April 1, 2025 • 48 mins
Meet Katherine Bignon - this amazing brand stylist and mom of FIVE who just pulled off her first course launch during the holiday madness and made over $5K! After years of having a million business ideas but struggling to actually implement them, she finally found her groove in the CEO Mom Mastermind. Katherine managed to launch her course in DECEMBER of all months while still keeping up with family dinners and all those special holiday traditions with her kiddos.
In this episode, you'll hear:
- How we scrapped her complicated launch plan and replaced it with something she could actually do while being present for her family (yes, even in December!)
- The jaw-dropping moment when her launch hit a 5.5% conversion rate (that's nearly DOUBLE what most people get!)
- What it meant to finally work with someone who gets that your business and motherhood aren't separate things
- Why joining the mastermind didn't add more to her already full plate - but actually made everything clearer and simpler
- How she pre-sold her course and then built it WITH her students after they'd already paid (genius move for busy moms!)
Ready to stop choosing between your business dreams and family time?
If you're nodding along to Katherine's story, thinking "that's exactly what I need," head to yaelbendahan.com/mastermind to learn more about the CEO Mom Mastermind. There are 6 spots left before the investment goes up by over $2000 on April 10 so this IS THE BEST TIME TO JOIN US.
This isn't about squeezing one more thing into your crazy schedule - it's about finding a way to grow your business that actually works WITH your life as a mom, not against it.
Katherine’s Links
The 3 Looks You Have to Nail (as the face of your brand) - https://katherinebignon.myflodesk.com/krqa7ijig4
Get on the waitlist for the Brand Shoot Blueprint - https://katherinebignon.com/the-brand-shoot-blueprint
LINKS
📈The CEO MOMS Growth Matrix - feeling stuck or plateaued at your current revenue? Snag your custom roadmap for sustainable growth from $0 to multi-6-figures in this FREE training! >>> yaelbendahan.com/matrix
🔥Join my FREE 3-Day Program, LEVERAGE - the process that’s creating multi 6 figure years working nap times and being a full time mama of 6. Claim your spot here >>> https://yaelbendahan.com/leveragepod
💰Offers in Your Pocket - 11 Offers You Can Pull Out of Your Pocket and Sell This Week! Only $9 - yaelbendahan.com/pocketoffers
✨Join the Collective
In the "building" stage of your business? Join the MOMentum Collective - my most accessible mentorship program for moms growing to $5-10K months.
💃 Apply for the CEO Mom Mastermind if you're ready to scale sustainably to $15-20K+ months. Read more about the mastermind here OR go straight to the application here.
Want to chat about the mastermind before you join? DM me on Instagram - instagram.com/theyaelbendahan
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome back, and I amhere today with my incredible
(00:04):
client and friend, CatherineBengal.
She is someone that I met backin, oh gosh, back in 2023,
beginning of 2023 in March.
Yeah, at an event, I think at anin-person event.
And we really clicked, because Ihad five kids at the time.
We both had five kids, right?
'cause that's not a usual thingto have apparently.
(00:25):
And so we really clicked andwe're like, oh yes, oh, you too.
How's that working out for you?
And it was just a really, it wasreally great.
And she joined the CEO MomMastermind in 2024, going into
2024.
So I.
Catherine is a brand stylist forfemale entrepreneurs.
She's a mom of five, like Isaid.
She helps um, brandphotographers basically style
(00:47):
their photo shoot sets.
She helps the subjects of thephoto of the photo shoots.
Style, their clothing, theirbranding, like really just pulls
it all together in the mostbeautiful way.
I've seen her sets.
They're freaking gorgeous.
I lust after her sets.
I wanna fly into the states andhave her do this for me.
Okay this is like one of, thisis a goal in my life is to make
this happen.
Do you wanna tell me a littlemore, bit more about you and
(01:08):
like your background and yourbusiness, how you got started
doing this?
Sure.
Thanks for that.
That was the kindest intro.
And I would love to style ashoot for you one day, but you
can also fly me to Israelbecause I love to travel.
So there's options.
I'm, it's good to know thatyou're open to that though,
because some people wouldn't.
Ab Oh, absolutely, friend.
(01:29):
So yeah, I am, I'm a stylist forspecializing primarily in brand
shoots.
My background is in fashiondesign specifically.
And so I started in theentrepreneurial world by
designing custom bridal gowns.
Years ago, I studied at theFashion Institute of Technology
in New York City.
(01:49):
And from there, um.
I was married by the time Igraduated.
We had a couple kids already andI wanted to be able to run
business and life on my ownterms and not on somebody else's
terms.
And so I I graduated college andstarted my own business and
started designing.
I.
And I loved it.
(02:09):
I chased that dream for a numberof years and then hit the point
with with kids at home.
And also it was right as thepandemic was starting that it
just, it wasn't really workinganymore.
And I knew that I really neededto shift, something had to shift
and I wasn't quite ready to letgo of the dream of.
Like creating bridal gowns andcreating collections.
(02:30):
But I knew that something neededto shift and there were a couple
doors that had opened up forstyling from a couple different
angles, and I was reallyintrigued by it.
I was intrigued by the way thatclothing could communicate and
the strategy behind it and thejust the strategy behind visual
communication as a whole and.
(02:50):
Just, I fell in love with theidea of being able to still use
my design background withouthaving to be hands-on with white
silk in a studio that my kidscouldn't walk into.
And ended up booking my firstbrand shoot.
I'm totally out of the blue.
So I had a friend who wasplanning a brand shoot and she
reached out asking for help withwhat to wear.
(03:12):
She said she was like, youalways, I feel like you always
have great ideas for what towear.
You have great solutions, youlove shopping, and I have no
idea what to wear and I hateshopping, so could you help me
figure this out for my shoot.
And I was super excited to doit.
I was ab absolutely.
I knew from the beginning withbrand shoots that I, and styling
(03:32):
in general, that I wanted toapproach styling differently
than I saw other stylists do it.
I didn't want it to be a heavytrend-based approach where I
would get someone dressed up andready for a photo shoot.
I.
By focusing heavily on trendsand what would make them look
like popular or trendy in themoment, but then leave them
feeling like they had nothing towear for their next event or no
(03:53):
solution.
So I wanted to focus on more ofa strategy driven approach so
that we could nail that visualcommunication and so that we
could nail what it was thattheir target audience needed to
see in order to really trustthem and to believe them and to,
in the end, buy their product.
And I approached the first shootwith that perspective and I
(04:15):
created some resources to goalong with the final delivery of
the looks and sent everythingover.
And I loved the experience.
She loved the experience.
She ended up putting the styleguide that I had created for her
on her Instagram stories thatnight.
And within a couple hours,somebody else who was planning a
brand shoot and had no clue whatto wear reached out and they
(04:38):
were like.
Oh my gosh.
I saw the style guide that youcreated, and that's what I need.
That's the strategy that I need.
Can you please help me?
And so I threw together apackages guide really quick and
sent it off and within 24 hoursfrom this first shoot had been
booked for a second, and it justsnowballed from there.
And I ended up.
Building a styling business thatran for for multiple years based
(05:01):
heavily on referrals from bothclient referrals and from
photographer referrals.
And so they were doing all ofthe speaking for me.
I didn't really have a websitethat was speaking for me.
I had literally taken my bridaldesign website, added another
page to it, left the full bridaldesign website up and had.
Single page that like listed allof the styling options and that
(05:21):
was where we were sending peopleto so that they could see a
website presence and inquirefrom there.
And that kept me really busy fora couple years until I hit the
point where the level of clientsthat I was booking weren't
trusting the level of websiteand the level of presence that I
had online.
And it's funny looking back, Ihad not had my own brand shoot
(05:44):
yet, and so all of the thingsthat I talk about with clients
with showing up, trustworthyonline, nailing your visuals so
that your clients believe thatyou can do what you say you can
do, that was what ended upshooting me in the foot
eventually, because I didn'thave any of those visuals up.
I didn't have anything that wasproving that I could do what I
said that I could do beyondshowing off my portfolio.
(06:07):
And so it was.
It was a fun season.
It was very fun growth.
But then it hit a stagnant pointwhere I realized I had to change
what I was doing.
And that was what led me into aseason of looking for resources
that could help me grow, lookingfor programs, potential coaches,
just some other people to comein alongside me so that I wasn't
(06:27):
doing it on my own.
Because I think that's one ofthe hardest things about running
your own business is that you.
You are your own boss and it'seasy to be my own boss when I'm
managing client projects, butit's really hard to be my own
boss and create my own checklistwhen it's for the things that I
have to do in my business tomake it survive.
(06:47):
The CEO EO stuff, right?
Yeah.
Like it's almost like the Cstuff.
Yeah.
Because we, because especiallyif you're a, you start off as a
service provider, you very much,you can still grow your business
with this sort of like employeemindset where you're like,
you're doing the stuff for theclients and you're still then
the clients almost become yourboss.
To an extent, that becomes anextension of what you previously
were doing.
Whereas then, when you reallywanna scale, then you really
(07:08):
have to step, put on your CEOhat and then really be like,
okay, I have to take a activesteps, I have to have my own
accountability, right?
Or I have to find help and getaccountability.
So you said you're growingprimarily based, like with
referrals and obviously nowlooking at your website, you did
your photo shoot, and I, it'svery common, like shoemakers
children and all that.
Very often we'll neglect our ownthings and be like, this is so
important.
And then when I was a socialmedia manager, it's but you
(07:29):
don't have a lot of followers.
I'm like, yes.
I'm so busy growing everyoneelse's followings.
Okay.
I did use the potential brandshoot that was looming in the
future as the excuse to buy theclothes that I wanted to buy.
When I would find, I was like,oh this will be for a brand
shoot.
It's fine.
It's fine.
Yeah.
It's a write off.
So you ever the write off thing?
Unfortunately, no.
If only, I know apparently it'snot actually a write off, but
(07:51):
unless you only use it for the,like you rent it for the photo
shoot.
Like I spoke to my friendKimberly about this and she
goes, actually buying clothesfor a red photo shoot is not a
write off.
I hate to write it to you.
I write off.
Unless it's like uniformspecific, yes.
Like an actual uniform thatyou're not likely to wear in
your day to day oh so much forthat.
Okay, so you were so that was,so what was your, as as you're
(08:12):
growing your business obviouslyyou said it was hard for you to
focus on the right c like kindof CEO activities to grow your
business.
So what were your biggestchallenges?
What have you tried, what haveyou tried before Working
together with me in themastermind?
Yeah.
So I am.
A dreamer to the core.
I have endless ideas, endlessthings that I want to do.
(08:33):
And then when it comes down tothe nitty gritty of how do you
actually make it happen, that'swhere I get overwhelmed and I
tend to stall in my overwhelmand I end up freezing and then
not doing anything.
And so I had endless ideas ofcourses that I wanted to launch
in opt-ins and.
You name it.
(08:53):
All of the different programs,subscription models, like
anything that sounded like a funidea that I could see, like this
would be really great growth.
It's taking me where I wanna go.
I had all the ideas and theendless list of mapping
everything out and no progresswas being made.
And it was a mix of not havinganyone to help guide me through
what needed to be done, butalso.
(09:14):
Life with five kids is a lot.
We homeschooled through some ofthat season.
We moved and I, I always knewthat I wanted a big family and I
wanted to be able to be aspresent with my kids as I could
while also still runningsomething that was cre
creatively mine.
And so that, that's a reallyhard balance to find, especially
(09:34):
without anyone alongside of you.
And so I pursued, um.
Around the time that I launchedmy website, I like the first
website beyond the bridal designoption.
I joined a large group programfrom some coaches that I have a
huge amount of respect for and.
(09:55):
I looked at the outline, it wasa year long group program.
I looked at the outline ofeverything that was gonna be
included for the year and it wasa lot of like business
foundation things, growing yourbrand, and I knew that there was
a lot of good things that Icould get out of that.
I also felt like some of thecore curriculum that was being
offered was things I had.
Already nailed and felt prettyconfident on, but some of the
(10:17):
bonuses that they had thrown inactually made the whole program
feel more valuable to me thanthe actual core curriculum.
And so they were, some of thebonuses that were in, there were
some specific trainings onlaunching courses and growing
some digital products.
And so I knew that if I could.
Organize it correctly and nailthe timing on it, that it would
be really beneficial to me.
(10:38):
And so I worked through thatprogram for a year.
I got a lot out of it.
Group programs are hard becauseit's not one-on-one at all.
And what I really needed wassome of the one-on-one
oversight.
Just someone to bounce ideas offand tell me if I was like.
Too deep in the woods or had agood idea, but also someone to
help me map out and make surethat those ideas actually came
(11:01):
to fruition and went past justthe ideas in the list phase.
So it was a group program.
I got a lot out of it.
It was a really great program,but the areas where I got the
most out of it were the specificprograms within it that I had
pinpointed at the beginning onwriting a course and.
It was not on launching thecourse, it was on writing the
course.
And so at the end of that year,I had done some really great
(11:24):
work.
I felt like I had built somereally great things, but I still
couldn't quite see how to get itout into the world, how to make
it work, how to deliver all ofthese ideas.
So I had nailed some of theframework for building them, but
still just really needed.
The oversight, the handholdinginto getting it out into the
world.
(11:45):
Yeah.
I totally, and I, and it, groupprograms are like designed like
for scale, for scalability,obviously.
And and that is that is to me.
I love groups because I thinkthat you get so much from the
collective group of people, butI also think that like people
who are not who, like you said,who need, who are more of like
the visionaries, right?
Yeah.
Really need help.
(12:06):
Like just finding theirspecific.
Way.
Absolutely.
'cause it's not gonna be, andit's not always gonna line up
like exactly perfectly, withthat time of year or when
something is running or whensomething is doing.
And okay.
So then, so you finished, you, Ithink you finished around that
time or close that time.
So what made you, when you heardabout the Mastermind what made
you decide to join theMastermind?
What were like, were there anyhesitations or were like, is
this gonna work for me or isthis gonna be just another
(12:27):
thing?
Yeah, what made you like takethe leap.
There really weren't anyhesitations.
It really felt like the rightfit it.
And because, as I realized asyou were talking I had been
referring to the past program asa group program and this, the
mastermind is a group program aswell, but there's different ways
to look at it.
So this previous program was aprogram with about a hundred
(12:49):
people in it, I think, and zerodirect access to the coaches.
And so there was a lot of cohortconversation, but not
necessarily with people.
At the same level that I wasworking towards, not like it, it
was not necessarily the rightcommunity fit.
(13:09):
And so when this opportunitycame along for your mastermind
it clicked pretty quickly thatthis was the right fit.
I knew that it was.
A small, a much smaller scaleprogram than the previous one
had been because the overallgoal of it was different.
I knew that the coach, so youwas someone who had created a
(13:29):
program and had also createdyour own business to run
alongside your family.
And I had been really wary aboutdoing any sort of a deep dive
with.
A coach whose primary focus ofgrowth would be within your
business without looking at thefull picture of how that
affected your family.
(13:50):
I wanted someone who would beable to look at that full
picture and understand thatgrowth in one area sometimes
takes a toll on the other andthat.
That can go both ways.
Like family growth can take atoll on your business, and
business growth can take a tollon your family.
And so how do you figure out howto balance those things so that
it's a benefit to both insteadof feeling like there's a cost
(14:12):
or a line that limits you?
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
Yeah the, just knowing that Iwas jumping into something where
there would be no frustration orconcern about the fact that I
had five kids and still wantedto run a business.
No concern about the fact thatmy schedule is pretty highly
dictated in this season bysports and school schedules and
(14:35):
when I show up to volunteer inthe classroom and that we would
be able to work things aroundthat and figure out what.
What the right seasons were fordifferent launches based on what
family life looked like.
So I knew that would be likecompletely invaluable.
I love that so much.
And I, and obviously likethroughout the year we were
focusing on, getting more knownfor your expertise as well.
(14:58):
And then towards the end, likeactually toward the end, which
is, this is the ironic thing.
You ended up launching yourcourse in December, which like
anyone else would be like.
December's kind of a busy monthfor moms.
Because whether, there's gonna,there's bound to be a holiday in
there somewhere.
Whatever you, whatever kind of,religion you have, or even if
you're not even religious, it'sthe holiday season, right?
(15:18):
And so tell me more about that,because I do think, to me it is
very important in the Mastermindthat people have opportunities
to get support in multipledifferent ways.
Because you're not always gonnabe able to show up to the calls
live or you're not gonna be ableto always show up in Slack.
And having that mix of the livesupport and also the
asynchronous gives you a chanceto be supported and that meets
you where you're at in whateverseason that you're in, which is
(15:39):
really important because ourlife as mothers is so seasonal.
Like my life as a mom now islike very different than my life
as a mom three years ago when mykids were all younger, right?
And very different from when my,all my kids were little, right?
And and my, even my baby seasonsshift like every, like three
months.
Like his nap schedulesdifferent, right?
So everyone has to find, it'snever the same, right?
It's never the same.
And that's what makes it fun andexciting.
(16:01):
And also you have to have aflexible business, a flexible
systems that can.
Ebb and flow with those seasons.
Okay.
So you're like, okay, I'm gonnalaunch before the end of this
year.
I'm launching this course.
So tell me about that.
What was your, what were youroriginal ideas?
As far as launching went?
Yeah.
I.
I feel like we really, itstarted with a totally different
(16:22):
idea and then through lots ofconversations we clarified it
into what it became.
My original idea was more of acourse on personal styling,
which was the one that I hadfully written out the outline
for, and totally ma completelymapped out within the previous
program that I was just waitingto, to get it out into the
world.
And as we looked at where myaudience was coming from, what,
(16:46):
what the different lead magnetsI had out there that were
driving people in, what peoplewere coming to me for.
We realized that was not thesolution that audience was
looking for right then.
That there was actually like adifferent solution that made a
lot more sense.
So instead of this broadpersonal styling course the
majority of my email list wereactually all photographers.
(17:08):
They were brand photographers,which makes sense because that's
where all of my referrals werecoming from, and instead of
continuing on with the personalstyling course as it was, which
didn't really make sense, as Ihad continued to narrow my focus
more and more into.
Styling brand shoots andbecoming known as the stylist
who styles brand shoots, not apersonal stylist who also does
(17:32):
brand shoots.
We narrowed the course idea intosomething that would help equip
photographers whose clientscouldn't afford to hire a
stylist because I was realizingthat so many of the referrals
that I was getting.
Were, and they ended up goingunbooked because their clients
weren't quite ready to hire astylist, but the photographers
(17:52):
were feeling stuck and theydidn't really know what to do.
And so they, they needed theequipping almost more than the
client did.
And so we came up with this ideato, to dive into that avenue of
education.
And we mapped out.
What a potential schedule wouldlook like, what a launch
(18:13):
schedule would look like,realizing that for us, for our
family, October into Novembertends to be our insanely busiest
season, and then December almostslows down a little bit, which
is intentional as.
It's a mix of sports ending,right?
And also knowing like we'resettling into the holidays and
so we try and intentionally slowthings down a little bit.
(18:34):
So I knew with the Decemberlaunch I was gonna be making
things a little bit busier thanwe usually did, but I also knew
that there was zero way it wouldhappen if I tried to pull off a
launch in October going intoNovember that I, it would not
get off of it.
Off of its feet.
And so we used that time as theprep time where I was making
sure that each week I was likejust pouring into the email list
(18:56):
and serving the email list.
And so on the weeks where I hadvery little time to get anything
done, I knew that as long as Igot a really great email off,
that just felt like a gift to myreaders.
But I was still moving the balltowards that.
Towards that launch.
And was so helpful to have theweekly calls to be able to show
(19:17):
on weekly calls with questions,but then also to have the Slack
channel going and know that Icould, if I was working at crazy
hours of the night, which I wasreally trying not to do but it
happens that I could just braindump things into Slack and that
first of all, it wasn't gonnabug somebody'cause I'm not
sending like.
(19:38):
Text or whatever, like I canbrain dump it into Slack.
And then once, once you were up,once other people were up, the
messages would start pouringback in and it was this.
Was a really great soundingboard.
It was a, I really appreciatedhaving that channel open.
Yeah.
I love that too.
And that's, really that's theidea of a mastermind and it's
not just the coach is coming andteaching.
Which is valuable for sure.
(19:59):
But the idea of the mastermind,and that's why I'm so protective
of the space because it has tobe like my mastermind clients
are like.
The people I spend like some,like a lot of my time with,
right?
And they spend time with eachother.
So this has to be a reallysupportive, beautiful space with
people who I would feel, andthey would feel a hundred
(20:20):
percent comfortable hanging out.
In a living room in theirpajamas, like drinking, hot
cocoa and talking about, theirmost embarrassing experiences as
a teenager.
Like that level of hearing allour birth stories, all the birth
stories.
Tell I will, I wanna hear everysingle one.
I'm the person who is there forthem.
And I will dig in and mean, howare you feeling?
Because that is the vibe inthere.
(20:40):
It is for moms, right?
Like we have.
The whole time because literallyour lives and and I just love
that so much.
And also it's like people likewhy'd you launch in December?
Because everything else is socrazy beforehand.
And the fact that, you were a,we were able to narrow down on
okay, so you're like, I'm gonnasend one amazing newsletter
every single week to myaudience, right?
And really just focus on qualityover quantity.
(21:03):
And I'm like, I am nurturingthem so deeply so that they will
be ready and I, they'll beprepared for this upcoming
launch, which I remember at thebeginning.
You were like, maybe I'll do achallenge.
Like we should do a good threeday challenge.
We'll do live streams and stuff.
So tell me about that journeyfrom the challenge to what we
ended up doing.
Yeah, I think, this was my firstmajor launch ever.
(21:25):
So I had, I.
Watched a zillion launches,we've all seen a zillion
launches happen.
As soon as those emails start tocome in, you can tell, oh, this
is gonna be a challenge launch.
This is, I know they're headedtowards launching something, and
so we've watched them all, and Ihad an idea in my head of okay,
this seems to be what mostpeople are doing.
This seems to be what's working.
Therefore, that means that thisis what I must do in order for
(21:48):
this to be.
Successful and I got stuck backin that, like that cycle that I
was talking about before, ofbeing overwhelmed with all of
the details and not being ableto see how one thing would
connect to the next and connectto the next, and just started
freezing again.
And so finally after goingsilent for a little too long.
(22:09):
You sent a couple extra Slackmessages with a Hey, are you
gonna send over your launchplan?
I really wanna put some eyes onit and so that we can talk
through this.
I know that this is what you'reheaded towards, so can I see it?
And finally I sent it over and Iwas like I'm stuck.
Like I don't.
This is what I think I need todo, and I don't know how to get
there.
I don't know how to get therewithout feeling like my hand
(22:30):
needs to be held more than, ismaybe acceptable.
And so I'm not sure what to do.
And you read over it and welooked at like the weeks that it
needed to fit into, or the twoweeks that it needed to fit into
and what the plan was, andrealize that this was probably
way more complicated than itneeded to be, and that we could
massively simplify it.
(22:52):
Go with more of a, we took thechallenge out entirely.
We took the fact that the courseneeded to be done ahead of time
out entirely, and turned it intomore of a pre-launch with the
concept of pulling in a betagroup of people that I could
almost live launch to and liverelease the course to so that I
could get feedback as I wasdoing it and making make sure
(23:15):
that it was being written forthe audience, it was intended
for.
And just all of the, like thetiles started to fall into place
and it clicked and it started tolike actually make sense, which
then becomes motivating and itis okay, I see the next step.
I see the next step.
I can do this.
And.
I realized that like a, it wasgonna work.
(23:36):
Like we had a plan in place thatwas going to work.
Regardless of what the launchstat numbers ended up being at
the end, regardless of what the,like the final launch numbers
ended up being, I had a launchplan that I could see.
See how it was gonna work.
So that to me meant like, itdoesn't matter how many people
we're gonna get in this processis going to work, I'm gonna walk
(23:57):
away from this with a coursethat's written, with a course
that has launched and we'll seewhat happens.
And then, every time I feltstuck after that.
Because we had mapped things outso well.
It was a lot easier to jump intoSlack and be like, okay, here's
where I'm stuck.
Here's what I'm thinking, andjust brain dump those things
again.
And I always got a response,which was so nice.
(24:19):
And also there's.
There's something really niceabout the time difference.
That meant that when I wassending out those crazy, like
late night messages, I would geta response way sooner than I
thought that I was going to.
Because it would be like mymorning oh, the baby's napping.
I should answer Catherine rightnow.
And it was, and I remember that.
I remember getting on, Iactually like, as I'm looking
through the launch plan and Iwas like, I'm doing a loom
(24:40):
review, and I was like, this,okay, this looks like a good
challenge idea.
This looks great.
Okay.
Okay.
When are you planning on doingthis?
And maybe do you really need todo this?
And like, how about if we justdelete this.
It was like boom.
Okay, let's just take this out.
Let's take this out.
And you were like, that feels somuch better.
I can do that.
I could feel your sigh of relieflike through the internet.
(25:03):
Like you were like that'sdoable.
That feels like much simpler,right?
Because it was a, it was likealmost like a three step process
where there was like the market,the initial, the like hand
raiser market research stage of,with the incentivization of
getting people to start buyingearly and get seats in, get buts
in seats, like as early aspossible.
Welcome on Even market researchand then a wait list.
(25:25):
A wait list stage or gettingpeople on the wait list and then
opening it up to the wait listand then opening up to the
public.
Like you had those stages, butthey were so like, they were
very streamlined and they werelike really like simple because
it was just like email.
This is what h email is gonnado.
Let's just get them out.
And then you, I know, I knew yousent them into, to me and to
Jen, our copy coach.
To look over quickly.
And it was very, it was actuallyvery much in real time.
(25:46):
And that's actually what made memake the decision to switch
instead of doing like week, one,one to per week to just
unlimited audits, because I'mlike, sometimes people just need
more audits than the average andthen they're in a heavy season.
Yeah.
So how that's, how did.
Yeah, no, I was gonna say thatwas really nice to be able to.
To see, like I'm in a seasonwhere I need lots of eyes on
things and then next month Iprobably won't be.
(26:09):
So the ability to have lots ofhelp during a launch season and
then feel like, okay, it backedoff and maybe somebody else is
in the middle of a launch now,as in it's almost like we're
taking these natural turns thatstill leaves space for everyone
to get the help and thecommunity that they need and the
support.
But knowing that, if I need to.
To submit a full like launchsequence of emails, to have
(26:32):
somebody's eyes on it, thoseeyes are gonna end up on it.
And that's, so helpful.
Yeah, it was, and it was anamazing launch, right?
So like just get, let's get intothe actual yeah, the actual
process.
What the launch process lookedlike for you as you were
implementing it, because I knowlike you said, it was December,
it was a holiday, there weretraditions, there was the kids
were home.
So what did that, what did itfeel like before we even get
(26:55):
into the results, like what didthe launch process feel like for
you?
Because I think that, to me wasalmost more important than the
results themselves, because theresults obviously are important
to know and get data, but itcan't be done in a way that
makes you wanna like jump, takea jump out your attic window
because that is just, you, it'snot sustainable to try to do
things that aren't.
Doable alongside your life as amom, right?
(27:17):
Yeah.
The launch felt really good.
It was busy.
A launch is a launch is alwaysgonna be busy and a lot, but
because we took out the liveaspect of it that relieved a lot
of the time pressure in terms ofwhen I needed to be able to show
up.
And so it was built aroundemails that were written ahead
(27:37):
of time.
Motivated to get them done aheadof time because I wanted
somebody else's eyes on them andI knew that there, there were
some times where I could drop anemail in and get like immediate
eyes on it, but the standard isassuming 24 to 48 hours to be
able to get that feedback.
And so I wanted to make surethat I had the time to do that.
And so I built out a launchcalendar of when those emails
(28:00):
needed to go out so that I knewwhen they needed to be submitted
by so that I could have feedbackand then the time to tweak them
and we it was built.
It was built around what I knewthe kids' schedule would look
like over those two weeks.
And when I knew school wasgetting out for Christmas break
and what days I was in theclassroom for end of the year
(28:20):
parties and all of that, whichbeing volunteering in the
classroom during launch week wasactually, I think it was
actually really helpful becauseI couldn't, um.
There's not really greatinternet access or ser phone
service access within the kids'school.
And also if I'm like in theclassroom with my kids, I don't
(28:41):
wanna keep pulling my phone outand looking at it.
And so it was this like, nicereminder to take a deep breath
and put my phone away, close mylaptop, go show up for a couple
hours and be present and get agood mental reset and then come
back and work on the next emailand get it out.
But it was.
The, we were able to fit thelaunch in with family life for
(29:03):
those two weeks in a reallybeautiful way.
Like I said, I was still in theclassroom.
We have some pretty strongfamily traditions around
Christmas with an advent bookthat we read every night in the
kids', advent calendars and justlots of little things like that
our evenings in December arestructured around and.
When I tend to end up in reallyheavy seasons with work or when
(29:25):
I have in the past, a lot ofwhat disappears is that evening
routine.
I forget to start cooking dinnerin time.
I forget to start bedtime andtime because my brain is in a
million places at once, and soI.
I had put up some pretty stricttime boundaries with myself
which wouldn't have beenpossible if we hadn't changed
the launch structure, if youhadn't looked at the sheet and
(29:46):
how long it took me to get itover to you and read the
overwhelm between the lines andbeen like I think that we need
to do something different.
None of that December lifewould've been possible.
And we still.
We still had family dinner mostnights.
It was a hot dinner most nights.
It was not reliant on takeoutit.
We still made it to sit downwith Advent most nights.
(30:07):
And felt like we were reallypresent with the kids during
that season, which is reallyimportant to me in December.
It's important to me all yearlong, but there's something
about about holding that likeholiday charm, feeling tight
that I didn't wanna let go of.
And we had cart clothes on aFriday night and we always do
pizza in a Friday night moviewith our kids.
(30:29):
And I.
I was still scrambling to getthe last email written to, to
just hit, the heavy hitter, likecart's closing.
This is your final chance.
And I remember wrapping it up aswe were about to start the
movie, and then pouring a glassof wine, closing my laptop, and
telling yourself like, thismovie is on for the next hour
and a half.
You are not allowed to, you'renot allowed to open your laptop.
(30:50):
You're not allowed to check youremail.
You're not allowed to see ifanybody, if any like last people
have trickled in, you just haveto leave it closed.
And also, cart open, I thinklined up with a Friday night as
well, or maybe we were doing aSunday night movie, something we
had, like something planned as afamily that evening.
And so it turned into like cartopen and then forcing myself to
(31:11):
close it down and just walk awayfor a couple hours and be
present, which was really nice.
I am, that's one of the thingsthat I'm most proud of with the
launch was that like work.
Work life balance that feltreally healthy during that week,
and it has not usually felthealthy in the past for me.
Yeah.
And I mean with the work thatyou do with that one, with the
(31:32):
one-to-one aspect of the workthat you do, it's, it is, it's
very heavily time responsive,time.
Yeah.
Responsive to clients and liketalking to them and dealing with
them and stuff.
And I love that you're able tojust be like, okay, I sent my
email.
And almost that's like the bestway to approach a launch.
Almost like that.
Like detached like energy ofokay, I've done what I've done
what I committed to do and now Iam moving on and I'm gonna do
(31:53):
the other stuff, the things thatare really important to me with
my family.
And that was like when you cameand told me that like that I was
celebrating that almost likepretty much as the same as like
the actual results.
Yeah.
Which were phenomenal by theway.
They were, I am right.
I'm still bored and very proudof it because I went into this
launch with a very small emaillist.
(32:14):
It was a highly targeted emaillist of a specific audience, but
it was still a small email listin terms of numbers and looking
at what.
Friends were listing launchnumbers at of, expecting to or
hoping to convert somewherearound like 3% of your list.
I was like just sitting there ina little bit fear, telling my
(32:34):
husband like, I feel like I'mdoing all of this work and maybe
I'm guaranteed two people, threepeople like this.
Just that almost feelsoverwhelming in and of itself,
and I have to stop thinkingabout those numbers.
Otherwise I'm not like.
That's gonna force me to stop inmy tracks and be like, oh, this
is gonna be a failure before itstarts, so we're just gonna
(32:56):
stop.
And the important thing was theval was the validation of the
offer and making sure that itjust at least hit benchmark,
which was one to 3%, of youraudience.
And that was like the, and if ithad hit benchmark, that would've
been a celebration, but it wentway beyond benchmark.
It was.
Benchmark is okay.
One to 3% is like what we'relooking for.
3% is great, 3% is a greatconversion rate.
(33:18):
Catherine had a five and a halfpercent almost 6% conversion
rate from her email list.
I wanna say less than 10 people.
Less than 10 people unsubscribedduring this launch, which is
unusual because.
Launches are usually very, likepeople are like, okay, I'm not
interested in this anymore.
Bye.
And which is nothing to takelike personally, but like people
were engaged, your emails werefantastic, and you got 14 pe, 14
(33:43):
people in, right?
14 people, and one camecompletely cold from Instagram,
like just found you onInstagram, was like checked out
your story and bought the choruswithin what, a couple hours,
right?
Literally that.
Yeah.
And so that is the most that'samazing.
To add on, how much was it likecash wise?
I think it was like in the 5Kish realm?
(34:05):
In terms of total launch?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was just over 5K.
And this was got this guy, thisis a very, with a very like beta
launch price.
The value of this course faroutstrips this investment and it
is definitely gonna have to goup next time because it is so
valuable.
And now you validated it, yougot the feedback you're making
whatever changes, improvements,need to make it the best course
(34:27):
of its kind, which I don't evenknow if there is another course
of its kind, frankly.
Right.
Not that I've found, not thatI've, I, and I looked,'cause I
always do market research for myclients.
I'm like, let's see what allother people are doing.
So let's see, like what we're upagainst here.
I have not found anythingcomparable.
And now you have another incomestream that does not require you
showing up and working.
It does to an extent when youlaunch it, but it it when you
(34:49):
launch it.
And it has been a massive amountof work for Q1 of this year
because I'm like, I'm in themiddle of actually writing the
final module right now, which isreleasing on Friday, I think.
So the the final module will bereleased and then filling it in
with the last couple bonusesthat are going.
Up into it and then collectingsome feedback from this, like
(35:12):
the launch round of students tomake sure that it has everything
in it that needs to be there toanswer all of their questions.
And then it'll get relaunchedinto hopefully a.
A larger launch.
We'll see.
But yeah, I am, I'm verygrateful for the core group of
launch students who trustedsomething that hadn't been, that
(35:32):
hadn't been written yet.
That was just, that was anoutline.
And I'm, I love that yousuggested that we do it that
way, that we, that it getswritten for and with a, like a
very specific audience so that Ican get that live real time
feedback.
And it's definitely aninvestment of time to create the
initial course.
(35:54):
But once you have, and youvalidated that, now it is an
asset that you can sell againand again.
You can turn, you can launch itagain, you can create evergreen
funnels towards it.
Like it is an entirely newincome stream that like you just
built.
While being a completely presentmom, which is like not, is like,
this is like the biggest andmost amazing part of it.
Think about everything that youdid.
(36:15):
You pre-sold it, you're like,great.
You pre-sold it.
Close.
The close the cart was like,alright, now I'm gonna go into
Christmas.
And I'll think about it in thenew year and then once the new
year built it, and now you'rehere you know now, and now our
next stage is really just honingit, relaunching building your,
continuing to build youraudience, getting, the new
people in and then really justturning this into a repeatable,
process to bring in.
(36:36):
So what would you say is thebiggest like mindset shift that
you've experienced like workingin this mastermind?
That's a good question.
One of them would definitely be,I don't, I would assume that
this is a mindset shift.
I that, I knew going into itthat.
(37:01):
My kids are, they are not adetriment to my ability to grow,
but I feel like I have not livedwith the assumption that they
were, but lived with theassumption that I could not
participate in high levelbusiness community with my kids
around.
And I think that has been a fre,a breath of fresh air.
(37:24):
To experience to be able to sitin a room with like really
amazing business owners and havemy kids walk in to ask me a
question in the middle of it.
And no one bats an eye and noone gets frustrated.
And no one questions it knowingthat they can just like, it's
okay, I'm just gonna go on mutefor a second deal with this and
then I'll come back.
And that, that's been reallybeautiful.
(37:47):
And then just.
So much of my.
Everything for me within theMastermind culminated last year
with the launch of the course.
I feel like that was what I wasworking towards all year long,
working towards getting there.
And so seeing it all pulltogether and realizing okay, I
can do this, and yeah, I needthe guidance.
(38:07):
I want the guidance.
I crave the the community aspectto it, but I like.
In this season with little kidsand running all of the
one-on-one client side of mybusiness, I can still do this
side too and grow in a totallydifferent way.
And I really love this andyou're really good at it.
'cause I just heads up I'minsider of course.
(38:29):
Okay.
And it is.
So well done.
It is beautifully done.
Thank you.
And as someone who has boughtand taken a lot of courses, so
like that, and so obviously thisis a strength of yours that you
is here before undiscovered, butthere you are.
You're like, oh wow, I didn'tknow I was so good at this.
Oh, great.
Another talent.
(38:49):
But I think that's just reallyamazing and I'm just so happy
about that because that isliterally the entire message
and.
The message and mission, of thismastermind is right.
Showing up as the CEO mom.
The CEO and the mom are like,intertwined and one need not
suffer because of the other.
That is the goal, right?
That it's all harmonizedtogether and.
(39:11):
That just makes me so happy.
So what would you tell othermoms who are maybe afraid they'd
have to choose between thebusiness growth in their family
time, who are thinking aboutjoining the Mastermind and being
like, but this is, it's a big ininvest.
It's a big investment, right?
Yeah.
It is a big investment.
I do not take in, investmentslightly.
But what would you say to momswho are considering this
considering coming in.
I would say first of all,absolutely do it.
(39:34):
It's com completely worth it.
You really want, you reallywanna have yell on your side, on
your team, as this little backpocket CEO buddy helper in your
business.
I don't even know what the rightphrase is.
Love that though.
But also I think that, I thinkwhat holds.
Mom's back so many times frommoving forward with a big
(39:56):
decision is the ability to seehow it will all come together.
I plan, if my kids wanna join asports team, if I don't know
what that schedule's gonna looklike, I.
I probably can't say yes veryeasily unless I know I have a
backup driver to get them there.
And if I, if we want toparticipate in something, if I
don't, if I don't see the fullpicture of what it is gonna look
like, it can be really hard tosay yes.
(40:19):
And so if you're in this seasonof not being able to you have
all these dreams, but you can'tsee what the big.
Picture looks like you don'tknow how to pull it all
together.
And so joining something elsefeels like a I don't know if
this will be the right fitbecause I can't, I just, I'm
struggling in the midst of allof these decisions.
I feel like this isn't the thingthat adds something to your
(40:40):
plate.
It's the thing that helpsclarify it in the thing that
helps simplify everything.
And so join knowing that.
That this will be what helpsmake everything else work versus
the thing that you have to haveall figured out before you can
say yes to it.
Gosh, okay.
(41:00):
She got a lump in my throat whenyou were talking and I don't,
I'm so not oh my gosh, I'm soemotional.
But that really made me reallyemotional.
'cause that is like the best,that is the best test.
I, that is the best testimonialI've ever heard.
Honestly, because the the wholething, I think the thing that
people are worried about right,is I just, I can't do another
thing.
I don't need another.
How many courses have youprobably bought?
Anyone listening?
How many courses have youprobably already bought?
(41:21):
A bajillion, I don't know.
So many.
I have many, right?
I love courses and I lovelearning stuff.
Have I implemented all of them?
No what I've really, what I'vereally implemented has been when
I leaned into my coach and beenlike, okay, what are my next
steps?
Here's what's, here's what'sgonna happen.
And that is what, that's thegoal I aim to create for the CEO
moms in our community.
And so thank you so much forthis Catherine.
(41:42):
It has been truly a joy.
Support you over the past yearand I'm so looking forward to
continuing to support you thisyear and for years to come.
Please God, because I just seeso much growth in store for you.
Going forward.
You have such an amazing likefoundation and I feel like you
really have the space and themindset to grow, and I just
thank you for allowing me to bepart of that journey as well
(42:04):
because I just love you so muchand I.
Love having you in my life as aclient.
So much above and beyond.
It's not even like beyond thebusiness part, but just again,
as a friend and as as someone topartner with essentially in your
business growth.
I just love that so much andthank you for.
For being that and bringing,like trusting me to do that with
(42:26):
you.
So thank you so much, Catherine.
This was amazing.
Thank you.
Thank you for building thiscommunity.
It has been, it's been a gamechanger and I'm so grateful for
it.
I'm so grateful for you.
So if you're listening to thisand Catherine's story resonates
with you, and you are reallyready to scale your business
while being the fully presentfor your family, whatever your
(42:49):
family looks like, five kids,one kid, siblings, parents,
you're taking care of, whateverthat looks like Visit, yell Bend
to he.com/mastermind To learnmore about the C on Mastermind,
get your application in.
It's a great place to just starta conversation.
Let me see where you're at inyour business and if this is the
right fit for you, and I wouldlove to see you in there if this
(43:09):
does feel like the right fit.
Thank you so much, Catherineagain, and I'll see you in the
next one.
Hello and welcome back, and I amhere today with my incredible
(00:04):
client and friend, CatherineBengal.
She is someone that I met backin, oh gosh, back in 2023,
beginning of 2023 in March.
Yeah, at an event, I think at anin-person event.
And we really clicked, because Ihad five kids at the time.
We both had five kids, right?
'cause that's not a usual thingto have apparently.
(00:25):
And so we really clicked andwe're like, oh yes, oh, you too.
How's that working out for you?
And it was just a really, it wasreally great.
And she joined the CEO MomMastermind in 2024, going into
2024.
So I.
Catherine is a brand stylist forfemale entrepreneurs.
She's a mom of five, like Isaid.
She helps um, brandphotographers basically style
(00:47):
their photo shoot sets.
She helps the subjects of thephoto of the photo shoots.
Style, their clothing, theirbranding, like really just pulls
it all together in the mostbeautiful way.
I've seen her sets.
They're freaking gorgeous.
I lust after her sets.
I wanna fly into the states andhave her do this for me.
Okay this is like one of, thisis a goal in my life is to make
this happen.
Do you wanna tell me a littlemore, bit more about you and
(01:08):
like your background and yourbusiness, how you got started
doing this?
Sure.
Thanks for that.
That was the kindest intro.
And I would love to style ashoot for you one day, but you
can also fly me to Israelbecause I love to travel.
So there's options.
I'm, it's good to know thatyou're open to that though,
because some people wouldn't.
Ab Oh, absolutely, friend.
(01:29):
So yeah, I am, I'm a stylist forspecializing primarily in brand
shoots.
My background is in fashiondesign specifically.
And so I started in theentrepreneurial world by
designing custom bridal gowns.
Years ago, I studied at theFashion Institute of Technology
in New York City.
(01:49):
And from there, um.
I was married by the time Igraduated.
We had a couple kids already andI wanted to be able to run
business and life on my ownterms and not on somebody else's
terms.
And so I I graduated college andstarted my own business and
started designing.
I.
And I loved it.
(02:09):
I chased that dream for a numberof years and then hit the point
with with kids at home.
And also it was right as thepandemic was starting that it
just, it wasn't really workinganymore.
And I knew that I really neededto shift, something had to shift
and I wasn't quite ready to letgo of the dream of.
Like creating bridal gowns andcreating collections.
(02:30):
But I knew that something neededto shift and there were a couple
doors that had opened up forstyling from a couple different
angles, and I was reallyintrigued by it.
I was intrigued by the way thatclothing could communicate and
the strategy behind it and thejust the strategy behind visual
communication as a whole and.
(02:50):
Just, I fell in love with theidea of being able to still use
my design background withouthaving to be hands-on with white
silk in a studio that my kidscouldn't walk into.
And ended up booking my firstbrand shoot.
I'm totally out of the blue.
So I had a friend who wasplanning a brand shoot and she
reached out asking for help withwhat to wear.
(03:12):
She said she was like, youalways, I feel like you always
have great ideas for what towear.
You have great solutions, youlove shopping, and I have no
idea what to wear and I hateshopping, so could you help me
figure this out for my shoot.
And I was super excited to doit.
I was ab absolutely.
I knew from the beginning withbrand shoots that I, and styling
(03:32):
in general, that I wanted toapproach styling differently
than I saw other stylists do it.
I didn't want it to be a heavytrend-based approach where I
would get someone dressed up andready for a photo shoot.
I.
By focusing heavily on trendsand what would make them look
like popular or trendy in themoment, but then leave them
feeling like they had nothing towear for their next event or no
(03:53):
solution.
So I wanted to focus on more ofa strategy driven approach so
that we could nail that visualcommunication and so that we
could nail what it was thattheir target audience needed to
see in order to really trustthem and to believe them and to,
in the end, buy their product.
And I approached the first shootwith that perspective and I
(04:15):
created some resources to goalong with the final delivery of
the looks and sent everythingover.
And I loved the experience.
She loved the experience.
She ended up putting the styleguide that I had created for her
on her Instagram stories thatnight.
And within a couple hours,somebody else who was planning a
brand shoot and had no clue whatto wear reached out and they
(04:38):
were like.
Oh my gosh.
I saw the style guide that youcreated, and that's what I need.
That's the strategy that I need.
Can you please help me?
And so I threw together apackages guide really quick and
sent it off and within 24 hoursfrom this first shoot had been
booked for a second, and it justsnowballed from there.
And I ended up.
Building a styling business thatran for for multiple years based
(05:01):
heavily on referrals from bothclient referrals and from
photographer referrals.
And so they were doing all ofthe speaking for me.
I didn't really have a websitethat was speaking for me.
I had literally taken my bridaldesign website, added another
page to it, left the full bridaldesign website up and had.
Single page that like listed allof the styling options and that
(05:21):
was where we were sending peopleto so that they could see a
website presence and inquirefrom there.
And that kept me really busy fora couple years until I hit the
point where the level of clientsthat I was booking weren't
trusting the level of websiteand the level of presence that I
had online.
And it's funny looking back, Ihad not had my own brand shoot
(05:44):
yet, and so all of the thingsthat I talk about with clients
with showing up, trustworthyonline, nailing your visuals so
that your clients believe thatyou can do what you say you can
do, that was what ended upshooting me in the foot
eventually, because I didn'thave any of those visuals up.
I didn't have anything that wasproving that I could do what I
said that I could do beyondshowing off my portfolio.
(06:07):
And so it was.
It was a fun season.
It was very fun growth.
But then it hit a stagnant pointwhere I realized I had to change
what I was doing.
And that was what led me into aseason of looking for resources
that could help me grow, lookingfor programs, potential coaches,
just some other people to comein alongside me so that I wasn't
(06:27):
doing it on my own.
Because I think that's one ofthe hardest things about running
your own business is that you.
You are your own boss and it'seasy to be my own boss when I'm
managing client projects, butit's really hard to be my own
boss and create my own checklistwhen it's for the things that I
have to do in my business tomake it survive.
(06:47):
The CEO EO stuff, right?
Yeah.
Like it's almost like the Cstuff.
Yeah.
Because we, because especiallyif you're a, you start off as a
service provider, you very much,you can still grow your business
with this sort of like employeemindset where you're like,
you're doing the stuff for theclients and you're still then
the clients almost become yourboss.
To an extent, that becomes anextension of what you previously
were doing.
Whereas then, when you reallywanna scale, then you really
(07:08):
have to step, put on your CEOhat and then really be like,
okay, I have to take a activesteps, I have to have my own
accountability, right?
Or I have to find help and getaccountability.
So you said you're growingprimarily based, like with
referrals and obviously nowlooking at your website, you did
your photo shoot, and I, it'svery common, like shoemakers
children and all that.
Very often we'll neglect our ownthings and be like, this is so
important.
And then when I was a socialmedia manager, it's but you
(07:29):
don't have a lot of followers.
I'm like, yes.
I'm so busy growing everyoneelse's followings.
Okay.
I did use the potential brandshoot that was looming in the
future as the excuse to buy theclothes that I wanted to buy.
When I would find, I was like,oh this will be for a brand
shoot.
It's fine.
It's fine.
Yeah.
It's a write off.
So you ever the write off thing?
Unfortunately, no.
If only, I know apparently it'snot actually a write off, but
(07:51):
unless you only use it for the,like you rent it for the photo
shoot.
Like I spoke to my friendKimberly about this and she
goes, actually buying clothesfor a red photo shoot is not a
write off.
I hate to write it to you.
I write off.
Unless it's like uniformspecific, yes.
Like an actual uniform thatyou're not likely to wear in
your day to day oh so much forthat.
Okay, so you were so that was,so what was your, as as you're
(08:12):
growing your business obviouslyyou said it was hard for you to
focus on the right c like kindof CEO activities to grow your
business.
So what were your biggestchallenges?
What have you tried, what haveyou tried before Working
together with me in themastermind?
Yeah.
So I am.
A dreamer to the core.
I have endless ideas, endlessthings that I want to do.
(08:33):
And then when it comes down tothe nitty gritty of how do you
actually make it happen, that'swhere I get overwhelmed and I
tend to stall in my overwhelmand I end up freezing and then
not doing anything.
And so I had endless ideas ofcourses that I wanted to launch
in opt-ins and.
You name it.
(08:53):
All of the different programs,subscription models, like
anything that sounded like a funidea that I could see, like this
would be really great growth.
It's taking me where I wanna go.
I had all the ideas and theendless list of mapping
everything out and no progresswas being made.
And it was a mix of not havinganyone to help guide me through
what needed to be done, butalso.
(09:14):
Life with five kids is a lot.
We homeschooled through some ofthat season.
We moved and I, I always knewthat I wanted a big family and I
wanted to be able to be aspresent with my kids as I could
while also still runningsomething that was cre
creatively mine.
And so that, that's a reallyhard balance to find, especially
(09:34):
without anyone alongside of you.
And so I pursued, um.
Around the time that I launchedmy website, I like the first
website beyond the bridal designoption.
I joined a large group programfrom some coaches that I have a
huge amount of respect for and.
(09:55):
I looked at the outline, it wasa year long group program.
I looked at the outline ofeverything that was gonna be
included for the year and it wasa lot of like business
foundation things, growing yourbrand, and I knew that there was
a lot of good things that Icould get out of that.
I also felt like some of thecore curriculum that was being
offered was things I had.
Already nailed and felt prettyconfident on, but some of the
(10:17):
bonuses that they had thrown inactually made the whole program
feel more valuable to me thanthe actual core curriculum.
And so they were, some of thebonuses that were in, there were
some specific trainings onlaunching courses and growing
some digital products.
And so I knew that if I could.
Organize it correctly and nailthe timing on it, that it would
be really beneficial to me.
(10:38):
And so I worked through thatprogram for a year.
I got a lot out of it.
Group programs are hard becauseit's not one-on-one at all.
And what I really needed wassome of the one-on-one
oversight.
Just someone to bounce ideas offand tell me if I was like.
Too deep in the woods or had agood idea, but also someone to
help me map out and make surethat those ideas actually came
(11:01):
to fruition and went past justthe ideas in the list phase.
So it was a group program.
I got a lot out of it.
It was a really great program,but the areas where I got the
most out of it were the specificprograms within it that I had
pinpointed at the beginning onwriting a course and.
It was not on launching thecourse, it was on writing the
course.
And so at the end of that year,I had done some really great
(11:24):
work.
I felt like I had built somereally great things, but I still
couldn't quite see how to get itout into the world, how to make
it work, how to deliver all ofthese ideas.
So I had nailed some of theframework for building them, but
still just really needed.
The oversight, the handholdinginto getting it out into the
world.
(11:45):
Yeah.
I totally, and I, and it, groupprograms are like designed like
for scale, for scalability,obviously.
And and that is that is to me.
I love groups because I thinkthat you get so much from the
collective group of people, butI also think that like people
who are not who, like you said,who need, who are more of like
the visionaries, right?
Yeah.
Really need help.
(12:06):
Like just finding theirspecific.
Way.
Absolutely.
'cause it's not gonna be, andit's not always gonna line up
like exactly perfectly, withthat time of year or when
something is running or whensomething is doing.
And okay.
So then, so you finished, you, Ithink you finished around that
time or close that time.
So what made you, when you heardabout the Mastermind what made
you decide to join theMastermind?
What were like, were there anyhesitations or were like, is
this gonna work for me or isthis gonna be just another
(12:27):
thing?
Yeah, what made you like takethe leap.
There really weren't anyhesitations.
It really felt like the rightfit it.
And because, as I realized asyou were talking I had been
referring to the past program asa group program and this, the
mastermind is a group program aswell, but there's different ways
to look at it.
So this previous program was aprogram with about a hundred
(12:49):
people in it, I think, and zerodirect access to the coaches.
And so there was a lot of cohortconversation, but not
necessarily with people.
At the same level that I wasworking towards, not like it, it
was not necessarily the rightcommunity fit.
(13:09):
And so when this opportunitycame along for your mastermind
it clicked pretty quickly thatthis was the right fit.
I knew that it was.
A small, a much smaller scaleprogram than the previous one
had been because the overallgoal of it was different.
I knew that the coach, so youwas someone who had created a
(13:29):
program and had also createdyour own business to run
alongside your family.
And I had been really wary aboutdoing any sort of a deep dive
with.
A coach whose primary focus ofgrowth would be within your
business without looking at thefull picture of how that
affected your family.
(13:50):
I wanted someone who would beable to look at that full
picture and understand thatgrowth in one area sometimes
takes a toll on the other andthat.
That can go both ways.
Like family growth can take atoll on your business, and
business growth can take a tollon your family.
And so how do you figure out howto balance those things so that
it's a benefit to both insteadof feeling like there's a cost
(14:12):
or a line that limits you?
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
Yeah the, just knowing that Iwas jumping into something where
there would be no frustration orconcern about the fact that I
had five kids and still wantedto run a business.
No concern about the fact thatmy schedule is pretty highly
dictated in this season bysports and school schedules and
(14:35):
when I show up to volunteer inthe classroom and that we would
be able to work things aroundthat and figure out what.
What the right seasons were fordifferent launches based on what
family life looked like.
So I knew that would be likecompletely invaluable.
I love that so much.
And I, and obviously likethroughout the year we were
focusing on, getting more knownfor your expertise as well.
(14:58):
And then towards the end, likeactually toward the end, which
is, this is the ironic thing.
You ended up launching yourcourse in December, which like
anyone else would be like.
December's kind of a busy monthfor moms.
Because whether, there's gonna,there's bound to be a holiday in
there somewhere.
Whatever you, whatever kind of,religion you have, or even if
you're not even religious, it'sthe holiday season, right?
(15:18):
And so tell me more about that,because I do think, to me it is
very important in the Mastermindthat people have opportunities
to get support in multipledifferent ways.
Because you're not always gonnabe able to show up to the calls
live or you're not gonna be ableto always show up in Slack.
And having that mix of the livesupport and also the
asynchronous gives you a chanceto be supported and that meets
you where you're at in whateverseason that you're in, which is
(15:39):
really important because ourlife as mothers is so seasonal.
Like my life as a mom now islike very different than my life
as a mom three years ago when mykids were all younger, right?
And very different from when my,all my kids were little, right?
And and my, even my baby seasonsshift like every, like three
months.
Like his nap schedulesdifferent, right?
So everyone has to find, it'snever the same, right?
It's never the same.
And that's what makes it fun andexciting.
(16:01):
And also you have to have aflexible business, a flexible
systems that can.
Ebb and flow with those seasons.
Okay.
So you're like, okay, I'm gonnalaunch before the end of this
year.
I'm launching this course.
So tell me about that.
What was your, what were youroriginal ideas?
As far as launching went?
Yeah.
I.
I feel like we really, itstarted with a totally different
(16:22):
idea and then through lots ofconversations we clarified it
into what it became.
My original idea was more of acourse on personal styling,
which was the one that I hadfully written out the outline
for, and totally ma completelymapped out within the previous
program that I was just waitingto, to get it out into the
world.
And as we looked at where myaudience was coming from, what,
(16:46):
what the different lead magnetsI had out there that were
driving people in, what peoplewere coming to me for.
We realized that was not thesolution that audience was
looking for right then.
That there was actually like adifferent solution that made a
lot more sense.
So instead of this broadpersonal styling course the
majority of my email list wereactually all photographers.
(17:08):
They were brand photographers,which makes sense because that's
where all of my referrals werecoming from, and instead of
continuing on with the personalstyling course as it was, which
didn't really make sense, as Ihad continued to narrow my focus
more and more into.
Styling brand shoots andbecoming known as the stylist
who styles brand shoots, not apersonal stylist who also does
(17:32):
brand shoots.
We narrowed the course idea intosomething that would help equip
photographers whose clientscouldn't afford to hire a
stylist because I was realizingthat so many of the referrals
that I was getting.
Were, and they ended up goingunbooked because their clients
weren't quite ready to hire astylist, but the photographers
(17:52):
were feeling stuck and theydidn't really know what to do.
And so they, they needed theequipping almost more than the
client did.
And so we came up with this ideato, to dive into that avenue of
education.
And we mapped out.
What a potential schedule wouldlook like, what a launch
(18:13):
schedule would look like,realizing that for us, for our
family, October into Novembertends to be our insanely busiest
season, and then December almostslows down a little bit, which
is intentional as.
It's a mix of sports ending,right?
And also knowing like we'resettling into the holidays and
so we try and intentionally slowthings down a little bit.
(18:34):
So I knew with the Decemberlaunch I was gonna be making
things a little bit busier thanwe usually did, but I also knew
that there was zero way it wouldhappen if I tried to pull off a
launch in October going intoNovember that I, it would not
get off of it.
Off of its feet.
And so we used that time as theprep time where I was making
sure that each week I was likejust pouring into the email list
(18:56):
and serving the email list.
And so on the weeks where I hadvery little time to get anything
done, I knew that as long as Igot a really great email off,
that just felt like a gift to myreaders.
But I was still moving the balltowards that.
Towards that launch.
And was so helpful to have theweekly calls to be able to show
(19:17):
on weekly calls with questions,but then also to have the Slack
channel going and know that Icould, if I was working at crazy
hours of the night, which I wasreally trying not to do but it
happens that I could just braindump things into Slack and that
first of all, it wasn't gonnabug somebody'cause I'm not
sending like.
(19:38):
Text or whatever, like I canbrain dump it into Slack.
And then once, once you were up,once other people were up, the
messages would start pouringback in and it was this.
Was a really great soundingboard.
It was a, I really appreciatedhaving that channel open.
Yeah.
I love that too.
And that's, really that's theidea of a mastermind and it's
not just the coach is coming andteaching.
Which is valuable for sure.
(19:59):
But the idea of the mastermind,and that's why I'm so protective
of the space because it has tobe like my mastermind clients
are like.
The people I spend like some,like a lot of my time with,
right?
And they spend time with eachother.
So this has to be a reallysupportive, beautiful space with
people who I would feel, andthey would feel a hundred
(20:20):
percent comfortable hanging out.
In a living room in theirpajamas, like drinking, hot
cocoa and talking about, theirmost embarrassing experiences as
a teenager.
Like that level of hearing allour birth stories, all the birth
stories.
Tell I will, I wanna hear everysingle one.
I'm the person who is there forthem.
And I will dig in and mean, howare you feeling?
Because that is the vibe inthere.
(20:40):
It is for moms, right?
Like we have.
The whole time because literallyour lives and and I just love
that so much.
And also it's like people likewhy'd you launch in December?
Because everything else is socrazy beforehand.
And the fact that, you were a,we were able to narrow down on
okay, so you're like, I'm gonnasend one amazing newsletter
every single week to myaudience, right?
And really just focus on qualityover quantity.
(21:03):
And I'm like, I am nurturingthem so deeply so that they will
be ready and I, they'll beprepared for this upcoming
launch, which I remember at thebeginning.
You were like, maybe I'll do achallenge.
Like we should do a good threeday challenge.
We'll do live streams and stuff.
So tell me about that journeyfrom the challenge to what we
ended up doing.
Yeah, I think, this was my firstmajor launch ever.
(21:25):
So I had, I.
Watched a zillion launches,we've all seen a zillion
launches happen.
As soon as those emails start tocome in, you can tell, oh, this
is gonna be a challenge launch.
This is, I know they're headedtowards launching something, and
so we've watched them all, and Ihad an idea in my head of okay,
this seems to be what mostpeople are doing.
This seems to be what's working.
Therefore, that means that thisis what I must do in order for
(21:48):
this to be.
Successful and I got stuck backin that, like that cycle that I
was talking about before, ofbeing overwhelmed with all of
the details and not being ableto see how one thing would
connect to the next and connectto the next, and just started
freezing again.
And so finally after goingsilent for a little too long.
(22:09):
You sent a couple extra Slackmessages with a Hey, are you
gonna send over your launchplan?
I really wanna put some eyes onit and so that we can talk
through this.
I know that this is what you'reheaded towards, so can I see it?
And finally I sent it over and Iwas like I'm stuck.
Like I don't.
This is what I think I need todo, and I don't know how to get
there.
I don't know how to get therewithout feeling like my hand
(22:30):
needs to be held more than, ismaybe acceptable.
And so I'm not sure what to do.
And you read over it and welooked at like the weeks that it
needed to fit into, or the twoweeks that it needed to fit into
and what the plan was, andrealize that this was probably
way more complicated than itneeded to be, and that we could
massively simplify it.
(22:52):
Go with more of a, we took thechallenge out entirely.
We took the fact that the courseneeded to be done ahead of time
out entirely, and turned it intomore of a pre-launch with the
concept of pulling in a betagroup of people that I could
almost live launch to and liverelease the course to so that I
could get feedback as I wasdoing it and making make sure
(23:15):
that it was being written forthe audience, it was intended
for.
And just all of the, like thetiles started to fall into place
and it clicked and it started tolike actually make sense, which
then becomes motivating and itis okay, I see the next step.
I see the next step.
I can do this.
And.
I realized that like a, it wasgonna work.
(23:36):
Like we had a plan in place thatwas going to work.
Regardless of what the launchstat numbers ended up being at
the end, regardless of what the,like the final launch numbers
ended up being, I had a launchplan that I could see.
See how it was gonna work.
So that to me meant like, itdoesn't matter how many people
we're gonna get in this processis going to work, I'm gonna walk
(23:57):
away from this with a coursethat's written, with a course
that has launched and we'll seewhat happens.
And then, every time I feltstuck after that.
Because we had mapped things outso well.
It was a lot easier to jump intoSlack and be like, okay, here's
where I'm stuck.
Here's what I'm thinking, andjust brain dump those things
again.
And I always got a response,which was so nice.
(24:19):
And also there's.
There's something really niceabout the time difference.
That meant that when I wassending out those crazy, like
late night messages, I would geta response way sooner than I
thought that I was going to.
Because it would be like mymorning oh, the baby's napping.
I should answer Catherine rightnow.
And it was, and I remember that.
I remember getting on, Iactually like, as I'm looking
through the launch plan and Iwas like, I'm doing a loom
(24:40):
review, and I was like, this,okay, this looks like a good
challenge idea.
This looks great.
Okay.
Okay.
When are you planning on doingthis?
And maybe do you really need todo this?
And like, how about if we justdelete this.
It was like boom.
Okay, let's just take this out.
Let's take this out.
And you were like, that feels somuch better.
I can do that.
I could feel your sigh of relieflike through the internet.
(25:03):
Like you were like that'sdoable.
That feels like much simpler,right?
Because it was a, it was likealmost like a three step process
where there was like the market,the initial, the like hand
raiser market research stage of,with the incentivization of
getting people to start buyingearly and get seats in, get buts
in seats, like as early aspossible.
Welcome on Even market researchand then a wait list.
(25:25):
A wait list stage or gettingpeople on the wait list and then
opening it up to the wait listand then opening up to the
public.
Like you had those stages, butthey were so like, they were
very streamlined and they werelike really like simple because
it was just like email.
This is what h email is gonnado.
Let's just get them out.
And then you, I know, I knew yousent them into, to me and to
Jen, our copy coach.
To look over quickly.
And it was very, it was actuallyvery much in real time.
(25:46):
And that's actually what made memake the decision to switch
instead of doing like week, one,one to per week to just
unlimited audits, because I'mlike, sometimes people just need
more audits than the average andthen they're in a heavy season.
Yeah.
So how that's, how did.
Yeah, no, I was gonna say thatwas really nice to be able to.
To see, like I'm in a seasonwhere I need lots of eyes on
things and then next month Iprobably won't be.
(26:09):
So the ability to have lots ofhelp during a launch season and
then feel like, okay, it backedoff and maybe somebody else is
in the middle of a launch now,as in it's almost like we're
taking these natural turns thatstill leaves space for everyone
to get the help and thecommunity that they need and the
support.
But knowing that, if I need to.
To submit a full like launchsequence of emails, to have
(26:32):
somebody's eyes on it, thoseeyes are gonna end up on it.
And that's, so helpful.
Yeah, it was, and it was anamazing launch, right?
So like just get, let's get intothe actual yeah, the actual
process.
What the launch process lookedlike for you as you were
implementing it, because I knowlike you said, it was December,
it was a holiday, there weretraditions, there was the kids
were home.
So what did that, what did itfeel like before we even get
(26:55):
into the results, like what didthe launch process feel like for
you?
Because I think that, to me wasalmost more important than the
results themselves, because theresults obviously are important
to know and get data, but itcan't be done in a way that
makes you wanna like jump, takea jump out your attic window
because that is just, you, it'snot sustainable to try to do
things that aren't.
Doable alongside your life as amom, right?
(27:17):
Yeah.
The launch felt really good.
It was busy.
A launch is a launch is alwaysgonna be busy and a lot, but
because we took out the liveaspect of it that relieved a lot
of the time pressure in terms ofwhen I needed to be able to show
up.
And so it was built aroundemails that were written ahead
(27:37):
of time.
Motivated to get them done aheadof time because I wanted
somebody else's eyes on them andI knew that there, there were
some times where I could drop anemail in and get like immediate
eyes on it, but the standard isassuming 24 to 48 hours to be
able to get that feedback.
And so I wanted to make surethat I had the time to do that.
And so I built out a launchcalendar of when those emails
(28:00):
needed to go out so that I knewwhen they needed to be submitted
by so that I could have feedbackand then the time to tweak them
and we it was built.
It was built around what I knewthe kids' schedule would look
like over those two weeks.
And when I knew school wasgetting out for Christmas break
and what days I was in theclassroom for end of the year
(28:20):
parties and all of that, whichbeing volunteering in the
classroom during launch week wasactually, I think it was
actually really helpful becauseI couldn't, um.
There's not really greatinternet access or ser phone
service access within the kids'school.
And also if I'm like in theclassroom with my kids, I don't
(28:41):
wanna keep pulling my phone outand looking at it.
And so it was this like, nicereminder to take a deep breath
and put my phone away, close mylaptop, go show up for a couple
hours and be present and get agood mental reset and then come
back and work on the next emailand get it out.
But it was.
The, we were able to fit thelaunch in with family life for
(29:03):
those two weeks in a reallybeautiful way.
Like I said, I was still in theclassroom.
We have some pretty strongfamily traditions around
Christmas with an advent bookthat we read every night in the
kids', advent calendars and justlots of little things like that
our evenings in December arestructured around and.
When I tend to end up in reallyheavy seasons with work or when
(29:25):
I have in the past, a lot ofwhat disappears is that evening
routine.
I forget to start cooking dinnerin time.
I forget to start bedtime andtime because my brain is in a
million places at once, and soI.
I had put up some pretty stricttime boundaries with myself
which wouldn't have beenpossible if we hadn't changed
the launch structure, if youhadn't looked at the sheet and
(29:46):
how long it took me to get itover to you and read the
overwhelm between the lines andbeen like I think that we need
to do something different.
None of that December lifewould've been possible.
And we still.
We still had family dinner mostnights.
It was a hot dinner most nights.
It was not reliant on takeoutit.
We still made it to sit downwith Advent most nights.
(30:07):
And felt like we were reallypresent with the kids during
that season, which is reallyimportant to me in December.
It's important to me all yearlong, but there's something
about about holding that likeholiday charm, feeling tight
that I didn't wanna let go of.
And we had cart clothes on aFriday night and we always do
pizza in a Friday night moviewith our kids.
(30:29):
And I.
I was still scrambling to getthe last email written to, to
just hit, the heavy hitter, likecart's closing.
This is your final chance.
And I remember wrapping it up aswe were about to start the
movie, and then pouring a glassof wine, closing my laptop, and
telling yourself like, thismovie is on for the next hour
and a half.
You are not allowed to, you'renot allowed to open your laptop.
(30:50):
You're not allowed to check youremail.
You're not allowed to see ifanybody, if any like last people
have trickled in, you just haveto leave it closed.
And also, cart open, I thinklined up with a Friday night as
well, or maybe we were doing aSunday night movie, something we
had, like something planned as afamily that evening.
And so it turned into like cartopen and then forcing myself to
(31:11):
close it down and just walk awayfor a couple hours and be
present, which was really nice.
I am, that's one of the thingsthat I'm most proud of with the
launch was that like work.
Work life balance that feltreally healthy during that week,
and it has not usually felthealthy in the past for me.
Yeah.
And I mean with the work thatyou do with that one, with the
(31:32):
one-to-one aspect of the workthat you do, it's, it is, it's
very heavily time responsive,time.
Yeah.
Responsive to clients and liketalking to them and dealing with
them and stuff.
And I love that you're able tojust be like, okay, I sent my
email.
And almost that's like the bestway to approach a launch.
Almost like that.
Like detached like energy ofokay, I've done what I've done
what I committed to do and now Iam moving on and I'm gonna do
(31:53):
the other stuff, the things thatare really important to me with
my family.
And that was like when you cameand told me that like that I was
celebrating that almost likepretty much as the same as like
the actual results.
Yeah.
Which were phenomenal by theway.
They were, I am right.
I'm still bored and very proudof it because I went into this
launch with a very small emaillist.
(32:14):
It was a highly targeted emaillist of a specific audience, but
it was still a small email listin terms of numbers and looking
at what.
Friends were listing launchnumbers at of, expecting to or
hoping to convert somewherearound like 3% of your list.
I was like just sitting there ina little bit fear, telling my
(32:34):
husband like, I feel like I'mdoing all of this work and maybe
I'm guaranteed two people, threepeople like this.
Just that almost feelsoverwhelming in and of itself,
and I have to stop thinkingabout those numbers.
Otherwise I'm not like.
That's gonna force me to stop inmy tracks and be like, oh, this
is gonna be a failure before itstarts, so we're just gonna
(32:56):
stop.
And the important thing was theval was the validation of the
offer and making sure that itjust at least hit benchmark,
which was one to 3%, of youraudience.
And that was like the, and if ithad hit benchmark, that would've
been a celebration, but it wentway beyond benchmark.
It was.
Benchmark is okay.
One to 3% is like what we'relooking for.
3% is great, 3% is a greatconversion rate.
(33:18):
Catherine had a five and a halfpercent almost 6% conversion
rate from her email list.
I wanna say less than 10 people.
Less than 10 people unsubscribedduring this launch, which is
unusual because.
Launches are usually very, likepeople are like, okay, I'm not
interested in this anymore.
Bye.
And which is nothing to takelike personally, but like people
were engaged, your emails werefantastic, and you got 14 pe, 14
(33:43):
people in, right?
14 people, and one camecompletely cold from Instagram,
like just found you onInstagram, was like checked out
your story and bought the choruswithin what, a couple hours,
right?
Literally that.
Yeah.
And so that is the most that'samazing.
To add on, how much was it likecash wise?
I think it was like in the 5Kish realm?
(34:05):
In terms of total launch?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was just over 5K.
And this was got this guy, thisis a very, with a very like beta
launch price.
The value of this course faroutstrips this investment and it
is definitely gonna have to goup next time because it is so
valuable.
And now you validated it, yougot the feedback you're making
whatever changes, improvements,need to make it the best course
(34:27):
of its kind, which I don't evenknow if there is another course
of its kind, frankly.
Right.
Not that I've found, not thatI've, I, and I looked,'cause I
always do market research for myclients.
I'm like, let's see what allother people are doing.
So let's see, like what we're upagainst here.
I have not found anythingcomparable.
And now you have another incomestream that does not require you
showing up and working.
It does to an extent when youlaunch it, but it it when you
(34:49):
launch it.
And it has been a massive amountof work for Q1 of this year
because I'm like, I'm in themiddle of actually writing the
final module right now, which isreleasing on Friday, I think.
So the the final module will bereleased and then filling it in
with the last couple bonusesthat are going.
Up into it and then collectingsome feedback from this, like
(35:12):
the launch round of students tomake sure that it has everything
in it that needs to be there toanswer all of their questions.
And then it'll get relaunchedinto hopefully a.
A larger launch.
We'll see.
But yeah, I am, I'm verygrateful for the core group of
launch students who trustedsomething that hadn't been, that
(35:32):
hadn't been written yet.
That was just, that was anoutline.
And I'm, I love that yousuggested that we do it that
way, that we, that it getswritten for and with a, like a
very specific audience so that Ican get that live real time
feedback.
And it's definitely aninvestment of time to create the
initial course.
(35:54):
But once you have, and youvalidated that, now it is an
asset that you can sell againand again.
You can turn, you can launch itagain, you can create evergreen
funnels towards it.
Like it is an entirely newincome stream that like you just
built.
While being a completely presentmom, which is like not, is like,
this is like the biggest andmost amazing part of it.
Think about everything that youdid.
(36:15):
You pre-sold it, you're like,great.
You pre-sold it.
Close.
The close the cart was like,alright, now I'm gonna go into
Christmas.
And I'll think about it in thenew year and then once the new
year built it, and now you'rehere you know now, and now our
next stage is really just honingit, relaunching building your,
continuing to build youraudience, getting, the new
people in and then really justturning this into a repeatable,
process to bring in.
(36:36):
So what would you say is thebiggest like mindset shift that
you've experienced like workingin this mastermind?
That's a good question.
One of them would definitely be,I don't, I would assume that
this is a mindset shift.
I that, I knew going into itthat.
(37:01):
My kids are, they are not adetriment to my ability to grow,
but I feel like I have not livedwith the assumption that they
were, but lived with theassumption that I could not
participate in high levelbusiness community with my kids
around.
And I think that has been a fre,a breath of fresh air.
(37:24):
To experience to be able to sitin a room with like really
amazing business owners and havemy kids walk in to ask me a
question in the middle of it.
And no one bats an eye and noone gets frustrated.
And no one questions it knowingthat they can just like, it's
okay, I'm just gonna go on mutefor a second deal with this and
then I'll come back.
And that, that's been reallybeautiful.
(37:47):
And then just.
So much of my.
Everything for me within theMastermind culminated last year
with the launch of the course.
I feel like that was what I wasworking towards all year long,
working towards getting there.
And so seeing it all pulltogether and realizing okay, I
can do this, and yeah, I needthe guidance.
(38:07):
I want the guidance.
I crave the the community aspectto it, but I like.
In this season with little kidsand running all of the
one-on-one client side of mybusiness, I can still do this
side too and grow in a totallydifferent way.
And I really love this andyou're really good at it.
'cause I just heads up I'minsider of course.
(38:29):
Okay.
And it is.
So well done.
It is beautifully done.
Thank you.
And as someone who has boughtand taken a lot of courses, so
like that, and so obviously thisis a strength of yours that you
is here before undiscovered, butthere you are.
You're like, oh wow, I didn'tknow I was so good at this.
Oh, great.
Another talent.
(38:49):
But I think that's just reallyamazing and I'm just so happy
about that because that isliterally the entire message
and.
The message and mission, of thismastermind is right.
Showing up as the CEO mom.
The CEO and the mom are like,intertwined and one need not
suffer because of the other.
That is the goal, right?
That it's all harmonizedtogether and.
(39:11):
That just makes me so happy.
So what would you tell othermoms who are maybe afraid they'd
have to choose between thebusiness growth in their family
time, who are thinking aboutjoining the Mastermind and being
like, but this is, it's a big ininvest.
It's a big investment, right?
Yeah.
It is a big investment.
I do not take in, investmentslightly.
But what would you say to momswho are considering this
considering coming in.
I would say first of all,absolutely do it.
(39:34):
It's com completely worth it.
You really want, you reallywanna have yell on your side, on
your team, as this little backpocket CEO buddy helper in your
business.
I don't even know what the rightphrase is.
Love that though.
But also I think that, I thinkwhat holds.
Mom's back so many times frommoving forward with a big
(39:56):
decision is the ability to seehow it will all come together.
I plan, if my kids wanna join asports team, if I don't know
what that schedule's gonna looklike, I.
I probably can't say yes veryeasily unless I know I have a
backup driver to get them there.
And if I, if we want toparticipate in something, if I
don't, if I don't see the fullpicture of what it is gonna look
like, it can be really hard tosay yes.
(40:19):
And so if you're in this seasonof not being able to you have
all these dreams, but you can'tsee what the big.
Picture looks like you don'tknow how to pull it all
together.
And so joining something elsefeels like a I don't know if
this will be the right fitbecause I can't, I just, I'm
struggling in the midst of allof these decisions.
I feel like this isn't the thingthat adds something to your
(40:40):
plate.
It's the thing that helpsclarify it in the thing that
helps simplify everything.
And so join knowing that.
That this will be what helpsmake everything else work versus
the thing that you have to haveall figured out before you can
say yes to it.
Gosh, okay.
(41:00):
She got a lump in my throat whenyou were talking and I don't,
I'm so not oh my gosh, I'm soemotional.
But that really made me reallyemotional.
'cause that is like the best,that is the best test.
I, that is the best testimonialI've ever heard.
Honestly, because the the wholething, I think the thing that
people are worried about right,is I just, I can't do another
thing.
I don't need another.
How many courses have youprobably bought?
Anyone listening?
How many courses have youprobably already bought?
(41:21):
A bajillion, I don't know.
So many.
I have many, right?
I love courses and I lovelearning stuff.
Have I implemented all of them?
No what I've really, what I'vereally implemented has been when
I leaned into my coach and beenlike, okay, what are my next
steps?
Here's what's, here's what'sgonna happen.
And that is what, that's thegoal I aim to create for the CEO
moms in our community.
And so thank you so much forthis Catherine.
(41:42):
It has been truly a joy.
Support you over the past yearand I'm so looking forward to
continuing to support you thisyear and for years to come.
Please God, because I just seeso much growth in store for you.
Going forward.
You have such an amazing likefoundation and I feel like you
really have the space and themindset to grow, and I just
thank you for allowing me to bepart of that journey as well
(42:04):
because I just love you so muchand I.
Love having you in my life as aclient.
So much above and beyond.
It's not even like beyond thebusiness part, but just again,
as a friend and as as someone topartner with essentially in your
business growth.
I just love that so much andthank you for.
For being that and bringing,like trusting me to do that with
(42:26):
you.
So thank you so much, Catherine.
This was amazing.
Thank you.
Thank you for building thiscommunity.
It has been, it's been a gamechanger and I'm so grateful for
it.
I'm so grateful for you.
So if you're listening to thisand Catherine's story resonates
with you, and you are reallyready to scale your business
while being the fully presentfor your family, whatever your
(42:49):
family looks like, five kids,one kid, siblings, parents,
you're taking care of, whateverthat looks like Visit, yell Bend
to he.com/mastermind To learnmore about the C on Mastermind,
get your application in.
It's a great place to just starta conversation.
Let me see where you're at inyour business and if this is the
right fit for you, and I wouldlove to see you in there if this
(43:09):
does feel like the right fit.
Thank you so much, Catherineagain, and I'll see you in the
next one.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com