Hello, and welcome to another episode of Coffee and code. I'm excited to have a special guest on the show today, Amanda Smith. She is a business coach and CEO of Dallas girl gang, a 50,000 plus global community of engaged women connecting and career business and life. Amanda, also a former elementary music teacher of seven years, is an expert in authentic marketing, pitching brand partnerships and cultivating community. And after a huge life shift and 2017 and a move to Dallas, Texas, Amanda was seeking a community for women that was so inclusive and offered resources for her career life and business and came up empty. So she created one for herself and called it Dallas girl gang. So that's a long winded introduction. But I've always been a fan. And I'm just fangirling over the fact that I have the Amanda Smith on my podcast. So Amanda Smith, welcome to the show.
Oh my gosh, we thank you so much. It's been a wild ride. And every time someone shares my intro my bio, and I'm like, Man, that's a lot. And it's been, it feels like it's been one year, but also feels like it's been 12.
Right? What is time anymore?
I don't know, I really don't know. Which I just want to
take a moment of appreciation. Because one, being a teacher is hard, and to being a music teacher is even harder. So I commend you for teaching. Um, just out of curiosity, what was your instrument? Or were you a voice?
Yeah, I was a vocal principal. And then obviously, you have to, like choose a secondary and school. So my secondary was piano and I also play guitar. So I love
that I love that I, I love learning that about people because seeing their businesses on the outside and learning that, you know, it makes perfect sense, because I feel like your creates your musicianship lends to a lot of your creativity. And you know, your secret sauce of what you bring to Dallas girl gang and to your overall brand. So bravo.
Yeah, it's definitely something not a lot of people know about from knowing me on on the internet, or here in Dallas, but it's, I mean, it's a huge part of my life. So
yeah, good, good chapters. Well, I gave a little bit of an like, you know, overview of you. But I want to hear from you. Can you tell us a bit more about yourself, and about your incredible journey of becoming an entrepreneur?
Yeah, I grew up here in North Texas, went to a small school, in Arkansas, small private school, that's where I met my husband. I was in the music department, as well as him. And at the same time, you know, just like finding our way. And then he actually left the music department. We got married the year after school, we graduated state and Arkansas and move back in 2016. And like you said, I just was looking for community of my own. And that was all inclusive and diverse. And that wasn't just for a specific group of people or, you know, certain industries or demographics. And so what started as a passion project, while I was a full time teacher, became a business. A lot of people, you know, if they don't really know my story, they think I probably, oh, she started a business. Well, I did, but I didn't intend to. On day one, it kind of became something of its own. And it's been not easy. And I mean, only five, six years in, you know, we're still, I would still say New. And we haven't even, you know, scratched the surface of what I would like to do and how I would like to continue to grow. So it's been a really, really cool journey. And I absolutely am obsessed and love our community so much.
Yes, and it's so important to have that community. I think the pandemic taught us a lot of things, right. But it taught us that we genuinely need that human connection as people and finding those authentic circles and authentic communities means so much and completely priceless. But when you can't find one that fits with your values, ideals, backgrounds, one that brings other people's ideals and backgrounds that are different from yours into a community. I love what you did you were a trailblazer and you just made it made a community when you didn't find one you you've made one so Oh, bravo.
Thank you. Yeah, I think it was, as a tic tock recently of someone talking about like, I'm the one that has to like, be in charge, make decisions and, like, get everything organized. And someone was like, why they're like, because I'm the oldest. And so like, I'm the firstborn. I'm the oldest of three. And I think that's just always kind of been in my nature is like, oh, like, let's just do something about it. You know, like, instead of waiting for someone else to do it, or be like, oh, man, that's a bummer. You know, it's like, well, why couldn't I do it? It doesn't sound hard. You know. And again, like I said, I had no idea what it was like, really starting. But yeah.
And I love one thing I want to like really hone in here, because you mentioned the years here, like 2016 2017, you started a business at a pretty pivotal time in which technology was rapidly advancing. So it's, it's really cool to see businesses be able to get, you know, an equal opportunity into the playing field, right, with internet and being able to market globally. Really, you no longer have to have that, you know, brick and mortar store, the typical traditional business path is no longer the blueprint for success.
Yeah, there like is no, there is no blueprint, I feel like for entrepreneurship, but like, there is there's no set in some way you have to do things. It's funny, you bring that up, because, you know, it's, it's been interesting to watch these different platforms and technologies change in the last five, six years. And you hear so many people in like the online business world and things like that, complaining about all these changes, blah, blah, blah, well, girl, this is what we signed up for, like, we're in business, we are small business owners, a lot of us like, you have to use the internet for your business, you really have to be on social media, you really need to know, or at least have someone on your team that's really good at technology. And this is just how the world works like the iPhone, they're coming out with a new iPhone pretty much every year at this point. And you know, it's part of the game. And so, but it has been really interesting, you know, things are not the same as they were in 2017. I've actually talked to my clients and other people talking about like, building community. They're like, Oh, Facebook group, like, and I'm like, yeah, it's still going strong, like, but would I recommend someone try to start that now? Probably not like maybe, yeah, let's use it as part of your strategy. But at the time, the way the reason of why I think it, like snowballed and went, quote, unquote, viral, if you want to even say that is because of the stage at which Facebook was at and where, you know, the consumer of using Facebook was at, you know, but yeah, it's definitely interesting.
Yes, I love, love, love, love hearing that. And I am curious, just a random question here. But do you feel like with the advent of these new, like automated tools like HootSuite and Planoly, and you know, Slack, have these tools helped you, as a business owner, grow and scale your business faster than doing what you were doing when you first started your business?
Oh, 100% I think in just finding the ways that like, those different platforms fit within the business are is like really crucial. I mean, especially four years ago, I was doing everything by myself, I'd never teach, you know, I didn't have a team. I was teaching full time, I was running all of these events full time. So every post every caption, every picture, every you know, Eventbrite that I had to get up. We don't even remember what our website was even like back back in 2018, or whenever. I don't even know if we had a website in 2017, or 18. No, I think we did. I mean, it was probably on Squarespace, actually. Which was super fun. Like it was easy to use, like whatever. But once there was some things that that we were able to automate. That I would say, the biggest tool and I don't even like I don't I'm not getting paid to say this, but so I really mean it. Not that I anyway, group funnels has changed my life. As far as our Facebook goes. It's a platform where I used to have to manually approve every single person then that came into our Facebook group. And I mean, nowadays we get 567 800 people a month adding to the Facebook group. And so even back then it was like so much work. Because I didn't want just anybody strolling in there. Yeah. Especially like spam accounts or men when I'm like, this is a women's community anyway.
So it's not MLMs those
two Yeah. Oh, gosh. Um, so that platform has automated things for me. best $300 I've ever spent.
Wow, good to know. I've never heard about that. Until now. Thank you. Yeah. And I will, I will link that into the show notes. That's when you know, something is good when you're not getting paid to talk about anyone from that company is listening, hit Amanda on for some collaboration. Amanda, I want to like, circle back around to something that we were talking about, on becoming an entrepreneur, and about doing all the things yourself. Because I think there's a lot of magic there. And there's a lot of madness. And there's magic in the madness. But I feel like there's benefits to being a business owner and doing everything yourself at first so that you know what those processes are, and you know what you want them to be? Because you're the one trusting them. You're the one going through it and thinking through all aspects. So I feel like do you feel like your experience as a teacher helped you in that realm? Oh, 100%.
I actually talked about this a lot or have in the past. You, I feel like people with teaching experience of any kind, whether it's like in the classroom, or like you taught a Bible study, or you taught a dance class, I don't care if you have had to prepare to speak and educate other people, and you are kind of held responsible for their education and retaining of knowledge. You have to be on your game, there's no, there's no like, room for error, kind of. That sounds a little extreme, obviously, you know, we do our best. And that's all we can do. But I really feel like educators have a leg up, if they then become an entrepreneur. Because so many entrepreneurs I'm seeing these days, in the last, you know, 123 years, are coming at it from like, a lot of just social media focus, and they see people success, and I'm like, Oh, I'm gonna get a bunch of followers I'm gonna get on Tik Tok. I'm gonna start this, you know, Instagram page, and I'm gonna create a bunch of content, like, Sure, go for it. But also, do you know how to be organized? Do you know how to be responsible for like, retaining your LLC? Do you have an accountant? Are you going to do your accounting? Do you even know like, what your brand is? Like, there's so much to it. And I think as a teacher, you have to know, all the, you have to know the curriculum, you have to know the kids, you have to monitor and adjust, you have to follow state guidelines. You have to work with a team. You have to obviously listen to a boss and work with the school as a whole. I mean, there's so much that goes into it. That I really feel like I if I hadn't been a teacher, I, I probably would have been set back quite a bit as far as like being prepared as a business owner and as a CEO now telling other people what to do.
Wow, wow, that's powerful. And if you think about it, though, I mean, as a teacher, you're constantly planning like you mentioned, you're adapting, you're creating lesson plans, right and left, you're thinking next semester. So that translates a lot into being your own boss. And self managing, I think is really important. But I have a question for you. And I've always loved asking people this. At what point did you realize that you needed help when you needed to hire someone?
Who, when I was when I was doing all of these events myself? While I was still teaching full time, you know, oh my gosh, well, yeah, while I was teaching, you know, till 345 is when we could like technically leave school. And if we had like, let's say an event that was a happy hour, we're starting at 530 or six. So I go straight. To the restaurant, the venue, whatever it is, I've got to have everything packed in my car. So there just came a point at the end of 2018. So I started in 2017. And then really 2018, we started hosting more like consistent events into 2019, as well. And I realized I need help, like, and I had a mentor at the time, and she was like, you don't have the cash flow yet to pay anybody because this is now it was that pivotal moment of I was realizing, Oh, this is turning into something like, there's money to be made, I am making some money. That like I'm structuring things, I've got a decent brand going things like that, like, all of a sudden, I was like, I guess you need a website, all those things. And she said, you need some help, but you can't really afford to hire anybody. Find you an intern. I knew a college intern, something. And I found a couple of really great interns to this day, I'm still close with friends with who've gone on to do like awesome things. And yeah, I was like, I definitely need need help. And so there's no, there was no way for me to scale without extra hands. So
Wow. I like that a lot. And I want to emphasize to some people listening, like we're not promoting like free labor. Right? Like, there's, there's a lot of value. In that experience, though, as an intern. I mean, I personally interned at the state newspaper, the Oklahoman here for an entire summer at zero pay, and lived on a credit card. But for me to get college credit for that internship, I couldn't get paid. So yeah, helping people understand that sometimes, like, that's just how the situation goes when you're in college. But it's such a good experience to be able to work with a business owner, and learn as you go. And I'm so glad that you offered that opportunity to someone that you're still close to them,
when it even now, like it's something where, you know, you know, and I really, I really look for looked for who are the kids in college that, like you said, are looking for college credit, or are looking for experience, and they want a letter of recommendation, they want whatever. And the cool thing is, like, if I like them, and I still need them, like, I will then hire you as a contractor. Like, I'll keep you which is great. And then, you know, it just became a thing. So summer, you know, again, summer rolled around of 2019. And we opened up internship applications and like, so now we're, we're, like, flooded every time we open internship applications, because people, you know, especially kids going into marketing, communications, PR, whatever it might be in, in our kind of world. They want the hands on experience. And then of course, early on once I had the budget to to hire those appropriate roles, you know, I was able to do that and build that out. Wow, that's
incredible. And I like how you approach this, you know, entire business as a passion project that just turned into a job. That's usually how most like, you know, leaders and successful business owners, they like, yeah, I've started my garage and look where we are now. Which is like absolutely incredible to be able to scale like that. So I hope, I hope you're able to, like take a moment and just appreciate what you've built, because it's something very special.
Thank you. Yeah, it's, I definitely have had plenty of really good moments in the last several years of like, I'm, I'm really proud of this, like, it's really, really hard sometimes. Especially after everything that we've all been through the last two years. I hate to be one more person that brings up COVID or whatever, but like, we've all had ups and downs. And you know, at the end of the day if like I'm still really happy with what we're doing and how we're growing like what I get to do every day, you know?
Absolutely. And you know, I will be that person to bring it over again because I will continue to bring it up because it's just it was such a trauma we we went through a global traumatic event. And I think that we need to not forget that as a society so yeah, I will always make sure to enter weave that into my conversations but so something that you have grown out of your business, that's is something that I want to talk about today is a conference. Now boss of vision con is a huge, huge event that's happening. Can you talk to us a little bit about it?
Yeah. So this started, it didn't even use to be called this. But the first one we held was like, you know, three or four hours of a one evening event, more of like a an inspirational thing. Had a few speakers and time for people to really connect and network. And as we learned our audience and listened to them, we, again, as a teacher, I always say monitor and adjust, we monitored and adjusted accordingly to what they need it. And so over the years, it's really morphed into a conference to serve small business owners, female founders, female entrepreneurs. And for a decent little percentage of the population that comes people who are trying to start a business like theirs, they're at square one. And they're just like, I don't know what to do. There's so much information out there. Let me just go to this and get started. Those are some of my favorite, favorite stories. And so yeah, this is our fifth annual conference in Dallas. The last several years, I've brought in speakers from all over the country all over the world, really, to speak and educate on certain topics. On the the, quote, unquote, hot and button issues that our community is telling us they need more support on whether it's sales, or Pinterest, or PR or pitching themselves, or, you know, launching a podcast or leadership, like there's so many different things that go into being an entrepreneur. And like we said earlier, there's no handbook, you know, and this is not a handbook, but this is a roomful of people who, number one, get it, like the girls that get it, get it, like they get it. And number two, people who have like been doing this a lot longer than maybe the person coming has and so they can listen to the successes or failures or mistakes, or just stories of experience from so many other different women in like diverse backgrounds in different industries, people have come from corporate people who were stay at home moms and other non or whatever it might be. It is I say it's the best day of the year. It's a it's so much fun. And the coolest part is like, again, like this year, there's so many people that are coming speakers or attendees that I've known over the years, but we've never got to meet in person because of either COVID or they just don't live in Texas. And so that is probably one of the most exciting parts about it.
That's so cool. And it's definitely one of those labors of love that, you know, so much work goes into it for that day of or multi day of execution. And then at the very end, you can kind of breathe a sigh of relief. But I feel like in person conferences when they're done right, can be magical. And I say that with all sincerity. Because you are around people who are like minded of you know, having that vision of entrepreneurship, the like you mentioned, they get it right, and you become inspired. You hear other people's stories, you get ideas, you get inspiration. Yeah, that's just you have a great speaker lineup, too. I want to applaud that. Like you mentioned, you have a lot of diversity, and a lot of speakers who have really, really good experience and talking about these hot button issues.
Yeah, absolutely. It's funny, I describe it as magical. Like I was just on Instagram Live. While we've been doing a lot of lives with our speakers online, but it was either today or yesterday. And that's like you can't get that this kind of experience. From Instagram. You can't get it from watching a tick tock. You can't get it from reading an email. There's absolutely nothing like being in a room of other people who just want to see you succeed as much as they want to succeed and they want to support you and they want to learn with you whether Are there a speaker, or a sponsor or an attendee, or they're on our team, it doesn't matter. That's the biggest thing about our goal is events. And why this conference is so different. It's not a rah, rah. Let's all get rich and make more money and have this crazy lifestyle, like, it is. Kind of completely the opposite. It is more about how do you define success? Where do you find alignment with all these things in your business? Like, what do you want your life to look like? How much money do you actually want to make? And at the end of the day, like, it's no one's business, and it shouldn't matter, you know? So that is, those are the vibes that we are bringing, and it is magical. It's very special. Well,
I'm so excited to go and to meet you IRL. Yeah. And hear from all the speakers. It's gonna be amazing. Yeah, it'll be here before we know it. If for those who who are listening and might be local in the area, like Oklahoma or Texas or Arkansas, or even California, you want to hop on a plane, go for it. Um, where can people go to learn more about boss vision con and buy tickets? Yeah,
boss vision con.com. And then boss vision con on all platforms, Instagram, Tik Tok everywhere. We have all the information about every speaker every session. So what are the topics of the session? It's one of the big questions that we get. And then once you sign up for a ticket, if you need recommendations for the local area, we can always give you those. And yeah, the VIP ticket holders and vision ticket holders are the top two level tickets. They have also a special VIP night the night before, with a Bonus Session, a private happy hour with the those specific attendees. And that's brought to us by a couple of our really special partners on this event.
That's so exciting. Wow. I love the attention to detail and the thoughtfulness behind how you've structured everything. I really feel like attendees are going to get so much out of it. It's just so much authentic value, which is worth every penny.
Yeah, I really, I really appreciate you saying that. And that's always what we what we go for. But yeah, we're very excited.
Awesome, awesome. Well, I will definitely include a link to boss vision con, in the show notes as well as a link to purchase tickets if anyone wants to go. But to my next question, I always love to ask this to my guests. And it kind of intertwines into our conversation of entrepreneurship and boss vision con, and your journey, but I want to hear Amanda, where do you get your creative inspiration from?
I love that question. Um, you know, I think people are like, I need to get inspired and go do this, go do that. I think I'm most get my creative inspiration, I think a lot of it does have to do with my, my background, just like as a creative person in general, and music and in teaching and things like that. But, like, my husband and I obviously are very close, which is like a dumb thing to say. But we're best friends, we're complete opposites. We're about to have a baby. Like there's so many different things that we've gone through, together and things that he would think about that I don't and I can get a lot from from him and just like our relationship, but also oftentimes, like I don't get creative inspiration from, like, a lot of other business stuff. It's, you know, like a comedy podcast that I listened to, or it's, you know, something out in the world or like I'm taking a walk with my dog or more commonplace things, I guess, if you would say and how I see people interact with our community, and, you know, and then the stories that we share, too. And then and then hearing their responses and their stories as well. So
I love that. Back to Basics, right? Yeah, focusing on just those little things the minutia the that we sometimes take for granted, but a lot of little magical moments can be found and walking the dog or going to get the mail Yeah, I love that. Thank you for sharing. Yeah, we've covered a lot of ground today. And I'm just so appreciative of you sharing just a bit of your story. But for listeners, what kind of resources would you have? For those who are listening that want to one, learn more about what you're up to, but to learn how to become an entrepreneur? Yeah.
My so my personal platform is Amanda's in Dallas on Instagram, Amanda C. Smith Dotco. And I'm going to be kind of switching my website out here at the end of the year, but like tangible resource I can think of right now, this is a little specific, if you are looking for a resource that's free on building brand partnerships, maybe that's a thing you've been thinking about. And you're maybe you're even thinking like, oh, I don't even know if I could do that. That's for influencers. I'm kind of busting the myth of that. And so I have a free email template that is like, literally the template that I use to pitch brands. Wow. Because that is a huge part of what we've done over the last several years is worked with hundreds and hundreds of brands, local and national, to support our efforts, and they want to reach our community. And we want to help them do that. And so there's a resource for that, and a link in my bio on Instagram.
That is literally gold, I will say, wow, you're giving that out for free. That's amazing.
Well, you know, in true business fashion, it definitely is, leads people into a funnel to, if they want, you know, obviously more training and support in that I have my pitch to paid course, that will be coming out again, I did like a soft, small launch of it beginning of this year. But we'll be we'll be bringing that back out here at the end of the year. So if you get the email template for free, you'll be getting all the information about the course as well, to literally learn all the ins and outs and quote unquote, secrets of how we've we've done this over the years. And then as far as just entrepreneurship. I mean, our community is so supportive. And like I said, Yeah, we're Dallas girl gang, but we, I mean, the Facebook group is online, we're relaunching our membership that's online. So you you can be from anywhere, our membership really is going to be leaning into those people who are in, you know, 012 years of business and really trying to just get, you know, their feet under them with all that comes with entrepreneurship. So those are going to be my best recommendations. Wow,
thank you. And I feel like those recommendations are quite timely considering we're about to go into a projected recession, and 2023. So you know, start saving, thinking about your entrepreneurship goals and go to boss vision con. That's your answer. Right?
I would I would say the same thing. Yeah.
I love it. I love it. Well, Amanda, this has been so much fun. I feel like we could have you know our long conversations. But I just want to say thank you so much for coming on coffee and code today and sharing your incredible story and energy with us.