Pivoting to create offers clients actually need.
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This show has a very special guest: my friend and one of my biz besties, Erica Reitman.
Erica shows up 100% authentically and herself on Instagram, and has a unique approach to her personal branding.
She’s also the total opposite of a bland, vanilla business coach. She doesn’t pull any punches and tells it like it is. And she loves teaching others how to do the same.
One of the things I love about Erica is that she’s not afraid of a challenge, and she’s also constantly dreaming up ways to do things differently.
And that’s exactly what we talk about in this episode: The new idea she had for her business, and why pursuing it meant completely changing her entire business model.
Listen to the episode below:
This episode discusses topics like…
The huge gap Erica saw in the marketplace for her clients, and why she decided to shift her entire business model in order to fill it.
Her thoughts on managing your mindset around other people’s opinions of you if you use social media to grow your business.
How Erica comes up with a seemingly endless stream of unique offer/business ideas simply by contemplating the question “what are people ACTUALLY asking for that doesn’t seem to be available on the market.”
How mindset work and ideas are great, but that she was seeing people were still having issues executing- and what her new business model aims to do about that.
Why Erica is such a big fan of collaboration for business growth and how she builds it into her business.
Links from the episode:
Follow me (Sarah Ehlinger) on Instagram for honest conversations about business, mindset, and my life.
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Thank you SO much for being here, friend. See you in the next episode!
xoxo
Sarah
Episode transcription
You're listening to the brand spanking new podcast. My name is Sarah Ehlinger, former creative director and strategist for multi-million and billion dollar brands. Turn entrepreneur after spending over a decade, building my own freelance and online businesses. I know that creating a brand around yourself.
It's a heck of a lot different than building one for the big companies. It requires diving deep into your mindset, going beyond generic tips and strategies and throwing out the script in order to do things your way. Are you ready to get into it? Let's go.
Hello. How are you? So. So happy that you were here with me today. Um, and just so very, very grateful, especially if you are here listening to this in real time, from the very beginning, being one of my very first, um, listeners and really appreciate you. I appreciate you going along this journey with me. And, um, it just, it just means the world.
And I wanted to let you know. So today I have a, um, very special guest. I have Erica Reitman on the show and Erica has been a friend of mine for several years now. We met on the Instagrams. Um, and I think you're going to love listening to what she has to say. So I love Eric, his vibe. She. Really has a unique approach to her branding and the way she puts herself out there, she really is the anti vanilla business coach.
So, if you're looking around and thinking, you know what, I am just really not vibing with any of these people, Erica might just be your gal because she is definitely the coach who breaks all the rules and ignores all of the gurus. And she teaches you how you can do that too. She teaches you how you can do things your own way, have your own really strong opinions.
Um, and create a business that's aligned with the way that you want to show up. So without further ado, let's jump into it. This is my conversation with Erica, right? Oh, my God, Erica, we're here. We're doing this so excited. It's like, it's like we get to have one of our biz bestie conversations, but we get to record it.
Right. Well, sometimes we do record it on Voxer, but it's a lot of back and forth messages. It is her saying some other things going on sometimes. Yeah. There's a lot of cursing. Usually we're too animated ladies and I say to manifesting generators. All right. So before we start, well, I guess we have started, but, um, as we jump into it, do you want to give.
Our listeners who don't know who you are, just maybe a quick little backstory about your journey, how you ended up where you're at. What's, you know, what's your deal laid on us? Sure. So my entrepreneurial journey started back when I decided to become an interior designer with no training. Never worked at an interior design firm, had no belief or understanding of what was involved in that job.
And miraculously, it worked and I had lots of fun doing it for a number of years, but my husband and I, at that point decided we wanted to have a fun six month adventure in Mexico. And so we moved down here where we still are. Three years later. Um, and that's part of the shift for me. We realized probably in month one that we really wanted to stay here.
And I quickly figured out that it didn't make any sense for me to be an interior designer down here because you just don't have the opportunity to make as much money. And I was feeling a little frustration with it at the time anyway. And so I had been working with a coach at the time. Scared me basically to go on to stories.
I loved it. I love a good dare from a coach and make an offer and say that I had 10 one-on-one spots available and see what happened. And she said worst case scenario. If it doesn't work, like we'll come up with a plan B. So I did that. Sold out my first 10 one-on-one spots and quickly realize that coaching and teaching business building was something that I really, really loved.
And at that time too, you were coaching interior designers, right? So that was kind of a lowest hanging fruit for me. I had figured out a way to build my interior design business from absolutely nothing. So I thought. Let me share some of those things with other people who might like to do it. Cause it wasn't easy and I don't want people to have to go through what I did.
So yeah, that was a great way for me to kind of figure out my way in this whole coaching world, by working at first with people who I understood inside and out. Yeah. Yeah. That's part of what I love about your story too, is because you know, now. You're coaching coaches, you're coaching people who are running businesses, but you didn't just jump right into that.
Like you had several businesses or several iterations of your business and how to build a business before you started doing that. Yes, I did. And honestly, I think too part of it was because I didn't have the awareness of the time of what. I wanted to do, ultimately, because I really, for myself, the processes, I need to try things out.
I need to try them on, see how they feel like, is this a comfy pair of sweats or is this like an uncomfortable pair of jeans that I can't quite zip, but I want to wear, they're not really well, like happens a lot too. Yeah. I think that happens to all of us. So one of the things that. We'll be exploring a lot on this podcast is just how much, when you start a business, when you start a business or you start branding yourself, start putting yourself out there in a way that you haven't before, like just how much that fast tracks your personal growth journey.
Right. So talk to me a little bit about. I don't know what that, how that's been for you. Like, um, who did you have to become in order to have the success that you have, or like, have there been any surprising things about your personal growth journey as related to your business? Yeah. Well, for me, it was kind, it was a little bit of a backwards experience in that I had back when I was an interior designer, I started doing a lot of.
Growth and mindset work and reading self-help books and really kind of taking myself down that road in a way that I never had before. And thanks to podcasts I listened to in different coaches that I came across, I was really able to make some significantly impactful changes in my own life that I really was kind of blown away by.
So I had seen the power of what it might look like for me, if I was taking my mindset seriously. And one of my favorite phrases, as you know, is your brain is a Dick. And one of the things that I really was practicing on my own in my own life was figuring out like how to wrangle my Dick brain, because there's a lot of science around this.
And I do say that in a joking way, but. The truth of the matter is that once you, for me, once I started doing this work and getting a better understanding of how our brains worked and you know, how all this mindset stuff could actually play out, I then had this like deep understanding of the fact that I was actually in control of way more than I thought I was.
And that felt really empowering and really exciting. So once I started really exploring, you know, this whole world of online business and becoming a coach and working with clients and doing all of that, for sure. A lot of the stuff that you're talking about kind of came to the surface. And I think there's several reasons.
Number one, I've only ever marketed my business on social media and. Social media is amazing. I've made so many friends from it. I've grown my businesses by using it. Like that's how we met. Yeah. That's totally how we met. We met in the DMS. Totally. Um, but I think it also kind of sets you up for. Lots of other people whose opinions you might not be interested in or care about, share their thoughts, their ideas, and when you're a new entrepreneur and you're putting yourself out there in a different way, in a new way.
And you're already feeling a little unsure about the whole thing. I think that that can trip people up. Because, you know, you've got your Dick brain dwelling, you've got like Janice and Cincinnati sharing her thoughts with you. You have like weird family members. You don't even like, or respect sharing their thoughts with someone from high school that you haven't talked to in 20 years.
Right. And it can really like fuck with you and get in your way. And so I think for me, honestly, the biggest realization that I had to come to was. I had this understanding that like, it is possible to wrangle, wrangle your degrade. It is possible to get a hold of yourself and not let these thoughts that really for me had run my entire life.
It's possible to get a handle on them. However, what I thought was. Now that I know how to wrangle my Dick brave. Oh, I'm never going to have to do this again. Amazing. I know all the secrets, so now I just won't have any problems anymore.
Yeah. Not that easy. And so I had this idea like, oh my gosh, I finally arrived at the top of the mountain. And what I realized is I'm going to be climbing that mountain every day for the rest of my life. And that's okay. Like, I have a cool picnic, you and I can sit down. I brought my iPad. Like we have a nice board and if you're anything like me, it's like at first you're like, oh, Shit.
I have to do this for the rest of my life, but then immediately after that, it's, it's almost like relief because you're like, well, this is just the way it is. So no big whoop. Now I know I can handle it. Yes. And it's still, like, I still feel very most of the time empowered around it because things that used to knock me out.
Thoughts that I would have, or, you know, like situations that I would be in, in the past that might like knock me out for days, weeks, months might now just be like an hour of me, like being deep in my head over something, and then I get over it. So I do realize that there is a skill level there and the more you practice this, the better you get, you're just not ever going to be able to stop practicing it.
And that's okay. Right. Totally fine. Cause it just, you go through like layers and layers. Um, I want to back up to something that you said, because I think it's interesting, it's like two sides of the same coin. So you said when you're talking about your brain and your thoughts that you have more control than you think you do, or more control than you realize, which I totally agree with, but then there's also this other side of the coin that I think a lot about in business in that.
We don't have control over the results sometimes. Like we have control over how we show up and we have control over, you know, the action that we put into it, and we have control over our thoughts, but like ultimately we don't have control over what the result is. And that's something that I work on constantly.
Realizing I have more control than I think I do, but then also surrendering and releasing the control to like, of what's going to happen. Have you found that to be a similar practice? Yeah. And honestly, I find that true in life and in business because I don't know if you've ever had the experience of.
Having a friend or having a family member that you have expectations of that they're going to act a certain way or respond a certain way to what you do. And for me, like literally it never works. Like it's just the way I think it is. And so I have had to realize for myself, and again, this is true in my life and in my business.
I need to show up in a way that feels really good for me, that feels authentic for me in a way that I can be really proud of. And I don't always do this. I mess up too, but I feel like if I can show up to a business situation, if I can show up in a friendship with someone and I feel really good about how I did that.
Then I just have to let go because I have no control over anything else that happens, but I know at least if I can say to myself, I feel really good about how I showed up to that situation, then that's really all I can do. Right. I love that. I love that so much because it's so true. Like that was, I remember years ago I had a therapist who was talking to me about, um, I would just like invent conversations in my head about like how I thought things were going to go.
And like, to me, that was reality. And she was like, that's not. None of that is reality. Like you're inventing all of this, so it's, I love what you say about that. Like, it's so true that we just have to let go of other people's reacts and reactions other people's expectations, all of that stuff. Um, So I love that you brought up showing up authentically though, because you are like a master of showing up authentically on Instagram.
Like I you've always been one of my favorite follow-up. Even before we were friends. Um, and you do such a good job of just like showing up as yourself, showing up with authenticity, showing your life in a way that makes people really relate to you. Do you have any, um, Tips. I hate it. Like, what are your tips?
You caring about them deeply, but I know that that's something that people struggle with a lot. They're like, I don't know, especially when it comes to personal branding, they're like, I don't know, like what parts of my life to show and what parts of my life not to show and what do I do. And they get really in their head about.
Um, yeah, that really dialed in. So yeah, I mean, we'll part of that is just because I can't help myself. I inherited this from my mom when I was a kid, it used to embarrass the fuck out of me, but I have inherited all of the, like, you know, share your strong opinions, be yourself from her and. Sometimes to a fault, like sometimes I want to dial it down and I just do a really bad job of that.
So I will say for me, it is something that comes a little bit easier, I think, than sometimes for some other people. But it's so funny because I just had a 90 minute intensive client yesterday, who I was speaking with. And, um, we do a BA a week of Voxer after. And just this morning, she asked me the same exact question.
And she said, you show up online. I feel like, how do you do it? And it really, really stumped me for a minute because. I don't do it coming from a place of like, why don't I try this tip? Or why don't I try this trick? It really is an embodiment of just like acknowledging who you are, the good parts and the bad parts being okay with it, giving zero fucks and showing up.
But perhaps this might be helpful because what I said to her was, if I could guarantee you that you would be wildly successful. And if I could guarantee you that you were going to make as much money as you wanted, the only requirement was you have to show up on Instagram. I feel like I maybe might have had this conversation with you in our past because you know, my love, hate relationship with yes.
But I said, what would it look like? Then all you have to do is show up in what ever way you want. You can post whatever type of content you want. You can talk about whatever you want. You just have to show up. What would that look like? And I think questions like that for me sometimes like a lot. That thing that I just have not been able to do because I'm so busy in my head, like telling myself all those stories that we were just referencing a hundred percent.
And what I love about this advice is that I find when I'm meeting with clients, one-on-one did they like want the tactics? Right. So, what I love about this advice is that when I work with clients, they always want a tactic. Like they always want to know like, well, how many marketing messages should I have?
Or how many content buckets should I have? And how many times should I post to this or that? And I'm know. No. And it doesn't matter because if you don't want to do it in the first place, or it feels like garbage to you in the first place, like you're never going to do it anyhow. So I could give you all the tactics in the world and you might as well just throw them out the window.
Cause they're not. Yeah. So what I love about this advice in this question is saying like, it really gives everybody the opportunity to put it through the lens of what's available to them and the way they show up. Yeah. Because some people are going to show up and showed, like, you show a lot of your life, you show a lot of different things.
I have another friend who is an actual influencer and from the outside, looking in, people would think. Oh, she shares her whole life. I know because I know her personally that she shares very little of her life like this, just a little slice because that's, what's comfortable to her. Right. And there's no wrong or right way to do that.
Yeah. Yeah. Love that. Love that advice. Let's shift the conversation a little bit. You are currently going through. A ginormous pivot in your business, which I love. Um, tell me a little bit about this pivot, what, what you're pivoting to you, and then let's just have a convo about. Just pivoting in general and how you're navigating that with your, with your business and your audience.
Yeah. Um, well I think in general I have like a different, I think most people get like a little terrified around this whole idea of pivoting and all of the things that are involved. And I must admit, yes, I get it. It's a lot, it's a lot to think about and I definitely think your brain goes into overdrive.
I think it's interesting too, because. Man Jen's manifesting generators and human design and like pivoting to me is like, What's the big deal, like it's work, but what's the big deal. So I think it is important for us to have these conversations so that we can help other people kind of feel more like what's the big deal.
Yes, totally. Because it's manifesting generators like pivot all day, every day. Yeah. Um, so something that, again, this is back to this manifesting generator thing. I am obsessed with doing things in a different way and like looking for the whole. And seeing how I can create something that looks different than what's out there, not just for the sake of being different, but also for the sake of like really looking and solving people's problems in a different kind of unique way.
That is the thing that lights me up more than anything. And that's the thing that I've done. I think throughout my time as a coach, Each time I put an offer out there. I'm really like trying to do that work of thinking about like, everybody is doing it this way. How can I do things a different way? And one of the things I like to look at, I notice, and because I work with coaches and service providers, I'm always noticing like trends in the way people are structuring programs and offers and things like that.
And what I see again, and again, is people will. Keep repeating what's working, which in a lot of ways makes sense. I mean, that's what you'll see across lots of different, you know, business segments, there's burger king and there's McDonald's and there's, you know, like this works again and again, and again, it's a proven business model, but that doesn't work for me.
And so, uh, or you, I know, just because I know you, and so I always like to take a look at. What are the things that people are asking for all the time that everybody else had said, no, that's not included. We don't do that. That's industry standard. That's a no. And I like to look at those things and think like, how can I be the one person who's providing the thing that everybody keeps asking all these other people for?
And they just keep saying. 'cause that's just how it's done. And I feel like you also are really good about doing that through a filter of what lights you up to. Like, you're not just doing it to be like, well, here's a shiny object and I should do this because maybe that'll make me money. Like, no, you are.
Lit up by the directions that you go in, which I think is key to yeah. Yeah, for sure. So something I was noticing as a coach was I would work with amazing women who were growing their businesses. They were high level CEOs. They were coming up with amazing ideas. We were scheming and planning together and mapping all of this stuff out for them.
And then they needed to execute it and they needed things like. Email sequences or branding or copywriting, or to connect with somebody that could help them write a book proposal. There were always these things that they needed in order to execute the plans that we were coming up with together. And as much as I could refer people, try and help them find a good resource point them in the right direction.
There was always this disconnect I was noticing, which was oftentimes people got stuck there and were then not actually able to move forward in a way that they really wanted to. And that's why they hired me in the first place. But it's like, now we have all these amazing ideas. How do I execute? How do I find the people that can help me?
How do I like make sure that I'm doing it in a way in a timely way in breaking this project down? What we started doing with my masterminds is including done for you services. Like the sword that I was just referencing before, that would really help these women as they were trying to build their businesses and upload.
Because, like, I cannot think of one example of somebody I've worked with that was able to just meet all of these needs on their own without hiring anyone else or without kind of figuring out another solution. Right. Or taking like a really long time and be really stressed out doing it. I think what I, when you started offering this in your mastermind, what I loved about it.
I feel like you and I are similar where it's like, we'll come up with these ideas, ideas, and I'll, I'll just like give ideas to people like all the time. And then I would just see like this cloud go over them. Like, I'm never going to be able to do that, this because you and I have something where we're just like, well, we'll just figure it out.
Right. Like, we'll just figure out how to build a sales page or start a new website or do it. Like we'll just figure it out. And maybe that some of that Manny gen energy, but. Most people don't have that. And even if you do have that, like I know for myself, it's, it becomes exhausting. Like you're just like, I can't continue to do every single freaking thing in my business.
And you start to realize more and more the amount of work that goes into doing all those things. Knowing that ahead of time, you're like less likely to jump into it. Cause you're like, eh, yeah, no weighing a new course area. I know that's going to take XYZ and about, you know, amount of time and it just, it kind of shuts those ideas down even though they're really great.
Think. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And this idea had an evolution too. So I started doing that in my mastermind. The first time we did it, there wasn't any accountability built in or project execution built in. And so I was hooking you up with some expert collaborators who were going to help you, but I wasn't making sure that that weekly accountability was in there.
The project was moving along and you were doing the things that you needed to do, and they were doing the things that they needed to do in a way that really made sense. And so the next time we did our mastermind, we built that in, and I actually started working with my husband, Greg, who began coaching these women in this like execution piece.
Um, and all of them. I mean, I think they were having more fun with him than they were with me for being really honest. I don't know. But we started to see the power of that. And again, we were including these done for you service. What I realized ultimately was I was trying to deliver this experience in a way that was fitting into the typical like coaching model type program.
So there are masterminds, there are group programs like this is the delivery of these things. And what I and Greg ultimately realized is that we wanted to create a quasi agency model. I say quasi agency, because you'll hear it's a little bit different. But that model where you could hire an agency that was going to be like from day one, excited and working for you in order to reach a particular result.
And at the same time, infuse that experience with the other things that some of these group programs have like coaching with me. Like I don't want to do. Send you to an agency, a marketing agency and leave you there. I want to make sure that the plans that we are building together and, you know, brainstorming together and, and really thinking through together are executed in the way that you and I have talked about.
And it's like the, at the beginning of our conversation, when we talked about the personal growth piece, like as you're making these big moves, Shit is going to come up. Yes. And that's like, when you need a coach to like talk you off the ledge, you're to be like this isn't that big a deal, or like to push you a little bit, you know, that's why it's so great.
Having those two things paired together. Yeah. Yes. And that's not something you get at a typical agency and mindset. Bill myself, as a mindset coach, I have realized too, having gone through this program twice now, These women are stepping into an entirely new identity. Just signing up for this thing, forget about like executing and doing the work.
And so I wanted to combine that high-level coaching the mindset, work the accountability, along with the done for you services. This is literally like a business in a box. And I, and Greg are with you the entire way. So even with the done for you services, it's not, like I say, here's your copywriter go to town before you see anything that the copywriter does.
I read through it with a fine tooth comb and I'm spending an hour putting all of my comments in there so that by the time you see it, I've done half the work for you, right? That is,
which is like how agency world works. You know, my background as an agency, as you know, and it's like things go through multiple people in multiple stages before it ends up in the client's lap. That's how you keep the clients. Yes. And I think the model now, again, all of these pieces exist out there in the world.
There's nothing that I'm particularly invested in here. What I'm doing is putting it together for you in a way that is so much more connected and strategic. And whole, so that it's not 72 different things that you're doing on your own. Have to manage. Let me join this program. Let me find this coach. Let me hire an SEO agency.
Let me find a branding expert. Let me find a marketing expert. Now I have to hire a social media person and everybody is out there doing their own thing. And you're trying to wrangle this circle. And it's not easy. It's a lot, it's a lot what I love about how you're doing it. And maybe you're going to get to this, um, is that it's not like you're hiring these people for your agency.
You're partnering with other business owners. And what I love about this is that. What is so integral to who you are as a person and a business owner is lifting other business owners up. And so you built this right into this model, which is kind of cool. Thank you. Yeah. Collaboration for me has been.
Really like one of the centerpieces of how I want to run my business at how I have grown my business. But even if it never helped me grow my business, it's just something that I'm so deeply passionate about. And so you're right. Typically at an agency, an agency certainly does hire contractors and that's like a piece of it.
There's also employees, but really it's like all under this umbrella of the agency typically. And the way we have come up with this business model is we're working with expert collaborators. So we are hiring other women, paying other women. Nobody's doing anything for free, but the whole idea is that we're going to collaborate with other women who are going to.
Our clients build their business. We're going to help these other collaborators build their business. The women who are upleveling their business are going to go out there into the world and help people build their business. And it's all of this just like collaboration or. That just gets me so excited.
Yeah. I love it. I love it so much that it's just like, I think in, um, you know, as more and more people start their own businesses and realize that work where you're kind of like in this little silo by yourself. Coming up with these different ways of working or different models where you actually get to collaborate and be around other people is going to be key because like I like, I miss that.
I missed that from even though I've been working for myself for over a decade. Part of that time was contracting for other agencies. So I got that. Like I loved it when I could go and collaborate with people at the agency. So I think it is going to be important to think about how to bring people together and collaborate.
And I know it has been such a. Awesome growth strategy for you too. Yeah, it's been amazing. And I'm definitely excited to see how it all develops. Now. Having said that, I will say it also presents a little bit of a challenge as we're kind of putting together this business model, because there are some weird things about it.
We're going to be the client of the collaborator that we hire. However, we have a client. And so there are some unique things I think that are going to come into play that we're experimenting with now, and we'll continue to, but for example, working with a brand designer, normally a brand designer has their client and there's nobody else in between with any other opinions.
And you've got Greg and I, and we've got opinions about this. So we're just trying to think this through in a way that we could be really clear with people from the get, go about what it might look like to work with us. And we know it's a little bit of a unique situation and hopefully we can all work it out together.
Um, but we do really want to fit, figure it out in a way that works for both of us, because the collaboration piece is really big piece of what we're trying to do with the icon agency. Yeah. So back to pivoting, because when I think about you, like, you're like we're doing this huge, huge pivot. And to me, I don't know if it's just me, to me, it just has been such a seamless.
We're rating for the next thing. Okay. I'm like, it all makes sense to me. One thing iterating into the next, into the next and like, I'm here for it. I'm along for the ride, but like, so how has that been going for you? Um, Yeah, it's, it's definitely a lot. There's a piece of this that I will say with my business.
I think that I reached a point where things were working really well. There was honestly like nothing I could complain about my business grew quicker than I ever could have imagined I was earning more money than I ever dreamed of back when I was in corporate and working so much more and just feeling miserable all the time.
But I was reaching this point in my business where I was like, Things just weren't feeling cohesive anymore. I wasn't able to connect the dots as much as I had been, like when I first started. And when I came up with this idea for the agency, which again was an evolution, it wasn't like completely unrelated to anything that like, you just woke up one day and you're like, man, ask this.
I'm just saying. Yeah. But when I came up with the idea, I was so freaking. Excited about it. I think I even left you a couple of Voxer messages, this thing. So I have loved, I feel like with a pivot and even in those moments where you're feeling overwhelmed and there's like a shit ton to do. And it's so funny because I share about the behind the scenes of what's going on with my close friends.
Like. And today I ended up talking about something else, but I thought, let me just share a list of all of the things that we're doing and all of the things that are on my mind. There are 97 things on this list. I'm just going to go through and read it and like, just give people some comfort in knowing.
Yeah, there was a lot involved in this thing, but there's also an excitement around it. And almost like when you're moving to a new city or, you know, you buy yourself a bunch of new clothes, there's this like underlying excitement to everything that you're doing. And so even though it's overwhelming, I really try and lean into this idea that we're doing something that's so cool and unique and different and fun for us because you're right.
If it's not fun for me, get it. I am. If you do not have that piece, it is just it's Staffordshire. It's Georgia. It's not going to work. So in the moments of overwhelm, I try and like grab onto and lean into those feelings of excitement about this new thing that's coming. And this. You know, I'm really hoping that we're like inventing this new way for people to think about their business and think about building their business.
And I'm hoping that we create a space that the collaborators that we work with one day will be thinking like, oh my God, I hope I get to work with the icon agency. Like that is the sort of space that I am looking to create. And so. I try and lean into that in those moments of like, feeling like, oh my God, I don't know how I'm going to do this thing.
Yeah. And I think that's important for people to hear, because I think from the outside looking in, it's just like, yeah, Erica had this idea just like she's had all of her other ideas and then she does it and then it's amazing. And she kills it and it's like behind the scenes, you're dealing with all the same crap and anxieties and.
Fucked up thoughts and like all of that stuff is still going on for you too, for sure. For sure. And it's just like, you're like, like you said earlier, you're just quicker to recognize it and be like, okay, this is not helpful. And here's something else that can happen too, with a pivot. And I talked about this the other day on Instagram, we are investing a shitload of money in this pivot.
We are hiring experts to help us. We are doing an entire rebrand that is essentially like an ad campaign for like a multimillion dollar company. Three days. We've got videographers, I've got people flying in to produce the. We are spending so much money and because this is requiring so much of our time and effort, I don't launching anything else.
Yeah. You're not, that's a good reminder for people too. It's like sometimes when you go, when you're starting something new, when you're doing a pivot, like you don't get to do the other stuff either now, because if you try, yeah. There has to be like a break. Like you have to, one thing has to kind of end in order for you.
Move into the other thing. Right? However, that gets a little terrifying, cause you're not really going in money. Like you were, you're spending it faster than you ever could have imagined. Right. And you haven't put this thing out into the world yet. And again, my brain is addicted to some days I wake up and I'm like, I'm going to be on the cover of Forbes magazine in a year.
And then some days I wake up and I'm like, who fuck. Do you think you are, nobody's ever going to sign up for any of your stuff again? Like what, aren't you doing it in lady? Yeah, I, um, so I w at a much, much smaller scale, as you know, when I, at the beginning of the pandemic, when I stopped working with all my one-on-one clients, That I had been more like I'd been freelancing with and was like, I'm going to open a digital product shop, you know?
And it was like, it took like two months to get it up and going. And during those two months, I was like, what am I doing? This is because I just, I couldn't work on client stuff. But then I was like, I'm burning all my bridges. This is a terrible idea. And you were there, you talked me off that leg and look at where you are now.
Right? Yeah. Oh, I love this. I love talking pivots. Um, let's chat briefly to you. Charlotte shared an Instagram story or something on Instagram, maybe a post yesterday that was talking about branding, which I loved. Cause I'm like, oh my God, this is so 100% true. So tell, talk a little bit about that post for us.
So yeah. Chatting. So if you were like Sarah and I, and you were one of those people who always seems to stand out from the crowd and have the quote unquote crazy idea, and you like to do things your own way too. Um, first of all, hello, you are my people welcome. Welcome to the party. But what I was sharing was that.
There is an extra responsibility that comes along with being a trend-setter like that, because really you're a trendsetter and it's cool. You should step into that. But what that means is you're going to have to do a little bit of extra work to help people understand. What you're trying to do out there in the world, what this cool new idea actually is what this new way of thinking about business actually entails because people aren't going to get it immediately.
And so I just was chatting about having that challenge right now with this agency, because we are trying to do something different and that, that responsibility for getting other people excited about it and getting other people to understand what we're doing, that. Right. Right. And I feel like I've had that since I was a kid.
Like, I'll have a really great idea for something and tell them, listen to this X, Y, Z idea. And they just stare at me blankly. And like the child in me just wants to stop off and just be like, well, you don't get it. So you're stupid. But it's like, you can't do that in business, right? No, you can't do that in business.
And I even was sharing like, by the way, if that's something that doesn't feel comfortable for you. Don't do it. Cause it's a way harder way to do business. It makes your life way more complicated. I don't have a choice. I feel like I can't operate in the world in any other way, but it's just really important that you acknowledge and understand that you have that extra responsibility and it's like this extra layer of.
Thinking about things in a way that requires you to really zone in on that responsibility and make sure that you're helping everybody around you, everyone in your community, the people that need to hear the message, because you don't need to worry about everyone, but those people in your community that really need to understand what you're doing and hear this message.
You got to help them figure out a way to understand it. And by the way, that is not. No, no, it's a lot of things. It's a lot of things. And would you say like going through this process actually helps you to understand it better? Yes. Like, I feel like going through this process for me, where I have to actually like sit down and be like, okay, how can I help other people understand what I think is really great idea.
It actually makes the idea better because it starts to have me think about how the idea could be. Accessible to people. Yeah. And you'll have other people to understand it in different ways. And that helps you understand it better. Like my friend tally Miller, who's also a branding expert. She, the other day said to me, like, essentially you're taking me anxiety of building a business.
Yeah.
I've never thought about it that way. Yeah. Like for the women who were just ready to pay to not have to deal with the anxiety of building their business empire and they want you to just help them do it. That's what you're doing. And my brain had never gotten. That's why we share things with other people.
That's why we have coaching because other people, so we have these conversations. Cause other people point these things out to us. I love it. I love it. Okay. You are my first guest. So I'm going to try, I'm going to try a thing. I don't know if I'm going to stick with it or not, but I love those shows where they ask every guest the same question at the end of the interview.
So I'm going to ask you this question when I. Say being brand spanking you, what does that mean to you? What does it mean to me?
I think for me, there's something around this idea of figuring out how to get comfortable with. Being the most fearless version of yourself and letting other people see that. And again, for me, this is not the version of myself. That's always out there in the world are front and center, but social media has helped me a lot in getting more comfortable with having, you know, sharing my strong opinions and putting stuff out there that I am often before I.
Post thinking like, Ooh, do I really want to do this? And really getting yourself to the place where again, you're feeling like I am showing up in a way that feels authentic to me, what happens out there is out of my control. So let's do this thing in those moments. I feel most like myself and I feel most empowered and excited about showing.
I love that. I love that. All right. Tell our listeners where they can find you. Everyone can find me on tick tock, tick tock. Whoa. That was like a Freudian slip. I mean, I am doing a challenge over on Tik TOK. So maybe by the time you listen to this, I'll be a Tik TOK star, but you can find me on Instagram.
It's just my first name and my last name. C a R E I T M a N. And you can also find the icon it agency over there, the.icon.agency. And that's my number one. That's where I hang out. But. I do love Tech-Talk. So I'm starting to hang out over there as well, but I would love to connect with you on Instagram and say hi and hang out with dams.
And Erica is like the best follow on Instagram. Thank you. All right, my dear. I love this. Yeah, me too. This was super fun. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Hey there, if you enjoyed this episode, the best way to support the show is to share it with someone else or post about it on Instagram. Be sure to tag me at grand spanking you so I can show you some love.
That's at brand spanking you with an N not an IME. Go to brand spanking new podcasts.com for show notes and links. And if you're ready to take it to the next level, uncover your brand super power and leave confusion in the dust. Head on over to brand spanking new podcasts.com/spark. To learn all about my brand spark sessions.
In just 60 minutes, they've been known to completely transformed the way people think about their brands and let go of what's not serving them and their businesses. That's brand spanking you podcasts.com/spark. All right, that's all for now. This is Sarah Ehlinger and I'll see you next time.