chalkboards and the way that you interpret it? So? Yeah, hashtag chalkboard method on Instagram. I would love to see it. Yeah,

Kathleen Shannon 40:38
let's definitely include a link to the chalkboard method in the show notes. You guys, this has been the number one tool I've used for manifesting dream clients and really holding myself accountable to making big goals and making them happen. We have done master classes on the chalkboard, we have a worksheet on the chalkboard, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you need to go back and listen to episode number

Unknown Speaker 41:04
79.

Kathleen Shannon 41:09
It is all the secrets there.

Emily Thompson 41:11
Yeah, I love the chalkboard method. And I think that, you know, it started out as something that you were doing and posting on your blog and something that I decided I was like, hey, shit, I'll do this too. And whenever it started, like happening, things started getting booked up. And all that jazz. I was like, you know, this has to be has to be more of a thing. And as as people started really tapping into it, because you were mentioning it on the podcast we talked about in Jays episode, we decided we needed to do a whole episode on the chalkboard method, which is how Episode 79 came about. So if you want to hear more about that, here you go.

So I want to talk about something I've heard you say lots of times, and that is that you attract what you track. And I think that's like one of the like, biggest themes of this chalkboard method. So speak on that a little bit. you attract. Oh,

Kathleen Shannon 42:11
yeah. So whenever we first started our chalkboard, and this kind of goes into the mantras, part of it, but whenever we first started our chalkboard at braid creative, we drew 10 empty spots. But we did not specify the kinds of clients we were attracting. And we were just wanting to fill up those spots with clients with cash. I remember that's what it was, we were filling up these spots with clients with cash. After working with 10 clients that were not so dreamy, I literally had an I had a client who sold concrete. And he was great. He was actually like a really fun, interesting guy. And he was really into metaphysics. So we got along well, but it was definitely was not the dream project. And I remember one day turn I actually had a meeting with a used car salesman, which I know sounds like a joke, but legit. We were sitting in a used car facility. What would you call that use car place?

Emily Thompson 43:08
Yeah, facility. Sounds good.

Kathleen Shannon 43:11
It was. And we're talking like the guys who are screaming on commercials and they have those like, balloon wacky

Emily Thompson 43:17
inflatable arm guys, huh?

Kathleen Shannon 43:20
Yeah, wacky inflatable arm guys outside. And it was just bad, bad vibes. And we were sitting there talking to this guy. And I remember two hours later, he offered me a cup of water. And so it wasn't a bottle, it was a cup of water. And I felt like I was about to be roofie. And I knew that if I took a sip of this water, like it would hit my gag reflex. And I would throw up all over the table.

Unknown Speaker 43:47
But this

Kathleen Shannon 43:48
is how grossed out I was. So turn, I literally drove home from this meeting. And we looked at our chalkboard and we were like, we've gotta make this work for us a little bit better. So we decided to start tracking what we attract. And But to do that, to attract the dream customers that we wanted, we knew that we needed to focus on well, attracting dream customers. So we consulted Jay about this, we were like why are we not getting our dream customers? And he was like, because you need to get really specific about who that is. And so we sat down and had a conversation and we said, okay, we are attracting dream clients with cash. And what that looks like for us right now are photographers, designers. Now it's, you know, coaches and writers, but really just creative entrepreneurs. And I think that we have the self limiting belief that creatives don't have money, and it's just not true. So like don't impose your own self limiting beliefs on yourself as you're making your goals because half the time it's just not true. And so we drew a little magnet with little like charge lightning bolts coming out of it and on our chalkboard to remind us of our mantra that we are attracting dream clients with cash. And maybe we even drew like, a heart on the other side with an arrow going through it. Because we want to love our clients and and we do. And so then we started attracting our dream clients and only filling up spots with dream clients. And it was also what gave us the visual guidance to say no to not so dreamy clients, because we wouldn't, we only had so many spaces, we wanted to save them for the most dreamy people.

Emily Thompson 45:33
Couple things I want to talk about there. So yes to the like attracting the dream clients and getting really specific there. I also think the whole attracting what you track really plays into all the other metrics that you can track on the chalkboard as well. So even if it's your social media, you're not setting goals, you're simply tracking it like you can see that growth, and you put more more like work into seeing those grow as you track them. And another thing that I used to do is I was out, I would actually track the things that I said no to. So on my chalkboard, I would put like a big No. And then keep a tally of the things that I would say no to whether it was clients that weren't the right fit, or whether it was, you know, collaborations or projects or blog posts or whatever it was that people were wanting me to write the things that I said no to and again, with the idea that I wanted to be attracting lots of opportunities, but I wanted to maintain my control over what it was that I said yes and no to. And I think that as you put like the power of like writing something like that down and tracking it, you are you're inviting so much more of that like into your business, and you are attracting the things that you are tracking. So whether it's whether it's you know, selling digital products, or growing your social media presence, or simply saying no to things, I think that putting like incorporating those things into that chalkboard is really awesome. And I like that you guys there made it, like made it almost an art project of like, you know, creating these, these little graphics that would communicate at least to your brain as you're looking at it that like I'm not just going to be attracting clients with cash, like, you know, smiley faces with money signs, like I want to be attracting clients that we love. And I think that I don't know, I love it. This is all the reasons I love the chalkboard, man.

Kathleen Shannon 47:26
Well, and I actually love the idea of tracking what you say no to.

All right, so one of our favorite episodes was with our very own Caitlin. And we're not just saying that because but we loved recording the episode on SEO, which stands for search engine optimization made easy for creatives with you. So not only do you help us out with all the things at being boss, you're also an SEO expert. And Emily and I were talking about this before we hopped on Skype about how you really took a subject that is super complicated and can be really intimidating and overwhelming. And really broke it down in a way that made it feel achievable and attainable, and totally doable.

Emily Thompson 48:21
And I just have to share a really fun behind the scenes moment of when we actually recorded this episode with you because you get on Skype, and you're surrounded by your clothes.

Unknown Speaker 48:31
Because

Emily Thompson 48:33
Because you were sitting in your closet so that you could record in a quiet space. And I remember the event was so adorable and amazing. And I loved it so much. So I just had to share that visual with everyone is is Kaitlyn recording the episode in her closet so that she could be in a soundproof space. But also second thing what Kathleen said where and it wasn't just us that brought this up your episode whenever we talked to our Facebook group into the clubhouse, your episode was one that came up a lot. And I really do think it was that that idea that you took something that is so foreign to most online entrepreneurs, but so absolutely necessary and made it approachable. Search Engine Optimization is really at the core of online business if you want to be found online, you need to know how to make your website search engine friendly and optimized so that people can find you online and i think that i think that having you on one not only made us feel so boss for having such a boss on our team, but to hopefully made a lot of our listeners feel boss in their own online business because you gave them some tools and tactics and tips for no achieving this weird alien thing for their own business. Well, thank you guys.

Caitlin Brehm 49:52
I was actually really touched to see a lot of those Facebook. comments come in that people really like my episode. That was kind of surprising to me just because you know, even though I do have this unique message, and maybe I appeared confident in my episode, it's difficult even for me just the messaging like trying to explain the perspective that I'm coming from and explain such a difficult concept for people to understand. So let that be a lesson to you listeners to that, sometimes you just need to talk something out, it was so much easier for me to talk out how I feel about SEO and how I come at it and my perspective than it is to say right in about page. So actually, as soon as we had recorded that, I went back and I updated my website so that we'll be ready for the show. So whether or not you listeners are invited on a podcast and get that opportunity, even just record yourself talking about what you do. And I think like, that's not SEO, that's just a thing behind the scenes that I learned from the experience of talking about what I do.

Kathleen Shannon 51:04
I also want to acknowledge what a boss you've been along the way, whenever you first started working with us, you were still working a day job. And over the trajectory of our time together, you've been able to establish your own expertise, but still pay the bills by cobbling together a few side hustles like working with us. And I just think that you've done such a great job, and you really are not only our dream boss to work with, you're also kind of you, I think, Caitlin, you really represent the kind of listener that we really want to appeal to, which is someone who is willing to get their hands dirty, and do the work and do what it takes to build and create the life and job of your dreams. Alright, well, let's listen to a little something that you had to say about SEO that was so super helpful.

Caitlin Brehm 52:08
So there's a lot of old information out there that people are still reading as if it's still relevant today. And there's a lot of misinformation out there. And just a lot of I mean, there's so many moving parts. But a lot of people when they start researching SEO, or when they start just trying to figure out how they can get it to work for them. They're only seeing a piece of it. And it might not be the piece that's most helpful for them. So basically what I tell people, especially like family and friends who are like, what do you do? That great question that we all love. I say search engine optimization. So basically what I do is I help your website or your online presence get found by the people that you want to get found by so your ideal clients. I've seen this a couple times. And just like online, when people will say like I'm just not getting, because basically when people say they want SEO, and they're like okay really need to focus on my SEO now. It's because they're not getting the numbers that they want. They're looking at Google Analytics, or whatever analytics, and they're not getting the number of traffic per month or whatever on their site. And so they complain about it, and are trying to figure that out. And first of all, if I look on these sites sometimes and I had to come like a moment myself, too, because like my numbers myself on my own site, I would like them to be much higher. And I you know, you get into this mindset of like, oh, like, I'm not, maybe I'm not as legit as I thought or like those Friday feelings start creeping in. But I realized this week that you know what, those Friday feelings are true, because I have not been blogging consistently. I have not been sharing my stuff across social media consistently. And yes, I do that for my clients. I do that for you guys. I'm helping you, like get your content strategy consistent. We're sharing it all over the place. But I'm not taking myself on as my own client. So this is true for like any creative entrepreneur, whether you do SEO, or content writing or social media or design, you need to be your own client, you need to have yourself be a priority on the same level as your client.

Kathleen Shannon 54:21
Preach. Like Hans, amen.

Caitlin Brehm 54:26
So if you're complaining about your numbers, and you're wondering about SEO, look at your own site first. And first figure out are you actually blogging once a week, every single week, like and not just for like a couple months at a time and then you like take your hiatus and then you're like, Oh, I'm back in it.

Unknown Speaker 54:41
But like,

Unknown Speaker 54:42
are you actually

Unknown Speaker 54:43
it's not a diet,

Unknown Speaker 54:45
right business.

Emily Thompson 54:55
All right, now I want to talk about another one of our sort of bosses. In training or like I don't want to say baby bosses even though that's totally like a term that you guys have come up with on your own. But I loved the episode that we did with Tiffany I'ma because she's totally a boss that has a day job, but is rocking her side hustle so hard. And her Instagram account and her adorableness, and her message. Like she, for me is one of my personal favorite episodes. I just think that she is such a such a great example of someone who is making it work for herself. And she's still absolutely on that journey. But for me, she was an episode that really allowed us to highlight people who are in it. So often we record with people who are several steps ahead of our user, our our usual listener, but Tiffany is in it, she's totally in and rocking it out in her own right. And so for her, she was one she was she is She is my personal favorite episode.

Kathleen Shannon 56:02
I love that. And, you know, beyond her kind of rocking out a side hustle while working a day job and doing a great job at that I'd even realize until we were recording that she still had a day job. I think that's how good some of our bosses have gotten at creating a side hustle that looks completely legit. But I loved what Tiffany had to say about style itself. And really it kind of being the one of the first impressions that we make as a boss. And it really got me thinking about my own wardrobe. And what it is I want to say and really wearing what I want to wear that will make me feel more boss every single day, even if it's just for myself.

Emily Thompson 56:44
So right and if Kathleen needs to hear this message, then everyone needs to hear this message. Because Kathleen, I didn't think you had a problem wearing what you wanted to wear.

Kathleen Shannon 56:54
I know I mean, we should we should probably get a guest on to talk about like the postpartum realness. I threw away all my clothes whenever I was pregnant, because I thought I would never go back into the size that I once was. And then I was nursing for a year which just destroyed like literally destroyed my clothes. And everything had to be booby accessible. So

Emily Thompson 57:19
and you know, maybe it was time for you to hear that

Kathleen Shannon 57:21
just yesterday, I was emailing my best friend and telling her that I'm about to go through a style transition where I really only wear all black. Oh, legit, like legit.

Emily Thompson 57:35
I look forward to watching it happen. I

Kathleen Shannon 57:37
don't think Tiffany would agree she that she loves some color.

Emily Thompson 57:42
She does. She's very colorful.

Kathleen Shannon 57:43
I love it. And oh, one of the best things, I just think that she's really good at rocking out some color. Well, let's just hear from her.

Tiffany Ima 57:57
Yeah, for sure. So for me, I am all about just like confidence. And that's a huge part of my brand. Because just my background in general is I went through a lot of like self esteem issues in my early 20s. And like in my teen years. And it took me a while to land at a place where I felt confident in myself. And for me, style was always a catalyst for that. Because I would never, you'll never hear me say that you should you're confident because of your style. But you will hear me say that your style reflects your confidence. And for me, style became a big creative outlet for me to express myself. And I just learned a lot about who I was through that. Which is why I always want it to be a part of who I am. And you know what I show to other people. So for me, my brand is all about just exuding confidence. And I think you know, the colors that I choose use cognitive vibrant, just hues and I love it because it just shows that you're confident who you are, it takes it does take a confident person or when it comes to the colors that I wear. So I think that's reflective and my brand image. That's the that's the biggest part of our brand image is reflecting that image of confidence. And you know, I just want the people who follow me in my audience to really grasp that idea of being able to accept who you are and love who you are as a person. Because ultimately you're going to need to be able to show people that you know what you're talking about. And you can't do that if you're not confident in yourself.

Kathleen Shannon 59:30
Okay, can we talk about one of the most vulnerable episodes we've ever done?

Emily Thompson 59:36
Yes, but I also know that it was probably one of my favorites.

Kathleen Shannon 59:40
So do you know which one it is that I'm

Emily Thompson 59:42
trying now I'm looking at it highlighted on a sheet right now.

Kathleen Shannon 59:48
There's no faking it on being boss. You know, we've got an agenda. So when your metrics suck was a super no awkward But it's the first time that we've had a hard conversation in public where everyone could hear us. But it was a super important conversation. So let's set it up a little bit when your metrics suck.

Emily Thompson 1:00:12
So I was doing some looking at our analytics. And Kathleen was already talking about stopping blogging about kept coming back to the idea of blogging. And so I was looking at some metrics, and I noticed that most of Kathleen's blog posts, were not showing up in the top, like 50 pages of our website. And so I told her, I was like, Hey, don't worry about it. Some of your blog posts aren't doing that great. Anyway. Just take a break, write that book proposal. Okay.

Kathleen Shannon 1:00:45
I'm gonna remember a little differently. I'm sure you do. It was more like, Hey, you guys, I'm trying to write a book proposal. I do not have time to write a blog post this week. And hear it being boss. We talk a lot about prioritizing, and you've got to let go of something if you're not going to be working all night. And so I decided that a blog post was on the last bit of my priorities on my list. So I type it in slack. I say, Hey, guys, I'm not going to do a blog post this week. And Emily replies, well, then what's going to go in that place?

Emily Thompson 1:01:21
consistency breeds legitimacy? So what I say, Oh, yeah,

Kathleen Shannon 1:01:25
Emily said her, which is aligned, I love consistency breeds legitimacy. What's going to go in the place of that? And I was like, Damn, I felt like I was getting called out, I felt like my own inner critic, which was saying, you need to get your shit done, was being reflected in Emily saying, hey, you need to meet your deadlines. Right? So then I think she backpedaled and felt bad whenever I was like about have a mental breakdown, and said, it's okay. Because your blog posts aren't doing that well, anyway.

Emily Thompson 1:02:00
Right? More or less, there are more things that were said.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:03
Basically, how it went

Emily Thompson 1:02:04
down engines were, what's the word? I'm thinking? the toes,

Kathleen Shannon 1:02:09
maybe in Slack, right.

Emily Thompson 1:02:11
And that to like typing things out, Kathleen certainly took it much more harshly than I meant her to, which started an even harder conversation of then what do we do, and I'm sorry, I made you cry. So we decided to have that conversation more or less as a podcast. We weren't getting together. So we we actually recorded this one together, which we don't get to do very often, we're usually doing it remotely via slack. But this one, we had come together in Pennsylvania for a retreat that we were both attending together. And we took the first hour basically of our arrival there as a moment to sort of stop record this episode. So we were able to sit down you remember the room that we're recording in, we were recording in the most heinous room I think I've ever been in in my life, the wallpaper was ridiculous, but also amazing in its own right. So we sit down on this bed together with this like makeshift podcast mic stand. And we record when metrics suck, which is Episode 89, where we talk about how we need to put our energy where we get results, and sometimes let go of tasks so that you can focus on what needs to be done.

Kathleen Shannon 1:03:34
Let's listen to a clip from that.

Um, okay, so I have changed my mind on metrics matter whether or not metrics matter. I do think that metrics matter. But I don't think that data should matter. whenever it comes to you having a creative outlet, and staying authentic to what matters to you. I think that you need to say what you want to say whether or not anyone is reading it.

Emily Thompson 1:04:09
A man and like whenever it came to this scenario with the blog posts, if you had not said something about wanting to stop blogging, I never would have brought it up that your blog posts weren't doing well. Like if I could tell that it was something that you were just like going at with reckless abandon and loving it with every fiber of your being. I would have just kept that little bit of info to myself forever and ever. Amen. However, however, I don't think that was the case.

Kathleen Shannon 1:04:45
It's funny because Emily on Slack, you know, you said I it's clear that you're not putting energy into this and I was like I am. I am putting energy into it. And after a night of not very much sleep. I woke up feeling like you know what? Maybe I'm not like maybe I need to reevaluate where I actually am putting my energy and what excites me most about my business. So I think that you're right. I wasn't going at it with gusto. And it shook me up a little bit because I loved it so much. But I can go after this with gusto. I love what we're doing.

Emily Thompson 1:05:16
Right? Me too. And with the book, like, actually, those metrics will matter, because then the publisher will get pissed. But okay, for example, this like the podcast, like the, our metrics have been something that we've kept an eye on. But even whenever things have dept because they have dipped, it has not affected how we've shown up for this podcast in any way. Like, if we had no one listening to this podcast, I'm pretty sure we'd still bill, we'd still be here right now in this tulip room. In Pennsylvania, like recording this podcast for all 12 of our listeners, like that would totally be a thing, because this is something that we find creative fulfillment in. And at that point, metrics don't matter. It's just whether or not like our internal metrics, like how happy we are when we do it is the only metrics that matter.

Kathleen Shannon 1:06:18
Caitlyn, do you have any thoughts you want to share? on that episode? Do you want to talk about how our podcasts are actually doing really well? And that's where I'm most concerned about our metrics?

Caitlin Brehm 1:06:28
Yeah, well, I love this episode, too, because I think it connected with so many bosses, so many bosses are so obsessed with the metrics. And from an SEO perspective, sometimes that's not always necessary. So for Kathleen, it was something to think about, because her energy was being put into writing these blog posts that weren't doing well anyway, and she didn't really want to be doing them in that moment. So that was an easy call to make. If they, you know, if she did really want to do them, and she had time for them, and they weren't doing well, that would have been okay to you. It's not great to, you know, take your website, if something about it isn't doing well, if you love putting that energy into it. But what we all knew. And what Kathleen has since kind of reframed is that the episodes are really what matter. And our episodes are doing really well in terms of analytics. So I think that's something to keep in mind too. But I also really love some of the conversation that This sparked both in the Facebook group and in the being both clubhouse. Beth for example, said I love how you guys share real stuff that's really going on. It makes me feel like it's okay to be nice to be where I'm at in my business and in life. And I think that's really the thing to remember is you guys have these badass bosses who come on the show and give these amazing interviews. But behind the scenes, they're still freaking out about things too. So we're all the same. We're all in it.

Kathleen Shannon 1:08:00
And speaking of blog posts, I want to talk about our contributors. For a second, we have had so many guest bloggers contribute to being boss club, our website where we are posting articles and show notes, and minisodes and podcasts and more articles every single day. And I have loved you know, I love writing and Emily is great at writing. But I love getting to hear from other bosses and really creating a space where other bosses can have a voice not only on our podcast, but in articles on our website. So can we take a second to share some of our favorite articles and link to those. So my favorite most recently was by Sammy, who wrote

Unknown Speaker 1:08:45
about by Felicia

Kathleen Shannon 1:08:48
getting rid of toxic relationships. And she said some really nice things. But that's not why I loved the article so much. It was just a great reminder that we can let go of what's not serving us. So thank you, Sammy, for writing that article. What have been some of your guys's favorites.

Caitlin Brehm 1:09:04
I loved the naming your business one by Jessica Willingham. Her writing style is just absolutely phenomenal. And I appreciate a good piece of writing. So she pulled in some good metaphors there that I really enjoyed. And plus it was just I mean, she gave some really great tips on how to name your business.

Kathleen Shannon 1:09:25
I wouldn't say Bre gore also wrote one about anxiety which is something that a lot of Type A bosses struggle with, you know who you are. So I really appreciate her piece of writing on that. But there have been so many amazing I hate just picking a few because they've all been so good.

Emily Thompson 1:09:43
Ah, some was the Amy karofsky who wrote one about energy vampires and pulled like some good True Blood references. I think and I think it's here's my favorite thing about about these articles is how Creative they are in granted, like our people are great of entrepreneurs. But I've also heard or there's one in there with some really great Harry Potter references, like pulling things that we all experience in running our own creative businesses and saying them in ways that are sincerely entertaining, like our contributors literally are the best, which is actually kathlynn probably why your blog posts weren't doing so well, as all of our contributors are just really amazing.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:30
Also, I haven't had enough time to consume pop culture recently. So

Unknown Speaker 1:10:34
to draw

Emily Thompson 1:10:35
on that too. Alright, so I want to shift gears, I think and talk about it talk about I guess, our last our last best of that we're pulling out for this episode. And that's one that I know has, or like, building up to it to change mine in your business, Kathleen, and we've gotten so much feedback from it just in the short time since we've published it. And that would be episode number 92. Creating a business model with Tara Gentilly. That episode for me was just one massive Mic drop. And I wanted to every boss who has ever heard of being boss to listen to this four times, listen to it legit twice and take notes twice. Because I think that this idea of business model is what is missing from so many creatives business. So I loved hearing Tara just sort of like lay it out in this really real world approachable, applicable way, that if you don't know how you're making money, you're probably not making very much money.

Caitlin Brehm 1:11:46
So many bosses. I mean, we got so much feedback about this in both the Facebook group and the clubhouse. I was surprised at how many people said that they hit replay immediately. Because that's some time dedication. Twice. m. l especially said, the latest episode of Ted and chili had so many aha moments for me, I took so many notes, and some really big moments that were Oh shit. And I'm so excited to rejigged some things double down on the ship that works and push my goals and plans beyond what is just enough for me and my life. So I think that was a huge aha moment that many bosses had is that they've been reaching for enough. And that it's okay to want more than that. And to push for something that might be more than that, too.

Kathleen Shannon 1:12:38
Yes, I mean, we have learned so much from Tara Gentilly. I've been following her for a long time and consuming her blog posts and her ebooks, and getting to work with her more one on one has been a game changer, and to be able to bring her on to the podcast and share her gifts of knowledge, and really share a behind the scenes sneak peek of how we took something that launched as a completely organic content sharing platform and turned it into a business I think was a really special thing. And yeah, so let's listen to a little bit of what carriage until he had to say.

Tara McMullin 1:13:25
Yeah, money, you gotta want it. And I think that, um, oh, yeah, that backlash that you talked about? It's been driving me nuts. Because I see it in the chat rooms on my webinars, I see it on Facebook comments, I see it in emails that come through. And it's exactly what you said, you know, we have readers, listeners who are just wanting to make that $35,000, that 55, that's $75,000, no matter where they're at, they're just trying to get by with that. They're trying to replace their old salary. You know, they're just they've done, they've run the number, they've looked at their expenses, and they know what they need to get by. Right. They know what enough is. And I think knowing what enough is is important. It's it's huge for how you manage your money. It's huge for how you spend your money. But it shouldn't dictate how you make your money. Because making money is an indicator, it's a metric of the amount of impact that you're creating in the world, the amount of value that you're creating in the world. the more money you design your business to create, the more value you're designing your business to create when it's done correctly. And so if you want an impact, if you want to create value, you have to want money, too. And that you know, if you want to give it all the way to charity Be my guest or if you want to set up a trust for your kids. Be my guest if you want to hire a team of 100 because that's how much money You make and you want to take a salary of 75,000 Be my guest. That's totally fine. We're not talking about that we're not talking about living a life of access. But what I what I am talking about is designing a business that's creating the amount of impact that you want to create. And so that's, you know, the the emails that you brought up, that's what I was really talking about is that there is this misunderstanding that when you're making 35, or when you're making $75,000, that the way you get to 50, or 100, or 150, is to push harder to hustle more. And this is one of the other really dangerous conversations that's happening online. Right now, there's hustle at all costs, or, you know, hustle, just constant hustle, I hate that word. And there's a place for hustle. But it's not in getting you from 50,000 to 100,000. You know, you're if you're making $50,000 a year right now, your business is designed to make $50,000 a year right now, there are very few instances where a business that's making $50,000 a year is really an underperforming six figure business. An underperform, it just it doesn't happen very often, sometimes maybe you're starting off, you're just starting off, and that's the case. But most of the time, if you've been making 50 or $75,000 for a while, or even like 18 months, and you're not you're you know, you're pushing harder, but you're not getting to that next increment, it's because your business isn't designed to make more. And so I think this backlash against talking about six figure businesses or talking about seven figure businesses is really problematic. Because if we don't talk about it, if we don't pick them apart, if we don't look for how they work, and what we can learn from them, we can't design the businesses that are not only going to art not only designed to make us that amount of money, but to make us our to allow us to have that kind of impact in our communities. And that's super duper important.

Emily Thompson 1:17:04
You know, I think so that's it 100 episodes,

Kathleen Shannon 1:17:14
so many episodes, whether you guys are new listeners, I hope that we've given you a few like a bits and pieces of what we've been about for the last 100 episodes, for those of you who have been with us the whole time, and you've already heard all of it. Thank you so much for hanging with us. We just really appreciate you all we could not do it without you Without our listeners without you sharing it with your friends, and giving us ratings and reviews on iTunes and joining the being boss Facebook group. You guys have given us life and we are so so appreciative of you. I could probably start crying, thinking about how much I love all of our

Emily Thompson 1:17:54
listeners. Right and all of that is definitely true. But you said like we couldn't do it without you have to say even without you, Kathleen and I would probably still be doing this be like getting together and recording our ridiculous ass conversations because we certainly have seen how helpful they are for us. And it really just is the cherry on top of that so many of you have found them helpful as well. We love doing this and we don't plan on stopping anytime soon.

Kathleen Shannon 1:18:28
Thank you for listening to being boss. Find Articles show notes and downloads at WWW dot being boss

Unknown Speaker 1:18:35
club.

Emily Thompson 1:18:38
If you're a creative entrepreneur, Freelancer or small business owner who is ready to take your goals to the next level, check out the being boss clubhouse, a two day online retreat followed by a year of community support monthly masterclasses book club secret episodes and optional in person retreats. Find more at www dot being boss club slash clubhouse.

Kathleen Shannon 1:19:01
Thank you so much to our team and sponsors who make being boss possible our sound engineer and web developer Corey winter. Our editorial director and content manager Caitlin brain, our community manager and social media director Sharon lukey. Our graphic designer Jessica Bramlett and are being countered David Austin, with support from braid creative and indicia biography.

Emily Thompson 1:19:22
Do the work the boss and we'll see you next week.

We do need like an epic blooper though. Do you want to talk about your vagina?

Kathleen Shannon 1:19:45
Let me tell you about my vagina.

Caitlin Brehm 1:19:47
So the magazine 100 episodes or 100 days of Kathleen's status update our long

Emily Thompson 1:19:58
like crazy full spectrum color will like 200 good. We're making it visual as well.

Unknown Speaker 1:20:05
Um, wait, what? No, just

Kathleen Shannon 1:20:12
color me love my vagina.

Emily Thompson 1:20:14
Right? What? That's that's our next digital product.