Be willing to give everything a chance and you WILL fail. Failing is just a part of life and it is a huge learning curve for you to get better and grow.
Glow Radio is a podcast for the sassiest of b*tches who are looking to dump their 9-5 for that #entrepreneur life. You can expect weekly conversations with unapologetic creatives, business owners and influencers. We discuss tips on how to reach your goals, manage your time and keep your sanity while being a major boss babe. Hosted by Jacquelyn & Clara, your favourite hype women who will cheer you on and push you to create the life that you want.
Where did the idea for Glow Radio Podcast come from?
The idea for the Glow Radio podcast came to us when we were having a heart-to-heart on how we felt like we were meant for more in life. The daily grind of a 9-5 just wasn’t fulfilling for us. We both have always had a strong entrepreneurial spirit so we decided to start a business together. Both of us came to realize that we are extremely passionate about mentoring others and speaking about our experiences; thus, that led to us starting our podcast – Glow Radio. Our mission is to inspire and empower women to chase their dreams no matter how ‘unrealistic’ it feels, and show them that the universe has an abundance of love and success to share. There is room for all of us to achieve our goals.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
Our typical days get organized during our Monday meetings. We discuss and prioritize our tasks based on the needs of the week. We are extremely grateful to have a flexible schedule as it allows us to attend any events as they come up. You will often find us preparing, recording and editing our podcast episodes and doing the behind-the-scenes work for social media platforms such as Instagram or Youtube. We also spend a lot of time sending emails, pitching potential sponsorships and negotiating collaborations. One of our current main projects is developing our course on how to start your own podcast. We keep it productive by writing down a list of all the tasks we need to complete for the day/week/month and dividing them up according to our strengths.
How do you bring ideas to life?
A lot of planning goes into bringing our ideas to life. We like to sit down with a notebook and hash out all of our ideas. This usually involves 1-2 hours of sipping tea and pen marks on our fingers. However, the most important aspect of bringing ideas to life is taking action! No matter how far-fetched our ideas may seem, we are always willing to give it a try. We find that a lot of people have tons of great ideas but are not willing to commit and do it. There is no need to fear anything, you just need to put in the work. Making mistakes will only help you grow and improve.
What’s one trend that excites you?
We feel like Instagram Stories have been blowing up recently and we are obsessed! It really ignites our fire knowing that we can reach and connect with so many people in a more raw and real way. We love the flexibility of being able to just record a quick message to our audience and adding polls/questions/gifs.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
A good habit/strength of ours is being able to make quick decisions that have a strong impact. A lot of time, the decision making process can be dragged on for way too long. Again, we find that it’s the fear of failure that holds many people back. We decided from day one that if we take too long on a decision, we are most likely overthinking it.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Start sooner! Don’t be afraid of what people are going to think of you and follow what your heart tells you. There is a reason why people are always preaching about doing what you are passionate about. Be willing to give everything a chance and you WILL fail. Failing is just a part of life and it is a huge learning curve for you to get better and grow.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
A lot of people often worry about us ‘burning out’ or having too much on our plates. The truth is that we voluntarily chose to do this much and it does not feel like we are spiralling or having some sort of mental breakdown. We absolutely love what we do and it is worth everything, even if we are a little tired at times.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Everyone should always testing out their ideas and methods. We are constantly growing and changing based on what works the best for us. For example, we have changed our Instagram layout and format many times and it truly is just a matter of finding the magic formula that works for us. It is imperative that this whole rinse and repeat process is done regularly to make sure that you stay updated in order to attract more people.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
Networking has brought us a lot of success. We started going to local networking events and asking for contacts from other entrepreneurs. By doing this, we had a good base to start inviting guests onto our podcast to record together. Also, not being afraid to cold-contact businesses & influencers for collaboration opportunities helped us grow immensely.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
Rejection is one of the failures we have inevitably encountered as an entrepreneur. We don’t always receive a ‘yes’ when we send pitches for collaborations and/or sponsorships. Sometimes we don’t even get a respond after many follow up attempts. We overcame rejection by understanding that it may simply not be the right place or time at that moment. We learned to not be discouraged when businesses/brands do not respond or say ‘no’ and instead, direct our attention to finding more opportunities. As cliché as it sounds, when one door closes, another will open.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
This may not come as a surprise to you, but starting a podcast is a great business idea of course! Podcasting is an excellent way to make some passive income through advertisements and sponsored deals. It is also a much less saturated industry over blogs at the moment. Listeners tend to give you their undivided attention when listening to a podcast. They are also more receptive to sponsored ads and willing to listen through them.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
This was a bit more than $100, but one of the best investments we made recently was taking the Pitch It Perfect online course by Julie Solomon. She really helped us step up our pitching game with tips on how to build meaningful connections. In turn, we have landed some amazing collaborations. This course brought us to the next level and we strongly believe in investing in education and learning tools to better ourselves. We often seek out online resources from people who are already where we want to be to gain their knowledge.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?
Google drive is the best thing that’s happened to us. It gives us both access to the same document at the same time and it can be shared anywhere. We use it all the time and it is probably our number one tool for staying productive. We use it to document meetings, podcast episode ideas, develop marketing plans, everything!
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
We are going off topic a little here, but we honestly love listening to podcasts (because they are pretty much are audiobooks after all!). Some of our favourite podcast shows include: The Goal Digger Podcast by Jenna Kutcher, The Influencer Podcast with Julie Solomon, Cardone Zone by Grant Cardone, Swopes So Dope with Elisa Swopes and How I Built This with Guy Raz.
What is your favorite quote?
One quote that has strongly resonated with us recently is by Confucius. It goes, “We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.” We hit a turning point in our business when we truly realized that this is our only life. After this revelation, we started making decisions based on what we truly wanted to do. At the end of the day, we are the ones living our life and are in control of our happiness. It’s good to take advice from other successful people, but do not let them influence all your decisions. You ultimately need to go with your gut.
Key Learnings:
- Just go for it! If you have a business idea, then test it out. You will never know if it will be successful unless you start taking action. If it doesn’t work out, you will learn more about yourself and can apply what you learned to your next idea/project.
- Making mistakes is inevitable and necessary for learning. Don’t let the fear of failure hold you back from starting something new.
- Learn from other successful people who are where you want to be. There are tons of people in this world who have already achieved big goals. Learn how they did it to save yourself time. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
Connect:
Website: www.whoaglow.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/glowradioco
Audioboom:
Youtube:
Spotify:
iTunes:
Carlyn runs the day-to-day publishing operation here at ideamensch and interacts with our awesome customers and entrepreneurs. She is likely editing this with a cat on her lap.