From Unsure to Unstuck in 30 Minutes! Live Podcast Coaching

Hey Friend!

In today’s live podcast coaching session with Michelle Vazquez, we take her idea and turn it into a business PLAN. I help her come up with a specific, tactical plan of how her mission can become a podcast that leads to a successful online business.

Digging into the 5-pillars of an online brand is how you come up with the foundation of a sustainable business that can grow, organically. This is the foundation to launching a podcast, a coaching business, or successful courses.

In order to reach people, you have to have clarity on what you do, and who you serve.

I hope today’s live coaching episode helps you see that this is possible for ANYONE in ANY NICHE.

If you’re a Stef Gass student you can always purchase an unstuck session at support@stefaniegass.com

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:00):
Hey, friend! Welcome to today’s podcast episode! I am doing a live coaching session with Michelle Vasquez today, and we are really going through and jamming out a vision of her new podcast from an idea that she has.

We just take this idea and we really dissect it. We dig into all the little ways that this can come to life and how she can actually build a business from this call that’s over her life, this God-led call truly.

And turn it into something with a lot of impact and hopefully income that she can use to further God’s kingdom.

(00:34):
So excited for you to be a fly on the wall. And if you are interested in a coaching session, just like this as a Stefanie Gass student, you are able to purchase 30-minute unstuck sessions.

Where I am able to help you dig through the weeds, bust through the confusion and get you completely unstuck so that you can have 100% clarity on what your business brand is going to be.

And we can map out all these little pieces together. So if you are a student at any time, you can purchase an unstuck session, you simply email us at support@stefaniegass.com, and we will get you set up for success.

(01:14):
All right, before we dig into this awesome conversation, this coaching session where you guys get to hear all the inner workings of a power coaching call with me, it’s my birthday tomorrow. I’m gonna be 37. Can y’all believe it?

And we are doing a birthday bash giveaway. We are celebrating my birthday along with the show passing three-quarter of a million downloads last month, which we never really did a celebration for.

So we decided why not celebrate with you guys? And so we want to come together and stand for how much impact that all of you have begun to make in the world through hopefully the encouragement of this podcast, the tacticals inside the show.

(03:21):
The belief that God really is here to partner with you in building a business. And I hope all the challenges that this show has walked you through that have helped you change for the better.

So what we are doing is giving away three awesome prizes prize. Number one is to be a full 30-minute unstuck coaching session, just like this. So awesome.

Prize two is a full scholarship to Clarify Your Calling or Podcast Pro University, your choice. And then prize number three is a 15-minute live power coaching session over in our Facebook community.

You can win, someone’s gonna win. It may as well be you. And today is the first day that you can go and get entered. So here’s how you get entered. It’s super easy.

It’s only gonna take 60 seconds and it’s a huge win for me because you help me out by leaving a review for the show, by helping me to see how much the show means to you.

(04:16):
It boosts our reviews and it boosts our algorithm for the podcast and it helps you because you’re gonna win some free stuff. So step one, go into the Apple Podcast App and leave a written review for the show, The Stefanie Gass show. Take a screenshot, step two.

Step three, come post the screenshot of your review in the Stef Gass community, which is at stefgasscommunity.com. Just post it straight up in there and use the hashtag birthday bash and you are entered.

It is that easy. It’s gonna take you 60 seconds. It blesses me big to read every single review. I read every single review, you guys. And a lot of the reviews, I try to highlight them on the show.

I use them on my sales pages. So don’t be shy about leaving your name and podcast over there so that you can for sure get some visibility. That’s it. 3, 2, 1, go get entered into the giveaway.

This is gonna be super fun. We’ll be celebrating all long. Don’t miss out. Someone’s gonna win. It may as well be you. It’s gonna be super easy.

And who knows? You could be the next person aired right here on this podcast. Let’s do it.

(05:33):
Well, I’m so humped, I read through your notes that you shot over, but I’d love to kind of hear in your own words. What do you wanna really cover at this time?

And then just tell me kind of where you’re at and we’ll start there.

(05:44):
Yeah, I know when I filled all of those questions out, I know I was very at a real confused space and I’ve always been back and forth with what I need to do. Well, I know you saw it.

So I’m a special education teacher and I’ve always thought about, okay, I always knew I wanted to do something more and I followed different coaches and maybe starting with digital resources and then eventually creating a course and then doing a podcast after that.

That’s what the plan was. But for some reason there was just something knocking me and probably God, telling me there’s something or that you should be doing.

And then I just have so many different ideas and so many venues that I could go to.

But whenever I try to veer away from maybe I should do something else besides helping special ed teachers, it always comes back to special ed teachers.

(06:31):
And just to help them out with technicality of stuff of things, like organizing their classrooms and helping them that way.

I just kind of felt there was something more I wanted to go deeper, not just that.

And I think after listening to a lot of your podcasts and everything, I was thinking, okay, maybe I should help the special ed mom, but I went to your Facebook group and I threw that idea out there.

And I think it was Lydia and it was really good. She said, you know, maybe you need to pray about it more. Do you feel like you are an expert that you can talk about that topic?

And I was like, you know what? she’s right. After doing your first module, I ordered my seasons of SOAP. And I’ve been doing it for a week and oh my gosh, I’m gonna cry.

(07:15):
So good, isn’t it?

(07:17):
Yes, it’s great. I’ve never been so close to God. And then just finding like a new church, you know, recently and it’s meshing so well, just everything just happening together. Yes, exactly. Thank you.

Yeah. Just being introduced to you and just hearing kind of like, no, if you wanna do a business, it has to be with God. He’s the one that needs to help you.

(07:40):
So now I’m thinking, still special ed teacher, but then I think right before I started module two, I did feel like He was speaking to me and it made sense to me.

He wants me to work with special ed teachers who are overworked and overwhelmed with just surviving. How to be with parents, relationships with students, your colleagues, and everything like that.

So organization plus their other classroom and then just all special ed things also helped them with their own self-care.

(08:14):
Just put those boundaries up and everything. So, and that was right before I took module two. So I was just like, okay, hold on. Let me take module two.

And I’m like, let me try to do it, like start from scratch. And I tried, it wasn’t really meshing well still. So I was just like, hold on, let me go back to that.

And I prayed about it more and I started doing SOAP more on a daily basis and it just came even more clear that no, that’s what you need to originally go back to what you’ve always been thinking of doing. Does that make sense, Stefanie?

(08:45):
It does. What type of special ed teacher? Could it be any teacher? Are they in the public system? Are they anywhere? Talk to me a bit about this special ed teacher label.

(08:56):
I’m a resource teacher, but I started having a special day classroom. And I was doing that for a good 10 years. I was pretty much thrown into the classroom, not a lot of guidance.

They just had a six week orientation and here you go. In the intern program, I was gonna school and had a classroom all to myself.

I did have some people to help me out, but my mentor teacher wasn’t in my field. And that’s what I totally feel like so many of our teachers are lacking, not having that supportive person that really understands what they’re going through and how to set them up for success.

Because definitely what I’m learning. I found you through Chelse Jo, actually.

(09:35):
So fun!

(09:36):
Yes. Because I was at a point where like, okay, I need to systemize everything.

(09:43):
Get my life together over here.

(09:45):
Yeah. So while I was creating that, now I’m finally, okay, I can do this. I can work. And cuz it was getting into my family time so much, it was hurting my family.

So once I was creating systems, still working on it here at work and then at home, but still in the back of my mind, God’s still telling me no, there’s more that you need to do.

(10:10):
Okay. And I wanna stop you for a second. Cause I feel like when we talk about this special ed teacher, is this teacher and you can say yes to me. I don’t know.

Is she gonna go to this podcast and listen to you? Or is she going to work and then she’s done with her work.

Or is it like, this is a call in my life where I’m gonna go listen to this podcast and then I’m gonna go buy resources to be a better special ed teacher out of her own pocket. I wonder.

(10:36):
You know what? I think that’s where I’m kind of like, where am I going?

(10:40):
And so something that came up for me was like if you really feel called in this direction, is there a way for us to position it to the schools where the schools are buying this big solution from you?

Maybe an option. Or is there a way for us to position this to the parent, like you said, but that way you have the resources that the parent brings to the teacher or that the parent equips the kid with to go into school?

(11:09):
I’m just wondering, how do we position this in a way where you actually make money, number one, but you get to make the impact that you wanna make.

So let me ask this, organizing the classroom that could be the school that could be the teacher, they’re overworked, overwhelmed, all of those pieces. Those are great.

Those are specific to the teacher, but those could also be education for the school, making sure that they have the right resources for their special ed teachers.

(11:35):
Yeah. And everything you’re saying is everything that’s been kinda like on my mind too. That’s exactly where I’m at. And I think for me when I try to figure out, do I wanna help the parent or more of the teacher?

I’ve seen so many negative memes online, teachers are being attacked, left and right, after pandemic and everything, I do follow a lot of teachers on Instagram.

And then they’re just saying, you know, just encouraging leaving the classroom. And I think that’s what makes me feel more passionate of like, okay, well what’s going on?

What’s going on with the teachers that are still here. We’re still here. Where’s their self-care? Where’s their help? Who’s there to help support them? Does that make sense?

(12:15):
Yeah. And I actually had an idea, as you said that you position this brand to the teacher. You help the teacher, you pour into the teacher, you have organization solutions for the teacher, but there’s a couple of ways to monetize.

One is Hi, teacher! Here’s your solutions. But PS, if take this to the school, the teacher could take the solution to the school level.

Cause maybe, I think it’s a big ask Teacher, pay for this thing to learn how to organize the classroom. But teacher, PS, guess what?

Take this to the school. Have them invest in this program for your entire school or for your entire district. We can use the teacher for her to take your program and market it at a higher level.

(12:59):
Got it. So that’s my idea. A bigger picture is to make sure that like all our pieces are talking to each other.

(13:04):
Yeah. And it’s so funny how you say that. Cuz I actually had one of my old assistant principals that reached out to me and I wanted to talk to you about that too.

She reached out to me cuz she asked me to speak at one of her classes that she’s teaching and I haven’t talked to her. So I was like, oh my God, that’s perfect. Cause they might be my avatars.

And she actually did mention that she was throwing ideas at me and I’m like, whoa, that’s really big. I don’t know what you’re saying.

We need more things that districts need to pick up. So now I’m making the connection between what you’re saying and what she said.

(13:38):
So it’s gonna be a lot bigger than teacher, let’s have some self-care. Those are gonna be in there. Cause I think we can have a bucket specific to the person like inner, inside the teacher.

Then we’ll have her teaching profession. That’s a pillar and then we’ll have school change, district change. So those can maybe be your three buckets that you talk about.

Think about what am I actually talking about on the show? It’s those three.

This one over here with the bucket. Imagine the things you could talk about, you could have the assistant principal come on as an interview.

(14:11):
That’s exactly what I was thinking. I was thinking of the school psychologist. See, now, it’s kind of going towards the parent also. What to look for?

So when you say the three pillars, you said of course the person, the school, and then what would be the third one?

(14:26):
So I see internal teacher, internal. So you’ve got her mindset, the self-care, her as a teacher, inside, heart work.

Then pillar two, we have the teacher, external, classroom, community, how to prepare for the summer, whatever. It’s the external teacher.

Then we have, I don’t know if we wanna just bucket this as districts and impact or districts and parents, it’s the big work. It’s the mission work. And then inside of it, I’ll put district, leadership parents.

Cause everything here is to equip these special education teachers to what? Now we’re looking at a TSO here.

(15:09):
Perfect. Yes. Thank you! My goal is for the special ed teacher just to feel supported. My main thing is for them to just feel supported by their admins and then also just everybody just being on the same page.

So I like how you’re seeing those three pillars because everybody, every pillar, everybody has a different view of how to do things and everybody has to be a unit working together.

Cause at the end of the day, it’s for who? The kids.

(15:37):
Oh yes. Okay. That’s for the kids. I like that a lot. Ooh, that would be a great title for your podcast.

(15:45):
What?

(15:45):
For the kids.

(15:47):
Oh, my God! Yes!

(15:54):
That’s gonna make me cry.

(15:56):
Cause at the end of the day, Stefanie, this is who I push for. This is who I fight for every day. So the kids are getting the education that they need.

I work at a low-income socioeconomic, majority Latino community, and a lot of the parents are not even equipped. They don’t even know or who can they trust?

(16:18):
That right there. Think of that. Those episodes, Michelle go in the mission work bucket where you’re talking about Are you a parent of a special ed student?

Three resources you didn’t know are available to you. That’s an episode.

(16:32):
Yes. Oh my God. I’m so glad you’re putting this all together in my head. It was just like a mush of stuff.

(16:41):
I’m obsessed with the title For The Kids as the podcast title and the brand. So good. We’ll have to see if that one’s available.

Now, for the tagline, let’s see if we can walk that in cuz that’s gonna help you bring it full circle here.

(16:56):
Okay.

(16:57):
Are who are special education teachers. So we have the teacher, keeping her encouraged and supported.

We have the actual execution of her being a special ed teacher, prepping the classroom and pouring to the kids and staying whatever, up to date with the things she needs, getting the training that she needs to get all those pieces.

And then we have the mission work here. Hi teacher, you’re not in this bubble alone. You need to be vocal, and equip the teachers and your district by the resources that you need. Let’s work together.

Teacher, here’s the resources I’ve created. Take it to your principal, whatever, having psychologists on all of those other pieces.

So what if it’s something like special education solutions for teachers in schools or solutions for special education teachers to help kids thrive?

(17:47):
Yes. I like that one.

(17:49):
Okay. Perfect.

(17:51):
I like that. Yes. Cause I think my heart is more supporting the teacher and the kids. I think I like that. But have that all intertwined.

(17:59):
So we have title, we have tagline and you have your three pillars. What else feels fuzzy? Do you wanna talk about what topic ideas might be?

I can try to riff you a description, but I don’t know this space super well at all, actually at all, but I could try.

(18:19):
Oh no, but you’re helping me.

(18:24):
You have all the bones, which is so important.

(18:28):
Oh, that’s another thing to ask you because I trying to figure this whole thing out before.

I actually coined the name of the singing SE teacher, cuz I also sing, but in a way too, I’m like, I know it’s confusing, also cuz people think like, oh I’m gonna learn songs but it’s for the special education.

So I know I do have Instagram, I do have a Facebook page and I’m telling you I’m not even that active on it. And I don’t know why all of these people added me during the pandemic, up to 950 people.

(18:57):
Wow.

(18:58):
And I’m not even that active. I just put a quick description Oh, I’m gonna be sharing strategies of what I do in my own classroom.

And then I’m just very surprised at how many people and they look legit, people who worked in, or are working in the special ed realm.

(19:14):
So good.

(19:14):
So I guess I’m just trying to figure out should I just continue to keep them and then just switch my brand around or?

(19:23):
I would switch your brand on your Instagram, but we don’t have to throw that content away, all this stuff with the singing, that’s a strategy you’re using.

And it’s something that you’re good at. Those are episodes and content in the teaching external bucket. Cause you can teach the teacher how you’ve used singing, whether she sings or not, there’s solutions.

And maybe that’s one of the things you end up selling is maybe you have whatever you’re doing with singing. Music is an amazing strategy, but it’s a strategy. It’s not the whole brand.

(19:57):
Agreed. And that’s what I feel. I feel there’s something more than me just singing.

(20:01):
And you can still sing and it can still be a really fun thing.

You guys know, I’ll throw something in that’s a Stefanie thing, into the podcast sometimes, or I’ll talk about something really important that’s on my heart, but it’s not the brand itself.

It’s something, it’s a strategy in the brand or it’s something about me that I feel led to share that can help people.

(20:21):
Yeah.

(20:22):
Cause that’d be hard to scale. Cause not everybody can sing and then they’d only be buying. It’s not something other people can do. It’s something that they would only come to Michelle to see you do.

(20:32):
It’s more of an entertainment thing.

(20:35):
Which is still fine once in a while.

(20:37):
Okay. Got it.

(20:38):
What else did you have on your list? So we had title, tagline, pillars are done.

(20:43):
You did podcast name already. My goodness. Oh, I wanted to go through some, I wrote down podcast topics.

(20:48):
Love it.

(20:49):
Okay. And after I felt like He called to me all of a sudden I was writing all these topics down.

(20:54):
Good. Okay. Gimme a couple of them. And remember our pillars. Internal teacher. External teaching, classroom, all those pieces.

And now we have this new pillar that you didn’t have before, this mission work, the district, the leadership, the parents, the psychology, those pieces.

(21:11):
Okay. I definitely already put school psychologists in what we need to know, what to look for.

(21:17):
Let’s have a title for that one. So what do you mean what to look for? What would we wanna talk to a school psychologist about and who is listening? So, the teacher’s listening.

(21:26):
Okay. I help the general ed teachers right now with how to really look for the steps on if a child really needs an assessment done.

(21:35):
OK.

(21:36):
Maybe something like what interventions or something has been put in place first before a referral has to be sent out for an assessment.

(21:45):
Yeah.

(21:46):
That weird?

(21:47):
Yeah. We’ll fix in a minute. And here’s some tips you’re gonna get a concept out of your mouth. What interventions have been in place before an assessment has been made?

You’re gonna get this out, then you’re gonna, and as you go through PPU you’re gonna see how you’re gonna take this title and now you’re gonna make it sticky and tacky and we’re gonna move some things around to make it really shine.

So maybe, and remember we need to have keywords in here too. It could be something like, Does my student need a special education assessment?

Now we have a question we’ve used special education assessment, which is a key phrase. Then you’re gonna say three ways to know from the school psychologist, Mary Ann.

(22:28):
I love it. That’s exactly it.

(22:32):
So, see how we just popped it around, and then another one I put for you was Four ways to better understand and connect with your special education students with psychologists, whoever.

That’s another, cuz now it’s like, I’m gonna have this psychologist come in and talk about how to connect with your students.

(22:53):
Or maybe, you know what, who would be better? A school counselor.

(22:57):
Oh yeah. I love that one. Okay. Gimme another one.

(23:01):
Okay. Parent communication. I think that’s the biggest one. Parent communication.

(23:06):
Yeah. What’s not working or what’s the pain point around parent communication?

(23:10):
It’s not happening that often.

(23:12):
Okay. So how would they say it to you? What would the teacher say to you, Michelle? She might say what? There is zero parent communication happening, Michelle or the parents never answer my calls.

The parents have zero involvement in their kids’ life. What are they saying? Cause we’re gonna use that phrase in your title.

(23:28):
And that’s exactly what’s, not getting callbacks, feeling they’re not supporting their child at home sometimes.

Parents need to realize that we have to work as a unit with the schools because at the end of the day like I said, it’s all about the child.

Because in my experience, Stefanie, when I’ve seen that the parents are on board with the teachers and the school when I see all of that happen, the students skyrockets emotionally, and educationally. Yes.

(23:57):
Oh, so good. So I put three ideas here for you. One, not getting callbacks from your special education parents.

And I don’t know if that’s the right phrase, special education students, parents, something you have to play with that one.

(24:11):
Nope. Special education parents. That’s good.

(24:13):
Great. And then I would put something triggering in here, the truth about getting them to participate. So now it’s like, this is what’s happening.

This is the pain point. This is what I want. So the truth about getting them to show up. Second idea. Frustrated from the lack of parent involvement?

(24:34):
Oh, that’s a good one.

(24:34):
Three ways to boost their

(24:40):
Involvement, the parent support.

(24:43):
Good. And then the next idea, Three ways to get parents to work with you and the school to better support your, and then I think, try to use, sometimes you’re gonna spell out special education students.

Sometimes you should say special ed. So if there’s an acronym for it, use different varieties. Cause we don’t know which one the teacher’s searching for.

(25:03):
Okay.

(25:04):
So there’s three ideas for you just on that one concept alone of the parents.

(25:08):
Got it.

(25:09):
We did well, oh my gosh. We have title, tagline, pillars, and podcast ideas. All you need now is your art from Allie and you’re literally ready to launch your podcast.

(25:18):
Seriously? Holy crap! You put everything together. Stefanie, thank you so much!

(25:28):
I hope you guys loved Michelle as much as I did. She is such a blessing and I can’t wait to see her mission and vision come to life and all of the incredible kids that she’s gonna be able to help through this work.

So just cheering for her. You guys send up a prayer for Michelle. And again, if you want to get entered to win free coaching, just like this, this is your week.

We are celebrating my birthday. It is tomorrow with the birthday bash giveaway. And all you have to do is go leave a written review for this podcast on Apple Podcast, take a screenshot.

And come post it in the free Facebook group community, which is at stefgasscommunity.com and use the hashtag birthday bash.

You’ll be entered to win. You could win free coaching, a 30-minute session, a scholarship to one of my courses, or a 15-minute power coaching session.

We are given away all three and someone’s gotta win. It may as well be you.