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The Hustle and Heart of "Oh Hello's" Natalie Micale · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Warning that due to some language and subject matter, listener discretion is advised.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: Beyoncé Knowles once said, if there's one thing I'm willing to bet on, it's myself.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: My next guest shares a few unique connections to Beyonce, and betting on herself is just one of those things.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: She's a former news anchor and field reporter for Local CBS Affiliate in Lincoln, Nebraska.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: And currently, she's the founder and CEO of Upstart Digital Marketing firm Oh Hello.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Her name is Natalie McAuley, and she's going to put on a social media clinic while telling an exciting story I can't wait for all of you to hear.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Might.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Natalie, how you doing?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_03: I'm doing good.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Good.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a long time since I've seen you.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_03: The first time I saw you was I I was on the news and we were flipping hamburgers outside for a live special.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know what?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it was it's funny because I think um I think we'd scheduled that three different times, and like the first three times you had emergencies that you had to go, you had to go report on.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Do you remember that at all?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there was like a fire.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there was always a fire at three in the morning.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: So well, uh, thanks for doing this.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um I've been super excited about getting together.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: I've been following your life transition the past few years.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, super proud to call you a friend because of uh of the great things that you are doing.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: So why don't you take this opportunity and tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I'm originally from Houston, Texas.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um, if you know me well, then you know that I'll usually mention initially that I went to high school with Beyonce.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: I wasn't in the same class, but she did go to my high school.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_03: And how many people can say that like a mega superstar went to their high school?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: Not that many.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: So um I got a full scholarship for musical theater to Nebraska Wesleyan.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_03: So that's how I got to Nebraska.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you can imagine me tap dancing or singing or acting.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, I can.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: All of those things.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: I actually still do them on a regular basis, just depends on depends on uh what's going on at work.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: And so after Nebraska Wesleyan, I actually had really built um, you know, a love for Lincoln.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_03: And so I decided I was gonna go into journalism like my junior year.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_03: I went and worked in DC.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_03: I came back here and I got a job at 1011, and I was there for four years.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_03: And 1011 was an amazing place for me to just get really super connected to the local community to learn about Nebraska.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I believe that's where I connected with you, obviously, as we started the show out for that.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: And um, yeah, so I got to the point in my career at 1011 where I was like, you know, I'm really tired.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sleeping four or five hours a night, I'm exhausted all the time, and I'm ready to, you know, wake up and uh have nine hours of sleep.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: So I decided to leave 1011 and I went to Evil Empire Creative, which was a marketing agency here that um, you know, the the founder came from Denver.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_03: He started it, it it really blew up, it took off.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_03: I was a director of business development there.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_03: I was there for two years.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_03: I helped build the sales team and and really just start the process of getting us bigger clients and bigger fish and building out the whole lead gen training and sales training.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: It was a lot of fun.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_03: And Andrew is um a brilliant salesman.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_03: So honestly, without that experience, I don't know if I'd be doing what I'm doing now.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, when that agency was acquired by Firespring uh now to get me here to kind of sum up the story.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, Andrew sold it to Firespring that, or it was acquired by Firespring, and um, which is the same thing essentially.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_03: And I decided I wasn't ready to go work for the man.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_03: So started Oh Hello Agency, a creative agency.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_03: And I started with three of us.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_03: So there were two other partners involved.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_03: And um, in the last year, we decided that I was going to buy them out.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I mean, honestly, we're all still friends to this day.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_03: And there was, there was really just as entrepreneurs, everyone kind of wanted to do different things.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_03: And when you start a business together, as many people know, it's it's rare that everyone stays together and it just goes happy, go lucky.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_03: There's always a point where one person decides, I want to do this, and the other person decides, I want to do this, and it may not mesh up.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, we realigned, and in the last year, it's really just been a lot of me rebuilding the company and figuring out where I want to take the agency.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_03: And then, you know, of course, three months into deciding I wanted to do this on my own, a pandemic hits, which is always great.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Take a breath.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: So uh for those that are not aware, 1011 is the CBS affiliate here in Lincoln, Nebraska.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, just to kind of trace back a little bit.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: So you did musical theater in high school.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: So went to a performing arts high school.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome, awesome.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: So tell me a little bit about who Nat was in high school.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I was a dork.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Me too.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_03: I think I put a post up the other day on my social media that I was a misfit, and I definitely was.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um I loved that.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was a misfit.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I I still feel like that.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's funny because my dad called me and he was like, you know, you you you had me and you weren't.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Dad, like you were traveling, and you know, my mom and I didn't have the best relationship, and I was trying to figure out who I was.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: I was, you know, I was doing musical theater, I was doing shows till like eight o'clock at night.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: And um I was just really quirky, you know.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_03: I hadn't really found my voice.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: And so even acting was a way for me to kind of play with a concept of creativity and put on different characters and see if I could figure out who I am.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, I wasn't like the super popular kid.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't have a boyfriend in high school, like barely, I think I like kissed one dude.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and you know, I went to the school that kind of taught you that rules are meant to be broken, right?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, 8:30 a.m.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_03: yoga.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_03: If you we they took all the bells out of the school because they didn't believe that bells should be in school.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_03: They said bells push you around and tell you what to do.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: And so they wanted bells to be like, you know, taken out so that you would start to know your own time.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, if you wanted to get coffee, you just left and got coffee and came back to class.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it was a very relaxed environment, but at the same time, if you failed a class, like you were on suspension, and if you failed to, you were eliminated and you had to reaudition every year.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I was this weird, quirky misfit who was also very independent and great at school and um and creative.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, I um I guess that's who I was.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I've kicked around the idea of an episode later down the line, Confessions of a Former Teenage Drama nerd, because that's me too.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like you what's funny is like what you just said about yourself is everything about me take away the performing arts high school.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: I was actually in a rural high school and I did music and I did theater, and I wasn't I didn't become athletic until post-high school.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I was a late bloomer, and it was one of those things where like it set up a foundation for how I view people and how I view relationships.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: So um, if you had to go back to those performing arts days, what was your favorite production that you were ever a part of?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's a good question.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_03: Favorite show I was ever a part of?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, zombie prom.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_03: Zombie prom.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_03: There's it was like um the it was about a guy in the 1950s who was a zombie and he was in love with his high school sweetheart.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: It happened by accident because a chemical plant, he fell into a chemical plant, and there was it was like 1950s characters, and it was all about, you know, the zombie prom, what happens when the zombie comes to prom.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean, it was really fun.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, we had some amazing people come into our school.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um, some amazing actors because a hallmark of HSPVA was they would bring in these these people from Broadway, like our choreographer for Zombie Prom and director had, you know, she was in the original cast of Chorus Line on Broadway, right?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's like we would have these amazing talented people come in and run, you know, help us do these renditions of these fabulous musicals.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_03: So Zombie Prom, which most people don't know.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_03: And it really, it really didn't do well on Broadway or off Broadway, but it did well in our hearts because we loved it at HPVA.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: If you if you owned it and you loved it, that's all that mattered.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_03: I loved it, yeah.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I did, I was uh Daddy Warbucks in a production of Annie.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: I love Annie.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: Tomorrow, tomorrow.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: And it was like, you know, having a having a bald cap spirit gum to my head, even though I did shave my head to do it.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: It was a lot of fun.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: So what's a project or a performance that you wanted to do but never got to do?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: Spring Awakening.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: I remember auditioning for Spring Awakening, which is really about these young teenagers in Germany.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_03: They're basically finding their sexuality and they're having all these emotions.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I auditioned and I didn't get in.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_03: And I love the reprise.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_03: I love um all of the actresses, um, the original cast.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_03: I saw it at the Lead Center when they were doing their national tour.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I love music, and I just never got to play any of the roles.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: So Jean Valjean, Le Miz.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that isn't surprising.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: It shouldn't.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: It shouldn't.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: We like the sun.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: I might have known.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that was that was always the one that I wanted to do, but uh never got a chance.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't think they licensed Le Miz for high school performance until the early aughts, like around 2002, 2003.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: So for obvious reasons, because I mean, subjectively speaking, I still don't know if high school should be performing something of that level or of that stature.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: But that's a lot of fun.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's a lot of fun.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: So you went from Westland, yeah.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Wesland, sorry.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: Weslam to um to being a news anchor.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: So explain that trajectory.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_03: Well, Wesleyan doesn't really have a journalism program.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I decided to do C SPAN as an internship in DC and a local news station in DC.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I got jobs there um uh during this the what's called the chip experience, which Wesleyan sends you to DC and it's an internship.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I I mean I applied to probably so many news stations and CNN and all these big ones.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_03: And finally I got a callback from like the local news station, and then I was already in DC.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_03: And when I went to go interview for C SPAN, I was really grateful that I got the internship there.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um so on both accounts, um, what ended up happening was I actually this is one of those moments for me where I'm like, wow.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, I came back from DC three weeks early before my senior year, and I was I'd applied to 1011 News, and they only I knew they only took like one or two interns, and I was not getting a call back, and I was so frustrated.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_03: And so we're sitting in a coffee shop, me and a friend, and I see these two people walk in, um, and they, Nikki Bates and Steph McGowan, walk into this coffee shop and they're wearing 1011 polos.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_03: And I wanted to vomit.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_03: I knew I had to walk up to them and tell them that I wanted to intern there, you know?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_03: And so I was looking at my best friend and I told her, I said, I've called and called, no one's gotten back to me.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_03: I've got to intern.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_03: They're the number one station in Lincoln.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_03: And she said, Okay, well, here's your chance.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_03: So I went up to them and I just pitched them on the spot.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, This is why I would be an amazing intern.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_03: This is why I will just kick butt, hire me.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_03: So they they were a little weirded out because they were just there to get coffee.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: It turns out they worked in the sales team or the marketing team.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_03: They weren't in the newsroom.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_03: And the next day I get a call from the assistant news director and she says, if you can be here in 10 minutes, we'll give you an interview.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I was there in five and I got the job.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_03: And from then on, I just hustled for six months as an intern.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_03: And I really worked hard.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I worked my ass off.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_03: And um, and I expect that out of everybody that works with me, which is sometimes a little grueling.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_03: But, you know, I held a microphone outside for 13 hours waiting for Bo Pellini to come out when there was an audio tape that was leaked.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_03: I was in the snow, you know, helping people shoot content.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_03: I was doing a lot of the grunt work as an intern.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_03: And after six months of that, they were like, all right, we know you're still a senior and but you've worked hard.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna give you a chance to be a reporter.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_03: Do you want to be a reporter?
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like the youngest reporter that had ever been hired there.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_03: That was how I did it.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: This is great because I think there's going to be a repetitive theme about you taking a bet on yourself and gambling on yourself and then it paying off in dividends.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: What did you love the most about reporting?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I'm a natural performer, so I love the lights on action.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's like it's and I love that it's live.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, just like what we're doing right now, whatever you say, whatever you do, you don't get another moment to redo it.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: And so there's a thrill in that.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_03: And it's also every single day is a new day, right?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_03: And no one cares how good your story was yesterday.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_03: They care about how good your story is today.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_03: And it just keeps you on your toes.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_03: So being live, being on my toes, having the the pressure on, I always feel like I do I do best under pressure.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: I I I can I can definitely relate to that.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, throughout the course of doing that, did you ever notice that your relationships with people would change over time and how you perceived people whenever you would first approach them or like emotional intelligence?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: Bingo.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, for sure, because when you're knocking on someone's door hoping to get an interview with them when their daughter just died in a car accident three hours ago, right?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_03: You better have some really great emotional intelligence or you're not getting the interview, right?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_03: And so I don't want to call it manipulation because it's not, because you have to have a lot of empathy to do that job, and ultimately that that is really exhausting on you long term.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah, you learn to key into how people are feeling really quickly and how to uh not get heated, address your emotions, um, you know, low lower your vocal tone, read people so that you can get the story and get the inside scoop that maybe somebody else won't get because they don't have they don't have those instincts.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_03: And really good reporters have killer emotional instincts.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's weird because you you develop these skill sets and then you find that it's applicable to your everyday life.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like you're able to read somebody, like if you're having a business meeting or you're interviewing somebody for a job, you you pick up on these non-verbal cues that maybe you wouldn't have without those experiences.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: So part of um this podcast and this experience is kind of rebuilding that faith, that good faith in people again.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, good faith in people is hard to come by sometimes.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: So shifting gears a little bit, let's talk about that moment you decided to make that change from reporter and anchor person to this new career path that you've taken on since.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I only interviewed for one job when I left 10-11 and it was Evil Empire.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_03: I really fell for the passion of the startup life.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_03: I honestly can't even say if it was marketing.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_03: I think anyone who was a true entrepreneur and starting a company and had the hustle that Andrew did, if they had approached me like he did about an opportunity, he had a really great vision for what evil could be.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_03: And he was really great at articulating that.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um, if if it had been anyone with that same amount of vision and gust owned energy, no matter the product, I think I would have joined.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_03: That's really what I fell for.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um I am an entrepreneur.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_03: I don't I don't see myself ever working for anyone else.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um sometimes I need to remember that, even on the hard days, right?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_03: And that is ultimately what I was drawn to.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I can't even say it was marketing.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, marketing was the right fit.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_03: So there was probably some of that because I'm a storyteller and being able to tell stories and build a great brand is definitely a huge integral part of working in marketing and communications.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_03: But the biggest thing that made me want to switch careers was being able to take control of my own life and be paid and receive a, you know, receive acclaim or you know, fame or power through what I do.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_03: And that sounds really weird because you're like, well, you were on TV.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: But the truth is, and I believe this, is local news is a public service.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_03: It is.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, anyone who doesn't understand that, those people, when I was one of those people, you don't get your makeup done, you don't get your hair done, you do it all yourself.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_03: You're working long, hard hours.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: You have to stay completely dedicated to the public.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_03: You cannot share your own opinions, you cannot have a personal brand.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_03: Your personal brand is neutral.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_03: Your personal brand is look at this dog pick, look at my baby, right?
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_03: And in a way, it's very amazing for those people that want to do that.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_03: But for me, like I'm just a little too rebellious to feel like I can't say what I want to say or do what I want to do completely.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_03: And being an entrepreneur, um, you get to kind of set your own pace, right?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_03: Especially working for yourself.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_03: So what what I left news for wasn't necessarily a marketing job.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: It was for exactly that building my own future, creating my own legacy, being able to say and do what I wanted with my personal brand and envisioning what life as a really great entrepreneur could look like for me.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: In a year like 2020, where, and like I said before we even started recording, we're gonna talk around certain subjects.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: But being that society is in a place where it is and feels so diametrically opposed, do you feel like some of those behavioral traits that you had to adapt as a public servant, as a news reporter, are now having to be applied currently because the current social status that we're we're living through?
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, um, I'm not gonna talk politics on my social media.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I'm you're just gonna alienate people that would work with you or that want to work with you because of their feelings.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_03: And we're moving into this world where people's brand beliefs and values, if you don't align with them, they don't want to work with you.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: Like that's a thing.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_03: So um we can align on values that aren't political and still have a great working relationship.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_03: I believe that.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, I would say that I'm definitely um I don't want to talk politics with people on social media.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't think it's you're not gonna change my mind, I'm not gonna change yours.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_03: Right, exactly.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: I I have what I call bar rules.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I'm not gonna talk politics and I'm not gonna talk religion with anybody.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Because in a bar, if you talk either one of those things, you're gonna get into a fight, or at least in the old guys' bars.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_03: 100%.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_03: I feel the exact same way.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk a little bit about social media.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh because your current career path and your entrepreneurialism is definitely anchored in that field.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: So talk a little bit about that.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: Talk a little bit about the power of social media right now.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, social media, I like to look at it as business media.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, all these brands and companies that have been ignoring it, I think in the pandemic, are looking up and going, uh-oh, I need to be here.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_03: This is where everyone is right now.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I see social media as business media.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: You have to learn to leverage it for your business and to not let it make you addicted.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_03: So a lot of people don't know this, but I have a virtual assistant who manages all my social media, right?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_03: So most of the posts I write them.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: I get up every morning and write a post, and the photos are of me, but I'm not on there posting this content, optimizing it for times, scrolling through and liking things.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_03: I do not see that as a good use of my time.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so what our job is, is to help brands do the same.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_03: You want to build a relationship on social media, tell authentic, vulnerable stories, right?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_03: Comment back to people that comment on your stuff.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_03: Use paid sponsored ads to grow your following.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_03: But um I see social media as a tool.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_03: And the people that I know that are on there all the time, they they really, I think they suffer because it can give you a lot of anxiety to see what everybody else is doing.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_03: So, business media, that's how we stay sane at the agency.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_03: You're it's just like having a website, the strategies we're developing, you know, the work that we're doing.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we have enough people on our team that I don't have to be on social media all the time.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_03: I think if I was, I would hate my life.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: So, have you seen the social dilemma on Netflix yet?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_03: I have not.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_03: I'm pretty sure that everybody but me has seen that.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_03: And honestly, I had friends tell me, don't watch it, it's gonna make you feel bad about your job.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, ah, not really, because it's just like a website.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_03: You just gotta be there.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: But knowing what I know of you, you're you're pretty open-minded and sane person that you would be able to kind of weed through what's a narrative for entertainment value versus what's what's real.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: Totally.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like the biggest takeaway I got from watching that documentary was the following day, follow five things that I completely disagree with, just so I could trip the algorithms to be a little bit more balanced.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because social media is all based around algorithms, right?
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that's kind of what you were talking about, like not directly, but you know, having virtual assistants and such is you're basically tripping the algorithm.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Them to work in your favor.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_03: 100%.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: So what is your feelings about social media influencers as a whole?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_03: So that's a really good question.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I see myself as like a very micro influencer, although we are about to launch some online courses and run more paid ads to my content.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I think influencers, um, I think influencers are kind of the modern day celebrities, right?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_03: Like I don't see people talking to me about what Nicole Kidman wore on the on the red carpet.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_03: People talk to me about what Whitney Simmons rolled out with Gymshark because they've been following her for a couple of, you know, a thousand, you know, months or a long time, thousand months, that even exists.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_03: But so yeah, what people are influencers now are modern-day celebrities.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_03: The way they stay relevant or not is whether they bring immense amounts of value to your life.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_03: So um, niching down, it like Whitney Simmons is my favorite fitness vlogger.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_03: She's been doing it for so many years.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_03: I get a new workout from her every week.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: When she rolled out her paid model, which was an app of$15 a month, no brainer, I bought it because I've been working out with you every week.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_03: So these influencers are really strategic and they niche down and they become the modern day celebrity in an industry.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_03: And then they rolled out a paid subscription model that's going to help set them up for life.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_03: And that's really sharp and really smart.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, I see influencers as the modern day celebrities.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_03: I see that celebrities now are becoming a little bit more, I guess the word would be, I don't want to say outdated, but you know, I was watching TikTok the other day and I was going through TikToks and I found one that I really liked.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, oh, this guy's really talented.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_03: I wonder where he's at.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_03: And he was playing some piano and singing.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it was Charlie Pooth.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_03: But I had no idea because there's so many people out there doing that stuff that I was like, no way is this guy a celebrity.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_03: Like talented people aren't celebrities, right?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_03: So our frameworks for what a celebrity is are changing.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_03: And with that comes a whole new set of expectations because influencers are supposed to be real people now who are the modern day celebrity, who are supposed to engage with you all the time, who are supposed to give you great valuable content.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_03: And so our expectations of what we want from celebrities and what we want from influencers are kind of moving into the middle.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_03: And now we're seeing things like Amazon rolling out the drop, which is like a prime, a prime fashion shopping thing with influencers.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_03: And we're seeing Gymshark, which is like, you know, a multi, multi-million dollar workout company using influencers to launch their clothing.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_03: Now, retailers, instead of just getting the weekend to wear a shirt and, you know, post it on Instagram, are leveraging their time and their money and using influencers.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: So in and that's the funny thing.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be sitting around the dinner table, and I've got twin 14-year-old stepdaughters and my daughters, and they will talk about some of these TikTok celebrities.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just totally going over my head.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: But um it blows my mind how that culture is so divided from the type of fame that we typically know or have known, and that the fact that COVID-19 has really kind of expedited those platforms to a certain degree.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_03: Totally.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_03: So it's yeah, I mean, COVID-19's accelerated everything, especially our relationships with influencers because they're in our house with us.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, celebrities have had a turn influencer, but I mean Vin Diesel just put out a song during COVID-19, which I thought was beyond weird.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um, weirdest things that have happened during COVID-19.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_03: Vin Diesel singing a song with Kaigo.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, I mean, celebrities are realizing like they they have to make themselves accessible now because the influencers have led the way on that.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: Every every good thing has its bad side, but is there a certain level of toxicity that has kind of permeated itself into the influencer culture?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I think the the photoshopped photos are now.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_03: So what's happening now is people are realizing photos are photoshopped, people are have rented jets and they're taking pictures in them and pretending like they own them.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_03: Someone's standing in front of a car outside of a mansion just because they want to that's not their real life, and people are calling bullshit on it.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_03: So I'd say, like maybe previously, yes.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like this is the year where people want vulnerable, they want new.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_03: You can see it in the I mean, in marketing, you can see it.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, Target's putting up ads around the lingerie section and they're not editing out cellulite anymore.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_03: Have you noticed that?
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, influencers have led the conversation for that.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_03: And Target is realizing oh, I mean, models, models will be my the death of luxury and models in the next 25 years is coming because no longer is Louis Vuitton luxury.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_03: Luxury is having the freedom to go travel to Japan while you work for yourself.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_03: That's what people view as luxury.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_03: And so COVID-19's accelerated all of that.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_03: And over the next 25 years, we're gonna see less models being paid to do what they do.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna see the death, I believe we're gonna see the death of like Louis Vuitton and Gucci and YSL.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_03: Not maybe not the complete extinction, but their sales are gonna drop dramatically as people move towards this sustainable, healthy.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_03: We're going through a cultural shift where we just don't want fake right now.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_03: We want real.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: I agree.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: I wholeheartedly agree with that.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: There's a there's a Facebook page and uh an Instagram page that I follow for little giggles, shits and giggles every now and again.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's called Influencers in the Wild.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I love it.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: Then there's the other side of it, and and this is uh where I'm gonna pay a compliment to you.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: You call cited yourself as a micro influencer.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: So you're always posting very helpful content, you're offering advice for people that are young entrepreneurs and they're looking for ways to market themselves.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's the type of thing that I like to engage with.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: Me too.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's the type of thing that I like to follow.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I don't need to see you on another beach.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: Right, absolutely.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_03: That doesn't help me right now, right?
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: And in TikTok growing in uh popularity as it is.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: I have a TikTok page or a TikTok account so I could follow my kids.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um and while I was, you know, when I get on TikTok, I get sucked into this black hole where it was just like my for you page was just like thirst trap, thirst trap, thirst trap, thirst trap.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: Thirst trap.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then I switched it over to a business account, and now I'm seeing uplifting stuff.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: Valuable content.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, valuable content.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's just like what in the world?
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: How?
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: How?
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: How does that happen?
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how does something like that happen?
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I mean, TikTok is just like all the other social media platforms in that they only make money if they keep you there.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_03: So they're going to show you based on what you put in your profile and your demographic information.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm gonna guess you either teamed it up with Facebook or they have some basic information that they know who you are.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_03: They want to show you the content that's going to keep you on the platform longest so that they can serve you ads, because they only make money if you're on there long enough that they can serve you ads.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_03: And what everyone forgets is that if you post a bad photo, a blurry photo, if you post a graphic that looks overly salesy, Facebook and Instagram bury all of that content because they only make money when ads can be seen.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: They have to keep people on your content.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_03: So if your content isn't interesting or valuable or entertaining and you're just trying to sell yourself, Facebook and Instagram go, uh-uh, nobody wants to see that, and that's gonna, that's not gonna make us money.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas content, even like a selfie, will do better because that's the content that people want to see and that'll keep you on the platform.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_03: So TikTok was showing you the content that they think you want to see based on based on some of your browsing history.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just kidding.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, no, no, no.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_03: Based on your, I know, I know, based on your demo, uh, based on your age, based on what people your age with your preferences specifically typically like, that's what they're basing it on.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_03: And when you switch to a business account, that information changes and they're giving you more valuable content because you're a business.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's a good answer.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's actually exactly what I was looking for.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: It sucks, right?
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: It totally sucks.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: It totally sucks.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about what you do, what else you do in your free time.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: What little free time you have.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, I mean, right now, um, I just hired a business coach to help me kind of scale and grow.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_03: And we are launching online courses this week for teaching people how to leverage virtual assistants.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_03: Three months ago, when the pandemic started, we realized, man, we should really teach people how to hire virtual assistants like we have for the agency and leverage them for marketing tasks.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_03: And so we create a program in the last three months called the VA Revenue Generator.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_03: There's a bunch of different tracks, but the whole point is how as a small business entrepreneur or solopreneur can you delegate tasks for as little as$5 an hour and get back your time?
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_03: Because there's somebody who for$5 an hour would happily edit all of your podcasts, post the content to social media, and for$150 a month, you could spend more dinner dinner time with your family instead of doing all of the work.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_03: I'm pitching you right now.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, I got that.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I got that.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_03: It wasn't very sneaky.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, so we're launching those courses, and um I've hired a business coach to help kind of scale and grow because you know, I really haven't been able to figure out exactly how to get to the million dollar mark.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that that's something that that's like raw and honest, and you know, we're doing well, but I really want to get to that mark in the next year as a female entrepreneur.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_03: I think only 2%, under 8% of female entrepreneurs ever build a business that's over a million dollars in revenue.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's been kind of my next goal.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_03: So that said, when you ask about my free time, right now it's working out.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_03: I teach fitness, um, it's resting, it's sleep, food, it's necessities.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_03: And I feel a little bit bad about that at times because, you know, I'm still trying to trying to scale and grow and and create so many systems and processes, and it feels like I'm playing whack-a-mole right now, like I fix one thing and then there's another, right?
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_03: But um I also know that that's just a season for my life.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_03: And so I have a I have a very tight circle of friends that really understand and get the fact that I'm not always available and that if it takes me a couple days to text back, it's okay.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_03: And that Friday nights might not be, I I mean, I I don't ever really stay out till one in the morning.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_03: I think three nights this summer I did.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I have a great supportive boyfriend, and that's pretty much it right now.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I like the fact that you brought up the uh the working out and the teaching fitness.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: How did COVID when it first happened impact that?
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I got a Peloton like the second week of COVID.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's sitting right over there.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: Beautiful.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_03: I was able to gain some some like basically mental relief, but I was definitely really stressed out the first six weeks of COVID.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, there were a couple weeks there where I just didn't want to get out of bed.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_03: I was depressed, I didn't understand why we have to do this.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_03: I had a friend who lives nearby that was my COVID-19 buddy.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_03: I was living alone, you know, I live alone, and it was really hard.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, fly, we're really lucky that we're we're starting to bounce back.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_03: But, you know, that place has been a huge sanctuary for me.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, we're losing small businesses.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_03: Power cycle just closed down.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_03: They're another cycling studio.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_03: I saw that, and it's scary, you know.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_03: So just trying to show up and keep going and keep bringing new people every day.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_03: And um, and it definitely brought back the gratitude.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_03: I'd kind of settled into I teach at the studio and this is my life, and then all of a sudden it gets taken away and you just appreciate it that much more because we were closed for three months, and that was so hard because that's my community, those are my people, you know, that's my tribe.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_03: If there's a tribe, it's the people that fly.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: I I totally understand that.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like um, when the gyms close down, I'm not a guy that works out on his own.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's also my antidepressant, it's my anti-anxiety medication.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's my talk me off the ledge, please.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm not like that either.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I lift weights alone, but like cardio is impossible.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_03: And um, yeah, I ended up just doing some workouts on Instagram live.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_03: I got some weights over there.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_03: I ended up doing, you know, the fly fitness Facebook group workouts, but it was definitely hard.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I I ended up converting my garage into a gym for a few months.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my son, when he would when I would have him and he would be with me, we'd go on a run through the neighborhood, but man, I never I don't think I think just now I'm starting to fall back into my routines.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: Love it.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, it is what it is.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: So, what's something that people seem to misunderstand about you?
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_03: Misunderstand about me.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's a really good question.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_03: And a very tough question.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_03: You knew that going into that question.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I did.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_03: I think people think I've had it really easy.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think people think, because I'm a three on the Enneagram.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you study the Enneagram, but I mean threes are like typically on the Enneagram known as people who we make it look super easy, everything we're doing.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_03: So easy to the point, we're working so hard to make things look so easy.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't know that everyone knows that I work really, really hard.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_03: That I fail just like everybody else.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um and that even though I might post pictures looking hot, you know, in a swimsuit or on vacation traveling the world, that's obviously the highlights.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_03: But there are a lot of tough days, you know.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um entrepreneurship is hard.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, I shared on social media that I, you know, that I got on anxiety medicine last year because I I was, you know, buying out my partners and trying to figure out how to do this on my own and freaked out about everything.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, I got on anxiety medicine.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_03: It was the best thing I ever did for myself.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_03: And I think a lot of people just wouldn't expect that because I'm such a happy person, you know, and I'm so upbeat and I'm so go get it, and I'm so I got this and I'll do that.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm very task-oriented.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_03: But truth be told, um, it's it's not easy.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_03: I might make it look easy, but it's not.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: It it takes it takes its toll on you over time.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, yeah, I mean, you got here and you know, 30 minutes ago, I'm having a tough conversation with a client and we're doing this interview, and I'm thinking in the back of my head, well, how are we gonna get that figured out?
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_03: And what did that client really need?
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, did we make a mistake or do I need to have an internal meeting with the with the team to figure out what the problem was there?
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, entrepreneurship is all a learning curve, and um it's just not easy.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's something that's also tied by just giving a shit about what you do.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: You care about what you do.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: You care about what you do and you care about the end result, right?
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: So you're gonna let those things bother you.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna strive for perfection.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes that's hard for me.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, sometimes I strive for perfection so much that like I know that I will work four or five weeks, get up at seven or eight, I'll say eight, eight thirty, and um, and work till midnight, and then I need like a week off.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_03: Like that's or three days where I just run errands, catch up on personal life.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I feel like I kind of put myself through these mini endurance sprints where I'm just going, going, going.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_03: And then after five or six weeks, it kind of comes crashing down for a couple breaths, and then I go back into it.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_03: And um yeah, I really love what I do, but I'm also I really want to leave a legacy in this world, and I'm still trying to figure out what that is.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think I I can I definitely have work addiction problems.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I have to kind of stop myself and go, it's time to go to bed.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: Anybody that's creative-minded is going is going to be like that.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're just wired differently than everybody else, you know.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: I obsess, I micromanage, and then sometimes I just have to micromanage myself to it, it's okay to let it go.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's not the end of the world.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_03: Totally, 100%.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: What advice would you give to somebody that would be taking some of the same risks or making the same bets on themselves as you have yourself?
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um don't lose sleep over things that has nothing to do with you.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_03: Like I would get an email from a client in the early stages of this business that like they weren't happy with our work or they weren't happy with something.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_03: And I'd be like, re- I'd be up all night over it until I would have that call the next day to find out how I could fix it.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_03: And now when that happens, and it still does occasionally, definitely not as often as when I first started.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_03: Um I just remember that I'm gonna realign expectations and figure out how to solve the problem.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_03: And because I give a shit, everything will be okay.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: There's always tomorrow.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_03: There's always tomorrow.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_03: And in the beginning of this business, like the three years ago when we started it, I would just ruminate over shit and not sleep all night and wake up like a complete mess.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's not like I don't still, I would say I ruminate over personal problems or personal things that are uh, I think a bigger deal.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_03: But I would let these little ticks and little things just I would obsess over them.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_03: And I I wish I hadn't done that because it would have given me more freedom to just get better and love myself.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: So are you a pacer?
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody paces around the house whenever absolutely.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_03: Tony, am I a pacer?
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_03: Tony's in the room.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_03: Are you a pacer?
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_03: Tony doesn't know what it means.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_03: It's fine.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: Some somebody, you know, that paces around the room whenever they're stressed out.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um I've never had a conversation with Tony.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I'm giving him stuff to do, and I think he knows this, and I'm almost always multitasking.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I cannot sit still.
• 39:29
  unknown: Yeah.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_01: See, I'm the same way.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'll I'll read an email and I'll be like, I'll pace around the house and I'll just like I cannot sit still.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it's nothing I can do in the moment.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing you can do in the moment sometimes.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, it's it's midnight.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: Who am I?
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_03: Emails are the worst.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's midnight.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_01: Who what am I gonna do?
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna call this customer that complained about X item and it's like emails are the worst.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_01: But sometimes it's just better to handle these things when you're more composed.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yep, agreed.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_03: Totally agreed.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_03: Whenever that will be for me, we'll get there.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this is gonna sound like a repeat question, but it's really not.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_01: What do you do to de-stress in light of everything you have on your plate right now?
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um, something I've been doing with my boyfriend that's been really helpful and healthy is leaving my computer at home for a day.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_03: Like if I'm at his house or he's over here, putting my computer in a place where I can't reach it, can't touch it, can't see it, and sometimes even turning my phone off.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_03: I won't say I'm the best at that, but that has been the number one thing.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um the second thing is setting boundaries, which I haven't been great at doing with clients, but saying, hey, um, I have an auto email responder now that says I'm gonna respond to you on Monday.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_03: If you email me Saturday, Sunday, or Friday after six, unless it's an urgent matter, which it usually isn't, um, I'm not gonna respond.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_03: And actually that works twofold because I look like an idiot if I start responding to emails after I have an autoresponder on.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_03: So it keeps me away from client interactions and stress and you know, uh figuring stuff out.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so that's those are one thing.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_03: The second thing is is a morning routine.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I got off of it for the last week and I could feel things were off.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um, protein shake in the morning, three things on my get shit done list.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_03: What's gonna drive the most revenue for my business done before 10 a.m.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_03: You know, dishes dishes out of the sink, um, checking that bills are paid, getting little things off my mind in the morning that could bother me throughout the day to the point where I can't focus on what's important.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: So fantastic.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, and working out, of course.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_03: Teaching cycling at fly.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_03: And and and even tonight, you know, I have a personal training session at six.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_03: I usually do personal training once a week.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_03: And I haven't had the best day.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_03: But I know I'm gonna show up and I'm gonna go in there and I'm not gonna feel like working out.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_03: But I have a coach that's there to push me through, and that's gonna be great for me.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: So excellent.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_01: Excellent.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_01: So what's next?
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_03: What's next?
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_03: What a question.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I've said this vision to a couple people, and I feel like so intimidated to admit it out loud, but I think you have to kind of speak things into existence if you want to accomplish them.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_03: Law of attraction, right?
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like you would get that.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_03: So for me, I'd love to see the agency be 50% project-based and 50% of these online courses that we're rolling out and continue teaching people on a micro level how to tell the story of their brand, how to craft a social media strategy, how to hire VA assistants.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_03: And I'd love to be kind of like a Marie Forlio of marketing or, you know, my own version of what Gary V does.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_03: Even, you know, a personality that people trust to get good information about what they should be doing with their marketing and their strategy and their storytelling and leveraging executive assistance and how to do everything that they can to free up their time.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_03: And how and and really that's you know, a huge goal is becoming more of a thought leader in this space, but not just to be a thought leader, to bring immense, tremendous value to people.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_03: So that's what's next for me.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, just so you know, I trust you.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, you're so kind.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, you know, that's someone today.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: No, I trust you.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_01: We need more people like you.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, keep uh keep doing this good shit because I really appreciate it.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: And uh thanks for doing the podcast today.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for having me on.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_01: I want to thank my friend Natalie McAuley for joining me on the podcast today.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: There was a lot I learned, and I hope there was a lot that you learned from this episode.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_01: I also wanted to take this opportunity to express some gratitude to all of you for your kind words, whether it be text message, direct message, or some of the comments that you've left on my social media posts about the podcast.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: I really enjoyed reading them and I'm glad you're enjoying what I have to offer here.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_01: That said, it would help the podcast tremendously if you are able to leave a five-star review on your favorite podcast app.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_01: This pushes us to the top of the search engine queue when people are looking for what to listen to next.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_01: And speaking of content, if you can like, comment, share some of the statuses on my social media pages, share my social media pages, share an episode of the podcast with one of your best friends.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: There is nothing that I would love more than to grow this audience and keep creating great content for you.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_01: This has been Caught on the Mic with Michael Clark.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time, thank you.