June 5, 2023 • 50 mins
Natalie Guzman's story is one of inspiration, perseverance, and success. As the founder of NG Virtual Assistants and NG Marketing Group, Natalie has built a reputation as a funnel expert, helping businesses to generate leads, increase sales, and create successful course content. In this episode, Natalie shares her journey from being a foster kid to building a six-figure Virtual Assistant Agency in just four months. She talks about the value of dedication, hard work, and determination in achieving success, as well as the importance of testing and creating successful funnels in growing a business. Natalie also discusses her experience competing on "The Blox," an entrepreneur competition show by MTV's "The Real World: Austin" and "The Challenge," and her appearances on several podcasts and speaking events across the country. Listeners will gain valuable insights into building successful funnels, overcoming challenges, and achieving success as an entrepreneur, no matter their background or circumstances.
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and iBook and witness the incredible power
of transformation. And welcome to
another live episode. I am your host WIZE
And my guest has an inspiring story.
She's she's she's I want I can't
wait for her to share. Sorry. So let me just bring on welcome to the
(02:29):
show Natalie Guzman. Hey, how are
you? I'm excited to be here. Oh, the pleasure's all mine.
So I just, I really just want to get into your story. Cause you do
have an amazing story. Let's start with,
tell us something a little about, tell us a little about your background.
Sure. So I grew up in Massachusetts, I
(02:52):
had, I was primarily raised by a single mom. And
when I was 7 years old, she got married to a
guy that was actually rich. And so I went from the poor
kid, you know, and to the rich
kid really fast. And then when I was
14, or when I was 12, my, I ended
(03:14):
up going into respite and different
programs for children because my mom was going through a divorce.
And so I went to residential homes, I went to respite care. And
eventually by the time I was 14, I was in foster care
full-time. And my parents both had rights. My
father had was actually diagnosed with bipolar as
(03:37):
I was growing up and he wasn't he was in and out of my life.
I'd see him maybe birthdays and holidays, things like that.
I also had an older sister that lived with him, And so I'd see
her occasionally. And yeah, so I spent most
of my years in foster care. And I went so I went from the
poor kid to the rich kid to the foster kid in a
(03:58):
really short period of time.
Also, Yeah, that's and
to do what you've done now, which is
the business that you have now as an entrepreneur, I think what inspired you to
start your virtual assistant company? Yeah, so it's
(04:19):
actually another crazy story in my journey is that
me and my husband were trying to have children and
I suffered miscarriage after miscarriage. I was actually told that when
I was 18, I was diagnosed with PCOS and told I would never have kids.
And then when I miscarried for a first time I was told I would never
carry the term. And then I was finally carrying
(04:41):
a child and I was going into my third trimester
And I told the job that I was pregnant and they told me I had
2 days to give birth and then I would have to come back to work.
And yeah, obviously I was not okay with that, especially because it was
such a high risk pregnancy, which is why I waited so long to tell people
because I was expecting not to carry this child to term.
(05:04):
So I quit right then and there and I started looking for
ways and I discovered being a
virtual assistant and my first client while my
daughter was just a baby, I was actually in labor applying
for clients and things like that on Upwork is how I started.
And next thing I know, I have this brand new little baby and a whole
(05:27):
new business. In 3 months, my business hit 6 figures.
And we grew it into an amazing virtual assistant agency
called NG Virtual Assistant. And we
were doing so much website design, course creation, and summits
that we decided to turn it into
(05:47):
a marketing agency as well. So I currently now
have the virtual assistant agency and the marketing agency.
They are both growing absolutely amazing and so fast.
I think a lot of that has to do with the skills that I learned,
always having to adjust. I have to adjust from being
(06:07):
that poor kid to the rich kid to the foster kid and
having to make friends with everyone, and
always meeting new people. Those are the type of skills
I've really brought into my business that helped flourish and it
really made me have to be resilient. And so I think that's
1 of the reasons why my businesses have been so successful.
(06:30):
So as you said, you also went into the marketing
side of it. Yeah. What,
what can you explain what is, what a successful funnel is and why
is it important for businesses? Oh, definitely. So, so important
because most entrepreneurs don't realize they have some sort of funnel
in their business. And so a funnel
(06:53):
is basically it leads into your customer journey, right? It's a series of
steps that brings your customer along the way.
So whether that be a sale, whether it be like a
membership or maybe you want to lead them to a
referral, there's so many different funnels that you can do. But
the easiest and most common 1 is definitely
(07:15):
going from a lead on social media to converting as a client.
That has really become my team specialty. That's
like you want to attract on social media.
You want to have video posts and you
want to teach them something, You want to give them something of value. So you
want to have value posts. And I always do the
(07:37):
1 to 4 rule. So that's every 4 posts you give
value, then you do 1 where you're selling something.
And Then that brings them to your website. What we like to do
is offer a free product. We do a
course toolkit or a summit toolkit or 5 things you need on the
website. They claim that for free, they go to our e-mail
(08:00):
list. These are the steps in our funnel. And then we
sell to them in our email lists and
really try to build and foster that connection because social
media, especially look what's going on with Tik Tok, social media is not going to
be there forever. You really want to start bringing people from your social media over
to your email list because you own that. You don't own your social
(08:22):
media. So that's something that we really try
to teach our clients is to really build that email
list. And then when they want to do books and things like that and speaking
arrangements, your email list is always asked for. So then you
already have that bill. And then we, we sell to
them. So we sell our products and then we have, all different
(08:43):
funnels that continue after that too, for like client retention
or referrals to continue that cycle. Cause you just want to
keep, you really want to build your customer journey because it's going to continuously
be a cycle, whether you're bringing them back for more products
or you're having them refer their friends. So you have continuous
(09:04):
sales going on. Your business becomes this like living life cycle.
And it's funny, cause Monday
I sent my first automated email
with all the stuff that I have going on on both my
channels and stuff like that. And it was
it was awesome. I just set it up. I set up what I
(09:27):
want. So every week I'm posting on my on my
sites. And so whatever I post for the week is what's going to
come up on the email and and Michelle send it
to my list, which I've just I've started growing.
But it's been It's been amazing to see
(09:48):
the journey from where I didn't have a clue about an email list.
I didn't have a clue about building that side of my podcast
and my production company Because that's not something
I'm not, I wasn't, I wasn't into marketing and stuff like that. I didn't know
anything about that. So I had to learn all that in the process of me
(10:09):
learning how to create a podcast. And so it's, it's taken
me a couple of years to really get into automation,
but. I love it now. Like I, I'm
learning so many new things. Um, I have a friend who,
who, who gave a beta test on showing
people on showing podcasters how to automate their podcast.
(10:31):
And he was like, yeah, I want you to beta test this, come
with, try it out. And, and it got me hooked because now I'm, like I
said, Monday, I released my, I sent my first email with, or with
whatever I had going on. And it was great because It's
another way I wasn't taking advantage of promoting what I have going
on. Yeah. And it's all about saving time, right? Cause time
(10:53):
is money. I mean, that's probably 1 of the truest expressions out there.
And, um, I have a podcast as well. And so like automating the
podcast has been like the most freeing thing in
my life because it really does run on, um, on
it's automatic. Right. And 1 of the things that
we've actually tested because I have a whole team of VAs, I decided 1
(11:15):
day I wanted to get creative and I tested how much
time automation save us. And in my business, it's
32 hours a week that we save in automations.
So we have everything automated from like When a lead comes
in to our website and they fill out a form saying they
want this freebie, they get added to an e-mail list. So they have
(11:38):
already targeted e-mails that are going to them, they're leading them through the
customer journey. Also, our free
products, our free offers are linked
to the offer we want to sell them. We have
a course toolkit and that leads them to
course build-outs and course coaching, because we do those. We have
(12:01):
the summit toolkit, and so that's all about creating summits And
we build out summits for them and we sell that. So we've
really gotten to the point where we can really pin what our
leads are wanting. And so then we're able to give them the offers
that relate to them. And we're not just giving them everything
under the sun and overwhelming them because we probably offer like
(12:23):
a hundred different services. So, um, I
absolutely love it. I think automation is needed is key in your
business, especially if you want a growing business because
podcasts, especially I'm huge in the podcast world. I love
podfests. I don't know if you've gone. Oh, podfests.
Oh, you did. I love podfests.
(12:47):
Yes. I probably saw you there. Were you at the last
1? Yes, I was. I've been to the last 2. I was too.
No way. I've been to the last 2. Me too.
I had a great time. It was great because we're both part of the
Podmatch family. Yeah. And I hung out with
Alex. I hung out with Alicia and a lot of other people in the
(13:09):
group. And so it was a great experience.
I tell every podcaster I know, you need to attend
1 of these events. It's going to be life-changing. It's going to change,
especially if you seriously want to
monetize your podcast, if you really want to get into that aspect of it. If
it's just a hobby for you, then OK, then maybe it's not for you. But
(13:31):
if you really want to be, make this a business and
grow it, you really need to go to events where you get to
network with like-minded people and get to learn about so many different
tools that are out there. Just so many different programs that
can help you save time. Prior to
like, prior to me using StreamYard,
(13:54):
I would do phone interviews connected to
my mixer And I started with audio. And then when I
started doing StreamYard, I wasn't recording the
video, but I was recording the audio through my Rodecaster.
And I had a couple of, they were branding
specialists. They're like, so you don't do video? I was like, oh, no,
(14:18):
yeah, I'm not ready. I wasn't prepared. And he goes, you sure you don't do
video? You positive? Like, no, no, I'm not quite there
yet. And then the third time I understood what he was trying to get to.
And I was like, I do video now because it was another
form of, there was another piece of content that I wasn't taking
advantage of. So he wanted to show me that,
(14:40):
listen, all the, it's great. Yeah. You're doing audio, but
you're already using a tool that has video in it,
why not just use it? Even if you don't, if you're not
using video right now, it's good to have that content for later on
date. And it made sense. Yeah, it's a game
changer for sure. Cause then you could take your videos. Like what my team does
(15:02):
is they'll take my podcast video and they'll turn it into reels and
that's content that I didn't have to take the time to create and I can
put it on my social media. Like how amazing is that? Like, especially if
you have a team behind you, you know, it's automated.
StreamYard does it now where you can actually
repurpose that video that you just used, which is amazing
(15:24):
because now you can create shorts right on StreamYard.
Yeah. Download it, take it to Canva, add the lettering
and everything. So there's so many different tools you can use
that it's made
life easier for independent podcaster
because now you have these always amazing tools that,
(15:47):
that, that if used properly will help boost up your podcasts
and help you go to another level. And if you want to learn about them,
PodFest is definitely where you should go. They just had the global event. I actually
spoke at it. I talked about funnels for podcasters. Um,
So that was pretty amazing. And then actually my first time I ever went
there, I accidentally became a speaker. I
(16:10):
won- Accidentally? Yeah, accidentally. So I won a
ticket for free to PodFest. And then
I attended and I was talking with this guy. We were
like going, you know, you go room to room to whatever session you want to
go to. And I was talking with him and I was telling him I was
I built this amazing virtual Assistant Agency in such a short time.
(16:32):
And we go to this room and the speaker is about to speak
about virtual assistants, and they didn't show up.
And so they said, does anyone here know about virtual
assistants? And the guy that was talking with said, this girl does.
And the next thing I know, I have my shirt and
I'm being thrown up on stage. And I had so
(16:54):
much fun and I fell in love with speaking. And so I've been a speaker
ever since that moment. And it was, if
you ever, especially if you're a podcaster, but or even like a business owner,
if you ever feel like you're weird or
you don't fit in, or you go to pod fest and you will
find your place. I got in the middle of a
(17:16):
dance battle with Alicia, by the way,
who won it, was 1 of the winners. And I got
in a dance battle, I did karaoke. I've never
felt like more my true self than I did that weekend
in Orlando. And it's funny
because my first year I was trying to get to every
(17:39):
session, every session, but I kind
of, I learned that the
magic happens in the hallways.
Seriously, all the real magic happens in the hallways because that's when people are crossing
and intermingling and mixing up and you
start. And I got to actually link up with people that were
(18:01):
guests on my show. Oh, that's amazing. It was awesome
to meet up with some people that I've met virtually
and then to actually get them to meet them in person was amazing.
But yeah, and then the second time now, I
made sure I went, I attended the sessions that I really wanted to attend
(18:21):
and the rest of the time I spent Talking and networking
and I actually recorded an episode of a show that I do with a friend
Live in the in the middle of it all and And it was just
a great experience. It was, I love it. I'm going, I can't wait for the
next 1. I'm excited. Definitely checking it out.
And I tell any podcaster, you should definitely check
(18:44):
out if there's anything local, if they have local events near
you that isn't that far, especially if you can't make it a
podfest, look for it. Make sure you go attend it because if
you really want to truly grow your podcast, you have to network. You really have
to sit down and connect with other podcasters and other content creators
and authors, coaches. It's, it's,
(19:06):
it's a great thing. It's a great experience. Yeah. And I think that's
the thing that people are now realizing is like your podcast is a business.
So you need to, you know, really focus on networking, all the things
you do in a business, right? So you do network, you do lead
generation and collaborations. And even if you don't have
a podcast, you can go as a podcast guest too. So
(19:29):
they have courses where they'll teach you about podcast
guesting. It is so, yeah, it's 1 of the best events. It's
definitely my favorite 1. I go on an event about every other month. I try
to go now that my kids are a little bit older. So, and I
absolutely enjoy it. It's like, it's the best thing ever.
Oh, no, it's it's I've been podcasting now for 3 years
(19:51):
and actually the last
let's say the last 5 months
probably even more than probably last within the last year or so
has been a great because
the guests that I've had on in the past year alone have been amazing.
(20:17):
Have been, I've learned so much just doing my podcast.
And so if I feel if I'm learning something from it and my audience can
learn something from it, it's a win-win for me.
Yeah, and It's crazy because every single person has
their knowledge and expertise and, you know, whatever they do. And
the only way we're going to learn and grow as people is if we're communicating
(20:40):
and talking with them and collaborating and learning from them. And it can be
kind of scary, but not in a place like PodFest. I was like, it's like
the most natural place to grow.
You have so many amazing opportunities to connect.
They even have like those networking games and things. Oh
my gosh, I met actually, I met up with a bunch of like mompreneurs. So
(21:03):
we were all moms that had businesses and we use podcasting as lead
generation tool in our business. And
we are still in touch. We have the, we, you know,
have several different calls and we all text each other and
are just like, there's some of the best people that I've ever met. And
it's just so cool. Like if I actually, how we
(21:25):
all met was I put, they have like this app you can log into
and create a meetup. And so I created a meetup for
mompreneurs. I said, let's all go to breakfast together. I didn't do
that. I mean, I went and met these amazing women and it was
like 5 of us and we just had like the best time and got
to communicate and all been on each other's podcasts. And
(21:48):
it was just so, it was so cool. So like really taking that
initiative to, you know, to grow, I think
is super huge, even though it can be terrifying. Oh no,
it's definitely terrifying, especially when you're
stepping out of your comfort zone and you're doing something that you
normally don't do it, it's, it's, it's
(22:10):
scary, but once you do it and, and, and you see how
it starts working, like, man, I should have taken this risk a long time
ago. Right? I know. I think that's like
if I ever have a regret in my business is not maybe not doing things
fast enough, even though I've done things pretty fast. I was like, man,
sometimes I just let that, you know, you let yourself is sometimes your
(22:32):
biggest enemy, right? So you let yourself get in the way of how
fast you can grow and where you can go. And, um, I think it's
really important just to let that go and just take the
chance because you, I mean, if I didn't, if I didn't
hire, I hired 2 people within 30 days of starting my business.
If I didn't, and I had never met a manager. I never met a supervisor.
(22:55):
And if I never, I had, and I was a brand new mom. So that
was probably the highest management that I ever got was being a mom.
And if I didn't like take the bullet and just hire them and figure it
out, like I would have built the amazing team I have today, so.
Oh no, it's a great feeling to be able
(23:16):
to build something and know that you've built it
and, and, and had you not taken that
step,
like, where would you be? And so for me, it's been able
to, again, step out of my comfort zone and do things that I normally
don't do. Um, 1 of the things I actually,
(23:38):
I actually applied last year to speak at pod
fest because it was something I've, I've like, I would like to
get into speaking and stuff like that, especially now with me doing my podcast
and me getting more comfortable with myself, it's
allowed me to take those risks,
to be able to like, let me try it, let me see what happens. The
(24:00):
worst thing that can happen is I suck. But if it,
but that's how I wasn't great when I started my podcast.
It took me, it took time for me to develop and
grow. It took time for me to really get comfortable with myself because
I wasn't in media. I wasn't something, this wasn't
something that was in my lane. And so when I
(24:22):
decided to start the podcast, it was like, let's do it. And
I named it Stuck in My Mind because I was stuck in my mind for
so long with it. Like making up excuses. I can't do
it. I sound horrible. People are not going to and
so when I did the first episode 5 minutes long stuck
in my mind was what came up that was the name of the podcast
(24:44):
and And I've been having a great time.
I've just released, as far as my audio, I just released episode
186. Wow, congrats. That's amazing.
And then I've probably done over 100 now
with video on it. So it's been, it's been
(25:04):
a wonderful time. It's been a wonderful time being able to do this. Yeah. It's
all about starting ugly, right? I think that's the title of the book that
Chris, so he's the 1 that created Podfest.
Yeah. So his book is called start ugly. And it was
actually amazing because that's
asked because it'd be a, I had helped so many different
(25:28):
products with their podcasts. I did it for probably hundreds of people.
And then I was like, I'm 1 day gonna start
my podcast when it's all perfect. And he's like, no,
you have to start ugly. And he's like, you know, you're not gonna start. You're
gonna keep waiting for it to be perfect and life's not perfect. So your podcast
is never gonna be perfect. And so I started it and I've been
(25:51):
having so much fun ever since. I had a
fellow podcast on, but she was strictly audio. She didn't do
video. So I had seen her, we were
on a virtual event that we were both doing shows on it.
And I saw her speaking and I was like, oh man, I would love to
have her on my show. And my friend hooked it up. She knew who
(26:14):
she was, made a connection. And I had her on the show
and she was like, Oh, I commend you for doing video.
She says, I can, she says, I can't do it. I'm waiting until it's perfect.
I'm waiting until I'm ready. And I go, you failed
already. You failed already because it's never going to be
perfect. If you're waiting for perfection, you're going to be waiting forever because
(26:37):
it's not going to happen. Things happen. You just need to take that
step and record video. It's the only way you're
going to improve and know that you're good at it is by doing
it. So if you're waiting for perfection, it's
never gonna happen because you're not doing it. So true.
So you have to take that first step in order
(26:58):
to, and like I said, to this day,
I've had technical difficulties. I've had times where the camera
want to act the fool or my system wants to act the fool and
and it happens. You just can't. You just have to roll with the punches.
Yeah, I think that's everything in life. I feel like that was a lot of
me and my husband's relationship. When we first got together, we were just
(27:21):
trying to all figure it out. And it's like, you really just,
you have to work on it, right? It's like your marriage, your business, your
podcast, whatever you have, you have to put in the work to see
the results. So if you're not putting in the work because you're waiting for it
to be perfect, well, it's not going to be because
you didn't even work on it yet. So yeah, I definitely
(27:43):
learned a lot of really good lessons in that book. I think it was like,
it was a really easy read and a short read, but had so much knowledge
and power in it. I was like, this is perfect. I
know it's Chris, Chris definitely knows what he's talking about.
It was, it was, It's amazing just to go
down there and see what he's built. Cause he
(28:06):
brings together, like I had some kids from the
UK come and they interviewed me for a couple of
minutes and asked me for what tips would you give someone who started now?
And I said, just be consistent. Do see what you did right now. Were you
weren't afraid to come up to me and speak to me and ask me a
question. Keep doing that. Just keep being yourself. Keep
(28:27):
being consistent. Keep doing that. Don't be afraid. Like you
guys, I wish I was like, I wish I had started, I had known
at your age that this was something I would like to do. And it
was cool to be able to share
whatever little knowledge I have with some kids that really
were interested, that really wanted to know what was going on. Like,
(28:49):
so it's those moments to be able to help people
and share the stuff I've learned,
podcasting. Like,
I know how you, I know you know how I feel, the way I feel
is just like, I wish everyone could enjoy what we
do. Because it's an amazing feeling to be able to
(29:11):
sit down, have wonderful conversations.
And when you leave that conversation, you're like wired.
Yeah. Because it was so much great
energy just flowing back and forth through the conversation that
I've had days where I've recorded 4 shows in a day And I'm
still full of energy by episode 4 because they were
(29:34):
all great conversations. Yeah. Yeah. I
get that too. And it's like, I am definitely an extrovert. I'm a hundred
percent extrovert. And, um, I absolutely
love just talking with people, learning from them. And that's, you
know, my podcast is the same way where I interview women entrepreneurs
and their journeys, especially when it comes to motherhood and,
(29:57):
um, and running a business, because that's a whole crazy another life.
But, um, yeah, so I think
I just get so much joy from like being able to talk with them
and help them. And you know, it's amazing
the things you'll learn just by having a conversation with someone actually at
PodFest. I don't know if you met Bonnie, but
(30:19):
she is a woman that's actually homeless and she has
been twice now to PodFest. And she
her stories are absolutely amazing. And just
like she wanted to go to a podfest and she
couldn't afford it. And she basically like manifested it and ended
up winning a free ticket. And so she
(30:41):
did that 2 years in a row. Or I think the second year she was
part of their give back program where they give people that can't afford tickets.
So actually people donate tickets, which is amazing.
And but her life story is just like, man, the things she went through
made. Even though I've had quite a journey myself, it was like, man,
I have a really blessed life, you know,
(31:04):
just from listening to her journey and her resilience, man. I was like,
I thought I was resilient. She's got it in spades. And it
was just, oh man, stories like that, just like they
fuel your soul, you know? But it's amazing.
It's everyone has a story, everyone
and everyone and no one's journey is more bigger than anyone
(31:26):
else's because your story is your story. It's made
you who you are. And it's and so when someone asked me, like, oh, do
you regret anything that happened in your life? And I'm like, no, I wouldn't
wish things that happened to me upon other people.
But everything that's happened has made me the person
has given me the strength to continue on
(31:49):
and help me realize that
every day you're gonna have ups and downs and just just
go with it you just go in and take life 1 day at a
time enjoy and and and I've and
and honestly since I've really been podcasting
it's been such a relief to be able to just come on,
(32:12):
be myself, talk on, talk on my podcast and talk to my guests
and, and not worry about
the future, worry about now, just focus on what I'm doing now
and the love that I have for what I'm doing now.
Yeah. Yeah. Just being that present moment, right. And I feel like
it's so hard to do sometimes. I always say about the future,
(32:34):
and especially when you're in this moment, you're thinking about, man, what do I have
to do next? And what do I have to work on next? But you really
got to just sit back a moment and appreciate where you are and
everything you've done in the past too. I think it's really healthy to,
you know, have a focus on the future, focus on the present and
focus on the past, but really like living in the present. And it's just
(32:55):
like, it's so powerful because that's when you're like, man, I did
all of that. And now I'm here I am. And I'm like, isn't this a
cool thing? Like I get to talk on a microphone to all these
people around the world. Like I talked to someone from the UK the other day
and I was like, how cool is this? That I get to do
this and I get to be my own boss And I hired myself and I
(33:16):
put the work on myself. And I think that's, it's a really
cool thing. It is, it is. So what, what
advice would you give someone who's just starting out as an entrepreneur?
Oh man, probably have so much. I think My 1 is
definitely just start. You're also going to hear a
lot of advice from a lot of different people. And you're going to see a
(33:37):
lot of resources and YouTube and podcasts. And there's so much
knowledge out there in the world. It can overwhelm you. And the only
way you're going to find out what works best for you is by starting.
Yeah, it's but it's.
I know prior to the way it is now, being an
(34:00):
entrepreneur was a difficult path because you
don't have the resources that you have now with so many
people sharing tips and advice on how to grow a
successful business that you can go
with what resonates with you. You can go There's
just some certain information that's not gonna resonate with you. Then that's
(34:22):
not meant for you, but then you're gonna get, you're gonna read, you're gonna watch
something or read something and the light bulb goes off
and you're like, That's me. That's what I have
to do. And so it's a different
animal now. It's still not
easy being an entrepreneur, but it's a lot
(34:44):
less lonely now. Yeah.
Being able now, especially with the connections you can make globally
because of the internet and all that. Now, like you said,
I've interviewed people all over the world now.
And to think I would have been able to do that a few years ago,
(35:05):
I would have laughed if someone would have said, oh, you'll be interviewing people from
all over the world. You'll have listeners from all over the world.
Who, me? That's not possible. But it's
possible. Yeah, pretty much. It's crazy. Anything is possible
in business. I feel like it's absolutely insane. The things
like I never thought I'd hit 6 figures in 3 months. Like who does that?
(35:27):
And I, it was because, you know, I just gave it my all and I
started and I started messy. And yeah, I made a hundred million mistakes,
but I also was able, like, I looked for
those connections. Like I looked to network. If you're not looking
to network, you're not going to network. I think it's 1 of those things like
you have to look for events. Like I use like Meetup
(35:51):
and Eventbrite and there's a hundred Facebook groups out there
that you can look at, but just really taking the effort to
connect with people, No matter what you're doing in
life is just like, I think, especially after the pandemic, we learned
that we need, we're humans, we need to connect with people. I think that we
learned that that year more than anything is that we need
(36:13):
to interact with humans and what better way
than do it on the internet, right? Because you can access all sorts
of different people and cultures and it's a beautiful thing.
No, it is. And honestly, 1 thing
I've been able to get from doing my shows is that,
yes, people are different. People are different, but
(36:36):
at the core of it all or we really wanted the same
things is to be happy healthy
and make sure our family is doing well and then that's all
we all truly want at the bottom of it all. And so to be able
to speak to people from all walks of life
and realize that that's what they want as well
(37:01):
And they're doing things that you're capable
of doing as well. And you're like, man, if they can accomplish
these amazing things, why not me?
Why can I not accomplish these things? Why can't my audience members accomplish
these things? Because these are just regular folks like us.
And to be able to speak to them and have them share their message
(37:25):
and have people hear their story, your story,
where You were in foster care at 14.
Yeah. A lot of people would have used that as a crutch. A lot of
people would have used that as an excuse to why their life
is the way it is. But what
you took it as, you took it and you ran with it and you
(37:47):
used it to help build you up. You use your struggles
to make things happen, to build a business, like you said,
and 3 to 4 months, you made it 6 figures.
Who does that? I have no idea, man.
Not many people can say that. Yeah. And if you take your struggles and
(38:09):
you just put it into motivation, you know, especially like you said, we
all want to make sure our families are doing well. And I think I took
that as like the biggest challenge as a new mom. I was like,
all right, my business has to do well because I need to provide for my
family. Now I have a newborn baby that had a lot of
medical issues and we needed the money. And so I was like,
(38:30):
man, I got to use every ounce of
knowledge that I have and I have to create this business that has to be
successful. There is no other option because I have this
little baby depending on me and she's about to be 7 this
year and I'll cry if I talk about it,
but, but it is absolutely amazing
(38:52):
what you can do. And now I'm able to provide a stable family for her,
you know, the 1 that I kind of imagined as a teenager and
it's, And then my in-laws became like this whole other family for
me. And so it's really cool what you do when
you take a chance and you give it your all and you put all your
work into it. It works out. It does in the long run. It's hard at
(39:14):
first. And you
don't even want to know what my first marriage, like my first year of marriage
was like, because it was hectic because we had a newborn baby.
We struggled and we struggled financially, we struggled in our marriage,
but we eventually got out of that struggle
because we all worked on it and we worked together. And so I think
(39:37):
that's really the core of it is you just have to give it your all
and you have to work through those struggles. Don't let them get you down. Don't
give up, you know, don't use it as a crutch like you said, and just
keep going. Yeah, definitely. You
have to, again, it's
easy to, to allow what happened on
(39:59):
our past dictate what our future is going to be.
And so people just hold on to
that and use that like oh this is why I can't succeed,
this happened to me. And it's
It's a shame that we have that mind, that people
have that mindset. But it's also
(40:23):
my job to show people that you don't have to
remain that way. You're capable,
regardless of how old you are or whatever, if you really want
change in your life, you can affect it, you can make it happen.
It starts with you. And
(40:46):
It takes a lot to admit that you need help.
It takes a lot for you to be like, oh man, I'm struggling.
I wish I had someone to help. Or even reach out to people. It
takes courage to be able to reach out to people when you're struggling and
wanting help. Yeah,
it really does. And it's like, you know, building that they
(41:08):
say it takes a village and you need to start
building that your village. I can't tell you how many times people have said to
me, well, I didn't have, I don't have supportive family or I don't
have this, these type of friends. And I'm like, well, I was a
foster kid. I didn't either. I had to kind of piece
together my village, right. I had to put in the work in those
(41:30):
connections. Cause that's what I wanted. I wanted a village.
And so, and that village is what's going to be your support system. That's what
gets you through, you know, all the issues that
you have internally. That's the people you go to when you just want to
vent and you just want someone to say, Hey, it's okay. You got this.
And it doesn't come biologically. It doesn't come
(41:53):
naturally. It's something that you have the power to choose
who's in your village. You get to choose, you know, who
you're going to vent to and you just have to put the
work in. And it's really, you know, it's so important to
make sure you're surrounded by people that are supportive and that are like
who you want to be. They say your network is your net worth And
(42:15):
it's 100% correct. So make sure that you're
surrounding yourself with people who want to be better, who
are like what you want to be. I know we have a lot
of older and have another very successful
businesses and families in life. And so we surround ourselves with people we
want to be like, to help mold us and guide us through those
(42:37):
times. Yeah, because you wanna associate
with those people because they are where you wanna get
to. So they know the path.
So if they're able to share that path with you,
it's such an amazing, it's, I have a friend, I've known
him for the last year. We've been friends for a year.
(43:00):
And in that year, he's become 1 of my best friends. And he's also
become a mentor to me because he's an amazing
executive producer. The way he produces shows
is magnificent.
I'm like, I'm in awe every time me and him work together
and we do a weekly show together. And I'm in awe
(43:23):
every week with the show that this man puts together and to be
able to, to work with him and learn
from him and him wanting to,
him willing to share his knowledge with me and see
something in me and be like, I'm going to share what I know
with him because I know he wants to learn
(43:45):
it. Yeah. And so for me, it's
like, all right, when, when the time's going to come where someone's going to
come to me and be like, and want to learn from me, and I have
to approach it the same way Cole approached it with me, like,
all right, young buck, you want to learn? Here you go.
And show them the way. Yeah. And but it's those like
(44:07):
you said, it's the it's the network
that you build is the and 1 thing you mentioned village me and
my nephew. Our thing is we are the village because
we want, that's what we, we, when we grew up, we grew up in a
time where in
our, in our neighborhood, you couldn't do anything without
(44:30):
it getting back to your mother before you even got home. This is
before the Internet. This is before cell phones. This is before any of
that time. So before you got home, your mother
already knew you had done something wrong. Yeah. Because the
village was watching you and they peeped it and they're like,
okay, we're gonna get the message down along the line.
(44:52):
And it wasn't just for whenever I got in trouble, it was to also protect
me. Yeah. If they saw something that was out
of line, they stepped to it. I mean, sure. So
we've always been about growing our own village. We've always thought
about starting our own community because
we feel that's what is lacking nowadays
(45:15):
is neighbors don't really know each other. They don't really
communicate with each other. So that's something we wanna change
and that's something we wanna encourage is building your
village. That is amazing. We are lucky
that we live kind of in a village. We live at my husband's work. So
it's a lot like military life, very similar. And so
(45:37):
his, our next door neighbor is his best friend and my daughter's
godfather. And, you know, we are just surrounded by
a bunch of coworkers and all the wives. You know, we look after 1 another
and our families. And I just think it's a really beautiful thing
that we built and we're just always checking
in on each other. And, you know, if
(46:00):
we actually, a couple of years ago, 1 of them actually lost her
husband. And so the way that that community
supported her was beautiful. It was
just like, you know, you need help with, because where we live,
If the person that works here passes away, they have 30
days to move, which can you imagine that is heartbreaking.
(46:22):
They don't force it of course, because they're human. They get
how hard this is, but you cannot keep the house if you do not work
here. And so we were all helping her pack, making sure
she had a home. She had like 4 children and giving
her meals and anything we could do to help support her. And it was
just it was just amazing to see it all come together.
(46:44):
And She's like, man, I couldn't have done this without you guys,
because I would have been alone. And you never want anyone
to have to feel that. Because being alone, man, that was probably,
in foster care, I really felt alone. I felt like I had absolutely
no 1 who was truly on my side. And it was the
(47:05):
worst feeling I've probably experienced in my
life. So I have definitely made it my mission to surround
myself with positive, amazing people. So I
never have to feel that again. And you don't want that for your children. So
like building that community and that village is so, so
important. It is, it definitely is. That's something that, again, like
(47:27):
I said, me and my nephew, that's something we strongly believe in
is, and we always talk about, we are the village. That's, that's
our thing. We, we want to build that, that
community that we, we know exists because we've, we were a
part of it firsthand. So to, to try to
build something up like that again. It's it was it was a no-brainer
(47:49):
for us like this is what our goal is this is what we want want
to build this community because we see
what when you're working together as a community
the amazing things you can build. Yeah.
So yeah. That's amazing. Yeah, it
is. But this has been great. I appreciate you coming on the
(48:11):
show. Now is the part of the show where you get to plug away, let
everybody know where they can find you. Uh,
if you have any courses, books, anything, this is just,
here you go. Awesome. Thanks. So yeah, I have a million
different ways and things I do between the virtual assistant agency and the
marketing agency. So your easiest way to find me is, um, my
(48:34):
personal brand website, which it's, it's natalie guzman.com.
So make sure you put the ITS in front of my name and you'll find
me there and you can get all sorts of cool things from, um,
podcast toolkits. We have course toolkits, summits, and you can
even hop on a call with me and we can chat and maybe come up
with a strategy to help you with your business or your podcast. So,
(48:56):
so happy to be on. Thanks, Weiss. Thank
you. Thank you for being on. I really appreciate you being a guest. But don't
leave just yet. Let me close out this show. Close out the show and I
will chat a little bit off the air. But uh, thank you once again for
being such a great guest. Yeah, of course. Anytime. I've had so
much fun. Thank you. All right, Hold on 1 second.
(49:17):
All right. So now it is time for shout outs. Big shout out to
everybody who checked out the show today. Greatly appreciate it. Big shout
out to my real wise fan, Poppy J, Brandy J. Love you
guys. Big shout out to the boss lady. Love you baby and
appreciate you. Big shout out to our guest Natalie Guzman
for coming through and sharing her story
(49:39):
and just showing you, listen people, it's an amazing story.
3 months, she took her business to 6 figures. It can
be done, but it's hard work. It's work. It's definitely work.
And as always, a big, big shout out to all the essential
workers out there. God bless y'all be safe. You know, your boy
wise does it. Peace out.
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(01:22):
Everyone has a story but few have the power to change lives.
Introducing the Plush Life From Prison to Peace
by Anthony J. Gonzalez with Pepper Chambers. A journey of
redemption and transformation. Follow Anthony's
raw and honest story as he finds his new purpose in life. Turn
(01:43):
his darkest moments into a guiding light for others. This inspiring
story will take you through Anthony's journey, showing you that
it's never too late to change your path and embrace your true potential.
Don't miss the life changing tale of redemption and the power of the
human spirit. Get your copy today of the
Plus Life from Prison to Peace on Amazon
(02:06):
and iBook and witness the incredible power
of transformation. And welcome to
another live episode. I am your host WIZE
And my guest has an inspiring story.
She's she's she's I want I can't
wait for her to share. Sorry. So let me just bring on welcome to the
(02:29):
show Natalie Guzman. Hey, how are
you? I'm excited to be here. Oh, the pleasure's all mine.
So I just, I really just want to get into your story. Cause you do
have an amazing story. Let's start with,
tell us something a little about, tell us a little about your background.
Sure. So I grew up in Massachusetts, I
(02:52):
had, I was primarily raised by a single mom. And
when I was 7 years old, she got married to a
guy that was actually rich. And so I went from the poor
kid, you know, and to the rich
kid really fast. And then when I was
14, or when I was 12, my, I ended
(03:14):
up going into respite and different
programs for children because my mom was going through a divorce.
And so I went to residential homes, I went to respite care. And
eventually by the time I was 14, I was in foster care
full-time. And my parents both had rights. My
father had was actually diagnosed with bipolar as
(03:37):
I was growing up and he wasn't he was in and out of my life.
I'd see him maybe birthdays and holidays, things like that.
I also had an older sister that lived with him, And so I'd see
her occasionally. And yeah, so I spent most
of my years in foster care. And I went so I went from the
poor kid to the rich kid to the foster kid in a
(03:58):
really short period of time.
Also, Yeah, that's and
to do what you've done now, which is
the business that you have now as an entrepreneur, I think what inspired you to
start your virtual assistant company? Yeah, so it's
(04:19):
actually another crazy story in my journey is that
me and my husband were trying to have children and
I suffered miscarriage after miscarriage. I was actually told that when
I was 18, I was diagnosed with PCOS and told I would never have kids.
And then when I miscarried for a first time I was told I would never
carry the term. And then I was finally carrying
(04:41):
a child and I was going into my third trimester
And I told the job that I was pregnant and they told me I had
2 days to give birth and then I would have to come back to work.
And yeah, obviously I was not okay with that, especially because it was
such a high risk pregnancy, which is why I waited so long to tell people
because I was expecting not to carry this child to term.
(05:04):
So I quit right then and there and I started looking for
ways and I discovered being a
virtual assistant and my first client while my
daughter was just a baby, I was actually in labor applying
for clients and things like that on Upwork is how I started.
And next thing I know, I have this brand new little baby and a whole
(05:27):
new business. In 3 months, my business hit 6 figures.
And we grew it into an amazing virtual assistant agency
called NG Virtual Assistant. And we
were doing so much website design, course creation, and summits
that we decided to turn it into
(05:47):
a marketing agency as well. So I currently now
have the virtual assistant agency and the marketing agency.
They are both growing absolutely amazing and so fast.
I think a lot of that has to do with the skills that I learned,
always having to adjust. I have to adjust from being
(06:07):
that poor kid to the rich kid to the foster kid and
having to make friends with everyone, and
always meeting new people. Those are the type of skills
I've really brought into my business that helped flourish and it
really made me have to be resilient. And so I think that's
1 of the reasons why my businesses have been so successful.
(06:30):
So as you said, you also went into the marketing
side of it. Yeah. What,
what can you explain what is, what a successful funnel is and why
is it important for businesses? Oh, definitely. So, so important
because most entrepreneurs don't realize they have some sort of funnel
in their business. And so a funnel
(06:53):
is basically it leads into your customer journey, right? It's a series of
steps that brings your customer along the way.
So whether that be a sale, whether it be like a
membership or maybe you want to lead them to a
referral, there's so many different funnels that you can do. But
the easiest and most common 1 is definitely
(07:15):
going from a lead on social media to converting as a client.
That has really become my team specialty. That's
like you want to attract on social media.
You want to have video posts and you
want to teach them something, You want to give them something of value. So you
want to have value posts. And I always do the
(07:37):
1 to 4 rule. So that's every 4 posts you give
value, then you do 1 where you're selling something.
And Then that brings them to your website. What we like to do
is offer a free product. We do a
course toolkit or a summit toolkit or 5 things you need on the
website. They claim that for free, they go to our e-mail
(08:00):
list. These are the steps in our funnel. And then we
sell to them in our email lists and
really try to build and foster that connection because social
media, especially look what's going on with Tik Tok, social media is not going to
be there forever. You really want to start bringing people from your social media over
to your email list because you own that. You don't own your social
(08:22):
media. So that's something that we really try
to teach our clients is to really build that email
list. And then when they want to do books and things like that and speaking
arrangements, your email list is always asked for. So then you
already have that bill. And then we, we sell to
them. So we sell our products and then we have, all different
(08:43):
funnels that continue after that too, for like client retention
or referrals to continue that cycle. Cause you just want to
keep, you really want to build your customer journey because it's going to continuously
be a cycle, whether you're bringing them back for more products
or you're having them refer their friends. So you have continuous
(09:04):
sales going on. Your business becomes this like living life cycle.
And it's funny, cause Monday
I sent my first automated email
with all the stuff that I have going on on both my
channels and stuff like that. And it was
it was awesome. I just set it up. I set up what I
(09:27):
want. So every week I'm posting on my on my
sites. And so whatever I post for the week is what's going to
come up on the email and and Michelle send it
to my list, which I've just I've started growing.
But it's been It's been amazing to see
(09:48):
the journey from where I didn't have a clue about an email list.
I didn't have a clue about building that side of my podcast
and my production company Because that's not something
I'm not, I wasn't, I wasn't into marketing and stuff like that. I didn't know
anything about that. So I had to learn all that in the process of me
(10:09):
learning how to create a podcast. And so it's, it's taken
me a couple of years to really get into automation,
but. I love it now. Like I, I'm
learning so many new things. Um, I have a friend who,
who, who gave a beta test on showing
people on showing podcasters how to automate their podcast.
(10:31):
And he was like, yeah, I want you to beta test this, come
with, try it out. And, and it got me hooked because now I'm, like I
said, Monday, I released my, I sent my first email with, or with
whatever I had going on. And it was great because It's
another way I wasn't taking advantage of promoting what I have going
on. Yeah. And it's all about saving time, right? Cause time
(10:53):
is money. I mean, that's probably 1 of the truest expressions out there.
And, um, I have a podcast as well. And so like automating the
podcast has been like the most freeing thing in
my life because it really does run on, um, on
it's automatic. Right. And 1 of the things that
we've actually tested because I have a whole team of VAs, I decided 1
(11:15):
day I wanted to get creative and I tested how much
time automation save us. And in my business, it's
32 hours a week that we save in automations.
So we have everything automated from like When a lead comes
in to our website and they fill out a form saying they
want this freebie, they get added to an e-mail list. So they have
(11:38):
already targeted e-mails that are going to them, they're leading them through the
customer journey. Also, our free
products, our free offers are linked
to the offer we want to sell them. We have
a course toolkit and that leads them to
course build-outs and course coaching, because we do those. We have
(12:01):
the summit toolkit, and so that's all about creating summits And
we build out summits for them and we sell that. So we've
really gotten to the point where we can really pin what our
leads are wanting. And so then we're able to give them the offers
that relate to them. And we're not just giving them everything
under the sun and overwhelming them because we probably offer like
(12:23):
a hundred different services. So, um, I
absolutely love it. I think automation is needed is key in your
business, especially if you want a growing business because
podcasts, especially I'm huge in the podcast world. I love
podfests. I don't know if you've gone. Oh, podfests.
Oh, you did. I love podfests.
(12:47):
Yes. I probably saw you there. Were you at the last
1? Yes, I was. I've been to the last 2. I was too.
No way. I've been to the last 2. Me too.
I had a great time. It was great because we're both part of the
Podmatch family. Yeah. And I hung out with
Alex. I hung out with Alicia and a lot of other people in the
(13:09):
group. And so it was a great experience.
I tell every podcaster I know, you need to attend
1 of these events. It's going to be life-changing. It's going to change,
especially if you seriously want to
monetize your podcast, if you really want to get into that aspect of it. If
it's just a hobby for you, then OK, then maybe it's not for you. But
(13:31):
if you really want to be, make this a business and
grow it, you really need to go to events where you get to
network with like-minded people and get to learn about so many different
tools that are out there. Just so many different programs that
can help you save time. Prior to
like, prior to me using StreamYard,
(13:54):
I would do phone interviews connected to
my mixer And I started with audio. And then when I
started doing StreamYard, I wasn't recording the
video, but I was recording the audio through my Rodecaster.
And I had a couple of, they were branding
specialists. They're like, so you don't do video? I was like, oh, no,
(14:18):
yeah, I'm not ready. I wasn't prepared. And he goes, you sure you don't do
video? You positive? Like, no, no, I'm not quite there
yet. And then the third time I understood what he was trying to get to.
And I was like, I do video now because it was another
form of, there was another piece of content that I wasn't taking
advantage of. So he wanted to show me that,
(14:40):
listen, all the, it's great. Yeah. You're doing audio, but
you're already using a tool that has video in it,
why not just use it? Even if you don't, if you're not
using video right now, it's good to have that content for later on
date. And it made sense. Yeah, it's a game
changer for sure. Cause then you could take your videos. Like what my team does
(15:02):
is they'll take my podcast video and they'll turn it into reels and
that's content that I didn't have to take the time to create and I can
put it on my social media. Like how amazing is that? Like, especially if
you have a team behind you, you know, it's automated.
StreamYard does it now where you can actually
repurpose that video that you just used, which is amazing
(15:24):
because now you can create shorts right on StreamYard.
Yeah. Download it, take it to Canva, add the lettering
and everything. So there's so many different tools you can use
that it's made
life easier for independent podcaster
because now you have these always amazing tools that,
(15:47):
that, that if used properly will help boost up your podcasts
and help you go to another level. And if you want to learn about them,
PodFest is definitely where you should go. They just had the global event. I actually
spoke at it. I talked about funnels for podcasters. Um,
So that was pretty amazing. And then actually my first time I ever went
there, I accidentally became a speaker. I
(16:10):
won- Accidentally? Yeah, accidentally. So I won a
ticket for free to PodFest. And then
I attended and I was talking with this guy. We were
like going, you know, you go room to room to whatever session you want to
go to. And I was talking with him and I was telling him I was
I built this amazing virtual Assistant Agency in such a short time.
(16:32):
And we go to this room and the speaker is about to speak
about virtual assistants, and they didn't show up.
And so they said, does anyone here know about virtual
assistants? And the guy that was talking with said, this girl does.
And the next thing I know, I have my shirt and
I'm being thrown up on stage. And I had so
(16:54):
much fun and I fell in love with speaking. And so I've been a speaker
ever since that moment. And it was, if
you ever, especially if you're a podcaster, but or even like a business owner,
if you ever feel like you're weird or
you don't fit in, or you go to pod fest and you will
find your place. I got in the middle of a
(17:16):
dance battle with Alicia, by the way,
who won it, was 1 of the winners. And I got
in a dance battle, I did karaoke. I've never
felt like more my true self than I did that weekend
in Orlando. And it's funny
because my first year I was trying to get to every
(17:39):
session, every session, but I kind
of, I learned that the
magic happens in the hallways.
Seriously, all the real magic happens in the hallways because that's when people are crossing
and intermingling and mixing up and you
start. And I got to actually link up with people that were
(18:01):
guests on my show. Oh, that's amazing. It was awesome
to meet up with some people that I've met virtually
and then to actually get them to meet them in person was amazing.
But yeah, and then the second time now, I
made sure I went, I attended the sessions that I really wanted to attend
(18:21):
and the rest of the time I spent Talking and networking
and I actually recorded an episode of a show that I do with a friend
Live in the in the middle of it all and And it was just
a great experience. It was, I love it. I'm going, I can't wait for the
next 1. I'm excited. Definitely checking it out.
And I tell any podcaster, you should definitely check
(18:44):
out if there's anything local, if they have local events near
you that isn't that far, especially if you can't make it a
podfest, look for it. Make sure you go attend it because if
you really want to truly grow your podcast, you have to network. You really have
to sit down and connect with other podcasters and other content creators
and authors, coaches. It's, it's,
(19:06):
it's a great thing. It's a great experience. Yeah. And I think that's
the thing that people are now realizing is like your podcast is a business.
So you need to, you know, really focus on networking, all the things
you do in a business, right? So you do network, you do lead
generation and collaborations. And even if you don't have
a podcast, you can go as a podcast guest too. So
(19:29):
they have courses where they'll teach you about podcast
guesting. It is so, yeah, it's 1 of the best events. It's
definitely my favorite 1. I go on an event about every other month. I try
to go now that my kids are a little bit older. So, and I
absolutely enjoy it. It's like, it's the best thing ever.
Oh, no, it's it's I've been podcasting now for 3 years
(19:51):
and actually the last
let's say the last 5 months
probably even more than probably last within the last year or so
has been a great because
the guests that I've had on in the past year alone have been amazing.
(20:17):
Have been, I've learned so much just doing my podcast.
And so if I feel if I'm learning something from it and my audience can
learn something from it, it's a win-win for me.
Yeah, and It's crazy because every single person has
their knowledge and expertise and, you know, whatever they do. And
the only way we're going to learn and grow as people is if we're communicating
(20:40):
and talking with them and collaborating and learning from them. And it can be
kind of scary, but not in a place like PodFest. I was like, it's like
the most natural place to grow.
You have so many amazing opportunities to connect.
They even have like those networking games and things. Oh
my gosh, I met actually, I met up with a bunch of like mompreneurs. So
(21:03):
we were all moms that had businesses and we use podcasting as lead
generation tool in our business. And
we are still in touch. We have the, we, you know,
have several different calls and we all text each other and
are just like, there's some of the best people that I've ever met. And
it's just so cool. Like if I actually, how we
(21:25):
all met was I put, they have like this app you can log into
and create a meetup. And so I created a meetup for
mompreneurs. I said, let's all go to breakfast together. I didn't do
that. I mean, I went and met these amazing women and it was
like 5 of us and we just had like the best time and got
to communicate and all been on each other's podcasts. And
(21:48):
it was just so, it was so cool. So like really taking that
initiative to, you know, to grow, I think
is super huge, even though it can be terrifying. Oh no,
it's definitely terrifying, especially when you're
stepping out of your comfort zone and you're doing something that you
normally don't do it, it's, it's, it's
(22:10):
scary, but once you do it and, and, and you see how
it starts working, like, man, I should have taken this risk a long time
ago. Right? I know. I think that's like
if I ever have a regret in my business is not maybe not doing things
fast enough, even though I've done things pretty fast. I was like, man,
sometimes I just let that, you know, you let yourself is sometimes your
(22:32):
biggest enemy, right? So you let yourself get in the way of how
fast you can grow and where you can go. And, um, I think it's
really important just to let that go and just take the
chance because you, I mean, if I didn't, if I didn't
hire, I hired 2 people within 30 days of starting my business.
If I didn't, and I had never met a manager. I never met a supervisor.
(22:55):
And if I never, I had, and I was a brand new mom. So that
was probably the highest management that I ever got was being a mom.
And if I didn't like take the bullet and just hire them and figure it
out, like I would have built the amazing team I have today, so.
Oh no, it's a great feeling to be able
(23:16):
to build something and know that you've built it
and, and, and had you not taken that
step,
like, where would you be? And so for me, it's been able
to, again, step out of my comfort zone and do things that I normally
don't do. Um, 1 of the things I actually,
(23:38):
I actually applied last year to speak at pod
fest because it was something I've, I've like, I would like to
get into speaking and stuff like that, especially now with me doing my podcast
and me getting more comfortable with myself, it's
allowed me to take those risks,
to be able to like, let me try it, let me see what happens. The
(24:00):
worst thing that can happen is I suck. But if it,
but that's how I wasn't great when I started my podcast.
It took me, it took time for me to develop and
grow. It took time for me to really get comfortable with myself because
I wasn't in media. I wasn't something, this wasn't
something that was in my lane. And so when I
(24:22):
decided to start the podcast, it was like, let's do it. And
I named it Stuck in My Mind because I was stuck in my mind for
so long with it. Like making up excuses. I can't do
it. I sound horrible. People are not going to and
so when I did the first episode 5 minutes long stuck
in my mind was what came up that was the name of the podcast
(24:44):
and And I've been having a great time.
I've just released, as far as my audio, I just released episode
186. Wow, congrats. That's amazing.
And then I've probably done over 100 now
with video on it. So it's been, it's been
(25:04):
a wonderful time. It's been a wonderful time being able to do this. Yeah. It's
all about starting ugly, right? I think that's the title of the book that
Chris, so he's the 1 that created Podfest.
Yeah. So his book is called start ugly. And it was
actually amazing because that's
asked because it'd be a, I had helped so many different
(25:28):
products with their podcasts. I did it for probably hundreds of people.
And then I was like, I'm 1 day gonna start
my podcast when it's all perfect. And he's like, no,
you have to start ugly. And he's like, you know, you're not gonna start. You're
gonna keep waiting for it to be perfect and life's not perfect. So your podcast
is never gonna be perfect. And so I started it and I've been
(25:51):
having so much fun ever since. I had a
fellow podcast on, but she was strictly audio. She didn't do
video. So I had seen her, we were
on a virtual event that we were both doing shows on it.
And I saw her speaking and I was like, oh man, I would love to
have her on my show. And my friend hooked it up. She knew who
(26:14):
she was, made a connection. And I had her on the show
and she was like, Oh, I commend you for doing video.
She says, I can, she says, I can't do it. I'm waiting until it's perfect.
I'm waiting until I'm ready. And I go, you failed
already. You failed already because it's never going to be
perfect. If you're waiting for perfection, you're going to be waiting forever because
(26:37):
it's not going to happen. Things happen. You just need to take that
step and record video. It's the only way you're
going to improve and know that you're good at it is by doing
it. So if you're waiting for perfection, it's
never gonna happen because you're not doing it. So true.
So you have to take that first step in order
(26:58):
to, and like I said, to this day,
I've had technical difficulties. I've had times where the camera
want to act the fool or my system wants to act the fool and
and it happens. You just can't. You just have to roll with the punches.
Yeah, I think that's everything in life. I feel like that was a lot of
me and my husband's relationship. When we first got together, we were just
(27:21):
trying to all figure it out. And it's like, you really just,
you have to work on it, right? It's like your marriage, your business, your
podcast, whatever you have, you have to put in the work to see
the results. So if you're not putting in the work because you're waiting for it
to be perfect, well, it's not going to be because
you didn't even work on it yet. So yeah, I definitely
(27:43):
learned a lot of really good lessons in that book. I think it was like,
it was a really easy read and a short read, but had so much knowledge
and power in it. I was like, this is perfect. I
know it's Chris, Chris definitely knows what he's talking about.
It was, it was, It's amazing just to go
down there and see what he's built. Cause he
(28:06):
brings together, like I had some kids from the
UK come and they interviewed me for a couple of
minutes and asked me for what tips would you give someone who started now?
And I said, just be consistent. Do see what you did right now. Were you
weren't afraid to come up to me and speak to me and ask me a
question. Keep doing that. Just keep being yourself. Keep
(28:27):
being consistent. Keep doing that. Don't be afraid. Like you
guys, I wish I was like, I wish I had started, I had known
at your age that this was something I would like to do. And it
was cool to be able to share
whatever little knowledge I have with some kids that really
were interested, that really wanted to know what was going on. Like,
(28:49):
so it's those moments to be able to help people
and share the stuff I've learned,
podcasting. Like,
I know how you, I know you know how I feel, the way I feel
is just like, I wish everyone could enjoy what we
do. Because it's an amazing feeling to be able to
(29:11):
sit down, have wonderful conversations.
And when you leave that conversation, you're like wired.
Yeah. Because it was so much great
energy just flowing back and forth through the conversation that
I've had days where I've recorded 4 shows in a day And I'm
still full of energy by episode 4 because they were
(29:34):
all great conversations. Yeah. Yeah. I
get that too. And it's like, I am definitely an extrovert. I'm a hundred
percent extrovert. And, um, I absolutely
love just talking with people, learning from them. And that's, you
know, my podcast is the same way where I interview women entrepreneurs
and their journeys, especially when it comes to motherhood and,
(29:57):
um, and running a business, because that's a whole crazy another life.
But, um, yeah, so I think
I just get so much joy from like being able to talk with them
and help them. And you know, it's amazing
the things you'll learn just by having a conversation with someone actually at
PodFest. I don't know if you met Bonnie, but
(30:19):
she is a woman that's actually homeless and she has
been twice now to PodFest. And she
her stories are absolutely amazing. And just
like she wanted to go to a podfest and she
couldn't afford it. And she basically like manifested it and ended
up winning a free ticket. And so she
(30:41):
did that 2 years in a row. Or I think the second year she was
part of their give back program where they give people that can't afford tickets.
So actually people donate tickets, which is amazing.
And but her life story is just like, man, the things she went through
made. Even though I've had quite a journey myself, it was like, man,
I have a really blessed life, you know,
(31:04):
just from listening to her journey and her resilience, man. I was like,
I thought I was resilient. She's got it in spades. And it
was just, oh man, stories like that, just like they
fuel your soul, you know? But it's amazing.
It's everyone has a story, everyone
and everyone and no one's journey is more bigger than anyone
(31:26):
else's because your story is your story. It's made
you who you are. And it's and so when someone asked me, like, oh, do
you regret anything that happened in your life? And I'm like, no, I wouldn't
wish things that happened to me upon other people.
But everything that's happened has made me the person
has given me the strength to continue on
(31:49):
and help me realize that
every day you're gonna have ups and downs and just just
go with it you just go in and take life 1 day at a
time enjoy and and and I've and
and honestly since I've really been podcasting
it's been such a relief to be able to just come on,
(32:12):
be myself, talk on, talk on my podcast and talk to my guests
and, and not worry about
the future, worry about now, just focus on what I'm doing now
and the love that I have for what I'm doing now.
Yeah. Yeah. Just being that present moment, right. And I feel like
it's so hard to do sometimes. I always say about the future,
(32:34):
and especially when you're in this moment, you're thinking about, man, what do I have
to do next? And what do I have to work on next? But you really
got to just sit back a moment and appreciate where you are and
everything you've done in the past too. I think it's really healthy to,
you know, have a focus on the future, focus on the present and
focus on the past, but really like living in the present. And it's just
(32:55):
like, it's so powerful because that's when you're like, man, I did
all of that. And now I'm here I am. And I'm like, isn't this a
cool thing? Like I get to talk on a microphone to all these
people around the world. Like I talked to someone from the UK the other day
and I was like, how cool is this? That I get to do
this and I get to be my own boss And I hired myself and I
(33:16):
put the work on myself. And I think that's, it's a really
cool thing. It is, it is. So what, what
advice would you give someone who's just starting out as an entrepreneur?
Oh man, probably have so much. I think My 1 is
definitely just start. You're also going to hear a
lot of advice from a lot of different people. And you're going to see a
(33:37):
lot of resources and YouTube and podcasts. And there's so much
knowledge out there in the world. It can overwhelm you. And the only
way you're going to find out what works best for you is by starting.
Yeah, it's but it's.
I know prior to the way it is now, being an
(34:00):
entrepreneur was a difficult path because you
don't have the resources that you have now with so many
people sharing tips and advice on how to grow a
successful business that you can go
with what resonates with you. You can go There's
just some certain information that's not gonna resonate with you. Then that's
(34:22):
not meant for you, but then you're gonna get, you're gonna read, you're gonna watch
something or read something and the light bulb goes off
and you're like, That's me. That's what I have
to do. And so it's a different
animal now. It's still not
easy being an entrepreneur, but it's a lot
(34:44):
less lonely now. Yeah.
Being able now, especially with the connections you can make globally
because of the internet and all that. Now, like you said,
I've interviewed people all over the world now.
And to think I would have been able to do that a few years ago,
(35:05):
I would have laughed if someone would have said, oh, you'll be interviewing people from
all over the world. You'll have listeners from all over the world.
Who, me? That's not possible. But it's
possible. Yeah, pretty much. It's crazy. Anything is possible
in business. I feel like it's absolutely insane. The things
like I never thought I'd hit 6 figures in 3 months. Like who does that?
(35:27):
And I, it was because, you know, I just gave it my all and I
started and I started messy. And yeah, I made a hundred million mistakes,
but I also was able, like, I looked for
those connections. Like I looked to network. If you're not looking
to network, you're not going to network. I think it's 1 of those things like
you have to look for events. Like I use like Meetup
(35:51):
and Eventbrite and there's a hundred Facebook groups out there
that you can look at, but just really taking the effort to
connect with people, No matter what you're doing in
life is just like, I think, especially after the pandemic, we learned
that we need, we're humans, we need to connect with people. I think that we
learned that that year more than anything is that we need
(36:13):
to interact with humans and what better way
than do it on the internet, right? Because you can access all sorts
of different people and cultures and it's a beautiful thing.
No, it is. And honestly, 1 thing
I've been able to get from doing my shows is that,
yes, people are different. People are different, but
(36:36):
at the core of it all or we really wanted the same
things is to be happy healthy
and make sure our family is doing well and then that's all
we all truly want at the bottom of it all. And so to be able
to speak to people from all walks of life
and realize that that's what they want as well
(37:01):
And they're doing things that you're capable
of doing as well. And you're like, man, if they can accomplish
these amazing things, why not me?
Why can I not accomplish these things? Why can't my audience members accomplish
these things? Because these are just regular folks like us.
And to be able to speak to them and have them share their message
(37:25):
and have people hear their story, your story,
where You were in foster care at 14.
Yeah. A lot of people would have used that as a crutch. A lot of
people would have used that as an excuse to why their life
is the way it is. But what
you took it as, you took it and you ran with it and you
(37:47):
used it to help build you up. You use your struggles
to make things happen, to build a business, like you said,
and 3 to 4 months, you made it 6 figures.
Who does that? I have no idea, man.
Not many people can say that. Yeah. And if you take your struggles and
(38:09):
you just put it into motivation, you know, especially like you said, we
all want to make sure our families are doing well. And I think I took
that as like the biggest challenge as a new mom. I was like,
all right, my business has to do well because I need to provide for my
family. Now I have a newborn baby that had a lot of
medical issues and we needed the money. And so I was like,
(38:30):
man, I got to use every ounce of
knowledge that I have and I have to create this business that has to be
successful. There is no other option because I have this
little baby depending on me and she's about to be 7 this
year and I'll cry if I talk about it,
but, but it is absolutely amazing
(38:52):
what you can do. And now I'm able to provide a stable family for her,
you know, the 1 that I kind of imagined as a teenager and
it's, And then my in-laws became like this whole other family for
me. And so it's really cool what you do when
you take a chance and you give it your all and you put all your
work into it. It works out. It does in the long run. It's hard at
(39:14):
first. And you
don't even want to know what my first marriage, like my first year of marriage
was like, because it was hectic because we had a newborn baby.
We struggled and we struggled financially, we struggled in our marriage,
but we eventually got out of that struggle
because we all worked on it and we worked together. And so I think
(39:37):
that's really the core of it is you just have to give it your all
and you have to work through those struggles. Don't let them get you down. Don't
give up, you know, don't use it as a crutch like you said, and just
keep going. Yeah, definitely. You
have to, again, it's
easy to, to allow what happened on
(39:59):
our past dictate what our future is going to be.
And so people just hold on to
that and use that like oh this is why I can't succeed,
this happened to me. And it's
It's a shame that we have that mind, that people
have that mindset. But it's also
(40:23):
my job to show people that you don't have to
remain that way. You're capable,
regardless of how old you are or whatever, if you really want
change in your life, you can affect it, you can make it happen.
It starts with you. And
(40:46):
It takes a lot to admit that you need help.
It takes a lot for you to be like, oh man, I'm struggling.
I wish I had someone to help. Or even reach out to people. It
takes courage to be able to reach out to people when you're struggling and
wanting help. Yeah,
it really does. And it's like, you know, building that they
(41:08):
say it takes a village and you need to start
building that your village. I can't tell you how many times people have said to
me, well, I didn't have, I don't have supportive family or I don't
have this, these type of friends. And I'm like, well, I was a
foster kid. I didn't either. I had to kind of piece
together my village, right. I had to put in the work in those
(41:30):
connections. Cause that's what I wanted. I wanted a village.
And so, and that village is what's going to be your support system. That's what
gets you through, you know, all the issues that
you have internally. That's the people you go to when you just want to
vent and you just want someone to say, Hey, it's okay. You got this.
And it doesn't come biologically. It doesn't come
(41:53):
naturally. It's something that you have the power to choose
who's in your village. You get to choose, you know, who
you're going to vent to and you just have to put the
work in. And it's really, you know, it's so important to
make sure you're surrounded by people that are supportive and that are like
who you want to be. They say your network is your net worth And
(42:15):
it's 100% correct. So make sure that you're
surrounding yourself with people who want to be better, who
are like what you want to be. I know we have a lot
of older and have another very successful
businesses and families in life. And so we surround ourselves with people we
want to be like, to help mold us and guide us through those
(42:37):
times. Yeah, because you wanna associate
with those people because they are where you wanna get
to. So they know the path.
So if they're able to share that path with you,
it's such an amazing, it's, I have a friend, I've known
him for the last year. We've been friends for a year.
(43:00):
And in that year, he's become 1 of my best friends. And he's also
become a mentor to me because he's an amazing
executive producer. The way he produces shows
is magnificent.
I'm like, I'm in awe every time me and him work together
and we do a weekly show together. And I'm in awe
(43:23):
every week with the show that this man puts together and to be
able to, to work with him and learn
from him and him wanting to,
him willing to share his knowledge with me and see
something in me and be like, I'm going to share what I know
with him because I know he wants to learn
(43:45):
it. Yeah. And so for me, it's
like, all right, when, when the time's going to come where someone's going to
come to me and be like, and want to learn from me, and I have
to approach it the same way Cole approached it with me, like,
all right, young buck, you want to learn? Here you go.
And show them the way. Yeah. And but it's those like
(44:07):
you said, it's the it's the network
that you build is the and 1 thing you mentioned village me and
my nephew. Our thing is we are the village because
we want, that's what we, we, when we grew up, we grew up in a
time where in
our, in our neighborhood, you couldn't do anything without
(44:30):
it getting back to your mother before you even got home. This is
before the Internet. This is before cell phones. This is before any of
that time. So before you got home, your mother
already knew you had done something wrong. Yeah. Because the
village was watching you and they peeped it and they're like,
okay, we're gonna get the message down along the line.
(44:52):
And it wasn't just for whenever I got in trouble, it was to also protect
me. Yeah. If they saw something that was out
of line, they stepped to it. I mean, sure. So
we've always been about growing our own village. We've always thought
about starting our own community because
we feel that's what is lacking nowadays
(45:15):
is neighbors don't really know each other. They don't really
communicate with each other. So that's something we wanna change
and that's something we wanna encourage is building your
village. That is amazing. We are lucky
that we live kind of in a village. We live at my husband's work. So
it's a lot like military life, very similar. And so
(45:37):
his, our next door neighbor is his best friend and my daughter's
godfather. And, you know, we are just surrounded by
a bunch of coworkers and all the wives. You know, we look after 1 another
and our families. And I just think it's a really beautiful thing
that we built and we're just always checking
in on each other. And, you know, if
(46:00):
we actually, a couple of years ago, 1 of them actually lost her
husband. And so the way that that community
supported her was beautiful. It was
just like, you know, you need help with, because where we live,
If the person that works here passes away, they have 30
days to move, which can you imagine that is heartbreaking.
(46:22):
They don't force it of course, because they're human. They get
how hard this is, but you cannot keep the house if you do not work
here. And so we were all helping her pack, making sure
she had a home. She had like 4 children and giving
her meals and anything we could do to help support her. And it was
just it was just amazing to see it all come together.
(46:44):
And She's like, man, I couldn't have done this without you guys,
because I would have been alone. And you never want anyone
to have to feel that. Because being alone, man, that was probably,
in foster care, I really felt alone. I felt like I had absolutely
no 1 who was truly on my side. And it was the
(47:05):
worst feeling I've probably experienced in my
life. So I have definitely made it my mission to surround
myself with positive, amazing people. So I
never have to feel that again. And you don't want that for your children. So
like building that community and that village is so, so
important. It is, it definitely is. That's something that, again, like
(47:27):
I said, me and my nephew, that's something we strongly believe in
is, and we always talk about, we are the village. That's, that's
our thing. We, we want to build that, that
community that we, we know exists because we've, we were a
part of it firsthand. So to, to try to
build something up like that again. It's it was it was a no-brainer
(47:49):
for us like this is what our goal is this is what we want want
to build this community because we see
what when you're working together as a community
the amazing things you can build. Yeah.
So yeah. That's amazing. Yeah, it
is. But this has been great. I appreciate you coming on the
(48:11):
show. Now is the part of the show where you get to plug away, let
everybody know where they can find you. Uh,
if you have any courses, books, anything, this is just,
here you go. Awesome. Thanks. So yeah, I have a million
different ways and things I do between the virtual assistant agency and the
marketing agency. So your easiest way to find me is, um, my
(48:34):
personal brand website, which it's, it's natalie guzman.com.
So make sure you put the ITS in front of my name and you'll find
me there and you can get all sorts of cool things from, um,
podcast toolkits. We have course toolkits, summits, and you can
even hop on a call with me and we can chat and maybe come up
with a strategy to help you with your business or your podcast. So,
(48:56):
so happy to be on. Thanks, Weiss. Thank
you. Thank you for being on. I really appreciate you being a guest. But don't
leave just yet. Let me close out this show. Close out the show and I
will chat a little bit off the air. But uh, thank you once again for
being such a great guest. Yeah, of course. Anytime. I've had so
much fun. Thank you. All right, Hold on 1 second.
(49:17):
All right. So now it is time for shout outs. Big shout out to
everybody who checked out the show today. Greatly appreciate it. Big shout
out to my real wise fan, Poppy J, Brandy J. Love you
guys. Big shout out to the boss lady. Love you baby and
appreciate you. Big shout out to our guest Natalie Guzman
for coming through and sharing her story
(49:39):
and just showing you, listen people, it's an amazing story.
3 months, she took her business to 6 figures. It can
be done, but it's hard work. It's work. It's definitely work.
And as always, a big, big shout out to all the essential
workers out there. God bless y'all be safe. You know, your boy
wise does it. Peace out.
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