In this episode, the fabulous Rochelle Moulton, business coach, cohost of The Business of Authority podcast, and now(!) creator of her new podcast, Soloist Women, shares her journey from working with small boutiques to focusing primarily on soloists and creating a platform for women to share their stories and expertise. A few takeaways from Rochelle's episode:

• Redefining Wealth:  Wealth is not just about revenue. It is the balance of what is important to you and brings you joy–whether money, free time and/or flexibility.  We each get to define our own version of wealth. This redefinition of wealth is especially important for soloist women because we often face distinct challenges due to traditionally shouldering domestic responsibilities. The perfect mix isn’t static, and may change during different seasons of business and life.
• The Importance of Building Assets:  Don’t underestimate the value of your unique knowledge and methods. Turn your methodologies and processes into valuable assets like books or unique tools, like creating licensable content or training programs. But be careful not to fall into the trap of misfit ideas that don't align with your business model.
• The Power of Listening: Rochelle embarked on a Listening Tour to understand the challenges soloist women face, their aspirations, and what frustrates them. By truly listening to their stories and experiences, she gained valuable insights that helped shape her offerings and connect with her audience more effectively.

I particularly love this lesson Rochelle shares about listening tours that I can’t hear often enough: “They gave me the sales copy for the landing page, because they told me stories. They told me experiences. They told me things that had happened to them. They told me what they did not want. Like they were so clear about what they didn't want. And I use that language on my website.”

Don't miss out on this empowering episode of Hourly to Exit! Tune in now on your favorite podcast platform, and let Rochelle's story inspire you to embrace your own journey to success. 🎧💫

Connect with Erin to learn how to use intellectual property to increase your income and impact. hourlytoexit.com/podcast.

Erin's LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinaustin/

Think Beyond IP YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVztXnDYnZ83oIb-EGX9IGA/videos

Music credit: Yes She Can by Tiny Music

A Team Dklutr production

Hello ladies.

Welcome to this week's

episode of hourly to exit.

I'm very excited about

today's guest, Rochelle

Moulton, who we've had

here before, and we have a

wonderful new conversation

about what's been happening

lately with Rochelle.

Welcome

Rochelle.

Oh, thank you so much, Aaron.

I'm really excited

to be with you.

Well,

I am very excited

about this conversation.

So many exciting things

have been happening

in your business.

and I love to catch up the

audience on the new stuff.

But before we get

to that, would you

Rochelle Moulton:

introduce yourself?

Oh, sure.

So I'm Rochelle Moulton

and I help soloists

turn their expertise

into wealth and impact.

And that's a new way

for me to say what I do.

So I love having it roll off

the tongue a little easier

than it sometimes has.

It's fantastic.

We are definitely going to

have a conversation around

wealth, but I think it's

helpful to kind of back up

and talk about, where you

started in your career and

how it's evolved to get

you

to where you are now.

Sure.

So basically grew up in

big firm consulting, which

is not unlike big law.

there's a partner track

and you either get

on it or you don't.

And so I was there about 10

years in one firm and I made

partner at a really young

age and I was like, wow, I've

made it, this is awesome.

And then it was the first time

it dawned on me that Oh, no,

this is just the first step.

Now I have to do all

this other stuff that

I wasn't necessarily

interested in doing.

I found it challenging

in those days.

And it's frankly still true.

There weren't as many women.

there were probably about 20

percent female partners when

I made partner at that firm.

And so those numbers

haven't changed a whole lot.

and eventually I just decided

that I wanted to indulge

my entrepreneurial side.

I was tired of hiding who

I was of not saying what I

meant or what I wanted to say.

And so I left and with

a partner, I started my

first consulting firm.

I had that for six years.

And our original strategy

with that, which I know

you'll appreciate was we

never expected to sell

it except to employees.

So the idea was, it would

look like the partnership

that I came out of where we

would sell to other employees

and they would take over.

We'd have partners and

that was the model.

and we didn't do that.

instead we sold it

to Arthur Anderson.

the reason I'm mentioning

this now is because it

was really an interesting

experience selling like

I'd never sold a business.

I never started a business.

So there was a whole lot of

learning and looking back

now, a whole lot of touching

this idea of what is wealth.

What does that mean?

How do I negotiate

wealth for myself?

and so anyway, I sold that

and I went to work with

Arthur Anderson, working

primarily with their

tax partners, teaching

them how to sell better.

So I worked with a lot

of like really narrowly

focused experts.

Enron happened.

So I started my second

business, which was an

individual coaching business.

And it was interesting.

It wasn't really what I

wanted to do at the time

because I was focused

on corporate executives.

And at that time, coaching was

seen as something that you do

just before you fire somebody.

And the kind of coaching

that I was doing was

for high performers.

And I wasn't interested

in, Taking somebody

who is failing.

I wanted somebody who

was already performing

well and getting them

to an even higher peak.

So after that I took my

last job job, which was in

a fortune 500 company and

they kept firing my bosses.

So by the time I left,

I was running a national

consulting practice.

And then in 2007 is when

I started doing what I'm

doing now, which is working

primarily with people in

the consulting and creative

agency space, helping them

to grow their business.

And originally I worked,

I would say maybe 50 50

with partnerships and small

boutiques and individuals.

And now most of my

practice is with soloists.

Great.

Well, that brings us up

to where we intersected.

I mean, we kind of circled

each other for a while, but

I was a happy participant

of your inaugural soloist

women's mastermind

that you did last year.

of the things that has.

Fascinated me and it still

fascinates me because I

haven't quite gotten it right

is the listening to a process

when you're thinking about,

like, talking to a new group

of people or introducing

a new offer, like, how

you kind of figure it out.

what direction you wanted to

do when you started focusing

a little bit more on soloists.

Yeah.

So I knew it's one of

those things where you have

like an inkling that you

need to change something

or you not even need, you

want to change something.

Like it's just kind of

speaking to you, but it's

sort of below the surface.

And I just had this sense

based on what was going on

in the world at the time.

I wanted to do something

for and with women.

I didn't know if

this would work.

When you look at consulting,

it's still pretty much

75 percent male in the

independent space, at least

at about 25 percent female.

I never really thought

about, do I serve men?

Do I serve women?

I serve consultants who want

to grow their businesses.

I was agnostic.

but I felt like there was an

opportunity to help women that

were not achieving what they

wanted to in a different way.

So, the idea behind the

listening tour was I wanted

to see are there Other

women like me who hadn't

joined any women's groups,

like I literally hadn't.

I mean, over the years I have,

but not when it came to this,

like, I just didn't think of

gender as a differentiator.

And so, I pulled a group

of people together and

when I say group, I talked

to them individually,

but I found some women.

Thank you, Aaron, who

would agree to give me

some, straight feedback.

And this idea I had

was a mastermind.

And the reason I was thinking

it was a mastermind is

because there's so much

in the heads of women that

doesn't get shared, right?

It's in there.

Or if it's in a group

with men as well as women.

We as women often tamp

down what we have to

say, or we get silenced

a little bit too readily.

So what I wanted to test

with the listening tour

was, first of all, what are

the problems and challenges

that these women had?

What have they tried?

To, solve them, what worked,

what didn't work, what were

their frustrations and if

they could wave a magic

one, I always love to ask

the magic one question,

if they could wave a magic

wand, what would that look

like, what would change?

and as I went through that

process, I had an idea of what

this thing would look like.

And then at the end of the

conversation, I'd say, okay,

so if it looked like this.

and I can't remember now

if I had a number in mind,

but I didn't, share the

number and I said, so what

would you pay for this and

what would make, you know,

that it was a good thing.

one of the reasons I'm

really glad I did it is one.

They gave me.

The sales copy for the

landing page, because

they told me stories.

They told me experiences.

They told me things that

had happened to them.

They told me what

they did not want.

Like they were so clear

about what they didn't want.

And I use that

language on my website.

and then the other thing they

told me is, and I love this

because this is part of what

monetize their expertise.

They said, you're

too low by half.

And that was kind of

the consistent message.

So I doubled the number and

there were still, think,

two people who thought it, I

should have doubled it again.

And, but it was like,

yeah, I can see I'm

going to double it.

I'm not going to quadruple it.

Let's start with the double.

we had a good first cohort.

So what I loved about the

listening tour and why I like

it for people in our kinds

of businesses in our kinds of

space is that it allows you.

To not sell.

I mean, I was not

there to sell.

I was there to listen and

they taught me so much.

And then what was really

interesting is they did allow

me to use them as a sounding

board when I put together the

first sales copy to say, does

this sound like what you said?

And a couple of people

are like, I don't like.

That number, like

there was a revenue

requirement for purchase.

So like, no, that's too low.

I think it should be higher.

So yeah, I definitely

recommend listening

tours and it really

gave me the confidence.

I was still scared.

I was nervous about it.

I'll be honest.

but it gave me the confidence

that there are women out

there sort of like me.

Right.

Who wanted this certain

kind of experience and

hadn't found it yet.

right, yeah,

was very inspired by your

listening to our both, the

way that you conducted yours

and the way you explain it

and it's been a struggle for

me like you said, it's not

a sales pitch, but there's

somewhere in the back of

my brain that kind of feels

like, I'm asking a lot when

I ask for the feedback.

And so that's something I'm

still working on my ability to

kind of, do more than a couple

then I kind of get like, okay,

this is, asking for too much.

And,

you

know, it helps with that.

I used to do a lot of,

client interviews, client

slash customer interviews.

And so in those cases, I'm

I wasn't with the firm.

I was independent.

And so I would ask them

everything so comfortable

because I, yeah, it wasn't me.

And so I think sometimes

if, we can not make it so

personal and think of it

as, Oh, well, what if I

were interviewing for my

company, but it wasn't mine?

how would I approach

it differently?

Sometimes that helps to kind

of get out of our own way.

Well, maybe this goes

to the issue

of soloist women and having

them be their own cohort

is as opposed to with, men.

And did you find, and do you

find that women have just

different challenges about

selling themselves and putting

themselves out there than men

do?

I feel that's such

a loaded question.

I'm almost afraid

to answer that.

I mean, the general answer

is yes, I think that's true.

I mean, it can be different

for individual men and women,

of course, but the challenges

generally that I see with

women are that they often.

I shouldn't say they, we often

have responsibility for a

big chunk of the home stuff

and it's so wrapped up in

our identity that it becomes

really difficult to make

powerful decisions because we

think we don't have any power.

Oh, we need to have this.

Time off, we need

to be flexible.

We need to do this.

So we can't ask for as

much as someone who isn't.

And I like to turn the tables

on that and say, actually,

we can ask for more when

we're in that situation.

So that's the

biggest difference.

The other one.

but let me just tell you

a quick story of something

that literally happened is

2 things happened in the

same day, which is probably

why they, struck me.

So, I had a, male client

who was getting ready to

publish a book, and he was

going to look for blurbs,

from, famous quote unquote

people in his circle and

he's like, oh, Is going to be

delighted to get this from me.

Like he just looked at it.

Like, of course, they're

going to want to help me.

This is good for them.

Their name is going

to be in my book.

And then there

was another woman.

Kind of same situation.

And she said, I'm going to

get anybody to book anything.

That's the difference, right?

There.

Right.

Got one just assuming

everybody wants to join

in and somebody else

going, how can I do that?

So sometimes that's

the difference, but

again, it doesn't always

apply individuals.

There's plenty of very

powerful and outspoken,

strong women in this

space.

Absolutely.

Well, you mentioned, wealth.

And so, as, the listeners may

know, and you know that when

I started, think beyond IP and

the early exit podcast, it was

to help, put more wealth in

the hands of women, because I

think wealth in the hands of

women can change the world.

And, but that there was this,

Bias against kind of the term

wealth and that we think of

greed and wealth sometimes

in the same sentence.

And certainly we have

these examples in

popular, in media of.

Greedy, wealthy people.

And so maybe there's a little

bit of negativity attached

to it, but obviously,

you know, wealth is power

is a voice is choice or

options, like all those

things that are benefits.

So how have you found

the wealth conversation

in the context of women?

Rochelle Moulton:

Well, it's interesting.

This is, it's fairly new for

me to use the word wealth and

I pondered over it and what's.

Let's be honest.

I agonized over it for

weeks using that term

because I felt like it was

so laden with, judgment

and it could be wealth

the way you described it.

It's a bunch of greedy

billionaires who, are

not worried about the

rest of the world.

there's other people who

think about, well, wealth is

not something that I want.

Wealth is like money is bad.

Money's the root of all

evil, kind of like that,

that sort of thing.

I think that the reason I

started using the word wealth

is revenue wasn't enough.

in this ethos that I'm

trying to create, because

yes, we need revenue, but

it, in, this community

that I'm building, it's not

about working the maximum

to get the maximum revenue.

It's not about that,

like bro hustle model.

It's about, having

enough free time to do

whatever it is that.

Make it brings you joy,

whether that's your kids

or a hobby or you're

donating your time, in

another part of the world,

whatever that looks like.

and then the flexibility.

So it's free time and

then the flexibility

and how you use it.

So you don't have to

be seated at a desk.

You don't necessarily have

to be, at any one spot in

any one, city town, you

can be wherever you want.

And so the way I

look at wealth.

In this context is

that we each define our

own version of wealth.

So what I might describe as

wealth to me might be a lot

less money than you make.

I might have a lot

more free time, or it

might be a lot more.

And I keep it and invest

it for my future, or I

give a bunch of it away,

support the causes that

really matter to me.

And you said, that about

putting more wealth in the

hands of women, I mean,

that's my underlying, big idea

slash revolution in this is

I do want to see women have

more money and more power.

It's in my voice just

cracked when I said power.

I want to say that again.

I do want women to have more

money and more power because

studies show when women

have more money, we use it

to the benefit of humanity.

We use it for our families.

We use it for our communities.

We use it for a big idea.

We use it globally.

And that's, yes, that's

what I get goosebumps

whenever I think about that.

Yes,

absolutely.

That is, I mean, and

it is the thing that.

personally keeps me going

as I continue to, kind of

figure out the best way to

help women achieve that.

And, the way I looked at it.

I mean, you definitely have

this balance of, time and

flexibility and kind of

various elements of wealth.

And I will say that mine was.

More one dimensional and

literally in terms of, the

traditional way we think we

define wealth, but that for

people to, stop thinking

just about income, because

it's very limiting, right?

Like that it's just about

the, cash that flows in, but

it's, what are you building?

that was the conversation

about building assets and

having something that can,

run without you, or that

perhaps you can sell someday.

And that so long as we're

selling our time, we can

never have more than income.

We can't create, true

wealth with that.

And so that was, my point

of view, talking about the

creation of assets and using

our expertise to create IP.

Yeah.

Well, you know, it's funny.

I had a real taste of the

physicality of that a few

years ago, just before

the pandemic, I started a

property business with a

friend of mine and we bought

our first property and we

just sold it this year.

I literally built some

wealth with that, and it

was really kind of cool

because it's physical.

You can go look at it.

It's not like it's

a bank account.

It's in this case, you

could argue it's my IP.

It was really more

like my vision my like.

Arms.

Yeah.

Some of the work that I wound

up doing myself took some

time, but I could literally

see it and see it change

and see the value grow.

And there's something really

powerful about seeing you

build wealth for yourself

and inside your business.

it's very.

Empowering, I guess.

I agree.

And so, well, you know,

real estate is real property

as opposed to, but I liked

it, but I like to make the

analogy to real property.

Whenever I'm trying to

explain, I'm always with

analogies, you know,

to try to help make

concrete intellectual

property concepts.

And I like to use the

example of real property.

when you think

about, can I just.

Use something just because

it's available on the

Internet, kind of like

somebody's pasture that,

seems like it's free.

I can walk on it and

use it and borrow it and

hunt on it or do whatever

I want to do on it.

Like, no, that's somebody

owns that and you need

permission to use it.

And the same thing applies to.

Intangible assets as well.

It's the exact same concept.

You don't just get to use

other people's property just

because you can stumble upon

it, in the wild, so to speak.

And so, yeah, make sure people

understand that intellectual

property is a real asset.

Yeah.

And I think, I don't know

if you find this to be

true, but I find with some

of the, clients that I've

worked with, they don't.

Really realize

what's there, right?

They know.

Oh, yeah, I know this stuff

and it's almost like we

discount, our genius, right?

The things that we're really

good at and the things that

we've developed, unless

it's like, just staring you

in the face, like, maybe

it's an assessment tool

or something like that.

But, yeah, we tend

to undervalue that.

And I think.

it's across our industry.

I suspect it's just

because it's not usually

a physical product.

So we think about it

differently, but we

need to change that.

Yeah.

Well, what, plans do you have

for your soloist community?

Like what soloist

women community

like?

So I just started the

community in May we're

in the last day of almost

the last day of September

as we're recording this.

so far what it's been

is a place for women

who are, soloists in the

expertise space and B2B.

Right to have some really

interesting conversations

and to have them as a group.

So there's people in there who

are just starting and there

are people who are earning,

a half a million dollars.

Plus.

So it's a mix.

And then the other thing that

I did based on feedback from

the original listening to her.

Is that I also divided

the group by revenue.

So there's the first

hundred thousand.

These are the people who

are working to make their

first hundred thousand

in their business.

There's a hundred thousand

to two 50, which is

kind of another sort

of demarcation line.

And then there's 250,

000 plus, and those are

semi private spaces.

Cause everybody only gets

invited to one cohort

and you can graduate.

Right.

That's the beauty of it.

You can go to the next one up.

And so what I wanted

was I wanted a place for

women at varying stages

to help each other and

be able to ask questions.

But I also wanted there to

be a private semi private

space where, you know,

you're talking to other

people that are roughly at

your stage of evolution.

So that's where we are now.

My plan going into the fall

is to have probably monthly

get togethers where Either

we've invited a guest to come

in and talk about something

really critical to our

businesses, you know, like

intellectual property as an

example, and the 1st, 1 that

we're going to do is going to

be more of a get to know you.

I have a little,

technique in mind for us

to be able to do that.

Cause it's harder, as you

know, virtually it can be

harder to really get to know

people, but, because there is

a curated process for this,

I've spoken to every single

woman that's in the group.

So I have a sense of kind

of who they are and where

they're coming from, where

in the world they live.

that's really

interesting mix as well.

And so I'm, Looking to kind

of get them to help each other

and then we'll go from there.

Do

you find

it difficult to jump

between the income tiers?

Like, do they have

significantly different

challenges and how

you work with them?

Rochelle Moulton:

it's interesting.

I generally, yes.

Now, most of my like one to

one clients, very few are

under a hundred thousand

because of the way I structure

my offerings and their cost.

I've worked with some, but

yeah, they are different but

it's different in a cool way.

Like the, earlier ones,

what they're trying to

do is they're trying to

figure out how do I make

this business sustainable?

And I've just arbitrarily

chosen a hundred

thousand dollars.

I mean, you could have

a sustainable business

at a much lower.

Revenue point than that,

depending on what you want

to create and how much

time you want to spend.

A lot of these women have

been doing this for, a year

to maybe two or three years

and they're figuring it out.

And so their questions are

actually, they tend to be

pretty deep and structural.

Like just as an example, one

of the conversations that

came up recently is, okay.

They, actually this

came from your guesting

on soloist women.

I just remembered that it came

exactly out after that, aired.

And they said, okay, I know

I need create something

else beyond just my

time, but how do I do it?

Like I'm so busy, I don't

have any extra time.

And what I, encourage them

to think about in this case,

I would not have said the

same thing if they were in a

different revenue category,

but I said, all right, what

you need to do first is prove

that you have a business.

That it's sustainable,

that you're going to

have clients or buyers.

You need to test out

these things before you

worry about how you're

going to leverage them.

Let's figure it out first and

let's, not borrow trouble yet.

Let's do that next

after you get here.

So that's different.

I think the other thing that's

different is the, the 100

to the two 50, especially.

You know, I'd say about

maybe 175 and under, usually

they're at the point where

they're like, what I call

the gilded hamster wheel.

They're working a lot.

They're getting

paid very well.

when we earn those, that

kind of money in our

businesses, we usually take

home a lot of that, right.

It's not like having a

shop or a storefront.

And so they, are kind

of stuck on that.

Wheel and they have to figure

out, okay, now I know that I

don't want to do this thing

that I've been doing, and I

want to do more of this thing.

So how do I leverage that?

Am I going to create a thing

for a lot of people to buy?

Am I going to change

how I price these?

Am I going to

productize some things?

So those are their questions.

And then the two fifties and

up, I mean, they're just,

They got it figured out.

They've got the basics,

but what happens is, and

it's really, it's fun.

And I know nobody's going

to cry for these kinds of

problems, but they really

are interesting problems.

It's you get to this point

and you say, okay, I think

I can help more people.

How can I do that?

And remember, this is

a soloist community.

So how can I do that

without hiring employees?

Do I hire contractors?

Do I hire it all?

How do I do that?

And so they're grappling

usually with those

kinds of questions.

Or sometimes what they've done

is they've said, all right,

created a great business,

really happy with it.

Now I have this personal thing

that I really want to do now.

And so what I want to do is

I want to get my business

running so it can kind of

run without me so that I can

focus on this revolution,

this big idea of something I

want to change in the world.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I like that.

And all of those.

stages, it reminds me of

when I have someone come to

me where they want to create

some sort of, licensing

program out of what they do

and they do it not because

they're at capacity, but

because maybe they're what I

want isn't selling that well.

So they want to take what

they're doing and create

this other revenue stream.

But similar to your.

Advice to your 1st year,

like, we'll 1st figure

out, make sure that your

services are working and

that they are they provide

the desired result and that

there is a demand for them.

And then when you bump

up against the impact

or capacity issue.

That you're hired your clients

have that's when you've

proven, your methodology or

your service, whatever it

is, you have happy clients,

you're at capacity 1 way or

the other, that's the time

to, build these other things.

Not when you're still trying

to figure out the business.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cause I mean, we put so

much pressure on ourselves,

you know, and it's,

there's only so many things

we can tackle at once.

And so let's tackle the

things where we're going

to get the best result, the

biggest bang for effort.

Right.

Yeah, I love that.

So for 2024, what do you see?

What do we need

to worry about?

What should we be happy about?

Ooh,

that's a big question.

you know, it's interesting

because I mean, who knows what

the economy is going to do?

That's kind of

the big question.

And I just had a long

conversation with someone

yesterday who is in the

startup space and the

startup space people have

just had a heck of a year

with the real tightening

of venture capital money.

And so people who

serve that space have

really been impacted.

So, and I was asking

her, so what's your.

Projection like, what do

you, is it going to be

better, worse, the same?

And she said, I think it's

going to be close to the

same, but there will be

some lightning of money

available for the right ideas.

So I guess the question

becomes, and you know,

I'm not an economist who

knows what the answer is,

but optimistically at for

soloists in particular.

And here's why one

is that I think jobs

are getting tighter.

And we had a lot of people,

especially in the tech sector

that were let go this last

year, who started businesses,

even if they didn't want to,

if they hadn't planned to, you

can start a soloist business

without a lot of capital.

You just need enough to cover

your own expenses, you know,

and if you don't have a laptop

already, okay, so you buy 1.

but there's not a lot

of expenses around this.

So I think what will

happen is more and more,

especially women will

continue to do this.

The other thing that's

happening, which, it's

been a long time since

I've been an employee, but

I'm kind of appalled by it

is the corporate CEOs who

are saying, come back to

the office because we need

to count noses, we need

to know that you're here.

So I think that, those of

us who have toyed with the

idea of having a business.

At some point are going

to get fed up with this

sort of, paternal system

of having to show up in

ways that, don't serve us.

and especially women that, are

dealing with the brunt of the

responsibility for childcare.

Yeah.

And childbearing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I do believe

that's happening.

but I also think that, I

am an optimist by nature.

the world is, doing some funny

things right now and I don't

feel optimistic about that.

It's not like funny.

Haha.

Or.

No, no, I don't want to get

into political conversations,

but yeah, there's, I mean,

we have wars, we have a lot

of things happening right now

that, are not great, but we

have women who have always

been strong, resilient.

And I believe that we're

going to have more of us

that start businesses.

And I will even go out on

a limb and say, we're going

to make a lot more money.

One of the things that I

was just blown away by in

the first mastermind is how

accomplished these women

were and how they figured out

how to piece their business

so they could make it work.

there was a minimum.

revenue requirement.

And so we had women who

were working, I think the

one who worked the least

number of hours on average

worked 15 hours a week.

So ladies, I'm telling you,

if you're not already doing

this, this is possible.

And by looking at how we

monetize our expertise,

how we charge for it,

how we, build it, we can

make a lot more money.

Then we are making now,

maybe one of

the challenges will be if

there is a kind of a fresh

wave of new consultants and

the market is how do you

stand out from the crowd?

Well,

that's,

you know, at the end of

the day, that that's it.

and that's why the whole

this idea of expertise and

the word I use is authority

is building think of it

as market authority versus

command and control authority,

this idea of building

market authority in a niche.

And what happens is that

as when we first start a

business, a lot of times we've

been in a corporation or an

agency and we go, all right,

I'm hanging out my shingle

and we take everything that

comes to us that first year.

And it comes fairly easily

often because, especially

in the U S everybody

loves an entrepreneur

and we want to support

you and we send you work.

And then the second year.

That's not happening so much.

And in the 2nd year, you've

had a year's worth of

experience under your belt and

you say, oh, I loved working

with this kind of person or

this kind of organization.

I did not like doing this.

figure that out and you

gradually think of it like

a funnel where you keep

getting narrower and narrower.

And eventually, you find that

niche and that niche is where

you really can start to build

not only your expertise,

but you can build public

authority where other people

are reading your stuff like

you've done, with hourly to

exit and your whole concept.

It's people come to

you and you become a

recognized authority.

Which is

daunting to some people,

but you just need to start.

I mean, it was for sure

for me to, having worked.

in corporate, for a very

long time, working with,

the B2B experts and needing

to do, content marketing

and things like that

and getting out there.

It's, takes some time to, it

takes a little bit, but that

first step, it gets easier.

Rochelle Moulton:

That's for sure.

Well, I think that we all

look at whoever the recognized

authorities are in their,

in our spaces and we go, Oh,

well, I could never do that.

Well, you don't

have to, right.

And you just.

Start to your point,

just start and

you'll figure it out.

It will take you places

that you didn't even

know you would go.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

I love that.

So have we talked

about your new podcast?

I don't

Rochelle Moulton:

think we have it.

Oh, I guess we didn't.

Okay.

it is pretty new.

So it's called surprise,

surprise, soulless women.

I think today we released

our fifth episode,

so it is fairly new.

what I wanted to do

was I wanted to find a.

I shouldn't say find, I

wanted to create a space

where we could hear some

stories of soloist women.

Yes.

I wanted to hear the advice

and the expertise, but even

from the experts, I still

wanted to hear their story.

Mm-hmm.

and like the one that just

posted today is the story

of someone who created a

seven employee agency, a

creative agency, and downsized

it back to being a solo.

And I heard the story inside

the solo swimming community.

And I said, Ooh, would you be

willing to talk about that?

I think this is

so interesting.

So I want, women to

know what's possible.

And that's the

idea behind this.

And I, co host another

podcast, in the space.

and we do a lot of,

do this, do that.

This is how you do it.

And And I was less interested

in that for this one.

I really, I think we women,

especially, we love the

stories that we can learn

from and talk about and some

of the connections that have

been made, between some of the

listeners and the guests that

have happened so far on five

episodes have been terrific.

So I, yeah, I hope, people

will listen to it and

give me feedback too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Something that's not

there you want.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

A hundred percent recommend

both of your podcasts.

So very.

Great information

on both of them.

So as you know, this is

the hourly to exit podcast,

where we talk about building

a scalable and saleable

expertise based business.

And I have a particular

soft spot for building

intellectual property assets.

And so you've alluded to it

somewhat as you talked about,

the clients, particularly in

the soloist women community,

but what types of issues do

you see your clients having

around intellectual property?

Like, how are they

thinking about it?

Okay,

that's a good question.

I think the 1st thing

is a small thing,

but it's, important.

And that is, I alluded to

it earlier is that we don't

think about our intellectual

property as an asset.

We just, we think about, oh,

well, we know this because

it comes naturally to us.

We've studied this for years.

We geek out about it

and that's not an asset.

So that's, I think the 1st

thing is that awareness

of what it looks like.

I think that the

other thing is.

It's often in, with clients,

it's often that they're

looking at, doing consulting,

speaking and writing.

And so there's books.

And I think a lot of

people, when they first

think in the consulting

space, especially about IP,

they think either I have a

methodology that is uniquely

mine and, or I have these

topics that I want to put.

In books that I want to

write about in books.

So that's tends to be

where their mind goes.

and the methodologies

are interesting because

they're often not that

really special, right?

I to say it another way.

It's like, it's, we all think

our methodologies are special.

And if you're a consultant,

and maybe this is true with

attorneys as well, if you're

a consultant, we love to

tell you about our process.

Well, first we do this,

and then we do this.

Because we're fascinated by

it, but clients aren't clients

are interested in outcomes

now where, the methodology

can really become valuable

is when it's around something

like, I always think of it an

assessment is the first thing.

Like, I have a number

of clients who.

charge on the high end

to big organization.

So maybe, you don't work

with them for less than

150 but they have a 50,

000 assessment thing, and

that's the black box and

their IP is most definitely.

in that.

And so getting them to really

think about that, I think

is a challenge, which is

really why I love the work

that you're doing and why

I send people over to you

and to listen and read your

stuff because yeah, I think

it just takes, it takes a

minute to think about it.

And it is a different way.

To grow, right?

Because I can grow by

selling my own time.

I can grow by like I did in

my 1st company by leveraging

employees can hire employees

and I can bill out their time.

I can grow by developing

IP, whether that's a

book or whether that's a

methodology or it's a black

box and I maybe I can figure

out how to license that.

in order to make it grow.

Maybe I can figure out it.

Maybe there's like a train the

trainer piece of what I do.

the thing that I find so

interesting is we don't

feel like sometimes we

like glom onto this, an

idea, but we don't really

know how it applies to

our particular business.

Like, Oh, I want to

do train the trainers.

Yeah.

But the thing you want to

train them on is something

they only use once.

Right.

So that's probably not.

Yeah, that's probably

not a good 1 to do that.

And so I, see those

as the, as the primary

challenges.

Yeah.

Yeah, I agree.

And, yeah, the, constantly

beating the drum, that is

everywhere, when you're

an expert, every time

you use your intellect.

Yes, yes,

exactly.

So you agree.

Thank you.

A couple more questions before

we wrap up, as we mentioned,

creating a more equitable

economy is 1 of the goals

of the hourly exit podcast.

And so I love to introduce

the audience to other

organizations that are

helping to do that.

Rochelle Moulton:

Oh yeah, there is.

We were talking about

this before the show.

So the organization is

called Hero Women Rising.

It's based in both the

U S and, the Congo.

And the founder of this is a

woman named, Nima Namadamu.

And I actually heard her

speak in Los Angeles, I

think maybe five or six

years ago when she was here.

And.

I had goosebumps.

I had tears.

She was one of the most

amazing women I've ever

had the pleasure to listen

to and certainly to meet.

she, has a number of

mobility issues and she is

supporting women in the Congo.

Now, the Congo is a place

that is rife with rape, not

just of women, but also of

the earth for the valuable

metals that go into a lot

of technology products.

And she created a number

of different ways for women

to band together and learn

how to use a computer.

And how to create businesses

and create income for

themselves so they could

get away from some of the

problems that are endemic

in a very difficult part

of the world and she, would

travel between Congo and

the U S to raise money.

And, it's not easy for her.

many of us can get

on the plane and not

really think about it.

She had a lot of accommodation

issues and she was so

and strong and giving.

And yeah, just get goosebumps

just thinking about it.

So I heard her speak.

And, my husband's, one of my

husband's clients was one of

the sponsors and he said, Oh,

would you like to meet her?

And my first reaction, no,

no, I couldn't, I couldn't.

And he's like,

come on, come on.

And so I, went up and met

her and we had a brief

chat and she was even

more powerful one to one.

So Oh,

that's wonderful.

Well, we will have the,

link to the website,

in the show notes.

So I hope everyone

will check that out.

And so, where can

Rochelle Moulton:

people find you?

Well, the easiest place

is my website, which

is Rochelle Moulton,

M O U L T O N dot com.

And there are links.

There to, the solace women

community, which you,

can apply to join, to the

two podcasts and to the

mastermind, which will have

been, completed when this

comes out, but we'll have

another one in the spring.

So feel free to take a look

at that too.

So is there a waiting list

that people can get on

or application process?

Okay.

There's an

Rochelle Moulton:

application process.

Yeah.

Fantastic.

Well, this has been wonderful

as always, Rochelle.

Thank you again for coming on

to the hourly active podcast

and sharing your wisdom.

Thank

you so much, Erin.

This was fun.