{HBR 41} Online Empowerment with Marisa Goudy

Holistic Business Radio – The Podcast of the Love and Money Revolution – with Andy Dolph and Rhiannon Llewellyn

Rhi talks with Marisa, who supports wellness professionals & creative entrepreneurs in crafting their messages, spreading the word about their work, and building community online. Scroll down for show notes! We love your feedback! Please let us know what you think – email us at [e-mail], or leave us a comment below. If you’re not subscribed, please join us! How to subscribe: Most people subscribe to podcasts in iTunes; click the button to view the podcast in iTunes. Show notes from this episode with Marisa Goudy: Rhiannon talks with Marisa Goudy about her work. Marisa was raised in an entrepreneurial family so the seed was planted in her at a young age. It was dormant for a while, however. When her mother passed away suddenly in 2010, that entrepreneurial seed opened for growth. Marisa had, at that time, an eight & half month old baby and was working a job that didn’t fulfill her. When her mother passed, she decided that life was too short. She decided to quit her job and start writing and promoting wellness professionals, since she had trained in holistic healing for 10 years herself. She maintains a small practice in that field but enjoys working with other healers. She wanted to stay at home with her baby, so she just started. She has had a couple different business names and a previous partnership that failed. She now has a business partner, web designer Corinna Rake, with whom she started Online Empowerment Formula. Her mission is to help people discover, describe and deliver their messages. Corinna had two Ds of her own, so together, with those five Ds, they’ve started their own thing. They teach website courses and do one-on-one consulting. Their real focus is on empowerment. Marisa does the copywriting, and Corinna does the web design, so they work with clients as co-creators to get their business out there. They want to help people by working with them but also teaching them how to do it themselves. Rhi asks Marisa if she still resonates with healers. Yes, she absolutely does. A lot of the people she works with now are from a holistic healers group. They’re at least 50% of the group. The other half is people who identify with the creative entrepreneur, artists, writers and coaches. Her perfect people are those who are feeling disempowered in some way around their web presence and the presentation of their messages. There are a billion people on Facebook, so there’s the belief of “There are so many people here; somebody’s got to hear my message.” So you create great content and don’t get a single Like; it can be very disempowering and discouraging. Marisa started her first business by “coming out” on her Facebook page. She and Corinna speak to that paradox of things being simple and easy but not being easy. WordPress is so user-friendly, but you can get snared up in there for days trying to solve a problem. Marisa and Corinna help people save time by not having to go through the endless WordPress forums looking for answers. Marisa says that there’s a really low barrier to entry when it comes to marketing yourself online. All you need is an online connection, even at a library. So then you have to ask how you’re going to not only “enter the building” but get to the top floor of it. Rhi points out the disconnect between people’s ideas when they first start out that they’re going to “make it to the top” and things are going to be great. Marisa says each person should ask what their own top floor is. Would being an online celebrity be a good fit or would you feel exposed? Rhi points out the measure of control we all believe we have over our lives and what we choose to do, and how something comes along to make it obvious that we’re not really in control at all. Marisa had a course called Take Charge of Your Website and “control” was in the tagline. They realized they couldn’t throw the word “control” out there because it’s all just an illusion of control.