Soulful MBA Podcast

Be prepared to have your mind blown and your perspective on the world changed.

Because that’s what happened to us.

Today’s guest, Mary Shores, is someone we’ve wanted to interview on And She Spoke for a long time.

Last year, Sandy was preparing to be a guest on Dr. Meghan Walker’s incredible Entrepology Podcast. While she was doing some research before her appearance, she stumbled across Mary’s episode, intriguingly titled ‘How to Get Comfortable Asking People for Money.’

She clicked on it and listened all the way through.

And promptly fell in love.

In huge part because of Mary’s story.

Very spiritual by nature, Mary also happens to own a multi-million dollar debt-collection business.

And those two are not mutually exclusive in her world.

Mary runs her business on the concept of ‘conscious communication’ - a groundbreaking system that she teaches businesses and individuals across the country.

She believes that the concept of debt-collection operates on fear and shame-mongering.

But her aim is to make people feel good about paying back their debt.

And through highly compassionate collections, Mary helps her clients free their debt burdens and thus reduce their karmic debt.

Which helps her feel lighter herself.

And a big part of how she does it is making sure she’s 100% aware of how she’s speaking to people, what words she’s using, and knowing exactly what kind of response they’ll elicit.

Mary also gets candid about some of the trauma she’s experienced: from being abandoned, to being out on her own at 16, to losing a child at 19.

She isn’t ashamed of her trauma nor does she try to hide it. On the contrary, she explains how it gave her the necessary perspective she needed for her business and how it lit that entrepreneurial fire in her.

Tune in to learn more about Mary’s life, her values regarding accountability, her tips for effective customer communication, and how every business needs to be thinking about their audience’s emotional needs and psychology in their operations.

Here’s a peek at what else you can expect:

• How COVID-19 has amplified Mary’s insecurities
• The words you should never use in your business
• How to use neurobiology in your business
• Why every business owner needs to extensively study financials
• The problem with the ‘charge what you’re worth’ mantra
• The highest converting phrase in online marketing
• What businesses can learn from offering scholarships

Mary Shores - Website

Mary Shores - Instagram

Conscious Communication - Mary Shores

Entrepology Podcast - Dr. Meghan Walker

This Week’s Joy:

Mary’s biggest joy working from home has been being able to catch up on sleep.

Every night, Mary goes to sleep around 9:30 PM, wakes up at 5:00 AM and spends 3 hours (!!!) writing.

This Week’s Hustle:

Mary’s hustle has something to do with working from home too!

To her, the ultimate hustle has been moving from a brick-and-mortar business to an online one, a process that, in her own words, has caused a lot of ‘brain sweat’ (a phrase we’re 100% stealing!).

In our business, we're big fans of financial literacy and accountability. Knowing your numbers is an essential aspect of building a successful business and inherent responsibility for any entrepreneur.

What you focus on grows, so pay attention to your money.

We use Bench for our bookkeeping. It's simple, elegant and saves us so many hours that would otherwise be spent neck-deep in receipts on the other side of a spreadsheet.

Each month our transactions are automatically imported into Bench and we get on-demand financial reports. We even enjoy opening up our profit and loss statement to review each month. When tax time comes around, we are up to date and ready to go. And this is what Financial Empowerment feels like.

Use this link to save 20% off your Bench Accounting plan for the first six months

People pleasing can feel necessary sometimes.

Especially when you’re in the early stages of running a business.

But, when does the urge to please ALL your clients become destructive?

It’s easy to keep your clients happy when you're starting out and your audience is small.

However, as your business grows, it gets trickier.

No matter what you do, there are going to be clients who don’t agree with you.

And sometimes, they won’t just be trolls on the internet.

They’ll be long-term, loyal, paying clients who decide to stop supporting you the minute you make a decision that doesn’t align with their beliefs.

Take Peloton, for instance.

Just a few weeks ago, Peloton announced that they were increasing the prices of their monthly subscription plan by $5 for the first time in seven years.

Now to us as business owners, this decision made perfect sense.

Peloton is struggling to maintain the massive momentum they gained as the pandemic hit in 2020. And higher prices is the most logical way for them to combat their financial struggles.

Plus, the $5 increase also came with a host of brand new features like 500 new monthly classes, 45 new instructors, and 4 new in-built products, just to name a few.

But long-time Peloton fans were NOT happy.

Reactions ranged from “I can’t believe we’re getting punished for buying the bike” to “your new sales strategy is just inconveniencing existing members”.

And suddenly, Peloton was being painted as some evil overlord looking to steal pennies off of their innocent clients.

And while the negative feedback you receive might not be at the same scale as Peloton, it’s important to think critically about client backlash.

How do you deal with long-term clients turning their back on you? How do you respond when constructive feedback crosses over to negativity? And why does this happen in the first place?

Those are just some of of the questions we’re looking to answer in today’s episode.

Here’s what you can expect from this one:

• How to deal with criticism when you’re used to staying in the edges
• The kind of feedback we’ve received in our own businesses
• Why female founders are always judged harshly for ‘daring’ to grow
• Our constant battle between leadership and humility
• Why opinions should be taken as neutral

And more!

If you’ve been losing sleep over those comments on your latest Instagram post, or want to know how to deal with criticism as it comes, this is the episode for you!

Once you’re done listening, find us on Instagram (@heymarvelous) and talk to us about a few comments that you’ve gotten from clients. How did you deal with them?

RESOURCES

Marvelous.bio

Peloton’s Price Increase Post

The Billion Dollar Loser - Reeves Wiedeman

Copina Tea

This Week’s Joy:

We’re both fans of tea (with Jeni even buying, no lies, 12 whole pounds of it recently) and Copina’s collagen-boosted ones are a godsend for our hair, skin, and nails!

This Week’s Hustle:

If you’ve been as fascinated by the insane rise and fall of WeWork’s Adam Neumann as we are, ‘The Billion Dollar Loser’ by Reeves Wiedeman is the perfect read to get all caught up.

This podcast is brought to you by the Marvelous online teaching platform.

Marvelous is an easy-to-use platform that helps you build and sell your own courses memberships and live-streamed programs. Go from idea to open for business in just minutes. Unlike other startups, Marvelous was created by women for women. If you're looking for a simple, streamlined way to build and grow an online business. You can learn more at Marvelous.

Remember when you’d work your tush off just so that you get handed a shiny gold star in front of the whole class?

Yeah, us too.

Our theory is that this behavior is why so many women in business identify as perfectionists today.

When we had a show of hands in our community, there were SO many of you who identified as loud and proud perfectionists.

And, we can definitely relate.

But, perfectionism has a dark side. And that’s what we’ll be exploring in today’s episode. Tune in to learn more about how to reign in your perfectionism and find the courage to fail (with pride).

Here’s a peek at what else you can expect:

• Our own struggles with perfectionism
• How the quest for perfection can damage your business
• Baby-steps to help you get over wanting to be perfect 24/7
• Why we embrace the ‘B minus’ Method
• Why the perfectionism you picked up at school and uni might not work in business

• Seth Godin - Linchpin (and the concept of ‘Ship It’)

In our business, we're big fans of financial literacy and accountability. Knowing your numbers is an essential aspect of building a successful business and inherent responsibility for any entrepreneur.

What you focus on grows, so pay attention to your money.

We use Bench for our bookkeeping. It's simple, elegant and saves us so many hours that would otherwise be spent neck-deep in receipts on the other side of a spreadsheet.

Each month our transactions are automatically imported into Bench and we get on-demand financial reports. We even enjoy opening up our profit and loss statement to review each month. When tax time comes around, we are up to date and ready to go. And this is what Financial Empowerment feels like.

Use this link to save 20% off your Bench Accounting plan for the first six months!

This podcast is brought to you by the Namastream software platform. Namastream is an easy to use platform that helps you build and sell your own courses memberships and live-streamed programs. Go from idea to open for business in just minutes. Unlike other startups, Namastream was created by women for women. If you're looking for a simple, streamlined way to build and grow an online business. You can learn more at Namastream.com

This Week’s Joy: It’s Peloton Bike! (Tune in to hear about Jeni’s newfound love)

This Week’s Hustle: Two words - Inbox. Zero. This week, we finally cleared out our inboxes to zero and are actually surprised by how clean and visible our mailbox looks. Mental peace is an added bonus.

In all our years of working with small business owners, we’ve been asked one question over and over again:

How do I get my trademarks in order?

And we 100% understand! Trademarking your intellectual property is important, especially if you want to avoid legal battles and intellectual theft.

Since this is such an important topic, we want to make sure we give you the most accurate and legally sound advice possible.

So, we’re enlisting the help of an expert!

Meet Michelle Murphy, the co-founder of Wilson Murphy Law and The CEO Legal Loft.

Michelle is a small business attorney with a specialization in trademarks. Since opening her own practice in 2019, she’s worked with hundreds of female entrepreneurs to help them file and manage their trademarks and protect themselves legally.

This episode is short, sweet, and chock full of useful information for any new entrepreneur. Michelle breaks down the legal nitty-gritties of running a business in easy-to-understand tid-bits so you can walk away with important knowledge on how to protect yourself for a rainy day!

Here’s what you can expect from this week’s episode:

• The crazy story of how Michelle became a small business attorney
• What every new business owner needs to do to cover their “legal backside”
• Michelle’s advice on forming a legal entity before filing for a trademark
• Why more and more businesses are filing for trademarks before they launch
• The average investment you’d need to make to file a trademark
• The difference between copyrights and trademarks
• How to navigate the world of international trademarks
• What she looks for when she performs legal audits
• How TikTok has helped her business

And more!

Once you’re done with the episode, find us on Instagram (@heymarvelous) and tell us the steps you took to file for your own trademark. Who knows, it might just help a new business owner who’s looking to enter the world for the first time!

RESOURCES

• Michelle’s Website
• The Ceo Legal Loft
• Michelle’s Instagram
• Michelle’s LinkedIn
• Michelle’s TikTok
• SKIMS
• Sling TV
• Dubsado

Overcoming doubt (and the doubters) in our lives is difficult but necessary if we want to succeed.

When those conversations around what it takes to boldly push through difficulties are shrouded in mystery -- we can end up stopping our ambitions before they even start.

But through the power of telling OUR stories, we can find strength in one another and empower people to reconsider their doubts. Because for business owners, success is rarely a straight line.

On this episode of “And She Spoke,” we have a fantastic conversation with a true disruptor in the world of beverages, Kara Goldin, the founder and CEO of Hint, Inc., best known for the award-winning Hint water. She’s also the author of a new book, “Undaunted: Overcoming Doubt and Doubters.”

Starting in the world of tech, Kara made a bold decision as a mother of three (and soon to be four!) to strike out on her own and found a consumer product brand dedicated to health and wellness. How and why she started Hint will surprise you, and we’ll discuss changing minds as a female entrepreneur, how overcoming doubt is possible, and entrepreneurship as social change.

This was very exciting to speak with someone outside the digital space of business, and we gained some incredible insights. Give it a listen, and join in the conversation!

Here’s a peek at what else we discuss:

• Side-hustling (before that was even a thing) with 3 kids and 1 on the way!
• How thinking about her health led her to start her business
• The moment she adopted her entrepreneur mindset
• How she gains strength from her customers and helping her overcome doubt
• The phenomenon of female entrepreneurs as a social change element
• Why social change became an organic part of what she does
• How her leadership style was tested during a pandemic
• And so much more!

Resources:

• Kara Goldin Show (podcast)
• Undaunted. Overcoming Doubts + Doubters by Kara Goldin

This week’s Joy:
The joy this week is Kara’s two labradors! She’s appreciated the care they bring her and all the fun, too.

This week’s Hustle:
People ask all the time how to find a mentor... But Kara believes you can find one through reading and listening to podcasts! For her, mentorship is not necessarily defined by a single person but within what brings you strength and insights every day.

Know Your Numbers

In our business, we're big fans of financial literacy and accountability. Knowing your numbers is an essential aspect of building a successful business and inherent responsibility for any entrepreneur.

What you focus on grows, so pay attention to your money.

We use Bench for our bookkeeping. It's simple, elegant, and saves us so many hours that would otherwise be spent neck-deep in receipts on the other side of a spreadsheet.

Each month our transactions are automatically imported into Bench and we get on-demand financial reports. We even enjoy opening up our profit and loss statement to review each month. When tax time comes around, we are up to date and ready to go. And this is what Financial Empowerment feels like.

Use this link to save 20% off your Bench Accounting plan for the first six months!