Welcome to the My Biz Bestie Podcast

00:00:24 - Maelisa Hall
Welcome to season one of the My Biz Bestie podcast. I'm Melissa Hall.

00:00:28 - Amber Hawley
And I'm Amber Hawley.

00:00:30 - Maelisa Hall
This is episode one of the podcast, and today we'll be talking a little bit about who we are, how we met, why we're doing this podcast, and what we would like you to get out of it.
So who we are, first off, and probably most importantly, we are two ENFPs with ADHD. So if you know anything about the Myers-Briggs, and if you don't, look it up because it's awesome, and we will definitely be talking more about it. But it's a fairly in-depth personality test, and ENFP basically means that we are two people who love life and may get a little distracted, like doing different things, like hanging out with other people, and tend to be fairly positive.

We also have ADHD, which most people know stands for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. So we've both been recently diagnosed as adults and had a lot of insight after having that official diagnosis. So I'm sure we'll talk a little bit more about that at some point.

00:01:38 - Amber Hawley
Yes, absolutely. Although I do like to say that once I got the diagnosis, I was like, oh, everything I thought was like a personality flaw is really just ADHD. So it's doable. Yeah.

00:01:49 - Maelisa Hall
Yes, totally. So we are each going to share. We love talking business and marketing, and that's part of why we're biz besties is because we can talk about that stuff all day long. So we are each going to share a little bit about what it is that we do and how we can help you out with our experience.
So Amber, why don't you start off with telling us a little bit about your businesses now and your awesome experience from before?

00:02:19 - Amber Hawley
Sure. So I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist. I own a group practice called Fremont Counseling Services right here in the Bay Area or Silicon Valley. Let's see. Beyond that, I also own another online business that I'm launching. It's called Couples Fix, where I will be helping couples have healthy and fulfilling relationships, but offering it in a medium where they don't have to go to a therapy office and They can do video courses or just get the information on the website that's shared.
So I'm pretty excited about that. So my whole life is about supporting people having healthy and fulfilling relationships, which also that's the My Biz Busty thing too. So that's really exciting. Before becoming a therapist, I actually worked in the dot-com world.

I worked in internet operations and marketing. So I feel like I have a good tech background. And You know, had a lot of experience that really helps me now as a therapist when managing the business side of my practice. Awesome.

00:03:25 - Maelisa Hall
Yes. And you are also a lot of fun and have a lot going on in your personal life. So do you want to tell us a little bit about that experience? Sure.

00:03:35 - Amber Hawley
Yes, I am a lot of fun. Just saying. But yeah, so I'm married and we have three children, seven and under. So life is a little busy. It's a lot of fun. There's a lot of tears, a lot of screaming at times too, but it's a lot of fun. So between that and the businesses, it really keeps me very busy.
But like you said, as an ENFP, being with people and being social is really important to me. So I always find time for that as well.

00:04:05 - Maelisa Hall
Awesome. And what is a fun fact that you would like to share with everyone on our first episode of My Biz Bestie?

00:04:14 - Amber Hawley
I know. We're like, we should share a fun fact. And then I had a hard time coming up with one. And then I was like, this one may not sound so good. But technically, there was a year where I went back to school to get my master's. And I wasn't working any other jobs.
So for one year, technically, all of my income came from gambling because that year we just happened to take a couple of trips. And so I like to tell people that for a year I was a professional gambler. Now the reality is I only took home about $1,500 total, but still, I think that sounds pretty legit to say that one year that was all of my income.
Yeah. Not the 1500 part, just where it came from.

00:04:54 - Maelisa Hall
So it makes me feel a little bit like a badass. Yes, it makes you badass, but not pathological.

00:05:01 - Amber Hawley
But not pathological. Yes, exactly. Clearly, it's not an addiction. There were very low amounts being gambled at the time, but over the course of like four trips, I felt pretty legit for sure.

00:05:12 - Maelisa Hall
Well, it's more than I've ever won gambling. Yeah. Yes, that was my best year.

00:05:19 - Amber Hawley
Best year ever. So yeah, so Melissa, share with us your businesses and your background.

00:05:25 - Maelisa Hall
Cool. So I am a licensed psychologist. I live in Southern California in the Long Beach area, and I have two businesses. One is totally online, and that is a business that provides continuing education for other therapists and I help them with their paperwork so that it's not super boring and hopefully can be more meaningful and a lot more simple.
And then my other business is a coaching practice that I have in Irvine, California. And there I help small business owners and entrepreneurs learn leadership skills. So again, talking about relationships, right? That's definitely, I think, what we are both always focusing on.
In the past, I have worked a ton of different places doing a lot of different things. That's kind of an ENFP thing, actually.

And I have been a corporate director. I've been a manager in a nonprofit. I have worked in quality assurance. I've been a therapist, worked on a crisis response team. So that's a little bit of all the stuff I did postgraduate school, not to include like, you know, working at the shoe store and all that good stuff.
Yeah. Me too. I did that. I worked at a shoe store. Oh, sweet. I didn't even know that. I know.

00:06:47 - Amber Hawley
I think I probably worked every kind of retail in all honesty.

00:06:51 - Maelisa Hall
See, but that's another way. In some ways, we're basically the same person. In some ways, we're pretty different. But yes, there it is again.

00:06:58 - Amber Hawley
Absolutely. Yeah. And then... Oh, sorry. I was going to say, yeah, because you talked about in your coaching business helping people with the leadership. I think that's such an important thing because so many people go into business not thinking about having to do the leadership of business.
And I think that's where you offer a lot of value.

00:07:19 - Maelisa Hall
Thanks. Yeah, because most people, at least, not most people, but a lot of people, if you go into something because it's your passion, you don't anticipate success. being a boss or a business owner necessarily, which is one thing that I think is really cool about what you've done because you did actually, I think because of your prior work experience before you were a therapist, when you started your practice, you really did anticipate that and planned ahead and were very business savvy from the get-go.
So it's been awesome. And we'll talk more about that, but learning from you and the stuff that we talk about and supporting one another and learning from one another too. Absolutely.

00:07:57 - Amber Hawley
So tell us a little bit about the personal side of Melissa Hall.

00:08:01 - Maelisa Hall
Yeah. So I'm married as well. No kids. We don't plan to have any kids, but we do have our two cats and love hanging out with them and post a million pictures because that's what one does when they have two cats. And my husband and I are also learning to sail.
So that pretty much takes up all of my time. And then my fun fact is that in college, I won a lip sync contest. I was lip sync artist of the year. My group actually got second place overall, and that was for a Temptations song. That was an awesome contest we used to have at my college.
Every single year, it was a big event called Airband, and I loved it, and I was part of it every year except freshman year before I knew it existed because nobody told me how awesome it was.

00:08:49 - Amber Hawley
I love it, though. I think one day you're going to have to be on Lipstick Battle. Like, I think that just has to happen.

00:08:55 - Maelisa Hall
Oh, no, I watched that. And once I found out, like, okay, I only found out that existed recently, embarrassingly enough, but it's been on for a really long time. But another fun fact, I don't have a TV. That might do it. When I found out about that, I was like, oh, my gosh, I want to be on this so bad, you know.
But we'll see. Maybe we can start a campaign.

00:09:17 - Amber Hawley
Yes. One day, one day it's gonna happen. This will be your, put it on your vision board. We'll make that happen. We're gonna make that happen. Yes, yes. So I guess let's share a little bit about how we met. A couple of years ago, I went to a conference and Melissa was actually the sponsor.
So she didn't attend, but she was a sponsor of the conference. And afterwards, there were quite a few of us women who decided to start a book club for the book Get Rich, Lucky Bitch by Denise Duffield Thomas, which is a fantastic book, by the way. So somebody had suggested that and they started an online Facebook group for it where we could all just kind of read the book together and kind of chat and have, you know, our hope was to have conference calls where we talk about it, but...
We had one. Yeah, we did have it, but it was like, I feel like more it was the sharing in the Facebook group.

But from that... somebody had suggested that we get together and do a live, we called it a GSD, a get shit done week where we all get together, rent an awesome house and hang out and support each other in business. And we all there to work on our own businesses, but then we give each other support and feedback throughout.
And so of that bigger group, 10 of us self-selected initially to do that. And we all went to Las Vegas because that's where you go to get business done.

00:10:45 - Maelisa Hall
Of course.

00:10:46 - Amber Hawley
Last year. And believe it or not, we actually did get a ton of work done. That was probably the most productive anyone's ever been in Vegas. So I'm pretty proud of us.

00:10:56 - Maelisa Hall
Yeah. And actually, I was the only person who didn't attend the conference, so I hadn't met anyone in person. I did meet one of our friends who ended up going like two months before we all met up, but we all... put in money to rent this giant house, which was pretty awesome, and did all that stuff and planned everything ahead of time before I'd even met anyone in person.
And most of us actually did not know one another really well. We might have known like one of the 10 really well, but didn't know everyone. So it was a really, I mean, kind of a cool experiment, I guess, but it was also like a great, great trip. And you and I got to know one another better and hit it off.
And Not that that was surprising, but I don't think you and I had even really like interacted a whole lot in the Facebook group as far as like one-on-one.

Like we talked as far as the group, but it wasn't like I'd been like, oh, Amber. And we'd never talked on the phone before or anything.

00:11:54 - Amber Hawley
Pretty much until that week in Vegas, I feel like we didn't have a ton of interaction. And then, you know, started to have more because we literally sat around this giant conference table that could fit probably like 20 people. It was in this house. was crazy.
And we all just sat around that. And as soon as we got up in the morning and we would be there for like, you know, 12, 14 hours. And, and of course we had a lot of fun too. So it wasn't just all work, but you know, that's how we kind of got to know each other a little bit.
And then I think, I think it was there where we were talking or something. And then you said, Hey Amber, I think you might have ADHD. Yeah.

00:12:31 - Maelisa Hall
And then we, yeah, we ended up having conversations about that more, and then we both officially got diagnosed pretty quickly after that and each started taking medication. And so then that became daily like, or almost daily conversations. And then we started talking more, and then, you know, sort of getting to know one another more.
And then testing things out, like, are we weird if we're talking every single day? Oh, no, okay, now this is a thing, you know, and grew from there.

00:13:00 - Amber Hawley
Yeah, I definitely say we were dating because we went through that awkward phase. Not awkward because we were awkward together, but that phase of like, oh yeah, is it okay to call now? Or I've already called her twice today. Would that be too much? Am I stalking her?
Is she going to be like, think I'm weird? So we went through that whole process of dating until it became super comfortable. And now, you know, we talked. pretty much every day, several times a day. And then there are days where we don't because we're busy or whatnot, but we were actually surprised a few weeks ago.
We were at a conference together and we were telling people about how we met and they asked how long we've known each other. And I was kind of blown away that it's only like a year and a half or a little over that actually. It just feels like it's been forever.
So that kind of blew my mind.

Totally.

00:13:48 - Maelisa Hall
Yeah. It's been... it feels like it's been a lot longer in a good way, but yeah, it really hasn't been that long, but I think we've also, not only do we really hit it off, but we've also been very dedicated about like talking to one another regularly.
And so many of the things that we talk about, we're in sync with. And then I was trying to think about actually, when did we first start talking about doing this podcast? And I think we had talked about doing things similar to this for a while and The actual podcast itself was more recent, but whenever we've met up randomly with other people and gotten together in person, since we do live fairly far away from one another, and go to conferences together, that kind of thing.
And whenever we're with other people, we end up talking about business and sharing business ideas and supporting one another in whatever it is that we're doing as well.

And we would really like to be able to offer that to other people and show other people how you can have this type of relationship and type of support.

00:14:54 - Amber Hawley
Yeah. And I think, you know, I remember it happening last year where I kept seeing this, you know, we're very active in a lot of Facebook groups and different programs that we've either joined or are a part of, you know, masterminds or or incubators or group coaching, whatever you want to call them.
You know, we join a lot of different things, but I kept seeing a lot of, I know it happens on the male side too, but I'm just going to speak to the women. Cause I think that's what I'm seeing more of. I saw a lot of women posting about needing a biz bestie and they may not have worded it that way, but basically that's what they were looking for.
They were looking for somebody that they could connect with on a regular basis and be able to get that kind of emotional support because you know, being an entrepreneur can be awesome, but it also can be very, there's a lot of, you know, roller coaster up and down and emotional stuff that comes up and there can be a lot of challenges and having somebody just to listen to you and kind of give you that support and a really somebody who knows what, what it's like to feel that is awesome.

And it really makes it so that it's not this lonely process or you feel like it's just you and, you against the world kind of thing. And so I kept seeing that in many groups or even when I'd go to networking things. And I felt very fortunate that I've had that for quite a long time prior to us connecting.
You know, I have another biz bestie, so I'm cheating on you a little bit, which you knew about, so it's okay. Yeah, yeah.

00:16:24 - Maelisa Hall
Full disclosure.

00:16:25 - Amber Hawley
Yeah, in full disclosure. But I've I've always had somebody that I connected with. And, you know, the saying about friendships, the reason a season or a lifetime. And I definitely have a couple of those people in my life. But, you know, time is in short supply, let's say.
So you kind of tend to connect with one person, especially who can constantly give you that support when you're in that same kind of season of life.

00:16:50 - Maelisa Hall
Yeah, totally. And I think in some ways we're both... in the same season of having one business and then starting up something new and getting interested in other mediums like podcasting and stuff like that. I mean, I don't have anybody else who would want to do a podcast with me, not because I'm not worthy of doing a podcast with, but because other people just, I don't know, aren't as obsessed with stuff as we are.
So it's pretty cool that we can get super obsessive together and- Talk about all of that. But then also, you know, talk about random emotional stuff or how life gets in the way too. And I think that's how it's a little bit different than having like an accountability partner or something like that because sometimes it's just about, oh...

You know, this life struggle, like dealing with stress from home or even like health stuff or whatever it might be.

00:17:47 - Amber Hawley
Absolutely. And, you know, I think a lot of what I, when we go places and talk to other people, then a lot of what we hear about too is people who say, you know, my partner or my spouse, they don't really get it. They're, they just, they don't really understand it.
And so they kind of feel like they're alone. And so definitely those people for sure need somebody to, who can kind of be that support system for them. But even if your partner is supportive, I have one of the most supportive husbands in the world as far as my businesses go.
And, and yet I would wear him out if he had to listen to this stuff all the time. And I would say he still listens to it quite a fair amount because I am a talker, but it is nice to know that I don't want, I don't want that side of things to be taking over my business.

You know, my marriage and my relationship. So that's important too, to find that balance. So I think for anybody, it's a benefit, but especially if you feel like you don't have that in your life and a lot of people don't.

00:18:47 - Maelisa Hall
Yeah. Yeah. And I would agree that I have really always felt that appreciative that I have always had that social support, even from almost day one of being an entrepreneur. So that has been huge because so many people talk about feeling lonely and I really have not experienced that, but I've also put a lot of effort into making sure I have that support ongoing and connecting with other people individually or in person or however I can.
And that's been huge. Absolutely.

00:19:17 - Amber Hawley
Yeah. And I think that's something that we do really well. And I know that even in my therapy practice, I help a lot of clients with that, whether or not they have a business, sometimes it's just about how do they reach out and make friends with people or build those, build that support network.
You know, it's a lot of people that live in the Bay area are transplants. And so they move here as adults and, you know, When you're an adult, it's harder to find people and connect with them. So I think that's a theme that's there for everybody, whether or not they're a business owner.
But then, you know, when you're a business owner, there's always work to be done. So it can be really easy to just go down the rabbit hole with that and never spend any time kind of building those connections and relationships. And, you know, networking is great and that's one level, but it's very different to have that person that you can call and get kind of feedback or support or even just talk out something that you're debating or kind of contemplating.

00:20:17 - Maelisa Hall
Yeah. Or share your wins too. Cause I know that's something where, you know, my husband is also super supportive and is willing to even like talk strategy with me for a little bit, you know, but for a little bit, right. There's always a time limit. And, and some of this stuff, he's always really supportive and happy for me, but he, unless it's something like making a certain amount of money in one day or something like that, he doesn't really get it for some of these other things.
Like, oh my gosh, I found this, you know, scheduling software that's amazing and look at all the things that it does. And it's like to explain to him how awesome it is, I then also have to explain to him like what Zoom is and how, you know, all these other things connect and then it just loses its message, right?

So it's awesome to have people that you can... do that with, you know, celebrate quick wins or small wins or big wins.

00:21:12 - Amber Hawley
Yes, absolutely. And, you know, the key to this is finding somebody who really does have your back. I think that's the important piece is really feeling that connection and that safety in that relationship. And so that's why we decided to do the podcast because we want to help other women and men, but achieve what we have because we find it so valuable.
And like I said, we're involved in a group. So that group of 10 women, it's nine of us total now. But the group of nine women, we are now doing that trip annually. This year, we went to San Diego for a week, which was amazing. Next year, we're going to Canada.
So that group too is like an extended support system. So we have the BizBestie relationship. We have this group, which we call ourselves the Mavens.

And that's a support group. It's not exactly a mastermind, but it's this tribe, if you will, of people who were very connected and we know each other really well. And especially as we continue to have those one week trips in person and we, and some of us have done because we're close, we live closer together.
We've done little mini GSDs where we go away for like three or four days and, and do the same thing. So we're building those relationships and knowing that we're getting the solid feedback from people whose opinion we trust and that have our best interest in mind is really important.
So we wanted to be able to share with people different ways to, you know, vet and cultivate those relationships and kind of all the different types of support systems that are out there. So I know we...

You know, we'll be talking about, like we said, the tribes, the BizBestie, masterminds, mentors, all of that. And how all of that, not only is it wonderful and makes you feel very supported, you know, emotionally and psychologically and as a person, but how it really does help you increase your profits and streamline your business as well.
They all go hand in hand. So that's really kind of our passion. And we want to help other women connect to those people in their lives too.

00:23:14 - Maelisa Hall
Yeah. And we're super excited. So... We have lots of awesome stuff planned, going way more in depth about all of those topics. And also I think for us, it's important making things actionable because we are business owners. We listen to business podcasts.
We watch videos and we love hearing when people are sharing a lot about their business, sharing how they're doing certain things, giving practical steps. So for us, that's going to be really important to do that on this podcast as well. One thing I'm really excited about is talking about personality types and we won't, you know, totally nerd out on you on the Myers-Briggs, but we will share how, you know, that can definitely be a really important factor when you're thinking about maybe why you don't connect with certain people or why you do click with certain people.

There are really common things that, you know, using the Myers-Briggs and knowing a little bit about yourself in that way, it doesn't take up a lot of time and it can help you tremendously.

00:24:15 - Amber Hawley
Absolutely. And, you know, like you said, we'll be getting into that and further episodes down the road in the season. But it really to have something like that, or to have kind of a foundation or structure helps you also depersonalize it. So instead of feeling rejected or feeling like, oh, man, this person doesn't like me, or I'm not connecting with any.
It's about understanding that you have to find the right people. You have to find your peeps. There's no way to please everyone or connect with everyone. That's not realistic. But it's still hard not to take that personally when you're in the depths of that rejection.
So I think our support will hopefully help people step out of that personalization part of it and be able to put themselves out there. For sure.

00:24:58 - Maelisa Hall
So we are super excited to share all this stuff and talk about and dig into this a lot more. We will be talking a lot about that this season and we are going to have seasons. So we will have lots of awesome information for you. Take a little bit of break and then jump back in in the spring of 2018.
which seems, I can't believe that's like that soon. But so yeah, so we'll take a little break and then we'll jump back in with the season two. But in the meantime, we do really hope that you show us some love and subscribe to the show so you can hear as the rest of season one episodes come out.
And Amber, did you have anything to add before we sign off here?

00:25:44 - Amber Hawley
I'm very excited for this. We think it's going to be, you know, we hope to offer a lot of value and help people really find that support system for themselves in business and in life. And you can subscribe via iTunes or whatever or Stitcher or whatever you use to listen to your podcast.
But you can also visit us over at MyBizBestie.com. or Facebook, Facebook forward slash MyBizBestie. So you can visit us in any way, but it would be great to subscribe or like us so that you can get notified of all the new episodes coming out and also drop us a message.
We'd love to hear from you.

00:26:19 - Maelisa Hall
Absolutely. Yeah. Tell us what you want to know more about and we will be happy to talk about it or get other people to talk about it if we aren't familiar with it. Absolutely. Cool. So subscribe, show us some love, and we will check you out on the next episode.
Thanks for joining us.