Running a business is truly like riding a rollercoaster. 🎢 In this episode, I share my biggest ups and downs during my 3-year journey of building my design studio, Eclectic Designs .CO.
I get really vulnerable and transparent during this episode, because I don't think the realities of being an entrepreneur are talked about enough. I open up about:
So if you're in the beginning stages of your business adventure, this episode may shed some light on what you can expect. I'd love to remind you, though, that no matter how challenging the process is, it is 1000% worth it! My hope is that by sharing my experience, it'll make your endeavor that much smoother. 💜
********************************************
✨Download Your FREE Brand Audit Checklist✨
I'd love to connect with you:
Instagram: instagram.com/eclecticdesigns.co
TikTok: tiktok.com/@eclecticdesigns.co
Pinterest: pinterest.com/eclecticdesignsco
Episode Music: WatR
Special thanks to my VA, Andrea: thevirtualalchemist.com
Running a business is truly like riding a rollercoaster. 🎢 In this episode, I share my biggest ups and downs during my 3-year journey of building my design studio, Eclectic Designs .CO.
I get really vulnerable and transparent during this episode, because I don't think the realities of being an entrepreneur are talked about enough. I open up about:
So if you're in the beginning stages of your business adventure, this episode may shed some light on what you can expect. I'd love to remind you, though, that no matter how challenging the process is, it is 1000% worth it! My hope is that by sharing my experience, it'll make your endeavor that much smoother. 💜
********************************************
✨Download Your FREE Brand Audit Checklist✨
I'd love to connect with you:
Instagram: instagram.com/eclecticdesigns.co
TikTok: tiktok.com/@eclecticdesigns.co
Pinterest: pinterest.com/eclecticdesignsco
Episode Music: WatR
Special thanks to my VA, Andrea: thevirtualalchemist.com
Kailee [00:00:04]:
Welcome to Branded and Booked, your space to come into alignment with yourself and business. I'm your host, Kaylee, and I'm your magical brand and website designer. Here you will find yourself being inspired, educated and connecting with others from around the world who are following their dreams and defining their idea of success along the way. Hello, and welcome to Midoctober AK Spooky season. I don't know about you, but I am a huge fan of all things fall other than the weather. I'm not a huge fan of the cold. Huge reason why I enjoy living in Florida so much now. But everything else fall, I'm obsessed with.
Kailee [00:00:58]:
I love all the fall flavors that come out. I am a diehard pumpkin spice fan, but I still haven't learned how to master making my own pumpkin spice syrup. And I love Halloween so much. I've really been able to transform October because October about five years ago was one of the toughest months of my life. And this gets a little bit heavy, but I had to put my dog down who was with me for about 20 years. He was so old, but so cute, and also that month my father passed away. So October over the past couple years for me has really been about transforming this month to be a really special time for myself. So I really love to embrace October as a month of gratitude and remembrance and really also being able to get in tune with myself and listen to my intuition.
Kailee [00:02:07]:
And it's also a big month for me to evaluate how I'm doing within the year, how my life is going. Also, as we lean into quarter four, right. As business owners, it's a huge time to reflect and decide on what we're going to do for the end of the year, any plans that might be coming up in the new year. So October has really just become a very special time for me. And like I said, I'm a huge fan of I've never really been a huge fan of horror. My boyfriend's really big into it, Zach, and he's had me watch a lot of scary movies over the years, which as a child, scary movies were terrifying for me because I have a very vivid imagination and watching those films were always really difficult. I would have insane nightmares. But over the years, I've kind of like desensitized from that and I kind of enjoy it now.
Kailee [00:03:09]:
I do lean towards more of the cute fall aesthetic, so cute sweater, weather with, like I said, pumpkin spice everything, apple cider. I just enjoy a lot of the fall flavors and it's really one of my favorite times to just embrace kind of the holiday. Halloween is my absolute favorite, all the way from dressing up in fun costumes and to enjoying all the Tim Burton films. I'm a huge Tim Burton fan, so I'm excited for this October. It's already been a busy month for me I took last week off to enjoy time with Zach's family. There is six of them for just his siblings and then his parents. So eight in total, plus those who are in relationships. So there was a total of eleven of us this trip.
Kailee [00:04:05]:
So it was a pretty big eventful week and I just enjoy hanging out with people who come down to Florida to visit us now because there's so many fun things to do down here for vacation. Rather it be going to the parks or hanging out in the town we live in now. So I was so happy to have them down here. It was the first time the whole family has got to come town and visit with us and I just loved it so much. And then this week, as you're listening, I am currently on a Colorado trip for a company I work for doing a brand photo shoot for them. So if you're a new listener I used to own my own photography business. I started it in 2015. I don't know why I always try to throw out dates because I cannot remember them to save my life.
Kailee [00:04:55]:
But I originally started my photography business and I thought I was going to be a photographer for my career path and I don't know what it was about. Editing photos just is very boring to me. I don't enjoy it. It takes me a long time. It's probably the perfectionist in me where I would sit there and I would edit really small details like, oh, you're sweating, I'm going to edit out the sweat. Or oh my gosh, you have this crease in your hair, I'm going to edit it. So there's a lot of things that I would like hyper fixate on. And when I started my branding studio, eclecticdesigns Co, that's when I decided to let go of my photography business because it was just too much.
Kailee [00:05:41]:
I couldn't work full time and have a photography business and then on top of that also do everything I was doing for the branding studio. So I decided to let photography go. But I still offer it to clients I work with and companies because I still really enjoy doing photography. And the quality of work I do has gotten incredible over the last couple of years. And I've noticed that doing brand photo shoots are really fun. Rather it be portraiture for products. So this week I am doing product photo shoots. It's going to be one of the biggest photo shoots I've ever conducted, but I'm really excited to do it.
Kailee [00:06:21]:
And as I was thinking about going out there and setting all of this up and just thinking about my life over the past year and where it was at this exact time in October of 2022 to now, there's just a lot that has changed, but in a good way. And I've been reflecting in a message I really wanted to bring forward is kind of leaning into your intuition of life and especially running a business and really learning how to trust yourself with decision making. Over the five years, plus some with my photography business, I've been on a very long road of working with other people to support me in my business. Rather it be business coaches, counselors, therapists and joining numerous courses. Downloading a bajillion free resources. And so I just want to talk about and share my experience of what it's been like to be a business owner, especially just as a brand and website business owner over the past three years, and talk to you about some things that I've learned, some mistakes I've made, that if I could go back and kind of give my younger self some advice, what I would do. I'm also going to share with you some finances because I finally feel like this is the first year I've been able to do my finances in a way that feels like really good for me and has helped me really lean into the life I've always wanted to live. With that being said, I still would love to increase my amount of income, especially as student loans start to kick back in.
Kailee [00:08:14]:
So I'm going to get really transparent with you about what my finances look like, a huge decision I made last year of getting a part time graphic design job and about making decisions that are best for you. So listening to your intuition and really deciding to take your life into your own hands and just reassure yourself that your decisions are right decisions. And also knowing that if you make a decision and it ends up being the wrong one, how to kind of work through that and understand that even if a decision you made wasn't the outcome that you wanted, that it's okay to let go of that decision and try something different. So I hope this solo episode sits with you nicely this week. And then as I'm finally getting new guests on the podcast, we're going to have fresh new voices on and we're really going to be leaning into brands and website designers. I'm going to have a lot of graphic designers on, which I am so excited for. I think this was the direction that I've always wanted to bring, the fresh new look of branded and booked. And I'm just so happy you're here.
Kailee [00:09:28]:
And of course, if you would like to be a guest or you have someone you would like to be on the show for me to interview, you can always reach out to me on Instagram at Eclecticdesigns Co and I'd love to hear from you. So last year during this time, I decided to get and I know I've had episodes where I've touched on this and talked about it a little bit, but I decided to start searching for either a part time or a full time job, which was a really challenging decision for me to make as a business owner. And I'm getting goosebumps because telling my truth of this is it's not that it's scary, but there's still a lot of insecurities that I hold in myself of deciding to get a job and not do my business full time. I don't see within the communities or the profiles I at least follow, there's not a lot of conversation about being a business owner and also doing other things to supplement income. And so when I first decided and had a really long conversation with Zach about deciding to apply and find a job outside of my branding studio, it felt almost like I was giving up on my dreams. And so it has been a really hard mental block over the past year of trying to decide and really come to terms with the fact that I was no longer going to be full time within my business. And I wasn't sure if this was going to be beneficial. And there were parts of me that was really talking through like, am I going to close down my branding studio? What does this look like for my podcast? What does this mean for me in general? And I ended up getting a job with Wish Garden Herbs, which is an herbal tincture company based out of Colorado.
Kailee [00:11:46]:
And the reason I applied there and I was so excited, is, one, I've used their products before in the past. Two, they are technically within my niche, right within the holistic and spiritual industry. Granted, they're product based when I tend to work more with service based, but when I saw that they were hiring, I was really excited because it was just 20 hours a week, I felt like I could definitely manage that on top of my business. And then within this last year and when I moved, I've ended up increasing my hours to be full time with them. So right now, I am currently working 30 hours a week for them as a graphic designer. And I work with a whole marketing team. Right now, my position is a junior graphic designer. So this position is really a lot lower than what I do for my business.
Kailee [00:12:43]:
So that is a little bit of a change of pace and it's a little bit different for me. But then there's a senior graphic designer on the team, and then we have like a whole marketing team. So I was excited to get this position. For one, I needed to get out of the house, which is kind of something I laugh about now because I got the job when I was living in Colorado. And then a couple months later, Zach was like, I'm going to follow my dreams and we're going to move to Florida. And I was all on board. And then I was like, oh my gosh, I just got this job and now I'm going to be working from home full time again. So I really miss that aspect.
Kailee [00:13:21]:
And it's nice that this week that you're listening to it, that I am out there and I'm visiting with the team, and I do travel quite a bit, back and forth every couple of months to go into office, which is something that I always wanted. And it's funny because now I'm like, oh, God, I got to travel. But it's something that I really feel like I manifested into existence. I always thought it was so cool and I admired all these either business owners or creatives who would travel for work and I just thought it was so neat and that's kind of what I'm doing now. And I think I'm really fortunate in the fact that they are a Colorado company because I do get to go back, I get to see friends, I get to see family. And so it's a little bit of best of both worlds. And so the reason I took this job is I just am not making enough revenue within my branding studio to be able to pay for my life. I have worked really hard since getting together with Zach to pay off debt.
Kailee [00:14:29]:
So when we first got together I had quite a bit of debt and I ended up paying it off before I moved in with him, which was really exciting. How old was I think I was 23, 24 when I moved in with him. And so I paid off all my debt that I had. At that time all I had was student loans which I still have and so for me right now, student loans are starting to kick back in which is really stressful. I am about $77,000 in student loan debt and now I'm adjusting and figuring out how to pay those. But I live a good life, but I also live a very budgeted life. So what I'm doing is I'm working 30 hours a week as a graphic designer for this company and then I am also still running my branding and design studio. Every I can't say how many hours I work, but I do work a lot.
Kailee [00:15:29]:
So I usually finish working my shift with Wish Garden and as soon as I'm done there I switch gears and I start working on client work. And so right now I'm working quite a bit and I am learning how to navigate that again. You know, when I first started out running my branding studio, I was working a lot for clients and now I have less clients which is fantastic, but I'm still working really long hours. On average I'm doing about 12 hours, if not more. Sometimes 15 monday through Friday, which is exhausting, but I'm getting the work done and then on Saturdays I try my hardest just to take Saturdays completely off and then I tend to do a little bit of prep work and some extra work for clients on Sundays. So I live a very busy schedule and it's not something that I would recommend to everybody. I really enjoy what I do, but at the same time, I am exhausted. I hit burnout quite a bit, and it's something that's a work in progress.
Kailee [00:16:37]:
I'm still trying to figure out how having this full time position plus having clients is working and adjusting. And I've been so grateful financially to be able to hire a VA Andrea, who helps me with my podcast. I'm also going to bring on a second VA. Her name is Ella, and I'm going to have her help me with project management as well as some clients who need a little bit more extra communication and have her help me kind of grow my studio. One of my dreams is to continue to grow my studio, eventually hire other graphic designers that I can pay and be able to go from there. So I am at a really good spot. I'm only in year three of business, and the fact that I'm able to pay two VAS is really exciting. Now, with that being said, it does take a lot off of my shoulders, but still, I'm doing a lot.
Kailee [00:17:38]:
And the reason I want to be really transparent with you is because I wish I could tell you that I'm one of those designers that have figured out how to make a substantial amount of money every month on projects or sell my ten K packages, but that's just not a reality of mine right now. And I'm working with more of like a monthly income of about average $2,000 a month, which in hindsight, it's like, wow, I'm making pretty good money. But I do have to separate that $2,000 out to pay my VAS monthly. I save 30% to taxes. And then I also have my operating expenses for my business. So right now, that's Adobe. So all my Adobe programs are what I do to do the podcast. It's the programs I use for photography and building brands in Illustrator.
Kailee [00:18:38]:
So I have that expense I have to pay to keep my website up and my domain. I pay for tools and resources to help my business run smoothly. So I pay for Dibsato, which is a project management tool. I also pay for Calendly, where people can book podcast episodes and also book one on one sessions with me. And there's a bunch of other expenses that are kind of trickled in. So it's been challenging to only have $2,000 a month come in, and yet at the end of the day, I'm probably only paying myself a couple of month. And so that's why I have this part time job to essentially pay my bills. So I'm at a point in year three where I'm still kind of trying to figure it out.
Kailee [00:19:29]:
And that's why I wanted to be transparent with you today. Because a lot of the time, if you look at my social media, I don't really talk about my successes, but I am consistently posting and I do post that I work with clients. And I think from an outsider's perspective, sometimes it could see or seem like I really have my shit together and I'm doing so wonderfully, which I have accomplished a lot. And it is really exciting. I am grateful for where I am, but I still think it's important to talk about the realities of what we're going through. There's a lot of the times I'm stressing and talking to those in my close circle about how stressed out or frustrated I am. And it's challenging. And if you're someone who is still struggling to build your own business or really increase your income, I want to remind you that you're not alone and that this process is a lot of trial and error.
Kailee [00:20:27]:
And again, it's figuring out like intuition wise and trusting wise and strategically right. I'm definitely a left and right brain person. So even though I have my intuition and I can manifest, there's still this very big, logical, strategic side to my thinking. It's why I'm great at what I do as a branded website designer, because I think about the strategy behind things, the logic and why things are working the way they work. And so I wanted to really talk to you about the things I tried in the past, both financial investments as well as schedule changes and let you know the things that worked for me versus didn't work for me. But within that same note, it's also kind of I want to show you that I'm doing things because I think they will help me. So it's like twofold. So I just want to share my story and what I've been through in the past couple of years of trying to grow my business and life and remind you that everybody's path is completely unique.
Kailee [00:21:43]:
What I'm about to tell you about the things that I've done in the past couple of years, it's not like recommendations of what I think you should do, but I think it's important for each of us to tell our story and talk about the trials and the errors so that we can learn from them. And I hope this gives you some insight on kind of how to move forward. If you're in a similar spot as I am of either feeling frustrated with where you're at or maybe also deciding, like, hey, I also need to supplement my income and not having to feel bad about that and really being able to come into yourself and listen to what you really need. And it's not just business wise, right. It's also within our life. I think what's so challenging over my life in general, because I've always and I've talked about this before, is I always burn the candle at both ends. And it's very similar to now, like the fact that I'm working 15 hours days. Those 15 hours run into other things.
Kailee [00:22:46]:
Right. I miss out on talking to people throughout the day, I am losing out on time I could be spending with Zach or going and hanging out with friends or missing out on experiences. There's been a lot of times where Zach has a day off and he's going out with friends and I have to decline and say no. So I also don't have true time freedom yet. And I also think that's important to be honest about because as much as I wish I could say I could pick up and not do something for the day, I still have client calls, I still have deadlines to meet. And it's important to remember that even though if you're running your own business, I understand that it's not easy. I understand that you're giving it your all, and sometimes that still doesn't feel like the best. So I just want to let you know that I am here to really sympathize with being a human and also having aspirations and wanting to accomplish a lot of things and sometimes feeling really frustrated about what that growth looks like and not being sure of how you're exactly going to get from point A to point Z, and that everybody's path is going to look a little bit different.
Kailee [00:24:07]:
And I think that's completely okay. Now, the biggest reason that this topic is going to be important in regards to not only my own experience in business, but also for yours, is this might give you some insight and some help on no matter where you're at in your stage. Some things you could try, some ways you can move forward in order to start to actually see growth and be able to reach new heights within your life and your business. So this is something I was talking about on my Instagram. There's a post if you want to go check it out, at Eclecticdesigns Co. And I've been talking pretty heavily about when to know when to work with me specifically. And this is something that I've had to learn over the past three years of the type of people and businesses, depending on where they're at, is sometimes I have to tell them no, that now isn't a good time to work with me. And I think that is probably one of the hardest lessons I've had to kind of admit to myself, because as I was saying, my income isn't where I would like it to be with the branding studio, and it's not at that higher pinpoint yet.
Kailee [00:25:20]:
However, it's substantially higher, probably 300% higher than when I first started, which is freaking awesome. And I have to acknowledge that maybe you two also started out charging really low price points, and now you're at like maybe a mid level ticket offer to a high level ticket offer, and that's still a lot to give yourself credit for. So something that's really big for me is that over the past three years, working with clients, I've worked with clients at all stages within their business journey. I've worked with clients who are at the very beginning stages, so within one year to three. And then I've worked with brand new business owners who are like, I just had this idea, let's execute it. And I've also worked with people who are over the three year mark who have been slowly growing their business, figuring it out, going through the strategy and the details, working with business coaches and trying to decide where exactly they're going to take this idea and this business and grow with it. So the reason I made the post about I might tell you that we shouldn't work together is because if you're a brand new business owner and you're looking to invest, right? So when I first started out and I was a new business owner, I wish that there were times that when I was going to someone looking for help or looking for guidance, I wish they would have told me no. And that's kind of a weird thing to say or to talk about, but it's such a reality because when I was new, I did not have the income to be able to invest in certain things.
Kailee [00:26:57]:
I was investing in higher ticket coaches because they had so many results and promises that I would make that money back because of their help. And I just don't think I was at the stage to do that. I don't think I could go from selling my brand packages at $350 a month to raising them to 2000 $3,000 a month. The audience I was working with were also brand new business owners. So it just didn't really make sense. And I wish if I could go back, I'd give myself advice to really be intentional about where I was investing because I could have been using that money and putting it into places that could have helped me grow at that point or using my time more efficiently. So we have to remember as business owners that our time is also money and knowing where to invest it and how to invest it. So for myself, I wish I would have been told no by a couple of mentors and business coaches to be like, hey, I don't think right now is the right time to work with me yet.
Kailee [00:28:10]:
So now I've learned, especially when I look back at the clients I've worked with, there's definitely a handful of them that were brand new that I wish I would have said, hey, you don't need my signature offer right now. And here's why. Most of the brand new business owners that I've worked with have, over the years, changed their business model, changed their branding, have pivoted into another industry or career, or have maybe decided that they no longer want to run their own business. So at that time, they invested their time and money into my services and now it hasn't really gone anywhere. And I am a huge believer that people come in and out of our lives for certain reasons. So I hope with those clients, I was able to make an impact on their journey in some way, shape, or form. But a lot of the time, if you're in your first year of business, I wouldn't suggest investing in branding. You might need a little bit more strategy and guidance first, which for if you're wanting to work with me, that's the type of services I would offer you compared to a whole branding package, because your logo is a part of your branding, and it's part of that checklist that we all go down and we're like, what do we need? I need a logo.
Kailee [00:29:33]:
And so you're going down those steps, and you could come to me and you could be like, I need a logo. And I'd be like, well, have you built your audience? Have you built your business? You know what I mean? So a lot of the time, I think we get stuck focusing on things that aren't what we should be focusing on in those certain stages of our business. So now that I'm someone who is within my over three year mark, within my years one to three, like I was saying at the beginning of this episode, is that I've invested in a lot of things. The courses, the mentors, the counselors, the therapists. And I think during those one to three years, a lot of what I invested in was really crucial and important. And definitely by far, I'm so glad I worked with a therapist. And if this is something that you could do rather through insurance, if you have insurance that could cover this. Working with a therapist helped me a lot mentally because I was learning how to set better boundaries with both myself, my life, my clients.
Kailee [00:30:41]:
And I really wish that was something that I would have first started out with probably within year one, to understand how I could move forward and use my voice to say no more often or be able to set boundaries around my work hours, or if somebody was trying to get a hold of me while I was taking time off to reassure them that I'd be back with them instead of having to work on vacation. Because I've done that time and time again. Even for example, I still do that sometimes. I've been checking emails during the week that I was supposed to just be at the parks having fun. So there's a lot of things within that one to three year range that I think are crucial, and usually within that one to three year range, if you're looking to work with me, that's when I suggest a little bit more of the brand visual identity. So that's where you've been with your business for some time, you know for sure you're going to commit to it, and it's a really great time to sort out how you're going to move forward visually and start. To attract the right people in your industry. So this is where I really help clients with some of those higher ticket packages that include branding and website design.
Kailee [00:31:57]:
And I think investing within that one to three year range is going to be crucial for your branding and website because those are the things that are going to help you start to grow your business over time into the upcoming years or at least get you started and start to represent yourself as a legitimate business. So a lot of my clients who were within the one to three year range of investing with me, those were the ones that have been able to propel to that five plus year business mark. So I've looked back at all my clients, seen where they are, seen their growth and their history, and those are the clients that I found that have been able to really become full time with their business, increase their income, really narrow down what exactly they want to do for their business and become really successful and hit goal points compared to those that are in the first year. Now, if you are in the over three year mark and you've been doing a lot of the DIY branding for yourself up until this point and your business is doing really well, but now you're like, something feels off. I really want to increase my income even more and I really want to represent myself and my business in this industry to the best that I can. This is when those big branding and brand strategy, business growth and brand development packages are going to be ideal. So this is when we sit down and we talk about where are you at, where are you trying to go? You're already making enough income that when you invest in my services, it doesn't feel uncomfortable. And so right now, within my I'm going past that three year mark and I'm looking to invest again.
Kailee [00:33:44]:
I'm trying to decide where is my income best spent? So that's why I've hired VAS because I need to get a little bit more of my time back. And so for you, as you're starting to go past that three year mark, start to really strategize and think about intuitively what you need at that time in your business to really propel yourself forward. Do you need a business coach just to kind of understand what your next steps are? Or maybe there's certain things that you still don't feel like you have strengths in that you need help on. Or maybe you do need a website that's fully functioning and works really well on desktop and mobile. You have to have a website that works on mobile because that's where usually 85 or higher percent of people are viewing your website from. So a lot of the times if I see businesses without websites functioning properly, that's going to affect their sales right away. Are you on the right social media platforms to reach the right audience. Those are things that you need to consider too.
Kailee [00:34:49]:
Do you need social media help? Do you need help with your content writing? So this is kind of like the primary time to start growing, and I think that's kind of where I'm at right now. So I am really learning about how I can start to grow my business, but also still be able to have the sanity and pay my bills. So that's really, again, why I wanted to remind you that I'm not doing this full time anymore. It's a little bit more part time on my end to run my own business. And it's so important to remind myself and maybe possibly remind you that that's okay. It's okay to be a couple of years in and decide like, oh, I need to do what's inherently right for me and my life and my business and my goals right now and figure out what I need in order to get where I'm going. So for me specifically, I needed to get that part time job because I was so constantly stressed about not having enough money for my bills that I went through so much savings, I had a lot saved up. This money was intentional to go to a house, like buying a house with Zach or paying off my student loans.
Kailee [00:36:06]:
And instead I spent so much of it on just paying my bills because I wasn't making enough with my business. I also wasn't tracking my income from my business appropriately just because I was scrambling. So anytime I got paid, I had to use all that money from my client projects and just immediately put it towards bills. Whereas now I pay myself quarterly because I can be a little bit more intentional with the money that's coming from my business. I can pay my VAS monthly. I can pay myself at the end of the quarter and really be able to see where my income is going because all my bills are paid from my other income. So I just wanted to let you know that these different stages and depending on where you're at and if you're looking to invest and you're kind of questioning, what do I do now? I just wanted to tell you a little bit about my story and tell you kind of like where I've been at, because even in year three, I feel like I'm flying at the seat of my pants. I don't know if that's the way that saying goes, but just trying to figure out, okay, what now? Do I increase the prices? Do I lean into TikTok? Do I hang out more on LinkedIn? Is instagram worth my time? Do I put more effort into my website? Do I start blogging? Do I start showing up on more podcasts? I feel like I'm at a very kind of questioning aspect to my business career right now and trying to figure out, do I want to go even further with the business.
Kailee [00:37:56]:
I'm working for Wish Garden because I love working there. Do I develop my resume or do I elevate my portfolio? So there's just a lot of questions that I have for me, myself, and my life right now. And so I wanted to put it into that perspective of if you're wanting to work with me or if there's clients coming to work with me. Kind of why I separated out into those year marks because like I said before, within that first year, I invested in a business coach that was high ticket, and I felt like it did not get me where I needed to be. And it made me really feel like, at the end, a little frustrated that I invested in places that I feel like weren't beneficial for me at the time. And I understood that some other courses or materials that I invested in, I just have never looked at again or used. So I am definitely at a point where I've decided I need to come back to learning again and looking back at those type of materials that those coaches and courses gave me, because I do think now they'd be really beneficial. And I'm in year three, so it's like, oh, maybe I should have waited to invest in year three before I invested at a time I couldn't afford it.
Kailee [00:39:18]:
So it's just kind of putting into perspective how growth is so different among all of us. And again, like I said, going back and getting another job for me was a little bit hard to swallow, but I don't know, I think that it was definitely worth the shot. And I am a lot happier where I am. I do love that I get to work with a marketing team now because I'm learning a lot from this company that I can then apply for myself and apply for my clients. Learning from the other people on the marketing team, how they do sales, they make a lot every month, which is really exciting. So it's like learning how they function and have grown as a business over time because they're still considered a small business and really seeing how business growth and development can really turn into where it is now. So I'm excited to see where within my own business I start to go from here and to see what the end of quarter four into 2024 really looks like for me. And I know that I offer so much with the people that I work with and the membership that I used to offer to see where each of those small businesses are at now is like a tremendous growth from just that year.
Kailee [00:40:38]:
And I've been really taking time to analyze those clients that are full time in their business and do make the financial means, how I played a role in that and how I was able to help them grow their business and really learning how I can show up for you in your journey and be able to be helpful and offer insightful information and those different stages of your business path that you are on. And I know for me, I really want to lean into teaching, especially those of us that are past that three year mark, teaching you how to grow your business and develop it. And I know that I can help you get there, but now it's like I'm also at the same time teaching myself how to get there. So it's such an interesting dynamic when we look at it from that point of view of I'm still learning as well. And I think it's so important as people and business owners that we're growing on our learning and we're always coming back to the basics and we're reevaluating and we're trying to decide what works versus what doesn't. And again, like I said, it's so much of that trial and error. So I hope that giving you some insight of some things that I've done within the years that I've been in business versus why I suggest clients working with me at a certain time. I hope it gives you some insight on where you're at in your journey and kind of helps guide you into the next steps that you're looking for, especially if you're looking for my help.
Kailee [00:42:10]:
I'm always here. We can completely chat, there's no obligation. I always let you know what my custom packages are. I really dedicate time to figure out where you're at, make sure that I'm giving you the right investment at the right time, so you could propel forward and start to really make your business dreams come true as well. So I hope this solo episode helped give you a little bit of insight. Again, I'm so excited to bring more guests on over the next couple months. I'm doing so many interviews once I get back from Colorado, and I'm just excited to really give you more insight about branding your business and how it can really help you grow and really stand out in your industry and attract the right people that you want to work with and make a difference in. So anyways, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your October, enjoy your Halloween, enjoy all those fall vibes, however you do and have a great rest of your day.
Kailee [00:43:14]:
I'll chat with you sooner. Thank you so much for being here. This wouldn't be possible without you listening. And special thanks to my VA Andrea. You can learn more about her at the virtualalchemist.com and I would love for you to join my Eclectic universe. You can work with me and follow along for more helpful tips on how to grow your business, behind the scenes footage and magical brand and website design inspiration over at Eclecticdesigns Co. I'll talk to you sooner.