Category: Work

Did you feel conflicted by work demands and a deep desire to be with your baby when you first became a mom? I know I did. In fact, it’s how The Free Mama was born! I wanted to find a way to pursue my ambitions, while still showing up as the mom I wanted to be. Women shouldn’t have to choose between family and their financial stability. That’s why it was a no brainer for me to sponsor an upcoming virtual event geared towards helping women whose bellies are growing right alongside their businesses. Kylie from The Pregnant CEO has created a free 4 day event to help you plan + fund your own maternity leave – so you can take maternity leave with your new baby, without sacrificing the business that you’ve spent years on building. You can learn absolutely everything you’d ever want to know about the summit over here, but here’s a breakdown: -The summit will run from Monday, May 2-Thursday, May 5. -Each day will be packed with amazing speakers – including me!! – who are ready to help you plan + fund your own maternity leave. -There’s a pop-up Facebook group where you’ll find accountability buddies, connect with other pregnant CEO’s, ask questions and be in the running for some incredible prizes! -You can attend the summit absolutely free, but you can choose to grab the All-Access —-Pass or CEO Success Bundle at any time. The CEO Success Bundle will give you 12 months access to the sessions, worksheets, 2 live panel sessions, as well as over $3500 in resources from the speakers including courses, workbooks, free memberships, and more. The CEO Success Bundle is currently being offered at a special price, and it will disappear for good once the summit is over, so start thinking about it now! You shouldn’t miss out on spending time with your new baby even though you’re self-employed. Especially because you’re self employed! You’ve worked hard to get where you are and you might be scared that taking time away from your business will undo all of that hard work. In these three days you’ll learn how to: -Continue earning just as much money, even when you’re on maternity leave. -Spend time with your new baby without stressing about your business and your future. -Save time with a clear roadmap of everything you need to do – and when to do it – so you can actually take maternity leave. -Position your business to continue to grow while you’re on leave. -Feel confident and prepared for your future as a mama AND as a business owner. And that’s why this free event is just for YOU! Want to learn more? Kylie will be joining me in The Free Mama Movement Facebook group TONIGHT at 5:30pm CST to talk about the summit and answer all of your questions! Make sure you join us! Ready to sign up? Head over to the website to grab your free ticket. More information will be sent straight to your inbox afterward. I hope to see all of my expecting and future mamas there!

If you’ve ever struggled to keep the money you make as a business owner (looking at you, Tax Day), then be sure to join me next week for a brand new, live training where you’ll discover: How Free Mamas Can Save FIVE-FIGURES In Taxes & Create Cash Flow For Life: Even if you don’t feel ready, haven’t started your business yet, or don’t feel like you’re making enough money yet! It’s happening LIVE next Thursday, April 28th, at 1pm CT! >> Register for the “FREE MAMA & WEALTH” LIVE training for FREE Now! Up until recently, I was making a really good income from my virtual business… BUT… I had a problem. The problem was nobody ever taught me how to actually KEEP and GROW the money that I was making. Inflation was devaluing my money sitting in the bank. Tax payments felt really disappointing after working so hard. I couldn’t figure out how to turn my income into WEALTH. I felt like I had finally figured out how to make money, but keeping and growing my money wasn’t happening yet. And that’s when I turned to Brad Gibb and Ryan Lee (the amazing guys who helped me figure ALL of this out and will be showing you how to next week!) They helped me develop a custom plan to not only KEEP more of the money I was making but also PROTECT it so well that, even if I didn’t make a single penny in my business this year, I’ll still be creating wealth for myself, so that I never have to go backward. If that’s what you want, too, then join me in the free training. >> Register For The “FREE MAMA & WEALTH” training for FREE Now! This training is so important for all Free Mamas.

You’ve probably heard that we held Free Mama Live in Kansas City last month. In mere weeks since the event, our attendees have made some huge moves in their businesses: -Krystin booked 3 discovery calls and closed them all -Jessica signed 6 new podcast management clients -Britany landed her highest paying client and closed them on the call  -Samantha landed her first paying client and resigned from her full-time teaching job  -Hanah started her coaching business and already has multiple clients  -Leandra and Katrina have signed 4 new clients in their messenger bot agency  -Sam is taking care of her business and body by hiring a nutritionist and launching a new YouTube course And that’s just a handful of them. All of these women have one thing in common: they applied what they learned at the event by turning the words in their notebooks into extraordinary action. It’s not that the action itself was extraordinary so much – usually, the best strategies are quite simple. It’s that taking what you hear someone say and then applying it in the real world is hard. Getting these results so quickly required these mamas to show up differently than they had been before the event. They had to courageously abandon their fears of failure, unpopular opinions, and uncertainty to do the thing. They had to take a risk. And not taking risks is fine… if you want to be average. But I have a feeling you don’t want to be average 😉 Which is why I want you to be in the room with us next year. Pushing yourself. Learning from others. And applying it once you get home to take your business (and life!) to unimaginable new levels! We released early, early bird pricing a few weeks ago and yesterday we sold out of all of the tickets we reserved for this massive discount. I could go on and on for hours about how informative, impactful and wonderful the whole thing will be, but instead, I’ll share with you 3 of the biggest mindset shifts Free Mamas received from this year’s event. 1. “Set your financial goals based on what you want, not based on what you think you can get.” (Read that again.) 2. “Your why has to be bigger than your fear. Because if not, then the fear will always win.” 3. “When you have a negative thought about yourself, say ‘it does not matter’ then smile or laugh at it, and move on.” Here’s the deal: more than 90% of the tickets snatched up were from women who attended last month. Yes, it’s that good. I want to give you one last opportunity to take advantage of this early early bird pricing ($400 off retail ticket price) for Free Mama Live 2023. I want you there next year and so I’m unlocking all of the tickets at this discounted price for today only. This offer expires tonight. Will I see you in Kansas City next year? Don’t be average 😉

Yesterday was Tax Day. How’d it make you feel?

It’s not my favorite thing either. BUT did you know the tax code is actually written for business owners? I brought Noemi Aguilar Horta of MamáCounts to this week’s FreeMamaTV to share some of her favorite tax tips to help us keep more of the money we earn.

If you want to better understand tax deductions, learn some strategies to pay the government less and even – dare I say it – have fun with your business financials, this video is for you. Make sure you leave us a comment if you loved it!

P.S. Want to know how being a VA lead to Lauren’s financial freedom? Check out last week’s FreeMamaTV to find out!

And don’t forget to subscribe to Free Mama TV so you’re alerted each and every time a new episode drops!

Have you ever been given a piece of advice that made you really mad? Let me take you back to pre-mom Lauren. Pre-married Lauren even. Back when I was a recent college graduate just trying to figure out where I was going in life. I had just moved to Arizona with my then-boyfriend now-husband and we were working at a bank. And I hated it. First of all, it didn’t lend itself to my strengths or interests at all, so I was probably bored. Moreover, I was a relationship officer (i.e. banker) and was no more qualified for that job than the lamp on my desk. Nevertheless, I poured myself into it (high achiever that I am). I worked super hard at building relationships with our customers, learning the programs and bank lingo, even volunteering to serve on the marketing committee. We had this manager named George, and he was obsessed with our numbers. It turns out, a big part of my job wasn’t just calling my customers about their overdrawn accounts or making sure they were happy with their merchant card services. I was actually expected to go out and find new customers for the bank. I ended up working really long hours – constantly squeezing in networking events at lunch or after the bank closed. On the one hand, I felt like such a grown up walking around with my fancy business cards and simultaneously I was absolutely mortified passing them out to people who clearly didn’t care what I had to say. Each team meeting with George began with everyone sharing their numbers of current accounts and new accounts for the week. Almost every meeting turned into a discussion about how I could increase my account numbers, even though I was clearly networking the most. I was putting in more hours than anyone else. I was working so much harder than the story the numbers told. Not only was I not getting affirmations for my hard work, but I actually felt like I was constantly reprimanded. One night after work, Justin and I were venting about the bank at my future father-in-law’s place. I was complaining about how unfair it was to be working circles around my peers without any recognition. Not really a part of the conversation, my father-in-law interjects: “No one cares how hard you work, they care about the results you get.” Um, rude. How dare his dad say something like that to me when I was putting my blood, sweat and tears into this awful job? Except, he wasn’t wrong. I’m not going to lie to you – it took years for me to realize how right he was. Thinking about the conversation still stings, because we are taught from a very young age that hard work and dedication equal success… and that’s not entirely true. I was working really, really hard, but I wasn’t successful as a relationship officer at all. I have a few theories about why: 1. I didn’t believe in what I was selling (and the people I talked to could tell). 2. I felt like hours spent doing something should translate into results (they didn’t). 3. I was focused on the wrong things, which stole a lot of my time, energy and motivation. Working at the bank totally sucked, but this valuable lesson has transformed me into the business owner that I am today. Because of my years freelancing and how I run The Free Mama Movement today, I spend substantially less time working than I did those years at the bank, yet I’m making over 28x what I did as an employee there. Don’t get me wrong, hard work and dedication are ingredients in the recipe for success (however you define it), but they aren’t the only ones. Results matter, and to get results you have to be intentional and strategic. You have to use effective tactics and eliminate what’s not working. To put it simply, it’s about working smarter, not harder. If you need help figuring out how to do this, hit reply and let me know. I’d love to see how we can work together to help you get the results you want

Ya know that lie we are all told from the time we’re little? The one that says if we go to school, get good grades, get into college, graduate, get a “good job” and then we will live happily ever after?

Well, that certainly didn’t work for me. I did all of those things and I ended up overwhelmed, drowning in debt, and living paycheck to paycheck. On this week’s episode of FreeMamaTV, I’m telling you exactly how I paid off all of my debts, bought new cars, and started bulking my savings while traveling a lot in just 3 YEARS. Spoiler: it all started with my freelancing business.

Here’s to taking your first (or next) step toward financial success!

P.S. Want to know how to face pricing objections as a VA? Check out last week’s FreeMamaTV to find out how!

And don’t forget to subscribe to Free Mama TV so you’re alerted each and every time a new episode drops!

Integrity is one of our 4 core values at The Free Mama (along with putting a bow on it, urgency, and courtesy, if you were curious.) To me, integrity is about following through. Doing what you say and saying what you do. But, as I have learned time and time again, sometimes life doesn’t always go according to plan. Last year I spent a lot of time pushing and pushing to serve (often at the expense of my family or myself) until I hit rock bottom and realized I was completely out of alignment with me. Is that integrity? It sure as heck didn’t feel like it. So this year I have committed to doing things in my business that help people, but are also fun and that feel good. And right now, I am not doing too hot. I have no voice *GASP* My favorite thing to do is talk, but I sound a lot like Phoebe Buffett attempting a sexy rendition of Smelly Cat. #IYKYK My chest is in a lot of pain and I am feeling the post-Free Mama Live adrenaline fully drained and am left a little fatigued. And yesterday, as I sat on a call with my team, hoodie and sunglasses on (see example below), voice cracking, and telling them about my lack of sleep, one of them suggested that I wasn’t in fact cold, but rather I had the chills.

And then I realized: I’m sick. So, what do you do when your values get tested? Where does integrity in business collide with personal integrity? In order to be in integrity with myself AND with you, we’ve had to make the extremely difficult decision to cancel today’s training with Kathryn Jones. To me, integrity doesn’t mean just doing what I say I’m going to do, but also doing it to the best of my ability in a way that serves you at the highest standard and that feels good to me. And today I do not feel good. I’m still going to be bringing you value into the Facebook event by dropping some little value nuggets (from bed, with hot tea), so make sure you keep your eyes peeled for those. I take my responsibility to model what being a Free Mama is very seriously. And this is it. Thank you so much for understanding, I truly appreciate it.

New students in the Free Mama often tell me that asking for money from a potential client is daunting, and the fear of objections around your pricing can make that feeling even worse.

But if you go into a Discovery Call with your eyes open, you’ll be just fine, and in fact, those objections you’re fearing can actually be a good thing! If this topic is tough for you, you’re in luck! Handling objections is just what I’m teaching you on this week’s episode of FreeMamaTV.

Get the value you provide, not a penny less!

P.S. Struggling to show up for yourself in your business? Watch last week’s episode to learn about how to be your biggest fan.

And don’t forget to subscribe to Free Mama TV so you’re alerted each and every time a new episode drops!