80: The Evolution of the Boss Mom Revolution with Dana Malstaff

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Dana Malstaff. Dana is the founder of the Boss Mom movement. It all started with her best-selling book, Boss Mom: The Ultimate Guide to Raising a Business and Nurturing Your Family like a pro. Today, Boss Mom is a company serving other boss moms all through the world through programs, events, and the wildly popular Boss Mom podcast.

Dana has been featured everywhere from Fast Company to INC, and I have been fortunate to share the stage with her. She brings an energy, passion, and insight that few can rival.

She has built an amazing community and systems for her business that allow it to continuously scale and those are just a few of the many items I want to cover with her today.

Dana says her story isn’t unique, but I’ll let you be the judge. When she started she felt like she was alone, but also felt like her story had to be other people’s stories. So, she had to share it. She became a mom and an entrepreneur on the same day, literally. The day she quit her job, she conceived her son.

Dana says that owning children and owning a business is so similar to raising children. They grow the way babies do and give you all of the fits, challenges, tribulations, feelings of not knowing what you are doing…and everything in-between.

She felt really alone because none of her friends were doing what she was doing. She went through her first year having a success and a ton of failures both as an entrepreneur and a mother. It wasn’t until a little after a year in, when she moved to San Diego and was surrounded by an environment where others were like her and building businesses while being parents, that things started to click.

Being in this environment made her stop feeling alone and different, but invigorated. As she began to network and meet other entrepreneur-moms, she realized that the majority of them didn’t really know how to truly build or run a business.

That is when she decided to write Boss Mom and start the movement because that is what she is good at – building a business operationally and strategically.

Once the book was published, it took and the movement did as well.

What is the best piece of advice you would give all Boss mom’s out there?

• Follow your gift, not your passion – especially when monetizing your business.
• Your gift is the thing that comes easily to you
• It is the genius of how you operate and the thing that you do better than everyone else
• This is what you are meant to be executing
• When you begin to work in the space of your gift, the success comes and gives you the ability to follow your passion as well

What was the first day at Boss Mom like?

• Technically Boss Mom is Dana’s 3rd business/brand. It took multiple iterations to get it right and create a good brand.
• Your brand is massively important
• The first day was sheer panic not knowing what to start first…
• Dana spent her first week looking at what others are doing in their business and taking things that she liked
• She was learning the important things she needed to be taking and putting together to create the business
• Modeling is a great way to get ahead – it is ok to copy and innovate
• On the first day of “Boss Mom” she immediately got help
• Visibility is the #1 thing in the beginning – your brand should be everywhere you are, featured wherever you can be, get on every podcast and outlet you can.

Quick Tip: At the 14-min mark, Dana talks about the “buttons” she uses on her website and the interesting names she gives them and why. Her tip could really help the engagement on your website.

Take us through how you learned to scale Boss Mom and how others can use what you’ve learned:

• Make a business plan – it is your map (Hire someone to help you)
• What is your purpose, what is your why?
• Financial, Environmental, Emotional Future?
• Your Tribe – your community
• Then you map out your tangibles (Your money engine)

At the 18-min mark, Dana walks through the above in detail and talks about the difference between “Dream-makers” and “Deal-Breakers”

At the 24 min mark, Dana talks about creating your “Movement Manifesto.”

Answer the following of yourself:

• Decide on 3-10 “I believes"
• Next ask yourself, “I want to live in a world where…” •
• Ask yourself, “This is what I know to be true…”
• The last thing is to put it into a motto or call to arms – and in this, you find your why

At the 26:40-mark, Dana gives her manifesto/motto Facebook groups, you’ve cracked the code.

What is the strategy you can teach Misfit Nation to maximize their use in growing a business?

• Dana spends a good amount of time talking about this at 28 min mark
• Don’t look at it like a Facebook group – It’s a community
• Decide what kind of environment you want - think of it like a company culture

What is allowed, not allowed, how will people feel valued and part of the system?

• You are building a culture and if you do it right, you will be known for it and it will thrive
• It has to provide a way for people to grow their business and get results

First 2-3 steps for newbies:

1. Decide on the rules
2. Brainstorm 5-10 conversation starters in which people can’t help to engage in
3. Create content to have them help you decide on how the group will feel and work
4. Ask 5-10 people you know to join the group and engage with members.

Other tips on building a tribe?

• Stop thinking you are the “head”
• Allow others to take ownership and empower them to be a part of it
• Be a leader, not a host
• By creating micro-influencers and raising others up, you will be raised with them.

At the 35-min mark, Dana gives her blueprint for the “Free to Paid” Journey Advice for an entrepreneur starting out today and for a seasoned entrepreneur?

• If you are starting out – please do not be an island
• You should not be doing everything on your own – even if you can. You want to be known for one thing. Focus.
• If you are more seasoned – it is all about tweaking and refining.
• How can you go back in and double the revenue from everything you are doing now?

Most important thing you’ve learned about yourself?

The journey is what is most important, not the outcome

 

Best Quote: “The learning is in the doing…It’s not about clarity. It’s about the direction and the framework.”

 

Misfit 3:

1. Live your brand. Pick a brand that you literally want to wear and be in it.
2. Take in the information you can around you, but make it your own. Nothing is new – it is just re-invented with a different perspective. Own it and find that for you.
3. Be decisive. Take action, make decisions and execute.