Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: You're listening to the remote mom collective podcast, where moms can find their stride in the remote work world. Whether you currently work remotely or you want to, you're in the right place.
I'm Brittany the remote mom, and I've been working remotely since 2007. I became a mom in 2015, and there's a lot to learn. Together, we'll support, inspire, and empower each other on our journey to balance work, life, and motherhood from the comfort of our own homes or wherever we're working remotely. Together, let's redefine what it means to be a working mom. Let's support and inspire each other.
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Remote mom collective podcast. I'm Brittany the remote mom, and today I am speaking with Laura Sinclair. And I am so excited to speak with her today. She is.
She's got an incredible community. It's called this mother means business is a podcast that she has, and she's doing all kinds of great things in the entrepreneurial space, and she is a mom. So we wanted to get together today to talk about entrepreneurship and motherhood. And so, Laura, I'll turn it over to you just to kind of give a quick introduction about yourself and share just a quick, some quick info about your business and what you do.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Sure. Thank you so much for having me. I am excited to chat all things mom, entrepreneurship, that life, because I get it.
I have two children. They are almost seven at the time of this recording. My daughter will turn seven in a couple of weeks. And I have a three year old son, and I'm a business and marketing mentor. So my core competency is really in helping women get their businesses seen. I really believe that you and your business deserves to be. Deserve to be seen. And so I work through helping entrepreneurs. Kind of the marketing term would be to fill the top of the funds in their business, so to get people knowing that they existed, that they can turn into clients down the line. And I do that through a few different things. My podcast, which is this mother means business podcast. My community, which is the this mother means business community. As well as my mastermind and one on one coaching, I also own a social media marketing agency. I do events, I host retreats, do all the things.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: What do you not do?
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Too many things? I'm not sure at this.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: Yeah, you got awesome things there. And I feel like the hardest part for entrepreneurship because I have tried it. I have an entrepreneurial mindset and creative spirit, and I'm lucky to work for a company now that allows me to kind of explore that.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: But I don't. I'm not risky enough for it. You know, there's definitely some risk involved, and I think that marketing is kind of really the hardest part when you're trying to start your own business. And so I know originally you were in the PR space. That's where you started in corporate, the corporate world, and then you moved into entrepreneurship. You opened a Crossfit gym, right?
[00:03:04] Speaker B: I did. So I ended up purchasing a crossfit gym. So I worked in, started my career in PR, started, shifted over into social media marketing, digital marketing, did a lot of really cool things. Like, I worked for some really big brands, got to go to some really cool events, you know, do the fun things. And then I was like, this whole corporate thing is not for me. I ended up buying a. What was a failing crossfit gymnast. I'd always been. I've been an athlete my whole life, and, like, really just enjoyed exercise. And, um, the opportunity kind of landed on my lap, and I was like, you know what? I'm going to do it. I was 27 and childless at the time, so it was, like, a relatively low risk in the grand scheme of things and knew that I could go back. Um, but, yeah, to your point about, like, riskiness, there's absolutely a piece of entrepreneurship that is terrifying. And, you know, marketing, it's interesting because as a marketer, it's so easy for me to say, like, okay, Brittany, just go do XYz things. But it's a whole other can of worms for a person to actually go and do them, because a lot of the time, that's really vulnerable. Right. You're putting yourself out there in a way that is uncomfortable for a lot of people and was uncomfortable for me for a really long time. So I can totally appreciate all that.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: Yeah. And so when you're working with. Because you work with moms that are building their own businesses from scratch right from the very beginning, and you're also coaching moms that are kind of in the thick of it and they're trying to do more, what do you think is the most common hurdle that moms deal with when they're trying to build a new business?
[00:04:38] Speaker B: I mean, time is a huge one. Right. And, like, knowing how to spend it and being able to wear both hats and wear them well. Right. I don't think that it's necessarily possible to do it wear both hats well at the exact same time, but learning how to roll with the ebbs and flows and being able to build a business in a way that allows them to show up however they want to show up as a mom is a big one. And then from a mindset perspective, a lot of it is being willing to take up enough space, being willing to ask for the things that we need in the world. I think moms are. We have a tendency to give and over give, and in doing that, we don't ask for what it is that we actually need, which is actually required to build a business. You have to ask for the things that you need in the world, and that can be really hard for people.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: Yeah, you have to advocate for yourself, too. You have to be your own voice, and that can be really difficult. You were talking about vulnerability a little bit ago with the marketing thing, and, yeah, it's a scary thing. And I actually have a little bit of that experience because I've been in corporate America for a very long time before I came over to this tech company that I've been with. And I always had to be very careful with what I shared on social media. And, you know, 15 years ago, social media, like, I was a senior in college when Facebook came out. Thank goodness it didn't exist while I was in college, right? Who wants all those pictures? But one of the things I posted something one time about, I was interested in learning something new for a potential career change. And somebody at my office saw it, and I didn't realize that it was connected to all these different things. And this was probably, I don't know, 1215 years ago. And so since then, I'm like, I gotta be really careful what people are thinking of me online. And I don't want anybody to. I don't know, I'm just don't. I don't like being vulnerable. And that's always been something that's been really difficult to me, for me. And so what are some ways that you, what are some advice that you give people to be vulnerable? Like, what can we do to help with that?
[00:06:44] Speaker B: I think when we think about social media, one of the things that people worry about is being overexposed. Right. Like, giving too much of their life. And I am in that camp, right? Like, I don't. I don't share. I don't over share on social media, at least to me. I don't. And thinking, like, you're in control, right? You're in control as you build your business of what it is that you want to say, don't say, you know, one of the things that. One of the ways that I've been able to build my business is because I am, you know, very authentically myself, and I share the things that are required for women to feel like I'm a safe place for them. I mean, because I am. But I'm exactly who I am online, as you would encounter right now on this podcast if we were to meet in real life. And so a lot of it is just, like, deciding what are the elements of your life, your business, that are actually relevant to somebody that wants to buy from you, or even if you're building your personal brand and you're wanting to do, like, we'll call it influencer, like, user generated content or anything like that. Right.
You are completely in control. I mean, I know and have been friends with people who I consider to overexpose themselves online. It's more than I would feel comfortable with. Like, we're talking, like, recording your birth and putting it on YouTube. Like, no, thank you. It's a no for me, but for some people, that can feel like, yes, and that's okay. But there's elements of my life that I share, but there's a whole heck of a lot of it that I don't.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And. And kids. I mean, I guess it just depends on how comfortable you are with your children, too. I know this is. This could be a whole nother topic. Completely. Not even really. But, like, children and involving them in your social media and all of that kind of stuff, it just depends on what you're uncomfortable, what you're comfortable with, with sharing your family.
[00:08:26] Speaker B: I don't share my kids faces. If I do, it's like a very old picture, and there's no way that you could ever, like, identify them right now. But, no, it's always the back of my kids heads or them, like, you know, in looking down in a way that you couldn't really make. You couldn't pick them out of a crowd if you wanted to.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: Sure. Sure. Yeah. I don't really. I don't really share pictures. I have one. One daughter, and I don't really do a whole lot of. I don't really share a whole lot on social media anyway.
But I wanted to talk a little bit more about your podcast in your community called this mother means business and how that came about and how you support mom. And I really think that we could talk more about people who are wanting to get started in entrepreneurship and where that, like, a good place to start if they wanted to get involved with your. With your organization.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, there's a lot of. I'm an interesting story because I was an entrepreneur and then I became a mom. But there's a lot of women that choose entrepreneurship because they desire the freedom to be at home with their babies. And the reality is, there's a lot of.
I'm going to use the word predatory stuff out there, right? That takes advantage of moms because of that desire. They want to stay at home with their babies. They don't want to be on someone else's clock. And so, for me, this mother means business started from a place of wanting to have really authentic conversations about real business stuff for women that are ambitious and really crave growth and whatever that looks like for them and also want to be present with their kids. And so it started with just a podcast. And so my podcast launched in March of 2023, the Smell of Means Business podcast, where I talked about my own experience as a mom and an entrepreneur and the things that I've gone through. And then I've interviewed a whole bunch of really incredible mothers who are building businesses, and some of them come on and they share their personal stories, the things that they've gone through. I have a client or a guest on the call on the podcast. My words are hard for me today on the podcast. She runs a digital agency. She's got two young kids, and her house burned down.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: So, like, you know, navigating that, we talk about that story, and just, like, how do we resource ourselves and get through, you know, the insanity that is building business and raising babies? And some women come on and they share their subject matter expertise and really just talk about the things that they're really good at so that women can, you know, take the actionable tidbits and things and apply them to their own businesses. But for me, it was really about creating a safe space because there's a lot of conversation around motherhood and entrepreneurship that is, you know, very fluffy or very predatory. And so this is like real women building real businesses that want real support and want to keep it real in the process. And so that's been the energy of the podcast. And then just in May of this year, so may of 2024, launch this mother means business community. So it's a relatively new space, but it's a place for women to come together to receive, you know, business advice that's actually relevant for them. Because, let's be honest, we don't all have the same 24 hours in a day. We are nothing Beyonce. We do not have. Or we're also not, like, the childless 20 something man who's giving productivity advice and, like, it really just has to come from this place that's real and authentic and actually, like, makes sense for the season of life that we're in. I would say most of the women in the community have kids, like, under the teenage age, so through newborn to about 1314, sort of in that season, where your kids are still pretty dependent on you for a lot of things.
And, yeah, so it's really, you know, we mastermind together, we network together, we support each other. Lots of collaboration is the energy around the community, and it's really just for me about being able to, you know, build the thing that I wish that I had. Seven years ago, when I started, I had my daughter while I was running my gym.
[00:12:34] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. That's hard being, you know, and being there in person, too, because you have to physically go to a gym. It's not like it's something that you can really run from home. Yeah. Yeah. So a lot of the moms who listen to my podcast either already work remotely and they're an employee, or they want to apply for a job that's remote, or they want to be an entrepreneur and they want to start their own business so that they can work from home. And you're right, there are some really predatory accounts out there saying, look at all this money that I made within. You know, I sold an online journal on Etsy or whatever, and, like, look at all this money, and it's not. That's not real. And so. And maybe it is for somebody, but it's not the normal path that is repeatable and possible for every. Everybody. So for somebody who is maybe wanting to dip their toe or get started entrepreneurship, how do they decide?
Like, where do they start to decide what kind of business maybe they want to start? As a mom, do you think?
[00:13:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the first question is, like, what are you good at? And what do you like? Right? Because those are, you know, our businesses shouldn't always exist to entertain us. Usually not if you want to be entertained, you should get a hobby. But I think, like, what are you good at? And, you know, I think about myself, right. I. Our gym closed in 2020, the end of 2020, and I had a three month old baby at home, and I was like, I got to figure something out. And so I started with, like, what is the thing that I know best? And at that time, it was social media. I knew it well because that was, you know, where I came from in a corporate world. And so I just simply started coaching small business owners on how to use social media better for their business. That's where it all began. And it's morphed into a lot of other things since then. And so for anybody that's, like, thinking about that, it's like, what do you love? Right? What are you good at? And could you teach the thing that you're good at to other people?
And if it's. And when I say that, when I say teach that, it could be a lot of different things, right? It could be mentoring. It could be creating a course. It could be like offering it as a service. If you're great at writing, at writing, you could be a copywriter. If you love design, could you start a website design business? Like, there's so many things. So it's like, what are your skills that you actually have, and what can we do with those skills? That's question one. And if you're like, I don't really have any skills. And it's like, okay, do you have any ideas? Is there a product idea? Is there something that you really like making? Is there. You know, I've got friends that started really wanting to make a ring sling for when her baby was born because she couldn't find one that she liked. And now she has this massive ring sling company for baby wearing.
[00:15:11] Speaker A: Isn't that amazing? Yeah.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: Some businesses start by accident, but if you're in a place where you're like, you know what? Okay, I want to pursue this entrepreneurship. That's the first question. It's like, what are you good at? And you're probably good at a lot more than you're giving yourself credit for.
And then it really comes down to, okay, where do the people that could use this service or product, whatever, I decide, where do they hang out? Where can I find them?
[00:15:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: And is that on Instagram? Is that in forums? Is that locally? Is that, like Pinterest? I don't know. It just depends. Right? And then it's like, you need to start to show up in those places and start to talk about the things. Um, and then we get into, like, building a personal brand, and we give it to marketing and filling funnels and things like that. But it really does start with just deciding, okay, what am I good at? Yeah, what can I sell? And then going from there, that's a great.
[00:16:08] Speaker A: That's a great way to, you know, I think even just sitting and making a list of everything that you're good at. Because I know sometimes when I've. When I've tried to think of different things because I, like I said before, I have an entrepreneurial spirit. I just don't have that risk factor. Like, I'm not really scared about it, but when you start thinking about things that come naturally to you, just start brainstorming and writing a list of everything down that you really enjoy doing and that comes naturally to you. And maybe. Maybe you have friends that ask you to help them do things, like, those kinds of things think about. And maybe those could be avenues that somebody could pursue in a potential career.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, even if you're just, like, really organized and you're great at administrative tasks, like, maybe you could be a virtual assistant. Like, there's lots of people that are looking for that level of support.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: Definitely.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: It could. There's a lot of things that, I mean, I didn't even know were jobs until I found myself in the online space. But there's. There's so much that's available. It's actually quite wild.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: It's kind of overwhelming, I think. And so that's why you need a community to help you dig into that. Right. And, you know, a lot of. I've done lots of things over the years, and I've led lots of organizations and nonprofits and clubs. And I think one of the things that is consistent along all of those, among all of those clubs and those groups is that community really is key. And if you don't have the support outside of yourself and outside of your immediate family, I feel like you need somebody that's in kind of a similar boat to help bounce ideas and help be your cheerleader.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: And, yeah, we need that and help you think bigger. Like, this is one thing that I see a lot with entrepreneurs is, like, they go to their non entrepreneurial friends, or they go to people who have kind of, like, buried their own dreams and they try to tell them what it is that they want to do. And all that person does is hand them a shovel and is like, here, let's bury yours, too. Right? It is really important to round yourself with people who are taking the risks and doing the things and are going to believe in you and say, like, hey, Brittany, I love that idea. What if it was bigger?
[00:18:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: What if we did it faster? Right. And really challenging you to think beyond the circle that you're in. I mean, for me, I'm the first entrepreneur in my family, so I can't really go to anyone in my family and say, hey, I'm thinking about launching this idea, or I'm thinking about creating this thing or starting a podcast because they're all like, sorry, what?
[00:18:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: Why would you do that? You should just work for somebody else. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's just not what I've chosen. Yeah.
[00:18:43] Speaker A: You know, I was actually listening to, I think it was your first, it might have been your introductory episode, actually. And you were talking about how moms, and I think we're probably around the same age, I'll be 42 next month. But I, in our, when we were growing up, we really didn't have, there weren't really entrepreneurial moms back then in the eighties and nineties. And so we are having, the entrepreneur moms of today are blazing those trails so our children won't have those issues when they get older because they'll have all these great role models to model after.
[00:19:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I just didn't, to me, entrepreneurship meant, you know, I come from a pretty, like, my dad was a banker and so, like, my mom was an accountant and then she stayed at home. And so to me it was like, okay, if I'm going to be an entrepreneur, I need to invent Spanx and be like Sarah Blakey, or I need to get $100 million venture capital investment and start some massive, I don't even know. I didn't know that it could be anything different. And just yesterday, I co authored a book.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:19:49] Speaker B: The book was delivered. The copies of the book were delivered in my house.
So I was, you know, the box came, it was quite a large box. And I was like, what did I order? I don't remember what this is. And so I opened the box and I'm able to, you know, my, these books are here. And I was able to show my daughter, like, she's almost seven. Hey. Like, look at this book that came in. Look at these books and look who's on them. Like, mommy. Mommy's on them. And so she's like, holding this book and, like, processing, like, wait, I see your names on here and your picture. And I, she just looks up at me and her eyes get, like, giant, like, saucers. And then she just runs over and gives me this big, giant hug and like, oh, my gosh, mommy, you're an author. And it, for me, like, I mean.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: I just got channels. That's so cool. Yeah.
[00:20:37] Speaker B: Like, if my daughter thinks I'm cool, that I'm, like, definitely winning, but also, like, I'm giving her the permission that's like, well, my mom wrote a book so I could write a book. Or my mom built her own business so I could do that, too. And so for me, like, that's the thing that keeps me going. It's like, you can do whatever you want. But I didn't know that growing up, for me, it was like, you go to school, you go to university, you get a career, you work for somebody else. And I did that, but I was always wildly uncomfortable.
[00:21:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow.
All right, so I'm going to have to. You're going to have to tell me about this book.
[00:21:08] Speaker B: So the book is called honest as a mother. It's part of a series I'm in honest as a mother, book three, which is the last one. And it's a series of essays from moms who talking about, like, their honest experience with motherhood. So for mine, if you've ever listened to my podcast, my second episode of my podcast is on, like, how I kind of redefined what motherhood meant means for me what needs to be a good mom.
And based on unlearning some of the things we just talked about. Right. Unlearning this idea that, like, motherhood is supposed to look a certain way.
And so for me, like, I had a lot of discomfort with, like, what that definition of being a mom was. And so in that, my essay is really about how I reshaped that. But there's some incredible other women in the book that write about a lot of things from, like, gender disappointment to, like, coming to terms with their physical body to not having a village. What does that look like? It's a really, really cool book to be a part of. And women just having really authentic conversations about what motherhood's like. So, yeah, it's called honest as a mother. I'm in book three. There's book one and two as well.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:22:13] Speaker B: It's available on Amazon.
[00:22:14] Speaker A: I love that. Okay, we'll have to link that up because that sounds amazing. And then anybody else who is interested in participating in your program that this mother means business, where do they need to go? It's thismothermeansbusiness.com.
[00:22:29] Speaker B: Right. Thismothermeansbusiness.com. and you can join monthly. You can join annually. There's also, we host a free networking call every other Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. You can register for that. If you go to thismothermiesbusiness.com. and scroll to the bottom, you can find that, too. If you want to just come and get a sense of the vibe and what it's like to be in the group, I would more than. I love to have you there.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: That sounds amazing. Well, thank you, Laura, so much for spending some time with me today on this podcast. It's been great getting to know you, and I'm excited to add you to my network here. And I'll definitely check out the book. So thanks for sharing that info. And to all our listeners out there, definitely make sure to give Laura and this mother means business, a listen and a peek. Where are you on social media? You're on all of the places, right?
[00:23:21] Speaker B: I'm on all the places at. It's Laura Sinclair. At all.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: It's Laura Sinclair. Okay, awesome. Well, thank you so much again for joining me today. And to all of my listeners, as I always say, being different makes a difference. Let's support, inspire each other.
