#233 - Find Your Business Bestie with Megan Flatt - Being Boss with Emily + Kathleen

Episode Transcript
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Emily Thompson (00:02):
I'm Emily Thompson. And I'm Kathleen
Shannon, and this is being boss.
In this episode of being boss,I'm joined by Megan flat to talk
about making connections as abusiness owner, the importance
of those connections and howthey weave webs you may never
see the extent of and how youcan find a business bestie for

(00:24):
yourself. As always, you canfind all the tools, books and
links we referenced on the shownotes at WWW dot being boss dot
club.

Unknown (00:34):
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If you've been around here for any amount of
time, you know that here atbeing boss, we believe that
every business owner needs asupport group. In fact, for many
episodes years ago, it was evenin our intro, being boss is
being in it together. And foryears that you've heard from me
and Kathleen about our businessbestie relationship. We've
hosted boss vacations to helpyou find your business bestie

(02:01):
and last year I launched thebeing the boss community because
I know the importance ofsurrounding yourself with smart,
inspiring and supportive peoplewho get what you do. Why?
Because being the boss of yourown business is hard work and
without the insights andperspectives of others, you're
going to find yourself workingin a bubble, thinking that

(02:22):
you're the only one dealing withyour problems, spending too much
time figuring out something thatyour peers have already sorted
through and otherwise completelymissing out on one of the best
benefits of being your own boss,making time in your schedule to
talk to friends in a way thatactually makes you better at
what you do. And today's episodeI'm joined by my friend and

(02:44):
longtime business bestie Meganflat, not only because of where
examples of what a successfulbusiness bestie relationship
looks like, but because like me,she's made it her mission to
help other entrepreneurs findtheir tight knit community of
business friends, too. Megan iscommitted to showing ambitious
women entrepreneurs that whilethey could go it alone, they

(03:06):
don't have to. She's the founderof let's creative a business
growth strategy firm devoted tomaking entrepreneurship easier,
and helping women ownedbusinesses scale. Let's
collective was founded on theprinciple that your success
isn't just possible, it'sinevitable. And to get there,
you need the momentum that astrong community can provide.

(03:26):
You can almost always findmagnet with a stack of post it
notes at the ready. I can vouchfor this myself at Let's
collective.co Hi, Megan, I'm soglad you are here with me today.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm so excited. This is going tobe maybe the most fun either of
us have had all week. Yes, yes,I can pretty much guarantee that

(03:48):
to be true. Right? highly highlylikely sixth grade math doesn't
doesn't top it. No, no. Okay.
All right. Well, to get everyonesort of introduced to us they
can follow along some of oursome of the rest of our
conversation I would love foryou to start us out with a

(04:10):
telling us about yourentrepreneurial journey. How did
you get to where you are now?

Megan Flatt (04:15):
Yeah, I mean, gosh, like everyone I feel like my
journey is you know, convolutedand twisting and paths that and
you know, all the differentpaths but I think my kind of
claim to fame is I've actuallyalways been an entrepreneur. So
I've never had a nine to fivejob so when people talk about
leaving corporate or you know,their horrible boss or their

(04:37):
amazing boss or whatever it islike I don't have those
experiences. So I I've alwaysbeen entrepreneurial. I started
you know, I was teaching danceat my dance studio growing up
when I was 11 and 12 and 13 Istarted helping and dance
classes and you know, startedteaching swim lessons and in

(04:57):
family's backyard pools and I'vejust always been kind of had
this entrepreneurial spirit. Andso that was definitely, you
know, where, where my businessstarted. And then I was in the
fitness industry for a longtime. And I was working
primarily with moms or primarilywith women who were either
having babies or about to havebabies. And I had. And then

(05:21):
alongside of that, I was alsoworking for a fitness consulting
company that did a lot ofbusiness development for fitness
professionals. So that wasreally kind of where I got my
start, I was also traveling alot with those two. With those
two jobs, I was traveling a loti was i was a CEC provider and a
presenter on the fitnesscircuit. So I was traveling a

(05:43):
lot. And then when I gotpregnant with my own son, who's
almost 12, it just got too hardto travel and I and I wanted to
just stay home. And I kind ofwent back to my fitness routes
and thought, Okay, well, I'llbe, you know, kind of using air
quotes, like just a personaltrainer. And I realized I missed
that business development, Imissed that other aspect of

(06:05):
business, not just running mybusiness, but helping others
build their business. Andbecause I was working with this
population that was kind of at acrossroads, they were having
babies, they just had a baby,should they go back to work,
should they stay home, they werekind of making these decisions.
So that was where myentrepreneurial spirit kind of
kicked in. And while we wereworking out while we were doing

(06:26):
bicep curls, we were alwayslike, Okay, well, what business?
Could you start? or How couldyou turn this into consulting?
or How could you, you know, dothis instead, or, or something
totally different, like, Oh,you've always wanted to open a
flower shop, this is yourchance. And so that was really
where it started. And I alwayskind of joke, I used to go to my
clients homes. And one day oneof my clients opened the door in

(06:47):
her street clothes, and not inworkout clothes. And I thought,
Oh, you know, she must be sick,or something's going on. And she
just said, she said, Can I, I'llpay you for the session. But can
we just sit in my living roomand talk about my business the
whole time. And I just went, Oh,my gosh, like I could, I could
do this, I can get back to thatbusiness consulting that I was

(07:07):
doing. And I can do it formyself. And then, you know, the
rest is history, as they say.

Finding basically you found a niche,
working with moms or like noteven moms of older kids. But you
mentioned that crossroads ofworking with, with women who
were just having kids and sortof navigating that transition in
their life.

Exactly. Because I think because for me at that
point, that's where I was, by,by this point in the story, I'd
had my second child, you know, Iwould pack her up in the
stroller and, you know, take herto Starbucks and work on a blog.
I thought at that time, Ithought I wanted to have a
parenting blog or a fitnessblog, or, you know, kind of
something like that. And but Ifound that I was struggling with

(07:54):
all of the same things that myfriends and kind of clients were
struggling with, like how do webuild a business? I used to call
us like the moms in the middle,right? Like how do we build a
business and have this outwardexpression of ourselves? How do
we define ourselves beyond beingmoms? but also how do we be
present for for our kids and forour families? And how do we

(08:15):
blend those two. And so that wasreally where my business started
with women who and still to thisday motivated, driven,
successful women, but want tohave a different flow to their
life than either a nine to fivejob or kind of being a stay at
home mom route, which both areawesome, and I totally respect

(08:36):
and then there's a segment of usthat wanted to kind of straddle
that line in the middle. Andthat was who I wanted to work
with.

And this was or this sort of iteration of your
business. I also love thatyou've went through like dance
and swimming and all of thesethings to get you to this place.
But that was mama CEO, or That'swhy you've been sort of going by
for the past how long and arebrand. So Megan and I have

(09:07):
been talking together formonths, a year over a year. I
know. Yeah. Over a year, Ithink. Yeah. Why? Right. So I've
known you all this time is youdoing your mama CEO work, right?
And then you've just undergone arebrand that I have I don't even
know about Yeah, we've kind oftalked about the past. I knew

(09:27):
you were working on it. But Ididn't know what's happening
now. So I want to hear aboutthat too. So tell us about mama
CEO. And then I want to hearfrom me personally Haley's about
this rebrand that you've justdone.

Oh my god. Okay.
Well, there's so much and it'sso perfect for your topic today,
just about business besties andabout this community that we're
that we're building asentrepreneurs. And so, really
quickly, I was working with myclients, one on one This was you
between 2014 and 2015, I wasjust doing one on one consulting

(10:03):
with my clients. And I foundthat my that all of my clients
were having this, we were havingthe same conversations, and
especially the same fears andconcerns that were coming up.
I'm the only one who's not doingthis. I'm the only person
everyone else has it figured outexcept me. You know, it was like
those conversations. And I washaving these back to back calls

(10:27):
where I was like, Oh, my God, Ijust had the same call with my
last client. And so I knew thatI wanted to bring these women
together, becauseentrepreneurship can be lonely.
You know, for so many of myclients, they were running
online businesses, they wererunning it by themselves, they
were bootstrapping it, theirpartner didn't understand what

(10:47):
they did. Their mom didn'tunderstand what they did. There,
you know, best friend from highschool doesn't understand what
they do. And so you, you couldhave all of these people in your
life that love you and supportyou. And then you start talking
about webinars and, you know,conversion factors and things
like that. And people, you know,eyes gloss over. Or I know, I
think my husband thought I waslike joining a cult for a while

(11:09):
he's like, what are you doing?
views. So I just realized that Ireally wanted to bring these
people together so that theycould see that they weren't
alone, so that they could meetother people like them, you
know, they could meet otherpeople. And again, at the time
that was really focused on moms,but really, it was these women
that were straddling this linebetween I want to do something

(11:32):
that is fulfilling to me,financially, and emotionally and
professionally. And I want toalso be present for the other
things that are important in mylife. And so that was really
where, you know, way back in2015, that at that point, it was
2015, that I started runninggroup programs and group
masterminds, because I wanted tobring these people together. And

(11:54):
so as time progressed, and mykids got older, and my clients,
kids got older, and thingsstarted to shift a little bit
and, and my clients, my clientsin particular, this is their
career, you know, this is theirfull time job, whether they do
at 20 hours a week, or 30 hoursa week, or 80 hours a week. They

(12:16):
This is their career. And thisis what they do in their
business is what defines them.
And so I started feeling likeand actually getting feedback
from my clients that the mamaCEO label wasn't completely
resonating for them anymore,because they were business
owners who also had children.

(12:40):
But they were really started.
And I was starting to definemyself differently. And, and it
was a really, really hard path.
And I think you and I have beentalking about it. Definitely
since last summer, and possiblybefore, like, did I want to drop
this brand it was you know,everyone tells you niche down
niche down niche down. And so itwas like, do I want to move away
from this, what what and Istarted, I started by changing

(13:02):
the names of my programs, youknow, change moving away from
Mama CEO just kind ofinternally.
And I then I just kind of hadthis, I don't even want to say
it was an epiphany because Ithink it took me a year or more
to get there. But I had thismoment of what's really
important to me is aboutbringing like minded business

(13:23):
owners together who are normallyalone who are normally, my
husband also entered into theworld of entrepreneurship A few
years ago, but he's a businesspartner. And so they're always
bouncing ideas off each otherand supporting each other. And
so many of my clients are doingthis by themselves. And so what
I realized and what I when Ilooked at my clients, and when I

(13:46):
looked at what I'd created, Iwanted a way for for these women
to have the support of acommunity have that kind of
virtual business partner thatthey can bounce ideas off of, I
wanted them to make more money,I wanted to help them be
successful, so that they couldmake other decisions in their
lives. And I realized that thatfor me personally, as a mother,

(14:11):
part of that decision was okay,I want to be able to spend time
with my kids or I want to beable to send them to the summer
camp that they want to go to orI want to be able to volunteer
in their classroom. Those werethe other things in my life that
I wanted to be able to do. Butnot everybody, you know, some of
my clients, their kids are grownand they're out of the house or
they wanted to be able tovolunteer in their community, or

(14:32):
you know, whatever, whatever itwas for them, go back to school,
learn it, learn something new.
And so that was when I realizedthat I wanted to bring people
together I wanted to make helpthem make a community and I
wanted them I wantedentrepreneurship to be easier.
And so that that was really whatI was teaching my clients behind
the scenes. And so that once Ikind of realized that then the

(14:55):
mama CEO part became not themost efficient certain thing
anymore. So that's kind of wherewe got to.

I'm so excited about this, because like you
said, we've been talking aboutthis for a long time, you've
been really weighing that mamaCEO title for a hot minute, and
what is it called now.

So the new brand is, let's collective. And it's
all about, let's do thistogether, let's build momentum,
let's make more money. Let'sgrow our business. And we can do
all of this together. So thisidea of the collective, this
idea that the collective iswhole pieces, that that all come

(15:41):
together, you know, like part ofa collection, right? Like each
individual piece is amazing andunique in itself, but it can all
come together and work together.
So the collective represents mymy team, it represents my
clients and how we come togetherand support each other. It
represents my clients, clients,it represents my clients,

(16:03):
families, and my family and ourcommunities and all of the
different pieces that we want tobe stronger and more
independent, and more wealthy,and all of those things so that
we can influence all these otherparts of whatever our personal
collective is. So I'm so excitedfor it.

I can tell you guys cannot see this, but like,
Megan's arms really wave in theair. She talks about this, and
you're so smiley, and from thechats that we've had, I know,
this has been a difficultdecision to make How long were
you operating as mama CEO? Since2014? Yeah, so six years, it's a

(16:46):
six year old baby, just renamed.

And I'll tell you what, to Emily, it also, you
know, I totally believe that theuniverse kind of tests us and
puts things in our path. Andespecially when you kind of make
a decision, and then a lot oftimes something will show up to
kind of make you question thatdecision. And who knew what
would show up for me would bethis global pandemic. But I had

(17:09):
made the decision before tostart to move away from from
Mama CEO, before everythinghappened with the shelter in
place. And one of the thingsthat I've always been really
vocal about and really feltreally passionate about is this
idea of the default parent andhow women often carry a huge
portion of the mental load. Andthat was actually a big, a big

(17:30):
reason. When I kept coming backto not wanting to move away from
Mama CEO, it was that I feltpassionate about this, this
platform. And this, this ideaof, of the default parent in the
mental load. And so then to havethe the pandemic kind of sit in,
in our, in our midst, and all ofthe research that was coming out

(17:53):
and all of the surveys and thestatistics that said that women
were taking on the majority ofthe homeschooling and that the
women were taking on, you know,even even women that were
working full time were taking onmore of the responsibility at
home and things like that. Itwas like that test, it was like,
Oh my gosh, wait, wait, Stop thepresses. But I just realized
that I can have opinions and Ican have a voice and I can have

(18:16):
a platform. And it doesn't haveto be the name of my company
anymore.

Billy also great for segwaying into the rest of
our conversation, because I knewthat whenever it came to talking
about what it looks like to finda business bestie define and not
even business besties a name foryou described what it is,
though. It's it's findingsomeone who can be that sounding
board, it's finding someone thatyou can bounce ideas around with

(18:55):
or who will give you like, goodfeedback, not like super biased
feedback. But really with yourbest interest in mind. I love
that you called them sort ofyour virtual business partner,
right? So someone who's going tobe sort of in it with you, but
not like technically in it withyou. I think that's really
powerful. And you've beenbuilding these relationships via

(19:16):
masterminds for several years.
And this is an area where youand I connect on. We're both
doing masterminds. So you'rehelping facilitate these
conversations with these peopleor facilitate these
relationships with these peoplewith these people. So I'd love
to hear from you about what it'slike to watch those
relationships form. And reallythe changes that you see and

(19:36):
these people and theirbusinesses when they commit to
making close net relationshipsin this case, a mastermind but I
think this is probably prettyacross the board whenever it's
masterminds or finding a singleperson hanging out with or
whatever it may be.

I mean, it is literally my favorite, my
favorite part and I will Love.
In my own business, I love whenI get to work with my clients
one on one. And we're reallydiving into their business and
coming up with a strategy. Buthands down my favorite part is
when we do like a group coachingtype situation, or when we
eventually get to meet inperson, again, when we when we

(20:17):
are on a retreat, and I seethese women, again, whether it's
virtual, or whether it's inperson, from different
industries, from different partsof the country, from, you know,
babies, teenagers, everyonecomes from a different
background, a differentsituation, and I see them all
come together, and we have this,this universal language around

(20:38):
our business and around ourdesire to improve our business
and improve our business andimprove our clients lives
through our business. And theidea of getting these people
together, you know, in a virtualspace in a real room and have
them have that moment of like,Oh, my gosh, this person gets

(20:58):
me. And we've all experiencedthat where you've been with, you
know, with your friends, oryou've been at a party, or
you've been wherever you'vebeen, and and the proverbial
like, you know, what do you do?
And you've had a hard time, notjust explaining what you do, but
just for someone else to get it.
And so to bring these peopletogether, and to have people

(21:19):
that just like, Oh, yeah, I getit, I understand what you're
talking about either. Like,literally, technically, I said
something about SEO, and myhusband is like, SEO, what's
that, and it's like, I forgetthat not everybody talks about
stuff like that, you know, so tobe. So that's my absolute
favorite part, is seeing theseconnections that these women

(21:40):
make, and that they makelifelong friends. And that, you
know, I'll see, you know, monthsand years after some two people
have gone through my program,and then I see that they're
doing a joint workshop, youknow, I'll see a social media
post that these two people aredoing a workshop together, or
I'll see a photo pop up onsocial media that they've met up

(22:01):
and that their kids are playingat the Space Museum together,
whatever it is, and I just, itjust, it warms my heart that I
got to be a part of thatfacilitation.

Agreed, that is my favorite thing to do.
Whenever I think of, you know,the first vacation that we did,
and some of the relationshipsand partnerships that came out
of events that we've done, Ithink, I mean, that is the
stuff. That's why we're heredoing these things. Yeah. You
know, it's really for thosebigger picture things that we
can't even anticipate, we haveno idea what its gonna look

(22:35):
like, or if it'll even happen.
But we're here hoping that itwill and really enjoying the
outcome of it years later.

And there's a ripple effect, I have to tell
you the funniest story that justpopped into my head, there's
this ripple effect that ofbusiness friends that and so
when you mentioned yourvacation, so I actually have two
local business friends who Iknow through a co working space
that we can, we can talk aboutthat, because that's partly how
you and I met as well. But Ihave two local friends that I

(23:03):
met through this co workingspace that I'm a part of that
went to one of your vacations.
And when they were at one ofyour vacations, they met another
woman who lives relatively closeto us. And so they kind of
folded her because they got tomeet her and then they folded
her into this circle that wehave here. And so even though I
wasn't at the vacation, or youknow, it was like this, again,

(23:28):
this ripple effect of now I havethis other person in my life,
who again, like minded thinking,wants to attend the same event,
you know, wants to kind ofattend the same events have that
same vibe. So it really tricklesout where we really are creating
this, this ecosystem of businessowners and bosses to support
each other. It's amazing.

It's, it's, it is It's why we're here or why
I'm here, at least, I'm okay.
There's a couple of things thatI want to like, hit on. Yes.
Because we're talkingmasterminds and things and I
imagine a lot of people willsort of ask the question of do I
need to join a group officiallyright? To find their people? I
would love to hear your take onthis and then I have a take on

(24:13):
this as well.

So I mean, I think the blanket, you know, response
is no, right. Like you can findyou can find a business friend,
anywhere. And but if I thinkabout my, my own personal
relationships, definitely someof my strongest business
relationships came from womenthat I went through some type of

(24:40):
program or some type of eventwith because I think you start
from a common a commonvernacular and a common place.
And most of these, most ofthese, you know, I know your
mastermind, my mastermind. Theyhave a structure built into
them, that you get in the habitof talking to Those people on a

(25:00):
regular basis. And I know one ofthe very first masterminds that
I participated in as a consumer,the structure was the the
organizer broke us into a smallgroup of there were four of us.
And for the three month program,we were expected to meet once a
week for the three months of theprogram. And so these four women

(25:23):
who I had never met, we wererandomly paired together. We met
every week for the three monthsof the program, because we were
told to, and then we met everyweek for a year and a half
afterwards. So I think the factI don't think that we would have
done that, had we not had thekind of structure to start doing

(25:44):
it. And the kind of guidelineslike here's how you should run
your calls, here's how youshould make sure everyone gets
what they need. Someone shouldbe a timekeeper like we needed
that structure and thataccountability that we got from
the program, and then wecontinue to do it on our own
after that. And that's what Isee happen with my own clients
too is I pair the group's up, Icreate the structure, and then

(26:06):
they keep going months and yearslater.

I agree with this 100%. And they will say to
even add to add something to it.
Your group continued meeting,like within the same group, or a
year and a half. But this alsogives you the skill set to sort
of make your own group totally,which is what you and I have
ended up doing right. Businessbesties client phone calls

(26:30):
partner meetings. Oh, yeah. Andthat to do list? How in the
world do we get it all done? Idon't know about you. But I
couldn't make it happen withoutthe help of acuity scheduling.
When I need to schedule ameeting, I just open up an
email, say a quick Hello, pastein a scheduling link and acuity
does the rest from showing therecipient my availability to

(26:51):
sending confirmation andreminder emails to even
automating rescheduling? Leavingme to get back to that to do
list acuity scheduling, thescheduling assistant that works
24 seven behind the scenes tofill your calendar so that you
don't have to, for limited timeonly. You can get 45 days of
acuity scheduling absolutelyfree. no credit card required by

(27:13):
going to acuity scheduling.comslash being boss.
You do remember that you and Iwere in a group together like
seven years ago. What do youremember? Yeah, so shout out to

(27:39):
amber McHugh. Oh, my God andfreshly implemented. Yes. Right.
So and we've actually had thisconversation before. I remember
what I had for breakfast thismorning. So I take no
responsibility, right. So and Iwas just thinking about this
too, because when you're talkingabout joining a group, and sort
of gaining that, gaining thathabit of doing it, but you also

(28:04):
and gaining that vernacular,which I think is very important.
You also sort of immediatelygain a like a point of
commonality. Yeah. So you and Iwere in Amber mkuze freshly
implemented a program. Yours Itotally remember. Yeah. And
years ago, and the first time wemet. Okay, actually, let's just

(28:28):
let's share the story. Coolstory. So I did come with
Kathleen to Mill Valley,California to the high Verghese,
which is the CO working spacethat you were mentioning a
minute ago to do a book eventwhenever the big boss book came.
Yeah. You were there. I don'tremember you. Well, so we did.

(28:52):
Maybe I do but like you doremember I do. Right.

Well, and we met briefly at that event, because
the set the friends that I wasjust talking about had been part
of your community and had beento your vacations and they had
kind of helped set up the solike, there was a really quick
like, Hi, nice to meet you. Butyeah, that's so funny how our
paths

crossed originally hate passing, hey,
passing haze. But then a couplemonths later, I was invited to
speak at the high Verghese LX,which also shout out to grace.
Grace is the master buildercommunity. She is amazing. One
of my favorite people by far. SoI came back up to Mill Valley to

(29:36):
speak at the hi free event. Andthere was a VIP dinner and you
and I just happened to sit nextto each other that night, and we
hit it off. And I remember itwas that night during dinner
that we sort of connected thefact that we had done freshly
implemented together. And sothat was our connection point

(29:56):
like otherwise we would havejust been two strangers sitting
next next to each other had aconversation before dinner. But
because we had that point ofcommonality, it was able, or we
were capable of sparking kind ofa more meaningful relationship
significantly more quickly thanif we were just two strangers
sitting

exactly other.
Exactly. And again, I like Ihate to even like bring it up
when we are still in the middleof sheltering in place. But
there is that in person, thereis that in person, aspect to the
fact that you and I werephysically sitting next to each
other face to face having aconversation I was just talking
about, I can't remember theexact percentages, but I was

(30:36):
just talking about this withanother client, the whole, like,
the only 7%, or whatever it is,of, of what we say is verbal
communication. And how importantthat and that's why you do
these, even though this is apodcast, it's why you do them
via video so that you can getthe body language and all of
that. But there's also somethingabout being in person where
you're just able to connect withthat person on a little bit

(30:59):
deeper level, because you'reactually seeing them in 3d.

Right. I know that to be true, completely. So
we were able We met at thatpoint. And then at some point
afterwards, and I don't evenremember when or how if it was
immediately after or a monthlater, I have no idea. no
recollection. But you and Istarted having monthly calls
together just getting togetherone evening, it's evening for

(31:24):
me, you're on the other side ofthe country. So yeah, perhaps
afternoon, two o'clock. Yeah.
Right, we're getting togetheronce a month, to just sort of
keep each other caught up onwhat it is that we're doing. And
sort of seeking advice oropinions or perspective about
the things that we're goingthrough. And we keep doing it
because we both like it. And weboth find value and doing it.

Yes, I know. And, and I love it. And you know, we
were kind of talking about allthe different ways that you can
have a business friendrelationship, and we could talk
about some of the other waysthat I love that you and I have
this kind of standing monthlydate, because it also is a
marker of time. And it's it's,you know, what, what have we

(32:11):
done in the last four weeks?
What, what is happening? Youknow, what, what's happening?
What do we want to, you know, Ialways think when I see our call
on my calendar, you know, I'llstart to it's not like I'm
creating an agenda or anything,but I'm definitely kind of
formulating in my head, I'mthinking about like, Oh, great,
I want to tell Emily, this, Iwant to talk to her about this,
I want to ask her about this, Inoticed on social media this.

(32:32):
And so it helps give us kind ofa container to start from, which
I think is really helpful versusjust kind of either doing it
more randomly or things likethat, it just gives us a really
nice container. And a lot oftimes we'll kind of invite each
other or challenge each other todo something or think about
something or, or before, okay,by the time we meet next month,

(32:54):
let's make you know, you'regonna make a decision about
this, or you're gonna havethought about this or launch
this or whatever it is. So itgives us these nice markers of
time to kind of stay accountableto each other too.

Yeah, I completely agree, I found him so
helpful. And I agree with themonthly ness of it, it's such a
good amount of time to reallyaccomplish something, and I can
really look back over the pastyear or so. And like, for you,
for example, who knows what youthink about where I feel free to
share as needed. But I can seeover, you know, 12 months

(33:29):
meeting a once a month, therewere times when things were
moving very slowly. And thereare times when things really get
going like you're really able tosort of see the seasons in
business for the person thatyou're talking to. And for me,
that just gives me the abilityto kind of be more helpful to
you, as we're going through thenext 12 months. Like if it's one

(33:50):
of those things where it's ussort of slowing down or like
hyping up or whatever it may be.
It allows me to really get intouch with you and how you do
business in a way that I can'tdo with people that I'm not
talking to very often or notvery consistently, I think and
that also makes me more mindfulof how I'm doing business right
as well like it all just foranyone who's not enjoying these

(34:15):
kinds of relationships. You aremissing so much, because your
level of mindfulness of your ownprocesses because they can be
mirrored back to you sharingthem with someone else. I think
it really can be detrimental toyour ability to really move

(34:38):
forward with the kind of speedand agility and not that speed
and agility are like the topgoals here. But I think it's
slowing you down.

It's almost for sure speed and agility but I
would add in like efficiency.
Like it's not about you know,it's just about you mentioned
grace and grace just shared astory with me that I That I know
you and I have experienced towhere, when she decided to open
the Highbury. She felt like itwas this lightbulb moment for
her like, Oh my gosh, I know thenext thing I'm going to do in my

(35:11):
business, and I've never thoughtof it before. And she shared it
with one of her, you know,business friends, and that
business friend relate back toher. Yeah, you've been talking
about this for 10 years. And soI think that, that I know, you
and I have had that experiencewhere we've said, Wait, weren't
you? Didn't you mention that afew months ago? Or, or we're
also guilty of this right? Orwill or will bring something

(35:34):
like, Hey, tell me more what'sgoing on with this? And it makes
it keeps it bringing it to thefront because like you said, a
business friend is able to kindof mirror what you're saying
back to you. One of my otherbusiness friends, we have the
same meme screenshotted that weroutinely just text back and

(35:56):
forth to each other about it.
The the meme says, hold on, letme overthink this. And and so
whenever one of the whenever oneof us is overthinking something,
you just get this text messagethat is that little screenshot
of the meme. It's like oh, yeah,you're totally right. I'm
overthinking it. And then threeweeks later, the other one has

(36:18):
to send it back saying Okay, nowYou're overthinking this. So you
get to be that, that mirror foreach other.

Okay, I want to touch on something here. One of
the questions I often get frompeople who are looking for their
community, as big or as small asthat needs to be a lot of people
are sort of filled with thisfear of getting too close to
their, quote, unquote,competition. And you just spoke
a little bit about efficiency.
And so I'm going to roll this upinto a nice little ball of mud

(36:48):
tied up in a bow. I don't knowwhat I'm doing with that. Here's
what it is. We fine. Um, becauseyou and I both do masterminds,
right. That's sort of the commonpiece between us. But I think
that allows us to really relateto each other significantly
more, we both have a very clearunderstanding, are there more

(37:08):
than enough fish in the sea?
Absolutely 100%. And because weboth have that connection, we're
able to be more efficient,because we're sharing so much
with each other, right. And sofor me, a perfect example of
this is, whenever I decided tohost my mastermind retreat in

(37:28):
New Orleans last year, I wastelling you about it, you had
recently done one, you sent me alink to some mansion that
listings in the French Quarter.
And that's where I found myhouse, I would have spent months
googling and trying to find justthe right place. And you sent me
a link in five minutes. And itwas amazing, right?

Amazing. And then, and then we both just hosted
events that were supposed to belive, both of us were supposed
to have our own live events, weboth took them virtual, your
event was first. And so afterthat, we had a conversation and
I was asking you how did it gotell me all about it. And you
shared with me two things thatyou had done with your, you

(38:12):
know, virtual version of theevent. And I was like, Oh my
gosh, that's brilliant. And Iimplemented both of them for my
virtual event. And, and it just,again, it's that near it's like
something that was like so notobvious, but it just made so
much sense that I just was tooclose to my own event. And I

(38:32):
needed your perspective of thatyou'd already done it. And yeah,
I just agree with you. 100% thatthere's so many fishes fish in
the sea, and that there's somuch business for both of us.
And that I really believe in thelike rising tides raise all
boats. Yeah, so I think that,that, and I think that that goes

(38:57):
to choosing the human. Right,like, yeah, don't try to be
business besties with someonethat you already feel some
animosity towards, or, you know,

like, kill him with kindness, like, pick a
human being that you want to befriends with. Yes, you know,
also for sure, I always findthat, again, more of those
points of commonality there. Themore of those you're going to
have with a person both like insort of history, like the things
you've done, but also in whatyou're actually doing, the more

(39:32):
helpful you can be to eachother. Because I often find that
if I'm trying to be businessbesties with someone who is a
completely different field. I'moften just playing catch up the
entire time. Like I don'tunderstand your business model.
Yeah. Right like and then I feelI always feel like I'm coaching

(39:56):
instead of sharing my experiencebecause like, we I'm not
coaching each other not usually,sometimes if there's something
hard going on, I'm like, pleasetell me what to do. But yeah,
same, you fix my mindset here,something's wrong, like,
sometimes you will get a littlecoaching. But that's not that's
not the purpose of theserelationships. And if there
aren't those points ofcommonality, there's no sharing

(40:17):
of experience and expertise,that's going to be relevant for
the other person. So you have tofind people who are in similar
things. Another example of thisis I am in sort of a larger
group of business besties, asort of self, self imposed
mastermind. And we all sharevery similar businesses, we're

(40:38):
all product businesses, we allsell candles and crystals were
in different geographiclocations. But our business
models are really relativelysimilar. And because of that, we
are so valuable to each other,we're really able to connect
with the or connect on things,we're able to understand each
other's perspective and eachother's problems and all of

(41:00):
those things in a way that Icouldn't do if I were doing that
group with anyone else. So foranyone who is worried about
competition, let it go.

Yeah. You know, you know, one thing, though, that I
want to I want to point out,because I completely agree, and
I think the competition thing.
Well, I'll give one quick littleside note on the competition
thing, I do think it's alsookay, to we all have up and down
days, and we all you know, likeit's okay to also protect your,
your own mindset a bit. So I,you know, if there's a day where

(41:32):
you're like, I need to not like,I'm feeling a little envious of
this really successful launch orsomething, and you know, you're
going to come around and like besuper excited for that person.
And you need to just like, takea beat, like, take care of
yourself, I will say that, but Ibut I just definitely agree that
the pros outweigh any, any cons.

(41:56):
The the other concept, though,that that I wanted to share,
because it's something that popsinto my mind. And it's not that
I'm like, interviewing for thebusiness bestie position, but I
like to think of to like yourboard of directors. And when you
have like these differentbusiness friends, cuz I know you
have conversations with otherpeople, I have conversations

(42:18):
with other people. And when youthink about like your, your
collective group of kind ofbusiness friends, I like to
think of this board of directorslike I like to have someone
because whatever, whateveryou're feeling in your life and
in your business, then you kindof have a person to go to. So I
like there to be someone who'skind of at my level, like you

(42:40):
said, like we're, we have kindof a similar business model, you
can speak that same language,you can, you know, you can have
those conversations. But thenmaybe you want someone that's
above you or ahead of you, thatcan be kind of that mentor role.
Or you were talking about, youknow, the same industry, I have
a business friend who runs abakery, like an in person, brick

(43:01):
and mortar bakery. And so yeah,she doesn't know anything, I'm
not going to talk to her about awebinar strategy. But man, she
knows about hiring and running ateam because she's got 50 people
on her team. So having people inslightly, you know, in those
different seats on your kind ofboard of directors can be really

(43:22):
helpful. Because when you have aquestion about hiring, I might
not want to go to my businessfriend that is also running a
solo business and doing you knoweverything herself, I want to go
to the person that has a team of50 people that she manages, and
has to hire and fire people allthe time. You know, so I like to
kind of think about it that waytoo. So that when you have that
question, I used to think aboutit with parenting too, like you

(43:44):
want someone who has the sameage a kid as you you want
someone who has an older kidthan you you want, you know,
like you want to kind of have afew different avenues like you
want that business friend,that's really good at the pep
talk. You know, you want thatbusiness friend that you can
send a text or a boxer or MarcoPolo to and being like, man, I
am having a rough day today. Andyou just know that that's going

(44:05):
to be the person that just sendsyou the like, the mindset work
and the love and thecheerleading, and like you just
then you can kind of pick andchoose where you get your
support from.

I love this so much because you don't just have
one business bestie this isn'tMiddle School, you have one best
friend, you have like 10 bestbusiness besties and I think
you're completely right. I alsoI also love the idea of thinking
about them as a board ofdirectors. And along that line.
I like to I like to keep minerounded out within about even

(44:38):
streams of revenue are reallythe areas of your business where
you are putting the most energyso you're you're mentioning
hiring and sort of teammanagement. I think most bosses
you know, a couple years in aregoing to need a couple buddies
who are sort of on that team orwho understand that that aspect
of business. I also think aboutfor me I have a couple of really

(45:00):
close podcasting friends. Sopeople who are really into the
podcasting scene so I can, youknow, message them and be like,
have you guys noticed some weirdthings going on with numbers
lately? Or do you hear thatweird update about Apple or like
what's working for your contentthese days, those sorts of
things. So you can think aboutreally sort of the areas in your
business, as well are thoserevenue streams or whatever they

(45:22):
may be to curate that board ofdirectors for yourself

Exactly. Like you said, If you run masterminds, if
you do one on one work, if youhave a brick and mortar store,
like having some people thathave those commonalities, and
then some people that that aredifferent, because they bring
you a different perspective to

business besties, I have a great way of
encouraging you to finally dothat thing. Like talking you
into writing that ebook, orputting together that course.
And though your business bestiewill definitely have some tips
for how to sell that digitalproduct. I'd like for you to
listen to this business bestieI'm talking about me, because I
think you should check out podiapodia is an easy to use platform

(46:03):
that allows you to createcourses, digital downloads, and
membership sites, it's a hasslefree way for creators to earn a
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required by going to podia.comslash bosses.
I have a weird question for you.
Have you ever had to fire abusiness? bestie?

You know, I think that it's just, I think that
it's just I've never thankfully,I've never had some type of blow
up, fight. Like, you're ahorrible person, you know, I've
never had that. And I thinkthat's because it's not Middle
School, and we are all adults.
And but I think it's also okay,business besties you know, Mom,

(46:56):
friends in person friends, like,I think it's okay that you have
seasons of your life, that youconnect with different people in
different ways. And so I thinkthat there's there can be this
ebb and flow. And there may bethat someone that you really
connected with that you that itreally worked for you at that

(47:18):
point in your life and point inyour business, and then maybe
you diverged a little bit, thenthen you kind of each go off on
your own path, or you you know,just different things happen or
your business goes in differentdirections, and you kind of move
apart. And then sometimes youcome back together, you know,
sometimes a couple of years willpass and you'll connect again
over something. And then you'rekind of back back in it. And you

(47:42):
know, talking about like thecompetition or the you know,
sometimes it's like, okay, ourbusinesses are getting too
close, we actually we actuallyreally are kind of in the same
market. And then, you know,let's you know, and then you
just kind of naturally separatea little bit, do your own thing
for a while. And so I thinkthat's okay, too. And it doesn't
have to be, I avoid drama at allcosts. Probably to the point

(48:04):
where I probably should havesome conversations that I don't
have, but like, it doesn't haveto be drama. It just it's like,
okay, these different peoplecome in and out of your life at
the right time. And some peoplestay longer and some people it's
a shorter you know, injectioninto your, into your, into your
life and into your business. Andthat's okay, too. What about

(48:26):
you? Have you ever had to firesomeone?

Never had to fire someone. There. I can. I
can think of one actually one ofmy very first sort of business
besties, which I guess was justcutting my teeth. Yeah, as it
were. We we talked prettyconsistently for probably about
a year and a half. And then wewent to a conference together
for the first time. And so wewere meeting in person for the

(48:52):
first time together. And weshared a room together and we
didn't really talk much afterthat. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly.
I'll just leave it it was fine.
It was not dramatic, but I justlearned some things that didn't
really sit well with me. Right.
Um, that did not equate into acontinued relationship. But
there have been plenty that haveabdun flowed in and out. Sure,

(49:15):
sure. And it's like it's neverweird each and every one of them
I could email to this day and belike, Hey, what are you up to?
You want to chat? Or like I'mgonna do this thing can you want
to help me help me do this thingor whatever it may be. That is
the thing about you just set itlike choosing a human being that

(49:36):
you want to hang out with. And Iwill say do those natural ebbs
and flows. Whenever you aresharing about your business and
in some cases, your life verymuch, especially in our realms
of the kinds of business peoplethat we are people can sense
when things are no longer ofvalue to them or not, and you
need to be able to recognizethat for yourself as well. This

(49:58):
idea of understanding Whensomething is still useful for
you, and if it's still useful tothe other person, also trying to
maintain your usefulness. It'salways really hard being in a
business bestie relationshipwith someone who's just like,
always has all the problemsthemselves, and they're not
really there to reciprocate. Itbeing very mindful of that stuff

(50:20):
is important. But otherwise, No,I've never had to fire anyone.
Yeah, we just ebb and flow justas well. Exactly. All right, do
you have any tips for finding abusiness bestie specifically
looking for that person?

I think, you know, we touched on it a little bit,
we touched on it a little bit,that I do think that, you know,
if you're at an event, or you'repart of a program, I think that
that is a great place, becauseit's, again, it's kind of a
captive audience, you know, thatthey, you have decided to join
this program, because you have acertain set of goals and values,

(50:57):
and that person has decided tojoin the same program. So they
probably have similar goals andvalues. So I think that's a
really great place for kind offinding kind of a commonality.
I've actually, you know, andthen I, when I think I'm kind of
thinking through, okay, wheredid I meet all of my kind of
business friends. So I thinkthere is that then that
peripheral connection, one of myvery good business friends I met

(51:21):
because she was friends withanother one of my business
friends. And then, and it wasactually, I was looking for a
guest expert for my program. Andmy friend was like, Oh, you need
to talk to my friend Jules. Andso I reached out to her to see
if she would be a guest expertin my program, and then we
became really good friends fromthere. So I think just, you

(51:43):
know, the same way you would,you know, word of mouth
referrals. Like, I think itsounds so silly, that we're
talking about friendships, but Ireally think like, if, if
there's something that you likeabout someone, probably someone
else that they like, you know,is going to be a good match for
you. So I think, and then Ithink you can, you can, from
there, I think you can findpeople in on social media and

(52:07):
free communities, maybe in alocal like, again, like I made
really good friends at my coworking space, or if your
community has some type of, youknow, chamber meetup or business
meetup or something like that,you know, those are probably
other opportunities, too.

I agree. And then I think beyond those
things, it's just making thetime. So it's showing up in all
the places and being open to it,but then to making the time to
nurture those relationships. Youknow, you and I are making time
for each other every singlemonth to get together and have
conversations. And my mastermindgroup that I do we meet every

(52:45):
other week, so for an hour and15 minutes every other week,
we're getting together to havethese conversations, and we're
not like checking email whilewe're talking. We're not like
doing we're like chatting, we'redoing the thing. We're focused
on each other. So it's makingthat time and showing up. I
think being very vulnerable,like these conversations would

(53:06):
not be very valuable for us ifwe were like holding back and
not wanting to share things orsort of glossing over what our
struggles are, right?

I think that commitment on both both the time
commitment, and the kind ofemotional commitment is really
important, because I'vedefinitely had weeks, I mean, I
would be lying, if I didn't haveweeks that were I was feeling
really busy or feeling likethere was a lot going on. And
like you kind of were looking atyour call your schedule for the
week. And you know, there's thatmoment where it's like, oh,

(53:36):
maybe I should see if Emily canreschedule or maybe I should,
you know, and of course, youknow, things come up. And we can
do that. But like, there'sdefinitely been moments of like,
I'm too busy to do that. And butthen I say now like, what you're
going to get out of it is alwaysmore beneficial than whatever
the task you would have done.
You know. So I think that that'sa really important thing. I
think that we sometimes it'skind of putting putting

(54:00):
ourselves to the bottom of thelist when we cancel those calls
or reschedule those calls.
Because what you're saying islike, whatever this other thing
is more important than this,like, personal development
piece. So really committing tothose as been really important.

Absolutely, yes.
And I'll say too, even to add alittle layer to this, a lot of a
lot of the bosses in ourcommunity are here at all,
anyone in every actually everybusiness owner I've ever met.
Yeah, they're always saying Ihave such a hard time finding
time to work. In my business onmy business. I can never
remember which is which likedoing the stuff that you want to
do on your business. It's on arein it. You guys know what I

(54:40):
mean? Yeah, if there's nothingelse that I'm doing every week,
every other week, at least oncea month is getting on my calls
with my business besties and ifI can do no other working in ORS
on my business, I can't rememberwhich then that is happening.
Yeah, because that is going tobe moving my business forward
one way or the other, if it ifnothing else is just moving my

(55:03):
mindset forward, it's helping mesort of expand my own perception
or celebrate my own wins, oractually finally let go and get
some advice on my struggles,whatever it may be, I may not
have time to implement newsystems, I may not have time to,
you know, finally hire thatperson, I may not have time to,
like, do some of those things.

(55:24):
But I am showing up for thosebusiness bestie conversations
that will in some way helppropel me forward for sure. So,

you know, most of us, most of us that are that are
running our businesses, andthey're listening this podcast,
we are wearing a milliondifferent hats. And so we are
the marketing director and thesales team and the janitor and
all of the, you know, we're allof the things, but it is
imperative to business growththat you make time to wear that

(55:53):
CEO hat. And it is, and I thinkwe often I was just talking with
a client about this thismorning, because for her, she
does her best thinking whenshe's out on a hike. But that
feels very frivolous to her. Andlike, Oh, I shouldn't be on a
hike. But like you whatever itis for you, you have to it is
the most important thing you cando for your business, is to make

(56:15):
sure you have CEO time builtinto your schedule. And I look
at the time that you and I spendon the phone, that's my CEO
time. And, you know, if I'mgoing to if I'm going to cancel
CEO time, so that I can dojanitorial work, then like,
that's not moving, that's notgonna move your business
forward.

That is a wonderful analogy for that.
100%. So yes, I love that. I'mglad we have this conversation.
I'm hoping what everyonelistening is is able to take
from it is how important theseare. I mean, Kathleen, and I
have been in this space tryingto sort of share this with
everyone, for years. But even asI continue moving forward in my

(57:00):
business, or the crazy time thatwe just found ourselves in, I
could not have made it throughany of that if it weren't for
the relationships that I havewith other business owners who
can, you know, commiserate with,sort of hang with share insight
and tips and advice in thatarticle they read that really
helped them understand the pbbeffort, maybe percent. Oh, my

(57:24):
goodness. Yeah. Right. Oh, myGod, I'm so glad you came to
have this conversation with me,it is such a pleasure to bring
you into the being boss fold tointroduce everyone to you. And
to share with them what it lookslike do an in this case, an
interesting thing about this isthey've been seen Kathleen and I
in our business bestierelationship as business

(57:45):
partners. You are just abusiness but you're my virtual
business partner, right? You'resomeone that I just get to talk
business with in a very sort ofan untethered kind of way. And
that's very refreshing as well.

Absolutely. No, thank you so much for having me.
This is great. And I think it isa really, really important part
of running your business. Sovalue those relationships.

All right, well, you tell everyone where they can
find out more about you and thework you do.

Yes, well, we are in the middle of the rebrand. So
the new website is let'scollective CO and I'm not even
sure if you can find me atMeghan at let's collective co
but I'm gonna assume you can.
And if you can't find me theretry Meghan at Meghan flat, calm.
But I am so excited to connectwith all of you further.

Is that the first time you've said your URL
out loud? I think so. Yeah, Ithink so. I love it. What a
treat. Alright, my last questionfor you is what makes you feel
most boss?

This is such a good question. I was thinking about
this earlier. And I think Ialready said it. But I really
for me. It's all everythingwe've talked about today. And
it's about building theserelationships. So when I see my
clients have big aha has, that'ssuch a boss moment for me. And I
recently had a client say tothank me for change, like how

(59:09):
did she phrase it, but it waslike, helping her have an
entrepreneurial brain. Or shesaid, like, I feel like I have
an entrepreneurial brain and Ijust would like that's it for
me. If I can help someone feellike they have mastered part of
entrepreneurship. That's it forme. That's when I feel like a

(59:29):
boss.

Yeah, that feels like a win for sure. All right.
Thank you so much for coming tohang out with me. And I guess
I'll see you next Wednesday forour business. bestie chat. Yeah,
I can't wait. Thanks for havingme. It was great. Thanks for
listening. And hey, if you wantmore resources, we're talking
worksheets, free trainings inperson meetups and vacations and

(59:53):
more. Go to our website at wwwdot beam boss dot club. Do the
work. Boss

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#233 - Find Your Business Bestie with Megan Flatt

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#233 - Find Your Business Bestie with Megan Flatt