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Intro You're tuning into the Still minimum wage podcast with your host, Courtney Fifa and Sam. We are three creative entrepreneurs who met during a group coaching program and started a podcast so that we could share all of our struggles, talk about all the real and the raw of owning a creative business. Each week, someone's going to step into the hot seat and we're going to get coached by our other two buddies on the call. We love talking about business, marketing, systems, and getting organized and what does it look like to finally build a business that pays you a little bit more than minimum wage.

Fifa 0:56 Welcome to the Still Minimum Wage podcast! This episode, we're going to be talking about how our year went and what we've learned from all of our previous episodes and masterminds that we've been doing. We're also going to be taking this episode to reflect on how we're going to progress forward. And it just so happens that today is also Lunar New Year so it ties perfectly with our episode today. So, let's talk about dreaming big and also, looking back first at how our year went.

Courtney 1:34 So I started off this year, knowing that I wanted to launch a social media business and when I think about how much I knew and how much I like understand now, you know, ignorance is kind of bliss! I didn't have any set strategies. I was watching a lot of videos from some of the people that inspired me like Jasmine Star and Jenna Kutcher. I hadn't even discovered Vanessa Lau yet, or Ellen Yin who is like, that's the membership I'm currently in and I've gotten so much out of. So... talking about dreaming big, like, I was dreaming big at the beginning of this year. I was still at my 9 to 5 and just basically would work my day job and then was trying to scrounge up beta clients. And again, like I wasn't in any coaching program, so I didn't know what even what to offer them and I was just like, 'I just want to help people have a better Instagram.' And basically, at the six month mark, I was working with two beta social media clients where I was managing their social for them. And I had already coached three people. We were in a pandemic and I was just like really over my day job and ready to quit. And then, as you guys all know I lost my job and just was like, 'Alright, this is great because I feel really overworked.' But since then, I've really refined from just helping people with their marketing as a small business to actually knowing my niche. Where I want to help solopreneurs that are service-based coaches and creatives have a marketing strategy. And I realised I don't like doing social media management. I like helping people be equipped to do it themselves, which is much more aligned with my passion for teaching which was something that I discovered this year. I could make a marketing plan and talk about it all day long, but like actually writing posts for people is not as exciting for me. And as Fifa likes to say, it doesn't light me up as much. So that was kind of what happened with it but I mean there were many months where I made like very little money. And then, November was my best month of the year where I worked with the most coaching clients. But even starting 2021, I didn't feel like I was locked in yet and Sam was asking me a lot of questions and encouraged me to expand my niche from being weddings, to being like, how else to frame up that niche. Which, if you listen back to our episode about finding a niche, it's not always an industry. It's just the type of people that you want to work with. So ... all in all, in summary, it was a hard year with a lot of mistakes and a lot of learning but I feel like I have the clarity now that I was trying to get all year. But I wouldn't have gotten there without again, trying things and dabbling over here and dabbling over there. So ... it's fine if you don't know exactly what your niche is, exactly what you want to offer when you start your business. You'll kind of discover along the way.

Fifa 4:43 I love that! And I've seen you pivot so many times.

Courtney 4:47 Soooooo many times!

Fifa 4:50 And it's amazing to see that because we can see that as we are continuing to follow each other's journeys and, you know, reflect on on all the things that we've been doing for the past year. It's really amazing to see how much transformation it is, so much progress that we're making, each one of us. And it's really nice when you have people around you to support you and uplift you to continue moving forward. And that's really- I feel like that's why we are so far ahead compared to other people who are doing it all alone. Because we get on these mastermind calls, we share all of our insights, we share about our mistakes, and it's just really really nice to hear the stuff that you know, that you shouldn't be doing or you should be doing. Or, just testing out things that let's say Sam did, and that we could apply to our own businesses. So ... that was really really cool and I mean so much has happened this year and there's so much more that's going to happen for this coming year as well. As long as we keep doing what we're doing, we learn from each other's mistakes and cheer each other on!

Courtney 6:01 One thing that I didn't realise until you just said it was that our mastermind... that was actually what got me to pivot into coaching and helped me refine what I wanted to work on. Like, these are not things that I got out of paid coaching. And one thing that is really helpful about having the business mastermind where it's not paid is we'll tell each other what we are thinking about investing in, like, 'I really want to pay for this coach.' It's kind of like when you go shopping with that one friend that's like, 'You don't need those shoes, you have three pairs of sneakers at home.' I feel like that happens a lot with this group here and that has saved me a lot of money and also help me decide where actually do I need to invest. It's also just helpful to be like, 'Hey you paid for this thing. Did you feel like it was worth it so I don't need to try it myself?'

Sam 6:54 Recently I was just like, 'Guys I'm really itching to buy something' and you girls were like, "No don't buy it" and I'm like, "You're so right."

Courtney 7:05 You don't have time to do it!

Sam 7:07 Yeah, it's not even I don't even have the money to do it. Now it's like, oh I actually have money to invest in and it's not going to be pinching my wallet or anything like that. I don't have the time and it's a little sad. And then also like sharing resources I know Fifa and I are just always like going back and forth like 'Check out this tool, check out this tool!' It's helpful when it's more than one person who reviews a tool and sees how to apply it. Especially since we all have creative businesses. So the tools are really geared towards those types of businesses, is for someone to check it out and be like, 'Is this the right fit for you? And this is how I use it' and that was really helpful because you can get really lost in spending more time on productivity or task management tool.

Fifa 7:49 I agree with you so much on that point. And it's also really nice to be able to bounce ideas off and also talk about our frustrations with clients that we deal with on the regular so it's nice. And also you know, when we feel stuck in a certain situation it's just nice to have that feedback and having a group to go to to ask these questions too because if you're just doing it alone, it's gonna be so much harder for you to get further. And so, I feel like that's what's really important about having these mastermind calls and also starting this podcast out of the blue. This was such an amazing and unexpected opportunity that we decided, let's just do this together. And now we get to share our struggles and all of the stuff that we learned with the rest of the world so we've gotten pretty far within the past year and a lot has changed. I can definitely say there's so much more that can be done going forward from here.

Sam 8:50 Yeah, so this year my business exploded. Literally when the pandemic hit and everything got locked down. I used to babysit as like a full time gig. And then, we were told to stay at home, and I didn't have to question how I was going to get money because it was just kind of coming at me. And I don't want to like discredit the mindset work that I did prior too because I would follow the guidance of some manifestation coaches and whatnot and like write down my goals as they were just around the corner happening, trying to really work on my money mindset. And so I learned a lot, and you guys know I'm the hard-headed one in the group so I learned really hard. I pushed back on a lot of things and then also I broke myself out because I felt like I was growing successful. But I was always afraid that it was going to go away. That's kind of where my journey is at but also ... I feel like I definitely grew my confidence over the year because I was able to 3x my starting rate so I think that's incredible because now I'm high ticket. Technically still trying to figure things out as far as consistency but now, it's not really as fully voted as it felt like back when I first started. So I will say that it was super super helpful and I'm super grateful to have you girls and that we continue to do our masterminds. Because I've been in this wantrepreneur journey for... I want to say, seven - eight years or so since I graduated college. And I've met a lot of people and did a lot of "accountability groups" and "masterminds." And this was a group that literally, we showed up for each other without having to put money in, without having to remind each other like, 'Hey, do you want to get on a call?' We all wanted to show up and not just for our own sake, but to really support the other two people. That was really cool.

Fifa 11:00 I love that. And yeah, I've seen you grow so much over the past year or two since the first group coaching program that we all met each other on where you were practically so burned out at that point. And I see now, you are starting to hire people and your business has shifted exponentially. We learned so much from you and you always ask such great questions as well. You know how to think in a critical way that complements the rest of the group. So I can definitely say I've seen a lot of growth within you and I definitely see the confidence especially seeing Courtney push you to do your social media stories and doing all these awesome things. It really is inspiring to see how far we are going as we progress throughout this journey together. And so I guess for me, it would be pretty much, I would say confidence was like a really big one for me as well. It's still obviously nowhere where I want to be but I've seen so much happen within the past year. Officially my business started last year. Well I wouldn't say like on paper as like registered business but I was sole proprietor and I stopped my full time job. When I got fired in June of 2019, I decided I didn't want to go back to corporate. I wanted to try out this journey of seeing how far it can take me just trying to run a business and not having to depend on another job. So, this year has changed so much and in 2020 was when I really invested in like three different coaches and I've never invested in a coach prior. But since I've done it, I've seen so much growth and I've seen my business grow so much. Even now it's like, I have too much work now that I can't really handle it. But it's like, it was slow for most of 2020 and it only started growing probably around November-December. And so, it was a lot to learn from and I really didn't even know how to run a business. It was only until I hired those coaches that I really figured out how to systemize everything, how to create things to make my business scalable. And so, learning from you girls, learning how you deal with clients, learning how to say no. That was like a really really big one for me and really trying to just show up more online was a really big one for me. There's so much more that can be done. It's just for now, you know, we're all on this journey together.

Courtney 13:39 Fifa when I think about when we first met you to now, I feel like you've started to actually embody being like, the CEO of your business versus a freelancer. Because you also were an influencer and you run different communities. So I feel like there's been a shift from freelancer to CEO in your business because you're thinking more strategically not only about your client projects but your process. And that's the thing about running a business is you're the one that has to come up with the processes. You can hire somebody to design it for you but at the end of the day, you're the one that decides like, 'Okay this is what we're going to implement and this is not what we're going to implement' and your confidence definitely has increased. Because you were terrified of going on stories but now when you go on stories like, I don't sense any of that at all. So, for all of us there's obviously a lot of areas in which we need to grow. We're just starting to get that momentum, where I honestly believe I have a business. It's kind of past that stage of like, 'Am I going to be doing this in six months? I don't really know' to 'Okay, I know, this year it's gonna be a lot of work but what do we need to do?' That shift I sense has happened and you rebranded your Instagram, you did your pricing guide, and you're working with clients to the point where now you actually have to decide if someone is the right fit for you versus, 'I'll take anybody!' I think that's like a really good milestone for anybody that's starting a business is when you take that scarcity mindset out and go from, 'I'll work with anyone' to like 'Okay I need to strategically find the people or just decide to work with the people that are the best fit for my business because my time is limited.' I feel like when you hit that mark, you kind of shift into like a new level.

Fifa 15:37 I completely forgot about that. That I used to be an influencer for a bit... Yeah, that's actually a really really good point. I did shift huge in that aspect. I stopped doing that free content creation stuff to get free goods. It just was not resonating with me at all. And I just realised that 2020 even though it was my most expensive year and I broke even in terms of all the investments that I made in coaches, courses and whatnot. But there's still a lot of time that it took for everything to sink in and to actually make my business work and turn it into a business. For the past three years like, I haven't really made that much money freelancing while I was working at my job. And so, 2020 was like the major shift in my business where I was like, oh my gosh, you're right. I feel like a CEO. I value my time so much more than I did the last couple of years and have a better relationship with money, just like Sam did. That was a huge major mindset shift.

Sam 16:46 I just wanted to throw in my own set of cheers for you Fifa because I think of the three of us, you are the all-in girl. Like, you're a little bit more of the softer side of the group but like, you really embodied that all-in mindset of just having faith in yourself. I think there were times where me and Courtney were like, 'What are we doing?' But you've stood your ground and you're like, 'I'm going to see this through.' And so, I really am inspired by that.

Courtney 17:16 That is liiiiit, oh my gosh that's such a good insight.

Fifa 17:20 Yeah you girls are gonna like make me cry (laughs). This is such a nice conversation and to actually take the time to reflect on everything that's happened. It's something that you have to do every single year. Otherwise, you don't know what your wins are and you don't realise them until you actually take the time to think about these things.

Sam 17:42 It is important to acknowledge your wins and I think our group was really good about doing that every week. Just checking in and being like, what can we celebrate even if it's just little?

Courtney 17:55 Totally agree. Being in our group forced me to do that. Because otherwise, I would kind of just brush it off and be kind of in my feelings, basically. 'I feel like this week really sucked. So this week really sucked, meaning I sucked.' And then it spirals into like what am I doing?

Sam 18:13 It's funny because time back to our first episode, I don't know if that is something that is conditioned in Asian culture for sure. But I know my mindset when I was working with a therapist briefly last year, I was like, 'Listen, getting good grades in school is the bare minimum. It's not like, oh yeah you get an award for that, you have to do that like that's your job.' I feel like I took that mentality as well in business where it's like, 'Yeah I'm supposed to do this work so why should I celebrate it you know? Things like, 'Oh I wrote that email because I had to, what's the big deal?'

Fifa 18:47 I'd love to transition this conversation to what your plans are and what do you plan to do within the next few months to really take what you learned and skyrocket the business, pivot to the way that you want to pivot and really take on the clients that you want to work with. And so, I'd love to learn more about your plans on that.

Courtney 19:10 Okay, so talking about dreaming big. One of the things that came out of yet another pivot. I guess, I'm almost like the Pivot Princess at this point. I've had so many pivots this year. But the thing is like, I have backup plans and so I think that's why I kept comfortable pivoting but I started an Etsy shop! And this came out of episode one where I talked about my breakdown with my mom on Mother's Day where she was asking about how the business is going and I had to tell her that it was not going well. And out of that came this Etsy shop that I started with her. She had been making face masks since the pandemic started and they're really good quality. And so, she basically offered up her back inventory and we started making them together and in our first five weeks, so this is week six of having the shop, we made over $800 in sales. Which is great considering that the time I put in is kind of like a passion project. So my passion projects are this podcast and the Etsy shop but it's allowed me to do things that I've always wanted to do like make stickers and to make greeting cards. Because I hate the greeting cards in the store, they never say what I want them to say. And .... you know, my mom started doing it just to help me out and basically it was a way of giving me money without giving me money. It was like giving me her time.

So part of my plan is to actually grow two businesses and I also rebranded Courtlynn Creative to just Courtney Chow Co. So, I want to have the two in tandem and what actually does feel in alignment, like I had mentioned, is working with creative entrepreneurs. Formerly, I was really focused in on wedding vendors but I realized there are so many entrepreneurs that are starting small shops that are still personal brands. Even if it's under another name. So I want to grow my Etsy shop to be a consistent stream of income and then take all of the lessons from that marketing and kind of marrying my background in E commerce and my passion for personal branding and storytelling, to be able to teach people in that realm and to expand my strategies that way. So that's a big goal of mine. I'd say my joke is I want to be able to pay my rent or what I'm making an Etsy every month. But I'd say probably, I want to be able to make at least $1000 every month at some point consistently and to grow that brand. When you guys believe in me because I so much respect the work that you do, I feel cool by association.

Sam 21:50 When Courtney invites me to clubhouses that I don't really want to be on but I really rock at (laughs). It makes me feel super popular because I was never popular in school (laughs). Looking forward, I really see an exit plan from this service based business. Honestly, I see this as kind of my test project as a graphic design coach. In my experience this past year growing the business and trying to hit that golden six figure business goal, I learned so much about the quality of graphic designers out there. It's not very good (laughs). But I'll just say that, I'll be polite. And also, there's not a lot of resources for graphic designers especially focusing on small businesses, small brands in utilizing social. So I would say there's a fair amount of web design information. UX is really popular so there's information there, but how to make graphics? The most you get is like how to design a logo. And so I'm looking forward to really making a name for myself as a leader in that space and really helping graphic designers identify their unique niches like I have with my Instagram branding and to get better at their craft. And also better at business from the solopreneur, small business perspective. Again, the business advice out there is for people who are freelancers who are trying to grow agencies and I just didn't feel like it was relevant. So stay tuned for my YouTube channel, the six figure graphic designer!

Courtney 23:40 Dude, I'm so excited for you. And when you say that like the quality of graphic design out there is not great, it's because you've tried to hire. Wou've tried to hire and haven't been able to find someone that had the skillset that you needed to provide your services. I've also worked in places where I've had to bring on freelancers and I hear the feedback on a lot of them and it's not great. So definitely a white space and exciting to hear how you see the next iteration of your business already. That's really cool to hear.

Fifa 24:17 I love that, and you're totally right! We need people like you to show more graphic designers how the work should be done and also create more resources to help support them. And so yeah I'm definitely looking forward to that and I know that you have been talking about your YouTube channel so we are waiting on that. One thing that we did talk about, especially during this week is about how we don't make enough time to create and do fun things in our business. So I think this is a really really big thing that I really want to do within the next few months is to really make more time for that. Stop being so busy and actually dedicate time to growing up another business that is actually really fun that I like to do or even just to create things as part of my brand like notebooks, notepads, stationery and stuff like that. That aligns well with my current services and really start selling products. I'm thinking of also eventually selling courses but that's like later later down the road. That's something that I really want to do. Just creating digital products and physical products that I could add on to my services as part of my brand. Really the goal is to be able to sign higher-quality clients so that I don't have to always be hustling month after month trying to find all these different clients. I'd rather work with one client over the next like three months or so and have them paying me a good amount so that I'm not always trying to wear all the hats. Or trying to market myself while hustling to find all these different clients that barely pay anything for me to provide them with the services that they need. And so that's a really big one, just having that work life balance is a really really big one for the next few months. But yeah, I have a lot of plans but that's basically the gist of it.

Courtney 26:20 You know I'm in the middle of a rebrand right now that actually both of you have been instrumental in and something I'm really excited about is like finally, as I mentioned having clarity on who I am and what my brand is about and bringing that to life. And so, yeah, I want to find those people that helped push me too to like this is what your brand is now. But as you continue to expand and offer new things, this is how those same values continue to be played out like visually and then I don't need to worry about it. Because you know, it's like I can do DIY branding that got me to this point but you know as we're talking about when you want to work with higher ticket clients, you have to have a higher ticket experience. Which doesn't mean that like you're just spending more and throwing it away but you're investing in those areas. And so, that's also a shift that I see in all of us where we are getting into that mode where we can invest in things besides coaches but like other things that our business needs. We're not DIYing ourselves. That's like a really very interesting theme to continue to see happen and like play out through our podcast episodes in the future and in our businesses. One thing that I wanted to say kind of related to what Fifa was talking about where ... you know she's dreaming of just making more space to create which is something we talked about really recently. Is when we talk about dreaming big, we don't mean like dreaming big is like 'I'm gonna hit the six figure number, or I'm going to be consistently making 5k every month.' Though ... you know, that would be great and those things actually might even just be table stakes right? It's that you're making enough money to pay your expenses. But as creators, dreaming big can be making that thing that you just have in your heart and you have in your head and setting aside time for that. It's launching something that has no monetary metric to it but you're just passionate about. Or, it can just be like you're dreaming of taking a day off where you can go in these places where you want. So when we say dreaming big, we talked about our business goals but I love that Fifa started to bring up that she just wants to be able to get back to creating and being happy about that. Because as creatives, that is really important for the business, is to play around and to experiment. Every time you do something in marketing or in your business, it doesn't have to be like hitting the bull's eye with an arrow. You want to make space to have misses. And that there might be something where you tried and you didn't think anything would come of it and then it becomes something that you pivot into.

Fifa 28:59 I love that! That's so important and we need that work life balance for sure, like especially as entrepreneurs, we're always working, we're always trying to spin the wheel. But there really is not enough time that we actually take for ourselves to actually heal and actually do the things that we've kept putting aside for so long, for years even. And so, yeah that's definitely one thing that I really want to make time for this year.

Closing in on this conversation now, there's a lot of plans for us in the future but there were a lot of takeaways that we got during this call. Community, being one of the biggest. Really having the right people around you to really take you there, to really keep your motivation up. That's a big one and I'm so huge on community because I do run a community of female entrepreneurs too, so that is just like one of the key factors of success, I would say. And taking more time to do the things that you love to do without burning out because we burn out because we don't spend enough time in doing the things we love. So instead of spinning that hamster wheel like I said, take that time for self care because that's a really big one. And one last takeaway is to really just reflect on your wins, take the time to reflect. Even if it's like once a week, once a month. Whatever your pace is at, whatever frequency that you want to set. At least you're doing it on a regular basis or reflecting back on all those wins. All of those lessons that you've learned will actually take you further.

Courtney 30:42 Alright guys, we got our resource of the week for you. We want to highlight things that have helped us in our journey as entrepreneurs whether it's mindset, productivity. And they're all free tools because we know that when you're starting out, you got to manage that bank account. So Sam is going to tell us what our free resource is for this week!

Sam 31:04 The free resource of the week is Marisa Peers' YouTube channel. And the reason why she's the free resource of the week is because her YouTube channel is full of free videos. But also because in this episode, we really talked about working on our money mindset and growing our confidence this year and Marisa's channel is the perfect resource. I think I've used it throughout the year to do meditations in the mornings and also just to reflect on how to have more confidence in myself and in my business. Kind of work towards reaching my goals and having that dream life that I want. And so her channel she posts like every day. And her free stuff are like A-level quality so definitely check out Marisa Peer's YouTube channel. She's Britain's number one therapist and she's going to help you love yourself more.

Fifa 32:01 Amazing! So that concludes the first season of our still minimum wage podcast. Thank you for tuning in and if you can please leave us a rating. Because that will help us so much in being able to continue building more episodes for you and teaching more of our lessons, taking you on our journey, and seeing what comes out of it.