Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How to Put Happiness Before Hustle with Donna Maria

Transcript

How to Put Happiness Before Hustle with Donna Maria · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

• 0:00
  Happy before hustle.
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  That is my motto.
• 0:03
  Alright?
• 0:03
  We want you to create your happiness, design your happiness.
• 0:07
  None of this happens by accident.
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  You, as you just said, Melinda, have to decide what you want.
• 0:13
  Define what you want.
• 0:14
  What makes you happy?
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  Are you not happy sitting on a computer all day, putting product, on websites, well, you
• 0:20
  probably don't wanna be an online seller, right, or you wanna make sure that you have
• 0:26
  somebody that can do all that work for you so you can focus on other things.
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  So deciding what makes you happy in your vocation What lights you up?
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  What gets you up in the morning?
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  And then looking at what are the business opportunities that I can build on top of that?
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  How can I create something that will give me the life that I want, not just today, not next
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  week, but for the rest of my life
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  3, 2, 1, 0, ignition, liftoff, Ending small business failure?
• 1:03
  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
• 1:09
  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
• 1:13
  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's the small Biz lady herself.
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  Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson.
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  Small biz lady.
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  America's number one small business expert, and I am so excited to welcome you to a National,
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  National Small Business Week Edition of the Small Business Chat Live.
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  Listen, we have an incredible show here for you today.
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  Here on the small fish chat live, we are all about peer to peer mentoring.
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  The mission of small fish chat is to end small business failure.
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  And today's show is about how design your life and then design your business.
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  We're all about giving you advice from multiple angles so that you can think about maybe a
• 2:04
  jewel or gem here that's gonna help you take your business to the next level.
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  So with that, let me introduce my guest, Donna Maria, the lifestyle CEO, You know, she was
• 2:16
  content with a great job in Washington DC as an attorney until she wasn't.
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  After working on someone else's terms for a decade, She knew it was time to create a way to
• 2:26
  make a living on her own terms.
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  So 22 years ago, she quit her job and launched the indie business network.
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  A coaching mentoring and training company serving American maker entrepreneur.
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  Today, she mentors entrepreneurs teaching and training them on how to design a solid business
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  platform that will create happiness and success, which can generate income for a
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  lifetime.
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  For more information, you can go to the lifestyle CEO dot com.
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  Donna Maria, welcome.
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  Well, thank you so much for having me and happy small business week, everyone.
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  Yeah.
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  I am hype.
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  You know, this is, like, our week.
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  Right?
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  Somebody's finally paying attention to small business.
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  Hey.
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  Alright.
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  So let's jump into it, Don Maria.
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  Tell me a little bit more about your origin story.
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  I mean, you have so much to tell because I've known you for so long, but just tell me what
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  colonels, can you tell us from how you got started on your entrepreneurial journey?
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  Melinda, thank you so much for asking that question.
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  It's it's a fun journey, but in a nutshell, it started when I realized that I didn't wanna
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  work the way everybody else wanted me to work.
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  There was a certain way that my career path as an attorney traditionally went, and I was about
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  to get married and have children.
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  And I didn't like what I saw for myself.
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  I had been happy doing it.
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  I was thankful for a job.
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  Believe me.
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  It was a good job, but I was not able to live on my own terms without children.
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  I knew once I had them, it was gonna be more of the same.
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  So I looked around for jobs that maybe I could share, maybe part time jobs, I couldn't find
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  one.
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  So, Melinda, I realized I was gonna have to create it myself, and that's what I did.
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  So that's in a nutshell how I went from working for someone else to working for myself and
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  working for my members.
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  So tell me about the indie business network.
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  What is it, and and who are your typical members?
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  Our members are American maker entrepreneur.
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  So when you go to a market or when you go to a store and you see products that you can't buy
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  at big box stores, that are made with local ingredients made by local people, families,
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  moms, dads, kids, people that have their own businesses who are running them on their own
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  terms.
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  Right?
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  They're working for themselves.
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  They create amazing products that you can't get on every street corner.
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  That's who we serve.
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  They make bath and body products.
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  They make artisanal food products, like all the jams and jellies and ketchups you'd like to put
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  on your omelets, right, that's not the stuff that you can get at all the stores.
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  These are the high level artisan products that are uniquely and batch made.
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  That's who indie business network members are.
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  Wow.
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  And so your organization was actually, like, one of the first membership organizations
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  online.
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  Right?
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  I think, actually, it was the 1st January 16 2000.
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  I don't know anybody that had a recurring revenue membership business on January 16 2000.
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  I've looked.
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  I've tried to find the companies that were doing that, and I haven't been able to find
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  them.
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  I'm open to seeing who they are, but I think we're the first We process renewal payments by
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  hand when we started.
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  There there were no automated renewals merchant service companies wouldn't let you do that back
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  then.
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  So we had to actually do it by hand.
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  So we have grown this business.
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  My team and I from doing everything by hand to seeing how everything has advanced.
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  It's a whole lot easier to process those payments now.
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  And we obviously use the technology, but we started with an idea and a calculator and a
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  phone.
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  That's how we processed everything.
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  Oh, wow.
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  Now I can appreciate that because I started my business in 1999, and I do remember how stuff
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  was back in the day.
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  So you described yourself as a lifestyle CEO, what do you mean by that?
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  And and how does that fit into the idea of, you know, creating income you know, for life.
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  Melinda, a lifestyle CEO is a person who
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  is the CEO of their life and their business.
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  When you combine those two things together and you lead them both, and they are balanced and
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  integrated so you can leverage your life with your business.
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  That's what we do as lifestyle CEOs.
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  And lifestyle CEOs operate according to 7 core values, freedom, flexibility, fun, fitness,
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  family, finances, that's what we operate according to.
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  So all of those things and the seventh one is focus.
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  Right?
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  So when you put all those things together and you create a life that you want and you build a
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  business on top of that, instead of what we see people traditionally do, which is start a
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  business.
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  And then a few years later kinda go, this is not fitting my life.
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  Like, that's a lot of times what we do with jobs.
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  We get a great job, and then we go, how am I gonna get the kids?
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  How am I gonna do daycare?
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  How am I gonna do all this stuff?
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  So a lifestyle CEOs set their sights on what they want their lives to look like, and then
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  they build a business around that.
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  And I love to hear that because one of
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  the first things that I always tell people when they say, hey.
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  I wanna start a business.
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  I'm always like, woah.
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  Woah.
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  What I need you to do first is figure out what you want and why you want it.
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  And then let's figure out this business you wanna start because I want you to start a
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  business that's going to allow you to live your dream life.
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  So I'm I'm in perfect alignment with what you're saying.
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  Now now to to your point that you just made, though, I know there's a lot of people out here
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  running businesses that they may be happy with the money, or they may even be struggling to
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  make the money but they're unhappy with their lives as entrepreneurs.
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  And a lot of that comes from, you know, in the early days of a business, you kinda feel like
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  your business is running.
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  You, you know, instead of you running it.
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  But eventually, that's gotta stop.
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  Right?
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  I mean, how do you transition and get off of that hamster wheel of stress that that that
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  business really can easily become.
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  Melinda, that's such a good question.
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  And the the bottom line is is that lifestyle CEOs think differently.
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  Okay.
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  We think about our lives first.
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  We do not have a microwave mentality.
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  We have a crock pot mentality because we know the spaghetti that's made in a crock pot tastes
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  better than the spaghetti that's made in a microwave.
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  Right?
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  So what we wanna do is not create, oh, I had a $10,000 launch.
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  No.
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  We want you 25 years from now to still be making money.
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  Like, you're not a pie in the sky sort of thing.
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  So, essentially, happy before hustle.
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  That is my motto.
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  Alright?
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  We want you to create your happiness, design your happiness.
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  None of this happens by accident.
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  You, as you just said, Milan, to have to decide what you want.
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  Define what you want.
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  What makes you happy?
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  Are you not happy sitting on a computer all day, putting products on websites?
• 9:24
  Well, you probably don't wanna be an online seller, right, or you wanna make sure that you
• 9:30
  have somebody that can do all that work for you so you can focus on other things.
• 9:35
  So deciding what makes you happy in your vocation, what lights you up, what gets you up
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  in the morning, and then looking at what are the business opportunities that I can build on
• 9:47
  top of that?
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  How can I create something that will give me the life that I want?
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  Not just today.
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  Not next week, but for the rest of my life as long as I want to work, and you can build on
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  that.
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  Once you have a solid core, You can build multiple income streams on top of that, but
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  you've got to remember that happy before hustle.
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  That really sounds like a t shirt line, don't worry.
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  I hope you got some merch coming.
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  I mean, I wanna get 1.
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  That's for sure.
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  So in that vein, What are the first things that you need in order to build a business that
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  generates, you know, income for a lifetime?
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  What what do I need to have?
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  Well, first of all, you need to know what's gonna make you happy.
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  So think about what you want your life to look like.
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  Once you know that, you need to look around at what the opportunities are.
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  Like, how are other people that have the life you wanna have or their components of their
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  lives that you want?
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  What are they doing?
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  How are they making money?
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  Success, leaves clues.
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  So there's nothing new under the sun.
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  Right?
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  There's very little new under the sun.
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  And these days, unlike when I started my business, everything is out there.
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  Like, if you wanna be, like, that person's business, all you have to do is follow him on
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  Instagram.
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  Subscribe to their newsletter, listen to their podcast.
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  The whole business model is practically laid out for you.
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  So you have to pay attention.
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  And when you see an example of something that you would like to strive for, look under the
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  hood, see what's going on, and then you can build something around that.
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  The next thing you need you need some sort of recurring revenue source.
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  You have to build something that you don't have to actually all the time do something to get
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  the next sale.
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  You want to have either membership subscription recurring revenue.
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  It can be called different things depending on your business model.
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  But you want that level of predictability in your business because you want that level of
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  predictability in your life.
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  So those are a couple things to do to get started.
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  So is there a
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  specific type of business model that you recommend?
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  Membership.
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  Yes.
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  Membership, m e m b e r s h I p.
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  Okay.
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  Because and I will tell you, look, I didn't know anyone who was doing this before I did it,
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  but here's what was happening to me.
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  I had a business, and I was selling products, and my products were reasonably okay.
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  But I was meeting a lot of other people that had products that were better than mine.
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  But you know what?
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  I could sell my mediocre products They didn't know how to sell theirs.
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  They had products that were better than mine.
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  They were coming to me for marketing advice.
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  So I finally took the hint and realized nobody was gonna buy my sugar scrubs.
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  Nobody was gonna buy my candles, but they would buy my marketing advice.
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  And what I noticed was they were all asking the same questions.
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  So I was saying the same thing over and over again.
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  And I thought, how can I talk to hundreds of people at a time who all have the same
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  question?
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  And, you know, help a lot of people.
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  And you're like, you know, not have my mediocre sugar scrubs sitting out there.
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  So I set up list seriously, a free conference call.com.
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  My girlfriend who was an herbalist, she set up a website, which is hilarious today.
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  We have screen shots of it.
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  And we set up a membership.
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  It was free.
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  I had seven people to be my, I called them seed members.
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  They helped me plant see.
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  They told 2 friends.
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  They told 2 friends.
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  Membership was free for 90 days.
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  And on day 91, Kathleen Lewis in New York City joined the indie business network, and I knew I
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  was on to something.
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  I love that.
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  I love that story.
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  That's such a good story.
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  Because you paid attention to what was going on.
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  Is it wait a minute.
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  Wait a minute.
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  I can bottle sell this.
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  Hold on.
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  So I love that.
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  I love that.
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  So I mean, you're basically answering you answered my next question already.
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  So do you have to have products to be successful in business?
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  So We now know the answer is no today.
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  I think you already demonstrated that to me, but your team is remote.
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  And so I wanna talk to you about managing a remote team and how that works for your
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  membership business?
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  Well, when I started my business, I was nursing.
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  I had 2 of them hanging right here.
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  And I didn't know.
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  I didn't get out a lot.
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  Like, you know, my my getting out was to the target.
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  Right?
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  And that was a vacation for me.
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  So I realized I needed help, and I realized that I wasn't gonna get it locally because I
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  just didn't know anybody to ask, but I did have the internet.
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  So I went searching.
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  I found a company called assist you, a s s I s t, and the letter u, Anastacia Bryce.
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  She still leads it today.
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  She's a lifestyle CEO.
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  She got income from life.
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  Okay.
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  So I went to assist you and I think I found her because she was a guest on my podcast.
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  I've been podcasting since 2005.
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  Like, I don't even think it was called podcasting then.
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  But, anyway, She was one of my very first guests.
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  She told me about her business, and I said, well, I need one of those virtual assistants to
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  assist me.
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  She gave me the link.
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  I applied.
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  Someone in Indiana named Ginger became my first virtual assistant.
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  And once that happened, it was like, I needed an assistant for something else and something
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  else.
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  So today, we still have a very small team all across the country.
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  No one lives in the same place as me.
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  But with technology, at least come has become easier and easier.
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  And we work with people who are lifestyle CEOs, like, They want the same kind of lifestyle that
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  we have.
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  It's not their business models aren't exactly like mine, but they believe in the happy before
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  hustle.
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  And as one of our core values, as a company to make sure that one of the things that attracts
• 15:28
  people to us is the freedom and flexibility that they have when they work with the indie
• 15:32
  business network.
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  Love it.
• 15:34
  Love it.
• 15:34
  Love it.
• 15:35
  Alright.
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  We're gonna be back with Donna Maria in just a moment.
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  She's gonna give us more information about how you can put happy before hustle, and we will be
• 15:44
  right back.
• 15:45
  Hi.
• 15:45
  I'm Melinda Emerson's small biz lady, and I wanna welcome you to small biz lady university.
• 15:50
  Our mission here is to end small business failure.
• 15:54
  So all of the courses here are about 2 things.
• 15:58
  How to become your own boss or how to make money online.
• 16:02
  So that's what we do here.
• 16:03
  So whether you wanna learn about email marketing and sales fun or you're ready to get
• 16:09
  started with social media selling, or if you're really just getting started with e commerce, I
• 16:14
  wanna jump into our how to sell and market online course.
• 16:17
  Either way, if you want to learn how to become your own boss and do it well, I have everything
• 16:24
  you need here at smallbizlatinguniversity.com.
• 16:27
  If you have any questions or have any technical problems getting signed up, just email us at
• 16:32
  support at melindamerson.com.
• 16:36
  Take care.
• 16:39
  Welcome back to the small biz chat.
• 16:41
  I'm Melinda Emerson, your host, the small biz lady, and I am so excited to talk more with
• 16:46
  Donna Maria Lifestyle, CEO.
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  Alright, Donna Maria.
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  You have sold all of us on the happy before hustle.
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  So tell me, what are the 7 core values of lifestyle CEO?
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  What are they?
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  The 7 core values are freedom.
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  Flexibility, fun, fitness, finances, family, and focus.
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  When you put those 7 core values together and you build a business around those core values,
• 17:16
  then you are able to articulate what you want.
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  I'm not gonna accept any opportunities that conflict with any of those 7 things.
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  I'm not gonna start an income stream or a new brand or what have you that conflicts with any
• 17:28
  of those things.
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  If I can't continue to have freedom flexibility fund, if I can't focus, if it's a distraction,
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  for example, it may be a great idea.
• 17:37
  But I can't stay focused on what my focus is if I'm also doing all the, you know, chasing all
• 17:43
  the squirrels and so forth.
• 17:44
  So those are the 7 core values.
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  And everything that we do in our business and everything I do personally as a leader of my
• 17:51
  business as the CEO have to be commensurate and consistent with those 7 core values, or I don't
• 17:58
  do them.
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  That's it.
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  I think I think that's a really that's a very specific and brave position to have, because I
• 18:06
  think some people feel afraid to turn down things and to turn down business.
• 18:10
  This, like, people are afraid to knit so I understand what you're saying.
• 18:14
  But I wanna switch gears with you a little bit.
• 18:16
  So how can you engage with your customers and process in a unique way as a lifestyle CEO?
• 18:24
  Well, I think one of the ways is to leverage your brand personality.
• 18:29
  Right?
• 18:30
  So people do business with people they trust.
• 18:33
  And so if you are in a position of leadership, right, which you have to be if you have a
• 18:39
  business because sales is about leadership.
• 18:41
  You have to influence people to buy things.
• 18:44
  So if you are able to then leverage your personality and also leverage your team, so
• 18:49
  it's not just you, It's also your team.
• 18:52
  And here's the magic of a membership business, Melinda.
• 18:56
  You also get to leverage the experience of your members.
• 19:00
  You get to leverage the experience of your brand community.
• 19:04
  Okay?
• 19:04
  Because when people who are in your target audience, see your members and they are
• 19:10
  similarly situated to them.
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  Guess what those people do?
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  What is that?
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  That's the first question is, What is that?
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  What is she a member of?
• 19:18
  What is that?
• 19:19
  Right?
• 19:19
  So they're curious.
• 19:20
  Then they come over and they take a look.
• 19:22
  Right?
• 19:23
  That's the first step.
• 19:23
  You gotta get people to stop and take a look.
• 19:26
  Once they stop and take a look and they go, oh, well, I see why my friend who has a business
• 19:31
  similar to mine is interested in that.
• 19:33
  Let me take a further look.
• 19:35
  Let me subscribe.
• 19:36
  Let me follow.
• 19:37
  Let me comment.
• 19:38
  Let me do some free thing and see what happens next.
• 19:42
  Well, she was right.
• 19:43
  How smart am I to do what my friend has done?
• 19:47
  I'm gonna look even further.
• 19:48
  And so you amplify the experience is what I'm saying.
• 19:52
  It starts with you as the vision.
• 19:54
  You have the vision, but you duplicate that vision using the power of other people And that
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  vision once duplicated can be seen by other people who are in your target audience And once
• 20:08
  you have the opportunity to connect with them, then you have the opportunity to influence them
• 20:13
  so you can serve them and they can be a come a part of
• 20:17
  the community as well.
• 20:19
  Love it.
• 20:20
  Now last question.
• 20:22
  What is the best business advice you've ever received?
• 20:24
  Gosh.
• 20:25
  Let me see.
• 20:27
  Design success on your own terms.
• 20:29
  Like, it doesn't just happen.
• 20:31
  And, just because you're good at it, just because you like it, just because you're
• 20:36
  passionate about it, doesn't mean that that vision is gonna carry the day.
• 20:41
  You need to roll up your sleeves.
• 20:44
  And you need to get busy because the idea of success and Instagram when blowing in your hair
• 20:50
  and you're looking all gorgeous, it looks good.
• 20:52
  Okay?
• 20:53
  Don't be a hollow point bullet.
• 20:55
  Okay?
• 20:55
  In other words, a shiny bullet with nothing on the inside, but when it gets in, it explodes.
• 21:01
  Right?
• 21:01
  You don't wanna be that.
• 21:02
  You wanna be the person of substance.
• 21:04
  You wanna be the person that people can count on because they know when they choose you, they
• 21:09
  are getting substance, and that requires you to put the work in.
• 21:14
  I love it.
• 21:14
  I love it.
• 21:15
  Thank you so much, Donna Maria.
• 21:16
  I really appreciate all of your valuable in site about being a lifestyle CEO.
• 21:22
  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, and I will leave you with this.
• 21:26
  You never lose in business.
• 21:27
  Either you win or you learn.
• 21:30
  Alright.
• 21:30
  Have a great day, everybody.
• 21:33
  Thank you for listening to the small biz chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
• 21:38
  For more resources and small business success strategies visit succeed as your own boss.com.
• 21:45
  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.