The Unsure Entrepreneur

Episode 26 The Unsure Entrepreneur Podcast
With Guest Leigh Mitchell
Tue, Apr 22, 2025 5:52PM • 27:39

KEYWORDS
Entrepreneurship, branding, inclusivity, Women in Biz Network, Change Maker Collective, DEI strategies, marketing support, podcast, resilience, imposter syndrome, mindfulness, work-life balance, personal brand, side hustle, minimal viable product.

SPEAKERS
Leigh Mitchell, Roger Pierce

Intro 00:00
Tou're listening to the unsure entrepreneur podcast with Roger Pierce, whether you're scribbling business ideas on a napkin or wrestling with the should I shouldn't I question. Get ready to explore the realities, the risks and the rewards of entrepreneurship as we share the stories, scars and successes of small business owners.

Roger Pierce 00:20
Hey, I'm sure entrepreneurs. Welcome to the podcast. Let me tell you about my very special guest, me Mitchell is a longtime friend and an inspiring force in the world of entrepreneurship, branding and inclusivity. We go way back, and I've had the privilege of watching her evolve from an ambitious entrepreneur into a sought after speaker, mentor, teacher and consultant. As the founder of Women in biz network, one of Canada's largest communities for entrepreneurs, she has helped women entrepreneurs and professionals to learn, grow and connect in her latest venture change maker collective Lee offers consulting services to small and medium sized businesses, social enterprises and individual change makers. Now, through this platform, she provides comprehensive brand management, public relations, change making, consulting, all designed to align values and well being with impactful change. Now, Lee also hosts the change makers podcast where she and expert guests coach listeners on navigating career, life and business challenges. She is also an educator, teaching at York University, University of Guelph Humber and York entrepreneurship development institute. I'm so excited to bring her on the unsure entrepreneur, because please live through the doubts and the hurdles of self employment, and she knows what it takes to push forward to achieve success. Welcome my friend.

Leigh Mitchell 01:49
Wow. What a beautiful introduction.

Roger Pierce 01:52
I had to stop and catch my breath. I was going through a lot there. You've done so much. It's so great to have you here. I really appreciate you taking the time. My intro probably didn't scratch the surface. Can you expand a bit more on change maker collective and the kind of work that you're doing?

Leigh Mitchell 02:09
Yeah, so we are all about helping mission based leaders and those that really want to be the change in the world that they want to see, and how they can do that in a way that can amplify and inspire. And we're an organization that supports change making We offer a free membership, so we really want to help you to get your story out there, and if you need some marketing support, PR services, or just an opportunity to strategize on how to create a strategy for your social impact in a way that resonates with diverse audiences, we're there to support you on your journey. And we also have a podcast, and called the the change maker collective.

Roger Pierce 03:08
Change maker collective podcast, that's excellent. I'll put the link to the podcast in the show notes. And you've got a strong background in this. I know you've got some dei training, and that's one of the one of the skills you bring. So it's like a marketing agency helping people implement their DEI strategies.

Leigh Mitchell 03:26
Yeah, the communication around that and how to connect with diverse audiences and how to position your messaging. I know that there's a lot of pushback in that whole dei directive in the government, both in Canada and the US, with a lot of companies pushing back on di initiatives, sometimes being forced to do so because of government policy changes. But we know that those that have diversity in their boards, their communities, their sales teams, their stakeholders, really do better in all kinds of different areas. And so it's more profitable. There's better decision making. It's just important for people to feel seen and heard and feel a sense of belonging. It's not about, you know, pushing someone forward because they are of color. There's room for all of us. And when we approach whatever marketing communication or business strategy that we're trying to achieve, if we have a collection of voices, it just makes it more impactful. If you have all of the same people at the table making decisions, then you don't really have a very strong narrative on how people are going to respond to your products and services. Is, you know, when you think about it, right?

Roger Pierce 05:02
And I think you and I talked about this before, and I think maybe was you that brought up this excellent point, how a small business, even a small business, can have an advisory panel like bunch of volunteer mentors advising them. And even that board, on official board should be diverse and should have people from different backgrounds and disciplines to make the entrepreneurs advice stronger, right?

Leigh Mitchell 05:21
Yeah, you're just going to make more cohesive decisions, and you won't be backtracking.

Roger Pierce 05:27
Excellent idea. You know, you and I go back so many years. I won't give away how many years, but a long time. Maybe you can share a bit about your own journey, and how did you learn to push through uncertainty and what advice you have.

Leigh Mitchell 05:39
I'm still working through it, Roger, let's be honest. I call you on a regular basis with my latest anxiety driven situation. You know something that I'm sure of. I think it's a journey. I don't think anyone ever feels totally secure in what they're doing. The thing about being an entrepreneur or or being a professional, or really pursuing anything that you're passionate about, is that you have an invested interest in not looking stupid. First and foremost, you want to you want to help people, you want to make a difference, and you have to really be careful every step that you take. And so sometimes we get caught in analysis paralysis, or sometimes we move too quickly and we take a misstep, and we're concerned of how we're perceived. I think every entrepreneur and budding entrepreneur questions whether they have what it takes to do that. Even if you're transitioning into a new career or or new industry, there's fear, there's fear of the unknown, and so it's something that I've dealt with my entire career. Is just not always thinking that I'm enough. I think that most people can relate to that. I think we've all had those moments, those 4am wake ups of I didn't think of this, or how are people I didn't you know all of a sudden, something that you were so sure of before you went to bed, you wake up and all of a sudden there's a great uncertainty and fear

Roger Pierce 07:10
A lot of a lot of us suffer from, you know, what's called the imposter syndrome. Have you got any strategies you can share to help people deal with this kind of issue? Yeah, absolutely.

Leigh Mitchell 07:19
I think that mindfulness for me has been a huge part of how I cope with my uncertain feelings or anxiety or imposter syndrome. I remind myself to breathe just, you know, it's something you always have access to breathing exercises, I find that it's helpful to focus on your long term vision. You know, what do you want to achieve? I think when, when you focus on how you can be of service and what you think your ultimate purpose is, then you can work through feeling like you might be judged, or people may feel like you're annoying, or you know uncomfortable that you've had to contact someone to sell to, so to speak, a lot of people struggle with insecurities around getting on the phone and pitching or selling to someone, And I sort of try to remind them that you're meant to help people, and the only way you can help people is to share your message, and your message may come in the form of a pitch, but if you focus on the fact that that pitch is going to ultimately make someone's life better, then it helps you to work through those challenges. I would say that focusing on how you're going to be of value to people and how you're going to help them, helps to get through feeling insecure and being in the present moment as much as possible, and also trying not to assume you know what other person is thinking about you, and chances are, they aren't thinking about you nearly as much as what you might imagine. I think we all think, oh, this person's judging me, but no, this person's probably thinking about the fight that they've had with their spouse, or the bill that they haven't paid, or the, you know, the issue they might have with their child, right? We're all dealing with a lot of things on our plate, and we're internally judging our own moves way more than we're judging the moves of the others. So I think if you focus on that, it makes a big difference.

Roger Pierce 09:41
The fears are all in our head. I love it. I love it. Now I want to talk to you about the power of perseverance. Lessons from the roller coaster. I call it of entrepreneurship, the roller coaster of small business, the dizzying highs and the terrifying lows, as I call it, as you go up and down a roller coaster. Can you think of. Sometimes or a time when you faced a major setback in your business, and how you found the motivation to keep going forward. So you know, for example, sometimes entrepreneurs take a break, or they reach out to a friend, or they look at a past success. What helps you overcome hurdles?

Leigh Mitchell 10:17
Well, let's look at it in the form of a story, and the story has a beginning, a middle and an end, and you are definitely there in the beginning of my story, when I first started Women in biz network, and I remember having to get sponsors because I was putting on my first event. And if I was showed some resilience, it was definitely those early days because I didn't know any better. First off, I didn't know any better to not be resilient, because I didn't know whether I was going to succeed or fail, but I knew that I had to just keep trying. And so you were one of the first people that I reached out to. And as you like to joke around that like I just kept calling and leaving messages for you, and eventually you just couldn't help but call me back. And perseverance was that you had that first initial conversation with me, and I pitched having you provide a financial sponsorship for our very first event, and you also spoke at it, so that was when I was first introduced to your amazing thought leadership. And that relationship has meant that I have been able to be so resilient in a way that I never thought possible. And I think part of that is you can't isolate yourself. You have to be willing to put yourself out there. And for some people, that can be really scary. So that was my beginning, and then my middle was the pandemic. I think the pandemic was a challenging time for everyone, and I had to put the business on hold because there were no conferences to produce, because no one could have in person events, I remember thinking to myself, What do I do now? I had gone on a trip not too far from the pandemic, and I had done a volunteer trip to Costa Rica with an entrepreneurial community of change makers, and we had built a storage unit for these women in the jungles of Costa Rica who were selling sandwiches to tourists, and they needed a place to put their belongings.

And there were a lot of children at this volunteer trip, and I was the photographer at the event, and they were very interested in my in my camera, so I was teaching them how to use my camera. And that was a little seed that planted inside me that I realized that maybe I'm meant to be a teacher. But when I came back, I didn't really know how or like what that would mean exactly, but it planted a seed in me, and so when the pandemic hit, I realized that it was time for me to pursue that seat, and I started volunteering to go into college and university classrooms as a guest speaker, that led me to be hired in the middle of the pandemic to be an instructor, first at the University of Guelph Humber and Then later at the York Continuing Studies, and so I became a marketing instructor and professor, and I never thought that that would have been possible, but I guess my resilient mind is it's okay to try new things, and it doesn't matter if you don't know exactly what you're doing, you'll figure it out. Everything is figureoutable. That's a Marie Forleo quote. I won't I'm not. That's not mine, but it's something that I remind myself every day, is that just because I don't know what to do doesn't really matter, the universe will help me figure it out. And so that was my middle and where I'm at today in terms of resiliency and figuring things out is the International Student cap has severely cut a lot of jobs for instructors and teachers. And so I realized in the last year that because I was pretty much teaching full time, but this year, my contracts have been cut back by one each semester. So I sort of knew that it's time to go back to the drawing board and decide what to do next, along with teaching. I'm certainly not going to get that out. I would love it. And what I realized is that I really want to help fellow change, make. Rogers amplify their voice. And so we, we've created this, this communications and marketing and brand consulting company called the change maker collective. And so the lesson there is, you can build it in little increments. It doesn't have to happen all at once. And you may feel like you're foolish or look foolish, I should say, because you haven't really figured it out, and people might be confused by what you're doing, but just keep the eye on the prize. Keep moving forward and build it little bit by little, and eventually you will start to see the building come together. And so I think that the framework is is finally really starting to present itself, and it's not finished. The building is not finished. It's still a work in progress, but we have a team together. And so I think the other thing is, is that you also figure out what your strengths are, and you fill in the gaps with other people in your community that can help in areas that you may feel that you're not able to contribute. So those are my little resilience. Words of Wisdom.

Roger Pierce 16:12
Great story, great story, and I like the way you framed it with the beginning, middle and end. Now maybe that's a good segue to talk about the students you're teaching, entrepreneurship and marketing and business and a bunch of different things. What what are you learning from them? What do you? What do you? What do you see? See from them you can share with us.

Leigh Mitchell 16:29
Thank you. Thank you for asking such a a great question to explore. I have learned so much from them. I have learned that you have to individualize learning. You can't just have an agenda and expect that everybody is going to go on that journey with you. You have to take time to understand what they're trying to get out of it and build different ways to learn that speaks to those learning styles. So I think I've learned to adapt and do things differently. I don't spend much time in the classroom with PowerPoint presentations. In the beginning, I sort of stuck to that because that's what I figured. That's what professors and instructors are supposed to do. They stand at the front of the classroom and they lecture.

Roger Pierce 17:22
I'm old enough to Remember teachers, professors, using transparencies. There you go, overhead, transparency.

Leigh Mitchell 17:30
Now what I I've built an arsenal of tools and techniques to make the learning individualized, interesting, engaging and collaborative, and I think that's made all the difference. And so I think my students have informed my teaching style to date, and we like to have fun. I've taken some courses around social emotional learning, and I think that's another thing that the students have taught me, is that when they're experiencing challenges and they're stressed out, and you come down on them, it's just going to make them freeze and shut down. I went from being good cop, bad cop, good cop again. So I started out like very much fun and engaging, and then I felt like they were starting to take advantage of my nature. And so then I became very, sort of felt like I had to be much more tough in the classroom. Now I feel like I'm a really good combination of having boundaries, having expectations of the students, but also being flexible to their learning styles and what they want to achieve. And so I feel that that has made a big difference. So, yeah, I'm learning from them every single day. They're teaching me things about marketing. And it was the students who told me about this new thing called AI a couple years ago, right? I didn't even know about it before they were they they were telling me what was happening so they know the latest tools and the latest trends, and, you know, they, they sort of give me a little feeling for what's happening, and then I go and explore it and figure out how I'm going to include it into our conversations.

Roger Pierce 19:13
Fantastic, a two way street. It sounds like it has to be. I want to talk to you a little bit about because it's also an important issue for entrepreneurs is work life balance. How do you prioritize between the bottomless pit that is small business ownership and your personal life? Because relationships can suffer in a big in a big way. Entrepreneurs get all engrossed and all consumed by their business. I've been guilty of it before. I know lots of others have you've got a husband and two sons, but what I've always admired about you, Lee is the way you prioritize your family, despite your huge workload, running multiple businesses, teaching, podcasting, balancing personal life and business life. Demands are a common struggle for entrepreneurs. Give us some secrets. How do you balance life with business so well?

Leigh Mitchell 20:07
Well, you don't see me at like, you know, four o'clock, running around with, you know, freaking out that I can't find a microphone, or the mouse is missing, or there's no food in the fridge. I think we all have our moments where we explode, and so fortunately or unfortunately, social media and our branding can really cover that up, and we can seem more perfect than we really are. And what I've learned to embrace is being perfectly unperfect. I think that just being honest with myself, being honest with my family, and taking care of my basic needs first, has helped a lot. I think when you put all of your own basic needs, and that includes self care on hold, then you really do start to fall apart, and you've witnessed my emotional ups and downs over the years. Being one of my mentors, I come to you when I'm really struggling, whether it be with my relationship or a client or not confused about something or another. So my kids have seen me birth the business, and they have learned a lot from me, and I've learned a lot from them throughout the process. They teach me, just like my students teach me things. They teach me things. They remind me when I seem intense or that I need to breathe, that I'm approaching something with too much intensity and that it's not helpful. Rob and I, who's my husband, we have learned together. He's also an instructor, and we've done some we did course redevelopment work together this past summer, and that was really challenging, but also an opportunity to grow together. And so you I think keeping open communication has really helped, and understanding that you know maybe you're not the best version of yourself, and that it's okay to go back and make amends. So I think that's just a few things that I've sort of learned over the years how to approach it.

Roger Pierce 22:19
You've touched on so much there, because a supportive life partner for an entrepreneur is pivotal. If the life partner, spouse or whatever, doesn't get it doesn't want to be a part of it very hard for the entrepreneur to proceed, especially if there's demands to bring home a steady paycheck, because there's often not one during the first few years for startup entrepreneurs, why are you prioritizing work as opposed to the kids soccer game? Why can't we go on this holiday? Oh, I've got to work all kinds of issues. So probably the first partner is your life partner, right in the business, before any other business partners? Well, you said it was so key to communicate and be open share the challenges that's going to help them understand what you're going through and make you even stronger to persevere. Fantastic advice. Final piece of advice, or something that you would give an entrepreneur, maybe one of your students, who is thinking about starting a small business, getting in on this journey, someone who's on the fence, not quite sure about the whole thing. What do you say to someone like that?

Leigh Mitchell 23:22
I'm actually in my final course that I teach the students, because I have them at the beginning and the end of their journey with me. They're in the program that I teach most consistently at York for about nine months, and they take the business course with me in the first semester, and then they wrap up with a marketing course with me in the final semester. And so in the final semester, I teach them about building their personal brand. And what do they want to be known for? What kind of impact do they want to have? What are their strengths? What are some of their weaknesses that they need to take into account for and and plan around. And is there a side hustle that they can start to think about from day one of graduating? Because the worst thing that I think can happen is that you do all this, and they spend a lot of money to be in the classroom, because most of my students are international, so they're paying international student fees, and so if you don't use it, you lose it. So start building that personal brand, that side hustle immediately after graduating, or if you're someone who is considering entrepreneurship, don't spend too much time planning out a business that is the 1220, page business plan. Instead, work on that MVP, which is in the minimal viable product and. Minimal viable product idea could come from your own personal brand, or maybe it's a product or service that you want, or maybe it's part of the Creator economy, or the gig economy, whatever you think that you're possibly interested in. You could be doing that while also pursuing a traditional job, or you have to keep paying the bills and having that full time job while you're doing the this building the business. So either way, wherever your situation is, just keep moving towards building your expertise and contributing towards your mission, your values and what you like to do, and don't worry about having all the answers. You'll figure it out along the way. So that's my advice.

Roger Pierce 25:50
Fantastic. Really good stuff there, the side hustle, minimum viable product. So important Rome wasn't built today, and what a great way to test the waters of entrepreneurship too, is to keep that outside job. Why start a business? Test it out doesn't have to be an expensive investment, just to see if it works and to see if your heart's in it, if you want to go ahead with the whole thing, that's fantastic. Well, listen, I appreciate all this, and that's all the time we have want to thank you very much. Lee Mitchell for being here and sharing with us. But before you go, the listener wants to get in touch. What's the best way to connect?

Leigh Mitchell 26:23
So I'm on LinkedIn all the time. Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. And my spelling of my name is Leigh Mitchell, and I'm sure that will be in the show notes for you. And you can also reach out and register your business or your personal brand on the change maker collective, which is changemakerco.org and let's start a conversation here to support you on your journey.

Roger Pierce 26:52
And be sure to listen to the change maker collective podcast. Yes, that's right. Thank you. Fantastic. Okay, well, thanks again, Leigh. And to our listeners, thank you for being here, and be sure to return next time for more insights from the Unsure Entrepreneur.

Outro 27:08
That's it for this episode of The Unsure Entrepreneur Podcast. Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss other candid conversations with small business owners. And be sure to check us out at unsureentrepreneur.com.