Sometimes you come across those people in life who completely blow your mind....and Julie Stoian is one of those people. Julie is a full-time digital marketing consultant and tech coach, web designer and blogger, trainer and teacher, making her mark on the Internet with several blogs and websites.
An award winning lifestyle blogger as well, she was chosen as Anderson Cooper's blogger of the day in 2012 and appeared on Anderson Live several times, as well as BBC World Have Your Say.
She's been interviewed in the New York Times and Washington Post regarding social media, and runs several successful groups and workshops for entrepreneurs who need help with online tech and strategy. Off the Internet, she is a mom of four (what?!) a musician, foodie, and theater buff.
This woman's story is crazy you guys, and I can't wait for you to hear all about her journey and what she's built because I guarantee you'll be inspired, you'll learn a ton and fall in love with her just like I did. So, let's jump in!
Listen + subscribe on iTunes // Stitcher
Julie's Boss Mom Journey
Julie's boss mom journey begins with her being young, married and having three babies back-to-back. She stayed home with her kids, taught piano, started a blog that became popular, ended up opening a social media management and design business and life was good....until it wasn't anymore.
One day Julie found herself in an unfortunate situation where she was getting divorced, newly pregnant (with someone else) and needing to figure out how to pick herself up and push forward through all of it.
She married her baby daddy, amicably divorced her ex-husband and the rest is history.
From 2014-2016 she did "the hustle," getting a part-time job and building her marketing and sales funnel business up all while being pregnant, getting divorced and raising her three kids. (C-R-A-Z-Y!)
As a result of all her hard work and determination to show up and do what needed done, her marketing business exploded and now she's moved into doing more mentorship and coaching for other women who want to do service based businesses like she had.
(Oh, and ps - she's now happily married to her post-divorce baby daddy and amicably split from her ex-husband, for those that want to know!)
What to Do to Make Building a Business Work
Obviously there's a lot that goes into making a business work, and everyone has a unique perspective. For Julie, it was all about just getting in there and doing what needed to be done.
She recognized that in order to bring home the bacon she needed to not get hung up worrying about all the things that often keep business owners stuck (logos, proposals, contracts, etc).
“I was under such a tremendous amount of stress to provide for my kids I was literally like, “Go find people with problems and fix them. Like, that’s all I need to do. And then charge money to fix them. I didn’t care about niche, and I didn’t care about official contracts, I just found people with problems and I made friendships and I built relationships and I fixed their problems and then they paid me and then they liked and then they told more people about me.” (9:59)
She also dedicated herself to increasing her skillset and learning as many new things as she could to make herself more valuable.
Navigating Transitions in Business
Julie got her start as a writer and designer, which are two critical skills you need to effectively build sales funnels and do marketing.
When she realized those skills work well together she started offering marketing services to her clients (which she still does to this day!)
One day one of her clients came to her because she wanted to launch a VA training course and knew all about the business development side, but couldn't offer as much expertise with on the skillset side as Julie. They decided to go in on the venture 50/50 and it ended up doing really well because people were hungry for it.
After Julie had her first high-level success earning a client six figures in two weeks with a launch and funnel she'd built, she was officially "on the map" and she started working less with service clients and doing more mentoring and coaching, which is what she primarily does now.
Why Do You Need a Funnel?
Because the space is so crowded, the internet is so crowded, that if you don’t have a funnel the likelihood of your success is minimal at best.
“You have got to put blinders on your leads and the only way to do that is with a sales funnel. A sales funnel is far more important than a website in this moment of the internet, because if someone’s finding you on Instagram and they click on your Instagram bio and they go to your website they’ve got 500 choices. If you put the entrance of your funnel as your Instagram bio, all of a sudden there’s only one thing they can do and that is give you their email address and that is exactly what you need because from there you can show them exactly what they need to do to become your customer.” (25:37)
The blinders are because there are so many shiny objects, if you don’t direct your leads where they need to go they won’t get there as easily.
“The idea is everyone should be building a brand and a system and a funnel that attracts your ideal customer and repels everybody else.” (27:34)
Referenced in the Show:
(Just FYI, some of these links may be affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase using the links I may receive some love in return!)
Sponsor Spotlight: Trello
Have you been introduced you to what I call my “work wife” yet? If not, let me make the introduction. Meet Trello– the magical unicorn of amazingness that allows me to run my life, business and team with ease without completely and totally losing my mind (what’s left of it anyway).
I believe every person with a life, home and business needs an awesome (and free!) place to manage their projects, schedules, homes and teams and keep everything important in their lives in one central spot that can be revisited time and time again while giving access to anyone else that needs it.
I love and believe in Trello so much that I created a super amazing, in-depth (free!) training that gives you a behind-the-scenes look into how exactly I use Trello to keep everything working like a well-oiled machine. Check it out here. I promise your life will never be the same.
Connect with Dana & Julie
We love hearing from you!
If you’ve got a question about today’s episode or want to leave us some inbox love, you can email us at hello@boss-mom.com. Or, you can always find Dana hanging out in her happy place, the Boss Mom Facebook Community.
We would also LOVE it if you’d leave a podcast rating or review for us on iTunes! We know it can be kind of tricky to figure out, so here are a few step-by-step instructions on how to leave an iTunes rating or review for a podcast from your iPhone or iPad.
- Launch Apple’s Podcast app.
- Tap the Search tab.
- Enter the name of the podcast you want to rate or review.
- Tap the blue Search key at the bottom right.
- Tap the album art for the podcast.
- Tap the Reviews tab.
- Tap Write a Review at the bottom.
- Enter your iTunes password to login.
- Tap the Stars to leave a rating.
- Enter title text and content to leave a review.
- Tap Send.
