The BOSS Mindset

One painful week in a 500 square foot apartment changed everything for Shelby McFarland and it eventually became the foundation for how she leads, sells, and builds. Shelby shares the part of her story she rarely tells, then connects it to a simple framework she uses to guide decisions when life feels messy and business feels heavy.

We break down her BOSS mindset acronym: Bold, Opportunistic, Strong, and Service Minded. Shelby gets specific about what “bold” looks like when you’re scared, how to treat rejection as redirection, and why strength is not about pretending you’re fine, it’s about showing up anyway and owning your choices. Her favorite piece is servant-hearted leadership, and she tells a real story about helping a long-time prospect even after he signed with someone else, because doing the right thing is the brand.

Then we shift into practical digital marketing: how to increase visibility with consistency, why video is so powerful right now, what to watch in your analytics (impressions matter), and how SEO supports everything you do. Shelby also shares how she uses tools like ChatGPT for prompts and keywords while still rewriting to keep content authentic. If you’re building a business, a personal brand, or a team, you’ll leave with a mindset you can practice and a marketing plan you can stick with. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a push, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Purchase "Market Like A Boss" at shelbysmarketingbook.com

Transcript

Welcome And Why This Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:26

All right, good morning. So you guys get to be the podcast guest. So this is actually recording and will be aired next week as a podcast. So that's exciting. Um I will give you all the free resources and stuff at the end of this so that way you can hop on and learn marketing stuff for free, right? So I'm Shelby McFarland. You met Alexis and you met Maddie. And I also have Chelsea, but she's my little introverted baby at home with her Gary, the dog, by the way. Her dog named Gary, and she does all my content creating, and so she is working hard for our clients right now. She's been with me for eight of the 10 years that I've been in business, and I'm very proud of that. Um, she's a very hardworking person, so it's cool to have her on the team. Anyway, so today we're gonna talk about the boss mindset. And yes, boss is an acronym. Please take notes. I would love to see you guys taking notes. Okay, look at there. And then uh look at it, Katie. Like, where's your notebook? I just came to your work. Do you need to borrow one? I brought one. No. It's okay, pull out your phone, even though that's against the rules of networking. No, we attended Katie's workshop this week. It was fantastic. In fact, I've got my talking point, the pants. I feel like this is a good talking point. Alexis hooked me up with a fresh breath this morning. Appreciate that, because I didn't bring any breath mints after my coffee. I like your necklace. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Any more compliments? Um, oh my god, yes! I did my color analysis. It's like mine too, so okay. Anyways, we're gonna get down to it. So I was 22 years old. I moved into a 500 square foot apartment with an air mattress that had a hole in it. I was a recovering addict, as in, like, that was my first day not being on any kind of drugs. And I took a week to detox in this 500 square foot apartment. I had left my first husband at the time, it was a very abusive relationship, was with him for four years. But what I didn't know was that week that I had to sit there and go through hell, literally, um, really changed my entire life. And this kind of part of my story, I don't share a lot, but I feel like women in the room, you guys understand how much we go through and what we we look like we're strong on the other side of things, but we don't really talk about like the nitty-gritty like inside, like, hey, it struggled. You know, I'm not like out here going like, yo, I was addicted to drugs, bruh. You know, like I'm not trying to tell people that all the time. Um, but I really think that that's where this boss mindset came into play. But it wasn't a couple years later, or until a couple years later, that I had a uh business coach, Mike Harbour, he's amazing, um, and he said, you know what, we need to come up with an acronym. And before I talk about that acronym, we came up with this acronym because I was in a hamster well. I was just like working. I was 60, 80 hours a day or a week. I was like, how am I supposed to get to that next level? How am I supposed to be successful? I knew deep down inside that I was somebody. I don't know if y'all felt that before, where you're like, bro, I am somebody. I know what I am, but I don't know what that is. I don't know how to tap into that. And so I hunted Mike down and I said, Hey, I want to buy you coffee. That was kind of awkward, right? Buying a grow man coffee. But I was like, I want to know all the things. Like, tell me everything about you. I want to know how you got to where you are. I want to know all of your knowledge. Um, and he helps executives, CEOs, CFOs, COOs be um successful in their career. And I was like, Well, I want to be that. So I want, so he felt really sorry for me. I was very happy about that. And he coached me for free for like a whole year. Then I started paying him because I was like, okay, I want to invest in this. So uh we worked closely together, felt two to three years, and he goes, you know what? I think it's time to let my bird fly. And I was like, Yeah, thank you. Okay, you know, um, I still call him every now and then, but um, it's really cool to hear, like, listen, you're doing the work, like, just keep going. You know, it's not that I don't need him, but the fact that he helped me build the tools. So the BOSS acronym, the first uh letter is B, obviously. Um, and it stands for bold. So if you have ever been around me, or if you haven't, you probably have learned today that I'm pretty bold. I tell you how it is. I'm also an Enneagram 8, so that really helps me out in that way. Um, but being bold in my career meant taking steps that I didn't know what the other side of it looked like. I was having to take chances and I needed to take on opportunities, which that's in a minute, but I needed to make those decisions so that way I would go to that next level in my career and who I am as a leader. And I think being bold is scary, but it's something that we make a lot of excuses not to be. Like, well, I I don't really know if I, well, like Katie said, I don't know if I want to go to that networking event. I don't know anybody there. Well, show up, wear something cute, feel yourself for a second. Hey, you know, like it worst case scenario, take a selfie and post it to the internet. I mean, like, that's that's bold in itself, right? Like, we need to be bold in who we are and what we want to be and who we want to be, and just show up for our future self without our future self even knowing that's what we're doing, right? Our next one is O, so that's opportunistic. Everything that comes into my life, I view as an opportunity. Um, I just recently opened up a content studio in Momel, and I had no idea I was gonna do this until January. Well, I'll take that back, December of last year. So I got denied again for the third time in a row for greater leadership literac thing, whatever that's called, right? The liter what is that called? Leadership greater literac, there we go. So ever I've done it for three years, the interviews, I was like, oh, I just felt like okay, this is the year. This is 10-year anniversary, I'm gonna meet some cool people. And I got rejected, which is super great. Uh, got rejected, but I'm like, hey, everything happens for a reason. So then a couple months later, I was like, I am so tired of renting other studios. And you've been in the other studio I rented, took her pictures. Um, and so I was like, I want some space of my own. And I also knew that I was growing my team, so I wanted a space that they could also come to work. And I started looking for spaces and four weeks later signed a lease because that's what I do. Everything's an opportunity, right? This place had green carpet. So go to the Little Rock Creative Facebook page and you'll see the awesome green carpet before. Um, but I had a really great construction guy came in, did everything. Adrienne Meacham, you guys probably know her. She's been to this. Yes. Hey, hey. She's not here this morning. She's my best friend. I don't know why she's not, but, anyways, that's a later problem. Um, so she did all the design work for me, came in, helped me out with that, because that's something I am not great at. So that is a great example of opportunity. So, what are you maybe missing in your life now? Because you're like, I'm scared. I don't know if I want to take that leap. I just signed a whole year lease. You know how scary that is? That's like signing a marriage. I've done that twice. I don't want to do that when I get either. Um, but I think that you really need to think about okay, I'm here. So, like you're in this room. What opportunities do you see right now? Who do you need to connect with? Which is a great thing that Katie taught us this week as well. So everything that you see and do and come in contact with, everything happens for a reason. You're in the room with someone for a reason and take on that opportunity. So the first S is strong. And I put this on here because of my background, the things that I went through. Um, I grew up in a great home. Um, oh, up until senior year, but grew up in a great home, very Christian home, uh, very stable home. And my parents taught me how to be independent, very appreciative of that. Um, they said good luck with college. I turned 18, they were like, bye. I was like, cool, that's great. Didn't go to college, by the way. But anyways, um, that was on me because I didn't prepare for that. But I think that strong is something I have to think about every day because it's easy to let our past come up. It's easy to be like, oh, I was triggered by that. Okay, I'm gonna go over here and I'm not gonna do what I said I was gonna do today. Yes, we get triggered. I mean, I've been through a lot of trauma therapy and all the things, and I get triggered too, but how do we deal with that trauma? How do we deal with those triggers? We have to show up for ourselves first. We have to be strong in ourselves. And then if we're strong within ourselves, we show strongness for the people around us and the people that want to do work with us. I mean, I don't want to walk into a room and I'm like all slouched over and I'm like, oh, it's such a bad day. You know, it's that time of the month, right? So I could be like, oh, I'm sorry, I just don't feel good, you know. No, we need to be strong. We need to like be confident. There's another word right there, confident and strong in ourselves. And no, you know what? I made that decision, it was a bad one, but I'm gonna own it up to it. I'm gonna move on to the next thing. It was a failing forward moment, as the good old John Maxwell likes to talk about. I'm a nerd for John Maxwell for sure. I got to meet him last week, no big deal. I know no one in here, not not everyone knows who that is, but anyways, go to my Facebook and you'll see. He's great. Yeah, he's so cool. Um, he he said my shirt was super sparkly and cute. I was like, thanks, John, you're cute too, okay. Exactly, conversation starter, exactly. I wore my sparkly shirt for him. Um so, anyways, the last one is my absolute favorite one out of all these. Oh no, they're all good, but servant mind or service-minded, servant-hearted, whichever one you would like. Yes. And this one right here is the most important to me as a person. It's also the most important for me as a business leader. I think it's important for us to always think of other people before ourselves. That's how sales works, right? If we're trying to sell somebody, we want to think, okay, how am I gonna help them? We don't want to go, well, how much money are you gonna give me? You know what I'm saying? Although we do like that part. I mean, obviously. I love that part, right, girls? I talk about it all the time. I'm like, hey, let's get that money, honey. But we want to make sure that we are thinking of them first. And a great example of that this week alone is I had somebody that I've known literally for six years, have been in business groups with this man for six years, have tried to get his business for six years, has have sent him probably five different proposals because he's like, Oh yeah, go ahead, let's think about it. Okay, yeah, I'll go ahead, I'll think about it. Okay, great, cool. So he calls me and was like, yo, I need some, I need some social media accounts created. I was like, Great, you're gonna start working with me. Okay, let's do it. He was like, but I've already signed a contract with another company. I was like, What? And so then he was like, Well, they kind of talked me into it. It was like a whole thing, right? And it was a company that doesn't really do digital marketing, they do something else that he was already doing work with, um, advertising-wise, and then they just threw in social media with that. And he was like, The problem is a salesperson said, they'll create my accounts, but then this the account people said, Oh no, we don't do that. You're gonna have to do that. So he's paid for three months, a lot of money, by the way, for three months without any kind of action on his social media because they refuse to create his accounts. I was like, bro, I got you. Don't worry about it. You're in a contract, don't worry about it. I holler at Maddie. I can't take creds. Maddie did it, thank you so much. Um, I holler at Maddie. I was like, here's the information, check out his website, create his social media accounts, add me, I'll add him, all the things. Within what, 20 minutes? It was all done. He was like, Oh my god, thank you so much. I was like, you're welcome. But that's being service-minded and that's being a servant to other people. Am I gonna get his business in the future, man? We're gonna cross our fingers. I would love to get this man's business. That would be like, what, almost seven years now that I haven't shot. But he apologized, and I was like, there's no reason to apologize. Like everything happens for a reason. You learn the hard way. Thank you for giving me a great story to be able to tell. But I didn't do that to tell the story. I did that because I cared about him and I care about his business. And another way as a leader to have that service mindset is just showing up for your team, showing up for the people around you. They know they can call me at any time and be like, yo, this thing happened today. Me and Alexis almost shared tears together. I don't really cry, but I kind of sometimes maybe. But like we share frustrations, maybe more frustrations, right? We're like, can you believe? Like, I can't believe those people. Why do they not like us? They're so bad, you know? And then I'm like, all right, let's reel it in. They're actually okay, you know, like fine. They just told us no. I don't like being told no. That's no fun. Uh, especially in sales, right? But they know that I'm gonna show up for them. My child, my baby girl, my five-year-old knows I'm gonna show up for her. Even though she tells Maddie every time she picks her up that mommy never comes to pick me up from school, I'm like, listen, it's like the one, like two days a week I don't pick you up, okay, bro? I love you. I'm sorry, I gotta work. But she knows that I'm always gonna be there for her because she comes ahead of me in everything. And so I think that if you keep those uh four ideas in your head, if you're bold, you look for opportunities, you stay strong within yourself, and you keep that service mind or servant heart, then you're definitely gonna be successful in business, you'll be successful in relationships as a leader. And I think that's the most important, and that's how I live my life. So, to talk about my book a little bit, I have Market Like a Boss. In fact, everybody here is gonna get one. I brought you one. I'm going to, I will sign it in everything. Ah you guys can sell it in the future when I'm really famous. Um, but I really think it's important to share the message of marketing. So if you are in a business that you're like, I really don't have the budget to um hire you guys, okay, great. This book right here is a resource. This book is my service to other people that necessarily can't afford, or maybe they're interested in doing their own marketing because they like it. That's totally cool. And so if you know anyone that does need that, or if they have like a if they're a college kid, I know some people bought them for Christmas gifts for college kids. Um, but then a little bit about the marketing broker. We got voted number one marketing firm by AY. Thank you. Um, whenever I lose that award, I'm like, oh, it's just like such a popularity contest. And then whenever I win, I was like, oh my god, it's going on my website. Like, yes. It was just like what us with like our eight emails that we have, but it's fine, it's fine. No, um, I'm really proud of that for sure because it is it means a lot. Words of affirmation is my love language, and then service is actually my workplace love language. So just to be like labeled by something like that's really cool. Um, and also on my 10-year anniversary, that's really cool too. So we're a full service digital marketing agency. We do SEO, social media, website design, and then we have a full service sign shop as well. So if you need graphics, oh I gotta send that girl that quote. Anyways, so if they need graphics or something like that, I do help with that as well. So um, yeah, do you guys have any questions for me regarding marketing or life? I'm not a therapist, but I'm pretty good at listening and giving advice based off of my own.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

I'll just be a good idea. Okay. Thank you for sharing a little bit more about who you are. We've kind of seen each other around, and uh you know, I connect a lot of people. And I know that uh online and actually what people really connect with. I really appreciate that. Yeah. I appreciate that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Thank you. Yeah, that's my next book. It's called Hustle Like a Boss. So I'm talking 14 years because I've been an entrepreneur since I was 18. So it'll be talking about all more in detail. Yeah. I'm gonna have to like hide it from my stepdaughter. Like, don't read that. Yes. Yeah, there you go. Yes, yes, yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Yeah. What would that pass it like?

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Um, so I started the book several years ago. Um, but honestly, I love to write. So let me start there. I love writing. I've done I'm like a writing nerd all throughout high school, middle school. I had like journal after journal every day. Um, so I love to write. And I knew I had a book inside of me, but I didn't know what that was. Um, and so I started writing about all my trauma first. Ugh, that's terrible. But my therapist was like, we gotta get it out of your head. So that's really how I kind of got through my trauma and stuff was writing. And so I was like, I'm not really ready for that yet. I don't want to put that out there. You know, people know me. Uh my daughter's gonna read this one day, right? It's gonna be weird. And so um I talked to these ladies that I connect with LinkedIn. Her name's Jill Claire, and the other lady's name is Jessica. Have no idea what her last name is, sorry. But Aaron Marie is their name. Um, that's their business name. Um, and they actually coached me through it. So it took about three months um for me to write it, and then um they helped edit, they helped do all the formatting for me, and I'm actually speaking at one of their virtual author summits because I made$60,000 in the first three months. Thank you. Um, so yes, within the when that's sales, so not book sales. I'm not trying to lie to you about that. Book sales are stupid, like you don't make money off of books. What you make money off of is the value that you add to other people with a book, and so yes, I have sixty thousand and just sales for my business.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

I want to tell my story. Yeah. Like, that's a cool story, you should write a book. And I'm like, I need to write it down before I forget.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

And that's the best part. I mean, like, I would go down the road because I'm in I'm in my car all the time, and so I would just have um one of those transcribers or whatever, and so like I would um just talk through all the things. Okay, like this is what the topic is, these are the stories because in my book I have like actual people that I've helped in the past, but then um I didn't name them because I know they'd get offended if they like you know saw it, but there's some funny stories in there about people not being very nice to me, which I'd rename a little bit. But in marketing, yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

I'm like 20 years there, I know how that feels.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Man, yeah, it's a long time for sure. Yeah, but I say just do it. I mean it's fun.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Oh, I'm going to. I just yeah, I just need to start.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

That's all it takes. You need to just be bold and you just need to start. Well, no, you need to have a goal. You can't just write it and not have a goal. Like we're writing it for your daughter. Yeah. Well, then there's your goal right there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

I know they have those like that.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

That's a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

The coaching, I got her love.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

I'll I'll give you her name. She's super great. And I'm one of those people you have to get like mean to.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

I do need a scared.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Yes. They're like, why did you not write this chapter? And I was like, I feel really attacked right now. But you're right. I'll go do that right now. I'm clearing my schedule. Understood. Yes, ma'am, it's Karen. Oh wait, wait, how did I do? Did I do okay? Oh my god. Okay, thank you so much. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

Yeah, amazing.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

You were beautiful, so it was easy.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Thoughtful, patient, all of that. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

No, we like ink.

Marketing That Grows Visibility Consistently

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Right now, yeah. What can we do in the market properly to increase visibility and I mean my best advice is to hire the marketing broker.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But not. Um, so uh so what I do is I preach all the time on consistency. We've got to show up. It doesn't matter how many likes you get. Go to my TikTok. I literally have like 12 on one like views, and then I've got like 800 on another. Maddie and I are doing like some testing stuff on the business one, and it's interesting what people are interested in and what the algorithm actually picks up on our business stuff. Um so it's just posting consistent consistently, yes. Um, SEO is a really big thing. So if you can hire someone to help you with search engine optimization, me, um, then you can definitely uh exceed in that. So if you're comfortable doing your own social media and then we just go on the back end and we make sure everything on Google's good, your website's good, all that kind of stuff. Um but ultimately to get more engagement, you're doing the videos. Videos is like a huge thing right now. Um if you do use chat, I don't hate chat, but if you do use chat GPT or Claude or Jim and I to help you with that stuff, um, make sure you rewrite it to make it fit your voice. Yes, it can help you with prompts. It's great. I mean, it's we use it every day, okay? Um, but we like to use it so that way we know what keywords are gonna be there for our industries, for our clients and things like that. But really just the consistency is what I um definitely recommend. So no matter how you're feeling, some days I feel like crap and I'm still on TikTok. But you don't have to do TikTok. Don't be like weird about it. You can do Facebook, you can do Instagram, you can do LinkedIn, whatever you feel uh most comfortable with. People just want to see your face. They want to know what's up. You know who you are. Yes, start with one. Do y'all know who Adley Kinsman is? She was like the chicken girl. She's funny. Nobody knows who she is. Anyways, Google her. Um, she's super great. And she came out really popular during COVID. And she hopped on this whole train of like videos, and her and her husband do pranks. And she was speaking at an event that I was at last week, and she was just talking about showing up every day, which I already preached, but really she was honing into TikTok, and she was like, those 12 people that saw that video are not the same 200 people that saw your other video. And I was like, okay. And then also she said, every organic post that we make on social media that gets some kind of impression. So make sure you're looking at the impressions, like the views versus the engagement, because not everybody engages, those um, those organic posts are free salespeople for you. You didn't have to hire someone to post, or well, I mean, you can hire someone to post it, but you didn't have to hire someone to go talk to 200 people. You know, it did it for you. So that's just kind of like changing your mindset around social media and how it works for your business.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

I'll say for me, you know, I came to Arkansas and Robert's wife.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Uh 200%. And I transitioned after corporate career into the thing called real estate. Not excited, not, you know, which is something I want to do this for my family. I don't travel 10%. But I didn't want to do all the stuff they told me to do real estate. I was like, I'm not in it. Um and I wasn't gonna buy little lead either. Um social media. And and that's that's how it happened. That and you can start doing things like that, you know. I'm still amazed because when I got into on the internet, I would like looking at all the topic culture and I'm like, well, I can't find that I can say you know. But it was like, what can I say? And so I just encourage um find those things about you, find your uniqueness. You are your best competitive man. And just own it. And you know, I just I'm a big believer of visibility and possibility.

Picking Platforms And Showing Your Face

SPEAKER_00 25:24

And I don't even know who Robert Ferguson is, but I know who Karen is. Hey girl! Um yeah, Robert is Karen's husband. Yes, yes, okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

I believe the phone mark and I was like, oh wait, are you not realtor's husband?

SPEAKER_00 25:40

Oh, he's like, and the strip has been flipped. Yes, ma'am. And you're straight killing it for sure, for sure. Okay, any other questions, comments?

SPEAKER_01 25:51

What's your favorite personal, like personal favorite platform?

SPEAKER_00 25:55

I'm so old, Facebook. Okay. I'm a millennial though, like that's my thing. I love Facebook so much, and it's really weird. So Maddie loves Instagram, and she's not even on TikTok, which is interesting. I feel like Alexis, you like TikTok more, right? No. Instagram, okay, didn't know that about you. Now I do. Okay. So, but I'm on Facebook more than I am anything else. And I think it's just because a lot of like my friends from school, you know, like if I meet you out in person, they made this joke last week. They're like, all these millennials are adding each other on Facebook. And I was like, that's me. That's me. You're right, that's me. All the Gen Z's are like, AI, put your stuff in chat. I don't know, whatever they say. I'm like, okay, whatever. Like, okay, I have like an actual business card. I promise I'm cool.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

Yeah. Do you feel this? I feel like, and I'm also I'm an elder millennial, yeah. There you go. Um, do you feel Facebook? I use it more for local connections.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

Yes, yes.

unknown 26:54

I think that I mean, I otherwise I'm leaving because a lot of my clients don't even want to be on social media.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

I don't want to put stuff out because then my clients don't want to be on it, and I'm telling them that's great, we have rain, don't be on it, and then I'm gonna like put stuff on social media.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

So it's okay. You have to like, yeah, show up for yourself. So most of my clients are not on social media either, right? But like people that want to follow me or know me or learn from me, like they're on social media, and then I get referred, you know, that way too. And honestly, like I probably should be your client, and you would tell me don't be on social media.

Books Signing And Final Thanks

SPEAKER_01 27:29

Like, that's exactly some guidelines, and then your brain would be like, Right. Those guidelines were not doing that. Right. And then I would thank you guys and head it off.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

It's the organization for me. Yeah, it's not great. Uh yeah, for sure. But um, I'm definitely gonna speak to you after because I was like, I feel like I need you in my life for sure. Uh anything else? No. All right, well, thank you so much. And I have my books, so I will sign them if you want to take one and maybe post a selfie, or that would be kind of cool too. Would love that. Obviously, branding, social media, all the things. So thank you so much.