52. Community Building: Your Secret Business Weapon with Meg O’Neill
Are you a multi-passionate mom entrepreneur grappling with where to dedicate your precious time and energy? Do you want to cultivate genuine relationships and community but wonder where to start?
This week, I’m joined by social media strategist, community builder, and authenticity advocate, Meg O’Neill. Meg’s zone of genius lies in creating meaningful connections that fuel business growth without the burnout, and she’s here today to share her approach to building communities around genuine needs, and how doing so has led to opportunities that allowed her to pivot throughout her career while maintaining the flexibility she needs as a mom of three.
In our conversation, Meg shares how community building can become your secret weapon for sustainable growth, whether you're just starting out or looking to pivot. We explore how to approach networking with a connection-first mindset, set realistic boundaries with social media, and embrace your multi-passionate nature without apology.
Ready to start your networking journey? Join us every 2nd Thursday for my free Mom Entrepreneurs Circle. Sign up below for support, advice sharing, and the tools you need for both you and your business to thrive.
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
The importance of approaching community building with "give energy" rather than "get energy" for sustainable success.
How to set personal boundaries with social media to prevent burnout while still maintaining an effective presence.
Strategies for using AI tools without losing your unique voice and authentic energy in your content.
Why embracing your multi-passionate nature can be a strength rather than a character flaw in entrepreneurship.
Practical next steps for connecting with your ideal community members in a way that feels energizing rather than draining.
Listen to the Full Episode:
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Meg O’Neill: Instagram | Email | Intuitive Marketing Collective | Intuitive Business by Design
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Full Episode Transcript:
Today's episode, I am talking to Meg O'Neill. Yes, another Meg on the show. She's a social media strategist whose zone of genius lies in building meaningful communities and connections. And if you're feeling stuck in entrepreneurship or unsure where to invest your time and energy, this conversation is going to be a game-changer. Meg brings a refreshingly authentic approach to networking and community building that feels energizing rather than draining.
What I love about Meg is her practical wisdom born from real experience. She's built multiple businesses by following her intuition and creating communities around genuine needs, from mommy meetups to support groups for parents of children with special needs. These communities not only fulfilled important purposes but organically grew into business opportunities that have allowed her to pivot throughout her career while maintaining the flexibility she needs as a mom of three.
Meg's journey goes from communication student to agency owner, and it's filled with unexpected turns, including taking a year off after her son's accident, which she'll share more about. And her story reminds us that entrepreneurship isn't just about creating a dream life, but sometimes about finding practical solutions to real problems.
So whether you're just starting out or looking to pivot your business, you are about to discover how genuine community building can become the secret weapon for sustainable growth. Let's dive into my conversation with Meg O'Neill, and I hope you enjoy.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job, the podcast for moms ready to ditch the nine-to-five and build a life and business they love. I’m your host, Jenna Rykiel. Let’s go.
Jenna: Hi Meg. Thank you so much for being on the podcast.
Meg: I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
Jenna: Yeah. So I want to jump right in and I know that you are a social media strategist, but really your zone of genius is in building communities. And I want to talk about how listeners can use communities to build momentum in their business, especially when they're just starting out and they're feeling like, I don't know where to spend my time, I don't know what to do. I feel stuck.
Meg: Such a good question and it's a place where I think people can use a lot of direction and there's not a lot of advice out there because there's so many Facebook groups. There's so many different Instagrams that you could follow. But what I say first is always like, go with your gut too.
So if you are a really involved member of like a local mom's group on Facebook, that's a great place to lean in and start making conversation and connection with people because in the end, that's the true value is in those true connections and friendships that you make. You could use those people for market research. Say you're somebody who wants to leave corporate and open like a play space or something like that. You know, that's a great community to really tap into and ask these questions.
A lot of times I think we go and lean towards like the bigger communities and groups out there, or we think we have to do a paid thing that cost a few hundred dollars a month and that's not necessarily true. You can get so much value kind of what's at your fingertips already. And always come back to what feels like most aligned with you because I think we automatically think, okay, I have to join an entrepreneurial group.
And that might be very true to you, but if it's not, be with your people and start bringing up some of these questions. I think that's where you'll gain the most momentum because it will be people who already kind of know, like, and trust you and you can really get some good recommendations or even just the encouragement that we need. A lot of times it's just that kind of like push from our local communities that we need to say, yeah, I can do this.
Jenna: Yeah. And I love that. And I did an episode, episode seven on like networking. And I use the term networking, but it really is this sort of being a part of a community. And I almost think that that mentality and that describing it as that and thinking of it as that, like going into these events to create a community for yourself is a much more energizing way to think about it. Sometimes we are a little turned off by even the term networking. It feels like it's checking the box, right? But building the community is energizing.
Meg: It is. And I think we often hear like networking, we're like, oh, we have to put like our business mask on, right? And if you can look at it as connection being currency and not in an exploitive way, in this way of like, wait, when I go and I really connect truly with the other humans there, that's like an invaluable currency. Those are the people that are going to bring your name up in the rooms. Those are the people that you're going to maybe find a mentor in.
So, I think if we take a step back and look at networking and community building as this way of just like showing our authentic self and connecting with people in a way that feels true to you, it's going to go so much further in the long run because we have been so trained to show up to things like networking as like a way to sell yourself. And if you can come back and see it as a way of connection and service, I think you're just going to have so much more longevity and become energized from it instead.
Jenna: Yeah, for sure. So, what I'm hearing here is like, if somebody's just starting out and they're feeling stuck, go to create, or not create necessarily, we'll get to that in a second, but find communities that you can step into and feel like your authentic self and gain momentum. You can learn from those folks, you can ask questions, it just puts you in motion. Okay. So that's the first piece. What about the value of building your own community as a new business owner and entrepreneur? Can you talk to me a little bit about that?
Meg: I think that's invaluable and that has been my first step in many situations. So I am more of an out, you know, I do get a lot of energy from being in community and connection. So that is something that I feel really comfortable with and I understand that not everybody feels exactly that way, but it has been the first place that I go when I see something happening in my own life that I can't find connection around, I create that community. And that has been the catalyst to my business. Years and years ago, I started a mommy meetup that then turned into me becoming the director of marketing and director of lactation support for a maternal health and wellness space.
And the reason I did that was because I was 27, 28 years old and I didn't have any other friends that had kids in our area. So I started a community. Later on in my in my journey, I started a community for moms with children of special needs. It was parents, I guess, but it was always moms that showed up. And that was because there wasn't anything specifically in our area for that.
But there's people that have come to both of those groups that have hired me for social media services now, that have when I was a life coach joined my life coaching programs. Some of them have become trained in reiki with me when I did that. So I'm a super multi-passionate person and creating community has allowed me to grow a personal brand that has let me pivot throughout the years and provided me with so much flexibility as a mom.
So for those people that are like, well, what would I even start a community about? It might not have anything to actually do with your business. Maybe you love gardening and there's not a lot of young gardeners and you want to start a group around that. Those people most likely will get to know you and get to see what you're doing and potentially hire you or they have a sister or a friend or somebody that's going to need your services one day. So, I think where people get stuck is that people think I have to build community for my business.
And that's not what I think is going to work for everybody. There's some people that that's a great idea or they feel really passionate about it. But think of it in how you can just show up and serve other like-minded people. There it has a lot of potential of it helping your business, but it's also going to help your personal brand.
Jenna: Yeah.
Meg: And that's not even just as a business owner.
Jenna: Right. And you make a really good point and this is something that has come up with a couple clients and even myself in the past couple weeks is this energy around service because when we are building communities and thinking about, oh, if I start that gardening community, maybe I'll get some clients from it. It's such a different energy than when we're like, I'm going to do this because I want to bring this to the community and I want to be of service to others and I want to create connection. Can you speak to that a little bit? This give energy versus get energy?
Meg: Yeah. So a lot of people will see what I have created and ask me that question. Okay, well, what kind of community can I create? And I always have to remind them like, I didn't start any of these communities to gain business from them. But I did understand the long-term strategy that if I give back, I'm going to most likely receive, but I didn't come at it from that energy.
So I think that's a really important point that you make and something that I don't think we talk about a ton is really using your intuition to tune into like, what does the world need from me right now? What does my community need from me? And coming from that place versus, well, what's going to get me business in the long run? Because I think that then makes us make choices from a place of, I actually feel like lack a little bit. It's like it makes us make these choices of like, and then you get frustrated, scarcity mindset.
And then I see a lot of people get frustrated and burnt out because they're like, well, no one's buying. Well, yeah, like they didn't come to the gardening club to buy your aprons that you make or like the paintings you sell on Etsy. They came because they wanted the gardening, right? But if you show up in this true space of service, it is how people will connect with you authentically. And I think that's a buzzword, but we're not taught these pieces of emotional intelligence really. Some of us are, but a lot of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s, like our parents weren't teaching us. We they were just modeling as best as they could. But these are things as adults we can look at and lean into and learn and then build true authenticity from there.
Jenna: Yeah. And honestly, I think it's a relief for the moms that I work with when I say, listen, you don't have to do everything or you probably shouldn't do anything with this mindset of, okay, what can I get out of this? If you show up and you are in give energy and you're in service of others, it makes it so much more fun. And that's really like as I think women and moms like, I think our lives are showing up and giving to others more often and then in our business, we kind of get lost in this mode of what can I get out of these things that I'm doing and investing time in?
But it just makes it so much more fun when we can step into it and just be fully focused and energized around what we can give. And then giving that value, it does come back just like you said. But we also have to be a little bit patient and trust the process, of course.
Meg: It's the long game. And it's you definitely have to put in the time and it can feel slow and frustrating. And that's when I think it's so important to like have practices where you can come back to. And to me, I lean in meditation and journaling and stuff and say, you know, or also know when to stop. And I, you know, run a free networking group. And there came a certain point where I was just like, I need a break. I have a new vision for or I didn't have a clear vision, but I trusted myself and feeling like if I ever felt like resentful or felt like, you know, I'm rushing to this, then that was my sign of like, I'm not in full service. I'm not showing up with the energy that I desire. So it's time to like put it on pause. And I think that's like a really important thing to be able to give yourself that grace.
Jenna: Yeah. I love that. You talked about or you mentioned burnout and even in this sort of intuition piece of like just knowing yourself and knowing what you need. I want to talk about personal boundaries. And a little bit more on how to create those so that you don't get to a place where you are burnt out and that you can continue enjoying what you do. You know, whether it's in community building and connection, but also like in the digital space. I know we've talked about a lot. So what are your thoughts on some of those boundaries that you can create to really maintain the work life balance as you're entering into entrepreneurship?
Meg: Well, what I always remind people of is that like in the 70s, 80s, 90s, plenty of people had businesses, right? And there was no social media. Like, what did they do? They connected with people. Some people did door-to-door. Like there's all different ways to sell and to market. So, so many people come to me and they have this huge weight on their shoulders of I should be doing more. Well, who told you that? Like, it's okay. Like you could take a break whenever you want. People are not going to forget you. Your people will still be there. Your mental health is way more important.
And if you're creating again from a space that feels more energized and lit up, you're naturally going to be more magnetic too. So when you're feeling that like picking up your phone and you are saying to yourself, I have to share this. Well, if you're saying that, the energy is going to come off that way. So you might not have to verbally say it, but people can feel that energy of like forcing. So I really try to be that gentle reminder to people that like you don't have to be on.
I'm not super active on LinkedIn. I'm horrible with email. So but I lean into the things that work for me. I like Instagram. I like Facebook. But I'm not going to try to be on YouTube and everywhere else because right now in this season of life with three kids, like that's just really, really difficult. So really focus on the platforms where you feel like you make the most genuine connection and create a system or a plan.
I work with a lot of my thought leaders and authors and speakers who I create content for where they only post like three times a week or maybe they post two times a week. But we make sure those posts are really quality and they connect with people, but then they're not showing up in their stories every day. They're professors at big universities. They just don't have the time. So you could be really, really successful and show up only a few times a week on social media.
Jenna: Yeah. As long as you're showing up somewhere, right? And telling people what you do because that's how the energy gets out there. That's how the word gets out there. That's how somebody can tell their cousin's mom what you do, right? There's something that you mentioned in those, you know, personal boundaries and the energy that you bring to the posting. And this is something that I struggled with just recently because I was getting in this space of like, I have to post about my podcast each week and I was using AI, right?
And I realized that so much of when I was using AI, I was losing so much of my own energy in it. So I know we haven't talked about AI, but I know it's a tool that you have talked about in your community for a long time. And this is, you know, mostly selfish, but how do you use AI without losing that part of the message that's like coming from you, like the energy and the excitement and the connection?
Meg: I love this question because I think we are in this season right now of a lot of people feeling super burnt out from places like Instagram because so many people are using AI. So when you show up on Instagram, even to just scroll for yourself, to me, there feels like a little bit of this like dead energy. Like everybody's saying the same thing. I'm like, I can't read all of these words. This is too much. Like I can see something that I'm super interested in and I'm like, I just don't even want to read it because it feels like there's just so much information.
I still use it myself, but I've been noticing that in my content too of like, I have my AI totally programmed for my brand voice, everything. So when it writes, it writes really well and it does sound like me, but I still feel a little bit of that like dead energy. And I don't know how else to describe it, but it's like, it's not as vibrant. It's not as electric. It's not like connecting. So the way that I am now approaching it is I think that content on Instagram and Facebook and stuff is going to change more into storytelling of you actually showing up on video and store and telling a story. And I'm trying to practice that and I'm trying to create content that way to kind of flex that muscle.
But what I do is I still use AI to help me brainstorm my ideas. Help me brainstorm some of my messaging. I love the voice note feature on AI. And I can kind of just be in the car driving, just brain dump like three minutes of something, and then it will organize my thoughts for me. So then from there, I'll be like, okay, I'm going to make a video on this. Or I'm going to take this and make it into a carousel post, but I'm going to write it myself because I do feel like there is this kind of like, it's like a fake plant. Like it's beautiful and you could from far away, right? Like it like looks like you're like, oh God, that's like really pretty. And then you get up close and you're like, oh, it's like plastic.
Jenna: Yeah, I love that. And it changes everything about the room when it's a fake plant. I mean, I love fake plants. I love fake plants. Don't get me wrong. But it changes the energy of a room when it's a real plant versus a fake plant.
Meg: Exactly. I think it's so cool because like we have, we have a lot to learn. This is like the very beginning of AI. Just because you can pump out three posts a day from AI, doesn't necessarily mean you should. So just remember that. Like, don't put that pressure on yourself. I would rather see one really good post that has your energy and vulnerability in it versus 10 Canva-made quotes that AI put together for you.
Jenna: Yeah. I love the quick tip about the like the voice notes because I feel like when I get inspired or when I'm feeling like there's so many times in my life when I'm like, oh, this would be a great post. And I think about it and then by the time I get to my computer, I'm like, I can't even bring it to life because the moment has passed. So I love being able to capture that in a way and still utilize this resource and this tool, but to not like use it against me because I think for a little while it has been where it's been so easy to just let AI be the beautiful writer, the beautiful fake plant. And then yeah, I have some, you know, yellowing leaves and, you know, a little bit saggy here and there, but still it's the energy of a life plant.
Meg: Exactly. And people like that. People still want that. Like even spelling mistakes and stuff like that. I don't get caught up in that because it shows I'm a type B person. I'm not, you know, and other people who see that will say things to me like, oh, I always get so embarrassed. I'm like, yeah, I get embarrassed sometimes too, but I'm dyslexic and I'm not going to let it stop me from still putting out content. So it's like those yellowing saggy bits are really, really important because they call in your right people.
Jenna: Absolutely. So speaking of you, tell me a little bit about the audience like how you got to where you are and what you do for people, like how you make business ownership a little bit easier for folks.
Meg: Awesome. Well, I've been on the internet sadly for over like 30 years. 22 years ago, I sat in communications class in college and they told me what a blog was and I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. So I have done a ton of different iterations of business. I've been the Dean of a school to the head of marketing for a pre and postnatal wellness facility. And then during that time, I had my three kids and my oldest has special needs.
When he was five years old, he had an accident where he fell out of a second story window and broke both of his feet. And I said, I got to take the next year off. I was working 30 hours a week outside of the house and while it was flexible, I was burnt out and my nervous system was fried. I had three kids under four. That was a lot of - was very, very busy. I was really fried and I was like, I my primary job is to protect them and keep them safe and I need to figure out the best way to do that.
So I took a year off from work and then I ended up starting my own business and I started a life coaching business, but they were coming to me for life coaching. They were coming to me for energy work, but many of them were asking me marketing questions because that has always been my background. So I slowly morphed into more business and social media. And then I partnered with my partner Chelsea and we have a done for you agency where we work with speakers, authors and thought leaders to build their websites, bring brand kits and like that to life for them.
And then we also have the other side of our business is intuitive business by design. And that's more for people who are a little bit earlier in their business. And we support them through one-on-one audits, like social media audits. I also do intensives where I'll help them actually program their AI, build out systems like that. And we have a community as well for coaches, healers, a lot of creatives and service providers too.
Jenna: Yeah. I love your story because partly, I mean, all of it, but the part about like there's that saying like necessity breeds creativity or something like that. And I really feel like so many moms I've talked to who are on this journey, it really is a sense of like doing what they need to do for themselves and their family in these really hard moments and business and entrepreneurship really being an answer to these like really hard questions of, you know, how do I create a life, not even just this like dream life. It's sort of like, how do I be the mom that I need to be for my family?
And I'm just so grateful to entrepreneurship and business for that because it is a path even for people who like myself who have never seen themselves as an entrepreneur or having the skills, right? The other thing I I noticed about the story is like what you're doing right now is very different than what you started doing or maybe not very different, but the business that you have now is different than the business you had then.
And I want to talk a little bit about that just because so many of the moms that I work with, there's this thought that things have to be a certain way right now, almost like they need to create the perfect business right now. And what I always I'm saying is like, trust me, it will look completely different once you get into it and once you keep taking action and once you keep learning, and you just have to be open to that evolution both in you and the business. So how did that happen for you? Like how was that journey? And was there openness to it or was there a little bit of resistance?
Meg: I have always been very, very open to it just being somebody who I know myself enough to know that like I can throw myself really hard into something and then like I'm going to change in a few years. And I've been embarrassed about that, but I've also learned to trust it as well. But my business really started because I had women in town asking me to go for walks all the time. All different and my husband's like, you could you got to be able to make money from that. Why are these people always asking you?
And I was like, maybe I should be a life coach. And that's like literally how I started becoming an entrepreneur because I never ever had any thought that I would. So I knew that I was going to have to kind of like practice what am I even - I took a training and everything. I didn't just like call myself a life coach and did. But I started my business without a website and I sold my first group program and made $10,000. And I was like, this is working. Like, okay, like this is working.
And that's why I understand I am not like everybody else. There are people that really need that grounded systems in place. But I see people working on websites for nine, 10, 12 months. I'm like, you could be selling. Just like sell something. Sell an ebook, sell one-on-one calls with you for a half hour. Like your time is valuable, but I think that a lot of the mindset around it is like we have to legitimize ourselves. So what I always do is if I hear that whisper in myself somehow of like this isn't working, or people are coming to me asking me for something else, I make space to kind of say, let me like dip my toe in here. Maybe I'll offer a program around it. And that's how I've made my like - I've kind of like walked the windy road.
Jenna: Yeah, I love that. And I have an entire episode, episode 21 on my thoughts about websites and how you can build a successful business without it. So if you're listening and you're the person who has been spending 12 months on a website, please go to that. I love that because so many people I work with see it as a character flaw that they jump from thing to thing. And certainly, you know, we do need some sort of consistency in some way probably to stay sane in some ways.
But I love that you're saying like really what it comes down to is you trusting yourself, having your own back, like knowing that if you want to dip your toe into something, you're going to do it in a way that honors you and allows you to really experience it and see if that's something that will make you money and will help people. But coming back to the idea that part of your character is not a flaw. I love that because it's so easy to see jumping from thing to thing as being disorganized and not knowing what you're doing and not being able to commit.
Meg: It's funny that this we're talking about this right now because my son brought home from seventh grade a worksheet on like, what's your niche within the middle school? And I hate niching down. So it caught my eye and I was like, this is so funny because look, we're being trained even from a young age that we're only palatable when we're in a box. And at that age, what my strengths were were taking care of other people, being kind. And those are all wonderful traits, right? But that wasn't what allowed me to tap into what I actually enjoyed.
Not to say that I didn't like those things, but it was making me focus on like a very traditional box of what like a woman should grow into. And I just think that if we allow ourselves space to grow and change and you might get the website up and now you want to help a whole different thing of people. Somebody could go in there and change your copy. Like it's okay. Most likely, 90% of people aren't even remembering what you wrote on your website.
Jenna: No, no, they're not.
Meg: Yeah. It's what you are thinking. So one of the things that actually helped me the most was having a Human Design reading probably six years ago or so. And I found out that I was a manifester in Human Design and that is somebody who initiates big ideas and they don't always see them through. So they're the initiator, they make it happen and then they move on to something else. And when I heard her say that, I was like, oh my God, for all this time, I was beating myself up about that. And this is just who I am and I have to lean into. So I do understand that there are people along the way that probably think I'm flaky and ultimately, that's none of my business and I have to just keep doing what I'm doing.
Jenna: I love that. It is none of our business what other people think. And a mantra that I have been leaning into is allow people to be wrong about me. I've been trying to so hard. Yes, I've been trying to pass that along with my clients too because we do so much because we're worried about other people's opinions and we can't control them. We can barely control our own opinions. And people are going to be wrong about us and that is okay.
So in our conversation, I know we've jumped around a little bit, but what would you say like action items, next steps? Like what would you like for listeners to go out and do this week or to experiment with or to think about as we wrap up?
Meg: I think I would love for them to get clear on what is the platform that they feel most connected to the community on. And then the next step from there is like create a post that speaks to your community there. So maybe that is a video, maybe it is a post. Maybe there's a call for are there other moms who want to go for a walk and talk about ideas for businesses. Whatever that might be in a kind of vulnerable and open way and really see who connects with you because I think you will be so surprised that there's people watching that you like don't even realize and are really looking for that community and connection from you.
Jenna: Yeah, those people just creep in. You know, just I love that. Entirely. I'm a creeper.
Meg: Right. And they could be your friend and client for the next 10 years and like they're just waiting for you to say something.
Jenna: Yeah. There's so many opportunities to inspire people and you often don't know. Like just because somebody isn't liking something or engaging with something does not mean it's not creating a transformation or creating inspiration. And so you really do have to keep showing up for yourself, right? And for like giving.
And when I say for yourself, like I mean for yourself in the energy that you're putting out and in the motivation and knowing that people are maybe taking what you're saying and and feeling a certain way and feeling inspired. How can people learn more about you and your services and and I know that your community aspect has shifted a bit, but how can they keep in touch with you?
Meg: Well, you can find me on my favorite platform, Instagram @MegONeill10 and send me a DM that you listen to this. I I truly just love connecting with people over there. And then our done for you marketing services is at IntuitiveMarketingCollective.com. And then our community and 101 Coaching is at IntuitiveBusinessByDesign.com. So you can find all the information of what we do on both of those places.
Jenna: Perfect. And all of that will be in the show notes. So you can always check it out by going to Jenna.Coach/52. All right, Meg. Thank you so much. I loved our conversation and I know that we'll keep in touch and keep doing the thing.
Meg: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. This was such a fun conversation.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
What I love about Meg is her practical wisdom born from real experience. She's built multiple businesses by following her intuition and creating communities around genuine needs, from mommy meetups to support groups for parents of children with special needs. These communities not only fulfilled important purposes but organically grew into business opportunities that have allowed her to pivot throughout her career while maintaining the flexibility she needs as a mom of three.
Meg's journey goes from communication student to agency owner, and it's filled with unexpected turns, including taking a year off after her son's accident, which she'll share more about. And her story reminds us that entrepreneurship isn't just about creating a dream life, but sometimes about finding practical solutions to real problems.
So whether you're just starting out or looking to pivot your business, you are about to discover how genuine community building can become the secret weapon for sustainable growth. Let's dive into my conversation with Meg O'Neill, and I hope you enjoy.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job, the podcast for moms ready to ditch the nine-to-five and build a life and business they love. I’m your host, Jenna Rykiel. Let’s go.
Jenna: Hi Meg. Thank you so much for being on the podcast.
Meg: I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
Jenna: Yeah. So I want to jump right in and I know that you are a social media strategist, but really your zone of genius is in building communities. And I want to talk about how listeners can use communities to build momentum in their business, especially when they're just starting out and they're feeling like, I don't know where to spend my time, I don't know what to do. I feel stuck.
Meg: Such a good question and it's a place where I think people can use a lot of direction and there's not a lot of advice out there because there's so many Facebook groups. There's so many different Instagrams that you could follow. But what I say first is always like, go with your gut too.
So if you are a really involved member of like a local mom's group on Facebook, that's a great place to lean in and start making conversation and connection with people because in the end, that's the true value is in those true connections and friendships that you make. You could use those people for market research. Say you're somebody who wants to leave corporate and open like a play space or something like that. You know, that's a great community to really tap into and ask these questions.
A lot of times I think we go and lean towards like the bigger communities and groups out there, or we think we have to do a paid thing that cost a few hundred dollars a month and that's not necessarily true. You can get so much value kind of what's at your fingertips already. And always come back to what feels like most aligned with you because I think we automatically think, okay, I have to join an entrepreneurial group.
And that might be very true to you, but if it's not, be with your people and start bringing up some of these questions. I think that's where you'll gain the most momentum because it will be people who already kind of know, like, and trust you and you can really get some good recommendations or even just the encouragement that we need. A lot of times it's just that kind of like push from our local communities that we need to say, yeah, I can do this.
Jenna: Yeah. And I love that. And I did an episode, episode seven on like networking. And I use the term networking, but it really is this sort of being a part of a community. And I almost think that that mentality and that describing it as that and thinking of it as that, like going into these events to create a community for yourself is a much more energizing way to think about it. Sometimes we are a little turned off by even the term networking. It feels like it's checking the box, right? But building the community is energizing.
Meg: It is. And I think we often hear like networking, we're like, oh, we have to put like our business mask on, right? And if you can look at it as connection being currency and not in an exploitive way, in this way of like, wait, when I go and I really connect truly with the other humans there, that's like an invaluable currency. Those are the people that are going to bring your name up in the rooms. Those are the people that you're going to maybe find a mentor in.
So, I think if we take a step back and look at networking and community building as this way of just like showing our authentic self and connecting with people in a way that feels true to you, it's going to go so much further in the long run because we have been so trained to show up to things like networking as like a way to sell yourself. And if you can come back and see it as a way of connection and service, I think you're just going to have so much more longevity and become energized from it instead.
Jenna: Yeah, for sure. So, what I'm hearing here is like, if somebody's just starting out and they're feeling stuck, go to create, or not create necessarily, we'll get to that in a second, but find communities that you can step into and feel like your authentic self and gain momentum. You can learn from those folks, you can ask questions, it just puts you in motion. Okay. So that's the first piece. What about the value of building your own community as a new business owner and entrepreneur? Can you talk to me a little bit about that?
Meg: I think that's invaluable and that has been my first step in many situations. So I am more of an out, you know, I do get a lot of energy from being in community and connection. So that is something that I feel really comfortable with and I understand that not everybody feels exactly that way, but it has been the first place that I go when I see something happening in my own life that I can't find connection around, I create that community. And that has been the catalyst to my business. Years and years ago, I started a mommy meetup that then turned into me becoming the director of marketing and director of lactation support for a maternal health and wellness space.
And the reason I did that was because I was 27, 28 years old and I didn't have any other friends that had kids in our area. So I started a community. Later on in my in my journey, I started a community for moms with children of special needs. It was parents, I guess, but it was always moms that showed up. And that was because there wasn't anything specifically in our area for that.
But there's people that have come to both of those groups that have hired me for social media services now, that have when I was a life coach joined my life coaching programs. Some of them have become trained in reiki with me when I did that. So I'm a super multi-passionate person and creating community has allowed me to grow a personal brand that has let me pivot throughout the years and provided me with so much flexibility as a mom.
So for those people that are like, well, what would I even start a community about? It might not have anything to actually do with your business. Maybe you love gardening and there's not a lot of young gardeners and you want to start a group around that. Those people most likely will get to know you and get to see what you're doing and potentially hire you or they have a sister or a friend or somebody that's going to need your services one day. So, I think where people get stuck is that people think I have to build community for my business.
And that's not what I think is going to work for everybody. There's some people that that's a great idea or they feel really passionate about it. But think of it in how you can just show up and serve other like-minded people. There it has a lot of potential of it helping your business, but it's also going to help your personal brand.
Jenna: Yeah.
Meg: And that's not even just as a business owner.
Jenna: Right. And you make a really good point and this is something that has come up with a couple clients and even myself in the past couple weeks is this energy around service because when we are building communities and thinking about, oh, if I start that gardening community, maybe I'll get some clients from it. It's such a different energy than when we're like, I'm going to do this because I want to bring this to the community and I want to be of service to others and I want to create connection. Can you speak to that a little bit? This give energy versus get energy?
Meg: Yeah. So a lot of people will see what I have created and ask me that question. Okay, well, what kind of community can I create? And I always have to remind them like, I didn't start any of these communities to gain business from them. But I did understand the long-term strategy that if I give back, I'm going to most likely receive, but I didn't come at it from that energy.
So I think that's a really important point that you make and something that I don't think we talk about a ton is really using your intuition to tune into like, what does the world need from me right now? What does my community need from me? And coming from that place versus, well, what's going to get me business in the long run? Because I think that then makes us make choices from a place of, I actually feel like lack a little bit. It's like it makes us make these choices of like, and then you get frustrated, scarcity mindset.
And then I see a lot of people get frustrated and burnt out because they're like, well, no one's buying. Well, yeah, like they didn't come to the gardening club to buy your aprons that you make or like the paintings you sell on Etsy. They came because they wanted the gardening, right? But if you show up in this true space of service, it is how people will connect with you authentically. And I think that's a buzzword, but we're not taught these pieces of emotional intelligence really. Some of us are, but a lot of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s, like our parents weren't teaching us. We they were just modeling as best as they could. But these are things as adults we can look at and lean into and learn and then build true authenticity from there.
Jenna: Yeah. And honestly, I think it's a relief for the moms that I work with when I say, listen, you don't have to do everything or you probably shouldn't do anything with this mindset of, okay, what can I get out of this? If you show up and you are in give energy and you're in service of others, it makes it so much more fun. And that's really like as I think women and moms like, I think our lives are showing up and giving to others more often and then in our business, we kind of get lost in this mode of what can I get out of these things that I'm doing and investing time in?
But it just makes it so much more fun when we can step into it and just be fully focused and energized around what we can give. And then giving that value, it does come back just like you said. But we also have to be a little bit patient and trust the process, of course.
Meg: It's the long game. And it's you definitely have to put in the time and it can feel slow and frustrating. And that's when I think it's so important to like have practices where you can come back to. And to me, I lean in meditation and journaling and stuff and say, you know, or also know when to stop. And I, you know, run a free networking group. And there came a certain point where I was just like, I need a break. I have a new vision for or I didn't have a clear vision, but I trusted myself and feeling like if I ever felt like resentful or felt like, you know, I'm rushing to this, then that was my sign of like, I'm not in full service. I'm not showing up with the energy that I desire. So it's time to like put it on pause. And I think that's like a really important thing to be able to give yourself that grace.
Jenna: Yeah. I love that. You talked about or you mentioned burnout and even in this sort of intuition piece of like just knowing yourself and knowing what you need. I want to talk about personal boundaries. And a little bit more on how to create those so that you don't get to a place where you are burnt out and that you can continue enjoying what you do. You know, whether it's in community building and connection, but also like in the digital space. I know we've talked about a lot. So what are your thoughts on some of those boundaries that you can create to really maintain the work life balance as you're entering into entrepreneurship?
Meg: Well, what I always remind people of is that like in the 70s, 80s, 90s, plenty of people had businesses, right? And there was no social media. Like, what did they do? They connected with people. Some people did door-to-door. Like there's all different ways to sell and to market. So, so many people come to me and they have this huge weight on their shoulders of I should be doing more. Well, who told you that? Like, it's okay. Like you could take a break whenever you want. People are not going to forget you. Your people will still be there. Your mental health is way more important.
And if you're creating again from a space that feels more energized and lit up, you're naturally going to be more magnetic too. So when you're feeling that like picking up your phone and you are saying to yourself, I have to share this. Well, if you're saying that, the energy is going to come off that way. So you might not have to verbally say it, but people can feel that energy of like forcing. So I really try to be that gentle reminder to people that like you don't have to be on.
I'm not super active on LinkedIn. I'm horrible with email. So but I lean into the things that work for me. I like Instagram. I like Facebook. But I'm not going to try to be on YouTube and everywhere else because right now in this season of life with three kids, like that's just really, really difficult. So really focus on the platforms where you feel like you make the most genuine connection and create a system or a plan.
I work with a lot of my thought leaders and authors and speakers who I create content for where they only post like three times a week or maybe they post two times a week. But we make sure those posts are really quality and they connect with people, but then they're not showing up in their stories every day. They're professors at big universities. They just don't have the time. So you could be really, really successful and show up only a few times a week on social media.
Jenna: Yeah. As long as you're showing up somewhere, right? And telling people what you do because that's how the energy gets out there. That's how the word gets out there. That's how somebody can tell their cousin's mom what you do, right? There's something that you mentioned in those, you know, personal boundaries and the energy that you bring to the posting. And this is something that I struggled with just recently because I was getting in this space of like, I have to post about my podcast each week and I was using AI, right?
And I realized that so much of when I was using AI, I was losing so much of my own energy in it. So I know we haven't talked about AI, but I know it's a tool that you have talked about in your community for a long time. And this is, you know, mostly selfish, but how do you use AI without losing that part of the message that's like coming from you, like the energy and the excitement and the connection?
Meg: I love this question because I think we are in this season right now of a lot of people feeling super burnt out from places like Instagram because so many people are using AI. So when you show up on Instagram, even to just scroll for yourself, to me, there feels like a little bit of this like dead energy. Like everybody's saying the same thing. I'm like, I can't read all of these words. This is too much. Like I can see something that I'm super interested in and I'm like, I just don't even want to read it because it feels like there's just so much information.
I still use it myself, but I've been noticing that in my content too of like, I have my AI totally programmed for my brand voice, everything. So when it writes, it writes really well and it does sound like me, but I still feel a little bit of that like dead energy. And I don't know how else to describe it, but it's like, it's not as vibrant. It's not as electric. It's not like connecting. So the way that I am now approaching it is I think that content on Instagram and Facebook and stuff is going to change more into storytelling of you actually showing up on video and store and telling a story. And I'm trying to practice that and I'm trying to create content that way to kind of flex that muscle.
But what I do is I still use AI to help me brainstorm my ideas. Help me brainstorm some of my messaging. I love the voice note feature on AI. And I can kind of just be in the car driving, just brain dump like three minutes of something, and then it will organize my thoughts for me. So then from there, I'll be like, okay, I'm going to make a video on this. Or I'm going to take this and make it into a carousel post, but I'm going to write it myself because I do feel like there is this kind of like, it's like a fake plant. Like it's beautiful and you could from far away, right? Like it like looks like you're like, oh God, that's like really pretty. And then you get up close and you're like, oh, it's like plastic.
Jenna: Yeah, I love that. And it changes everything about the room when it's a fake plant. I mean, I love fake plants. I love fake plants. Don't get me wrong. But it changes the energy of a room when it's a real plant versus a fake plant.
Meg: Exactly. I think it's so cool because like we have, we have a lot to learn. This is like the very beginning of AI. Just because you can pump out three posts a day from AI, doesn't necessarily mean you should. So just remember that. Like, don't put that pressure on yourself. I would rather see one really good post that has your energy and vulnerability in it versus 10 Canva-made quotes that AI put together for you.
Jenna: Yeah. I love the quick tip about the like the voice notes because I feel like when I get inspired or when I'm feeling like there's so many times in my life when I'm like, oh, this would be a great post. And I think about it and then by the time I get to my computer, I'm like, I can't even bring it to life because the moment has passed. So I love being able to capture that in a way and still utilize this resource and this tool, but to not like use it against me because I think for a little while it has been where it's been so easy to just let AI be the beautiful writer, the beautiful fake plant. And then yeah, I have some, you know, yellowing leaves and, you know, a little bit saggy here and there, but still it's the energy of a life plant.
Meg: Exactly. And people like that. People still want that. Like even spelling mistakes and stuff like that. I don't get caught up in that because it shows I'm a type B person. I'm not, you know, and other people who see that will say things to me like, oh, I always get so embarrassed. I'm like, yeah, I get embarrassed sometimes too, but I'm dyslexic and I'm not going to let it stop me from still putting out content. So it's like those yellowing saggy bits are really, really important because they call in your right people.
Jenna: Absolutely. So speaking of you, tell me a little bit about the audience like how you got to where you are and what you do for people, like how you make business ownership a little bit easier for folks.
Meg: Awesome. Well, I've been on the internet sadly for over like 30 years. 22 years ago, I sat in communications class in college and they told me what a blog was and I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. So I have done a ton of different iterations of business. I've been the Dean of a school to the head of marketing for a pre and postnatal wellness facility. And then during that time, I had my three kids and my oldest has special needs.
When he was five years old, he had an accident where he fell out of a second story window and broke both of his feet. And I said, I got to take the next year off. I was working 30 hours a week outside of the house and while it was flexible, I was burnt out and my nervous system was fried. I had three kids under four. That was a lot of - was very, very busy. I was really fried and I was like, I my primary job is to protect them and keep them safe and I need to figure out the best way to do that.
So I took a year off from work and then I ended up starting my own business and I started a life coaching business, but they were coming to me for life coaching. They were coming to me for energy work, but many of them were asking me marketing questions because that has always been my background. So I slowly morphed into more business and social media. And then I partnered with my partner Chelsea and we have a done for you agency where we work with speakers, authors and thought leaders to build their websites, bring brand kits and like that to life for them.
And then we also have the other side of our business is intuitive business by design. And that's more for people who are a little bit earlier in their business. And we support them through one-on-one audits, like social media audits. I also do intensives where I'll help them actually program their AI, build out systems like that. And we have a community as well for coaches, healers, a lot of creatives and service providers too.
Jenna: Yeah. I love your story because partly, I mean, all of it, but the part about like there's that saying like necessity breeds creativity or something like that. And I really feel like so many moms I've talked to who are on this journey, it really is a sense of like doing what they need to do for themselves and their family in these really hard moments and business and entrepreneurship really being an answer to these like really hard questions of, you know, how do I create a life, not even just this like dream life. It's sort of like, how do I be the mom that I need to be for my family?
And I'm just so grateful to entrepreneurship and business for that because it is a path even for people who like myself who have never seen themselves as an entrepreneur or having the skills, right? The other thing I I noticed about the story is like what you're doing right now is very different than what you started doing or maybe not very different, but the business that you have now is different than the business you had then.
And I want to talk a little bit about that just because so many of the moms that I work with, there's this thought that things have to be a certain way right now, almost like they need to create the perfect business right now. And what I always I'm saying is like, trust me, it will look completely different once you get into it and once you keep taking action and once you keep learning, and you just have to be open to that evolution both in you and the business. So how did that happen for you? Like how was that journey? And was there openness to it or was there a little bit of resistance?
Meg: I have always been very, very open to it just being somebody who I know myself enough to know that like I can throw myself really hard into something and then like I'm going to change in a few years. And I've been embarrassed about that, but I've also learned to trust it as well. But my business really started because I had women in town asking me to go for walks all the time. All different and my husband's like, you could you got to be able to make money from that. Why are these people always asking you?
And I was like, maybe I should be a life coach. And that's like literally how I started becoming an entrepreneur because I never ever had any thought that I would. So I knew that I was going to have to kind of like practice what am I even - I took a training and everything. I didn't just like call myself a life coach and did. But I started my business without a website and I sold my first group program and made $10,000. And I was like, this is working. Like, okay, like this is working.
And that's why I understand I am not like everybody else. There are people that really need that grounded systems in place. But I see people working on websites for nine, 10, 12 months. I'm like, you could be selling. Just like sell something. Sell an ebook, sell one-on-one calls with you for a half hour. Like your time is valuable, but I think that a lot of the mindset around it is like we have to legitimize ourselves. So what I always do is if I hear that whisper in myself somehow of like this isn't working, or people are coming to me asking me for something else, I make space to kind of say, let me like dip my toe in here. Maybe I'll offer a program around it. And that's how I've made my like - I've kind of like walked the windy road.
Jenna: Yeah, I love that. And I have an entire episode, episode 21 on my thoughts about websites and how you can build a successful business without it. So if you're listening and you're the person who has been spending 12 months on a website, please go to that. I love that because so many people I work with see it as a character flaw that they jump from thing to thing. And certainly, you know, we do need some sort of consistency in some way probably to stay sane in some ways.
But I love that you're saying like really what it comes down to is you trusting yourself, having your own back, like knowing that if you want to dip your toe into something, you're going to do it in a way that honors you and allows you to really experience it and see if that's something that will make you money and will help people. But coming back to the idea that part of your character is not a flaw. I love that because it's so easy to see jumping from thing to thing as being disorganized and not knowing what you're doing and not being able to commit.
Meg: It's funny that this we're talking about this right now because my son brought home from seventh grade a worksheet on like, what's your niche within the middle school? And I hate niching down. So it caught my eye and I was like, this is so funny because look, we're being trained even from a young age that we're only palatable when we're in a box. And at that age, what my strengths were were taking care of other people, being kind. And those are all wonderful traits, right? But that wasn't what allowed me to tap into what I actually enjoyed.
Not to say that I didn't like those things, but it was making me focus on like a very traditional box of what like a woman should grow into. And I just think that if we allow ourselves space to grow and change and you might get the website up and now you want to help a whole different thing of people. Somebody could go in there and change your copy. Like it's okay. Most likely, 90% of people aren't even remembering what you wrote on your website.
Jenna: No, no, they're not.
Meg: Yeah. It's what you are thinking. So one of the things that actually helped me the most was having a Human Design reading probably six years ago or so. And I found out that I was a manifester in Human Design and that is somebody who initiates big ideas and they don't always see them through. So they're the initiator, they make it happen and then they move on to something else. And when I heard her say that, I was like, oh my God, for all this time, I was beating myself up about that. And this is just who I am and I have to lean into. So I do understand that there are people along the way that probably think I'm flaky and ultimately, that's none of my business and I have to just keep doing what I'm doing.
Jenna: I love that. It is none of our business what other people think. And a mantra that I have been leaning into is allow people to be wrong about me. I've been trying to so hard. Yes, I've been trying to pass that along with my clients too because we do so much because we're worried about other people's opinions and we can't control them. We can barely control our own opinions. And people are going to be wrong about us and that is okay.
So in our conversation, I know we've jumped around a little bit, but what would you say like action items, next steps? Like what would you like for listeners to go out and do this week or to experiment with or to think about as we wrap up?
Meg: I think I would love for them to get clear on what is the platform that they feel most connected to the community on. And then the next step from there is like create a post that speaks to your community there. So maybe that is a video, maybe it is a post. Maybe there's a call for are there other moms who want to go for a walk and talk about ideas for businesses. Whatever that might be in a kind of vulnerable and open way and really see who connects with you because I think you will be so surprised that there's people watching that you like don't even realize and are really looking for that community and connection from you.
Jenna: Yeah, those people just creep in. You know, just I love that. Entirely. I'm a creeper.
Meg: Right. And they could be your friend and client for the next 10 years and like they're just waiting for you to say something.
Jenna: Yeah. There's so many opportunities to inspire people and you often don't know. Like just because somebody isn't liking something or engaging with something does not mean it's not creating a transformation or creating inspiration. And so you really do have to keep showing up for yourself, right? And for like giving.
And when I say for yourself, like I mean for yourself in the energy that you're putting out and in the motivation and knowing that people are maybe taking what you're saying and and feeling a certain way and feeling inspired. How can people learn more about you and your services and and I know that your community aspect has shifted a bit, but how can they keep in touch with you?
Meg: Well, you can find me on my favorite platform, Instagram @MegONeill10 and send me a DM that you listen to this. I I truly just love connecting with people over there. And then our done for you marketing services is at IntuitiveMarketingCollective.com. And then our community and 101 Coaching is at IntuitiveBusinessByDesign.com. So you can find all the information of what we do on both of those places.
Jenna: Perfect. And all of that will be in the show notes. So you can always check it out by going to Jenna.Coach/52. All right, Meg. Thank you so much. I loved our conversation and I know that we'll keep in touch and keep doing the thing.
Meg: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. This was such a fun conversation.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
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