22. From Social Media Specialist to Marketing Consultant | Victoria H Boyd

In this episode, Victoria shares her scaling journey from burned-out freelancer to marketing consultant. After feeling unfulfilled in corporate jobs, a college event ignited her entrepreneurial spark in 2016.

Along the way, Victoria hit extreme burnout. She opens up about overcoming that to reshape her business. You'll hear how she identified her zone of genius, attracted higher-level clients, and innovatively packaged offers like her Conversion Catalyst® Club membership.

Victoria provides an inspiring example of evolving beyond the overworked freelance model. She offers real insights on scaling by embracing your talents and CEO vision.

If you're ready to break free from burnout and scale your thriving business, this conversation with Victoria provides empowering strategies. Tune in for her honest scaling story.

Connect with Victoria:
Website
Instagram
TikTok
Threads
LinkedIn
Strategies That Stack Newsletter
Strategies That Stack Podcast
Conversion Catalyst® Club membership.

Your income shouldn't be capped by your capacity.

BOOK A FREE OFFER STRATEGY SESSION
Free 45-min call. We’ll identify the 2–3 shifts that would give you more room to grow without simply adding more client hours.

FREE RESOURCES
Tools, trainings & community.

WORK WITH ME

Expansion: 6-month 1:1 offer design coaching program for VAs, OBMs, and DFY service pros who want more revenue, not more hours.

Website | Instagram | Threads | LinkedIn | YouTube 

Podcast produced and edited with love by @FerAssists

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

[00:00:00] Andrea Elibero: Andrea here, your host and passionate business coach and scaling strategist for Soulful Service Providers and Coaches. Welcome to another episode of Soulpreneur Scaling Stories. Have you ever wanted to look behind the curtain of your fellow entrepreneur's business to see what actually went into scaling it?

Well, you are in for a treat because that's exactly what we are doing here. In each episode, we will be uncovering the truth the lessons and the stories behind what it truly takes for solepreneurs to scale their businesses intentionally. I'm hoping that their stories will help you to unlock the true potential of your business so you can create your own soulful, abundant, and aligned laptop lifestyle through intentional scaling.

So whether you're just starting out on your scaling journey, or you're a seasoned entrepreneur seeking inspiration, this episode has something incredible in store for you. Are you ready to rise, grow, and create? Create a business that fully supports your dream life. Well, let's dive in before we begin, make sure to hit that subscribe buttons.

You never miss an empowering episode filled with real stories and soulful insights.

[00:01:11] Victoria Boyd: Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to chat.

[00:01:19] Andrea Elibero: Yay. So as we jump in, can you please introduce yourself and tell us what your business looks like today?

[00:01:28] Victoria Boyd: Ooh. So I'm Victoria Boyd. I am a marketing consultant slash like marketing strategist. I do both done for you marketing work as well as just the consulting. Like I said, I have a membership conversion catalyst club. Um, I'd say today my business is starting to look like what I want it to, but I. I think this is going to be a really fun podcast because I am very much in the midst of re figuring it out after hitting the worst burnout of my life and I am very much in the trenches.

[00:02:01] Andrea Elibero: Oh, yes,

[00:02:03] Victoria Boyd: we're going to get into all of it, so I don't want to, like, do too much there.

[00:02:06] Andrea Elibero: I'm like, no, wait, let's jump into this. Tell me more. Because, because, uh, relatable, relatable. And I'd actually just had a conversation with somebody else who was like, you know, I'm feeling like, and she was kind of telling me how she's feeling kind of brain foggy and this and that. I'm like, Oh, I know what's happening.

You know, I'm like, be careful, you know, really take care of yourself because it sounds like you're getting really burnt out. So, but before we jump into that piece of it, let's kind of put that on the shelf and give people something interesting to look forward to. Let's talk about the beginning. So yeah, like the beginning of your business.

How did you start? When was this? Like what was going on then?

[00:02:46] Victoria Boyd: Yeah. So, I feel like such an oldie in the industry. I started really freelancing and just dabbling in this idea of, like, I could have my own business back in 2016. I Was at the time very committed to climbing the corporate ladder, like I think a lot of people kind of our age grew up believing was you go to school, you get good grades, you go to college, you get good grades there, you work on beautiful projects, and then you get like this amazing corporate job with all of the benefits and the white picket fence and all of that.

So I was very much like on that. I had a job. Um, I hated my job, but I had a job, a good one on paper. I was interviewing and applying everywhere under the sun. At this point, we lived in Indianapolis. So a bigger city like right now I live in. rural New York, but you know, I lived in like a hustling and bustling area.

I had a ton of interviews, all of that. I was like, man, none of these are feeling right. Like none of them were like checking the boxes that like I was starting to feel like I wanted for my life. And mind you, I was young. Like I was only, uh, I don't know, it's 21, 22, 23 years. Like I was young, but I was like, none of this stuff is like checking boxes for me.

And at the same time of all of this, I was going for my master's. So I was working a nine to five studying for my master's. That was kind of it. And I had won a, I promise all of this comes back to business. I had won a contest with my master's program to take me to New York, to what, not New York, to take me to Florida where I spent like a week on campus because I was a remote student for my master's.

And it was like all these different seminars and all these different trainings with all of these people that were like, you know, had already graduated, were doing the thing in their industry. Talking about like how they were making money. Some of 'em were, you know, I got a job with like this producer I got a job with and I went to a creative college.

So like, you know, that's kinda the context here. Um, it was like, I got a job with this producer. I started my business doing this, I da da da da. I, you know, worked my personal brand, all of like these different things and I was starting to pick up nuggets and I was like, I was feeling a light.

[00:04:56] Andrea Elibero: um,

[00:04:56] Victoria Boyd: Ignite in me that I hadn't felt previously.

I felt like I was very much just checking the box. Like I went to college. Now I need to find a job. I actually want to spend 25, 30 years in. Right. And

[00:05:06] Andrea Elibero: No pressure. Right? No pressure at all. It's only the next 30 years of your life. Whatever. It's fine.

[00:05:11] Victoria Boyd: Yeah. So, and that was what like my family and I love my family. None of this is against them, but like, that's what they were telling me was like, you get a job and that's like where you sit until you retire.

And I was like, okay, like I was like looking for that thing. And yeah. That light inside of me was, I didn't know it, but like, burning out, right? So I was at this, uh, event with my college, and somebody said, if a door doesn't open for you, build a door. And it was like, oh, okay. I'm not fighting the door. The door, or I'm fighting doors.

The doors aren't opening. Some of them were, like some of, there were some job

[00:05:49] Andrea Elibero: like little, like

[00:05:51] Victoria Boyd: like there were some cracks,

[00:05:52] Andrea Elibero: the, but that door was like rusty and the other one was like, you know, like squeaky . Yeah. Mm-Hmm.

[00:05:58] Victoria Boyd: Yeah, like, one was too shiny, one was too dull, one was too boring, one called me into work too often. Like, you know, it was all of this stuff.

And when he said that, he was a personal brand strategist, uh, Phil Palin. I don't mind name dropping him, he's also in the online space. Phil Palin, he said something like, if a door's not opening for you, build your own door. And I was like, Got it. Heard word say less. Basically flew back home after like the event and everything was open.

Took my website and converted it from, hire me, hire me, hire me. Here's all my college projects to hire me to work in your business, but not for you. You know, kind of switching things up. And that's when I started like binging podcasts and all of that. And that was kinda the start.

[00:06:45] Andrea Elibero: Was it always in marketing?

[00:06:47] Victoria Boyd: It was always in marketing. Um, yeah, it was always in marketing. It was June of 2016. I got my first client. She happened and I was very green. I was very new. I didn't have Dubsado or Honeybook. I CRM. My, uh, proposal was in a PowerPoint. It wasn't even in Canva. It was in a PowerPoint. Um, and not like Google, Google, uh, slides or

[00:07:13] Andrea Elibero: Like, real PowerPoint. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:07:15] Victoria Boyd: like real PowerPoint and, uh, I posted in a Facebook group, like she posted in a Facebook group, I commented and she was like, let's chat. And I was like, what?

[00:07:24] Andrea Elibero: hmm. This is how this works? Like, weird.

[00:07:27] Victoria Boyd: Like, exactly. I was like, okay, so I guess I'm somewhat off to the races. Like I'm. Oh, I can do that. And like, I'm local, like I'm in Indianapolis and, which, that was definitely my shoe in was the fact that I was local.

We didn't have to like, you know, again, this was before zoom was really popular and like, it was picking up a lot of traction, but like people still preferred meeting at a coffee shop. So

[00:07:53] Andrea Elibero: how you're telling these stories from 2016. Like, it's like 1942 with, like, black and white TV.

[00:07:59] Victoria Boyd: so much, like things have changed so much so

[00:08:03] Andrea Elibero: Yeah.

[00:08:04] Victoria Boyd: um, and I think it's important that people really understand how privileged we are in 2024 with our businesses because I remember it was harder, like it was so much harder, um, but it was easier in some ways, of course, but yeah, um, what was I saying?

[00:08:22] Andrea Elibero: Oh, you met her?

[00:08:23] Victoria Boyd: I got that client.

[00:08:24] Andrea Elibero: Mm

[00:08:24] Victoria Boyd: Yeah, I got that client and one client turned into two clients. And, you know, then the referral started rolling in and I was kind of like, okay, like I have something cool going. And again, I was still finishing up my masters, so I was almost treating it like they were all different projects to further my education with my masters.

So it was like, oh, I'm learning SEO right now. Let me find an SEO client. So like, I'm not just doing on my website. I'm trying somebody else's website. I'm trying to daycare. Um, and that was really cool. And I started to I was like, okay, this isn't, you know, this isn't a bad path. Like this isn't a pipe dream.

Like this is actually like a thing. I was offering anything under the sun marketing related website design, copywriting, content creation, social media management, like ads, Google, my

[00:09:17] Andrea Elibero: Yeah, you were really doing everything.

[00:09:20] Victoria Boyd: yeah, I was like, pretty much if I was learning it, I was looking for a client to learn it further.

And of course, that's. Charging pennies on the dollar, like my social media management for like three platforms was 300. What? Like no wonder I couldn't quit my job in 2016. Like I was charging like 300 bucks for like 12 plus hours of work a month. Like, of course I couldn't quit my job. Um, so I kind of You know, moseyed along doing that through the rest of 2016, through 2017, 2018, I finally got to quit my job.

It was February 2018,

[00:09:54] Andrea Elibero: this your goal, like, when you were at the start? Okay.

[00:09:59] Victoria Boyd: yeah, it was starting to become a goal because, and I was still applying through some of this, like jobs, but I was kind of like, I think I'm starting to get everything I want with myself.

[00:10:09] Andrea Elibero: Okay.

[00:10:10] Victoria Boyd: I wanted to be able to work from home. I wanted to be able to practice what I was learning with my master's program.

I wanted to be able to travel with my boyfriend at the time, now husband, who traveled a lot for work. Um, I wanted to be able to come home, like home for me is New York. That's where my family is. And every time something came up, I'd have to be like, Hey, I know I'm out of vacation days, but like grandma's sick or my.

There's a family reunion and I really want to go back to New York. Can I take Friday off? Like,

[00:10:42] Andrea Elibero: hmm.

[00:10:43] Victoria Boyd: and that stuff was just really hard as somebody that like values family, living away, bargaining for like my five days a month, five days a week, five days a year, five days a year of vacation time. Plus trying to like be a normal.

Person who also wants to vacation. It was just very hard. So I was still applying. I was still like looking for opportunities. I don't think I really stopped until mid 2017 is when I was kind of like, you know what, like, it's just not gonna work. I did have some offers that were like, Hey, you know, we want to hire you.

However, you cannot continue to build your personal brand. And I was like, No, no, like,

[00:11:22] Andrea Elibero: But I find this portion of your story so interesting because, because I think that a lot of times at the beginning of a bit, or like, Not a lot of times, but at the beginning of a business, people do it for different reasons or different ways. And it sounded like when you started, you got that intuitive hit right away.

You're like, I'm following this, I'm going to start it. And then you did it. But then after that, it was kind of like, okay, like, let me discover the path and like, do I want to do this or that? Or is it something just do in the meantime? And it kind of, it felt like, as you were talking, that it was a bit of a journey to see, to see where this path was going to actually take you.

[00:11:59] Victoria Boyd: Yeah, I would definitely agree with that. Like I didn't have a business coach. I was in one membership at the time. Like that was like the only coaching, so to speak, that I had at my disposal. Um, and yeah, it was very organic in a way. Like that first, Chunk of time. And when I did get to quit my job, I was like, okay, it's going to be my coach from that membership.

That was like, again, my only investment. I got on a Q and a call with him in the membership. And he was like, okay, congratulations. You quit your job, but now you have to make money. Like now you have to do the thing. And I was like, okay. And he threw it out. He's like, otherwise you're going to end up back in that dark cubicle again, which was my ultimate, like, yeah.

Uh, no, I will not go back to the dark cubicle. Um, so his like recommendation at the time was like, you know, niche down, pick one of these things that you've been doing that you like the most, that feels the most scalable or whatever, and double down on that. So at that, by then I'd kind of gotten rid of offering a CEO.

I'd gotten rid of doing copywriting and gotten rid of like, you know, like there was. Indeed, a journey like getting down to this point, but I was that like, okay, I offer websites and I offer social media management. And that was, that was

[00:13:20] Andrea Elibero: So you picked your two kind of favorite things, and you're like, okay, I enjoy doing these two things, so this is what I'm going to focus on.

[00:13:26] Victoria Boyd: Exactly. And then when we had that conversation, like me and my coach, he was like, go further, like, don't just do website and social media. It's going to be harder, you know, stand out as being like the girl to go to for social media. So I niched down to social media. Plus what was beautiful about that and why I felt like it was so scalable or so growth.

And so I think that's where I think the most important thing to keep oriented in a way is the fact that like I could get people on retainer. I could have six months of income where I knew, okay, for six months, I have X amount of money coming in for 12 months. I know I have X amount of money coming in versus like a website.

It was like, okay, I've got, you know, whatever I was charging at the time. Right there, but then as soon as I finished the website, okay, maybe I'd offer maintenance, but there was no guarantee they'd take the maintenance. Maybe I'd offer this. There was no guarantee. They need me for that. Like, So it was a lot more selling than what I wanted to do.

I just wanted to,

[00:14:20] Andrea Elibero: Yeah, I was going to ask. Yeah, exactly. I was going to ask because a lot of times these are difficult decisions for people and I was curious when your coach, I could see where he was coming from with like, okay, this is the scalable thing. Like obviously do that. And I was curious how you felt about that.

Like and it sounds

[00:14:36] Victoria Boyd: media was a no brainer. Yeah, it was a no brainer. Like I love designing websites. I still love designing websites. I still do the occasional website project, but it's gotta be like for the right person for the right time, for the right amount of money and stuff. But, um, I would get so white knuckle y over it, like it was like I couldn't ever let the project be done.

I'd be like tinkering for hours and hours and hours and my boyfriend would be like, Dude, the website's beautiful, you're done. Like, send it to the client, like,

[00:15:06] Andrea Elibero: Oh, my God. Because it's one of those things that like there's literally no end to a website. Like literally. Right? Like you could do it forever. Yeah.

[00:15:13] Victoria Boyd: Yeah, and I couldn't step back. I couldn't step back and be like, This is good enough, or this is perfectly fine the way it is. Um, so I knew that wasn't really a path. And I'd been doing social media management since Like 2013, um, like for my first, no, 2011, yeah, 2011 for my first internship, pretty much all the way through, like that was like a common through line in my career was social media management.

And I'd worked with all these different clients. So

[00:15:40] Andrea Elibero: You were the first social media manager, I think. Like the first.

[00:15:46] Victoria Boyd: um, so I'd like seen, um, How social media interacted with different industries and the role that it played as it was like coming up to popularity in a way. So that was like the no brainer. Plus when he was like, you can get people on retainer, which I'd already done with like some of my freelance people, but he's like, you've raised your prices and you're golden.

And I was like, got it.

[00:16:09] Andrea Elibero: Awesome. And

[00:16:12] Victoria Boyd: of business.

[00:16:12] Andrea Elibero: so cool because you went from, and I kind of had a similar path of going from like, let me get experience in all the things, but I didn't have the background. Like you had marketing background. I was a nurse and before that a psychologist. So I was like, I know nothing. So I'm going to do everything as a VA and then just figure it out from there, which I think is, is.

For me, it's like how I have to do things, because if I don't actually do them and see, then I don't know if I like it or not, you know? So, and it sounds like you were similar, and then you're like, okay, great, like, like, you kind of came full circle, but you got to experience so much before you're like, okay, let me double down, like, now I'm social media manager, like, this is my thing, like, let's go.

And then what happens from there, because like, as you said, that's iteration one, and there's many an iteration coming.

[00:16:54] Victoria Boyd: Yeah. So I have, I'm still doing social media management, so I can't even say that chapter has yet I'm still doing that. Um, but from there I, and my prices were high, high, high, high prices, like four figure a month investments. So Like, the money was good. The money was really good. And with that, um, there were a lot of VAs already in the online space, a lot of other social media managers in the online space that were charging, like, a quarter of what I was charging.

And they'd ask me, they'd be like, how are you charging this? How are you charging this? How are you charging this? How'd you send this client? And I was like, At first I was like, F off guys. Like, whatever this is, this is my secret sauce. F off. Well, then that first coach that I was in the membership with, he hosted a retreat.

It was like 12 people in Chicago. I love Chicago. So of course it was like,

[00:17:48] Andrea Elibero: Mm

[00:17:48] Victoria Boyd: me up. So I went and it was all about like building your first passive income product or your first scalable offer. And I went and I was like, okay, I don't know what I'm going to offer. I, I don't have any ideas, but the only thing people kept asking me and one of like the frameworks he was teaching at the time was like, um, if you, it was like, if you find yourself repeating yourself, replace yourself, it was something like that.

And uh, something I kept getting asked was, how are you charging these prices? How are you sending this client? How did you structure this package? And I was like, maybe there's something there. So that was the first. Scalable offer that I like created, um, or the first like passive income offer I created and it was a membership called Manage Social, which I thought was the cutest name ever.

And that was it. Like that was the first membership that I created the first like course ified thing that I did and it followed a very traditional template. Like it was like you have a course in the membership, coaching in the membership, your community in the membership, and that was

[00:18:57] Andrea Elibero: So let me ask

[00:18:57] Victoria Boyd: And I liked it.

[00:18:59] Andrea Elibero: yeah, I was going to say, so in deciding, because this is also another big decision point and something that I, that I help a lot of people go through, it's like, okay, I'm doing my done for you, my like client work, now I want to do something else. How did you decide to, that it was going to be in the form of a membership?

[00:19:20] Victoria Boyd: Ooh, um, thinking back, I think it was because that was my first investment

[00:19:26] Andrea Elibero: hmm. Okay. Mm hmm.

[00:19:28] Victoria Boyd: you know, charging somebody 47 a month felt like a no brainer.

[00:19:31] Andrea Elibero: hmm.

[00:19:33] Victoria Boyd: So I think I kind of default fell into it. I don't think that there was necessarily a, I wouldn't let myself do this again. But. It was good to get my teeth wet with like webinars and building websites to like host students and all of that.

Um, it was my first investment and my second investment actually was another membership. So, I think it was kind of like that was what I was most exposed to, and I very much followed the template of those two memberships, which was a course in the membership, they got access to the course while they were a member, they lost it after the fact, hot seat calls, um, and community, and then like bundle of resources and whatever.

So I followed like that template pretty much to a T. And Yeah, I wouldn't say it was like a conscious decision. It was just that was what I was most

[00:20:27] Andrea Elibero: Interesting. Okay. Okay. Okay, so I want to hold on to that because you're like, okay, it's like hold on to that thought of, yeah, this is just kind of like, okay, like I knew this was a thing. Like, sure, let's try this. So then, so then take us down the path. You have this membership and then what happens?

[00:20:43] Victoria Boyd: Uh, yeah. So I never made like a bunch of money with the membership. Like Honestly, um, and we'll call it managed social because like it changes a couple times over this. So I never made a bunch of money over managed social. Like it was, you know, trickles of money here, trickles money there. I was following like that launch cycle, you know, every 12 weeks you launch, then you spend time giving your audience a break.

And like, know, I was following, like, all the guru advice, not really trusting my own intuition, not really trusting what I wanted to do to sell the membership, not really trusting the fact that I was a newbie and I was taking advice from people that hadn't walked in my shoes in X amount of

[00:21:22] Andrea Elibero: Can we please pause for two seconds? Because this is a thing that drives me mad. And in I find it not like sad, but I, but it frustrates me that a lot of people get, and I understand why, right? Like, oh, like these gurus are telling you this is what you do. XYZ follow this. These are the exact steps, blah, blah, blah, whatever.

And that's it. And it is for them or somebody at their level, but they don't tell you that. And then all these people get sucked in and then they're not doing what they want to do. They get frustrated. They get burned out. You know, like all these bad things happen. Like, well, this doesn't work. And it's like, well, yeah, because the people who are telling you this are great marketers and they don't tell you that it's not actually for you.

It's like for. Somebody at a different level or somebody who has something like it works, but not necessarily for you and oh, it drives me insane It drives me insane. Like I can't

[00:22:13] Victoria Boyd: Yeah, we'll, we'll get back to, like, all of that because, like, that's kind of where my current membership and current business kind of ended up, but, like, that was one of my differentiating points was, like, I am teaching you how to be a social media manager, but I am still a practicing social media

[00:22:28] Andrea Elibero: yes.

[00:22:29] Victoria Boyd: Like, I wasn't, like, some retired social media manager. Like, I was still doing the thing. I was still in the trenches. I was still seeing the trends. I was

[00:22:35] Andrea Elibero: Mm hmm

[00:22:36] Victoria Boyd: you know, I was able to consult those members at a different level because of it. Um,

[00:22:42] Andrea Elibero: Mm hmm.

[00:22:44] Victoria Boyd: So where was I going with that? Oh, so I was following like the 12 week launch cycles.

I was doing what all these like big names would tell me to do would say, this is what you do. And this is how often you do it. Otherwise you'll burn out your audience. And, um, of course I ended up paralyzed with selling because I didn't want to burn out my audience. Like I had like this small little, like precious nugget of like, I don't know, a thousand followers on 300 people on my email list.

The last thing I wanted to do was burn out my little corner of the So of course I'm scared to death to promote market. It was a whole situation. Right. Um, did a few launches of it really realized like. I actually signed up a couple years later to a Facebook ads course because I was like, I got to get this audience growth thing moving and I got to get this whole like membership thing off the ground.

So I signed up with a Facebook ads guy. We did like, it was a 12 week group coaching, like quarterly thing. I loved the group. It was a, it was one of those spots I could grow into, which I really needed. And I realized, funny enough, I didn't want Managed Social to be a membership. I wanted it to be a course, and I already had a course.

Like, the course was in the membership. I just had to repackage the way it was sold. And I did that, and I sold a few of them, but I was also like, I created this, I created Managed Social out of people asking me for it, not out of me wanting to do

[00:24:06] Andrea Elibero: Oh girl.

[00:24:07] Victoria Boyd: which was like,

[00:24:08] Andrea Elibero: Yes. Yes.

[00:24:10] Victoria Boyd: mind blown. Like, I didn't actually want to be teaching this.

I didn't actually want to be doing it. I didn't want to actually be giving them my email swipe copy. I didn't want to actually be coaching them on raising their

[00:24:21] Andrea Elibero: Mm hmm.

[00:24:23] Victoria Boyd: not to say that I was bad at it because I absolutely wasn't. I definitely was very good with those students and with those people that trusted me but I realized I did it out of like people were asking me therefore I felt obligated and that was what I created and that's what I invested in and

[00:24:41] Andrea Elibero: And that's so yeah, and that was the key thing that you said was like well I didn't know what to do. Well, people are asking for this Right? Like, so I guess I'll do this thing. And a lot of what you were saying is like, okay, well, I guess I'll like, it was, it was like you built a thing and amazing. I'm sure it was a great learning experience, but not from a place of what you wanted, what felt good for you, what, what you were good at, what you, or, you know, what lit you up.

It was really like, okay, well, I want to do something else. People want this thing. So let's do it. I think that's a really amazing lesson, both for you to learn and to share with other people as well.

[00:25:15] Victoria Boyd: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I always approached the membership with integrity. I was delivered, but the integrity to myself was gone. Like it was just, and I didn't realize it. It was just running through the motions. Like it was just brain dumping, whatever they needed at that time. Um, and that was not fun. It definitely wasn't

[00:25:39] Andrea Elibero: Yeah.

[00:25:40] Victoria Boyd: So eventually I closed that membership. Um, and I closed the course that that membership then

[00:25:45] Andrea Elibero: Mm hmm.

[00:25:46] Victoria Boyd: I, hold on, I got to take off this collar. It's driving me up a wall.

[00:25:51] Andrea Elibero: We welcome all dogs on the podcast. Yes.

[00:25:59] Victoria Boyd: Um, yeah, my baby. Where was I? So I closed that membership, turned it into a

[00:26:06] Andrea Elibero: And when was this? The, when you closed the course and the membership and all of that? More or less.

[00:26:12] Victoria Boyd: mid 2020, I want to say, or early 2020.

[00:26:15] Andrea Elibero: Mm hmm.

[00:26:16] Victoria Boyd: Early 2020, yeah, because I remember I got a Facebook ads client. This was like the first new client I'd taken in a while that wasn't social media management. The only reason I took her was she was actually a former member, former or current? She was, anyway, she was a member of Manage Social.

Um, she asked me to help her run Facebook ads. I was like, bet, but I'm new. Like, you know, I'm, I'm new. Like, I'm learning how to do it myself. I'm playing around with it. I'm happy to help you, but you just have to understand. I'm new. I can't guarantee results to you. Not that you ever can, but you know, I, I was very transparent.

I'm learning. Um, but when she took me, when she like hired me, I was like, okay, I gotta, I have to really learn something. I can't just take a course and poke around. I was like, okay, I gotta like learn something. So I joined the group coaching program, which was also where I learned. I didn't want to have that membership anymore.

I wanted to turn it into a course. Um, I was also becoming known for selling them the DMS. So, like, direct messages on Instagram, I was great at, like, finding a lead, closing the lead. And I'm not talking, like, sliding into somebody's DMs, like, hey, girl, sell my leggings. Like, no, I'm talking about, like, building real relationships that eventually converted into a client or a student or even just a really good business friend.

And I was really good at, like, finding these conversations. That was actually how I matched my income. Something I left out is I matched my income from my nine to five in, like, six weeks. I was good to go after that and I did all of that via direct messages and I didn't know that wasn't a common thing at the time like now it's super common people sell in the DMs all the time all day every day.

We have many chat to help us out with that and everything but back then like that was kind of new and I didn't know that I was doing something that not other people did. Um, I was just chatting with people and connecting with people and then eventually like referrals would come through or the client would come through and I didn't.

And I didn't know that that was a new thing. I just was like, I'm going to talk to people. So that whole thing happened. Um, and I was becoming known for selling the DMs. So I created my first 37 offer. This is when like tiny offers were really popular, really big,

[00:28:29] Andrea Elibero: remember this was

[00:28:30] Victoria Boyd: this point it was like

[00:28:31] Andrea Elibero: Yeah, yeah. I remember, like, I have I remember this in my brain. I'm like, oh, yeah, that was a, like, a popular thing that people are talking about. Yeah.

[00:28:39] Victoria Boyd: Yes. So I had my first 27 offer and then I turned it to 37 sold like hotcakes. I have like 4, 000 people in that thing. So to this day, um, got me into bundles, got me into summits, got me on podcasts. And I was like becoming known as like the sell on DM scale. Um, so that was cool. And then I took the basic framework that I was teaching that 27 PDF.

It wasn't even a course, it was a PDF that they would get. And I turned it into a full course, which I still have to this day. I still sell it to this day. I still love it. It's DM to Dollars. And it teaches like soup to nuts, how to attract, nurture, and convert right in the DMs. And I love it. while I'm doing this, I still have social media management clients and all that.

Go ahead.

[00:29:25] Andrea Elibero: well, the thing that I, that I think is really important is that this came out organically and it wasn't like somebody told you to do it. It was like, Oh yeah, I'm really good at this. And then you realize that, that not everybody, I don't know, nobody's doing it. And so it was new. Not everybody's really good at it.

So you actually took something that was natural and organic to you and you're like, oh, let's do that. And, and even when you're talking about it, you sound a lot lighter and excited and happy and like, but you know, so you can sell the difference when you're doing something aligned versus something not aligned just in how you're talking about it.

So I found that really interesting.

[00:29:59] Victoria Boyd: Thank you. Um, yeah, I love DM to Dollars. Like, when I created that course, it was actually my first, I did it completely my own way. Um, I launched it live around the first time, literally with Google Docs. Like, we joined a Zoom room. I would do like a 45 minute training. Then we do like Q& A, and then we meet two days later, do another Q& A, and then like, it was that for four weeks, so like two calls a week, and I loved that course.

I had two great people that joined the very first round. So I was like, okay, awesome, and they showed up to every single call. I'm going to teach and, um, I also got to see somebody put it into practice that wasn't me. And I was so glad I just trusted my intuition there. I didn't even make a sales page. I just made a thrive cart checkout page.

Like I was just like, this is what you're going to learn. I don't know how you're going to learn it, but this is what you're going to learn. Do you want it in? And people want it in. And I sold that pretty much exclusively through no surprise

[00:31:02] Andrea Elibero: Mm hmm.

[00:31:03] Victoria Boyd: and Instagram live videos. I didn't. really email my list, um, the first round.

Now I email my list about it, but I was just kind of, you know, it was early pandemic days at that point. So I was just fuck around and find out was really my motto at that point, because what, what else was I going to do with my time?

[00:31:28] Andrea Elibero: like there's something else to do, so. But also, it sounded like you just built up enough confidence. Like, you had enough experience at that point, but you're like, you know what, like, let me just do this and see. And I think a lot of people are scared to do that, or they feel like they have to follow a particular framework, and that is not true.

And you can see, like, it was when you just went and it's like, I'm just gonna play and have fun and do it my way, that it was successful. And not the, oh, step by step, launch this, don't do, like, with all the things that the people tell you, you know, that, like, this is how you have to do it. And yeah, it worked okay, but.

Not like it, like it's so different than what you're describing now. So again, another really important thing that, that I want all the people to know so they don't all go and follow all the gurus and, and when they're not, when it's not for them.

[00:32:16] Victoria Boyd: Yeah. I can tell you right now. I'm never buying another 3, 000 how to grow a business course Fuck that

[00:32:24] Andrea Elibero: Mm hmm.

[00:32:26] Victoria Boyd: Big fuck that Yeah, so dm2 dollars was like my first taste of success and I ran it live maybe two more times in that same formula of Google docs we were just going to chat over zoom. You could ask me questions Whatever.

Um, I think I ran it two more times like that the third time I tried to run it. I actually didn't sell any. And I was like, crap, is this project like dead in the water? Like, like, I wanted to do like three, not like beta rounds, but like three, like, work out the king semi framework rounds, essentially, before I PowerPointed it and cut up the videos and like all of that kind of can bud not PowerPoint can bud.

[00:33:11] Andrea Elibero: Now we're in 2020. So now we're going to canva. Yeah.

[00:33:14] Victoria Boyd: deck. And my last round, like nobody bought and I was working with a different coach at that point and she was like, okay, you know, bad time again, we're in the pandemic, like bad time, no worries. It was midsummer. I've always been a business that suffered from that summer slump.

So whatever. So I took that time and I created the slides. I just kind of was like, you know what, it didn't work for that last live round, which I did change some formatting things instead of doing four weeks, I tried to do two weeks, because I wanted to see. When I was promising, not promising, but when I was conveying how long the course would take to go through and get results on the sales page, I wanted to be like, it's going to take you four weeks.

It's going to take you two weeks. Like, I wanted to kind of feel out different timelines with students and I just went ahead and I created the slides, created the sales page, got it ready to sell. And like, at that point I had testimonials. I I had more confidence in it. I had screenshots. Um, I just, I had it.

So that was like my first

[00:34:18] Andrea Elibero: The, the point that I think is, I would like to, the point I'd like to point out, whatever, is that you're like, well, nobody joined, but that's fine. And you didn't give it up. You didn't throw it away. And a lot of people, I was talking to somebody else who had, you know, they launched a thing the first time, great.

All these people signed up the second time, like, Oh, is that only a couple of people signed up and then stopped doing it? I was like, no, like, no, you know, like,

[00:34:41] Victoria Boyd: Yeah, no. Like that's when you keep going.

[00:34:44] Andrea Elibero: explain why. Why is that when you keep going that when nobody signs up? Or when you're not getting the

[00:34:49] Victoria Boyd: keep going because, yeah, because hopefully at that point you believe in the offer enough and you believe in what you've created enough to keep going, to keep selling, to push back that start date if that's what it means, to change the way that it's delivered, to change. Maybe, it can even be as small of a shift as like changing the Q& A calls to office hours or Voxer or co working.

Um, I think that when you give up at that point, you're like almost cutting yourself off at the knees. Like, when somebody doesn't join, that doesn't mean your offer sucks. It just means right now wasn't the right time, wasn't the right price point, wasn't the right commitment level. You know, there's so many things that play into people not buying at that time, and I really think that that's the time you double down. I don't know. Just my

[00:35:40] Andrea Elibero: No, but it's

[00:35:41] Victoria Boyd: That's when you sell in the

[00:35:42] Andrea Elibero: Yeah, you're like that's what you joined my course and so yeah It's on the team, but it is really about like just trusting yourself and having confidence like having that confidence and knowing that It's not It's not, you're not faulty if you don't sell this time. And why are you throwing out all of this?

Because like this one round, you know, or like, it's okay. Like it, it is a way, and I have seen, I have, I have had clients, you know, as my, with my OBM work, like these six and seven figure clients where they go through the same thing. Some rounds, like they get all these people. Other rounds, it's a little bit hard, you know, it's just, it's very variable.

So yeah. So anyhow, yes.

[00:36:19] Victoria Boyd: A lot really plays into it. A lot really goes into launches and it can be as simple as the season. Like,

[00:36:27] Andrea Elibero: Yeah.

[00:36:29] Victoria Boyd: like, I'm not like super woo, but like, I've like, it can just be so simple why somebody like doesn't join at that time. Um, it's all about where you go from there.

But once I had DM to dollars, and I was like, I've got this successful thing, this thingamabobber, I had like Still was hovering around 1, 500 people on my email list. Um, my Instagram account was growing at that point. But I was like, okay, what, what do I, what do I do now? Like, I have this thing, I don't have any audience growth strategies.

Like, I'm also working on social media management clients and, you know. There's only so much energy you have to pour into other people's business and your own. And most of my energy was still going towards my clients businesses. But I was like, okay, what can I do to pour a little bit into my own cup? And that was when my first summit was born.

Lucrative Lead Summit. Um, and I hosted that August of 2023. No, 2022. 2022. Um. And that was like the most success I'd ever seen from like a project ever and as quickly as I did. And the audience for that was VIP day service providers. So it was kind of tying into that. I knew I had a big audience of like people that were members of Managed Social or that were interested in Managed Social.

So I knew I had a big group of people in my, my audience that were

[00:37:54] Andrea Elibero: Mm

[00:37:54] Victoria Boyd: So I doubled down on that. VIP days just felt like a very natural niche to focus on. That made it very easy to get sponsors. I didn't have to tell anybody about it. I had people like, can we sponsor this? And I was like, yeah. You know, like, Okay, I have something good here.

Like, people want to sponsor it before it's even been off the ground. I had great speakers. They promoted. I launched immediately after the summit. Had my best launch ever of DMs at Dollars. Um, and that's like, kind of what I'm doing now. Sorta. Sorta. I was like, wait, there's more. But, yeah.

[00:38:36] Andrea Elibero: had mentioned burnout, getting over really big burnout. Can you talk about that a

[00:38:41] Victoria Boyd: Okay. We're at that point.

You're right. We are at that point.

[00:38:44] Andrea Elibero: hmm.

[00:38:45] Victoria Boyd: So, after my summit, um, and I worked with the Summit in a Box team to host that. It wasn't something that I just, like, you know, like, I had a lot of support in coming up with. The promise and making sure that it worked towards the pitch and all of that and I was exhausted.

I did have a VA helping me with the summit. I can't recommend a VA enough to help you host an event. Um, and she was amazing and I loved her and I still love her. So fast forward to November and I was like, okay, I want to keep this momentum going. I decided to host a bundle, because bundles were popular at that point.

I'd bought a bundle course, I had all the resources I needed, I'd also had a summit under my, you know, legs, like I knew, I knew enough to like, do it. So I decided to try hosting a

[00:39:35] Andrea Elibero: Mm hmm.

[00:39:36] Victoria Boyd: And that is what, that is what I think did it. I think that's what did me in. Um, I only made, this is so embarrassing because it was a bundle.

I only made like two sales or four. I made four sales. The rest of like the people were contributors. I only had like 25, 30 contributors, but I made four sales. It was so embarrassing. And, you know, some of it was stuff like, I called it the instant income bundle. Some of it was. Like timing was weird. It was in November.

Um, it was when, I mean, bundles are still very, very, very, very, very, very popular right now, but I think there was some bundle fatigue already. I think, um, there was also some like, well, you just sold us on dm2 dollars. Why this? When really I was doing the bundle to launch dm2 dollars again to the people that didn't buy.

Um, And I think like the promise was a little off. Like it was like, we're gonna show you ways to make money with Instagram. And, um, at that point, Instagram was a little bit like, you know, people weren't so hot on Instagram and I mean, they still aren't. But like, at that point, I remember people were ultra fatigued with like, well, why would I spend time on Instagram when TikTok is pushing out my content and Pinterest and like da da da da da.

And it was just a weird time. And I had some tech stuff go on. Thrivecart kind of started to get a little wonky. So that happened. And that was when I really. Hit burnout and, um, I felt like I couldn't trust my intuition anymore. And I remember, looking back now, I remember how that

[00:41:15] Andrea Elibero: Yeah, I would love to hear how that, how that happened. Because that's, yeah.

[00:41:20] Victoria Boyd: yeah, it was like I had gone so gung ho on like the summit.

It was like every idea I had just freaking worked. Like every idea, not to say every idea I had was a good idea, but they worked. Like it was, it just worked. And the bundle, I think, It just didn't. Like, it just didn't work. And I was so, it was like, that was the evidence I needed to know I couldn't trust myself anymore.

It

[00:41:45] Andrea Elibero: Right. But that's what you were thinking. Yeah.

[00:41:48] Victoria Boyd: my body, whatever, said, Nope, you just threw away all that success from the summit with a stupid bundle. Why didn't you just do a damn, like, webinar or something? And yeah, I got to a point where, like, I couldn't trust myself anymore. And I was like, okay, you know, it's mid November, we're going into the holidays, I can, like, back up.

I can take some time off. And, um, but I can't take time off. I'm a social media manager. I still had clients and stuff like that. And, uh, I still had, like, three retainer clients and no VA, because I, Oh, my God. We could talk all about that is its own story as well. Um, because at one point I was moving towards an agency model that I also burned to the ground.

[00:42:32] Andrea Elibero: hmm. Same. I did the same.

[00:42:34] Victoria Boyd: This is fun. Like really going through it. Um,

[00:42:37] Andrea Elibero: session. Yeah.

[00:42:39] Victoria Boyd: Yeah, I don't know. I think December of that year, December 2022, I reached out to a therapist and I was like, I think I'm suffering from some depression, um, which isn't a new thing. Like I've, I started with depression hardcore in high school and I'm starting to feel that like those symptoms percolate a little bit.

Um, so I got some support. She was like, you know, it seems like you're dealing with burnout. Of course we tried everything. I don't really know. Like I, I know earlier I said like, I, I know like when I felt that burnout, but like, I I don't know when it totally clicked, if that

[00:43:18] Andrea Elibero: I think it happens almost after the fact when you're just like, when you're like feeling a little bit better and then you're like, Oh, that's what that was. But when you're in it, you're just like, I don't know. I can't do anything. You know, like,

[00:43:29] Victoria Boyd: yeah,

[00:43:30] Andrea Elibero: when you're in it until you start to come out of it.

[00:43:33] Victoria Boyd: Um, yeah, I really pushed through it. I hosted

[00:43:38] Andrea Elibero: Oh my God. Girl. while you were

[00:43:40] Victoria Boyd: did. I did. I was like, I'm burnt out, but let me keep going. Or I'm depressed, but let me keep going. Yeah, me. Um, so now we're in 2023. I hosted another summit, um, another lucrative lead summit in February. That was course creators, and it was still a good summit, but it wasn't as successful as the first one.

And I My heart and soul were still into it, but like my energy wasn't, if that makes sense. And I didn't know that until after the fact. Like, it was like I was a salmon, like, constantly swimming upstream for that summit, versus the first one was just, like, downhill, full stream. Like, I was just going with it.

Like, it was just so easy, and I just flowed. And the second one was, like, oof. You know, like,

[00:44:26] Andrea Elibero: Yeah.

[00:44:26] Victoria Boyd: And I I still had a VA, like I still had help, I still had support, I worked with the Summit in a Box team again, but it was just a different energetic experience for me. And then when that didn't give me the results I wanted, I was like, Okay, I need to, I need to like think things through mental health wise, because like I could see what was going on up here was affecting my

[00:44:52] Andrea Elibero: Yeah.

[00:44:53] Victoria Boyd: So, Spent a lot of time doing that, worked through anxiety, still in the process of working through the depression and all of that. Um, during that week of the summit, I had realized I wasn't attracting the people for the summit that I thought would be attracted to the summit. And that was a weird, oh, sorry to go totally back, but I promise it matters.

Um, that was a weird like, oh my gosh, like I'm not attracting the right people. These were people that weren't ready for DM to dollars. Like they were people I was like, these are people trying to learn how to create their first course, not how to generate leads for their course, which was the promise of the summit.

And I was like, crap, how did I get this wrong? What? One of my messaging didn't get the right people to join. So during that week, I got my registration for my trademark in the mail from my attorney for conversion catalysts. And I was like, it felt like a nudge from like the universe. It was like, launch this.

Do this. Don't do DM to Dollars. Launch this instead. And I fought it. I fought it. Because I was like, I've done all of this work for the summit for this one course. For DM to Dollars. No way can I just, you know, say screw all of that, screw all the promotion I've done already for the course, and go for this new thing that I just happened to get a trademark for in the mail.

It doesn't make sense. Well, that same week, like my, somebody I really looked up to, a membership coach, she was doing a launch that week. And I was like, okay, all the nudges are there. Work with Melody. Um, work with Melody, you know you're going to create this thing. I still went ahead and launched GM2Dollars, but it did not feel good.

Did not feel good. I remember having trouble getting through the webinar. I It felt like I was on a boat. Like, it felt like I was on a boat. Like, I just felt so rocky, like, and I was like, I should just end the webinar here. I think I might have. I think I ended the webinar early. Um, I mean, I got through the pitch and stuff, but I don't think I stayed open for Q and A.

I think I was just like, okay, 45 minutes. Like, bye guys. Like, see ya in the Facebook group. Like, there was something. There was some shift inside of me during that webinar, and it was not good. I mean, whatever it was, it was fine, but it was not good. Um, so I created what is now Conversion Catalyst, which is my membership that I love so much every month it gives them a marketing plan.

I have amazing students in there that are working on all different projects, all different promotions. And I'm just in like a consultant role where I'm like, this is what we're going to. You know, do next. And it's like a very cool and very different experience. And, um, yeah, I launched that again. I hosted a third summit last year, which was strategies that stack, which is like where my brand is now.

Um, after doing the summit, I decided to double down on the strategies that stack brand, double down on conversion catalysts. Um, I'm down to one social media management client, so I'm like kind of slowly, you know, I've done it since 2011, like I'm done, like I'm tired, like I've been doing it, um, and now I'm kind of in the spot of like, what's next?

And I know what's next. I do in my soul, it's just having that happen, which is where, you know, that burnout is still in effect. Like I do see myself coming out of it, but I am still in the trenches of it, like very

[00:48:29] Andrea Elibero: Right. Right. Right. The thing that I want to summarize a couple of things that I think are so important. One is that a few times you're like, okay, yes, my intuition is telling me this. I'm going to follow it. And those times. things are more successful. And then other times when you're like, Oh no, this doesn't feel so good.

And then you could, there's a definite difference there, like in terms of outcome. The other thing I think is cool is that. You, and maybe it's not cool for you, I don't know, but like you have still been doing all of these cool offers while maintaining some social media management clients on the backend.

So, and I do similar. So this is why I think it's cool is that it's kind of like, you know, you have these couple of retainer clients and it gives you some security. Where you feel like, okay, like I can kind of experiment, I can play, I can do this and that and know that I'm not going to like live in a cardboard box, like, you know, on the street tomorrow.

You know, so it kind of gives you, at least for me, a little bit of that. Um, yeah, yeah, and, and some freedom and, and, and whatnot, and also to stay in the game. So it's like. you know, what you're teaching. Like you're still up to date and not one of those people who's like, I'm going to coach and teach you things that I learned in 2011, but now it's 2024 and it's not relevant anymore.

Right. Um, and the other thing is that you, some things were successful, some things were not, and you kept going. No matter what, you kept going, you kept trying different things and it seemed like you never let it necessarily mean anything about you as a human or you as, as a marketer or, or whatnot.

[00:50:06] Victoria Boyd: It's very interesting you bring that up because when I hit burnout, that

[00:50:11] Andrea Elibero: Yeah.

[00:50:12] Victoria Boyd: When I hit burnout, all of a sudden, every failure meant something about me. Um. During that time though, it's also important for me to recognize that I had some abusive clients. Like I had some clients that would say like, you don't know what you're doing, or this was a silly mistake.

And like, mind you, my clients approve. Every single thing, every single period before it gets posted, and I'd be like, if you approved it, like, I'm sorry, that fact was not wrong, like, you fact checked it, like, you, you approved whatever it was, um, and I had some really abrasive and abusive clients during that time that made me question even the thing I knew the most, which was social media management, um, and that snowballed, like, between clients telling me, and I only had two, like, I, like, I had a whole bunch of clients being

[00:51:03] Andrea Elibero: Well, all you need is one. I mean, you don't need more than that. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:51:08] Victoria Boyd: All you need is one. Um, but of course, like that made it like this self fulfilling thing where all I saw were my failures. And all I saw was evidence I shouldn't, couldn't, wouldn't trust myself again. And

[00:51:21] Andrea Elibero: this is after years and years, and this is in social media management, years of experience and

[00:51:27] Victoria Boyd: years, years, years. And it just, yeah, it got to a point where I was like, what now?

Like, what now? How does it, how do I move forward from this? I was also, you know, it's interesting. I had like these clients that were like abrasive and abusive and whatever. And they were life coaches. were life coaches. And

[00:51:52] Andrea Elibero: Yeah.

[00:51:53] Victoria Boyd: which I'm still working through. I actually talk about it probably once a month with my therapist.

Is the online space ethical? Is coaching ethical and what is my role in it? And I have really been struggling because I will toot my own horn. I'm a great social media manager. Like I can get into your brand voice like nobody else can. I get into your business. I care about your business. Like I will say I am a stellar social media manager. And what that also meant was I was selling people into programs that weren't a good fit. Um, weren't delivering what the coach told me that they would deliver, delivering promises. So like part of the burnout was also this ethical, spiritual awakening of like, what is my role in all of

[00:52:45] Andrea Elibero: Yeah. And that really hurts my, my heart just hearing that, you know, that's, yeah.

[00:52:52] Victoria Boyd: It's still so hard. And this thought of like the online space is built on a house of cards. Oh my God, I did not expect all of this. I did not expect this conversation to go this far.

[00:53:02] Andrea Elibero: Me either, but I'm like, and also this is like way longer than I normally do. I'm like, no, keep going because this is too

[00:53:09] Victoria Boyd: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, we can stop

[00:53:10] Andrea Elibero: No, but I don't want to. This is also important.

[00:53:15] Victoria Boyd: Um, yeah, life coaches need to be nice to their contractors.

[00:53:20] Andrea Elibero: Well, and people on the online space need to actually be ethical and deliver what they promise. I can't like, I can't. But yes, everybody needs to be nice and respectful and actually do what they say they're going to do. Period. Like,

[00:53:33] Victoria Boyd: break my heart. To see a DM come through on my phone, I'd be like, oh, like, what account is this for? I'd look and it'd be that client and a person in their DM saying like, hey, I'm not getting da da da da da in the program. And I'd be like, like,

[00:53:48] Andrea Elibero: Yeah,

[00:53:50] Victoria Boyd: you know, like it was just so icky and so yucky. And, um, I am no longer, I haven't talked about this publicly.

Oh my gosh, this is the person who talked about it. I'm not sure social media management for personal brands is an ethical offer anymore because even if like that person is, you know, adapting your brand voice as I was promoting offers and all of that, like there's a level of, um, I think mistrust between the reader, the potential student and the person writing the content and the person that they think is writing the

[00:54:26] Andrea Elibero: ah, yeah,

[00:54:29] Victoria Boyd: It was just like, I am telling this story about this coach who was bullied in childhood and then like whatever happened moving forward. They're barely editing it, so therefore I completely wrote it. It's not just me doing like the first draft, the first rendition. They're just approving it. You know, they're reading it, maybe adding a dot or an exclamation point or an emoji or whatever.

But like, it's all coming from me. Like, I'm the one telling their story. It just, I don't, I don't know, like I am still very much battling with, is social media management even ethical anymore for personal brands in 2024 and beyond? Um, I still think social media manager is a great career choice because like that recurring revenue, companies need it.

Um, but like, I don't know. I don't know. It's

[00:55:20] Andrea Elibero: But I know what you're saying, and I feel like, especially like you're saying, if it's a personal brand, somebody telling their story, their own thing, it's almost like what would be more beneficial is just to work with somebody so they learn how to talk and speak and do those things and just be able to write it themselves or have more input into it.

So it's more of them and not like just somebody else will kind of, like you were saying, pretending to be them. Like, I get what you're saying, and that makes, that makes a ton of sense to me.

[00:55:48] Victoria Boyd: Yeah, it's, uh, been weird and it's also been cool, like I have some former clients of social media management who have come back and been members of Conversion Catalyst

[00:55:59] Andrea Elibero: Cool. Yeah.

[00:56:00] Victoria Boyd: which I love, like I'm like that is like the perfect fit and very assuring that like the club is where I want to put my energy and where I want to focus on growing and scaling and, um, doubling down on because that's where I can help those personal brands tell their story.

That's where I don't have to do it. That's where I can help them handle those

[00:56:18] Andrea Elibero: And feel ethical about it.

[00:56:21] Victoria Boyd: And feel good about it. Exactly. And feel so ethical, feel so aligned, feel so

[00:56:26] Andrea Elibero: Mm hmm.

[00:56:28] Victoria Boyd: you know, I get ideas for them, like for my members. And like my members, I think the membership is 75 a month. Like it's not they're paying me a lot, but they have rented brain space.

Like, I'll be like, Oh, this is the title for your freebie that you couldn't come up with. Like, you know, when I messaged him like at 11 o'clock at night, like, I'm like, I just got it. Like, I just came up with it for you. Um, and it feels really good. And like, I think I'm on the right path, even though I'm not coming.

I'm not out of burnout yet. I can finally see the path.

[00:56:58] Andrea Elibero: And I think that is the perfect place to kind of wrap up, put a little bow and wrap up this story, this very rollercoaster of a story, but so real and things also that know in a good way and. And something that I think is so important for more people to be open about also that this is a journey and you think that somebody just wakes up one day and they create this offer and can just sell it and it's amazing and everything is cool.

No, they're like, it's a normal part of the journey for it to be up and down and for you learn so much. It is so much self growth that is so like you don't have so many amazing skills and this is what the journey is and you're not a failure. If it is not just this like clear path to success, like, like that's just not how it works.

You're a failure when you give up, when you just stop completely, when you're doing things that are, you know, that you don't want to do. And, and stay on, if this is what you want, you know, you can make it what you want and just stay on it because you're going to learn so much. And all of these things that you went through were all for a purpose and brought you to this place where now you're feeling like, oh, like this is where I need to be.

And it took years, like it took years of offers and learning and doing things.

[00:58:08] Victoria Boyd: there were times I was really happy. Like 2019 was a great year for me. It was a great year for my business. It was a great year for my personal life. But it was also a year that by the end of it, I said, I'm not doing an agency model. So like there were a lot of like Real ups and downs. It's not just cherries and roses and absolute crap like, you know, there was a lot in

[00:58:30] Andrea Elibero: Yeah, but would you have traded it like that journey? Would you have traded it for like a straight path to success? like maybe but

[00:58:40] Victoria Boyd: I don't think so. Yeah, I mean, would I trade in like the full panic attacks at 2am for absolutely anything else?

[00:58:49] Andrea Elibero: Right. Yeah, you know,

[00:58:50] Victoria Boyd: Like,

[00:58:51] Andrea Elibero: yeah. Yeah

[00:58:52] Victoria Boyd: Would I I would probably, when I tried to be an

[00:58:58] Andrea Elibero: Mm hmm.

[00:59:00] Victoria Boyd: not want to manage people. Um, I did not want to onboard clients and then give them to an account manager.

[00:59:07] Andrea Elibero: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:59:09] Victoria Boyd: No, thank you. Um, yeah, I think that is a chapter I would say doesn't have to be read.

[00:59:17] Andrea Elibero: Mm hmm, and that we barely even touched on that piece and then all the other pieces of you know Like the rest of it. It sounds like yeah. Yeah, like I learned a lot from it and And you know a lot of it kind of sucked in the time But but we're at the time but you needed to do it to get where you are now

[00:59:34] Victoria Boyd: But I out of it. Okay.

[00:59:35] Andrea Elibero: Yeah, and probably even better than before

[00:59:40] Victoria Boyd: Hopefully.

[00:59:42] Andrea Elibero: Beautiful. I think that we have all of my kind of big things that I like to touch on, all of the hurdles and the learnings and all that. We went through it, girl. We went through all the things. So, we will end this with, and that your dog was. was with her or his collar. Mine is drinking water in the background.

So they're participating also.

[01:00:01] Victoria Boyd: okay. I don't hear it. But I knew you could hear Clyde's like I was pretty sure you could hear Clyde's.

[01:00:06] Andrea Elibero: So let's end this with maybe just sharing how we can stay in touch with you. Any gifts or anything like that. Tell us about you and yeah.

[01:00:16] Victoria Boyd: Yeah, so I don't currently, I mean I have freebies, but like none that are like worth me sending you to because I am very much refiguring it out. But you can find me at victoriahboyd. com. The project I'm working on right now is Strategies That Stack, which we'll be launching Super duper duper soon. It is going to be a newsletter for online business owners and you can find that at strategies at stack.

com and I'm on social media everywhere. I just Victoria H

[01:00:43] Andrea Elibero: Awesome. I'll put all that in the show notes. Thank you so much, Victoria. This was amazing and I can't wait for everybody

[01:00:49] Victoria Boyd: This was such a fun conversation. Thank you so much. 

[01:00:55] Andrea Elibero: Thank you so much.

for joining us today. I really hope you found inspiration and insights from today's episode. You know, scaling your business intentionally and from the inside out is a transformational process, but I'm here to support you every step of the way. Head on over to dancingleafsolutions. com slash resources for free tools to help you do just that.

And thank you again for being a part of the Soulpreneur Scaling Stories community. Your presence and dedication to growth inspire me every day.