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

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 going to look and sound just a little different than what you're used to on this podcast because today I'm being joined by Rusty Osborne and he is the go-to mindset coach for entrepreneurs who need to get out of their own way. Rusty, can tell you, has helped hundreds of business owners use their negative self-talk to ditch overwhelm.

and break through the mental blocks that keep them stuck, even when everything of course looks fine on the outside. I'm fine, right? We're always fine. He's also the author of The Power of Negative Thinking, which is available now on Amazon. And Rusty is one of my success partners, which means he works with my clients. So I have seen firsthand how his work creates real shifts in my clients. And honestly, for me too, we're talking about how to break mental blocks, how to stop the overwhelm spiral and head into 2026.

with a whole new way of leading. So Rusty, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I'm super excited to have you. And I will say that you are the first male that we have had on the podcast. And something that I do want to make very clear to the audience is that at no point have I ever discriminated and said men couldn't be on this podcast, even though we are called the real women, real business podcast, because we want to be an inclusive space. And if we as women want to have equality.

and be inclusive and promote inclusivity, we have to of course express that as well. So I'm not going to ever exclude someone from my resources and keep someone from my clients who I know can genuinely help them. And I gotta tell you, Rusty, I have seen firsthand the work that you have done with my clients and you have helped me through some mental blocks over this past year as well, which sometimes our mental blocks, we don't even know that we have. And that's the coolest thing of how you're able to work through it.

Shauna Lynn Simon (00:02)

Hey there, real women and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. And can you believe that we are just days away from closing out 2025 and whether you're wrapping up client projects or preparing for some time off or maybe you are already in full relaxation mode. And if you are, thank you so much for bringing me into your relaxing time. And I want to talk about something that a lot of business owners tend to skip this time of year.

cost them. It's cost them in terms of clarity, in confidence and momentum heading into the new year. And all of that costs us real time and money. So today I want to talk about how to close the year like the CEO that you are, not with guilt about what didn't happen, not with overwhelm about what's coming, but with intention, with celebration and strategic clarity. Because how you close the year determines how you're going to open the next one.

Grab your favorite beverage, find a cozy spot, and we're going to do this together. I'm going to walk you through the exercises that I go through and share a little bit about how my year went this year as well. So here's the thing. Most business owners, either ignore this year end reflection entirely or they beat themselves up for what they didn't accomplish. And there are a few ladies that I know that I work with who I know are going to be doing this this year, and I really want to help them to prevent these negative thoughts from coming in.

and instead help them to find a way to intentionally learn from these challenges that they might have faced in the year, the things that didn't happen.

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 that's joining us today, we've got RuthAnn Rafiq owner and lead designer behind R Art Space, a branding studio that helps coaches and service providers to establish themselves as sought after experts through sophisticated branding and custom Squarespace websites. Now, RuthAnn specializes in working with entrepreneurs who are ready to scale to six and seven figures and need their brand to reflect the premium quality of their offers.

So beyond building beautiful brands, RuthAnn is also a wife, a mom out of three little ones, and is homeschooling, proving that sustainable business growth is absolutely possible even in the busiest seasons of life. So in this episode, we're gonna be diving into how premium positioning becomes your best sales tool and that connection between branding and the money mindset and organic marketing strategies that are gonna turn your website into a client magnet. So welcome RuthAnn . Thank you so much for having me, Shauna Lynn. I'm so happy to be here.

I am so excited to talk to you about this because I think there's definitely a difference between someone who's just starting their business, just launching, and you're working with people who are already established, but they're working to scale. And I think that we often see, or I'm assuming that you probably often see some patterns in some of the things that they're facing. And websites are still something that is very important in terms of our brand image, despite social media and everything else. Websites are one place where we can actually control our own brand.

So you're working specifically with coaches and service providers who want to scale to six or seven figures. What are some patterns maybe that you see in their branding when they're stuck at sort of a certain revenue ceiling? Yes. So one big thing I see for them is that, you know, visibility isn't the problem. Like they are getting visible. They normally have a podcast. They normally have a membership of some kind. They have coaching programs. They have one on one specialties. So they are out there. They are doing their thing.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business Podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and today we're going to call out one of the biggest profit leaks that I see in specifically in women run businesses. If you feel like you are working harder than ever, not just physically, but mentally as well, you're probably not imagining it. One of the biggest profit leaks that I see in women run businesses. It's not pricing. It's not marketing. Do want to know what it is?

It is emotional labor. This is the invisible work of carrying every decision, every doubt, every relationship, every fire drill, every outcome all alone, all by yourself. And today I'm breaking down the emotional tax that no one really warned us about when we entered into entrepreneurship, right? And we're going to talk about how to finally set your business up to support you instead of draining you. This is a conversation that I've been having over the last several weeks with clients who are

just exhausted, feeling just burnt out and drained, not because they're lazy, not because they're disorganized. Yes, could we have some more efficient systems in our businesses that would give us a little bit more energy and revive us a little bit? Sure. But that is just a fraction of what the challenges that they're facing. The problem is that they're carrying everything. I can't actually count how many times in last few weeks I've had conversations about people

pleasing specifically. And so we're going to talk about the emotional load that comes with running a business, serving your clients, serving your family, taking care of everyone and basically keeping it all together. It really adds up and most of us don't even realize that it's happening. I actually had a conversation recently with someone about my experience with burnout, which I have talked about on this show several times. This happened back in 2017 for me and it took me

three long years to recover. And I've talked about how burnout can sneak up on you. So I have conversations with women all the time, every day, different women, usually women who are running businesses and especially women in the creative fields. And one of the big conversations that often comes up is just talking about their energy levels, talking about their passion, talking about their mental health. And a lot of what I'm seeing, I'm telling them, you know, I feel like you are

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 someone who took one dollar and eleven cents and a whole lot of grit and turned it into a multi seven figure legacy. Kandi Lee is the CEO and co-founder of the 111 network. Guess where that name came from? And for over 30 years, she has coached over 10,000 or sorry, 100,000 entrepreneurs to scale their businesses with clarity, confidence and systems that work. And she's been where we've all been.

Over 30 years ago, after divorce left her with two suitcases, her daughter and just $200 to her name, she made a decision that would change everything. And she didn't just rebuild, she redesigned her entire life. Kandi has been where so many of us have been. She's the strategic force behind the Cashflow Compass, a proven system that helps legacy led women scale freedom based profit without the hustle. She's been featured on CNBC, HuffPost, HGTV. She shared stages with

legends like Mark Victor Hansen, Bob Proctor, and Jack Hanfield. And so she's not just teaching business strategy. She teaches the identity shifts that make million dollar momentum possible. And today she's going to share exactly how you can stop plateauing and start scaling with structure and not stress. So welcome, Kandi, to the Real Women Real Business podcast. my God. I love that. So funny when someone's reading my bio and like, yes, I remember all of those moments in time. I those things. I did those things.

Yeah, I'm so excited to be here. I am so excited to have you from the very first conversation you and I had. was like, I got to get this woman onto the podcast because you have such a powerful story. And I think the best part is that you're so grounded and so real. And I think that's where you and I really connected.

Shauna Lynn Simon (00:02)

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business Podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. And if you've ever felt attached to your branding, especially if it is a DIY, you did it yourself kind of branding and you're feeling guilty maybe about wanting something better or maybe you've wondered if a rebrand is really worth the investment of it or maybe you're just scared of what is this investment going to look like and not just financially but time? What is it? What all is involved in this? This conversation today is really going to hit home for you because today's guest

Puja Malhotra is the founder and creative director of Roop Creative Agency, a boutique branding and web design studio. She's got over 15 years of experience in branding and marketing and has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs across North America to create brands and websites that don't just look beautiful, but they're built to scale your business with clarity and purpose. And she's also the creator of Corporate Dropout, which we're going to touch on a little bit as well. She's created this mentorship program.

that helps designers like herself and creatives like herself to build profitable agencies of their own. So today we're to be talking about the emotional side of rebranding and what rebranding looks like. I've talked about branding on this show. I don't even know how many times and I've touched on rebranding very lately as and I always say do it sooner than later because it doesn't get any cheaper the longer you wait.

But I'm so excited to actually dig into this today with Puja . So Puja , welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here. I am so excited to get into this. Now, before we get into the rebranding side of things, let's talk a little bit about where you're coming from, because you've been in marketing for a number of years. You started your own agency back in 2016. That's Roop Creative. What was that leap like for you? What was that transition like from corporate to entrepreneurship?

⁓ I think I was a little delusional.

Shauna Lynn Simon (00:02)

Hey there and welcome back to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and today we're going to talk about something that's going to hit home with a lot of entrepreneurs. Many of you are going to be really feeling this, especially those of you who are maybe working nonstop, serving your amazing clients. And yet somehow that bank account doesn't ever seem to really reflect the amount of effort that you are putting in. So if you've ever thought, how am I this busy and still stressing about cash flow?

This episode is for you because here's the truth. You might be sitting on thousands of dollars just hiding in your business right now, not in some magical new offer that you need to spend weeks or months creating, not in a marketing hack that's just follow this specific formula and you'll instantly get a ton of Instagram followers and all the money that your heart desires. But we're going to be at finding these this money that you're sitting on in the work you're already doing. And I want to help you to find it.

So let me start by telling you a bit of a story about something that happened in my life a couple of years ago. I made a business decision that let's just say I wish I could take back. I think we've all made some of those decisions. This one definitely hurt a little bit. I was in a position where I really needed to bring in some additional revenue and I was feeling maxed out myself and I didn't have someone on my team.

existing that I felt could really help with this. So I found this coaching program that was going to provide the resources for my team to be able to learn how to do the things that I needed them to do in order to generate more sales and bring in some more revenue. And so I went all in on this program. I was going to be a game changer. They promised me the moon and I did the work. I showed up fully. My staff showed up fully. We were following every single step.

putting in a ton of effort, no joke, they told us that we needed to put in 10 to 15 hours every week, which seemed obscene to me, but okay, I'm going to trust the process because that's what

Shauna Lynn Simon (00:02)

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and today I am joined by Emily Rosales and she is a brand strategy coach and messaging strategist at Simply Me. And she's proving that you don't need to have a massive following in order to build a thriving business. You really just need to have the right people that are paying attention.

Emily specializes in helping entrepreneurs who feel invisible online and helps them to transform their messaging so they stand out authentically and attract clients who actually are actually ready to buy. So she's got a done with you approach that blends coaching and copywriting and she's built a community of I think it's around 1500 Instagram followers who aren't just liking her post, but they are engaging, they're connecting and they are converting.

Her mantra is to be seen, be remembered, and be you. And in today's conversation, she's going to be sharing exactly how she has grown her business organically by personally connecting with every single person in her feed and why clarity matters more than posting more content. Clarity over quantity. So Emily, welcome to the podcast. Hi, Shauna. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for the intro. I am so excited to have you. So let's start with your journey first of all. What led you to focus specifically on brand?

messaging and helping entrepreneurs to feel seen by the right people. Yeah. It actually goes back to your, some of your messaging is like an accidental CEO. Like you totally relate and identify with that because it does feel like a bit accidental. does feel like ⁓ branding chose me. ⁓ I first started in the coaching business. I started coaching, like the, I started the coaching business about two and a half years ago.

And that was being mentored like, Hey, you really have to hone in, figure out where, who you're going to help. You know, what's the problem you're solving. I first, I thought it was going to be a relationship coach, to be honest. I'm like, ⁓ interesting. I'm really good at relationships. ⁓ so let me learn all there is. But then I was like, no, I mean, I do feel like I really have much more of the business side of me. ⁓ and I just started to inquire more, inquire more. I'm like, ⁓

Shauna Lynn Simon (00:02)

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. And what if I told you that being an introvert could actually be your secret weapon in sales and in business growth? Well, today's guest is actually living proof of exactly that. I'm excited to introduce you to Inga Faison-Cavitt, also known as Inga Fay And Inga left her engineering career to follow that entrepreneurial spirit. And I know this is resonating with all my accidental CEOs out there. And here's what's remarkable.

She grew to the top five percent of her direct sales company, but didn't get there by forcing herself to become an extrovert or using any sort of high pressure sales tactics that would leave her feeling socially and energetically drained. And so, in fact, she's proven that you don't need to be the loudest person in the room in order to build a thriving business. She is an authenticity strategist. So Inga has developed the authentic.

sales accelerator method, which is specifically for introverted female entrepreneurs. And her approach is all about treating people like humans, not numbers, leveraging your natural strengths, deep listening, genuine relationship building and scaling your business without burning that social battery and absolutely draining it to zero. So if you ever felt like you need to change your personality to succeed in sales or in business or if networking events are leaving you completely exhausted,

You're going to love today's conversation because we're going to be shifting how you think about growing your business. So let's dive in. Inga, welcome. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you so much for having me, Shauna Lynn. I'm excited about this conversation. As I mentioned before we hit record, I feel like this is one of those conversations that doesn't get nearly enough attention or air time. But before we get into your methods and such, I want to talk a little bit about what got you here in the first place. So you were in an engineering career and you decided to become an entrepreneur.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and recently I did something a little unhinged and I'm going to share that with you today. I gave out my personal cell phone number and I asked people to actually text me the one thing that they wish that they could fix in their business. Now, I know this might sound a little bit crazy and honestly it was not the first time I've been a little unhinged and radical and a little bit of a disruptor, so to speak, but the responses that came in from this absolutely blew me away.

And what happened next actually completely shifted how I think about connection, clarity, and what we really need to focus on in our business. And so in this episode, I'm going to share with you what people told me was their one thing, what most people were talking about, as well as some individual one offs as well, why most of the time what they're telling me is their one thing isn't actually the real problem there and the surprising ripple effect that comes out from or that came out from this little experiment that I did. So if you've ever thought

If I could just fix this one thing, everything else would finally fall into place and this episode is for you. Okay, so let's start off with backing up the truck here a little bit. Did I actually give out my cell phone number? Yep, I sure did. I emailed every single person on my email list, which is in the thousands and gave them my personal cell phone number so much so I actually had one person who responded to the email. She was like, is this actually real or did I just get spammed here? Like, or like scams, sorry, not spam, scam.

And I reply back, no, no, is legit. Tell me your one thing. Like, let's do this. Now, I also did share this on social media, but I did not give my cell number on social media. I just told them that they could DM me. But on email, I also know that sometimes it's easier if you can just text someone or send a voice note. And I wanted to create a more real connection and make that barrier a lot smoother for those people who are not as comfortable typing in email. And some people did just reply to the email, which was also totally OK.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and joining me today is Jaci Russo. She's the CEO and co-founder of Brand Russo, which is a strategic branding agency. And she's part of a very elite, less than 1 % of women-owned agencies in the US. She brings over 25 years of marketing experience, has built multiple successful ventures.

And we're going be talking today about some of those ventures, including Brandstate U that she's created. Stay tuned for what this is. But if you don't have the budget for a high-end marketing agency, we got you covered. She also co-hosts two podcasts as well. So she's no stranger to podcasting. And what makes her story even more remarkable is that she's doing all of this while raising four children and working alongside her husband. I'm sure there are plenty of listeners that are giving you whole lot of kudos for both of those feats.

So she started back with in her early days with Media Mogul, Barry Diller, and she was building, she's now building her own empire in Louisiana and has been doing so for many, years. But her background includes like USA Network and ⁓ some pretty major brands. So I can't wait to hear everything that she's gonna be sharing with us today. So Jaci, thank you so much for joining us. Welcome. Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and today's guest is Jennifer Lemmert. She's an award-winning communications consultant and expert in executive branding as well as employee engagement. She comes to us with over 20 years of experience supporting leaders in various industries from healthcare to tech to finance and government. But here's what makes her story so relatable to our audience is that Jennifer herself became an accidental CEO when she lost her job during the pandemic.

the pandemic. Sound familiar, anyone? So starting her business during nap time and late night, she's built a high six figure company in just five years while also get this raising three boys under the age of eight. She's passionate about helping leaders to craft authentic brand stories that are going to inspire trust and action. And today she's going to be sharing with us how women entrepreneurs can help to build that executive presence that commands respect.

and drives results. And she's going to talk about how we're sabotaging our brand sometimes and how we can overcome some of that. Because I think we all know that sometimes we are our own worst enemies, whether we mean to be or not. But we know how these things happen. So Jennifer, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you so much, Shauna Lynn. I can't wait to talk all things executive branding. And I so appreciate you having me today.

I can't wait to dive into this.

Welcome to the Real Women Real Business Podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. picture this, OK? Tell me that sounds familiar. It's two o'clock in the afternoon. You have that super important task on your list. And like when you woke up this morning, you're like, that is the thing I'm going to tackle today. And somehow, even though you haven't done that task yet and it's part way through most of the way through your day, you've decided that at this very moment, the most important thing for you to do is.

reorganize your desk drawer for like the third time today or something along those lines. Like, are you a master procrastinator? And you know exactly what you're doing when you're doing it, right? You know when you're procrastinating. You say to yourself, I'm going to focus. And then you find yourself grabbing a snack, taking a bio break, scrolling through social media. ⁓ You know, this is actually your subconscious sending you a message. Did you know?

that according to research by Dr. Pierce Steele, 95 % of people admit to procrastinating. 95%. So like, I don't know who the 5 % are that don't procrastinate, but I would love to meet you. If that is you, please message me. Reach out to me at Shauna Lynn Simon on Instagram, because I want to know who you are and how you're doing it. Because the reality is 95 % of people are admitting to do it. So either the other 5 % has found some magical code that we all need to understand, or they're lying.

And I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but you might be lying. For entrepreneurs, we deal with decision fatigue. We are constantly being bombarded by so many decisions that just wear us out that it's easy for us to put things off even further. that 95 % of people, if there's a lot of entrepreneurs in there, I'm gonna say the entrepreneurs, we're probably 100 % all of us are procrastinating at some time or another. So what if I actually told you that procrastination isn't a character flaw?

It's actually your subconscious trying to protect you. Okay. I want you to really hear me on this. This is your subconscious trying to protect you. And I think we really beat ourselves up sometimes about procrastination, right? Because we know we're supposed to do it. We know that we intended to do it. We had the best of intentions and that should matter, but it doesn't feel like it when we're missing a deadline and someone else is counting on us to do something or maybe it's just something that we feel like we're not moving the needle in our company.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. And today I am being joined by Kirsten Graham. She's a CEO of Six Figure Business Coaching and she has built multiple successful companies while learning a very crucial lesson along the way. And that is that time is our most valuable asset as business owners. This is probably not a new thing for you to learn, but we're always trying to figure out, how do I get more of that time? And if we can't protect that time, then we're...

we're not going to be able to actually grow our business sustainably. So Kirsten actually helps business owners to gain visibility and authority through strategic video marketing, podcast guesting, helps you to understand how to create the landing pages, create the funnels, have those all done for you through our software VAs, helps you to understand your books, you're reading your profit and loss statements, having someone organize your financial so you know exactly where you're at and what you need to do financially to move your business forward through her bookkeeping VAs.

So all of these are intended to help to free up your time in order to focus on growing your income so that you don't have to balance between generating revenue, serving your clients, and growing your company. So we're going to be talking today about how we can break free from that. I need to be a solo CEO myth that ends up keeping you stuck and exhausted all the time. So Kirsten, thank you for joining me. Welcome to the Real Women Real Business Podcast.

Thanks, Shauna Lynn I'm excited. I could talk about these topics all day long.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Seanalyn Simon. And today, today's guest is actually someone who knows exactly what it feels like to carry the full mental load as a leader. And if you are listening, you're one of my, as I affectionately call you, my accidental CEOs where you started with more passion than plan. And now you find yourself in that leadership role. Our guest today has actually cracked the code on how to shift the dynamic in the workplace and turn your team members

into strategic thinkers and thinking more like an entrepreneur, which we all know we would love it if people just took a little bit more ownership of things. So today I've got Meredith Elliot Powell. She's a Hall of Fame speaker, award winning author and one of the world's top 15 business growth experts. But what makes her truly special is the journey that she's had from feeling trapped in reactive leadership.

to building teams that think like entrepreneurs. And after over 25 years in the C-suite and doing extensive research with organizations that thrive in uncertainty, Meredith has actually developed the Ask for Change system, which is a proven approach that helps leaders to stop doing all the thinking for their teams and start building cultures where everyone drives the solutions.

We're going to take things beyond standard delegation. You've all been told to let things go, to delegate, to give up some things. But it's not just about being able to feel comfortable giving up control, but ensuring that you have that confidence for your team to be able to take it over. So Merida is here today to share how you can transform from being your business's biggest bottleneck into its most powerful catalyst for growth. So Merida, thank you so much for joining me. Wow, I loved that introduction. Powerful.