Ters 098 are your beliefs holding you back from success by EntrepreneursRadioShow

THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

Episode 98: Tara Gilvar In this episode, Travis has an inspiring talk with successful entrepreneur Tara Gilvar. Tara is the founder of B.I.G., and organization that has the goal of empowering and helping women in their entrepreneurial career. With the help of B.I.G. Tara has reached out to a lot of women who has the potential to start or grow their own business but are too apprehensive or unequipped to do so. She has helped them realize their dream as well as help more them connect with each other with the goal of sharing experiences and growing together in their business. This episode also benefits both sexes since Tara and Travis laid out some guidelines and tips that can be applied by anyone to any business. Tara shares how she began her business with just a spark of inspiration and the drive to see it through to its completion. Tara also encourages entrepreneurs to put your ideas into action and always remind yourself of your goal to keep you on track as you grow your business. Also, surrounding yourself with people that are more knowledgeable and more experienced than you to provide you with the necessary lessons that will ensure success in your business, just like what her organization is doing for her clients. These are just some of the valuable things that you can find in this episode of the Entrepreneur's Radio Show.

Are your beliefs holding you back from success? TRAVIS: Hey, it's Travis Lane Jenkins, welcome to episode number 98 of the Entrepreneur's Radio Show, a production of rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com. Today, I'm going to introduce you to rock star entrepreneur Tara Gilvar. Tara is the founder of B.I.G., Believe Inspire Grow, which is a group that is about women, empowering women to fulfilment. Now, before 50% of our listeners, meaning you men close your ears, tune out, and believe that there's nothing here for you, there's still a lot for you to learn on this interview. Tara talks about how she created an ongoing monthly membership fee based business out of a frustration that she had with her own life. As well as she shares other creative ways that she came up with additional monetization, meaning making money for her business through sponsorship, and affiliates. As well as several other things that are applicable really to virtually any type of business once you custom fit it to exactly what you're doing. Now before I get started I want to recognize a couple of people for writing some reviews, just in case you just started listening. I'm trying to go through iTunes and mention 2 or 3 people each episode, and thank them personally for taking the time to rate and review the show. So Shady760 gave us a 4 star rating, thank for that, thank you for taking the time to rate and review the show. Plumber Joey gave us a 5 star, thank you Joey for that. And Ostronit gave us a 5 star for the show also, thank you very much. Now, the reason why this matters to us is number 1, of course, it confirms that what we're doing matters to you and is giving you some value. This also helps us get found at iTunes because that's how iTunes rates shows and determines whether they're going to share this show when people type in things like entrepreneur, or

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

business owners, relevant titles. They will serve up our show if we get enough reviews. So if you would, if you take the time and give us a rating and a review and tell me what you think about this show I'd really appreciate it. I read each and every one of those. And then of course I'll read your name on the show as well. Also, be sure and stay with us until the very end if you can because I want to share some inspiration with you. Plus, I've got a question for you. And the question is this. I want you to gnaw on the question, think about it for a while, and then we'll come back to it later. So the question is have you ever competed with another business in your area that does the same thing as you, except they charge a whole lot more, and they constantly take business from you? Or, maybe their business doesn't offer as good of a product or service as yours yet they're always busy? Now, I'm guessing the answer is yes because it happens in just about every area of the business. Now, the important thing that I want you to know is there's traditionally a reason why some of these businesses are able to do this at this level that makes them virtually impossible to beat. And I'll talk about this more after the interview. One other item before we get started that I want to remind you is there's a couple of ways that you can take these podcast on the go with you. You can go to iTunes or Stitcher. I've placed both of them at rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com so that right there on the menu bar you can click on them and it'll take you straight into our show on both of those, which will make it much faster for you. Their search functions really don't operate very well. So, nevertheless, now that we got all that out of the way let's go ahead and get down to business, okay? Welcome to the show Tara. TARA: Thank you, thanks for having me. TRAVIS: I'm excited to have you hear. TARA: I'm excited to be here. TRAVIS: Yeah. So we've got several things that I want to talk to you about but as you know, one of the things that I like to do is I like to kind of get the back story of what brought you to today because I feel like it's illustrative for everybody else that's listening. Because there's so many people out there that believe that success is a straight up vertical thing and it's really not, right? TARA: No, it's not at all. TRAVIS: Yeah, so do you mind sharing that story with us? TARA: No, sure. My background was in my career. I was in politics for a little while. I was a press secretary for a campaign when I was in my young 20's. I loved it but no matter when was your draw you're always unemployed in November. And it makes Christmas a little bit tricky because you never have any money to come for with Christmas presents. TRAVIS: Right.

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

TARA: So, while I love the politics and I love the whole game and the excitement of it, it wasn't that real sustainable thing for me. So I eventually got into public relations and marketing, had a stable job up in Boston. I worked for a really fast-moving, brand-focused PR firm. And what I love to say was it made me pretty interesting at cocktail parties. I worked for some really great brands like Timberland, and Sylvania Lighting. I did the ball drop in Times Square one year. And so, for me when people said to me, so what do you do? I thought I had a pretty cool answer. And people used to hang around me a little longer than some other people during the cocktail party. But when I found that the ball drop in Times Square and that was back in 1996 was I was also 7 1/2 months pregnant. And so, what I jokingly say was that was not the only ball that dropped in my life that year. TRAVIS: Right. TARA: But it is the ball that changed the ----(audio not clear) TRAVIS: Hey, I'm losing you. Your audio-TARA: Can you hear me now? TRAVIS: Yeah, I can now. It's like you moved away. Do you have any headphones? TARA: No, I don't. TRAVIS: Okay. TARA: Can you hear me okay? TRAVIS: Yeah, I can hear you fine now. TARA: I'll talk closer to the speaker. TRAVIS: Yeah, okay. So, what was that last part that you said? You were talking about the big transition. TARA: Right. So it was a big transition time for me. For me it was having the birth of my first daughter. TRAVIS: Right. TARA: And women obviously go through lots of moments of transition, but for me that was the big moment. And I got off the path of this really cool career that was interesting. I lost a little bit of a sense of who I was. I didn't know who I was beyond being this lovely little baby's mother. Subsequently had 2 more children and I was like a lot of women out there. I say it's a glorification to say stay at home mom. Let's face it, we were housewives. A lot describe it as housewives.

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

TRAVIS: Right. TARA: And I didn't bemoan that in anyway, in fact it was such a gift to be able to stay home, and the luxury of having somebody pay your mortgage. And my husband was able to provide for us. I had that luxury. But I was not always 100% fulfilled on one part of my brain through just motherhood. And when my middle child was in middle school, I drove him to school. And on a teacher's car there was a bumper sticker. And it said, "Remember who you wanted to be." And I knew at that moment that I had to do something. That that was my wake-up call, because I wasn't the person that I had thought I was going to be. I loved being a stay home mom but I felt like I had a lot more things to offer. TRAVIS: Right. TARA: And I was killing time. So that was the moment when things changed. TRAVIS: And so, I completely understand what you're saying when you say you lost a sense of who you were because sometimes you go down a path, whatever the path is. And you're too deep into that path. And this could even happen in business to where you don't who you are on any of those other paths. And so, how did you find your way back? How did you get in touch with who you really wanted to be? TARA: Well, like you said. Bottom line is it doesn't matter what you're doing in your career. If it's not your passion or if it's not something that you absolutely feel passionate about it wanes on you. And so for me it was more of a physical change. But what I did on that day was I knew I was lost. I couldn't figure out how to balance my life because I knew that I couldn't go back to the career that I had before because of the time commitment. I had 3 small children, economically, childcare and things like that were going to be prohibited. So, I did not know that I was taking the step I was taking. But what I did do was act. And I sent an email to every woman I knew in my community that I had acquired a lot of women that I knew. I'm Irish and so we have the gift of the gab in my family. But that said you know what we're smart. And I just sent this blind email that said we're smart and we have something to offer the world. And maybe if we got together in my living room and you came and you brought a coffee cake or some sort of bunt cake, we could sit around and figure out how we could get professionally fulfilled and keep our family and personal life whole. And I guess it touched a chord because 42 women showed up in my living room the next week. TRAVIS: Okay, I like that. TARA: Yeah, so I said I didn't discover oil but I hit oil by accident. And then I recognize that it was oil. And that's probably the best proactive thing that I did to make this voyage happen. TRAVIS: Right. You know what I like about that, and so I think there's a misconception. At times people will wait around for inspiration or for lightning to hit, or for clarity, right? And I've been guilty of this at times to. But really, sometimes what you need to do is just take a series of steps, any steps, but a series of

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

steps. And in the process of taking those steps comes a clarity. And I think that's exactly what happened with you is you were frustrated and you didn't know exactly how this was going to turn out or even what you were going to do. But you were just going to do something, right? TARA: Right. And I had no intention at that time of starting a woman's organization. I really thought what I was going to do was have those women come and help me figure out what my next step will be. And it wasn't until this magical time that happened in my living room where women were empowering each other, and helping each other, and doing all these things that someone turned to me and said, "This is your business." TRAVIS: Right. TARA: And I said, "What is my business?" It was clear instantaneously in any possible way. It was an evolution. TRAVIS: Right. I like that. And even my audiences male and female and it doesn't matter to me that you just focused on women because what it is is your journey, how you got there, points of clarity, what you're doing to grow it. And all of those other things are so illustrative that it's easy for us to get caught up in our own rhetoric, and delay things. And I'm guilty of it at times. Even though I've had incredible success sometimes I drag things out way too long because I'm analyzing rather than just taking action. And I'm always at my best when I'm constantly taking action. TARA: Right. It's opening doors of opportunity, and yet the point that we focus on women, we often have people. Men come up to us all the time saying I wish there was this organization for men. And maybe there will be and maybe there should be. It's just that I would need some more help. TRAVIS: Right. Yeah, and that's something that you could split out later and go down that path. A lot of people try to target too many targets at once rather than really narrowing it down. You still have a very wide niche there, because it's half the population, right? TARA: Right. And we are just on the tip of the iceberg. One of the things that women seem to be guilty of, and I try to be disciplined about it is chasing shiny objects. And we teach women and we try to keep-well, we practice what we preach by staying focused on the core part of what we do. Because there's so many exciting things that come at you and you always want to have a part of everything. But it's nice to know that you really have to stay on the path that you started. And it's driven by your passion. Go back to your core mission, and always remind yourself of your mission because you can easily get distracted. TRAVIS: Yeah, the shiny syndrome is-- there's an abundance of ideas out there. What we're short on is execution, right? TARA: Yeah.

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

TRAVIS: And so, it's great to come up with new ideas. Now, I think the dangerous thing is when the ideas take you completely away from your core of what you need to accomplish. Now you can come up with creative ideas to increase the speed or the scalability of your current idea. But shifting gears and looking in another direction is normally the point of failure for a lot of entrepreneurs. There's an extremely high failure rate. Spa.gov ranks it at I think 96% failure rate over a 10 year period for entrepreneurs. And a lot of it is the early years and lack of guidance, lack of clarity, lack of persistence, all those other things. Have you found that to be true in what you've been doing? TARA: Yeah. And one of the things that we learned to do is know that-- I think the bad thing in that regard is to know what you don't know and surround yourself with people that know what they know better than you so that they can help you stay on that straight and narrow path of your mission because it's really easy to go off, it's really easy to do the next greatest thing. But I think what you mentioned is now in the world of technology, bring that into and use those tools for your core mission, and you'll take your vision further. And we work really hard to do that, we stay on the path. Because once you start getting some traction, lots of people want to tag along with you and want to bring you in their direction and benefit from your success that you've accumulated. And it's easy if you're not clear on what you're trying to do to go off the path with them. So, yeah, I think that's really important. And to make sure that even if you have to write your mission right in front of you and keep it on focus so that every day you can make your decisions, you're going back, does this meet with my core mission. If the answer is yes then go forward. TRAVIS: Right. So, I'm 48 years old and I finally gotten to a stage to where I've given myself permission to remove the things from my life that I don't like. And that's a simple task but it's huge. And I've had to find the answer where with all for years but it never dawned on me. And finally, I just sit down and I drew a line down the middle of the page. And I wrote on the left what I don't like doing, what does not excite me. And I wrote on the right side of the page what does excite me. And then I hired a personal assistant to start handling the things that I don't like, not because they're not beneath me. And I still do some trivial things because it gives me some down time to think. I'll get up and fold my clothes, or I'll get up and organize something, but all of the other things. I like my office to be-- it's kind of like a studio, I like it to be like an hotel, perfectly immaculate. And so, I have somebody to help me with those things. Now, that seems small and trivial but what it does is I can stay more focused and more excited, and more in flow with things that really get my juices going, and I'm a lot more productive. Have you done anything like that? TARA: Absolutely. And know really what you're good at and like the people that know better, absolutely. Because there is only one of you, and there's only so many hours in a day. And then for me in what we do, we're always trying to help women get balance in their life. And the professional side of your world is wonderful, but it doesn't work if the rest of your life isn't intact. And so, we look at business holistically. And say, "Okay, you're mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, are we all whole?" Because at the end of the day if some part of that's going to skew then something's missing. So, we approach business in the professional world very much like hat. And say, you surround yourself with the support people that can help you do the part that you don't love exactly.

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

TRAVIS: Right. I think we both come from the same era of it where you-- I was taught to overcome my weaknesses by working on them. And that has helped on some levels, but it reaches a point of diminishing returns because you're constantly working on those things, plus I'm not happy. And so today it's more acceptable to try and growth hack your business by just partnering with 2 or 3 people that excel in those areas that you either don't want to do or that you're weak in. And that sounds to me like that's what you're talking about within that group. TARA: Yeah, exactly. TRAVIS: So maybe automation, or Infusionsoft, or whatever your business needs, you've got somebody in the group that can help with that, right? TARA: Yeah. And the workaholics and the A personality people of the world, we do ourselves a disservice because there are technology fixes, and there are things that don't require-- you have to be willing to give up some control which for a lot of us is difficult at times. But once you can give up control and you can see that there are apps and automated systems, or really great people, or virtual assistants out there that can take some of the load off, your life gets a lot better. TRAVIS: Right. So you've been doing this for 5 years now, right, or almost 5 years? TARA: Right, a little more than 5. TRAVIS: Okay. So, give me a feel. You've scaled this thing to a pretty decent size haven't you? TARA: Yeah, we're embarking on our 2,000th member. And this has been through organic growth. We haven't really utilized, even social media, or even PR and marketing to a degree. We're really working right now to perfect the process. But yeah, it's been 5 years, we have almost 2,000 members. We have almost 50 groups that meet every month. And so we have at least 50 events a month, sometimes more depending on some special events. And it's been going wonderfully, and I really feel like we helped a lot of women. TRAVIS: I love it. We need as many entrepreneurs as possible. So how are you monetizing it? Do you mind sharing some of your business model? TARA: No, sure. Well, I will say this. I wish I knew then what I know now because I probably would have put money higher up on the equation earlier on. Because monetizing it is a little bit of a trick but we're working through it. So right now we're a membership based organization. So people pay a membership fee. We try to make that membership fee as digestible as possible, and it's very low in the word of membership organizations. So, $29 a month is around the prize that people pay to become a member. And then from there there's other opportunities because now that we've gotten the volume of memberships, we're starting to get sponsorships, and we're starting to get upgrades that people want to

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

affiliate market and partner with us, and so some sort of partnership marketing. And go from there. So we're designing and redesigning our marketing plan and our financial plan based on women that we have. We've got a very positive trajectory where we go. We're kind of on the tipping point we feel. TRAVIS: Nice. So, the reoccurring revenue model, I love that model. Most businesses are designed to work their self out of work and it's a vicious cycle, they've got to get out there and get more work to replace the work that they just finished. So the reoccurring business model is a beautiful model for many, many, many reasons. I bet you guys have a high stick ratio too. So, do you know how long the average member stays in the group? TARA: Well, I can tell you we have members in the group. We have a significant amount of members of the group that were there from the very first meeting in New Jersey. We have a very low churn rate. We just finished an entire research program with an outside group to come in and evaluate what we're doing well and what we're not. And to interview our members and our former members, and our leaders, and what they want to get out of it. And the remarkable feedback is that usually when a person leave, it's usually something to do with their own life and not with the experience they have with us. So maybe they decided not be an entrepreneur, maybe they moved out of the region. But very, very rarely have they lost because they didn't think it was valuable. So we feel like that has been a wonderful feedback, and we're offering good information, and the members seem to really value it and get good information and are able to move forward from what we offer. But to be honest the formula is the reason that's so amazing is because the content come from the women itself. And so it's never stale, it's never not moving forward, it's never non-energetic because the energy and the feel for this organization comes from the women that are part of it. TRAVIS: Well, you know that's actually common. So first I've got to tell and I'm sure you probably already know this. The average stick rate for a membership site like that is 3 months. TARA: Oh really? I did not know that. We're doing good then. TRAVIS: Yeah. TARA: I would say we're way more than that. Most of our members stay 2 years, 3 years. TRAVIS: Right. And so, are you targeting new entrepreneurs, existing, and at what level are these entrepreneurs? TARA: Sure. Well, I'd say our weak spot, go back to our mission. Our mission is to help the woman who sits on the sideline, who doesn't know how to start. Very well educated, basically similar person like I was in 2009 who was educated and had a dream that she was going to do something but then didn't know how to start that part of it. So we let them-- but the feedback we get all the time that we're a safe and supportive environment for these women to begin. So that is our sweet spot. So we're helping the woman

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

who has an idea, or has a thought, or doesn't know what she wants to but wants to do something. They are coming into the pool fast and furious. And then by the volume of those women in the pool we naturally attract the entrepreneur because this is their customer base. So now the entrepreneur says, wow, look at this. We can go to 50 meetings a month and these women who can potentially purchase our products or services. TRAVIS: Alright. TARA: And that's the two-thirds of our group. And then we are still attracting the corporate woman in transition because that woman, she's not as deeply entrenched in her community because she's on a bus, or a train, or a plane, or her corporate career. And when she decides she wants to get of that track, we're a really good, safe, and smart place for her to come and land back in her own community. TRAVIS: I love that. In the different angles that you're going at this is wonderful. Interesting. Now, the 50 meetings a month, are you monetizing those at all or are those just like meet-up groups, or what are they? TARA: No, they're not meet-up groups. Although we use meet-up to what people know we're there. It's a membership based organization so we attract the women each pod. We call it a pod and I can explain later why we call it a pod. But each pod is run by a local community leader, entrepreneur. And we pay the entrepreneur, they get a percentage of the membership dues because we really feel strongly about women making money and doing things that actually make money. Because volunteerism is something that we're trying to break them from. And we look at money as fuel. So while they're not going to get a mortgage on a house necessarily as a leader of big-- it's a validation for their effort. And it's also a place for them to use as a platform to grow their own business. So the model for the leader is that they become the leader of their community. We pay them to do that and they have a platform to grow their business. They then help attract the members and people come in and join. So you have to join, you can come to one meeting and experience it to make sure it feels like it's the kind of place you want to be. And then after that we ask you to join and become part of the membership base to continue. TRAVIS: So the brilliance of that is they've got skin in the game. TARA: Skin in the game, yeah, very important. TRAVIS: And so they're putting time and effort in it. And so they're building it out, and that gives-- we have this funny thing within us that whenever we put time and effort into-- that's why the American Idol show works is because everybody votes for the winner and then they support them. Since they vote for them we align with our actions. And so since they vote for this person they go out and buy their iTunes. And so, it's a very similar thing that you're doing there on a different level. Plus, the individual that's running the pod gets expert positioning at the same time, right?

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

TARA: Exactly. And of you ask the leader, this is universal-- They care about the pay check where they do. But if we make an accounting mistake, they let us know. That's not what they'll say. And they won't even say it's for their own business. The reason they love doing this, and our attrition rate for our leaders is even higher than our members. We rarely have leaders leave. And it's because the realm of helping and empowering other women is a high like no other. And they see that they actually can help, literally, help change women's lives for the better. And that's the reason why they stick to this. We've even said to women, "You've been doing this, are you still here?" And they're horrified at the idea that we would ever ask them to stop doing it. It's just an amazing experience. TRAVIS: Oh, I love it, I love it, I love it. So, something that you said earlier is you try to dissuade the ladies from charity or donating, or giving their time. And what I like about that, and I'm taking that a little bit out of context for a reason. I think a lot of people try to help other people when they're not in the position to help. And so, as a silly example, it's kind of like the airplane. You need to put your own oxygen mask on first before you start helping other people. And so, the biggest way to really make a gigantic impact in a person, any group, any organization is grow your business and then adapt to that person, cause, or charity. And sponsor them and give to them on a regular basis. The success of your business impacts the amount of giving that you can give back. And to me that's what I took from what you were saying is something that you're teaching. Stabilize your finances and your business and then grow your giving. TARA: Right. Well, what we send, and same thing in different words is women with money have a lot more choices than women without money. TRAVIS: Exactly. Well said. So, I'm in some really high-end masterminds and I have a mastermind as well. And it's not uncommon for the people in the mastermind to be the main reason why everybody stays in the mastermind long term. TARA: Oh, definitely. In fact, I just finished our first mastermind program. We call ours Pinnacle Club about 10 minutes before this call. TRAVIS: Oh, cool. TARA: And it's amazing. Masterminds are one of those experiential, powerful tools that everyone should have the privilege of participating. TRAVIS: Right. So here's the interesting thing. There's no other way for people that think like us to get together, right? There are some other ways, and I tried all of them and I was very dissatisfied with them. And so, I joined high-end exotic car club because I thought that'd be a bunch of business owners. Well, it wasn't. I joined the country club, a lot of retired guys, not business owners. I never could find the place where a bunch of like-minded people could go and talk about the similar problems that we're going through. And it was driving me crazy. And for a little while I thought, "Okay, it needs to be an industry." So

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I started going down the path of industry specific events. And that was boring because all they were talking about were products or whatever. And that's when I stumbled into a mastermind. At first I didn't understand that people in 30 different industries could have so much in common. But as I listened and as I paid attention, we were all dealing with employees, we were all dealing with advertising, with marketing, with taxes, you name it. It's just different industries. And “Wala” a light came on. And I felt like I was at home. TARA: Right, that's exactly... I would say to you that where I was speaking this kind of stimulus on my own for me was like at the Starbucks near me. Because eavesdropping and trying to find that person. And that's exactly why women are magneted to B.I.G. is because they're seeking it and it doesn't exist until you create it. And so we just created this, and when we tell women that it exists, they flock. I've had 3 meetings this week in New Jersey and there's been 40 and 50 women in the room because it's a missing piece of the puzzle. Women need, especially the men too. But the need to be in a community. The other thing I think that's really important is we've gotten way away from physical interaction with each other because of the technology. And there's nothing that replaces being in the actual physical space with somebody else. And so, our sweet spot is that we actually sit in the room next to each other and share real-life, right there. TRAVIS: Yeah, it's hyper learning. TARA: It's very, very important to a human being, to the spirit to be able to physically in the rooms with people. We actually say in a light way that we are weight watchers for business because it has a lot of the same experiences as any kind of support group out there. Like when AA talks and Weight Watchers. When you have people that have a shared interest together, and you bring then and you give them a safe and supportive environment where they can explore their world, magic happens. TRAVIS: Right. So, I'll give you an example. I'm surrounded by family, and a lot of the things that I say to my family is like I'm speaking another language. My sisters don't understand me, my father is like, "What?" And yet, you go into a mastermind environment where you have fellow business owners. You can enter a mid-level conversation or a higher level conversation and they can communicate with you because they know exactly where you're coming from. And that can exist in other places because it's not their journey, they're not going down that path. And so they can't sympathize or empathize with you, right? TARA: Right. TRAVIS: And that's a problem in my opinion. TARA: Fellow entrepreneurs will say we're a different bunch. And we have to find our fellow entrepreneurs. But it is true. And when you are in that group the endorphins go crazy, and the adrenaline starts pumping. And you feel, like you said I think a while back, we feel at home.

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TRAVIS: Right. So, I guess I'm curious, what's prevented you from scaling this thing with a little paid advertising? TARA: Well, I think what I realized is we built this on passion, and paperclips, and scotch tape. And to the degree to which it scales on its own organically, it looks great. Where we're at right now is I have to perfect the process, and I have to perfect the model. So that when we do scale that it works like a welloiled machine. And we're at that point right now. We just hired a strategic company to come in, do research, tell us what we're doing well, fixed what's not going well. Adapt technologies so that when we're in different time-- we're in a couple of different time zones now, it doesn't as work as well. So we've got to perfect this so that when we turn the faucet on and we really want to make this thing sing that we don't have more problems to fix than we realize. So, we're at that moment where we're just really getting-- we say put on our big girl pants and fixing the technology and the process. TRAVIS: Right. TARA: We already proved the concept, we feel. TRAVIS: So, one of the things that I would suggest to you is this-- Get an account with Gliffy, it's like $5 or $6, and it's an online in the Cloud diagram tool. It's very easy to use. TARA: And what is it, Gliffy? TRAVIS: Yeah, Gliffy. TARA: .com? TRAVIS: Let me pull it up and make sure. Yeah, gliffy.com, and diagram your ideal path. TARA: Perfect. TRAVIS: From start to finish. And then-- because something happens, magic happens when you diagram stuff because all of a sudden-- if you don't diagram the flow of your business, it's hard to get everybody to sing from the same sheet of music. TARA: Uhm hmm TRAVIS: And so, once you diagram the ideal path where they real gold is going to be what happens when people don't go down that ideal path. TARA: Got you.

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

TRAVIS: And so again, in a perfect world of someone entered in at A, and then B, and then C, and then D, and then you just take them. Even if it's a daily thing you can do swim lanes where you can go day 1, day 2, day 3, day 5, day 15, whatever, and those are called Swim Lanes. And so it progresses on a daily basis. And maybe that's what happens when someone signs up they're progressed through a daily thing. Well, you can map that out, and then you say, "Well, what if this person doesn't do this? What if they don't do this? Who handles that when this happens." And then the diagram constantly evolves and a matter of months later you'll come up with the most brilliant flow chart that you've ever seen. TARA: Oh, I can't wait because it's all in my head, and I need this. And I'm such a visual learner, so this is so perfect. And I can see the path in my head, but it doesn't have to go from there. This would be great because it goes back to the idea that the what if. There are so many what if's an organization like mine or anybody's organization could become. And it would be lovely to see where the intersections happen. And for me personally that's where it gets confusing when I see all of these opportunities and I don't see the connecting moments, physically the connections, I start getting unclear, and that's when I get a little confused. TRAVIS: Yeah, and so there's some processes that are so dynamic that you almost can't explain them because there's so many things going on at once that this solves that problem because when I'm explaining a process that is so in-depth and just blowing people's mind. The second I show them, whether they're visual learners or not, this is everybody. When I show them the diagram they're like, "Oh yeah, I get it. Okay, yeah, I get it." And then you're going to have some people that are going to say, "Hey, right there, why are we doing that when actually it does this?" And you're like, "Oh, okay that's a good point." And you refine it. And then you constantly ask yourself well what happens next? What happens next? What happens next? I'll show you a chart once we wrap up the show, I'll show you a one chart of just communications that has swim lanes in it that we'll just-- it really blow your mind that we engineer it out that much. TARA: Right. TRAVIS: And so-TARA: That'd be great, I look forward, I'm not the kind of thing that-- what I love about being an entrepreneur. And I am an entrepreneur despite-- actually I call myself an accidental entrepreneur because I didn't know this is where I was going to go but this is where I'm supposed to be. And it's just wonderful everyday in this world, in this journey that we're on. How much we learn every single day, that at the end of the day I can fill a bucket of new information and new experiences just from that. And that alone, the journey of this alone is success. TRAVIS: Yeah, it is. I've said several times, being self-employed, being an entrepreneur is the single best self-improvement program I've ever been through because you're constantly having to work on yourself. And there's not a whole lot of room for nonsense, at least until you really scale it big and then you got to

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

be careful because then you can get surrounded with a bunch of yes people that make you lose your equilibrium and you lose touch with what's really going on rather than reality. So you got to be careful with that. So, yeah, I charted out with that. And then you standardize everything, and that sounds like that's one of the things that the company's doing. And so, I stumbled into this because people were asking me how to do the same thing over and over and over, and it was driving me crazy because I had a pattern in the way that I answered the question. If they said this and this then I would do that, and if they said that, that, and that then I would do this. And it was driving me so crazy that finally I said, "Listen, don't you see why I tell you yes for this and no for that. And most people said no. And so, I wrote out, I created a written process, and that's ultimately how I accidentally came in to systemizing the business in a way of speaking. There were some other reasons also. But that's one of the things that allowed me to-- I have a multimillion dollar business I spend 3 hours a week in. And it's all because I flow charted the path out and I systemized everything. And so, now, other people run it. And it's based off the same thing as McDonald's, right? They've got young people running multimillion dollar businesses and everybody does the same thing. 3 squirts of mustard, and 3 pickles, right? And that's how they get the hamburger to taste the same in 2 ends of the country. TARA: It's funny though, you do realize when you're working with all these different people that you have to be that exacting. Because we just think everybody gets what we're thinking, and we think everybody's brain works like you but let's go back to the conversation before. We tend to be these entrepreneurial people tend to be a little different than everybody else. And I think you do have to be that clear. TRAVIS: Right. TARA: And it can be frustrating. When you keep telling them and they keep not getting it, and then you show them the light. I'm excited for this, I've very excited for this. That's where we're at and I feel like very much-- I feel as an entrepreneur for BIG and I have the responsibility for helping these women who are coming to us for help. But I have to be the model that has to be continuously improving in order to practice what I preach to these women. TRAVIS: Right. Well, a lot of businesses never get to a place of scale anyways. And so, in 5 years that's impressive that you're already to a place to where you're working on scaling. A lot of people, they're stuck doing so much busy work that they really haven't gotten to that place. And you really have to shift gears and you have to be in a position to work on your business rather than work in the business. TARA: Exactly. TRAVIS: To be able to think in these terms that we're talking about and focus on scaling. Whenever you're taking people through your program, what do you focus on that helps them get some early success and grow their business so that they can replace their income, or start generating an income?

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TARA: Well, the very first thing that we offer the people that come to us before we even talk about any kind of tactical business information is we help build their-- we call ourselves first a support group because the very first thing that these people need is self-confidence. So that's the very first thing we do, is help them feel like they're capable, that they're smart, that they have value. And that never goes away throughout the process. There's always a moment, or the system is always building them up and giving them that positive peer support. That's primarily the main piece. And then we say to them, and this is where the tactical part happens and it's ongoing education is that you're not supposed to know everything about business, you're only supposed to know the part that you know best. And so what we do is we bring in subject matter experts on most meetings. Sometimes it's group discussion but a lot of times they're speakers on these topics. And the topics range on marketing, and social media, and SEO, and sales, and legal issues you need to know, and accounting issues, and bookkeeping issues. And then they get a taste or they get a glimpse of conversations that they-- information they need to know to run a successful business. It's not going to be an encyclopedia of information but at least it gives them enough information to have the intelligent conversation with an accountant and a lawyer, and it moves them forward. And so that's how it works. And our groups are geographically in different regions. So in New Jersey, in Massachusetts, in Chicago, they can go to any meeting any time, any place. And so they have these choices. So they go and there's 20 meetings in New Jersey a month, and they can pick which meeting they want to go to. And they go to that meeting for lots of reasons. They go to network and meet these women, they go for the education of the speaker, or they go just to be less lonely instead of working in their room by themselves. TRAVIS: Right. So, how do you deal with a group of entrepreneurs that are all at different levels? TARA: Well, we started to introduce different levels of programs. So at the beginning we were giving them enough information that was right at their level. But then we incubated them and accelerated them to the point where they needed more. And so we started to introduce more higher level types of programs that were more about scaling, and financial profitability, and really more for a more advanced entrepreneur than a person who's just starting out. And so they have the option of upgrading into those programs. And then we offer a third program-- we call it at the Pinnacle Club as the Mastermind Program which is a deep dive to work on your business. That seem sort of very well and we're also partnering. So my women, and they start, they're pre-entrepreneurs all the way up to getting to the 6-figure mark. And then we partner, and this is the new phase that we're going in to, I'm really excited about it, with leading women entrepreneurs. So we have just started partnership with a woman's organization who has members who have a million to 50 million and even higher in business. And we've started a mentormentee relationship, and we're starting to just develop that program. But it's the power of the mentor. So, we're teaming high-level, advanced entrepreneurs with beginner entrepreneurs who really desire to grow. We just keep bringing in information that they need when they need it. TRAVIS: There's so many different opportunities for monetization here. So, you're using an ascension model, right? As they get more advanced do you increase the-- for the more advanced classes or groups do you increase the membership fee?

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TARA: Yes. TRAVIS: Oh, good. TARA: That is important. People don't appreciate what they don't pay for. TRAVIS: Right. Yeah, when they don't pay they don't pay attention, right? And so, that's not always a hard and fast rule but it is a common denominator in a lot of situations. And so, you can scale that each time. You actually could bring mentors on your payroll and start monetizing it that way. It's not uncommon for coaches to charge $2,000-$3,000 an hour. TARA: Right. We have that also. We do work with a lot of coaches. It's a fine line because these women have-- it's become a sorority so we have to be careful that we're not always upselling, we don't want to be a root-partner mentality, but there's the balance. And I think in 1 point we actually went too far that way. "And that's not all we have the Guinsoo knives", and all of a sudden people are like, "Wait a minute, this isn't what we thought it was." And so we scaled it back. But you're right, the opportunities within this seem endless, and that's where we're at right now. But it's always toward the good of the woman and where she wants to take her life. And that's really at the end of the day, I always try to put myself in their seat and say, "Yes, it's great for my business but what is it good for them?" And if I can answer true to myself that if I was sitting where they are would I want this? Or they tell me they want it. Because not everybody looks exactly like me. Then I will try to bring it to them. TRAVIS: Right, Yeah, I definitely like that. I completely agree with you. I just looked at the clock, we're running a little bit long so we better segway into the lightning round. I sent you 3 questions over there, are you ready for those? TARA: I think so, yeah. TRAVIS: Yeah, we could talk for quite a while longer here so I don't want to get too far off track. What book or program made an impact on you related to business that you would recommend and why? TARA: Okay, I, like a lot of women like me had a dysfunctional relationship with money. So making money was complex for me. And I see that happening with a lot of women. We have a very difficult relationship with making money. There's a lot of emotions associated with it, because women that I know, they want to do their business for a noble purpose. And so sometimes it seemed like making money was taking away from that. So I found a book that made me feel whole about that, and it's called Selling with a Noble Purpose. TRAVIS: I'm losing you. TARA: I have a book called Selling with a Noble Purpose.

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

TRAVIS: Okay. TARA: And by Lisa Earle McLeod, and it says How to Drive Revenues and Do Work That Makes You Proud. And when I read that book it made my mission in life and my desire to make money doing it feel whole. TRAVIS: Right. All of a sudden it was okay, right? TARA: Yeah, because if we look at money as fuel to the goal then you need more money to have more fuel to accomplish more goals. TRAVIS: Right. What's one of your favorite tools or pieces of technology that you've recently discovered, if any, that you would recommend to other business owners and why? TARA: I always for the having an app for my business was going to be too far out of my reach financially, or too complicated for me to start, and I've just discovered that technology has advanced so much that I am able to use and build apps for our business that are so user friendly and so in sync with the women in our organization. Because for women, especially our women who are stay at home moms or picking up a carpool, they live their life on their iPhone, and an app is something that keeps them in touch with us. So that is my newfound discovery. TRAVIS: I like it. What famous quote would best summarize your belief or attitude in business? TARA: Okay. So I found a quote that is resonated with me by Howard Washington Thurman, and it says, "Don't ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." TRAVIS: Amen to that. Excellent, I like that. How do people connect with you? TARA: We have a website called www.believeinspiregrow.com, and that's a big stance for big inspire grow. And they can get to me directly through that by just clicking on contact me. And I'll see that email on the other end of the phone.

End of Interview TRAVIS: Excellent, wonderful, thank you for that. Remember guys that you can find all of the links to the books and the resources in this show in the show notes. Just go to rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com. Before I close the show today, remember at the beginning of this episode I had asked you if there was a company that offered the same product or services as you, except they're much more expensive, and they seem to be busy all the time. Or maybe they're not much more expensive but they're busy all the

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

time. Their product or service isn't as good as yours yet they're busy all the time. This is normally the result of businesses using some version of what I call the iceberg effect, where they have a whole series of things going on behind the scenes that make it virtually impossible to compete with them. It also allows them to charge much more for their products and services. Now if you want to learn some of those things, how they're done, then I would encourage you to join our sweepstakes and I'll teach you some of those formulas that I've used to build 4 tiny little businesses into multimillion dollar businesses. Also, to add a little fun and excitement to the program if you join the sweepstakes and stay engaged you'll have a chance to win $73,000 in cash and prizes where I will personally mentor you and your business. Plus, you'll have a chance to win my personal Lamborghini. For more information go to rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com and click on the sweepstakes promotion in the upper right hand corner. My quote for today comes from Dr. Wayne Dire, and it reads, "Be miserable or motivate yourself, it's always your choice." This is Travis Lane Jenkins signing off for now. To your incredible success, take care my friend.

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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

How We Can Help You We know that finding someone that you can trust online today is hard and that so many “so called gurus” are self-‐appointed and have never really even done what they teach you to do. That’s exactly why we created the Double Your Profits Business Accelerator. This is an exclusive offer for our fans at a fraction of its normal cost. Here's what to expect. We'll Schedule a 'One on One' private session, where we'll take the time to dive deep into your business and tell you what is missing, so that you can have your best year ever! We'll do this by performing a S.W.O.T. Analysis. This tells us your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats within your business. This will be an eye opener for YOU, for several reasons, however some of the most common reasons are. As the 'Business Owner' it’s difficult to see the big picture of your own business because you’re in the middle of a daily management. And you are too emotionally involved to completely impartial. This is a common problem for EVERY business owner. It doesn’t matter if you are a one-man army, or an army of 150, the problem is still the same.

Travis Lane Jenkins Business Mentor-Turn Around Specialist Radio Host of The Entrepreneurs Radio Show “Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs That Grow Your Business"

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