The Say Less Podcast

022 - [SERIES] First Year Files: Growth Readiness... Systemizing before Scaling and Knowing When it's Time to Grow

• Grace Cacho & Alex Taylor • Episode 22

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 30:14

Join Alex and Grace as they wrap up their first year series with a deep dive into growth readiness

What it really takes to scale and how to recognize when you're ready to level up. This episode offers practical insights, personal stories, and a little humor to help you navigate the next phase of your entrepreneurial journey.In this episode:

  • The importance of balancing emotional and logistical readiness for growth
  • Signs you’re in a growth season: demand, income consistency, workflows slowing down
  • When to consider expanding your team or adding new systems
  • The difference between needing help and being ready to grow
  • How capacity and burnout prevention play into growth decisions
  • The significance of celebrating small wins along the way
  • Why growth isn’t a destination, but a continual process of evolution

Remember: Growth isn’t a race. Celebrate every milestone, cultivate your capacity, and keep your eyes on the long game. Whether you're just starting or rebranding mid-journey, listen to your intuition, lean into community, and take steady, intentional steps forward. Cheers to your next chapter—grow, baby, grow!

Send us burning questions, topic ideas, and things you’re loving about the podcast!

Connect with Alex & Grace:

Education:

Must-Have Systems

Arisa Haus Creative Marketing Agency

Grace & Andrew Cacho provide clarity to businesses and personal brands by means of Brand Message Clarity, Audits, Brand Strategy, Content Creation, Photo & Video, Web Design, and Social Media Management.

SPEAKER_01

I was struggling with what I think is going to be the hard aspect of growth readiness is needing to decipher if you need help versus if you're needing to grow.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's a good point. Because I think like a lot of people see, and I I kind of just mentioned this, but like I need a third. Um, like, did I need help or like am I needing to grow? Right.

SPEAKER_00

I wanted to start a podcast for creative entrepreneurs. So I asked Alex to join me and I said, say less, I'm in. Welcome to the Say Less podcast, where we actually say a lot more about motherhood, creativity, photography, business ownership, and everything in between.

SPEAKER_01

We are your host, Alex and Grace. And this is a space for creative women building something meaningful. Whether you're raising babies, raising your rates, or just trying to figure out your next move.

SPEAKER_00

We talk about all the real stuff. What's working, what's not, what we're unlearning, what nobody tells you about building a business that has to fit inside of real life.

SPEAKER_01

The pivot, the pressure, the sustainability, and all of the seasons. If you've ever felt like you're creating in the margins of your time, your energy, or your confidence, you're not alone here. So stay left. Let's get into it. Hey guys, I'm so excited. This is episode 10, the final episode in our first year files series. Um, I'm so excited that we made it here. Of course, before we started recording this, we immediately were like, what do we do next? What series is next? Because we've seriously had so much fun recording this. We um wanted to make this series for creative entrepreneurs that are in, I know we've said this before, but months zero to six are so crucial and so pivotal. And I feel like the importance of getting started can um be skewed, it can be lost, it can be confused and kind of the muck of everything you have to do when you're starting a business. And so we hope that this series has been so helpful and exciting. Bring a little bit of clarity. Yes, exciting fun and encouraging. If it's been hard, that's normal. Um, but yeah, we're excited. So this is our final episode. We're gonna keep it short and sweet. We want to talk about growth readiness. Now that you have all the pieces that we've given you, we've given you marketing and time management and pricing and gear and building your portfolio and your CRM and building your systems and workflows and all these different things that we've given you have built up to am I ready to continue to grow? And is this what I want to be doing? Yeah, what's my next step? So practical advice, but also, you know, our yap and our encouragement, which is also important, right? Yeah, it's yes, yap is important. Yap is always important. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. No, period. We're standing on business for that for sure. And that's the episode. And and then episodes over. And here's our like our exit jingle plays after we say that. No, actually, though, um, I feel like, and tell me correct me if I'm wrong, and of course, from your experience, the biggest lessons are year one.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_01

Unfortunately. Well, yeah, and I really negative, derogatory. Derogatory. And you know I'm like a completely positive and optimistic to my core. But um, you you have to learn those lessons in year one. Um, and it's important for your growth. Like it's derogatory, but in the end, it's positive because it leads you into that next thing. It's a lesson learned of let me do this better the next time. You'll have that all throughout your business. It's, you know, the downside of being a creative entrepreneur is it's you and it's you and it's you. So the bad things that happen are you. And when there's something to say, it's you. And when it's a huge success, it's you. And um, it's all the things that are just you. And so it is what it is. But the first year can be very challenging. We hope that this series has set you up for success, or if you're in that rebrand phase or further than a year in, but we hope that the series has been so helpful. So I want to share. Um, and Grace, I want you to add in just a few signs that you're entering a growth season and um how to know when you're ready to scale. I know we've said a lot month zero to six, but this may be 12 months down the road. This may be three months down the road. Um, it it varies for everyone. And um we want to share a couple things. Um, if you're seeing consistent demand and income, you're you're ready to grow. You're ready to grow. Ready to grow. I know we had one episode too that was the first 10 clients. And um, in my experience, sometimes people don't make it to 10. And in my experience, you need 20, right? Yeah. And um, I I don't know where this episode's gonna fall on the calendar as far as our episode we recorded with Katie from the Veil Club, who is a content creator and kind of her growth readiness. She's now just about two years into wedding content creation and um just went full time. So, you know, it took her the full two years of um she had a career and then this was her side thing. Um, but she had consistent demand and income prior to being full time. Yeah. And it was kind of like a everything working all together that she was like, okay, I'm ready for this to be my full time and I'm ready to grow. Yeah. So that's one thing. Um, repeating the slowdowns in your workflow. So when you're seeing the same things over and over, that's like kind of slowing you down, like it's time to grow. You're you're keep getting slowed down, it's time to grow. It's time to implement some systems, it's time to get the workflows going. Yeah. Um, and then that's that's another sign that you're ready to grow. Um, you know, especially in the beginning, if you're only responding to one or two emails a week. God bless you. If um you're seeing like a bunch of the same slowdowns, I feel like you're ready to grow. It's like you're having consistent issues in your workflow that are ready to be systemized. Yeah, yeah, to go forth, right? Yeah, for sure. Um team expansion is on the list, and I'm like, I'm like, maybe. If systems before team expansion is obviously really important, you need to have all the systems in place and you need to have like your workflows and everything in place before you expand the team. But from a photographer standpoint, when you're ready for second shooters and all of that, I think is a huge sign when you're having more consistent clients that are requesting that and you're ready to make the jump from solo photographer to quote unquote team, two photographers, maybe three, depending. Um that's a great sign. Did you start with just yourself solo?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I'm trying to think. I mean, Andrew would have been my first second shooter. Yeah. Um but yeah, and well, I was only offering uh I only started offering six hours. You know me, I'm a I'm an introvert by nature. And so I was like, I don't know if I can last eight hours on a wedding day. So I started with six hour packages. Um, but then people were wanting to add more time. And then I was like, the timeline's too tight and I need more people. And yeah, when you just need more hands. Um yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's important. And I'm like, I actually remember kind of vividly when I like went from two to three and was like, I just need extra help because now I'm booking clients on like a different scale of two. I'm really needing three and I'm needing one person to kind of like run between.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So this might be off topic, but you also like shot enough yourself where you understood the weight of each part of the day and every aspect of the day. So you it's not like you never learned how to take groomsman photos. If you're sending a second shooter to do that, you understand like there's a little bit more priority for bride, but grooms photo groomsman photos are still like important. So important. Yeah. So, anyways, that's kind of off topic.

SPEAKER_01

But no, it's good.

SPEAKER_00

You did all that yourself first.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Like squeeze it all in, just sweat rolling down my back, like running between all the things. Like I yes, still sweating down our backs. Oh, yeah, I'm like, I'm just sweating everywhere now. That was different. That was that was minor sweat. This is like this is a different type of postpartum hormonal sweat. Oh, that I'm like, it's just it's sweaty everywhere. Like, why not? Why not? Oh my gosh. Oh, yeah. Um, I'm like, anyways, not all my sweat. Um, I know the last note on here you added, but gaining efficiency and quality and things that used to take you forever to do.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I think about editing workflows specifically, um like culling a gallery, or um, I don't know, just figuring out what kind of what your style is. The more you edit and cull, the faster you get at it. It's like with anything. Um, I I had a, I had a uh, this is not a great example, but it's it's an example. I started a new job at a coffee shop when I was uh 18, 19 years old. And I remember there were so many different things to do, like washing the dishes and making the food and all this stuff. And it like took me forever. But a couple of years down the road, I'd been doing it so much every single day that I became super proficient at it. I didn't even have to think about it. I'm like, even to the way that I would wash a certain type of bowl. Like you just, and then you get faster and you get more productive. And so I think that's not a great example. But I think the same thing can apply to like photography with editing and this photo is at this time with this Kelvin. So I'm gonna edit this specific way, or it had, you know, just little things like that. Um yeah, just if you have gained proficiency at those things, you have gained not just experience, but expertise, and that is valuable. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I that's my take. No, I completely agree. So when I was writing this episode and thinking about it, I was struggling with what I think is gonna be the hard aspect of growth readiness is needing to decipher if you need help versus if you're needing to grow.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah, that's a good point. Because I think like a lot of people see, and I I kind of just mentioned this, but like I need a third. Um, like, did I need help or like am I needing to grow? Right. And I think they can go hand in hand a lot. I was thinking about specifically, you know, like needing help versus like growth readiness. And we're talking about like you're scrambling, you have a lot going on, like, oh my gosh, I need to hire someone. It's like, no, you need to systemize certain things and automate certain things and take off some of the busy work so that you're able to focus on other things.

SPEAKER_00

Cause it's like automating emails, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01

Like I said, if you're recording one or two or replying to one or two emails like per month, then you're not quite ready to like automate and systemize because you're still learning and still trying to like figure it out. So you're not quite there. But then when you're like, you know, completely caught up in busy work and emails and stuff like that, then that's the time to systemize, not hire someone to reply to emails for you, but start to figure out a new system for sure. Before the next step of growing, if that makes sense. So kind of deciphering between help versus growing your system.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And we've talked about capacity too. So your growth readiness is gonna look different than someone else's growth readiness. I think even like me and Alex are we're moms. Um but we're not the same mom. We have different capacities, we have different priorities, we have different types of ways of doing things. Yes. Um, and we also have different like businesses than the next person. Not everybody that's listening is a photographer. So you just kind of have to like figure out yeah, if yeah, yeah. That's a really good point. Because I think asking people for help, which I was just talking to you about, can I think can be a crutch. Like if our immediate go-to is like, I need to hire out help. But if you're also having to manage then the systems that you haven't put in place for them, you've just created double the work for yourself.

SPEAKER_01

Lots more work. Because then you're training someone and then teaching them how to do what you need them to do. Yeah. And maybe there's when you haven't done it. When you haven't even done it yourself. Right. Yeah. And I think a lot of this has to do too with um, I know we always talk about this, but protecting your capacity and preventing your burnout is really important. And burnout is such a hot topic with creative entrepreneurs because I always say this, but like it's you and it's you and it's you. And the lead point is you, and the business owner is you, and the CFO is you, and the marketing director is you, and the owner is you, and the person working the job is you, and um the person answering the text and email is you. So you have to set things up for burnout prevention. So when you're getting to that point of burnout, it you it may be a sign of growth readiness. It may need to sign, be a sign for help. And what does the help look like?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Is it going to be reaching out for help? Is it going to be systemizing something? Is it going to be automating something? Is it going to be setting something aside? Yeah. This isn't the most important thing. Let me not worry about that at this time and set that aside. And um, I know you know, but I've got um currently four weddings in my editing queue. And um, I've been talking about this on the podcast, but I'm also working on a full rebrand and expanding my business and um planning that for this summer, and it's gonna happen, and it's gonna happen. I know it's gonna happen, it has to happen. But it's not my most important thing right now because it can't be. Right. In my brain, it is, and in my heart it is, and I want it to be so bad. But servicing my clients is number one right now. And it has to be, and it is, and um, it's just gonna have to wait. So in my brain, it's set aside until mid-June when I can fully put my brain on that project. But I think that's important for growth readiness of prioritizing. And um, I know we had a crazy episode about time management, talking about those things, but um it's just important whenever you're running your own business as a creative entrepreneur to keep the priorities in line. But um I I know this is like a context clue type of thing, but what does growth readiness mean? Um, I don't, I always want to give like practical advice of it's it's emotional and it's logistical readiness. It's I feel emotionally ready for this next growth. I I'm not feeling burnout, or maybe you are a little and you need to go to the next step, but it's emotional and logistical readiness of the minds are coming in, the demand is here, the income is here, the systems are getting in place, like everything's lining up. I'm wanting to take this to the next step. I'm emotionally ready. I've been working so hard to take to this to the next step, but logistical readiness is important. Those things to like back you up, and then the sustainability over hustle, which we've talked about a lot. Like we're anti, we're anti-hustlers. We're hard workers a lot harder worker than me. You be working all the time.

SPEAKER_00

But yeah, so I'd rather be sitting on the back porch eating popsicle with my daughter than hustling.

SPEAKER_01

So we definitely prefer a popsicle on the porch. And um, we're hard workers and we stay within our deadlines and we love, we love to grow and expand. And Grace, you guys are expanding your business with you and Andrew, and taking that on full time, which is amazing. And I know I've been talking about this, but I'm also gonna grow my business. Yeah. I'm excited, but it's just important to set things up so that you don't have to hustle and you don't have to rush. Yeah, there's no rush. And I know we keep saying month zero to six, and that was really kind of like the marketing of it of like it's just the fun of it of if this is where you are. But it it's not a deadline and it's not a timeline, and it's not a rush to get to this. It's really, it's really more so just whatever your time is, it's totally fine. Don't compare your timeline, and we've talked about this, but your beginning, you can't compare your beginning to someone's middle. Yeah. Do you feel like you're in the middle or you're closer to the end?

SPEAKER_00

Uh I don't, I don't even know. I don't even know. I'm still doing um gosh, I'm still doing wedding photography. I've never really had a desire to expand that outside of myself, maybe raise my prices so I can do less. Um, but I've not ever thought to like build out a team. Um, I I don't know, maybe it's just, you know, the name is the brand, and so you want to like I don't know, my people expect me. Um, but as we're seguing into like this creative agency thing where my husband and I can do it together, and it's we're like going into it kind of with a team mindset. Um now I'm back to the place of like, okay, when do we want to grow? Like, do we need help? Do we need because we also have kids and we're about to be self-employed, and that means juggling like new time timing issues with like full-time self-employed people. And so we don't really know what our capacity is right now. So I feel like in that sense, I'm starting at ground zero. But that's a tricky question. I maybe I'm in the middle, just kind of still figuring things out. Um, just like figuring out what we what we need and honestly like putting systems in place. These are all new systems, these are not wedding photography symptoms symptoms. Systems. Same thing. It's all an illness. Yeah, I feel like I feel like with wedding photography, I'm happy. I'm happy where I'm at. I'm not taking on a ton of weddings every year, even for like lifestyle sessions. I'm just we're I'm good. I don't know that I'm even preparing for like growth readiness. And I feel like maybe some people that are listening to this, they're like, Do I have to grow? Do I have to like do more? You don't have to do more. You don't have to do more. You can be like content where you are. But the people who are, you know, in their first six months to a year of yes entrepreneurship, you probably want to grow. Um so yeah, I totally just derailed that. But I would say I'm like in the middle. I'm in the middle on all fronts.

SPEAKER_01

I just have always felt like I was at the beginning. And like, I isn't that crazy. Because I'm so far. It's a great mindset to have, though.

SPEAKER_00

But it's a great mindset to have.

SPEAKER_01

At the same time, like I just wish I could have that feeling of like I've arrived. I've just never had the feeling of like I've arrived because I've always thought I can do better. Yeah, there's always something I could be working on. There's always something I could do better. There's always something to adjust and edit. And I do have a lot of my systems. Um I was about to say systems systemized. Can I say can I just deal with that? Yes. I know what you mean. You know what I mean. Like I just really have everything that I do is um, I could tell you exactly how long something is gonna take. I use all the same tools. I'm really comfortable with everything that I'm doing. And I never have any like, oh crap, like what do I do about this? Like, I don't have those moments. Like everything is really honed in, but I always just feel like there's more I could be doing. There's something that can be refurbished, there's something that I can be working on. And like in a lot of ways, I just feel like I'm still at the beginning.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And with the expansion that I'm planning and my rebrand that I'm planning, I literally have had the same business name for 10 years and I'm about to change it. And so there's a lot that I'm gonna have to do with that. Yeah. I mean, it's it's business license and business name to social media. I know the social media feels like an easy thing, but it's not. And it's my email signatures and it's my emails and it's my presence on everything, and it it's gonna be gonna be a big deal.

SPEAKER_00

Big overhaul, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but I I feel ready for that because I'm ready to go into the next step. So I I feel like I'm back at the beginning again in a good way. I feel like I'm starting over and starting anew. And that is going to come, it's stressors, but in a lot of ways, like this series is speaking to what I'm going through personally.

SPEAKER_00

You guys heard it here first. A couple of seasoned entrepreneurs are starting over. Starting over. So we're gonna go back and listen to this series from the beginning.

SPEAKER_01

We're both like in a starting over starting over phase.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. That's what exciting. Chris Stapleton is going to be the song that I use when I post about this. When this is on social media, that's what I'm saying. I need to remember that. That's hilarious. Because I really do feel like that. And so that's what I mean. Like in a lot of ways, I feel like I'm at the beginning. And that's gonna be my encouragement of I I hope people listening to this series never feel like they're at the end. I hope they don't think I've arrived. And I hope you no one in this world more than me will ever say, like, don't celebrate because you should celebrate every success. You know how much I love to celebrate. Everything's a celebration in my house, everything's a celebration in my life. I do it big. I love to do it big. We're popping the champagne. Every little success is huge and you should. But when you feel like I'm at the end and like I've made it and there's nowhere I can go from here, I feel like that's already. Yeah. Yeah. There's always going to be growth readiness in every phase of your business because there's always going to be room to grow. There's going to be something new to implement and something new to learn and something new to be doing. And um, I just think it's important to stay attuned to that. And if you're feeling like I've made it and there's nothing I could be doing, I encourage you to reach out to someone in your industry that maybe has a little bit more experience to kind of see if they can help you with a few cracks that maybe you're not realizing. Because there is always something. Yeah. There's always something.

SPEAKER_00

I'll also say, um, I had a friend growing up and she you could ask her still to this day, and you'd ask her, you know, what's your greatest fear in life? And she was like, I don't want to become complacent in any aspect of my life. Like, I don't want to be comfortable. And so I think keeping the mindset of like, if I'm comfortable, what is that then I'm not growing? I'm not being challenged, I'm not being creative. And so I think even that's what this podcast is for like having conversations with like-minded people who maybe you just need a fresh fire under your butt to, you know, get things going again. Um so yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's so it's so important. And I feel like um, and this is not a call out or anything like that, but I feel like a lot of people in corporate jobs more than like creative entrepreneurs can feel that way. Because I feel like as a creative entrepreneur, it's not really an option to be kind of going to switch. Literally. I just really don't get the option to just be like, I'm just gonna let this ride for a minute. Like there's just I don't be getting paid if I'm not working. Like you think no dollars. There's no dollars to be made. So I'm like, it just isn't gonna happen. Seriously, it is not going to happen. So um, that's kind of the notes that I like wanted to make as far as like growth readiness. I I want to wrap up the series. I have had so many great moments, and I'm realizing now that we're here at the end of the series that we've had eight episodes and not 10.

SPEAKER_00

So go back and say that. We might have written down 10 that we wanted to do, but I think we combined some, maybe.

SPEAKER_01

Combined. We combined because I wanted to do marketing and social media separate, but then we looped it in together, which was great. Yeah. And pricing and gear, we kind of looped in together too. So that was gonna be the 10, but we um we looped all those in. I I have to say that our make it official and branding was like my absolute favorite episode of yes, of just not using chat GBT and oh my gosh. I mean, we've been recording this series probably for like 10 weeks though, so that's funny, maybe longer. Mine have been like three months now, like since we've been recording this series. So that's like really funny. That um, yeah, but eight episodes. So this is the the end of eight episodes. That's so crazy. I'm excited to say bye to it, but I've already been thinking because I can't chill, what our next series is gonna be. And I was thinking, y'all let us know. Y'all let us know what you want to hear about. Let us know. Let us know in the comments, let us know on Instagram. We want to know, or on our Facebook page, we have a Facebook page, what y'all want to see and hear um as far as a series, because I've been thinking about like soft skills and creating like a series on soft skills, which yeah, nothing about me is soft, but you know what I mean. Of like um just like certain conversational things and all that kind of stuff as far as what it goes to working in the industry. And then we've always talked about maybe like a little creative confessions type series of wedding day horses.

SPEAKER_00

People send in their anonymous. Yeah. And we just read them and gasp at all of them.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, which reminds me, like literally, there's this video right now that's viral of a wedding party being announced in. And you know, like when the brides, bridesmaids, and groomsmen come in and they do like a handshake, or he tosses a beer and she chugs it, or they do like a chest bump, or whatever they do. There's this one where like this bridesmaid and this groomman groomsman came in and they're doing the worm. Did you see this video or no? I'm gonna have to send it to you. Okay, so they're literally doing the worm, but going backwards, like towards the audience, and her dress split up the back all the way above her butt cheeks, like literally full butt cheeks out to the entire audience. I'm gonna have to send you the video. I'm gonna have to send you the video.

SPEAKER_00

And I'm like, maybe we're like that's a wedding that you would have been at. I feel like, how are they living your life? How are you doing?

SPEAKER_01

I literally have split my jumpsuit at a wedding. I thought you dare. Yeah, I was like, I thought you were there. Yes. And then that was the day that I told my grandma about it because she actually sewed the hole because it was my tried and true. Remember my tried and true? Yeah. I finally was like, I have to get rid of it. So my grandma sewed it multiple times. And then the last time she sewed it up before I ended up throwing it in the trash, I was like, I have to get rid of this. And she was like, just wear black panties like in case it whips a bunch. And I just was like, No, I have to get rid of it. I can't count them like, you know, if it whips and I'm wearing black panties and you can't tell. And I was like, no, it simply has to go in the trash. Might as well just add like duct tape or gaft tape, because that's like two. Yeah. Yeah. And just like put it on my butt. Gee, who would know? That works out. No, that's what I'm saying. Like an entire series of just easy stories and confessions and all the things.

SPEAKER_00

This is not necessarily like oh, sorry, sorry. This is not necessarily like a super educational podcast. We don't claim to know all the answers. But I think it could be cool to do like live social media audits or like answering questions from I mean, things like from first year files kind of topics. Yep. Um because even if it's just even if it's just opinions and based on experience, it could help somebody. Um, but yeah, I think the these first year files things are things that just kind of overflow out of us and our habits at this point. Uh and so being able to help other people just beyond here, or they can, yeah. If you have more questions about first year files, um send them in.

SPEAKER_01

Send them in. Let us know. So excited. We hope you guys loved the series as much as us. We hope it's helpful. Um, and we hope that if you're ever in need, you're able to reference back to some of these episodes. And also, like Grace mentioned, we're always available. We love to help. Grace does offer coaching for those that are in um the start of their business. I don't offer coaching, but I love to, yep. So if I can help in any way.

SPEAKER_00

And Alex runs our she runs our social media. So if you message on Instagram, that's who's gonna be talking to.

SPEAKER_01

Talking to. True. So good to know. Yeah. I guess that's it. I guess we're saying Sayonara to the first year files. Uh, sad, but also not. I know, right? On to the next. I'm excited. Let's start the next. Yes. Love you guys. Enjoy this episode, enjoy the end. We are rooting for you and all your success. Celebrate every success, systemize your workflows, get ready to grow and grow, baby, grow. Grow, baby, grow. That's it.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, until next time. Bye.