It Girl | MALLORY MUSANTE
Meet Mallory! I learned so much from this interview and there are a few things I want to call your attention to that are fresh in my mind because Mallory led a phenomenal workshop on Mindset for our PIVOT conference earlier this year. Notice how when she speaks of her future she says it as if it has already happened. Personally, I have been confronting my own limiting money beliefs. This interview is right on time in my life. Thank you, Mallory.
Name: Mallory Musante
Age: 32
Pronouns: She/Her
Job Title/Company: Serial Entrepreneur – Confidence Coach at Mallory Musante and Co-Founder of Bright Beta Co.
Education Background: Bachelor’s Degree from Bryant University
In-depth Questions
Tell us a little about who you are.
I’m Mallory and I’m a serial entrepreneur with 5 different businesses under my belt but I’m currently a confidence coach and the co-founder of Bright Beta Co. My true passion lies in helping women build their confidence while reaching their goals so they can boldly take action and step into their power despite societal conditioning and fear.
When I’m not working, I love spending my time rock climbing, hiking or backpacking in the desert, snuggling my dog, or turning my house into an indoor jungle.
2. What sparked your interest in starting your business(es)?
I’m actually on my 5th business but my desire to be a business owner was originally sparked though my desire for freedom. I wanted to have the time to do everything I wanted to do and not have my income limited by my growth within a company. Plus, I don’t love to be told what to do so having a boss isn’t exactly ideal for me!
I started my first while I was still in college, which is where I made most of my mistakes. It was a hand-painted shoe design company. I loved flexing my creative muscles but I quickly learned it was really difficult to be the designer and the CEO. I had trouble scaling the business and ultimately closed it down.
My second was started a few years later where I was actually just a retailer of accessories. This was amazing and I even had the company featured in national magazines. Through this company I discovered my knack for marketing online businesses (even though I went to college for marketing) through social media and influencer marketing.
With both of these companies, I still had a job but once I was laid off from that company, I was thrust into full-time entrepreneurship, which is where Bold & Pop came in. My co-worker and I decided to start our own social media management agency while also adding branding and web design to our services.
Confidence coaching and Bright Beta Co. came from a deeper desire to truly help women build their confidence and reach their goals. This desire came from healing my own trauma from a past relationship and learning to rebuild my own confidence.
Each business has played an integral part in my entrepreneurial journey and I’m excited to see where it continues to take me!
3. Who are you most influenced by?
Honestly, I think my parents have had the biggest influence on me. While neither of them is a business owner, they both have been amazing role models for me and have instilled a great work ethic and the sense of service I feel to others. They’ve also been the best support system I could have asked for during all my business ventures and continue to be my biggest cheerleaders.
4. What was your first job and how long did you hold that position?
My very first job was when I was 15 years old and I was a hall monitor for the local parks & recreation department. The local basketball association played games in our middle school but they didn’t want people wandering around the halls so they hired hall monitors to keep people from doing that. I eventually moved up to scorekeeper but hall monitor was my first job.
5. Can you share one of your proudest achievements with us?
My proudest achievement to date is the fact that I was able to buy my house all on my own as a full-time entrepreneur. This is something that I always hoped to do but didn’t know if it would be in the cards. I was extremely nervous I wouldn’t get preapproved since the process is more complicated for individuals that are self employed but the second I got that preapproval I cried all the happy tears… and then cried them again the day I closed and went to my new empty house6
As a single, self-employed woman this is an accomplishment and moment I will never forget. (Thank you to RBG for paving the way so I could do this!)
6. What were your initial goals with your work? How have they evolved?
My goal has always been to make an impact while also making an income. I wanted to create a life that I loved while also helping other women do the same.
That first really manifested through helping other women with pieces of their branding and marketing for their businesses and has since evolved into my latest ventures where I help women hit their goals, build their confidence, and become the women they truly want to be.
“Life throws a lot of curveballs at you too (I mean, look at the year we’ve been dealt with right now!) and I think learning to handle challenges in business has also helped build my resiliency in life too! ”
7. What do you think is the most important life skill you learned through your work?
How to pivot and adjust quickly. As a business owner, things shift quickly and you face a lot of rejection. This means you need to learn how to roll with the punches and look for solutions and opportunities vs. dwell on the challenges.
Life throws a lot of curveballs at you too (I mean, look at the year we’ve been dealt with right now!) and I think learning to handle challenges in business has also helped build my resiliency in life too!
8. Where do you hope to be in five years?
In 5 years, each of my companies will be multiple-six-figure businesses and I will have a growing real estate portfolio. Each of these ventures will allow me to hire on some help to give me a little more freedom. That way I can travel and adventure around the country more and work on starting a family more easily (I plan to adopt with or without a partner).
9. What is a typical day like for you?
My favorite part of my job is that every day looks a little different. Once I get home from the gym and freshen up, I start my day with a cup of coffee and typically alternate between relaxing or spending some time learning/brushing up my skills on some level.
I start my workday around 9am by checking emails and double-checking my to-do list from the day before to make sure my priorities are still what they need to be and adjust if not. Then throughout the day, I’m alternating between client calls, fulfilling orders for Bright Beta Co., brainstorming and strategizing, and any other administrative stuff that needs to be taken care of.
I also try to mix up my day by taking midday walks with my dog or running errands if needed. This helps break up the day allowing me to be more creative and focused in my work.
I’ll end my day around 5pm and try my very best to actually unplug at night.
10. What was the biggest obstacle you’ve faced so far in the process of pursuing your goals?
This might sound funny now that I’m a confidence and success coach but my mindset around money was really tough to switch from scarcity to abundance. I constantly felt like I had to be grinding and hustling in order to make any amount of money and that truly prevented me from bringing in more. I had to really dig deep into my money story and evaluate why I felt like the only way to make a lot of money was to work myself to the bone and once I started to give myself permission to rest, things really started to shift for me. Abundance started to flow more freely and I was able to relax into an abundant mindset more.
“Blaze your own trail! Yes, others can inspire you but no one is you and that is your superpower. Life and business are pretty boring if you just follow the crowd.”
I know this makes it sound incredibly easy but it took a long time to get to this place… and to be honest, I have to actively give myself pep talks from time to time when I feel scarcity rearing its head!
11. What is the best piece of advice you have received?
Fail fast, fail often. My mentor in college told me this and it’s been such an important lesson for me.
I don’t look at failure as a bad thing. In NLP (neuro-linguistic programming), we say there is no failure, only feedback, meaning that we are always learning and improving. By “failing” fast and often, I’ve learned how to pivot really quickly into something even better.
12. When do you get your best ideas?
Honestly, in the shower! If I’m ever stuck on a problem for work or just overwhelmed, a shower always seems to give me the answer or idea I need. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I don’t have any distractions in the shower or if it’s massaging my head while washing my hair that stimulates my brain, but the shower is my own personal think tank… so much so that I actually have a waterproof notepad in the shower to write my ideas down so I don’t forget them!
13. Can you share with us one time that you failed and that you learned from that failure?
I think my biggest failure would overall be my first business. I made so many mistakes that were very difficult (and expensive) lessons. My biggest lesson was probably that I shouldn’t go it alone though. I was fresh out of college when I really got the business up and running and I had been burned on so many group projects that I was really headstrong on doing it all myself. This meant I invested my own money into the company and all of my time.
I don’t regret any of it and it helped set me up for the success I have now but I definitely would have sought out a bigger support system if I were to redo that time in my life.
14. How do you unwind?
I love to unwind by either hiking or rock climbing. It’s so refreshing to either be out in fresh air, listening to the birds, and feeling the breeze or just being completely focused in on climbing. Both require me to be truly present in the moment, which not only helps me unwind from work but also helps ground me as well.
15. Can you share a sacrifice you have made to pursue your dream?
I have never had a traditional job that offered me benefits so I have been 100% responsible for my own health insurance and retirement savings that a lot of other people have access to. And as a budding entrepreneur I wasn’t able to really contribute to my retirement like I would have in a position that offered benefits so because of this I often feel a little behind in this area.
While I prefer working for myself, I do feel like I sometimes sacrificed the major opportunity of compounding interest on investments so early in life in pursuit of my dream.
16. What would you tell someone else who is interested in entering your field?
Be unapologetically you! Each industry I’m in is overly saturated but by being myself and really focusing on my strengths, I’ve been able to carve out my own niche. I know it’s intimidating to be that raw and you’re often tempted to follow what the leaders in your industry are doing but being yourself is actually going to help you stand out from the others in your field while attracting your ideal clients/customers!
17. What do you hope people take away from your story?
Blaze your own trail! Yes, others can inspire you but no one is you and that is your superpower. Life and business are pretty boring if you just follow the crowd. Being authentic in your approach and staying true to who you are and your vision for your business is going to feel so much better and more natural than trying to force something that isn’t you. Plus, people are going to naturally be more attracted to you when you’re genuine.
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