How to Scale Your Business Without Hustle or Burnout with Meghann Conter Founder & CEO of The Dames

If you have ever felt stretched thin trying to grow your business, you are not alone. In this episode of The Branded Impact Podcast, Jo Espejo sits down with Meghann Conter, Founder and CEO of The Dames, to talk about how to scale your business without hustle or burnout.

Many entrepreneurs assume the next level of growth requires more networking events, more visibility, and more strategy. But what if the real reason you feel overwhelmed is not a lack of strategy? What if it is because you are in too many rooms that do not actually support your growth?

In this episode of The Branded Impact Podcast, Jo Espejo sits down with Meghann Conter, founder of The Dames, to talk about a powerful shift in how entrepreneurs approach networking, collaboration, and business growth.

Instead of chasing clients in every room you enter, Meghann explains why the real opportunity often comes from finding power partners. These are people who serve the same audience and can help expand your reach through meaningful collaboration.

This conversation explores how the right rooms, relationships, and partnerships can help you scale your business without burnout.

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Listen to the full episode on your favorite platform here:

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Meet Meghann Conter

Meghann Conter is the founder and CEO of The Dames, a global community designed for ambitious women entrepreneurs who are building bold businesses and meaningful impact.

Through curated connections and strategic collaboration, The Dames helps women business owners expand their reach, build powerful partnerships, and grow their companies while staying aligned with their values.

Her approach challenges the traditional idea of networking for clients and replaces it with a more strategic way of building relationships that lead to long term business growth.

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Why traditional networking often leads to burnout:

Many entrepreneurs are taught to approach networking with a transactional mindset.

Attend the event.
Meet as many people as possible.
Pitch your services.

While this approach can sometimes generate leads, it often leaves entrepreneurs feeling exhausted and disconnected. It creates a cycle of constantly searching for the next client.

Meghann discusses a different perspective.

Instead of entering rooms looking for clients, look for collaborators.

These collaborators are often called power partners. They serve the same audience you do but offer complementary services.

When those relationships are built intentionally, they can open doors to new opportunities, audiences, and markets.

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The power partner strategy for business growth

Power partners are people who work with your ideal clients but do not compete with you.

For example:

A brand strategist partnering with a website designer
A business coach collaborating with a marketing expert
A photographer connecting with a personal stylist

These relationships create a natural ecosystem where referrals, collaborations, and introductions happen organically.

Instead of constantly searching for the next client, your network begins to amplify your visibility and credibility.

This strategy not only accelerates growth but also creates a more sustainable business model.

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Signs you may be in the wrong rooms:

If your networking efforts feel draining or unproductive, it may not be your strategy that needs to change. It may be the rooms you are in.

Some signs include:

You constantly feel like you need to sell yourself
The audience does not match your ideal client
Conversations feel transactional instead of collaborative
You leave events feeling exhausted rather than energized

The right rooms create a very different experience.

You feel aligned with the people around you
Conversations naturally lead to ideas and opportunities
Partnerships develop organically

Those environments can dramatically change the trajectory of your business.

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Building a business through aligned collaboration.

One of the most powerful insights from this conversation is that collaboration expands your impact faster than isolation.

When entrepreneurs build relationships with aligned partners, they gain access to:

New audiences
Shared expertise
Strategic referrals
Expanded visibility

This approach allows business owners to grow in a way that feels supportive rather than exhausting.

Instead of carrying the full weight of growth alone, your network becomes part of the momentum.

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Why brand alignment matters for collaboration.

Strategic partnerships only work when your brand clearly communicates who you are and who you serve.

If your messaging, visuals, and positioning feel inconsistent or unclear, potential collaborators may struggle to understand how you fit into their ecosystem.

That is why brand clarity plays such an important role in scaling a business.

When your brand is aligned with your expertise and values, it becomes easier for both clients and collaborators to recognize the value you bring to the table.

If you are realizing your business has evolved but your brand has not caught up yet, it may be time to revisit your brand strategy.

You can learn more about how Branding by Jo helps entrepreneurs elevate and align their brands through the Brand Transformation experience:

Schedule a Connect Call with Jo to learn more.

You can also explore more insights on personal branding and business growth on the Branding by Jo blog.

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Key takeaways from this episode:

Scaling your business does not require constant hustle.

The right relationships can accelerate growth faster than more networking events.

Power partners expand your reach by connecting you with aligned audiences.

The rooms you choose to spend time in directly influence your business trajectory.

And most importantly, building a brand that reflects your expertise makes collaboration easier and more powerful.

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Listen to the full episode

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Ready to elevate and align your brand?

If you have built a successful business but your brand no longer reflects the level you have reached, it may be time for a strategic brand transformation.

Branding by Jo works with established entrepreneurs who are ready to step fully into their authority with a brand that attracts premium clients, powerful partnerships, and aligned opportunities.

Learn more about the Brand Transformation experience, Connect with Jo.

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FAQ

What is a power partner in business?

A power partner is someone who serves the same target audience you do but offers a different service. These partnerships allow both parties to share audiences, referrals, and opportunities without competing.

Why does networking sometimes feel exhausting for entrepreneurs?

Networking can feel draining when the focus is solely on selling or finding clients. Shifting the focus to collaboration and relationship building often creates more meaningful opportunities.

How can entrepreneurs scale their business without burnout?

Entrepreneurs can scale sustainably by building strategic partnerships, focusing on aligned opportunities, and creating a strong brand that attracts the right clients and collaborators.

Connect with Meghann Conter

If you want to learn more about Meghann’s work and the community she has built for women entrepreneurs, you can explore the following resources.

The Dames
https://thedames.co

LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghannconter

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/meghannconter

The Dames Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/thedamesco

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Jo Espejo (00:18)

What if the reason that you feel stretched, overwhelmed, or invisible in your business isn’t because you need more strategy, but because you’re in too many rooms? Today, we’re talking about right scaling, not hustling harder, not joining more masterminds, not collecting more business cards, but going deeper in the right rooms because success isn’t about being everywhere. It’s about being known truly somewhere. And no, AI is not going to replace relationships.

So today I am so excited to introduce Meghann Conter and she is with the founder of the Dames. And Meghann, thank you so much for joining me today. can you start with a little bit of history on you and why you started the Dames?

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (01:01)

Yes, thank you so much for having me on the show. I’m really excited for this conversation too. I just love having tons of fun. So let’s do that, shall we? ⁓ Yeah, so I’ll just start by saying what the Dames has become, which is the world’s only business accelerator for women running six, seven and eight figure businesses so that they can grow and scale personally and professionally without forsaking themselves.

Jo Espejo (01:11)

Let’s do it.

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (01:28)

So that is what we have become in the last 10 years. We started 10 years ago as a little group here in Denver, Colorado, and have really expanded our mission, expanded our vision, and expanded our locations. So now we have five chapters across the US and a virtual chapter that spans the globe of women who are growing their six-figure businesses to seven figures, seven figures to eight figures.

and who are doing so in the anti-hustle culture. We really just believe that so much of what has been created by business owners over the last several centuries has been this very, very scarce mindset and a very competitive environment and a 24-hour cycle of working 12 of those hours if we’re lucky, if we’re lucky not 16.

and all of these really unhealthy things that don’t work with the women’s physiology and will never be sustainable for women. So in the Dames, we’re really about providing peer-to-peer support, expert-led support, and the connections and collaborations that you need to succeed without that unhealthy energy and without those spaces that cause a lot of breakdowns instead of breakthroughs.

Jo Espejo (02:51)

avoiding the wanting to burn it all down.

there’s been so many conversations around wanting to slow down, finding alignment, trying to figure out how to right shift, for lack of better words, what they’ve created. And then I see a lot of people, end up very more often than not burning it down. what we built is a monster and it’s not sustainable.

So what are some of the signs that you have seen that people have done this it’s not always that you have to burn it down. It really is maybe just a couple of tweaks that you have to make. But when you hear women or you see women that are out there doing their thing and you’re like, cool, you’re chasing the hustle culture. What are some of the things that you recommend

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (03:32)

the truth of the matter is we tend to grab on to certain things in our culture of business and we hold on to those things like, last year was so hard. So the year of the snake was all about letting go of all this stuff. It was. And this year it’s all about running at Mach 10 speed. It’s not. It’s actually about being calibrated and aligned. And that was what

everyone was talking about at the end of last year and up until just last week, was really shedding those old identities that no longer serve us, which ideally as a business owner, we should be doing all the time. Allowing ourselves to right scale our businesses and right scale ourselves as leaders,

We are constantly evolving, especially as women. And what I think is different for women is that we have stronger intuition, or we are more, maybe it’s just that societally it’s more acceptable that women tap into our intuition, or it’s getting to be more acceptable. But we don’t have to use logic all the time.

So it really takes knowing ourselves. And I think that’s the most important thing. So when you say, you know, when you see people getting into hustle, I noticed most of the time that they’re in full on scarcity mode. They’re in full on comparison mode. They’re looking at everything that’s happening outside of themselves as the authority.

and everyone outside of themselves as the comparison tool. And that’s the first sign of breakdown. So we have to get comfortable enough with slowing down enough to look inside and be willing to see, wow, where did I go off course from what it is that I truly desire and from what it is that I built this thing from? Because to your point, I mean, early stages of business when you’re in your first

I mean, 87 % of women-owned businesses never get past 50,000 in revenue. So a vast majority of women business owners are in those initial building stages. And the reason why we work so much is because we don’t know what the heck we’re doing. If we’re leaving corporate and we’re starting our own thing, it’s an entirely different world. And there is only a certain percentage of people that are really built to self-lead like that.

And that’s why I think one of the reasons, one of the contributing factors for why so many businesses fail before they even make it to five years, it’s because if you’re somebody who really does well taking direction from others or having a team to work on or having a plan to follow and then you become an entrepreneur, none of that exists. You have to create it all from the ground up.

Jo Espejo (06:13)

which is what’s hard. Because when I was in corporate, there was an account person, there was the marketing team, there was all the pieces. And so I got to focus on one area. And then when you had to push lever, somebody else was actually doing it versus coming out on my own. Now I was wearing all the hats. And it’s like, I’m going to push this lever because I need to impact that. But then that means that all of these other things aren’t getting done. Or what hours of the day.

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (06:15)

Yeah

Yep. Right.

100%.

Jo Espejo (06:40)

You know, and I always heard, well, all you have to do is, I’m like, when? When would you like for me to do the insert, all I have to do? Because it’s the, I am the everything. And until you can get to the point that you can grow a team and even that brings its own monsters. And if you don’t know how to manage and you don’t know how to do all those pieces as well, but a lot of entrepreneurs to your point, especially when you’re first starting out, you are the everything. So.

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (06:43)

Haha.

Jo Espejo (07:03)

you can have a zone of genius and there is something that you love to do that you’re like, I can go and do this on my own. And then we didn’t realize we were also then going to become the person that had to create the creatives, do all the pieces, the what are you really good at? And then there’s things that I’m not really great tech and I, it’s still a struggle every single day. But there was a point where I couldn’t afford to bring the person on to do the tech because

I didn’t have the money. So then now what would take somebody else 30 minutes took me 10 hours and it still didn’t work exactly how I wanted it to. But it’s that push and pull and that struggle of realizing what are you stepping into? my biggest challenge has always been how ambitious I got. I would hit a new goal and I would hit a new level of revenue and growth. And then I’m like, Ooh, I can scale it and I can do this. And then I get into this like, I just have to for this window of time.

really go all in and go a little harder. And the next thing I know, six months have gone by and I’m back into this working an insanely amount of hours, not being able to prioritize the life that I wanted or I say being present but not because I’m physically standing on the sidelines, but my mind is racing a million miles a minute. Or you can ask the kids, mom, you already asked me that. And I’m like, did, but I totally didn’t stop to listen. Like, how was your day?

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (08:16)

Yeah.

Bye.

Jo Espejo (08:25)

as I’m in the middle of five things in my head. And then they would answer, but I wasn’t, I guess, paying attention or it didn’t register. Or sometimes it would take me a minute to close all the tabs to then be like, you did answer me. Now I just have to press through. it’s a hard line. then we talked like, so for me, branding is huge, obviously. I’m a brand agency. Like, I think it’s so important. I’ve seen the benefits of it.

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (08:38)

Yeah.

It is.

Jo Espejo (08:51)

but there’s a time and a place and then it’s getting out and it’s allowing it to evolve but not holding yourself back either because I can’t tell you how many hours I have spent on a website for an offer that I ended up killing within days of launching because something was misaligned. Either my offer wasn’t hitting the target that I wanted or I got into it and realized I don’t really like this at all. This is not what I want to do. So then making that shift. So as you look back

so many people leave corporate searching for time freedom, having this flexibility. The American dream of having all the money but working some beautiful schedule that still allows you to vacation by the pool

What are some of the things that looking back what is your recommendation on branding? what they should focus on for branding?

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (09:38)

Yeah, prior to Six Figures was 15 years ago. So I don’t know exactly. There’s so much that has changed since then. And I just remember feeling like, again, I was doing everything from the external and just looking at what everybody else is doing. And if so and so said that I started my business in social media. So I was it was 2009.

It was right after, you know, right during the recession, was like, you know, kill or be killed kind of. And so we’re all just out there just trying to network and trying to figure out what the heck it is that we’re doing. And I feel like when you have to go through scrappy times or through challenging times to start a business, it makes you very, very resilient and very strong. And it shows the, you know, whether you’re going to make it or not, but I changed my brand name. So I had a.

branding and marketing agency for the first 10 years of business. And I changed my brand name five times in that. It was more like eight years in that eight years. And it’s because I kept up leveling. I kept evolving. My target market kept changing and evolving. I kept getting more niched in so that was the evolution of things. And I’ve seen a lot of people leave.

corporate or leave and start their own business and spend their entire nest egg on like developing a brand with an agency that is meant for working with huge multi seven figure companies because they think that that’s what’s important. And so I would say that what’s important is working with people, working with companies that are meant for your target market.

like meant for you. So if you’re going to work with a branding agency and you’re brand new, don’t go with somebody who wants to charge you $25,000 to build a brand and a website and all these things. That’s just not realistic for someone just starting out. And you know, you and I were talking about it pre-show. Sometimes it’s just about using the talents that you have, getting, getting scrappy,

building something to get started because in my opinion, in the first five years, you change so much that there’s just like, is the time typically when I say, okay, now it’s time to really build a strong brand because you know who you are, you know who you like to work with, you know what it is that you’re doing and you’re allowing yourself to evolve and change is the most important thing in that. And then to really concentrate and

figure out as quickly as you can how to go inward and how to listen to wisdom that you already have and balance between how much advice you take from the outside and how much you take from the inside. There’s a significant tipping point at which that happens, which is typically, in my opinion, mid six figures is when you can start relying on yourself and

your external resources it’s about hiring the specialists. So if you are leaving corporate and you’re wanting to start a new company, go with a coach or a business coaching entity that specializes in helping women go from corporate to small business ownership. And then they have power partnerships built up with people like.

you in branding agencies who are set up for working with that size of a company. I’m not saying that that’s necessarily who your audience is, but if it were, it makes it a lot easier the more that we can work with specialists and not generalists, in my opinion.

Jo Espejo (13:17)

Yes, 100%. I think the other piece too, you talked about advice. You are going to get advice from their brother and their cousin. And so one of the things that I like to recommend to you is where is the advice coming from? And really hone in on, do they even know what they’re talking about related to the field that you’re working in? Because somebody is giving you advice based on running a mechanic shop, but you are not running a mechanic shop. You are selling everything online in an e-commerce space.

what worked for the mechanic is most likely not going to work for the e-commerce space but really hone in on your intuition. And then you said one other thing to be mindful of who you’re copying because if they are nothing like you and you go to do all of your social media and all of your marketing and all of this stuff around what somebody else has built there’s a disconnect. And then people meet you and they’re like,

something doesn’t make sense or you can’t keep it up. And then yes, you have to have a branded presence, but whenever you’re just starting out, I don’t think you need to invest in a five or seven page website. Just do a landing page, get your picture on there. So people know that they’re in the right place, outline what you think you want to serve, and then just start talking to people. And I think when you’re first making the transition out on your own, you’re really relying on relationships anyway. So talk to the people, figure out who’s the referrals.

Meghann, I pivoted so many times. I went out and started on society hustle and weddings and I loved it until I didn’t. And there was a point where weddings were great until they weren’t. And then I had to choose between soccer games and weddings. Well, guess what went, it was the weddings. And then I had pivoted into families. And then from there I went and was like, you know, newborn sounds phenomenal. I got a year into newborns and

Bless all of the photographers who do newborns. It was not my jam. I hated it. It was so stressful for me. I ended up talking to a friend of mine one day and I’m like, why am I doing this? I dread them. It’s like, I have a newborn session today and not because capturing moments is not amazing. It was just so much work and physically taxing for me and it just wasn’t my jam. There are some women out there that have an art with newborns and they can do their thing and it’s easy.

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (15:00)

Yeah.

Jo Espejo (15:24)

But then I realized I can pivot. Wait, this is business. don’t have to, I don’t have to do this. I can change my mind. And then I fell into branding and everything about it lit me up. And I was like, this, this is it. But like you said, I changed my business name. I changed who I serve. I changed my audience and my website and my branding keeps leveling up as I do. And I also am changing and I’m more confident and I’m a very different person than I was.

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (15:26)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Jo Espejo (15:53)

even a year ago, forget five years ago, five years ago, I wouldn’t even tell you that I had a business, hi, I’m Jocelyn, I’m a mom, I’m a wife, I do all these things and I kind of have this thing all the time. I’ve been getting paid for 10 years

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (16:03)

And I have a business.

Jo Espejo (16:08)

I’ve evolved. So for me, everything changes. And I’m literally in the process of revamping my branding and my website again, because I’m pivoting and I’m changing. I just

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (16:17)

Yeah. And that’s

people shouldn’t be afraid to do that. What you’re just saying, like we have to like that. It’s, it’s almost like once you, once you’ve bought a new car and you drive it off the lot, it’s lost some of its value. Once you’ve built a new website and have a new brand, like get ready to start changing it again in like two years, because it’s going to change and shift. And you know, that’s just part of it. There’s the impermanence of everything. And there’s this fact that

The only thing that’s constant is change in taxes. We have to constantly change things and be OK with that. And that’s where the most successful business owners are, is in a state of flexibility and a state of not being afraid to. Part of this is also surrounding yourself with the right people. And this is why I kind of give a caveat of like,

Don’t listen to my advice of the first stages of business because literally that was 15 years ago. Everything has changed since then. But the thing that’s, that is even more important in the stage of entrepreneurs that I work with, women entrepreneurs is, you know, when you’re going from mid six to high six figures or from high six into seven figures and so on and so forth, it’s really important to know who it is that you’re around, where it is you’re spending your time.

what rooms you’re standing in and are you talking to the experts? Are you hearing from the experts? And you’ll know that because if you’re in a peer to peer group where there’s other people at 500K, just like you that have been vetted to get in there, you know you’re dealing with people who have been through a lot and have kind of figured out what works and what doesn’t. And, you know, that’s important, but it’s important at any stage of business too.

that you’re in the right rooms, you’re not spreading yourself too thin, and you’re kind of playing and figuring it out as you go, but letting go every single day of things that aren’t working.

Jo Espejo (18:15)

So how do you determine that? Because that is one thing that I think when I first stepped into entrepreneurship full-time, I found myself networking myself to death to the point that I was like, wow, there’s literally probably 10 networking meetings that you could go to at any moment in time every day of the week. So when you’re identifying what are the right rooms,

And this is something to remember too. It may have been the right room for a prior season, and then now it can also shift. And I’m giving myself permission to shift out of a room that I’ve been in for a few years because it no longer aligns for the direction that I want to go in. But how do you determine that? is it looking for the women?

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (18:39)

correct.

Right?

Jo Espejo (18:52)

how do you know, yes, this is the right place for me? it, again, this comes down to it works really well for that person. Doesn’t mean it’s going to work really well for you. But how do you put your thoughts on that?

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (19:00)

Yeah,

it’s not about where your target market is. It’s about where your power partners are. So the evolution of a business owner, when they go from your first six figures to your mid six figures and beyond is that, or initially we’re really trying to go into as many rooms as possible because we’ll take anyone with a pulse. That’s the reality of it when we’re getting started. Like we have to.

Jo Espejo (19:25)

Great.

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (19:27)

And to me, that’s normal. That’s kind of a rite of passage. I say, you know, it’s like we get these battle scars from people business cards stabbing us. And that’s just kind of what happens those first few years because we don’t know who it is that we really love working with until we’ve worked with enough people that we don’t love working with. And then we realize, okay, so now I understand who my target audience is.

And what’s the next step beyond that is, okay, if your target audience is women running companies that generate between 500,000 and 3 million, they have two to 10 employees, and they are really at those right scaling stages, that’s where they are. You wanna now find a room of people that work with that target audience. Those are your power partners. Because then,

They are the people who are gonna help get you connected to that target audience. It shifts the energy from going to a networking event to target your market and to hunt and to find your prey. And from you also being hunted by the way, and you by being the prey. It shifts that energy if you go into the right rooms to, I’m not here to sell you, you’re not here to sell me. We’re here to really look at each other and say, can we collaborate?

Do you need connections to certain people? Are you looking to open your footprint to be able to get into a new market? How can we collaborate to help you get there and help me get to where you are? Are you at that stage of business where you’re now looking at cashflow management strategies? And would you like to get on a call with me and talk about how you do that? Those are the up-leveled conversations that start to happen.

That’s why I say it’s like your peer groups need to change, your strategies for what rooms to get into need to change as you grow and change and evolve your business.

Jo Espejo (21:21)

So for someone that’s looking for those rooms, what do you recommend as far as like searches? Like how do you identify, What’s the best approach to finding the right room?

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (21:28)

Yeah, so in the Dames, we teach our members right off the bat is the concept of power partnerships and what it’s like to be in collaboration with other women at your level rather than in competition. And then it’s, okay, how do you identify who those power partners are? It’s often based on stage of business. So if you’re typically under 250,000 in revenue, you’re typically looking to build power partnerships so that you can cross refer business.

You can cross promote each other’s companies. So you’re looking a lot of times for those who are doing things, services, or have products that are not competing with yours, but they’re working with the same kind of target audience. So you’re looking for those kinds of professionals to build a network with. So let’s say that you are somebody who knows that you serve attorneys. Well, okay. Now you start looking out there for the groups that have a lot of attorneys in them.

or you start looking for the groups of people who serve the target market of attorneys. So it, and then you start to actually curate your network based on asking for introductions, much more so than going into 10 different rooms in a week. Like we were saying earlier, yeah, I did that. I networked my butt off and I, it got me nowhere. That’s not true. It got me, it got me to the places I needed to go at that time. But you get to a point where it’s just like,

It’s much more worth your time to get strategically introduced to the right people and develop your power partnerships of about 10 to 15 vetted people who become your trust and become the people that you do problem solve with, you mastermind with, you ideate with. You might cross promote with them, you might cross refer with them. And then as you continue to grow in your business, they become your indispensable advisory board.

Like you start looking for the other people, other women at your stage of business who really get the problems that you have. So it’s kind of like you have to learn the whole process of power partnerships and then start looking for the rooms that those power partners are in. if there’s not that, but there always is, you just have to start asking people, where do these people hang out? Where is it they are?

Jo Espejo (23:47)

I think that’s,

you feel like it’s not there until you start asking the right questions. And that’s, that’s the significant shift where we’re going from trying to get in the room with your ideal client, trying to get in the room with the people that are serving your ideal client already. And like you said, not in competition, I love the power partnership where if I get a client, you get a client.

because ultimately you’re providing a service that I know my client’s going to need, but I don’t do. And that’s that balance. As my agency grows, I’m still also wanting to stay in a certain lane because I don’t want to get to the point that I’m doing all of the things that doesn’t work. And so I still need partners And it’s amazing what you can do when you already trust somebody and you’re giving them work.

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (24:28)

Mm-hmm.

Jo Espejo (24:29)

Whenever I recommend somebody a partner, they get on the phone and they go, you were right. They’re amazing. usually we attract the same kind of people. So what I have found is the partnerships, we end up being like-minded. We want to serve the same type of people there’s enough business in the world for all of us because all of us have different personalities. People that are attracted to me,

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (24:37)

Mm-hmm.

Jo Espejo (24:49)

because of my personality, the way that I am, the way that I work, may work with another brand agency or photographer, vibe different with me. somebody who needs dry sarcasm and a lot of confidence boost and hype, I’m your person. But if you need that super peppy, very energetic, over the top, I’m not your gal, but there are a lot of women out there that are.

you find that you attract like-minded people. So those power partnerships tend to be very easy to transition between the way that you work, the way that you speak, the way that you do all those things.

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (25:22)

Right? Yeah. And what we believe in in the Dames is taking that to another level, which is what we call holistic reciprocity. And that really means that in a network like the Dames, where you live under similar values and you live under similar beliefs of, you know, abundance, diversity, vulnerability, collaboration, fun, you start to see that if you give out to the collective,

the collective gives back to you. So for instance, yes, in my experience as having had a marketing agency, the people who were upstream from me, who worked with my clients before me, rarely referred to me.

But I referred to them a lot because I knew that they needed to go and work with those specialists and strategists before they came to me in order to be in the right place. And I also had a large network of people that I would refer to, similar to what you’re saying, based on the fact that I did branding and marketing strategy after a certain point. I was not the one doing the implementation of the websites. was the one bringing in the brand photographers, bringing in the website designers, bringing in the

Copywriters and I had different people at different stages of business I had different people at different price points that I would refer to I had different personalities that I would refer to Because that was the stage of business I was in and they were in and then as I moved into running the Dames 100 % of the time those types of power partnerships were no longer as important or imperative for me, so it shifted and

Also, my stage of business shifted. So yeah, all of these things are tandem and they work hand in hand, but it’s really important to always know where you are and what the right rooms are to be in and to select a couple of rooms only and then go really deep in those rooms as opposed to like, hey, I’m gonna be part of 10 different rooms or.

Jo Espejo (27:07)

Makes sense.

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (27:29)

To your point earlier, when you know the room is outdated, when you’ve outgrown the room, it’s time to move on.

Jo Espejo (27:35)

Well, I think you have to be okay with the fact that that room works for other people. And that is a challenge. And it did, and it worked for me at some point, it’s working for so-and-so, and it’s working so well for so-and-so, and it’s working so well for other people. And then I’m like, wait, but I’m different, and my business is different, and my values are different.

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (27:40)

Absolutely, it totally, and it worked for you at some point.

And what do you know?

What do you know deep in your intuition? That’s the only thing that matters.

Jo Espejo (28:00)

Right. It doesn’t align. And honestly, the biggest thing for me is I’ve been having some wake up calls as far as like my son is getting older. And now he’s in this phase where

the years are flying by so fast. And so for me, it’s giving myself the permission to say that for this phase of my life, this doesn’t align. And I think I had gotten away from it. In me, what are my values? What do I want? What am I saying? And I’m saying I’m building a business so that I can be present for my children. And then well, it’s…

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (28:16)

Right?

Jo Espejo (28:26)

one day a week or, it’s just this one time. And then all of a sudden it’s one morning, one night, one whatever. And then you network yourself to your point to death. And so I am in a shift myself where I’m like, it’s going to be smaller quantity, deeper relationships, but I have to make sure then that I’m in the right rooms. And the strategic partnerships that has been my pursuit. am not, I don’t want to chase the one-off client anymore because

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (28:44)

Absolutely.

Jo Espejo (28:54)

Yes, that’s great. I love working with them, but then it’s one-off and now I got to go chase another one-off client and another one-off client. It’s building those strategic partnerships that to me has been a game changer because now it’s that fountain referral And I love what you were talking about too, that giver’s game mentality where you give out. I’ve become known as a connector and I love that between brand amplifier and connector. Those are my two favorite side titles because it’s the

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (29:04)

Yes.

Yep.

Ditto.

Jo Espejo (29:22)

I am so excited to connect you with the right person as I know you and I know what you’re looking for. Because in this world, when we are networking and we are connecting, we end up meeting more people. Then it’s based on personality and who is going to be a good fit and where are you in that stage of your business. Because like you said, if I connect you to the person that’s going to charge you $25,000 to $50,000, but you’re just starting out, that’s a disservice to both of you

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (29:25)

Yes.

Jo Espejo (29:46)

so let’s talk a little bit about the transition and the shifting and all that stuff, but especially with AI, because I feel like a lot of people have started to leave the conversation about relationships, like being in the right rooms. And I’m starting to see a pullback. It’s starting to come. I’m starting to see…

some people that are kind of right scaling and trying to shift really valuing the relationships again. But with all that we have with social media, with all of the stuff that we have coming with AI, you still think that there’s value in being in the right room in person and building those relationships. You’re shaking your head. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (30:20)

Well, I’m just gonna say that the people who stepped back from believing that relationships are always going to be the most important thing are probably the people who would show up in rooms before and not participate anyways, and then have reasons for why it didn’t work. So if they were going to substitute themselves with AI for relationship building, which is…

weird, Then they’re probably not the kind of person who was going to really get in and provide value, reciprocal value in a community anyways. Does that make sense? It’s like the early days of LinkedIn prospecting where you’re like hiring the VA to just pummel people with like, reach out to 150 new people a day and.

It’s like, thank goodness, most of those old school techniques not sending me those generic messages anymore. Hey, I like your profile. you know, those, those types of strategies, they get tried for a while and then they, some people find success in them. So then they talk about them they say that this is what everybody should be doing. But that’s just the problem of the one size fits all recommendation, which.

We’re not living in the one size fits all recommendation era anymore. AI has its place and its place is to replace redundant tasks and replace things that aren’t really going to get us very far in our careers and our lives and our businesses.

People will never be replaced. Relationships that we build with each other will never be replaced. Women especially need community. It has been proven since the dawn of time. Think about during biblical times, we were sitting in the red tents with each other. We were farming together. We were raising the kids together. Those things are still happening because women need other women. And it takes a village.

Jo Espejo (32:18)

I say it takes a lot of effort.

And it goes back to that because those of us that gotten away from it and then you try to do it on your own, there’s no way. It is just not possible. And I look even in my personal life, like it takes a village. I can only be one person in one place at one time. And then when it comes to building a business,

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (32:35)

Yeah, it does.

Jo Espejo (32:39)

Entrepreneurship can be very lonely unless you can surround yourself with other women who are doing the same or something similar. And so for me, having that person that you can reach out to or that community that you can reach out to and say, this is what I’ve encountered and or, holy crap, this happened. I am so freaking excited. And then when you hear it, you don’t have to give all the back context. Like you can just say, I landed this today. Like, look at this opportunity or this is what happened. And they just innately know what that means for you. And then to have that cheerleader.

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (32:45)

Exactly.

Jo Espejo (33:09)

in your back pocket. it’s that yin and yang every day of like, and entrepreneurship can in the same day have that extremely high high. And then you’re followed up with blow to something. And so having somebody that can be like, yep, been there, done that, or just hang in there, like it’s going to be okay, the resilience. And I think to your point, AI has a place. And I do think that anybody who’s not willing to get in with the times just like

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (33:19)

yeah.

Yeah.

Jo Espejo (33:38)

I used to just, I used to be just a brand photography thing. Now we’ve started adding in, video and B-roll and all those things because of the times. You need both. And if I wouldn’t have gotten onto that, then it’s difficult and it makes my clients have to pick and choose. And now with AI, I agree with you a hundred percent. It has a place and it really should be to help you streamline the things that you really don’t need to be doing. Do I really need to re-create this 500 times and like,

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (33:38)

social media.

Yeah.

Jo Espejo (34:04)

And even that evolves because the way that Canva was a year ago was so different than it is now, but it’s tools to streamline and what I love about it. And this is way that I’m looking at AI. It’s giving me the room to be more in person for the things that I can, because it’s taking me less time to do all the mundane tasks that just required time. They were easy, but it was time. And so now we can do those faster so that I can spend more time building the relationships, doing those pieces.

All well, I appreciate all of this. So many golden nuggets out of this conversation. So before we wrap up, What is it that you’re focusing on for the Dames and for your own personal brand?

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (34:30)

Yeah.

Yeah, it’s the same thing that we’re focusing on within the Dames, which is helping everyone right scale their businesses and right scale their rooms. So it’s like, you find yourself running ragged in any way, shape or form, it’s about looking back at.

okay, what is it that I’m spending my time doing? So that’s what I’ve been doing for the last several weeks is really evaluating where I’m spending my time as the CEO, where my team is spending their time, if there’s any opportunities for automation of those redundant tasks. we’re doing a lot of research on what are the changes, because things are happening so quickly. And I think that’s what’s really important is that

We aren’t operating on 2025’s operating systems. We’re operating on 2026 and we’re thinking ahead and we’re willing to shift and change things that, thought it was going to be very, you know, apropos, but it’s not. And so can you be willing to let go of what you thought you were supposed to do? Trust in your intuitive knowing.

making sure that you’re constantly aligned with your vision and your mission and your that North Star and that you’re running everything through your values so that you’re calibrating right. But it’s it’s time to up level. It’s time to up level your practices, your rooms, your your communities, your everything so that you can slough off that stuff that doesn’t enable you, Jo, to be home with your family

six in the morning or whatever it is. I think that’s what’s most important.

Jo Espejo (36:14)

Great.

that.

That’s so powerful and I think it’s giving yourself the permission to let go of the things that you thought were gonna work and or maybe it did work for a season but now you’re finding it doesn’t because either you evolved or…

something evolved. I know for me a lot of the trigger points are my kids at different phases in their life, but to be honest if I look back, it’s even myself, because what I thought I was gonna like and maybe I did for a season, if it doesn’t bring me joy,

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (36:42)

if people say that it brings them joy 100 % of the time, they’re probably lying. Or that’s not true. Or they have really built themselves a team that can do the things that are not in their highest and best interest. And that does happen. It’s just not as common as those of us who are on the roller coaster still. And probably always will be.

Jo Espejo (37:01)

Right.

Or that having that team because that’s the key. It’s so I love your time study. And so I challenge if you’ve been listening to really sit down and do a time study for where are you spending your time? And then in addition, is that something that brings you joy? Do you enjoy it? Do you have to do it? And is it something that somebody else could be doing or should be doing instead?

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (37:05)

Yes.

Jo Espejo (37:24)

because that’s where automations come into play. now with AI, goodness, there is so much stuff that AI can do that you would have had to bring a team member on for before. And so now you can avoid the hire with some AI. And then I still do think that the team members need to be brought in at some point, depending on what you’re trying to outsource or what you’re trying to. Because AI is only as good as the human that’s navigating it. So, you know, it goes a little wonky sometimes and I love, I laugh. I’m like, okay, well.

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (37:32)

Totally.

yeah.

Jo Espejo (37:51)

That was weird. Like, what are we doing? But I think truly sitting down and looking at back to your North Star, what are your values? What did you say that you did intended wanted to be this way? And then start living the life. That’s been my focus this year. As I’m rate scaling, I’m not pushing out that I’m going to one day live my life this way. I’m starting to live it now. So going to bed earlier.

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (38:13)

Yeah, no, you have to live it now.

Jo Espejo (38:18)

making sure I am on the sidelines, not opening up the laptop after a certain hour, and then really forcing myself to evaluate what is it that I didn’t get done today and what did I do today instead that I should have changed or shifted or let go of so that I can live the life that I want and still chase the business,

not chasing people, chasing this dream of a business that I wanted to create. And so it’s like, if I’m going to do this, let me make sure that I’m spending time building something that six months from now, a year from now, I’m not still the same rabbit hole that I’m in right now where I just created more of a monster. So I like magnetize. Can you magnetize? And do you want to magnetize what you’re building?

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (38:47)

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah, it’s repositioning your alignment all the time. Like it’s a recalibration. When you think about like an airplane, you know, pilot is constantly recalibrating. We have to do that too, because there’s so many shifts and changes all the time. And if we wake up six months down the line without having done any recalibration, we usually feel like crap. And we’re like, what happened? Well, chances are it happened six months back there and you made a…

a turn that you weren’t even paying attention to. And so now it’s like, that’s that constant recalibration going within.

Jo Espejo (39:33)

And then getting yourself in the room. And I think this is the piece.

So Meghann, if they’ve been listening and they’re like, wow, the dame sounds like something I want to explore more of because maybe that is the room I’ve been looking for. Where can they find information about the Dames?

Meghann Conter TheDames.co (39:44)

Yes.

Definitely you can head over to the Dames Co and or go to the Dames Co forward slash Roundtable to check us out and if you’re woman a woman running a six seven or eight figure business we are here for you and You can also find me on all the social media sites, and I’d love to connect just say that you heard of me on this amazing show with Jo

Jo Espejo (40:09)

you so much for all of your time, Meghann. And if you’ve been listening to this show and you know of somebody that would benefit from a little nugget that you took away, please share. And definitely be sure to check out the Dames And if it’s not the right room, find a room that you need to be in because I 100 % believe that you should not be doing this alone. Surround yourself with people that can help you get to that next level.

thank you so much for your time. Please like, listen, and subscribe. And as always, continue to get out there and make your branded impact.