Episode 59: The School of Business-Freshman Year
What You’ll Learn
The School of Business (00:50)
Fits & Starts (03:20)
The Deliberate Day (08:20)
The Holy Spirit (16:05)
Slow Growth (27:35)
Invitation (36:45)
It’s our 1 year anniversary! This episode is all about starting and working on a podcast and a business! When you’re done listening, click here and we’ll send you the 2022 Deliberate Day Holiday Planner AND get you on the list!
The School of Business (00:50)
On one hand, it feels like it’s been a year, but on the other hand it has gone SO quickly! We’ve both learned an enormous amount in the last 12 months! Starting this podcast and business is like having a new baby. You nurture, learn, nurture, learn (repeat). Setting up our very first cart was an experience, we learned, but we DID it!
Fits & Starts (03:20)
Britt’s entrepreneurial career actually started in her childhood with a backyard circus! There was a cousin selling lemonade, a clown, carnival games, it was a legit circus! 25 kids showed up, paid, and played games! Britt’s mom was an integral part of the process (of course).
The circus led to a solid babysitting career, then Britt started making wood signs. Her company was named Cheery Creations, and she actually sold signs until last year. The signs became a bit labor and time intensive with so many littles, so Britt pulled back from the local stores and exclusively sold her signs at craft shows.
I had a blog called Magnificent Mommyhood years ago, and then most recently I had DoraJayne.com, but it just wasn’t meant to be.
Then, there was the Little by Little Family, which was borne of a desire to encourage moms to grow and do things little-by-little. Making changes as a mom is hard, because there’s a lot of pushback, and it’s so easy to feel defeated and just quit.
Then the Dirty Moms Talk podcast came about around the same time as Little by Little Family—and then the Deliberate Day came about because of the planner she created while working on Little by Little Family. Brittany’s blue flame is creating beautiful digital products that WORK—and we needed a good homeschool planner—so she created it!
Then, the homeschool journal morphed into a mother’s journal, based on the mastermind group we had going for our group of mom friends—where we would meet each week to share wins, challenges, and goals.
The Deliberate Day (08:20)
Towards the end of 2021, Brittany was gifted business coaching from an amazing Catholic momma named Lisa Canning, and that’s when everything really took off!
Everything really started in earnest when we offered our first product for Black Friday last year.
Starting a business on your own is very difficult…it’s so much easier with a partner. Also, having a coach is key—even though coaches usually tell you to do what you already know you should be doing—because then you’re more likely to do it! There is SO much value in coaching.
Coaching started for Britt in October 2021. Britt’s big goal is to bring her husband home from his current job. Their family enjoyed the extra time he’s had at home for the last few years, and they want more of that!
When the coaching started, Britt was ALL in (and still is)! The hardest part has been trying out all the different “vehicles” of business, and figuring out which one is the best. This is perhaps the most painful part of starting a business.
The podcast came about one night when (after praying to the Holy Spirit) Britt said, let’s do the podcast! We made the decision to do it, but we still weren’t sure exactly how.
Fast forward a few weeks, and Britt happened to start chatting (unknowingly) with the owner of the Hellcat Hangar (the podcast studio). Holy Spirit Moment Britt told him that her friend was looking for a studio (lies) and she told me all about it! Then, Britt called David and booked the studio—with a barter of payment + casseroles & Salsa.
If you are in Pensacola and need a podcast studio, you MUST check out the Hellcat Hangar! They are so involved in the community, and are just generally great people!
On our first day at the studio, we knew NOTHING. David had to show us how to run everything.
I only knew about podcast hosting because my favorite priests on another podcast I listen to mentioned who they used. We tackled one problem at a time, over and over again.
The first day, we even forgot the memory card (the ONE thing we ACTUALLY needed).
The Holy Spirit (16:05)
The Holy Spirit has opened door after door after door throughout this WHOLE year!
First, Lisa’s summit lined up perfectly with our very first launch (these things don’t happen by coincidence).
Y’all, we pray to the Holy Spirit before we walk into the podcast studio, before we write you an email, we ask for wisdom, strength, and guidance. Everything we do in this business we pray to the Holy Spirit for.
Our social media mentor (Jasmine Star) just happened to put out a course last January (right when we needed it), then through her community we were introduced to a different coach (just when we needed her). Now, we’re meeting monthly with her and learning SO much! Holy Spirit Moment
Then, my brother connected us with a contact (or rather a team) who is also working with and helping us. Holy Spirit Moment
In the same week, we were introduced to another expert (this time in business finance) who just happened to teach us what we needed to know for another meeting. Holy Spirit Moment
All of these things show me that no one really knows what they’re doing. This whole business thing is just about taking the next step, being willing to learn (sometimes painful lessons), and move forward.
We’ve fumbled and bumbled around quite a bit, and there have been many adventures.
Slow Growth (27:35)
Another frustration of starting a business is growing so slowly. You can always pay for quick growth, but that’s not always real growth or growth that lasts. We want to connect with mommas, we want to serve people really well, honor the Holy Spirit’s gifts, and honor the journey we feel we’re on. The growth we’ve had is the RIGHT growth for us, but it has taken a significant amount of time, energy, and money.
Knowing you’re headed in the right direction helps.
When you’re trying to do things in the right way, and you’re trying to really serve people, it takes time and TONS of hard work.
There are definitely times in the last year when we’ve been tempted to quit, and had we been building it on our own, we may have.
Many times in this journey, we’ve come to a point where where we weren’t sure what to do, and it FELT like we didn’t have any options, but there have always been options. These are the moments where we google something, we listen to a class, we seek out information and knowledge. We do all the free stuff, podcasts, classes, we soak up knowledge everywhere!
We do this for more than just business building too, we do it for homeschooling, Britt did it when she wanted to run her backyard carnival, we’ve been life-long learners forever. It shows in a business, because if you don’t have the money to get you where you need to be, it takes grit.
As moms, you also need grit to run a home and a business. I’m still learning this. This could be another reason why we don’t see a ton of mompreseurs out there. Also, having the support of your partner, your children, and your friends is SO important.
As we recorded, our husbands were at home with a total of 12 children between them (that’s not easy y’all)! We left at 7am, worked a bit, recorded for 5 hours, and then will head to dinner, Mass, and debrief after. There are ALWAYS things to do.
Take a website for example, which goes through SO many iterations. Not only because we get clearer on what we want, but also because the companies who host the websites add features and change things frequently (thankfully usually for the better). These changes can also require more education to take full advantage.
Our masterclass had a last minute enrollee, and the infrastructure we had set up wasn’t geared to ward last minute enrollments. So we scrambled to get her enrolled, figure out who she wanted to gift her class to, and we somehow managed to get it done! One of the biggest things we learned was that slow growth IS a gift, even if it doesn’t feel like it.
Invitation (36:45)
Go get our free holiday planner, made specifically with mommas in mind, it is filled with resources to help YOU plan the holidays this year (and stop letting the holidays plan you).
Here are a few of the pages you'll find inside:
Holidays Thank You’s List
Holiday Life Notes
Resources We Love
Recipes
You can find the link to get the Holiday Planner EVERYWHERE! It’s at www.thedeliberateday.org, send us a DM, e-mail at Brittany@thedeliberateday.org, and it’s right here (below) in the podcast notes!!
Happy holidays!
