About the episode
In this episode of the Mom Owned and Operated podcast, Rita Suzanne and Amy Bauman discuss raising a family, running a business and remembering yourself.
Amy Bauman combines her talent for teaching with her passion for helping women grow personally and professionally. As a Personal + Professional Development Coach and Business Psychologist, Amy specializes in working with women entrepreneurs and business professionals to get them unstuck from their self-doubt and fears so they can take ACTION toward achieving their goals and vision.
Amy recently launched her podcast, Girl Next Door Wanting More, and hosts a free Facebook community (The ‘Girl Next Door Wanting More’ Community) to support and encourage other women to NOT play small! Amy has a BS in Education and an MS in Business Psychology. Her business is Your Development Resource, LLC.
You can connect with Amy on her website and on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or in her Facebook Group. And take a listen to her podcast, Girl Next Door Wanting More.
Listen to more interviews by visiting momownedandoperated.com and apply to work with Rita at ritasuzanne.com/apply/
Listen to the episode
Show Notes
SPEAKERS
Rita Suzanne, Amy Bauman
Rita Suzanne 00:01
Welcome to the Mom Owned and Operated Podcast, the podcast about moms and for moms, where we have candid conversations about running a business, raising a family, and remembering ourselves. I’m your host, Rita Suzanne, a single mom of four, digital strategist and provider of no nonsense business strategies and tactics.
Today I have my guest, Amy, with me. Amy, I’m so excited to chat with you today about defining your own idea of success. Please tell everyone all about you, your family and your business.
Amy Bauman:
Yeah, well, thank you for having me. I’m excited that we have this time to chat. My name is Amy Bauman and my company is called your Development Resource for personal and professional development and it is a company that is helping women in business usually women entrepreneurs, just like it sounds with personal and professional development. So I love to help, you know, help women overcome overwhelm, get an action plan together and take focused action in their businesses so that they can achieve their goals. You know 17 and 13. So I have a high school senior coming up next month We’ll graduate, yeah and then the three cats, and you know all the all the things within my company. I’ll tell you I have two different, like spokes or I don’t even know what to say like directions that I go. One is one-on-one coaching with, again, women in business, women entrepreneurs, and the other is a professional development group called learn, connect, support. So, um, yeah, I can. I can talk about that a little bit later to get more in depth, but that’s the, that’s the high level overview.
Rita Suzanne:
So what prompted you to start your business, like what was the motivating factor?
Amy Bauman:
So I my background is actually in education. I’ve always been a teacher at heart. It just comes pretty naturally to me and so that’s always what I thought I was going to do. And I went through school, got that degree and lasted three years in the public school system before I said this is not really what I want to do. So I started working in business because that seems like those are transferable skills. You know, as a teacher you can communicate, you’re organized. Hopefully you know just lots of things that that can transfer into business.
Amy Bauman:
I was working in corporate and thought I’m a person who loves learning and degrees and certificates and such. So I thought, well, if I’m going to be in corporate, I need a business degree. So I started this master’s in business psychology program and then the first course it was all about self-assessments and learning your strengths and weaknesses and I thought I love this so much I want to teach it. And so you know I volunteer for Dress for Success in Columbus on occasion and I did a workshop for them and it was about mindset and kind of pulling those strengths and I was hooked. I thought this is what I want to do.
Amy Bauman:
I want to pull together that teaching with what I’ve learned in the business psychology and I want to start teaching women how they can get better in their personal and professional lives. And at the time I wasn’t even planning on working with entrepreneurs. I was thinking more like companies small businesses could outsource to me and I can help their employees. And then I quickly learned that it’s a lot more at least for me, more satisfying to work with entrepreneurs or individuals who want to get better in their business career. They’re the decision makers of their own lives and I can help them rather than spinning my wheels, trying to get in with a company and convince them why they should be investing in their employees and on and on. So that was really how my business started just that that business psychology degree and I wanted to teach it.
Rita Suzanne:
Yeah, I love that. One of my first clients I remember she created. She was or is a, she was a therapist of and had so many degrees and she said she wanted to create a course or like a program and it was about claiming your enoughness and it was about women who would go through, you know, who are in corporate, who would just continuously get degree after degree, after certification, after certification in order to try and achieve that feeling of being enough, right. Because we constantly feel, especially when we’re in corporate, that we have to continuously strive for more and more and more and more, and I feel like that’s even true still oftentimes, yeah, and that’s one of the things to talking about.
Amy Bauman:
You know, this topic of success is really getting to that place where you know what does that mean to you? Because if you’re trying to just, I mean you’re really just marking off boxes and chasing something for somebody else.
Rita Suzanne:
If it doesn’t mean anything to you personally, yeah, yeah, so when you shifted and started to focus more on entrepreneurs, did that help you see, like a different perspective of success and how that would maybe factor in for an entrepreneur versus someone in corporate?
Amy Bauman:
Well, what it showed me is again that there are those different levels of success. But even with working with entrepreneurs, it’s so. Let me back up, of course, because I said degrees and courses and all the things when I was starting to, you know, form my own business. I took a coaching program for entrepreneurs and it was. It was a really good program. It gave you kind of the overview writing your business plan, you know, looking at all of your numbers and all of the things that you want to achieve for this. But what I found was it was great that I learned all of that and I I do still teach other women. You should do a business plan because you need to know what you’re doing, what, what are your goals, what are your values, you know, what’s your plan, what’s your overhead, like all the things you do need to know. But what I found in this program was it was assuming, like I put out what I thought would be financial goals for my first year, because I still have a full-time job. So this is a side gig. I want to, you know, start building it and enjoy it, and the numbers that I put down were no, that’s not enough. We want to see you higher and I’m taking that in. Oh, I’m not trying hard enough. I need to raise those numbers.
Amy Bauman:
Well then, I found this is stressful. I have to try and achieve these numbers and I you know, when you step back you go. Well, isn’t that why you start your own business, so that you have that freedom and can call your own shots. And here I’m stressing out about the numbers that somebody else is trying to push me towards, and it’s great. You know, as a coach, you do want to give a little push, but you also really need to ask the questions of your client.
Amy Bauman:
And what, again, is your definition of success? What would make you happy? Where are you trying to go and really understand and help them, instead of kind of inserting where you think they should go or even what their potential is? You know, bring that out of them, but don’t tell them what it’s supposed to be. So that’s a long winded answer to your question, but I think that’s the difference with if you’re talking with people who are in corporate and they’re trying to climb somebody else’s corporate ladder and have to reach those goals, then that’s, that’s one way that you’re coaching and they’re looking at that. You know, level of success to reach a certain rung on that ladder. If you’re talking to an entrepreneur again, I try to get down to that. Well, what do you want to get out of coaching? What would make you happy? Is it money or is it, you know, just feeling like you’re fulfilled and purposeful. And you know you really have to define that for whatever role that you’re in and work towards that. Yeah, it’s, you know you really have to define that for whatever role that you’re in and work toward that.
Rita Suzanne:
Yeah, it’s. You know, I find that oftentimes I want to jump back just a little bit, because I always find that, you know, through all these years of clients and everything that I’ve talked to, almost all of them fail to put together a business plan or have any type of structure. When it comes to that, that stuff and I think what it is is they think, because they’re an entrepreneur, they don’t really need that, there’s no real need for it, because it’s just them. Like they know it right, like I know my stuff, why do I need to put it down? And often that’s where things become so bumpy, because they don’t even know who their target audience is, right, and so you, you know, if you don’t do even those basic things, it can really slow you down. But then to to fast forward and talk a little bit about, you know, the setting of the goals and and all of those things, I think those are really important.
Rita Suzanne:
And I think oftentimes that people want to, um, focus on time and financial freedom. Right, Like those are the most important things. Like we’re we’re not doing this just for um, you know, fill my heartstrings. Uh, you know I’m doing this for for time and financial freedom. Like, obviously, you start your business because you want to achieve certain things, and there’s there’s other things that push you right. Like I want to empower other women to know that they can do certain things that they never, you know, thought that they could do before. But also I need those other. I need to be able to take care of my kids in the meantime as well. You know, you know, so I think that it’s important to you know. Keep in mind that I think coaches are are definitely there to help push you, and some of them, though I think their expectations and and ideas of what, monetarily, you need to achieve are just unrealistic. You know, it’s like, oh, $50,000 a month, that’s what you need to be bringing in.
Amy Bauman:
You’re like wait a minute.
Rita Suzanne:
Yeah.
Amy Bauman:
And I’m going to just put I’m going to get on my soapbox for a minute here about the coaching industry. I think is the whole idea that we all do want to achieve that same thing. And how much do you see and I’m thinking about the coaches that are doing high volume, right, that are all over the internet and they’re promising, you know, six figures in six months or six weeks or something crazy, and it’s, I mean, they’re the ones making the six figures off of the people who really want to buy into that dream, you know. So I think, when you are choosing a coach, it really is connecting with somebody who understands you, knows where you want to go and, to your point, knows how to push you.
Amy Bauman:
And that’s one of the things I had done, this group coaching program before, and that was one of the things when I paired up with an accountability buddy for each member was how are you pushed best? Right? So that if it’s if somebody who’s going to retreat and go into their shell, if you question them, if they’re going to shut down like, you need to know that. But if it’s somebody who comes out and says, call me out on all my crap, you need to know that too. So anyway, that’s my. My soapbox about coaching is really find somebody who’s going to work with you best and help you achieve.
Rita Suzanne:
Oh, amy, please don’t get me started. You know I’ve worked with coaches for 10 years. I I love them, but also I feel like there’s so many shady practices in the coaching industry. There’s some great coaches, there are some great coaches, but there are some really shady marketing practices and some lies being told that are yeah, I could, I could go on I will digress.
Amy Bauman:
That’s like another episode, right, right.
Rita Suzanne:
So let’s talk about what are some of the pitfalls of knowing your own definitions of success.
Amy Bauman:
Yeah. So if you are not careful about, you know, having that step back and knowing what you’re trying to achieve and what success looks like for you, I think it’s really easy to fall into comparison right, that comparison trap. You’re looking at somebody else personally, because when I started it wasn’t at everybody’s dream to get out of corporate and be able to, just, you know, have your business supporting you and your family. And you know you’re just killing it right away. And that question kept coming up when are you going to leave your corporate job? When are you going to leave? And I was measuring myself to that and I was just starting to feel more and more like an imposter. Oh, I still don’t feel ready to leave. I really like that security Plus. I really enjoy my business and I finally had to.
Amy Bauman:
Again, I think when you realize, just like I said about looking at numbers, that I didn’t set that somebody else wanted me to achieve, stress me out about my business and with this, that question of well, that must be success when you’re finally able to leave your day job, that was really stressing me out and making me feel badly. And when I realized and could just admit it and just own it, which is funny to think about now because it’s not like it sounds that insane when I say it. But yeah, I really like the security of my day job and I really love what I get to do with your development resource and it fulfills a completely different part of me. You know, working with the women and that teaching aspect, that’s not what I do in my day job, so I really need both of those pieces to feel secure and fulfilled and whole. So, to answer that question, I think that’s the pitfall If you don’t know and you’re measuring to somebody else, you’re never. You’re going to feel like a failure instead of going towards your success.
Rita Suzanne:
I love hearing that aspect of it because I do think that in the entrepreneur space in particular, that there is this, you know, like you said, like a measurement or barometer of success, you know, equated to you leaving your job. But if you love your job and you enjoy it and you want that security and you like those benefits that come with it and all of those things, what is wrong with you doing both things? If you can do both things successfully, I think you know whatever works for you is what’s best for you and you know, unfortunately, people want to sit over there in their corner and judge everybody else and say, no, you should be doing this without knowing the full situation and circumstances. So I think that that’s great and when you started talking about it, I always talk about in the perspective of as an entrepreneur.
Rita Suzanne:
Oftentimes people will compare themselves to other entrepreneurs, meaning like they will go and look at this entrepreneur and look at their website and look at their business offerings and then they will copy them and try to emulate that person’s success, doing the same tactics and marketing that they’re doing. And I’m always like, no, stop doing that, you know, and it’s in the same, you know, same regard where they should not be. You know, trying to define success for you when you know you are the one who is saying what works best for you in your life? Right, yeah, exactly, I love all of that. So with working with clients, have you? Do you have any other examples of what you know? Maybe not the norm of definitions of success.
Amy Bauman:
Well, it’s funny, the women that I’ve worked with I don’t think it’s ever about financial. I mean, obviously, like you were saying before, you don’t want it to just be an expensive hobby, you want to have money coming in. But the women that I’ve worked with are not really trying to get to that million dollar mark. You know. At least they don’t come out and say that right now they’re more. And I should say too, the entrepreneurs that I’m working with are typically more in their starting stages, like in their first five years. So they’re still in that building and we work a lot on foundational pieces. You know, like getting the mindset is the first thing right. Let’s get over a lot of those hurdles, even with how you value yourself and set your pricing. You know, if you don’t have a strong mindset and what your value is, you’ve pretty much screwed yourself out of all of your pricing, how you’re going to do your offers, everything coming up. So I do work with a lot of entrepreneurs who are more in the beginning. For them, success is usually more about I want to provide for the family. So I do work with a lot of entrepreneurs who are more in the beginning. For them, success is usually more about. I want to provide for the family and, even if they don’t intend to be the main breadwinner that they they want to feel good about contributing.
Amy Bauman:
And I currently am working with a client. She’s an amazing person who fell into that. Not fell into, she found herself in this niche. That’s just she’s killing it. And she didn’t have that groundwork because it came to her so quickly, which I just love. So it’s now working with her and getting back to okay, you have the client, what will make you happy? So we’re kind of working backwards to figure out what her you know success and she knows what success looks like for her. But it’s helping her. You know feel strong in that Like, yes, you’ve, you’ve got all the foundation pieces and yes, my dear, you do have a successful business. You need to own that and move on. So yeah, I think it’s with my clients. It’s a lot more about that time. You know getting to call their own shot, having that extra money, feel like they’re contributing and then having that that really purposeful, you know aspect of what they’re doing, what they’re doing.
Rita Suzanne:
Yeah, I think that time is a really important piece because you know, whether or not we realize it like, it’s so important because that extra time allows us to spend time with our children, right, spend time taking care of ourselves or doing things for ourselves, or with our partner, if we have one, you know, it just allows us so much more Cause I remember, you know, I used to work and live in California, so I would spend so much time in my car driving you know, and and now I’m at home with my kids all the time and you know, and it’s so much better because I actually have gotten to see them grow up and you know, and be there for them when they needed me.
Rita Suzanne:
And it’s hard to work when they’re here, but you know, at least I’m here for them if they need me, and I know that I value. I think that’s the most important thing to me. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so it’s super important. So one thing that I love to talk about is, you know, so I started this podcast in order to talk, because I was struggling with a lot of personal things, to talk about how other moms are able to run their business, raise their families, but also remember themselves, and so I love to talk about what are you doing for you? What are you doing just for you, Amy?
Amy Bauman:
well, I love to work out. Like I was talking about finding the time, I would work out every single day for a couple hours if I could. Um, I just enjoy and it’s not like I mean if you saw me, it’s not like I’m a little lightweight, you know, or full of muscles or anything like that, I just enjoy and it’s not like I mean, if you saw me, it’s not like I’m a little lightweight, you know, or full of muscles or anything like that, I just enjoy that. I think the some of it’s the challenge. You know I like to do cycling classes.
Amy Bauman:
I didn’t know, I was kind of a competitive person until you go to the cycling class and they put that screen up that shows you where you’re ranking in the class and then suddenly I’m working harder, yeah, so I like that challenge piece of it. And then there’s the relaxation piece. You know I like to put in my AirPods and go for a walk and that’s just, you know, getting getting away, getting out in nature. We know that’s so beneficial for your mental and emotional health. So those are the things I really try to make time on my calendar. Like we’ll look at my calendar for the next week and see when can I schedule those things on there so that I don’t don’t over overbook myself?
Rita Suzanne:
Yeah, I think that exercise is super important, especially for our mental not just for our physical, but it’s very important for our mental, especially when we have so many things going on. So where can everyone find you online? Where are you at? I know you just started your new podcast, which I’m so excited for you, I’m so happy, so tell everyone where that is, where they can find you online, all of the things.
Amy Bauman:
Yeah, well, thank you, and thank you for your support of that. So the podcast is called Girl Next Door Wanting More and, as I was telling you before we got started, I have a lot of help with the podcast. I record and I hand it off to people who really understand the technology. So I will tell you that if you go to wherever you listen to podcasts and just Google the search for Girl Next Door Wanting More, it should pop up for you and then, with that, by the same name, girl Next Door Wanting More Community. I have a free Facebook group for women to connect in there and, of course, you can connect with me on Facebook by my name, amy Ellett Bauman. Let’s see Instagram. At your dev resource. Again, it’s the name of my company, your development resource. I just shorten it for people to your dev resource. Yeah, and that’s also my website your dev resourcecom. I’m on LinkedIn. I’m like everywhere. Just Just go on social, you’ll probably find me.
Rita Suzanne:
Perfect, and obviously all of the links will be in the show notes and in the description. So thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been such a pleasure.
And there you have it. I want to encourage you to remember that being a mom who runs her own business is not easy. We all struggle, but just keep moving forward. And don’t forget to make time for yourself. As moms we are usually the first thing to go to the bottom of the list. If your business is overwhelming you and you need real solutions, not just some sugar coated suggestions apply to work with me at ritasuzanne.com/apply
