Produced By - The Life Behind the Business: The Part Success Never Shows | 168: Molly Stovold

Episode Date: September 7, 2026

Molly Stovold is the founder and CEO of Sitting Pretty Agency, a done for you LinkedIn inbound marketing agency helping founders and experts build personal brands that attract trust, leads, and clients. After starting with just 150 LinkedIn connections, Molly used her background in copywriting, SEO, and inbound marketing to grow her own brand and build an agency that reached a $600,000 annual run rate within seven months. She is now working towards scaling Sitting Pretty to one million dollars in annual recurring revenue. Listen to this episode to discover Molly’s journey from working with Greenpeace in Chile to building a yoga retreat in Sri Lanka, being forced to close it during COVID, and rebuilding her career in marketing. She shares how her partner’s proposal made her reconsider the life she was creating, why she chose LinkedIn to build her personal brand, and how she approaches content, growth, and algorithm research. Molly also discusses scaling an ambitious agency while staying present as a mother and wife, alongside her love of surfing. Connect with Molly:https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-stovold/https://www.instagram.com/mollystovold/https://sittingprettyagency.com/ Timestamps: 00:00 - Biggest LinkedIn mistakes 01:11 - Introduction 01:22 - Meet Molly Stovold 01:40 - Working at Greenpeace in Chile 03:07 - The reality of NGO work 04:16 - Growing up in Spain and moving to Chile 05:08 - Building a yoga business in Sri Lanka 06:08 - Losing everything during COVID 08:07 - Learning marketing & quadrupling her salary 09:49 - Building a personal brand on LinkedIn 14:56 - Why LinkedIn over Instagram? 16:33 - How to grow on LinkedIn 21:43 - How Molly researches LinkedIn updates 23:36 - LinkedIn Lunatics & online negativity 25:28 - The story behind Sitting Pretty 27:06 - Building a million-dollar agency 30:22 - What makes Sitting Pretty different? 33:41 - Common LinkedIn mistakes 36:28 - The future of LinkedIn 39:27 - Surfing, Bali & life outside work 40:55 - Book recommendations 43:00 - Managing business and family 45:05 - Where to find Molly 45:43 - Scaling to $1M ARR 46:29 - Final advice on building your personal brand 48:04 - Outro Connect with Tomas:Stan: https://stan.store/TommenLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/⁠⁠Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/⁠⁠Unproduced:Newsletter: https://unproduced.substack.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@unproducednotesSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033Ddo8ibDlLYoaP7FFLIWMore:Links: https://linktr.ee/produced_by⁠⁠⁠Patreon: https://patreon.com/tomaslouckyNewsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://producednewsletter.substack.com/⁠The Podcast Club: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/25420030/Tools & gear that support the show:Metricool: https://f.mtr.cool/HRJBZKFavikon: https://www.favikon.com?fpr=tommenRiverside: https://riverside.partnerlinks.io/2752q1ai767zRa Optics: https://ra-optics.myshopify.com/discount/TOMMEN?rfsn=8803777.591d19JamX: https://jamx.ai/podcasters-offer?ref_id=e02d48af-ef66-4e76-b804-c2e8d282a8bfSome links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you find them useful, using these links helps keep the podcast running. Thank you! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The biggest mistake that people are making at the moment is they are still writing for LinkedIn and creating content for LinkedIn like they did before the algorithm got updated to the AI model that it now works on. So rather than posting based on what used to work for you, so those super formatted pose with under 10 words in your hook and then like listicle and then CTA mix up your posts. Write them all yourself. If you've completely patowed, stop using AI for all your content like immediately. write your post yourself, play around with using longer hooks that use storytelling, always have an authority piece in at the beginning of your post, because LinkedIn is scanning your posts and then it's comparing it to your profile. So if you have an authority piece in the first part of your post, LinkedIn's like, okay, yeah, this person's an authority. So when I say authority piece, use statistics, use numbers, show LinkedIn like, hey, I know what I'm talking about. Also consider the words that you're using. So semantic indexing essentially is LinkedIn's new model. So, it understands. Before we dive into today's episode, please hit that subscribe button. Your support helps us grow and inspire more people on their journeys.

Thank you. Hello, Molly. Thank you for Jane us today and welcome to the show. Hi, happy to be here. So Molly, for those who don't know you, can you please introduce yourself? Sure, I'm Molly Stavold. I am the founder and CEO of Sitting Pretty Marketing Agency, which is a LinkedIn done for you agency. I launched that in November last year and I'm scaling it to a million dollars

as fast as I possibly can in annual recovery revenue. And Molly, actually, before we discuss it in more detail, I want to ask you something that I discovered on your LinkedIn in your experience, which is a while ago that you actually worked as, if I'm not mistaken, as marketing intern in Chile, in South America. So to me, when I saw it, it sounds quite cool because of the location and also the focus. So can you talk a bit more about this experience, such as why, what did you do? What was it like? Yeah, that was years ago.

So I was a marketing intern at Greenpeace and I did it alongside my course and that was when I was studying international development. So at that time in my life, I was dedicated to changing the world and thought that the best way for me to do it was going to work for Greenpeace and be on their marketing team. and it was such hard work. I was doing it alongside a full-time study course. I was doing a year abroad in Chile through my university degree. And then I did Greenpeace in the mornings and after my studies.

And yeah, it was a lot. It was really good for me to see what it would actually be like to work in an NGO in the office and what my future would potentially look like. And that was probably the first time I realized that I wasn't sure if I was studying the right thing. and if that was the life I actually wanted to lead because it was a grind. Was it like because of the amount of work or you didn't enjoy it or why did you feel like that

it may not be the thing for you? So when I got that role, I was so excited. I thought, oh my gosh, I'm working for Greenpeace. I'm going to be in the office. We're going to be debating about world change and everything. And I got to the office and people were eating McDonald's and I was doing having a work.

Oh, my God. And nobody was really talking to one another. So this big illusion that I'd created just kind of shattered. And let's be honest, I was doing it for free. And even if I wasn't doing it for free and I was going into a paid junior role in a similar setup, I would still have to work in hospitality to be able to even pay my rent in the locations that I'd want to live. So I would study in Brighton. I lived in Brighton in the UK at the time.

And that's what the reality is. if you do NGO work there at a junior level is you probably have to have another job to supplement that junior role to be able to just get by. And that's what I was doing. And it was worth it when I started studying because I thought, oh, I can just change the world. And I love marketing and I can do it for NGOs. But then actually it was just another marketing job, but getting paid a lot less. Yeah.

And did you actually move even to Chile, like to the country? Oh, I love that. Because it's obviously country across the whole world. So we're excited or scared or a mix of both. I loved it. I grew up in Spain, so I could speak Spanish, which made it easier.

Although I say I can speak Spanish. It's definitely rusty now. A bit hard of practice. But yeah, so I love Chile and I traveled all around Latin America when I was there as well. So I went to Mexico and Central America. Went to Mexico. Went to Bolivia. Peru. Just the culture there.

is amazing. I'm glad to hear that. And then considering this experience that you found out that it's not something that you want to do or pursue in your career, what are then like your next steps? Did you look for something else? Or did you have some kind of backup plan? Or what did you do? So that was the year before I graduated. And then I went back to uni and I did online remote work in marketing alongside my degree. Finish that and then went and started my own business in Sri Lanka, which was a development project and a boutique hotel. So we basically did yoga for tourists. And then we also did yoga training programs to teach the locals

so that they could get their yoga qualifications as well. And then the locals could then teach. We did that. And then COVID hit. And all my investment, all my savings, all my everything had gone into this business. And I had to close it down. I went to Portugal to visit my dad. and for his birthday in April.

And I couldn't get back to Sri Lanka because what felt like overnight at that time, everything closed. I've still got a whole container full of stuff in Sri Lanka. Yeah, I remember when it happened. I cannot imagine because it was like a sudden and suddenly everything closed right. Yeah, so overnight.

And I remember looking at flights and thinking, I'll be able to get back, I'll stay here, I'll celebrate my dad's birthday, it's all good. What is this weird thing that's going on? It will pass in a week. and then it did it. It just got worse and worse and worse and worse. And before I knew it, I was living at my dad's house with his new wife, his newborn baby, trying to find an online marketing job. And I was 28. Nothing to my name. I'd gone from being this entrepreneur with a new business

and was so excited by everything in Sri Lanka to be in my dad's house. Thank you, dad. He's amazing, by the way. But very different from what I expected from my life at age 28. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And especially considering the COVID when you didn't know what is happening, how long it's going to last and everyone scared and impacted and I remember as well. It's probably going to be a silly question, but was there like any way to how to switch or how to do it online? Although I guess with yoga, it would be challenging or did you think about such option? Oh my gosh. You're not going to find them because I burnt them to the ground, but I tried yoga videos on YouTube. even just talking about it was being cringe. I was so bad at it. The setup, the video, I didn't have a mic. I didn't even have a stand for my iPhones.

I had no money. I had nothing, right? I just had nothing. So I was trying to make shift these yoga videos. And bless, a few of my friends did pay me for online yoga videos. And I didn't get any returning customers, probably for that reason. And I learned very quickly that video content was not. not my forte and I should probably try and do something else.

But I think, firstly, sorry to hear that, but at the same time, I think it's good to try it because at least you find out that it's not for you, at least it allows you to switch force, nothing else. And you don't regret later that you haven't tried because then you might be thinking like, what if I tried, what if it worked out? Very true. So what were the next steps then? Because I know it was COVID, so it was challenging period.

And if it didn't work out, I can imagine it was quite tough. So what were your plans? So after that, when I was at my dad's, I got an online marketing job, and it was SEO conversion copywriter. So I did SEO research, learn how to copyright for a SaaS tool, and did that. It was an entry-level job. So it was an amazing pay, but it was really good because I learned so much.

SAS is the fastest growing industry. So they're just top of their game in terms of tools and writing and tech. And then I thought, okay, this is great. This is what I can make money in during COVID. So let me just become the best that I can in this field. So I did every marketing course under the sun that I could find online. And in that year, whilst I was at my dad, so I quadrupled my salary and just job hopped. I went from job to job to job, getting new job.

Sorry to all my old jobs. But that's what I need is to do to make the money and get the life that I wanted and I saw for myself. And eventually in the final role, I was working for a Swiss company. and it was remote. And I moved to Bali, but I was working nights. Right. So I moved to Bali with my then partner. And I was working nights and it was killing me.

I was up to like 2, 3am, running a marketing team, running that million dollar inbound marketing launches. And when I was in Bali, when we just landed and I was working these nights and it was hustle, hustle, hustle. I was so burnt out. And I was definitely not my best self. I was like spotty. I was puffy.

My partner proposed to me. And I remember thinking in that moment, why on earth does this man want to marry me right now? I am at my worst. And that was the moment where I thought, okay, something needs to change because I'd met all these people in Bali around me that were running their businesses.

I'd had conversations with people that just said to me, you know, you can go and do what we're doing. You realize that your marketing experience is enough for you to go and build a personal brand. So I decided to put my partner first because he'd put me first despite the state I was in at that time. And I started building my personal brand on LinkedIn, even though I was really scared and I only had 150 connections.

I'd built all these other people's brands and marketing, but never my own. And that's where my business started and it just snowballed from there. I saw the video that you shared on Instagram recently that reminded me because it says that I think was 2012 when your partner proposed and it changed the life cycle. Nice to hear that. And I can imagine, as you mentioned, the copywriting work and other experience before, did you feel like that it then maybe give you some kind of advantage, like when you started on LinkedIn, that you had,

you know, experience and know-how about how to write or it still feels scary? What was it like? Imposter syndrome was definitely still there, but I had the advantage of I knew that LinkedIn could work as an inbound marketing funnel to make money for a personal brand because that's what I'd been doing. I just had to get over myself and actually start posting and the writing, I could write. I love to write. But I'm also severely dyslexic. So I had to find a way to write and put out a lot of content and find my voice and find a way of flowing with my writing when I'm writing for myself. And there's not a lovely editor there who's not dyslexic to fix up any of my dyslexic errors. It's all just me. And I had to find that flow. And I still, when I'm

stressed, or if I've got a lot on and I'm having to batch content and put a lot out very quickly, I still make those little errors. And you'll see them sometimes on my posts. You'll see like, oh yeah, she's dyslexic. Look at that. That shouldn't be an A, it should be an E or whatever, you know. I honestly wouldn't even notice. I mean, I haven't noticed just this is sadist and all. I'm like, good. I haven't seen it. I'm surprised. Yeah. No, sorry, I interrupted you if you were about to say something more. No, well, basically, yeah, the copywriting, the SEO and the positioning messaging comes very naturally to me.

But I think that I'm definitely proof that even if you've got something that other people would consider a hindrance, for example, dyslexia, it doesn't mean that you can't go and write. If you still enjoy writing, then go and do it. Or if you like being in front of camera, but you feel that for whatever reason you shouldn't be in front of. of camera. Just go be in front of camera if you're naturally good at it because it will work and people will see that you feel comfortable in the environment that you've put yourself in, writing or on camera and they'll connect with you because of that. I like it and it's true. I think it's similar to what you mentioned before about film windows. You got videos for YouTube that it may work for one person but may not work for you and it's same with everything because you see you know people

for example on LinkedIn they say this type of content works the best or this is the I don't know, the most effective way, how to do this and that. But it may work for that one person, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it works for you. So in the end, the best to try what works for you, what you enjoy and what is sustainable in the end. So I think it's a good reminder for people just to test the options and see what's the best for them. Definitely. A talent first. Like focus on your talents when you're starting your personal brand.

And then once you've achieved what you consider to be a level of success, success, where you don't feel this weight of imposter syndrome anymore, that's when you can then scale to other platforms. So, for example, for me, that's Instagram right now. I'm now scaling to Instagram because I feel comfortable on LinkedIn. I'm getting leads from LinkedIn. I don't really need to worry any more about client acquisition. That's sorted on LinkedIn.

So I have, it's very much a privilege, I guess, to be on the channel present. I can now go and look at it. Instagram and creating videos and getting over myself and being a bit nervous and learning a new skill because I'm no longer relying on that to make money. Yeah, I'm glad to that. And also, of course, I hope it doesn't happen. But you know, you never know if one day you may lose one channel. I hope that it doesn't happen to anyone.

It's not going to happen. It's not going to focus on. Then it's good to have some kind of backup. Just saying just in case because one obviously never knows. Don't say that. It's making nervous. It's just a reminder for people. And also, Molly, in the first place, actually, why was LinkedIn like the platform that you focused on?

Because at the start, you could have chosen, like, other platforms as well. So what was the reason for LinkedIn? Interesting question. I actually also already had 10K followers on Instagram, just from traveling and my other business, when I started on LinkedIn. but I started on LinkedIn because I knew I could write better than I could do video content, one, and two, I had seen LinkedIn be an inbound marketing channel for my clients and my previous businesses that outperformed all of the other channels.

So all of the other platforms, it was consistently, no matter what the industry was, it provided so many more organic leads than everything else. and it was a no-brainer in terms of monetisation. I wanted to make money as quickly as possible to replace my corporate jobs so I could be present for my husband. That's why I chose LinkedIn, simply because it's where money was to be made

and it still is. But also, on the slightly emotional side, I didn't have all of these followers who were going to judge me when, you know, on LinkedIn. I just had 150 connections. I could do what I wanted. I could put myself out there, you know,

And that meant that I did, and I went a lot harder on LinkedIn than I would have done on Instagram because I didn't have that fear of like, oh, what's this person going to say? I just did it. Yeah, it makes a difference if we have 150 followers and now, as I checked, we are so close that it's going to hit a beautiful milestone soon. So I'm sure when this is out, it's going to be there, but it's an impressive journey. Yeah, hopefully, fingers crossed. Go follow me for listening to this. And I'm sure that you get this DM or people ask you a lot. And of course, I would regret not asking you, but have you got advice how to grow your brand on LinkedIn?

I know that it's quite a broad question, but if someone wants to increase the followers, have you got advice? Sure, so many things. The main one that I will see is the biggest mistake that people are making at the moment is they are still writing for LinkedIn and creating content for LinkedIn like they did before the algorithm got updated. to the AI model that it now works on, right? So the way that...

It brings us to your today post, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, yes, well done. Yeah, exactly. Right, so rather than posting based on what used to work for you, so those super formatted posts with under 10 words in your hook, and then like listicle and then CTA, mix up your posts. Write them all yourself. If you've completely patowed, stop using AI. for all your content, like immediately.

Write your post yourself. Play around with using longer hooks that use storytelling. Always have an authority piece in at the beginning of your post because LinkedIn is scanning your posts and then it's comparing it to your profile. So if you have an authority piece in the first part of your post, LinkedIn's like, okay, yeah, this person's an authority. So when I say authority piece, use statistics, use numbers,

show LinkedIn like, hey, I know what I'm talking about. Also, consider the words that you're using. So semantic indexing essentially is LinkedIn's new model. So it understands what you're trying to say without you having to use specific keywords in your content, but that's not to say that you shouldn't also be aware of the keywords that you're using. So if you've plateaued, then consider what are your keywords? Is it person branding? Is it LinkedIn marketing?

Whatever it is, make sure to say that and to also call out your target audience in your content. so that LinkedIn learns who you are, and make sure that the post that you're posting are a reflection of your profile, so that LinkedIn sees your post, scans your profile, then send you out to people because it's like, oh yeah,

she is who she says she is, right? That's definitely where I would start, and most importantly, stop listening to all these algorithm posts, algorithm update posts, because the algorithm is constantly updating now. It's not like, hey, here's an algorithm update, like it was in 2024, whatever, that would happen very rarely, literally constantly.

So when that person who has seen something change in the algorithm, a creator is giving you an algorithm update. By the way, me, I do these, but I'm also saying that like, I was going to say that one of some other questions this advice. Yeah. But even when we pick up on things and it's like, there's an algorithm update, the algorithm is already updating, literally as you are acting on LinkedIn. So rather than hanging on to algorithm updates, make your content and your personal brand and what you're putting out there something that doesn't rely on algorithm updates or hacks to grow and thrive. So how can you do that? You can look at features. So any social media tool

always want you to use all of these features. Whenever there's a new feature drop, use it. whenever there's something on LinkedIn, we see another creator using specific features. So for example, rather than doing a normal post, you can celebrate an educational milestone, you can launch a project, use things, use the different features. You can use newsletters. We've had loads of clients within the agency, have their newsletters go viral over the last couple of months. Rather than trying to hang on to the algorithm trending posts, those are also important.

And the creators that post them, myself included, have done their research and they are based on facts most of the time. I'd hope so. But just know that because of the new AI model, it's literally constantly going to be changing. So instead try to build a strategy that situates you as being an authority and a voice and a personal brand that people follow regardless of what's trending. That's my biggest piece of advice. That's a great advice.

And I remember literally the post today because you mentioned, as you said, said also now to use like benefit from the features. For example, on our profile and I can say like by myself that I think I've been neglecting some, which is great idea and great advice. And also you said like when you see some people posted about algorithm updates and changes, it's a good one because obviously as it updates itself, also you don't know if the post that you see might be from yesterday in the week before. So obviously some time happened already and already behind the scene that happened in other

update. So that was a great one. And I would ask you, Molly, I don't know if it's like a secret or maybe we said that it's from your research, but then the question is, how do you know? Like, obviously, if it's someone who works for LinkedIn, they know that. But you, I don't know if you got like some process, how you find out if you do the research or how do you know this? Good question. So you see lots of these people on LinkedIn. If it's not secret, of course. That's all good. I'll share it. I'm an open book. So you see these people on LinkedIn being like, hey, I'm X LinkedIn. Follow me and I'll give you all of these tips. And even if you're at X LinkedIn, or even me, unless I worked in LinkedIn and I literally worked in the product team,

I wouldn't know what the updates of the algorithm were. So you've got to instead treat your research as though you are on the product team. So who do we follow? We follow all of the product team who actually work at LinkedIn. We have AI agents built behind the scenes. that are following every single LinkedIn blog there is that goes out from LinkedIn themselves. All of the LinkedIn influencers were scanning all of their content every single day to see whether anyone's posted any updates. We're also following the big blogs in the space, inbound marketing, and also things like ads, also the really tech, heavy, boring blogs that people don't think about because they're not marketing, but actually that's where if there's a tech or product update,

that's going to translate into changing the algorithm or changing, LinkedIn in some way for our user experience very quickly. So we're also following those. And we get a report every single day within the agency that tells us if there's anything we need to be aware of. And then there's also things like Reddit and Twitter X, which we follow. And we have another agent for that's just more on kind of like the feeling of LinkedIn rather than the data is what are people experiencing outside of our agency every day on

LinkedIn? Are loads of people getting restricted overnight for no reason? in which case we think, okay, let's pull back the activity we're doing on LinkedIn because Reddit's going mad with everyone saying they're getting restricted right now. So let's slow things down just to be on the safe side. So we also have agents running that do that as well and check that. Oh, that's some great strategy behind it. Pretty cool.

Do you also check LinkedIn Lunatics on Reddit? No, I think that's so savage. No, so yeah, it's a bad joke, sorry. Why don't people just be nice to one another? I swear if I've ever been on that, whoever you are, don't be mean. I can't even look at it. I've seen people that I admire,

like Lara Costa, who's a total inspiration for so many women trying to scale their businesses, and she goes on there, and it just annoys me. And I think that people who try to tear women like that down are atrocious,

and it should just be stopped. And anyone that follows it, anyone who checks it, anyone who comments on it, just know that you are feeding into a really negative place on the internet and validating things that should just have no place, especially when it comes to women, putting themselves out there and building personal grounds. Yeah, I think it's like, you know, anyone, if they are making fun of people who actually put themselves out there, make that first step, try to build something, and there are people making fun of them behind the scenes,

which I agree with what you said. But anyway, a quick note before we continue. One of the things I've realized from hosting this podcast is that I spent a lot of time thinking about the conversations long after they end. That's one of the reasons I started unproduced, a solo podcast where I share ideas, lessons, observations and questions I'm still figuring out myself. If you'd like to check it out, you'll find a link in the description. Now back to the episode.

So Molly, as you mentioned your agency, firstly, I like the name of the agency. I think it sounds cool. It's funny. It stands out. What's the story or reason behind the name of the agency? Sitting pretty is something that my grandma used to say to me. She used to say, one day, darling, you'll be sitting pretty. Don't worry.

And that's something I've always stuck with. And my grandma is very sick at the moment, and she has been for the last year. And when I was thinking about the agency, I thought, this is a great name. And it's almost like, what's the word that I'm looking for? It's for her, you know? It's something that I want my clients to achieve so that they can sit pretty, come sit pretty with me. Like, that's all be sitting pretty.

And it's also because something that throughout my life, I have aspired to thanks to my grandma. I like it. And it's also, when I see it, to me it stands out because it's different, you know, it's not like, I don't know, this generic name about growth agency or whatever. But it's actually something that makes you stop, think and it gives you some kind of feeling so I like it.

I appreciate that. Molly, as you are building it, you've been building the agency for some time, have a lot of successes I could see. By the way, I remember when I was doing the research before, I'm pretty sure that the website was updated, right? Yes, by the wonderful Martin Pothoff. He's amazing. A dig held plug.

Well done, because I was obviously doing some research before this again, and I thought, It looks different from before. It looks pretty cool. And what, Molly, from your experience, as I said, you've been building it for some time. It's like your advice for people out there that want to build something similar, such as to start agency or some kind of business like this. What did you learn from your journey?

And would advise people. My biggest piece of advice try to monetize my personal brand in literally every way there is under the sun. I did marketing consulting. I did high ticket one-to-one. I did digital products. I did guest speaking on other people's digital products. And now I've got my agency.

I'm also, also brand partnerships. The only two that I do now are brand partnerships and the agency. Even though as a high-ticket coach or consultant, I could charge like multiple five figures per month just to work with me. The reason is, is because the agency model and the brand partnerships suit me best. took me going through launching digital products, which by the way is a lot of work, and having high-dicket one-to-one clients who really want a lot from me, fair enough, obviously, that's what they're paying for, yeah,

to realize that actually I am much better suited to the agency model where I have a team supporting me and supporting my clients. So I can go and take a holiday to meet my baby niece in France. You know, on brand partnerships, why those? well, I'm already using the tools that I'm working with. And now I'm getting paid a couple of brands for a single post to talk about a tool that I already love. And I'm getting free access to that tool for the month

that I'm talking about it, which is great. So that for me was what I needed to go through to realize what my sweet spot was for the life I want to lead. Now, if you're going to speak to a business guru, they would probably tell me like, Molly, are you mad? You'd be making so much more money if you did what you're doing right now and also did high ticket consulting.

and to some fractional CMO work as well. And I would. But it's about that life that I wanted to create it for myself. And I want to be able to, you know, my baby's outside. I'm going to finish this podcast. I'm going to go have breakfast with my baby. I wouldn't be able to do that if I was answering to high-ticket clients for the time or on some kind of company in a CMO position.

Right now, for me, this set up is what works for my family and my lifestyle and the reason I got into entrepreneurship in the first place. And that's what it should always come back to. So if you're trying to start online, consider a monetise your personal brand. Consider what is the reason behind it? Is it just because you want to make a shitload of money? In which case, go do all of the things, you know, and hustle. Agency, high ticket one-to-one.

For me, those have been things that make the most money. Or is it that you want to be there for your family and put your babies to bed every night, make them all their meals in the day like I do? In which case, it's probably not going to be group cohorts and constantly launching because that's very demanding. That's a great answer. I heard something similar from one of the previous guests. Of course, you could be making more, I don't know, scale or, as you said,

making more shit loads of money, but at the same time, you want to enjoy your life and you don't want to work like a slave, so find what works for you. And you need to enjoy life because then when it's too late and you realize that, what are you going to do after? So that was a good one. And I can very much relate to it. Then, Molly, I think it may be, I don't know, like, interesting question, but you know, you've got a lot of agencies out there.

So what is it actually that makes your agency different or unique from the competition? We built our agency based on demand. So even though, as you said, there's all these agencies out there, when I ran my LinkedIn cohorts, so I trained people, founders, entrepreneurs, coaches, et cetera, service providers, how to build their personal brands on LinkedIn, those clients who did my courses, did my one-to-ones, went on and became top 1% on LinkedIn based on FabiCon, or influencers within their own right, within their own space. And despite all these other agencies being out there, those clients came back to me and said, Molly, I need help running my LinkedIn.

I can't be doing 200 replies to comments every single day now because my posts are getting that many comments. I need help. There was demand there for this specific system that I teach or taught. in my group courses, my unique way of building personal brand. They wanted people to run their LinkedIn in that way for them. That created demand. So then I just had to turn, okay, what was it? What is my unique way? How can I package this into an actual service that I can give clients? And that is how the agency was born. And that's a lesson really in launching any new offer or product is don't just assume that people want it, wait for demand or go and see if there is demand,

do your market research and then meet the market where it's at and provide what people actually want. And that is why my agency snowballed so fast and we got to 600K run rate in seven months literally because of the demand already being there. So we hit the ground and within two weeks we were at 100k run rate. True. I'm happy to hear that. The worst thing when you're something and no one wants it, right? Yes, horrible. And I've been there. I'm for sure I launched a digital product once on manifesting and it flop. And I was like, this is going to be my thing.

I'm going to be a manifestation coach alongside marketing. And the market was like, no, you're not, honey. Yeah, that's the reality. And also obviously there is other, like, or the competition out there because, as I said before, a lot of people build their agencies or I don't know, for coaching and send that on LinkedIn. I'm sure that you can see that as well. So it needs to be something that has a demand

and also stands out among the crowd that all the people are. And from all the people, Molly, that you work with or work with, are there like any recurring patterns that you can see across the people that you help that they struggle with or like the reason that they come to you

or they need help? So we get a lot of people who come to us who are working with other agencies and it's not working. When I say it's not working, either their content's just not getting any more reach, they're not growing, and they want traction. So one thing that we do really well is our clients go viral. We use storytelling posts and do all content for clients. And that virality then translates into lead generation and calls being booked.

So we don't just focus on the outbound or social selling or DMs. We make sure that the content provides the demand for our client services and then that translates into people actually being much more keen to work with them when they do get on a call. The big problem that people come to us with is either AI generated content has completely destroyed their account. Yeah. That's surprised. Yes, so bad. And another thing is tools. They'll go and work with agencies that use these tools and plugins. LinkedIn's new AI system is literally scamming every single day to find profiles that are using any Chrome plugin. So if you're listening to this and you have got Chrome plugins on the Chrome that you are using on LinkedIn, go and delete them all, or just start using LinkedIn from another browser.

So use Safari or something that has no plugins because even if it's just Grammally, that's scanning the text on your screen, LinkedIn doesn't know whether that's an automation tool that is actively sending messages on LinkedIn and writing DMs or an automation. tool that is just scanning text, which Gramerly does. So we see clients who just, even though they're not using any automation tools, but they've got all of these like plugins and constantly getting, they come to us with like, why am I getting restriction warnings? And then we look at their plugins and when we first start and we remove all their plugins

and then they're fine. And it's often you see people are, I've seen like some creators freaking out or even complaining that their profiles got to restrict it. And of course, it's always different. and you never know what happens. But I wouldn't be surprised that people using these, I don't know, automation tools, anything from commenting, et cetera, and then being surprised that LinkedIn blocks you or restricts your profile.

So be careful because then when it's too late, what are going to do after. Yeah, good point. But I would also say there's even big creators like Jasmine Alec, who, Total Legend, he has been restricted. He literally works for LinkedIn, right? I think I've seen it as well. Yeah. So he's not using any of these restricted stuff. He knows what he's doing. So why is he getting restricted? There's also an argument for that. So the thing that's a bit broken about this

new LinkedIn model of how it's distributing, monitoring us is that sheer volume can sometimes be flagged as being automated when it's not. So we've had clients post go mega viral and then we get a restriction warning. It's like, no LinkedIn. We're not doing anything. illegal here is just a high traffic account or something's gone viral. So there's definitely, I wouldn't just look at people who's being restrained and be like, I knew they were using a pod. No, they could just have a really high traffic account or they could have suddenly gone from low traffic to high traffic and LinkedIn's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you know. So that's definitely some growing pains, I think, with this new model that need to be ironed out.

But overall, yeah, definitely don't be using any of those tools. Yeah, and it was, of course, a good point that you never know that everyone's reasoning is different. It's not always the same. And what, Molly, you think that it's like the direction that LinkedIn is going to, if we try to, you know, look a bit in the future, have you got like an idea how you think it's going to develop, whether it's with the, I don't know, trends or updates or how LinkedIn is going to develop in the future? LinkedIn is in vogue right now. I'm on Instagram, doing an Instagram course trying to learn. and my Instagram coach said like, yeah, everyone's talking about LinkedIn. LinkedIn's trending.

LinkedIn's the place to be, which is great for all of us creators, you included, who got there early and already, you know, we already got our space, you know, we're already doing our thing because now everyone's moving over here. We already are that first time, the first group of people that already have the standing on LinkedIn. So we're already going to be doing content that we know works for LinkedIn. We already got our voice on LinkedIn. We already understand how LinkedIn works. So the future for LinkedIn looks like all those people coming over saying like, oh, this place is trending. Let's build a brand here. And it's going to turn into essentially like the TikTok. Do you remember back

when TikTok first became a thing and everyone was dancing? I remember and I remember thinking, oh, look at all these people dancing on TikTok. How embarrassing. And now I'm thinking, you are so stupid. Why did you go and dance on TikTok? Yeah, it is true. You know? Yeah. And it's of course a great reminder because you see you all the time about the people that if it's too late to join, if it's already saturated, but then if you look at the numbers of LinkedIn compared to other platforms and then

compared to or looking at the number of people that are on LinkedIn and that post actively, it shows you how little people actually do it actively. So it's never late to start. only 1% of people on LinkedIn post five days a week. Yeah. So yeah, definitely go and start posting on LinkedIn. You don't need to post more than once a day as well. It's like the other platforms.

It's you still, if you start now, you're still at the moment where you can become one of the initial creators and just thrive alongside the platform whilst everyone else is trying to get on it. And if you're already here and you've plateaued, then get help so that you can get your account working again, so that you can take advantage of what is Sue going to become a platform that competes with Instagram and TikTok. Agreed. One day in the future, we will be happy and proud that we stayed in for the long game and continue. And hit for the long game, yes. Yeah. And Molly, then, just to be aware of time, want to ask you, kind of like,

questions at the end so what are your hobbies or what do you like to do in your free time? I love to surf which is why you've probably guessed that. I saw it on Instagram as well yeah. Yeah. I'm a long border so Portugal, Bali kind of tells that story right in itself. I love to surf so my weekends are spent surfing on the beach taking turns with my husband one of us in the water one of us with the baby and do you actually live by the coast? Yeah, right next to the close. You can walk to the beach from my house. And my villa in Bali that's still there.

We built a villa in Bali. And now it's on Airbnb. So that's a little side hustle that came thanks to my business, is that now we have this, you know, villa and Bali that we rent out. And that is literally stones throw away from one of the best long boarding ways I've ever served in my whole entire life. True.

Nice. I honestly, I've never tried it surfing. But of course, whenever I saw like photos or videos of people, in those ways, it looks pretty cool. I'm also one of those people. What, in the barrels? Yeah, like when there's such a cool wave around you and you are underneath, it looks so cool.

Way too scared for that. Do you know how big a wave needs to be to be going over my head and crashing on the other side? It would need to be enormous. No, I'm going to go on the really long board. It's like dancing on these little mini cute waves. That's me. Well, it still must be fun. I hope that one day I will try and remember this.

Go get barreled. Think of me. Yeah, exactly. Then, Molly, do you read books? And if so, have you got any recommendations? Yeah, love books. And I'm an audible girl. So, Alexlmosi always says, you know, listen to audible,

or listen to the audio book and read the book at the same time. If you want to really remember stuff, that works 100%. Especially for my dyslexic friends out there. It really helps you retain information. and just like quickly go through reading materials if you're trying to learn. And the best book that I'm constantly referring to my clients when they are worried about their story and oh, how can they show up in such way on? Or well, maybe they shouldn't say that because of this one boss that they once had or whatever it is.

Go read All Marketers a Liar and All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin. Have you read that? I'm not sure. I know Seth. I know that he's like a marketing. master and amazing even like creator but i'm not sure if i read this one but i will make sure to check it out because i know that he wrote a lot of books if i'm not mistaken purple cow but i don't want to say something that it's not true but that is true he also wrote that yeah oh it's from his very good book

yeah and i've also heard him of course in many podcasts he's amazing that's a good one got any more or is this like the one that would recommend for building a personal brand and trying to understand how you're going to position your story, which is the most important thing when you're building personal brand. Step one is what is your story? You're not like your experience, your expertise. We don't, that's important, but it's not the main thing. It's how are you going to show up and tell that story and put that expertise into a clear beginning end based on something that your audience can actually connect with? That book will help you with that for sure. And then in terms of Imposter Syndrome Peace, The Big Leap is a great book.

I think that's by Gay Hendricks. I don't know that one, so I will have a look. Good for mindset. Yeah, that's all good. And Molly, I was about to ask you, as we discussed so many things, you are building your agency, your brand, you are mother and wife, enjoy your life. So what's your secret to manage everything?

I have a lot of support. I have a, for all months listening to this, first thing to outsource, if you're building a business, it's not in your business, it's in the house. Get a cleaner. Get a nanny.

Get whatever you need to be able to have focused time on work without being like, I've got to do the laundry, got to do the washing up. Because that's noise in the back of your brain is your creativity and your creative flow

is just going to be constantly put down with everything else that you're trying to manage. So get whatever support you need in your home life. And then when you can and you're ready to outsource even more, that's when you can start scaling the business in other ways. And then when you do scale in other ways, this is something that for me is always look at the task that you've got and actually what is taking you the most time that can be outsourced without you needing to manage it very much because that person is an expert.

So for example, I'm launching my Instagram right now. I didn't start launching my Instagram again until I knew I could get a video editing agency on board. And now I've got a video editing agency on board that I trust because I know the founder and I know that he's an expert. Now I can just do it because I'm not going to spend hours editing. So take decisions that will support the lifestyle that you want to lead and delegate so hard. Yes, that's a good one because there are always, obviously, people that can do certain work better than you, that although we think that we are the best in everything, the reality there are people, and also you need to prioritize because you cannot do everything on your own.

And you need to enjoy your life. Then, Molly, can you please summarize where people can find you, follow you and promote any of your services? LinkedIn, follow me on LinkedIn. And sitting pretty agency.com is if you need support with your LinkedIn, in personal brand or your founder brand and you want to actually start getting leads and start making money on LinkedIn or going viral. That's where we are.

And also Instagram, if you want to go and watch me embarrass myself and learn how to create video content then. So you can find me. To have some fun, as always, at other links to the show notes. And also, Molly, have you got like any goals that you want to achieve in weeks or months

or any time so that audience can be excited about? Yeah, we're scaling and sitting free to 1 million ARR as fast as we possibly can. How is it going so far? Are you happy with how is it good? So we're at a 600K run rate, which I said earlier, which is pretty good. But I think one of the lessons I've learned is I was trying to go really, really hard and forgetting actually that my underlying goal in everything that I do is to be a present wife. That's my why. and a month.

So, yeah, I'm scaling as fast as I can to achieve that goal, but I'm also making sure that I'm doing it without letting go of that core value, which is a bit of a challenge, but we're working on it. Yeah, and of course, we'll be wishing you all the best. And last question, Molly, is there anything I should have asked you and did not or any final message or piece of advice or anything you would like to leave the audience with? If you're feeling really insecure about your LinkedIn,

send me a message on LinkedIn because I am always available to big up my people who are trying to build a personal brand and not realizing how powerful they are. I will always, whenever I have a spare moment, go through my LinkedIn DMs and try and support as many of you as I can. So please send that message rather than just sitting there and not doing or acting on it

because a successful personal brand will literally set you and your family free and I'm proof of that. It's actually really nice that despite all the work and everything we discussed and I can imagine you get a lot of messages looking at your brand and following that you still have time to support people. So it's really nice. Thank you. I think then Molly, I want to say a big thank you for our time for this chat. I was very happy to hear more about your journey and found it quite inspiring and a reminder

not to have any excuses with time or anything else and definitely definitely motivated. So thank you so much for a time. I will keep following and supporting. And yep, happy to keep in touch. So thank you very much. Thank you for having me. Thanks for listening to Produce by with Tomen. Check the show notes for all the links.

And don't forget to subscribe, like and share your feedback. Speak soon. Thank you.