Hello and welcome to the Real Woman Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. And today I am challenging the idea that the newest strategy, the loudest expert or the latest business trend is automatically the smartest path forward. For many of my "Accidental CEOs", as I affectionately refer to my "Accidental CEOs", these are people who followed more passion than plan and woke up one day and realized, oh my goodness, I am the CEO of a company.

What I find for many of them is that the problem is not that they don't know enough. It's that they have started ignoring what they already know works in favor of whatever is currently getting the most attention online. Whatever that latest fad is, whatever that latest trend is, that latest hack. And there's a very good chance that one of the smartest strategies that's available to you right now is actually something that you are already doing or something that you used to do, but you've started to dismiss it because it doesn't feel new, exciting.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and today's guest is Tre Balchowsky, a coach who helps founders and entrepreneurs build influence, win trust and close clients or funding by finding their voice and learning to tell their story clearly. Her clients have closed an incredible $142 million in funding. She's helped deliver 17 TED and TEDx talks and her work is grounded in the

Very simple belief. Public speaking and storytelling just aren't optional extras for business owners. They are learned skills that make your ideas understandable, memorable, and easier to say yes to. So Tre, welcome to the show.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and today's guest is Carrie KC West. And she is an international and award winning bestselling author, speaker and narrative coach who helps entrepreneurs and leaders to reshape the stories that quietly shape how they lead, earn and make decisions. With a background in filmmaking from the American Film Institute and counseling psychology from Penn State, Carrie blends storytelling with

deep insight into human behavior. Her work is centered on authorship, helping people recognize the internal narratives running in the background and consciously write what comes next in business and in life. Carrie, welcome to the show.

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. And today we're talking about visibility and about some of the assumptions that we make around this and some of the simple tweaks that we can make in both our mindset as well as our actions that can make a really big difference. So first, let me start by telling you a little story. I was driving to my run the other morning for those of you who have been here for a while.

you know that I'm one of those crazy runners who runs at around five o'clock in the morning. And I actually oversee a women's running group because of course at 5 a.m. it's dark out and we, know, safety and numbers and all. And so we meet at different locations around the city, depending on what day of the week it is. So it's around five o'clock in the morning and I am driving to the run meetup spot. Completely dark out of course. And as I'm sitting at a light, I watch this cyclist come just flying off the sidewalk.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business Podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and today's guest is Sherry Andrew. She is the owner and financial coach at Money Mindset Financial Coaching. Now, after being fired from a nearly 17 year career, Sherry rebuilt her relationship with money from the ground up, starting with the systems that helped her manage real life finances without shame or restriction.

She later launched her coaching business in 2018 and she now helps individuals and entrepreneurs and especially those with ADHD to create simple supportive money systems that bring clarity, confidence and consistency and actually work with their lives. Sherry is an accredited financial counselor, Canada and a certified professional financial coach. And her clients are known for making meaningful progress like paying off debt, saving and hitting financial goals.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. And today's guest is Shannyn Schroeder. She is the founder of EF Bomb Coach. Don't worry, we're gonna explain what that F really means. It's EF Bomb Coach. And Shannyn helps neurodivergent women better understand executive function, hint, hint, and build supportive systems that make business and life feel more manageable. She's got a background in executive function coaching, special education, and years of real world business experience.

She blends practical tools with self-acceptance to help women to stop blaming themselves and start working with their brains instead of against them. And so in this conversation, we're going to be talking about ADHD, executive function and why business can feel so much harder than it needs to when the advice you've been given was actually never built for the way that your brain works.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and today is a very special two year anniversary episode. And I just want to say, first of all, thank you so much for joining me today. If you're new here, welcome. I hope that you enjoy the show and you will continue to join us each week. But if you've been here for a little while, I just want to say thank you so much for your support. It truly means the world to me. That started as a passion project of mine a couple of years ago, and it has grown incredibly.

beyond my wildest dreams. has been something that has not only fulfilled me and a passion inside my heart, but I hear from you guys constantly about how much these episodes are helping you. So I just want to say thank you so much for inviting me into your car, your home, wherever you're listening to me and allowing me to be a part of your journey. I want to ask, let me start this episode by asking you, how many times in the last few days have you said, I'm going to deal with that later?

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and today's guest is Jane Harris. She's the co-founder of The Virgin Hair Fantasy, which is a luxury wig and beauty brand, and she is helping women reclaim confidence through hair and self-expression. Now, Jane started her business with just $500, and she grew it into a multi-million dollar global company. And this was all while being a homeschooling mom.

a mentor and a speaker. She has taught and mentored hundreds of students through her wig and beauty business trainings. And she's passionate about helping women feel empowered, not just in how they look, but in how they show up in their lives. And so we're gonna be talking about what it really takes to scale a product-based business. We're gonna talk a little bit about the confidence side of beauty and of course, some of her practical tips on how to wear your wig better. She's got a challenge for us and everything. So Jane, welcome to the show.

Jane Harris (02:45.176)

Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. It's such an honor.

Shauna Lynn SImon (02:49.774)

I can't wait to dig into your story a little bit, because it's a pretty impressive story. Like you didn't just build a wig brand, you built a confident brand and you did it on literally like a shoestring kind of budget here. So let's go back. So when you started the business, you mentioned you started this with $500. What did it look like? Where was that $500 being spent? How were you?

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and today's guest is Fabienne Fredrickson. She is the founder of Boldheart and for more than 20 years, she's been mentoring thousands of women business owners and helping them to grow and scale without sacrificing their freedom or their relationships or their peace. She is known for helping women move from overwhelmed at six figures to building leveraged, self-managing businesses.

on a path towards seven figures while reclaiming their time, including the bold goal of having 14 weeks of vacation a year. Imagine making seven figures and actually taking that much time off. She's the author of The Leveraged Business, How You Can Go from Overwhelmed at Six Figures to Seven Figures and Get Your Life Back. And today we're gonna be talking about what that leverage really looks like, how to scale without burning yourself out, and how to build a business that supports your life instead of.

consuming it. So Fabienne, thank you so much for joining me.

Fabienne Fredrickson (02:50.766)

I'm happy to be here, Shauna Lynn. Thanks for having me.

Shauna Lynn Simon (02:53.87)

I'm super excited to talk about this because of course, you know, let's talk seven figures is kind of the hashtag goal. But what I find when I'm speaking to a lot of women is exactly what you like. You've touched on this. You've you've nailed it with the I'm already overwhelmed at six figures. How the heck can I scale to seven? And this is such a common misconception that in order to "grow" you need to just do more of all the things you're already doing. And when you're like, I'm already at capacity, how can I

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business Podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. Thank you so much for joining me today. I want to tell you something that you may not be aware of and that you may not even want to hear. And that is that most business owners, don't really build a business. You think you've built a business. What you've actually built is a really expensive job. One that doesn't even necessarily pay you the same as you would get paid if you actually went out and got a full-time job.

And if someone were to offer you money for your business tomorrow, would you even know what you're selling them or how to sell it to them or how to value it? Like, do you think that your business even has value to it? I'm going to tell you something you might not want to hear. that is that most service businesses aren't actually sellable, at least not in their current state. And that might be surprising to you, but it also might kind of resonate with you too, because think about when you started your business.

We first start our businesses. We're all excited about the launch of it. We're thinking about launching it. We're thinking about growing it. These all sound like fun things. And the last thing on our mind is exiting the business. But honestly, it should be one of the first things that we think about when we launch our businesses. And it doesn't mean that you have to have the exact plan in place. But if you built your business as one that you would want to be able to sell one day, even if you never sell it, what that's going to do is it's going to make it that much easier for you to be able to run your business today.

Shauna Lynn Simon (01:50.094)

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. Today I'm being joined by Sonia Barney. She's the founder of Kaivari and Sonia Barney Designs and is an award winning interior designer with over 20 years in the industry and 10 plus years as a business owner herself. She created Kaivari to connect designers with the right coaches, the right resources and the right community so that they can grow sustainable businesses without getting overwhelmed by all the options that are out there. Now, full disclosure.

Sonia has been a client of mine and she's also learned from multiple other coaches over the years. So she brings a really grounded perspective on what makes coaching worth it and how to choose the right person when everyone seems to be promising the same results. So today we're gonna get real practical about coaching. We're gonna talk about how to know when you need it, how to choose the right coach in a sea of options and what to ask you can feel that you're clicking with them with confidence. So Sonia, welcome.

Sonia Barney (02:47.778)

Thank you for having me, Shauna Lynn I'm just glad to be back.

Shauna Lynn Simon (02:51.182)

I'm excited to have you on, especially because of course I've been a little bit on this journey of Kaivari with you. And I want to kind of like, let's for anyone who doesn't know who you are, maybe they didn't listen to the previous episode that we had you on the podcast. Let's just kind of go back to basics and tell us a little bit about your background, your interior design background and what kind of brought you to where you are today

Shauna Lynn Simon (01:50.35)

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business Podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and today's guest is Zahra Carol Baghdadi, fractional CFO and Financial Strategist, and she is the founder of Crunch TimeZ CFO Services, Inc. So Zahra works with startup founders and small business owners who are tired of reacting to cash flow surprises and want to lead with clarity. She's known for breaking down finance into practical, relatable insights, and today she's going to walk us through

the three numbers that help you to stop flying blind. I'm gonna let her share exactly what those three numbers are. So you're have to stay tuned to check it out. And we're gonna talk about not only what they are, but how to use them to make smarter business decisions. Zahra, welcome to the podcast.

thank you so much for having me, Shauna Lynn

Okay, so let's start from the beginning. So let's see when you're saying that founders are flying blind financially, what does that actually look like in real businesses? Because I think a lot of people think like, I don't know, like I know what's going on here. I'm running my business, I'm getting sales in, my clients love me and you know, I've my website works great. I think a lot of people tend to look at all that front facing kind of stuff. So when you say they're flying blind financially, what are they missing here?

That's an amazing question to start with. So I work with a lot of founders that when they come to me, that's the position they are in or they have been for a bit. yeah, financially flying blind. And what I mean by that is they have a lot of cash surprises. they often tend to ignore looking at their bank accounts, which you're going to get to it later on. But then they're like.

Shauna Lynn Simon (01:50.062)

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business Podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and I want you to tell me if this sounds familiar. You send out a proposal to a prospective new client, a couple of days pass, you don't get any reply, and your brain starts to write an entire Netflix series about all the reasons why you haven't heard back. This is incredibly common, especially for high achievers. High achievers are accustomed to being told that they're doing great things.

that the world is going to be handed to them, that everything that they touch is gold, essentially. And so if we don't hear from someone, we automatically go into kind of this worst case scenario. And today we're going to be talking about how to turn those spirals into a repeatable process that allows you to remain calm, professional, and avoid the stories that we're telling ourselves. Because this is happening pretty constantly. here's the thing. Here's what's happening. The reality is that our brains

hate uncertainty. What your brain's going to try to do when something is uncertain is it's going to try to fill in those gaps. So, you you might be telling yourself with this proposal situation, for example, you're saying, well, I think they're shopping around. They're going to try to find someone else. My price was too high. They hated the proposal. I didn't get the scope of work right. I didn't nail their vision. You know, that if they're questioning anything, you immediately start to think,

Well, they don't trust me. Or if they ask you a question about something, this is one of my favorite things. I have this happen. I've had it happen with team members, with my clients, where, you know, let's say you send them the proposal, someone responds back and says, hey, can you just explain what this charge is here? And immediately you get your backups and like, well, they don't understand the amount of work that goes into this. And that charge has to be there because of this, this, this, this, and this. I get that. But they're just asking a question. So instead of getting into defensive mode,

Shauna Lynn Simon (01:49.998)

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business Podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. Today's guest is Christine Blosdale. She's also known as the Expert Authority Coach and is a five time number one bestselling author, an award winning radio personality, and the host of the Expert Authority Coach Podcast. And with over 25 years in personal branding, magnetic marketing, and multimedia, including creating content for brands like America Online and Microsoft.

She helps entrepreneurs, coaches, authors, and thought leaders step into their brilliance and become the go-to authority in their field. Her style is simple, easy, and my favorite part, it's fun. And most importantly, it's effective. So we're going to be talking about how women can go from invisible to in-demand, build authority without burnout, and get seen in a way that actually feels authentic. She is speaking our language, so Christine, welcome.

thank you so much, Shauna Lynn I'm very excited about being with you today. Thank you.

I've been looking forward to this conversation because, we just had a little bit of an off-camera conversation about the importance of understanding your authority and being able to project that authority out there. And at the same time, there's probably some people who are wondering, like, what does this actually mean? So if someone's meeting you for the first time, can you tell us what is it that you actually do?

Right. Well, you know, I used to be like a lot of my clients that come to me and I used to say, what do I not do? Right. I'm a writer. I'm an, you know, I'm a published author. I'm a speaker. I do this. I do that. I help people create podcasts. It was all these different things. And then I realized that my messaging was being diluted by all of these really cool things that I like to do. And I have a lot of women come to me.

Shauna Lynn Simon (03:10.382)

How do we sum this up?

Christine Blosdale (03:37.182)

And they're in the same boat. They're very creative. They're very talented and they can do many things as we're women. We can spin a lot of different plates. But what I've what I've found over the years is that that message gets diluted. And what happens is your potential clients or customers are completely confused and they really don't know. They might like your posts or they might like, you know, "Oh she's cool. She looks cool. She seems cool."

Multi passion is the name of the game, yeah.

00:01:49:22 - 00:02:16:24

Shauna Lynn Simon

Hello and welcome back to the Real Women Real Business podcast. Today I am joined by Abby Bradetich, the founder of IlluminEssence Creations. And Abby is an embodiment-led brand and web designer and content coach. She's got over 15 years in marketing and design and a background in professional dance, and what she helps women to do is actually to stop performing online because we're all doing this kind of performance act online, whether we know it or not.

00:02:16:24 - 00:02:28:08

Shauna Lynn Simon

Sometimes she helps them to ditch the so-called rules and build an online presence that really feels like them and actually works. And I can't wait to dig into this conversation. I think you're all going to love it. So, Abby, welcome to the show.

00:02:28:14 - 00:02:30:06

Abby Bradetich

Yeah, thank you for having me.

00:02:30:08 - 00:02:53:24

Shauna Lynn Simon

I'm super excited to talk with you because I absolutely love I think you and I have connected on a few different things, but I love the way that you help women to really show up authentically. And I've talked with other guests about this, about this buzzword of authenticity that has been so overused the last several years that almost feels disingenuous now when you say the word authentic.

00:02:54:04 - 00:03:06:19

Shauna Lynn Simon

But it is really what you're doing. So let's start with a little bit about your origin story, because you've got kind of a cool story where you went from dance to marketing and, and created this whole brand around it. So tell us a little bit about your background.

00:03:06:21 - 00:03:29:07

Abby Bradetich

Yeah. No, I totally hear you on, on the whole authenticity word thing, and I, I hate that too, because I'm like, it is it? But it's real. It's what we're doing here. But it has like gotten this whole like taboo idea around it. But yeah, I, I grew up dancing and loved that we were my family is very artistic, so it was really encouraged for us to actually pursue those types of things.

00:01:49:21 - 00:02:12:06

Shauna Lynn Simon

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and this is episode 100 of the Real Women Real Business Podcast. And I just want to say thank you. If you've listened, if you've shared this episode, if you DM'd me, or if even if you've just taken one idea and use it in your own business, you are the reason that this show exists.

00:02:12:08 - 00:02:42:15

So let's get into today's episode. I want to talk about people pleasing, because this is a chronic issue that I see so many people suffering from, and especially my women and my accidental CEO. So if you've ever said yes to a client request and like immediately felt that stomach drop, this episode is for you and I want to reassure you, you can be kind and boundary and still not be a people pleaser.

00:02:42:17 - 00:03:05:20

There's a way to get allow you to be able to support yourself, and you will realize the more you support yourself, the better you're actually supporting others. So I see this in my clients and even in myself, that we want to please others. We want others to accept us, to like us. We want to be fair. We want to be kind.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. And if you've ever discounted, over-delivered, or squeezed in some quick quote extras to avoid some awkwardness or having to confront the money conversation with your clients, this episode is going to show you not only how to spot some of those micro-moments, not only are you going to learn how to spot them, but we're also going to help you to replace them with some CEO standards that are going to help you to protect your profit.

I like to practice what I preach. Despite that, I have definitely found myself more times than I care to admit going against some of my standard practices. And last month I was very intentional about this. I was really mindful and really paid attention when my instincts were telling me to give someone a discount or price something lower than I thought it should be priced. Basically what I...

What I did last month was I caught myself on so many of these moments where I'm like, really teach against this. How am I finding myself in this situation? And ultimately, I ended up making an extra $4,000 US last month, not because of one big project, but because I held my boundary and my value on multiple occasions. It wasn't as though there was just one big thing that I almost

discounted or almost gave away the money or said no to it. It was a bunch of tiny little reasonable decisions and together they would have cost me $4,000. Like said, no one was demanding a discount. No one was forcing my hand. My brain was just going to like be fair, be helpful, don't make it awkward or how do I talk about this with them? And as much as I had to have those conversations with myself on multiple occasions,

The more I was having that conversation and explaining to people what the fees were going to be, not in an awkward way, not, you know, if you don't mind, like I kind of just, you know, I should charge for this and I, you know, I think I hope it's OK. It was none of that. It was very confident. was well delivered. It was not defended. It was simply here's the price for this and and then wait. And this this is something again, I've been doing this for years, but despite how often I do it well

00:01:47:15 - 00:02:21:12

Shauna Lynn Simon

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and today I'm joined by Britt Holmes, founder of Merritt Media Inc. now, Britt is a paid advertising strategist with nearly 14 years of experience in digital marketing, including over a decade leading campaigns in corporate environments. Though she's managed millions of dollars in ad spend across Google, Meta and LinkedIn, she's been helping service based and women led businesses to grow with clarity, with ethics, and with measurable results.

00:02:21:15 - 00:02:54:03

Shauna Lynn Simon

And she's known for making ads feel clear and doable without all the hype, and helping founders to build ad strategies that actually support sustainable growth. So, Britt, welcome to the show.

Britt Holmes

Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.

Shauna Lynn Simon

I am thrilled to have you on here. And we talked about this a little bit before we hit record, about how excited I am to have an expert like yourself talking about paid ads, because I got to tell you, I can't even explain how often my clients will ask me a simple question or quote simple question for anyone who doesn't see the video version right now.

00:02:54:03 - 00:03:09:03

Shauna Lynn Simon

This is air quotes that I'm saying here. And they'll they'll say to me like, do you think I should do some ads in this question for my clients? You think I should do some ad, some paid ads on Facebook? I'm seen what an Instagram ad, her Facebook ad. What do you think about that? I like well, that's that's a loaded question.

00:03:09:03 - 00:03:34:23

Shauna Lynn Simon

Like, there's only so much I need to like when I ask about their strategy, they're like, I don't know. I just thought, like, I just create like a post and I would just do it as an ad. So you spent 14 plus years in ads, you've managed millions and ads, then what do you think is the biggest misconception that business owners have when it comes to paid advertising?

Shauna Lynn Simon (00:02)

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and today's guest is KJ Blattenbauer a powerhouse publicist and founder of Hearsay PR. So for nearly 30 years, KJ has been turning overlooked experts into headline news with clear, actionable PR strategies that actually fit real life. Her client stories have been featured everywhere from Forbes to Architectural Digest, and she's the author of How to Be a Media Darling

and the second book recently released called Pitchworthy, which is a modern guide to building lasting visibility and authority. She is known for her bold but approachable style and her belief that women entrepreneurs shouldn't have to burn out to be seen. So she's speaking our language here. Today she's gonna be sharing how you can become your own best publicist, build credibility and attract aligned opportunities without selling your soul to social media. So KJ, welcome. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.

I am so excited for this conversation. We had a little bit of a pre-interview chat and let me tell you, we are very much aligned in so many ways. And one of things that we were talking about though was just that this is something that comes up time and time again with my clients. And I can keep speaking to them about this until I'm blue in the face, but until somebody else says it, ⁓ sometimes it doesn't quite resonate the same way. So before we start diving into all things visibility,

Let's just take it back a little bit. You said you spent nearly 30 years in PR. How did you get into this line of work? Like what pulled you toward helping women founders specifically? You know, I think I, well, I tried everything else and then I landed in something that fit really. I didn't even know what PR was when I went to college. I had a basic understanding of like, communications. I could do marketing. I thought I wanted to be the next Barbara Walters.

Shauna Lynn Simon (00:02)

Hello ladies and welcome back to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and I am also your business sustainability expert coach. It's January and if you're feeling the pressure to have your whole year mapped out and all of your habits perfectly in place, let's take a deep breath together. OK, you're not behind. You're right on time. So welcome. So we are going to be moving today from vision to action without the overwhelm and without the hustle.

Now, if you listened to my episode that was released just before Christmas on December 23rd, I did a great episode about how to end the year like a CEO. And we talked about reflection and we talked about letting go. And you know, we're all about starting fresh, but I wanna get really real about what it takes to make those big dreams happen on a day-to-day basis. So today we're gonna be talking about the micro habits for real CEOs and how we're going to apply them to make sure that this is your best

year yet. So let's be honest, January is often sold as like this magical reset, right? But most of us, we're still shaking off the holidays, catching up on emails, wondering if we're already behind. I don't know about you, but the calendar, like December 23rd and 24th, you're gearing up for the holidays and the 25th hits and you you do the family thing and you're exhausted the next day, but there's the 26th and you have more people you got to see. And by the 27th, 28th, you don't even know what day it is. And then you still got to get through New Year's.

And so we kind of get played this mad game of catch up the first game of the first week of January, even though we know that we're basically all in the same place. Essentially, we still feel as though we're starting off the month behind the eight ball a little bit. We didn't do all the things maybe that we had set out to do in the previous year. And now we feel like we're kind of paying the price for it. But let me tell you, you're not behind. I promise you because we've got