The Successful Micropreneur Podcast

Making a great product and providing an incredible service does not guarantee success. A real game changer for most businesses is their marketing. To achieve the success you want, you may need to think less about your own motivations, and more about what your clients really want.

Chad Ebert is the owner of the Powell Academy of Music, which trains students of all ages through music education. The music academy struggled to get enough students during its first five years, and has grown so much in the last three that he’s preparing to open a second location in Lewis Center.

What changed? Chad says it’s because they are a music academy that thinks like a marketing company. He talks to host Mary McCarthy about how he realized he needed to get to the core motivation about WHY people really need his service.

“We aren’t really selling music lessons as much as we are trying to develop young people into being successful adults.”

What You Will Learn:

• The importance of your marketing message
• Features vs. Benefits: Too many companies focus on the features of their business, and don’t stress the benefits. Chad shares how the benefits sell people on his business, more than the features do
• Chad shares the Elevator Pitch that earned him a round of applause when he delivered it to a group of small business owners

Chad Ebert                                                                                                                                      Owner, Powell Academy of Music                            director@powellacademyofmusic.com                                                                 614-572-3640

About the Host:                                                                                                                                Mary McCarthy                                                                                                                               Host, The Successful Micropreneur Podcast                                                                           President of Your Management Team, Inc.                                                          Co-Founder of the Women’s Small Business Accelerator, Inc.

“We have to deal with our biases so that we can interact with others who are different than us.”

Dyann McDowell, President of Training Marbles , Inc. speaks with host Mary McCarthy about diversity and subconscious biases in the workplace. Training Marbles offers training and consulting to businesses in the Midwest. A popular topic is diversity; teaching employees about bad behavior in the workplace, and how to get along with others not like them.

Examples of Protected Statuses:

• Race
• Color
• Religion or creed.
• National origin or ancestry
• Sex
• Age
• Physical or mental disability
• Veteran status

“The one thing that enters the room for me, before I enter the room, is the fact that I’m African American. In a lot of ways, as an entrepreneur, I work much harder to get to the same place.”

What You Will Learn:

• Better understanding of bias and how it affects your perceptions
• Real examples of biases in the workplace
• Preventative steps small business employers need to take to educate themselves and employees

Dyann McDowell                                                                                                                 President of Training Marbles                                       dmcdowell@trainingmarbles.com                                                                  (844)3MARBLES

About the Host:                                                                                                                                Mary McCarthy                                                                                                                               Host, The Successful Micropreneur Podcast                                                                           President of Your Management Team, Inc.                                                          Co-Founder of the Women’s Small Business Accelerator, Inc.

Think about where you are in your business right now, and where you want it to go. Changing your Mindset is a crucial step to taking it there.

Think of it this way: You are moving into the role of CEO of your organization. You are not the person who should be doing all of the work. How can you achieve that? Host Mary McCarthy shares her tips on how you can prioritize and maximize your time, so that you are leading your business, not just working in it.

“Are you in control of what is going on in your organization? Or are you just busy being the business owner?”

What You Will Learn:

•  Steps to take to get you thinking like the CEO of your company, not the business owner
• How Mary’s recommended book (see below) can help you determine your priorities
• The toughest obstacles entrepreneurs face in changing their Mindset

Recommended Reading: Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less                       by Greg McKeown

Mary McCarthy                                                                                                                               Host, The Successful Micropreneur Podcast                                                                           President of Your Management Team, Inc.                                                          Co-Founder of the Women’s Small Business Accelerator, Inc.

The habits of highly successful people are a topic that fascinate us. How are some entrepreneurs able to create a wildly successful business, but others with equally good ideas cannot.  It may come down to mental strength.

Host Mary McCarthy and Co-host Sharon DeLay talk about a Forbes article analyzing a list compiled by Amy Morin, a psychotherapist, who discusses “Mentally Strong People: The 13 Things They Avoid” and how it relates to entrepreneurs.

Mary McCarthy is the President of YMT Consultants, a small business consulting firm, and Co-Founder at the Women’s Small Business Accelerator, Inc. Sharon DeLay is the Founder and President of GO-HR, an outsourced Human Resources service for small businesses.

“I absolutely believe in positive thinking, and surrounding myself with successful people, and learning from others, the whole mentoring and learning relationship.” – Sharon DeLay

What You Will Learn:

• Mary and Sharon’s key points from the article, why they affect entrepreneurs the most (and what to do about them)
• What is “Imposter Syndrome” and why it’s bad for entrepreneurs
• Mary and Sharon’s advice for beginning entrepreneurs and small business owners

Related Reading: Mentally Strong People: The 13 Things They Avoid

Sharon DeLay
GO-HR
4889 Sinclair Road, Suite 103
Columbus, Ohio 43229
P (614) 473-0122
sharon.delay@go-hr.biz
http://www.go-hr.biz/

About the Host:                                                                                                                                Mary McCarthy                                                                                                                               Host, The Successful Micropreneur Podcast                                                                           President of Your Management Team, Inc.                                                          Co-Founder of the Women’s Small Business Accelerator, Inc.

“It is a lot of jumping around, but they love it. Because they are creating their own career out of it.”

Catherine Lang-Cline talks to host Mary McCarthy about The Gig Economy, and how it’s changing the workplace. A gig is a job of a short duration, or a single project. And it’s becoming increasingly popular with Millennials and Generation Xers.

Catherine Lang-Cline is the President and Co-founder of Portfolio Creative, a microbusiness that connects clients to marketing, design, advertising, retail, and digital roles in other companies.

“For people who are deciding to dive into The Gig Economy… you can be successful high-end or low-end, if you just have the drive to do it. You have to be really comfortable with just always getting to that next job, next job, next job. Some people are not. Some people find a lot of comfort having a secure job.”

What You Will Learn:

• What is the Gig Economy or a Side Gig?
• Why people are choosing these jobs, and what employers need to know
• Why Gigs are so popular with Millennials and Generation Xers
• Career fields where you will find The Gig Economy at work

Related Reading: Who Wins in the Gig Economy and Who Loses

Catherine Lang-Cline                                                                                                            President and Co-founder                                                                                                  Portfolio Creative

About the Host:                                                                                                                                Mary McCarthy                                                                                                                               Host, The Successful Micropreneur Podcast                                                                           President of Your Management Team, Inc.                                                          Co-Founder of the Women’s Small Business Accelerator, Inc.

Ever wonder what motivates and inspires business leaders? This week, we look at inspirational quotes that motivate guest Nichole Dunn, the President and CEO of The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio, and host Mary McCarthy. Mary is the President and Co-Founder of Your Management Team, a small business consulting firm.

The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio is a non-profit organization that works to create equality and to empower all women and girls to reach their full potential. Its’ four priority areas are Gender Norms, Economic Self-Sufficiency for Women, Leadership for Women, and Life Skills for Girls.

What You Will Learn:

• Quotes to inspire you every day
• Nichole and Mary’s stories about what has motivated them in their work and personal lives
• Nichole’s favorite way of introducing people in a warm and inviting way, that has nothing to do with their bio. It’s a great technique you can use too.

“How often do we go down paths that we didn’t necessarily mean to go down, because we were allowing the worry, or the ‘what if’, or the ‘fear of’, so we do things we know we really don’t want to do. Entrepreneurs are that a lot, especially in the first years.”  – Mary McCarthy

Associated Reading: 5 Quotes to Create a Positive Mindset During Negative Times

Nichole Dunn                                                                                                                        President and CEO                                                                                                                        The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio                            ndunn@womensfundcentralohio.org

About the Host:                                                                                                                                Mary McCarthy                                                                                                                               Host, The Successful Micropreneur Podcast                                                                           President of Your Management Team, Inc.                                                          Co-Founder of the Women’s Small Business Accelerator, Inc.

You charge money for your services, but do you really know the value of your time? It can be one of the hardest things for an entrepreneur to understand.

“As a microbusiness owner, we tend to not really think about what the value is of our time. We understand what we charge for our time. Whether it’s $50 an hour, $100 an hour, $200 an hour. That’s what we bill. But it’s not what the value of our time is.”

This week, host Mary McCarthy tackles this topic herself, and talks about 5 points to consider when putting a value on your time.  Mary is the President of Your Management Team, Inc., a small business consulting firm. She is also the Co-Founder of the Women’s Small Business Accelerator, Inc.

“The challenge of not understanding what the value of your time is, you don’t really know how to spend your time practically.  You’re the leader of your organization, you’re the driver. So if you don’t value your time and use it wisely, quite often as you start to grow, others are not valuing your time as well.”

Mary talks about two formulas for determining the value of your time:

Formula #1:

First, define what size business you want to be (the revenue you want to generate).

Take the amount of the revenue you want to generate divided by (The number of hours you want to work a week multiplied by the number of weeks you want to work a year) = The Value of your Time

Formula #2:

Determine the roles you serve in your business. What would those salaries be in a year? (Examples: Comptroller, Sales Manager, Visionary, etc. Mary values “Visionary” as a $500,000/year job.)

Add up all the roles and divide by 2080 (that’s 40 hours a week working x 52 weeks in a year)= $ /hour

What is the hourly rate you come up with? Mary’s rate was $425/hour.

Mary McCarthy                                                                                                                               Host, The Successful Micropreneur Podcast                                                                           President of Your Management Team, Inc.                                                          Co-Founder of the Women’s Small Business Accelerator, Inc.