Brilliant Business Moms With Beth Anne Schwamberger

Have you written off Facebook or Instagram ads as “just not for you”? I want to encourage you to take a look at ads with fresh eyes this month as we explore how many different types of Mamapreneurs are using them to build their businesses. You’ll hear from Etsy sellers, designers and membership site owners, bloggers and eBook writers, and course creators. All of them are scrappy Mamapreneurs working with tight budgets - just like you! And all of them are finding success with Facebook and Instagram ads. On this episode, we’ll hear from Melissa Kaiserman, who’s using Facebook and Instagram ads to bring in more sales for her Handmade Cash Envelope Organizers. Melissa sells an affordably-priced product, and she’s able to bring in brand new people to her shop and make profitable sales. Press play on the podcast player below to learn how you can make sales using ads too! Listen Now If you've been around Brilliant Business Moms for long, you probably know Melissa Kaiserman. She’s basically an honorary team member o

Beryl Young is the founder of an online community for deeply feeling, giving moms called Recapture Self. Ready to reclaim their identity beyond storyteller, snack maker, and boo-boo kisser. (I love that!) She offers photography classes, both in-person and online, and has a fabulous community that helps moms capture everyday moments and make creativity part of their lives. Listen Now 1:07 - Beryl’s Sad-But-Important Start to Photography Like many moms, Beryl didn’t set out to start a business. Her story has a sad beginning, but we hope you will be able to listen because it’s a very important part. (Beryl's story includes infant loss.) In 2009 joined a 365 Project challenge with her friend. 365 Project is a visual photo diary, which challenges participants to take a photo every day for an entire year. Beryl quickly began learning from the community of other 365ers on Flickr. Around the same time, Beryl and her husband were talking about planning a family and one thing she knew she wanted was amazing pictures of

This episode is dedicated to another repeated question we received in our community survey: How do you manage your time? Or one of my favorites, “Can it be DONE??? Mother and businesswoman???” Yes, it can be done! At the time of this recording, I have a newborn baby at home, a 6-year-old in school, and am a military spouse - and, of course, I run Brilliant Business Moms. It does take some finessing, and you have to be creative. I’m hopeful that this episode will spark some ideas for you. Listen Now I do want to mention that I got several questions on specific life circumstances, like: How can I have a full-time job and build a business on the side? How can I build a business while I homeschool full-time? Since I have never been in either of those situations while growing my business, I do not want to pretend I have any expertise answering that particular question. I have time management tools and tips that work for me, but it would be glossing over your specific situation to pretend like I can speak direct

Brea Albulov is a stay-at-home mom of 2 littles and founder of an online shop called Hope Carried. Hope Carried creates high quality, handmade, babywearing products - and employs mothers who face barriers to entering the traditional workforce. Listen Now 1:02 - The Birth of a Babywearing Business Brea, like many mompreneurs, opened her business by accident. She used baby carriers, but didn’t really love the ones she found. When her kiddos were tiny, she wanted a ring-sling type carrier, but her family just didn’t have wiggle room in the budget for one. So, being a savvy mom, she pulled out her sewing machine and made one for herself. Brea says she then became obsessed with creating baby carriers! She started playing around, making carrier after carrier, and perfecting her design. People started asking if they could buy Brea’s carriers, and early on she simply sold her carriers for the cost of production. But seeing how popular her products were becoming, she knew that she wouldn’t last for long unless she ma

Hundreds of you answered our community survey (thank you!) and over the next several months we’ll be using that information to bring you the content you said you need from us. Seriously, I wish I could call everyone who responded and give you a business coaching session, a pep-talk, or a long distance hug! Since that’s not exactly practical, my team and I will do the next best thing. The next several solo episodes we release will my very raw and real answers to questions that came in through the survey. These podcast episodes are just one of the many ways we’ve got planned to use this survey to bring you actionable information. One of our favorite questions we asked you was, “If you could ask Beth Anne anything, what would it be?” And an interesting, often repeated reply was this cut-to-the-chase one, “Do you ever feel like giving up?” My honest answer? YES. Listen Now   To be even more honest, I'll tell you that it’s not a feeling that ever goes away. There are certainly moments where I think maybe all the

Laura Clark of Whole Food Nanny is a busy mom of 3 crazy cute kids, and wife to Mr. Clark. Whole Food Nanny is dedicated to helping families make healthy eating part of their lives. She focuses on eating less processed foods - especially sugar - and a lot more whole foods. (I have to admit I need help with this!) Listen Now On the Podcast 1:15 - Eating Healthy as a Mompreneur 7:16 - Getting More Energy 12:20 - Simple Substitutes for Sugar 14:28 - Final Thoughts on Healthy Eating 16:40 - Custom Diet Recommendations for Me 19:50 - Turning A Passion for Healthy Eating Into A Business 27:24 - Course Idea to Creation 31:08 - Making Sales 32:40 - Laura’s Adorable Mom Moment Eating Healthy as a Mompreneur Before asking Laura how she started and grew her business, I wanted us all to benefit from her knowledge around healthy eating. So many moms struggle with making healthy eating part of our daily lives, particularly getting our children to enjoy healthy eating! What tips does Laura have for busy moms to get and stay

We appreciated the new perspective that Sarah brought to today’s show! Even if you don’t have your sights set on celebrities, her tips are great for any business owner wanting to grow through influencers. Sarah Shaw is a 3rd generation entrepreneur, and she has done it all. She’s worked in the film industry, had a successful handbag business, and is particularly skilled at reaching out to celebrities to get her products more recognition and make more sales. She now teaches others how to do just that at sarahshawconsulting.com. In addition to all of this, she’s a single mom to 9-year-old identical twin girls (so fun!) Listen Now On the Podcast 1:10 - Launching A Handbag Business10:15 - How Do You Even Get A Celebrity’s Address!?11:36 - Filling Huge Department Store Orders17:20 - Hitting $500,000 in Sales In 2 Years20:05 - Tenacity in Business24:00 - Setting Your Business Revenue Goals28:30 - Getting Your Products in Front of Celebrities37:00 - Leveraging Self-Confidence40:28 - Sarah's Adorable Mommy Moment La

If you find yourself answering the same questions over and over (and getting super excited about answering those questions!) maybe you need to think about adding a teaching element to your business. That's what today's guest did, and we learned a ton from her! On the Podcast 00:30 - Meet Alice + Our Surprise Co-Host1:46 - Stocking an Ecommerce Store5:25 - Figuring Out Order Fulfilment7:26 - Rebranding & When Your Business Has Two Customer Groups13:45 - From Service-Based Business to Teaching Others17:42 - How Do You Run Two Businesses At Once!?20:10 - Growing An Audience for Your Online Course22:08 - Leveraging Video Marketing26:20 - Alice’s Embarrassing Mom Moment28:26 - Doula Labor Tips for Beth Anne Listen Now Meet Alice + Our Surprise Co-Host Beth Anne: I’m so excited to welcome Alice Turner of Your Doula Bag.com. She’s a birth doula, a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator, and an online business owner which is SO cool. She has over 10 years of experience working as a doula and has translated that in

This is going to be a solo episode with me, your host Beth Anne Schwamberger. I’m going to be talking all about finding and leading a great team in your business. This is a question I get all the time: How did you find your team? The ladies who work for you are so awesome, how do I find these people for my business!? And what do you do once you find them? How do I get these awesome VAs to stick around? Those are exactly the topics I’m going to dig into during in this episode. On the Podcast 4:43 - Finding A Great Team 8:15 - What I Look For 19:40 - How To Lead Your Team 28:07 - Letting Go (of Micromanaging)30:00 - Be Open To New Ideas 33:30 - Facilitating Creativity35:02 - Working With New Employees41:34 - Bonus Tip: Help Your Team Prioritize 45:00 - Wrap Up Listen Now   I want to start with a caveat: I don’t want this at all to sound like I’m tooting my own horn. I’m not this totally amazing, flawless boss. I have lots of room for improvement in terms of being a leader, and the boss of a few employees. I’m c

Get ready to laugh! We've got another Brilliant Business Moms team podcast! We’ve got Carlee, Ellen, and Victoria here, sharing how they’ve found work as Virtual Assistants and their thoughts on using VAs in your business. I know they get questions all the time about how they came to work on the Brilliant Business Moms team, and these ladies have a wealth of knowledge to share. Listen to the Podcast   On the Podcast 1:20 - How Our Team Came To Be 14:02 - What About Competition? 17:07 - Meeting Your Online Team In Person 20:50 - Working Well With Clients 26:18 - The Question Beth Anne Has Been DYING To Ask 36:31 - Riding Big Learning Curves 41:18 - Standards in Service-Based Business 44:06 - Setting Limits in Service-Based Business 50:10 - When VA Relationships Don’t Work Out 1:01:45 - Boss Perks Beth Anne: Ladies, I’d love for you to start by sharing how you got into work as a Virtual Assistant. 1:20 - How Our Team Came To Be Victoria: Sure, I can start! I got started a couple of years ago, and really out of

Arianna’s job description is fancy--Maternal Health Consultant for Entrepreneurs--but what it means is she most often works with first-time mamas-to-be who are entrepreneurs to help them create a smooth maternity leave plan that keeps their businesses thriving while their families grow. At this time of recording I was heavily pregnant, so of course talking with Arianna was incredibly timely and very helpful for me! And I know many of you out there have established businesses, but are thinking of adding more babies to your family. You’ll love what Arianna has to say. Welcome to the show, Arianna! Listen Now On the Podcast 1:20 - About Arianna4:41 - Opening a Private Practice 6:57 - Arianna’s Advice For Me?10:27 - How Long Do Moms Take Off From Work?14:05 - Real Talk: How Can You Prevent Postpartum Depression? 20:09 - Using an Ecomap20:53 - Consultant Model23:40 - Graduating Clients 27:14 - Arianna’s Adorable Mom Moment About Arianna Interestingly, Arianna started her maternity leave planning and coaching care

Today on the show we are so excited to welcome Becky Kopitzke! She’s a mom of two girls, a blogger, an author, and a fellow course creator. Her fabulous program is called the Cranky Mom Fix and today we'll chat about creating, beta testing and launching her course. Listen Now   On the Podcast 00:50 - Becky’s Heart for Moms 03:46 - Beta Testing 10:26 - Pricing an Online Course 12:54 - Launching an Online Course 20:02 - Beth Anne’s Insights 23:35 - How Much Did Becky Put Into Facebook Ads? 26:30 - A Successful Email List Strategy 28:15 - Overcoming Self-Doubt 33:30 - Being Authentic 34:08 - Becky’s Adorable (& Humbling!) Mommy Moment Becky’s Heart for Moms First and foremost, Becky and her husband of 15 years have two beautiful girls: Claire who's 9, and Noelle, 6. When Becky became a mom, she describes it as a baptism by fire. She was shocked, like many new moms, by the complete selflessness and awareness of another person that new parenthood requires. As a first time mom, Becky found out she “wasn’t well

Maria Dismondy is a self-published children’s book author who has sold close to 300,000 books….and she’s done this while working at home with 3 kids. Maria has grown her business by finding unique ways to market her books, so I can’t wait to learn from her. I know a lot of you want to self-publish or market your books better, and I know Maria has tons of wisdom to share. Welcome to the show Maria! On the Show 1:05 - Getting Into Writing3:40 - Selling a LOT of Books5:49 - Parents and Teachers As Customers6:34 - Partnering With School Systems9:57 - Getting Found Online & Making Sales12:05 - Opening A Publishing Company14:20 - A Unique Business Model18:35 - Busting the Self-Publishing Stigma21:13 - A Day In The Life24:58 - Funny AND Adorable Mom Moment Listen Now   Getting Into Writing Right after college, Maria became a teacher and taught for over a decade. She used children's literature to teach indirect lessons to her students. For example, if she noticed a lot of teasing or a lack of community in her ro

Millions of people read Rustic Wedding Chic, which is the #1 resource for rustic and country weddings online. What you may not know is this popular wedding blog is run by a Mom of 2 with her 3rd on the way, Maggie Lord. Maggie calls herself a naptime entrepreneur and we SO resonate with that idea. Welcome to the show, Maggie! We’re so excited to have you! On the Podcast 1:10 - An Inspired Bride3:01 - Curating A Site5:50 - Solving Problems Through A Directory Site7:01 - Monetizing Your Platform9:52 - Advice For A Blogger Building A Platform12:20 - Working With A Team16:27 - Working with Freelance Photographers17:40 - Growing A Pinterest Following20:06 - Thoughts on Content Schedulers22:55 -  What Makes A Popular Pin25:26 - A Frequent Pinner27:50 - Testing Out Promoted Pins29:34 - Maggie’s Embarrassing Mompreneur Moment Listen Now   An Inspired Bride When Maggie and her husband were planning their wedding 9 years ago, she had a very clear vision for how she wanted things to look. She pictured a rustic but chic

Hi everyone! It’s me, Beth Anne, and today we’ve got a solo episode for you. I’m doing this solo episode because I’ve gotten so many questions from you brilliant business ladies about how I designed my planner. How do I import a product from overseas? How do I find a manufacturer? How does one scrappy business mama come up with a product idea and make it happen? I’ll give you all those answers. Let’s dive in!   Listen Now   On the Podcast 3:25 - First Product Iteration9:50 - Finding The Right Designer14:18 - Be An Expert In Your Niche17:54 - Your Minimum Viable Product24:03 - Improving On Your Product26:10 - Finding a Factory31:00 - Ordering Samples33:30 - Taking Presales (with Kickstarter)35:41 - Delivery Dates37:34 - If You’re Having Trouble Finding A Factory44:11 - Clearing Customs52:14 - Fulfilling Your Orders   My experience with designing and manufacturing a product, as you might expect, has to do with planners. My product started originally as the the Brilliant Business Planner which launched in June

Laura Smith is a wife and mom of two little littles, plus she runs an online business at IHeartPlanners.com. And actually this is the second time Laura has been on our show! I am excited to have her back, especially because Laura has agreed to get really real with us and talk about a really juicy topic. You don’t want to miss this one! Listen Now On the Podcast 1:11 - What’s New With Laura 2:55 - Bravely Talking About Failure 4:23 - Disconnected Freebies 8:46 - When Hiring Help, Doesn’t 12:48 - Affording To Fail 14:28 - Laura’s New Plan 16:26 - When Deadlines Set You Back 20:00 - The Course BLowing Laura’s Mind 20:26 - More Successes Than Failures 26:14 - Advice if You’re Afraid of Failing 27:27 - Laura’s Adorable Mommy Moment What’s New With Laura Wow, so much has changed since we first had Laura on the show back in 2014! Her little girl was just 12-weeks-old and the business wasn’t quite 2-years-old yet. Not one thing feels the same! That little girl is now almost 2 ½ and she has a 7-month-old baby boy. He

Today we are so happy to have Stacy Tuschl on the show! She started her now 7-figure business when she was just 18 years old, in her mom’s backyard; and currently she has over 40 employees and has been able to build her business by spending just an hour a week on that business. This freedom has allowed her to dedicate her time to something she’s very passionate about: helping other women take their business to the next level. She also hosts a podcast called She’s Building Her Empire and you can learn more at StacyTuschl.com Welcome to the show, Stacy! Listen Now   On the Podcast 1:15 - Building a 7-Figure Brick-and-Mortar Business 3:36 - Moving To A Commercial Space 6:50 - Community-Based Marketing 8:50 - Hands-Off Business Woman 11:40 - ‘Is Your Business Worth Saving?’ 14:44 - Pushing Past A Low Point 17:51 - She’s Building Her Empire Podcast 22:55 - Stacy’s Adorable Mom Moment 19:23 - Facebook Live Podcast Recording 25:25 - Stacy's LIVE Event Building a 7-Figure Brick-and-Mortar Business In high school, Sta

Today on the podcast I am super excited for a new format that I hope to do regularly, and that is bringing on the entire Brilliant Business Moms Team: Carlee, Victoria and Ellen! Today we’ll be chatting about the FB Brilliance course launch, and not about the numbers like we did last week on my solo episode, but more about what we loved about the launch, what we want to improve, and how we can give our customers a great experience. Listen Now Our Favorite Part Carlee: We all agreed that our absolute favorite part of the launch was this 5-Day series we did on Facebook Live. People could listen to all 5 days, then we gave a task or homework for each day, which they answered in the comments. We complied the answers from everyone who participated in all 5 days, and those women were eligible to win 1 of 3 full scholarships. Victoria: It was fun on our end to compile those answers and get to know more people in our community. I enjoyed watching these highly motivated ladies do the work, seeing what they’re thinking

Today we’re going behind the scenes of a $100,000 course launch. We’re going to dive deep and geek out over numbers. I’m really excited to break it all down for you! I know that when I heard other business owners talk about a $100K launch - or even a $1M launch - it’s really easy to feel like 1) that’s a completely unattainable and unrealistic goal that would never happen to me (Which is how I used to feel!) and 2) that a $100K launch would bring me into a fantasy dreamworld. I thought if this ever DID happen to me, I’d be rolling in cash and everything in life would be perfect. And that’s not the case, either. I want to give you a realistic look inside a $100K course launch. I want you to see exactly what I and my team did to earn over $100K in course sales during our launch month. You’ll get a firm grasp on the numbers as we dive into questions like: How much cash-on-hand did a $100K course launch mean for the business? What were our refund rates? How much did I spend on advertising to get these students?