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21: How To Use Your Gifts For Purpose & Profit with Brittany Bollard

gifts or purpose and profit whimsy + wellness podcast
The Whimsy and Wellness Podcast
The Whimsy and Wellness Podcast
21: How To Use Your Gifts For Purpose & Profit with Brittany Bollard
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Have you ever wondered what your purpose is? Have you ever wondered what you’re supposed to be doing with your life? Maybe you have a dream but aren’t sure how you’ll ever reach it? Well, today’s incredible guest helps women calm all of those questions, thoughts, and worries, and replace them with clarity and magic.

In today’s episode, I am talking with Brittany Bollard, an empowerment and entrepreneur coach who helps women find magic in their mess. She recently started Founded and Funded, a community (and retreat event) for female founders wanting to discover their passion for profit using the Suzy School Method.

We are talking all about using our gifts to help others while making a profit. Brittany gives insight on how to get out of the struggle of not knowing or trusting ourselves, ways to discover your magic and purpose, and how to find that alignment so you can give yourself permission to show up as yourself. If you’re feeling stuck or lost, or you just need a little bit of encouragement, this episode is going to be for you.

 

Follow along with Brittany

@brittanybollard 

Founded and Funded Website

Founded and Funded Instagram

 

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Resources Mentioned:

Suzy School

Daring Greatly by Brene Brown

Start With Why by Simon Sinek

 

Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the Whimsy & Wellness Podcast hosted by Meg Ryan and brought to you by Whimsy & Wellness; your go-to shop for essential oil accessories, crystals, and more!

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Music by Taylor Ryan


“Our giftings are what we’re best at, something that comes easy to you. It’s something that people associate with you. It’s something you’re already using in your everyday life.” – Brittany Bollard

 

“The power of showing up as yourself gives permission to others to do the same. And when we collectively show up as ourselves, we create community; we create a space where people don’t have to compare. Where they feel seen, where it’s not one-sided. It’s not us just showing up. It’s us saying, Come along. We’re inviting others to join in on it. When we share our struggles with our giftings, we give permission to others to do the same. And there’s something so powerful in that.” – Brittany Bollard.

 

“The power of showing up as yourself gives permission to others to do the same.” – Brittany Bollard.

 

Meg: Welcome to the Whimsy and Wellness Podcast. I’m so happy to have you. 

Brittany: I’m so happy to be here. I’m so excited. Thank you. 

Meg: Of course, I just have this feeling that this episode will be just really encouraging and a life raft to people. It gives me butterflies. As I was preparing for this, I felt this could really help someone who’s struggling. I feel you do that literally for a living, which we’ll talk about, but I just am giddy to chat with you. So, thank you so, so much. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do? 

Brittany: I am in network marketing. That’s how I started. I went through a personal development event in the middle of my network marketing career where I was like, “I’m not really doing this. This isn’t for me.” I went to the event just to get away from my life. At the time, I just saw the event pop up, hopped on a plane, and went to it. I had no idea what to expect. But, I sat in front of a room full of women that, for the very first time, told me that I could take control of my life, that I could write the ending, and that I could change anything that I knew. 

I was cracked wide open. I knew that that was my calling. That was what I was put on this earth to do; help women find their giftings, uncover their giftings, and use them for their own purpose and for profit in business. 

Most recently I started Founded and Funded. It is a community for women, for female-owned businesses and retreats, using the Suzy method from Suzy Holman who has Suzy School, which is a retreat curriculum that talks about building businesses on Instagram, which is what most of us are doing. Even if we just have a personal brand with 200 followers, that’s what we’re all doing- building ourselves on Instagram. So, the network marketing was the thing that I totally fell into, but was a stepping stone into what I’m doing now. 

Meg: Right? Isn’t it so crazy? First of all, I just love your story. I feel it’s really relatable and whether you’re in network marketing, or you weren’t really in your purpose, and then you found it. We think, “I don’t need a community.” But it’s so wrong. There’s a difference between having friends and having convenient friends that live close. You said this was the first time that words were spoken over you and there’s such a difference. You think you don’t need it until you have it.

Brittany: I think even online, we tend to blame Instagram for a lot of things. We think that Instagram versus reality and all of those things, but something that you can find on Instagram is that community, and it is so, so magical. 

That’s one of the number one ways to build your business is through a community on Instagram versus having an audience. An audience is just watching you and a community wants to be a part of it, and it’s something really, really special. 

Meg: Yeah, it really is. Internet friends are the best. They are referred to as “reverse catfish.” I got my Whimsy and Wellness job through an internet friend that I saw working for Whimsy and Wellness. I had never met her in my life, but I sent her an Instagram voice message asking how she started working with Whimsy and Wellness. Internet friends are so, so cool. 

Brittany: So, I use to own a children’s store. Most of my original following is from that children’s store, and most of my original Business Builders and my network marketing were those people from my children’s store. So, they’re the same people that I still have a relationship with now and we share with one another and have just been in one another’s lives. My oldest son is nine years old. So for nine years, it’s when I have my store. So, you can build these relationships online with people that were I’m pretty sure are meant to be in your life, and that’s just the vehicle that makes that happen. 

 

Why She Chose Suzy School

Meg: Wow. So true. You went to Suzy school in the fall, correct? Did you go with the intention of I want to start Founded and Funded? 

Brittany: So, I went to Suzy school in the fall with the intention of just really figuring out what I was going to use my platform for. I look at it as a gift. I’ve been given that gift, I’ve been able to reach those people through Young Living, and I was at a stepping stone of what do I do with this. 

I knew that I had gone through different coaching courses, and was doing empowerment coaching. I just knew that something was waiting for me, but I felt I was wearing a million hats. I knew that I looked silly and I needed to figure out which one fit the best, which one I could really use my experience and my passion for. 

So, I went to Suzy school, and Suzy gave me the opportunity. She’s like, “Why don’t you just do this? Why don’t you teach the Suzy method? We know it works.” So, I was able to host my first retreat in January, my second retreat in March, and I have four more scheduled for this year. It’s been such a blessing to be able to work with these women and to see them. I feel we’re just there assuring them back to themselves. It’s been such a gift to see these women walk out the doors and just with such confidence, and passion, and clarity. It’s the same way that I felt when I went in October, so I know that’s the purpose, and it’s not lost. 

Meg: Wow, that is so cool. I love that you call yourself a professional hype girl. That is my favorite title. 

Brittany: Well, it’s better than saying a professional cheerleader because people are like, “oh,” and then they look at me and thinking that doesn’t add up. 

Meg: No, I love that. 

Brittany: Well, a professional confetti thrower. They’re like, “What?” So, hype girl is definitely a buzzword right now, but there’s something really amazing about being able to stand there beside someone and with them, as they show up, and watch as they see what we see in them.  

 

Realizing Your Natural Gift Of Encouragement

Meg: Would you say you were always a professional hype girl? Even when you were a kid, before you were doing this, have you always just been a natural encourager? 

Brittany: I would say that I am a natural encourager, I think it’s so hard to see our giftings because they’re so close to us. I thought that everybody could put on some lipstick and stand in front of a room of 1,000 people and tell them that they were worth it. I just thought that every single person could do that. I didn’t realize that it was my special gifting until I was given the opportunity to stand in front of a room full of women. To receive the messages that I did after the very first time I did, it was what I feel I was missing. To just kept leaning into that, and it’s still scary because it’s a lot of responsibility and it’s not lost on me, but I would say that my entire life was probably made to do this. 

 

Underneath Our Unknown Purpose

Meg: I love that. So sweet. Okay, so you coach women on discovering their magic and purpose. So, I want to dive into that because I feel it’s so common. I’ve personally been in that place of “What even is my purpose?” When you’re walking and look around, and you’re like, “Everyone knows what they’re doing and what they’re supposed to be doing,” I struggled with that. Then when you get out of it, and you talk to other people and they’re secretly struggling… it’s so much more common than we think it is. So, what do you think is underneath truly not knowing what we want to do? 

Brittany: It’s interesting that you went to a place of comparison in describing that. That is something that’s so common. I do it myself, I think it’s human, but in this business, or in any business really, especially with being an entrepreneur, we think that she’s better, or she’s smarter or has it all figured out. 

But, she’s actually just found herself. Maybe she just knows who she is and she shows up, even if she doesn’t have it all figured out. People show up at our retreats and they want to make more money, they want to be successful, they want to grow their business or launch their business. 

Sales 101 is to get your audience to know and trust you. Something that we find with most women is that when they’re feeling out of alignment, or that they’re struggling, it’s because they don’t know and trust themselves. So, that’s the very first thing that we do at the retreats is align ourselves in all of those areas and make sure that we really know and trust ourselves. A big part of that is finding our gifting and giving ourselves permission to show up as ourselves. 

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The Difference Between A Gift and A Talent

Brittany: I would say that’s the number one thing that sets apart, who’s successful in what they’re doing, and someone who feels stuck. Everyone has a gift. Again, it feels like a buzzword. A gift, most people think is a talent. It’s something that somebody is really good at. A talent is something that you can learn. I could decide tomorrow that I wanted to play the piano, and I could hire someone to come to my house every single day, and a year from now you may say, “Wow, she’s really talented,” but I worked really, really hard at learning that skill. 

A gift is something that we’re born with, and it’s something that we’re passionate about. It’s what I can do that I’m the best at. Our giftings are so close to us. So, sometimes we don’t even realize that it’s our gift. It’s usually what people associate with you. 

So earlier today, I had a friend here helping me organize my new office little closet office that I have now. I’ve downgraded because I’ve now traded my closet for my office. So, my clothes had a ton of room. Now my office has is a tiny little jail cell that I’ve tried to make cute. So, she was here organizing, and I always stopped her mid-sentence. 

I’m like, “Do you realize how talented but gifted you are?” It’s the way her face lights up. She made a tiny little rack for all of my little mini crystals to stick in rollers. She made a tiny little organization for it. The way her brain thinks, mine would never think that way. She’s grown an entire organization business around her gift and it’s something that for so long, she never even realized that she had a business there because she thought everybody’s brain worked that. 

So, our giftings are what we’re best at, something that comes easy to you. It’s something that people associate with you. It’s something you’re already using in your everyday life. When we get close to that, then it’s usually something that we know about ourselves and that we trust ourselves. That is the number one thing and I just love that when you ask the question, you went right to compare because that’s the dream killer. 

Meg: Yeah, it really is. Right from the start in high school, all your classmates know what they want to do. “What’s your major?” There is just so much pressure. It’s assumed that you’re going to go to college or you have to know what you’re doing. You’re being shown that everyone else knows. It is so frustrating. 

 

What Is Your Why?

Brittany: Have you ever heard of the term Ikigai? It’s a Japanese phrase. It is basically your reason for being. Your Ikigai is this Japanese way of living, that everything is center. That alignment word, again, is a buzzword, but it’s basically the thing that gets you out of bed every single day. Something that I know, you’ve heard, and everybody listening I’m sure has heard, is to find your why. “Why are you doing this? Why are you showing up? What gets you out of bed every single day?”

Your Ikigai is what gets you out of bed every single day, it’s what you’re good at, it’s how you can make money doing it. What does the world need? It is the center of all. That is your reason for being and so, it’s the people that love what they do. It’s the people that love their job and they don’t live to work, they work to live because they’re just living out their passions. 

At our retreats, it’s something that we make sure that we’re completely centered in all of those things because if you just show up to do your job, and you’re living to work, we put our identity in that. So, when that goes away, we have nothing. 

Meg: I’m glad you brought figuring out your why because I think if you don’t know your giftings and purpose, and please argue with me if you disagree, but if you don’t know your giftings and purpose, it’s hard to know your why. At least that was the case for me. My leaders in Young Living are saying, “What’s your why?” I don’t even know, but you can’t really know your why if you don’t really know your purpose, your passions, or your giftings, right? 

Brittany: It’s the thing that makes you get out of bed every single day with a sense of gratitude. It’s the number one thing that can’t waver. It’s what keeps you going. It’s your heartbeat. Your why, it is important. It’s important to know, but your why is ever-changing. The things that keep you aligned are within yourself, and that’s for you and only you. 

 

Questions To Help You Find Your Gifting

Meg: That’s very true. So, what are your most recommended questions to ask ourselves to help us discover our giftings if we’re unsure? 

Brittany: What are you good at? What do you love to do? What does the world need? What can you be paid for? All of those. Those can all go on Venn diagrams. You can put these questions in circles that overlap and then the very center of that is how you find your gifting. 

Oh, my goodness. People are probably like, “I will never pay for one of those retreats again. They just make Venn diagrams.”

Your business is your vehicle in all of this. It’s not your everything. It’s your vehicle. It’s a part of it. It’s one of those circles, something you can be paid for. It’s not your Ikigai, it’s not your reason for being, it’s just the thing that’s gonna push you when things get hard because that’s the thing that we forget. So many of us want to use our giftings in a business sense. We want to make money. “What are we really good at what can we be paid for?” Our Ikigair, or our reason for being, is the thing that pushes you when it gets hard. That’s why your leaders have said, “What is your why?” When we’re connected to our reason for being or our reason to keep going, it pushes us when things get hard because work is called work for a reason. It’s hard work and what is everything worth doing is hard. 

Meg: Wow. I heard a business owner say once, “I thought my business was my baby, but our businesses aren’t our babies. Our babies are our babies.” Just what you just said, it’s not your business isn’t necessarily your everything. 

Brittany: No, I think our business is a chance for us to show up as a part of ourselves and what we’re good at. What happens if that all went away tomorrow? How do we keep showing up as ourselves? So, I think that’s something I’ve seen so much is wrapping our identity and our worth in producing and in our businesses. Unfortunately, that’s just the smallest part of it. 

 

How To Find The Magic In Your Mess

Meg: Yeah, for sure. You often say there’s magic in your mess, which I love so much. Can you explain? What do you mean by there’s magic in your mess? How can we find the magic in our own mess? 

Brittany: So, the power of connection is the thing that keeps us going, right? We already said, the difference between connection or community versus your audience. So, when we’re strategic in our connection, we let people see us, then we see them. What I mean by that is that the power of showing up as yourself gives permission to others to do the same. When we collectively show up as ourselves, we create community, we create a space where people don’t have to compare where they feel seen, where it’s not one-sided, and it’s not us just showing up. It’s us saying, “Come along.” We’re inviting others to join in on it and when we share our struggles with our giftings, we give permission to others to do the same, and there’s something so powerful in that. 

When I first became a mom, I realized really quickly that this wasn’t going to be the thing that I was the best at. Instead of going online and comparing myself to the Pinterest mom, or the perfect Instagram mom, or all the things, I showed up one day and said, “This is really, really hard.” This was nine years ago. So, this was before this was a pop culture thing. 

I found a community of women that said, “This is really hard. Thank you so much for saying that. We can do hard things, but we need to do them together.” There is so much power in numbers. So, the magic comes along, in showing up in our whole selves, and not just when it looks perfect. I think the magic in the mess is where we develop that trust with our audience and with ourselves. We can say that we can show up as us and not be perfect. 

Meg: Yeah. That’s what people relate to, we have these things about ourselves that we think, “Oh, I should tuck that away because it’s not so glamorous.” Then, when we finally show it, it’s oftentimes the moment that you’re creating with your community or whatever the case may be. It’s so true. 

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How To Take Your Magic And Turn It Into Profit

Meg: Let’s talk about taking that magic and turning it into profit because that’s what you teach inside Founded and Funded, right? So, can everyone’s passions make them a profit? 

Brittany: I believe that if everybody is willing to put the work in, everybody’s passions can turn into profit. For sure. 

Meg: What’s the crazy, not craziest in a judgmental way, is that people might think you can’t make a business out of that, but you’ve witnessed it. 

Brittany: I do have somebody coming to one of our upcoming retreats that are dog breeders for golden doodle breeders. It’s not crazy. I think it’s so cool, but if someone was like, “Well, my passion is dogs,” you would probably say, “Are you a veterinarian?” 

I have a friend from one of my Suzy schools that is killing it in gardening. She’s working with a lot of brands around gardening and making gardening cool again. I laugh because she’s from Southern California, she gets her lashes done. She’s just so cool. She literally is making a huge business off of gardening in her backyard in Orange County, which is not usually heard of. 

It’s really cool to see women step into their giftings. 

At our last retreat, we had somebody who speaks about just a history of culture with toxic relationships with women, or the “Regina George’s of the world,” and it gave us all the opportunity to realize that we’ve all been victimized by Regina George. We’ve also all been Regina George. It’s just really awesome to see these women come and step into the things that have been placed on their hearts and be able to use them with such conviction that they’re now building businesses around those passions and those giftings. 

Meg: I love that. I just wanted you to share because if you believe it, you can do it.

Brittany: I think it also creates a connection. Your business may not be that passion that you have or your exact gift. But it’s going to help you build your brand, which is just as important. I always say to people, if you are a cat lover that loves watching supermarket sweeps, chances are there are other people in the world, they’re going to connect with you over both of those things. They will buy what you’re selling, they will trust you, they will know you, they will like you. So, that’s why I love utilizing Instagram to build your brand because your business may not be that exact thing, but your brand can be. So, those are the kinds of things that we talk about.

 

What To Do When Your Passions Don’t Align With Profit

Meg: For sure. What about when don’t think your passions or giftings could possibly be a business? We see it on paper and sometimes and think, “I don’t even know what to do with that.” Oftentimes customers don’t even realize the actual business that a business is. For example, McDonald’s is a hamburger business, but they’re not. McDonald’s knows that you can go anywhere else and get a better hamburger. 

So, can you touch on the fact that just because on paper, this is your passion, your business over here can still reflect that. You know what I’m saying? 

Brittany: Yeah, it goes back to what we were talking about a little bit ago, where what you’re good at is different than what the world needs, and what the world needs may be different than what you can be paid for. By spending that time answering those questions, we find that small section where it overlaps, and that becomes the business. Do you know what I mean? 

So yes, there may not be a huge market for the thing that you’re completely passionate about. But, you can also find something that you’re good at something that you can build a business around and bring those things that you’re passionate about to that business. We do have a strategy coach at each retreat. So we come up with that strategy, we look at the numbers, we figure out what makes sense, and we help you build that business. 

 

How To Make Money With Your Passion

Meg: So, we discover our magic and passions. What’s the next step?

Brittany: That’s a good question. So, that’s a huge question. I show all my cards here. So, I think figuring out again, those two questions: what the world needs and how you can be paid for it. 

The number one thing I would ask yourself, “Is somebody else is doing it?” It’s more than okay if they are it’s taking the time to research how they’re doing it, who your competitors are, why people use your competitors, and figuring out how you solve that problem, what difference of a brand you make, and as far as making money doing it setting those goals for yourself, setting the projections, figuring out how you’re going to do it. 

I would say that looking at your competition, or your competitors, and figuring out how you can bring your own gift to your own brand. Does that make sense? Most people aren’t buying what is it.. people don’t buy what you sell, they buy what you do. Right? So that’s why finding your gifting and finding, who you are, and bringing that to your branding is so important. 

 

How To Release The Stigma Around Stepping Into Your giftings

Meg: Yes. Okay, there’s a stigma around making money off of our giftings, right? Especially for women. I’m just gonna say that. How do we release that fear or even just the knowing that there is that? I don’t know if you saw this, but there were a couple of Instagram posts going around lately, that were almost a little shaming towards profiting off of sharing your giftings. Why not just give it away for free? I was seeing a couple of those and getting a little defensive, but it’s just so common. So, can you speak on that and how we release it?

Brittany: I would say that a man would never apologize for the things that he is good at. I think as women, a sisterhood is so important. That’s maybe where those posts came from, to support one another, not from a place of profit. I’m at a loss for words because I can’t think of one reason why you shouldn’t step into your giftings and use them to benefit yourself and your family. I would rather work for myself any day of the week than waste my talents and efforts working for somebody else who’s not living out my dream. 

Meg: Seriously. I’ve said this on another episode before but doing things for free, you’re going to resent it. I can’t even tell you the last thing I won or got for free, because we don’t value free products or services as much as we do when we invest in the because it’s, “Oh, I spent my money on that I should probably show up.” Or, “I should probably use it.” Right? 

Brittany: Yeah, I have skin in the game. I think when somebody is looking to step into their giftings to use them for a profit, they’re looking for a way to fulfill their own dreams and fulfill their financial needs and the financial needs of their family. They shouldn’t be shamed for it at all, whatsoever. 

And I said, a man would never apologize for that. I would say one of the biggest things that comes out of our retreats is the sisterhood, where if there are 20 women in the retreat, then you’re walking out with 19 new customers. It’s one of the most beautiful parts of it. The girls use utilize one another for their giftings and services. There’s a girl that was designing websites and six of the girls used them to launch their new site in the last couple months. I try to use women owned businesses as much as possible. 

Meg: Yeah, that’s something I’ve learned from Haylee. She has definitely instilled that into me, when you can, shop small. I was always passionate about it, but there’s something about working closely with a woman-owned business where you’re like, “Wow, this is actually making an impact.” 

Brittany: Well, the statistics are there that women-owned business are killing it in 2020-2021. But, the statistics are there that women don’t get paid as much as men, they don’t get the same opportunities as men. I have two boys. I will support them in their hopes and dreams just the same as I do my daughter, but as women, I think it’s our responsibility to break that stigma and to show up and ask for what we want and expect the same response as our male counterparts. 

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Tips On Using Social Media And Showing Up Online

Meg: Agreed. Okay, social media. It’s a whole beast, sharing online. At one point even just a few years ago, it might have been a little bit more accepting to just show up and be you. Now, it’s more competitive with the algorithm and literally, everyone is on there. Between the algorithm and keeping up with what I’m supposed to be posting, I think it’s really common to not even wanting to be posted. Or, you can’t even be yourself and you’re losing yourself. So, what are just a couple of top thoughts or tips around that? 

Brittany: Well, we were talking about community versus audience. I’d rather have 200 engaged followers than 10 million just watching my life. When we look at our social media as 200 people that know and trust us, versus a million people that are seeing, but they don’t know us enough to trust us, or they’re just watching, as opposed to being a part of our brand, or our life or whatever you’re putting out there, it’s so much more powerful. 

I’ve actually gotten away from being concerned with the number of followers or the number of likes. I am more concerned with an engaged community, even in let’s say network marketing, or whatever people are. I don’t have that many followers, but you have 200 people watching what you’re doing, you have 200 people who are there to know you and be a part of what you’re putting out. That’s way more powerful than five times that number of people who aren’t engaged with what you’re doing. 

Meg: Yeah, seriously. We hold ourselves to these big accounts, but sometimes I’ll catch myself and if you look at the comments, their comments section, there’s really not a community there. You happen to post something today, but when there are just so many comments, it’s so clear that you’ve built this community, people love. It was a post about your daughter these people love your baby and it’s obvious that not all of them have met her. They just genuinely love her, because you’ve shown up and you’ve invited them into love her, not just here’s my baby. She’s not a baby. 

Brittany: But I’ve asked them for help along the way. People want to be a part of something. I know we’ve said that works, community 3,000 times if you counted on this already, but if you just want to belong somewhere the best way to invite people in is to make a comfortable, warm, welcoming space where there is no judgment. The biggest way that we could turn people away from that is when we’re judging others and when we’re judging ourselves. 

So back to that magic in the mess, that is the magic. Showing up in all of your mess and being brave enough to invite people into it and that’s where the magic happens. 

Meg: Yeah, love that so, so much. Okay, so if you could sit down for coffee with a woman listening to this, who feels she’s drowning in her mess and is not seeing this magic we speak of, despite having dreams, what would you say to her? 

 

How To Find Your Way Out Of Your Mess

Brittany: Well, first, I would probably tell her my own story. Being vulnerable is an opportunity and an invitation for somebody else to feel comfortable to do the same. 

When I first went to that event, I was at my own rock bottom, my marriage was failing, I was failing as a mom, I was unhappy. As a mom, I would spend a million hours a day at my shop working just to avoid my life. I took that ticket to that event, not because I cared what it was going to do for myself over my life, but because I literally wanted a ticket to get the heck out of my life for a weekend and I didn’t care what it meant. 

I sat in a room where people told me that I was important and that I could write my own ending and I was worth more. I heard them and just having those words spoken over me and the power and that knew that it was my calling to turn around and pass that torch to another woman. So, anytime I get the opportunity to just sit with a woman who is sitting there feeling like they don’t have any options, I just share my own struggles and giving them permission to do the same. 

My number one thing that I would say to her is that she’s worth it. I think so many times we don’t realize how worthy we are.It breaks my heart, but at the same time, is so life bringing to watch the women, at our retreats, see what we see in them. It blows my mind that they walk in that door and within the first day, we can see their giftings and their talents and their light, and they don’t. The second that they see it, their whole world changes. 

Meg: Oh my gosh, I love that so much. Okay, so we talked a little bit earlier about what we’ve been talking the whole time about, Founded and Funded. Can you tell us a little bit more specifics, who it’s for, why we should go, how we can go, all that good stuff?

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An Inside Look At Founded And Funded

Brittany: We’ve really geared these retreats towards women that are growing businesses on Instagram, or have a dream that’s been placed on their heart to grow a business or even a lifestyle or personal brand on Instagram. Someone who feels stuck, someone who feels like they’re just ready for more, someone who wants to learn how to monetize through social media. Something that we do at the retreats is develop our giftings. 

Obviously, we talked about that a lot, getting unstuck or aligning with our purpose. We do strategic coaching. So, figuring out how we’re going to make money when we leave, and social media coaching. So, teaching how to work with brands, brand partnerships, utilizing our social media, and Instagram, well, Instagram specifically to grow our business, and honestly, we’ve had such a mix of people. Some with 100,000 followers, people with 200 followers, people with successful businesses, and people with just an idea. 

We stick them all in the same room and that power of our utilizing our strengths with one another is literally priceless. So, there is a complete strategy to the groups that we put together because everybody learns from one another. This sisterhood that I keep speaking of, is something that I was actually dreading when I went to Suzy school last fall. I was like, “I don’t need one more friend. It’ll be great to meet people, but I don’t want to have to do this sorority thing.” To sit in a room with women cheering one another on, doesn’t go away when you leave, that continues to carry on, and there’s something so special about that. 

Meg: Yeah. I want to go. So, how can we go?

Brittany: So, if you go to foundedandfundedco.com, the application is on the website, or Instagram Founded and Funded Co has the website on it. I have a social media manager that is helping me build community there as well. So, we’ve been featuring female founders, you can also nominate women for the retreat, we do scholarships from time to time. It’s something that we’re not getting away from, but we’ve separated the process a little bit. 

As far as the skin in the game earlier, we find that when people figure out how to invest in themselves, that we see a bigger return on their investment. 

Meg: Yeah, for sure. I think did you mention where it was? I can’t remember if we said that. 

Brittany: So, we do it at Suzy School headquarters in Golden, Colorado, the retreat space is insane. We have a private chef that takes care of all the meals and snacks while you’re there. She is amazing and it totally adds to just feeling taken care of and invested in. It’s a three-day retreat. It’s business intensive. A lot of people are like, “What do I tell my husband? Is this a three day business intensive?” All of that hard work and soul work, that’s so important. You can leave that part out of it, but the immediate ROI that I see with the women coming out of there has been amazing. 

Meg: Yeah, I’ve been loving following along with it all and it’s just it’s so encouraging and inspiring. Haylee, our founder of Whimsy and Wellness, is going in June. So exciting. We were just we’ve been talking about it forever. I’m just like, you gotta talk about professional cheerleader hype girl. I’m you have to go you should. 

Brittany: You need to come to the next one. 

Meg: Yes, I would love that. But yeah, so she’s coming in June. 

Brittany: I’m so honored to have her there. I’ve never been at something that takes that hard work, takes the actual strategy, and then streamlines it and how we grow our businesses through Instagram because Instagram is such an avenue for all of us. So, to shed that light on how to utilize it from a place of positivity is rewarding. 

Meg: Yeah, I bet. Okay. Are you ready for rapid-fire? Personal Growth book that every woman needs to read. 

Brittany: Well, anything by Brene Brown. Daring Greatly. I would say Start With Why is another really good one. 

Meg: Oh, I haven’t read that one. I have read Daring Greatly. It’s so, so good. Start With Why by Simon Sinek. Good one. Who’s your entrepreneurial girl crush? 

Brittany: I’m super honored that Suzy asked me to teach Suzy Schools and or the Suzy Method. I would say that she’s a really smart businesswoman that hasn’t lost herself in her growth. I think that’s something really awesome that she shows up, messy and unafraid, and does it anyway. I would also say Rachel James of Wild Alabaster was at our January retreat. I think that Rachel has taken Wild Alabaster, she found her giftings and her passions and has built a million-dollar business doing it. 

Meg: Love that. Rachel was on episode six. I agree. I love her. Late-night guilty pleasure snack?

Brittany: Ice cream.  I recently had my daughter fill out the Mother’s Day placemat that had all the questions on it and the one question was, “My mom is funniest when…” and then she wrote eats ice cream for dinner. 

Meg: Yeah. I love that. So, since we’re Whimsy and Wellness, what’s your favorite DIY roller blend recipe? 

Brittany: It’s a mermaid roller, which sounds cheesy, but I cannot get enough of this. It’s sandalwood, vanilla, bergamot, and lavender. It is so good. You will never be the same. So, you’re welcome. As far as sandalwood, you can use either, and you can use either cold-pressed vanilla or vanilla essential oil. 

Meg: Oh, perfect. Okay, and then where can people find you and follow along with you? 

Brittany: So, you can find me on Instagram and all of my messiness @brittanybollard and @foundedandfundedco.

Meg: Yay, thank you so much. I learned something. I felt I had breakthroughs. I hope people listening did, I know they did. It was such a treat. So I really, really appreciate you coming on. 

Brittany: Thank you for having me. I have to tell you, I have Hashimoto’s and my thyroid is acting up and I feel like to jump on interviews right now, and I’ll be super vulnerable, feels really scary because my brain fog is heavy. It is thick fog. I need fog lights. So, I am sitting here like “Oh, rapid-fire questions. Great. How am I gonna even find the words to answer?” But you show up messy and you do it anyway.

Meg: Yes. Love it. Thank you so much. 

Brittany: Thanks for having me. 

Join Haylee Crowley, Creator of Whimsy + Wellness, and Meg Ryan, content creator at Whimsy + Wellness, to talk all things wellness, entrepreneurship, motherhood, and womanhood.

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