If you’ve been an entrepreneur for very long, you know the power of getting your name out and the golden rule of building know, like, trust with your audience.
Can we let you in on a little secret though?
You can build know, like, and trust on social media.
You can build know, like, and trust with blogging.
But … did you know you can build know, like and trust AND catapult it at warp speed via content like a podcast?
A podcast is an amazing way to start your business or even to figure out what your business should be. It’s also a list building tool that helps you grow your reach and it helps give you brand recognition.
But the actual beauty of doing a podcast is, you are figuring things out as you go along. In this episode, we breakdown:
Why we created our podcasts
How empowering it is
Why you should start one
And how you already have what it takes
Now you ask, why would I start a podcast?
A better question is, why not?!
If you have a purpose that you want to bring to light, or something that you love to teach and share, one of the BEST ways to do this is via a podcast.
Have a listen, then hit reply and let us know what your podcast is going to be about.
Grab your free guide now to see if the universe is giving you signs that it’s time to pivot!
She’s a mom, a wife, an entrepreneur, a house manager, a worship leader. I could also add having known Mallory for a number of years right now, an amazing marketing strategist. She currently runs her own marketing agency, Mallory Schlabach formerly known as Girl Boss and is the host of the Marketing Magic Podcast
We are so excited to welcome Mallory Schlabach for our first interview for Purposeful Pivoting.
After working as a journalist for a newspaper after college, it became apparent very quickly that this was not the space for her. Mallory got started in the online space as a coach for moms. After many signs from the universe she began to lean into her marketing degree and started to help other female entrepreneurs learn to love their marketing strategies again.
Q: How did you get started in the online world?
I started out as a journalist in college, and I worked at a newspaper. And I quickly decided that was not for me. So I pitched myself to my dad, who was also an entrepreneur straight out of college and said, “Hey, here’s my resume. Here’s a job opening for a position you do not have that I’m creating, can you hire me?” and he did.
He took a chance on me a long time ago to basically learn the ropes of his business, do all the marketing and grow with it the past 15 years. So really, He sort of introduced me to Jeff Walker Product Launch Formula, Ryan Levesque of the Ask method Shailene Johnson. We started to go into all of their workshops and events and joining their masterminds together. Because we were trying to figure out what was our side thing going to be, we both wanted to do something I had no idea it was possible, he gave me this bug.
I actually started out in the space as like a mom coach, and I was called the happy mama coaching. My thing was, I was going to coach women who were moms who were just overwhelmed with their life. When I started this, my four kids were 1, 3, 5, & 6,- they were all they’re all very close together. And everyone asked me like, why do you do it? How are you so calm and how you did it, us.
I got certified as a life and business coach through IFC, and I was like, I’m gonna coach Moms, I’m gonna save the world. It’s gonna be amazing.
Except for I found the first year, nobody wanted help. They just wanted to bitch and moan about their life, which I get. And I was like, this is not working. I had to save the world. But what I was getting traction on was people would be like, “Hey, can you like, read this copy?”
I’m like, this is not gonna save the world. And so finally, my husband was like, you should maybe just do the thing you’re really good at because it will still help people. And I’m like, it’s not. It’s not worthy. I was like, Fine. I will just put out this thing in a Facebook group. I’ll say I’m doing a free marketing strategy session. Just see what happens. And overnight, I got 54 people applied. I did them all in the span of two weeks. And I was like, dang, I think I have something. And so that’s where the start of me doing an online marketing business happened, was realizing I could step into my strengths, and I could build change the world just wasn’t the same way I envisioned it. And that’s kind of where my online journey has begun.
Q: And was it an instant success or success? In your initial online venture?
Oh, Lord, no, no. And actually, it’s kind of funny, because I would tell you, I was at a retreat this past weekend in Miami with all these really successful business owners. And personally, we’ve had one of our highest grossing months, this month, I spent the weekend in tears still, you know, just, you know, there was just so much emotion. And even though we’ve had our best month, I just felt like a failure still, like today. So even so I think like success I’m learning. It always feels like it’s moving. And so I have to stop chasing success and what success looks like because it’s always a bar that moves.
Q: Were you scared? Every 30 days? Are you scared when you you’ve made pivots?
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And I always try to be very honest with my team, but also like, not scare them. I have one person on my team who I talk a lot to, and I’m like, “You’re my therapist. today. I just want you to know, this is where I’m really feeling.”
I tried to be really honest about “Hey, guys, we’re going to do this because this happened.” And I don’t ever think it’s a freakout thing. I don’t take you know – clients coming and going and crazy things happening – I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Like I might have emotions freaks out, but we’re gonna get through this together. And so I think for me, I’m always scared. But I tried to be really, really brave about the decisions I’m making. Despite the scariness.
You can listen to more of this amazing interview with Mallory on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts or wherever you get your pod on!
About Mallory:
Mallory Schlabach is a marketing strategist with over 15 years of experience guiding six and seven-figure businesses. She’s the CEO of The GirlBoss Agency, her creative digital marketing agency for female entrepreneurs that helps them say goodbye to soul-sucking, boring marketing forever.
Whether she’s helping clients explode their visibility on social media, crafting marketing messaging so compelling clients are throwing money at you, or turning boring websites into lead generating machines, Mallory makes marketing easy, fun and magical for every single person.
She’s the proud mama of 4 humans under the age of 13, two dogs, a guinea pig, and an assortment of fish. She will request tacos as her last meal (and every Tuesday of course) and you’ll find her at 90 years old still wearing hot pink lipstick, heels and hoarding books.
Being a Mom and being an Entrepreneur – what does that look like?
What does that mean? And what choices do you have to make along the way, and why is that even relevant to entrepreneurship?
Before we dive in, we want to set the tone: This is a non-judgmental zone. The choices women make for their families and businesses are personal and very much unique.
It is our desire here to pull back the curtain to how we made the decision as mothers and entrepreneurs and how we got to where we are in our businesses and our business model.
For reference, Wendy is the mother of 16 year old twins, and Krystal is the mother of a 4 year old and a 9 year old at the time of this recording.
The online space can often be predatory to moms
We see it all the time – stay at home moms, or moms that want to stay at home asking for work from home opportunities. Because the balance struggle is real. And often women are at the forefront of having to figure out how to juggle all of the things.
But also too often, the MLM opportunities are the first to pop up and try to grab women. It is a tale as old as time and they go for the jugular. Promising the moon of freedom, flexibility, and a ludicrous income. The reality is often much further from that.
Low entry often means low pay. And when your commission split is 8% on a $15 product, you have to sell and hustle a lot of volume to make that happen.
So does that mean you shouldn’t try to work from home?
Not at all! We’ve written about this and talked about this before – there are a ton of opportunities for moms to run their own businesses. There are a ton of opportunities for moms to start their own businesses where they can leverage their gifts and talents if they know how to systemize well and set up the foundations of their businesses the right way. And that’s what we help entrepreneurs do.
When it comes down to it, life is about making choices.
We’ve spoken in the past about balance as an entrepreneur. When it comes to balancing your business and your family, at the end of the day we are talking about competing priorities. Which one do you put first?
In order to make that decision you have to ask yourself, what are your “Be” Goals? Who is it that you want to be? And how is your business model in alignment with that goal?
Often conflicts arise when our “Be Goals” and what we are making a priority are out of alignment. In the end tough choices have to be made about time and ability in order to fulfill your “Be Goals”
In other words, you can have it all – just maybe not all at once.
Grab your free guide now to see if the universe is giving you signs that it’s time to pivot!
What does a cycling trip through bourbon country have to do with entrepreneurship?
It turns out, everything!
In this week’s episode of the Serendipitous Rebel Podcast, Krystal interviews Wendy on her big takeaways from her most recent adventure in bourbon country.
We created this podcast for the adventure loving, purpose driven, action minded, purpose driven entrepreneurs. And what is more adventure loving and purpose driven than a cycling from distillery to distillery and having a lot of fun on the way. Wendy spent a long weekend enjoying the Bourbon Country Burn in Lexington, Kentucky. It was 3 days of cycling between distilleries along with 1,100 bikers. In the end she rode 100 miles and toured 7 distilleries while clamping along the way.
Why the Bourbon Burn?
This had always been a bucket list adventure for Wendy. She always wanted to partake in a Backroads Cycling Trip. Her husband wasn’t a huge fan of the idea of group travel, but did find this as something fun that they could do together that would marry her desire for a cycling trip and his love of bourbon.
What was her big epiphany along the way?
Doing any kind of an endurance challenge is a precursor for running an online business.
Both require you to step out of your comfort zone. It’s a huge risk that can be very freeing, but there are a lot of amazing experiences along the way.
You’ve gotta do you!
In this life people are always judging you. There are people out there that will make snide comments about they way you do things. There are people who feel very strongly about processes. You will have to resist the urge to justify everything you do.
We of them spend so much time looking at what other people do or say that we lose focus on what we need to do. That’s how we end up in situations that we are resentful of or unhappy.
Set up your business so that you can take the opportunities to have adventures when you can!
There are a ton of people who look at us and wish they could do what we do. Many people choose to work from home so that they can have the laptop lifestyle and travel more. Yet, many don’t set up their business so that it will lend itself to that kind of a lifestyle. It is possible to intentionally set up
This week is a continuation of last weeks episode. If you haven’t listened yet, we encourage you to go back and check out Part 1.
What does it take to show up in your business every day?
In our opinion: confidence.
Often it takes just a small initial push to get started. We want the flexible laptop lifestyle, and everyone likes to make this look easy.
The fact is that the process is simple, but it is definitely not easy. You need a certain amount of confidence to get moving. And as you keep going on your entrepreneurial journey, you will build confidence along the way.
But if you are solid in your purpose and you know why you are doing this and why you are showing up in your business, then you’ll be able to show up with even more confidence.
As we continue with the discussion on purposeful pivoting we touch on “what is our personal purpose?” This is not the same thing as your entrepreneurial purpose. It is a hard truth as to why you are here in this space, the online space.
Is it to make a change?
Is it for money?
Is it for your family?
We, as lifestyle entrepreneurs, want to have a certain standard of living and want to be able to do certain things and have certain goals. They are driven by wanting to feel like we are accomplishing things, that we are making contributions to our family and to our world.
In this episode we are talking about how we are leveraging our own strengths and gifts, because we don’t want to work 60 hour weeks, and we don’t necessarily want to run an empire of seven figures.
So we thought that we would ask, why are you doing this? What is making you show up everyday?
Good Morning! And hello from Panera Bread in Bowie, Maryland. I have a few hours of “ME” time in between playing chauffeur for my twin teens. So why not write a blog post?!?
For this rebel on the go, Sundays are typically quiet days for me. To get caught up on reading. To watch football. To mentally (and sometimes physically) prepare for the coming week. As I wait for my kids today, I am getting caught up on articles. I thought I’d share some of the things I’m learning:
–> My next big physical challenge is the Disney Race in January. I’m a rower. A biker. A kayaker. I am NOT a runner. But I’ve committed to participating so how do I get myself psyched? Reading “10 ways to start running even if you hate it” in this week’s Washington Post, I’m going to focus on:
Alternate jogging for 30 seconds and then walking for 30 seconds. They suggest 20 minutes several times a week for four to six weeks. Okay, I think I can do this. Now to get it on my calendar!
Run with music. Now, this is my jam! Especially since I love creating playlists (my version of childhood mixtapes!)
Keep chasing the runner’s high. I know the feeling from rowing and biking. This feeling alone is worth trying to run for me.
Practice breathing. This is where all the pilates I do should kick in!
Pick a fun, weird, or quirky race. That’s exactly what I’ve done with the Disney Race!
–> I just sent a message to my husband that we should be composting. Honestly, I hadn’t given composting much thought before reading this article today. We have a big backyard. I feel guilty about the planet we are leaving our kids. It might spark me to do something with the flower/vegetable/herb beds I already have!
–> Using a Venn Diagram to become incredibly successful is a twist on finding your Ikigai … and I like it! According to “Want to be Remarkably Successful? Focus on Creating Your Own Venn Diagram of Success,” in Inc.com, focus on three or for skills that are interconnected and reinforcing of each other. The article used the example of former quarterback Troy Aikman, whose Venn Diagram includes circles of Football Knowledge, Broadcasting Skill, and Business Skill. Lightbulbs have exploded in my head … and for my clients!
Share an article in the comments that you found particularly interesting this week!
Until next time –
Wendy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wendy Guth is the co-founder of Serendipitous Rebel.
She wears many hats but her favorites are:
– Human & Fur Mom
– Proud Wife & Milspouse
– Lifestyle Entrepreneur
– Endurance Rower
– Lover of Learning
In this weeks episode Krystal and Wendy are taking you behind the scenes on their most recent pivot inside Serendipitous Rebel.
As we continue with the discussion on purposeful pivoting we touch on “what is our personal purpose?” This is not the same thing as your entrepreneurial purpose. It is a hard truth as to why you are here in this space, the online space.
Is it to make a change?
Is it for money?
Is it for your family?
We, as lifestyle entrepreneurs, want to have a certain standard of living and want to be able to do certain things and have certain goals. They are driven by wanting to feel like we are accomplishing things, that we are making contributions to our family and to our world.
In this episode we are talking about how we are leveraging our own strengths and gifts, because we don’t want to work 60 hour weeks, and we don’t necessarily want to run an empire of seven figures.
So we thought that we would ask, why are you doing this? What is making you show up everyday?
What is the difference between a therapist and a business coach?
Another way to think about this could be: What are the red flags you should look at in your coaching relationship?
Mental health and conversations around it are incredibly important. And, dare we say, we are in a mental health crisis in this country. We encourage any one in distress or struggling to RUN, not walk, to book an appointment with a licensed therapist.
Likewise, a business coaching relationship can be incredibly rewarding as an entrepreneur. It can be the thing you need to push your business to the next level, hold you accountable, and give you clarity and a clear path forward.
At no time should a business coach tackle issues with mental health. Coaches do not handle mental health issues, or handle someone in stress. Unless they are also a licensed mental health professional, they are out of line. If you are in distress, or struggling with mental health, that’s work for a therapist.
We like to think of it in terms of having a baseline. A therapist works with you in distress to bring you back to baseline. A business coach works with you from baseline to thriving.
Baseline to Thriving
When you work with a business coach you are forward focused. You are working together towards a goal. If at any time a coach senses that there is something from the past that is stress or trauma induced that needs to be addressed in order to move forward, they should then refer you to a therapist.
Therapists look at old wounds and works to help you heal things from the past that may hold you back. If a coach is working with you in that territory it may be a red flag. A therapist is licensed and credentialed to be able to handle different traumas and issues that can arise from picking at old scabs. A business coach is not trained to handle trauma. Period.
Personal VS Professional
There is a fine line to dance between the personal and professional as an entrepreneur. There are mindset blocks issues that need to be worked around often. There are things from our past that informs how we tackle our professional goals and problems moving forward.
So where is the line?
A coach may help identify blocks or issues that impact your ability to achieve goals, and then will work with you to take steps to move forward. But they do not pick that scab. They do not diagnose. They do not bring up past family dynamics.
If something comes up, they can say “I hear you” and see how we can move forward. But they don’t go backwards to try to figure out what happened in your childhood to bring you here.
Just like any profession, there are bad coaches out there. Buyer beware.
It is so important as a consumer to be aware of what we are buying into. While we at Serendipitous Rebel find coaching to be incredibly helpful and foundational to a being a small business owner (hello! We provide coaching!), we also firmly believe that you need to be aware of a persons credentials before you buy into their program, and know as a consumer where the line is.
We have both found ourselves in uncomfortable coaching situations where our coach has crossed a line. We’ve witnessed coaches cross the line and diagnose other peoples trauma. We’ve witnessed coaches try to tackle other peoples trauma without proper licensing or medical credentials. We’ve witnessed coaches liken themselves to therapist.
NO. NO. NO.
DISCLAIMER: A person’s personal experience with therapy does not make them a licensed therapist, nor does it give them the ability to diagnose other people’s mental health issues.
Just like we don’t seek business advice from our therapists, we don’t ask personal advice regarding our past traumas from our business coach.
It’s important to ask yourself, “What are the dynamics between the coach/client? in this room?”
While we all end up drinking the Kool-aid at some point or another, it’s important to ask yourself before entering in a coaching relationship “What do you notice about power dynamics between a coach and their clients/following?”
Coaching programs can often present themselves similar to cults. While we love the raving fans of Serendipitous Rebel, we would never encourage members to speak poorly about people that have left the program or who have decided to move on and do other things. Likewise, we would be wary of any blind followers in our community that would be afraid to question or push back on tactics that we were suggesting. Finally, we continue to keep in touch with people and cheer for their success even when they are no longer a part of our community. The idea that we would cut them off forever and never keep in touch goes agains why we do this in the first place. However, we have both sat in programs where this kind of behavior runs rampant.
Raving fans are awesome! Blind followers that aren’t allowed to question or leave without being totally ostracized are not.
In the end we are big fans of both coaching and therapy! Both can serve incredibly important functions in your life. Knowing the difference and being able to recognize healthy versus unhealthy relationships only helps you have a more successful outcome in both your personal and professional worlds.
Grab your free guide now to see if the universe is giving you signs that it’s time to pivot!
P-I-V-O-T … The entrepreneur’s 5-letter swear word.
But does it have to be?
We all know the word pivot ultimately means to change, so why does it bring up so much shame for us who are in this entrepreneurial space, when we tell others we’re pivoting?
One of the core foundations of Serendipitous Rebel is Purposeful Pivoting – but what does that even mean?
Let’s start with our definition of Purposeful Pivoting:
Connecting with what matters and taking committed action in order to make a bigger impact in the world.
So what does that mean?
Let’s start with “Connecting with what matters”
What is your purpose? What gets you out of bed in the morning? It is the most important part of a businesses foundations, and often the most overlooked. Defining this is the first step to success. With defined purpose you can work harder, you can work longer – you have the grit and resilience needed to push through the tough times.
Next, “taking committed action”
It’s not enough to just want the thing. You have to take actionable steps in order to get there. You have goals you want to achieve. Then you initiate systems to get there. We love the phrase committed action because it’s being very intentional with what you do and how you do it.
Finally, “make a bigger impact in the world.”
It’s not that we want a $4 million company. It’s that we want to make enough of an impact with enough people to create ripple effects in the world. And we want to work with entrepreneurs that want to make a difference in the world.
At Serendipitous Rebel we’ve had multiple pivots in a short period of time. When we found ourselves disconnected from the businesses we’d created, we had to really dig in and ask ourselves hard questions. Now we help entrepreneurs ask the same hard questions so that they, too, can become a profitable business.
Change can be reallly difficult. Believe me, WE KNOW! But sometimes that change is necessary if you want to achieve the results you’re looking for.
Grab your free guide now to see if the universe is giving you signs that it’s time to pivot!
And the goal has to have the commitment to push through hard things and do it over a long period of time to achieve it. You don’t just wake up to run a marathon or wake up to a million dollar business. You have to move beyond the ideation stage and into the implementation stage if you want to achieve the end goal.
2. Each will have obstacles that you have to work around
You have to schedule in your events and training. You have to plan. If you want to be successful it really takes planning. Same in business. You can just launch something, but if you launch with a plan you’ll see much more success. Having systems in place will make you more successful
3. The prep is more fun than the actual execution
It’s a ton of fun to buy new running shoes and to buy the tutu we are going to wear. Likewise, it’s fun to shop for a new computer and new pens for my office. None of that will result in any kinds of success. You need to do the thing. Even if you aren’t perfectly polished and put together doing it.
4. You need a support system
Both personal and professional – you need a support system in place. We are tremendously lucky that we have each other. But you need to have other business colleagues that you can bounce things off of – a professional network you can collaborate with. You need your cheer squad from your friends and family. Finally, you need people to be accountable to.
5. You need to have a purpose.
And it can’t be rooted in a vanity metric. If you are training for a marathon to lose weight, chances are you will fail. If you are doing it to achieve a goal and become a healthier version of you so that you can be there for your children – that’s a different kind of motivation. If you are going into online business for the sole purpose to make a lot of money, chances are you will fail. But if you go in so that you can make more money to provide more security for your family, or pay for college, suddenly the motivation is very different.
6. Everyone is an expert (even though they have never done it before)
Pay no attention to the commentary of those that are not in the arena, whether it’s running your business or running a marathon. There is more than one way to skin a cat, and there is certainly more than one way to run your business or train for a marathon. And not everyone’s advice will be relevant. Be sure to only take into account the opinions and advice from people who are where you want to be.
In the end, it’s not the intense things you do every day that will help you cross the finish line. It’s the small consistent things that you do between now and then that make a difference in the long run.
Can you think of anymore similarities in running an endurance race and running a business? Join us in Rebel On The Go Facebook Group and let us know!
Grab your free guide now to see if the universe is giving you signs that it’s time to pivot! 
