Breaking Through: Recent Episodes
Erica Vander Sande
Welcome to Breaking Through, the podcast for freelancers dreaming of owning their own agency!
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Tune in to the latest episode of Breaking Through as we sit down with the incredible minds behind Oh Hello Design Co. đĽ Get ready for a deep dive into the art of overcoming burnout, mastering the art of setting boundaries in business, and discovering true contentment in your work. đŞâ¨
Join us for an inspiring conversation that will empower you to break through the barriers holding you back in your career or freelancing life. Whether you're an entrepreneur, freelancer, or simply seeking a healthier work-life balance, this episode is a must-listen!
Ready to transform your approach to work and well-being? Click the link in our bio to listen now! đ§â¨
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Join us for an eye-opening discussion as we delve into the captivating world of revenue strategies for agencies and freelance businesses. đď¸đź
đ Struggling with Revenue Consistency? If you find yourself riding the roller coaster of feast and famine in your business, this episode is a must-listen. We're breaking down the allure of chasing those exhilarating one-off projects versus the steady stream of recurring income.
đ° More Than Money Matters: It's tempting to celebrate the thrill of landing a high-paying, one-time gig, but is that the sustainable path? We explore why not all money is created equal and how long-term, loyal clients can outweigh the fleeting glamour of big projects.
⥠Unlock the Power of Upselling: Discover the untapped potential within your client relationships. When a client signs up for a one-off service, seize the moment to shine by showcasing your additional offerings and building a lasting connection.
đ A New Perspective on Profitability: Challenge yourself to examine your client roster through a fresh lens. You'll be surprised to find that those consistent, smaller-scale clients might be the true heroes of your revenue story, surpassing the occasional big spender.
đź Balancing Act: While we're not advising against one-off projects, we advocate for a diversified revenue approach. Learn from our experienceânearly a third of our revenue stems from one-off projects, but the lion's share flows from reliable, recurring services that keep cash flowing steadily month after month.
đŚ The Power of Packages: Ready to unlock the secret to recurring revenue? It's all about crafting value-packed service packages. Tune in to uncover how this approach not only nurtures enduring client partnerships but also evens out your income landscape, liberating you from the perpetual hunt for the next major project.
Don't miss out on this insightful episode that could revolutionize your revenue strategy. Tune in now and learn how to pave the way for financial stability and sustainable growth. đąđĄ
Subscribe now to our podcast for more enlightening discussions like this!
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We were honored to have Tiffany and Lauren of Online Restaurant Academy join us on today's pod! We chatted all things business ownership, how to make pivots based on changing circumstances, and navigating a male-dominated industry as a female business owner. Tune in to hear their stories and gain valuable insights from seasoned business owners who are crushing it and helping others do the same!
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When youâre just starting out, none of us know what to talk about during monthly client meetings! Today, letâs go through the basic building blocks of what we cover in our client marketing meetings.
The moment you start scaling an agency and adding people, you need to start building systems like this so everyone is executing tasks the same and youâre building brand consistency. Employees will come and go, so itâs important to make sure your client experience remains the same regardless of who a client is working with at any given time.
Before we jump into the list of what to cover, letâs first mention the importance of making sure you capture and document historical knowledge (aka TAKE NOTES before, during, and after your meeting!). This is critical - if someone new is stepping in to manage a client a year later, they need to have that background info and know whatâs been done, suggested, and discussed before so they donât end up talking in circles.
Hereâs what we cover in our monthly client meetings:
- Highs/lows of the previous quarter or month: make sure to acknowledge the things that arenât going well in order to build trust with clients and come with a plan of how to move forward.
- Take a holistic look: bring up all areas of marketing, even if youâre not the ones performing those areas - you want everything to be aligned for your clients whether or not itâs you who is executing it!
- Our services: these are the things within our control, so we dive in deep on how things are going and how we can continuously improve.
- Ask, âHow else can we help you?â This question could potentially expand services depending on your capabilities and the clientâs needs, but even if they canât afford more or youâre not the right fit, this is a chance to coach clients on how to get things done to support their business.
Lastly, we also want to address the elephant in the room: having a fear of client meetings. Itâs a real thing! Hereâs how to get over that fear: simply focus on the client, not on yourself - think about who the client is, how they need support, and how you can help them. Putting thought behind what a client needs and having the data to support how it can serve them will most of the time also lead to more projects for you and an increase in trust from the client. Win-win! A great way to support this is by asking about the clientâs personal life. When you form a relational bond, you can understand the client 10x better by knowing whatâs happening in their life, leading to you providing them with better services and resulting in a lasting relationship.
Listen in for more tips and start crushing your client meetings!
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Itâs time to get really vulnerable, yâall! Since the start of 2023, I had been making decisions out of ego rather than out of alignment - things felt right at the time, but if I had sat back and given myself space to think through things I might have done things differently. However, I now see that I needed to make those mistakes, learn from them, and use them as lessons to guide the brand new path Iâm on now.
When I was in the thick of my scarcity mindset, it was a domino effect of difficulty which I then had to face the consequences for in how I spent my time as well as how I felt in my work. I got in a dark spiral when we lost a good chunk of our clients and revenue, so I decided to insert myself more into the business and take on clients myself. In hindsight, that was a huge mistake!
I was a leader operating out of scarcity, but really what I needed to do was empower my team to run with the business, not tighten the reins I had on it. After several months of struggle, business therapy, and yes, a tarot card reading, I finally made a BIG pivot that is allowing me to find peace and alignment - I stepped out of the day-to-day of my business.
Rather than taking on work myself, I stepped into the CEO role of my business and started investing my time into growing a nonprofit Iâve cared about for a long time and empowering my team to run the business Iâve built because Iâve built it to operate mostly without me!
In summary, let me leave you with this: do the things that feel right even if they feel scary, too.
Listen in to hear about my journey and tell me if youâve been on a similar path!
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We recently had Rebecca Dollard, The Motherhood Mentor, as a guest speaker at our Northern Colorado business mastermind, The Mina Collective. She blew our minds talking about all things perfectionism, boundaries, and how to make them WORK for you.
Perfectionism is like driving a car that you can't trust the brakes or the gas. It is an INTERNALIZED shaming witness and critic. It destroys self-trust, safety, and peace when used in a harmful way
Most of us learned to HEAVILY rely on outside leadership to tell us what to do and not do. It's not just external validation; it's external permission and shame when we didn't get it just right. A BIG part of healing the relationship with ourselves is learning to find INTERNAL permission, validation, and leadership - and know when and who has the power and influence
When we trust our boundaries, our âyesâ comes from overflow and not resentment. Our perfectionism can be gas to drive our ambition and desires and impact when we trust that our âyesâ is true and in integrity - we get to trust our ambition and enjoy the payout.
When we live in self-leadership, self-authority, and sovereignty, we trust our lives and ourselves to navigate what life throws at us. We stay grounded and unshakable when âbalanceâ is laughable. We donât need the road or conditions to be perfect to stay in our values and direction.
What would it look like to heal the relationship to you?
When it comes to perfectionism, donât let the glimmers become the guilt. Let your guilt become glimmers of the direction of your desires and values. This is part of you so that it can create goodness for you and others. You can learn to trust this part of you. Create boundaries so that your ambition and desire to heal and improve can be a gift and not a punishment you carry.
Listen in for tips and words of inspiration to overcome the burden of perfectionism and set boundaries that help you fully live!
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AIâŚthe two letters youâve probably heard way too many times recently! We know itâs all the rage right now, but listen closely; itâs for good reason! As a marketing agency, we have been diving head-first into the world of AI and how we can use it to help not only ourselves but our clients as well. Today, letâs chat about some of the basics:
-Identifying & shifting your mindset around AI
-Basic marketing copy & how AI can help
-How you can use AI for admin & business support
Mindset:
When you hear the term âAI,â do you want to just plug your ears and pretend it doesnât exist? We get it! AI can feel inaccessible for a lot of industries, but weâre here to tell you itâs not. We often hear peoplesâ hesitations around things like plagiarism, inaccessibility, or feeling overwhelmed by it all, which are all valid concerns that can be squashed once you fully understand how these technologies work.
Our top tip to get started: identify what feels hard in your business & what you hate to do and find an AI platform to help you with those things! Look for platforms that are specific for your niche or the tasks youâre hoping to accomplish, there are AI platforms designed specifically for almost every industry and need so youâll surely find something to take advantage of.
We also recommend using multiple platforms; different platforms have different abilities and benefits, so itâs useful to play around and see how you can mix and match the content youâre creating.
Marketing:
So, how can you use AI to help with your marketing? The sky is the limit!
One great place to free up time is by using AI for landing pages or website updates - whenever your business shifts (which it does constantly, right?), AI can be a tool to make those updates so much simpler and more efficient for you.
Launches are another incredibly time-consuming task that can be sped up significantly by using AI. When you launch a new product, service, or program, there is a LOT of copy that needs to be created (think: email marketing, social media captions, ad copy, website updates), and AI can easily pull all the pieces together.
If youâre an agency owner who is fearful of what AI may mean for your business, donât be afraid; we as marketers can do things faster and increase our productivity by harnessing the power of AI, so no, itâs not putting marketers out of work! Plus, itâs saving our clients time and money as well. Win-win!
Business:
Now, letâs take a look at how AI can help you on the business front! AI can do a lot of tasks that you might typically hire a VA for, saving you major time and payroll costs. Here are a few examples of what weâve used it for: job descriptions & titles, outlines, refining drafts, email responses, task management, business forecasting, and so much more!
Tips:
Weâll be honest with you, getting the most out of AI takes some practice! You have to teach the software how to serve you best and iterate; it likely wonât be perfect on the first try, so keep adding nuances and specifications to get what youâre wanting out of it. (Hot tip: once youâve gotten the software to create what you were looking for, ask it âHow should I prompt you in the future to write XYZ like this?â so you can save yourself even more time next time!)
One last note before we leave you: you canât just set it and forget it - AI still takes some oversight, editing, and finessing in order for it to turn out right, so make sure youâre still putting in the work on your end, too!
Platforms we recommend:
ChatGPT
Perplexity
Grammarly
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Time freedom is not found, itâs gained! That means yes, you have to put in WORK to acquire it - and thatâs what weâre talking about today.
The very first step towards time freedom is fully understanding your finances - you need to be clear on how much your business is making and how much your expenses are, otherwise you canât make a plan for all the mini milestones that allow you to build your business. Understanding when you can afford to hire a contractor & how much margin you need to make that happen helps you to plan for your growth and map out your trajectory to get there.
Your first hire should be someone who has complementary skills to yours, meaning they can pick up the slack where you might tend to struggle! Come up with a list of things youâre not good at or donât enjoy doing (pro tip: luteal phase is a great time to do this!!), list out how much time those things typically take you, and do a financial forecast to come up with how much extra revenue you need to hire that extra person.
Once you have that first person, your next hire should be a mini you - thatâs what allows you to step back even further and take time off when you need or want to. Train them behind the scenes to do things similar to how you would do them so you can seamlessly hand off tasks and itâll feel like you didnât skip a beat.
You have to forecast and plan for your dreams - otherwise, theyâll live and die on a Pinterest board. Tune into the full episode for details on how to plan and execute the life youâve been desiring as a business owner so you can stop trading so much of your time for money!
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Mom, wife, friend, boss, business ownerâŚall the titles and roles can make your head spin! Our family just had 2 months of back-to-back kid sicknesses (yes, 2 whole months!!) that forced me into taking a step back in my businessâŚbut the only way I was able to do that is by following a few exercises to simplify my business that I lean into when it gets overwhelming.
First things first, focus on the people in your life that need you - those sick babies need your love and attention and you deserve a little TLC yourself! Step into that role and outsource anything else you can in your business that itâs not critical YOU do yourself (side note: this is why SOPs are so important!).
If youâre a solopreneur or donât have the ability to outsource, simplification looks like only focusing on the tasks that directly bring you money. Itâs OK to hit pause on the things that donât currently bring you a ton of revenue - you can always push play once life slows down a bit. But for the time being, you need to keep making money while opening up some space in your life, so focusing on your money-makers is where itâs at.
This is why itâs so important to make it a priority to start building up a support team so you have the flexibility to step back when you need to - if itâs just you, it can be a lot trickier to take a step back!
The main takeaway that I want you to leave with is that times of necessary âmom dutyâ require you to streamline, focus on the revenue, and put your attention on you and your babies.
If you want to build a team that supports this kind of lifestyle, reach out! I offer a few different coaching opportunities to help you build your team and business processes so you can have a business that doesnât require YOU to be in it day in and day out.
https://theminacollective.com/coaching/
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From the very beginning, all Iâve wanted to do is serve business owners - I hear from a lot of female entrepreneurs and business owners when we release these podcast episodes, and we came up with this new service offering from the feedback Iâve been receiving from YOU.
Weâve noticed over the last several months that many of the businesses we serve are getting hit pretty hard by the wavering state of the economy. Weâve seen consumers start holding a little tighter to their wallets and itâs been impacting some of our clients in ways that make them need to reevaluate how theyâre spending their own marketing dollars. And guess what? We encourage that! (What? A marketing agency telling people itâs OK to trim back on marketing?!) The one thing we want to make sure of is that youâre doing this smartly and strategically, that youâre not cutting off your sources of clients (because thatâs what will pull you OUT of the financial struggle!).
We want to come alongside you and help you figure out what you should do based on your budget, team, & resources so youâre not stuck paying a marketing agency to do every little thing. Enter: our new monthly CMO service, "Grounded."
We can create a strategic plan of how to get things done given the resources you have and help hold your feet to the fire to make sure itâs actually getting done. Our monthly CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) service helps answer questions like:
-Can you show me examples of how this should look?
-How do I do XYZ?
-Will you take a look at what weâve put together and provide feedback/suggestions?
-Who on my team should I delegate this task to?
-What is the wisest way to spend my marketing budget this month?
Weâll meet with business owners (and their teams!) 2 times per month to help answer questions, make plans, and pull all the pieces together so you can execute your own marketing. Itâs truly like hiring an expert-level CMO without having to put another person on payroll!
Let us help you tap into the resources you have & utilize them most effectively. Learn more on our website or message us on social media to hear the deets!
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FINALLY all this juicy goodness thatâs been living in my brain is out in the world!! This course has existed in my head for over a year now because I KNOW itâs something the world of female business ownership needs, and I finally found the time to put it all together into a self-paced super-course for YOU.
I learned about cyclical alignment from a past coach several years ago and Iâve always worked with business coaches, but those worlds always seemed to live very separately - until I had an âahaâ moment when I realized how truly intertwined those two worlds are!
Understanding how you deal with work and life situations based on what your hormones are doing is CRITICAL to building the life, business, and relationships you want; theyâre all intertwined whether we like it or not!
I believe that as a business owner, you have a responsibility to show up as your best self and you canât do that if youâre not honoring your energy. Thatâs why I created this course, to allow you to step into your best self both in business and in life.
This incredible, self-paced course covers:
-Cycle alignment basics
-Exercises to dream BIG
-Planning & applying dreams to your business
-How your financials & promotions support your dreams
-Creating a task/to-do list based on your cycle phases
-25+ page interactive workbook to piece your own plan together
-BONUS: my monthly checklist & CEO day plan
Tune in to learn more & hear how I apply these concepts to my own everyday life - I promise, itâs a game-changer!
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Being on the other side of your evolution is awesome, but getting there is extremely anxiety-provoking!
I often go into an anxiety spiral when Iâm staring down a scary scenario in my business - it feels like itâs going to be the end of me, but it never is. Weâre often told to go for our big dreams and get uncomfortable, but do we talk about how to support ourselves and one another in that discomfort? Additionally, are we talking about what happens when taking those risks doesnât turn out how we planned?
Iâve experienced that discomfort and anxiety a lot over the last few months, and Iâve developed a toolbelt that helps get me through & regulate my system. Hereâs what has helped me in this quest to go big while battling the anxiety that arises:
-Getting alone time
-Soaking in a tub or float tank
-Movement (I highly recommend buti yoga!)
-Meditation
-Reduce your cell phone usage
-Hemp seed oil & magnesium
-List making (do, dump, delegate)
-Looking to future excitements
This isnât an exhaustive list by any means, but these are the things that really helped regulate me and get me through these last few months. Save this in your back pocket to bust out when you feel your body reacting to stressful situations.
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Today weâre joined by Mimi, our social media lead at The Mina Company, who is sharing her latest tips and updating us on the recent changes to the landscape of social media.
In the last several months there have been some BIG changes in social media, especially the Instagram algorithm update in September that impacted views & engagement for creators and businesses across the board. To help combat the negative implications that these changes could have, Mimi shared a few ideas to boost engagement:
- Prioritize original audio & content over jumping on a trend (Tip: keep original audio less than 30 seconds!)
- Engagement is key; use CTAs and incentivise people to interact with your account
- The big numbers donât matter as much as you think they do; going viral is overrated compared to gaining a slow, steady, loyal following
Weâre also learning the importance of growing in your individual niche rather than accumulating a mass following, as this leads to more actual growth in your business at the end of the day! In this episode, Mimi shared 3 tips to get started on social media if youâre a business just starting out or just starting to take the world of social media marketing seriously.
At the end of the day, we want to help you optimize how you use social media (and the time you spend creating content!) by focusing on what works, who you are, and what YOU like to do (because yes, that matters!).
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Have you ever sat down to plan out your sales, promotions, or events and ended up just staring at a blank screen for hours? Or, better yet, have you never even tried to plan ahead and have just been winging it every time?
Friend, this is your chance to reduce that anxiety and set yourself up for success by planning promotions for the next quarter or year ahead of time! Promotions go hand-in-hand to support your financials, a.k.a. how your business continues to live, so theyâre an essential part of any successful business.
We encourage people to plan their promotions a little differently than you might think; rather than basing it solely on financial goals, we recommend planning the specific dates of your promotions around your personal life - if your calendar is packed, you wonât have time to dedicate to that promotion to make it run smoothly. Plan financials first so you have a roadmap of how you can support those goals, but use your personal life and cyclical map to guide the specifics - youâll be amazed at how smoothly it can come together!
Tune in to learn how to identify your marketing platforms, set deadlines, plan it out week by week, and put it in your calendar to set yourself up for your best year yet.
Download our Marketing Promotions Planner: https://bit.ly/promo-planner
Download our Financial Forecasting Guide: https://bit.ly/fin-forecast
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We all make mistakes, and talking about them (which is rare in our society) makes them take less hold over our lives. In order to grow, you have to fail and make mistakes and thereâs no reason we should hide those things!
I believe in failing hard and failing fast - when I fail, I want to fail while striving for something big and awesome. My business and I have had a lot of failures recently and itâs because weâre stretching and striving for growth and, as much as the failures suck, weâre able to pick ourselves back up and keep going. No, Iâm not superwoman - I just decided Iâm not going to be so hard on myself and instead Iâm going just pivot and move forward. The decision to pivot doesnât happen overnight, you need to process the hurt for a minute and decide how to move forward. Here are the steps I follow to help me find how and where to pivot after a failure:
-Take care of your body
-Movement
-Have people around you who you trust
-Realize we all have to fail
-Know & analyze your finances
-Itâs OK to just take the day
Listen in, give yourself some grace, and try these tips out to overcome your next failure because guess what? Itâll come whether you like it or not!
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Todayâs episode is about something Iâve never really wanted to share aboutâŚlearning hard lessons.
Learning lessons is great once youâre past them, but they still hurt in the moment (a lot!). Itâs so tough to feel caught in that âugh, if only I had knownâ feeling.
Iâve run into some circumstances recently that have made me realize that I could have done things better, reaffirming the fact that I am still a work in progress; I donât know all the answers, and these are the humbling experiences that prove that to be true.
All this yuck and heaviness led me to thinkâŚwhat if we thanked the failure?
We tend to move pretty quickly to forgiveness, but getting all the way to thankfulness is a whole other ballgame. Maybe instead of trying to resist the thing that knocks us down and move on from it immediately we instead put it directly in front of us and really observed it and took something from it.
This next-level version of me is going to have to learn how to respond to these types of failures at a more rapid pace; maybe this is a test from the universe saying, âdo you actually want what youâre attracting?â Focusing on gratitude during the moments that are hard calls in this growth and clarity that has felt really important to me as Iâve been wrestling with this recently.
Tune in to ponder alongside me and ask yourself what would happen if you looked at your mistakes and failures with a sense of gratitude.
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I plan my time out a year in advance - while that might sound crazy, trust me when I say itâs a complete life changer!
Now, I donât plan out every minute (obviouslyâŚ), but I DO block off times in my calendar for specific things that I know I need to plan in advance, or else theyâll never get done.
What are these things I plan out so far in advance, you ask? Honestly, Iâd encourage you to keep track of EVERYTHING in your calendar; not just your business meetings and doctor's appointments, but your mommy/daughter dates, happy hour with friends, and financial dates.
Itâs important to plan out the things that will bring me energy. That means self-care, rest, family time, you know, all the things we are tempted to skip when things get busy. But we canât skip these essentials because theyâre what keep us from burning out!
This weekâs episode walks you through how to do an annual audit (looking back) and plan for the year ahead (looking forward). Bust out your color-coding, weâre getting down to business!
For your reference, here are the categories to create mentioned in this podcast:
-Work
- Development hours
- Meetings
- Finances
- Marketing
- Networking
-Personal
- Self-care
- Relationships
- Fun & vacations
- Volunteering
- Books
Listen in for step-by-step details on how to do your own audit and plan for your most abundant year yet!
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Dreaming big - we as women tend to have a hard time letting ourselves do it in the daylight. We often dream in the dark of night and keep our big dreams secret rather than putting it out into the universe. But dreams deserve that respect!
Iâm at a point where Iâm wondering âwhatâs next?â A lot of the things I had aspired to I have achieved (which is awesome!), but it has left me a little stuck as to what to reach for after this. I have been gathering visions of what the next level looks like, so Iâve been making some serious Pinterest vision boards recently.
I think we need to be better at sharing our ambitions, so today Iâm going to share mine!
Iâve built my marketing agency to a point where it mostly runs itself, and although there is still plenty of room for growth, it will just take time. So rather than twiddling my thumbs, Iâm branching out and living out the other visions that I have!
Weâre starting The Mina Collective, a female-centric co-working space in Fort Collins, Colorado. There is an incredible community of female business owners in Northern Colorado that are so connected and helpful, and Iâve attended so so many networking events with these amazing women. However, networking events donât allow the opportunity for deeper connection, strategy, advice, and mentorship. We needed a vessel through which we could actually support one another in tangible ways and make real differences in our businesses.
Itâs time we owned up to our dreams and helped each other to make them happen! Listen in to hear more and start speaking your dreams out into the world.
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Iâm drawn to social media because it feels like it gives me inspiration to see what other people are doing. However, over the last several months Iâve discovered that it might actually be doing the opposite! This is what led me to a big decision: I deleted the social media apps from my phone.
Now, this isnât an easy decision in this day and age; I would tell myself that âI need itâ because Iâm a business owner and I needed to stay on top of our clients, our community, and all the things. But the thing about being a consumer of social media is that it makes us start questioning the way we do things, doubting ourselves and whether weâre doing âenough.â
I deleted social media from my phone and have been using my computer to check social media to minimize that dopamine hit and the endless scroll. Let me tell youâŚitâs been liberating!
And listen, I understand this isnât fully possible for everyone. A lot of us need to manage social media for our jobs, but we have to check in with ourselves on how much weâre consuming it. You have to be careful with how much creativity you let in because it prevents you from focusing on your own creativity.
Tips to minimize your social media consumption:
- Use an app that tracks your social media time
- Use a scheduling app
- Use your desktop instead of your phone
Try it out for a few weeks for yourself and see how much mental space it opens up!
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Today Iâm sharing my favorite secret in business growth that I wish more people had told me about when I first got started - money mindset & manifestation!
And yes, Iâm listing them in that order for a reason; before we get to manifesting money, we have to first focus on our money mindset.
All of us have a mindset around money that was formed in both our childhood and adult experiences, and thatâs where we have to start when it comes to reshaping those beliefs. I had to write out all of my money stories (both good and bad) that have impacted my life to determine where my money mindset and the issues with it originated. This is a great exercise to try because it becomes so obvious! Of COURSE you believe these things, youâve never seen another way! Look for themes and how did those translate or overcorrect in your adult life?
Once you have an awareness and understanding of whatâs going on, thatâs where you can move forward and THATâS where money manifestation comes in.
Any time youâre manifesting something, you have to think of it as a relationship; I think of money as my best friend (and yes, I realize that might sound weird at first but hear me out!). How do you treat your best friend? You spend time with them, you invest in them, you have a mutual trust that you donât have to fear theyâll just disappear.
What is your relationship with money like? Is it flourishing? Is it full of turmoil? Personally, if I donât pay attention, I can treat it like a dark secret that I donât want to think about or acknowledge; and thatâs what Iâm working on changing!
Write out what you want that relationship to look like. What words do you find yourself saying about money?
Where you are focusing your time, attention, and thoughts, thatâs where your energy shifts.
When embarking on your money manifesting journey, goal setting is a must. Big, audacious goals are lovely and necessary; but also make some bite-sized goals that you can tackle along the way. Based on that goal, how are you treating your relationship with money to get there? How does that break down into small steps you take with money each week?
And finally, what does it look like when you DO hit those goals? What do you do? Who do you tell? Because the celebration is just as much a part of the journey!
Listen in for examples, details, and tips on how to start your own money mindset & manifestation journey!
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As a service-based business, scaling up from remote work to an office space or adding team members and learning how to budget for it can feel daunting to say the least!
Iâve learned so many lessons along the way in entrepreneurship and made some mistakes that I want to help YOU avoid! Today, weâre diving into why financials matter and discussing some practical tips on how to take charge of your finances and feel confident in growing your business.
Tip 1: How you price yourself is dependent on your mindset, so there are some big questions you need to ask yourself; Whatâs the big vision for your business? Do you still see it being around in 10 years? Itâs tough to do, but you have to price yourself now to prepare for your big dreams. When you have an idea of where youâre going, it gives you a much better roadmap of how to get there.
Tip 2: You have to understand your finances; sticking your head in the sand wonât help you (in fact, itâll most likely hurt you in the long run!). Stop guessing whether you can afford something, start writing checks for your growth in confidence. How do you get started in this? Seek out professional help! Find people who can help you get ahold of your finances and create budgets & financial forecasts.
Tip 3: Make a list of all of the expenses in your business - subscriptions, marketing materials, ad spend, etc. to determine what your overhead is at different rates.
Next, create a list of what is costs to have clients - proposal softwares, email systems, etc. that you only have because you have clients.
The overall cost of these expenses should be 30% of your pricing apiece; this is what we call the âRule of Thirds:â overhead, COGS, & income (includes taxes & saving) should each get â of your total revenue.
None of us are taught this, which can make it tricky to figure out! But youâre not in this alone; listen in, reach out for help, and watch your business soar.
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When was the last time you truly, intentionally rested?Â
As entrepreneurs, we easily get caught up in hustle mode (in fact, many of us feel like we THRIVE in it!), but we struggle when it comes to slowing down and getting quiet with ourselves.Â
This summer, I entered into a season of choosing fun over work, and let me tell you, it re-energized me and gave me SUCH greater vision and room to dream.
As a business owner, giving yourself space and peace is what allows you to envision what the next stage of your business looks like and how you can grow. When youâre caught up in anxiety and the stress of the day-to-day, itâs easy to stay there and let your business just coast without intentional growth.Â
So hereâs my challenge to you: carve out time to find real rest! And once youâve had time to rest, figure out how you can take that energy into your business without launching too hard and fast into busyness.
Whatâs the common thread between successful CEOs? They have the ability to daydream.
Iâm not talking about dreaming of whatâs for dinner that night or about what happened on âThe Bachelorâ yesterday, but dreaming about what the future looks like for their business, their family, their employees, their communityâŚ
Visualization & manifestation has been an absolute game-changer in my own business. The goal is to see your vision of the future so clearly in your mind that youâre convinced of where youâre going - it doesnât matter if others donât see it as long as you do (it doesnât even matter if that little voice inside your head is telling you itâs not possible).
My own vision is of what happens when my business hits that half a million mark; itâs not me rolling in a pile of money. I visualize all the women our business has impacted at that point and the trickle effect that it has within their own families and communities. You have to find a vision that brings you PURPOSE and chase after it.
If youâre new to visualization & manifestation, here are some quick tips to get started:
-Start a timer, even just 5 or 10 minutes, to start dreaming about your future that makes you incredibly proud.
-Make a detailed list of what you see in your vision - what clothes are you wearing? Where are you?
-Based on that dream, what can you do right now to get a little closer to it being real?
-Start making plans of what you need for that dream to be possible; financial needs, free time, lifestyleâŚ
-Visualize who you want in your life - business connections, friendsâŚwho is standing next to you?
Tune in for more tips on how to manifest your way to being the CEO youâve always wanted to be.
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When you bring up the terms âbear marketâ or ârecession,â a lot of people want to just avoid the topic altogether. Business owners donât want to think about it until they absolutely have to, but this head-in-the-sand approach creates a scenario where you have to be reactive rather than proactive and preparedâŚand thatâs not a great place to be!
In this episode, weâre going to help you create a plan and feel SECURE in your business, no matter what the market does or how your industry changes.
You donât have to come up with a buttoned-up plan or completely restructure your business in a bear market, but this is the time to take a step back and look at the changes happening in your industry. NOW, before sh*t hits the fan, is the time to plan out how to market and/or pivot your business going into a recession and adjust to the changing climate.
Step 1 is to create a threshold for survival; essentially, get an idea of how much revenue your business needs to survive at the bare minimum.
Next, weâre going to make a variety of worst-case scenario plans: what happens when business goes down 10%, 20%, 50%? Make an A, B, and C plan for these scenarios so you have a solid plan of what to do if these situations arise!
-What expenses can you trim back?
-Who do you have working for you and who do you need at different levels of business?
-What additional tasks do YOU need to take on without driving yourself into the ground?
Why do we do this? To help our brains feel SAFE. If the worst-case scenario does happen, you already have a plan, a safety net of how youâll survive and you donât have to go into panic mode.
Another aspect to evaluate during a bear market or recession is your marketing; look, I know we run a marketing agency so this might seem a bit biasedâŚbut PLEASE donât eliminate marketing until you absolutely have to!
Marketing is like your main source of food for your business; why would you cut off the source thatâs feeding you? It might seem like you should spend less on marketing during a recession, but large companies actually DOUBLE their marketing budget during recessions; why? Advertising becomes cheaper, thereâs way less competition, and thereâs a HUGE opportunity to gain ground in the market!
Here are some ideas of how to take advantage of marketing in a bear market:
-Create evergreen ads that you can turn off/on
-Turn up/down your ad spend depending on how much business youâre in need of
-Take advantage of low/no-cost networking and marketing opportunities!
Itâs as simple as this: you canât turn off your marketing and expect your business to grow.
Lastly, think about how your clients and customers are working through these same things; look into what their pain points and struggles are and utilize their language and their mindset to get their attention.
Tune in to the full episode for more tips and information on how to best prepare your business for any upcoming recession.
Need help putting together a plan? Download our free bear market guide at theminacompany.com/bear-market-guide-freebie/
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When I started my marketing agency, there was one big lesson the universe taught me: you have to put yourself out there. You canât start a business in the dark and expect it to flourish.
Nothing is going to be perfect when you first start (or ever!!), and those of us in the marketing world can easily get caught up in the perfectionism of it all. Itâs less about those details and much more about having the confidence to go out there and ask for what you want.
In this episode, Iâm going into the nitty gritty details of how I created relationships, added clients, and ultimately grew my business!
- Kill the perfectionism voice in your head - sheâs not helping you, sheâs only holding you back!
- Be vulnerable & tell your story - connecting with people personally is a beautiful basis to start a healthy working relationship.
- Everyone in your life needs to know what youâre doing - donât hide it! Tell your aunt, the guy at the smoothie shop, anyone and anywhere that it naturally comes up in conversation (and no, we donât mean jumping into the DMâs of your old high school acquaintances and âsellingâ yourself)
- Volunteer for what youâre passionate about - the relationships youâll create through volunteering are with the most well-connected, giving people in the world that you want to have in your back pocket
- Network & attend events that you feel natural going to - and only during the phases of your cycle when you have the energy to do so.
- Ask for referrals - the clients you enjoy working with are connected to others like them, so itâs an excellent way to expand your business with clients you actually like!
Tune in to hear more about how I added clients and the lessons I learned along the way.
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Today weâre talking about something Iâm sure youâve seen in quotes all over Instagram, heard in motivational speeches, heck, maybe itâs even on your coffee mug: Doing the next big thing before youâre ready.
Even though weâve all heard it before, have you ever stopped to think: what would this look like in my life right now? What have I been holding off on because Iâm scared?
We can tend to sabotage ourselves by asking the dreaded question: âWhat if?â
And if you ask me, there are two types of people in this crazy business world: people who set the âwhat ifâ aside and do it anyway and others who let the âwhat ifâ eat them up.
In my experience with my own business, every time weâve experienced growth it was the result of taking one big, uncomfortable leap. Our business is growing a lot right now, but every time we take on another contractor it still feels really uncomfortable. It never gets easier, but I can look back at my track record and see that these big leaps are what let us grow even more.
So, how do you push past the fear and dive in anyway? Itâs not by just throwing caution to the wind and jumping in blindly; the best way to move forward with confidence is by strategically making educated decisions on how to get to your next step.
Tune into the episode to hear how I grew my agency one scary step at a time and how I had to grow accustomed to the idea of failure. Part of trying is failing, but I donât let my brain get stuck there; theyâre lessons that guide me on what to do differently next time.
Resources:
The Ed Mylett Show
The Power of One More by Ed Mylett
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In todayâs episode, weâre diving into two real-life client personality assessments and how we interpret that information (combined with the magic of cycle syncing) to create marketing strategies customized to a business ownerâs strengths and weaknesses.
Using these personality evaluations, we can also make informed assumptions about working with certain clients, anticipating roadblocks and issues that might come up before they arrive as well as predicting which clients have the potential to be big, high-paying accounts and which donât - and both are OK!
This is something that we wish we had known YEARS ago, having the ability to really learn about and get to know clients before we take them on. These are the things that you typically donât realize until youâve lived it and learned it firsthand, but having the opportunity to get a birdâs-eye view beforehand really gives you a leg up to creating long-lasting, successful relationships with your clients.
Teaching our own internal team about their own personalities and educating them on cycle syncing has also been a game-changer in our own business! It has been a crucial step in creating a well-rounded team that keeps everyone balanced, in check, and as efficient as possible.
Tune in to hear real-life applications and takeaways that you can apply to your own business!
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Have you ever gotten a new client and you just got a weird vibe right from the beginning? As business owners, we can tend to ignore the red flags and just take on the client anyway - clients are clients, right?
We have made these mistakes and always ended up with regrets - a project went over schedule, over budget, or just ended poorly. Once we were introduced to the world of personality evaluations, it was like a lightbulb went off in our heads: we could pre-screen our potential clients (as well as our prospective hires!) to make sure it will be a good working relationship for everyone involved!
Assessments:
Personality Plus:
We use this test we use most when hiring, as it evaluates a personâs core personality
- Sanguine: extroverted, talkers, optimists, appealing personality, naturally attract relationships, go with their gut, naturally curious, creative
- Melancholy: introverted, thinker, pessimist, deep & thoughtful, artistic, self-sacrificing, love charts & graphs, perfectionist, schedule-oriented
- Choleric: extroverted, the doers, optimistic, question everything, unemotional, independent, confident, organized, delegator
- Phlegmatic: introvert, watcher, pessimist, peaceful, easy-going, collected, patient, consistent, quiet but witty, sympathetic
Predictable Success:
This evaluation is like a blueprint for leaders who are looking for sustainable growth.
- Visionary: big thinkers, charismatic, deeply loyal, passionate, hate routine, comfortable with ambiguity
- Synergist: comfortable in group environments, high emotional intelligence, read individuals & groups well, persuasive without being manipulative
- Operator: doers, task-oriented, easily bored by meetings, like to work alone, donât like to be micro-managed
- Processor: focus on underlying systems/processes, rational, analytical, logical, objective, love routine, dislike risk
Positive Intelligence:
This test is all about how you sabotage yourself and how it translates into your work & personal life.
- Avoider: focus on the positive and pleasant in an extreme way; avoid difficult and unpleasant tasks and conflicts.
- Controller: anxiety-based need to take control of situations and peopleâs actions; high anxiety and impatience when that is not possible.
- Hyper-Achiever: dependent on constant performance & achievement; can have unsustainable workaholic tendencies.
- Hyper-Rational: Intense and exclusive focus on the rational processing of everything; can be perceived as uncaring or intellectually arrogant
- Hyper-Vigilant: Continuous intense anxiety about all the dangers and what could go wrong; vigilance that can never rest.
- Pleaser: try to gain affection & acceptance; can lose sight of one's own needs & become resentful
- Restless: constantly in search of greater excitement in the next activity; rarely at peace or content
- Stickler: perfectionism, a need for order & organization; can be irritable, tense, and highly critical
- Victim: emotional and temperamental as a way to gain attention and affection; an extreme focus on internal feelings, particularly painful ones.
Resources:
Personality Plus by Florence Littauer
Predictable Success by Les McKeown
The Synergist by Les McKeown
Positive Intelligence by Shirzad Chamine
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The absolute worst thing: You booked a networking event a few weeks back; The day of the event is here and youâre on your period, you have no energy, and you simply just DONâT want to be there. Sound familiar?
I spent YEARS fighting to work against my cycle and my bodyâs natural rhythms and let me tell youâŚitâs rough! Our world was designed with a manâs 24-hour cycle in mind, but as women, we have a 28-day cycle that dictates our energy, focus, and strengths on any given day. The solution? Cycle syncing!
Cycle syncing is a way of tuning into and embracing the different phases of your cycle so that you can utilize your cycle to work FOR you rather than fighting against it. Sounds pretty dreamy, right?! Itâs not as woo-y as it may sound and itâs not that challenging either; in fact, once you start embracing your feminine flow and energy youâll realize that it actually makes life and work a lot easier!
As a business owner, cycle syncing can totally transform how you support your business and your team. In todayâs episode, Iâll teach you the basics of how to determine your feminine and masculine energy, take advantage of the peaks and valleys of your energy & focus, and batch your work to make the most out of your cycle.
Need a quick overview of the phases of your cycle & how they play into your business? Look no further!
Menstrual: a time to slow down & rest; this is when ideas flow!
Follicular: energy is building; the time to make plans & schedule, carry out new ideas
Ovulatory: your energy is at its peak; the time to be seen & be social
Luteal: energy is dropping; the time to wrap things up & finish projects
Listen in for more tips and tricks on how to best utilize each phase of your cycle and optimize your energy!
Resources referenced:
âIn the Flowâ by Alissa Vitti
Loomly social media scheduler
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Welcome to the Breaking Through Podcast!
Iâm Erica: agency owner, girl mom, and ultimate pep squad for female business owners.
Iâm starting this podcast to teach you the actuals of how to start a marketing agency.
Learn how to start your own successful marketing agency and strategically outsource immediately - yes, that means you donât have to do everything on your own, even as youâre just starting out!
This episode is all about me (yikes!), but I think itâs important for me to tell my story despite the discomfort I feel in recording a full episode about myself! I love learning about other people, hearing their stories, and discovering how they accomplished what theyâve done. So today Iâm documenting my own journey into entrepreneurship; itâs one riddled with trauma and grief but also with so much joy and growth.
If youâre interested in hearing how one agency owner got started, tune in!
Links mentioned:
1:1 Freelancer to Agency Owner Coaching
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