Caterina Rando on Building Thriving, Mission-Driven Businesses

GGGR with Caterina Rando – Final

SUMMARY KEYWORDS
women, people, workshop, work, masterminding, business, love, katerina, karen, retreat, clients,
payment plan, strategy, event, year, sales, mission, monetize, talk, today
00:00
Karen,
00:10
hello. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Good girls get rich podcast. I’m your host,
Karen yankovich, and I love when I get to bring beautiful, smart women to this show to introduce you
to just some of the really inspiring and powerful things that are happening in the world that other
women are doing with their businesses. So I’ve got Katerina Rando with us today. I’m going to bring
Katerina on right now. Hello, lady. How are you
00:43
fabulous? Happy to be with you. Yeah, me too. So Katarina is a woman on a mission to uplift the lives
of women everywhere through thriving entrepreneurship. She’s an author, a sought after speaker,
podcaster and business transformation coach who passionately serves women leaders and
entrepreneurs on a mission. Sound familiar? You guys, her over 25 years of educating and
empowering makes her truly masterful at providing a ton of value. She specializes in authentic,
selling, embracing, speaking to build influence and how to bliss in your business. Her books include
learn to think differently from Watkins publishing released in over 13 countries, in several languages,
a woman’s guide to starting a giving circle in her latest book, The ABCs of public speaking, which
quickly hit number one in four Amazon bestseller categories, Katerina is also the founder of the
thriving Women in Business Center in San Francisco, a place for women to gather and host
workshops. Plus she started thriving women in business giving, which raises money for women and
girls education and entrepreneurship training. I am so excited to be here. I mean, it’s almost like I can
reword this and make it my bio, which is not always what I’m looking for, right? But, but here’s the
thing, I know that you’re going to bring a different perspective to this and and people that are
listening, maybe people that have listened to many, many of our shows. I think this episode is going
to be somewhere like the high, like almost 300 like 290 baby. So in the high 200 like to the people
that have listened to many, many things, I know they’re going to hear something today that they
didn’t hear before, and that’s why I love having these conversations. So thanks so much for being
here with us today. I am so happy to be with you. I love talking about women getting wealthy. Oh,
you I mean both. I mean, I feel like there’s, you know, it’s one of the most important things in in my
life, right? Is to help more women have more money. Because I think that, you know, it’s something
that I’m uniquely qualified to help people with and more women with more money gives them more
choices and more freedom. Here’s my little if you’re not, if you’re watching this on the replay of like,
freedom is a big, a big tenant for me and and I think more money gives the opportunity to make
better make more choices, right, and have more choices in our lives. And I want more women to have
more choices, so I know that you are of the same mindset, yes. Well, what we also know is that
women invest in their communities. They invest in their children. They use their money for good.
03:10
So many women are on a mission, Karen, their missions need to be funded. They need they need
revenue to fund their missions. And that’s what I that’s why I say I serve women on a mission. I want
to support them to massively monetize so they can fulfill their missions more. Yes. And you know
when, when I talk to the people that I work with, right? Like, I remember, like, maybe last year, we
kind of went around, like, the Zoom Room in one of our group calls, and just like, What’s everybody
looking forward to in the upcoming year, and every single woman that it was in the room, and I didn’t
call it out till we were done, had a mission driven goal, not a monetary driven goal. But the reality is,
if we don’t have both, then we’re not going to be able to achieve our mission. So I feel like women
need to hear more about the ways to monetize this stuff so that they can serve more people with
their missions. Yes, and also, women need to learn how to or we want to support women to learn the
money management. And I don’t mean managing your stocks and your your investments. I mean
managing the money in our business, because when women don’t have financial surplus in their
business, it creates a lot of stress, and it’s really, it’s really the biggest stressor, and we want them to
be monetizing well and know their cash flow and know their revenue in the door so that they have
surplus to make those choices. So talk to me a little bit more about that. So you so so in the work that
you do. I love this conversation, by the way, because it is so true. So many women kind of almost
think dollars for hours. You know, I have the six figure business, and I’m like.
05:00
Like, whoa, like, that’s just not enough money, you know, and not that you not that. I think every
woman needs to be a millionaire, though, although you should, you could be. I think that. And it isn’t
even about overcharging. It’s about creating a system in your business, and creating a business plan
that allows for your cup to be overflowing so that you can serve from that overflow. And if we’re
thinking about, well, you know, I mean, I’m thinking about a conversation I had with a woman just
today who was talking about,
05:30
you know, I don’t know how much her program is, but let’s hear programs $2,000 right? And she was
saying, Well, I add, if I do a payment plan, I add 5%
05:38
to that. And I was like, that’s not enough money, like that’s you’re losing money, then for people that
are because, you know, when you invariably, somebody’s credit card is going to need to get changed
and you need to do that work, or maybe the payment won’t go through and they have to, you know,
make some updates. There’s literally physical, like, time consuming things that happen when you
have people on a pay on people on a payment plan. Sometimes you don’t have that, but often you
do, right? And but she was just trying to get, like, not over charge, you know? And I was like, I’m
actually thinking about the women that paid in full, thinking, Well, I would never pay in full if the
difference was only 5% because I can get 10% at the bank, right? So I’m going to keep my money in
the bank and give it to you in drips. So I think about the women that pay in full, that are actually
disadvantaged over the women that are on payment plans, right? And it’s it was all done from a
heartfelt place, but it was not considering the big picture of her business, right? Is that the kind of
thing you’re talking about? Well, that’s part of it. And I will say I love payment plans, because it gets
gets me to yes faster. I’m always, I’m always looking for, I’m happy to give a payment plan. And
here’s what I want to say, too. Related to this, a couple days ago, I decided to go to Thailand on a
retreat that one of my clients is hosting next year. And the reason I could be an Insta yes for her,
Karen, is because I look at the projections of my business over the next six months, and we have lots
of good revenue coming in the door. We’re covering our expenses. Everybody’s getting paid, and that
allowed me to make that choice. A lot of women don’t know what’s happening in three months and
six months. Yes, they might have money in the bank today, but they’re not paying attention to cash
flow projections. They’re not having I talked to a wonderful gal earlier today. She she wants to make
$80,000 for the rest of the year, but she doesn’t have a plan to do it. So when we think of money, we
think often of sales. But sales is not just the conversation. It’s when are you going to do? What? What
are you going to do to get there? It’s the strategy behind it. And I’ve really found over the years that
so many women are so interested in serving, which is great, right? They’re not looking at what’s the
strategy that’s going to allow them to serve with ease well? And I love you know, you mentioned this
earlier about the stress that this brings, and I know that you highlight the importance of bliss in your
business, right? Yeah. So if we’re a service based business owner, you know, we want to build more. We want to be able to say yes to Thailand, right? So, so what are some strategies that you
recommend to to help us kind of take those first couple steps to being able to look out six months and
12 months and see what kind of projections we have. Well, the first strategy, which, which is on my
brain, because I just talked to a different gal about it before,
08:48
is that, you know, marketing and sales are not the same thing. Oh, amen. Marketing is letting the
world know you exist. Sales is inviting people to be your client or companies and having a
conversation with them. And the best strategy I like to use, and have taught for years, works for me,
works for all my clients, is every month host a workshop, so you always have something to invite
people to where you can build influence. But the guiding principle. And I run my business on guiding
principle. Guiding Principles is at the thing, which is your workshop. You always offer the next thing,
and the the next thing is more of an investment of both time and money.
09:35
And when you do that, and you keep giving people massive value, they will keep coming back. This
relates to strategy, because I like to say the second sale is the most important sale. When you do a
great job with the first sale, however long it takes you to get that sale, the second sale will happen
like Insta, because they got.
10:00
Value the first time. So let me, let me take a step back on this, because this is a really great strategy.
So I love the always have something to invite people to. Strategy is, and I know it could be different
for many people, but in your case, is the always have something to invite people to, a paid workshop
or a free workshop. Now, Karen, you and I were around pre pandemic,
10:22
pre pandemic, if it was alive and in person, on the ground, workshop, yes, there would be a fee.
10:31
Hey, though nobody has to leave their living room to come to your workshop, right? If I’m going to
offer a one hour free workshop, I’m not going to charge people to come to my one hour free
workshop. And the reason why I also love this is they don’t have to make a buying decision to come,
right? Because they don’t have to evaluate, is it going to be worth it? Well, the truth is, they’re going
to get massive value, but they don’t know that yet, because they haven’t spent any time with me
right then after they come now I have some influence, right and now I can invite them to a
conversation. I can invite them to the next thing. Now, if today, if I’m doing on the ground, live and in
person, also, because I do have a center, but we haven’t started those up again. Yes, it is going to be
a fee for live and in person, virtual allows us to not even have to charge. Got it? Got it? Okay, so, so
that’s really interesting, and I and I think it’s because there’s so many people that I talk to that have
these they think they think they have plans. Are they have these social media their social medias out
there, they’re being interviewed on podcasts and things like that. And I’m like, well, where’s How are
you turning this into, where are you, Monica, how are you monetizing this, right? And I love that
strategy, but you have to have that. Always have something to invite people to, right? Even if it’s, you
know, a lead magnet, right? But sometimes people don’t even really have that and, and also,
12:03
you know, I’m gonna kind of tag on this a little bit to say I actually feel like the world, so it’s middle of
2024, here that we’re recording this. I feel like people are more interested in more in deeper
connection, yes, and I am actually doing things like, and I’m just going to pull an industry out of the
hat, but if I’m going to be doing like a workshop for accountants, I’m going to create something
specific for accountants to say, come to this right. Because, you know, even if it’s networking events
right, like I think, and because we can do this right, many of our businesses allow for this, but being
really diving deeper into what’s really going to serve the audience that you’re going to be in front of
or with in that event, I think even it brings you even more credibility as you start to build out this
path, this monetization path. Well, what we want people to say is, we want them to say that’s for me.
Okay, yeah, so the more we can speak only to our ideal clients, yes, the more they’re going to show
up and they’re going to be the right people to work with us. I want to also point something out, yes,
lead magnets. Here’s my video series, here’s my ebook, here’s my blah, blah, blah. None of that is
interactive.
13:22
We want to see people’s smiles on the screen because we want to have them feel seen and heard
and valued and gotten by us. Now this is for those of us, Karen, that are in the personal service
and valued and gotten by us. Now this is for those of us, Karen, that are in the personal service
business we’re selling purses. Yes, we can showcase our purses. Nobody has to talk to us. But if we
want people to choose us to serve them, especially if we’re working with women, that’s my specialty. Working with Yeah, me too. Get that we genuinely care to get that we have rapport with them, and
they have to know that we know that we are the solution, and we have to communicate that all of
that is interactive, and that’s why workshops and speaking works so well, and often all of this
marketing access doesn’t work because it doesn’t communicate that we genuinely care.
14:28
So cool, so interesting, you know, yeah, that’s so interesting. And I, you know, when one of the it kind
of leads me to made me think of this, so I’ll just kind of share it. One of the strategies that I talk about
sometimes, if I’m talking at events for you know, or and certainly that I teach with my clients is, you
know, people say to me all the time, well, I don’t really know, how do I get leads on LinkedIn, or how
do I find these people? And I say to them, well, when was the last time you looked at your email list
and said, I wonder if I could find this person on LinkedIn and reached out to them that.
15:00
Way and said, Hey, Mary, you know I I’m so thank you so much for allowing me at your inbox.
15:06
You know you know more about me than I know about you, and I want to change that. You know, tell
me a little bit more about you and your and what you’re doing and what intrigues you about the work
that I do and and like something to start a conversation, these people have already expressed
interest in working with you, right? Why should they be faceless people on your email list while you’re
emailing them a million times and complaining that nobody’s opening your emails or clicking or
whatever? Let’s take these people that have expressed interest by getting our whatever it is that
brought us them to their email list at whatever level of connection that is, and add that interactivity
to it, right? So you don’t, it doesn’t always have to be that. It’s great when you can start with
interactivity, because I love what you’re doing. But I think we can also layer that on. You know, when
there is no opportunity for that, it’s just a matter of thinking, again, deeper connection versus right,
wider connecting, right? And you can do that with your email list. You can, if you have a good CRM,
you can see how many emails they’ve opened Exactly, Exactly, yep, right? And and see what I would
do, Karen is I would invite those people to have a conversation with me, yep, or invite them. I would
say, Do you want to have a conversation? Or would you like to come to my next workshop? If I see
that they haven’t come in a while, because it is nice to build influence with 30 people at once and not
have to or 20 people or 10 people, and not have to do the calls until after we’ve built influence. But as
you say, if they’re on your email list, you already have influence with them, but they’re not engaging
and often with that personal request that you’re suggesting, that person will reach out. They will now
engage with us exactly. And you know what they’re going to say, they’re going to say, I’ve been
thinking about you, I’ve been following you, I’ve been watching you.
16:52
But it’s only when we make the personal request that then a decision is forced, right for them to
choose to connect with us. So I know that you I want to get to events with you, because I know that
that I really want to hear what you have to say about that. But before we get to actual events, kind of
like that we’re talking about here, talk to me a little bit about masterminding, because a lot of I think
masterminding is such a powerful tool, especially for women who may have a little on, I don’t know,
imposter syndrome or just less confidence in delivering something and having, like being able to bat
the topic around with trusted a trusted group so powerful,
17:34
I learned the value of masterminding big time. Last year, I took some gals on a cruise. It was a retreat
cruise, and it was a retreat cruise on how to do women’s retreats. And we had activities. We had
programming and teaching sessions. We did excursions. And one afternoon I said to them, okay, my
friends come to my cabin this afternoon, I always get a mini suite has a sitting area so everyone fit.
And I said, come to my cabin this afternoon. We’re going to mastermind for 90 minutes before we go
to dinner. We were there for seven and a half hours. Oh my gosh, I get that. I love that. I kind of wish I
was there. Yeah. Well, you come next time. Yeah. Maybe that really showed me, you know what they
wanted to do. They wanted to ask each other’s opinions. They wanted to share ideas they wanted.
And you know what else happened? They encouraged each other. Yep. They said, Well, what about
this, and what about this? And as a result, oh, and by the way, at the end, when I said to them, what
part did you like the most, not any of those things I had painstakingly make awesome. It was the
masterminding that they liked. I have the exact I had the exact same experience with an event that I
did the exact same experience the last day, I said, All right, we’re gonna mastermind today. And
everybody was like, This is what I came here for. This is what I was waiting for. I’m like, really all
those other things, yeah, right, right, so and so. You know, the market tells you what they want, right?
And that’s why we always include masterminding in all of our programs these days, because that’s
really what women want, yeah? Yeah. I love that. I love that, you know, I I think it’s it definitely, it
allows us to kind of just get out of our brain and take in what works for us that other people like, you
know, and even for me, like, I think, I think I have a pretty good brain for strategy. I love strategy, and
it’s one of my favorite things to do. But I’m not the know, all end all of strategy. And my with to the
people that I work with, you know, I love when there’s some lateral learning, and everybody else is
chiming in and thinking of this and offering that, you know. And I think that’s just such a it’s so
powerful, and it really is what leads to fast growth. Awesome.
19:56
All right, so tell us a little bit about your journey to creating.
20:00
This cruise event and other types of in person events that you’re doing. Well, here’s the thing, I love
doing retreats on cruise ships, because nobody can come late, nobody can leave early,
20:11
and that helps them stick together and build community on the retreat. We’re doing an event called
amp up, a mastermind cruise for women podcasters, speakers and business leaders, and what we’re
going to do is have 60 gals on the ship. We’re going to be masterminding. We’ll have some
going to do is have 60 gals on the ship. We’re going to be masterminding. We’ll have some
workshops, and we’ll have some women fun. We will have an afternoon tea with fascinators, and we’ll
have an accelerated Jewelry Exchange, which is all about making decisions quickly, and we’ll connect,
and it will be a transformational and uplifting and a business, business reigniting opportunity for
whoever chooses to join us, and the women will be The experts, because, as you know, Karen, women
are super smart, yeah, and we all have our special areas, our superpowers that we can share and
teach the other women about.
21:12
That’s so brilliant. That’s so brilliant. So what? What brought you to creating these in person events
versus, I mean, I know, I know. Let’s just take covid out of the picture, right? Because you’ve been
doing these for longer than a few years, right? Yeah. So what brought you to actually bringing women
together? Because it’s not, you know, there’s a, there’s if there’s, I know, there’s women listening,
because I get this question a lot, you know, Evergreen versus, versus launches, I, if, I, if you create an
event, you need a certain number of people, so that adds a little bit level of stress to your marketing.
Tell me a little bit about that process for you. Well, we have different things like amp up is is one
week, and it’s an event, and we’ll have three connection calls ahead of time, and there’s some
bonuses. That’s but that’s the the whole thing. Then we have other programs. I do my year long
mentorship program, which includes a cruise retreat, but it’s part of the program, so it’s not a
standalone and then I do speaker retreats at my center, which are also part of the year long program.
And then they come for a week for the speaker intensive part the speaking intensive. And so really,
there’s a variety of models that women can use. The biggest mistake I find women make is that they
want people to come away to a location, and they’re not giving them enough time to get get their life
together. So next month or the month after is a little too soon, right? I like to say, for every day of the
retreat, you need a month. If it’s a one day, maybe you could do it next month. But if it’s a two day or
a three day or a seven day, you better start very early to have people be able to clear their calendars
and make the investment. But such good advice. And then you offer payment plans, because you
talked about how much you like payments. Much you left right? Sendo, yes, yeah, yes. Because,
because I want to make it easy for women to say yes, and if it’s not in their budget, sometimes they
can’t just write a check. And as you know, I’m going to whatever program they’re in, we’re going to
work on their massive monetization, because not everybody’s brain works that way. Karen yankovich,
like I’ve got this lovely lady. She’s a stylist, and it’s her, you know, after she retired, this is her new
career. She likes to help the ladies look good. She was never in sales, and so here she is, late in life,
and she’s trying to start a business, and she’s great at the styling, but doesn’t know about the sales.
And that’s, I’ve got another client, and you can times that times, I would say 90% of the women
entrepreneurs out there, they’re great at their craft, yes, right, but they but it. But if you don’t at least
understand that you need to master the sales piece of it, right? To be working at Macy’s, you know, to
cover the bills, right? My friend, and we definitely don’t want anybody doing that, right? You know, I
love to say to them, stay don’t go back to the darkness. Stay in the light. Stay in your own business.
Stay in the light.
24:17
Oh, my goodness. So, okay, so beyond the events itself. What resources or advice do you offer to the
anybody listening here today that are women running service based businesses and are looking to
take their ventures up to the next level, because that is the prime audience that we reach here. Yeah.
So one of the things to recognize is that women do want to be with other women, and what you can
do to facilitate that having you know, I used to feel like all I had to do was open the door and say hello
and say thank you, when, when they left, and they would tell me what a great event it was. I mean,
that’s really they want to be together, and you also want to look for other events that you can
facilitate that allow them to mastermind together, or allow them.
25:00
To network or simply get away. That’s why I’m a big proponent of retreats. And retreats as a rinse and
repeat strategy every year that your clients can keep coming back to is definitely a good business
strategy for whatever business you’re in. They want to come they want to get together, and they
want to go off, and then they want to come back. So that’s and the thing is, I remember we said, at
the thing you want to offer, the next thing, at the next thing you want to offer, the next thing, and if
it’s an annual something, or even twice a year, that’s going to keep your clients coming back. And we
want to look at our business as not just getting clients, but getting long term and lifelong clients. So in
addition to outstanding service, we want to provide outstanding client care, and we want to also have
some client appreciation. Women love the appreciation, and we want to speak all five of the love
languages to our clients, words of affirmation, gifts, quality time. That’s extra special, something that
you do for them, physical touch, blow them a kiss, give them a hug. And also the last thing is acts of
service, right? So all of those things women appreciate and we want to do for them in our business,
and that will help them keep coming back also, oh my gosh, so powerful. Well, we’re going to share. We’ll share, definitely share links to your amp up event, and to your workshops and to your podcast.
So it’ll all be in the show notes. You guys don’t have to take notes or worry about that. We’ll make it
really easy for you to find all of that. But in the meantime, as a successful entrepreneur yourself,
what’s one piece of advice you would go back and tell your younger self when you were first starting
out in your business?
26:51
Well,
26:53
my younger self, I would tell start getting mentorship a lot earlier. I would I would go to a lot of
seminars. Karen and I would go to Association conferences. But it wasn’t until I was about 10 years in
my business that I started signing up for mentorship programs that really made a huge difference.
This idea that we’re supposed to do it on our own is ridiculous. We thrive more together. That’s the
first thing. I think that’s a corporate tenant like I think, when I was in corporate I thought, you buy the
book, you take the course, you know what you’re doing. I didn’t realize how valuable coaching or
mentoring was going to be for my business, right? And I had a business coach in my first business,
which is, I had a cafe, but programs where you’re with other people, where you have support, where
you make friends, connections, you get clients, collaborations. That is significantly powerful, more
than just a one on one. I always encourage people to sign up for the group rather than a one on one,
because I think they get so much more Well, that’s what I would have started 10 years earlier. And
the other thing is, I would have recognized earlier that it’s all about determination, that you have to
take your disappointment because there’s going to be disappointment du jour, and you’ve got to turn
it into determination, and determination wins every time. Oh my gosh, so true. And I love that. And
determination, I would, I would like to say doesn’t necessarily mean you have to work 20 hours a day.
It just means you have to be, you have to be, you just have to not give up, yep, like, you have to
embrace the Okay, that didn’t work. It doesn’t mean it’s not going to work. It means I have to change
something. Like, what do I have to change? Because this works. I just haven’t figured out how yet,
right? And that, to me, is how I would describe that I love, that. I love always be upgrading. I would
say, always be upgrading. And you’re you Karen, you like strategy and determination is a lot about
what’s the strategy that will get me there. Awesome, awesome. So how can people kind of take a dip
their toe into the world of Catarina Rando, well, thank you so much for asking. The easiest way to dip
your toe is to come and hang out with me for one of my upcoming free virtual workshops. We have
them on sales, on speaking, on doing retreats. Other hot topics. Go to my website,
katarinarando.com,
29:22
and that’s C, a T, E, R, I N, A R, a n, d, o.com, and all of our free events are there. Also, I got a ton of
free resources for you on getting booked on checklists for your business, and feel free to reach out to
me, because I’m always happy to talk to any amazing gals who want to get richer on their mission.
Everybody needs to do that. Everybody needs to do that. Katerina, this has been so great. Thank you
so much for being here today, and for those of you guys that are listening, if you got some value out
of this today, if you felt like this is something that you enjoyed, or that maybe you the naughty.
30:00
Instance of people that would enjoy this conversation right now, stop what you’re doing. Take a quick
screenshot of this episode wherever you’re listening. Share it on social media. Media, tag me, tag
Catarina. We will both see that. Share it with our audiences, because we want to lift you up right. And
then we can do that is if we know you’re listening right, and that’s how we know, and that’s how we
can, you know, get your name in front of our audiences, and then we’re all, you know, it’s kind of like
that rising tide that lifts all boats, right? So we, I would love for you to do that, of course, you know,
I’d love for you to subscribe to the show or on wherever it is you’re listening to it, so you don’t miss
any other episodes. And you know,
30:40
we’ve got lots of ways to survive. Got lots of ways to support you as well with the kinds of things that
we’re talking about here. And they’ll there’ll be links in the show notes. We’ve got a community of
women that where we can support free community. Happy to jump on a quick call with you, which
you can grab again at the links below.
30:59
You know we’ve got an assessment, LinkedIn quiz.com, get you to the assessment to get started. Whatever’s gonna whatever’s gonna work best for you, and I’m doing all the things they tell you not
to do, right one call to action right now I want you to do what’s gonna float your boat, right? So
whatever it is that we can support, that I can support you with, I’m happy to do that, and I’m just so
grateful that you’re listening. I’m so grateful that Katerina agreed to join us here today, and we’ll see
you back here next week. Bye.