Angela Bryant  0:06  
Welcome. You’re listening to The Angel Rated Show where we have inspiring conversations with the people behind the products and services most often used by online business owners. On the show you’ll hear how their personal beliefs and values have influenced their businesses. If you’re an online entrepreneur who wants to know about the integrity and impact of the businesses you’re buying from, then this is the show for you.

Hello, and welcome to this episode of The Angel Rated Show. I'm Angela Bryant. And with me today I have Laura Roeder, Laura is the founder and CEO of Meet Edgar and Paperbell. So Laura, do you want to just start by telling us a little bit about yourself and your businesses? 

Laura Roeder  0:52  
Yeah, so I am a lifelong entrepreneur. I've been an entrepreneur for the last 10 plus years, 14 years, I guess, I'm trying to do the math of how old I am. And yeah, you know, the companies that you mentioned are my two most recent companies, which are both software companies SASS, you know, meaning online, cloud based software. So Meet Edgar is a social media marketing tool. We target solopreneurs very small business owners who are doing their own social media. So we have a lot of freelancers, and consultants, and coaches and people doing online courses and Meet Edgar is all about automating your social as much as possible, making it really easy and making sure you're hitting all the networks with all your best content. And Paperbell was launched earlier in 2020. And that's a software for coaches to make it really easy to run their business. So we handle your billing, we handle your scheduling your client management, basically, we're a new kind of tool that you use to run an online coaching business and coaching, meaning like life coaches, or business coaches, not like football coaches.

Angela Bryant  2:05  
In both cases, what was the reason behind you starting those businesses, those software companies? 

Laura Roeder  2:12  
Yeah, you know, a theme that I've seen in my life. And what I like to create is really all about creating a lot more space and ease. So the way that I have run my businesses is kind of unique in that I've mostly worked part time. Since I started Meet Edgar, I was actually pregnant when I launched Meet Edgar went on maternity leave, and the first year, I work part time now even with everything I have going on. And you know, I'm a big believer in creating a business that you love and not sacrificing your life for your business. So that's a theme I see in both Meet Edgar and Paperbell is, I think, if you're not someone who creates software, sometimes you don't know everything that software can be doing for you. I mean, obviously, you're very passionate about all the things that can be done with software. And let's say you know what your website is all about. And I find that so many people just are still doing a lot of things manually that they just don't need to be doing. Because you can just hire software to do that for you. It's all it all happens magically automatically. And that's actually a really, really valuable factor in freeing up more of your own time is getting really savvy about using these tools for your business. 

Angela Bryant  3:30  
So would you describe that as sort of the purpose behind the businesses? Is it about creating that ease for other people and making them be able to focus on the things that only they can do that they're brilliant at? 

Laura Roeder  3:41  
Exactly, exactly. So with Paperbell, you know, we talked about how, if you're a coach, you do it because you love coaching, right? Not because you love figuring out timezone converters and trying to make sure that you know, 6pm for them is 4pm for you like, that's not why anyone became a coach, you became a coach, because you love experiencing that client transformation. So yes, that's definitely a big purpose for me. And same with social media, right? Like it can be fun to be on social media, but just sending out the updates to Twitter and organizing what you're doing for the week. I mean, some people love it. And some people think it's fun. A lot of business owners, it's just sort of a chore that you have to get done to promote your business. So whatever I can do to help take care of or automate those chores for people. I mean, I think it's sort of the dream. Like if you're a coach, it's a dream, that you could just work with your clients and you would never have to market you know, you would never have to do billing, like you could just like show up and help people. So I think whatever I can do to get people closer to that dream. 

Angela Bryant  4:43  
And before you start doing software stuff where you coaching yourself. 

Laura Roeder  3:41  
Yeah, so I was mostly in kind of the online course world, but I've also done business coaching and marketing coaching. I was a web designer when I first started, so it's great to have all been in the space of websites and online marketing and social media marketing. 

Angela Bryant  5:04  
So what then was the trigger or something that happened that made you start moving towards the software side of things? 

Laura Roeder  5:11  
Yeah. So before I launched, Meet Edgar, I was teaching courses primarily about social media marketing. And there was one course in particular that you can still take today, if you look up Social Brilliant, and basically, in Social Brilliant, I created this whole methodology for how to manage your social media in a way that was making sure to keep repurposing all of your content. You know, most entrepreneurs are creating a ton of evergreen content, meaning it's still just as useful two years from now as it is today. But the problem that I saw then, is still the problem that I see today, a lot of people don't bother to keep showing their content, right, they record a podcast, or they write a blog post, and they promote it that week. But if you discover them a month later, six months later, three years later, you might never see that great piece of content. So basically, I had a manual system involving lots of color coded spreadsheets, that I was teaching people as a way to manage a strategy for their social media. And the way I got into software was really meeting my husband, Chris. So my husband, Chris is my co founder. And he's a software developer that has built MeetEdgar, originally, and now has built Paperbell. And basically, not being a software developer, I didn't understand why the social media tools didn't do all these things that I was teaching people to do. But I was like, I guess they can, I don't know, it seemed really obvious to me, all these ideas I had for me to occur. I didn't understand why the tools at the time were doing it. But Chris was like, yeah, tools could do that. Like I can build that. So great. Do it. And that's, that's how I got into software.

Angela Bryant  6:45  
I mean, I guess people looking at you now might think that you have a really massive team, and that there's lots of you, you know, and that you are maybe slightly disconnected from people who are coaching and one man bands and you know, just on their own solopreneurs. And that's not the case. Is it still just you and your husband?

Laura Roeder  7:02  
Yeah. So and it's kind of fun right now, because I'm really experiencing two really different ways to work. So for me, Edgar, I am largely out of the business, we have a president who runs a company now we have an executive team that runs the company. So I'm just doing very high level advising. For Paperbell about at the time of this recording. It's me and Chris. I mean, I've just hired a VA, you know, like, we have a few little freelancers and stuff helping us but I'm doing all the customer service myself. So yeah, I'm we're still in the early days, where it's, it's all I'm kind of doing everything it's all very hands on, which is actually really fun. And I'm really enjoying. So that's very similar, I guess, to a lot of the coaches that would be looking to use it. 

Angela Bryant  7:43  
What's your vision for either company, or both companies moving forward for the next five or 10 years? Where would you like to see my heading? 

Laura Roeder  7:50  
I mean, for Paperbell, My vision is just to really create a new category for software. So right now, there have been some tools that have come before us that help in some similar ways of helping coaches manage their business, but none of them have really become mainstream. Like there's, I would say, most coaches still don't know these tools. You know, I would say part of the reason is that none of them were quite as good as Paperbell is I'm of course think that  Paperbell is the best. So knowing how much it helps coaches, for example, to always be paid upfront. So part of our philosophy of Paperbell is instead of invoicing people, and then waiting for them to pay you and then checking back to see if they've paid you and then check back to the scheduling. Because do that all with Paperbell so you send your client a link, they pay in, and schedule, all in one place, it's all tied together. You don't have to keep following up. You don't have to keep chasing people down. I just I don't want coaches to have to chase people down for money. I just don't. It's just not it's not fun for anyone you know. So my vision for Paperbell is to really make this a category that all coaches know that they need. You know, just like people know that, okay, if I want to send out a newsletter, I need an email marketing tool. I want coaches to know, okay, if I want to run an online coaching business, I need Paperbell or, you know, maybe some bad knockoff of Paperbell may come in the future. I know how it is. I've had that happen with me that year, but we will still be the best one. So it's okay. But yeah, I just I want to create a new way for coaches to do business where it's just a no brainer that you're going to use going to use Paperbell to handle your scheduling, handle your billing handle all the admin of your business. 

Angela Bryant  9:36  
Sounds great have you got a sort of a legacy you want to create out of the back of that or something you want to be known for. 

Laura Roeder  9:42  
I'm not someone who thinks much about the word legacy. I actually kind of think a lot about the opposite, in that, I think sometimes we have this idea like you have to be really important, quote unquote important or you have to be really famous, or you have to be really well known in order to make an impact in the world, right? And people who make an impact in their own families and their own communities among their own friends, that's kind of what affects us all on more of a day to day basis, you know, like, we might have a celebrity that we admire, but what makes up our quality of life is the people that are around us. And I think sometimes we're entrepreneurs, there's this pressure, to do everything really big, you know, to like to that your company has to be enormous, or that you have to be not just a nutrition coach, but America's number one nutrition coach, with your own TV show, you know, so I like to kind of think of the impact that I'm making on people every day, which one way that I do that is with the tools that I've created, right to make entrepreneurs lives a little easier. But I know for some people a word like legacy is like, very inspiring. For me, it's kind of the opposite, where I feel like, Oh, that's, that's kind of a distraction, where I feel all this pressure to leave a legacy. I'm just gonna kind of think about what's what's in front of me right now. Makes perfect sense. 

Angela Bryant  11:15  
We were talking earlier about the fact that there's obviously lots of big issues going on at the moment, there's lots of stuff going out in the news in the world, lots of problems and issues. Tell us a bit about what your businesses do in terms of either giving back or policies around some of those issues. 

Laura Roeder  11:31  
So you know, this one, it's been an interesting year, because I've always been someone who does give both time and money, much more money. Since I had my kids, I did a lot more volunteering. Before I had kids. Now it's primarily money. But I never made that something public with my companies. And I always felt a bit weird about it. Because I mean, just from a sort of logistical point of view, you know, my American company, paper Bell, we're an escort and I'm the sole owner. So like, the company's money and my money are kind of one in the same. So when I donate money, it comes from me, not the company. And I felt like, Well, why would the company want to know where I'm giving money, like, maybe that's not the same place that they would want to give money. And I think something that this year has really shown is that people really do want to know what causes the companies they work for what causes they're giving to it is really important to them. And it's not something to really shy away from. So I guess the two organizations that have always stood out the most to me resonated the most to me, that I've given the most money to, are on two very different ends of the spectrum. So one is Chicago books to women in prison, which is an organization that I used to volunteer with, before I had kids, like 10 plus years ago, and they do what it sounds like they send books to women who are incarcerated, books that the women write in and ask for. Most American prisons have no libraries, like people have a vision that's maybe very different from reality about how hard it is to access education, or just books for fun and presence. And that one was an incredible experience to volunteer for, because you have just this very close connection to the person that you're helping because you're literally reading a letter that someone sent you the way it works, when you volunteer, as you read the letter, you see what they asked for. And then you walk around the room of books to see what you have, that'll be most similar to what they asked for, and then write them a little note, let's hope you like them, and you package them up and you send them out, you know, it's a very close connection. And that's inspiring to me, because I get moved by the idea of being able to give people a little help that maybe are feeling like they've been forgotten. You know, I'm sure a lot of people that are receiving this books have not received a lot of help in their lives, right? There have been a lot of times where they've hit done and where they haven't gotten any help where they really needed help. So just this small gesture of thinking, Okay, somebody I don't know, cares enough to read my letter to send me a book in the mail can be really meaningful. And I mean, we would hear back that it often was very meaningful for people. And obviously, in light of Black Lives Matter. There's a lot of black lives that are being helped by that program. You know, as we know, in America, black people are disproportionately incarcerated. Also earlier this year, at Meet Edgar, we did give it was 10 to 15,000 that we just divvied up among organizations that our team chose, you know, that they were excited about giving to that related to the Black Lives Matter movement. So I feel I've talked I feel like I'll pause. Pause there. That's that's one of the ones 

Angela Bryant  14:56  
Oh, fair enough. No, that's it. It's just really interesting. I find it fascinating to understand, you know, what drives people and what is it what they're passionate about and interested in. And I think it just helps give sort of more of a flavor of the sort of business that you're investing or that you're, you know, that you're choosing to work with and software that you're choosing to use. Now, tell me a bit more about your sort of some of your other personal values or worldview.

Laura Roeder  15:21  
Yeah, so, you know, I'm a big believer that one reason why we become entrepreneurs is to be able to do things our own way. And it's so easy to start a business and get trapped in this idea that, you know, you'll only succeed if you work crazy hours, are also just ideas about how things have to be done. You know, in the online space, we see, you have to do webinars, or you have to charge a lot or you have to charge a little or you have to do a Facebook ad funnel, you know. And it can be really overwhelming. Sometimes you look at these things, and you think I don't like that, I don't want to do that. And someone says you have to it's the only the only way you know that you'll succeed is if you do it my way. And of course, we can look around and see that there's a million ways to do anything, right. And to me if you're not enjoying your business, and of course, you're not going to enjoy every moment, right, of course, you have to file your taxes. And sometimes there's just really boring stuff that has to be done. But what your work is made up of in the day to day should be enjoyable to you. I mean, I believe this is something everyone should strive for, right? Whether you're an entrepreneur, or not, whatever your job is, for you to move towards a job that you enjoy or find, you know how you can enjoy the job you have, sometimes you have to do a bit of both, but especially if you're an entrepreneur, the whole idea is that you're crafting your own thing. So I'm just really passionate about encouraging entrepreneurs, to really do things, the way that you want to do it. Whatever sounds fun to you, whatever sort of programs you want to create, you're allowed to do that. I give you permission to do that. 

Angela Bryant  17:06  
I think a lot of people need to hear that permission. And that's really important. So how do you apply that in your business? What do you not do that goes against the received wisdom of what you ought to do as an online business owner? 

Laura Roeder  17:18  
Well, I'm I'm seeing a lot of it now. Because I'm in the UK, most of our audience for Paperbell is in the US. And I only work till 2:30pm. UK time. Basically, what I'm saying is my work is pretty much done. By the time America starts completely by the time West Coast America starts. And that means that I'm not doing customer support during like Prime Time for a lot of our customers, a lot of them have to wait until the next morning to hear back from me in the UK. I'm not recording podcasts in the evening. Because I don't want to work in the evening, even though that's been like a great strategy for me in the past, just to be there's all these bigger American podcasts that I'm just not doing. And it's actually been kind of an experiment with Paperbell, you know, I'm fortunate to be good financially, I still make a great income from Meetedgar. So something that my husband and I talked about was Paperbell is like we don't, we don't need the money from Paperbell, right? So if we don't need the money, let's make the process enjoyable for us. Like let's do this business, because we enjoy doing this business. So often. That means it moves a lot slower, right? Like we can move a lot faster if neither one of us works full time, we can move a lot faster. And both of us were working full time. We can move a lot faster. We're willing, you know, to work like American hours and maybe have some more of those opportunities. But that's not what's fun for us right now. So we really try to keep ourselves to this for Paperbell like okay, if we're not, we're not doing it for the money. I mean, happy to earn money from it. Don't Don't get me wrong, but that's not really why we started it because we were excited to start this company. And we're not going to do things just for the money, right? Which you often find yourself doing and business like just doing it for the money. We're not gonna do that. 

Angela Bryant  19:10  
So just to start wrapping up, tell us something else about you. How are you finding it as an American living in the UK? 

Laura Roeder  19:18  
Yeah, so I've been in the UK for about two and a half years now. I've been here a lot on and off before that, but that's what I full time moved here. You know, it's it's fun for me, I think. I mean, the UK and the US, I think are very similar culturally. And I think the UK is probably the most similar to America culturally, as far as European countries, but I do think it's a bit more family oriented here. You know, life is a little slower here. Work is a lot slower here. For good and bad. I think it can be frustrating to Americans who are used to everything happening instantly Americans are used to this what Americans call customer service, which English people are like, Whoa, chill out, like, why are you? Why are you being so pushy and aggressive? You know, but Americans are expecting like lots of follow up and lots of, you know, making the first move and reaching out and stuff, which isn't necessarily how businesses operate here. But also, my grocery store closes at like four o'clock on Sunday, right? Like the big chain grocery stores in America, all grocery stores are open literally 24 hours a day, every day. You know, it's just it's little things like that. And it's, you know, it's not like the UK is so like, quaint. I mean, you can still go to the big box store here a lot of the time. But just little, those little changes, I think, are kind of a signal like, okay, there's other things to do besides buy stuff. Stuff in America is a lot of fun stuff all the time.

Angela Bryant  20:50  
It's really interesting. Yeah, really good observations that we take for granted, obviously, in the UK and think that's normal. And then something is really nice to hear when somebody else sort of reflect something back, but slightly different. So anything else that you want to tell us about Paperbell? Anything we've not touched on or any thoughts you have about online business, or software or anything else that you'd like to share? 

Laura Roeder  21:13  
Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, thinking about what you're doing with Angel Rated, it's such a cool idea to look a bit more at the values behind the software companies that you're using. Because, of course, the truth is a lot of software is very similar, right? Like, we all have the little features that are different, or the way we do things a little bit differently. But at the end of the day, a lot of the core functionality is the same with different pieces of software. And I think it's a really cool idea to not just choose on, which tool has like the cuter font. But instead really educate yourself a bit more about how companies are run, you know, at Meet Edgar, you can google our handbook. And we have a public handbook with a lot of our policies and how we run the business, which a lot of I've heard a lot of feedback that other companies have modeled those policies, which, which is really cool. So now you can do more research on a lot of companies. And I know for myself, if I'm looking at software, I'm always looking for the About Us page to get to know the founders and get to know the team. And it's striking to me how many companies just have nothing, I just have no information about anyone running the company. And to me, it's a big turnoff, because I want to feel like I can connect, you know, with with the people behind what I'm doing. So I think that's really cool. And I would encourage everyone who's listening to kind of take a moment and do a bit of research about the tools that you're using, whether that's looking on their website, sending us an email. I mean, that was something interesting. When the big Black Lives Matter movement was kicking off. Earlier this year, we started receiving more emails and Meet Edgar asking us questions about what is what is the makeup of your team look like? You know, who do you donate to? And what are your diversity and inclusion practices and your hiring. And it was really cool seeing customers reach out to us and ask those questions. So you can ask those questions to the companies that you're using.

Angela Bryant  23:20  
And where can people find you and your products?

Laura Roeder  23:23  
Yeah, so Paperbell paperbell.com. Meet Edgar MeetEdgar.com. And you can find me on Twitter at lkr. Or I blog at my name Lauraroeder.com. 

Angela Bryant  23:36  
Fantastic. And we have obviously both of those products on Angel Rated so that you can look at them there and find out more about them. So thank you ever so much for joining us Laura that's been a whirlwind from through various different aspects of your life and business but really interesting and great To find out more about the person behind these products. So to read the Show Notes for this episode, you can go to AngelRated.com slash podcast and if you enjoyed this episode, I'd love you to subscribe to the show and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. And don't forget to share this episode with your online business friends.

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