056: Profitable Strategies for Getting More Done and Making Money with Desiree Wolfe

Start a list of every single thing you do every single day, and start with pulling out the things that you absolutely hate doing. What do you put off? what makes you cringe? what makes you cry? what makes you get sick? and find a way to either stop doing it altogether, or hire somebody to take care of it for you. And I think once I made that realisation in my own business, it was kind of like the gates of time opened up.

#00:00:59-9# Neil : Hello its Neil Ball here, thank you so much for joining me today on the entrepreneur way, the entrepreneur way is about the entrepreneurs journey, the vision, the mind-set, the commitment, sacrifice, failures and successes. I am so excited to bring you our special guest today, Desiree Wolfe. But before I introduce you to her, I have a quote for you. A B Yahushua said, ‘and this is one of the major questions of our lives. How we keep boundaries, what permission we have to cross boundaries, and how we do so.’ The entrepreneur way asks the questions, so we all get the insight, inspiration and ideas to apply in our businesses. Desiree, welcome to the show, are you ready to share your version of the entrepreneur way with us?

#00:01:52-3# Desiree Wolfe : Yes absolutely.

#00:01:54-6# Neil : Thank you for joining us Desiree. Desiree Wolfe is a marketing and business strategist, a Blab host and interviewer, and a highly productive mompreneur. She is a bit of rebel with an edgy attitude. Desiree excels at helping women in small business create profitable strategies for getting more done, and making money online while maintaining crazy fun lifestyles. Desiree, can you provide us with some more insight into your business and personal life? to allow us to get to know more about what you do and who you are?

#00:02:30-2# Desiree Wolfe : Well thank you so much for having me on the show, I am super excited. I a little bit into my life and my business, I am one of those crazy mompreneurs, who decided to start a home-based business while raising kids and running a house hold, so I have taken my years of business experience from the corporate world doing events and public relations and marketing. And now I take all of this knowledge and experience and now I am teaching other home-based business owners how to kind of do the same, create the strategies and teach them basic marketing and PR Skills so they can grow their business and have a sustainable income and really be able to provide for their family, as well as keeping the opportunity to stay home. Most of the audience that I work with they are direct sellers, I work with a lot of coaches, other business coaches, life coaches you know some intuitive coaches, who tap into their creative side, who are helping people grow their business, you know kind of through intuition and that kind of thing, so I do have a wide range of women that I do get to work with.

#00:03:38-5# Neil : Mmmm hmm.

#00:03:38-5# Desiree Wolfe : because of my history in the direct sales industry, I do have a lot of direct sales and network marketing followers.

#00:03:48-3# Neil : And what do you enjoy most about what you do?

#00:03:50-9# Desiree Wolfe : My favourite thing about what I do is really helping somebody create a bigger picture for their business, you know everybody has got a different why on why they have started their business to begin with. You know, maybe it is something as simple as they needed a way to pay their mortgage or they needed to put food on the table. All the way to you know they had this big giant passion and purpose of changing the world, and it is sort of when they start to dig in, they start to shrink themselves and say ‘well ok if I can just do this, then I will be happy.’ So one of my favourite things to do is really helping my clients see a bigger picture, and that it is possible that they can have that home-based business feeling and still be experiencing like that financial freedom, and that emotional freedom.

#0 #00:04:37-8# Neil : Mmm and what is it that drives you?

#00:04:41-4# Desiree Wolfe : Oh gosh, my biggest drive really is that passion of helping people make a difference. You know, when I started my business, I was a single mom. I did start my business because I needed to find a way to pay my mortgage after walking out on a kind of a crappy corporate America job. You know that standard 9-5 and work until your fingers bleed kind of thing. And I think what drives me is I have seen and experienced myself that there is so much more to life than living that grind. So being able to help others realise that as well, and really create a lifestyle that they love. That gets me excited, like that gets the passion in my belly really fired up and I love that I get to experience it for myself too, being able to work from home and grow in my business as well.

#00:05:34-6# Neil : And do you have any entrepreneurial role models?

#00:05:38-3# Desiree Wolfe : My favourite entrepreneurial role model is my mom. She, I say we divorced when I was ten because we divorced my step-dad, it was a very mutual thing, there were no hard feelings when it was time for a divorce and my mom and I kind of packed our stuff and she had started a kind of a side business. She was doing plant care and gift baskets, and when we separated, we were living in a one-bedroom apartment, and she was running her business, from a little plastic tv tray that we had next to the couch that’s what she was creating all of her stuff on and it was really amazing to see her turn something that was a small sort of hobby into you know a six-figure business, within just a few years. So my mom is my greatest entrepreneurial mentor. That I am just so proud and I always say that she put the blood, that she put the bug in my blood. Ha ha ha.

#00:06:37-5# Neil : Well its a good bug to have, isn’t it?

#00:06:40-0# Desiree Wolfe : Yeh yeh I love it. I make a horrible employee. Ha ha ha.

# #00:06:44-3# Neil : Me too. Desiree, can we talk about the time before you were an entrepreneur? What difficulties did you have to overcome when you started your business?

#00:06:55-5# Desiree Wolfe : Oh gosh, when I was first getting started I think one of the things that was really difficult for me, was setting boundaries. Not necessarily with other people but boundaries for myself. As I said, I was a single mom and my daughter at the time was only three. So it was very easy for me to work constantly and really kind of burn the candle at both ends because I would just nap when she napped. And so my business was really, it was kind of all over the place, I was working a lot because I really loved it and because I had the freedom to. It was not until baby number two came along and a man came into my life at the same time and suddenly I had to have more of a structured business and I realise the more clients that I took on, the more structure and strategy that I really needed to have in place, and kind of give myself those boundaries of ‘ok this is when I need to work and then this is when I need to dedicate time to my family.’

#00:07:54-5# Neil : How did you achieve that balance?

#00:07:54-5# Desiree Wolfe : You know there are a couple of strategies and the first thing is I think balance, now than I have been doing this for over four years, I think the elusive balance is a little bit of a myth. I love the word harmony, you have to realise what works for you and what does not, so I think part of it is you do need to outsource. The first thing that I tell my clients when they start to tell me that they are overwhelmed and they do not know what to work on first, is take a list, start a list of every single thing you do every single day. And start with pulling out the things that you absolutely hate doing, what do you put off? What makes you cringe? What makes you cry? What makes you get sick? And find a way to either stop doing it altogether, or hire somebody to take care of it for you. And I think once I made that realisation, in my own business, it was kind of like the gates of time opened up and suddenly I was not having to balance my books at 3 in the morning, I found somebody that did it for me. You know, so I think hiring out, asking for help, and really being in control of your schedule and knowing when you like to work and what you like to work on.

#00:09:05-9# Neil : Its amazing how many people do not like doing the books, ha ha ha.

#00:09:09-3# Desiree Wolfe : Well you know what’s funny? I think entrepreneurs, I think by heart many of us are very creative, so its hard to sit down and keep structured with numbers and spreadsheets and all of that kind of stuff, its definitely not my passion or my strong suit.

#00:09:25-4# Neil : No and did you have any doubts that delayed you starting your business?

#00:09:29-3# Desiree Wolfe : You know starting my business was actually really the easiest part, at first I did not have any doubts, I kind of was blinded by beginners luck, I was stupidity-on-fire type of thing. I did not know what I was doing, so I did not know if I was doing anything wrong. I think it was until I really started to take big leaps and I did experience a few failures in my business, but that is when the doubt started to creep in. Ok maybe I do not know what I am doing, so I hit a few hiccups then and the self-confidence starts to go down and you talk yourself out of doing things and I think that’s ok, I think as long as you know when to pick yourself up and keep going, that that’s the key in business. But just not knowing if I was doing anything wrong or not was really just like I said, ‘stupidity on fire’ and it was not until somebody had said to me, ‘oh you know you are doing that wrong’, I went, ‘I am, I did not know.’ You know? so I think listening to other people started to become the roadblock in my business.

#00:10:38-4# Neil : Yeh sometimes its best not knowing how other people do things though. Because you do not know what you are not supposed to be able to do and you find ways of doing things that other people do not do the way you do them, so it can be a benefit sometimes.

#00:10:51-8# Desiree Wolfe : Yeh I absolutely agree and I think comparisonitus, that evil disease of looking to see what other people are doing, I think that is one of the worst habits that I can see entrepreneurs get into and I did it myself to, I started to tell myself I am going to go and look and see what the extremely successful people are doing just so I can start emulating them, well, you know after a couple of hours of cruising the internet, I start thinking to myself, ‘I can never do this’, so the doubt creeps in and suddenly I am not doing anything anymore.

#00:11:23-5# Neil : Mmm I think a lot of people in business do that with advertising, they look at how people advertise on television and think ‘that’s the way I have got to advertise’, but big advertising does not really work for small businesses, because often with small businesses you need to be capturing the person’s information and trying to create a list or something so you can re-mark it to them in the future and obviously a lot of television advertising does not work like that, so sometimes you look at things and think that is the way you have got to do it. And actually, it is not the way you have got to do it at all and that’s knowing sometimes whether you should be or whether you should not be, its a difficult thing isn’t it?

#00:12:00-2# Desiree Wolfe : Yeh it is, its a fine line of what’s the rules and what’s working? versus keeping your blinders on and just getting it done, you know it is a fine line and it gets pretty scary because you do see what all the big names are doing and of course you want to be like them, but then you have to remind yourself, ok we don’t have to have the same audience and we definitely do not have the same budget so, you have to remember that you are on a different mission than they are.

#00:12:25-5# Neil : And what mistakes did you make that slowed your journey?

#00:12:28-3# Desiree Wolfe : The biggest mistake that I made is I took somebody else’s advice who did not know a damn thing about my business. I had expressed something that I was struggling with and without asking any questions she gave me advice that I think I took a little too to heart, I took too seriously and I spent several months sort of re-positioning myself in business, trying to do what she had told me that I should be doing. And come to find out I spent about six months undoing everything that I spent almost a year doing because it did not feel good. So I took somebody else’s vision for what she was doing with her business and I applied it to mine, and I kind of screwed things up, you know I got really lost in my business for about a year, and finally I took a step back and said ‘ok a year ago, I was feeling good about my business and now I feel like crap and now I am ready to throw in the towel and have that evil moment of going to look for a job.

#00:13:28-6# Neil : Ooh

#00:13:28-6# Desiree Wolfe : And I realised, I asked myself, ‘what happened a year ago?’ and I had a bad product launch, you know I did a launch that did not quite hit the numbers that I wanted to. And so when somebody said, ‘well this is what you are doing wrong,’ your whole business model is wrong. I went, ‘well maybe she is right.’ and I tore everything down and I don’t think she gave me bad advice on purpose, you know I think her heart was in the right place, I think I should just have said, ‘ok great, thanks for the advice.’ and kept doing what I was doing.

#00:13:59-3# Neil : Mmm its always difficult knowing whether advice is actually good advice or its not worth taking any notice of. What are some of the things you did before you started your business that would be helpful tips to some of the listeners who have not yet taken the first step on the entrepreneur way?

#00:14:14-8# Desiree Wolfe : When I was still working a full time job, I had the bug, you know like I said, I grew up with a mom running her own business and I knew it was in me, so what I started to do while I was still employed was kind of put my toes in the water and what did I enjoy doing? That I would like to do once I left the corporate world? So I even took on some freelance clients while I was still employed to make sure that it was something that I wanted to do, and it was something that I was going to you know, enjoy doing full time. So I think deciding what you want to do as your business really is something you can do before you leave, you know your corporate job or before you sign up for anything. Just take an evaluation of what are you passionate about naturally? and what are you good at and what do you enjoy? And how can you make those things work together to create a successful business.

#00:15:10-2# Neil : Can we talk about your entrepreneurial journey a little bit Desiree?

#00:15:13-0# Desiree Wolfe : Yes absolutely.

#00:15:16-6# Neil : Do you think culture is important from the beginning in a business?

#00:15:20-8# Desiree Wolfe : I do. I do. I think that a lot of times the biggest thing that I hear when people are starting a business, and I experience this too, of course you start your business and you do not necessarily have the money up front to turn around and invest in everything. So get help where you can and where you can afford it, you know read books, ask questions and get a mentor. You know kind of find somebody that you have a connection with already that’s a few steps ahead of you. And just kind of pick their brain when you can and pay for sessions when you can and I think coaching is important because you know, just like anything, you need the experience of somebody who is already kind of been there, done that and can help guide you through the way.

#00:16:09-1# Neil : And knowing what you know now, is there anything that if you had known it when you started out, would have helped you to shortcut the learning curve?

#00:16:16-8# Desiree Wolfe : I actually would have hired a coach a lot sooner in my business, I probably would have hired one within the first six months, had I known what I know now. I did a lot of stuff trial and error, which gave me a lot of hands on experience, but I wish that I could of, you know all the time that I did researching for free answers. I could have easily put into a coach and got a one-on-one in the accountability that I needed, and it probably would have put me on a faster path to where I am now.

#00:16:47-1# Neil : Yeh its amazing how many people say that about hiring a coach.

#00:16:50-9# Desiree Wolfe : Yeh yeh.

#00:16:50-9# Neil : A lot of people do, and how much does gut feeling influence your decisions in your business?

#00:16:57-0# Desiree Wolfe : Oh gosh, you know its so funny, we were just talking personality tests in one of my Facebook groups this morning. I am an ENTJ which is a commander, which is people who do not, they lead with a lot of strength and I think gut is a huge thing in your business, I think you have to, it has to feel right, you have to be certain that you are on the right path and I think that as percentage wise, I would say at least 65-70 percent of what I do in my business is based on gut feeling.

#00:17:33-5# Neil : Yeh a lot of people have that, and what advice would you give to other business owners that may be struggling in business?

#00:17:41-9# Desiree Wolfe : Pick a path right now and stick with it, for at least 90 days, and make it work. I think I see one of the biggest mistakes that I see entrepreneurs making when they are first starting out is they try and conquer the world right away. You know just like that old saying, ‘Rome was not built in a day’. Neither is your business, so find something that you want to do whether it is creating a course or it is designing a product, and stick with that thought for at least 90 days. And then move on to the next part of your business. Do not get distracted by the shiny things.

#00:18:18-9# Neil : Life is made of constant change, whether we like it or not, in fact some people obviously talk about ‘the only constant in life is change’ Desiree, how much, what do you try to do to keep up with change?

#00:18:33-5# Desiree Wolfe : I had an old boss many years ago, she used to say ‘nobody likes change but a wet baby’ and I think to an extent that is true, I do think you have to kind of keep your finger on the pulse at all times. You know, be reading, I read a lot, as far as articles and I listen to a lot of podcasts, about trends in business and where things are going. The important thing is you have to determine what is actually going to work for your business, and what is that whole shiny object syndrome? So I think, I have to, I play around with things a lot so if there is a new social media platform on the scene, I might go and check it out, I will sign up for an account and I will play with it for a few days and see how I feel about it. And then if I feel that it is something that might work then I continue to do it, but I do not feel the need to try and conquer everything as soon as it comes out. I give things a couple of day’s breathing room to work out the kinks before I hop on board and try and make it work for my own business.

#00:19:41-0# Neil : So something like periscope for example, that would be something that a lot of people are talking about right now, have you looked at that?

#00:19:49-7# Desiree Wolfe : I am actually not a fan of periscope, I think it has transitioned into a kind of a popularity contest and I think there are a lot of people using it that they are trying to come off that they are authentic in connecting with their audience and while that may be so, it really does feel like it is a moment all about them. So I have not really had a good connection with periscope, as far as that goes, I did try it out, I did a couple of my own periscopes, it seems a little superfluous to me, its got that popularity contest feel to it.

#00:20:27-7# Neil : Have you tried Blab?

#00:20:29-4# Desiree Wolfe : I am addicted to Blab. I actually have a weekly Blab show where I invite other female entrepreneurs and we talk about kick-ass strategies and getting stuff done in your business and how to be productive and I participate in quite a few other blabs throughout the week, and probably not a day goes by that I do not have a blab going in the background at some point during the day.

#00:20:52-7# Neil : Ok you are pretty keen on that then.

#00:20:55-5# Desiree Wolfe : Yeh I do love Blab, I think its a great platform, I love how you can interact with people, and it really does become kind of a live talk show.

#00:21:06-4# Neil : And what is your favourite book on entrepreneurialism, business, personal development, leadership or motivation? and can you tell us why you have chosen it?

#00:21:16-3# Desiree Wolfe : My favourite book is going to be train your brain by Dana Wild. You know, we were talking before this show, I have a love of Dana Wild, she has been one of my business mentors for many years and I have had the pleasure of knowing her for twice as long. And train your brain to me, I used to turn away from things like the secret, I felt they were very wooh wooh and very scientific in the way your brain works. And Dana really tapped into that with train your brain, she took a very wooh wooh subject like things like mantras and affirmations, and she describes why they work physically, and the science behind it and I really resonated with that. And I love that she has action-based exercises that you do in the book while you are reading it, so you can see for yourself that the evidence is there. And the whole train your brain concept has really been, you know its helped me mould by business and its really been life changing for me.

#00:22:17-3# Neil : Yeh Dana was obviously a guest on the show, and she was an excellent guest. In fact it is a great podcast to listen to that. Everyone, when you have a busy life, listening to audio books is a great way to expand your knowledge in the time that you may be doing other things, such as driving or when you are at the gym. We have a special offer for you of a free audio book of your choosing. To choose your free audio book, go to www.freeaudiobookoffer.com. As long as you have not already signed up then you will qualify. Desiree, what I would like to do now is speculate about the future with you a little bit. What one thing would you do with your business if you knew that you could not fail?

#00:22:59-1# Desiree Wolfe : I would take my business in the direction of becoming a sought-after speaker. That is a big dream of mine, I would hit the stage with my business, I love the energy of the crowd, and while I teach people to grow your business online, another aspect that I want to take mine is on the stage and so I think that’s one thing that I would do if I knew that I could get up there and get through an entire presentation without physically falling on my face as I walk up the stairs.

#00:23:30-8# Neil : So what is stopping you from doing that?

#00:23:33-8# Desiree Wolfe : Fear. Fear is the only thing that is stopping me from doing it, and its on my bucket list for the year in my business is to book my first speaking engagement and get over that fear.

#00:23:47-5# Neil : Very good, I am sure you will. What skill if you were excellent at it, would help you the most to double your business?

#00:23:56-8# Desiree Wolfe : If I could be excellent at any skill, it would be copywriting. I would love to be a better copywriter, and I think that is a skill that could help any business, because if you are good with words, then you can draw the people in. And that is something that I would really love to master.

#00:24:14-1# Neil : Yeh, that’s pretty powerful that, isn’t it really?

#00:24:18-6# Desiree Wolfe : Yeh.

#00:24:19-9# Neil : In five years from now, if a well-known business publication was publishing an article on your business, after talking to your customers and suppliers, what would you like it to say?

# #00:24:30-2# Desiree Wolfe : Oh I would like it to say, that’s a great question, determined moma makes a successful six-figure business, helping women change their lives. Ha ha ha.

#00:24:44-3# Neil : Ok. Thank you. Well you will have to do it now, you have committed.

#00:24:51-4# Desiree Wolfe : That’s right, I have sent it out there to the universe. Ha ha ha.

#00:24:55-0# Neil : We are now at the part of the show where you share three golden nuggets with us, so Desiree what is your favourite quote and how have you applied it?

#00:25:04-4# Desiree Wolfe : My favourite quote, is get stuff done, and I have applied that to my business because we get stuff often in ideas, especially being entrepreneurs, we have that creative side of us, we are always thinking of the next thing, and I think there is a big block where we get caught in creativity and idea mode, and we do not take the next step and take the action. So I am all about getting stuff done.

#00:25:32-5# Neil : And do you have any favourite online resources that you can share with us?

#00:25:36-2# Desiree Wolfe : Oh gosh there are so many of them, I love as far as reading and keeping up on what’s going on in the online business world, I love Mashable, Mashable.com that’s one of my favourite resources. Another one that I have really started embracing lately is its an alternative to Hootsuite and its called Cinch share and they are really focused on scheduling your Facebook posts and they also work with Pinterest, so Cinch share is another one of my favourite tools that I use throughout the day.

#00:26:11-4# Neil : And what is your best advice to other entrepreneurs?

#00:26:15-8# Desiree Wolfe : My best advice is schedule everything, figure out what your day looks like and get every task that you do on the calendar and make sure you get it done.

#00:26:25-3# Neil : That’s good advice. Everyone, if you did not manage to get a note of Desiree’s favourite resource or her favourite books, you can find the links on Desiree’s show notes page. Just go to theentrepreneurway.com and search for Desiree or Desiree Wolfe with an e. Is there anything else that you would like to add about your business?

#00:26:47-0# Desiree Wolfe : You know, my business is really all about supporting and giving, especially women in business the accountability that they need, and I think that’s huge. Women have a tendency to play small and talk themselves out of doing big things because we feel that we have to take care of everybody else first. So its becoming a mission of mine to really help women understand that they can step up into the role of CEO, and still be mom. And there is a way that you can make that balance happen. You just have to want it bad enough and you have to sit down and figure out what its going to take to make that happen.

#00:27:23-1# Neil : Desiree, its been an honour having you on the show, you really have been a great guest and you have given us some really insightful things and some great things to think about, so thank you for coming on the show.

#00:27:33-8# Desiree Wolfe : Thank you so much.

#00:27:34-9# Neil : You are welcome, thank you.