Podcasts about schedulemax

Business, Hobby or Charity? Welcome to the first episode of the Small Business Reality series. Today I am going to share a training that I end up giving all of my coaching clients at one point or another… more on that in a moment It centers around how to deal with discounts, free services and generating revenue. One of the questions I often ask my coaching clients is do you have a business, a hobby or a charity? For some clients, this has come up as they struggle with what to charge for their product or service. For others, they are focusing on making their business look pretty to the outside world, but are not pulling in any revenue. If you are not making money in your business then you either have a hobby or a charity. Your hobby can turn into a business by making your first dollar. Once you have generated revenue, then you have a business. What Happened to Me I can be honest and say that for one solid year, BizChix was a hobby. I spent countless hours creating a podcast. I started off publishing new shows 5 times a week and did that until I reached 75 episodes. Then I scaled back to 3 days a week. This was all while I was pregnant with my third child and helping run ScheduleMAX.com which I co-founded with my husband Mark. To be honest, I had zero time or energy to think about how I might monetize the platform I was building.  Eight months after I launched the podcast, I gave birth to Baby Jett, moved my podcast to two days a week and enjoyed my maternity leave by airing episodes I had batched produced before Jett arrived. When those episodes ran out, I hit a crossroads. I no longer wanted to continue podcasting if it wasn’t going to connect to my income, but I LOVED podcasting and the community of women listeners and guests who hang out in my private Facebook group for female entrepreneurs. I decided that I wasn’t going to keep podcasting if I couldn’t see a direct link between my podcast and my income.  So I did two things. I started featuring ScheduleMAX.com (my other biz) as a sponsor of the show and I launched a paid mastermind. Over time, I have transitioned to 1 episode a week and now release episodes in a series format by publishing one episode a week for 10-12 weeks and then taking a 2-3 week hiatus.  This allows me to get refreshed and create other content for my business, like my upcoming mastermind course. (Hear how I almost quit podcasting.) I tell this all to you, because at the time I launched the podcast, I felt like I had a business. I was putting in a lot of hours. I was building up my presence on social media. I was hearing from listeners. I was building a platform from nothing. I was a member of the podcasting community and making friends all over the country. I was building a million dollar network of female entrepreneurs around the world that were guests on my show. But it wasn’t until I received my first dollar from my first mastermind client, that I really had a business. The Danger of Trying to Be Pretty I have worked with many clients that spend months or even almost a year making their business look pretty. They hire a designer and spend thousands of dollars on creating the perfect logo and website. They spend lots of time on social media and creating content, but still have not offered anything for sale. I know that for a lot of you this is very familiar. I have other clients that go for that minimum viable product. They invest as little as possible in creating a website and test the waters within a few months by selling an inexpensive product or service or offering to work 1/1 with people. These people have a business and not a hobby. I have watched product entrepreneurs literally invest their life savings into developing a product they are actually not even sure will sell, while others presell on kickstarter and prove their is a demand for their product. Those that have sales have a business and not a hobby.  Business vs. Charity Now if you have determined that you want to have a business and not a hobby, then you need to make sure you have a business and not a charity. This comes up most often for entrepreneurs when they are asked for discounts on their product or service offering. Many of the people I work with really struggle with what to charge for their products and services. This is normal and sometimes hard to determine. I had one coaching client that really struggled with having confidence in her pricing. She would try to guess with every new client that came to meet with her whether or not they could afford her services. Often she would get frustrated when she gave a discounted price for her services and would see that person posting pictures of themselves on an expensive vacation or taking their entire family to a theme park. She ended up with lots of different clients, paying lots of different prices. When she got a referral she had to look at what the referring customer was paying so she could quote a price for the new client. I asked her if she had a business or a charity. We worked through some of her issues emotional and confidence issues around her pricing. Most of this had nothing to do with the price she was charging, but her own self-esteem. She needed to believe that what she had to contribute was valuable. Her client testimonials and success stories were a great reminder of the amazing work she does and that what she offers is worth paying for. We came up with a pricing structure that felt like a great value for her clients but also honored the her time and her expertise. We talked about how it is really unfair to charge different people different prices based on what you think they can afford unless you are going to get their tax returns from the previous year. It is not our job to decide what our clients can afford. It is our clients job to decide if they can afford to work with us. Now this does not mean you cannot be charitable in you business. You can donate a percentage of your profits to a charity. You can offer scholarships for your services or donate your products to non-profit events. For this client, I suggested that she decide each year how many hours she “donates” to others. For example, she could work with one client a quarter for free or at a discount. This helps her feel like she is giving back, but doesn’t cause her pricing to fluctuate for each client. Boundaries in Business I have many women contact me and tell me they want to work with me but cannot afford to. My heart wants to work with each and every one of them for free. But, I am running a business. When I work, I am spending time away from my family. I am also paying for childcare. Thus, I am very intentional when and to whom I donate my services. The truth is that it is not to someone that asks for the help, but someone I feel inspired to help. I would love to hear from you if these comments resonate with you. We will be discussing this in the Biz Chix Coop, so I hope to learn more about whether you have a business, hobby or a charity or if you struggle with some of the issues I have presented today. Either way it is OK. We are all on a journey in this entrepreneurial adventure. Let’s Connect If you could use some clarity in your business, I have a great way to work with me that doesn’t require a long term commitment. It is through a 90 minute strategy session. During a strategy session we focus on three things you are struggling with and create an action plan for you to focus on moving forward.  You will be amazed at what we can accomplish in 90 minutes.  You can get more information on the strategy session, my 1/1 coaching program or apply to be part of an upcoming mastermind here. Book a Strategy Session Also, I am available to speak at your upcoming event, retreat or conference. I love to talk about the power of masterminds, what I have learned from interviewing over 200 female entrepreneurs or how to build a business from a podcast. You can share more about your event here. What is Your Answer? Let’s get back to the topic at hand. How would you answer the question I posed at the beginning? Do you have a business, or a hobby or a charity? If you have not generated any income yet, what can you do today to bring in your first dollar in the next 2-4 weeks. For service based businesses, that often means doing 1/1 work. Stop or reduce those activities that do not lead to a direct link to your income. For many of us that includes social media and checking email. Focus on doing things that will bring money into your business. Many of those things are scary because they can lead to rejection, but we’ve got to put ourselves out there and go for it.  I like to say…do it scared. If you tend to provide discounts to your clients or give away too much of your product for free, make a plan to add boundaries to your business.  What can you do to bring all your clients up to the same pricing structure? What decision making tools can you use to decide when you give something away for free? Make it on your own terms and timeline. Decide in advance what your discount policy is. Hold firm on your boundaries BizChix and go take some action. This episode is sponsored by my 2016 programs. Click below for more information. Strategy Session BizChix Masterminds 1/1 Coaching Program   If you are new here you might want to check out the Productivity Series, Mastermind Series or Social Media Summer Camp.  

Should Business or Family be a higher priority? How can you create memories with your family on a regular basis? Together with fun stories we tackle these questions in this episode, and Mark shares a great name and his wife Natalie thought up around this – Family Fun Fridays!   Mark Eckdahl, co-founder of ScheduleMax... The post 13 : Family Fun Friday – Putting Family Before Business appeared first on Wisdom From Dads.

Natalie Eckdahl has 3 kids, 2 businesses and 1 husband.  Together with her husband Mark, she founded ScheduleMAX.com, an online scheduling software in 2011 and 18 months ago launched BizChix.com a community and podcast which I was honored to be a guest on recently.  Natalie has built a thriving community around her podcast and website and I'm honored that she joins the show today to talk about building an thriving online community. Natalie holds an MBA and is a former management consultant.  She loves coaching new podcasters and small business owners, as well as hosting masterminds for her community.   Natalie has interviewed over 180 female entrepreneurs from Shark Tank contestants to Social Media Gurus, and loves to share the insights she has received from those conversations. When she's off duty, Natalie loves to spend time with her family (particularly at the beach) and is a huge fan of dark chocolate and red wine.

Brain Burps About Books Podcast #233 Video on the Biz Chix Podcast The Biz Chix interviews me! Announcements Listener Exclusive! Get Your First 1000 Followers in my new live class coming this Fall. My listeners get an exclusive discount of $50. Click HERE and use code PODCAST50. Good thru July 31st. Meet our podcast guests in our the Brain Burps About Book Podcast Group: www.katiedavis.com/podcastgroup. Come get your questions answered! Picture Book Summit is coming October 3rd! The Early Bird registration is now open. Come spend the day online with Peter Brown, Andrea Pinkney and Mac Barnett. Check out the video below and then go HERE for all the details. You don't want to miss this! This week I'm a guest on the Biz Chix Podcast with Natalie Eckdahl! As a busy Mom of three and co-Founder of ScheduleMAX.com, Natalie Eckdahl is trying to juggle a million things and is on a quest for the holy grail of “Work/Life Balance”.  On her Biz Chix Podcast, Natalie interviews amazing women entrepreneurs, and a few cool dudes, five days a week. Each entrepreneur shares work/life balance and productivity tips as well as their journey. She interviews amazing guests who run international brands and still balance all that life throws at them. Natalie gets them to spill all their secrets of how to get it done. Natalie and I talk about My childhood. Why I like to help people. How to work through the tough stuff. Dirty Dishes. How I became a children's book writer and illustrator. Amazon FBA. Using video in your online platform. How I got so techy. How you can make more money but you can't make more time. Using YouTube and how you can customize your channel. KatieDavis.TV

Today I chat with podcaster and business owner Natalie Eckdahl, a wife and mom with kids ages 7-months old, 3-years old, and 13-years old. We cover the power of connecting in person with other entrepreneurs, how running a business with her husband is both wonderful and awful, how she gets her family involved with eating healthy, her tips on being assertive and direct like a man without losing your empathy, and her best productivity hacks (she’s a master at this). “Even if it doesn’t feel like you have enough time, take care of yourself first.” – Natalie Eckdahl In today’s episode, you’ll learn: How she tempers the bluntness of a man with the empathy of a woman to have tough conversations, keep her boundaries, speak up to her kids’ teachers, and be direct in business Why she’s raising her daughter as a future entrepreneur without even intending to What she does to get her family of five involved in nutrition (hint: her daughter and husband each cook a meal a week and her 3-year old asks for kale chips for breakfast!) Her insight into raising a teenage girl who LOVES her body (and how she models being comfortable in her own skin) The go-to productivity tool that doesn’t use any technology (gasp!)… and the music app she uses to stay focused Mentioned in this episode: Schedulemax.com – Natalie’s business with her hubby Bizchix.com – Natalie’s podcast & coaching biz Focus at Will App She Podcasts – shout out to my ladies, cohosts Elsie Escobar and Jessica Kupferman FYH Episode 1 for my body and food perfectionism story My TEDx talk “How food fuels hustle” The Feed Your Hustle Facebook group – to continue the conversation! Natalie Eckdahl has three kids, 2 businesses and one husband. She co-founded ScheduleMAX.com an online scheduling software in 2010 with her husband Mark and is the host of The Biz Chix Podcast where she has interviewed over 170 amazing female entrepreneurs. She loves leading masterminds of entrepreneurial women and coaching women on how to create and grow their podcast. Natalie loves the beach, giggling with her kids and dark chocolate.   I wanted to have her on the show because she is organized, practical, and to-the-point in business while prioritizing family and understanding the energy-boosting power of self-care. What are you implementing this week? Share in the comments because I want to know!

Click for Shownotes I Wanted a Million Dollars and Instead Got a Million Dollar Network   Recently I had the honor of interviewing Racheal Cook for The Biz Chix Podcast and we had a very real and at times raw conversation on what it is like to be a Work at Home Mom, run a business, a home and take care of our children.  I felt immediately like I had connected with a kindred spirit across the country (a cool bi-product of this job and not the first time I have bonded quickly and deeply with a guest).   When Racheal asked if I would participate in her Biz That Loves You Back blog tour, I couldn’t raise my virtual hand quick enough. In fact, be sure you check out Claire Pelletreau (http://clairepells.com/biz-love-blog-tour/) who posted yesterday and Kimberly Riggins( kimberlyriggins.com) tomorrow.   Back when I “only” had one business and two kids in 2013, I got the idea to launch a podcast. There are many reasons I wanted to become a podcaster.    Podcasting fulfills a childhood dream I have of being a talk radio host.  I also wanted to give voice to more women’s stories and create the kind of content I was yearning to hear.  Of the male hosted podcasts I was listening to at the time, women were only being interviewed about 10% of the time.  When they were interviewed, the young, single male host didn’t ask the types of questions I wanted to have answered.     But if I am honest, really honest with you, the truth is I thought I could do all the above and have another big bonus.  I thought I could make piles of money too. There are a few podcasters out there right now that are killing it and making multi-six figure and 7 figure incomes from their podcast   So fast forward from my launch Januay 2014 to now April 2015. Am I rolling around in piles of cash simply from launching a podcast.   No.   I am not a millionaire.  I am not making a six figure income from my podcast.  In fact, I am not even making a 5 figure income from my podcast and the BizChix brand. It took me a full year to even start monetizing in any way.   I could have monetized a lot sooner, but Baby Jett changed my focus.  Towards the end of my pregnancy the time was right to test the monetization waters.  But I was too tired and trying to prepare for a maternity leave from interviewing.  Once Jett arrived, I didn’t feel like hustling to work with clients or build a digital product when I had a newborn to hold and cuddle.   At the beginning of this year, I began working with the Biz Chix community. I have launched two paid masterminds, engaged a few coaching clients and  even experimented with sponsorship of the show for one month.  I decided not to continue with sponsorship for now because I want to promote programs I am offering through Biz Chix or have my other biz ScheduleMAX.com sponsor the episode.     While I have certainly been disappointed with the slow build to monetization, podcasting has had a surprising effect on my life. I haven’t built a million dollar bank account, but I have built a million dollar network.   The show has expanded the depth and breadth of my network.  I have been able to interview women that I would never meet otherwise or even have access to.  A special report is built during interviews and almost every time the guest ends our call by asking me to let them know how they can support me in the future.  I have called in a few of those favors with winning results.   The podcasting community is another huge bonus.  I have never been part of a more supportive or collaborative community and the women in this community are the best. I have new besties all across the country that completely understand my business and my life in ways many local friends can’t.   The best thing I did relating to the Biz Chix brand was launch a private Facebook group for my audience that is filled with female entrepreneurs and women that want to be entrepreneurs.  I get to see relationships developing and women doing business with each other all as a result of the podcast.     This year I have learned something about myself that has come as a big surprise. I really want to teach more people how to podcast.  It is so powerful to get your voice out there and I want to help more people do that, especially bloggers.  Bloggers already have an amazing pool of content and adding audio to their blogs is really a no brainer.  It also allows their audience to connect with them on a more intimate level.   Podcast listeners tend to listen through their smartphones using earbuds and you can’t get much closer to someone’s heart,mind and soul.   I think the more senses we can connect with people in this New Media age, the better.  We all really need to be considering blogging, podcasting and video in that marketing toolbelt I mentioned before.  Video is my next frontier!    So in answer to my new friend Racheal’s question on how is my business loving me back?  Right now BizChix isn’t throwing piles of cash at me, but there is huge potential in the foundation I built so far. Podcasting gave me access to an industry full of new friends, a professional network beyond my wildest dreams and even more importantly the chance to fulfill a childhood dream of being behind the mic.         The Truth About Podcasting   I’m the member of a number of private Facebook communities for Podcasters and almost everyone is trying to figure out the same thing.  How do I make money from this thing and why don’t I have enough downloads yet to warrant sponsorship? It is an ongoing conversation that I see repeated day after day in group after group.   The truth is that podcasts very rarely get sponsored.  They don’t have the kinds of download numbers to warrant an interest from big brands.  Some clever niche podcasters have been able to sell advertisers on the benefits of direct access to he exact customers they are looking for.  This takes a lot of creativity and effort and it is being done by a small group of people.   What podcasts are best suited for is as one tool in your Marketing tool belt.  Podcasts are one of the most intimate mediums out there.  I have released 171 episodes so far and there are some people out there who have listened to every single one.  Imagine being in someone’s ears for 171 hours  That is like someone listening to me 24/7 for one week straight.  It is mind blowing.   This kind of connection allows podcasters to build a tribe of followers that know, like and trust them. I run a private Facebook group for my community filled with female entrepreurs and women who want to be entrepreneurs.  It is very engaged and one of my favorite places to be.   I launched a Mastermind for my community and 1/1 coaching program in early 2015 as my first means of monetizing.  It has been so rewarding to start to work with my community and provide value.   While I was hoping to contribute and provide to my Mastermind, they ended up providing me great feedback as well.  While I provide a ton of business value, I have a skill and industry knowledge that a lot of people don’t have.   I know how to podcast.  I understand how to launch, build and monetize this medium.  I am passionate about podcasting and they want to learn more about it from me.   None of the podcasts I was listening to had hosts I could relate to.  My favorite at the time was Entrpereneur on Fire, hosted by John Lee Dumas. But Johns life is not at all like mine.  He is a 30 year old single guy with no kids who works 80+ hours a week and has kept up that pace for over 2 years now.     I thought it would be cool to interview women like me. Women balancing work and kids. There were questions I wanted to ask them. How do you do it? What is the secret? Do you have balance?  What I found is that most of them have the same answer as me.  I am trying to figure it out day by day.  Some days I feel I have perfect balance, while other days life feel a bit out of control.  The secret sauce or holy grail of balance does not exist.   My other motivation for starting a podcast was to create another income stream for my family.  

On the show is the host of one of today's hottest podcasts, shaped and designed for the woman entrepreneur - Biz Chix Podcast. She is also the co-founder of ScheduleMax - an automated piece of scheduling heaven, perfect for podcasters, coaches, doctors, and appointment-driven businesses. Podcaster and entrepreneur Natalie Eckdahl joins in to share specific steps that helped her, recover after a breakup, rebuild and ReLaunch! her relationships and business. She also shares three incredible productivity tips.  Natalie's back story >>> Driven and incredibly ambitious, she was on the fast-track in multiple areas - out of college at age 20 with a graduate degree that followed shortly thereafter, a husband with a thriving law practice, and a daughter by age 29. That all came to a screeching halt when her marriage "blew up". In an instant, she was a single mom, without a job, weighed down by mixed messages and unknown outcomes. Eager to learn and grow (or maybe it was just a survival mechanism), she reached out for help. As she explains on the show, she found the tools and techniques that helped her to begin again, discovering things about herself that, for her to get her life and sanity back, needed to be challenged and upgraded. Game-changers in her recovery process Individual and group therapy; Going deep into her faith; Journaling.  One of Natalie's AHA! moments she talks about I still cared how other people saw me, but I didn't let that define me anymore.  Productivity tips she unpacks on the show Outsource at work and at home; Touch your email only once a day; Only look at your email if you have time to respond. Follow Natalie on Twitter, Facebook, and Biz Chix website.

Host Natalie Eckdahl provides a recap of episodes 57-60 with clips from each episode and key takeaways for your business as well as a few of her own favorite productivity tools and apps.   Review for Episodes 57-60 Episode 57: Sarah Boyd of Simply Stylist Sarah Boyd is the founder and creative mind behindSimply Stylist; we like to think of her as our oh-so-chic captain. With years of experience in fashion PR under her belt, Sarah set out to start her own multi-service boutique agency in 2009 to connect the stylemakers she encountered on a daily basis with brands, events and other opportunities. Episode 58: Reshma Chamberlin of Muzio and B&C Designers Reshma Chamberlin dreamed of being an entrepreneur as soon as she started dreaming! She founded and runs B&C Designers, a boutique design firm that works to achieve their web, mobile and other design objectives. The firm has an unwavering passion for artistic conception and implementation. She focuses on strategy and finding creative solutions for your business, whether that is web, print or mobile! Episode 59: Sandi Lin of Skilljar Sandi Lin is the CEO and founder of Skilljar, which provides easy online course software for businesses. Prior to Skilljar, Sandi was a Senior Manager at Amazon.com in Seattle, where she helped launch and grow Fulfillment by Amazon and Amazon Local. She has an MBA from Stanford and 2 engineering degrees from MIT. Episode 60: Stacey Ferreira of MySocialCloud.com Stacey is an established tech entrepreneur, best known for co-founding MySocialCloud.com, an online password manager whose investors include Sir Richard Branson, Jerry Murdock, and Alex Welch. In 2013, she and her brother (and co-founder) sold their startup to Reputation.com, making Stacey one of the youngest (if not the youngest) female tech entrepreneur to ever make a successful exit of this nature. Now, she is working on building her next business, AdMoar.

How do you leverage podcasting to build your audience? Listen to our Interview with Natalie Eckdahl, Host of the Biz Chix Podcast to find out! The special Women in Podcasting series kicks off with the fabulous Natalie Eckdahl, host of the Biz Chix Podcast. Natalie entered into the podcasting space because she was craving a community and because she wanted to reach a larger audience. She and her husband founded ScheduleMax.com in 2010, an online scheduling service that helps consultants, those in the salon/beauty industries and podcasters manage their meetings effectively and efficiently. In January 2014, Natalie launched the Biz Chix Podcast where she interviews amazing female entrepreneurs and some cool dudes. Her podcasting career, though new, has reaped her huge benefits! In this inspiring interview, Natalie discusses a bit about her background and her specific knowledge about podcasting and about how the platform is FULL of potential!

Natalie interviews amazing women entrepreneurs, and a few cool dudes, five days a week.  Each entrepreneur shares work life balance and productivity tips as well as their journey! Natalie shares why she started this podcast while balancing an already hectic life. Biz Chix Website: www.bizchix.com