Expand Your Fempire Podcast #164 Transcript

 

Episode #164: Turning Business Chaos into Clarity with Elaine Turso

 

Welcome to Expand your Fempire with Caterina Rando, the podcast for women in business on a mission. Sharing ideas to support you to grow and thrive. Now here’s your host, Caterina Rando.

[00:00:00] Welcome to Expand your Fem Empire with Katerina Rando, the podcast for women in business on a mission, sharing ideas to support you to grow, lead, and thrive. Now, here’s your host, Katerina Rando.

Caterina Rando: Welcome to another episode of the Expand Your Fempire podcast. I am Blissing to be with you today because I have the most amazing gal with me, Elaine Turso. Many of you already know her. We are gonna hear from her today. She has done so many amazing things. She’s the queen of marketing. She’s the queen of doing your own summits to grow your business.

She’s fabulous gal all around. Elaine, I am Blissing [00:01:00] to have you with us today.

Elaine Turso: Thanks for having me. So excited.

Caterina Rando: Elaine, you I know have been an entrepreneur for a long time. I would like to hear a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey from first entrepreneur activity. To where you are now.

Elaine Turso: Are you ready? ’cause you’re not even gonna believe how I wound up here.

Caterina Rando: Tell me,

Elaine Turso: Okay, so it was 2001. I had just had a baby and I thought it was a really great idea to start a business. I, I decided I wanted to make scrapbooks for other people. And then, um, in 2009 my husband said, “you should do photography.”

And I’m like, “no.” And then became a photographer and I did that for 10 years. Retired, thankfully right before COVID, I don’t know what I would’ve done. Right. That would’ve been a whole major pivot.

Caterina Rando: Right?

Elaine Turso: And then I decided I really wanted to help other business owners. So I started doing business coaching and then by accident discovered a way to help my client [00:02:00] and it actually flipped my business completely. I don’t wanna say upside down, but expanded the possibilities of how I could help people. And I am what I like to call in my “zone of genius.” So it is a thing that brings me joy. It soothes my A DHD brain ’cause I’m doing something different all the time. Love it.

Caterina Rando: Okay. Now you said you’re in your zone of genius.

Elaine Turso: Yep.

Caterina Rando: Let’s be very clear, what is your zone of genius?

Elaine Turso: My zone of genius is I give businesses a makeover, and I do that using websites, branding and their CRM, and we mash it all together and I make their business beautiful based on where they want to be, not where they currently are. So we build it all on their values, on their customer journey, on that experience they really wanna provide.

And we build it based on all of that. So we make decisions together based on where they wanna be. So I kind of tell them, I’m, I’m gonna burn your business down, but in the most amazing way ’cause it’s gonna be built [00:03:00] up in so beautiful. Because now that we know what we know, what could we do differently?

Caterina Rando: I love it. I love it. Elaine, I wanna talk more about all this, but I wanna pause here.

Elaine Turso: Yeah.

Caterina Rando: I wanna shine the spotlight on one thing. You are the queen of positivity. You are also very smart, very masterful at your thing. And I’m what I, oh, a thought came in my head. You know, I want people to create a criteria for the vendors that they work with.

Elaine Turso: Yeah.

Caterina Rando: Meaning the people that they choose to invest with, like someone who’s gonna help them with their business. Everybody, I want you to have a criteria. You are looking for positive people. You are looking for experienced people. You are looking for people with the same values as you.

Elaine Turso: Yeah,

Caterina Rando: And Elaine, I think that you operate with integrity, which is one of my top values. You are very community- minded. You are also a great [00:04:00] girlfriend, which we’re gonna talk about more, all of these things.

So everybody, I’m just side barring here to say, I really want you to make sure you have a criteria for the vendors that you invest with, because that is gonna have you blissing much more in your business.

Okay. Elaine, I wanna hear from you. You, you said websites, you said CRM, , you’re gonna burn it to the ground, you’re gonna build it back up. Let me start with one and then I’m gonna ask for number two and three, but let’s start with one. What’s the biggest misstep that you see from women in business?

Elaine Turso: Running their business on a spreadsheet.

Caterina Rando: Meaning not having a CRM.

Elaine Turso: Not having a CRM, they’re operating in a spreadsheet. They’re using over five different tools or softwares.

Caterina Rando: Right.

Elaine Turso: Not including Zoom and Canva.

Caterina Rando: Right.

Elaine Turso: Everything is in… it’s duct taped together.

Caterina Rando: Yeah.

Elaine Turso: [00:05:00] And that was me. I called myself a hot mess express because I was. I felt I was trying how do, how, how can I possibly grow my business when I’m using all of these tools on the free level? Because I was too cheap to invest in it. And once I put on my big girl panties, and Kajabi was my first big girl investment, and then all of a sudden things started changing. Because I invested in a software.

Caterina Rando: Beautiful. And Elaine, I wanna underscore here. I wanna say my friends, you gotta run your business like a business.

Elaine Turso: Yes.

Caterina Rando: You cannot run your business. I love that you use the analogy of the, the duct tape or the metaphor of the duct tape.

Elaine Turso: Yeah.

Caterina Rando: You cannot run your business on a shoestring. Your business is a business. It is a business. That means you run it like a business. What’s do businesses do? They invest in [00:06:00] resources. They invest in great vendors. They invest in systems and software and people.

And part of the challenge, I’m, I’m gonna say, one of the biggest challenges I see, and I agree with you, absolutely gotta run our business like a business.

The other thing is gals are trying to do everything themself.

Elaine Turso: Yes.

Caterina Rando: And as a result, their businesses are not growing.

Elaine Turso: Yep.

Caterina Rando: And they’re also doing the things that are not their job. If you’re not a bookkeeper, what are you doing books for? If you’re not a graphic designer, what did, what are you doing all that stuff for?

Elaine Turso: Yep.

Caterina Rando: Spending their day on Canva and they’re not getting any clients. Okay.

Elaine Turso: Yep. Soapbox.

Caterina Rando: That’s a pain point for me, my friend. I’m sorry.

Elaine Turso: Yes.

Caterina Rando: Let’s get back to you. What is another challenge that you see that we wanna shine the spotlight on a misstep for the women in business?

Elaine Turso: A whole lot of manual labor that is unnecessary. Mm-hmm.

So what I mean by that is I was talking with a gal, she’s like, I’ve sent the same email [00:07:00] manually eight times. I’m like, “stop doing that.” I’m like, you know, we could automate that for you. Right? She’s like, really? I’m like, yes, no more manual labor.

Caterina Rando: Well, what you’re also shining a spotlight on Elaine, is that in business, people don’t know what they don’t know.

Elaine Turso: Yes.

Caterina Rando: And because you are an expert at Go high level, I know that’s the software that you use.

Elaine Turso: Yep,

Caterina Rando: and because you’re an expert at branding and an expert at websites, by the way, people, please don’t be building your own websites. Makes me cry whenever somebody tells me that.

Because you’re an expert all that. You know, what are the capabilities? You know…

Elaine Turso: yes.

Caterina Rando: What, and even if you, somebody says, well, we can’t do that, but you got a solution for that. ‘Cause this is not your first rodeo.

Elaine Turso: Yep.

Caterina Rando: You have built gazillion websites already. You have already helped a ton of clients integrate with this software.

And this is the challenge. People, [00:08:00] not only are they missing out because they’re doing what they’re not supposed to be doing, but they’re also missing out on the expertise of somebody they could just invest with a little bit.

Elaine Turso: Yep.

Caterina Rando: Even like, it doesn’t have to be, you could even, someone could pay you for a consultation.

Elaine Turso: Mm-hmm.

Caterina Rando: And save them a lot of money. But of course they’re gonna wanna hire you after that because you have massive value. And, and you are, you’re gonna do it for them. And that’s the other…

enough with the do it yourself…

Elaine Turso: yep.

Caterina Rando: Okay. People hire a professional. Okay. I think this is, this is gonna be a theme for us today, Elaine, because you’re hitting my challenge areas that I see too much of the ladies doing. . Gimme one more. Give me one more.

Elaine Turso: I would say, well, the DIY right? So trying to do it all yourself because you don’t know what you don’t know. And I tell people, would you rather spend five hours in Canva? Or pay someone that it takes them 30 minutes. How is your time best spent?

Caterina Rando: Right?

Elaine Turso: [00:09:00] And I tell people, “listen, if you’re gonna hire somebody, you need to replace what you would be doing yourself. You hire somebody now you freed yourself up to do income producing activities.”

Caterina Rando: Right? Exactly.

Elaine Turso: And now you’re gonna make money to generate, to pay for the person to do it for you.

Caterina Rando: Right.

Elaine Turso: So you can’t just delegate it and then keep doing stuff that you’re not supposed to be doing right. So hire the person and now replace that and, and add income producing activities. And stop trying to DIY all of this stuff. Because like you said I hire a CPA to do my taxes ’cause I don’t wanna go to prison. That’s not my zone of genius.

Caterina Rando: Right,

Elaine Turso: and I jokingly say she keeps me from wearing prison orange. Because the reality is, is that that’s not my zone of genius.

So I happily, happily pay somebody to do that thing and relieve that stress for me. So why are we spending time doing something that we don’t love, that we don’t? [00:10:00] That doesn’t bring us joy, that causes us frustration. That makes us wanna throw the computer out the window because it’s not doing what we want it to do.

It’s because you don’t know the things that you don’t know, and that’s okay. But let me do it for you and then I’ll teach you how to do it, and you’ll have the support of me to say, how do I do that? So the, the phrase I love to use is, who not how?

Caterina Rando: Right.

Elaine Turso: So who can do this for me instead of how do I do it? Who can do it for me? And gladly pay them for that time because you’re going to get so much time back so you can spend time in your zone of genius, which is serving your clients. That’s why you’re in business.

Caterina Rando: Well, it’s also selling my friend, because…

yeah

…the other challenge that I see so much is Mary, Jane, and Sheila are spending all that time doing all those things that are not their job, and then they’re complaining “I have no clients.” Well, of course you got no clients because you’re not talking to anybody about being your client.

Elaine Turso: Yeah.

Caterina Rando: Because you’re conflating [00:11:00] marketing and sales and you’re doing all the marketing activities yourself. I mean, I’m gonna say, this is my thing. Nobody cares who made that flyer, who created that graphic, who built your website. They care that it doesn’t look schlumpy, dka, and that it’s a good website, right?

Elaine Turso: Yep, yep.

Caterina Rando: He is gonna ask you and say, did you build your own website? Because guess what? They don’t probably wanna hire you if you built your own website because that’s not what they’re hiring you for..

And the more women recognize marketing is not our job. It’s our job to work with marketing professional, to help create the strategy that we want for our business. But the delivery of marketing is not our job.

If we are a, a coach, a consultant, if we’re running a brick and mortar, marketing is not our job. That’s why people need someone like you on their team. I know you agree, my friend.

Elaine Turso: Yes, ma’am.

Caterina Rando: I’m gonna jump to another topic because I know you’re a marketing queen, and I knew you when you were a photographer [00:12:00] also. Amazing photographer. But the thing I love about you, Elaine, one of the many things I love about you, and I’m blissing to know you, is that you have done such a great job of standing out.

Now you stand out – you’re loud and proud, which I love, which I love. But you don’t stand out like over the top. Okay.

You stand out, beautiful, fabulous, alluring because you have such clarity on who you are, but also matching that and being strategic about your brand.

Elaine Turso: Mm-hmm.

Caterina Rando: Now, before we push the recordo button, you showed me your friend tattoos, which unfortunately we cannot show on audio, but you can show them on video and I maybe we’ll put the video here or they can reach out to you to see all your amazing tattoos for friends. But I want you to talk a little bit about friends. [00:13:00] And when we’re talking about friends, we’re talking about the TV show “Friends.”

Elaine Turso: Yep,

Caterina Rando: also, how have you incorporated this with your brand? Because this is a unique thing about you. And I always like to say, “amplify your authenticity.” Mm-hmm. What is that fun, unique thing about you? And you’ve done a great job of that. Share with our people.

Elaine Turso: So “Friends” has become my thing. It’s one of those things that it’s been a part of my life since it was on television in the nineties, right? it’s on re rerun every day in my house. I watch it every night before I go to bed. I’m not even joking. My husband will tell you

Caterina Rando: Wow.

Elaine Turso: Friends again? I’m like, yes, it’s my comfort show that I used to fall asleep so that I don’t murder my husband because he snores. I watch Friends to save his life.

Caterina Rando: I hear, okay, I get it. I get it. Now you have to, you have to have a little uplift

Elaine Turso: Yes., Yes, yes. So I have incorporated Friends into my branding. I have little stickers that have the yellow frame with my picture inside and it says, “I’ll be there [00:14:00] for you.” My business workbook that I use for my clients, it’s friends themed. It’s the Pivot Planner, right?

I’ve incorporated all kinds of little things throughout it. I did Friends themed business bingo, I created the “Frenaissance.” I’ve created like so many things that are Friends themed. My Go High Level demo account is based on “Relaxi Taxi” as if Phoebe had a business.

And so everything I do, I am like, how can I incorporate Friends into this? I even created a quiz. Which Friend are you and what business would they have? Um, right. So Ross is a divorce force, right? He is a divorce attorney. Right? So everything that I do is very much about how can I incorporate this?

And it’s the thing that people know me for. So I kind of have a thought in my head of I know my brand is working when people send me Friends stuff and stuff with the F word. [00:15:00] Okay? Because they know that I love profanity, so I get stuff with the F word and I get friends things. People mail me things, “I saw this and thought of you.”

Caterina Rando: I love it.

Elaine Turso: Which tells me that my brand is working because they see friends and instantly think of me.

Caterina Rando: Now. Elaine. I love that. Here’s the other thing, you are having so much fun.

Elaine Turso: Yes.

Caterina Rando: And let’s be very clear listener of this podcast right now. Fun is alluring.

Elaine Turso: Yes, it is.

Caterina Rando: People want more fun people in their life.

Elaine Turso: Mm-hmm.

Caterina Rando: They want more positivo people in their life. And if you got an opportunity to hire the marketing person who’s with the buttoned up jacket and showing you the, the spreadsheet with the projections and the blah blah, and they’re giving you the blah blah and the blah, blah.

Or you can hire the gal who is super fun and is in love with [00:16:00] Friends.

If all things are equal, otherwise, which person are you gonna hire?

Elaine Turso: Right?

Caterina Rando: And I wanna say that because it’s important for us to recognize, you know, as women, we haven’t been doing business as many generations as guys. And business actually comes from a military model. And I’m gonna suggest that that’s not necessarily fun. But over here in business for ourself. We get to design our business any way we want.

Elaine Turso: Yes, we do.

Caterina Rando: The more we can infuse fun…

mm-hmm.

…the more people are gonna want to come and work with us.

Elaine Turso: Bing, bing, Caterina!

Caterina Rando: Thank you my friend, bing Bing. As a listener, I want you to think, “what can you do to infuse some authentic fun in your business?”

Elaine Turso: Mm-hmm.

Caterina Rando: Okay, my friend now. I know we could talk all day about Friends. I know we could talk all day about many things. I wanna [00:17:00] make sure we get in a little bit about the thing that I know you’re all lit up about these days which is gals using summits to grow their business and grow their lists. And you’re using it also to build your network and connect with amazing people. Build influence. Let’s have you talk a little bit about why are you so passionate and lit up about this?

Elaine Turso: So I did my first summit in 2021 the Level Up to Scale Up Summit. And I hosted it with my, with my bestie Paige. And then it just be kind of became this thing that I was like, you know what, “why don’t I keep doing this?”

Because I have decided, my intention when I host a summit is I wanna connect with other speakers. And so giving speakers a spotlight, but also spotlighting myself as an expert as well.

So like, it gives myself a stage, but I can also bring other people that I love to the stage with me and say, “Hey, let’s do [00:18:00] this together. Let’s meet new people. Let’s make a difference. Let’s give people ahas. Let’s give people an action, a takeaway, something that they can do to help grow their business.”

My stuff is always usually business themed and I took a little break for a little while and I came back and I feel like the whole summit industry changed and not for the better. So my whole purpose right now, I’m a girl on a mission is to disrupt the BS that these bro marketers have been teaching people about summits. And I’m like, “what are you guys doing? This is so icky. This is not how to do it.” I am not a fan. And I’m gonna, I’m gonna disrupt this and I’m gonna teach people how to do it the right way.

Caterina Rando: My friend. You’re making me bliss and I wanna underscore enough with the bro marketing in all areas of marketing.

Elaine Turso: Over it.

Caterina Rando: Over it. Totally. I am so sorry for all the gals who listen to some bro [00:19:00] marketer and invested their hard earned money and got absolutely nothing. I cannot tell you how many sob stories I have heard, Elaine, I’m sure you’ve heard them too.

Elaine Turso: Yes.

Caterina Rando: Invested $20,000, $30,000, $50,000 for absolutely nothing. I don’t wanna be depresso though, because you know, I don’t like to be depresso, so I like to be uplifto. And here’s what I wanna say related to this and you.

When I go to your summit, and thank you for having invited me to speak at your summits. When I go to your summit, I see smiles on the screen.

Elaine Turso: Yes.

Caterina Rando: Not only I see smiles on the screen, I don’t even see like just the box with the picture. Like gals are engaged in your summit. Yes. Yeah. And I wanna be very clear everybody. So I’m gonna tell you, Elaine, I love you. I will always be a yes for you, any summit you want me to do. I do not do most summits. Because I do not wanna do a prerecording that is gonna air at some point. [00:20:00] I got no lead capture. I can’t even take a screenshot. I got no smiles on the screen. I’m that why, why,

Elaine Turso: why?

Caterina Rando: Okay. Believe me, because you know me, I like metrics. And so I did that before and I would track. Here’s all my speeches I’m doing. Here’s all the summits I did when I tested this. How much action, meaning, how much new gals in the door did I get from summits? You know what it was? Eight summits. You know how many gals I got in the door from that? My friend?

Elaine Turso: How many

Caterina Rando: Zippo, zippo, zippo. Compared to give a speech, come home with at least one “insta-client”, if not two insta, if not more. I gave a speech on Tuesday, gal came up right after “Caterina. Gotta sign up for your speaker program.” That’s a big program. That’s one of our biggest programs, after a speech.

So, you know, I am so pro speaking. I am also pro Elaine [00:21:00] Turso’s method of summits, because not all summits are created equal. Okay? So I want you to share at least three of your Elaine Turso method for summits that are different than what we’re seeing out there all over the place.

Elaine Turso: Yes. So first things first. I do not charge my speakers to be a part of my summit. That has become one of the bro marketing techniques that I’ve seen. Not a fan. Because what I’ve noticed is that people, that it’s their first time hosting a summit. Mm-hmm. You should not be charging people to be a part of your summit.

Caterina Rando: I agree.

Elaine Turso: You should be practicing and building your audience and trial and error and all that other kind of stuff. Right.

Caterina Rando: Also, you got no track record. What the whatcha trying you got, you got no right to charge. You don’t even know if you’re gonna get any signups.

Elaine Turso: Yeah,

Caterina Rando: and also everyone overestimates. I did a summit last year, she said, [00:22:00] and it was not her first summit, but she said, we are gonna have 400 signups for sure. We got 400 last time. I’m thinking 400 last time is getting more. I don’t even think she got 20 signups.

Elaine Turso: Right.

Caterina Rando: So let’s be clear, the reason why I don’t like to charge for a lot of things is because now I have another client, you know?

Elaine Turso: Yep.

Caterina Rando: And, and I don’t wanna have unsatisfied people.

Elaine Turso: Yep.

Caterina Rando: Why? I love the way you do it, because if I’m investing, then I better for sure get great ROI.

Elaine Turso: Yep.

Caterina Rando: I’m doing it. You’re not charging me to do it. I’m excited just to be there, right?

Elaine Turso: Mm-hmm.

Caterina Rando: Beautiful. Okay, so that’s one thing, elaine, different you, let’s give couple things more different for you.

Elaine Turso: Yes. Transparency, full transparency from the very beginning. My speakers know exactly what I expect of them. They have everything. I over give. Okay? I create all the graphics. I give them an affiliate link so they can actually [00:23:00] earn money by getting people to the summit. I also give them a free VIP ticket that they can give away to one of their best clients. So that they have a familiar face on this screen, their biggest fan, supporting them at the summit.

I do speaker networking where all of the speakers, I invite them, and that’s the day the tickets go on sale. Why? Because their energy, they’re so excited. They just met all these new people , they just made new friends. They’re following each other on Facebook and Insta and all the things. That’s the day tickets go on sale because they’re so excited. The energy is high. They’re sharing, it’s infectious.

Caterina Rando: I love that and I wanna underscore that. That’s great strategy. My friends, it’s all about your strategy.

Elaine Turso: Yep.

Caterina Rando: Beautiful. Now Elaine, also, the other thing, okay, I want you to talk about this when I speak at your summit, as I mentioned that I love is the smiles on the screen, why do you do that as opposed to what all these other [00:24:00] bros are doing?

Elaine Turso: Because to me it’s all about human connection. And I feel like even in the times of AI, human connection is where it’s at right now. And yes, I can automate the hell outta stuff. However, human connection is what people connect to and crave and wanna be a part of.

Caterina Rando: Absolutely. And by the way, you know I’m the retreat mama.

Elaine Turso: Yep.

Caterina Rando: This is why women love retreats. They wanna be together. And see, the thing is if it’s no smiles on the screen, it’s simply education.

Elaine Turso: Yeah.

Caterina Rando: Some motivation, maybe some inspiration. But if you want to host a summit, you wanna create connection for the people that are coming with other people that are coming because that’s why they’re coming.

Elaine Turso: Yes.

Caterina Rando: Not just for some education. They can watch a video. If it’s a summit they do want to be engaging.

Elaine Turso: Yep.

Caterina Rando: I love that Elaine. So, so important. Anything else you wanna share? [00:25:00] I’ll take one more super tip for success with your summit.

Elaine Turso: Zero speaker shaming. I do not participate or subscribe to speaker shaming, which I was on the receiving end of.

Caterina Rando: I’ve never heard that term before.

Elaine Turso: Yes, girl.

Caterina Rando: I know I don’t like it, but tell me what it means.

Elaine Turso: So basically I was a part of a summit. I paid $200 to be a part of this summit, and they said, we’ll give you your money back if you get 20 people to sign up, whatever.

So I participate in the summit. It’s Friday before the summit. Starts on Monday, I get an email that says “You’re in the top three.” First of all, didn’t know there was gonna be a leaderboard or a competition, which felt really gross. I’m in the top three with two signups, okay? Then I get an email from some dude that says, “you have not gotten enough signups, but I’m on the top three over here, so. Hmm.” I’m like, you know what? [00:26:00] It felt really icky and I almost didn’t participate.

Caterina Rando: Right. My friend, I thank you for pointing this out because when somebody asked me to sign up for their summit, I actually like it when they’re charging the $200. Because I say to them, “I’m happy to pay my 200 bucks because I’m marketing 50 things right now.”

Elaine Turso: Yeah.

Caterina Rando: So I will just pay my 200 bucks. Okay.

Elaine Turso: Yeah.

Caterina Rando: But I do not wanna see a leaderboard. I do agree, that is speaker shaming that is not the way to make people feel good about working with us. I love that you pointed that out, that again, that is a total bro marketing approach.

Elaine Turso: It is.

Caterina Rando: ‘Cause, you know, here’s the difference. Bros…. and because we’re talking about bros in general. Okay. It is like, we’re not talking about any specific bros. We’re just like the bros that are not vibing. They’re doing competition.

Elaine Turso: Yeah.

Caterina Rando: And women do not vibe with [00:27:00] competition.

Elaine Turso: No, we don’t.

Caterina Rando: Okay. We vibe with collaboration.

Elaine Turso: And connection.

Caterina Rando: Connection, exactly. My friend took the words right outta my mouth. Collaboration and connection. And whatever we’re doing in our business, the more we can foster that, the better.

I wanna tell you, many years ago I was in a business program, and they had a speaker contest in the business program, and I was a finalist for the speaker.

Elaine Turso: Of course you were.

Caterina Rando: Thank you, my friend. The audience voted and the coach voted, which means the coach got the pick whoever she wants. I did not win. I know I did the best. So first of all, I did not feel good about that. Okay? But the second thing is that I said, “oh, well, let me try to do a speaker contest different in my community.”

Well, you know what? It was a competition. And there was a gal that won, and there was other gals that were very disappointed. And I decided I don’t want anybody [00:28:00] to feel disappointed, and so we never ever do competition anything ever anymore.

Even when, we play our bingo game. When we do our retreats, we play a bingo game and then some gals will rush up and they’ll say, “I filled it out first.” I say, “sweetheart, it’s not about filling it out first. You don’t win. We’re gonna just put ’em all in the basket and we’ll draw a winner.”

No competition. Women don’t vibe with that. Now, and I know this is different than sports, but business is not sports.

Elaine Turso: Yep.

Caterina Rando: It is about connection. So I love that you said that. Connection, collaboration, that’s how we wanna do business. Bing, bing.

Elaine Turso: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And let’s also mention there was 12 people on the screen.

Caterina Rando: Right. So they don’t give the numbers anyway and they’re charging you,

Elaine Turso: right.

Caterina Rando: Nothing. You know, I always say to people when somebody’s asking, “Hey, should I do this summit?” I say, “what is their track record?”

Elaine Turso: Yeah.

Caterina Rando: “How many times have they done this before? Yeah. [00:29:00] And and know that whatever numbers they’re telling you i’ve never seen anyone get the hype numbers that they say. They say, oh, we’re gonna have a million reach. Okay, well that’s a really huge number. But that doesn’t mean that those emails are gonna get opened. It doesn’t mean it’s gonna get signups. And this is why I love the way you do it, Elaine, because the way you do it there are smiles on the screen.

Elaine Turso: Mm-hmm.

Caterina Rando: There’s a lot of smiles on the screen and that’s what I know you’re teaching your gals as opposed to all of these people that are not getting any smiles on the screen.

It’s unfortunate because a lot of people are teaching people how to do summits when it’s really too early for them to. If you are in the first couple years of your business, it’s probably too early for a summit too. Would you agree, my friend? What are your thoughts?

Elaine Turso: Yes. I think that it’s a, like start with workshops. Right. Start with workshops. Bring in a couple friends, host a workshop together, see what you like. I’ve done so many [00:30:00] summits and every time I get feedback. Like I send out a survey instantly as soon as the summit is over. I want instant feedback while it’s fresh in their brain. I wanna know what they loved. I wanna know, “Hmm. This wasn’t my favorite part.” Because of what I do is I take that feedback and I go, “Ooh. It would be interesting to try this next time.”

And so I feel like through all of this trial and error, I have really figured out what people resonate with. They resonate with give me five to seven minutes per speaker so that if I’m not interested in this topic, I don’t have to sit through a 20 minute presentation. I have a few keynotes. I stopped doing breakout rooms because unfortunately awkward moment when nobody goes to that person’s breakout room.

Caterina Rando: Oh, breakout rooms with the speakers. You’re talking right?

Elaine Turso: I did that before. Did not enjoy someone feeling that icky.

Caterina Rando: Right.

Elaine Turso: I don’t want anybody to feel excluded. So stop doing that. [00:31:00] Offering q and a, offering more time to connect. People wanna be able to ask questions, do you do and dive in deeper.

Caterina Rando: Do you do the breakout room where they can meet the other participants?

Elaine Turso: Sometimes. So it depends on how much time we have, how many speakers we have. But the next summit I’m gonna be doing, I’m gonna have networking as a part of the event. So, because I’m gonna be bringing speakers and Summit hosts together under the same summit.

Caterina Rando: That’s right. Very exciting.

Elaine Turso: Yes.

Caterina Rando: Yes. Because I’m gonna say that the gals always want some connection time.

Elaine Turso: They do

Caterina Rando: with other gals. And when, I’m doing my shero summit, we always put that in.

Elaine Turso: Mm-hmm.

Caterina Rando: Because that’s part of the value.

Elaine Turso: Yes.

Caterina Rando: We’re doing anything is bringing the ladies together. And of course, I gotta shine the spotlight that you said, “start with workshops.” You know, my friends, that is my jam. I wanna remind you, pick a date, pick a time, pick a topic and run. Don’t get ready to get ready. Get [00:32:00] busy with your workshops. And that’s the other thing, Elaine. You have your systems in place.

Elaine Turso: Mm-hmm.

Caterina Rando: You have a network of people for speaking and for showing up. And I really wanna underscore what you said. Start with the workshops. Until you have a network, until you have all your business systems For sure in place…

Elaine Turso: Yeah.

Caterina Rando: I have seen too many gals doing summits that they’re, they’re doing it because they’re listening to some bro tell ’em they need to do it.

Elaine Turso: Yes.

Caterina Rando: Investing a ton of time and they’re not getting results, and that’s a lot of wasted time for their business.

Elaine Turso: Absolutely. It has to be, like I said, my intention… if my intention was to make a lot of money, I would not be hosting summits. I don’t do it to make money. I do it to make connections and to connect with other speakers.

So to me, the time that I spend, the time that I invest in setting it all up it is worth it if I can make new speaker [00:33:00] connections because the collaborations that come out of that and connecting with them one-on-one, you know, hearing what they do, they get to hear what I do and they’re like, “Ooh, could we collaborate?” Yes, and I also love that I get to hold the space for other people to say, “we have synergy, we should collaborate.” And I love being a part of that, watching other speakers get together and do something together. I love it and that’s worth it for all the time that I invest in it. Totally worth it.

Caterina Rando: And let me underscore, Elaine said she wants to, she does it for the connections, for the collaborations. And let’s be very clear, this all builds influence.

Elaine Turso: Yes.

Caterina Rando: And you building more influence with influential people, that’s good for your business. Also, you know, I know that we talked about Friends, Friends, the show. That is your favorite thing. I also know, Elaine, that you are a [00:34:00] great business girlfriend and to so many women, and I wanna underscore the excitement, the fabulousness, the wonderfulness, the bliss of cultivating business girlfriend relationships. This is something that will uplift your whole life. Elaine, anything you wanna say about that? Because I know this is one of your superpowers.

Elaine Turso: Yes. Before I hired a business coach, I had a business bestie. And we were accountability partners. And then I was like, “why aren’t we collaborating? Like we could be doing something together.” We hosted the summit, we had a podcast. We did all kinds of things together, and even through that, she is still my best friend. I’ve gone to Paris with her.

Caterina Rando: I know what you’re talking about. We could be state. Yeah,

Elaine Turso: I know Miss Paige Engle. She flew in for my daughter’s baby shower. Right? Like that is the kind of relationship that we have, but it sorted out as business besties and just kind of grew and flourished [00:35:00] from there. And it’s just nice to know that when you’re in a pickle or when you have this huge pop rock and you’re like, “is this a crazy idea or is this a good idea?” You have someone you can call that, you know, say, “Hey, do you have five minutes? I need to talk this out.” And, and you just call right?

Caterina Rando: And now you have all these gals that are in business like you that understand business. And my friend, I wanna shine the spotlight on Paige because Paige was in Paris with one of her groups. Paige leads tours of Paris and France and other amazing places. And she was in Paris at the same time I found myself in Paris. She invited me to come to her welcome dinner with her gals that were on her trip.

Of course, I was Blissing and I went. And she invited me to go shopping with the ladies I went shopping, I had a great time. I then hired Paige… that was our first time I [00:36:00] ever met her live and in person hired Paige… to help me with my Amazon store, which is one of the things she does in her business.

Elaine Turso: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Caterina Rando: And one of the gals on her trip that I met in Paris became a client of mine also.

Elaine Turso: Full circle,

Caterina Rando: and I wanna shine the spotlight on that because . A lot of times we think, “oh, that’s a business activity. Oh, now I’m gonna go do a social activity.” All social counts for business when we’re bringing our awesome, amazing, authentic self, as I know you do.

Elaine Turso: Mm-hmm.

Caterina Rando: Because when we’re our authentic self, wherever we are, whether it’s sipping cappuccino in Italy, or it’s in a business seminar, we are attracting clients because we are bringing our whole self to everything. So social counts. I wanna underscore that.

Elaine Turso: Yes. Yes.

Caterina Rando: Now, Elaine we we’re gonna have to have you back. We have so many other things to talk about. I want you to talk to our listener about your final word, and then how [00:37:00] can they connect with you. Go ahead.

Elaine Turso: So I would say that no matter what you do in your business, make sure that you are 100% in alignment with your values. One of the things that somebody said to me one time was that stress and overwhelm is an invitation to get back into alignment.

And so when you are feeling like, the, the temperature is rising in your brain, the only thing that we have left in this world that is free is your breath. So take a breath, go touch grass, go play with your dog. But just get out and know that everything is figureoutable and nobody’s gonna die, right?

I am not a doctor over here. Nobody’s gonna die if your email doesn’t get sent. Like, it’s not that serious. But every problem has a solution. And remember who not how.

Caterina Rando: Beautiful elaine. I’m Blissing to be with you. I’m always blissing to be with you. I wanna thank you for coming to the Expand Your Fempire [00:38:00] podcast. I wanna say keep doing your amazing work in the world, uplifting women through not only your summits, through your whole business.

My friends, we will be with you again very soon on the Expand Your Fempire Podcast. And remember, you got massive value to bring. Be loud and proud about your massive value so you can sell more, you can serve more. Most importantly, you can uplift more lives with the amazing woman you are. Bing, Bing.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Expand Your Fempire with Caterina Rando.