Lean The F*ck Out | Fempreneurs | Women Entrepreneurs | Female Business Owners

In this episode of Lean the F*ck Out, we talk with Leah Madden, founder and managing director of Greenprint Growth Partners, about how she helps companies maximize value beyond the launch phase and find the right funding strategies to match with their growth plans. Funding Your Business Beyond the Launch Phase Episode Highlights: All companies should have some sort of a plan for capital building (funding), no matter the size. To create a strong investor pipeline, target: investors that work with companies at your stage and focus on the industry or sector your company is in. Companies with investors as their main funding source, should have 20-30 investors in their circle of trust. Relationship management is critical to all funding. Companies should have three main focus areas: 1. Customers 2. Operations 3. Investors. As early as possible have a cash flow statement for your company. This will create a runway (number of months your company will be able to exist based on the capital you have) for you to unders

In this episode of Lean the F*ck Out, we talk with Intuitive Consultant Jenna Gessay about her practice and understanding and connecting with your own intuition. Jenna discusses how intuition describes the language of your soul and how entrepreneurs can use their intuition to build and grow their businesses in the right direction. Connecting with Your Intuition Episode Highlights: Intuition is the language of your soul. Intuition is so untapped for many entrepreneurs. Intuition helps with making wise decisions. If someone feels like they are being deeply invested in, they will likely be a much more productive employee. Being an intuitive practice could differentiate you as a company, giving you a competitive leg up. Intuition can help with organization and prioritization. Honor the expression vessel of who you are. If you exploring completely new frontiers, you can rely on your intuition to access the divine wisdom that put the idea there. You’ll know if it is intuition, because your ego will have something

In this episode of Lean the F*ck Out, we talk with Leah Komaiko brand storyteller and author of 20 bestselling books for children, about how she found her way into the corporate world as a consultant among a family of artists. She also shares how she built her business helping brands (companies and individuals) find their story. In the episode, Leah offers advice on how you as a fempreneur can find your unique story and pave your own way. Finding Your Story Episode Highlights: If a story is good for a child’s heart, it is good for a business client’s heart. What has been your motivating energy and force, and your personality and brand? Stories help us to understand these things, see who we are and remember who we were. Allow yourself to understand what stuck with you and never left you. That’s the art of a brand. Genius is simple. We all strive to stand out and the only way I think to stand out and not mimic or copy someone else is to understand the major events/challenges in your life. Your story is then bu

In this episode of Lean the F*ck Out, we talk with Lisa Q. Fetterman, founder and CEO of Nomiku, about how she paired her love for amazing food and high-tech manufacturing to bring Nomiku to life. Lisa shares her adventures with Kickstarter; the story about how she has grown her sous vide aficionado business into a home staple; and gives advice to other women looking to lean the f*ck out and do their own thing. Pairing High-Tech Manufacturing with Good Food Episode Highlights: Kickstarter was a good choice for Fetterman because it was hard to get funding from investors and banks as an untested founder with a potentially risky concept. To build credibility for Kickstarter Fetterman toured the country participating in maker spaces. Manufacturing will always cost more than you think it will. The longer it takes, the more money you pay out. You are creating something the world has never seen before – you are creating the blueprint – that takes time. There is no shortcut around the development of a new product. I

In this episode of Lean the F*ck Out, we talk with Robin Stewart, founder and co-owner of Rip Fix about how she took a family recipe and turned it into a must-have product for athletes around the world. Robin discusses how she started and grew the company and how she manages it today as a passive income stream. From Family Recipe to Passive Income Episode Highlights: Rip Fix started out being made in a kitchen and moved to small batch manufacturing. Business mentor advised, that “You will know when you can’t handle it and are falling behind” that is when you need to make the move to manufacturing the product. Planning for a manufacturer started quite a bit of time before they actually needed one. Connections are of the utmost importance. Small batch manufacturers can be expensive and hard to find. Robin and business partner built systems for the business which now allows for passive income. Working with an Amazon Prime consultant really took their business to the next level. When you start off get the right

In this episode of Lean the F*ck Out, we have a frank discussion about money with financial coach Lynne Somerman. We talk about the challenges (and anxiety) entrepreneurs face when it comes to finances like forecasting, revenue versus profit, cash flow, budgeting and paying yourself. Lynne offers great tips for getting your money on track for your business and personal finances. A Real Conversation About Money Episode Highlights: You are not the only one that doesn’t know what they are doing when it comes to budgeting for your business. To start budgeting get realistic with where you are right now. Remember, the numbers are facts. Talk to people that are in similar place as you. Revenue goals and profit goals are different. Growth happens in years, not months. Entrepreneurs often have unrealistic revenue goals and ideas for the speed at which they are able to attain them. The amount you are able to grow your business each year depends on where your business is currently and the trends you have experienced o

In this episode of Lean the F*ck Out, Gretchen and Tera talk with Racheal Kay Albers, founder and creative director of RKA ink, a branding, web design, and digital marketing studio. Rachael talks about how she got her business started and her effing hilarious video series, Awkward Marketing, a business comedy show blending fun size small business advice with storytelling and sketch comedy. Epic Marketing for Unforgettable Brands Episode Highlights: In the act of defining what you are against, what your brand is not, you can begin to understand who you are and who you want your audience to be. Relationships are at the core of how businesses are growing. Most businesses that fail at marketing do so because they are trying to fit themselves into some else’s model. Don’t just create the passive income tool just because someone told you to. Don’t chase all the different ideas. Let what you should be doing “burst out of you”. If you spend too much time and money on what others are doing, you can deflate your busin

In this interview we talk with Tasha Booth about how she went from touring musical theatre performer to CEO of her own business support services business. Tasha shares some of the lessons she has learned from the growth of her business, some amazing tips on how to keep a virtual team motivated, and pointers on how solopreneurs can recognize when it is time to hire support services to grow their business. Hiring Support Services to Grow Your Business Episode Highlights: Being honest with yourself about what you are great at and not so great at will help you understand how to best build your business. “Stay in your zone of genius.” - Tasha Booth As you grow, get to know what your best ‘type’ of client is for your business and your work style. Making a virtual team work: Utilize a rigorous vetting system for new hires. Make sure new hires are critical thinkers that can work independently. Try out tools like the Colby A to get to know each other’s work styles. Host weekly team meetings, be sure to include non-

In this episode, Gretchen DeVault and Tera Wozniak Qualls talk with Charlene Trinh about how she turned a two decade career in Wealth Management into a leadership practice developing conscious leaders through mindfulness, intention, and wellness. Conscious Leadership Episode Highlights: Conscious Leadership: Bringing one’s whole self to a leadership role. Not about being seen, but you seeing yourself. Stepping outside your comfort zone, over and over again. Understanding your own patterns of self sabotage and developing a plan to manage times when you are sabotaging progress in order to stay outside of your comfort zone. Creates a culture of trust, support, growth, and collaboration. Becoming a conscious leader comes from “tuning in” – getting connected to your heart, gut, intuition. Do the inner work and get clear on who you are not and own You! If you’re going to hold place for someone else, you have to be solid on who you are. Network with those that do similar work and find those that support you. Ma

In this week’s episode, we talk with Chaya Milchtein about starting her blog – The Mechanic Shop Femme – which has certainly become much more than just a blog. Chaya now offers automotive classes and consultation services, and automotive career coaching. The blog covers automotive topics as well as plus-size fashion and LGBT lifestyle. Through her blog and classes, Chaya empowers women and LGBT+ with knowledge about car maintenance. Empowering Women through Car Maintenance and Lifestyle Blogging Episode Highlights: Tips for growing a blog: Listen to readers who are open to sharing what they are looking for. Offer classes, people want to learn more. Blogs don’t grow on their own, build a network. Virtual Assistants can be a good option to support bloggers. Provide education to people in many different places (paid and unpaid). Make sure you actually are reliable (most important thing). If you promise something, you need to deliver or be honest that you can’t deliver on that. Be the upstanding person you wa

In this episode of Lean the F*ck Out, we talk with Brooke Sprowl about how she is growing a therapy practice in Los Angeles, My LA Therapy, and her upcoming book: Why You Should Date Emotionally Unavailable Men: Use Your Unhealthy Relationships to Transform Yourself and Your Love Life. Growing a Therapy Practice Episode Highlights: When Brooke’s therapy practice was smaller, she didn’t need to have as many processes and systems in place, however, as her therapy practice started to grow, it became clear how important systems and processes were. One of her many lessons in business is that she should have developed those systems and processes right from the beginning. Don’t learn the systems as your scaling. Create the systems first. Brooke used a website approach to growing her therapy practice. A majority of her leads have been referrals and she has never paid for online advertising. Her success in marketing started with finding her authentic marketing voice on her website and blog. Videos allow people to und

This week on Lean the F*ck Out we talk with plus size fashion designer, stylist, and entrepreneur Rachel Kacenjar. Rachel discussed how she sold her business Re/Dress after purchasing it from a colleague and running it for almost a decade. Selling Your Business Episode Highlights: Go into all employee hires with good boundaries in mind; there is a fine line between employee and friendship that should not be crossed. If you are going to start your business doing something you are passionate about, be prepared that you might lose that passion. Always have a contract, no matter who you are dealing with. Contracts help set healthy boundaries. When opening a business banking account, open two additional sub-accounts. Put one-third of your income in one of those accounts for tax savings and put another one-third into an account for buying new stuff you need for the business. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Let it go, make mistakes liberally, and learn from them. It’s okay to critically analyze big mistakes. Have

This week on Lean the F*ck Out, we talked with Lesly Simmons about how she went from running her own business to taking a gig back in corporate. Lesly talks about the difference between working for herself and working at a corporation, and how she has been able to utilize her entrepreneurial mindset in her new role. Episode Highlights: Bonuses for Lesly of moving back to work for a company: Going in to an office day-to-day and not having to pay quarterly taxes. It is important to remember that your goals and dreams can change over time. If an opportunity presents itself you do not have to decline it because it doesn’t live up to other people’s or even your own expectations. Security – whether you are running your own business or in a corporate environment – comes from within and honoring your own abilities. Bringing entrepreneurial mindset into a corporate environment: allows you to look at things from different perspective. gives you a chance to connect the dots between the many different organizations/co

In this episode, we talk with Magalie Rene´ about how she went moved from Public Relations into a creative business, and then finally into coaching fempreneurs on finding their own shine. Magalie shares great tips on overcoming fears and taking the leap to find a career where you shine. Episode Highlights: Are you a hummingbird or a jackhammer? https://blogs.psychcentral.com/creative-mind/2015/11/elizabeth-gilbert-on-jackhammers-and-hummingbirds-and-creative-life/ Trust your instinct, follow the breadcrumbs (signs of what you should be doing). Take a chance on things you might not feel are possible; don’t just say no. You have skills from all of your experiences to share, think about how those might be useful for new experiences, even if they aren’t in the same field. Hurdles many of the woman face in running their own business: fear, comparison to others, need for external affirmation or permission, fear of failure and success (fear of judgement) Overcoming fears: awareness, action, accountability Magali

This week we talk with Linda Otterbridge, founder of Hook a Sista Up and purveyor of connections between women business owners. HASU is a membership based sisterhood, movement and platform for women entrepreneurs who share a common goal. “Entrepreneurship.” HASU brings women together to share valuable experiences and resources that help each other as they travel on their business journey. Linda shares the challenges and triumphs she’s seen with many women owned businesses including her own and offers great advice for making connections and getting support. Episode Highlights: Linda founded Hook a Sista Up (HASU) HASU is for any woman who wants to start a business who may need a mentor or have an idea and want to get connected They come together to build connections and support each other. Monthly accountability check ins Confidence is one of the barriers Linda has seen for women considering taking their business full time. It could be family structure that matters or level or risk adversity or if they ha

This week we talk with Carly Cylinder, owner of Flour LA, Inc, author of The Flower Chef and host of The Flower Kitchen. Carly shares how she started her business out of her small apartment and how she’s grown it to a bicoastal, full-service studio. She shares what it was like to publish her best-selling book The Flower Chef and talks about her show The Flower Kitchen on Bluprint. Episode Highlights: How Carly runs Flour LA with locations in LA, NYC and Dallas How her book was published and the details of the process Carly talks about her show The Flower Kitchen on Bluprint How she uses Instagram as a portfolio Biggest lessons Carly’s learned from running her own business: Wait for those bigger jobs that are the right fit. By saying “no” to projects that are not the right fit, you allow room for other opps you are more aligned with Give yourself more financial security - have some sort of regular income Recommended reads: The 4 Hour Work Week and The Big Leap Stay in your own lane, keep focused Don’t look

This week we talk with Callee Ackland, US Navy veteran turned eco-entrepreneur and founder of Bestowed Essentials, podcaster, zero waste activist and van dweller. Callee shares how and why she started Bestowed Essentials and bringing the business on the road with her. She also talks about life traveling the country in a van. Callee talks zero waste activism and how listeners can reduce their impact. Episode Highlights: About Bestowed Essentials ethical, eco-friendly and zero waste Soaps, shampoo bars, candles All natural No fragrances Vegan and cruelty free Plastic free packaging Zero waste activism A Plastic Ocean - documentary inspired this lifestyle change for Callee Zero Waste - idea of trying to reduce your personal footprint you leave on the planet. Individuals and individual actions make a difference. It plants seeds. One by one we all change. Mission is to encourage and enable people to reduce waste and live their best life Simply ways to reduce waste Try to reduce or cut out single use plastic (

This week we talk with Susie Trujillo, Founder & Chief Strategist at STRUC, a strategy consultancy building brand positioning and marketing programs for growth-stage companies. We talk about common mistakes businesses make when it comes to marketing, where to start with your marketing efforts and how to market when your business is scaling up and at growth stage.   Episode Highlights: Biggest mistakes businesses make when it comes to their marketing: Not investing enough in brand. Commodity won’t win in the long wrong. Brand is king. Not understanding the value of good brand strategy. Trying to do too many things. So many tactics. They usually go for low hanging fruit but it might not be the most effective. They don’t look at whole marketing eco-system. They don’t have a plan. Where businesses can start when it comes to their marketing: Coming up with your marketing plan is the first step. Who are you? What do you sell? Why should your customers care? Problem > Reality > Future State Customer j

This week we talk with entrepreneur Rosie Cruz CEO of Cruz Multimedia Productions LLC, the Founder of The Actor’s Conference and Co-Creator of HUSH The Series. She shares her entrepreneurial journey and her experiences finding community through founding The Actor’s Conference. She also talks about how HUSH The Series was created.   Episode Highlights: Rosie shares how and why she founded The Actor’s Conference The importance of finding your community and having a sense of camaraderie Rosie talks about how HUSH The Series came about. Rosie’s advice for juggling multiple projects: Breathing is huge - it changes your thinking, changes physiology We all strive to have balance and focus, but it’s not always possible. Stay focused on what you want to accomplish Entrepreneurship is beautiful, it’s ugly, it’ll make you confront yourself, you’ll cry but also in the most joyous way, you’ll learn to vibrate within your body in the most beautiful way. Rosie Cruz Rosie Cruz is the CEO of her own production company,

This week we talk with podcaster and TV writer Elizabeth Laime about all things podcasting including her bad ass podcast Totally Laime. We dive into the logistics of podcasting, how the medium has changed and how podcasting has impacted her career trajectory. Elizabeth also shares her experiences in TV writing for the shows I’m Sorry and NBC’s The Village. Episode Highlights Podcasting can connect you with your community The benefits of podcasting go way beyond financials The logistics of podcasting - what it takes on a weekly basis The importance of consistency in podcasting The snowball effect in growing an audience for your podcast Elizabeth Laime Elizabeth Laime is a comedy writer and podcaster. She got her start onstage at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York with her long-running one woman show, "Dear Diary" (a Time Out New York's critics' pick,) and as part of the original sketch "Maude" Team, "Gunderson". Her three podcasts, Totally Laime, Totally Married, and Totally Mommy have over ten