Podcast - She Did It Her Way

Hi friends! Today's solocast I'm sharing my 5 key takeaways from "You Are a Badass at Making Money," with Jen Sincero.  I've recently started to seek out content and information about the money mindset topic which leads me to pick up Jen Sincero’s "You Are A Badass at Making Money," book. If you haven’t read Jen’s other book, "You Are a Badass," or have listened to her interview on the podcast, you must do so asap. Click here to see the full episode. One thing that kept popping up for me throughout reading the book is realizing the absolute importance of having a mindset coach in some capacity. We get life coaches, fitness coaches, development coaches but what about a mindset coach? Our mind impacts everything we do because our mind is what creates the thought that triggers an emotional reaction, that leads to a physical action producing a result. Our subconscious has a lot of power and influence over our physical world and more often than not it is actually creating our reality without us knowing it. We could be subconsciously repelling abundance in our life, we could be repelling the business that we’ve always wanted to create because of what lives in our subconscious mind and it is important to identify and release those thoughts and memories. Here are my 5 key takeaways: 1. Our words create our reality This I’ve known to be true but after seeking out more information and getting deeper into energy exchange, universal law and closely watching my own words, this is a game changer. Once I started reading this book I started paying more attention to how I spoke about money. And ooh it was a bit uncomfortable recognizing how I was speaking about it. Imagine if money was a person because it is energy but just imagine if it was a person. Do you speak of that “person” highly or poorly?  In the book, Jen points out phrases that we use every day that are lacking and how we can replace them.  “You have to want your dreams more than you want your drama.”  2. It is okay if what you do comes easy to you, it doesn't have to be hard. On the podcast, I pull a page straight out of her book and read it to you because to try and recap it would be a disservice to the entire message... 3. Know WHY you want the money (or abundance) you want to manifest   I’ve done this before and I’ve heard other people say it to…." I want to make six figures next year!" but that’s where we usually stop. Instead, ask yourself "WHY do I want to make six figures next year?" or "WHY do I want to make 10,000 a month?" then go into "What am I going to use the money for?" One thing I’ve learned is that it is harder to manifest money or energy to attract something when you don’t know why or how you’re going to apply. You have to be clear on what you’re going to do with the money. The next step after writing out exactly what you’re going to use it for writing down activities that you can do to help generate that amount. Don’t fixate yourself on the dollar amount. The universe already knows your goal, just focus on making more money. The last part is trying to plan and map out exactly which way you’re going to make the money may set you up for failure because the universe may deliver in ways you’ve never imagined and you may be blocking yourself. Instead, when you do write ways that you could make the money you want, note that you realize that the universe could deliver in other ways and you’re open to it. 4. Focus A lot of entrepreneurs I’ve spoken to (myself included) is that there is no lacking ideas or business that we can create. And if we’re not careful it could fragment our focus on what we’re actually trying to build. We have to make decisions and decide how we want to spend our time. The Latin roots of the word “decide” literally mean “to cut off.” Something I’ve struggled with is meeting resistance around making decisions because I panic in fear that by deciding one thing I’m going to miss out on other cool things but in reality, I can’t do anything if I try to do everything. “A firm decision (even to focus) sets everything in motion.” 5. Hurrying vs. Urgency Hurrying is like running around with your hands waving in the air, shouting “I’ve to get this done! I’ve got to get this done!” without ever making massive headway. You’re gripping onto your to-do list so tight that the energy is stuck and it's more work and agony to get things done. Versus urgency. When things are urgent you vibrate at a higher energy frequency, it raises you up gives you focus and drive. Again, if you haven’t read any of Jen’s books I highly recommend it. Also, in the podcast, I talk about the Money Mindset Bootcamp that I'm in run by Molly Sapp. I'm halfway through the six-week course and have learned more in the past 3 weeks about money, mindset, and energy than I have the past 11 months combined. I recommend joining Molly’s Facebook Group for High Performing Females. Now for some goodies and exciting announcements: I’ve thought about the next phase of She Did It Her Way and how it can continue to serve you all and grow. I’m looking for 15-17 people who want to and can contribute at least 1 article a month on various topics for She Did It Her Way. The commitment is for 6 months and to be considered all you have to do is apply online. Submissions are open from now until December 15th.

Is your hobby the only thing that makes you feel like you? How do you transform that hobby into a successful business? We hear all about that with Abby Walker who is the CEO and worldwide distributor of Vivian Lou! Vivian Lou sells insoles for heels that help women wear them longer without the pain that we all know too well. Always loving heels herself, she immediately latched on to the product when she came across the company in early 2014. Vivian Lou offers two versions of the insoles, classic or couture, and they slightly rotate the heel bone up and back. This shifts your weight off the front of your feet to your heel and stops your foot from slipping which reduces the pain and pressure usually put on women’s forefoot. Abby said that in a standard three-inch heel, 75% of the body’s weight is put on the forefoot, and by using Vivian Lou’s insoles, that weight is equally distributed across the foot and makes it feel as if you’re walking in a flat rather than a heel. Another plus is that they are invisible and can be put in anything from a strappy sandal to open-toed shoes! They also come in four different sizes that range from US size 4-12, so any woman can wear them.  Before Abby began working for Vivian Lou, she worked in corporate marketing and communications for 15 years. After having her second child, she felt like she had lost herself in her career, and decided to start a blog as a side hobby because it helped her feel like herself again. Her blog was called Mama’s Shoes and was her place to gush about how much she loved high heels to her whopping 36 followers. As she was gearing up to write a blog post about foot sprays that helped with pain and inflammation, she found out they contained lidocaine, which is a numbing agent that dentists used. She said she felt that she could come up with a less drastic solution to help with foot pain, and decided to create her own foot spray with all organic and natural ingredients. She hired a chemical herbalist and naturopathic doctor, and together they made a fantastic product that worked better than their competitors. The only problem was since it was natural ingredients, they could only produce it in small batches. Since it couldn’t be mass-produced, the product line fell apart, and her ticket out of the corporate world vanished. As luck would have it, she soon ran across an online forum with two women discussing a great product called Insolia. Surprised she had never heard of it before due to her in-depth knowledge of the shoe industry, she called the chairman of the company to see where they may have gone wrong with their marketing and promotion. The chairman admitted that the company was run by a bunch of male MIT engineers who were struggling to understand and attract the attention of female audiences, and didn’t know how to get it off the ground. Seeing the potential in the product and company, Abby offered to handle their marketing in exchange for an increment of their sales, but the chairman came back with a different offer. He and his team were no longer interested in manufacturing the product and asked Abby if she wanted to become their exclusive distributor. Since she has gotten the brand to appear on platforms such as HSN, Amazon, and O, The Oprah Magazine!  It was slow takeoff for Vivian Lou, though, and Abby said she blames it on her mindset. When she started working for Insolia and launched Vivian Lou in late 2014, she was still working a full-time corporate job, and referred to Vivian Lou as her “hobby business”. After doing some self-discovery, she said she realized she didn’t feel like she was worthy of running a successful company. She knew immediately after launching that something internally was holding her back, and after speaking with an old coworker, she referred her to an emotional freedom practitioner. Her life has since been changed, and her practice has helped her uncover self-doubts stemming from her childhood and her uneasiness with money. She then hired a sales coach who enrolled her in a sales camp that made her more comfortable looking at her numbers and helped her fill out projection worksheets. She began projecting out $100,000 and $500,000, and it motivated her to drive her business, and grow it into the success that it is today! Hear more of Abby’s story in today’s episode! In this episode you will… See how to grow your hobby into a business Adjust your mindset to that of a serious entrepreneur Be able to eliminate internal obstacles to become a better business owner Learn to clear negative memories to create positive energies Know how to bounce back after your business hits a rough patch Find the best platforms to sell and market your product and business She Did It Her Way listeners will get a 20% off by using HERWAY code at check out for Abby's Strap on a Pair: A Middle-Aged, Middle-Management, Middle-Class Moms Quest for Something More INSIGHTS “Picking up the phone and talking to people was not something that I liked to do…but I was like…I’m just going to…ask the question. And that was part one of me stepping outside of my comfort zone…[and] that just led to a series of other events…that landed me on HSN, that got me into Oprah magazine [and] opened several opportunities for the brand which has been phenomenal.” -Abby Walker “When you call your side hustles, or your dreams, or what you want to do-if you keep calling them a hobby, the universe will treat them as a hobby.” -Abby Walker “Once you clear your stagnant memories that are holding you back, it allows the universe to provide so much more for you. You’re creating a bigger cup for yourself when you clear out these blocked energies, and silly memories.” -Abby Walker “My main mission as a business owner is I never want my business to run me, I want to run my business.” -Abby Walker “You live and learn, you make mistakes, you’ll fail. I feel as a business owner, the more you welcome failure as a learning versus fearing failure, the quicker you’ll grow.” -Abby Walker RESOURCES Abigail Walker LinkedIn Vivian Lou Website Vivian Lou Insolia Shimmer Vivian Lou Facebook Vivian Lou Instagram Vivian Lou Twitter Strap on a Pair by Abby Walker Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

Is there an aspect of your life that you’re not satisfied with? Is it nutritional? Is it with your career? Is it an aspect within yourself? We introduce Pandora Paloma, creator of Rooted London, which helps with all of those questions! Pandora is a holistic nutritionist and a life coach, who specializes in self-love empowerment, and intuitive living and eating. Struggling with body image issues growing up, she dealt with eating disorders and rollercoaster diets that negatively affected her health and confidence. At 27 she was ready for a life change and began training as a nutritionist and a yoga teacher. She wanted to become more in-tune with her body so it could guide her in life, and teach people to be able to do the same. Before she entered into the world of health and wellness, she was a director at a high-level PR firm. Though she worked hard to earn that title, she realized she had lost the love she once had for PR. She took a look at her life and felt like she wasn’t living her truth. She wanted to have a career doing something that brought her joy again and began looking closely at her other interests to see what she could build a career from. Already working in the beauty and wellness sector of PR, she decided to expand on that field and become a player in the industry herself. She saw that the industry was very trend led, and no one was talking about what was going on in the body. So she entered into health and wellness with supper clubs because she loved food, and wanted to introduce people to plant-based meals and diets. She also did catering, too. Once she entered the market, she found her niche in women who needed help with weight loss and gain and treating diseases. In her consultations with them, she also began asking how they were doing emotionally. A lot of her clients would burst into tears, or uncover emotional wounds. She knew that she had to do more with her practice and help her clients become healthy nutritionally and mentally.

SDH208: How to Develop Your Mindset & Determine Your Path with Candy Nelson

SDH207: How to Transition from Entrepreneur to CEO with Farissa Knox

SDH206: Being Patient, but Persistent with Your Dream

SDH205: How to Grow Your Dream Business with Cordova Pleasants

Hello friends! Happy Monday! Here we are again :)  In today's solocast I want to share the 5 reasons why I believe burn out can be a good thing. Now at first glance, you may be thinking, "How could burn out EVER be a good thing?!" Don't worry, I'm definitely not suggesting that you should strive for being burned out or stay being burned out for forever. I'm sharing how you can harness the experience of being burned out to make changes in your business long-term.  Being burned out.... 1. Helps you to identify what you value the most 2. Help you identify the pain of being burned out that you can then leverage in the future to avoid it. 3. Helps you to identify where you need to cut back 4. Helps you to identify what systems to implement 5. Helps you plan for the future and better to be able to identify when your next burn out might be and how to avoid it. Tune in to hear more of a deep dive! xo, Amanda

Hi beauties! On today's solocast I'm recapping She Did It Her Way Summit - What I learned, what it means for She Did It Her Way and next steps.  I'm talking about what my original intention was for the event and WHY, what next steps are for She Did It Her Way and what I'll be doing differently for the next one. Enjoy! xo,

SDH202: Making a Change and Becoming an Innovator with Laura Roeder

SDH201: Creating a Business Doing What You Love with Kendra Peterson

How do you plan to take control of an industry with your business? What would building a foundation for that scale of a business look like? We get into all of that with today’s guest, Jen Spencer, founder of Authority-Life! Authority-Life is an omni-present brand building company with public relations experts in social media, content building, and video editing. Their goal is to help entrepreneurs share their messages across various channels, and find their target audience. Authority-Life started when she was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, while working for a tech start-up in San Francisco. She was comfortable at her job, but felt like she was capable of doing more. So she began quietly building her own PR practice, and within a year she had built her side business into a company that supplied her with a six-figure salary! It was then she said she knew she had to make a decision between her full time job and Authority-Life. She loved working with the team, but knew it was time to pave her own path, and with the support of her own network of entrepreneurs, she took the leap. When she started her business, she knew she had to make a name for herself. San Francisco had an ample amount of start-ups, and entrepreneurs who needed help so she offered her expertise to them free of charge. Her services included ghost-writing, copy-writing, social media content building, and network and brand building. The work was long and time-consuming, but she loved the connections that she was making and the brainstorming process that the projects required. Being a writer as well, her creative home was in the art of story-telling, and she enjoyed coming up with different angles to convey that message.   One story that stuck with her was of a client who operated a marketing business in college. Over the course of his life, he had seven life-threatening heart conditions, and had to have open-heart surgery. To tell that story, and speak on his case studies within marketing, they went on numerous podcasts which they turned into blog posts, and an article in Forbes magazine. Some advice she offers to entrepreneurs building their brands is to experiment with platforms outside of Facebook, Instagram, and so forth. The best engagement comes from unique modes of sharing, and if done successfully, you can become a huge asset to that unrecognized platform. If you do share on the traditional social media platforms, make sure your content is varied. One of her favorite platforms is Instagram, and she said she makes sure to mix videos and clips with quotes and photos to sustain audience excitement. Hear more on how Jen continues to grow Authority-Life’s services and expands her team, learn where your audience lives, and what new platforms you can share your brand and story on! In this episode you will… Know how to combine services of an industry into your business so you can have a competitive edge Learn how to make a name for yourself and your company in order to build your reputation and network Know how to build a team that expands the services of your business and progresses it’s success Find where your target audience lives Hear about different ways you can mix up your content on sharing platforms to keep up audience engagement See how to find events that will help educate you as an entrepreneur INSIGHTS “In the beginning I was trying to do a lot of it on my own…but as the team grew…it’s been getting people with various skills, whether it’s video, social media, PR, [and people] that can really work well together as a team. That’s kind of how we build that omni-present authority, is really working together and not just working on one aspect.” –Jen Spencer “In terms of video and podcasting, there’s all these different ways of sharing your story. Don’t be afraid to experiment…a lot of great engagement comes from thinking outside of the box and not just sharing…on those standard platforms.” –Jen Spencer “I’m big on events… [I focus] on value, and not necessarily looking for big names, but more so [on] is there going to be actual strategies and takeaways that I can get a lot out of, and network with people that can really help grow my personal brand and business, and I can help them and add value to them.” –Jen Spencer “I told myself I’m gonna actively reach out to as many people as possible, and learn from as many people as possible…it’s a really good strategy to ask people how you can connect with them, help them, and to really get to know people and have other people you can support and support you on your journey. I found that with entrepreneurship, it can get pretty lonely…so that’s been a big thing for me, is taking that initiative.” –Jen Spencer RESOURCES Authority-Life Website Jen Spencer Instagram Jen Spencer LinkedIn School of Greatness by Lewis Howes All Things Social Media Facebook Group

How do you break into a career field that barely exists? What resources do you search for? Do you know where to search? Who to contact for guidance? Crosby Noricks has access to those answers! Crosby is the founder of PR Couture, which is the PR sourcebook for fashion and lifestyle communicators. With her business, she aims to support individuals, brands, and agencies with strategy building, job leads and finding business partners and collaborators. They also created the Bespoke Communications Awards, which focuses on recognizing overlooked, high performing players in the PR industry, such as the 2017 winners Rue La La and J Public Relations. Always having a passion and love for the fashion industry, she couldn’t have been more excited to find that she could mix her two loves of PR and fashion into a profitable career. Though when she began networking in the PR fashion industry, she found it hard to connect with the right people and find sources to learn from. So she took to the fashion blogging world with PR Couture and used her platform to shed light on the decisions being made, and the communication strategies being developed by the behind-the-scenes PR reps. Launching in 2006, she saw that most PR agencies only had an online Splash page with their phone numbers on them, and relied heavily on selling themselves through a cold call. Feeling like she was too introverted and nervous to let a phone call seal the deal, she networked and built her audience by hunting through LinkedIn and Google for PR reps in fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle. Via email she introduced her blog and asked them for some tips and tricks about navigating the industry, and what their work looked like in the day-to-day. She then used that material and advice for PR Couture’s posts. While running her blog, she still held a full-time position at a digital marketing agency, where she managed the social media department.  She used that role to further promote PR Couture by using conferences for the agency as a networking opportunity to gain knowledge on different social and digital marketing techniques; as well as community building centering through branding. With all the opportunities and intel she accumulated through building these relationships, she was able to self-publish a book in 2012 and began to career coach young entry-level talent on how to break into fashion PR. With these other platforms, she continues to help them set career goals, and connects them with PR professionals that she feels they’d clique with, and provide the best assistance to. Since she has added a job board and an agency directory, that has provided several strong internships and full-time positions at companies across the industry such as Greenlee Swim and Zoi Agency. This has kept them at the top of the search engine results for PR jobs in fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle; which has led to increased traffic and trust from visitors. Crosby has also launched an affordable entry-level course, called Prism, a 3-month online program that teaches personal branding, PR skills, and offers more guidance in career planning. Hear more about how Crosby continues to expand PR Couture brand, like with their new reality PR web series and helps young PR reps find their place in fashion!! In this episode, you will… Learn how to support newcomers in your field with your brand and company Find ways to build a network in your field See if your business’s brand will flourish with or without you as the face of it Understand the power of email acquisition, segmentation, and personal and professional support Know if your brand has one or multiple target audiences Figure out how to positively dismantle stigmas about your career with business and brand INSIGHTS “I had a lot of questions because when you learn about public relations in college it’s [a] very academic perspective…if you’re a girl sitting there with these big, big dreams of fashion, lifestyle, entertainment, you’re not getting a lot of useful information. I was just so curious. I wanted to know what the work actually looked like in the day-to-day, and so that’s really where the blog started.” -Crosby Noricks “There was no clear-cut path…the success that had happened was very masculine in approach…I started [PR Couture] because I wanted to share information, and I figured if there were people out there seeking this information like I was, I would take the lead…I will be the person to try to provide these answers.” -Crosby Noricks “There’s still this lingering perception that because fashion is considered to be a little bit superficial, that those who work in the industry are also superficial…[and] without depth, and that’s been something that I’ve really tried to challenge by featuring the stories, and insights, and boosting the credibility of many of the women that I know who work in the field…and giving them space in the site to showcase their thought leadership.” -Crosby Noricks RESOURCES PR Couture Website Crosby Noricks Profile PR Couture Facebook PR Couture Instagram PR Couture Twitter PR Couture LinkedIn The Living Room Strategy by Tara Gentile

How has your business bettered your lifestyle? Improved your mental and physical health? Or motivated you to put yourself, and your well-being first? For Lauren Benbassat a health scare prompted her and her husband to create Mele, which offers all-natural meal replacement smoothies loaded with ingredients like real fruits, nuts, vegetables, and whey protein. These ingredients are freeze-dried and crushed into a powder, and when you add water, you have a filling smoothie with all the benefits of a perfectly balanced nutritional meal. Her inspiration for Mele came about when she moved to New York from Florida to pursue a career in marketing. With nothing but her bags and determination, she grinded her way up the corporate ladder, and while success became the pay off, her health declined. After her early morning workouts, she would run head first into work, with only a coffee and office snacks to nourish her for the day. She said she became constantly exhausted because she never stopped to properly refuel her body with the nutrients she needed to sustain her active lifestyle. She noticed her husband, who was a corporate attorney, experiencing the same fatigue as he tried to cram a “healthy” lifestyle into his long and unpredictable work schedule, too. She started to feel her body changing and began gaining weight in her stomach and hips. She knew it was probably due to her poor diet and went to the doctor to get some blood work done. When she was told her cholesterol and triglyceride levels were through the roof, it gave her the jolt she needed to finally take action in correcting her diet. She started researching the ingredients inside her food, and found that a lot of products and ingredients were synthetic, didn’t meet any of the macro and micro nutrients that our bodies needed, and the foods that did weren’t flavorful. Committed to the goal of improving her health, she and her husband decided to take it upon themselves to create healthy meals that fit into their hectic world, and started to build Mele. Initially building their company for themselves, they were extremely dedicated on making a transparent brand with high quality ingredients. This mindfulness can be seen in the smallest of ingredients like their decision to include the powerful and natural brain food, sunflower lecithin. Most food products contain soy lecithin because it's cheaper. However, Lauren didn’t want to spend a dime on it because it is bad for our thyroids, which was a health issue for her mother. Another careful measure they took was making sure the protein used was grass-fed, hormone-free, and an isolate protein. The benefits of using isolate protein is that it's casein-free, so it doesn’t cause indigestion and irritate people who are lactose intolerance. They were also particular about sourcing, and created all of their recipes from scratch because they wanted their meals to have their personal touch. They contacted different produce manufacturers, and played with fresh ingredients to create balanced macro-nutritional meals that had the perfect carb-fat-protein ratio. This was a process that her husband took the reins of, while she focused on correcting the taste like suggesting peanut butter to add smoothness, or pineapple to cover up earthy flavors created by wheat and barley grass. Lauren also used her expertise in marketing and design to create the logo, website, and packaging, while also handling the company’s social media presence. As Lauren took charge of the creative, her husband handled Mele’s finances, inventory, as well as the liability and insurance aspects of the company due to his job as a corporate lawyer and his CPA in accounting. To see if their side passion had legs, they sent out anonymous samples and surveys to their family and friends as a form a market research. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and they gained the confidence to release their product on the mass market. After taking some of their savings and investing in a small product run, they found that they public loved their brand, too, and they quickly sold out. Since then, they have continued to grow as a business, and expanded into a company whose wholesome brand and packaging have attracted the likes of Anthropologie and Amazon! Though Mele has turned into a success and Lauren’s new full time job, it was painful for her to transition from corporate employee to entrepreneur because she truly loved her job. Mele wasn’t intended to become anything more than a hobby or side hustle, so the level of responsibility it began to demand was unexpected. Even though she was honest with her job about Mele’s conception from the beginning, she saw that they were sadden by her departure. Her coworkers became her family, so to say goodbye to them was emotional. What got her through that tough transition was remembering the chance her father took when he started his own business, too. Their family had to make several sacrifices when he left his corporate job, but as an adult she became inspired by his passion and belief in his dreams. With him and her husband as her support system, she knew she had to take that leap, and see what road her brand would lead her down. Her first day as an entrepreneur was overwhelming and daunting as the reality of her decision kicked in, but she picked up the phone, started asking questions, and figuring it all out one project at a time. Learn more about how Mele changed Lauren’s health and gave her confidence in her abilities to do something scary and succeed! In this episode you will… Learn how to break up the steps involved in starting a business Know how to leave a corporate job that you love to grow your company Learn how to launch and run a business with your significant other See how to add your own personal touch to your product Learn how to sell your brand to big companies and manufacturers with your story Find a way to produce a professional looking brand and product with a small budget INSIGHTS “You can’t compare yourself to brands that are already there, and you can’t look at this huge, massive picture of where you want to be. It’s good to have goals, but you still have to take one step at a time…” – Lauren Benbassat “Through the process my passions were pivoting…of course I can…keep this job that I know is there and I enjoy parts of it…but I think in the back of my mind, I would of always wondered what if my company could of gone somewhere…I’ll never know if I don’t try.” –Lauren Benbassat “I’m so much more capable than I realized. I’ve struggled with imposter syndrome where I think I don’t make qualifications, and I’m not good enough…but in launching a business it was just such a confidence boost that I think I really needed to prove to myself that I was able and I could figure anything out.” –Lauren Benbassat “Tell your story. I think a lot of our initial partners have just been really drawn to the story of the brand, and the concept, and it being something a little bit more innovative and new.” -Lauren Benbassat RESOURCES Mele Shake Website Mele Shake Facebook Mele Shakes Instagram Lauren Benbassat LinkedIn Lauren Benbassat Instagram The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss Staying Healthy with the Seasons by Elson Haas Women Code by Alisa Vitti A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson How I Built This Podcast with Guy Raz FounderMade Shopify OKReal

If you’re starting a business with a partner, how do you find where you’ll both thrive and stay productive? How will you be able to navigate your personalities? We get to hear all about this with Jenni Brown, who is the co-founder of Prim’d Marketing, along with Sophie Davis. Originally, Jenni did marketing for mid-size businesses in her early 20's, and ended up working for brands such as Samsung, Nabisco, and Pepsi. She was in love with the field of marketing and loved that she got to tap into her creative of side of writing, designing, and working on a team. However, she wasn’t in love with the practice of working so hard to make these huge brands money, and she said her work didn’t feel meaningful. She eventually left her job and decided to get her MFA in writing in order to transfer her creative skills to an artistic forum. She also got a side job handling the marketing sector at a boutique PR firm, which is where she met Sophie, who was in charge of cross promotion and strategy. The two found their groove with Jenni’s ability to come up with a brilliant marketing plan, and Sophie’s skill in taking that plan and finding the perfect collaborators, like bloggers and brands, to grow that strategy into a profitable opportunity. Unfortunately, the ladies found themselves without a job just before Christmas in 2013 due to the firm losing some important clients. During the following months, the duo ended up unintentionally freelancing together by recommending each other when hired onto projects. Soon they finally ended up deciding to go into business with each other, and Prim’d Marketing was born. They began by offering every service under the sun, with Sophie doing jobs like writing newsletters to managing social media accounts, and Jenni designing logos and making websites. Their first year allowed them to see what they did and didn’t like, and to build a monetary foundation. They soon whittled their services down to a Brand Plan, which was a plan that helped clients figure out what was unique about their brand and services, who their target audience was, and how to appeal to them in an authentic way. Initially the plan was free since their client’s needs tended to change quickly, and to charge for the plan proved to be wasteful for the client and frustrating for Prim’d. Now the Brand Plan has become the keystone to their business and forces clients to think through their ideas thoroughly, stay committed to them, and increase productivity by showing them that their time is valuable. As they built their business, they also had trouble with role overlap which led to a lot of frustration, and inefficiency. They had to learn how to distinguish their roles in order to effectively hone in on each other’s purposes and strengths to lead Prim’d in the right direction. Sophie began to take the lead as the business developer and tended to be the one who handled potential clients. Jenni stepped in as the CFO, and handled the systems of the company because she’s more left brained. Jenni found that her pitfall was that she threw to much of herself into Prim’d because she was so determined to get Prim’d off the ground. Her mind became so consumed with her business that she would be listening to her partner speak, but thinking about her clients. By the end of 2015, she felt fatigued by constantly having her brain occupied by Prim’d, and she saw how it was negatively affecting her business and relationships. They both had to learn how make time for the things that gave their life and brain rest and enjoyment outside of work, like shutting down for a month and traveling to Mexico and Africa! Here more about how Prim’d Marketing came to be in today’s episode! In this episode you will… Learn how to distinguish your role in your business when you have a co-founder Find out how to work with your co-founder by picking up on their habits and behaviors Figure out the best way to tweak your services to fit your client’s behavior and needs Begin to find the courage to charge for your time and services to show that your effort is valuable Start to balance your hustle flow with play time Know how to stay organized as a business in order to stay productive INSIGHTS “We started freelancing…and we found that we kept offering our skillsets together…[Sophie]’s sort of the other half of what I do…we decided to umbrella our skillsets to offer our clients the best of that creative, strategic, whimsical, fun so they could have the whole breadth of what they’re looking for.” –Jenni Brown “I think for people that are really just getting out there, there’s nothing wrong with putting as many irons in the fire as you can. And particularly if you’re just trying to get paid, there’s nothing wrong with doing all the things that are within your capacity to do, just to try it on and see what fits and what feels good.” –Jenni Brown “If you’re a driven ambitious person, when you have goals that you haven’t met yet it can be hard to say ‘That’s enough.’ Even though I may not be making the amount of money I want to be making…I don’t have the audience I wish that I had…I’m not putting out the offerings I had imagined…being able say that enough and I’m just going to shut it down for today…[for] whatever your alternative life is outside of your business…learn how to figure out balance in your life.” –Jenni Brown RESOURCES Prim'd Marketing Website Prim'd Marketing Facebook Prim'd Marketing Instagram Prim'd Marketing Twitter Jenni Brown LinkedIn Basecamp Contactually Quickbooks You Need a Budget The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu