the bossbabe podcast - 180. Finding Your Niche, Going Viral + Doing Business Your Way With Molly Parker

Episode Date: August 24, 2021

When Molly Parker was struck by a cab driver as a pedestrian, she had no idea how much that singular event would alter the course of her life. After years of struggling through her concussion symptoms and doing hours of research, Molly’s journey has ultimately unlocked her ability to help a unique demographic of people: those who have suffered from a concussion, too.  In this week’s episode, Molly is sharing her story of recovery and unpacking how her one-of-a-kind experience has helped her find her niche and empathize with her ideal customer on a new level. Plus, she’s sharing how you can do the exact same thing. Links: Soul CBD - mysoulcbd.com/bossbabe Use code BOSSBABE15 at checkout for 15% off Hello Fresh - hellofresh.com/bossbabe14 Use code BOSSBABE14 at checkout for 14 free meals + free shipping The BossBabe Elixir - https://bossbabe.com/elixir-opt-in Follow:  BossBabe: @bossbabe.inc Natalie: @iamnatalie Danielle: @daniellecanty Molly Parker: @mollyparkerpt Concussion Compass: @concussioncompass

So by the time I used your strategies, I think we went from like 100-ish people for launch to like 230. And it was doing much of the same things, but it was just understanding when to put them in, where to double down and what strategies to use that were incredibly needle moving. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast, the place where we share with you the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, achieving peak performance, and learning how to bounce it all. I'm Danielle, co-founder and president of Boss Babe, and today I'm joined by my co-host, Natalie, and we are in Napa. And we are so excited to be here because we're actually

attending a business mastermind. And I really want to reiterate something we say all the time, and that is that there is so much freaking power in proximity. Getting around people who think big and support you in thinking bigger is priceless. Yeah, for us, the people we surround ourselves with has been such a game changer. Like when we talk about needle movers, this is one of them. And what I mean by that is you can get the answer to a question that you might have been mulling on, on your own for months within a few minutes, because someone has been there and done it. Or they can give you an introduction to someone that probably would have taken six months of nurturing to get the same

introduction. So getting yourself in the right rooms, in the right communities is so incredibly important. What do they say? You know, you earn the same as the average of the five people you're around, and they've actually measured that. And in monetary value, that is really reflected. So just something to think about, is your circle really reflective of where you're trying to go and what you're trying to build? Which also leads us to mention the society. Listen, if you're not a member yet, what are you doing with your life? We need to see you in there. The society is hacked with women just like you doing similar things. And like we said, proximity is power. And not only do you get access to the women in the society who are building, who are actually out there doing the thing, but it's, I think, the only place I know of where you can join for the cost of less than a latte a month, and you could find yourself on a Q&A call with a billionaire that month. It really is that impactful. So if you're not yet

a member, you really want to be. So we've put a link in the show notes, click the link, go over there, register and come join us because I'm telling you, you are going to get left behind in this society. We're continuously upgrading. We're raising the price because more and more value gets in there. And you're going to look back a year from now and really wish that you joined and got this price locked in yeah right it's one of the only places on the internet where you can actually get access to some of these women you know we do a live q a every single month we do trainings but being able to ask billionaires questions that you know you wouldn't get to it It's just really, really powerful. So get in there. The link is bossbib.com forward slash join society. And I'm going to link it in the show

notes for you guys as well. And that kind of leads us into our guest for today, Natalie, because Molly was actually a member of our mastermind and a member of the society. And she, during her time with us, has not only doubled her revenue, but has also doubled her launches as well. And she's done this via a membership that helps people who are recovering from concussions. So this episode really just shows you what happens when you get around people doing similar things to you, when you get to ask those questions. And this just really shows you what happens when you really lean in to a purpose.

So without further ado, we are going to start the episode. Hi, Molly. Welcome to the podcast. We're so excited to have you here. Yes. Thanks for having me. So we're going to go in multiple directions in this podcast because I really want to dive into your business journey. But before we get into that, can we talk about your story a little bit? Because how you got into all of this is really, really interesting. So can you take us back a little bit? Yeah. So this all started, so I'm a physical therapist by trade. I have my doctorate in PT. And so I was working at this small little beachside clinic and that's kind of where I saw my life going. I was going to have little beach babies and call it a day. And what ended up happening is I went downtown San Diego

one evening and I was leaving dinner and dancing with a group of girlfriends. And there was a cab driver who drove up onto the sidewalk and drove into the crowd. And so I saw it, but I didn't turn fast enough. So I ended up being hit by the car, ended up on the windshield. Several other people were injured. And at the time, I barely newly finished school and we didn't have any talk about concussions. So I ended up losing my memory while I was there. I forgot what happened. I was my friend if something bad had happened.

They took me to the ER. I had the scans and everything was good. And I walked away feeling incredibly lucky and thinking, wow, this is a second chance, not having any idea of what a concussion could turn into. So back then it was of the mindset of, you know, rest in a dark room, do nothing, you're going to be fine. And I just kept getting progressively worse and worse and worse. So it ended up getting to the point where my memory wasn't functioning, constant headaches, my IQ dropped. I had dizziness all the time. I felt like I was falling.

I thought I had what were seizures, which is now a form of dysautonomia, which means my nervous system wasn't regulating like it ought to. And I kept going from doctor to doctor and no one knew what to do with me. And so I ended up two years in not able to feed or dress myself fatigue. So severe. I had to take an hour break between my pants and my shirt. And I ended up home with my parents as my caregiver at age 30, thinking like, what am I going to do? I, you know, I can't work. I would go through the checklist. I'm like, I can't really, I had speech issues. I couldn't do physical work. I couldn't work. I would go through the checklist. I'm like, I can't really. I had speech issues.

I couldn't do physical work. I couldn't do cognitive work. And that started the journey of continuing to search and continuing to find answers because I knew this is a functional injury. So there has to be a way. And of course there is, and that's what I do now. But there was such a huge gap in care. And I was such a preventable injury knowing what I know now statistically I should have been in that three to six month or less range and instead it's been 10 years and Molly I think that's just really powerful like you know when I was reading your story and we've got to know you as you've been a client of Boss Babe but one thing that really stood out to me was your feelings of at the time you know this car ran into you and I think it was 2011, right?

And you kind of were walking away from that, like, wow, I've had a lucky escape. I've not broken my bones. Like, you know, I've not lost a limb or anything like that. I've only got a concussion. And I really think, you know, lots of people really underestimate and over the last few years has been so much research, whether it's in like soccer players or football players about actually how crucial it is to protect the brain and the injuries that can actually occur. But I think like for this, I can, I think I would relate to it being like, wow, you know, I've got away with this lightly, but then there's symptoms starting to kick in. And actually the brain is like governs the whole body. So the fact that you saw that deterioration how was your mindset at that point you know being a healthy you were like what 26 when this happened and how was your mindset as you started feeling that your brain was failing you

it was a mix of a couple things I was pretty cognitively affected so I wasn't really able to get myself into the right care or make the right decisions. I kept pushing through things. And then the other piece that came up really strong was this idea that my abilities are my worth and productivity is your worth. And so I felt like other people didn't need to stop or help or anything like that. I kept thinking if I keep pushing through more, it's going to get better or people are going to see there's an issue and then we're going to get help. So really at the time, it was a lot of mindset stuff.

And that was something that I worked on and helped me significantly throughout the journey. But yeah, it was something that I had a hard time accepting in the beginning. So I ended up doing pushing through severe symptoms quite frequently when I should not have. And you were talking about, you know, things getting progressively worse. At the worst that it got, what did a typical day look like for you? At the worst, I was completely debilitated. I ended up being deemed permanently disabled. So part of my, you know, building a business was getting off disability and that whole process. But it was basically if I could dress myself that day or

make myself a meal, that was a good day. It was, you know, second to second, severe symptoms, severe fatigue, really struggling to function, stand, walk, hold a conversation, needing help with meals and being driven to appointments. I couldn't drive for three years. So it got incredibly severe before I started to dig my way out. So was it just like you were having conversations and you couldn't really interpret what people were saying or that you just couldn't remember, you weren't interested? It was a combination of having a hard time finding my words having a whole hard time when I was in a conversation focusing in on that person and not feeling like really dizzy or I would feel like I was about to lose consciousness

so I'm like having a conversation and kind of fading in and out and then there was a certain amount of um short-term memory after the next, like recalling what had been said or what had happened or things like that. And were you aware at that time, you know, you spoke around this being like, okay, my plan was to work in this clinic, to probably meet somebody, have your babies, be by the sea, and that was your life mapped out. Were you kind of aware that, hang on a minute, my whole life is changing right now? Were you present in that moment or because of the symptoms you experienced and was it kind of like you're out of reality? Out of reality for the first couple of years where I just kept thinking,

it's just going to get better. The next thing is going to improve it. It's just going to go away. I just kept kind of trying to keep up with the pace that I had been when it got to the point where I ended up home and debilitated. And it was the first time that I could stop and have someone else jump in and I could really slow down and take stock of what had happened. And I knew I was in a very bad position. It was just, this is not good. People don't seem to know what to do with me. I know there has to be a way and I can't be the only person experiencing it. But at the time, you know, their books weren't out there. The social wasn't out there. The blogs weren't out there. Doctors didn't know what to do. So I was actively researching and kept seeing that it would pull up as it's psychological

and not as, you know, there's different types of concussion with different treatments as we know now. So at that point I knew I was in for it so what was the turning point for you because like you said you were searching for physicians for a good few years and then I believe you came across one who was like a bit more instrumental in your recovery and then obviously you taking into boss babe style you taking control of your own recovery as well what was that pivotal moment that you started to feel like things were going to start shifting? There was a period kind of between like year four and five where I started to get to people who knew what they were doing. And then they would connect me with people who knew what they were doing. And they would actually have objective tests that could say, look, here's

exactly what's happening with you and why you feel that way. Whereas all the other, you know, an MRI is normal for someone with a concussion. So I finally had not only validated, but people knew what to do and they knew how to help it. And so that started this digging out process, at which point my IQ just kind of popped back on. And then it was like, okay, back to myself. And then I was able to navigate from there. And I think by the time I got to the last few people, I'd figured out what was wrong, diagnosed it myself, and then gotten to the right person. But it was a huge journey to do that. And that's part of what I do now is I streamline that for people so they don't have to do the years of research with a

concussion. It must have felt like you just got a whole new lease on life to be given this second chance to get back to the way you were, must have felt incredible. And I imagine has given you so much fuel to be where you are now, right? Absolutely. And it was also just, I just couldn't stand the thought that somebody else was going to end up in the situation I was

just because they didn't have this basic information. And so that was like the big driver behind just starting to get on Instagram a little bit. Because at the time, that was all I could do. I was still in treatment. But I knew if I could get the word out and then potentially build a community that if and when, you know, I was hoping there was going to be a win, I would be able to get back to work. Then we would have like this base to launch off of. So talk to us about your community and your membership, Concussion Compass.

So did you start that with the whole idea of, okay, I'm going to help other people? Or was it more like, hang on a minute, I'm just going to start documenting things that I found. And if people want to utilize them, fair enough. When was it that you were like, actually, this could be a business? It started with kind of a two pronged is I can't stand people not having this information and how do I get it out there? I can't go lecture. I can't go teach. But Instagram was like these little bite sizable chunks in a day that I could do. But being someone who had really low stamina, I knew I needed to start ahead.

So I, what would have taken me in a, you know, 40 working 40 hours a week, I could have done it after work in a month took me six months having that be one of the only things I was doing outside of rehab, and getting ahead of posts, and then building this community. And the point was, let's get this information out there and understanding that I was in a really bad position and that the world was not built for somebody with my abilities. And so that I was in a really bad position and that the world was not built for somebody with my abilities and so that I was going to need to create something on my own. So I also made sure I started an email list so that if the time did come that I could turn this into something and maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't, it was there. And it just ended up being this really cathartic

journey and meeting all these people that had gone through similar things. I had not met very many people like me. And it's just, I call it my happy little corner of the internet because it's just this place where people really come to learn. They're super supportive of each other. And I feel like they just kind of brought me back to life. So when I got to the point where I was half in them, I'm almost ready. And I was half in, I'm going to be living at poverty level and disability. And if I don't start to make an income, I'm not gonna be able to afford more rehab. It was kind of a mix. And so we started concussion compass that, you know, was something I laid on the couch feeling like crap for years, making up in my head. And then we finally made it a reality.

And it was kind of an instant. As soon as we launched it, it was a couple hundred people in within the week. And so it's just been amazing. And so I want to dig into that journey now, but just so people listening have a better understanding, how long have you been doing that successfully now? How long have you been running a business successfully and also feeling like yourself again? So we launched the business in March 2020 or technically April 2020. So it's mid pandemic. So it's been great. It's been an evolution. So we've been learning. Is that around the time that you felt like you were fully back to yourself again? It was still progressing. So I felt good enough to start and I felt good enough to pace it, but I was still in my own rehab. So it was

creating a rehab space for people while going through my own and starting a business with a disability while working for people with disabilities. And so it was definitely an interesting process, but I was able to, as actually as we've gone I'm still getting kind of better and better and better which has been great so I've had a lot of my firsts with this community as it's launched. Let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform Kajabi. You know I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place so it makes collecting data,

creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial. Go to kajabi.com slash boss babe to claim your 30-day free trial.

That's kajabi.com slash boss babe. I want to come back to some of the treatment processes that you've utilized in a minute for concussion, but let's stay on the business for a second because like you said, you really identified a gap in the market. And I know when you joined the mastermind, you're at a certain level. And over the time working with BossFaith, you actually doubled your monthly revenue, right? So what were some of the key things that you learned to do to have that impact, to have more people hear about you and join and learn from the membership, I guess. Yeah. I mean, first of all, I just want to commend you both. I have a few friends that do something similar also with similar injuries and their experience has been, you need to do it this way. And they've had to say, you know, my brain injury is not a mindset I can't.

And in the container that you guys have created in the team that you've created, it gave me such space to grow and learn exactly as I needed to and to feel like it was highlighting everything that was that was possible for me and that I was capable of versus my limitations, which is an experience I've had a lot. So I just want to commend you both on that and what you do for women and the different types of women that can thrive. So part of what was so amazing is we would reverse engineer based on what I could physically do. So for me, it'd be like, Hey, let's figure out what's the most important needle moving thing for you this week. What conserves your energy. And in the long run is going to be more passive

for you and do it that way. So it was kind of three parts. It was one really reverse engineering based on me and all the things that I would be able to do. It was being around women who kind of showed me what's possible. I think part of being around people doing more than you are further along than you are is sometimes there's things that, you know, at one point the coach was like, well, you could do this in your launch. And I was like, what? I didn't think that was something that like I could do. And she's like, you can, and here's how. And then the third piece was, you know, I was new to online business.

I was in a brick and mortar. That's where I thought I would stay. So we went through kind of each piece of the business and made sure it was really solid. So a few needle movers for us in between was having a really solid lead magnet and funnel and getting new leads into that. During launch, it was different launch strategies. I learned how to show up different. I learned how to pace it. We did two webinars versus one. A couple things that worked really great for us was we had an open house the week of our launch. So people people per launch to like 230. And it was doing much of the same like things, but it was just understanding when to put them in,

where to double down and what strategies to use that were incredibly needle moving. Do you know what? There's so many things in what you've just said that were just so powerful. Sharing around, it's important to have people who are doing similar things to you. You know, the statement, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with, it's really true. And so when you enter communities of women or men or whatever gender, but find people who are doing very similar things to you, that on a mission you have very similar values

and you're going in the same direction, I really, really believe the power of that is not to be underestimated. i think natalie and i like what's one of the reasons we created the society as well right because we need the power of surrounding ourselves with people who were wanting to be unapologetically ambitious they wanted to not only learn in the business sense but also in a like growth mindset sense as well and then i also just think around the work that you've just utilized lots of people will start businesses and maybe like say they've not had a concussion they've not had any brain challenges and they'll spread themselves so thin that they actually end up moving their needle forwards because they just disperse the energy in so many directions

and i think one thing that's really powerful with you you knew what your limitations were going into it and you did double down right from the get-go you were like right I'm gonna just go in one direction I'm gonna put the energy all the energy that I do have in that one direction and I think that's why one of the reasons you got the results that you did because you were like okay what's the one thing that's going to move that needle versus one of the 20 things I can do this week waste time on all of them and And then actually you put a 20th of the energy into the one thing that's going to move the needle. So I think that's one of the biggest things that I learned from watching you and your experience of how you

got to where you have during that short space of time. So it's really six months. Yeah. And if I've learned anything, it's, you know, small wins consistently really add up. And so when I would get in this headspace of, you know, I can't do as much as the other women, it's like, you know what, I know exactly what I need to do. I know what moves the needle. And instead of doing things in 80 directions, like that essentialism thing that we all love, where you're putting energy in all different places, if you put kind of what you have very intentionally into building it forward i think that people can see results regardless of where they're at with their health or abilities or you know working a

full-time job and being able to do something on the side it really does come down to if you're intentional and consistent with that one thing it's it moves the needle yeah and often what we see is is some entrepreneurs might be at a certain stage in their business. They've probably launched something, they've got good traction. And so they have, if they're in a service-based business, they have a bunch of clients and they're like, okay, well, what's next? I have all of these clients. What can I sell them? What's the new thing that I'm going to go create?, okay, well, how can I double down on what's already working? I'm not going to create anything new. I'm not going to get

distracted. I'm just going to keep doubling down and doubling down. And it's the one thing that we just see consistently over and over and over again that really works. But I think, especially, let's say someone goes to a coach for their business, a coach can look at the business and say, oh, well, if we add a revenue stream here, you can double your revenue. And that's true. You can. But what happens in the long term is the entrepreneur typically ends up getting stretched too thin that they can't focus well enough on either thing. And so both things dwindle and we see it over and over again. So when you were bringing up how individual, like how business is so individual,

we all do things in such different ways. And even, you know, the way Danielle and I work, it's so fundamentally different. And we all want different things out of our life and out of our workday and out of how we feel. And it's really important that we listen to people's advice and take it with a grain of salt and put our own spin on it. Okay, I hear that. I'm going to try it this way.

And it really works. So I'm really curious because I feel like you really nailed launches. You figured out how to create really impactful launches and do it in a way that was sustainable. You weren't burning the candle at both sustainable. You weren't burning the candle at both ends. You weren't burning out your audience. Can you walk us through what a typical launch, one of your best launches has looked like and the different elements that you've brought into it? Yeah. So we actually had two launches when I was in the mastermind and our first one, we had our typical structure where we do a priming period. We have kind of our pre-launch where we're getting people into our webinar and then we have

launch. Our webinar ended up tanking. And so we were freaking out. So afterwards, I talked with the group and some of the best things that worked for us was at the time I was worried that I was going to oversell or annoy people. And instead I learned, you can post twice a day. You can mention it a lot. You can talk about it with passion. We did the open house technique, which was incredibly helpful. So not only were you able to get people on the call in which we had a 70% conversion rate, but then afterwards you're able to follow up and DM with people and really have a conversation to see if it's a good fit for them. And then our DM strategy was very helpful.

So when we went into our most recent launch, it was like, okay, we know those kinds of things work. Let's elevate it a little bit. So we really went through the whole process of what does my client need to know to know if this is the right process for them, especially since I'm working with a group that is particularly vulnerable and that takes a little bit more time to cognitively process. We wanted to make sure that they'd walked through all the steps cognitively of what they would need to know to know if this was the right fit for them, or if we weren't for them, what they can do to really move the needle in their own recoveries.

And so that was kind of our priming period. We ended up adding a second webinar to our launch. I loved it. It was way less pressure. I think you got a second try. Those converted really well. We brought on affiliates for this launch. So that really helped us fill the webinar. And then afterwards, we just had a strong combination of value versus here's what the program is all about. And we did two posts a day, where typically I would do one and feel like I'm bothering people. But we did two posts a day. We repeated the open house, which had the same results. We repeated the DM strategy, which had the same results. And then we used email

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feel guilty for selling like oh my goodness how awful for me selling this product that's going to help people and change their lives and I think if you really stop and think about it how crazy it is like you've created a membership for people suffering for like with concussion which you suffered from yourself could not find anywhere online that really walked you through the steps to help you achieve and get back on your feet like quite literally right and so it's just such a like to stop and think about that like anyone listening i always think that's really important point is like if you really truly believe in the product that you are creating and selling, and you know it's going to help people and you're pricing it at a reasonable amount,

why would you not want to tell everybody about that? Why would you not want to be like, look, I'm doing this, tell people I've got concussion? Because this is the other thing, concussion is, yes, in a form of being knocked over by a car, but it's also, okay, yeah, a child falls off a playground swing and just hits their head mildly, but then it actually goes on to affect their learning. Or it's that little boy who's been headering soccer balls and over time catches like several after, you know, on a row and then actually starts having symptoms. And lots of parents, lots of siblings, lots of friends and family watch people suffer a mild concussion and don't even know.

So the fact that you're actually raising awareness of the symptoms of a concussion and how actually to treat it in a holistic approach is something that I'm like, you should never ever be worried about telling people about that, you know? Yeah, and I'm getting better at it now because now it's like,

I think what would I want someone in my friend or family to know? And watching our people get results too. We've've also that was the other one, testimonials. You know, one of the things I learned is when you feel like you've said it in your voice million times, you know, the clients can speak for themselves. We had several people who said, you know, I wasn't sure it was for me. And then I heard, you know, Marilyn was this woman we had, and she was, you know, worked for years, thought it wasn't going to get better, was with us, I think ended up spending like $150. And then she'd been symptom free for a month. So then it sparked someone else to join. She also thought she wasn't gonna be able to get back to work. And she knew all there was to know. And now she's

working again. So part of it is letting the stories and the clients that do the work speak for themselves too, was really powerful. I love that. And just touching on that last bit, what are the top things that help a concussion? What are the top few things that if you have a concussion, these are some things that you absolutely should be doing? Yeah. So for an acute concussion, we know if we manage them early and get proper education, they do really well. So for that, it's going to be, you know, 24 to 48 hours of symptom limited rest, followed by a gradual cognitive and physical return, meaning you can do what you can below that level of your symptoms

getting worse with your only real no, no being don't put yourself in a situation where you're going to get a second concussion before the first is healed. And we'll find that people will tend to have symptoms resolve around seven to 10 days. The brain heals around three to four days or three to four weeks in adults. So it's important for athletes to know your symptoms are going to go away before your brain heals. So you need to wait for brain healing time. And then for what is right now, about 20% of individuals, symptoms just don't go away. And so they end up with what's called persistent concussion symptoms, which was the boat I was in. You'll also hear it called post-concussion syndrome. And for that, there are different types of concussion. So what we do is

we look at what types you're experiencing. Is it visual? Are you having a hard time processing what's coming through your eyes? Is it vestibular? Are you dizzy? Are you off balance? Is it cardiovascular? Are your heart rates out of control Are you dizzy? Are you off balance? Is it cardiovascular? Are you, you know, your heart rate's out of control and you can't control your body temperature? Those kinds of things. Cognitive, is it your memory, your speech, your attention? And based on your individual concussion profile, then we match you to targeted treatment. And that's what really helps people get to where they need to go tremendously faster. Rather than trying what their neighbor tried or their friend tried, we need to understand what's causing the symptoms for you

and then we match you to the correct treatment. I love that. And I love how there's such a simple system in it so people can go in, something we wanted to do with an society, go in and identify where you're at because advice for different people is going to be relevant at different stages. But I want to go back because there's probably a lot of people listening thinking,

I don't know what an open house or a DM strategy is. I'm confused. Can you break it down a little bit? What an open house strategy is and what a DM strategy is? As if you're speaking to someone that's really never even had a business launch before and is like scribbling down everything in their notebook. Yeah. So we did the open house. So here's where it is within the sequence of events. So you have your webinar, you tend to get the influx of people, then you're launching it on, you know, your page, you're getting the influx of people. And then there's that period where it's kind of like the dead zone where you're maybe 48 to 72 hours away from cart closing and there's not a lot happening. And so what we would do is just on Instagram and to our email list, we'd say, Hey, we're hoping

hosting this open house. It's on zoom. If you want in DM me for the link. So that way we can have conversations with those people. And we're just going to talk about the program and what it's all about. And you can ask us questions and see if it's for you. And so, you know, we'd send people the link, they'd hop on, we'd do a screen share. So we'd show them what the program looks like. We'd go through kind of the general idea and what are most common. People are mostly like, I can't do screens. Like, can I do this? It's like, yes, you can. We built it that way. And here's why. And here's how you modify. so we kind of give them why it's amazing quell anything that they might be concerned for how it could be limiting for them and then we just open

up the floor to questions and it's just i think particularly live is somewhere where i kind of shine so that's you know a good strategy and we just answer questions with no agenda and those have worked really well and then the people that don't join within about 24 hours, I follow up with through DM and see how they're doing and if they're still interested and if they have questions that I can answer. That converts really well. I think we had like 70% both times. And then the DM strategy was playing with a couple of just people that you've chatted with before people that were new or putting a poll in your stories is what I did last time of like, do you, are you someone more than three months out? And do you feel solid in your rehab plan? Everyone that said, no, I messaged

them. You know, you're not feeling, you know, you're not feeling solid in your plan. Can you tell me more? Is there anything I can help help you with and i didn't offer compass to everyone because it wasn't appropriate to everyone but for the people that it was we really got ideal clients in and it really was kind of this community and relationship approach which feels really good for me right if you're not you're someone that's like i don't like sales it just you know you are just helping people just like you so those were really powerful or it could be something as simple as you know hey so you find the page welcome the community. What is it about concussions that resonates with you? And then it's like, oh, it was me, it was my son, it was my friends.

And the conversation starts from there. Yeah. And I love it because it really speaks to both the emotional side of the brain and the logical side of the brain, where there are some people that will hop on a webinar and they'll know right away, yep, this program is for me. I'm in, I'm all in. And there are others who they need more specifics. And sometimes they need that level of connection to know that they can trust the person behind the program. It's specifically for them because often what we can end up doing in launches is forget about the logical bias because we're so focused on sharing the excitement around the product and why it's so amazing that we get all the emotionals, but the logicals are sitting on

the sidelines, just wondering if it's for them and not necessarily putting their hand up to say, I have a question. So I love that you did that. And I love also the element of sales where you're not going into that DM conversation thinking, I'm going to sell them in. You're going in there with a curiosity, but also leading with service. How can I really support this person? And it's something I really believe in, even if we're sending a sales email. Okay. Yeah, it's going to be about the program and it's going to have calls to action and it's going to help you distinguish if it is or if it isn't for you. And if you still don't buy, hopefully you walk away from that email with value, whether it's motivation or an idea, something like that. And I think that's what we need to focus on when we're making sales, Because if it's just so salesy and there's no service, there's no value, it's really,

really hard to connect with people. So I love that part. And I also would love to have you dive in a little to your content strategy, because that's also something you've done really, really well, which has formed the basis of what you've been able to achieve. Because you've got this audience, this community of people who know, like, and trust you because of the content you put out there consistently. What does your content strategy look like right now? Right now, so I have it kind of set up when

am I in a nurture phase? Am I in a growth phase? And am I in a sales phase? And I think this came from you, Natalie, with every post, it's like, what do I want them to know? How do I want them to feel? What do I want them to do kind of thing. And for the most part, it's just my audience in particular loves like all the feels. So if they can, if I can explain, if I can put something into words that they can't put into words and they can explain it to their family. Those tend to do really well. So it's, I tend to do a mix of how do you help your life? Like, how do you live while you still have symptoms? How do you have relationships? How do you date with symptoms? Like how on earth do you explain that in the get go? Those kinds of things mixed with the rehab pieces. So understanding what a speech therapist does and all that kind of stuff.

And that tends to work really well together. And then we do a lot of engagement. So like type me if you resonate with this, and we have a lot of conversations in the chat. And so it's just a very engaged community, but it's usually I'm aware of like, is this just something to completely just value love you? Is this something that I expect to maybe go viral? And if so, am I, I'm going to talk in the caption as if it's to a general person that doesn't know a lot about me or concussions quite yet. So I had a real go super viral with like 7.8 million people. I hoped it would. And so I wrote the caption for people who didn't know what vision therapy was. And like, so I could take them kind of from the beginning, whereas when I'm writing to people in the community they kind of already know and they're kind of up to date so I would write it

a little bit different but that tends to work really well or I just have a bad day and I turn that into a post like a frustration in my own recovery yeah your content is amazing and let's just like stop on that reel for a second because you just said something I hoped it would go viral so I wrote this caption a certain way what how did you come up with the concept for it like do you want to share what they just describe the reel that went viral for you and then just share like what was your thought process in creating that because you were very intentional about it right and yeah there's very there's one thing like hopelessness can go viral and it going viral yes but the fact that you were like okay how can I create a viral reel? Just talk us through that process for you.

Yeah. So the first thing is my audience is they have concussions. So I don't do any, I don't do a ton of reading on it. I don't do flashing words. I don't do things that will flash too fast. I literally don't wear stripes or anything that would be visually triggering for people. So it really is meant for them. And then what I'll do is I'll just scroll through the like, you know, the reels tab and just see things that I like,

or I think are fun. I'm not very like dancey or pointy. So like what's something that feels like me. And then I'll look at the people that have done it before and how they did. So this particular reel, not a lot of people had done it, but like half of them had gone viral. So I was like, I'm expecting this one to have similar results. And it was on, I think there was a woman's voice and it says, oh, you have such beautiful eyes. And the person says, thanks.

They don't work while they put on glasses. But for me, I did a Brock string, which is something we use in vision therapy to help with your convergence, which is your eyes coming together or being able to go apart, which we need to function to read and have conversations and all those things. So, and then the comment was about vision therapy so that people understood if they have a concussion and they're feeling funky and they're having a hard time reading, there's actually treatment for that. It's not something that we have to live with so it was just kind of it was fun and it was simple and it was a little bit different it was fun it was simple but you also thought about it you put yourself in your avatar shoes which I think people can really over complicate

sometimes like hang on a minute I've got a concussion do I want to see someone in a stripy jumper no like I love that you thought about that much detail because I think that's what sometimes people kind of forget or kind of forget that they're actually talking to people on the other end of it versus just like inanimate objects. So I really love that thought process that you went through there. And on top of that too, this is just such a good demonstration of niche content does work so there's often people will say to us oh well you know it's really hard to go viral because my niche is so small and it's so specific it's this certain kind of person but actually I've seen so many niches go viral on Instagram and TikTok because it's exactly like you say, often there's

more people in the niche than you think. People have been touched by this more than you think, or it's a piece of content that they want to share because it allows them to provide value without having to go and make the reel themselves. And there's a big power to doing that. And it's also really great to stay in your lane because we could all copy viral content, but do it outside of our niche. And it might get millions of views, but it probably won't translate into anything meaningful

because it's so out of our niche. But the fact that you stayed within it meant that the people that were seeing that and seeing your page were probably going to engage with you further, which again is just such a recipe for success. So I love that you did that. What's one of your favorite content types to create? Lately, it's Reels. And I never thought I would say that because pre-accident,

I would have rather died than done public speaking or gone on a podcast. It just was not my thing. And now it's something that I love to do. And so I think lately I've really been enjoying reels because they're kind of fun and you can think about different ways to do it and be entertaining. And particularly when people, concussions are tough and people tend to lose jobs and relationships. And so if we can deliver content in a way that makes those hard know, those hard times a little easier. I like those. And then I like, we do little memes in the community too. So I like to do little concussion memes as well. I love that. And so what does life look like for you now,

post accident and in recovery? How have things changed from before the accident but also from the symptoms you are experiencing how is life now it is night and day I can't harp enough on the value of mindset I was like in high school someone was like oh we could vote you for most positive and everyone laughed because I was just so negative which I saw as a realist thing I like beginning the accident I had such a kind of victim mentality and I think sometimes health stuff that you can get away with when you're feeling good, you can't get away with and you don't feel good. If I people please, I'm not going to be able to feed myself dinner that night. So it was really this whole evolution of, I felt like I lost my identity. I couldn't do the things

I needed to do anymore. Kind of the way I lived wasn't working. And so it was this whole mindset deconstruction thing that really completely turned the way I relate to things, the way I see things, the way I feel about myself. I really like myself. And it just feels really good. I wish I would have done that sooner. And we have something called post-traumatic growth, where you really get these big growth things that correlate coincidentally with the five things people regret on their deathbed. So it's really important. We all just went through and are still going through a pandemic. If you translate that into like, what is this teaching me? Where am I at? You can get like these benefits where you just have such a more fulfilling life and relationships. So that has changed night and day. I feel like I'm surrounded

by really wonderful people. I really love what I'm doing for a living. Symptom wise, actually exciting. I am finally moving back to San Diego. So I had to leave when I needed full-time care and always wanted to get back. So I'm actually moving back in two weeks, kind of back where, you know, my best friend lives in old stomping grounds. So I just kind of getting back into the world. And I feel like I know who I am very much at my core now, but not in relationship to the world. Cause I was, you know, I missed a decade of my life. And so I'm looking forward to getting back in around people and seeing how that feels and how I grow and what I like and all of that. So rehab wise, I'm still rehabbing. We've gotten most of the concussion symptoms. I still have a bit of a movement disorder that I

developed from the accident. So I'll be in LA in September doing some rehab with a good group there called reactive physical therapy. And then a little inner ear stuff, my otolith, we're getting really sciencey which you know senses your acceleration and deceleration like if elevators are the worst for you this might be an issue we're working on that too but otherwise we've gotten ticked off like 40 symptoms that were all debilitating have gotten significantly better and if you could go back and change it go back and have the accident not happen to you would you do that I thought about that I feel two ways about it the one part is I like who I am and my relationships

and kind of everything's so much better now and I don't know that I would have gotten there to the degree that I have if I hadn't have had that accident. I think assuming I continue to improve in symptoms and have a life, I will say yes. But if it ends up not feeling well for a lot of it, then pros and cons. I think regardless, it's one of those things that even if you have a lot of negatives, there can be so many silver linings that it can really start to overtake the experience that way and I think that's what I have I love how real of an answer that was

yeah yeah I really really love that Molly where can everyone find you firstly on social and then if anyone is interested in signing up to work with you and to find out more, where can they find you? So I, on Instagram, I'm at Molly Parker PT. P as in Paul and T as in Tom. We also have a concussion compass Instagram page, but Molly Parker PT is where we all hang out. And then for our, anything for concussion compass, if you are three months out or more post-concussion, I am for you. And we are at www.concussioncompass.com where you can see we have a couple options based on where you're at that can really fit your needs. And then of course you can send me a message and we can chat through what might be the best fit for you or help you find someone in your area.

Love that. Thank you so much, Molly. It was absolute pleasure having you on the podcast thank you if you enjoyed this episode we would love it if you subscribed and left us a review let us know what you enjoyed what your main takeaways were and who you'd like to see appear on the show as a special thanks we'll send you a copy of our Boss Babe 25. Now this is an awesome resource. It's the 25 essential things that you need for personal and professional growth. We've included everything from must-have products to books to rituals. This guide literally covers it all and I know you're going to love it. So if you want your copy, simply leave us a review and then send a screenshot of your review to podcast at bossbabe.com. know you're going to love it. So if you want your copy, simply leave us a review