Brandmerry Blog Archives
How to Grow Your Business with Brand Storytelling
Brand storytelling changed my life.
Sounds like a bold claim doesn't it, but it's the truth.
When I started my business in 2016, I had zero idea of what I was doing. Although I felt confident in using online tools, like social media, I didn't know how to stand out, build a community, or get sales.
As you can imagine, this is not a recipe for success.
For months, I tried to build my brand without any luck. Honestly, it felt like wasted time as I didn't make any money in the process despite my best efforts. Then I discovered brand storytelling.
Six years later, a brand that feels so good, marketing efforts that have generated over 1 million dollars, and multiple features...I am so thankful for the effect of brand storytelling on my business and life.
Brand storytelling is my specialty and on episode 53 of The Brandmerry Podcast, I'm sharing, "How to Grow Your Business with Brand Storytelling!"
Today's episode is a deep dive into brand storytelling. After listening, if you would like to consume additional resources on the topic, be sure to check out my Brand Storytelling Guide here, and my YouTube channel with additional videos.
Tune in now to hear:
What makes brand storytelling so powerful when marketing your business online and the effect it has on the consumer buying process.
How to craft great stories for business purposes, so you not only build a connection but also showcase authority and lead to higher purchase conversions.
My top stories to get started with and examples for each, so you can feel confident incorporating brand storytelling into your marketing.
Tune in now on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to hear the full episode and all the tips.
P.S. Ready to get your brand seen and paid without the pressure of social media? I'm teaching my top strategies inside of my new free class, "How to Build a Brand That Gets Seen and Paid!" You're invited to tune in and learn my signature 3-part framework for a sustainable 6-figure brand. Sign up to watch for free at Brandmerry.com/class
- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -
DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES
LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS
MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR
- READ THE LATEST POSTS -
MEET MICHELLE
Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.
I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.
I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.
This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.
6 Time Management Tips for New Entrepreneurs
Just six years ago, I set out on a mission to start an online business. I started my business with the simple goal: to stay home with my son. I had just given birth to my son, and I decided I didn't want to go back to work.
This was a shock to my husband and me because I always imagined I would be working up the corporate ladder and working a typical nine to five.
But if you are a mother or a caretaker, something just changes. I suddenly had this desire to start my business.
I was still working my nine to five so I had to be super strategic with my time. Luckily. I'm addicted to time management and productivity hacks. And as a Virgo, I think it's pretty natural that is just how I normally structure my time.
So as I started to build my business and find these time management hacks, I shared them with my community.
I shared them with my audience and they served them at a high level, but I found that so many of them started to ask about those early days.
The reality is that starting your business requires a lot of dedication and discipline, and some of the hacks I used then are different than now.
STARTING AN ONLINE BUSINESS
When I was starting my business, I really wanted to be able to replace my corporate income. We were going down to one salary as a family so I was very determined to make those strategic choices.
You really have to have an honest conversation with yourself when you’re starting a business.
How badly do you want it? One of the things that I was constantly reminding myself of was the life that I was creating and the reason that we were doing this.
I wanted to start my business because in the beginning I just wanted to be home with my son. I was having that new mommy love.
But the reality of it was my husband and I had always dreamed of traveling the world. We were living off of a decent salary, but I was in nonprofit - not the wealthiest of areas.
I loved the work that I did, and we had all these dreams about buying property, traveling, all of the things that have been in the works for six years now. So when I was making the decisions to spend money on my business and not on my fashion or get my nails done or things like that, when I was making the decision to not watch Netflix so I could write emails, when I was waking up early, when I was making these choices, not sacrifices, choices, I always kept the vision of the life that I was creating in my mind.
And I still do that today, even when I'm going through these periods of life, when business is demanding more from me, I'm always thinking about the life that I'm creating for myself and my family.
So please know that these tips and these tricks are definitely going to help you structure your day, really focus on the things that are gonna move the needle forward, and optimize your time at the highest level.
But it really comes down to you making a choice that this is what you want, dedicating your time and energy to it, and making it a priority.
We always say that you have this much time in a day, we all have the same amount of time. And one thing that I've realized is that when we prioritize the things that we really want to do during this season, somehow we are able to create more time around us.
It's absolutely magical. When we sit down and really audit all the things that we're doing, we remove the things that aren't contributing to where we wanna be, or what we need in this season. Magic happens.
So please, if you haven't already, take the time to dedicate yourself to growing your business.
These are some of my top tips for you if you are just getting started in your business or consider yourself a new entrepreneur.
TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #1: OPTIMIZE YOUR TIME
Most likely if you are just getting started, you're juggling a lot of different things. When I was starting, I was working a nine-to-five job and I had a new baby.
So I was also navigating motherhood and trying to build a business on the side. Many of my clients are working full-time jobs, caretakers, working part-time jobs, or growing multiple companies.
What I always recommend to them is to optimize the time that you do have available.
For me, this looked like using my commute to work to listen to podcasts and to listen to audiobooks.
This was really helpful for me to get into a mindset, to learn new things, to ultimately increase the education that I had around branding and marketing specifically, that I could then implement in my business as I was getting started.
Then on the way home, I would use that time to actually record social media posts, notes for things that I was working on, and even emails.
My favorite hack was to use the voice recorder on my phone. Just set it down while I was driving and just freely talk. The quality of the recording didn’t really matter because I was going to transcribe it. But what it allowed me to do was use that hour time that I was commuting home with my sleeping baby in the back seat, to create content for my business.
I would also utilize the time when we would go for walks. Once I left my job, my son and I needed to get out of the house a lot. So we would take frequent walks to, and from the park near our home. Every time we were walking, I had my headset in and I was recording content. I would record blogs, emails, social media posts, all of those different things that I was using to promote my brand new business.
I would do those while I was doing other things in my life. It's my favorite hack and a great example of optimizing your time.
So what I want you to think about are those moments when you're commuting or you are on your way with the kiddos to the park, or maybe you're making dinner or you're washing your face before bed, can you use those little pockets of time to get those ideas in your head out and document it so you can then use them within your business.
TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #2: BULK SCHEDULING
You might have heard me talk about this before. If you've seen any of my videos on YouTube. I love to talk about bulk scheduling, especially as it relates to content creation because I think it's an incredibly powerful, overlooked tool for optimizing your time to create the most amount of content in a very short period.
But you can really do this with everything. I recommend that new entrepreneurs have one day a week where they create content. This is typically two to three hours a week, one specific sitting. For me, it was Sundays when I was working my nine to five. Once I left my nine to five, I switched that to Monday.
You’re sitting down, writing your content, recording your videos, or your podcast, getting it all scheduled for release for the week, and repurposing your content, if that's something that you're doing, all in that one period of time.
This allows you to then not worry about content the rest of the week, not worry about getting your social media post up every single day or posting your blog. You are completely done pretty early in the week.
Another thing is that you can bulk your client interactions.
If you are doing consulting, coaching, or anything, where you're doing a one-on-one call or group, calls with your audience, you want to try and schedule those on the same day every single week, and try to do as many as possible.
This was a lifesaver for me when I was working my nine to five, I would essentially work with my clients on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the evening. So those were the only two days that I did.
Once I left my nine to five and I had more availability during the week, but of course there was a baby on my hip, I was more focused on a specific day of the week that I knew my husband was going to be home and I would have that support.
So I did Wednesdays and Wednesdays were pretty much the only day that I allowed my clients to book times with me. If that wasn't available, I still did Tuesday evenings and I would alternate my weeks.
I would pretty much have five calls on a Wednesday, but then the next Wednesday I wasn't doing anything. I still do this in my business today.
I book my coaching days, my mentoring days, and my group calls for Brandmerry Academy on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which leaves me Mondays and Fridays for really focusing on my business.
Another thing that you can bulk schedule is your admin time.
Think about the spreadsheets that you have to make, anything that you're tracking, looking at your numbers, your finances, anything like that. It's going to be really hard to do that and then jump into something creative.
You're going to waste more time trying to focus and switch your brain. Choose a specific day, which I like to call your CEO day, where you're focused on admin tasks, which include money, scheduling things, maybe contracts, invoices, all of that stuff. You'll find by actually creating specific days to focus on one area, you're able to get more done.
In addition, it really helps you schedule your time when you have a million things happening, not only in your business but also outside of your business.
TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #3: ASK FOR HELP
Look for opportunities where you can outsource, whether that's paid or just, via a family member or a friend, so that you can gain a few extra hours every week to work on your business.
Some of the things that my clients have used are grocery delivery. How much time do you spend driving to the grocery store, picking out all this stuff, and then coming back home? You could be using that time to write emails to your audience or market your business.
Another thing is having someone clean your home. How much time are you spending doing that on the weekend? You could be using it to grow your business and make money in your business.
Another thing is if it's accessible to you, you can also ask for help from friends and family. So if you are with a partner, how can they support you during the week and take some of the things that you are doing off of your plate so that you can dedicate that time to your business.
One of the things that I did is that one of my cousins had a new baby and was looking for support and I was home from my job. So I would take her daughter on Wednesdays and she and my son would play. And that was my primary focus. And then on Fridays, she would watch my son, which gave me a whole day on Friday to dive into my work.
Are there opportunities for you to do that as well? If you are a caretaker, if you have children, how can your community support you during this time?
One of the things that can be incredibly helpful is to do a time audit. So take one week and write down all of the different things that you were doing during that time and how long they are taking you.
This is a fantastic way to see right in front of you where your time and your energy is going and where you might be able to outsource.
TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #4: USE A TASK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
We really love ClickUp here at Brandmerry. It is literally, if it's not in ClickUp, it's not happening in our business. But I also use it for my personal life as well.
I so wish that someone would've told me early on to start using a task management system for all the things that I was doing at the beginning of my business. It would've saved me so much time just diving into work every day.
I only had these little pockets of time, which I'm sure you also have as well. So you wanna utilize that time to its full capacity.
You can just simplify the entire, “what should I be working on” process by starting to use a task management system. There are so many free options out there. ClickUp is our favorite. There's also Asana, Trello, or monday.com.
What you really want to focus on is getting every task that you have into the scheduler with a start date and an end date so you don't miss any of your deadlines.
You can also set up recurring tasks. If every month you need to do something in your business, get that set up so it reminds you. It's so easy to miss those individual pieces so having monthly, weekly, or even daily recurring tasks is fantastic.
I also have found that having a task management system really simplifies what I need to do every single day.
What I do is get on my computer first thing in the morning and in ClickUp, there’s a homepage where I can see everything that is due today or coming up next. So it really takes the mystery out of what I need to work on to grow my business.
A side note on that: Schedule every single thing. Every tiny task that you have to do, every big thing that you are doing in your business, whether that's a live video or a class or a challenge.
And I even recommend in your Google calendar or your iCal to schedule those individual pockets of time, you’re gonna be working on your business as well as all the other life things that you have going on.
It's just a fantastic way to remove the overwhelm every single day, because you can look at your schedule and know what your focus is during that moment.
TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #5: SCHEDULE TIME OFF
Remember in the beginning, when I talked about optimizing your time, that is essential, but you don't want to be working every single hour of every single day.
If you're working a nine to five, you're basically waking up, maybe thinking about your business, going to your nine to five, thinking about your business, coming home, taking care of life and diving into, yeah, your business and I totally get it.
You do want that dedication to getting things done and prioritizing, but I have found that even taking one day away from focusing on my business can actually help me creatively. Even though I’m off or taking a break, I get the best ideas. So I'll just jot 'em down and circle back to them.
So do yourself a favor and get into this routine of taking at least one full day off in your business.
Now, maybe that's Saturday or Sunday for you, which is pretty typical, or maybe it's a Wednesday. It literally doesn't matter, but schedule that inside of your calendar as well. And if you can keep it consistent every single week, that's really going to help you with your time management and your productivity.
This is something I recommend you continue to do as you grow your business as well.
TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #6: FOCUS ON ONE PROJECT AT A TIME
I know when you're starting your business, it can feel like you have a million different things that you need to do. Let's say for example, that you want to create your website because you've been following me long enough to know how important a website is. You want to implement that SEO, you want to have a blog, and you're really focused on those evergreen content strategies.
Give yourself a set period of time to work on your website.
Make it a priority, add it to your task management schedule, put a deadline on it, and even put the time that you're going to be working on that particular task into your calendar.
Allow yourself that focus time to get it done. This is going to allow you to get it done faster and in a more efficient way. Y
ou can absolutely get your website done in 30 days or less if you are fully focused. If you're not, you might do a little bit here and a little bit there. And before you know it, six months have passed and you still don't have a website.
I know that it's not 100% possible to focus on one thing and one thing only every 30 days. We have a lot of moving parts in our business. Marketing is definitely one of them. But if you can choose one to two days every single week, where that is your main focus, focusing on a specific project is going to allow you to get it done much faster.
And I have found that this focus is really important as you continue to scale your business.
The amount of things that you have to do doesn't necessarily go away. Even as you hire your team, you're going to think of new creative things to do in your business. So really focusing on one project or one offer, at least every 30 days can be one of the best ways to optimize your time.
I know that starting a business can be a lot of work. I have been there and like you, I was not just starting a business. I was juggling a lot of different things, expectations, and responsibilities at the same time.
I want you to know that it is possible, but there are going to be some things that you're going to have to adjust, and definitely making it a priority is going to save you a lot of time in the long run.
Inside my program, Brandmerry Academy, I provide a step-by-step roadmap of exactly what you need to do in order to grow your business.
It is a one-stop shop for branding, systems, and marketing that can support you to getting to six figures in your business. You can check it out brandmerryacademy.com.
P.S. Ready to get your brand seen and paid without the pressure of social media? I'm teaching my top strategies inside of my new free class, "How to Build a Brand That Gets Seen and Paid!" You're invited to tune in and learn my signature 3-part framework for a sustainable 6-figure brand. Sign up to watch for free at Brandmerry.com/class
- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -
DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES
LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS
MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR
- READ THE LATEST POSTS -
MEET MICHELLE
Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.
I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.
I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.
This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.
Advice for New Entrepreneurs: Just Starting Your Business
BY MICHELLE KNIGHT
If you’re just starting your business...this is for you!
If we were in a room together, what would I want to tell you about starting your business?
Crafting the idea of your business?
Putting all of the pieces in place?
Launching it out into the world?
And scaling it to consistent revenue?
To answer these questions I have to bring myself back to what it was like in the beginning (2016).
And in doing so, I’ve got to be honest. The thing that I really, really, really wish someone would have said to me and I wish I would have seen more language around online, is that building a business is going to be so challenging.
This is going to challenge you in ways that you've never imagined before.
If you were like me back in 2016, little, little naive Michelle, starting a business, you’re seeing all of this marketing coming at you about what is possible, and you're feeling really excited about it and so lit up about it!
But you’re noticing the messaging says, “just think about it and it happens” and “do this and you'll make $10,000” or “after you do this, suddenly you are set up for life.”
But, the reality is it’s not just going to magically happen for you and it’s not going to be a breeze.
Now, that’s not to say that this has to be hard.
It's not to say that you've got to work every single day for multiple hours a day and that's the only way you're going to grow your business.
It's not saying that at all.
What I'm saying is that it's going to challenge you.
BUSINESS GROWTH
If we know anything about growth, if we've learned anything about elevating our lives and our experiences, it's that without challenge, there is no change.
It's crazy to think that we can start these businesses, step into the CEO role, the small business owner, make decisions on how we're going to make money, typically be the one-person show for a very long time, carry the weight of that on our shoulders and not think that we are not going to be challenged.
You're going to be challenged.
And here's the amazing part, because of that challenge and because of the way that you take on those challenges, you are going to grow faster than you ever fucking imagined. Ever.
It's almost a disservice to say that entrepreneurship is a fast track in personal development.
It's something I say all the time, but what we should really say is entrepreneurship is a fast track in evolution.
That we start to evolve as human beings and step into the best version of ourselves faster than if we weren't becoming entrepreneurs.
If I was just going through my day-to-day prior to starting my business, there's no way I'd be at the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual level that I am today if I hadn't started my business.
I'm so thankful for that, and I know that you're going to look back and you're also going to be so thankful for that.
But it doesn't mean that it's not going to be kind of difficult.
You're going to have to deal with some shit.
MINDSET FOR NEW ENTREPRENEURS
This growth is one of the reasons that within the last two years, I recognized that in order to support entrepreneurs and small business owners in really starting their business, I had to address the mindset.
I knew that in order to support entrepreneurs to grow their business, that we had to have that element of support as well, which is why inside of Roadmap to Freedom and Brandmerry Academy we have this level of support.
Because one of the things that is not chatted about when it comes to strategy is that the thought process of coming up with these strategies, the energy, and efficiency that's needed to implement these strategies, the mental resilience that is needed to stick with a strategy when you don't see results right away, that's going to bring up a lot of mindset work that’s needed.
You really need to be ready to take that on and to move through that. It's going to make you a better business owner and entrepreneur.
And that's one of the reasons that in every program that I create, we have that mindset component.
Because I can give you the strategies all day, I can tell you to show up and do this, I can tell you what to talk about, but there's so much of a belief in your ability to do it that is required.
When you're faced with these challenges, how are you going to take them on?
How are you going to say, "I'm up for it. Let's do it. Let's get this party started?"
It's not always going to be easy to get to a place where you're like, "Yes, I'm ready."
There might be some tears.
There might be some journaling.
There's going to be a whole lot of thoughts that say, “What did I get myself into?" especially in that first year.
But again, without challenge, there can be no change.
And it's worth it, but you’ve got to expect it, or it's going to knock you on our ass, and then flip you over, and then you’ll be face down in the mud.
And you’re going to be like, "Well, I didn't see that coming, because everyone told me that this was just rainbows and butterflies and unicorns. I could just step into this role as the same person that I was before."
This journey is going to require a different level from you.
And here's the beautiful thing. You're 100% capable of it because every entrepreneur and small business owner before you has done the same thing.
Every single one has gone into the idea of running a small business or starting a business as one person and has evolved and changed over time and where they are today is a different person.
The way that I love to think about it is that they didn't change who they were. They evolved.
I truly believe the amount that I've evolved in the past five years probably would have taken me 20 years if I hadn't started my business.
It's not that you are completely different.
It's that you are faced with these challenges and you're overcoming these challenges, and you're moving through these challenges, and you're making decisions about your mental and emotional and spiritual, and physical health to support you in running your business and being an entrepreneur that you're just evolving faster.
You’ll face inside challenges:
Am I cut out for this?
Is this really going to work?
Do I have the stamina to handle this?
Am I worthy of the outcome that I desire?
There are going to be outside challenges as well.
People confused that you now need time to grow a business.
People confused that you've decided to take a leap of faith and leave your nine to five.
People, including family, trying to navigate this new normal alongside you and supporting you, but also being like, "Hey, this is new for me too."
You're worthy of those conversations.
You're worthy of asking for boundaries.
You're worthy of investing in your dreams.
WORTHINESS AND BEING A NEW ENTREPRENEUR
The conversations you will have with others will be challenging.
You're going to have to sit down and straight-up say, "This is what's happening. This is what I'm doing. I would love your support. You don't have to get it, but please support me.”
I still don't expect my husband to understand every single nuance of this business.
He's been pretty involved since day one and supportive every single step of the way, but I don't expect him to know all of the ins and outs and inner workings.
So unless you're married to an entrepreneur or you're running the business with them, I feel like that's an expectation that we just cannot have.
But the support element is only going to happen if you're saying, "I need the support from you," because they don't know what's happening either.
When you're starting out, you don't even know what's happening.
You don't even know what's going on, but you're maybe two or three steps ahead of the people that you're asking for support from.
You've got to be open to having those conversations with them.
And that can be challenging, but 100% worth it, 100% possible, and you're 100% worthy of asking for what you want.
This whole idea of worthiness is something that we added to Roadmap to Freedom as a starting point of the program. This was an area where we knew that we just needed to put those pieces in place right away for our clients.
Every time we run Roadmap to Freedom, there are always questions around asking for time, setting boundaries, figuring out what you really want, and why you’re really doing this.
It always comes back to our inner belief that we're not ultimately worthy to have those things that we desire.
We're not worthy to take the time, or we're not worthy to set these boundaries, or whatever it might be for you.
I felt all of them. All of them and I know a lot of entrepreneurs who have, which is why we put together a foundational mini-course for members of Roadmap to Freedom.
As soon as they join, they get to go through this mini-course called Worthy.
But I wanted to share with you some small little pieces of that, to get you started
IDENTIFYING YOUR DESIRES
WHAT DO YOU WANT?
I love to ask this question of my clients, and we have an entire video about it inside of Roadmap to Freedom, and that is...What do you want?
I made a joke one time on a live stream when I was talking about desires, and I was like, "You very rarely sit down at a happy hour with your girlfriends where they look you in the eye and they say, “What do you want out of life? What do you want? What do you really want to do?” Very rarely, unless your friend happens to be a life coach or something.
So, we have to ask ourselves this question. We are the ones that have to sit down and say, "Hey, self, what do we want? What do we really, really want out of this life?"
You only get one life, just so we're on the same page here.
What do you want?
If you haven't asked yourself that question, or it's been a while, I encourage you to do so. And, remember there's no right or wrong answer here. It's not one thing. It's not 10 things. It could be 17 pages. It doesn't matter. But when you start to think about what you want, you want to start to then identify what that will ultimately give you.
WHAT WILL THAT GIVE YOU?
If you want a business that allows you to travel the world, speaking for myself over here, you want to take it a step deeper and say, "Well, what will that give me?"
I mean, that will give me experiences that most people only dream about.
That will give me time with my family.
That will give me the joy and the feeling that I'm giving my son these experiences before he's even 10 years old.
So, you not only want to identify what you want but also what that will ultimately give you.
And then further than that, if you haven't already done it, how will it make you feel?
HOW WILL IT MAKE YOU FEEL?
We've got to have that deep feeling attached to those desires. You've heard me talk about it a few times on this podcast where I say, when it comes to marketing, when it comes to data, we need to remove the feelings.
But when it comes to branding and especially when it comes to starting our businesses, nothing is going to motivate you more than a feeling.
Nothing is going to say, "Oh, hell yes! I'm in it. Okay, that sucked, but we're getting back up again."
Nothing will do that more than holding on to the feeling of the outcome.
So again,
What do you really want out of life?
What will it ultimately give you?
How will that make you feel when you achieve it?
One of the practices that I learned very early on was thinking of outcomes. I'll share an entire experience with you. This is the best way to give you an example.
VISUALIZATION EXERCISE AND FEELING INTO THE OUTCOME
When I was first starting, I knew that I wanted to launch group programs and courses and things like that.
But I also knew from what I had learned, and just focus in general, that if I lasered in and focused on one core offer, filled that, got really, really good at that, then I would have the capacity and I would have the funds to launch the other pieces.
It's one of the reasons why I encourage my clients to focus on one thing, one offer in the beginning.
I set out with a goal to sign 10 one-on-one clients from January 2017 through March 2017.
And as I was thinking about my goal, I started to imagine what I would do to celebrate that.
I wanted to do something really fun. I decided that I was going to go to New York and see Waitress on Broadway.
I'm a big Broadway fan. It was actually my major for years. Sara Bareilles, who's one of my favorite performers, was the writer and she was going to be in the lead role. I was like, that's what I'm going to do.
My mentor at the time said, "But how is that going to make you feel? I know what you're going to do, but how are you going to feel at that moment?" I started to visualize it every single morning.
I imagined myself leaving the musical. I knew exactly what I was wearing. I could see my black maxi dress. I could see that my hair was down because I hardly wear it up unless I'm working. I saw my entire outfit down the flats I was wearing.
I saw myself walking through the streets of New York just buzzing after this performance. I heard myself singing songs from the show, as I was walking to my hotel. I was just full of so much joy and energy.
I held onto that image and feeling for so long.
Notice I wasn't holding onto exactly what I was doing. I was holding onto the feeling that was happening in the celebration.
I ended up signing 10 clients by the end of March 2017.
I happened to be part of a mastermind at the time, and it was announced that our retreat was in New York City in May. And at the time of the retreat, Sara Bareilles was playing the lead role in Waitress on Broadway!
I went to the show and I wore my black maxi dress, and I reenacted that exact same thing.
Nothing is going to drive you in your business more than the feeling.
When you achieve those milestones, when you sell your first offer, when you fill your first program when you get your first thousand subscribers, how is that going to feel?
Connect with that and know that you are 100% worthy of that and you're 100% capable of having that.
OVERWHELM AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
We’ve talked a lot about your belief along this journey, let’s talk about the strategy!
In the beginning, I found myself getting overwhelmed with all the things because I was trying to do too much at one time.
I had like six different intensives and my one-on-one. You could do three months. You could do six months. You could do this. You could do that. It just got too much.
And I noticed that my messaging and my marketing suffered. I was marketing seven different things at the same time.
I started to realize that one of the keys to running a business is to start small, to laser in, to focus. As I've mentioned, I made the choice to do that with my one-on-one.
I didn't have a lot of funds to start and it didn't require a lot of funds for me to do it.
I got to show up.
I got to serve without a lot of overhead.
It served me well in my business and many of my clients have done the same. Just focus on the one piece and start small and be open to evolution.
Not only are you, the person and brand, going to evolve, but your business strategies will as well. As you become really good at something, you're going to add in something else, and then it's like a snowball over and over and over again.
You're going to pick up momentum.
In the episode that I talked about last week on niching down, we talked about this whole idea that you start small and that you pick up momentum. It can be really easy to look at other entrepreneurs who are doing 500 things and say, "Hey, I want to do 500 things," but it’s important to note they might be further along in their journey, they might have a team that makes it possible.
When you're starting your business, it's a really great strategy to start small, to niche down, and then let it unfold and evolve as it goes.
This is one of the reasons that I love hosting the niching down challenge every year.
It’s an important shift to have to your mindset that if you start small, you can actually grow quicker.
Whereas if you start too big, too wide, it's going to be messy. It's going to be confusing, and it's going to stunt your growth.
Start small and be open to evolution. That's just a big mindset piece that I think so many entrepreneurs need to embrace. You'll get there.
BE RESILIENT IN BUSINESS
You'll get to the finish line, but you've got to take those small steps. You've got to be open to the small steps. They build off of each other. They build that momentum. You also have to be open and committed to doing the work that's going to get you there.
You're not going to snap your fingers and suddenly it's happening. There's the mindset work like we've talked about. That's a piece of the puzzle, but then there's the actual work which makes up the largest part!
The building of the landing pages, the creation of the freebie, the recording of the videos, the showing up on the platforms, the writing of the blog, the doing the things.
I've said this on multiple videos and multiple podcasts that I think one of the things that supported me in the beginning, and I look back and I can see it now even though at the time I had no idea, was my commitment to doing the work.
I was so fucking committed.
There was no other option for me.
I had removed the other option from the scenario.
I knew that this was what I wanted.
I had checked in with myself. It wasn't easy. I didn't always believe that it was going to happen.
I went back and forth, up and down, emotional roller coaster, but I was always committed to doing the work.
If what I had planned to do didn't work out the way that I had planned for it to, I was ready to get back into it and try something new.
I talked about this in a recent podcast episode where I talked about the secret sauce to success. There's no template. There's no checklist. There's nothing that I can give you that will make it all work out magically.
But what I can tell you is that if you do the work, you'll get results.
You've got to commit to doing the work and you've got to commit early on.
That's why those pieces on time management and putting boundaries in place and having dedicated time to work on your business are so important. Even if it's like me that first year where it was Sunday mornings and late at night and lunch breaks, it doesn't matter.
Everybody has to find their own pocket of time!
Some people are going to have more time and capacity to work on their business, which isn't necessarily always better because we will fill the time with fluff.
I talk about this in my recent Youtube video on productivity.
I actually found that because I had such little time, I was super strategic with what I was going to be doing and I was getting it done because I didn't try and fill it with a bunch of other stuff.
I joked with my husband when we stopped traveling in the trailer last year (2020) and started splitting our time in an apartment and traveling, that it's almost harder right now because I have eight hours every day uninterrupted because he's home and he cares for our son.
And since I’ve got all this time, it's almost harder because I'm like, well, I've got eight hours. I can just do this and do this.
I was more efficient when I only had two hours a day than when I have eight hours a day.
If you find that you're in it, you're committed to the work, don't think that your small schedule or your limited schedule is keeping you from growth. It might actually be the best asset for you.
FOCUS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Bringing it full circle, one of the challenges I think has been disregarding all of the noise.
Disregarding the new platform, disregarding this new magical way to sell, disregarding this new thing.
If I'm focused on something, I already have a plan of action in place, as those things start coming at me, it’s like I’m in a bubble and they're just bouncing off of me.
Every once in a while, a little piece will get in and I'm like, I'm going to put that on my ClickUp board and save it for later.
But right now I am focused. I am like a horse in a race with my blinders on. And you've got to do that.
You absolutely have to put your blinders on.
The information is not going to stop coming at you. It's your job to say, "Not today. Not today."
Get off social media. Lock your phone and do what you set out to do.
Make that commitment to yourself.
The information is not going to stop coming at us. We cannot stop the information from coming at us.
We can choose how we react to the information.
It is one of the reasons that I have been head over heels about Roadmap to Freedom for years because the idea is that you're getting piece by piece by piece by piece, focus by focus by focus by focus, and each piece builds on the other in a very strategic way.
CONCLUSION
It's about the commitment and the focus to doing the work, putting the blinders on, letting the other crap bounce off of you.
You can come back to it later. You can't do it all. You cannot do it all. The information won't stop coming at you. You have to choose how you respond to that information.
For anyone here that has these big, crazy, beautiful, bold, challenging goals, I just want you to know that I get it. I totally get it. I was the exact same way and people thought I was nuts. I know so many people who thought I would go back to my job.
I didn't know what I was doing back then, but I was committed to figuring it out, and I knew what I was working towards.
As I write this I just imagine you're sitting on the couch and we’re chatting over wine. I'm fighting back tears.. Because when I sit and think about that new mom who was going through this postpartum fog and depression and had these ideas and these goals and these visions for what could happen for her new family, I mean, I'm living it today.
Some people might look at my story and be like, "Oh, but it took like five years."
Yeah, it took five years to completely transform our existence in our lives. I'm cool with that.
Some people wait for 20, 30, never happened years. I will gladly take five.
If you're sitting there and you write your goals down and you daydream and you lay in bed at night and you're like, "Oh man, could this be? Could this happen,"
I truly believe that it can. I want you to know that if you feel like nobody else believes in you, I fucking believe in you.
I do.
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MEET MICHELLE
Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.
I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.
I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.
This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.