How leading with your values can grow your business, with Danielle Amodeo

Danielle Amodeo 0:02

I will never be fired from my company for speaking my values, and I get to build a system where the people that I work with and I hire who work with me also get to speak their values without being worried that they're going to be fired for it. So that feels like great job security to me.

Leah Neaderthal 0:21

Welcome to the smart gets paid podcast with me. Leah Neaderthal, I help women land higher paying clients in their independent consulting businesses, but I've never been a salesperson. My background is in corporate marketing, and when I started my first consulting business, I learned pretty quickly that it's about 1000 times harder to sell your own stuff than it is to sell someone else's. So I taught myself how to do it, and I created the sales approach that I now share with my clients so they can feel more comfortable in the sales process. Get more of the right clients and get paid way more for every client contract. So whether your client contracts are $5,000 $100,000 or more, if you want to work with more of the clients you love, do more of the work you love and get paid more than you ever thought you could, then you're in the right place. Let's do it together. Thanks for tuning in, and don't forget to rate, review and share. Hey there, Leah here, and thanks for tuning in. I hope wherever you're listening to this, wherever you are right now. I hope you're having a great week, making some good progress in your business and taking some time for you. So let's just be real right now, things feel kind of scary. I mean, for a lot of us, it feels like our values are under attack. And if you're wondering what, like air quotes, our values mean, like if you voted for Obama, I'm talking to you. And for a lot of women consultants, it feels like you know the ground is shifting under our feet. And in the midst of all this, if you've been thinking, you know, maybe this just isn't the time to grow my business. Maybe it's the time to just keep my head down and play a little smaller, then you need to hear this conversation, because if that's true for you, if that's how you're feeling, then I'm so excited for you to listen to my conversation with Danielle Amadeo, founder of arts equity group, because today we're talking about living your values in Your business. Danielle works with nonprofits, arts organizations and municipalities, and these are groups whose funding has been dramatically cut in this administration. So by all accounts, you would think that her business would be struggling, but it's not. In fact, Danielle has quadrupled her revenue filled her client roster for the next year and a half, and most importantly, she's found the confidence to be fully out front with her values, you know, not hiding, not playing small, and her values are fueling her business growth. So in this episode, you'll hear how Danielle went from feeling a little scared about being out front with her values to running a business that's fully booked for the next 18 months, you'll hear the shift that allowed her to raise her prices and attract the right clients, how being vocal about her values helped her business grow, even in a moment when it feels risky to speak up and you'll learn a powerful exercise that you can use To feel less powerless and more in control right now. This conversation with Danielle is really about showing you that you can not only run your business right now, you can grow your business right now, even when everything feels uncertain, and that leading with your values can actually make your business so much stronger. So take a listen to my conversation with Danielle Amadeo, and at the end, I'll come back and share a lesson that you can apply to your business, and then hopefully someday soon, you'll partner with us to help you build your consulting business, and you'll come back on the podcast and share your story. Enjoy, Danielle, I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for being here.

Danielle Amodeo 3:58

Thank you for having me. Leah,

Leah Neaderthal 4:01

why don't we start at the beginning and tell the good people who you are and what you

Danielle Amodeo 4:05

do. My name is Danielle amodeo. I am the founder and principal consultant of arts equity group, which is a consulting firm that helps nonprofits, foundations and municipalities position themselves as vital community resources. So we team up with our clients to help them define, measure and articulate their impact, with the ultimate goal of driving stronger community support, higher participation rates and broader recognition for their work.

Leah Neaderthal 4:35

That's fantastic. So what are some clients just you know, in that realm of your like your client universe, that might help dimensionalize this for

Danielle Amodeo 4:42

us. Yeah. So my background is in nonprofits and specifically within the arts and culture field. So when I started my business, I really started working with a lot of arts and culture organizations. So I've worked with museums, I've worked with foundations. One of the foundations I've done the most work with is the New England found. Association of the arts, which is a regional subsidiary of the NEA, the National Endowment of the Arts. I've also worked with municipalities who are doing change work so that could look like a city or a town doing a rebrand or a redesign, but wanting their community members to participate in that process. So we help our clients think through how to do change work in ways that center their core audience members, their community members, that will help build authentic relationships that last not just come in, get community feedback, maybe listen to it, maybe not. We try to do it in ways that ultimately like help everybody involved.

Leah Neaderthal 5:40

That's so cool. I'm thinking of when you said, like getting community feedback, I had a flashback to, like, a Parks and Rec episode. I mean, I'm sure that's the thing that, like your clients, just want to avoid, at all costs, the sort of poorly handled community feedback session.

Danielle Amodeo 6:00

I've been in a number of those. Yeah, I think sometimes there are big echoes of Parks and Rec in my work. Sometimes there are echoes of the office. But the nice thing about being a consultant, I feel like I have been on the client side for so long, where my voice as an employee of an institution, I felt like a squeaky wheel in those environments, and now I'm brought in as an outside expert, and for better or worse, like I'm treated with a lot more respect, and I get to remind my clients that they're paying me to tell them what to do and to be right about it when I was an employee within some of these systems, within some of these institutions, my word wasn't always taken in that in that light. So I feel very lucky and very grateful now to be in this position of relative power and authority to help shape the way I see organizations move through the world, and because of how I work, it's really rooted in partnership with clients. When I was working in nonprofits, I learned that change if everyone wants it takes about five years, and that felt really slow and really frustrating to me as someone who worked in nonprofits, as someone who was it seems so easy, it seems so simple. Everyone wants this. We're all on board. Why can't we just make this happen? But systems are really slow to change, and when I shifted into my work as a consultant, change still takes time, but I'm able to see those changes happen more quickly, and I embrace the role of helping be an accelerator for that kind of change within organizations, and I see the change happen a lot more quickly and effectively with fewer mistakes. When we're partnering with clients and they're they're sort of taking advice and being responsive, and we're adapting our our programs and projects together so that they can avoid some of the pitfalls that make change take five years or more.

Leah Neaderthal 8:02

Yeah, who can wait that long? I mean, and we can, you can't. And how long have you been running your business?

Danielle Amodeo 8:11

Arts equity group turned three this past summer, so it's a relatively new, still a relatively new organization.

Leah Neaderthal 8:20

All right. Happy belated birthday. Thank you. So let's talk about how you sort of came into this, this orbit, this markets, paid orbit, like, what was going on in the business? When, when you we started working together? You know, I always ask, like, you reached out for a reason, right? What? What was the reason

Danielle Amodeo 8:43

I actually, I don't know if I reached out, some content of yours was forwarded to me. I think I had done a good job at that point. I was, I was about a year and a half, two years into the business. I had done a pretty good job of finding other consultants who were doing similar work. I haven't really encountered people doing the exact kind of work I was doing, but always down to network, always down to, like, form connections with people. So had a conversation with someone, and we were talking about contracts, and someone forwarded one of your your templates, one of your emails, to me. And I don't know if it was like contract in an email or pie or something. And I thought, wow. Like, this lady's brilliant. And there was something that said, like, book an intro call. I thought, like, I need to learn from you based on these templates. I was, like, really impressed by the organization that you had built. And then I was in the machine I was in like this markets paid machine where I follow you on LinkedIn. All of your LinkedIn content was really resonating with me, and within like that email being forwarded to me that week, I had a call with you, and I was really impressed that there was an infrastructure. Or for that kind of like client development or onboarding or client signaling. I didn't have the language for it at the time, but I was like, I need to know how to do that. I want to create a system like that. So for me, up to that point in my business, most of my clients were partner organizations that I had worked with up to that point in my career, it was folks that either I knew personally or had heard of me through the work that I had done in arts and culture for, like, my entire career up to that point, and I thought I went from being a stranger to being on a call with you and wanting to work with you and wanting to, like, give you my How does that process happen? And I didn't realize that, like, I should have a sales process or a marketing process, you know, I didn't. I mean, I guess, on some level, maybe I knew, but I didn't have the language for it, and I didn't know the mechanics of how that happened. So I was really impressed by by your system. And it's like, I need to figure out how to do this. And then we had some really great early calls where I probably sounded really overwhelmed and stressed, and you said something that really calmed me down. And was like, it's gonna be okay. And I was like, Okay, I got to do this. What?

Leah Neaderthal 11:15

Okay? I that's I love this, although it's so funny when you're like, the machine, I'm like, oh my god, do we have a machine, but we really do have a system, you know, like a plan. And, you know,

Danielle Amodeo 11:28

I do tell like, it's like, I need that, I need that machine,

Leah Neaderthal 11:32

yeah, well, and it's like, I sometimes I tell people, I'm like, we don't do a lot of prospecting, right? Like, we don't, you know, I don't do cold emails or what have you, but we do, of course, a lot on LinkedIn as our and on our newsletter. And it's like, if I, if I found you found, you know, air quotes, but like, if, if I was able to get in front of you, I could teach you how to get in front of your people, you know,

Danielle Amodeo 11:55

like I had been on, I had people reach out to me all the time on LinkedIn, being like, let's teach you how to do your LinkedIn. Let's teach you how to do this. I had been on the risk. Been on the receiving end of sales calls and sales outreach that really turned me off. And what I appreciated about those early exchanges was there was, I was getting value, right? Like, I got a really valuable template. I don't remember which one it was. It might have been like, proposal in an email or something. I got some really valuable template. Valuable template. I was like, Oh my gosh. Like, this is this could, if I figure out how to use this, this can change my workflows. This is going to make my work so much more efficient. There was there was value there That one felt really generous, and two modeled the way, like I wanted to approach sales in my business, like, I don't want to go, like, knocking on people's doors and bugging them being like, hire me. Hire me. Hire me. It's like, no. Like, the reason I got into this work is because I care about the impact that I'm able to have on the world. Like, I want to make change happen more quickly, more efficiently, with like, more voices at the table. Like, I want to contribute in a positive way to the world that we live in. And part of that is like doing pro bono work. Part of that not exclusively, but part of that is like giving value to your clients, and if you could weave that into the sales process, which you've taught me how to do, I really admired that. And that's now the model that I approach, and that's what helped me get out of my head around, you know, LinkedIn, communication and email communication. It's like, how do I actually contribute value to the fields that I'm a part of? Like, I'm a part of this arts and culture nonprofit, social impact world. I have a voice. I have a platform. How do I use it to generate positive outcomes and positive value for people, whether they're paying me or not right like the clients will come, the right clients will come. But not everybody is my right client. It doesn't mean that I can't say something or share something that contributes to the way that their organization works and help them work in more efficient ways and more equitable ways.

Leah Neaderthal 13:59

Yeah. And I think, you know, and I appreciate, you know, all the things you're saying. I think that you You're right, that it does come from, it starts from a place of value and giving. But I think the challenge is that a lot of women get stuck there, and they're giving, giving, giving, and they don't have the system to allow people to raise their hand, or, you know, to to take that from like viewing and receiving content or receiving value to like doing something with it. That's the missing piece. I mean, I think so many women consultants want to give right, like we, you know, women are, are socialized like this and all of that. But that alone is not a business, right? That alone is not a business development system. You without the other like the the other half of it.

Danielle Amodeo 14:49

Well, that's where I think client signaling and value based pricing, to me, was one of the most transformative parts of the program. Yeah, let's talk about, let's talk about what we're.

Leah Neaderthal 15:00

Some sort of game changers in through this and then sort of where it's brought you to this

Danielle Amodeo 15:04

point. So when I reached out, like where my business was, I know you asked this question, I didn't quite answer it, but where my business was when we started our conversations was that I had already proven value with some pretty significant clients. I had done multi year contracts, I had done six figure contracts, but again, like most of those clients, were sort of within my network. So the challenge for me was, how do I position arts equity group as an organization that is driving value as a consulting firm that is really helping our clients? How do I communicate the impact that we've had in ways that are going to really resonate with the decision makers that I wanted to be, to continue to be in conversation with outside of the network that I had built up to this point, right? And how do I build a pipeline in a way that will sustain the growth of the organization without me burning out as women are apt to do, as nonprofits are apt to do as I'm apt to do, like, you know, I'm not, I'm not blameless in my like, workaholism, right? So, right. But I wanted to build something that could last without me. That was part of one of my goals. Is, like, how do I think about building the foundation of this, this company, so that it can last and thrive? If I want to take a week off or, or a month off or, or leave at some point, right? I wanted a system that would last beyond just me and be able to bring in more people and etc, so, um, so that meant attracting more clients into my ecosystem and my sphere that would help that future planning of the business. And, you know, I think for me, value based pricing and client signaling go hand in hand. So client signaling was, again, like taking that, that idea that we can the baseline is that we're adding value whenever we speak, we're adding value and helping folks, or often when we speak, we're having that impact. How do I make sure that the message is landing with the clients I'm trying to communicate with? So we the client signaling modules were really, really helpful to me in terms of defining their pain points and and really like elevating the work that I was doing to mitigate that pain, right? Being clear in how you know my client has a headache, I'm Tylenol, I'm not water that you drink that prevents the headache, right? Like that killer module was really supportive to me. Client signaling was really supportive to me. That was also an opportunity to do that peering work, where I was positioning myself and the amazing people that I work with at Arts equity group as leaders. Right like we're speaking to leaders, but we are also leaders. So it was attracting the right kind of clients that saw us with respect and enabled us to once we enter into that contract, we're working together. We are partners in the work. So it shifted the type of work that we were being contracted for, the amount that we were being paid, because it was seen as more valuable. So I was able to increase prices to reflect the real value that we're having in organizations. And that's where I see client signaling and value based pricing kind of going hand in hand. In

Leah Neaderthal 18:23

Hand. I think you're so right. I mean, we always talk about, like, all of the little parts of our system, really, do, you know, work together and build on each other. It's why you can't, sort of like, Spot fix some of this stuff. But I, you know, client signaling. I, first of all, I love client signaling. It's like my one of the favorite things that we get to talk about, and for everybody, it's really, you know, client signaling, is it's like a bat signal, right? It's putting out something that in and using language and other sort of techniques so that the right people know that you're talking to them, and the wrong people just keep scrolling and they know you're not right for them. And I love how you are connecting that to like, yeah, when you start there with the right people needing to solve the right problems, and then you can position the work in such a way to solve those problems. You know, we would never say that, like client signaling alone gets you paid more, right? But like the sum total of the system together with about, you know, and starting in client signaling and ending in value based pricing, like that, those all work together, right?

Danielle Amodeo 19:27

And the crazy thing is, we do this for our clients. Like clients like talk to their audiences. It's like, how do you know your audience? Well, you have to talk to them. You have to have a two way conversation. And it was sort of like an aha for me that I could do this for my business too, right? Yeah, but it also kind of speaks to the dual role of being an entrepreneur, in that it's not actually just doing really great client facing work, it's also finding ways to do that work for your business. Us always wearing all of the hats, and one of my biggest struggles has been finding ways to sort of be a really great client, facing consultant, and deliver great work for my clients, while also communicating that work and that impact and that value for my business. Like my business is also my client. And in addition to like, the support from the modules, that's where being like part of a community of practice with all the other women in the academy, and also getting like one on one time with you and support from you has been really, really helpful, because it's about carving that dedicated time to say, Yes, I can do that for clients, but I also need to do that for myself, right? I also need to do that for my company,

Leah Neaderthal 20:41

yeah, that's huge. It's and it's so easy to overlook, right? It's so easy to forget for any number of reasons. But, you know, I think having that as a as a goal for yourself, you know, and really sort of taking the time is, is how you go from just sort of like having a business that just keeps on keeping on right to a business that really grows. I want to talk about client signaling just a little bit, because just for everybody, I think might be curious, like, is there a way that you would you apply client signaling now, right? What would you have said before, and what, what would you say now? Can you think of anything? I don't

Danielle Amodeo 21:19

think I was saying anything before, because I was, like, I was afraid to be braggy. I had a lot of head trash and, like, Academy language, of like, I didn't want to be boastful. I didn't want to be, like, showing off. I had, like, a lot of misconceptions about what talking about my work meant, or or, like, I even didn't think that some of what we were doing was, like, newsworthy, right? I was like, I had a hard time seeing the ways in which I could extrapolate the lessons so they would be valuable. But now, well, okay, so the context of this recording is like September 11, 2025 and we're like a quarter through the second Trump presidency. We are in a crazy, divisive political moment like that's the context. It's crazy. So the landscape is noisy, and I try not to put a ton of pressure that, like everything I say, has to cut through. But when I am doing client signaling now, I think it's really important to acknowledge that most of my clients are in a real moment of struggle, and personally they're struggling because we're being attacked with news that's really harmful and violent and distressing every second of every day, but Also the organizations that they serve and that they lead are often catering their services to those who are most marginalized in our world. So the impacts on those communities are a lot higher, and when you're serving those communities, you're feeling that. So I try to speak to them in ways that inspire hope and empower them to not feel paralyzed. That, to me, is it's really core to the work we do is like we help leaders and we help organizations get unstuck, make a plan, make a strategy, and then actually implement it so they can keep doing the great work that they're doing, regardless of what's going on outside. So in order to get get there, we have to, like, build trust. As number one, like, we can't do that if our clients don't trust us, especially right now. So I try to center trust building. I like, speak to them directly. I'm like, Hey, changemakers, nonprofit leaders, I am like specifically talking to leaders of organizations that are embedded in resistance movements. I'm specifically speaking to organizations that, like are 10 toes down for diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion. I'm not speaking to organizations that don't care about those values or willing to roll over when an administration puts some kind of pressure on them to do so that was also really empowering about the academy, because I was nervous about that last year when we started working together, I was like, do I have to be all things to all people? And we talked about how we don't and how speaking your values really clearly is going to align with the clients you want to work with, and it's going to alienate the people you don't want to work

Leah Neaderthal 24:27

with. Yeah, well, and I think what you're describing also is that's so different than let's, let's just sort of spitball something that isn't client signaled, right? But it's like how to create a comms plan for your agency, or, you know, for your nonprofit. Like that's something that I see a lot of it doesn't signal anybody. It doesn't build trust with anybody. As opposed to saying, I don't know if you would say anything like this, but this is just me sort of making it up. You know what it means to to have a communications plan? And even with all this going on, I know you know things that you can do without, like, I don't know, burning yourself out with existing resources. You know what I'm saying, like, and, and, and I get why this would feel scary

Danielle Amodeo 25:13

right now, yeah, or your audience might not want to hear from you right now. Your audience might not want to hear from you right now, sometimes your communications plan is shutting up and doing that work in stealth mode. A lot of clients that we're working with who are shutting up and doing great work in stealth mode and being able to I think one thing that that I do differently, and I'm really fortunate to have consultants I work with that that embrace this. We're not sticking to business as usual. We're willing to pivot what we do with our ultimate goals and outcomes in mind. We're trying to build an infrastructure for arts and culture and social impact that will be standing when whatever the mess we're in right now falls. So we're not worried about the mess we're in. We are worried about the fact that when systems fall, they fall on those most vulnerable. So how can we do harm reduction and support those that the system is falling on top of, while simultaneously looking in a different direction and saying, we're going to build something different. And our clients are really invested in that too, but they often don't know how to do that. No one, no one's done this before. No one has done this before, right? This is like, truly, like a once in a generation or once in a century kind of moment for our country, and for, you know, every field but the field that I'm in specifically so a lot of our client signaling is actually like telling that truth, which some people aren't comfortable with. A lot of people would rather not talk about it, especially in the art world. The art world likes to say that they can maintain neutrality, and we are not neutral. We're just not and I, I felt really emboldened and empowered by our our business strategy work that it was an acceptable and could be a lucrative, profitable, sustainable business strategy to really align with with those values. I hoped that that would be true, but having the support from the Academy to start putting that into action, and knowing the other systems and the other processes that could be in place to bolster those values through my work was was really invaluable. And as I said to you. You know, a couple weeks ago, I think when, when I started, I was like, I can definitely do this work for the foreseeable future. Like I could do this, and I would every year I would have to evaluate, like, Okay, keep going. Keep going. I was like, I am, without a doubt, I have confidence that this organization, the one that I their own arts equity group, will be around for the next five years. And if I want it to be around longer, it'll be around longer. Like, I have that confidence as a result of, you know, our work together.

Leah Neaderthal 28:12

That's, I mean, I love so much of this, like, you know, the fact that, like you, you had the confidence to really show up and speak the truth, your truth right? How you trusted that it would be the truth that you know your specific clients wanted to hear. You learned how to do that you you know, and you use that to connect naturally with the clients that and do the work really, that that means something to you and your clients in this moment. And you know, I think we're a lot of consultants right now are, I think that this sort of thing they don't want to sort of ask themselves, is like, Can this business sustain itself? I mean, for you, for you to confidently be like, Yeah, this, this business, my business can sustain itself is a really powerful, really amazing place to be. What does it look like, if you don't mind saying, like, what does it mean that you know your business can sustain itself? Like, how are things? How are things now,

Danielle Amodeo 29:13

things are great. So when I went before, before pre Academy, I thought, like, Okay, I think I can find a way to make this work. There was sort of a split between me, Danielle as an activist, a consultant, an entrepreneur, and then me, Danielle, like, leading a consulting firm. And I was like, Okay, this is my business side, and then this is my everything else side. And over the course of working in the academy this year, I was like, no, actually, it's really okay to integrate. It's safe to integrate. And that, as I said, like that, can be a part of my business strategy in a way that's like, more authentic to myself. And I think, on a personal note, I feel more in alignment with my values. I my. Work has always been in alignment my values, but I really feel that I get to approach my work as a whole person. Yes, I am an activist. Yes, I also run a consulting firm, same person, and my clients like that. That's valuable to them, right? We can bring community organizing tenants into your strategic planning. And when I when I think about building a business that has longevity and and foundation and and support that will continue to grow, part of that is as a person, I will be able to sustain that, because I'm not trying to cut myself into two. I'm not gonna. I don't worry as much about like, what do I say on my personal my personal page on LinkedIn, versus my business page on LinkedIn? It's one voice. My values are coming through, and I'm not afraid to express them, and I'm not afraid to act them. And I think that in a moment where we are in an authoritarian government and our systems are collapsing, it is really important to be able to speak your values. And if you're an entrepreneur and you're leading a business, you have the power and the ability to integrate your values through everything you do. That is a huge amount of power and a huge amount of privilege. I did not have that when I was working for an institution could be fired. Yeah, right, I don't. I cannot. I will never be fired from my company for speaking my values. And I get to build a system where the people that I work with and I hire who work with me also get to speak their values without being worried that they're going to be fired for it, or, or, you know, experience some kind of retaliation for speaking out when, when it is needed more than ever. So that feels like great job security to me. That is wonderful in terms of like, the the actual like numbers of it. Um, I I know that my my revenue, I think, has like quadrupled in the last year, and I expect it will continue to grow. And I've been in simmer mode, which is Academy language for doing less on the marketing side, less on the public facing communication side, but I know how to amp that up. And I know that if I needed to fill a role in the client officer, we're kind of booked. We're kind of like booked for the next year. And I make exceptions when it's like something really, really amazing, and just find ways to hire more people and find ways to sleep a tiny bit less, not a whole lot less, but a tiny, yeah, when it's really, really a great project. But for the most part, my books are full for the next year and a half, and what I'm doing now, as I'm maintaining these really amazing projects that I'm working on, is is adding in additional support, right, like an assistant and a fractional CFO, and thinking about what it would mean to bring in an ops person or additional researchers so that this thing can continue to grow. I know it's not every consultant's path, but either, like, regardless of whether you want to be a solo practitioner or build something larger, I think it's really important to feel secure in what you're doing, and grow whatever that means to you and like for me, that means building out this entity serving more clients, and having long term revenue gives me the confidence to be able to do that, having peace of mind, to be able to like, speak my values and also do the systems work as a human and not just as a consultant. Quote, unquote is really I wouldn't be able to do it otherwise.

Leah Neaderthal 33:45

Oh my gosh. I mean, I feel like each of everything you said, I could, like, pull out a thread here. But, I mean, let's just step back. You quadrupled your business. You've been in simmer mode, which, again, as you mentioned, is like, not doing a ton of sort of biz dev, and you have this sort of peace of mind and, and, I mean, this is amazing. This is This is incredible. And I love that you're right. You're not, not everybody's goal is to build something that can outlast them, but yours is and now you have a way to do that. You know, you mentioned this moment we're in. I mean, it's like, even if you didn't mention it, how could you not sort of like acknowledge it this moment we're in, and you and I had been talking about some of the work that you're doing with your clients on resilience, so I invited you to lead a business resilience workshop for the Academy members. Can you speak to that? How did that come about, and talk a little bit about how you're thinking about resilience in this moment? Yeah. Yeah.

Danielle Amodeo 34:41

So in community organizing, activists, community leaders always have to find ways to get resources where they're needed. At the very, very base level, it's like, how do we get megaphones water? Posters to places where they need to go. How do we get people to places where they need to go? How do we get food and shelter to people that need them? The way that activists and community organizers do that is a process called asset mapping, and that is a technique that I learned through my my work as someone who prioritizes relational organizing. Relational organizing means that you get things done by building good relationships with people, by building trust, by building community. That's how change happens. That's how good things happen. So set mapping is this process where as an individual or as a community, you take some time to really reflect on the people, places, things and networks that you have access to, and chart them out, map them out, and think really critically about how you are using every person, place, thing, network, resource that you have access to. One of the things that I heard so much in the lead up to this past presidential election, and frankly, that I've heard for the last 10 years, is that people feel powerless. You're not you are not powerless. None of us are powerless. You can feel that way, but you're not. And asset mapping is a tool to remind you exactly how powerful you are, because you have access to people, places, things, networks that can support you, that you may not need, but you can give to others who need them. So we took that framework and we applied it to folks in their businesses, and I use this daily, like every time I get anxious about something, every time I get nervous about the future, every time I have a difficult conversation, I think about, who can I talk to about this who can help me solve this problem? Do I have a place that I can go to solve this problem? Do I have a resource that I can use? So I use this regularly, and we, Leah, brought to you, brought together all the folks in the academy and folks in the academy network to together map out all of the resources that we have access to, and do some really critical thinking about how and when to strategically employ those assets for your business. So I think it's an exercise that everyone should do. Can we share the workbook? Can we share the workbook with anyone listening? Yeah, let's do it. Share the workbook with folks listening. It just walks you through how to do that mapping process, and it gives you a series of questions that you can ask about each asset that you have, each tool that you have in your toolbox, to think about how you can be using these tools as effectively as possible for your business. You can also use this for yourself personally or for the communities that you're involved in.

Leah Neaderthal 37:57

It was so amazing, and just we will put a link to this in the show notes. It was incredible. It was such a powerful session. And I think everybody to a person, you know, when we said, like, how are you feeling now? Or what sort of insights did you get? Everybody to a person was like, I feel like I have more power, and I feel less alone, I feel less scared, I feel, you know, more more capable. I feel more optimistic. And I love I love this framework also, because it sort of expands our view of what it means to have power or to not be powerless. You know doesn't mean you know, not for every single person, it may not be okay to protest or to, you know, post on social media with your with your views. In that moment, some people are walking around feeling like there's a target on their back and but power, powerfulness has different definitions, and I thought it was so incredible to just sort of expand our view on that.

Danielle Amodeo 39:05

Yeah, and we talked a lot about how resilience, taking care of yourself and others, is itself a form of resistance, right? Resistance doesn't always have to be loud. It doesn't always have to mean going on a podcast and talking about your views on the Trump administration. It doesn't always have to be posting on social media, putting your body on the line. Resistance can mean saying that, as a woman entrepreneur, your business is worth investing in. You are worth investing in. You are worth care and cultivation and growth and support and community that is a form of resilience, network building, reaching out to your community members, putting yourself in a community so many people are isolated right now. They're not members of a community. They they don't. Go to a church, or they're not part of a community group. They don't they're not on a sports team. People are detached in many ways, right? So, like, put yourself in a community for me, like, I have many communities that I'm part of, and it was really helpful to be a part of a community of values aligned women entrepreneurs who also do B to B consulting that's like a really specific community that I got a lot of value from as someone who was dealing with very particular kinds of struggles around defining my worth and communicating my value, and onboarding clients and having clients contract disappear because our funding came from the federal government, right? Like, how do I handle this when suddenly I lose a contract. It's like, okay, well, I just got on the slack and anyone else losing their contracts right now, and even within the academy community, there's like, a whole contingent of nonprofit and social impact people that I was, like, learning from in the moment who were going through similar things, or had gone through similar things, and it was really, really helpful and supportive to me. So I think finding a community BE PART OF is essential, and then finding ways to contribute to that community are really, really helpful as well, and remembering that that alone is a form of that's resilience. That means you're still going to be here. That means you're still your business is still going to be going in a year or five years or 10 years, if you want it to be. So not all resistance is loud, not all resistance is flashy. And it doesn't have to be. It's fine to, like, move in silence and do the work that needs to be done in ways that align with your values, especially to the people listening, because I am assuming that they have values that also align with, like, with with, with Leah's um, but, but taking care of yourself as as a woman or a non binary entrepreneur right now, is that alone is a form of resistance?

Leah Neaderthal 41:52

Yeah, I think it's, I think that's a really important, really important message. So thinking back sort of to the beginning of our work together. Fill in, fill in this blank for me, I almost didn't work with you because

Danielle Amodeo 42:10

I was convinced that I did not have that I couldn't afford it. Um, and I did sit for like, a few weeks between calls. I was like, I really want to do this, but I think for me, there was a little bit of, like, fear of failure, fear of success

Leah Neaderthal 42:29

going on. Say more about that, because this is, it's something I've been sort of talking about more, but talk about

Danielle Amodeo 42:35

both of those. So I think like, fear of failure is, is always creeps up when you're doing something on your own, it's like, what if this doesn't work? So that is a really stagnant place to be making decisions from my business was doing well, but again, like I I hadn't secured like, multi year, multi six figure contracts at that point. I had like, one or two, and I was like, maybe this is a fluke. I had a fluke. I had a lot of head trash. I was like, What if I can't do this again? What if I'm, like, a one hit wonder I am not, but, um, but I had some some anxiety, and from that place, it was, like, quite paralyzing to think about making a financial investment in my business. I was like, okay, like, I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I can do this. I don't if I can do this. What if I can't pull it off? And it, it felt like that. I had not actually invested in my business in that way before. Like, I think I bought, like, an email subscription, but I had never, like, worked with a coach before. I had never paid anyone to help me. I don't, I'm, like, not in the habit of asking for help, right? Like, who of us is, so that felt that brought up some like, fear of failure stuff, and then the fear of success is also interesting, because fear of success requires it brings up like, do I really want? Like, what do I really want? And is, do I have the underlying belief that I can have it, a fear of success is is that subconscious fear? It's like the paradigm that most of us are raised with, that just because you want it doesn't mean you can have it doesn't mean that it's within reach. Doesn't mean that it's for you. And we talk about this in the academy with with make it so. But I don't know if it was, if it was you. Leah, who said in one of our early conversations, like, Do you see anyone else like doing it? Like, if you see someone else doing it, like, why can't you? Like, if they can do it, like, you can do it. I was like, yeah. I know a lot of people that are like, running successful businesses. They don't look exactly like mine, but they're running successful businesses. They're making tons of money. They get time off, they get to travel. They like, seem to have it all, like that guy over there, like he's not smarter or more driven or more anything than I am, other than more of a guy, right? Like I. Like, of course I can have it like, Of course I can have it. So required me to, like, confront some of my underlying limiting beliefs about whether or not I could actually materialize the kind of life that I wanted, the kind of business that I wanted, because my work is rooted in systems change. It also required me to say, like, oh, like, can I actually have a positive impact in the world? Like, is it possible to, like, contribute to rooting out like, racism and white supremacy culture? Oh, okay, that's a big one, but, but yes, it is possible. Like, I fundamentally believe that that is possible, which is why I do the kind of work I do. But it meant confronting that on a very personal level, and I kind of had to trick myself. I sort of tricked myself into thinking it was okay, and the logic that I kind of contort like the mental gymnastics that I did that ultimately helped me, like, sign was I said I, like, asked myself, like, do I believe that doing this program will get me, like, at least one client that I otherwise would not have had? I was like, yeah, absolutely, I absolutely had full confidence in that. And I was like, Well, why don't I just think about this as a finder's fee for that client. So that's how I thought about it. It's like, okay, if Leah were to have referred me to one of my clients, I would absolutely do like, a 10% fee or 20% fee. And the types of clients that I'm looking for are big clients. And if he was substantially less than what Matt would have been, I'm like, this is a steal. So once I did that, it's like, this is going to help me get, like, the clients that are, like, going to pay off right away, and I will say, like, within a month or so of working together, it did sign a contract that I otherwise would not have signed, that more than paid for the Academy. Like, the system worked and, and then I got many more contracts after that. So, like, the the investment paid off, like, multi fold, and, and will, and I know we'll continue to, like, I rely on so much of what we do on a regular basis. Like, and I tell people, I'm like, make it so, make it so,

Leah Neaderthal 47:25

I love the mental gymnastics. I too, have signed up for programs in the past that were a stretch, and, yeah, I think that the mental gymnastics are just your your brains. Way I'm making that stuff in real time. This is not a philosophy I have. I just, you know, it's sort of, I'm thinking about, like it's helping just get past your own head trash. You know, you can't walk past it. You have to sort of do a round off back, handspring, triple tuck situation, to get past it and trick your brain.

Danielle Amodeo 48:01

And and I will say, like, going through, making that first step, this was really, it was a first step for me, right? It was, like, pretty early in my business. It was really valuable for me to do this early in my business as well. Because I think I'm like, wow, like, I was, I'm still, like, foundation building. Like, the thing I want to build is going to last a long time, first three years. Like, that's early, right? Like, this is still foundational. So I also saw it as like, I'm gonna How many times am I gonna try to do this on my own and mess it up? How many times am I gonna like, how much time am I gonna waste? My time is extremely valuable. How much time am I gonna waste trying to, like, build a sales system? Like, I don't know what a sales system is. Like, that's not my expertise. That's not what clients pay me to do. I'm not That's not what I do. Why am I going to try to do this thing that is not my expertise for myself? Risk doing it wrong? What a dozen times so that then I can, like, come back three years later and be like, Oh my god, I'm panicked. Like, now I'm in a worse financial situation. Can you please help me, right? Like, I told my clients, like, why do you want to wait until it's raining to fix your roof? Or, we've talked, we've talked about this too. Like, why do you want me till it's raining fix your roof? Like, fix your roof before you get a leak in it?

Leah Neaderthal 49:11

Yeah, no. It's, you're totally right. It's somebody once put it this way, which stuck with me so much that I say this all the time. He said it was like, if you whether you sign up for this program or you don't sign up for this program, you will pay either way, which like that. I mean, when I first heard that, I was like, Ooh, hits me in the chest, right? You will, you'll pay either way. So I'm glad you chose the fast way. So Danielle, what would you say to somebody who's in the position you were back then? I mean, what advice would you give her,

Danielle Amodeo 49:51

besides sign up for the Academy? I think, sign up for the academy or find a community. Leah that is going through what you're going through. And for me, like I am a consultant. I'm a woman entrepreneur who specific, specifically doing B to B consulting work. There's no other community like this one. The people are unmatched in their brilliance and their support. I really found phenomenal community in the academy that was helpful to me, emotionally, spiritually, financially, like, in all the ways, like it was really, really extremely valuable the participants, in addition to, like Leah, who I think the world of, and the other coaches that are part of the program. So I would say, do it, and remember that when you invest in yourself, you're signaling that you are worth being invested in, right? That is really important for how you're going to position yourself to your clients. So for me, when I, when I made that initial decision, like, I'm gonna participate in the academy, it shifted something. For me, suddenly it became this, this business that gets investments. It's a business that gets investments if I'm not investing in it, like, how can I expect my clients to invest in me? Right? Yeah. So, so that was key, and I do believe that if you can hold it in your head, you can hold it in your hand. So whatever the most beautiful, wild, incredible vision you have for your business and for your life and for our world, whatever that looks like, if you can imagine it, it can be your reality. You need to take aligned action to make that happen. For me and my business, aligned action was working with with Leah, and doing the academy and many other things, right? It's also doing yoga every day. It's also doing a lot of other things, but if you can hold it in your head, you can hold it in your hands, so do not lose sight of the world that you want to live in. Don't lose sight of it, no matter what is going on on the news. Don't lose sight of that, because if you can imagine it, you can really find a way to actualize it. Not Alone. Going to find community to do it, you have to take aligned action. There are a lot of steps, but it is possible

Leah Neaderthal 52:31

that is such a perfect way to to end. Danielle, where can people find you?

Danielle Amodeo 52:37

Find me on LinkedIn. Danielle Amadeo, a m, O, d, e, o, on LinkedIn. Can visit our website at Arts equity group.com and if anyone ever wants to talk or needs a sounding board, I'm here. If anything I said resonated and you have question or just want to have a zoom coffee. I'm always, always here to support

Leah Neaderthal 53:03

Danielle. Thank you so much for being here.

Danielle Amodeo 53:05

Thank you, Leah, thank you for everything. I really appreciate you.

Leah Neaderthal 53:10

Back at you. Oh, my God, wasn't that awesome? I mean, Danielle is such a powerful example of what's possible when you decide to build your business in alignment with your values, and then you trust yourself enough to show up fully. And if there's something Danielle said that spoke to you, I hope you'll reach out to her and let her know you can post it on LinkedIn tag Danielle and me. And of course, if there's someone who you think would like this episode, please send it to her. So I always like to pull out one thing that you can think about for your business. And here's what I want you to take away from this episode. You know, Danielle said something early on that really stayed with me. She said, I'll never be fired from my own company for speaking my values. I mean, that's it. That's the post, right? That's the point. I mean, right now, when people are being sort of, I don't know, punished, I guess, for what they believe. This is the real security of running your own business. And I mean, we've been seeing this play out right, like even people with massive audiences and entire corporations behind them, still, you know, feeling repercussions of some things they say or some beliefs they hold. But when you run your own business, you get to build something that reflects your values, and you can't be fired for being yourself. That's not just freedom, that's safety, because, let's be honest. You know, working for a company isn't the safety net. It used to be, and it hasn't been that way for a long time. You can do everything right and still lose your job because of a budget cut a reorg, or these days, because someone in power doesn't like what you've said, but when you run your own business, especially a business built on systems, that's what creates real stability. And here's the thing, that kind of business doesn't happen by accident. A lot of women consultants are kind of winging it, and sure that can lead. To some highs, which feel great, but it can also lead to a lot of lows, winging it doesn't build stability. Systems do, and I don't mean systems like technology systems. I'm talking about a process, a workflow, knowing what's going to happen next, having done it before and not making it up every time. So I want you to think about this, how much of your business runs on systems, and how much are you still making it up as you go? Because the more systems you have, you know, like systems that bring in the right clients and help them say, yes, the steadier your business becomes. And that's exactly what we do in the academy. We help you build your marketing and sales systems so your business feels stable, strong and secure, no matter what's happening out there. And when you build a business on your values and you fortify it with systems, you're not just creating income, you're creating security. All right, thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai