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How to Build Your Circle and Grow Your Business with Stephanie Jill Cartin · The Mami Collective

• The Mami Collective (Stephanie): Did you know eggs and sperm are especially vulnerable to aging? Onto Health is a physician-led fertility and women's health practice founded by internationally recognized fertility specialist Dr. Ruhi Jilani. From planning ahead to growing your family or navigating treatment, Ontu combines fertility, longevity, and whole body health to provide proactive, personalized care on your timeline. Appointments are available virtually or at Ontu Clinics in Chicago and Denver. Mommy Collective listeners can continue their fertility journey at ontu.help. Welcome to the Mommy Collective. I'm Paulina Rowe, radio host, TV contributor, writer, and mom of one. This is where ambitious moms come to keep their identity intact while navigating motherhood. Here we talk about the real stuff: career, money, relationships, identity, and everything. Everything that gets messy in between. You won't find sugarcoating or cliches. What you will find are unfiltered conversations, real resources, and proof that you don't have to lose yourself to be a good mom. The mommy collective is here to remind you you can be ambitious, you can take up space, and you can thrive in motherhood and in everything else that makes you you. Before we get into the episode, make sure you're following the mommy collective on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. And share this podcast with a mommy in your life who needs a little Inspiration or just a reminder that she's killing it. Also, don't forget to sign up for our newsletter and leave us a review so we can keep showing up and reach every ambitious mom out there doing big things. Let's get into it. Hey, it's Mommy Collective here, Paulina, another episode, and I am so excited for our guest today. We have the one and only Stephanie Jill Carton, and we are talking all things business motherhood IVF, and of course, I hope we dive into entrepreneistas as well. How are you? So good. Thank you so much for having me, Paulina. So excited to share with your community. I'm so excited you're here. So first things first, I mean, I love all the work that you've done. And we'll dive into what that even means right now. But in terms of, you know, being a business owner, of really like betting on yourself and all of this before motherhood. So now I mean I have so many questions for you, but like what does that look like after motherhood? Right. And then we're gonna dive into your fertility journey and like how You've described to me that it was very difficult, but also like you've said this too, that your daughter is here because of the outreach, right? Being able to talk about this with other moms and stuff. So again, community I feel like is a part of your life in all aspects. That's that's kinda like the vibe I'm getting from you. It totally is. I share with everyone all the time that community really is the key to success in life and in business. None of us can do life or business alone. We need each other, we need support and We need to reach out and ask for help. So I'm so excited to share. Same here. I'm so excited that you're here. So question for you to kind of kick off the episode with us. I'm very curious. So I know your founder's story, right? And I kinda want you to share a little bit with us, but to me, you seem kind of like an OG of sort of the Start your own thing movement, if you will, right? Like betting on yourself. And I I'm sure like that's existed for centuries, if you will, right? Think of like our ancestors. I mean, they had a bet on themselves every day, right? They're like, Am I gonna eat today? Am I gonna, you know, like, you know, whatever, like feed my family, whatever that may look like. But I'm very curious when it comes to you and then obviously business, kind of dive into your founder story of how entrepreneuses kind of came to be. Absolutely. So I'm gonna take you back about 15, 16 years ago now. So my business partner, Courtney and I, we started our first business. It was called Social Vly and still is called Social Fly. It was a full service social media marketing and influencer agency. And we were, Paulina, so early in the social media space. I am talking, we launched this social media agency initially in 2011 on the side of our full time jobs. And then we left the corporate world and quit our corporate jobs on the same day. It was May 4th of 2012 and really never looked back to grow and scale that business. But we were so early and we bet on ourselves because we believed that we could do it. And that if we just went out there and focused and pounded the pavement, we could actually build the business of our dreams. And we did it, but we didn't do it by ourselves. We learned really early on, and really it was that first week in business full time after we'd quit our corporate jobs that we got advice from Courtney's mom's family friend Frank, who Called us into his office and told us that we should join a networking group. And that first group that we joined in that first week in business full time really set the stage for everything we would accomplish in our business over the past decade plus, because we learned in that room early on how to surround yourself with other founders, how to learn from each other, how we learned how to pitch our business, how to talk about our services. And we started getting introductions to all these opportunities. And it was like this light bulb went off and we saw so early on that it was possible for all of these business owners in that group and in that room and we knew it was gonna be possible for us too. And the thing is too, you said this was fifteen plus years ago. Okay. So think of how networking and and anyone listening too, think of like how much it has evolved, right, to the point where it's like we can network so much more, I would almost say, right, in like twenty twenty-six and like you and I, I mean, like we networked via social media. You know what I'm saying? So I feel like there's so much more opportunity. So you know, taking it back again fifteen years ago, I think that was also like a really big step for you guys to kind of do. Cause at the end of the day, it's like that was kind of the only way, right? To kind of get to know each other and that you said me founders, stuff like that. Yeah, you would get together in person and with that group that we were in at the time We met every single week on Tuesday at seven AM. So I was getting up at like five forty-five in the morning and getting there and getting to my group meeting. We were all having breakfast together because it was before the work day. And that's when we could all meet and gather and learn from each other and refer business to each other. And now with of course social media, now what we've created through entrepreneurs, you can do of course, in there's nothing like in person, right? We all know when you can get together in person, it is like you know, online but on steroids. And there's you can really build those relationships so much faster and so much deeper. But there is just tremendous opportunity of what you can do now digitally through social media from initially meeting and connecting with someone. And then like what we have now through our entrepreneurs community inside of our community platform where we have networking events and educational business learning events and everyone can come together, learn together, connect together and do business together that didn't really exist back when we were first starting. A hundred percent. I'm telling you, the opportunities today, I in my opinion, they're just so like they're endless almost, you know? All the platforms, meeting people in person, like you said, or like recommending. Like I got put onto your newsletter through a friend who was on newsletter. So like I don't know, I just love it. This is like what I live for to be honest. I feel like I'm a connector at heart, you know, or same, same. And when you initially had reached out and connected, I'm like, my gosh, we are so meant to connecting, you know, when you just know you have that feeling. Yes and that's it. Like I always say, always gotta go with your intuition. I agree, I love it. For somebody who's a mom, for example, and let's just say she's overwhelmed, she's busy, maybe she is still in the corporate world or she's, you know, building her own thing. But what advice would you give somebody to find the time to network? Or where should we start? Like if you were to be like, hey, it's Stephanie's first day networking today, you know, like let's say you were just, you know, doing your mom thing for years and now you're like, well, I want to get back out there. What advice would you give us? Okay. I just hosted a workshop on this for moms in business. So I'm going to share. All of my tips, and I'll give the cliff notes here right now. So the only way to build your network is to actually make time to build your network. And as moms, we are all so busy. But the only way important things get done is we know as a mom and for myself as a business owner, you have to block that time on your calendar. You have to prioritize that time and you have to protect that time. So here's what I would do first. I would first decide, okay, if I want to get back out there and I want to start networking, and I actually I don't even call it networking, I call it building your network, but building meaningful relationships, right? I feel like back in the day where it's like, networking is like you're just passing business cards around, right? That's what you think of when you think of networking. What we're doing and what we're cultivating is cultivating building meaningful relationships that lead to real relationships with other people, that people that you want to be around that trust you, that you trust them, you care about them. And now you're both always top of mind for each other. So when opportunities come up, those are the people you go to. They call you, you call them. You want to cultivate and build this network. So you want to block time on your calendar. And I would start by saying, okay, if you're gonna start small, the only way to make it happen, put 30 minutes on your calendar a week. Let's say you're still working in the corporate world and you just wanna focus on building more meaningful relationships. Put 30 minutes on your calendar and Go connect with someone you've lost touch with that you want to reconnect with, that you really want to build that meaningful relationship with. Let's say you are a business owner and you want to build more relationships with other business owners. So of course I always say come join us inside the entrepreneurs community. Our members love to do what we call coffee chats, like coffee get to know you chats. And people have like a Calendly link or a HubSpot, a calendar booking link, and block those 30 minutes on your calendar every week. And reach out to other members and set up these one-on-one calls with them or other business owners, set up one-on-one calls. Now you might be asking Pauline, okay, so like what do you do when you actually get on this call? What happens next? Yep. Right? Okay. So you really want to be thoughtful and strategic as you're building your network. So what are your goals? What are you trying to accomplish? So first I'll say, let's say someone's still working in the corporate world and they just want to work on building their network. Maybe they're looking for a new job or a new opportunity. Who are the people that you already know that you've lost touch with that you want to reconnect with that might be able to help you with some of those future opportunities? But again, remember, these are not going to be transactional relationships and conversations. You need to reach out, set up a time to reconnect, get to know each other as people first, really learn about each other, and then it can transition to business opportunities. And I would say the same thing for business owners. If you're a business owner, I'll use myself as an example. And let's pretend I still ran my social media agency. Courtney and actually I didn't get to this part of our Sorry, but we sold our marketing agency a couple of years ago. But let's just say I still owned a marketing agency. And back then, when I would build relationships, I would want to connect with other service-based business owners that did not offer the services that we had. So we did social media, we did influencer marketing, creative services. We were connecting with SEO agencies, web development agencies, email marketing agencies, the agencies that did the work that we didn't do. So we could develop a strategic relationship. And then get to know each other, learn about each other's work, become friends with each other. And then that business was top of mind for each other as we had clients or customers a referral that made sense. So the only way for these relationships to start is getting those time blocks on the calendar. Do not block over those time blocks when other things come up. That is sacred space because your network is your net worth. I know that is the cliche thing we hear all the time, but it is so true. Your network is your Ultimate marketing and growth strategy. It's the people the people you surround yourself with. Look at us, Paulina. We're connecting for the first time on here today. But you bet I'm sure we're gonna get each other's cell phone numbers and stay in touch when opportunities come up now that we've built this relationship, so we'll text each other and we're top of mind for each other. And that is how you build relationships. I think you nailed it. That was a masterclass, if you will. Like truly, like I feel like networking, yes, like peop there are people I guess who can say like I'm not good at it, this and that, right? I know you've heard it too. And there's moments where I'm just like, do I feel like icky? Like just talking to someone. But it's like I almost view it as like literally what you said of like creating a relationship with somebody. If I go to the store, if I'm at jewels, we have jewels in Chicago. I think you guys but you have jewels or No, I don't even know what it is. What is jewels? Is it Albertsons, maybe? I can't I don't even call someone. Okay. So we we call it jewels. So if I'm at jewels getting apples or whatever, or you know, getting the best apricots or whatever, and I'm talking to the person next to me. I'm essentially networking with them. Maybe that person, I don't know, owns like a mom business and now we're buddies. And now I have that relationship with that person. And I love what you said about like creating that. Because yes, like let's be very honest, like the ask or the the ickiness can come from feeling transactional. And I think that might be like a natural feeling, right? If you're just like, hey, I'm reaching out to you, can I have this? Linda I've heard people talk about that too, right? And other podcasts and stuff. And I'm like, okay, I can see why you feel that way. But to me, I'm like, I kind of want to get to know people because I feel like that's sort of how any relationship with me starts, you know? And I think that's so important in business and friendship, right? Literally in kind of almost any kind of relationship. So I think you nailed it. well, thank you. I love I love sharing helpful information to help other women. Cause again, this comes naturally to me, but it doesn't necessarily come naturally to other people. And when you can share the playbook and what absolutely works. Anyone can do it, even if you're introverted, especially for our introverts. I love and I'm introverted. People don't believe me, but I am absolutely very introverted. wow. Yes. So, you know, when you make a plan and you're prepared, if you're introverted, you can feel so much better when you have that plan and you know what the goal is. A hundred percent. I couldn't agree more. Well, that was great advice. We really just, you know, started off on a high. I love it. I love it for us. So, Stephanie, I want to kind of dive into your motherhood journey. So You and I I love this about you that you are so vocal about your daughter, right? And going through IBF and going through these these struggles of of really like reaching out to your community, right? To your network, if you will, or just being able to get support when you need it. Because I also went through something a little bit similar. My story's a little bit different, but there we were hitting a a year mark, which I believe if I'm not mistaken, is kind of when they start telling you the doctors will say, We'll look into options. They think they want to give you a year, give or take. So I was hitting that year mark and then I did end up getting pregnant, but I was already researching my options because I was like, I kind of just wanna get the ball rolling on this. And see what options were out there for me. So I would love for you to kind of share obviously whatever you're comfortable with, which seems like everything was what I love that. I'm like, we're gonna get so much from you and learn so much as well. And hopefully somebody listening can relate when no they're not alone. But what was your experience like, right? You have a daughter named Molly, and how old is she? She's seven years old and Seven. Time flies. You blink, as everyone tells you, you blink and the years pass. So Yes, but it still feels like yesterday that I went through everything and experienced everything. And even now actually we're going through and looking we're exploring our surrogacy journey right now to be able to have a second yes. So go going through all the things. But I'll take you back to before s she was born seven years ago, but we started our journey a few years before that. Of course, initially trying to get pregnant and then not being able to and then having a very complicated infertility journey from trying IUIs then moving to IVF and then finding out that I had other challenges and had to take other medications and had polyps and had to have those removed. I mean just every single thing, one thing after the other. So finally when we moved to IVF, our first transfer actually, thank goodness it worked, our first transfer. But There was a lot of prep work leading up to that and a lot of testing and all the things that happened. But the first transfer worked. And then a few weeks later we found out that the embryo we put in one embryo, the an embryo split. So we were pregnant with identical twin girls. And I was so excited. I'm like, my gosh, like now I'm gonna have two. This is amazing. And I still remember Paulina when We had hit that 11 week mark. That's when I went to go see, I was finally like moved on to go to the regular OB and not the fertility clinic. But because we were now going to be a high risk twin pregnancy, because when you have identical twins, you're automatically essentially high risk. We then went to a specialist and at that first appointment, they have to tell you like all of the potential risks and complications that can happen in an identical twin pregnancy that unless any of us have either been through it or you know someone who has had complications. None of this stuff would ever be on anyone's radar, right? You wouldn't know any of this. None of us did. So he starts sharing all of these things and I stop him. I'm like, I don't want to know any of these things. I don't even want it in my brain or in my orbit. Everything's gonna be great. I don't even wanna know. I like crying even hearing him say all these potential complications. And then unfortunately, pretty much every single worst case scenario complication is what we then ended up experiencing. So when I was 16 weeks pregnant, we did an early anatomy scan and found out that we had the early signs of twin-to-twin transfusion and that I was going to have to do emergency surgery to try to save our girls because essentially the blood supply is essentially getting cross when it's twin-to-twin transfusion. One of the babies is getting all the blood and nutrients, the other one isn't. So they can do a surgery called TTTS laser ablation surgery. And they can try to save both of the babies by quarterizing the blood vessels. I'm learning all of this as I'm going, right? And I had been sharing w on Instagram our journey this whole time, even through our the infertility journey to even get pregnant. Like I got pregnant and I got all the resources because I had been sharing. And then now I'm going through this. So I shared on social media what was going on and other and I joined a Facebook group, a twin and twin transfusion Facebook group, and other moms reached out to me, Paulino right away. And they were like, Give me your phone number, I'm gonna call you. Like they got on the phone with me and walked me through everything because we had to make literally life or death decisions like right away because it was an emergency situation. And these moms who did not know me, they were in a Facebook group, were willing to just get on a call with me and coach me o of what they had been through and how they made these decisions about what to do. And That's what got me through. So then we were able to like feel more confident in some of the decisions we were making. We did decide to do the surgery. And then unfortunately the day after we lost Molly's sister Emmy after the surgery, but Molly still had a heartbeat. And then a day after that, from the surgery, I ruptured. So what that means is I lost all of my amniotic fluid. Now I was 17 and a half weeks pregnant. I lost all of my amniotic fluid at 17 and a half weeks, and I was told come back into the hospital. You're going to go into labor. Your pregnancy is going to be over. I go into the hospital and I was not going into labor. And again, so now I share on Facebook what's going on. Has anyone been through something like this? And moms or moms reach out and said, you need to join the P Prom Facebook group and share what's going on. So I share there. Other moms reached out to me right away, got on calls with me, explained, and they told me, they said, Stephanie, if there is a heartbeat, there is hope. Your daughter can survive. She can make it. There is hope. The doctors might tell you that you can to end the pregnancy, even if you're not going into labor, that she won't survive. Babies can survive without amniotic fluid. This was not information I was getting from the hospital. This was information I got from moms in a Facebook group who had been through this before. And the doctors at the hospital, they had not seen this. So because typically the protocol at that time is if someone ruptures and the doctors at seventeen and a half weeks, they're like, There's no chance of survival. There is. There absolutely is. It is, of course, not guaranteed. And I did my research and talked to other moms and found out there is a whole foundation for called the Peprom Foundation for when if you rupture. And again, everyone's situation is different. So while I would read so many stories of hope every single day in that Facebook group, and that is what gave me hope that there was a chance. Not every story ends that way, but I had hope. And that's all I needed was like that there was actually a chance that I was gonna fight for her no matter what. So, because of those moms on Facebook and on Instagram who gave me that hope that no other doctor gave to me, and I kept pushing forward, even when other people were like, Stephanie, what are you doing? How can you keep pushing forward? Like, she's not gonna survive. I'm like, we'll let her decide that. I'm her mom and I'm gonna do anything and everything to give her the best chance. so she was born at 34 weeks. I spent 17 In half weeks on bed rest, eleven weeks inpatient in the hospital at Columbia Presbyterian, and she is a perfectly healthy little miracle seven year old girl. So I like have so much to say to that. just just thank you for sharing first and foremost. That again, I hope somebody listening gets the hope that they're also looking for, right? 'Cause I know we talk a lot about that too here on the podcast. And it's a topic that I feel like is important to talk about. You know what I mean? And I love that you are so open about it. And yes, God bless your Beautiful girl that is incredible. And so while you're going through all of that, right? I'm just curious, kind of for myself here and for our listeners, but while you're going through that, what kind of goes on in your mind as far as like, okay, I'm going to listen to the people that have been through it, right? Versus like, like you said, like the doctors. I know that's controversial, if you will, but I almost want to know kind of like that fate that you had, right? That you carried. Was that backed by those moms? Yes, it was seeing the evidence. I saw the evidence that there was actually hope. And I learned I doctors are amazing. And I believe that doctors are doing the best they can do with the knowledge and information that they have. Sometimes they don't have all of that knowledge and information because if you think about it, if you go to a doctor, they're seeing what they see in front of them. They're seeing their patients there in front of them. They're not always seeing everything that's happening. around the world and all of the other cases. I mean, you hope they're continuing in their education and continuing to learn, but there's advances in studies, in how early a baby can survive even in the NICU now with resources. Like things are always changing. And with doctors, their job is to protect the mom, right? When I stay pregnant, when I was ruptured, there's a risk for me. I could have gotten an infection, I could have gotten infection and died. And I had to take that risk That I knew at least if I was inpatient in the hospital, if I started to get an infection, I was in the safest place we could, you know, figure out a plan. Versus if I was home and had like there was an emergency situation and had to get to the hospital. So I had to weigh those risks for myself. And it was scary, Pauline. Like it was not easy. But I had to train my mind. And I do believe like your mind is this muscle that you can train. And I had mantras and things I would tell myself every single day. I was working from the hospital because that's what would keep me distracted and busy and there was plenty of work to do every single day. Otherwise I would just be sitting there and I don't even I think I turned on the TV like one time the entire time I was in the hospital. I'm like not a T V person. It's like I just want to focus and do what I can do and stay positive as possible and again surround myself with people that are positive and can help to cheer me on and be there. And I've just paid that forward to everyone else who has always continued to do that for me. And that's why I've continued to share our story seven years later and I still get messages from people who are going through something similar right now and just need to hear a story of hope and just need to feel validated that they can try. Absolutely. And I'm curious to kind of hear from you regarding asking for that help or asking for that support. A lot of women I feel like will wait until we're like quite literally falling apart before we admit that we might need Some form of support, right? What would you say to a mom who thinks, you know, I should be able to handle this by myself? Like I should this should be like a me saying, like, what do you have to say for those moms? I'm someone who loves to feel like I can accomplish and do absolutely everything. Many of us are like that. And we also have to pause and remember, none of us can do everything alone forever. People do want to help. There's so many good people out there. And it can feel hard to ask for that help. But people are not going to say no to you. They're going to be like, thank you for coming to me so I can be here to help you and support you. A lot of times we don't want to ask for help because we feel like it's an inconvenience to someone or they might not be able to help or it feels scary to share what we're going through. Think about what's the worst thing that can happen if you ask, and what's the best case that can happen. Like, where's that Delta there? Right. If the best thing that happens is now you can ask for help and actually feel better or get that support you need, how great would that feel? If you ask someone for support and they're not available, they're not around, like, okay, at least you asked, at least you tried, but then go to the next person and ask someone else because life will be so much easier to get through. And especially as a mom, like we all need our village, we need each other. Practice that muscle of asking for help. It does get easier once you start practicing it, especially if you're someone who's not used to asking for it. And that was me, and still is me. But there are times when I know I'm like, I cannot do this myself. I need to raise my hand and ask for support. yeah, a hundred percent. And I'm the same way. So your story with conceiving your daughter, right? And having her come into your life and you're still running your business. You're still Stephanie, right? You're still doing all these things and you still have this big part of your identity and who you are. How did you, after experiencing that, if you don't mind me asking, how did you kind of dive back into like your I'm gonna say your real life, right? Like Like this side of your life, like the business and like everything we had going on. I'm sure it was like a hundred tabs open in your brain, right? And but you're also like you just had this baby, but also of course went through that whole experience. So what was that transition of motherhood, right, back to this, the grind and all of that? It was not easy, and I can tell you, so again, I had spent eleven plus weeks in the hospital, and then Molly was in the NICU for two weeks after, and I say Thank goodness only two weeks. It's amazing she was only there for two weeks after and then she was able to come home. I still remember the day that I left the hospital and Molly was still in the hospital and I could not stop crying. Like everything that I had been holding in inside of me for those 17 weeks on bed or I mean my wh entire pregnancy, I was just like holding it together for her. And that the fact that she was finally here now. I could actually like release and let everything out. I could not stop crying for like two days. And I remember I kept assuring my husband, I was like, I promise you I'm fine. Because I look, I was nervous. I'm like, my gosh, like I felt like I was gonna be pr prone potentially to having postpartum, just with a history of other things that I've experienced before. So I was scared, but I was so happy. I kept telling him, I'm so happy, but I just like everything just needed to come out of me. And then once I really was able to start to like feel back to myself, and then of course. This is a mama show, so I got mestitis and that was so challenging. So it took that first, I would say, month and a half for me to really start feeling like actually okay again. And then even after that, I felt like my brain, and you might be able to relate to this too, like did not feel the same for probably like six to eight months. I was like, Am I ever gonna be able to think clearly again? Dude, did you have that feeling? It was like For like a year. Yes. So we at that time we were still running our agency and this was pre twenty twenty. So we had our office in person in New York City. And I had been doing work from my hospital bed and like before remote work. Now we're all working remotely. But back then, you know, my business partner Courtney was running everything in the office and she had been there running the business with all of these team members by herself for many, many months, and she needed a break to go. Take a vacation because I had been gone for so long. So by it was only like two months in, I was like, I you know, I'll come back and come back to the office. And it was so hard for me, Paulina, to leave my little tiny four pound little miracle baby. And my husband actually left his job at that time so he could stay home with her. So I knew he w she was safe with him and that was so helpful for me. But it was hard. It was so, so hard for me. And then about what was it? Nine months later is March of twenty twenty, and then started working from home. So then I was home with her from then on and that that's actually when it got easier for me. I mean, the twenty twenty was very stressful with everything that we went through then and we ended up moving, all the things. Okay. But it was hard. So I am not here to sugarcoat anything and saying, like, just went right back to work and figured it out. That was not the case. No, no. I mean, that's absolutely real. And honestly, it's that's kind of what I w would assume. Like, you know what I mean? For any mom, it's always so hard. But like Just hearing your story and everything, and then you're running you and your business partner, you guys are running a whole ass business. I'm like, that had to be stressful for sure. And do you feel like your almost like your goals, right, when it comes to your business or whatever, even personal goals, do you think they've changed since Molly's came into the world as far as like what you want out of your business? I wouldn't say that it's changed. I would say like Courtney and I mean we've been business partners now for what like sixteen plus years now and we've always been so focused for both of our businesses. I mean, we started out with our social media agency, but you know, then we built entrepreneista and we've always been so vision and mission aligned with the business that we're building and we want to build a business that supports our community and our members, but also supports us as Entrepreneurs and the life that we both want to have. I want to build a business where, you know, this morning my daughter had to go to a dental appointment and I can block my calendar and I can go take her to the dentist and be there for her. Or if I want to take a week of vacation, I put that on the calendar. I'm in control of that. And again, don't get me wrong, building a business is not like a nine to five clock and clock out job. I'm thinking about our community every second of the day, but I get to be there. when I want to be there for my daughter and for my family. And this is the business that Courtney and I have built. If she wants to go travel to Europe for three weeks, she can do that. And we make that happen and we make sure that we support each other. We've built our team and infrastructure to be able to do that. And you absolutely can build a business around the life that you want, but it starts with really defining what specifically is that. And then you can build for that. I think you've built a very beautiful life. I just have to s kind of give you your flowers for that. 'Cause it's not easy. Taking that leap and we talked about this fifteen years ago when you and Courtney left corporate like that was a leap. Granted at the time it was probably a different like leap, right? You probably I don't know, you obviously didn't have your daughter, but maybe you didn't have a mortgage. Wait and I understand that, right? Like life is life and for a lot of people, so I understand, but I'm just such a believer of like taking a chance on yourself. Yes. And I think you guys definitely did. I kinda wanna dive into it. I just thought of this right now, but this is a great conversation to have with you as well. Courtney being your business partner for 15 years. I could be crazy. I'm new to business. Okay. I'm just a little radio girl from Chicago, but that has to be a long time. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like that's gotta be like almost unheard of, and I could be wrong, but that's incredible. What's sort of like the secret sauce or glue for you guys to still keep going 15 years later? Yes. And people ask us this all the time because it actually is rare, you know. We have on our podcast, we've interviewed a few co-founders on the podcast who've been in business for many years together. And I think only one or two of them have actually been in business longer than we have been in business together for. Yes, one of the founders of Eberge, they've been in business now together for 20 plus years now together. And then we just interviewed a co-founder of a media company and her partners, they've been together for 25 years. They've been in business together for it. It very rare. You do not hear these stories often. So here are the secrets. Number one, you have to be, I mentioned this before, vision and mission aligned with your business partner. What are you building? What do you want the future to be? That is so important. The next thing, you have to have ultimate trust in each other. So Courtney and I know that we would always do whatever is best for the business and we would always, always support each other. When I was going through this complicated fertility journey and pregnancy journey, I'm now in the hospital. Courtney's not saying, you know, we're not gonna be business partners anymore. That is not what happened, right? We had to have conversations, and I also wanted to make sure that Courtney was taken care of during that time as well. I felt terrible that I couldn't be there in person in the office at the time, but we know. That through and through we are there for each other and we will do anything for each other and we will always make sure the business is set up for success. And the third thing that is so important is open and honest communication. You have to be able to have conversations with each other. And you have to have sometimes you have to have tough conversations with each other. And I can tell you, Courtney and I, we are pretty opposite. Like we are the same when it comes to our drive and our mission and what we want to build, but we Think of other paths to get to that same place. So I've always focused on our business development and marketing strategies and community building. That is really my area of expertise and what lights me up and what I love doing. And Courtney has always focused on operations and finance and making sure we're building a profitable business because I have all the ideas and the vision and the picture of what I want to build, but the things that I want to do cost money and you need to make sure that at the end of the day, if you're building a business, you need to. Make sure that you have profit in your business because you need to be able to pay yourself or pay your team, which is very important. So have those conversations up front. Make sure you have trust in each other. Have these conversations before you sign a partnership operating agreement. You need to have an operating agreement. And thank you. I have seen co-founders who they're so excited that we're we're gonna start this business. We're gonna do, we're gonna make this product and we're friends and we're gonna make it happen. And then you both are not aligned on what's gonna happen. With the business and then things go south and things were not in writing, and then there's a problem, and now they just shut down the business because they can't agree. So get that paperwork done up front. I love that you said that. I'm such a believer of like protecting yourselves. 'Cause yes. I mean, were you and Courtney, I'm assuming, pretty good friends prior to going into business together? We were only friends for a few years. So we met in two thousand and ten through a mutual friend who is also an entrepreneista. And they had gone to college together and Susie introduced me and Courtney and we actually met in Miami because we all were went on vacation together. So we became friends first. And Courtney was still working in the corporate world as well at the time. And we started building everything on the side together. So it's not like we had a long history of being friends for five, ten, fifteen years before starting a business. We got Lucky in the sense that we have opposite skill sets and we are so aligned and both had we have the drive and the d determination to to build and not give up. And you know in business you have to be very resilient because it is a roller coaster, that is for sure. Again, I'm so new to this, but I see it. I am on a roller coaster half the time. But no, I love that. I love that. And then as far as expanding beyond the two of you, when you grew your team What was that experience like? Did you find it where you were able to meet more like-minded people that joined your team? Was it kind of like was it ever challenging as far as expanding, you know? You guys were growing? Yeah. I can tell you in the early days of building our agency, I mean, look, Courtney and I were in our early and mid-20s at the time. So now we're hiring people and we're only in our early and mid-20s at the time and hiring people right out of college close to the same age that we were. And I would say that was actually pretty challenging for us in the early days. But again, we figured it out because we surrounded ourselves with the right people and we had the right people to go to ask questions about how to hire, how to, you know, employment strategies, making sure we were following everything legally. And we were able to do everything we did because we had network and because we built relationships. And that is literally why we've been able to do every single thing. That we have done in our business. And I can tell you, when we set out to create Entrepreneista and the Entrepreneista League, Entrepreneista actually started, I don't even know this as a podcast, just like this. We started Entrepreneista because so many women were coming to myself and Courtney and asking us for this exact advice. And we're like, there has to be a way to share this, but do this at scale and not just share our story over and over again, share all of these incredible women's stories. So entrepreneurs started as our podcast. And then when everything happened in 2020, we then listened to everyone who was reaching out to us, sharing they lost their job and wanted to start a business, women who were needed to pivot and needed help. And that's when we were listening to them and knew that we needed to build entrepreneurs into what it is today, which is now a media company and our membership community, because women needed community and they needed to be able to come together to learn how to build their businesses, to scale their business, to get visibility. So we created everything we wish we had when we first started our first business. We put all together inside Entrepreneurs. So now everyone has access to everything we've used over the years to grow and scale our businesses, but even more because we had access in the beginning to those forty people in that first group. Now our community has access to everything we have done and created over the past sixteen years. All the visibility opportunities, all the connections, all the relationships. There's forty five hundred members inside of our community and everyone is inside doing exactly what we did over the years and connecting and doing business together and supporting each other and doing exactly what I'm sharing. Everyone's doing that at scale inside the community and it's just the best. I love it. And I really quickly before we go, I wanna dive into the community as well. And you were able to like the way that you were able to do this, I think, is incredible. So you turn this like desire, right, to help women into a business of your own. And I Truly like I admire that. So I'm trying to as far as like when it comes to figuring out like what women actually would want to pay for, right, while keeping the community meaningful, how did you kind of figure that out, right? Great question, Paulina. Because this would be a great question, especially if Courtney was here. So in the beginning, when we first started entrepreneurs as a membership community, I didn't really know exactly what to charge because we were launching this in the middle of the pandemic. No one could go out and network. And really we launched it based on, I was like, okay, I think this is, you know, we should charge $349 and we'll give everyone access to a founding member rate because we were just getting started and building that community, right? So how we should have priced it was based on the value of what was inside what they were going to get access to. And then also figuring out what were all the resources that we were going to need to operate this community, what was that going to cost? And then How should we price based on that? The value and what it costs to actually operate this business so you can actually make a profit. That's how you should price. In the beginning, I did I didn't know. I hadn't built a business as a community. I had built a marketing agency before. So then we evolved everything over time. And now everything is priced based on the value of what everyone is experiencing inside the community, where then they're getting tremendous value. The membership, it's a no-brainer. cost or you know, in val it's not even a cost, it's an investment in yourself and your business to join and get in where the value that they're then receiving, it's just a no brainer to be inside the community because they're getting the entire network they need to grow their business, all of these visibility opportunities for their business, and just you can't really put a value on meeting all of your best friends and people that are going to help you grow. It's hard to value that. No, 100%. But like of course, again, me being like new to the business world, when my team will ask me or I ask them, I'll be like, what should we price these things at? Like I I do s I do suffer with that because can I be honest? I'm just like, if you know if I know this or if I have access to this and like free for everyone. And my like friends will look at me and be like, You're kidding. And I'm like maybe I'm kidding a little, but like maybe it's because like it's like the giver in me. I don't know. But then like you you said this, you're like, you have to be profitable. Yes. You have to like you have to make those decisions truly like for the b best of the health of your business, you know? Or you won't have a business or you will go out of business. So it's just the truth. Yes. And remember when you are creating something that someone is going to buy, you are providing them with value. You're not selling people anything. I don't look at the Entrepreneurs League as like people are like buying something, right? They are joining a community and network that is going to Help them grow their business and access everything they need to be successful in business. So, what is that worth to a business owner? To know you're going to have that network forever that is going to be there to support you every step of the way, to know you can access all of these visibility opportunities to get your business out there, to know you're going to meet people that you can collaborate with and do business with. What is that worth? What is the value of that? Right. It is worth a lot. So make sure that. You need to charge for that because you can't operate what you've created if you don't have the revenue to be able to execute what you are offering for them. And you're doing everyone this service by offering this incredible community like you have. So you have to charge for it. And I know as women, I hear it many times like, I don't want to sell something. And I'm like, you've created something of value that other people, it's a mind mindset reframe. Other people should be so lucky to get to experience what you have created. Offer that to them. You're doing them a disservice if you don't offer that to them if you've really created something of value. Hundred percent agree. And I hate this comparison, but I've heard it and I kinda think it's true. Like an average man wouldn't think twice. Let's just be honest. You know what I mean? Listen, I love my husband, like great man, wouldn't think twice. You know what I mean? I'm like, huh. So like is it just me? Is it because I'm a woman? Sometimes I do think that. I'm like, no, no, no, get it together, Paulina. For me to grow and grow what I'm doing. And I'm sure when the when you started off too, it's just like I had to be strategic and like you have to. Yes. You have to. And if you don't ask for something, you won't get it. Life business. Have to ask. Factual. I love it. So, Stephanie, before we wrap up, I do want to ask you two quick questions. What do you hope that your daughter Molly learns from watching you build, right? And then it's a two parter, but what do you hope that she never feels that she has to prove? I hope that by her watching me build this business and build entrepreneurs, she sees that when women come together to collaborate, that anything is possible and anything and everything will be possible for her as well. I love that beautiful answer. she's so lucky to have you to guide her, right? In the s sense of if she goes into business or whatever. I love that. Like that's one thing that I'm so new to this that like I don't like have that guidance. So I do reach out to people like entrepreneurs, you Yes. Like seriously, I'm like I have to join 'cause I'm in meaning to it's my own thing. But I obviously you and I talked offline of like my life right now, so Once things settle, I have to get back on it because I'm trying to meet people, I'm trying to grow, I'm trying to do all of that. And I also want to be a resource to others. So a hundred percent. Well you will be welcome into the community anytime as soon as it's the right time for you. And so excited to have you there. Thank you. I'm very excited. And my last and final question, you can be a good mom and still blink. Have anything and everything you desire. I love it. Stephanie, thank you for being here with us today. We appreciate you so much. Where can we follow you, Entrepreneista? And then where can we sign up for the Entrepreneista League? Yeah, so you can follow me personally everywhere. I'm on Instagram at Steph Jill Carton and on LinkedIn. Same LinkedIn.com forward slash IN forward slash Steph Jill Carton. And then for Entrepreneista, you can find us everywhere at Entrepreneistas with an S at the end on Instagram and Entrepreneista on LinkedIn. To join the community, you can head over to entrepreneista.com and click join the membership. There's a button right there at the top of the screen and would love to welcome anyone into the community who is growing a business and wants to be surrounded by other awesome founders. Would love to welcome you in and reach out to me anytime. Amazing. Thank you, Stephanie, for coming on today. We appreciate you. Thank you. The Real Estate Angel believes your home is more than four walls. It's your safety, your memories, your goals, and the beginning of your next chapter. With a people first approach, rooted in relationships and trust, Angel helps clients navigate life's biggest transitions with confidence. Ready to make your next move, whether you're buying, selling, investing, or just planning for the future. Connect with the Real Estate Angel today at realestateangel.com.