WEDallas Mompreneur Event powered by Capital One | Keynote with Catherine Lowe of LoweCo.

hi guys my name is catherine giudicillo and i have lived in dallas for the past eight years and i own three businesses um but when i grew up i thought i wanted to be in new york city i wanted to work at a fashion publication and i wanted to live a glamorous life and i loved fashion models i loved um just the concept of looking through magazines and seeing something big dreams and and beautiful things and i did whatever i could to to get there so when i went to college i took i was in advertising i did fine art so that i knew okay i want to do composition for these fashion magazines so i have to learn graphic art so throughout college i went and i tried to learn communications i tried to learn pr all of the things so that my dream was to go to new york city so check boxes i learned all these things and when i got out of college i did the exact opposite i went straight from wanting to go into new york city as a fashion magazine composition design artist and i went worked for a quick service mexican restaurants and i said okay we have to pay my dues i have to go and i have to learn things i have to learn skills so that i'm a little bit more varied in my skill set when i get to new york city so i worked there for a couple of years and um i created positions for myself so when i started i was a marketing intern i had never taken one marketing class but i said okay i'm going to try to do what i can and survive in this industry and then i saw an opportunity to learn more about graphic design so i was starting to learn under one of the graphic designers at the company from there i jumped to an advertising agency because i had learned those skills at the last place didn't matter that it was a quick service restaurant it mattered that i had the skills of a graphic designer and i went to a very small but very well-known graphic design agency or advertising agency in seattle called wexley school for girls and i applied as a visual designer and i had no business being a graphic designer i i learned what i could but i was not competitive whatsoever i said this is what i want to do so i'm going to keep adding things to my resume as if like fake it to fake it till i make it so i worked at the visual at this advertising agency for seven months and they were it was like a contract job so i got what i wanted out of it jumped to amazon as a visual designer again i had no business being a visual designer but i needed to get the skills i needed to get the experience under my belt so that i could live big in new york city as somebody that did graphic design on a fashion publication and while i was on amazon's staff i um got a call from a bachelor person that was doing casting and i went and i left my position as a visual designer to go on to the bachelor long story short i met my husband he chose me at the end of the bachelor uh during the show i had given him these little notes these little note cards to show him my personality and in these little note cards it would it would be something like i'm vegan but i love the beef and he was this beefy guy and i was vegan at the time and i thought okay i want to show him my personality but i also want him to know i'm interested in him and not in a cheesy way i didn't want to be like oh let's have babies together so i went on to give him notes throughout the show and after the show had ended and he had chosen me i knew that i had to change my life's trajectory um and not in a way where i was like okay i give up new york dreams but i said okay well my dream is also to be a mom so i kind of pivoted so after the show we got married i got to work on my save the dates that was really fun and i came back to just kind of be his wife and i was like i have this resume i have these talents and these skills i can't just sit here like i don't want to just i just don't want to be a wife and that's fine people that just want to stay at home and not do anything if that's your prerogative 100 go do it i'm empowering women in whatever way they want to go but i said i want more so i decided to take that idea of giving my husband these little cards and i created a company called loco and loco is crazy spanish for crazy and english i say for chic we took those little notes and elevated them to a blind embossed look which means it's like white on white or pink on pink and those are the cards that i sell now and now i have a story that goes with my background of a visual designer and also how i met and courted my husband so i now i have loco within dallas and through that i decided to go to low concierge so now i own a company called concierge which is a personal private luxury gifting service that we currently just offer to businesses but we want to open it up to uh the dallas public they are we're curating gifts and home and delivering them hand delivery to these houses so it's a very nice experience and throughout my whole journey of wanting to be in new york and do this fabulous life i am now a mom of three and i own those two businesses and my husband and i run a furniture company uh called home by seanan catherine lowe and all of that to say whatever you dream of you're gonna learn things along the way to figure out what your end goal is like i i wanted to be in new york but it probably would have been as fabulous as i thought but i got to create something what was for myself and i have so much respect for entrepreneurs because before going into you know owning businesses i would never in my wildest dreams think i'd be an entrepreneur and i thought it was i didn't really understand because i started my first business when i was pregnant and i thought oh i'll be i'm five months pregnant when the baby comes the business will be just fully on um like drive right what was that called autopilot yeah autopilot i'll be like oh it'll be fine the baby will be there and i'll have my business and all this stuff well i was slapped in the face with reality and i love meeting women uh who are mothers who are business owners because these women are powerhouses you can do it all and also figure out how to manage your life and balance all these things i think being able to be in a community of women who have set aside other things and really focused their life on what matters to them and really worked together because we i'm not here by myself i'm not here because i came up with this idea and i did it all i had to ask somebody of how to even start a business so i asked a woman who owns a business here and she was vulnerable enough and candid enough with me to share her resources so i could get started and then i go to another woman and she's willing to help me and so i think the women in dallas are very unique in that they want to help other women succeed because we're already met with so many challenges as women who start businesses and then mothers add that to it it's such a hard challenge and it's a position that we are really grateful for that we know is really important but it's really hard to navigate so i love being able to be with women who are trying to figure it out on their own but are willing to ask for help too so that's my story well i'm jasmine nice to see everyone here i'm the founder of her texas we're the first ecosystem for women that work live and do business here in state of texas and katherine i have to ask this question before we ask all the reports the other questions i feel like i have your fourth business idea oh gosh okay i'm ready you should help women write their dating profiles oh that's cute seriously though if i had some of that like seriously i wouldn't i mean i'm just thinking about that no seriously uh but knows um congratulations on all the success you have with your your companies i've always thought like that business is kind of like a baby in a way that you grow you you put every poor everything into it you love it and the hope is for it to kind of grow into something kind of amazing too i am an entrepreneur and i'm having a hard time just managing with with trying to work out grocery shopping my co-worker slash car leak slash husband cash my dog so i'm curious how you are doing this this idea of balancing it and having it all do you think that is a myth or do you think it's possible for women to have a balance between work life prep professional life me life i think it's 100 possible but i also think that you have to be real about what your priorities are and i think you should be able to pivot every three to six months you need to reevaluate what you want for your business what you want for your life because it is really hard to say okay well within this year i want x y and z for my business then you get pregnant or your child has um a chapter of life that you really want to be present for you have to be able to say okay well for the next three months i'm going to work really hard to attain this goal um because i also want to be able to be present for my children and show them that i'm working hard but that i'm also here to love on them and to be present for what they i mean my favorite thing is work-life balance i think i do a pretty good job because i'm not chasing um success in terms of what people other might people other people might find success i feel like i'm really successful because i have a family that i'm present with in a business that i'm present with when i can but i think prioritizing those things at different chapters is really really important like my my daughter just turned 17 months my i have three kids and my most recent my most recent baby just turned 17 months now i feel like i can breathe now i'm going to say okay let's go hard on my business i want to do i want to achieve x y and z because i can step away from her and not have breastfeeding hours and not have all these other things and i feel like it's really achievable if you understand what you're capable of my sister-in-law she wakes up at 4 15 in the morning so that she can get her work done before the kids get up it's really you have to figure out what's important to you and what you're willing to take away or to add for you to feel successful in what you're doing for me success is feeling like my family comes first and i get to live out the dreams a little bit that i that i had before you know things that i worked for and the skills that i learned so i think it's really important to re-evaluate your priorities every three to six months if you're a mom if you own your own business and be willing to um work with other women uh help them because they're gonna they're probably gonna help you later on too so so um huge proponent of that because i know most of us if you started a business or anything like you wouldn't be anywhere without the help and support of women and and the cool guys too that get it let's not forget them amazing too i really loved when you said it you want to really go hard on your business now too that i was like i got a little tingle when you said that like that's exciting especially because now things are opening back up and we're starting to feel very kind of optimistic about stuff too what does that mean go hard on your business can we talk about like growth strategies like if you're like thinking about your business is here it was doing okay or some businesses have been popping and doing really great during covenant and some have not but if i am looking at my business and like i want to like take it to the next level what does that look like for you so for me the potential that i see in low concierge which is our gifting service i think is very big and last year this was our second year in business we had i think like 10 referrals um the day that we hand delivered the gifts for our other clients so we haven't been able to assess those potential businesses but in the next two months we're gonna pitch to them we're gonna be able to reach out to them telling them telling them what we what we offer because we have a solution for busy professionals to take care of their gifting services propose gifts for them so that they can honor their clients or their employees oh i love that yeah so um and if you guys have questions feel free to let us know i'm curious though you said about like defining what success is i think it's really hard as entrepreneurs i've been a ceo for successful companies and some that have just been embarrassing i mean just facebook reminds me all the time i was talking about this earlier about something i really don't want to remember yeah it popped up i remember this idea but like this idea of imposter syndrome i deal with it which people never believe that's like jonathan you've had so much success you're always doing all this stuff i'm like you know the ice cream and the wine consumption that's happened because i'm just wondering do i belong here am i doing things correct do people actually view me as a ceo can we talk can you talk about that like this is your first company loco was your first company um how did you define what it meant to be ceo did you have any kind of imposter syndrome were you like i got this i'm good well i didn't honestly i when i was working in for other people i knew that at five o'clock i would live my life and that was to me success i didn't want to climb a ladder and be the best because i also wanted to have that work-life balance from a really really early place and not that i'm you know it's it's i don't i think it's it's different because some people want to prioritize their business they want to get to the top and they're they're happy with their life being small and and not a ton of being able to take care of themselves or go to parties or do things that are unexpected and that to them is success so i think for you to understand what is success to me uh before you go into an endeavor before you go into a season i think is really really important because if you understand your goals whether that's hey i want to take a trip um or i want to exponentially grow my business um those are those are different and i think that as women as mothers as people that own businesses i think it's a if you want a work-life balance i think it's important to evaluate your priorities and understand what your goals are and what success means to you i totally agree i definitely have wanted to have that balance of life has it happened no because i think it's also challenging i'm curious too for those mothers that are single moms that are there doing it themselves you know it's just you with that computer and i've got cash sitting there it's just us right we're just working and really if no one says anything you look up it's like 11 o'clock so i'm curious um what's your advice a2 things for single mothers that are trying to balance it and b if they're looking for love i'd like to know like what should we be looking for like the top three things oh gosh because the single mothers are like you know i want this business to to be successful but it'd be nice to have someone to share with eventually so do you have any advice for how do they how should they navigate that and then also how do you know he's the one well i bow down to single mothers who are working i mean it's it is already hard as mothers to be mothers i mean parenting is such a huge position and to be able to work to provide for your family i mean those are i feel like that's an undervalued position um and i have no advice for them because they are they are doing what they need to do for their families and i would like advice from them to be honest um because they are they are really heroes i feel like um but for dating i think don't sell yourself short i think finding somebody who is a good compliment to you and someone who respects what you do and supports everything that you do that's just somebody that you should be looking for a partner in your life um and then they'll support you in your business yeah i agree with that too i'd say from my experiences because i'm definitely gonna have more dating profile experiences that it has to be someone that is comfortable with you being wanting to be ambitious and successful that you don't have to apologize for saying i'm excited like when you said you want to go hard in your business he should be like yes let's do it right so i think that's a hard thing to find but it's definitely possible for sure um i think you know what's what's a coincidence is today is the year i think since uh george floyd passed away and i know diversity and these topics of just so many things that a lot of businesses didn't have to deal with or maybe didn't maybe didn't have had the choice not to where a lot of people had to deal with these things right um but we're a year later we're kind of thinking about like how far are we when it comes to equality and connectivity i know um businesses this was challenging like what should we say what should we do as a woman of color um can you talk about your experiences you know with your you have a mate that's not so i'm curious if people treat you differently um or if that if it impacts your business do you ever think about that when it comes to who you do business with how you're handling clients and then just in general what people are going with in society i feel like right now is such a cool time to be um aware of what else is out there and what other people might need help so i love that there's a charge of you know buying from black owned businesses buying from eco-friendly businesses um and really just being open and you're opening your eyes to now oh okay that's this is important because we need to change the culture we need to change um the environment and the climate of what's going on in terms of what used to be it's gonna be different and that's an exciting thing because i feel like people are now just able to research and be prompted to do that now and look outside of your own group and say how else can i be how can i be doing more and i think most people are really willing to do that now and i'm hoping that i don't know the numbers on what uh people of color own businesses but i'm hoping it becomes more and that people rely on other people now yeah for sure i like the fact that we have even a dialogue about it i know i think i saw your social too just even talking about it with having children too of of talking about those difficult conversations and thinking about your consumers too that your consumers may be dealing with things that you don't always know apply to so i want to open it up to the ladies that have questions but my final question is any advice as far as how to navigate the rest of this year so if you are someone that is it was affected so maybe you have a business that was affected by um covenant um or you're someone who's just now coming outside i've done patios but i'm slowly reaching back in like i was just telling i like put these boots on i was nervous that they were going to zip up you guys because and loose things for a long time so i'm like i'm getting back in the swing of things right so any advice for any of the women and i'm gonna say texas women's i'm thinking that's our that's who's tuned in for sure any women um any advice for us out here trying to make sure that this year turns out to be the one of the best ever well i i can't credit the correct person but i heard recently that we're juggling how many balls every day like moms who own businesses we're probably juggling 70 balls a day and whether those are glass balls or those are plastic balls we need to know the difference a glass ball to me is making sure that my kids are fed and clothed and healthy um a plastic ball for me today was i can't i don't have time to do my hair so i'm just gonna come it's gonna drop it's not gonna affect what i do um but there there are just things that we need to assess we need to understand what's a glass ball what's the plastic ball i know i have to juggle these things but what can what can drop and not break and again prioritizing things that are important to you things that you know you're going to have to do i mean it's it's insane what moms are asked like what what is asked of mothers and then you try to add okay well now i want to be a business owner to fulfill my skill set to fulfill my dreams and also to provide for my family and it's just somehow we do this all because we are built for it and i think that is what separates women from men women are able to multitask i i talked i kind of i'm going to put my husband on blast yesterday a couple weeks ago i saw my husband's to-do list and it was like three things and one of them was like do your laundry and i thought you need a list for this like we have to remember the pacifier we need to remember the diaper bag why is that on us that we have to figure out when the eggs are gone uh like we are just and but we're capable of this and so now when i see my husband doing singular things and being very intentional about those things we're just built differently and i have to give him grace because that's just not the way he's built he's not built like me and i think it's so cool that women are capable of being mothers strong mothers being good role models good friends and we are able to do all of this and excel because we have it in us and we are built for that so i think that and of itself is really exciting um i get to wake up every day and like bless my husband but i'm gonna do more than you today and i know i am because that's just what's asked of me but that's also what i'm capable of and what i'm what excites me i get to know i'm way cooler than my husband and he knows that because we are and we are just capable of doing really big things doing profound things and our kids get to watch that and i think that's really really cool i know i love that my mom used to tell me like she said jasmine if you want a successful marriage you have to make sure you have to tell your husband he's doing a good job and stuff like that she's like taking the trash i'm like uh like that yeah she's like that's the key to it i was like that's probably why i'm not married uh any questions can we take any questions from any ladies yes but you mentioned um the power of the pivot and how you combine all your different things that you're good at um and i think sometimes we hear stick to your niche or you know stick to one thing what advice would you give to women who are good at multiple things and and want to incorporate all those like all the things into one thing well i think there's also an opportunity for you to create something um you know when we started little concierge there was nothing really on the market for doing what we did and you could be a consultant of sorts you could be i mean there are so many opportunities that i think we can create for ourselves now that you can take all of those things and say what do i want to do and you can make it happen um with other people that are willing to help you with marketing or resources or transportation or child care whatever you need i feel like women in dallas proper or outside of this area are willing to help because they know how hard it is and we want to help each other because i think that's just our nature too like we just want to keep taking on things and i think if you have all these different qualities you can create something that touches on all of those things um and be successful in the way that you want to be couple successful from our virtual audience watching you um our first one is from kelly morris and she's asking um for any other tips for work-life balance or networking tips that you want to share um i mean networking go to things reach out to people don't be shy to say hey can you help me with this um i think women are i think we're getting better at it but we're normally like we can do this by ourselves when we are strong but how much stronger can we be together i think that when you're when you go to events like this or you see somebody that you want to work with online reach out to them there's no there's nothing wrong with being able to reach out to somebody and say can i help can i have help with this or could you could you promote this for me or do you have the resources for this or do you know that because we're all trying to figure it out and moms i mean we all know as moms there wasn't there there are books out there that you can read i didn't read any of them but i don't think they really tell you exactly what you need to be doing every day so i think you just decide what you want to do and you ask people for help and i think that there's no problem in that i think it empowers you in the end and you learn a ton more from it and you learn more people are in similar positions so it's validating i'm a validation person as long as you tell me i i couldn't do what you do or i know it's hard i get it that's all i would need that's all i need and then i'm going to keep going forward but i think women getting together is super empowering um individually and as a group because we can do this if you see someone out there looks like she's going a bunch of different stuff ask her like how do you get invited what are you going to can you send me some invitations i think we're here definitely to support each other that i yes with regards to crowdfunding did you use small business angel investors and did you have a mentor in that process like how do we look for that and get started so when i started i didn't really know what to do because i i didn't understand how demanding being an entrepreneur was but i knew i wanted to do it i wanted to try and the first person that i talked to i would consider her my mentor i i knew that she was in an industry similar to what i wanted to do and i called her i remember this is such a huge point in um my memory of starting a business i called her and i was really nervous because i thought okay she's probably gonna think of me as a competitor someone that's just like eating away competition like i i didn't i didn't want her to say why are you calling me ask me this but i called her anyway and i said i am so sorry if i'm stepping on your toes i don't know what how to start but can i know your paper vendor and she was like girl you asked me those questions we are in this together and i thought what a cool thing to say to me because i was scared i'm from seattle i was a graphic designer i was working under some people and i came here and i was like well i want to start something where do i even go and i think again going to somebody and humbling yourself and saying i'm really sorry if this steps on your toes or if this is a really stupid question but i want to know x y and z and i think people will respond to you and so i really looked at her um and i also looked at the girl that she sent me to as people that could help me with my business and if you're vulnerable with people and you kind of share hey i'm just starting out can you help me people are so willing to do that now with funding um i've i've created a business plan i've created all of the pieces that i could do could ask for money but in the end i didn't want to dilute what i do and because blind embossed messages you'll see we're doing a shop over there they're not they're not very um photo like they're not photography friendly they wouldn't be good for somebody who would want to promote them online so i knew that that would be a change too much in what i wanted to do so i have not received funding but i've tried to figure out okay what's going to be the biggest bang for my buck and sometimes they i just they fail like some collections that i've started that i thought would be really big um so in terms of something like that do a small test do a focus group ask people that are in your target market is this something that you would buy before you invest that money and i've been tired i keep doing it because i'm like i like it and i just spent a lot of money on doing something that i like but no one else likes so again the power of groups and numbers um women people that are your target market whatever you're doing test them um test your products before you launch them that's like business 101 i didn't take a business class so i'm sorry that's like everyone's like why of course you do that um but i i do focus groups and then through those focus groups i found out how to go through different networks and now i'm gonna this is a good idea so i i feel like it's it's a it depends if you want to look outward for money or if you want to figure out how do i fund it maybe i do a lot of people just have regular jobs jobs that don't fulfill them to do the to fund their fun projects that they want to eventually be entrepreneurs with i love that focus group idea though oh yeah that's it's awesome i have a question if obviously you said you were on the back but my question is how helpful has that been from a um publicity science thing because i have to say it's like i love doing network groups and meeting people and all the relationships with coven i've had a really low-paid relationship with social media because you know when you're promoting a business yeah there's that level of like is this offensive right and then also with my second grade zoom in my living room you know really struggling with yeah i see other people's social media posts and i'm like i am so glad that you put a picture of your child and thank everyone in the world where on earth did you find the time to compose social media well personally obviously i mean i i am grateful that not only do i have a lot of followers but they're engaged that they're friendly to me but for my business because i said it's not photography friendly i have chosen and they're not really the target market for what i do that's been really really hard to grasp because i could go in a way that helps the followers and say oh well i could create something for them but that would again dilute what my vision is for my company so i really don't post on my personal page a ton about my business which is it's kind of hard to do but i think it also gives me validation as an artist as a designer as a creator that when they are bought it's not because it's me it's because the cards are good and it's because the product is good so you can i mean i think it's a great time to use social media as a um a way to market your business i think it's now is the time for me personally it has not been the the best although i do get a lot of eyes on me it's not for my business because it's just they're not the same target audience so it's been a really cool challenge to figure out okay well i know this audience and i know what they like i'm going to look at this audience now and try to figure out what motivates them and being in dallas there's a ton of affluent um buyers and they fascinate me so that's what our market is for low concierge and for loco is the higher end community and what makes them tick is the opposite of what makes them tick so i think one of the first things you need to understand is your target audience your target market who is buying your products why are they buying it what's the solution that you're fulfilling for them and um like let's say for the people that follow me on regular social media they like value they like um like like having it be practical but so it's like price and having it be usable in their daily life for luxury it is the opposite they want it to be one of a kind they want it to be expensive um and they want it to be really hard to get and they don't want it to be on social media so it is this really interesting fascinating thing to understand your target market and one of the first things that we did with little concierge was have a focus group and i thought okay well i have access to the housewives and to those types of people at these events um i'm gonna ask them what do you think about this idea and through that session i got so much intel on that market and what their that what they're driven by what excites them about a product um and i had to change a ton about my business because of what this small group what this sample set said about my business so i think listening will really help you understand who is buying your your products um or your services and what makes that what what brings them to where you are and how to buy your stuff so target audience is a huge thing to understand and that was one of the things like i went to school for advertising that is something that i truly applied to owning a business maybe you shouldn't call it social media because i can feel the had to pivot your okay over the past year how do you give it back now that things are starting to return to normal so because i've never i don't have a storefront um i didn't really have less about the climate that's going on more about my motherhood chapters i haven't been able to breathe for the last like five years and for some reason i'm like oh let's start another business within peppery and children um but i think again trying to reassess every three to six months depending on the chapter what you want for those next couple months is really really important for your mental health for um the goals that you have set i mean all around for balance you need to understand what your goals are and how you're going to get there like this chapter is i want to go harder my business i want to be more present with um excelling my success in in the business world i'm gonna have to wait 5 am because the kids are back at from school i have them in my house but i want to be present with them too so now i'm i'm having to okay i don't really want to lose sleep but for me to have at all these things that i want i'm gonna have to that's that's the glas that's the ball that's gonna have to drop is my sleep so wake up at 4 15 or 5 in the morning do my work before my kids get up and it's just been i think it's been eye-opening that i get to i'm very fortunate i i this isn't my mainstream of income this is something that i enjoy doing and for a lot of women they can't do the things that i do in terms of okay well i can set aside the business for a little bit because i i have other streams of revenue coming in but um that's just what i've been able to do is saying okay well i'm on maternity leave for my business for six months because i i can't you just can't function in the first six months of life um so that that was something that i got to do and i'm able to do and i'm grateful for and a lot of other people don't get to so i think again in whatever circumstances you're in having a priorities list and reassessing every three to six months is is going to be key for how you create that work life balance well any other questions okay oh yeah one more okay okay how do we put together the appropriate focus group um oh that's a good question i i i knew that the value of my service was higher end so i reached out to some people i didn't know but a lot of people that i i did know and they were willing to give me advice they're business owners so i think having women um or men whatever whatever your target audience would be um and ask them what ask them all the questions that you can i would i would do a presentation um and make sure that those people because a lot of people want to be anonymous when they're giving you responses so be able to have papers ready for them to do their own um evaluation i kind of did a focus group where i was there which i don't think is technically like scientifically a focus group if i'm there talking to them because it's usually this product or the service but i haven't launched anything yet so i guess it was i don't even know if you call focus group but i would look at what you what's the most comparable business to what you're going to offer or product try and see who maybe who they follow or who they've been inspired by and try to mimic that within your own community so i had really high-end business owners that that created products that would likely be a similar audience to my product and service i got women that were mothers that understood like my my chapter in life and then just some housewives because i knew okay well this is a service for the affluent i need those women here and that was a that's that i'll say i give a lot of um credit to my my social media status or whatever you want to say i was on a tv show so people are saying oh well she has clout i'm going to go to her focus group but i think again if you reach out to people they're willing to help you any other questions okay um that's can you say the first part of that again oh marketing tips i think again just knowing knowing your target audience and what they respond to is really important um social media and photography online stuff if i wanted to utilize and leverage my social community it wouldn't go over so well with my products because they just don't look good on camera um so you have to understand what where is your product or service gonna live what space is it gonna perform well in and try it out just try it out and see if that works um and then you can start putting more funding into okay well facebook ads work so let's keep going with facebook ads or um doing pop-up shops really work so i think trying things is important so that you understand your business but your target audience is huge because you're not wanting to waste like my cards would not sell in target they wouldn't you can't see them and they you wouldn't be able to to identify them versus they think it's just a piece of paper so i know where my value is and it's not there it's going to be at a high end boutique where there's good lighting on it and there's only one other brand of cards that are there um and the people that are buying them can really value the the paper stock and the intentionality in the product so and then leveraging your uh village like we're all equipped with so many different skills and so many different talents that if you just are vulnerable with people that you're around all the time usually they'll know somebody that can help you in whatever capacity and i think that's how you continue to learn more people outside of your your own circle and you grow it and that's that's how i've done it i've met so many women that are now in my in my more inner circle because of business related things and they helped me um get to where i am and i again i can't harp on that enough i think when you're with other women and you're vulnerable and you talk to them about what your problems are people are willing to help you any other questions okay well i want to do a recap of our lessons today we've covered work and life i'll start with love don't settle yes don't stop and you may help with our program maybe not uh when it comes to work that we should depend on one another that we are a sisterhood and to not be afraid to ask for help right and to reach out and say can you help me with this that we're all kind of wondering what we're doing and how to make it work so um the other thing is focus group so i think that's a huge when it comes to our businesses bootstrapping why you make it and i think asking things because i'm i'm also which i'm like this sounds like a fantastic idea and i'm like i have asked no one right so i think that's a great great piece of advice to bootstrap you make it into focus group too um but i think leveraging um the people in your community too any other any final piece of advice for us um oh and then balance is possible but you might have to get up a little early yes balance is possible but you might have to go better yeah you got to drop some things and then you sleep usually and then you your husband needs more things on his to do yes a husband is uh working itself so i'm like okay i'm stuck on the line you're fine i know like put did he put my shoes on today like no that's how i feel metal do you have a final piece of advice and then how can we support you to speaking of this sisterhood too how can we support you um so my i guess my last piece of advice is one one recent thing that stuck out to me is there's this girl named chevis and i was just getting my nails done and she came up to me um and she said hi i'm chevis and i feel like we could help each other so here's my business card and this is what i do and i was very taken aback because i get a lot of um requests for to promote companies or to promote people or products and all of these things but she knew her stuff so when she came up to me she said i think we could help each other and now she's one of my closest friends she is in my inner circle with business i ask her business advice constantly so i think stepping outside of your comfort zone um is going to be really important if you want to if you want your business your products to succeed and you have to be really confident in what you're selling you have to be understanding your your business and i i feel like there's constant room for improvement for me i have to be learning my business better and better um but when you do know it be confident and reach out to other people i love that well i think that's all we have today catherine thank you so much this is exciting and also i love the fact that you're talking about your social channel of having that but actually having this business that's all on your own i think that's really amazing inspiring so thank you so much for for joining us

Channel: The DEC Network

Views: 1,950

Keywords: pandemic, COVID-19, finance, entrepreneurs, coronavirus marketing, coronavirus finance trends, small business, finance management, COVID-19 Tips, CLA

Id: GBLTO9NGdK8

Length: 45min 42sec (2742 seconds)

Published: Sat May 29 2021