Purpose and Pixie Dust Podcast Episode 256: Health Care Worker to Mompreneur: [INTERVIEW] with Amy Traugh

This is an AI-produced transcription of Purpose and Pixie Dust Podcast Episode 256: Health Care Worker to Mompreneur: [INTERVIEW] with Amy Traugh.

There's a player so you can listen, or it's available wherever you listen to podcasts.

Want to join the conversation about this podcast? Head over to my free Facebook community here.

Want more accountability, support, and training? Join us in the Magical Membership for Women Entrepreneurs!

Hey girl, welcome to the Purpose and Pixie Dust podcast, the podcast where we dive deep into our passions, our purpose and really unlock our potential with some pixie dust thrown in. What is pixie dust? You might ask. It's the fun and joy that gets unlocked when you're creating and owning your magic. I'm Lindsay, Dollinger dog, mama, Disney lover and high school Spanish teacher who has used my magic to grow my businesses while also working full time. I'm on a mission to help other women create and own your magic by building not only the business of your dreams but also the life of your dreams while still juggling life, your full time job and all the things. So if you want more than this provincial life, let's use our glass slippers to break those glass ceilings and Sprinkle lots of pixie dust into our lives and businesses. Let's do this.

Hey, hey friend, I am popping in here to make sure that you know about the best kept secret membership that exists for women entrepreneurs and shocking, the name is the Magical Membership for Women Entrepreneurs. So what is this magical membership you might ask? Well, it is a super fun place that I have curated. There's a Facebook group component to it as well as a website, portal. So if you're not on Facebook, no, whereas you can still be a part of the membership, but there is amazing community accountability challenges, trainings, templates done for you, social media calendar content, all the things, literally all the things in and I don't talk about it nearly as much as I should. So here is your open invitation to join the magical membership for women entrepreneurs? The information is in the links or you can definitely send me a DM and I can get you all of the details. I hope I just realized that. Right? Oh my gosh, well, I hope you go out there creating your magic and I will see you inside the magical membership for women entrepreneurs.

All right, I believe we are live. So welcome back to another purpose and pixie dust podcast live interview. If you're watching this on video, um welcome and podcast, you can always watching a video to later if you would like to. But I'm Lindsay Dollinger, I'm the host of your show. I'm super excited because this is my first guest interview in 2023 and um yeah, so I'm, I'm just really, we, we have been looking forward to having a me on the show for a really long time. Um I don't remember how we met, I feel like it was in a group or something, but we were chatting back and forth about maps and stuff, but so we have today Amy Traugh, Did I say that right?

You did. I'm so impressed.

She's gonna talk to us about steps to leave your 9 to 5 and I'm sure we're gonna be talking about some other things as well. So amy, Welcome to the show. Please tell us a little bit about you, you know, where are you from? What do you do? How did you get to do what you do all the things.

Yeah, it's kind of crazy looking back at it when I start to verbalize it, it's still The whole like it just hasn't hit me yet now my name is Amy, I live in northeast Ohio and I had worked in a career in health care for the past 16 years. Um ever since 2006 I got my license. So I worked in the physical therapy realm, thought I knew what I wanted to do and I grew up, you know, I went to college, graduated, had the job, had the kids had the family, all the things so from the outside looking in, I had exactly the dream life that I wanted. So I thought you were working 40 hours a week raising two kids. I'm like okay, you know, we have what we need, life is good and then like so many others covid hit. So during this pandemic it seems kind of funny because I was a health care worker, I was asked to take a furlough, they needed to cut staff by 50% and at the time my oldest was a kindergartner and my youngest was in preschool, so I'm like there is no way on God's Green Earth I can be working and trying to now be a kindergarten and a preschool teacher like that's not my jam. I am so thankful for you, educators out there, thank you because the work you do is impactful and I could not do it. So so suddenly I was pressed into this new reality like so many others and in doing so once we navigated the whole homeschooling piece, we got through the school year, I had the time to reflect really dive deep and figure out what is it that I want, who am I? You know, I'm just going through these motions, I'm existing, I'm not really feeling the passion I did once for my career so much has changed in health care over the past several years and I've changed over the past several years, so I took that time and I started my first business, I had always thought about starting a business, but raising kids being a mom working for like there just weren't enough hours in the day. And so I opened up my first organizing business, so it was a professional home organizing business, so I would go in and I would help moms kind of clear the clutter, get those systems into place to create time and space because our environment around us really does feed into who we are and emotionally, physically there were so many things and for me that brought me joy and I loved what I was doing, but in doing it, I felt alone, so I am, I started a facebook community because I'm like, well there can't be the only mom around here that feels like this. So just as a way to connect with other women in my area and this thing took off like wildfire and in growing my business, I started to realize that learning about the business, growing the business, connecting with people building this community. That's what I was truly passionate about. Yes, I really liked helping people get rid of things and be more intentional with how they live. But it was showing moms, hey, here's how you can build a business and you don't have to spend a ton of money on paid ads and putting flyers out everywhere. There's some really simple things you can do. So eventually throughout this process, I was called back into work. I went back though in a part time capacity, so it's only working a few days a week and then this past november, I came to the point where I'm like, you know what it's time. I just knew in my gut it was time So I would love to talk with your community today about how I got from point A to point B because being an entrepreneur, it's a long, it's not just this overnight and I think that's so easy to get wrapped up in is we see the person that is just overnight success. Like wow, look at her, she's posting about these, these six figure years in these 10-K months and this and that and then we can get defeated. So I'm here to guide those that are in the position that I was in because it's possible, I don't have extensive business training, I have a degree in health care in physical therapy. I was just gonna ask you if you had any sort of coaching or mentoring at any point when you were getting started in your business or what, what that looks like. So myself. Yes, absolutely. I invested in a mentor, I had a life coach, I still have a life coach um and business coaching as well, you know, really reaching out for those resources because I knew there was that gap and when I first started my business, I swear like because of covid, you know, we had all these resources now at our fingertips. So I watched all the webinars, I had mentors, I did not do this alone and you know the nice thing is you can learn any thing on google university now, you know, you google anything on youtube, google, you can learn anything, you just have to be willing to put forth the time and the effort and ask for help, which is hard. That's really hard to do all of that is stuff that I feel like is a missing piece. A lot of times when people are not having success yet it's not either willing to put in the time and the effort or to invest to make it quicker because that's the whole point of business coach or mentor right, is to get from a to B quicker than if you are looking at stuff on google university and in the trial and errors sorts of deals. Um, so really quickly you started with the decluttering because that's what you were like passionate about it and you're like something I could make money with, right? You know, it was one of those that when I first had kids, I just felt so out of control and to me, I just became really intentional about my environment and the things that were in my environment and it was in getting control of my own clutter and going through that, I'm like, you know what, This is free, I really enjoy this. So first off I reached out to friends and I'm like, hey, I'm kind of thinking about this. Maybe, maybe not, can you be my guinea pig of sorts? And I'm not sure and I'm doing it. I'm like, I really like this. But anyway, the more and more I did it, I realized, okay being a local service provider, I live in Northeast Ohio, so the town that I'm in isn't huge. So my glass ceiling was very low in terms of profit margin because when gas went up over $5 it was like, all right. Either, I'm gonna have to really raise my rates, I'm paying for childcare, I can't be point a in the morning and then two hours away in the afternoon, it just logistically wasn't working. So I'm like, you know, again, it was diving deep and kind of re evaluating, do I want to let this go? Because I had grown it to exactly where I had wanted it to be. I mean, income wise, I was ready to quit my job a year ago and then I realized, gosh, is this, is there more, is this really do I want to be driving around? So it was hard because it was letting go of that and allowing myself that space to grow and love that. And I'm sure there are a lot of people listening right now who need to hear because um this show, I don't know if, you know, originally started as a chauffeur network marketers and has pivoted a lot too. I have a lot of network marketers who still listen, but I also have a lot of women who have either transitioned from network marketing to building their own thing. Um or maybe they still do the network marketing and they're doing their own thing. But it can be really hard to let go of those things that you have had that success in to go for that thing that is more fulfilling or purposeful for you. So I'm really glad you shared that. That can be really, it's not easy and it's scary and you almost have to go through a grieving process in a way because it's something you put blood, sweat and tears into. But at the end of the day, if it's not serving you, if it doesn't totally feel aligned, you're never going to be able to sustain that long term. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I like how you said that too about you being a service based business because you kept out like there's only so much you can do when you are the one physically having to exchange the service for people, right? And I knew that I didn't want to scale, I knew that I just wanted to keep it as me. Yes, there are options in terms of, okay, you could hire on this saturday. I knew for where I was, that wasn't the direction I wanted to go. So you know, yes, there are solutions. I am a firm believer in life, you can figure out anything and as Marie fiorello said, everything is figure out a ble but I just, it just didn't feel right going in that direction. Right, right, okay, so walk us through, how did you do it? So you decided not to do your decluttering, you started a facebook group? How have you gotten to where you're at now? Just action, taking messy action, you know, it's, it's scary and I think honestly the biggest part of it is mindset when I got past the fear of failure, all the doors opened because I took that objective step back, I took all the emotion, all the money out of it. I'm like, okay, what is the number one worst case scenario? So I flop Oh well, do I still have a license? Yeah, can I go back doing that if worst case scenario happened? Sure I can find something somewhere. There's always going to be ways to make money. So the first thing was really fixing my mindset, questioning those fears and knowing that fear, it's just self imposed up here. Most of those stories we tell ourselves are just that stories. But until I go in full force, give it my all, I'm not gonna know. And at the end of my career I gradually scaled back, which was wonderful that I had an employer that I was able to kind of wean myself out of that role. That was truly a blessing. But you know, just knowing that okay, I am now 100% devoted to this. It's not okay. I have a little bit of energy here, A little bit of energy there. It's now being able to devote those hours during the day that my kids are at school like this is work time and then I go into mom mode. So once my kids get home all right, it's all okay, Hey guys here, but I'm more present and I find that that's made me a better business owner because I can just focus on business and then it's made me a better parent too because I can just focus on being mom versus oh wait, I got an email, Oh yeah, I forgot to post the social, you know, doing all those things that get overwhelming, especially when you are a solo preneurs or well, and I love how you pointed out about the multiple energies because again, I get this question a lot, especially with network marketing businesses is um can I be in two or three or four? And I have to learn the hard way with this too. I'm like, you can't, when you are dividing your energy, you're not going to do any of it well, like you can do it like okay, but unless you have one that is like the main thing that you were devoting too and then the other thing you're okay with it kind of being crappy, right? Like Yeah, yeah, and having that one ft out the door, you know, or one ft in each, I don't know what analogy, but you know what I mean, one ft in business or one ft business, one ft working, it can be hard and like you said like you're, you're all over the place, you're scattered, you're gonna feel burnt out and worn out doing stuff like that, so really knowing where you're focusing on, I'm sure it was a huge help, Oh my gosh, absolutely, because just mentally, you know, I go from being on top of the world feeling okay, I am making an impact. I am building that community, I'm getting so much fire within me, like to me seeing another woman succeed and helping be part of that process. That's what lights me up and looking back in my career in health care, that's what I was doing. I'm not fixing these patients, All I'm doing is empowering them with the tools to help themselves. So in reality, my career in healthcare is led me up to exactly where I am at this point, it was just being able to identify that and then bridge that gap within myself and realize it's possible. A lot of these things that we're thinking aren't possible. They're just self imposed limitations. So that truly was a game changer and just being able to devote that energy because yeah, you go from being up here to the neck next day being a job that wasn't fulfilling me, I'm going through the motions, that's not serving my patients, that's not serving myself. It was just a huge disconnect and really that awareness of, okay, when is it time? When is it time? So before you got to the point where you were able to scale back though and you did have a foot in health care and a foot in your business, How did you manage doing both? Like what does your schedule look like, what that period look like for you? It was definitely a juggle. Um it was a lot of strategic planning when you are juggling the two things at once. it's important to be intentional with the time you have because there's only 24 hours in a day and you get to choose how you spend that time. So if that means guess what my kids, you're going to watch a movie on netflix for an hour while I do one hour of devoted work, like binge tv guess what, it's what you gotta do and sometimes you have to make those small sacrifices in order to grow the business. So it's, it's just knowing what that overall goal is taking that, that wider view. I'm figuring okay, what steps are going to be impactful. It's not just scrolling on your phone doing market research. It's okay, let's start connecting with people. Let's meet new people. Let's learn the skills that I need to know and let's ask for help from others. So again, utilizing those resources and asking for help, especially the asking for help part can be really, really challenging to do. So did you have like, did you get your whole family on board? What did that look like? Yeah, it was definitely a discussion that it was a team effort. It wasn't just one day I woke up and like I'm gonna quit my job. No. Yeah, It was having those conversations with my, my husband with having those conversations with my kids being like, all right, hey, here's what I'm going to do. Here's what I need from you guys. I mean we actually still have family meetings. I'm like, you know, we're a team, we're in this together. And if I'm constantly burnt out and stressed out and unhappy, that's not gonna help any of us. And let's face it, our kids look at us, they look at us to lead by example. So I want to be a good example to them. I want to show them that hard work can get you places, but at the same time, I don't want them to just see a mom that's staring at her phone all day scrolling. I just, it's really being intentional about how you're choosing to spend your time. So do you have dedicated work hours now? Like what is the Okay I do. So boundaries are something that I have struggled with a lot, especially when I first started my business, I was working all the time. Just because it was like, okay, there's so much I have to do, I have to learn, but then really taking that stuff back. Having that coach say, you know, you need to prioritize you are one person and unless you're willing to either sacrifice money, it's gonna be time that you're sacrificing. So really just doing that focused effort, those blocks of time where you bribe your kids where you just focus on one thing we like to think we're great at multitasking, we're not, it's proven time and time again. Multitasking is the biggest out there. It is not a sign of success, that's actually the worst thing you can do for productivity, so I, I encourage everyone, if I could scream it from the mountaintops, stop multitasking, there is no trophy for being the most, like the biggest hustler out there. No, no intentional, not even the multitask, like, like you had said the no boundaries, like working all the time, like a trophy for that either, like making sure have those boundaries, I think Every business owner, whether you have kids, whether you have a spouse, I mean any relationship, those boundaries are key, especially boundaries with your time and I knew going into business, if I did not set boundaries, I'd be working all the time and it's like then what am I doing this for my job to work 24 seven? No, so I, I legitimately have my schedule like on my wall beside the desk to hold myself accountable because I'm a visual person, I need to see it every day, okay, you know, content creation this time, podcast, recording this time, you know that way, it helps me gain control of all of the things, I love that. Um would you say the majority of your clients and success have come from that facebook group that you started or what, what does your social strategy look like? You know, that was definitely the catalyst um and it's still a huge part, that is where my community is, we just hosted a event back at the beginning of november, we had 70 women show up for this local event, It was called confidence cells and it was all about educating and empowering moms with the tools and tactics to grow their businesses to learn those mindset blocks the self limiting beliefs and just being surrounded by that community has been incredible. So now we've taken that facebook group and now we're trying to reach more and more women. So we have a podcast, we have your instagram account, we have all of these resources for moms are actually doing a free training on friday. Um just different ways to market your business for free because starting out as an entrepreneur, we don't have these multimillion dollar by this, We can't run Super Bowl ads. No, we just want to let the world know that we exist. So yeah, again, just sharing resources with one another. Oh, I love that. Yeah, free trainings are an amazing way to grow just to connect with new people too. Yeah, absolutely. So then how do you transition a client? So do you use the free training as a funnel into your program? So we, in a way yes, I mean I guess they kind of are kind of like a lead magnet of sorts but again, my job is to give value, like I am a huge believer and I know one of our mentors gestures just like give it all away for free, you know nothing we are doing is is earth shattering brand new, you know, it's you have to be willing to take the time and hold yourself accountable or have someone else holding you accountable and that's really what coaching is all about. It's having somebody looking from the outside, okay, here's your blind spot, alright. Are you following through these tests because you can learn anything on your own, but when you're surrounded with people that are doing the same thing that have the same common goal that wants to build those businesses together, that just lifts up all of our energy. It's the whole rising tide analogy, isn't it, you know? Yeah, I love it, I love it. Yeah, I love you mentioned like the trainings and because I feel like it also gives people really good look into how you work with people and what value you have to give if they do decide to take the next step with you and I think no matter what business you're in, anyone listening can do that can build that sort of a community and value give whether it is network marketing teaching online, you know whatever, really great strategy well and for me, I knew going into business and like I really don't necessarily want to be doing sales calls, I want someone to just be able to see who I am and pick up on my energy from, you know, a free webinar or a free resource versus I don't need a hard pitch. You my goal is I am here to help. If you want help, I am not going, going to be knocking down on your door every five minutes. Hey, you need anything. You wanna say bye bye bye. That's just not who I am. That just doesn't feel good to me. I'm here to provide value and help those women that want my help. Love it. So what is one top tip you would give someone listening to this show right now? Who is like, I really want to leave my job, but I don't know what to do. What would you tell him? Get clear? Just really dive into? Okay, why first of all, why do I want to leave my job? What is the purpose is that my job? Do I just need to move within my field? Do I just need a change of scenery? Do I have something else that's poor? It's really gaining that inner clarity as to what you want. This life is meant to be lived and if you're not clear on what it truly is that you want, even if you do put your job, you're still gonna be lost. So without clarity, it's like wandering around trying to drive from Ohio to California. Without a map, It's not knowing how to get from point A to point B. But once you have that clarity then you can plan, you can take those steps to get there. Okay, what's one actionable thing that I can do say you're super limited on time one something per week that I can start doing to get me to the next step. All right, after you do that, taking that next step and the next and the next, just taking those small steps, it adds up and knowing it's going to be scary, your brain is going to be telling you do not do it because it's that primal survive mechanism. Our brains job is to keep us safe. And so anything that it doesn't know it's oh gosh, no, no, no, but in reality you have value to bring, you wouldn't have this idea if you weren't capable of it because you are worthy? It's within their, it's changing that narrative in your head to go from? Okay. Yeah, that's that's just what you're telling me today, but that's not necessarily a fact and questioning that and just moving forward. I mean it doesn't take, it's not rocket science, it's just taking action. I love it. I love it. I feel like we've gone full circle because that's how, how we started this conversation. Awesome. Well before we tell everyone how to connect with you, I have a few questions that I like to. Absolutely. So um what is your dream vacation destination that you would love to go to? Bora Bora, Tahiti. That's a good one. I am a beach person. Like I just, I have my travel bucket list, it's a mile long, but that is one of my passions and I'm like, you know, I want more flexibility to be able to take those vacations and traveling is just a passion For me and I love it and I was, I was watching your trip recently to Spain and it's just incredible and travel is incredible. I love it. It is, opens all the doors.

Best professional or personal development book that you have read or your favorite one?

Oh my gosh, I am a like personal development book junkie. I seriously like have this whole like over here, I'm looking at them now because it's hard to pick just one, you know, honestly Fear is my Homeboy by Judi Holler, she is just an incredible woman and yeah, I would say that would be a topic, that one. It's good, it's good. I highly recommend it, awesome, awesome.

Then morning, which do you prefer morning or night time routine or both?

Neither. I am a morning person, which is funny because I always used to be a night out, but I am totally a morning person now, but I love it because it just, it grounds me for the day, it sets that intention and I by no means have an extensive morning routine, but by doing just a few key things, it just makes the day flow in the same way. Um, and it's funny because I don't like to get up super early, but when I do get up, I like my mornings to be like a certain way. Like you think, oh, I'm totally, I'm like, let's have our structure. Exactly. Exactly. All right, amy, Well this conversation has been amazing. So please tell everyone how they can connect with you and guys, I'll be sure to put this in the show notes as well so that you can just go down and click sure. So on instagram is where we're most active. It's at the moms on a mission and we also have a website as well: Themomsonamission.com.

Awesome. Well everyone, when you listen to this or if you're watching this screenshot it, put it in your stories and tag both Amy and I and we would love to hear what your biggest takeaway from today was because I'm sure you had a lot of them and Amy, thank you so much for your time and for being on the show. We really appreciate it. Gosh, thank you. It was my pleasure. And that's a wrap on today's episode. I hope you're leaving today inspired princess to create own and spread your magic to the world. If you found by you in this episode or no, a girlfriend who needs to hear it, would you screenshot it and send it to her and if you're feeling really generous, Pop it up on your I G stories and tag me at Lindsay to linger so I can see you loved it and tell you, thank you. I appreciate you. Now let's go do some amazing things. Bye bye.

Podcast show notes:

In this week's episode, Lindsay Dollinger interviews Amy Traugh, a Mompreneur who left her 9-5 job in health care to be a life and business coach. Amy shares today how she was able to do that by starting a community and growing it to her current business.

A self-proclaimed “chaos coordinator” and mom of two, Amy is the Founder and CEO of The Moms on a Mission community and host of The Motivated Mompreneur Podcast.

She has made it her mission to empower and educate fellow moms with the tools and tactics to grow their businesses and ensure that no woman feels alone in their journey.

Connect with Amy: Themomsonamission.com/quick-links

Connect with Lindsay Dollinger and join the Magical Membership for Women Entrepreneurs here: https://www.lindsaydollinger.com/links

https://www.instagram.com/lindsaydollinger

Be sure to subscribe to this podcast and share today's episode with a friend!