Lessons Learned After Six Years in Business and 100 Podcast Episodes [Episode 100]

Molly: Oh my gosh, I cannot believe this is episode 100 of the Holistic Marketing Simplified podcast. I'm just like, I have so many people to thank. I feel like it's an award show. I'm very stoked that we made it here. And I don't think y'all understand how much I appreciate every time I get a DM saying how much you love the podcast.

It just makes me want to keep going. So, if you are loving it, even if you've told me before, just I love, like I said, I love to hear it because it's so hard when you're sitting here with this microphone talking to literally no one and wondering who's listening. So. Like I said before, I know I can see the download numbers and things like that, but it's really different just knowing like, you know, that you're actually getting something out of it.

I really appreciate it. So for today's episode, I'm going to do something very special and I'm going to, we're going to hide a little Easter egg in the middle. That's Instagram post. Where I am going to you have the chance to enter to win 500 What should I call it? Molly bucks? 500 that you can spend towards anything with me whether it's coaching You want to take it off of the hub you're in if you're already in the hub and you want to take it off your renewals of the hub If you want to become an Instagram management client, we're going to be taking on some new clients in February.

You could take it off your first month of that. You could even use it on my retreat if you wanted to. So yeah, so just make sure you stay tuned. Cause like I said, right around the middle of the episode, we're going to give you some, a little Easter egg of instructions on how to win. So today's episode is going to be all about the things.

It's, it's just crazy how it coincided. The a hundredth episode coincided with my six.

Yeah, I'm going to do things I have learned after six years in business. Granted, I am not a business coach. This is not going to be business coaching, but I think hopefully, and even though that, you know, I run a different business model than most of you, because you're most of your brick and mortar. A lot of you also have like an online business on the side, or for some of you, the online business is your main business.

I still hope that you'll get a lot out of this episode. So here we go. 100 episodes.

Hey, welcome to holistic marketing simplified. This podcast boils down to the fact that we wholeheartedly believe that more humans need to know about holistic health solutions. And you didn't go to school to learn how to be a full time content creator and show up on Instagram and do all of this marketing stuff all day, every day.

So let's come hanging out while we chat all things easy in your marketing. And my goal is that you shift your mindset around your marketing from a quote, should to a, I get to more dream patients and clients. Yes, please.

Melissa: Hi, I'm Melissa Birdsell and I'm a chiropractor in Moline, Illinois. And I listen to the holistic marketing simplified podcast.

Molly: Okay. Things I've learned after six years in business. So my disclaimer, I know I said this in the intro, but this is what worked. This is what has worked for me. Right. And worked is like a relative term. I am not a millionaire. I have not, you know what I mean? Like I'm not, my business is doing really well financially from the fact that I don't work full time hours.

I've never clocked exactly how many hours I work, but I feel like I have a pretty flexible schedule most of the time. I mean, there's some times like this week, for example, I'm actually recording this The week before Christmas, I'm feeling, you know, feeling a tad overwhelmed, just being honest because we host Christmas at our house as well.

So it's like, you know how all that goes, like trying to get everything done. And I don't have to explain that to you because so many of you can relate to that. But for the most part, I feel like it's have this pretty flexible schedule where I'm able to take MJ to school or pick her up if I want to. I'm able to go have lunch with my husband in the middle of the day.

He also works from home sometimes, not always. You know, I'm able to go to acupuncture, go to the chiropractor, do things like that in the middle of the day, uh, run errands if I have to. And so, yeah, to me, to, to look at the flexibility that I have, the, uh, amount of hours I work and then what I'm actually paying myself, I am extremely happy with where I am financially.

Obviously I want to continue to grow, but I also find that my, this is my first lesson in business. Is that revenue revenue actually doesn't mean, I'm not, I don't want to say it doesn't mean anything because you know, revenue is what drives a lot of things, but. Revenue is not the number that I care about.

I care about how much I'm actually paying myself every month. There was a time where I was, my expenses were so high and I was just paying all my contractors. I was literally paying my contractors more than I was paying myself for almost an entire year. And, uh, yeah, once I actually started prioritizing what I pay myself every month, that's where I set my goals.

So I don't set a revenue goal. I set a what's left for Molly goal every month. So my amazing bookkeeper, Kelly Marshall was on the show, gosh, it was probably like six weeks back now, eight weeks. I don't know. Uh, if you have not listened to that episode, I would highly recommend going back and listening to it.

She's just a gem of a human. And I just, I'm like so obsessed with her and I can't believe we've never met in real life. Um, Kelly, if you're listening, I love you. So she's really helped me work through that. She's helped me implement profit first to switch to being an S corp last year. Thanks to my really great accountant, Rebecca Rhodes.

The other thing that matters more to me than revenue, so like I said, paying myself is the first thing. And the other one is like kind of what I call my happiness quotient. Let's say I hit my goal for what I want to pay myself, but I'm super stressed and feel like I don't have that freedom to walk away from my computer if I need to, then to me, that's not the goal.

Like I'd rather pay myself slightly less and not meet that goal and meet my happiness goal. I don't know if happiness is the right word, but just. You know, not feeling like I said, chained to my desk and stressed out like that. I have a million things overwhelmed going on in the business. So that's the other thing that I like to keep a pulse on.

I do think that it can be a little bit of old money limiting beliefs that we all have creeping back up that in order to be able to pay ourselves more, it has to be harder. And I think that that's just, you know, untrue. So I don't know how much of my like, I'm not willing to pay myself more if it means I'm going to be less happy.

Like there's probably some little bit of some money beliefs I need to work on in there. Yeah. So that's, that's, like I said, that's my, my first big lesson, my second big lesson. And this is something that I talk about also, I think it's like way back episode two. Or episode two or three, I don't remember about transforming your toxic relationship with Instagram.

So if you feel if sometimes getting on Instagram makes you feel really lonely or you feel like everyone else has this secret and there's just something that you don't know. I am here to tell you after six years of seeing behind the curtain of so many different people's, like what gets posted on their Instagram versus what's actually going on in their real life.

There is not one single human and on top of that, not just our clients, but also like friends that I've, you know, who were big influence, you know, I would literally call them influencers. There's, I've met. in real life at retreats and things like that. Truly, it is your highlight reel. And I, I don't think that that comes from a place.

I mean, I do think there are some people who are just like appearances or everything. I don't think that's any of you. I don't think that comes from a place of appearances or everything. I think it comes from a place of I know when I was going through a really rough patch, like I wasn't going to be posting about it because that made me feel worse.

And then it just like, to me, made it feel more real. And it wasn't like I was trying to be fake or, you know what I mean? Like not show up authentically, like, so show up authentically. Well, sometimes there's just things going on in your life that you need to deal with. And showing some things behind the scenes of your personal life are different than showing private things or like really hard things that you're going through.

So my whole point in that is like, that's a huge lesson. Lesson number two is that what you see on Instagram truly, truly is a highlight reel. Even the people who are more vulnerable and do share more, you're not getting the full picture. And I'm not saying you should. I'm not saying, like I said, I'm not saying they're being disingenuous by not showing you every nitty gritty, like, you know, that'd be exhausting.

So yeah, it's just, just know that there is no hidden secret that you don't know that everyone else knows or like everyone else doesn't have it just like totally figured out where all everybody's like basically living the same life. That's actually a, a content secret actually is the content that works so well and goes so viral is usually the content that just makes people be like, Oh my gosh, like, are you in my house?

Like she gets me. And it just kind of normalizes the, the mundane human experience, right? Because you don't know what other people do in their house. And so the other day I saw someone had posted like, yeah, I like to work from bed while suits is on in the background. And I love that she shared that because for me, like if I were to ever do that, I don't know why.

I feel like I'd feel guilty. I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm not actually working, but it's like so many people do stuff like that. It doesn't matter. So, yeah, what you see is a highlight reel and yeah, for the bonus lesson, the, the content that actually always does really well is the stuff that really makes people feel like, Oh my gosh, like she totally gets me or he totally gets me.

Are they in my house? This is crazy. I'm not going to share like all of my actual like business numbers and all of that over the years just because I'm, again, I'm not a business coach and I feel like all of that is so arbitrary because everyone's. Business models are so different, but I did just get my last.

Well, it's not my December. It's not like for the full year, but my November financial report. And I am up from last year, which is exciting. Not by a ton, but I am up revenues up a good bit. What I've paid myself is not up as much as I'd like. So like I said, that's something I'm going to be focusing on next year.

But it is exciting to see how much I've grown year over year. My, when I first started this Instagram account, I had like 700 followers, I think, um, cause I'd converted a personal, my personal account over to a business account. And now I'm like close to like 60. What about, let's see, I am a little over 6, 700 followers right now, which is really exciting to have grown that much.

I'm also really proud of my slow growth because I can say that my followers are really targeted and they're like the right people that I want following me. So I'd rather have slow and steady than to kind of explode with the people that aren't my target audience. So that actually leads perfectly into my next lesson, which was growing slow and steady.

It really, for me, was the way to go. I remember I had a period of like pretty rapid growth way back. We still lived in Florida, so that probably would have been my second year of business, I want to say. Maybe third? I can't remember. And I was just getting inquiries left and right, which is like a great problem to have, right?

But it overwhelmed the crap out of me because I did not have the systems or the team in place to handle that much. And I'm just not the type of person that can say no and turn down work. I am now. But. Yeah, that's another bonus lesson is being able to say no to the things that aren't aligned with you.

But yeah, I love that I've grown slowly and intentionally and not in a way, like I said, there have been times I've felt overwhelming, but this is like my biggest, like I said, here's the main lesson. It's not just like this, the slow and intentional growth. The main lesson is that this doesn't just happen overnight.

Like I had a rant on my story. This is more targeted towards online business. And I put this in my stories and got a really great response from it from a lot of you. But it was kind of this, I don't know if we were like all sold a lie or if it's just like a misconception that, okay, I'm going to start this business, I'm going to get my website and I'm going to start posting on social media and then, all right, I'm ready for business.

Here comes all the people. And that's just not how it works. I think when so many things went online, even if you are brick and mortar. And you're still drawing a local audience. I think so many people forgot about the value of in person networking and one on one connections. My very first Instagram management client who ended up being with me for, gosh, over three years.

Was, okay, follow me here, my college best friend, still best friend today, her sister's college best friend. So my friend's sister's friend's co worker's functional medicine doctor was my first client. So yeah, I, I can't imagine if I had just like flipped my Instagram over to a business account. You know, I got my website up and then been like, okay.

Waiting on all the business to come and like then being disappointed when it didn't like that's just not how it works. I start when I first started I wasn't as niche as I was now because I really didn't even know what I was doing. I was just kind of like, all right, let's just I guess I'm gonna I guess I can figure this out.

So I started going to like local chamber of commerce events. Um, I hosted my own in person networking event at my chiropractor's office, um, with her help. And we just invited like people she knew who had a business. And I mean, I wouldn't even say anybody there was really my, maybe like one or two people were actually who would have been my target market today, but it did lead to business here and there and connections.

And it eventually snowballed. Like, I always take this concept and apply it to Instagram as well. Uh, it's actually, if you want to download my free engagement checklist, it's just molly Cahill dot com slash engagement. But anytime I'm auditing someone's account, like it's, it's for, it's one thing for me to kind of just like look at what content they're posting and saying like, okay, here's what I would do differently or how their profile set up.

But the thing I can't see unless I'm actually logged into their account is if they're doing the networking piece, which is actually going out and commenting on other local businesses, Sharing other local businesses, stuff through stories. If you're online only, there's other ways you can do it. You can be hanging out kind of like in like the big influencers in your niches comments section and you know, providing value there if they're, you know, not responding to comments anymore.

It's like, again, it's just like that whole one-on-one networking building your, you know, that whole cliche saying, your network is, your net worth is like so true. So. That's my other lesson. If you build it, they won't necessarily come. You've got to have conversations, meet people, do things that don't scale, go to coffee with someone, do virtual coffee with people.

All those types of things are actually the thing that's going to grow your business. All right, interrupting the show really quick. I told you at the very beginning that I was gonna be dropping a little Easter egg and giving away 500 molly molly bucks to spend on anything with me. And so here is the Easter egg.

There is going to be an emoji of a baby chick. The little yellow baby chicken. And there's going to be an emoji of the little yellow baby chick hidden somewhere on my Holistic Marketing Hub sales page. Whenever you, at the time of the episode, this episode airs, that little baby chick is going to be, like I said, hidden somewhere in the text on the Holistic Marketing Hub sales page.

So to win the 500 Molly Bucks, also an Instagram post has gone out at the same day on the same day that this episode has gone out. And the Instagram post is going to give you the rest of the instructions of what to do once you find the baby chick. It's just a really simple, um, form that you'll just put what word was before the baby chick on the sales page with your name and email, and that will enter you to win.

So like I said, if you're like, what do I do? You go to the holistic marketing hub sales page, which is just holistic marketing hub. com, or you can go to molly cahill. com and you'll see holistic marketing hub right at the top. And we'll also link it in the show notes, or you can even just Google Molly Cahill holistic marketing hub.

And you'll find it that way too. Yes, there's gonna be a baby chick emoji hidden somewhere on the sales page. It's gonna be in the text somewhere and then you'll just go over to my Instagram post that got posted today. It'll be pinned to my profile and that will give you the rest of the steps to what to do once you find the little baby chick emoji.

This is a lesson I know very specific to me. But for me, childcare was a must. I know a lot of people who are trying to start scale, whatever businesses without any childcare help. And for some people, I am sure it works. I'm sure it depends on your own temperament or your, your kid's temperament or, you know, Like I said, everyone has unique situations.

So I'm not saying that this could never work. I'm just saying for me, I found out really quickly that the whole like naptime hustle thing is a crock. And when my daughter, my, my daughter was like one who didn't sleep. And so I was exhausted all the time. So the thought of working when she was napping, like, For me, like I said, it just didn't work because she wasn't a kid that you could ever just like put down for a nap.

I always had to lay down with her and then I'd end up like sometimes falling asleep, sometimes not. I just wasn't about that whole naptime hustle life. So I know for a lot of people the whole childcare piece can be Like, especially if you're just starting a business, it can be like a financial thing. So I was really lucky in that we, we were still active duty in the Marine Corps at the time we were stationed at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California.

I miss it there. It was so gorgeous. I loved it there. And there was a girl down the street who we're still friends today. She had a little boy the same age as MJ. And she also had a part time gig where she worked from home. She's actually a brilliant, beautiful writer for, um, an online natural family planning magazine.

I can't remember the name of it now, but we actually shared a, uh, Uh, a babysitter for eight hours a week. And so because we shared the sitter, it cost us a lot less. I think it was like we each paid like eight dollars an hour or something and eight hours a week. So that eight hours a week allowed me to do so many of the things in my business that I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise without childcare.

And to wrap up into that same lesson, well, not even, it's the same lesson, maybe it's a different lesson, but for me, outsourcing and investing have been my, you know, and you're like, what's the secret for me? That's been the secret, networking, outsourcing, delegating, like knowing what's, what's not, not necessarily not in my zone of genius, but like the example I always use is when I had that eight hours a week of childcare.

I noticed like three months in a row, like not three months in a row, but yeah, it was like month after month after month. I would have like, start my email list, start my email list, start my email list and I would never do it. So finally I ended up finding this amazing virtual assistant who was 25 an hour.

And it took her three hours to get my email list set up. I mean, I ended up, you know, hiring her and she worked with me for like part time hours for probably about a year. Um, she was incredible. I wonder what she's doing today. I need to look her up. Yeah. That actually, like, actually on paper, did I have the money to hire anybody to do anything for me?

I'll sort of say I wasn't making the revenue at the time in the business for that to make sense. But I also knew that that starting my email list was something that was actually going to move my business forward. And the only way that that was going to get done, because it was, like I said, it kept getting bumped on my, my to do list was to hire someone to do it for me.

So I've had several. I've had three episodes of the podcast where I talk about virtual assistants and definitely go back and listen to those to learn more about that and, you know, getting some help. But yeah, so investing also in various things was always helpful for me in coaching. I don't think you need some crazy expensive business coach right out of the gate.

I actually, some of the best business coaching I've gotten has been from my coaches. More affordable. I mean, I have paid a good bit before and I got something out of that too, but I wouldn't say it was like this thing that like catapulted me to the next level. When it comes to outsourcing and investing, don't overlook help around the house.

It doesn't necessarily have to be help in your business, But yeah, help, help around the house is key. And let me just have a, let me just go back to like full transparency, full disclaimer. Before I started my business, I was in medical sales for six years. And when I quit my medical sales job at the time, I was a regional manager.

I had a team of 17. I was traveling all the time. I was super burned out, but I was making really great money. And so I was able to save a lot of money over the time that I worked in medical sales. I was able to, you know, pay off my student loans. I was able to pay off my car, you know, buy a car with cash.

And then I was also able to save a good bit of money. So don't let this make you like, this is why, again, I don't like sharing different revenue things because everyone's situations are so unique. Like I said, for me, it was the fact that I was able to sock away a good bit of cash was what allowed me to do some of these things like invest in coaching, invest in outsourcing.

And, you know, we, like I said, we had a house keeper who came every other week. Now we actually have a house manager, which I don't really think is like the best title for her. Maybe it is. Anyway, we call her our amazing Amy. She's like, she's my age. She's a, has her master's degree in social work and she just got crazy burnt out doing social work and she loves to clean and loves to organize and she just started organizing and cleaning people's homes instead.

She absolutely loves it. And sometimes, sometimes I'm jealous of her, sometimes I'm kind of like, I want to be out and about and like moving my body all day instead of sitting at a desk. But she comes for five hours a week or so and um, helps with laundry and organizing and cleaning. And like just last week she took care of our cardboard mountain from uh, MJ's birthdays in early December.

So between that and then Christmas, you know, all the cardboard boxes that pile up and, Yeah, like she makes sure, like, my air doctor filters are ordered and changed and our refrigerator filters changed. Just all those little things. Like I said, I have our five hours a week and it only cost me a little over 600 a month to have that.

And it has just been such a game changer and so worth it. Now I didn't have that, obviously didn't have that much help in the beginning, but I'm just saying now six years in, on that whole outsourcing theme, that's been huge for me. Yeah. So this actually, sorry, I wanted to go back. Like I said, not forget the house help thing, but this actually goes perfectly into my next lesson, which is, I know I'm talking a lot about outsourcing and investing, but you don't have to go big.

Like I said, expense expense wise. I know I kind of talked about this already with coaching, but you don't need a super expensive website to start. You don't need a super expensive coach or like to spend thousands of dollars on branding at first. You just need what is important is that something it does need to at least look professional.

So I'm not saying you can't get professional help, but like you don't need a 10, 000 website. Okay. Like just like something really basic. In the beginning that the most important thing is that you have a really refined offer of what it is that you offer people. And I know that this is a little bit easier if you're actually, you know, brick and mortar, you're like, okay, well I offer massage.

But still you have to get more specific of like, okay, well how long and what are the prices and what are, are you going to offer packages? Are you going to have care plans? And so if you're. Doing the more online health coach version. It's like, okay, you need to have your packages dialed in and what you're going to be offering people.

And maybe in the beginning, that just looks like some one off one on one calls just to get your feet wet, just to kind of kind of beta test and go, okay, I didn't charge very much for these, but it's, I'm like kind of. I look at it as like data gathering just to kind of see, okay, now I've got some social proof.

Now I've got a little more confidence under my belt. The most important thing more than it being like this fancy expensive website, branding, coaching, all of that is that you just have a really clearly defined offer of what you're going to offer someone. And then a very clean customer journey. How they get there, if it's a clunky and I talked about this in episode 99, like to go back to last week's episode, if you missed it, but a clunky customer journey is just going to hurt you probably more than you think.

So you want it to be really easy and clear and not have too many steps for people to book with you. Um, there's no need for there to be like separate invoicing and zoom links and can you do Tuesday at two? Or can you do like, it can all be automated and um, like I said, yeah, just have a really clear. So many people come to me and they're like, Oh, is the hub right for me?

And then I'll look at their, their website or their offers and I'm like, no, you're, you're not there yet. You don't need marketing yet. You need to be. Um, like actually refining what it is that you're going to be selling somebody and like is in making that customer journey really clean to get from, Hey, I just found out about you to actually booking with you to actually meeting with you and then becoming like a lifelong fan.

Um, another thing that kind of falls under this lesson umbrella is shiny object syndrome. I had this big time for a while. It was like every new like strategy or software or try this, try that. It was kind of like, I felt like I had to, Oh, this next thing, like I said, was the one secret. I'm not saying there's not time to do something different or new, but investing just in like the basics, like I said, of, of just like, okay, this is the basic thing that's going to get you from point A to point B.

Like I think about the Holistic Marketing Hub, for example, like I've run that program for four years. Yes. Is, are there, have there been times where I'm like, Ooh, I want to try something different or do something new? I mean, well, I was going to say yes, but not really, not really, because it's just the program is just so I've refined it so nicely, especially over the past four years, where it has a clear, like you start here and this is the outcome you get.

Like it's, it's like, no, it's nothing fancy. It's just like marketing basics taught inside the hub, even though it's yes, more geared towards Instagram. Like I said, it goes back to like the marketing basics that I've talked about. A few episodes back, like networking, your messaging, like being consistent.

Those are the things that really are going to move your needle forward. So my litmus test usually with things is, is I'll go, okay, before I invest in this shiny object thing, am I actually using the tools that I already have? Um, is this going to help make my messaging better, my networking better, my consistency better?

And if the answer is no, then I will just like usually unsubscribe from that person's list or whatever, just to kind of like not tempt myself. Really, I should have said my last lesson and really I should have put this, I guess, under outsourcing and investing, but it just felt too important to go under anything.

It just, like I said, feels, feels like way too big of a thing. If you hear nothing else, just know that you don't have to do this alone. Like any, don't be afraid to ask for help. And when you do get help, uh, you know, I always believe like treat your people well, pay them well. invest in them and, and care about them as humans first and your business second.

And, and you might be somebody who doesn't want to have a team and that's fine, but I'm just telling you that no one is doing this by themselves. All the big name people that you see, I actually had someone DM me and be like, I don't, I don't know how you do it all. I'm like, well, that's because I, I don't like I have.

I think 10 contractors at this point on my team, plus help around the house, like I said, plus our super supportive husband. So yeah, and, and I'm not doing it all. And my daughter's not in team sports. I wish she would be, y'all might say like, no, you don't Molly. I have a lot of help to be able to do this.

So. Yeah, just like I said, I felt like it was a lesson all in and of itself is that the majority of people who feel like they're quote missing something or missing some secret or feeling just insanely burnout or defeated are the people who don't have some type of help. Again, I'm not a business coach. I don't know what your finances are.

Everyone's situations are different, but. Yeah, you don't have to do it alone. I promise. It's way much better. Way much better. Way much better. I'm gonna, that's my new phrase, I'm gonna, I'm gonna coin with help. And with that, actually, I wanted to take a minute to actually thank my podcast producer Haley.

She's from Gaffin Creative and she is one of the main reasons that this podcast is actually a reality. So like I said, a hundred episodes in, I thank you so much, Haley. She's just been, like I said, if you've thought about starting a podcast, she's Gaffin Creative. She's absolutely incredible. Also, my VA Maria, who is just like, I don't know how she does everything she does.

She's a wizard. My VA, Maria, works on the podcast a lot, um, on the blogs and the emails. Getting the graphics that I hardly ever use posted. I'm really bad about promoting the podcast on my feed that that's my kryptonite. I don't know why. Carolyn, my online business manager also helps a lot. Make sure the podcast keeps moving forward.

So like I said, there's a lot of moving parts with this podcast. So yeah, so thank you guys so much. If you haven't yet left me a review, I would absolutely love, I'm trying to get to a hundred reviews. I'm not quite there. So every review counts and I appreciate you so, so much. And I hope this was a helpful episode.

Thank you for listening to Holistic Marketing Simplified. And Hey, you know how every podcaster at the very end of their episode asks you to rate and review their podcast. Well, that's because it's super important. These podcasts take a lot of time and heart and effort to produce, to bring you free information.

So in order for me to be able to continue doing that, we need more people to find out about the show. So if you could please just take like two minutes out of your very busy day. To leave me a rating and share this on your Instagram stories and tag at Molly A. Cahill, that's C A H I L L. I would greatly, greatly appreciate your support.

I know your time is valuable and I can't wait to see you in the next episode.