Idea to Impact: How Mary Gaul Helps Women Entrepreneurs Grow on Purpose

Michael Whitehouse: [: 00:00:00

And a little, she's not me, says Mary Galls a seasoned business coach, speaker, and host of the Leap to Success podcast. She helps women solopreneurs grow, thriving values, align businesses with clarity, confidence, and joy. As founder of success, magnified, and leader of the leap For ladies community, Mary delivers practical strategies, loving accountability, and a dash of fun to empower, empower entrepreneurs to grow with purpose.

So welcome to the show, Mary.

f you need somebody, I'm the [: 00:01:00

Michael Whitehouse: Yep. And a gender neutral guy, just to tell some like, well, what about the ladies?

Yeah, yeah. As a person's not as good a book title.

Mary Gaul: Right, exactly. That's why I.

Michael Whitehouse: Um, I

Mary Gaul: always still say that I know I, I got a guy, even though most of my people are women, I still say, I got a guy for you. Yeah,

Michael Whitehouse: yeah, yeah. Everyone here in the northeast gets it. It's people the Northeast are like, what? I got a guy.

What's that? Think New Jersey. It's fine. Yeah. Um, so tell me a bit about, uh, you know, what you do with your communities and with your, uh, and I believe you mentioned you have a book. Tell us a bit about that.

Mary Gaul: Yes, yes. So I am really here to help work with women entrepreneurs. I have a handful of male clients that come to me through referrals, but I mostly network with women organizations and really love to help solopreneurs.

things we wanna try. Right? [: 00:02:00

I call myself an idea igniter, so I get to take your idea and help you flesh that out with an action plan, and then help with accountability, resources, tools, so that you can actually implement that idea and turn it into something, whether that's a book, a product, or a service that you're offering your clients.

It's just so amazing, and I've been doing this for 10 years now and I absolutely love doing it.

Michael Whitehouse: So one problem I know people encounter and you know, not me of course, but I've heard other people have this problem. Yeah. Is when they have too many ideas. The ideas end up stepping on each other. So it's not necessarily a matter of execution.

omes, it's exciting. This is [: 00:03:00

Well, well, yeah. Yeah. But that, that's an old idea. This, this is the idea. This is the one that's gonna change everything. Uh, so how do you, how do you help people with that?

Mary Gaul: Yes. The first thing is to get those ideas out of your head and into a piece of paper, a computer, a whiteboard. I use a big whiteboard, and so what I do with my clients is we just do what I call a brain dump, right?

So tell me everything that you wanna do with your business. What are your thoughts? What are your ideas? All those sticky notes you have lying around the 4,000 spiral notebooks. You've got ideas laying in. Let's pick those top 10 and then really start to break them down. What does that look like to implement it?

p energy into some kind of a [: 00:04:00

So. You know, looking at money, looking at resources. How long would it take me to implement this? Do I have the resources I need? Those kind of things. So just starting to ask questions about each one of those. Then we can kind of filter and prioritize, okay, instead of moving all 12 of these forward at the same time, let's pick two and let's get those completed and implemented.

Right. One at a time, and then we can, we can get to the other eight that are still on the list. Right. But I think sometimes it's hard for us to, 'cause we love all of our children equally. Right? As a mom I can say that, um, it's, it's, it's hard to choose which one and, and not really evaluating which one might fit the needs of your business first.

that is, I think one of the [: 00:05:00

What if you lose the energy? I gotta do it right now. Right, right. That's what people tell me. I. Yes. Again, not me. Other people.

Mary Gaul: Yeah. And sometimes, you know, we get impulsive and we're like, oh, I had this idea in the shower this morning, so I'm gonna sit down in my work. I'm gonna sit down on my computer and I'm gonna go buy the URL.

I'm gonna build a website, I'm gonna do all this stuff. And you spend the whole day working on this idea. I. And you haven't really thought it through, it's like, well, does anybody even want this thing? Does it do, is there a market out there? You know, just 'cause you thought it was a great idea doesn't mean you should spend a whole day or hours or resources, right?

Trying to pursue that unless it fits in with your whole, you know, a holistic approach to what you're trying to do in your business.

Michael Whitehouse: I did not come on this podcast to be called out like this. Right.

Mary Gaul: No, you're not alone. You're not the only one. Right. It may seem like, how does she know what I'm doing? Right.

She's, is she watching me? Everybody does it. Mm-hmm. So, including me.

hat's one of the challenges, [: 00:06:00

Mary Gaul: Yes.

Michael Whitehouse: Is when you have an idea, there's natural friction on it. Your boss has to get on board with it. The, you know, someone else, usually someone has to go along with it.

You can't just execute. And so all of a sudden when you're working for yourself, you are the boss, which means there's no friction there No. To stop you and say, whoa, whoa. You can't set up that website today. You were supposed to be building the landing page today. That was the plan, right? What happened on the plan and.

Mary Gaul: Yes. Yeah. Or sometimes you're supposed to be sending the invoices out that you need to get paid to get money in the door. Right? And so, uh, if, if that's one of your kind of, you don't like dealing with the money or those kind of things, which a lot of small business owners don't, they're always onto the next thing and the next thing.

e things a chance to kind of [: 00:07:00

They're always just jumping to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing without giving the first thing they built enough runway to really take off. Hmm. So, um, that can be a hindrance to, to small business owners as well. Too much freedom. Right. So I, I like to say I provide loving accountability.

I'm not a drill sergeant kind of business coach. But I do hold you accountable. If you said you were gonna do something this month, and then we talk the next time we talk, and you're like, oh, well I didn't do that, but I did these three other things, I'm gonna have a conversation with you about it. Right.

Because it's like, well, we spent a lot of time and energy on that thing, and then you didn't really fully execute it or give it time to really get out there.

Michael Whitehouse: Mm-hmm.

Mary Gaul: So that happens a lot too.

Michael Whitehouse: Yeah. So. So I, I know you said one of the challenges is that they don't wanna do the thing and, which is funny 'cause you mentioned invoicing.

Invoicing. The thing is, the thing I like doing because I like collecting the money.

Mary Gaul: Yeah. Getting the money,

Michael Whitehouse: chasing [: 00:08:00

Yes. Yeah. But, um. So, and, and, but I think there, there was a time and I was like, oh, I need to send the invoice. And I think I kind of shifted then. That's probably a money mindset thing where I, I've shifted over time to realizing like that is receiving from the yes versus what it's already giving me. Um, but I think the bigger issue is, is the momentum.

So when an idea first comes up, you've got this, this passion, this fire, this energy, let's go. And then maybe two days later that's faded. Right? And how do you capture that and keep going. And keep the next big idea from coming up and stay focused on the one.

Mary Gaul: Yes. Great question. So if you, if you spend time really thinking through that idea at the beginning, rather than just jumping in and building something, right.

hy am I building this right? [: 00:09:00

It's connect, contribute, and celebrate your way to success. Mm-hmm. The word connect for me is really that deeper connection. It's not about connecting to a network. We all know we need to build a network of people, right. That know, like, and trust us that are gonna buy our products. When I look at the word connect, I'm talking about how am I connected to what I'm building for my business, right?

me because it delivers X, Y, [: 00:10:00

So when you have that and you just ask yourself that simple question, why am I building this? At the very beginning when you start to implement an idea. It can help you pull you through those kind of muddied waters, if you will.

Michael Whitehouse: Interesting. Yeah. One of the, you, you may notice of seven books behind me here and Yeah.

Uh, part of that is because one of the books is about writing a book in a day, so I can take a day to write a book. But one of the things I started doing is when I come up with a new project, I would write a book about it first. Nice. Two things I had to think about it, and two, even if I only got one day in, I still had book.

So, yeah. You know, even if I never do anything else with it, uh, I still at least have a book to show for it. 'cause what I was finding was I'd say, oh, I got an idea and I'd set up the, the landing page and the sequence and the promotions reminder, da, da, da. And then if it didn't take off, I'd nothing to show for it.

I mean, I guess I could [: 00:11:00

It's already in this book. Look at that. Yes. So he is not necessarily solving the problem you're talking about, but it's, it's more embracing that I'm going to jump from idea to idea, so at least I'll get a new book every time. I got a crazy idea.

Mary Gaul: Yes. And I love that because, um, you are capturing the idea, you're capturing the thoughts around the idea, right?

And so then if you take that book and you turn it into a course or something else, right? Mm-hmm. Then, um, you've already got all of your basic information captured in one place, which is great. And then like you said, you go back to review it and you're like, oh wow, I've already thought of this. Let me see if I can spin it into something else.

gotten the book written. So [: 00:12:00

Michael Whitehouse: And then I've also found that it, with ai it's great 'cause it's no longer, you have to go into the book and then basically rewrite something to read.

Right. Uh, I, I was writing an email sequence for an event I'm, I'm doing next week. I was able to take my guide to networking, 'cause the networking event I'm running. Mm-hmm. And say, hey, for all the reminders, give a quick tip from the book. Nice. And so just pull the tip outta the book, shorten it to four sentences and it wrote all the email reminders from the knowledge base that is the book.

So,

Mary Gaul: yes.

Michael Whitehouse: Yeah.

Mary Gaul: Love that. Love that. Yeah. And we, we, you know, for a guy who knows a guy, you know, we all know Chat or Claude or you know, those guys, uh, that are out there that are helping us be more productive now. And so I love that. Um, and, you know, it can even help you evaluate an idea. So if you have an idea for something new, throw it into chat or Claude or Copilot or whatever you use and say, help me evaluate this.

this is a valid idea Right. [: 00:13:00

Michael Whitehouse: That's definitely good. Although, the one thing I'll always point out is, is at least Chad g Bt, and I think most of them are yes men Yes. Bots. Yes. So they will agree with anything you say, unless it's it explicitly wrong.

And so unless you prompt it, I am trying to determine if this is a good idea or a bad idea. If this is a bad idea, I need you to tell me other. Right. I'll tell you. That's a great idea.

Mary Gaul: Yeah, here's how, let's go. Let's get started. Right? So, yes, uh, we need it to play a little devil's advocate sometime. And you have to tell it to do that.

'cause it's not gonna do that naturally, like you said. So, yeah.

Michael Whitehouse: So do you work with people mostly one-on-one or, or what's your, how do you engage with people and do the thing you do for them?

Mary Gaul: I work with people in a variety of ways. So I do one-on-one coaching, and then I have peer advisory boards for, um, which are like mastermind groups, right?

in Colorado that meets live. [: 00:14:00

We've got people coast to coast and up into Canada, our members, and that's really about helping build visibility. So we have a little bit of a networking piece, but really then we have our Link to Success podcast. We have member video spotlights. So we have blog opportunities. So really helping them get more information, more visibility, more eyes on their business is what the leap for ladies community is all about.

So, uh, a wide variety of ways to work with me. I just love working with entrepreneurs because I, like I said, I love hearing an idea and turning that idea. Seeing it come to life and become something. Right. It's just such a powerful process to be a part of.

the genesis of your business?[: 00:15:00

I.

Mary Gaul: Yes, I did. And I actually have been running two businesses co consecutively. I just shut down my other business. I sold it off to, uh, one of my vendors, but I was running a virtual assistant company for the last 11 years. Um, and I've been coaching now for 10 years. So, um, running both businesses has taught me a lot as an entrepreneur.

And I started out. I've started the peer advisor boards pretty early on because I wanted to be able to bring, I'm a community builder. I'm all about that connection piece, right? That's one of the Cs that I'm all about. And so I really wanna get people together in a room and be, provide that space where they can have honest conversations about what's happening behind the scenes of their business.

Hmm. So I started the peer advisor boards pretty early on, within about six months of the, of the business.

Michael Whitehouse: Okay. Yeah. I ask, I find, I think a lot of people early in business, they, they hear so many conflicting things and one of them is, or one of the marketing pitches is get away from one to one. 'cause you're trading dollars for hours or hours for dollars.

Mm-hmm. And so [: 00:16:00

Um, yes. Um, they jumped past that. So I love that you talk a little about your experience in, in the progression of your business.

Mary Gaul: Yeah, yeah. And, and running my first business, I was always in the corporate world, never had any really thought about starting my own business, but it was time for me to leave my job after 10 years.

And I was like, okay, what am I gonna do? Had somebody recommend I start my own business? So I started researching what could I do, and started the virtual assistant company. But within about six months I was at capacity, which is a great problem, but. Still a problem. I could not figure out how to. Keep taking clients and not have to work all the time.

r, I completely remodeled my [: 00:17:00

So, uh, you know, I understand what it's like to run a business by yourself and be a solopreneur and all the things we, we don't know what we don't know. And so having those small group of people you can go and ask questions of. And not feel like you're, you know, an idiot for not knowing the answer. So, uh, those, those safe spaces are so priceless in a business owner.

Michael Whitehouse: Yeah. And that, that's really crucial, especially with, with, there's, um, I, I don't know if you know this, but there are some coaches who are more focused on money than impact. Yes, I know because that shocks you. You probably Yes, I know, I've heard that. I've heard that Maybe you've encountered one or two somewhere.

Yes. In the

Mary Gaul: industry.

ur only exposure is Facebook [: 00:18:00

Yeah. So, yeah. Yes. Yeah. So those things like having a good coach, but again, how do you find the good coach to guide you to the other good resources without Right. A good coach and a a seems like an advisory board is a good, uh, good starting point for that.

Mary Gaul: Yes, yes, they are. I call them magical. I, I wish I could come up with a better word for them than that, but when you get the right group of people in a room.

And they're all there to support each other. And you can come and ask questions without feeling, you know, like you're dumb. Or you can come and gr grab resources or somebody that's just been through what you've been through, can guide you through that. It really is magical. It really can save you so much time, energy, and money.

Um, they're just so powerful.

h. No, that's, that's great. [: 00:19:00

Mary Gaul: Yeah, they can just go to my website, success magnify.com. If they go to the bright orange button that's kind of on the upper left hand corner, they can, they can hop on a call with me, they can download free resources.

There's an events page there so they can see all of the upcoming events we have for leap, the Ladies and Success Magnified Group. So, uh, if they go to my website, there's all kinds of resources there for them to get started with.

Michael Whitehouse: Fantastic. Well, this has been a great interview to kick off the. The Za, was it 16, 18, 47, whichever one it is.

Yeah. A great one to kick it off with. Thank you for, for bringing the energy, bringing the, the knowledge of course. And, uh, yes, and bringing that fire. So thank you so much. Great to have you on.

Mary Gaul: Thank you. And now I know a guy,

Michael Whitehouse: right? Who knows? A guy. So excited.

Mary Gaul: Thanks, Michael. Thank you.