Podcast
Season 1 - Unlocking Entrepreneurial Success: From Hospitality to Mompreneurship with Kate Santangelo | Ep #127
Episode - #127
Host: Shannon Russell
Guest: Kate Santangelo
Transcription (*created by Descript and may not be perfectly accurate)

[00:00:00] Shannon Russell: Hey, my friend, Shannon here. If you are thinking about starting a second act in your career and you just need a little guidance to get you there, head on over to secondactsuccess. co forward slash coaching and book a free discovery call with me. I am here to help, and I can't wait to chat with you. Now it's time for an all new episode of the Second Act Success Career Podcast.

Let's dive in.

[00:00:24] Kate Santangelo: I kept talking about it, but I wasn't taking any action. in your, twenties, you don't realize how quickly time goes by.

and you think you have so much more time, right? so I just felt like I kept saying these things because eventually I'd get to them, but I. Really didn't have the confidence there was like a lot of fear holding me back

I didn't have a concrete plan, right? There's a difference between talking about wanting something and taking action and doing that.

​

[00:01:00]

[00:01:19] Shannon Russell: Welcome back to the second act success career podcast. I'm your host career transition coach Shannon Russell

this episode is special to me because it's about. Being a mom being a business owner and working within your community. I will be speaking with Kate Santangelo. She is the founder of The Monmouth Moms

Monmouth Moms is a resource platform for busy parents in Monmouth county, New Jersey.

I live here. I know Kate. I have been to her events. I am speaking at a summit event. She's having for moms, this April. And

So it's really special for me to be able to have Kate here. To talk about her career journey and how she decided to [00:02:00] open up this platform, this online platform to really connect moms in our area. And it's just a great idea for a business when you are a mom and when you want to own your own business.

So I really think a lot of you who are considering launching a business who have a family who are trying to figure out how to connect your community and you want to serve, this is going to be a really great episode for you. So let's dive into my conversation with Kate Santa Angelo.

[00:02:28] Shannon Russell: All right. I'm here with Kate Santangelo. Kate,

[00:02:31] Kate Santangelo: welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited.

[00:02:36] Shannon Russell: We are local moms in the New Jersey area in Monmouth County. And, I have worked with you through your business and you just have such an interesting story that I just want to kind of go through your journey.

So why don't you start off from the beginning? Tell me where you began your

[00:02:53] Kate Santangelo: career. So I, Went to school for hospitality. I [00:03:00] always worked in restaurants as, a teen. I've never left Monmouth County. So running Monmouth Moms has kind of been, fun for me because I grew up here since I was seven and I always had a love for working in restaurants and, Meeting people and I was kind of loved that like, everyone has to eat right.

Everyone kind of comes together at the end of the day. And, I loved, meeting different people and having conversations with, guests and making their experience, great. Right. an interesting thing about hospitality is that

You have a great night. And then you kind of like, doesn't matter anymore because you still have to like, repeat that the same way. So it was like, you always had to be, put your best foot forward. And, the consistency and repetition and always striving to be better as was what was interesting to me about hospitality.

So I went to school for that. I didn't end up finishing because I ended up having my son in college and I was going to school part time when he was little, still working in restaurants. I ended up, managing some restaurants. I did some event coordination , I, was going through divorce very young.

It's not a common story that you hear, right. of women being divorced at 23. So it was like you know, [00:04:00] interesting time in my life. Not really sure what I wanted to do. I got full time job at actually a local catering company jocks, which is you would know from the area.

But,they were at the time an older company. They've, been open for, I think, 25 plus years in Brooklyn and Staten Island, and they were expanding their business in New Jersey. , and, they hired me for corporate catering sales. So it was kind of ideal because I wouldn't be like working in the restaurant world in, in terms of like, you know, the nighttime and the grind of, it would sound ideal for parents.

Right. So, I had a quick intro to sales. He asked me if I, was good at cold calling and I said, sure. I had no idea what cold calling was at the time. And, I just kind of threw myself into it. It was interesting to me. I love the idea of working with different corporate businesses to get them to hire us for their Christmas parties and all that.

So this is 2007. Now, mind you, 2008 was kind of when, the recession happened. So the first thing to go with across the board with all companies was any type of catering, you know, in [00:05:00] any capacity. so it was really tough. I mean, it was like my first sales role and, any win that I got was like a big success for me.

I went to every chamber event, every networking opportunity., they didn't have a newsletter. So , I set them up on that. And I think, part of, like from the early thinking back, that was kind of where I saw maybe some, interest in marketing as well. So, work there for a few years. I decided to go back to school, to finish, my associates. And at the time I was also bartending on the weekends and some of the wine reps used to come in and, to help us sample the wines and stuff that we added on the list.

So I was chatting with them, asking what their day was like, It was interesting to me, they're in sales and who doesn't love wine, or at least I love wine. So, I actually ended up. Accepting a few months later, my first position in, wine sales. And I spent about a decade, in that world and working for distributors, wholesale wine, sales and, running teams, all kinds of different stuff.

I traveled all over the country. So that was a lot of fun. [00:06:00] So all of that

is hospitality. If you think about it, right? Cause you're out there talking to people when you're doing sales, you're out there talking to people when you're doing. Yeah. Your wine sales and your distribution and you're going. So it really does kind of bring in everything that you originally went to school for.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I really loved working in sales and I loved. that I could still work within restaurants, but I didn't have to, like I could, you know, there were nights, you know, you'd have to work some nights for like events and stuff like that. But for the most part, I was always home.

I was able to get my son. and even back then that was really important to me, like making sure that I was present. if I had an event one night, I made sure the next night that I was home. especially because I was a single mom for many years until I met my husband when I was 29.

I wanted to be as present as possible. So, it was the best of both worlds for many years. And then I'd say the last like four years of me working in that industry is when things shifted and change. a lot of people started to buy their wine online , the margins were just [00:07:00] tighter and, companies were hiring, much more entry level positions and automating systems.

So the way to really climb that corporate ladder was to kind of take on more territory. And that was just something that was less interesting to me. Once I had my daughter, when I was 30, I wanted to be. home as, more as possible. And, I was newly married. and to be completely transparent, it just wasn't as lucrative of a position as it was when I first entered that field.

and, fast forward a decade, things just changed and, commissions weren't the same. companies weren't paying as well, they were paying kind of those positions that were like really highly coveted were being eliminated. And I would have to, cover Northeast territory to really make the salary that I wanted to make.

some moms can do it and good for them because it's hard, just like being a road warrior, I put 40, 000 miles on my car every year. I guess your son was probably a teenager at that point

Yeah, like entering middle school and then yeah, into the teen years and stuff. So now he's moved out. She's going to be 20, [00:08:00] so, that, you know, I just really had to reassess like what I wanted to do, and what was important to me. And you know, there were a few different factors and I took a lot from it.

[00:08:10] Kate Santangelo: I learned a lot. I worked with, big box retailers, Whole Foods, ShopRite, Wegmans. Bottle King, total wine and more. A lot of the household names that you would go to shop for wine and spirits were my clients. So there was, tremendous amount of value that I learned from just working with retailers in that capacity and also working with small businesses too.

So. And so what was

[00:08:31] Shannon Russell: kind of the straw that broke the camel's back that made you realize, okay, let me. See what else I can do and take all of this experience and start a second act, if you will.

[00:08:41] Kate Santangelo: So, we were living in a town home and Holmdel. And so this is like probably about six and a half years ago.

And I was considering leaving the industry, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. And I just assumed I was going to stay in sales, but I'll put a pin in that because forever I [00:09:00] had said I always wanted to own my own business, but I talked a lot about it. I would say I want to own a restaurant and I want to do this and I want to write a book.

Great. And I would say a lot of these things to my husband who is like, my biggest fan and my biggest supporter, but he's also very, he doesn't hold back, right. There's like, he has very little filter. So he would say eventually he had said, sat me down one day and he said, Kate, like, you're never going to do these things like never.

And I am a very defensive person and I was like, what? Like, how could you say that to me? Whatever. But, you know, he didn't mean it to be cruel. He meant it to be very honest because I kept talking about it, but I wasn't taking any action. in your, twenties, you don't realize how quickly time goes by.

and you think you have so much more time, right? so I just felt like I kept saying these things because eventually I'd get to them, but I. Really didn't have the confidence there was like a lot of fear holding me back and I really also didn't know like I was talking about a business.

I didn't have a concrete plan, right? There's a difference between talking about wanting something and [00:10:00] taking action and doing that. so a lot of things kind of brewing, I'd say, But the straw was really that, I think I was working for another company and, I just didn't like the way it was run.

It was just more of the same. and instead of, going to take another sales role in wine, I actually ended up at a software company, trying something new. So for almost two years, I was working for, they sold like CAD software to engineers. The bane of my existence. like, I, Can't even explain when people say, if you're good at sales, you can sell anything that might be true.

if you had to, like, I am not good at selling CAD software to engineers because I couldn't connect with them. I couldn't relate to them. I couldn't understand their processes. I couldn't understand why they were so resistant to change and to be honest, I didn't.

What care if they were changed or not, I didn't even want to bother them. You know, I wasn't passionate about what I was selling. However, say this all the time. Everything's a stepping stone, everything that you do in your career and your [00:11:00] life, you take something from it and you learn it good or bad.

it was a really challenging time, those two years and simultaneously I'll get to this, but I was building Monmouth Moms on the side while working there. So while I was working there, the company itself was incredible. I worked with really, really inspirational. Awesome people who pushed me in different ways than I'd been pushed in when I worked in wine.

they had me get up in front of, the whole company to recite, positioning statements, which I was uncomfortable doing. Cause that's not something that it's a different sales environments or, have different, requirements, so to speak. it was, solution based selling.

So you really had to convince someone to change their ways versus. convince someone to take in 10 cases of inventory that they may or may not afford at the time. Right. So, it was just a different sales environment and , they really pushed me and it made me so uncomfortable and put, took me, more comfortable in my own skin to the point where, you know, at the end of that two years, it didn't end up working.

I didn't end up quitting to, [00:12:00] run Monmouth Moms. But in hindsight, I almost feel like it kind of gave me like this training to like really, take the next step in my life and end up where I am today.

[00:12:10] Shannon Russell: Your husband put you in that uncomfortable position of saying.

You're never going to do this and you saying, yes, I am. And then they kind of put you in this uncomfortable position of you having to get up there in front of people and selling something that you didn't know a whole lot about at the time. So all of those kind of uncomfortable moments were really driving you to have the passion to do what it was that you wanted to do this whole time, right?

Which was own your own business.

[00:12:40] Kate Santangelo: Yeah. and I'll never forget the marketing manager who's a good friend of mine at this, the software company. I was in the car with her one day. We, would hang out sometimes out of work and I was telling her how much I wanted to take Monmouth Moms. to make it my full time role, but I still really didn't have the confidence or like the full belief that like I could make that jump.

And it's a big risk, taking that leap [00:13:00] and really like, saying that you want to do it and actually doing it are two different things. but I also think that once you do make that choice, if you love it, like you'll do anything that you can to make it work.

So that that's kind of been, what I've learned over the last. several years, right? And then

[00:13:14] Shannon Russell: when you get to that other side, you want to pull more people over with you. I want to shake you. I feel like you and I could talk about that all day and, and that's what I try to do is say like, you are not stuck.

You can do that. Get to the other side it just opens up so much more for you. As

[00:13:31] Kate Santangelo: you've discovered, what's the worst thing that can happen? Like you can just always go back, I could always get like another sales role. I would probably cry for days, but if I had to, if there was like another recession or whatever, you know what I mean?

Like you have all of these skills that, and now new skills that you've learned from running a business that you would be valuable to other companies too. So we'll

[00:13:50] Shannon Russell: explain to our listeners what Mommoth Moms is, because I'm sure there's similar. companies in other people's towns that they might have heard

[00:13:59] Kate Santangelo: [00:14:00] of or are a part of.

Yeah. So, Monmouth Moms is a resource platform for busy parents in Monmouth County, New Jersey. it's actually part of a larger organization called the Local Moms Network, which, began in Greenwich, Connecticut in 2017.

Yeah. two women just left their corporate roles on Wall Street and were home with their children and found that there was a void within the community accessing information. and, things to do, right? A local events. the best pediatricians, what resources were available to them and their growing families.

And that's kind of where the Local Moms Network was born. they were trying to, replicate what they had created in Greenwich, and they were expanding throughout the country. So, giving other moms opportunities throughout the country to start their own business. I actually found the opportunity in the Monmouth County Parents Group on Facebook I saw it posted andI looked at it and I was like, Oh my gosh, I could totally, we totally need this.

I'd been a mom for so long in the area. and, I just briefed it over [00:15:00] and I was like, that. Looks like something I can accomplish, right? So I reached out immediately thinking that there would be so many women trying to also get the opportunity and I was the only one.

No one else, which was funny. So, I started very quickly after that and I had a partner at the time. we really didn't know where it was going to go. I just knew that if we kept building it and adding information and value that local businesses would want to advertise with us. So I built it very quickly over the summer.

I think we launched started in July of 2018. We launched in September. so we launched the website, then our social media so. is, essentially a digital resource platform. We have all kinds of different things that we do,list local resources like Snapology and, we do, seasonal guides, spring fun guide, winter fun guide,we do, meet a mom.

So, we highlight local mompreneurs in the area, done all kinds of things with it over the years. And then [00:16:00] from that, it's kind of. But it's a different,ancillary, things that we also offer. So we've launched our podcast, I guess, about a year and a half ago. so we bring on local business owners and working professionals and moms to talk about different things that are offered in the area.

And then we also host events, which was kind of the biggest piece that we, added, right? Like on the heels of COVID kind of opening up.

We did a Mommy and Me Fair at Bellworks and it was like the biggest thing that I'd ever done, on my own, to accomplish. And it was small. I think I had like 500 moms come.

that's huge. That's big. Well, Bellworks is so big. When 500 people are there, it looks like there's like 10. Oh, I guess so. Yeah. so yeah, so we hosted events and, and it's great. I love the creative part of it because I can, help moms, with their growing families and, provide different information and resources that are available to them.

And then also my favorite thing to do is to help small businesses grow. so, and that's kind of what I did with wine too. Like thinking back, I said this a lot, like I [00:17:00] was able to. bring a product, right? Maybe had it was a great price and a great value. And I was able to bring that to a client of mine and help them make money.

And now I'm able to provide a platform that's valuable to the community and also help, a new business, start out, right. If you're a new store and, you're looking for exposure to gain followers on Instagram or to get, mom's in the door, or for businesses or companies that have been here for 25 years to really kind of,maintain that exposure, right?

And that community awareness. So, so it's fun. I love running it. I could talk for hours about everything we do. And it's just such a perfect

[00:17:36] Shannon Russell: opportunity for you to kind of pull in everything, growing up in Monmouth County, being here for so long, the hospitality piece, because now you really are.

The face of the business, you're meeting business owners, you're meeting families, you're networking like crazy around our area. And Monmouth County is really large, so you have a huge area that you are

[00:17:59] Kate Santangelo: in charge of. [00:18:00] Yes. 52 towns. yes, it's big.

And it is such a great

[00:18:05] Shannon Russell: resource. And as like a local business owner here as well, it's just something that everyone goes to. It really is a tool that. is so useful in our area. And I think it's so great to have someone like you, a fellow mom and business owner, spearheading it and just really getting all that information and bringing people together.

[00:18:24] Kate Santangelo: Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. We really enjoy it. It's a labor of love for sure. Especially the events.

[00:18:30] Shannon Russell: Just to elaborate on it. So you make money as a business owner through the sponsorships through bringing people in for the events. And so it really is your full time. It's your business.

It's your baby. It's your full time job.

[00:18:44] Kate Santangelo: Yes. So I made the decision in 2020 to,shift and make it my full time role. I'll never forget the month that I did it. I left the software company and I've got my first like big client out of [00:19:00] nowhere. And I say that a lot because even in sales, a lot of the time, if I would hire like a new rep to start that territory, sometimes

The first week they would call me and be like, I just got like a 50 case order. And it's kind of beginner's luck. it's like that gift from God where you just, it's like a sign, right. That this was meant to be. And, here's like a little gift to kind of, you know, help you get going.

So, so that was a good month and kind of gave me like a sigh of relief that I'd made the right choice. And then I just kind of hit the ground running. I've been running it full time ever since we're going into for a sixth year. Running mom with moms. and yes, are. Revenue comes from digital marketing partnerships with local businesses throughout the community.

Big and small. a part of the businesses, national partnerships as well. and then we also Bring in revenue through events, mostly through sponsorships and vendor spaces. I try to make the events with the exception of the summit. that's coming up. It's kind of like a different project essentially.

but our community events as,accessible to the community as possible. so, they don't have to usually spend too much to enter. if anything, most of them are free [00:20:00] to attend. And, I offer like a lot of activities that are also free to join. So, things are crazy expensive with the way that the world has gone, especially in New Jersey.

So, if it's something that we can just kind of come together for the day and check out all the different activities that are available and, businesses that, you know, are newer or maybe the never heard of, the way that it works, it's kind of like a franchise model, we work with the local moms that work, but I run Monmouth as my business. Okay.

[00:20:26] Shannon Russell: That's great. So some listeners that are listening in other States might have one local to them or may want to start one local to them.

So yeah,

[00:20:35] Kate Santangelo: Kate's a great

[00:20:36] Shannon Russell: person to reach out to if you're interested in launching one near you. It really is incredible to see what you've built and just how you're using your sales and hospitality and marketing and all of your experience to build this and talk about the podcast aspect of it.

So was that your idea to start a podcast to kind of be that, extension of the brand?

[00:20:59] Kate Santangelo: [00:21:00] Yeah, I was invited to be on a couple podcasts, a couple of years ago. This is the first podcast I've been on since then. I've only had my own, and I guess after the one that I was on, I said, the nice thing about Monmouth Moms is that I have.

I had the pleasure of meeting and working with so many women in the community who are doing incredible things. And it's just so inspiring. We do something called meet a mom Monday, which is a interview. we ask the same questions to each mom and they're usually business owners, or sometimes, maybe they run a local charity or they're a work working professional doing something interesting.

and we just kind of talk about their day. Like I always found that fascinating and like how accomplished successful women operate their days. Right. Do you work out in the morning? what does dinnertime look like? Do you have anatomy? Do you have three kids? How the heck do you have three kids and do what you do?

like just kind of leaning into each other and having that conversation. And I also think that it's really interestingto other moms, to kind of,Relate to each other and sometimes commiserate with each other to write that it's [00:22:00] really hard.

so we have that interview. And from that, I said, why don't we create a podcast where it's a platform to not only bring these moms on to talk about. What they're doing and also the value that they bring. Right. So the different companies that they have, if you have pelvic health practice or a, a summer camp or, all kinds of things that, you know, are available to families, they can listen in for different reasons.

And then it's also kind of,and different twists and turns. We have a family healthcare series with a local,hospital, the big company in New Jersey. So, we bring on different practitioners and, providers that talk, we have like different topics for each one. So that's usually once a month.

so it's just kind of been like a community podcast that's evolved into different things.

[00:22:39] Shannon Russell: And then, let's talk also about your Monmouth Moms Summit that's coming up. Yeah. Talk to me about where that idea for that came

[00:22:46] Kate Santangelo: from.

So it's a passion project of mine, essentially. it's kind of a culmination of everything that I've done so far, and I'm probably going to really focus on into like moving into the future.

so [00:23:00] because I've worked again with so many great moms in the area, business owners, and because there is so much interest, there's also a lot of help. I think that moms need, and, Having different phases of my life. I'm going to be 40 in June. being a young single mom, going through my 20s, working in corporate America and then being in different circumstance as, newly married, parent of the now too.

And, My son was little. I had to send him to a daycare. It was the only one that I could afford really. and it wasn't great. I won't lie. but it was like all I could do, but I had to go to work. And, I didn't really have any other choices than just having that guilt of like, really like hating having to even like send him there.

But really there was no other options for me at the time. and then fast forward to, you know, 10 years later, I was in a different, circumstances and sending my daughter to a great school, But it was really expensive and also soul crushing, for just like writing that daycare check.

and soul crushing because of the grind, right. Of, dropping off at seven in the morning and then picking [00:24:00] up at like literally six at night and coming home and dinnertime and doing it all over again, rinse and repeat. it's challenging. and I think that we talked about it a little bit, but not enough.

and then also fast forward to, almost, going into my sixth year of running a business, and kind of not knowing. What to do and just kind of, trying different things. Not everything has been successful. I've done things with Monmouth Moms that like for a complete flop. and a lot of the time it was just throwing stuff on the wall to see if it sticks.

and part of which was like not having the support of a , not talking enough about how hard it is running a business, right? It's great. And I'm talking about all of my successes, but there's also a lot of, really tough nights and , a lot of, the opportunity to be home with my family, but I'm also like, I'm home, but I'm not home. I'm working and I have to work till 10 o'clock or, When I was setting up my LLC, who the heck do you even use to set up an LLC? And when you hear buzzwords about like, Oh, like a woman owned business.

How do you become a [00:25:00] woman owned business? And, are you using the best accountant? And I bet there's great mom accountants out there that like want to help you, but where are they? There is a lot of information out there that is just not accessible, right? so the summit is, an idea that actually my assistant had, for us to, Come together for a day of inspiration to help moms succeed in their careers.

So if you are a mom who is a mompreneur and you want inspiration to help grow your business, but you don't know how, there'll be other moms that are there that are going to talk about their stories and how they were successful or have found success, but also raise their families.

If you are a working professional and you're in the corporate world and you just need. To get to that next level that that's who you are. That's what you want to do. And you want to be that executive or you want to take on that next role and tell the story a lot to some of the participants for the summit now about a role that I was offered in wine years ago, [00:26:00] and I was going to require us to move and I was going to have to, not move, within the state, but move closer to the distributor and literally like from the ground up start at a spirits and wine division within a beer wholesaler and everyone around me kept telling me that I could do it and I was kind of newer.

I got not newer, but newer into the management world of wine and I didn't have enough faith in myself to accomplish it one because I was a mom. And my daughter who was little at home and I felt like it was just going to take me away too much from them and I just, I couldn't do it. so I ended up turning it down and in hindsight, it was so silly because I totally could have done it and I totally could have made it work and it probably would have been fine.

but at the time I was like, I was coming from a place of no, instead of coming from a place of yes.

Now, my life took a different turn and everything happens for a reason. But, for the moms that are in that position not that choosing your family is bad, but I think also you have to kind of, choose yourself to show up better for your [00:27:00] family. And so for the moms that are kind of in that world right now Maybe like they just they want to climb but they're not sure how and they'll hear from moms on our panels. just how they've done that and how they've accomplished their goals and dreams And then also for the moms who have been home for x amount of years and have been out of the workforce and don't know What to do, maybe they want to get the real estate license or maybe They want to go back into the corporate world, or maybe they've never worked, maybe they had their kids when they were young, and they don't even know what the heck they want to do.

so we'll also have colleges there with,different programs that they offer certification programs. If you want to go back for your bachelor's or your master's, and then everything in between. So resume building, LinkedIn training, You'll be there with, with Second Act, with us doing a session, social media strategy.

we actually have a lawyer, a local lawyer who's coming and she's going to talk about the importance of support from your partner. so like marriage and, if you have a boyfriend or girlfriend and you want to, maybe excel within your career, but like kind of navigating what that looks like with your family.

[00:28:00] so that's kind of the summit in a nutshell. We have a whole lineup of panelists, guests, breakout sessions throughout the day. And then we also have networking opportunities, vendors, different companies that are hiring with from HR, accountants, financial advisors, like real tools to help women succeed and, and help them grow.

Because like I said, I think that there's a lot of chatter. There's a lot of quotes. Thanks. online about like, pushing, I'm guilty of putting quotes up. I think they're great inspirational tools, but I also think that there's so much more that we can do to like help each other win and grow and lean into each other rather than like not rooting for one another, which I think happens sometimes too.

Well said

[00:28:40] Shannon Russell: to bring that all together, where you can really go and learn. And grow and not be afraid to ask those questions, because sometimes even in our mom's groups or in our family, you don't want to admit what might not be working well, or what you do want to do, I always say to my clients, don't tell [00:29:00] people What it is that you want to do if you're not ready like if you're just thinking about something The second you tell someone they can shut it down and now you're not going to move towards it So if you are going to be with like minded women at this summit You're gonna be able to meet people and talk and have people Be there to support you and you're gonna be able to learn about how to actually move forward With people who have done it or are on the same

[00:29:26] Kate Santangelo: path with you

so true. It's so funny that you said that because this morning, one of the local businesses posted about her experience and she was celebrating a milestone of, X amount of years being open and how she had shared with, I think a friend or a family member, how she was planning on opening this business.

And she was expecting them to say like, congratulations, that's so great. And instead they said, that's a really bad idea. like, I don't see you doing this and don't, Like warning them almost. And she shared that and seven years later and she's doing great and that happens a lot, I [00:30:00] remember launching Monmouth Moms and I had support from like some family, but for the most part, it's like a lot of skepticism and maybe even perhaps like a.

I don't know if it's the jealousy or what it is, but it's not just me. I we've had this conversation many times. Like it happens a lot. You don't get the support you think you would from your friends and family. So, that's a big one too. Oh, yeah,

[00:30:19] Shannon Russell: I launched my first business when I left television.

It was in 2016. And so many of my entertainment friends, because all I knew my all of my friends were in television. And that was my husband is everyone. And it was just like, why? What are you doing? Why are you it was so many questions. And now cut to all of these years later, they're reaching out to me.

To help them figure out their next career move because they're seeing that not only did I launch one company, I launched two and now they're ready to leave and now it's like, okay, well, you did it. Can you help me? And it's just like, okay, well. Yeah, and you can do it too, and here's how, but [00:31:00] I did it all with no support at all.

Sometimes you get to the point where you can listen to yourself and just have that confidence, but a lot of times Women won't have that confidence, and if they don't get it from people around them, then it just goes away, and they don't pursue it. , I love that that woman you were talking about listened to her inner gut instead of the people around her.

And, I did it, that you did it, and, cause you never know what could happen if you just say, Okay, I'll stick with the status quo, and, years

[00:31:32] Kate Santangelo: later you're regretting it. That's so true. And I think also, letting go of what people think, and letting go of what you think people think is also a big one.

if you think that you are providing value and you're succeeding, then just, the chatter has to be eliminated from your conversations with yourself, because that's, that's, I think a big part of a lot of it too.

[00:31:57] Shannon Russell: just look at all you were able to accomplish and just [00:32:00] the confidence that you have now owning your own business, running these new events, meeting everyone in our area, and being able to be a present mom at the same time.

[00:32:10] Kate Santangelo: So what is one

[00:32:11] Shannon Russell: piece of advice that you would give to someone who is trying to start their

[00:32:15] Kate Santangelo: second act? one piece of advice is that if they're starting in their second act,

consistency is key. working a little bit at a time at Each thing turns into something bigger, over time and not to give up. I think when you give up, you can give up certain elements of what you're trying to achieve, right? If they're not actually working, but overall. The consistency and, every morning, every night, whatever you're trying to do, just, just keep working at it.

And eventually, it'll start working out for you.

Where can my audience connect with you? Uh, you can follow @themonmouthmoms., or our website is themonmouthmoms.Com. And, my email's on there as well.

[00:32:55] Shannon Russell: Wonderful. Kate, thank you so much. I think the business that you've created is just [00:33:00] so perfect for you and it just, you're doing so much for local businesses like myself and local moms like myself.

, I'm so excited to, be along this journey with you and be a part of the summit and just to know you. So thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story.

[00:33:15] Kate Santangelo: Thank you. And thank you too. You've always helped support and you've come to the events and, you've been a part of it along the way.

So thank you for having me.

[00:33:22] Shannon Russell: Thank you for joining us. I hope you found some gems of inspiration and some takeaways to help you on your path to Second Act Success. To view show notes from this episode, visit secondactsuccess.co. Before you go, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss a single episode. Reviews only take a few moments and they really do mean so much.

Thank you again for listening. I'm Shannon Russell and this is Second Act Success.