From Corporate to Community: Building a Purpose-Driven Community with Megan Tobler

In this inspiring episode, I welcome Megan Tobler, the founder of Self Start Her, a thriving community for women entrepreneurs. Megan shares her journey of leaving the corporate world and creating a mission-driven business aimed at supporting and uplifting female entrepreneurs. Despite being laid off while pregnant, Megan focused on building a strong foundation for her community first before thinking about monetization. Listen in as she discusses her motivations, challenges, and the incredible support system she has built along the way. KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST Mission Over Money Megan started her business with a strong mission to help others, putting community building and support before monetization. This approach not only set a solid foundation but also created a loyal and engaged audience. Leveraging Skills and Passion Utilizing her sales and communication skills, Megan successfully launched the Self Start Her podcast, which became a pivotal platform for sharing the stories and insights of female entrepreneurs. This initiative was driven by her passion for connecting and supporting other women in business. Navigating Challenges with Grace Megan's journey included significant challenges, such as being laid off while pregnant. However, she embraced these obstacles with resilience and grace, focusing on her long-term goals and leveraging the support of her family and community to continue building her dream business.   If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.   LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE Connect with Megan on Website, Instagram, Linkedin, Podcast, Youtube Connect with Teresa on Website, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter Transcript Teresa: You will know that starting a business is not for the faint hearted. And most of us start understandably so with the intention of, I need to make money. I know that was a hundred percent me and we build everything else around that. So money is the first priority. And then we think about the audience and the websites and the messaging and all that sort of good stuff. But what if that wasn't your first thought? What if you started your business purely with a mission to help others first and then making money was the later thought. That's exactly what today's guest has done. And not only did she do that, but she did it after she was made redundant while pregnant with her first child. So in today's episode, you will learn all about why she created a community first and how she plans to monetize this in the future. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Your Dream Business. Thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate it. If you are new to the podcast, welcome. I'm your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. And every week I bring you either amazing guests who have inspiring and awesome stories to tell [00:02:00] And then I mix that up with solo episodes where I give you strategy and tips and tactics and more kind of practical stuff. And today I have an interview for you. Now, Megan is someone I met quite some time ago when I was interviewed on her podcast. And in fact, if I remember rightly, I reached out to her and I found her podcast and said, do you want to guest or would you like me as a guest? And that's how we connected. And we've stayed connected ever since. And I'm so grateful to have her on my podcast now. So Megan Tobler is a trailblazer in the world of woman entrepreneurism. After 10 years in corporate world with a successful career in sales, She became passionate about redefining her definition of success and creating a life that would allow her to have freedom she craved and the ability to make an impact. As the host of the self start her. So it's like stealth self starter, but with her at the end podcast, Megan has created a platform for women entrepreneurs from all over the [00:03:00] globe and all walks of life to share their stories, paths, challenges, and triumphs. It is her goal to inspire more women and follow their hearts, launch their own businesses, and to start living life on their terms. So Megan really truly aligns with me and who I am and the work that I do. But what I love about Megan's story and what you're going to hear is she's kind of gone and done it a different way round to the way lots of people start a business. And the foundation she is building are phenomenal. And this is really coming from a place of passion, a place of wanting to serve. And honestly, you know, when you meet someone and they're just the nicest person. That is Megan. So I know you're not only going to love her, but you're going to be super inspired by what she is creating and building and want to go and follow her and check her out. As always, we link up to everything in the show notes. So you can go to Teresa Heath wearing. com /357 as in the numbers three, five, seven. That's the [00:04:00] number of today's episode. And basically you can find the show notes there and all the links to everything we talk about. So. Please welcome the very lovely Megan Tobler. Megan, I am so happy to have you on the podcast. How you doing? Megan: Teresa, I'm so happy to be here. I'm doing well. How about yourself? Teresa: I'm great. It's been a while since we spoke. When did I come on your podcast? Megan: Oh, goodness. I want to say that we actually touched base about a year ago this time last year. So it was probably March or April ish. Well, I guess we're in May almost, tomorrow. Teresa: Yeah, I think it was because when I spoke to you, you were pregnant. Megan: Yes. Teresa: And it was a very, it was an awesome conversation in terms of like, what you were doing. And I remember immediately being, Oh, I want to work with her. I want, I want to help her. I want to like, she needs to come and work with me in some way. Like I just loved you from the minute we had a conversation, which was awesome. So I always start my podcast same way. I do need to change it up. I will at some point, but we're not there yet. Please [00:05:00] explain to my lovely audience who you are and how you got to do the thing that you do today. Megan: Well, first of all, I have to tell you, Teresa, I think the feeling was absolutely mutual. I was telling you before we hit record today that you said something that really struck home with me a year ago when we connected, and that was to give yourself grace in the season of life. And so for the last year, any single time that I was feeling that I wasn't doing something in the quote unquote right way to really take a step back and just be like, you know what, I'm going to give myself grace right now. I'm going to do a Teresa. So thank you so much for doing that. Teresa: My pleasure. I'm so glad it's that. And I'm so glad you do it because you need to give yourself grace because you're doing a lot of things at once. So yeah, I love it. Megan: And we'll talk all about that. I'm sure about everything that we're doing, but to answer your question, as, as you already mentioned, my name is Megan. I, as from my accent can probably tell that I'm not based in the UK. I am actually across the pond all the way in sunny California. But I am the founder of self start her and self start her [00:06:00] is a growing community of women who really dare to take a chance on themselves and to change their lives. I've created this platform where I have created resources for aspiring and really new...