What’s Been Going On With Our Business

The following is a transcription for The Peaceful Entrepreneur: Episode 18.

AMY: Welcome to the Peaceful Entrepreneur podcast, where together we are finding peace in the process of everyday business ownership by improving one step at a time, how we think and what we do. I'm your host, Amy Stout.

Welcome back everyone. I am back with Luke today and we have, we haven't done an episode like this before.

LUKE: We have not. This is the first.

AMY: The first of its kind. The first non happy hour Luke appearance other than our story time of the business and how you joined. Obviously, that was very important.

But today we thought it would be fun to chat about a bite and what's been going on in the business because I know you listening, you don't have to be a business owner to listen, but you probably are.

And I know I always love just like hearing what's going on with other people's businesses, being encouraged, maybe learning a thing or two from just hearing about other people's experiences.

And two, it'll be fun to look back on these in like five years. See where we were, kind of landmark.

LUKE: Where we were at this point in time during the year, especially being that this is early on in the podcast's life. I mean, I think this will be like the third season, second season.

AMY: Second season.

LUKE: Or something.

AMY: And I think too, like people listening that have businesses, maybe we can kind of confirm Like, yeah, things have been like tough in this area for us too. It's not just you.

Like I was just talking to someone yesterday who, and we're going to talk about this later, but just talking about how hard it has been to, to get clients so far this year and how that's just like across the board.

That's not just you and you might feel like it is, but we're here to kind of share that experience with you.

LUKE: That's not an uncommon struggle. Especially just with the economy as it is now.

AMY: Yes. So the last time that we had an update episode together was when we told that story of you coming onto the business.

LUKE: Right. And I think that we recorded that in January.

AMY: Yes. And now it's May. So we have, we can kind of just update on this year so far, I think.

And I just think it's been kind of funny because a large focus of our attention this year has been education around marketing and sales, as well as trying a bunch of different marketing and sales tactics. Of applying those things that we learned. And I am not trained formally in marketing or sales.

Luke, you have some sales experience.

LUKE: I do. I have quite a few years of sales experience in different realms, but marketing wise, I don't really have any real experience, I would say, in terms of like, I didn't go to school for that didn't take classes on it or anything.

AMY: So just been kind of like learning as we go this entire time, basically. We've gotten some formal training through coaching through a course that we took and have gotten some really, really great information and education.

So I just feel like in January, once I kind of turned over all the client work to the contractors and I stepped fully into the manager slash CEO role of I manage the day-to-day and I make sure that everybody is on the same page and all the communication between clients and contractors is taken care of. And then CEO side is new clients and business development and finances and all that stuff.

So that's what I'm spending my time on and I want to come back to it because I am really enjoying that. But that has allowed me to focus a ton of time and energy on marketing, that I never really have been able to do. That you wouldn't have had time for.

So I feel like I've just poured a ton of energy and we went for four months. And yes, we signed some one-time project clients within this four months, but we did not sign a single ongoing new big client between December and the beginning of May. Yeah. It's crazy to think about.

LUKE: That time was really just spent, like Amy said, honing our marketing and sales strategies and really just soaking up knowledge, but also trying things and putting things into practice in a variety of different fields with referrals and other marketing things, stuff with updating on the website, things of that nature.

And also just figuring out a sales strategy, a step-by-step plan of how from, I'll call it a discovery call from a first contact with somebody, maybe on the phone, to how do we get them to sign the contract and send it back.

So we did a lot of work thinking through those things and also just organization wise, spent time building out a CRM. So a built out like a database where we could keep track of all of our prospects and leads.

And that's been helpful because it allows us to check in with each other every week and see where maybe the conversation is with people and also just keep track of people that, hey, Maybe they're not interested right now, but would love to maybe think about it in the future. So that gives us an easy way to keep track of those people that maybe we want to reach back out to in two to three, four months to maybe get the ball rolling again.

AMY: And that's been really helpful. And I've known, you know, we've tried certain things that now I look back on and I'm like, okay, that probably wasn't the most effective strategy to use.

And then there's been other things that have been extremely effective. And I'll talk about some of those things, but I knew, I was like, okay, we're doing a bunch of stuff. I knew it would eventually just burst all at once and a lot would happen at one time. But I just didn't know when it would come.

But I feel like it did at the beginning of May, like in the last two weeks, it has really burst because we've signed up to new ongoing clients, which has been exciting. And in the last, I would say three to four weeks, a couple of our current clients have asked for a considerable amount more work.

So I don't know what it is about spring, you know, entering the summer, maybe people are kind of getting into a mindset. I think it's also just a testament to like putting the work in on the front end.

LUKE: You know, applying it to, or tying it into the theme of the podcast. Like it would have been really easy for us to freak out when we've been trying, you know, maybe a sales strategy or something for three weeks and like nothing's happening, but instead remaining peaceful and not freaking out about the lack of inbound leads or whatever, and instead just continuing to work and understanding that if the Lord wants it to happen, it's going to happen and being patient, but also being diligent to put the work in, not being lazy and just kind of sitting back and waiting until something floats down the river our way.

But instead, we put in a lot of work and that takes time to maybe show fruit, but that doesn't mean it's never going to happen. A hundred percent. I've kind of picked out two big concepts that I want to emphasize. If you're wondering where you should be focusing your attention, if you're trying to pick up your marketing and trying to get the best clients possible for yourself. I think there's two important things to think about. The first being really think about who your ideal client is and only go after them.

One of the things that we learned was like, your messaging and your pitch can be awesome, but if you're not going after the right kind of person, then they don't matter.

AMY: Right.

The things you're saying don't matter.

LUKE: The things you're saying don't matter, yeah. And so it's important.

AMY: One of the things I've learned is like, do your research as far as who you're reaching out to, to be your client. Because I feel like the people I've reached out to that I already admire and follow and know that I would get along with turn out to be good clients because I know I'm going to get along with them.

I decided to take the strategy one day of going through the following list of one of those ideal clients and then picking a bunch of people who were following that ideal client to reach out to as a client.

LUKE: Yeah, that's good.

AMY: It was a good idea, but I didn't, it was cursory. I should have done deeper research before I reached out to them because it ended up being like a, just kind of a generic copy paste, send each of them the same email and it didn't end up being super effective.

So having that more personalized, like, "Hey, I've watched your stuff. I really admire how you do this, this, and this." I think that we could be a great, our businesses, you know, I think that there could be a couple potential opportunities for us to collaborate as businesses. And I'd love to connect to discuss that.

You know, having that more organic reach out has been wildly more successful than just throwing an email into the void. So, do you have any thoughts to add on the ideal clients and go after the right people?

You hit the nail on the head when you said thinking about your ideal client more so than your actual marketing material is huge. If you don't know who you're targeting, most likely your marketing material is just throwing something at the wall and seeing what sticks kind of thing. Understanding where you're throwing that stuff is good. So more specific you can get the better.

The other big thing that I just want to like scream to or shout, not scream, shout from the rooftops.

LUKE: Our upstairs neighbors probably wouldn't like it if you screamed.

AMY: Um, is referrals. Like I'll never stop preaching how good referrals are because our business is pretty much built on them. It is. It is like we got, here's the path. I am not saying everybody takes this path. I'm saying this was our path. I cold emailed in an authentic, relatable way. I got the client.

LUKE: Yeah.

AMY: Someone I met through them referred me to another one of our clients. That client has brought us two clients. One of those two clients has brought us a client. All three of those are actively still referring us to other people.

It's just this little tree of multiplication. And the best part about it is, yes, you're probably going to be more likely to sign someone who comes to you as a referral because they already trust you on a different level because somebody they trust has endorsed you. And two, they're probably going to be another exactly ideal client because they're somehow connected to this other ideal client that you already have.

So that's what I've found is like the people that our ideal client has sent us, have sent us are ideal. Like they're all connected and they're all, you just gotta get in the same, you gotta get in the right little circle of people. And then they'll just pass your name around. So anything you can do, if you need to focus your attention in one place, I would say, get yourself some referrals.

Like reach out to past clients, current clients. Hey, do you know anybody who would be interested? Can you send me one contact? Can you connect us via email?

LUKE: Yeah. And if they're a current client, that's a great way to incentivize like a referral program, like, Hey, get 15% off your next month's for us. In our case, 15% off your next month's bill. If you win a person that you refer to a signs, a contract kind of thing and offer them, offer the new client 15%.

AMY: And offer the new client 15% off as well or something.

LUKE: I'm just pulling that number out, but just something like that is a great idea to incentivize that.

I mean, you think about referrals. Like if you see an ad for like food or something, like, yeah, you might think about going to get it, but if somebody tells you that they went to this restaurant and it's like, dude, you gotta go there, it's amazing. Like I'm probably more likely to go there.

AMY: Such a good point.

LUKE: That's just how it is buying anything. I feel like hearing from somebody else, if somebody else has it, and they're like, "Oh dude, I love it." Like, I'm more likely to go buy it, I think.

AMY: Absolutely. So yeah, those are just two of the biggest things that have been, that are just top of my mind, that have been super important and successful in our last couple of months. I think it's kind of funny timing that we're recording this when we are, right after we've just had a little boom of new clients. It's kind of cool that we're able to speak from that perspective.

But just to go a little more general, as far as like where I'm at and how I'm feeling about our business and life and my role in the business. Like I said, what I'm spending my time on right now feels really good. feels very aligned with like what I want to be doing and what I'm geared to do.

Cause I kind of feel like I am kind of a natural manager organizer, making sure everything is in the place that it needs to be. So I genuinely really enjoy that role of just keeping on track on top of the daily communication tasks, all, you know, organizing everybody's tasks. I just, I thrive on that. I enjoy that.

And then when it comes to the business development, I love to, to breathe forward thinking and brainstorming and, um, you know, in the right context, I love to create content if I'm in the right headspace and, um, I love to connect with new potential clients.

That's what I honestly spend a lot of my time doing now is reaching out to potential clients, connecting with potential clients, you know, and that's what I need to be spending my time on. So, All that to say, I am enjoying it.

And it has also offered me an opportunity because my time is more flexible, 'cause I'm not spending hours and hours and hours doing client work, that I was able to take on kind of a special role for about 10 weeks that just started as an assistant to our pastor while his assistant is out having a baby.

And that is such an honor to have been asked to do that. And I just am, you know, totally was God who set up my schedule in a way that I could take that and take it on and not be overwhelmed. I genuinely don't feel overwhelmed by it.

It's like, yeah, my schedule might be a little more full for the next eight weeks, but like it's not going to be unbearable.

And my heart is so with our church. I have such a passion for our church. So it's a joy to kind of serve in that way and a blessing that it happens to, they, you know, they kind of are a client for this period of time.

So that's been really cool. Um, I've also been focusing a lot on just my morning routine. That episode's already out. Um, my daily structures, how I choose to structure my tasks and my days. I've been learning a lot about when I need to do what, I will say report back. It's been probably about six or eight weeks of me doing the, I have a theme for each day and I do certain kinds of tasks each day.

That has been incredible. That has been a game changer for me.

Admin Mondays, marketing Tuesdays, calls, Wednesdays and brainstorming on Thursdays. that has been literal game changer for my sanity, my mental peace. And then on top of that, I think the second level of it is not loading too much on yourself in one day, even within the same category.

LUKE: Yes, that's huge.

AMY: Because yeah, I mean, your energy is going to run out at some point, and you have to make sure that you're focusing it on the right thing. And so I have this planner that I bought that calls you to write out a focus three. And that prompts me to look at my list and be like, what are the three most mentally intensive and important things that need to happen today?

And it makes me cap it. It's like, I can only do three. Only do three of them. And if there's an additional task list that's like, follow up with this person, make sure you send a meeting reminder for this person. Post on Instagram stories. That's all all quick, easy, that can go additional. But as far as like the big tasks.

I try to really limit myself. And just be realistic with what I'm expecting of myself each day. And it helps me not dread my days. It helps me, you know, do better work because I'm not feeling overwhelmed at how much I have to do. So that has been really huge.

LUKE: That's awesome.

AMY: So I feel like we're really just, we're getting in a flow with each other.

Luke and I are with our, our sales and our marketing and our rhythms with how we do our work and how we check in with each other. Like you've really integrated. Someone asked me today, like how you have transitioned into this role.

And I was like, it was so easy because this is what this is more his, his cup of tea anyways. This is kind of the life that you are more wired for. So yeah. How are you, how are you feeling now that you are seven months in?

LUKE: Seven months in. That's crazy. I would echo that. I feel like I've adjusted pretty well. It's been a pretty easy transition. I think probably most people would say, yeah, it's, I guess maybe, maybe I take that for granted how easy it was.

Cause maybe that's not as easy for, for some people making a big transition like that, but very fortunate to have been raised to kind of, I think I might've talked about this in a previous happy hour, but my dad always said I had surfer mentality.

So maybe I've mentioned that maybe not. If I haven't all that is, is just like go with the flow, just ride the wave. the wave comes, just, you know, take it.

So I feel like I'm pretty good when it comes to things changing, even though I don't like change, I can deal with it. So it's been a fun transition. I'll say that, but, um, yeah, it is interesting thinking about Amy was saying her role has kind of shifted into more of the CEO, um, and kind of hands off a little bit, I'm still very hands on, which is just the nature of the work that I do, which I enjoy.

So whether that's doing graphic design or editing this podcast or editing videos or writing music for people that I'm still very hands on and directly interacting with the client on actual work. Whereas Amy is still, you know, she interacts with the clients, but kind of on a different level, which I think is good. I enjoy being in contact with all of our clients. I love all of them. They're all super sweet.

Um, shout out to one of our clients, Vikita @stylekita on Instagram. So shout out to her. She just, as of recording this like yesterday or the day before was awarded one of 2 Amazon live creator awards. So they give out two of those and she won one of them, which is amazing. So shout out to how hard she works. She hustles.

AMY: Oh my gosh, it's amazing. Her, her work ethic is very inspiring.

LUKE: She's awesome. We love her. And the rest of our clients. So, but had to give her a little shout out. Yeah, I think anyways, going back to the more day to day thing, I enjoy, again, being involved with clients, I still get to talk to, I mean, I talk to most of our clients in some capacity just about every day of the week, usually just whether that's like a voice message or a meeting or sending messages back and forth, communicating about whatever.

But one of the other things too that has been an adjustment is I dropped from a traditional 40 hour work week, which I think I talked about, to not working 40 hours a week.

And while my coming on, and we talked about this previously, I think so, I won't go into too much detail, but in coming on, there wasn't a whole lot of work. So I wasn't working a full 40 hours. I'm still not working a whole 40 hours.

So there's a balance of, I feel like there's a balance of the desires to grow the business, which means more work for me, which is what I want. But at the same time, our end goal is to kind of be hands off and not have to work 40 hours a week. So it's an interesting balance between like, yes, I wanna, you know, the more work that comes in for me specifically, whether that be video editing or music, writing podcast themes or whatever, editing podcasts, like that means more hours a week, which is awesome. That's great. But at the same time, it's a balance of ideally, I think we, I would do that for a little while and then be able to hand more and more of that stuff off.

So I can just kind of manage, um, whether that's having a team of video editors, uh, something like that, obviously with the music creation, that's something that's like, that's a very style specific thing with different people. So that's something that I've always enjoyed and want to continue doing.

But ideally, like Amy said, she's stepping back more and more into a CEO role. So the idea is that we would both be able to do that in our respective areas of the business, I think long-term, which then frees us up. It's an interesting place to be though right now.

We want more editing work. We're trying to bring on more editing clients.

So that means more work for me. But at the same time, the goal is to work less. So it's just, it's a funny thing to think about, but the more work, the better in my opinion.

AMY: So I think in our current stage, the more work for you, the better.

LUKE: Oh, definitely.

AMY: And I think that we have a pretty clear and easy pipeline that whenever it is time for you to phase out, you know, we kind of know exactly how we would hand that off, right?

We are kind of in a, not a hustle season, but just for lack of a better words, a push season. How about a push season? That's a good way to put it.

We are actively trying to save to be able to buy a house. And that means that we need to work more, honestly. Or get more clients or whatever. Like we need to, we have a goal that we're working toward there. So it makes sense that you were pushing a little bit harder, putting more hours in at this point.

But then there's going to come a season in our life when we have kids, Lord willing, and we're going to want to take more of a step back so we can be more present with them. And then there's other business ventures that we have in mind for the future.

So there's going to be a period, you know, that, I feel like that is the stage, like the kids and the new business ventures is the stage where we're like really pulling back.

LUKE: Yes.

AMY: So it makes sense to just be highly, highly involved at this point in business. One thing that I do want to mention about where you're currently at.

And a reason that I'm glad that you're not working a full 40 hours is the availability that you have is such a gift. And I'm thinking about two specific reasons, one being clients come to us and say, Hey, we want to add this on. Can we do that?

And I can say, yes, we'll start next week because Luke's going to do it because you have the availability. That is so valuable. The fact that we can just be like, yeah, we gotcha. We can add that on.

LUKE: Or just like little things like yesterday, one of our clients like set a voice message. was at like three o'clock or something and was like, Hey, um, I'm meeting with this person. I need these graphics. Like, I know this is last minute, but I was, I just need some help building them.

And I was able to, because I was not doing any, you know, have you editing projects or anything at that point in time? I was able to just be like, yeah, sure. Just tell me what we need. And I was able to get them over to her in like 45 minutes.

So just things like that.

AMY: That was the other thing I was going to say. And I was gonna, and yeah, and I was also going to say like what a gift it was to me in that moment, because I was tied up. I was at a meeting and I couldn't do anything about it.

And I was literally able to be like, Hey, Luke, can you take care of this and know that it was going to get taken care of like that? I just, in that moment, I was like, wow, like that is such a blessing. That is something that I really can't take for granted.

Like how cool that I could just be like, Hey, can you do this? I mean, the availability is a good thing when it comes to that kind of thing.

And I'm very grateful for your willingness to just jump in and be chill against her for mentality. Take things as they come. It doesn't freak you out when something comes in last minute.

We're like, Hey, can you do this? I love that you just roll with it. So it's been a huge blessing.

LUKE: Definitely.

AMY: So I think moving forward, we're just going to keep doing more of what we're doing and hopefully adding more, you know, like continue refining our marketing strategies, adding in, you'll probably see us adding in more things bit by bit with our marketing on lots of different fronts.

And hopefully like you're saying, stacking your hours a little bit more, getting you some more editing work and, and get us closer to that goal of the house that we have right now. It's kind of cool that we're very single-minded when it comes to what we're working toward like that, that's what we've got, that's what we're focusing on. And it's cool to have a goal.

I think that we are obviously way more motivated because we're going for something. And we're not just like, all right, yeah, we're growing the business and we're doing this for marketing and blah, blah, blah, you know. So I think we're in, this is a fun, fun stage. I think that we're going to look back on this stage of life and the stage of business fondly.

And I am really excited. I think one thing the Lord has been teaching me is contentment in this season because I am really excited for what's next and I have a lot of big dreams for what's next. But he really has been kind to show me and allow me to feel contentment in this season more than in the past. I feel like I always am just like ready for the next thing, ready for the next thing.

But I genuinely am just so grateful for our church community playing on the worship team, where we are in our marriage, our friends here in town, our community group, like everything is really great. I'm really grateful for it.

And I'm just grateful that this is the life we get to live. It's nice to reflect back and just be grateful for what we've got. So it is and not always be pining for what we don't. One thing that I've been learning the last, this goes into what we were just saying, but one thing I've learned recently is just there's value in, in not working 40 hours a week and being able to be available for, for people.

LUKE: So make yourself available.

AMY: That's a really good point.

LUKE: Thank you. Like we were able to just drop and, you know, drive to a funeral on the Thursday and we were able to just move things around and do it. And that was really special.

AMY: It was other things like that. you know, friends car breaks down. Hey, can you, can you bring me to the shop at 2 PM? Yeah, I got you.

Well, thank y'all for listening today. I hope that you've gotten some tidbits. I'm certainly encouraged just from reflecting and chatting with you.

So we will definitely be doing more of these updated episodes throughout just peppered throughout the seasons.

LUKE: You know, not too often, every so often.

AMY: Yeah. But thank you guys for listening and for being here. We would love it if you enjoy this, If you would scroll down on your app and give us a five-star rating and then give us a little review, maybe of a tidbit that you pulled out or just something that you enjoyed while you were listening, that would mean so much because it helps us reach even more people with this podcast.

LUKE: Woo.

AMY: So we will see you all next week. Bye.

LUKE: Bye.

AMY: Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. We look forward to connecting with you more, whether that's on Instagram, TikTok, or our email list. We'd love to hear what you thought of today's episode and if you have any additional tips to add. We will see you next week with more tips and tools to becoming a peaceful entrepreneur. Bye for now!