Marketing Happy Hour - The Importance of Efficient Processes | Business Consultant Chelsea Brinkley

Starting point is 00:00:00 you're listening to the marketing happy hour podcast where we discuss career and industry insights with our peers in marketing we're here to talk about it all like the ups and downs of working in social media how to build authentic relationships in the influencer and pr space managing a nine-to-five and a side hustle at the same time, how to be productive in your life and career without losing your sanity, and more. Ultimately, we're here to build a community with you because we're all trying to navigate the world of marketing together. Are you ready? Grab your favorite drink and join your hosts, Cassie and Erica, for this week's episode.

Starting point is 00:00:56 Hey, Marketing Happy Hour listeners. Thanks for tuning in today. This week, Cassie catches up with Chelsea Brinkley, a consultant and coach helping small business owners create more efficient and organized businesses to gain their freedom and flexibility back. In this episode, Chelsea shares her best tips for remote workers, how to implement processes to manage projects, advice around managing your email inbox more efficiently, and more. It's a good one, so grab a drink and let's listen in together. Chelsea, I am so beyond excited to have you on Marketing Happy Hour today. You and I have worked together in the past and I've just learned so much from you. And so I'm super stoked for everyone to get to know you as well and learn from you. But before we get started, Chelsea, I have to ask what is in your glass this afternoon or what are you enjoying sipping on recently?

Starting point is 00:01:50 Okay. So right now I'm sipping on water. However, give it a couple hours and it will be whiskey in my glass and old fashioned. I'm a Tennessee girl. That's where I'm from. And so an old fashioned, um, is my jam. I love it. What, um, kind of whiskey do you typically use in your old fashions? Gosh, I really love Elijah Craig. That's one of my favorites right now that I've been really enjoying. Awesome. Yeah, I lived in, I don't think I talk about this on the show very much, but I lived in Kentucky for a little bit. So we were more known for our bourbon, but dabbled in whiskey a little bit here and there, but that's a good brand for sure.

Starting point is 00:02:25 I actually have something kind of unique. I have water of course, but I have a juice that I picked up from the store. It's called Hawaiian sun. And these are, I fell in love with these during my trip to Hawaii that I went on recently. And I am obsessed there. It's passion fruit juice and something else, but it's non-alcoholic, delicious, very refreshing. It's hot in Florida. And so I am enjoying that very much right now. Okay. So where can I get that? I know I found it at world market, which is so random, but I popped in there the other day and I never go to world market, but I seriously, Chelsea, like when I got back from this trip, I thought about having them shipped in from Hawaii. I loved them that much, but they had them at world market.

Starting point is 00:03:09 So I don't know if there's one in Colorado near you, but that's where you can pick one up. Okay. That's good to know. Thank you. Absolutely. All right. Well, let's get into it, Chelsea. I kind of know the background of your story, but I would love for everyone to get to know how you landed where you are now. How did you launch your business? What was the story behind where you are today? Perfect. Okay. So my journey is quite indirect. So I used to work for a multimillion dollar company outside of Nashville, Tennessee. I was the executive assistant to the chief digital officer. And I just got to a place where I, well, I became a corporate dropout. So I didn't want to, I really wanted more freedom and flexibility in my life. And I didn't want my life to revolve around a building anymore. Um, it just definitely became like a real, like struggle for like me and my husband. And, um, I just, our lives revolved around our office buildings. Um,

Starting point is 00:04:11 so I stepped away from that position and I started doing basically exactly what I was doing, but just as freelance, as a virtual freelance executive assistant. Um, and then that shifted into doing that for a little bit that shifted into me being, you know, from an EA, I went to being like an online business manager or an integrator. Essentially I was running the operations for high level entrepreneurs, um, and running all of the ops. And so that's kind of where my business really like started. And there was really a domino effect from there. And so now what I do is I help entrepreneurs and small business owners create more efficient and streamlined businesses.

Starting point is 00:04:55 And I'm also a coach and mentor for remote workers. So the person who is sitting in the cubicle, you know, like I was, they were in the office building and they're going, I just, I want more freedom and flexibility as well. How do I get started? And how do I, you know, find my niche? How do I start working remotely? What does that look like? How do I myself up for success and all of that? So that was a long-winded answer to your really simple question. No, you're good. I love hearing about that. So when you say remote workers, what are some of the different functions that those remote workers within your

Starting point is 00:05:29 community are doing? Yeah, it's one of two buckets. The individual either wants to step into being a freelancer, independent contractor, like solopreneur that may even, you know, then turn into their own business. Or it's the individual who wants to be a remote employee. So they're not their own boss. They work remotely, but for a company, you know, they're on salary, they're a remote employee. So they're either in one of two buckets, depending on, you know, what they're looking for. Like, you know, if they're more of a security seeker, maybe they want to go more of like the remote employee route, you know, cause there's like salary benefits and all of that kind of stuff. But if they have the entrepreneurial bug, maybe it's more of like the solopreneur

Starting point is 00:06:14 freelancer route and then turning it into their own business. So it's usually one of those two buckets. Awesome. Awesome. Well, a lot of our listeners are in the corporate space right now, but they're looking to make that jump, maybe launch a business, launch a side hustle, start freelancing. Do you have any tips for making that jump? Anything you'd say, any words of encouragement for someone looking to potentially step into that world? Definitely. I think like going ahead and preparing before you make the leap is really crucial. So like thinking about like, what does that mean for you? Like, how can you go ahead and prepare before making that leap? So one of the things that I did to prepare is that I am naturally a security seeker, even though I'm not an entrepreneur. And one of the things that I did to prepare and plan in advance before making the leap was I put three months of like my monthly salary aside and savings, um, into a savings account, just in case maybe it took me longer to get more clients than I thought it would, or, you know,

Starting point is 00:07:19 anything like that. I just like, I think it's really good to go ahead. So that would be a tip. Go ahead and put whatever number you are comfortable with and start saving. So you have a little nest egg. It really does help, you know, and it does, it takes the pressure off, you know, because there can be a lot of pressure that's like, oh my gosh, I have to find clients now. I have to find like that work now. But like, if you know, you have a little bit of like cushion, it removes the pressure, the overwhelm. And it just really helps into saying yes to the things that you want to say yes to not yes out of like emergency kind of like freaking out. Um, so that's what I would say, like a savings account. Um, another thing that I personally did is I wanted to make sure that

Starting point is 00:08:02 remote work was a good fit for me personally, that I was able to do it. Um, so what I did is I wanted to make sure that remote work was a good fit for me personally, that I was able to do it. So what I did is I took courses on the side to make sure that my skills were up to par for the job that I wanted to do. So I would recommend doing that or just at least considering doing that. And then another thing that I did is I actually worked on the side in addition to my full-time job for, I can't remember if it was six months or eight months, but I wanted to make sure I liked it. And I will tell you, as soon as I could have a glass of wine while I was on my laptop and working, making money, it felt right. That was my yes. And, but I did that also to like save money, to put it aside in that savings account. So those are a few things that I would recommend. Yeah, that's really good.

Starting point is 00:08:51 I think it's important to personally, for me, that helped me when I was starting out launching my own business is to dabble in it while you're still working a full-time job. Cause you're right. A lot of times we think we want to step into this. And I personally, I don't know we want to step into this. And I personally, I don't know what your opinion is on this, but I don't know if remote work is suited for everyone, every type of individual. Yeah. So, so trying it first, because if you decide

Starting point is 00:09:16 that it's not for you, you still have the security, you haven't quit your job yet. And you have that, that full-time position, um, already there. Uh, I'm curious to you mentioned remote work that is full-time, you know, still in the corporate space. Do you have any tips for finding those kinds of positions? I know I have a lot of friends who are currently trying to look for remote work in a number of different industries. And so curious what you'd say to try to establish and discover some of those opportunities out there. Yeah, definitely. So one of the tips I have is like, go ahead and I'll tell you like also how to find those jobs. But a huge tip is like, go ahead and start networking and

Starting point is 00:09:57 creating relationships because relationships are rocket ships and they will help you get to where you want to be. So you can go ahead and just you know reach out to peers and be like hey just want to check in see how you're doing what are you up to now tell me about your business it's a lot easier to ask for help or to ask hey is there like are you hiring is your company hiring for x y and z right now do you happen to know it's a lot easier to ask for help when you've previously commuted, communicated with someone like recently, somewhat recently, even if it's just an acquaintance rather than just completely out of the blue saying, Hey, can you help me?

Starting point is 00:10:35 Right. Again, it's all about communication. It's all about relationship and networking is everything. And word of mouth, like the way that I have gotten most of my clients, like, as you know, is just word of mouth. And so it's huge. So huge tip. If you're in that situation, like your friends start reaching out to peers, um, old team members, colleagues, and just create like an actual human relationship with them. Um, so that whenever you're asking for help, it's not completely out of the blue. So that's one. Um, there are a lot of websites out there that share about that they're hiring and they hire specifically remote employees and team members. So they may have like one building that's like headquarters. However, their entire team outside of like maybe the one building or a lot of people

Starting point is 00:11:30 and a lot of big companies have completely shut down like headquarters and business, like their buildings and sold them because their entire teams are now remote. So they don't even need them. So I will say there's tons of websites that share about those positions as well as just specifically, like I have a list of companies that hire specifically remote employees. I will share the link with you. It's like a free download. And I list out literally all the websites. You just hyperlink go to all of them. So I'll give you the link to that if you're able to put in the show notes so that people can use it to their advantage. So take my work and use it. Amazing. I love that. Thank you so much. We'll definitely link that below. So I want to switch gears a little bit. You are absolutely fantastic at setting up process and building efficient systems within businesses.

Starting point is 00:12:20 So I'm curious as we dive into this discussion on all things efficiency, what are some mistakes that you see a lot of teams out there make when it comes to efficiently managing projects? Oh, my stars. What a fantastic question. I would say the biggest, well, okay, there's several. I'll say one of the big mistakes I see is businesses not actually having processes or standard operating procedures, AKA SOPs in place at all. And they literally just go off of what people remember. They're just, people keep like the process in their head. I'm like, oh yeah, aren't we supposed to do X, Y, and Z next? And then we'll do this. And then, okay. Yeah, got it. But there's no like written documentation of

Starting point is 00:13:05 a standard operating procedure that team members are following at all. It's just what's in their heads or what somebody showed them one time. The difficulty with that is a lot of different things, but like one of them is you just never know like what can happen in someone's life. And it's not life-proofing your business if you don't have like processes can happen in someone's life. And it's not life-proofing your business. If you don't have like processes created and documented for your business, because as much as we don't like to think about it, someone could get sick or someone could get in an accident or have a family emergency that would take that team member possibly out of their role for maybe six weeks, eight weeks,

Starting point is 00:13:46 whatever that looks like. And if you don't have things documented of your processes, you're honestly screwed because you're just trying to like retrain another person temporarily to fulfill that position. But it would be so much easier and is so much easier if you can just hand an SOP document off to someone and say, here you go. Can you handle this? Why Susan is out and being with family right now, you know, just makes it a lot easier for everyone. So that's one of the things like a huge mistake I see is just in general, not having processes documented and in place. The second biggest mistake that I see is when companies delegate before they have the foundations in place. So think about like the foundations as your systems, your processes,

Starting point is 00:14:35 your workflows, the overall organization. If you are saying, oh, I'm overwhelmed, I think I need to hire someone and you hire them before you put the organization or the processes and those foundations in place. You're not setting them up for success. You're not setting yourself up for success. And you're just inviting somebody else into your mess. And that's not helpful for anybody. So those are the two big things that I see is mistakes. So would you say as you're building out a new function within your business, just go ahead, document it, even if you don't feel like there's going to be a need in the future to hand that off to someone? Even if you're a solopreneur, for example, or building a freelance business, would you say, go ahead, document those different elements of your business? So as you bring in new team members or replace team members, you have all of that already in place versus being reactive and having to

Starting point is 00:15:29 document it when the need arises. Definitely. It's such a good point. I would absolutely go ahead. And like you said, even if you're just a solopreneur, even if it's just you, or if you're a freelancer, you never know when you're going to start building a team and want to delegate. And I'll tell you, it's so much easier to like already have that rather than reactively going back. And it's going to take so much more time. It's not that it can't be done. Of course it can be done. Anything can be done, but it is a lot easier from the get-go to go ahead and start documenting those processes. You could even, rather than putting them in like a full SOP, like I have a whole like SOP template, you know, of course for writing standard operating procedures because I'm a nerd. But if you even are like, ah, I don't want to do that. All you have to do is use

Starting point is 00:16:18 Loom. It's a free tool and record yourself doing the process on your computer and just file that away. Um, you can save the link in like a Google doc of like, this is how to do this. And here's the link to the loom video. You can create SOPs later, but at least you have that like outlined. Yeah, I agree. Loom is such a great tool. And for me, I'm a very visual person person. So seeing someone actually visually walk through that process, I think is great. And so I've seen before having the loom video on top of a written version, you know, you can have to even just in case, or, you know, have those linked together. So it just provides a really great thorough resource for team members. Definitely.

Starting point is 00:17:02 Yeah. In your SOP, I would have like written like steps for the process, include a walkthrough video. Again, you mentioned it, Cassie, like Loom is my favorite. I love that tool. And then also like providing screenshots throughout it. I'm a very visual person too. And if it's a lot easier for me to follow a process, if there's like screenshots or a video that goes along with it or something like that. Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's talk about all this as it applies to marketing here for a minute. So thinking about some of the process you've built out for clients or for yourself, how

Starting point is 00:17:34 do you see some ways to refine a content planning process per se using some of these different tactics and solutions that you've built out? Any tips for building a process around content planning itself? Definitely just in general, having a process. You know, if you're a content creator, maybe you create something at Instagram and then you're like, oh yeah, gosh, I've got to share it on Facebook and let me download that real. I'm going to put it over here on Facebook and you know what? I should probably send it out to my email list. Okay. So let me just

Starting point is 00:18:05 grab that and send. And so that is going to take you so much more time. Um, and it's also using up a lot of brain space and mental energy. I would document, um, I don't like even like it could literally be like a bullet point list of what you do. I post to Instagram and then I share it to Facebook or I use a social media, you know, management tool like later or buffer. Definitely have some sort of like content planning process in place. It could be a bullet point list of here's what I do first. Then I write the email to the list and I link to the Instagram post. Okay. From there, I want to save this content later. So you know what? I have a Google drive folder that I'm going to put that Instagram reel in because so I

Starting point is 00:18:52 can use it later. You can always, you may think like, well, I can always just download it later. Yes, but you don't own Instagram. And so you don't know when they may cut things off. It's not a tool that you own, but you do have, you can use your own Google drive and it's a lot easier to search for like, Oh, that Instagram reel or that carousel post. If you just type in the keywords of what it was, um, in that folder. So you can have all of it there. So I say like, just have like a process

Starting point is 00:19:24 in place. Like, again, I don't say like just have like a process in place like again i don't care if it's like a bullet point list that you follow and you mark off each time you go through like putting your content out there um another tool that i love to use is trello so personally that's a project management tool that i adore and my life is in there. I like to use that and like literally have like a content creation process card. And I just replicate it every time and copy it, duplicate it for the new process or the new content that I'm putting out there. So you can have checklists within there of like, share it to my email list and use these tags and share it to buffer wherever. So having a process that works for you, you know, and then also like having a starting point, like what is your starting point? Like

Starting point is 00:20:11 for somebody, it might be their email list and then it goes to social media, but maybe it's you like sharing on Instagram first and then you share it to the other places. So figure out what works for you and then just document. Yeah, perfect. Well, and I have to ask you too about automations. You have taught me so much about automations and I know a lot of things in not only the content planning world,

Starting point is 00:20:35 but in other different aspects of a business, a lot of things can be automated. So do you have any recommendations around there? Please share your favorite platform. I have a feeling, I know what you're going to say, but tell me kind of a little bit about automations and how you use that for yourself and your clients as well. Oh my goodness. Yes. Like if you can automate it, do it. Like let's make the tools work for you. So one of my favorite tools is Zapier. I don't know if it's pronounced Zapier, Zapier. I'm going to go with Zapier.

Starting point is 00:21:07 That's my favorite tool. It's really robust. They give you, is it like five or six Zaps is what they call it. So like automations for free. That'll get you pretty far. And then from there, like you can just, you can tell it to do whatever you want. So really using the internet to your advantage of like, hey, when this happens, make that happen.

Starting point is 00:21:29 And when that happens, trigger this to happen. And so like that will save you hours every single week of automating what you're able to. Yeah, it's really amazing what it can do and how much time it can save. I think about my time working at an agency up in New York, and we had all of these different functions in our business. We had the design team and we had the copywriters and all these different people. And a lot of our time was sucked away by communicating in Basecamp back and forth. Hey, this is done. It's in this

Starting point is 00:22:01 folder. Here's the link. The cool thing about Zapier is you can set up these automations to where if the design team member drops X file in this folder, it can automatically ping you on Basecamp or Slack or whatever platform you're using for communication. So it saves that person just a little extra time of having to ping you. And again, it goes back to that process and just creating a very self-working flow for your team and whatever function that you're working on. Yeah. And I think like whenever you like go through and maybe document your process, just in the back of your mind, like, hey, can I automate this? It's always worth trying, you know, and checking out to see if you're

Starting point is 00:22:45 able to do it. So kind of always like keeping that question in the back of your mind, how can I automate this to make this easier? Yeah, absolutely. And you can always refine as you go to, I think, and same thing with just SOPs overall, I have to mention that if you establish a process, maybe re re look at it in the next six months, a year, see, see, is there a better way to do this? Is there another platform that's been released to help refine this process and then just fix up that document and refine that SOP? So I think, and I wonder if you would agree with me, it's always a work in progress.

Starting point is 00:23:20 You can always kind of optimize. Yeah, absolutely. I literally told my team earlier today, I was like, Hey, I know we do it this way. I want to make it a more personal touch. Can we add this into the SOP? And like, it takes less than a minute to like, sure. We just add it in. It's so simple. So yes, you can always pivot. You can always like adjust. And like, we've been doing this for a bit and like, here I am still, you know, 2023, is that the year goodness. And then we're still like updating our processes.

Starting point is 00:23:52 They're always a work in progress. There's always like a new tool that's going to come about. There's always like, you know, a new idea or light bulb moment that you have. So you can always like update that SOP for sure. For sure. For sure. Well, Chelsea, good point. Yes. Email is a area of my life that I still need to work on refining, optimizing. It is a lot of times a sense of overwhelm for me. I look at my inbox, I get sucked in when I'm working on a project. It's very distracting. And I'm sure a lot of people could agree with me. Do you have any tips for managing an email inbox more efficiently, anything that we can do to ensure that we're just lessening that overwhelm and staying more efficient in our day to day as it comes to email? Well, that's a fantastic question. And you're not

Starting point is 00:24:43 alone in this. Most people do feel very overwhelmed by their email ad email inboxes. So I would say like, if you struggle with opening up your email inbox, or there's that hesitancy or you're going, Oh, I don't want to do this. You know, I don't want to open it. I just, we'll just delete it. You know, that sort of thing, then you need to put a new process in place. So if you have that feeling, it means you need to put a new process in place because you shouldn't have to feel that way. And you don't have to feel that way about your email. So, um, there are a few things that I would recommend doing first, just unsubscribe, unsubscribe from any emails that you get that you like immediately delete it. If you habitually

Starting point is 00:25:25 find yourself deleting someone's email, um, you know, that's a newsletter, not maybe like their personal email, but like it's, it comes from a newsletter or, um, maybe there's a company or, you know, that you get emails from that you just immediately like delete, just go ahead and unsubscribe. You're not wanting it. It's, it's taking up space. Another tip I have is that I would definitely like dedicate email times. So for me, one of the things that I do is I have email time in the morning, morning, um, before I see that Southern twangs coming out, um, before like I start like my work day and like really get into client work and working

Starting point is 00:26:06 in the business as I spend like 30 minutes on email in the morning. And then I spent 30 minutes in the afternoon when I'm done with my work day, just checking in, making sure things are good. So dedicate email times and then outside of your dedicated email times. And it doesn't have to be 30 minutes. If 45 minutes works for you, great. If 15, awesome. You do you. Like an hour, if that's what it takes, awesome. That's great. So just dedicate like email times. I would recommend in the morning and then in the afternoon, whenever you're done with your work day. So that's a big tip outside of those email times for yourself personally, close down your email inbox, literally close down. Don't just like minimize it, but literally like close down the app or the program completely quit it. So otherwise what ends up happening is you hear a little ding and you're like, you know what? That's from Susan. Let me just check this really quick. And me checking this really quick

Starting point is 00:27:12 turns into two hours of email time. So just close it down. Just have dedicated email time from there. Another thing that I love to, sorry, lots of email talk. Another thing that I love to do is I treat my email inbox as an air traffic control center. So an email comes in, my inbox is a control center. From there, it needs to go somewhere. And I dedicate folders of where emails go. The folders for me are based on the crossroads of something that's important or urgent. So defining folders for that. So something that is important and urgent goes into email, like folder one, and I check those emails first. So kind of treat your inbox like it's an air traffic control center. The first thing you do is like, you know, delete emails that you don't want or unsubscribe and then file

Starting point is 00:28:11 the emails that are left that are either important or urgent into a specific folder. And then after those have all been filed, go into your folders and touch them and like, you know, basically address them all based on the ones that are urgent first and important second. So I know that's a lot. Um, I do have like an email, like a whole like email tutorial, like system that I use. Um, and it helps you to have, like, it actually is like a system, not just like do this. Um, so I'll give you the link Cassie, and then you can share it in the show notes if you want, but it's like a total freebie. It literally is like a tutorial of me walking through, like sharing my screen of exactly how I do this, why I do this and all of that kind of stuff. That's amazing. Thank you for that. I

Starting point is 00:29:00 literally wrote down, go download Chelsea's lead magnet. So I'm going to go do that. And I'm going to learn because I get sucked in, like I said, and I've, I've gotten better. So I've removed one of the things I've done. That's been so helpful. I removed notifications on my phone as well. So those email pings that come through, cause again, you're right. If you have it open somehow you get sucked into your email throughout the day. And I've been a lot more diligent of creating those blocks of time. Like you said about, you know, only check your email during these times, because again, a lot of times there's action items associated with those emails. And if you say to yourself, Oh, just take care of this really quick that you say that to yourself for all 10 emails that are in your email inbox. And then the day's over and you didn't get your, your big projects for the day done.

Starting point is 00:29:48 So I have a lot of work to do. You've got this, you can do it. It's totally possible. And then also just remember that like, if someone, you know, I filter all of my email emails based on if something is important or urgent. And so this is also just like a PSA reminder that just because someone else is like urgency, it doesn't mean it's an urgency or an emergency for you. So don't let someone else's urgency affect yours. Yes. And also in the world

Starting point is 00:30:21 of marketing and PR, we have a saying that we say it's PR, not ER. And so most of the time, you know, take a step back. It doesn't have to be done right then and there. And people have to understand, especially if you have your own business and you have clients that you have other things going on and just being open and communicate with them. Hey, I'm going to take care of this by X time or X date. And so just having clear

Starting point is 00:30:45 lines of communication. And a lot of that I think can be established at the very beginning of a relationship. Um, and just letting people know when you're available and when you're not. Yeah. Ah, that's so good, Cassie. Well, Chelsea, I have to ask you just about, um, piggybacking off of what you talked about at the very beginning of the episode, sharing your journey and how you wanted to create this life where you could travel and have balance and do things with your family that you're dreaming about. And so do you have any encouragement for business owners or even corporate professionals looking to kind of create that dream worthy life for themselves and discovering that and figuring out what that looks like for them. So one, just to know and

Starting point is 00:31:30 encouragement that it's possible. It really is like your far-fetched dream right now of living wherever you want to and working however you want to and creating this business and this like life first focused business is totally possible. So if you're feeling like it's a pipe dream, this can't happen. You know, I just want to encourage you that like it can. I would also like I will say like in my journey, whenever I shared with people, like we moved from Nashville, Tennessee, um, I left my really like cush, honestly, like corporate job, um, to work for myself and everything. And then my husband and I literally moved to Colorado to a cabin in the woods.

Starting point is 00:32:19 And a lot of people told us rightfully. So like, I do understand that we were crazy and that like, this is nuts. You're throwing your life away. And just like, if you have big audacious dreams, that's okay. And not everybody has to understand them. If it feels right to you, that's literally all that matters. Um, so I would stick to your dreams. I would also like be thoughtful of, you know, during the process, like we asked people for like advice for sure. And, you know, their opinions too, because sometimes it's good to get outside of like your own head and outside of like your own immediate, like, you know, circle. Um, and so just be thoughtful of who you ask for advice from,

Starting point is 00:33:06 because they need to, not everyone, you don't want to like hear negative, um, feedback from someone that isn't on the same wavelength as you, and then you take it to heart. So just be thoughtful of who, um, you ask for advice from is something else And then create a plan, like actually create a plan of like, okay, if we have this crazy, big, audacious dream, how is it actually going to get accomplished? Like, how are we actually going to get there? And it's baby steps. I mean, from my experience, like it's always been like little baby steps at a time. And then you get there and then you look back and

Starting point is 00:33:45 you're like, holy smokes, like how did all of this happen? Um, so yeah, just a few little tidbits. Oh, that's so good. Yeah. I'm, I'm excited to continue to watch everything that you've been building unfold. And it's been so cool just to see what you guys have been able to do. I think you posted something the other day on Instagram and it was all of the places that you've been able to visit and some of the things you've gotten to do. So it's, it's highly possible. And, um, I love, I always encourage, uh, people in the corporate space looking to dabble in entrepreneurship. I'm like, listen, go for it, try it out, vet it, see if it makes sense for you because there's a lot of power and a lot of amazing blessings and opportunities to come from that journey. So yeah, it's, it's been really cool to watch what you've built so far.

Starting point is 00:34:33 Oh, thanks so much. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Chelsea, I have to ask you one of my absolute favorite questions to ask on this show. And it is, what do you know now that you wish you knew early on in your career? I think like, for me, there was a lot of imposter syndrome, especially in the beginning. And I'll be honest still now, like I put things out there and I'm like, Oh, is anybody, does anybody care about this? You know, that sort of thing. So like what I wish I knew now is like really to just try to like work through that and like question why you're feeling that way. And just, I don't know, working through imposter syndrome, it's something that like I wish I knew then is just go for it. Like what is someone not achieving or getting because I'm fearful of stepping out and asking yourself that question. Cause there can be a lot of fear of like putting yourself out there or not getting sales or no

Starting point is 00:35:31 one's buying the thing or no one wants to do the thing, you know, whatever it is, whatever product launch, but our course launch or service launch, whatever that is. And so, but there are people out there who are not being served well, because I'm fearful of doing it. So it's something I wish I would have worked through beforehand. That's so good. It's, and I always tell people all the time, and this is whether it's in a corporate space, not deciding to raise your hand and share an idea because you're afraid of what other people may think, or as a business owner, not deciding to take a step forward or to launch that thing, like you said, because you're afraid of what people think. And I think about how many things we are missing out on all these amazing inventions,

Starting point is 00:36:17 creations, products that people decided not to create because they were afraid of what others thought. And we're lacking those things and things that can help serve and build up different people in your community. And so I completely agree. I think just going for it, testing it out. Most of the time too, other people don't pay attention if something fails.

Starting point is 00:36:38 And so use that to learn from, don't let it get you down, but say, okay, well, this angle didn't specifically work. Let me try a different way. And I guarantee no one is paying attention to the fact that that flopped. So, yeah, that's so true. I've also learned, you know, when something does flop or fail because it happens and it has happened to me for sure.

Starting point is 00:37:00 When that happens is like, I start to ask questions of people that like, I trust of like, Hey, like, why do you think this failed? Like what was missing? Um, I recently did like a launch. And one of the things that was missing for me that completely turned things around is I started to offer a payment plan rather just than just one upfront payment. That's just an example. But like, I started to ask people questions who I knew and who had previously told me, Hey, if you put that out there, I'll buy it, but they didn't buy it. And so I was like, Hey, I just wanted to check in. Can you like advise, can you help me? Like, I'm trying to learn how I can make this better. Um, so like no pressure, of course,

Starting point is 00:37:41 but I'm just trying to learn, um, and um and gain this like knowledge and data and can you tell me like what and they're every single one was like i really need a payment plan and i like changed that immediately added another week to it and then it sold out so it was like a good learning is like just ask questions and don't be fearful of that as well oh so good yeah be open to feedback be open to asking for other people's opinions. Always. It's we get so many, so much clarity from being outside of our own heads and getting feedback from someone who's not in it all the time, building that thing. And just having an outside perspective is so powerful. So thank you for that, Chelsea, such great insight.

Starting point is 00:38:22 And, um, I'm so bummed we're wrapping up this conversation. We'll have to definitely have you back because I think there's a lot to talk about and unpack and the world of remote work and efficiency and building process, but where can everyone follow along with you just across your website, online, on social, um, where can we catch up with you on online? Yeah. So website is chelseabrinkley.com. Very cryptic. Um, you can go there. And then on social media, I am mostly like active on Instagram and I find the most like fun and joy and being on that platform, just sharing honestly, like our life, maybe like processes that I put in place that work for me, if they could happen to work for somebody else

Starting point is 00:39:03 and things like that. But I really love showing basically just like our lifestyle and maybe like travel photos and a little bit of like the behind the scenes. Yeah. Amazing. Well, we'll link everything in the show notes below, but Chelsea, thank you so much for joining me on marketing happy hour today. It's such an honor to finally have you on the show. It's been a long time coming, but yeah, thanks for being here and sharing everything with our audience today. Thank you, Cassie. It's my pleasure and my honor. Thank you so much for having me. That's it for this week's episode. Thanks so much again for tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode, please remember to subscribe, rate, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. For more from Marketing Happy Hour, head on to subscribe, rate, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform.

Starting point is 00:39:45 For more from Marketing Happy Hour, head on over to our website, marketinghappyhr.com, or follow us on Instagram at marketinghappyhr. We'll see you next week.

Marketing Happy Hour - The Importance of Efficient Processes | Business Consultant Chelsea Brinkley

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