Rahaf (00:44)
Hello, welcome back to the Really Rahaf podcast. I have a very special guest with us today and it's been so nice bringing in all these guest experts to talk to us about their zone of genius. And today I want to introduce Beth and I'm going to talk about too how we met as well. And I want her to give a little background and I'm just going to say you're going to want to stick around for this episode. Hi Beth. I'm so excited to have you. I mean, first I just want to talk about how
Beth Mazza (01:08)
I'm so excited to be here. Thank you.
Rahaf (01:14)
how we found each other first, because I think that's so special in the world of the digital world. So talk about how we found each other. And then I want to hear a little bit of background about yourself and what you've been able to build and what you do right now.
Beth Mazza (01:28)
Okay, so I feel so lucky because I found you with literally just searching. I really like podcasts and I'm super, I'm really attracted to podcasts that are very practical. Like they're empowering, they're about females and entrepreneurship, but they're practical. They're not just empowering. So I have just really enjoyed listening to your podcast. So I feel super lucky that we got to meet. I'm... ⁓
I am a three-time entrepreneur and a two-time exiter. And my businesses were professional services, financial consulting, and I started my first business when I was 29. I exited at 36, took a break, and started a second one at 38 or 39 and sold it a few years ago. So I, for my little world, I have a pretty good model of how to do that.
And I'm also a mom of four and my business partner is a mom of five. So if anyone's thinking there's no way I can do this, I have kids or I want to have kids, we'll talk about those stories as well. But my kids are all functioning human beings and love their mom and talk to her most days.
Rahaf (02:40)
And you spoke about the exits. were what? said 11 and 5 million? Can you get a little bit more in the details of what you've been able to Yeah.
Beth Mazza (02:47)
No, they were crazy. One was
9 million and one was 35 million. And the crazy part that we'll get into is that the two businesses were incredibly different, or they weren't different enough, I think, to have justified that dollar amount. I really underplayed the first one and I really played the market quite well my second one.
Rahaf (02:55)
Amazing.
Beth Mazza (03:16)
The second one, my partner and I talked so much about all the mistakes that we made in the first one, how much money we left on the table, all the pain. And with the second one, we made tons of mistakes too, we'll talk about. But we at least feel like we fixed some of them and that helped us as well. So I just gotta tell you, it's depending on the business that you're in. Exiting is not only possible.
You should be thinking about it in the first year of your business. It might take you a long time to get to, but launching and scaling with at least a little thought in your mind of how you might exit. ⁓ We can talk about that today, but what an important thing for you guys all to think about.
Rahaf (04:02)
And that's huge, know, even just being able to talk about that, it gives people the possibility of seeing what's possible for them. It gives our listeners like the real tangibility of someone here, someone that you're listening to, like this happened, especially for women, you know, being able to break through those glass ceilings and to really build that belief. So I'm excited. I'm excited to dive into it.
Beth Mazza (04:11)
Yeah.
Rahaf (04:26)
⁓ I mean, it's so beautiful how you found me and you reached out to me and I just, felt the divine connection, you know, and the moment we sat on, just, we've had one call like just for you, the listeners, just so you know, like we had one call before this and we just flowed. was like, this is how I do my podcast. Like, I just want to have a conversation with you. I just want to flow. And I felt that instant connection. was like, the listeners of this podcast are going to walk away with so much. So I want to first just start by asking, you know, what, like what
Beth Mazza (04:32)
yeah.
Yeah.
Rahaf (04:53)
got you into entrepreneurship first, like as a woman, you know, like your very first venture, like can you walk us through what came up for you and how that led to you scaling and bringing in your partner?
Beth Mazza (05:06)
Yeah, so I'll quickly tell my story, but also my business partners. I'm from an entrepreneurial family. And even though I'm all Italian, I was raised by immigrants off the boat. ⁓ My dad, for whatever reason, was an entrepreneur and thought I had every right to be an entrepreneur as much as my two brothers did. So for me, I was always going to do that. And I got a job out of school. And I told you this last week.
I'm the single worst employee you'll ever have. And I was my first year out of school too, those first couple of years, I was terrible. I was sure I knew better and my pace was better and I didn't always respect authority. So my story was I probably couldn't get employed long-term, so entrepreneurship sure made sense. But my business partner, it's so interesting because even though she came from an off the boat immigrant Greek family, her dad was an entrepreneur.
He supported her to be an entrepreneur. She had zero interest. She wanted to like get married and have babies. And then we started working together and she saw me with kids and she was like, wait, you maybe we can do this together. So that's how it turned out. But I always think that's so funny because so many similarities to how we grew up. But I mean, she had no interest. She was ready to stop working. And I mean, I could never picture a world where I wasn't working in some way.
Rahaf (06:33)
think you're speaking to a lot of entrepreneurs values right there of we are the worst employees. Nobody can tell us what to do. Like we are just thinking about our exit from the nine to five world because we value freedom. We value impacting people in our own way. And I love that you said that too, because I just learned that about you. I'm also an immigrant. My parents were also entrepreneurs and it builds you the grit from a very young age.
Beth Mazza (06:39)
Yes.
Yeah.
Rahaf (07:00)
when you witness what your parents go through to be able to get the leads, get the sales, the food on the table, get the money in. tell us a little bit more about how you transition into like who you help and how you help them.
Beth Mazza (07:07)
Yeah.
Yeah, so both of my businesses were really specific. They were consulting, hourly or retainer, and they were ⁓ a part of financial services called investor relations, where your client was always going to be the CEO of the company and you were always talking to him or her, mostly him, of course, about how to communicate with investors and a financial story.
And so what I learned because I went into that business pretty young, I actually was an employee of a type of company that did it. And I was like, wait, you know, look at me age 26. I'm sure I could do this by myself. And I hope many of you out there are thinking that because you can, ⁓ you know, let me be a beacon in the night for you. But what I learned really early on from actually a great mentor was. You're going to have to walk in a room and you're going to have to command it. They're going to have to believe you and.
You're not a male and you're not old at the time. And you're going to have to very quickly give the people in the room that you're talking to a reason to think you know what you're talking about and they actually want to follow what you're saying. And that's a high bar. So he really worked with me a lot on how could I be the smartest person in the room when in my own head, there was no way I was the smartest person in the room.
So where he helped me, which I think is such a great message for everybody is he forced me to find a niche that I was really good at. And mine very much was research oriented. So like I found this niche, was research, was statistics oriented, and I did a lot of work to say, hey, I know you think that the market will move this way if you announce this, but I've done all this research and I think you're a special case. I think it will move this other
And because I had done that work and I had research and I, you know, went in, I definitely had imposter syndrome, you guys, so bad. But I like somehow went in and still did it because I was delivering a message they hadn't heard. And I delivered it with authority because I had a little data background. They started to listen and it was such a great lesson for me because, you know, we're women. don't, I think we're deferential.
I think we are always giving someone else space. And I think there's a lot of ⁓ services companies consulting, coaching, where you better put that in check a little bit because these people are paying you quite a bit of money for you to help guide them. So I learned very much like what my little niche was and then I just jammed it open. And I did that with the first business, I that with the second business and right now...
Rahaf (10:01)
Mmm.
Beth Mazza (10:04)
We're doing some super cool research on female entrepreneurs with the goal that we will do the same thing with this business.
Rahaf (10:11)
Wow, you know, what really stood out to me from what you just said was the authority piece and especially as woman that authority is different because it's not like, I don't like that we have to like prove herself, but we are, we are guiding, like we are guiding, are breaking through the ceilings, we are, it's different. So I'm curious if you could just go into that a little bit deeper. Can you explain in your words what it meant for you to hold authority?
In walking in these rooms that you felt this imposter syndrome, what did that look like on a tangible level?
Beth Mazza (10:42)
Yeah, okay. So first of all, I, I'm 57 right now, I have sold you guys heard what I sold for a financial freedom, my life is great. I still have imposter syndrome walking into a room. I still do the same couple things when I'm walking into a room. I remind myself how grateful I am for everything that's happened. I
go through like a very quick reel in my head of a couple highlights of things that I think I did really well that I accomplished. And then I just sort of say this mantra, which is, if you can do those things and go through some very difficult things as well, this room's a cakewalk. So I still at this age, I have to do that. And it took me many years to learn that. So I mean, the very first thing I think about
before I claim like my authority is to clear my head and say, okay, I am grateful. I'm so grateful. I am for sure good enough. And what I'm doing is important and I'm capable of it. Okay, so now my head's clear. Then I'm always thinking on this authority piece. I have so many things that I feel like in an area I am an authority in, but I have to boil it down to the one hook.
I mean, it's like the only place where real life is like social media. What is your one hook that when you say it, people will go, I'm listening, or I bet she's wrong, but I'm still going to listen, or I bet she's wrong, so I'm going to listen and then I'm going to fight her. Whatever it is, but what's your one hook? And so for me, I would look really deeply in the client situation and I would try and put myself in their head. like in my business, it was very much, you know, a CEO who didn't like his stock.
Rahaf (12:30)
Mm.
Beth Mazza (12:35)
So my hook was always like, your stock price is where it is, I believe, because of these three things. Can I talk to you about some of the research that I've done and see what you think of it? And like that worked for me in my current business, right, which is Femalemavx. And I mean, we are, ⁓ we do free mentoring and free coaching for women entrepreneurs. We're publishing a book, which is like its own like kind of authority slash imposter syndrome issue. But with this business,
Rahaf (12:49)
Wow. ⁓
Beth Mazza (13:05)
I really do try and instead of telling you my authority, because I think that's on paper for being an entrepreneur, I really try and tell a simple story that makes people know I've been where you are. I've invested money. I've cold called. I've done all the things I'm supposed to do. And then I sat there and waited for my business to scale. And it took longer than I thought. And I almost gave up. I've done that a few times. I feel like that mentality that we go through.
Rahaf (13:19)
Hmm.
Mm.
Beth Mazza (13:34)
I feel like I know. that's another way of authority is just like, empathy. Like, get, I think I get where you are. Is this the way you feel? Can you tell me more? And then I'm always trying to just hear what they're saying as well.
Rahaf (13:44)
Yeah.
Yeah, you know, from what you're saying, it just reminds us that the social media algorithm mimics the universal algorithm. And we always want to come back to thinking like cocktail style conversations, because when you are doing a hook, like what you just said, that was an in-person hook. But that is also a hook that can be done on social media. So it really is just remembering human connection. What's going to make someone listen? What's going to make someone get curious? What's going to make someone open up? And you can do it through what you just said, like very matter of fact.
Beth Mazza (14:09)
Mm-hmm.
Rahaf (14:17)
Here's what I'm noticing. Here's what we need to fix. And also storytelling, connecting, empathy, bringing them in, hooking them in that way. So I love that. I love that so much. diving a little bit deeper, what, cause right now you've gotten to the point like where you are in your life. You're, you're giving back. You're giving back to these females. So what type of female entrepreneurs are you working with?
Beth Mazza (14:23)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Rahaf (14:41)
What are their struggles? What are their desires? What does your day to day look like?
Beth Mazza (14:47)
Okay, so first of all, I am so focused on working with solopreneurs who can do more, who can scale. I am the absolute worst person to give advice to women who reach out to me that want a small business in their home and they never want to be bigger because I'm always like, wait a second, here's another idea. What about, know, so I make them uncomfortable. So the real niche that I feel like women, really smart women all over the board have.
are first of all helping them figure out is this idea that you have, is it scalable? And how much does it depend on you? Because if it depends on you, it's not scalable. And if it depends on you and you want to be a mom or you are a mom, your business is going to go up and down because you've got some other responsibilities. And so my argument is always the safest thing for a business is actually to scale.
Even though in your head you think, my gosh, I have to pay more payroll, I have more investment, that doesn't feel safe. Anything that doesn't rely on one person is safer. So the very first thing I do is, hey, let's look at your idea and let's see how big it is and let's see what it would cost to scale. And let's just dream a while and make sure that you're one person today, but maybe you could get to 10 people and what that would look like. And just make sure that the business idea
you can push out enough that it could scale. And it could scale not with being forced to raise money, which is a good choice and someone may choose it, but I definitely know as a mom, the pace that I would have had to go to go at had I raised money, I think something would have fallen through. And I always wonder if it would be my kids. So the second piece of it is really,
In order to scale, do I have to do something like crazy? And if I do have to raise a bunch of money, is that really my path? And if not, could I bootstrap calmly, thoughtfully? Could I bootstrap to scale? And how long would that take? And how would it affect my day-to-day life? And is my business good enough for that? Because the one thing I would say to everyone who dreams about scaling,
is the business that you build as a solopreneur often looks quite different if you were building it to scale. And services and coaching is the easiest thing. If 100 % of your personal brand equals your corporate brand, you're only going to be able to scale as many hours in a day as you have. But if you could scale around a set of concepts,
really make sense to you that you know are different. And you'd on day one happen to be the best embodiment of those, great. But your name and your body just can't be attached to everything if you want to scale it. know those are the starting and ending point of so many discussions I'm having right now because women are super, women are interpersonal branding as we all should be and they become really brilliant at it.
And know, corporate branding still plays a pretty big role if you want to make enough money to not have to work.
Rahaf (18:13)
Yeah. what are some ways that you've helped female entrepreneurs scale, say, their service business, their coaching business? How different did it look like when they came in as a solopreneur and they wanted to scale it? What did that look like before and after? What didn't they see?
Beth Mazza (18:24)
Huh.
So different.
Yeah. So in services, I think there's probably two ways to scale. And it's very much like where your brain is as to which works for you. One is, you know, bodies. Can I create the way that I coach the outcomes? And can it be in institutionalized to such a point that I can train and then I can
build additional bodies, can build out additional bodies, I can make a margin off those additional bodies, and that's how I scale. So think that's one way. ⁓ The more interesting ways that I've these super brilliant women, including a woman I'm working with in the fitness sector, she came to me and she said, no one can do this like I can. Like, I can't train anyone because they can't do it like I can. So I said, okay, well,
How could we clone you? How could we deliver you? Well, ultimately what she did is she added a video side to her business. She added an app side to her business. She slowly started to add. She had this thing that she thought she did better than anyone else and people really liked it. And she said, I don't want employees, but ultimately she now has a bunch of employees to run these other things. But she built apps. She built video.
She built, ⁓ there are old school people like me who like notebooks. Everything that she has, it's still her name, her brand. And she's found all these different like sort of concentric circles around her to monetize. Now the only catch with that is that unless it's an app that's Uber, Uber usable and scalable, that's tough to sell. If not, if it's a good app, which hers is, she's going to sell that thing.
It's a great, she just has got to get users and she's got to get ⁓ more people on a monthly basis, et cetera. But the app is super scalable. So I think you're either wanted to, I was always very much in a people cause I love people and I loved consultants and I loved young people who came in and wanted to be trained. So to me, I love that. And I was really, I think pretty good at it. And my business partner is the same way. So we scaled people in our second business. We scaled people.
And we scaled software. And the crazy thing is, is the software that we scaled was ultimately the reason we sold at the multiple we did, but we hated it. We hated running it. We didn't like any part of it. We brought in other people to do it. We like, you we were happy with our people. So there's a little bit of just looking at yourself and saying, how do I want to spend my day? And if I had to do it over and if I, third business, I won't build anything that isn't people oriented. That's just, think a gift.
Rahaf (21:13)
Hmm.
Beth Mazza (21:18)
I have in software is definitely in apps are not a gift I have. So, you know, that internal look of like, what do I want to do for 10 hours a day? What would give me joy and what won't make me want to quit my job every day? And then you sort of pick your in services. Those are your two choices.
Rahaf (21:34)
Yeah.
Yeah, no, that's really clear. Now, with the mindset, with the limiting beliefs, with the blocks that come up, with feeling like, I'm the only person that can do this. I don't want to hire help. I don't want to bring anyone else in. What do you say to that solopreneur? How do you help her see outside of that, like that fitness woman you were talking about? How did you help her see that?
Beth Mazza (21:48)
Yes.
Yeah, that was a really hard discussion. The easiest way to help someone see that is to do the math for them. She was a single mom. She had no savings for her kids. This was her savings, right? And so when we did the math of the scaling with
services versus her staying exactly where she was, you know, was almost six or seven times that she could get to in a couple of years. So I always think the math is part of it. And then the second part of it is a mindset. And I dealt with this in the second business. So the second part is you do have to humble yourself a little bit. You're great at what you do, right? But there's other people like you. ⁓
your personality, my personality, we might fit with one type but not another type. So when women come to me like that, I ask them what clients they've lost, who they wish that they were working with and why they aren't. And out of that sort of comes a story, God knows I had this in my consulting business. Victoria and I knew.
I was a certain personality type CEO and she was a certain personality type CEO. And if we didn't know, we went in on the first meeting and it was very clear. So I always ask women like, the clients that you want, the customers that you want that aren't coming your way, why? And as you delve deep into it, you realize it's a level of comfort. It's a personality. It's an activity types. And in order for you to do that, you wouldn't be optimizing your own.
So you got to find other people that can. This is pretty incredible, but in my own field, I do still counsel firms like mine who would like to exit like mine. And I have a couple female clients, and then I have a couple male clients. And the male clients are like, let's scale this beast. How'd you do it? I'll hire robots. What do you need? What can we do with AI? They don't care.
Rahaf (24:16)
Hehehehe
Beth Mazza (24:19)
And a lot of the female are like, no, I've interviewed 87 people for the assistant position. I just can't find a cultural fit. So part of it is like, OK, you're going to have to take a deep breath. You're going to have to lower your expectations. And you're going to have to do something that makes you a little bit uncomfortable. And actually, this wellness person, I was like, how about we do it this way? And you have been out at six months. If you hate everything we've talked about,
you will lose, I think we calculated, $18,000 in six months and you'll be done with it. Is it an $18,000 bet? And she sort of said, OK. And that's kind of where we ended. Because I do feel in scaling, especially with hiring additional people, people make it more than it is. If it doesn't work, you have a quarter's worth of a salary you've paid and you learn so much.
Rahaf (25:16)
Yeah, and I feel like that's a reminder that we always need to come back to is nothing's really permanent. You know, there's always shifts, there's always pivots. We think that the decision we make is like the ultimate decision. But like you said, like if you crunch the numbers and you think about the skill set that you gain from making that decision, I mean, forget the money. It's like, yeah, the money can come back, but what have you gained from that and what type of person you become? And then you can always give yourself permission to go back to doing things the way that they were. But it's
Beth Mazza (25:25)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Rahaf (25:45)
It's giving yourself that permission first.
Beth Mazza (25:49)
That's such a great point. It's funny, I was talking to a woman yesterday, and she's got to make a decision to be acquired or to keep going. I just kept saying, we had six different acquisition offers fall through. The seventh one worked. Like, everything is something you think will happen, don't other surprises do happen?
There's no moment where you are changing the nature of your life or your business if you make the wrong decision. There'll be a month later, there'll be a different big decision and another turn to take. Maybe we all take ourselves too seriously, or maybe we actually believe we only get one shot. And I need to be the beacon in the night for all of you. I have had 90 shots.
and maybe four I took right. So don't worry one bit whether this thing coming at you is the right or wrong decision. Make it, learn from it. If it works, keep going. If it doesn't work, You'll be fine.
Rahaf (27:02)
You know, that reminds me, and I told you right before we did this episode of what you said to me when we first talked. And can you share with us this tool that I can't stop thinking about? I can't stop thinking about of the steps.
Beth Mazza (27:16)
Yeah.
Yeah. And I need to say that this is stolen from both Angela Duckworth, who wrote Grit, and Lisa Whittington, who's a coach of mine, who has a podcast. So, and this has happened to me with really deep things, but actually the reason I initially started to think about it in the last couple of years was to try and help other women. But it's, you know, we as women, like we dream big. We start this business and we're like, oh my gosh, we're going to get to seven figures.
And this is how our life is going to be. And we've got it. And that dreaming that my kids taught me, manifesting, mom, you're the best manifester, I am. great. I didn't know I was manifesting. But I never knew that there was such a thing as a vision board until a couple of years ago. And the kids are like, mom, we would love to see yours. But OK, so we do the dreaming part really big. And then we write.
the world's longest to-do list, which is every single action we would ever have to take to get to that goal. And then the stress and the anxiety and the imposter syndrome kicks in because you're like, how could I do those 502 things? I'm only one human. I have kids. I have parents. I have hobbies. Like, I couldn't do all this. And so what I learned, and I love this, is dream. Like, manifest. ⁓
dream. That's how we end up getting exactly what we want. We certainly won't get it if we don't dream. But then step back and instead of trying to get to the dream the first year, the first week, the first day, in your head, think, what's the one thing I could do today to be one step closer tomorrow? Like, that's it. And for me, the way I do it is I have one hard thing for
business and one hard thing, personal. And I do it every day. So I have a goal of selling ⁓ a million books. That may or may not happen. So what I have done is, and it freaked me out for weeks, you guys, because I have never written a book before. And I just thought, sure, I'm successful. I'll sell a million books. Well, as you talk to people, they're like, you'll probably sell five. So.
I thought, OK, I've got this million book goal. Every day I do one thing. And I do a really hard thing. Like today, I did a really tough thing where I'm transitioning out someone who's helping me on the book, and I am bringing in a new person. And that was a terrible conversation, but it had to happen. And so if you can just string together day after day, you'll look up, and you cannot believe how far you are towards your goal.
But if your head's only up looking at your goal, you are anxiety ridden. You'll never get there. But if all you're doing when you go to bed, I did this before I went to bed last night. I literally went out to dinner, had wine, but still did this. I wrote down, have a tough professional conversation. And actually, unfortunately, I have a tough personal conversation. So I haven't done that one yet, but I will. And every day. And Mondays, I already wrote down, which is I found an author who was willing to talk to me who did sell that many books.
I got 20 minutes on her schedule and that's my hard thing to do on Monday is to make sure in 20 minutes I can get everything I need. And maybe I'll learn so much from that discussion that that will drive the next day. In your head, if you can just picture it as it's like a ball and you're just trying to inch it a little and you're not even counting how many steps you're taking. You're just inching and inching and inching and inching and inching.
When you look up, you are going to be so amazed. Look up once a quarter. Look up once a year. Always remember where you were when you started it and where you are today. And sit back and be in awe of yourself for the 200 steps that you took, where you are today versus where you were. Take your minute of awe. Pat yourself on the back. And then put your head down and do the next 200. I promise you, it is the way.
Rahaf (31:28)
Hmm.
Beth Mazza (31:34)
To-do lists that we all do, because we're women and that's how we live our lives, are so good in some ways, but they're also wildly intimidating. the older I get, my to-do lists get shorter, but what's on there is way more impactful and it always gets done.
Rahaf (31:54)
Hmm. what about for the woman who is she's scaling too fast? You know, she's she doesn't even realize how fast she's scaling and she thinks, you know, I'll just keep doing, keep doing it. What would you tell her to help her get out of this?
Beth Mazza (32:07)
Yeah.
Yeah, I feel like that one I relate to really, really well. Because that success begets success. Like you're moving so fast, you don't even know how to stop and what you're doing is working. So you keep on. Okay, so this is what I learned. ⁓ Everyone needs, I call it a kitchen cabinet, you call it whatever you want, everyone needs a couple people in their life.
who are knowledgeable enough about their professional situation and who have had some interesting experiences. And so I term them a champion, someone who tells you you can do everything you dream of and you'll do it, a connector, someone who helps you make a bunch of great connections that will help you drive your business, and then a, a compensator, someone who compensates.
for what you don't have. If you've built that little group, you're gonna go right to your compensator and you're gonna listen to what he or she says. Because what I have found is when I have so much momentum and I am scaling, I'm not even calculating and my revenue's growing, I'm just getting through my to-do list and scaling, I actually need someone to stop me. Just stop me.
and then ask me a couple questions and then I get to where I should be. So stop me and say, have you done the math to make sure that all this activity is getting you towards the goal that you want? If you're beating your goals that you set, do you need to? And then your non-negotiables, which everybody's got to set in their business, what are the things you're not going to do no matter what?
Let that compensator, let that person in your life say, do you remember these non-negotiables? You were always, you know, for me, I was never gonna be away from my kids more than two nights. I was never gonna take on debt that was bigger than I could pay off. All these different things that I had. Well, my very special compensator, my best friend, was like, wait, you're now scaling quickly.
and three of the four non-negotiable rules you had you broke. Is that, you want to change your non-negotiable rules? And I didn't. And I stopped and I took a little time. So if you somehow can find that like truth person in your life who you will listen to, but you've got to bring them along in the business with you. So when you're really needed, they know it. And then, you know, be quiet and listen for 24 hours and really think.
about it because I think we forget as women that we're going to accomplish it. If we set a goal and we move our ball every single day, we're going to get there. Do we have to get there tomorrow? If you run an AI business, which is actually a guy that I'm mentoring right now, he can't stop. He chose a business where if he stops, someone will beat him quickly.
Is that the business we've chosen? If it isn't, can we stop for 24 hours? And I really find if I just stop, my brain clears and I go, of course I shouldn't be doing this. Or you could say, I love it. I am going to change my non-negotiables. This is the greatest thing in the world. I'm super aware of what I'm doing. I want to scale this fast. Just make sure that you're making the decision that's not being made for you.
Rahaf (35:54)
Yeah, you know, and I, I wonder too, because being an entrepreneur can feel so lonely, like being in the decisions, being in that, and it can be very hard for that woman to seek for help, especially when the people in her life are very much in like the system mindset of, just get a job. just do this backup plan. And then she's already so raw in the expansion and seeking that deeper help.
Beth Mazza (36:16)
Hmm.
Rahaf (36:24)
that she could go back, you know, she could backslide. So what do you say to the woman that might not have that logic, that financial advice person in her life, but she has the belief?
Beth Mazza (36:33)
Yeah.
So I think everyone puts together some form of a business plan when they start their business. You've got to add a section on your own kitchen cabinet, and you have to treat it like a to-do list. Every day, I'm going to move one step closer. And that is, please everyone remember that most women in business and most women entrepreneurs, you can cold outreach to me and almost all the other women in my network.
And we'll either be like, no, we don't have time, but this person does. Here's an answer for you. Yeah. I'd love to talk to you. Like, don't be shy. And don't think you don't deserve this because you do, because people helped us to go through a network and see, you know, I'm because mine's finance. I go onto LinkedIn who has I'm doing it right now. That's how I found the author. I found her on LinkedIn. I thought I need experience in an area I don't have. I don't I have one friend.
who is a bestselling author and I'll never be able to do the amazing things she has. And I reached out to this person, she didn't respond. I reached out to someone else who kind of knew her, she helped me. Two months later I got in touch with her. And the thing I would say is by the time I actually got in touch with her, she was like, absolutely, come and see me, we should talk. Just remember that, one, it's something you should be planning.
just like you're planning on how you're just going to scale your business market, advertise, video, whatever it is, building a little set of people to help you should be in your business plan. And every day you're just moving a little bit closer towards it, a little bit closer towards it, and do it with an open spirit in the sense that if someone reached out to you, would you help them? mean, cold? Of course you would. A young woman that wanted to start a business, you might only have five minutes, but of course you would.
Think about it in the way that don't worry if you don't know this person. Don't worry if you feel like you're being a bother. Women want to help each other. And I also say in the book, if you're going at someone cold and one out of five responds, like that's a goldmine. Don't worry about the other four. Worry about the one that did respond. Make it a very conscious decision because as much as they love you, the people around you and your family and friends who were corporate,
I mean, they don't know what you're going through. They couldn't even begin to know what you're going through. That just isn't... We can't expect them to understand or have a mindset or be able to give good advice. You got to create a little bit of a network of people who could help you. And then you have to be... I talk a lot about like, you got to pay that back. You have to give that to people as well.
Rahaf (39:22)
Yeah.
Yeah. And you know, it's hard to, especially with social media and just getting unsolicited DMs of people coming in and pitching you and saying, here's what's wrong with your page. Here's how I'm going to help you and inserting themselves in there with this almost like aggressive way of like barging open the door. And I think there's a very different energy from cold DMing someone and barging in to sell them on something versus cold outreaching or DMing or calling whatever and seeking a network.
Beth Mazza (39:39)
Yes.
Yeah.
Rahaf (39:58)
seeking support, seeking advice. And can you just speak on that energetic difference? Because it feels different and it might create resistance for that woman to seek help.
Beth Mazza (39:59)
Yep.
Yeah.
Yes. So I think there's kind of one secret to the cold network, which is have some type of affinity with them. So it's, I also have a coaching business. I also went to school X. I also live in, you know, city Y, whatever it is, look enough in their background so you can have one affinity because the, and so number one, just trying to have something.
I went to Notre Dame and so many women that reach out to me, that's how they start off. like, Notre Dame isn't that big of a school. And when I went there, there weren't many women. So I always respond. Some really ingenious person said, ⁓ I went to ⁓ Syracuse, which is where my son went. And that got, you know, at least I saw Syracuse. I thought, does he know Sam? So whatever. So that's one. But the second is, my God, have humility and understanding.
I need five minutes of your time about this topic. know, I'm Beth, I have a similar business, I'm much earlier stage than you were. I'm struggling with this. Could I have a few minutes of your time, either email, phone, whatever format, whatever time with this issue? It is really, I find it super hard to turn down someone who...
has an affinity is like, I'm originally from Chicago too. saw you, I mean, this just happened to me. They saw you had an investor relations business. I'm really struggling with how AI affects that business. Could I just pick your brain for five minutes? And I just sent her an out back. was like, I don't know much, but you can pick my brain for 15 minutes. Here's my, like.
I also had someone a year ago in reaching out to me, tell me all the amazing things that she had done. My business is growing, you know, 800 million percent and I'm da-da-da-da-da-da, and at the end it was an ask. It's a little harder to want to help that person, right? Like you want some humility in that I'm reaching out to you and I'm respectful of the fact that you have a lot of calls on your time.
that I've got it narrowed down to one issue and is short of a time in whatever format you have. As a matter of fact, when the book comes out, there is literally a section with the exact wording we use for different type of people that we go cold at them. I wish I remembered it now. I've got to figure out what, actually I can pull it out and I can have you put it in the show notes. It's really good. Cause you just...
Rahaf (42:39)
Wow
Yeah.
Beth Mazza (42:50)
Number one, you have to have humility. And second, you got to be super respectful of their time. If you only have five minutes, I just have this one question. It's really hard to turn down people like that. Now, I will say in the world of Instagram, where clearly there's a, it's not me looking at mine, it's my chief of staff. I think Instagram's a tiny bit harder.
because there's usually a middle man in between there. Now I happen to have our chief of staff super trained to give me and let me make a decision on whether I want to respond or not, but I'm not sure I've always found that on Instagram. Like randomly I've reached out to people on Instagram that have not responded that responded to me immediately on LinkedIn.
Rahaf (43:37)
Interesting. Yeah, even experimenting with different platforms, not feeling discouraged when you're not getting these people opening the door here, but being able to look and get curious and to expand. Even that means sending them an email.
Beth Mazza (43:51)
I was literally just gonna say that. Go
old school, put the subject, five minutes of your time from fellow domer. I've gotten that one, I love it. For the author, I literally wrote 15 minutes of your time from a struggling author, remember your first book. I mean, just, I don't know, try it all. Something's gonna work. Try it all with five people. You're gonna get one. And the power of that one.
to help you at the moment. If they've been through what you've been through, ⁓ they see stuff like you would never see, because they are five years beyond you. And so they see it. that contact is so valuable that it is worth all the pain you go through for it. And my second part on this is once you are lucky enough to have that contact, you must figure out a way to keep up with them. You can't go back to them three years later and go remember me.
Every couple months you're like, hope you're doing great. Saw something you might be interested in. Congrats on your latest blah, blah. Just have it in your, that's part of your like few minutes a day where you're building your network. As you get further in, you're then maintaining your network. It's like a few minutes a day. It's always in your head. Who else can I be talking to? Who else can I be supporting and cheerleading? And who do I need to ask another favor of?
Rahaf (45:17)
And that just gets to be a part of the day to day of how to run your business and the networking aspect of it, which I feel like because of social media, people forget about that part, especially because she's got her head down, she's building, she's got these responsibilities, she's got clients to fulfill. It's hard to keep up and that tends to fall on the back burner.
Beth Mazza (45:24)
Yep.
Hmm?
Yep.
Yeah, and it doesn't feel to you at the moment like it's a revenue generating activity. So you can put it down.
Rahaf (45:53)
Yeah, yeah, because it's so easy to rationalize all the other things that make you in that scarcity mindset when it's like, let's just pause, step back and talk to someone who's been there. Talk to someone who can just give you five minutes.
Beth Mazza (45:56)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's so hard in daily ministrations as an entrepreneur to do the long-term things. And I know it because you've got clients and you've got bills and you've got a lot of things coming at you. It took me really late into the second business where I blocked two hours a day knowing I'd only get one hour for that. And you've got to figure out your own schedule.
how you can do that, but you've got to have something blocked that's like pretty non-negotiable. And you put what we just talked about in networking as, know, long-term value building, which is exactly what it is. My kitchen cabinet is who ultimately introduced me to the second buyer. So, yeah, and that was a very, very long-term relationship that we both kept at for a while. And one day she said, I have this idea.
Rahaf (46:50)
That's exactly right.
Wow.
Beth Mazza (47:06)
I was like, sure.
Rahaf (47:07)
Wow.
You know, I'm so excited to read your book because you said this is in your book. You have a chapter on this. You dive even deeper into this. Can you tell us about your book and where we can sign up for it and be on the list?
Beth Mazza (47:13)
yeah.
on
Yeah, thank you so much. It was the most fun ever. The book is called Entrepreneur Like a Mother. John Wiley is publishing it. It's supposed to come out in September. And it's equal parts really practical how to. Say this, use AI and ask it this. We try and make it super practical. So that's a positive.
that is also part memoir, which the goal of that was to be super approachable because not only do we make so many mistakes, but we, you know, sometimes we're great moms and terrible CEOs. And sometimes we were, you know, awesome CEOs and the worst moms ever. So there's a lot of vignettes in there where we just sort of say, you know, is it embarrassing that I was so bad at bringing kindergarten snacks in that the
they finally gave me a recipe for like Chex Mix and said, please don't use anything but these ingredients and you'll probably forget it and that's okay. I mean, we have so many stories of terrible lists. So if you're a mom or aspiring mom or you think about it, like you'll read this and feel, I think at least better. So ⁓ go to our website, which is in the show notes. If you're interested, subscribe to our free newsletter. It is free. It will always be free. It's called The Founder's Files. It's got a lot of good stuff in there.
And in there, you'll see slowly as we approach the date, the ability to pre-order. I think it's a really funny read. I hope everyone gets something out of it. And there's also ⁓ worksheets and workbooks. So as you're reading something, you're trying to figure out how would I scale to that. There's a whole section. And you'll be able to see that on mine, too. I was just trying to make it so practical. And last, for people who, like every woman I know, ⁓
Rahaf (48:51)
Wow.
Beth Mazza (49:06)
everything is in 10 or 15 minute increments. So like the chapters are short, the worksheets are short. Our assumption is, okay, got to run to my next thing, close the book, move on. Just the way we would have wanted to use it.
Rahaf (49:14)
Mmm.
I love the bite size, the chunking of that, that makes it easily digestible. It's like you're eating a little snack here and there and you're digesting all this amazing goodies.
Beth Mazza (49:28)
Alright.
Yeah,
as a of fact, the pre-order, there'll be a segment of the pre-order where you'll be included in a drawing. And if you win, you get the under the eye golden, gold, what are they called? To reduce swelling. And they go for 10 minutes. So we are like, okay, you're gonna put those on and you're gonna open it up to a chapter or you're gonna listen to a chapter of it while you work on your under eye bags.
Rahaf (49:50)
⁓
You
love that. I love that. It's kind of like habit stacking too. It's like do this while you do this and build the habit.
Beth Mazza (50:05)
Yeah, yes. That's exactly,
that is exactly,
Rahaf (50:10)
Wow, wow, Beth, you know, I just want to ask you right now, like, is there a message that's coming to you right now for the one listener, the one listener listening and connecting to our conversation? What does she need to hear right now?
Beth Mazza (50:25)
she needs to hear that you're gonna have fear, you're gonna be sure you can't do it, you're gonna read about everyone else's success and be like, I'm never gonna get there. ⁓ that's natural, you do it today. But if you just get your one hard thing done today, just get your one hard thing done today and get it done for the next seven days. And at the end of that seventh day, just see how far you've gone towards your goal.
Like, it's that simple. We as women, we are such deep thinkers and we're trying to solve all the universe's problems and love everybody and include everybody. Just like, just for yourself, just do that one thing, seven days in a row, and then compare where you were versus where you are now. And then I guarantee you're gonna keep doing it because you're gonna get addicted to it. You can absolutely do this. You can absolutely do this.
Rahaf (51:15)
That's it.
That's huge. tell us like what your Instagram is. Like everything's gonna be in the show notes, but how can they find you on Instagram?
Beth Mazza (51:26)
Oh,
yeah. Our Instagram is @femalemavericks. you can meet my partner there. As a matter of fact, this week I'm doing introductions of her because she is very happily a stay-at-home mom for the first time in her life with five kids. So she's been a little slow happily until we introduced the book. So you're going to hear a lot about her. But we've got some really funny. We always have a more solid one thing that you can take away, always.
And then we usually have something funny and stupid because that is what we do constantly.
Rahaf (51:59)
I can't believe it's been almost an hour. I feel like I could talk to you for so much more. You've given so much in this episode and I just personally want to thank you for taking your time to come and share all of your gifts and everything that you've learned so that you could help our listeners.
Beth Mazza (52:04)
That's been super fun.
Thank you. ⁓ I enjoyed it so much. And I'm going to continue to listen to your podcast because I really like it. You are spot on in so many things you're talking about.
Rahaf (52:26)
Love having you. Love having you as a guest and as a listener and I know this won't be the last time that we talk either.
Beth Mazza (52:34)
Mm-mm.
I'm coming back closer to the book. I'm gonna make you talk to me again.
Rahaf (52:39)
Amazing. And tag us, tag us on Instagram. When you listen to this episode, we really want to hear what hit. You can tag me @radiant rahaf tag Beth at Female Mavericks, right? Or is it the Female Mavericks, right? Yeah. Yup.
Beth Mazza (52:52)
No, female Mavericks, and you can always find my email. You can go on LinkedIn. You can DM me
directly, say, I listen to your podcast. I have a question for you. Or can I have five minutes? I promise I will make five minutes more than that.
Rahaf (53:04)
Well, thank you so much and we'll see you next week. Bye.
Beth Mazza (53:06)
Thank you. See you soon.
Bye bye.
