Cara Harvey 00:00:03 Welcome to the Purpose Driven Moms show here at A Purpose Driven Mom, we believe that it’s possible to manage your home, work on your personal goals, and grow and scale an online business. Most productivity tips out there tell you to hustle more and make you feel shame about not being motivated enough. And we’re here to dispel this myth. I’m Kara Harvey and I am on a mission to help work at home. Moms realize that they have the power to go after their dreams, take care of themselves, and manage their home without perfectionism, guilt, or having to sacrifice their sleep. If you’re ready to shift your thinking around productivity and get some practical tips to help you manage your mom life, toss your earbuds in while you fold the laundry. And let’s do this! Welcome to the purpose of our Mom Show episode 425. Today, I want to talk to you about how do you show up for your business when you’re not sure what to do? I work with a lot of moms who are thinking about starting a business, who have time in their schedule.

Cara Harvey 00:00:56 Now schools here, they’re like, wait, I have a little bit of time. I have this dream in my heart, but I don’t know what to do. And I’m going to give you some advice of things I wish I had done when I got started seven years ago, and things you could be doing right now, even if you’re not sure of your business idea. Show notes they’re going to be over at a Purpose Driven mom.com/podcast for 25, and you can check out anything that we’ve talked about today. I know that it can feel overwhelming to get started. I remember when I had the idea for a PDM, I didn’t know what it was going to be. Okay, if you have been here since 2017 when it started, you’ve seen the iterations, right? I was posting recipes or round ups, craft stuff, health and wellness budgeting. You know, it took me years to get settled on productivity. And I want you to know that that overwhelm is normal. If you’re somebody who’s starting a business and you’re thinking, yeah, I kind of have an idea, I don’t know, my idea.

Cara Harvey 00:01:46 All of that is normal, and it’s okay if you don’t know the answers right away. It’s okay if you’re like, I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing. It’s okay if you sit down and you hear me say a word today and you’re like, I don’t know what SEO is. What is she talking about? I can’t run a business because those thoughts have run through my head so many times. I don’t have a degree right? In business. I have had to kind of learn it by my bootstraps or whatever the phrase is, right? You know, I’ve taken courses, I got my life coach certification, I’ve invested in things, but a lot of it is quote unquote self-taught. And I think that there’s some magic in that, because you can allow your business to look however you want it to look when you’re self-taught. Right. But here’s the thing that matters the most in the beginning stages showing up. Sometimes people will say like, oh, you know, your podcast super successful, right? Almost 600,000 downloads, I should check.

Cara Harvey 00:02:37 Actually, we might have hit it already, you know, and going, what is it? And I’m like, I’m on 425 episodes and I’ve just not stopped. And now, you know, we’re in a place where everybody, you know, lots of people have podcasts. And the thing, you know, you see a lot of D-list celebrities doing to bring back their fame and things like that. There’s lots of podcasts out there, but we’ve been going since 2019 and we haven’t stopped. You know, I think about that sometimes, like 400 episodes is a lot of episodes to have. And it started with one. A lot of times we can look at other people’s businesses, especially in the beginning, and it feels like we’ll never get there. We feel like we’re never going to be good enough. Oh, the market’s saturated. There’s already so many people doing this, things like that. But I just want to remind you that showing up every single day, even if it’s imperfect, even if you don’t know the exact task, even if it’s not bringing in income at this moment, really does matter.

Cara Harvey 00:03:29 It’s critical for your business growth. Your business will not grow if you don’t get the idea out there. And I talked to a lot of the moms I coach in the mom Preneur roadmap program, and I tell them, someone out there is waiting like they’re waiting for your business idea. They’re waiting for you to start it so that their life can be impacted. And I feel like I’ve been very nostalgic about this lately because we’re almost at year seven, officially, November the 5th is when I started my business. Officially. I launched it to the world. I actually bought the domain in September of 2017. When my son, I tell the story all the time you have nursing him over a boppy pillow at 4 a.m. I bought a Purpose Driven mom.com, and that took me about two months, and I got a website up and I just started messy. Started very messy. And I think that there are so many people that have come to me and said, like this part of your book, this part of the podcast, this art, you know, Instagram thing really connected with me, really helped.

Cara Harvey 00:04:18 That’s what really matters. Like, yes, you need to make money. It’s a business. You have bills to pay. But knowing that somebody is out there waiting for you to get started on whatever your business idea is because it’s going to impact their life. Like, don’t take that lightly. You sitting on your hands on this dream. It’s not only having this other person wait, but what about you? What about this dream that you have? What about this thing on your heart that is itching to get out there into the world? If you’ve been thinking about it for a while, if it’s, you know, you feel like you’ve been sitting on your hands, don’t let that pass. The year is not over yet. This could be the year where you get started. But what do we do? We’re going to get practical, of course. What do we do when we don’t know what to do? Right? Before we start that, though, I just need to remind you to lean in and to know that showing up for your business is really what’s going to have success in the beginning.

Cara Harvey 00:05:04 You are not going to ever know what to do if you don’t start to show up, if you don’t start to lean in, if you don’t start to schedule in time to work on your business, okay? And you have to believe it. So mindset is huge. It always is. This thing we talk about here. But the growth versus the fixed mindset, the fixed mindset says, I’ve never started a business, I don’t have a business degree, so I’m never going to be successful. The growth mindset says, I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m willing to learn. Where are you at now? I think that’s really important. I’m getting together materials for the conference coming up in Philly in Aspen this year. We’re almost there. Right. And one thing we’re going to look at is our growth mindset assessment, where we can see like, hey, I think I have a pretty good growth mindset, but really do you right, do you have this growth mindset or are you still struggling? Because when you start to change your mindset and you shift from this place of doubt to this place of empowerment of, I may not know what I’m doing now, but I can get there.

Cara Harvey 00:05:57 That’s the magic. That’s where things are going to, like, start to click and feel really good. Okay, so what do we do? You know, I have my planning pathway framework that I teach and we have episodes on that that you can listen to. You can go to a purpose driven mom.com/dream to reality. There’s a webinar there where you can watch it and really get those details. But I want you to start with what you now have to do first, build that confidence. Because what you probably know when it comes to starting your business or working on your business is the content, right? Most people don’t get into a business that they have no idea what the content is. Now, I’ve been talking to a lot of people who by are buying things like franchises, flipping blogs. So it’s interesting. Most of the people I talk to, most of the moms, they have something they’re good at gardening, holistic living, slow cooking, the productivity space, right? They have something that they’re good at and they want to help other people with it.

Cara Harvey 00:06:45 That’s probably where you might be, too, right? And if that’s you, I want you when you sit down to your workbox to start working on the content piece On a pause really quickly to invite you to an absolutely free workshop I am hosting called From Dream to Reality. It is a mom Preneur Business Planning absolutely free webinar, and it’s going to teach you how to use the planning pathway framework to figure out how to break down your business goals and make your business dreams a reality. You go to a purpose driven, romcom slash dream to reality so that you can get your seat and the replay in case you can attend. What we’re going to be covering in this time is talking through your business idea how you can take it from in your head something you’re thinking about to actual creation. The Planning Pathway framework talks about who you want to help and what this looks like, where this fits into your goals. Hey, maybe you want to have a podcast this year. Write a book. Start a new course.

Cara Harvey 00:07:41 Where should you put that in your year? We’re also going to get how it’s going to happen and talk about the breakdown of the goals, and then what it’s going to look like when it all comes together. In this free workshop, I’m going to teach you this framework. So whether you’re somebody who has a business who’s been trying to figure out how to make it work, how to monetize it. You’re going to want to attend. Or if you’re somebody who’s thinking you might want to start a business in 2024, I’m going to invite you to come attend this free workshop where you can learn how to take your business dream from inside your head to making it a reality and creating a plan. Go to a purpose driven romcoms. Dream to reality to get your absolute free seat before we kick off. When I started to work on my content, it started to build my confidence. We talked about this confidence competency loop. That’s a lot of CS, but the how we build confidence is by getting better at something.

Cara Harvey 00:08:30 And there’s this loop. If I don’t have the confidence because I don’t know how to do it yet. But as I start to do it, I start to figure out how to do it. So my competency in an area gets larger, and as my competency in an area gets larger, my confidence will grow. So start to grow your competency. But the stuff you already know, your confidence in your business will grow. When you’re like, let me show up there. So what does this look like? I would plan one workbook a week where you’re sitting down. And when you’re working, you’re working on content. You’re putting together Instagram posts, you’re putting podcast material together, right? If I was to sit and have coffee with somebody and they were like, I want to start a business and I don’t know what to do, I could just ramble off things, right. I know that content. Think about what your content is, what you want to put into the world. What could you talk about? Start getting it out there.

Cara Harvey 00:09:14 Put it out there on a dock. Start organizing it. Getting ideas. Don’t overthink. I know it’s hard, but try not to overthink everything. I know that you want to put the perfect social media post out, but what if instead you just put one out that had the content? We’ll worry about the the images later. We’ll worry about the perfect hashtags for this. Can you just worry about am I getting the content out there? Because that’s how you’re going to build authority. That’s how you’re going to start to feel confident. And that’s also how other people are going to start to look at you as somebody who knows what they’re talking about. The other thing that helped me really build confidence when I didn’t know what to do with my business, was talking to other people about it. So when I get interviewed for podcast, I on a high. When I leave, I’m like, oh my gosh, I feel great. I love sharing this and I actually feel like I know what I’m talking about.

Cara Harvey 00:09:57 That is one of like a pro tip. If you’re ever struggling with that, do an Instagram Live, get on somebody’s podcast, do a live in your Facebook community. Start to teach. I find that when I’m struggling with confidence that I quote unquote, don’t know what I’m doing, I want to burn the business down and nothing is working. If I teach, if I coach, if I share my content in a live format. So this is a podcast. It’s a prerecorded thing, right? But it’s like I’m actually doing it, not just typing. I speak and I share it. I feel incredible afterwards because I’m like, I do know what I’m talking about, right? So start with what you know. You may also be struggling to like get some momentum. So I just want to encourage you to also put in one learning block. So I said put in a block a week where you’re working on content a block could be half an hour. It could be three. Whatever you have, then I want you to have a block of learning.

Cara Harvey 00:10:47 This is going to build that confidence competency loop. I feel like I keep tripping over those words. Confidence, competency loop. Learn. As you go Okay. You will never arrive in knowing everything in entrepreneurship and I. If you’ve never read the book, I highly recommend Entrepreneur Roller Coaster by Darren Hardy. Go go snag it, but you’re never going to know it all. I don’t know it all. I learned something new every single day, and I will maybe go back and relisten to something I’ve already listened to, and it changes the way I look at things. Okay, I want you to have a learning block. All right. So we’ve got one block where you’re working on content. We have one block where you’re learning while you’re learning. Again, your confidence is going to grow, but you’re going to be immersed in that goal. I don’t know how to start a podcast. Okay. Well I’m going to take a podcast course. I’m going to listen to podcasts about podcasting. How meta.

Cara Harvey 00:11:32 Right. I’ll find something on YouTube. I’ll find a community. I’ll get a course. I’ll just get going. This will have you in a better place where you’re not just, oh, no, I don’t know what to do. It’s like, let me be in charge of this. But I want to caution. Caution is a good word here of the analysis paralysis trap. That perfectionism that we use as a procrastination tool. I attract a lot of learning junkies. I want you to learn. But if you have one learning block a week, you need one content block a week. You have to be putting action in with the learning. Otherwise, we’re going to be stuck in soaking in the knowledge, taking it all in and not actually doing anything. All right, so we’ve got starting with what you know, we’ve got learning as you go seeking support. You know obviously I’m always going to be like the Purpose Driven Mum club. We’re closed now. But you can go to a purpose driven mum.com/club.

Cara Harvey 00:12:17 And if you want to get on the waitlist for when we open in December, but find an online community, find a small group of people who are working on something similar, having that accountability to go to and say, hey, I’m working on learning SEO for my blog. Does anyone else, you know, do you want to be a buddy? I was doing this for my reals. I’m really trying. Social media is the one thing, even in seven years, of not quote unquote mastered a good strategy for. And it’s because I don’t like it. I don’t like being on social media. So I teeter on what works, what doesn’t for me. I show up, I don’t show up, you know, like it is what it is. I work on it. So now I’m getting back to I want to be more consistent with things like reals. And so I’m in a group. I bought a course for it on evergreen funnels and inside the group I posted and I said, hey, is anybody interested in doing like a real challenge where we post one reel a day? Okay, find a support system, find people who are doing it and find a mentor.

Cara Harvey 00:13:08 I do think like I pay for a business coach. You can find. I had virtual mentors that I listened to all all their podcasts, like in the very beginning when I got started, Amy Porterfield, Jenna Kutcher I was on every single episode listening to that, I soaked in their free material when I didn’t have the money to financially invest. Do you have a mentor? Maybe you, you know, in real life or not that you can listen to, that you can connect, that you can get support that’s going to help give you ideas of what you should do and how you can show up. But while you’re doing that, also just, again, embrace the fact that you’re not going to know it all. It’s going to be imperfect. My kids are going to get sick. Stuff’s going to pop up. I’m going to have expenses in the beginning that I don’t understand. Don’t let the perfectionism hold you back, but instead be intentional. So again, one time block a week on content, one time block a week on learning.

Cara Harvey 00:13:55 And then I would also say you probably want to create two goals. You know, if we’re getting really practical, I like to have goals, three goals a month when it comes to the business, 1 or 4, actually, I make a financial goal, right? I’ve got a money making goal. How am I going to bring in money? Okay, I then also have a project based goal. What am I going to be doing that’s either going to lead me to making the money, or set me up for making money. In next month’s. We’re planning out our summit now, which is wild some. It’s not till April. Those types of things. I create a habit based goal. What are the habits showing up on Instagram Reels? Things like that. And then I create a learning based goal. Right inside those goals, though, you’re also going to want to make sure you have a lead growth strategy, audience growth. How are you bringing people in. So again, you want a goal on how I’m going to make money, but you also want a goal on how am I going to bring people into my email list, how am I going to get them going? So when you create these goals and you’re getting practical and you’re looking at your time blocks for the week, make sure you have that space there.

Cara Harvey 00:14:49 This way, when it is time to show up to work. You’re not twiddling your thumbs thinking, what am I supposed to be doing? You’re like, oh, right, this is my audience growth hour, where I’m going to work for this one hour on strategies to grow my audience. It’s intentionality. And maybe you don’t know the answer. We don’t know how to grow your audience right now. That’s okay. You’re going to learn it. We’re going to keep going. It’s gonna be really hard, though, to stay focused. So I want to just give you some tips on trying to keep the motivation up, trying to stay focused because things are going to pull you in a ton of directions. I want to pause real quick and thank our sponsor today, which is one thrive. I’ve worked over with the team at One Thrive for a few years now, and they are incredible and passionate about helping moms figure out how to create calendars, command systems, and organize their homes in a way that is functional and aesthetically pleasing.

Cara Harvey 00:15:34 Their command centers are fabulous. We use them every single month to organize our family schedule, pin up all of those notes from school, and keep everything just kind of in one place. The one Thrive boards are customizable, and they’re designed to meet all different parts of your organizational life, no matter how much space you have. My daughter has a board up in her room, and she doesn’t have a ton of space, but the board that she has fits perfectly right above her bed. This is also going to help you manage your daily schedule, help with your kids getting on the same page, and it’s going to allow you to feel more in control. I want you to go check out the one Thrive boards. If you’ve never seen them, I think you’re gonna love them. You’re gonna go over to one thrive.com. That’s the number one thrive.com. Check them out today. Now I just mentioned when I time block out my week I have a category. Every single time I sit down of what I’m doing right audience growth lead growth I will put down like a this is the block.

Cara Harvey 00:16:28 I’m working on the podcast because that’s my lead growth strategy, etc. but I also want you to have small goals for how you’re going to show up every day. So I make my monthly goals, but then I make a weekly goal, and one of the goals I actually make that keeps me moving forward, especially in seasons of I’m not sure where I’m going, is the tracking of did I complete how many tasks that I complete? All right. I said I was going to do these ten things for work this week. How many out of ten did I do? Six out of ten. Okay, I have 60% way to go, right? And it keeps me moving forward. I also want you to make small goals around, hey, I want to have this many people on my email list, okay? I want to add my first 100 people on my email list. That’s really important. How am I going to get there? Don’t just sit there and say I need to add them. What’s the strategy? Well, I’m going to try to get on a podcast.

Cara Harvey 00:17:11 I’m going to create a new free offer that I can put out. I’m going to start doing Pinterest. Be very clear with yourself of how you’re going to get to your goals, because a lot of times we’ll set these business goals, especially in the beginning when you don’t really know what you’re doing and you’re not making very intentional tasks connected to it. Right. We’ve got two types of our goals, right? We’ve got our outcome goals and we’ve got our process goals. Your outcome goal is what it’s going to look like. I have 100 people on my email list. I published four podcast episodes. Right. Your process goals are how you get there. So how are you going to get 100 people on your email list? You need to make both of those. So when it’s time to sit down and work if you know what those goals are. You’re not going to waste time trying to decide. You’re just going to say, great, I know exactly what I have to do, and here we go.

Cara Harvey 00:17:55 But I also want you to celebrate. I want you to live in the gratitude. Every day when you sit down to work, say to yourself, I am excited to show up and serve and see what happens. I will be kind to myself, right? Like whatever you need as I learn and at the end of the day, we tell the to do list. When I close out my day, I look through my to do list of the things I was supposed to do, and as I go through, I will cross them off and I will say to that, oh look, I’ve recorded a podcast episode to do a great job. Kara, I’m proud of you, of you for showing up. I do that for every task. I’m proud of you for showing up. Way to go. You did that today, didn’t you? Oh, that didn’t get done. Okay. But we showed up here. That allows me to celebrate that I’m showing up in my business. Even when kids are homesick, even when, you know, it’s September.

Cara Harvey 00:18:40 So we’re transitioning out of summer still, even when the seasons are going to get busy with the holidays. All right, sharing with others what you’re doing is also a very great way to show up. Tell your people like, hey, I’m working on this thing. And it was really fun for me and I’m excited about it. When you don’t know how to show up in your business, it can feel overwhelming. But I just want to encourage anybody who’s thinking about starting a business that it doesn’t have to be complicated unless you make it complicated. Start with what you know. Give yourself one block a week to work on content and grow your confidence that you know what you’re talking about. You can go to a purpose driven mom.com/dream to reality. I think that’s going to link you over to the workshop. You can watch if you want to see more of my planning pathway framework and learn about, hey, what do I do if I don’t even know my business idea? What do I do if I don’t even know what goals I’m supposed to do, right? You talked about all these things and showing up for my content, but like, I’m not even sure if this is what I want to do.

Cara Harvey 00:19:31 You’re going to go to dream to Reality, a purpose driven mom.com/dream to reality. And it’s going to help you go through and ask all those questions. Who am I going to work with? What am I going to give them? What is it? what is it going to look like? How does it fit into my long term business? it’s about an hour workshop so, you know, get that in. It’s free. Check that out. Other show notes are going to be at a Purpose Driven mom.com/podcast for 25. Otherwise, have a fabulous rest of your day and move forward. Someone is waiting for you to start the business so that it can impact their life and your life at the same time, so don’t let it stay in your brain. Let’s bring it out into the world. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Purpose Driven Mom Show. If this episode served you in any way, we would really appreciate it if you headed over to wherever you listen to podcast, hit that five star and leave a review and a rating.

Cara Harvey 00:20:20 That’s how more moms can find us and we can grow our community. If you had a tip or an make sure you come over and tag me at a Purpose Driven Mom on Instagram and share it with your friends. The best way for us to get this message out there of less hustle and less shame and more intentionality, is for you to share it with people you know need to hear it. Thanks for listening. We appreciate you and I can’t wait to connect with you more outside of the podcast.