Episode 138 - Danielle Woolley, The Jersey Podcats

Meet my guest, Danielle Woolley! She is a longtime Association of Women Inventors and Entrepreneurs member. Learn how she is helping cats in need, and how being an AOWIE member has helped launch her new venture!

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Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Hi, everybody. I'm Lisa,asked Lisa Inventress, CEO and founder of
Inventing a to Z, And herewe are on my Inventuress podcast. I
cannot tell you how excited I haveto have this guest on my show.
She has been a longtime friend,a part of a ay we member,
just um, a connector, oneof the most magnificent people I know.

(00:30):
Welcome Danielle Woollee from you your Jerseypodcasts, your Jersey now, but you
do a lot of other things.Hi, Danielle, how you doing.
I'm excited that we finally made thishappen, even though we've done it a
couple of times before. But it'sso crazy how our schedules get, which
is a good thing. Productivity isgood. Yeah. Well we recorded oh

(00:51):
my gosh is it. I don'tknow how many years ago it is now,
But you're always doing something new andinnovative, and that's what I love
about Your most important are a connectorand you connect people and we love connecting
you. Thank you. No,So let's tell people about who you are
and what you're doing and most excitedfor you right now about Jersey, your

(01:19):
podcast, the podcast that you're doingthe Jersey Podcasts podcast, and yes,
I can say it ten times fast. People have challenged me I can't,
so thank you. So like youmentioned, I'm a connector, and for
a while I didn't even know whatI was. I feel like we might
have talked about this in an olderepisode. But like when people say,
oh, you're a networker, andthere's just something about that word, I'm
like, oh, what that soundslike the person that goes around and chubs

(01:41):
business cards in people's face. I'mnot that. I like to talk to
people. I get to learn aboutwhat they're doing. I like to take
the ideas that they have and helpconnect them to somebody else. I can
help them do that idea hint,Lisa, And most of the time,
and I just love people. Ilove entrepreneurship, I love you know,
business stuff, and I love cats. So the fast, long medium version

(02:05):
of what I'll tell you guys abouthow I wound up with a podcast like
this is I was at the Associationof Women Inventors and Entrepreneurs conference and when
people were going around and introducing themselvesand very excitedly talking about all their entrepreneurship
things they were working on, andall the businesses and the cool inventions that
they had. I was like ina spot and I remember specifically because it
was November, and I call itmy November and you guys, you know

(02:29):
you'll love that, right, No, when people ask me to do something
in November, love it. Soeveryone else is being really excited talking about
their businesses. I was just burntout with clients. I already had a
full roster on that side. I'vebeen looking for something more creative to do,
and I had been spending a lotof time working in cat rescue and
doing fundraising and marketing for nonprofits.So when it came my turn to introduced

(02:53):
myself to people, I'm like,you guys are all amazing. I love
everything you're doing, but I don'twant to talk about business. But if
you want to talk about health orcat rescue, like, that's cool with
me. And I kind of saidit jokingly, and that's when I met
another one of the attendees from theconference, Elizabeth Gearhart, who said,
I'm supposed to meet someone who likescats today because me and my husband were

(03:15):
just staying in the car, weneed to start a podcast. And I
was like, ah no, becauseit was November right. So I explained
to her, like that sounds exciting. I just have a lot on my
plate right now, maybe in thefuture. And you know what she said
to me, She said, well, I think we were meant to meet
today. And I think the reasonyou're having to say no to everybody else

(03:36):
so that you could say yes tothis. And we're starting a podcast.
That's Elizabeth. That's Elizabeth Gearhart.She really makes stuff happen. She really
does pushes me more than I'm like, Oh, I don't know if I
could do that. She's I guesswe can't. Let's do it right now.
Come And we had an LLC anda business started together and we had
just met sharing bank account information signingagreements. Well, it's a trusting environment.

(04:00):
Well, you know, I mean, they've been around for a long
time. They've been at every singleconference. I don't know if you've ever
connected with them before. No.And that's the funny thing. I had
been so busy running around or volunteeringor dancing. Do you go to the
conference? I demand that you dance. Yeah, But they've been at every
conference, and you know that peoplewho comment and we become a family,
all of us. But I haveto say congratulations to you on this podcast.

(04:25):
Thank you, and I'm amazed athow quickly everything took off. Not
only did you meet Elizabeth that dayat our a week conference. You guys,
you talked about it, you connected, and you make things happen.
That did that. I think it'sall about too, this Inventors podcast,

(04:46):
and this is what you're doing asan entrepreneur. You speak it into existence
and you make it happen. Yeah, and I think it you know,
just listening because I listened to yourpodcast. I prefer on YouTube. But
it is funny because I yelled allof our listeners please follow an Apple podcast,
the Jersey Podcasts podcast. Look itup, make sure you fall and
subscribe. But I personally liked doingYouTube because I like seeing the interaction of
the people talking and people. I'mfrom Jersey. You see my hands moving

(05:09):
all over the place. Yeah,yes. But what I liked about it
is we focused on you know,this is definitely going to be a business.
We knew that from day one.We didn't quite know how yet,
because we had a lot of youknow, ideas, we just weren't sure
we're going to do. And itwas until we started doing stuff where we
were like, we're going to dothis as the monetization piece, and we're
like, hmm, that seems overwhelming. Let's try this instead. And then

(05:30):
we just started talking to people.We had a wait list, like incredible
people just wanting to talk about theircats. Isn't there there are cat people
out there? There are It's athing. It really is a thing.
And I've learned that over the pastseveral years, especially knowing Elizabeth and I've
been to our house several times withtheir cats and all that, and peep.

(05:53):
Everybody I know with their cats whohave cats are big time into the
cats. Yeah, I'm like cats. I do like cats, and I've
had cats. You know, wehave dogs, well, I have grand
dogs now. I would say you'regrand dogs. Yeah, I have grand
dogs now, But we always haddogs growing up, and like you know,
sprinkles up cats periodically. Yeah,And we say that we love all

(06:15):
animals, but if we had tochoose to only live with an animal for
the rest of our lives, itwould be a cat. Isn't that funny?
Yeah, and help me tell mewhat the cat thing is. So
for me, I just like Ifeel like sometimes I am a cat too,
and It's funny because we joked aroundthe fact that we're these professional,
like really smart and then I couldsay that because I'm very confident in myself,

(06:36):
like very connected, networking, businessee entrepreneur people, but like we
were always kind of embarrassed to talkabout the cat side of things. And
if I hadn't introduced myself as aI'm just over business right now. But
if you want to talk about cats, I'm your girl, we wouldn't have
met so many cool people. Sothe whole idea of the show originated when
we were connecting over her cat thatwas sick and a lot of the cats

(06:58):
stuff we were looking into. Itwas like way too crazy cat for us,
So like we were trying to findlike that in between of like we
love cats, but we're also somewhatnormal people, even though I know I'm
a little eccentric and makes you Danielleand the best, the best, thank
you. So we were just tryingto say, like, how can we
do this? So we started withthis is the issue that her cat Max
is having. Have any of ourlisteners heard this, Did you struggle with

(07:21):
something similar? Who do you connectwith to get help in these areas?
Because it's really not much. Imean, you have family members, you
can connect with their support groups forthat, But when your animals are sick,
it's like, Okay, who doI talk to? Like who cares
about my cat that's sick? Likewe care, We listen. We may
not know the answer, But becauseI love connecting people and I love learning
things, I just found people whosomewhat knew the answer, who could connect

(07:43):
with me to someone that knew theanswer and spoil or her cat's doing much
better now. But we brought peoplethrough the journey of what was happening with
him on there while giving people theopportunity to talk about their own cats and
like what's cool about them? Whattips do they have, and then something
that they're excited about. So that'sthat's what brings the connective piece back in.
And through that I would say,like, we've gotten some really cool

(08:05):
guests where we purposely don't say,so tell me what do you do?
We just say, tell us aboutyour cats, Why do you love cats?
Why are you on the show.Then through conversation, we've had music
producer for like very famous artists andlike while we're talking, I'm like,
wait, what did he just sayhe does. That's so cool. He
just talked about his cat for twentyminutes and I had to cut him off.

(08:26):
That's someone she loves these animals.And then just bringing in stories that
people can relate to, like whatare you doing out in the community,
what's a cool business that you're doing. My glasses and I'm wearing right now.
I'm talking very fastcause I'm so excitedto talk about this stuff. I
love this. Well you listen,I think you pop. You know how
fast I talked to Yeah, yeah, so. But even like my glasses,

(08:48):
I was struggling with issues in myeyes because I have some autoimmune issues.
And through sharing that on the podcastand I was like, oh,
you should talk to so and so. They have a business that is for
glasses and their profit it's going tohelp animals. I'm like, well,
you suckered me in. I'm doingit way m hmmm. So that's how
I'm mind up with these. Ilove your glasses. Thank you, specs.

(09:09):
I wear I love what is calledit's called specs, I wear Spex.
I love them. I love them. No, I love this.
I love what you're doing. Daniel. This is so your forte. This
is so like rite up your alleycat. Yeah, all you know what,
that's it? Go and I haveto read that. Yeah, And
it's all changing as we're going too. And actually Petsy Apps. I know

(09:31):
you guys are familiar with Petsy apptoo, if you've been listening to Lisa,
Like we just said, like,hey, I'm sure you guys can
talk about cats, are you in? Then they did. So it's just
showing all these people cool things,whether it's technology or products or services or
just people sharing their love of catsor rescue. I have to tell you
something, it's so nice to beable to step away from business because,
like you said in the very beginning, we are on business overload. We

(09:56):
really are. I mean it's andsometimes I'm always talking about because I love
what I do. I love whatI do. And very recently somebody said
to me it was a Sunday afternoon, and I won't I won't say the
person saying, but she was like, can we just talk about something else?
I can feel that, Yeah,let's talk about the beach, or

(10:16):
let's talk about Olivia, or let'sjust talk about life and us and like
you said, and help and thethings that we the things outside of our
businesses that make us super happy.So I completely relate to this, completely
relate to your November. Your November, I love it because you have to
shut down and holiday. I literallydid I shut down? Well, my

(10:39):
shutting down is going to the beachand writing, down, writing and writing
and doing, you know, writingthings that excite me. But my business
does excite me. And helping otherpeople excites me. And having these conversations
with people like you, Danielle exciteme too. So I mean, I
love Jersey Podcasts Cats. I can'tsay it ten time. I'll say it

(11:03):
for you. The Jersey Podcasts podcastswith Danielle Willey and Elizabeth Gerhardt. So
how do they find you, Danielle, so you can connect with us.
We do have Instagram, the JerseyPodcasts. We have a website, the
Jersey Podcasts, and also on YouTubewe're the Jersey Podcasts. We have a

(11:24):
community on Facebook where we're trying tohelp build community around people's love for cats
too, and it's called the JerseyPodcasts Community or on your favorite podcast player.
So if you're on Apple, Googleall of them and it's the Jersey
Podcasts. But I will tell youthat Google tries to help you and auto
correct you and says I think youmean to search for the Jersey podcast and
you have to say, no,I don't, I mean to search for

(11:46):
the Jersey Podcasts podcast. So that'swhy I added that extra podcast at the
end. Very smart. Yeah,well this is awesome and I can't wait
for you to talk about this atour a week conference. Yeah. Can
I talk about that yet? Yes? So I love the conference and we
really appreciate the community that's built aroundit. So sometimes people hear the word

(12:07):
conference and they're like, oh,do we still have to do these?
Like is that still a thing?And this is not just a conference.
It's an opportunity for people to cometogether and connect and you can be your
true authentic self, be excited aboutyour business, but be excited about other
things. There are speakers, youcould do a pitch competition if you've got
something that you've been thinking about.I think you call it from Napkin to

(12:28):
Fruition, right, say, Ilisten, I listen Danielle, and we
get to dance and listen to reallygreat music. You know. So it's
an event, miraculous event. Yeah, people come together and connect and I
think it's just in a divine space. Maybe we'll call it that instead of
a conference. Maybe it's going tobe a divine event one right, well,

(12:52):
I'm there, yeah, all right, Danielle, you are amazing.
You're amazing. I love having youhere and I can't we to see you
in September or before that, rightbefore the conference. And again share.
But you have a Facebook page whichis also the podcast thing yep, the
Jersey podcast, so you can findthat everywhere, matter where you go.

(13:13):
You're brilliant. I try. Ilove you, I appreciate you. I
can't wait to see you. Andlet's let's do hugs, and let's do
a podcast dance dancing and actually,if you're watching on YouTube, there's actually
a cat sleeping behind me right now. That's funny. I did you even
see him? There? That's it. But thank you for having me.
This is great, my pleasure,honey, thank you so much. I'll

(13:35):
see you soon. M h yeahyeah