Mom Entrepreneur Mistakes: 4 Things I'd Do Differently in 2026

I'm breaking down the 4 mistakes I made as a mom entrepreneur in my first two years in business, so you can skip the trial and error and build something that actually works, faster.
If you're a mom entrepreneur trying to grow your online business in 2026, this episode covers the exact things I wish someone had told me sooner, from the trust recession in online sales to why "fake it till you make it" is holding you back.
LET'S CHAT ABOUT:

→ Why the trust funnel is the foundation of every offer, and how to build one from freebie to low-ticket to high-ticket

→ How many touch points you actually need before someone buys in 2026 (it's a lot more than you think)

→ Why psychotic confidence beats "fake it till you make it," and how to build real audacity

→ The marathon mentality that separates the mom entrepreneurs who succeed from the ones who quit
Take the quiz I mentioned to find out your mom entrepreneur type, your superpower, and your blind spot:

Mom Entrepreneur Personality Quiz: www.danafosterco.com/quiz

LET’S WORK TOGETHER:

→ Network Mama Collective ($67/mo): www.danafosterco.com/membership

→ Too busy? Reclaim Your Hours here: www.danafosterco.com/store

LET'S CONNECT:

→ Instagram: @danafosterco

→ The Weekly Boost Newsletter: www.danafosterco.com/theboost

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey mama, I'm Dana. Welcome to the podcast for entrepreneur moms who are done being overwhelmed and are ready to thrive. This is where we skip the fluff and get straight to what works for moms in the business world. I went from feeling stuck and overwhelmed in my white coat to a CEO running the business I absolutely love. And now I help Mom Entrepreneur do the same. You're gonna get the strategy, the mindset, and the straight-up honesty nobody else is giving you. So if you're ready to stop surviving and start thriving as a mama CEO, you are so in the right place. Let's get into it. I started my business two years ago, and when I look back on these last two years, there are four specific things that I wish I would have done completely differently. I spent a full year of trial and erroring, that's even a word, through figuring out how to mold other people's information to my business. And honestly, when I started out, I didn't do that at all. I didn't mold, I didn't flex and fit, like I like to say. I took what I was told by people that I trusted and tried to make it fit into my business. It was literally like fitting a square peg into a round hole. And I am not in any way discrediting anybody that I learned from. I learned so much in those initial few months. But what I'm saying is that business, especially business as a mom entrepreneur, is not black and white. It's not cookie cutter. It's not easy if maybe it's even not possible to copy and paste over others' information into your workflow and assume it's going to work. So as you watch this, I want you to think about that too. Listen to my mistakes, listen to the advice that I have to give, but take what's relevant to you at this time, flex and fit that into your current situation, and that's how you're gonna win. I would highly doubt you can copy and paste anything from what I'm about to say, and it's going to fit perfectly into your mold. So make sure that you are listening and learning with that kind of outlook, because that is when other people's advice is going to work for you. Number four is something that I don't think gets talked about enough, and I cannot wait to really dive in on this because this is the core reason why I think so many people come in strong and within a month or two have fallen off the wagon and don't think this is for them. And, you know, all those deactivated accounts you see on Instagram, how you're following people, you get unfollowed. A lot of it is people deleting their accounts. And this is a reason of why that is. And yes, we're gonna dive into it. So let's get going. If you are new here, press subscribe. Subscribing is like reserving your seat at the table. Here we are talking amongst other moms, other business owners who understand where you're at and get where you're going. And that's why it's important to be here. Okay, number one, the first thing I would have done differently, I would have really focused on the importance of that trust funnel. I'm gonna step back a few years with you when high-tech sales and one-on-one coaching was big. It was popular, it was a thing to do. And when you were flexing in clients in that kind of a high status, high demand situation, it was okay to go straight from I have no idea who you are, to a high-ticket offer. I'm gonna be very truthful with you right now. That is not the case anymore. It was honestly starting to edge off being the case, even when I started in my business. Right now, we are looking at one of the biggest trust recessions in terms of online sales because there is so much fluff, there is so much AI, there is so much copy and paste. There is just a lot of fakeness out there, to be honest. And people are rightfully cautious. Because of that trust recession, we are flexing into a new area of sales, of online sales, where we're looking at more than just the numbers. High ticket cold sales is a numbers game. And if that's your vibe, I you go for it. That takes a special person. That is not how I want to run my business. Okay. I want to make sure that I am talking to the right people, I am providing the right kind of value to them so that when I pitch my offer, whether it's high ticket or not, I understand that what I'm doing for them is going to at minimum equate to that value, if not substantially increase their ROI with me. Now, there is a process to doing that though. And there's ways that are more efficient than others, right? I could sit there in DMs and I could talk to people all day long. I could walk them through my value and ensure that I'm trying to hit all of these talking points that I want to hit for that person. That's doable. You can do that. It's just gonna take a lot of time, and that is just time that I don't have these days. So setting up that funnel, but more specifically that trust funnel is going to be so important. So let me show you how exactly I would set that up. You want a high value but free introduction into your setting, your aura, your community, whatever you want to call it. This could be a very valuable freebie. I'm not talking a PDF download, I'm not talking a checklist, I'm talking actual value. The person on the other end should be willing to pay for that freebie for it to really work the way that you want it to. And that's hard for some people. Some people just want to be like, I want to get pulled from my office. You're gonna get paid for your offers, just not yet. And if you want to get paid for your offers, this is how you need to set up your freebie. So you want that freebie to be a highly valuable, something that people would pay for and bring them into your community, into that trust funnel. Okay. That could be a freebie, like I said. It could also be a newsletter. That's what I did for a really long time is I had an introductory free newsletter subscription. That was not an ad-based newsletter subscription, it was a value-based newsletter subscription. That was set up where weekly I was dropping strategies that people could use right off the bat every single week. And then as they got more and more comfortable with me, more and more trustful of what I do, it slowly moved them up that trust bow. So high value you would pay for it type of freebie. And sometimes you need to ask other people this do your market research, make sure you're looking in the right direction because what you want might not be what your ideal community member wants. Then you're going to set up a low-ticket offer. This is something between $7 and $97, where you are providing value to your ideal customer. It gives them just enough information to get them over an immediate hub to give them a quick win without giving them all the information that you have to offer. So that low-ticket offer really sets up the ability for you to be able to figure out who from that lower part of that funnel, that top of funnel type of offer is going to feed in and actually be more likely to be someone who buys from you long term. So you have your freebie, you have your low-ticket offer. You could include a mid-ticket offer if that is something that kind of falls into your purview. For me, that is strategy sessions where I meet with a client for an hour and we go over very specifically what they need in their business. So that is my mid-ticket offer. Your mid-ticket offers are gonna be somewhere between $100 and $1,000. And I say between $100 and $1,000, you're hearing other people say between $100 and $3,000 or $105,000. I think for a majority of people, the vast majority of people on growing in online sales right now, you're gonna that mid-ticket is really up to about $1,000. And then anything over $1,000, I'm gonna classify as high ticket. This is where you are really ensuring that you understand your client, you understand their needs, you can fulfill those needs and you're pitching something over $1,000 a month. I think to wrap that all up, people have to know you these days before they buy from you, especially if you're asking for those mid to high ticket offers. So set up that funnel early, get people in, nurture them, and then move them upwards towards your high-ticket offer if they fit in your ideal community member profile. Okay, next is touch points. This has been driving me absolutely insane lately because I feel like at least every single day I'm getting a message from someone who I have never spoken to, who I've never left a comment, liked, done anything with their Instagram profile or any of their other social media profiles. And they are dropping into my inbox, pitching their offer immediately. And a lot of times I would say at least 80% of the time, their offer doesn't even mimic or match what my profile is geared towards or anything that I've said that I needed. And that's not even the real core of this problem. The real core of this problem is that when I when I think is politely say, it, I don't need your services right now, or this is not something I currently am looking for. The general rule is they unfollow and never talk to me again. And this is kind of what brings up touch points. Touch points in general are very important. For the longest time, we were kind of taught from an attraction marketing standpoint that you need at least eight to maybe 12 touch points with someone before they are willing to actually settle it and buy from you, especially if it's that mid to high ticket offer. What we know now in 2026 is that those touch points have dramatically multiplied to anywhere from like 25 to 50. Don't quote me, it's somewhere up in those 20s to 30s to 40s range, though. So what that means is that you need to be able to be relevant, perceived as valued, and in someone's viewpoint at least 25 times before they are seriously considering buying from you, because then that trust has been built. So the last thing that you should do is drop in someone's inbox, pitch your services. If they say no, drop out and never talk to them again. You are leaving so much money on the table. Now, on the contrast to that is if they are telling you or if you're seeing that maybe your services don't align with them perfectly, they're not your ideal community member, ideal person you want to work with, then I mean, drop out of there, like get out of that conversation. But if it's somebody who you know that you can provide value to, then you need to continue on with those touch points until they gain trust. This one I love. It is gaining popularity. And I think it's such a beautiful way of thinking about your business. I want you to be psychotically confident in what you can provide for people. This is not a fake it till you make it kind of mentality because that actually internally drives you to think that you are faking an outcome, that you were not good enough yet for something. I want you to be so hyper confident on what you provide people and allow that to come through in your content starting from day one. If you were not hyper confident in what you provide, I'm not talking about, you know, your ability to market on social media. I'm not talking about your ability to have these sales conversations and push them over into a high-ticket offer with you. I'm talking about your core offer. Hyper confident in your ability to provide your core offer is the foundation of being successful long term. So this whole fake it till you make it mentality or just trudge along as you figure it out, I think is a horrible way to start out and is honestly a way that's gonna take you so much longer to be able to get to that ultimate outcome, which is success. If you are not confident in what you provide and how you provide that, nobody else is going to be. You are gonna have to force yourself to do things that feel so uncomfortable right now. But in a few months, in a few weeks, they're not gonna feel so uncomfortable. And by doing those uncomfortable things again and again and again, it's how you build that internal confidence. And it stops being something that you have to forcefully exude. It starts being natural, it starts being something people can see when they talk to you, and that's really what you're aiming for in the long run. Audacity is a muscle, so you build it by using it. Okay, this is one I don't hear people talk about very often, but I think is at the core of why we see so many people falling off the online business entrepreneur. Honestly, I want to call it a train right now. Because people are basically being sold this mentality of a get rich quick scheme. And maybe not scheme, but a quick, get rich, quick mentality. And that's not correct in a vast majority of situations. It is not a sprint, it's a very low likelihood that you will jump into entrepreneurship online and within four weeks, eight weeks be making 15, 20k months. Do you have a trajectory to get there within six months, 12 months? Of course. But you're not going to be able to start from nothing, literally zero, in terms of your knowledge about business, your knowledge about online marketing, your knowledge about sales, and get to those expansive months in a short period of time. And so when people are sold this mentality, this thought process, and they jump in and at week four, they're like, my bank account's still zero. They stop believing in the cause. They stop believing in the why, and they move on because they feel like they're not made for this lifestyle or they're not able to be an entrepreneur. When the reality is the mentality that they walked into this with, the mentality that they were probably honestly sold, which is jump on, invest in this high ticket, and in four weeks you're gonna be making millions of dollars. And that's just obviously not accurate. This is a marathon, it's not a sprint. And the marathon mentality is what you need to have if you are going into online entrepreneurship or honestly entrepreneurship in general, if you want to be successful in the long run. And this is something that you really want and that you're really serious about. If you're not serious about it, if you're having fun online, that's totally fine. But if you are serious about this, you need to know it's a marathon, not a sprint. You're gonna be tired. You're gonna be exhausted, you're gonna be at a negative balance for a while for you to be able to really see that return on investment and your ability to succeed in this space. Literally think about this as a marathon. Can you sprint 26 miles? What happens if you sprint 26 miles? You die. Don't sprint 26 miles. Take this intentionally, take this at a pace that is appropriate for your level in terms of what you know about the business world and really tailor it to your needs as a marathon. After working with mom entrepreneurs for the last two years, I've definitely found that there are specific types of mom entrepreneurs because people come in with different experiences, they come in with different outlooks, and they come in with different blind spots. So I dropped a free quiz for you guys in the description of this video. It's gonna show you exactly where you land right now, what your superpower is, because we need to use that to its full advantage and what that stinky blind spot is that we need to completely overcome. So drop in the description, get the quiz link, take this, let me know what you end up being because it's so fun seeing how these actually relate to people in real life. Got tons of people telling me that when they take this, they're like, holy crap, that is that's me. That literally sounds like me. So take it, see what you are, know your superpower, know your blind spot. That way you can move forward in the most intentional way possible. Okay, that's it for this week. I will see you next Thursday. If you learn anything from this, if you caught any sort of thought process or glimpse of what a successful future as a mom entrepreneur looks like, press subscribe, press like for me. That helps us so much as we grow this channel. And I will see you next week.