56 - Megan Flatt - Making CEO's Out of Moms

Megan Flatt has always been an entrepreneur.  She went from first a personal trainer, and then moved to a business consulting job.  After she had her son, she was traveling a lot and wanted to scale back.  She wanted to make things a little easier so went back to personal training.  She was working exclusively with soon to be or new moms.  What she found was they were talking so much about the cross roads these women were in.  Many of them were coming from corporate background and were trying to decide if they should stay home or continue to work.  

Megan talked a lot about being able to be present for their kids, but also find a way to start their business, where they could bring in money and flex their brain muscles.

How did you transition from personal trainer to this new business?  She was working at a gym and was having to leave her son behind.  So she started exploring having an online business.  Her natural move, because of her education, was an online fitness business.  She found she was having a hard time getting motivated to do it.  She had all these ideas of what she wanted to start, but kept gravitating towards her background because that's what she had known for so long.  Finally, it was a business coach who opened her eyes to what business she really WANTED to do.  It was at that moment when Megan realized she wanted to help moms put together businesses.

She then launched her first online course, and quickly moved into a second course.  She found everything in this business was really about natural progression and providing the details and offerings as women needed it.  When she was making that shift in helping people, she really found her groove.

Tell us about your business model and how you've made a business out of this?  Megan is an idea generator.  She definitely has found the common threads through her life.  Although she started out with the courses, she really found she loved the 1:1's.  She found that because she was focusing on mom's she found herself wanting to connect her clients.   She found that a lot that was missing with the mompreneur world was a great community.  She termed it the 'mom in the middle just because they weren't  stay at home mom's, but they weren't working outside the home.  

She recently launched her first round of the Mamma Mastermind.  It combines the coaching perspective, along with being part of a group.

What do you find the moms in the middle struggle with the most?  Megan definitely thinks it's the time management debate.  There's always this feeling that they're in the wrong place at the wrong time.  They just don't have the luxury of putting away a whole day to work on their business.  They actually want to be with their kids when they're hanging with them, and letting go of the business part.  There's that constant pull from the 'other thing.'  

What has been a big obstacle you've had to overcome?  Getting other people on board, whether it be a spouse, or friends, or parents, and understand what you're doing.  The online business is just not an easy job to describe.  Her husband was very supportive of her, but did not understand what she was doing.  A lot of times she would explain things, but knew she wasn't doing the best job of doing it.  

The other thing was struggling about when to throw in the towel.  We put out things, and it may not go as planned, or you don't get the response you had hoped for.  It's tempting to get a traditional job, or just stay home.  When that happens to Megan, she steps back, gives herself a break, and does some writing around why she's doing what she is doing.  She also looks back at her accomplishments to look again and what she is doing well instead of dwelling on the bad.  

What has been a big momentum shift for you?  One of them was when Megan really started investing in her business.  When she started working with a business coach, and also joined a Mastermind.  When she stopped creating her business in a vacuum, she felt things shift.  Another one was when she discovered it was going to be harder than she thought, and she had to go back to traditional business skills.  You need to get on the phone and get on Skype, and actually create relationships and connections.  You have to get out there and talk to people and network and build those business skills. 

How do you balance the outside of the home side of things?  Megan works now about 30 hours a week.  However, she didn't start there, she side hustled for the first part of her business.  As her kids got older, she added more and more time to her business.  She suggests getting really clear on the time you have available, and you know what to do with that time.  The disconnect comes when people really aren't clear on the time that they do have.  If you do say, you have 3 hours to work on your business, then you'll get those tasks done.  You'll slowly move ahead, but you're going to move ahead.

She's very purposeful about setting boundaries.  She gets up early, but then when they get home from school, she can shut down and shift gears.

She also has found a local mompreneurs group, and it's been a great way to branch out and meet other moms with different jobs outside of the online world.

When it comes to one thing in your business?  The one thing would be post it notes.  Megan is known for her post it notes.  Research shows when you write down your goals, you have a better chance of accomplishing them.  

More About Megan:  Megan Flatt is a business consultant and time management strategist for busy moms who are ready to build their own dream business while being actively present in the day-to-day lives of their kids and families. She has devoted most of her life to the pursuit of the perfect to-do list and the perfect vanilla latte. You can learn more about her and her services at meganflatt.com