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Creative Freedom | Underdog Podcast
Julie started her career as a dedicated freelancer, honed her skills, and built a solid reputation within her industry. Over time, Julie realized that her passion and potential extended beyond individual projects. She aspired to create something larger, a business that could impact her field and offer opportunities to others.
Episode Highlights: Transitioning from Freelancer to Business Owner
Welcome to Episode 10!
- This episode focuses on the journey from being a freelancer to becoming a business owner.
- Learn how the host went through an intense program to gain the tools needed for scaling a small business.
The Role of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program
- Hear about the transformative experience of participating in a free, high-level business training program offered by Goldman Sachs.
- Discover how this program helped shift the focus from freelancing to scaling a sustainable and growing business.
Challenges of Scaling and Employee Expectations
- Explore the common challenges of transitioning from working with freelancers to managing full-time employees.
- Learn how to navigate the complexities of employee expectations and the pressures of maintaining a growing business.
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Transcript
Hello and welcome to the next episode of really. It's about how to go from a freelancer to a
Speaker:business owner. And for me, it actually took a program. So I was introduced by an old client to a program called
Speaker:Goldman Sachs. 10,000 businesses and Goldman Sachs. This is their give back program where they did some things that
Speaker:weren't ethical during the housing bubble. So their commitment back to the world is to do this like master's level training program for small
Speaker:businesses. And the ability to scale helps small businesses scale. So it's a very intense program, but it's free. It lasts about three months
Speaker:and went into this program just like, hey, I need to learn more about how to become a genuine business, a proper business, to all the way on the other side of
Speaker:how to scale your business. Starting to look at your business from the idea of scalability. What can I grow? What can't I grow? What works, what doesn't work. And the one thing that, so
Speaker:it was always a freelancer that hired freelancers. And I loved that relationship because I was always the customer. And when employees become employees, it's like they're owed
Speaker:vacation, they're owed a raise, they're owed you patting them on the back, they're owed, you know, everything. And it was just really challenging because I could, no matter
Speaker:what, I could never live up to their expectations. There was always this feeling like I'm not being treated fairly. And, you know, we did everything. We did unlimited
Speaker:pto, we did, you know, nice raises. We did everything I could possibly do. I gave my employees. But there was always this, like,
Speaker:I'm not good enough for a boss. And so one of the big changes and the peace of mind that I lost
Speaker:was these employees. And they're not happy with me as their boss always weighed on me. And it really disrupted my peace of mind. And it's
Speaker:like, so let's go back to the scaling. So I came out and I hired employees and I switched my team from being freelancers to being employees.
Speaker:And we just really started to grow our business and focus on scaling and focus on growing. And in four years since then, and I joined the
Speaker:entrepreneurs organization, which is a fabulous organization. They have an accelerator program, which is, it's designed to help accelerate small
Speaker:businesses to the point where they're eligible to join entrepreneurs organization in Cleveland, you have to be over a million in revenue. So I joined this, and it was a great
Speaker:program. It's all coaching, you know, coaching, coaching, mentoring, helping you learn how to handle it. And when you start talking to everybody, all their problems are either cash or
Speaker:employees or marketing. I'm like, ah, geez, you know, so, so, but it helped you to scale. And so, you know, I could
Speaker:just see that, you know, the peace of mind would come from recurring revenue from SEO. We absolutely could do this. We were such, it just, the customers had to be the right fit. They had
Speaker:to be in a market where it was achievable quickly because customers will not stay in the game without good results. So it had to be achievable quickly. It had to be the right Fitzhe. They had
Speaker:to, we had to have the ability to put content on the website, which means that they have to actually look at the content and approve the content. You know, there had to be this, these deal breaker things, you know, but as long as
Speaker:they willing to play within our set of rules of what we have to do to make this work, we could make it happen. And so what, we just started building our SEO client base and it just worked really well. And we
Speaker:was able to scale that area of our business. The project work, like the website design, the creative work, the, you know, graphic design, all of those we
Speaker:copywriting, things like that that was limited by our employee capacity. Like, could only build so many websites at one time. We could only build, you know,
Speaker:so that area of our business was not scalable, where the SEO was really scalable. So we kind of leaned into the SEO and within four years we went from about
Speaker:350 in revenue to about 1.2 in revenue, which is great, you know, it's figuring out what can you scale, what can you do, what gives you peace of mind, what keeps you up at night? But the employees
Speaker:are still keeping me up at night. So recently the change that I've made is I'm like, we have this business across the hall and he does the same thing. We do website
Speaker:design, but he's like, can I design some websites for you? Or at least develop some websites for you? We would never give away the design because we're too good, but
Speaker:so, and I'm like, yeah, sure, that would, that would really help me out, you know, like having a controlled cost, having more scale. Exactly. I need to be able to scale. I need to be able
Speaker:to do more. I need to be able to do it faster. So there's all these things, but we have to. The one thing about designing your website or redesigning a website is it can absolutely
Speaker:kill your SEO. So I need a partner that's willing to play by our rules and I need a client that's willing to play by our rules and how we going to do this to accomplish it and
Speaker:not have your SEO fall off the map, that's, and that is very difficult and very challenging. And so, excuse me. And so I'm, but all of a sudden
Speaker:I'm a customer again. And I'm like, boy, I like this. I like being a customer. I like having somebody say, you know, talking to someone say, I need it by here and I need
Speaker:it for this amount of money. And they're like, yes, I can do that. Whereas employees, it's like, oh, well, this is why we're not in budget. This is why we, I'm like, man, this just makes so much
Speaker:sense. So recently I have changed where I have taken my team and I am making a good portion of my team, freelancers, and I want to be
Speaker:the customer again. And I am, I am setting them up. If they would like to do their own gig, their own business, they can.
Speaker:I'm introducing to other people that could also use their services and I'm giving them the freedom to do this. If it doesn't work, that's okay. And I'm bringing on partners
Speaker:and I am recruiting the most awesome creative team. Like I said, I'm curating the best creatives out there. I'm bringing people on and I want
Speaker:this whole myriad of expertise. So I want writers that know the plastics industry or the rubber industry or the chemical industry or the metal industry or know
Speaker:wire or they know everything about luxury handbags or they know everything about makeup. And so I'm looking for people that are experts in all different areas but
Speaker:super creative, and then graphic designers that are super creative. My biggest need right now is for an amazing account manager, like somebody that's worked in an agency, but
Speaker:they're, they're an idea stream. They can sit down with a client and they're so excited about this client's product, no matter how mundane it is,
Speaker:you know, even if it's just fishing wire. But they're so excited about the potential, what we can do and how we can grow their business. And so I'm looking for someone like that that has my sort of
Speaker:passion for growing businesses, for growing clients businesses, for winning, for accomplishing great results, and they can come in and help me manage those clients. So that's what I'm looking for right now.
Speaker:But this week has been rough. It's been really rough because we've been trying to build this creative culture. We've been trying to build all of this.
Speaker:And now I'm saying I want to be able to scale, but it may not be with the team that I've got right now that everybody, I need a little bit of your expertise,
Speaker:and. But I need, you know, really solid partners that can help me scale things like that. So it's. It's, it's a challenge. It really is. But
Speaker:it's, in the end, I'm like, really? I. So I spent the last six months, like, what do I want? What do I want? What do I want? And this is my life
Speaker:purpose is making sure that I've told everybody that you can do it. No matter what it is you're supposed to do, you can do it. We heard Jesse's story. She is three
Speaker:years behind in reading, and now she's in the top 30% as far as testing for MD and Dos. And that's, like, you just don't think
Speaker:there's a path like that for people that are behind like that. And you just have to believe that you can do it. That, yes, it's not fair. Yes, you have to work harder. But if you're willing to put in the
Speaker:work and this is what you're supposed to do, it can happen. You know, my mom, like, my mom never showed us. She loved us, you know, but we got that. I got everything
Speaker:I need. I got everything out of it. So people can change. Things can change, situations can change. You have the potential to start and grow a business. And I know a lot of
Speaker:people had that during COVID They, they started, it was the gig economy. Everybody started their own businesses. But, you know, my goal is to bring on entrepreneurs because I'm so connected into the
Speaker:entrepreneurial community now through what I'm trying to do, that bring on entrepreneurs of how they've successfully done it and tell their success stories and tell how. How it's working for them. And
Speaker:it's, you know, it's, it's, it can be done. It can happen. Everything you want to do can happen, but this is the place to start it. And really, it's the problem solving. And for
Speaker:me, it's, what do I want to do? Where do I need to go? What will make me happy? How does this all work? How does. How does everything work together? How does. How does this all
Speaker:fit? And then how does this fit in with what you're trying to do in your life? Purpose and the reason. So last year, we rebranded as Advan creative, and the reason we did that was because
Speaker:even though SEO is our strongest lane and we're fantastic at it, my creative team were like, we just aren't it's boring.
Speaker:It's boring. Writing about wire. It's boring. Writing about, you know, rubber or plastics or. It's boring. Now, there are some people that absolutely love that, and that's, we want to
Speaker:make sure we have those people in the mix, but there's a lot of people that want more creative work. They want things that are really challenging them and putting them on the edge. So we
Speaker:rebrand as Advan creative because I'm like, this is in line with where I want to go. I want to have these amazing creative programs. I want to attract this amazing creative
Speaker:team. The work we're doing as far as creative work is at the top level, it's absolutely fabulous. And so we just needed to, you
Speaker:know, say, okay, so we've got these two lanes. We've got creative SEO, and we've got creative services. And what that means is that we're now
Speaker:attracting, the work we're doing is it's energizing. It's exciting. We're bringing brainstorming into everything we're doing. We're
Speaker:developing this creative culture with our clients, too. We do brainstorming with the clients. We do everything I'm talking about here we're doing, and we're untapping the potential for their brands, for their
Speaker:businesses, for everything. And we were even making the boring more interesting. So it, it's, it's a lot to go through right now. We're
Speaker:going through a lot, but at the end of the day, everything we're doing is at this amazing creative level, and it's really exciting. And everything I'm
Speaker:doing is, this is, feels like this is exactly what I should be doing now. This did not give me peace of mind. This is giving me peace of mind. This did not give me peace of mind. It's now giving me. So it's
Speaker:pulling alignment into everything's bringing me joy. Everything's making, and not just happy, like, not like I'm not happy. It's,
Speaker:I'm feeling like I'm on the path, on the journey for what I should be doing. My business is finally in alignment with what I should be doing. You know, that we, like, I
Speaker:have to be a role model or the ability to let go of things, to get out of your head, to not let things bother you. And the employees, no matter how I tried, they
Speaker:did weigh now, they didn't weigh for days and days like they used to in the past, but it's still, there's this emotional weight, this emotional struggle, and I had to find a way to get
Speaker:past that. And unfortunately, you know, this is the outcome, which is there's a different relationship that I can have that's a win win for us. Instead of, it feels like
Speaker:someone's always feeling like they're getting short changed. And I didn't want to be in that relationship with anybody anymore, so. So it's. It's different, but it's a new day for us, and we're
Speaker:moving forward, and we're really excited about all the amazing things that are going to happen to us this year. So it's, it's really good. And I hope you get to do this in your life, too. And this
Speaker:is inspiring, and that my journey and the tools and the things that I figured out help you to get that to that place with your ideas, the business that you want to start,
Speaker:too. Thank you.
