01 - I started my business by accident - Transcript

This is a transcript for Episode 1 of Everybody is a Creative. Find the original shownotes and audio here.

Welcome to everybody as a creative the show we embrace. You guessed it, everyone as a creative, whether you're a business owner, a side Hustler, or just have a hobby or passion project that you love, we will be exploring creativity in all its forms and tapping into the things that keep us creative. I'm Ella, also known as Whimsicella, a copywriter who's also attempting to write her first novel and a self-identified creative from birth. I hope you'll use this place to jam with me on what it means to be a creative, even if you don't identify as one, yet. It's happening. It's happening. Everyone's staying calm. It's happening.

Welcome to Episode One of Everybody is a Creative! Oh my gosh. I'm so excited. I have been wanting to start a podcast for a while, but I just didn't know what exactly about but I had the idea for this podcast a couple months ago, and now the wheels are starting to turn, and we're getting things moving, getting things happening, and I'm so excited that you decided to tune in. Thank you so much. I have so many ideas for episodes in the future, but basically this space is just about creativity in all its forms, because I believe everyone is a creative as the podcast title suggests, especially as a business owner, you have To come up with creative solutions for creative problems. Creativity isn't just about being good at art or being really crafty. We can be creative in so many different ways, and I think especially in business, there are many ways you can be creative, even if you're not like a designer or an artist. But the show isn't just about business. We're going to be talking about all sorts of different forms of creativity. For example, I'm writing a novel. It's very hard. I'm going to talk about that process quite a lot. I'm also just going to talk about, like, my journey with creativity and different creative outlets I've had over the years. I am also going to talk about my business and marketing and copywriting. I have some ideas for, you know, episodes about writing an about page that really uses your voice, and, yeah, all sorts of other sort of, like marketing things. And I really hope to have some guests on who are Creatives or own businesses or like stuff like that, lots of good stuff, basically.

So yeah, just a quick note to say, thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoy this first episode, all about how I got started in my business, because it's a bit of a unique story. And, yeah, I hope you enjoyed the episode.

So when people set out to start businesses, I feel like 90% of them, maybe 99% of them start them intentionally. They're like, I want to start a business. Here is my plan going forward. I'm either going to do it part-time alongside my regular job and then go full-time later down the line, or I'll just quit and go all in, whatever the plan, there's usually a plan. I didn't have a plan. I didn't even have a ple to quote Phoebe from Friends, spot the millennial.

So I wanted to talk about my journey to becoming self employed, having my own business, because it's a little bit different from everyone else's story, and we're going to start the story back in 2019 almost a year before I started my business.

In 2019 I was living in London, and I was looking for a job, and I applied to loads of different places, and I got an email from someone offering me a phone interview, and they had a link to their calendar for me to, like, book a time, and they sent an email. Oh, if the times look a bit weird, it's because I'm out in California, so there's like, an eight hour time difference. And I was like, wait a minute, California. I thought I was looking for jobs in London, because I lived in London at the time, but it turns out that I was having a meeting with the marketing director of a company in based in London, but she had relocated to California, but was still remotely leading the marketing team. And I was like, Cool international we love that. And that interview ended up changing basically, the course of my life — drama!

But yeah, so the interview was actually with Mariela de la Mora, who is a business and leadership coach today, but back then she was the marketing director of the last company I ever ended up working for. And long story short, I got the job and I really liked it. I really liked the team. I really liked what I was doing, so I was the Content Marketing Manager, and I was in charge of like, the whole, you know, content landscape of this, like, events recruitment company. And it was really fun. Like me and Mariella would have like, weekly meetings. She had meetings with everyone on the team, but we basically would have like, an hour one on one once a week, and we'd either sort of like talk about, you know, stuff pertaining to, like, what was going on in the company, what we were launching, bounce ideas off her, and stuff like that. And then I'd also have a chance to pick her marketing brain, because she has been doing marketing forever. She's very good at it.

So fast forward a little bit to the beginning of 2020. Mariela announces that she's actually leaving the company to go full-time in her own business. And if you know Mariela, I'll put her details in the show notes. She has absolutely exploded and is doing amazingly, so definitely a good choice. But I remember at the time feeling slightly disappointed, because I was like, oh, man, I really like Mariela, and I wanted to, like, spend more time, like getting to know her and like picking her brain. And like, I also, because I am self taught at marketing, like, I've never studied, like a marketing degree, everything I know I taught myself from, like blogging and just like learning social media by myself and taking like different, like certifications and stuff like that. So I very much like viewed her as this, like marketing mentor that I could finally learn from.

But, you know, it was fine, like we follow each other on Instagram. We said we'd keep in touch, and we did keep in touch, and it was, yeah, very nice to form, like an actual friendship with her, as well as, sort of like a employee, employee, mentor, mentee, kind of relationship. Okay? So she leaves the company in early 2020 and then March 2020/April 2020, we all know what happens. The pandemic erupts. We go into lockdown. I end up being furloughed from my job, so still getting paid by the government, but I'm not, like, going into work. I'm kind of sitting around twiddling my thumbs, and I remember at the time being like, Oh, it's so nice. Like, I get like, an adult summer holiday. Like, when in the world do we ever get that? I don't think I would want to go into lockdown again, having now experienced it.

But like, I remember at the time, even though I was like, so scared, because it was, like, the pandemic and people were dying, and it was just a very scary time because we didn't really know anything, I also because I was, like, in a very safe place, you know, I was in a good bubble. I was, like, with two other I was actually, I went, me and my best friend went to her mum's house to isolate there. So, like, just the three of us and her two cats. So it was actually quite a nice little, like, pandemic bubble. And it was, like, a nice big house, and she has a big garden, so it was quite nice. So I was like, even though it's a weird, scary time, I'm gonna sort of enjoy this time off, this subsidized time off.

Okay, so it's the pandemic. I'm furloughed. I'm sitting around twiddling my thumbs and then around sort of like May or June. I can't quite remember. I think it was June. Mariela reaches out to me. She's like, hey, my business has grown in such a way that I can't do everything by myself anymore, and I need to bring someone on to sort of like, help me, like, with my marketing. And you were the first person I thought of, can you help me for a few hours a week with like, some marketing tasks? And I was like, sure I am doing fuck all. So yeah, that was really fun.

I think we started doing, like, some LinkedIn stuff, and that involved into Instagram stuff. And then she was also, yeah, implementing a new system, like she was using ClickUp, and she got me on board to sort of help, like, learn that as well, and sort of help her with, like, some back end stuff of her business. And yeah. So I was technically, like, still employed, but we had, in July, we had word that our company was letting a bunch of people go. Because, if you remember, it was an events company, an events recruitment company. So obviously, events aren't really happening during the pandemic, even as like, lockdown was easing, you know, couldn't really gather in large groups, so the company had to let go of a lot of people, and I knew that I was probably going to be made redundant just because my job was the newest like, they didn't have a content marketing manager before me. It was a new role.

So I was panicking because, one, because, like, I really loved the team. I really loved the people I was working with. I really loved the work I was doing, because it was, like, such a varied mix it was, it's content marketing, right? So you're doing, like, social media, email, blogs. We were talking about even maybe doing a podcast at one point, and, yeah, I was just sad that I wasn't able to work with these people. And. Do all these things. And, yeah, it was a bit of, a bit of a shaky time. And, you know, I'm talking to Mariela about this, like panicking, and she's like, Well, I do know quite a lot of other business owners who need help in their businesses. As sort of, like, marketing VA, virtual assistant for anyone who doesn't know marketing VA kind of capacity if you're open to bringing on more clients.

And I was like, Yeah, I think that's something I can do. Like, I can definitely, like, take on my more freelance work while I figure out my next move. So, yeah, Mariela refers me to, I think, two clients that she was working with, that she was doing business coaching for. And then one of those people referred me to another person, so I think by the end of July, I had four, maybe five clients under my belt. So I went from like, June, where I was only working with Mariela, thinking, Oh, this is a nice little side hustle I'm doing to the end of July, where it's like, holy shit, I have like, a client portfolio.

And yeah, it was kind of wild. And even though I was still sad to be let go from my previous company, it was also nice to have, sort of like, landed on my feet a little bit. And, yeah, I kind of just like, I was doing a lot of stuff that I was doing for Mariela, for a lot of other people, and more stuff. I was also like, you know, writing blogs and writing emails and doing social media, so coincidentally, a lot of stuff I was doing in my previous job, but for these awesome small business owners and solopreneurs. And it was just really nice. And I think it was around, I want to say, like, October or November. And I was like, hmm, I haven't been, like, looking around other jobs, because, like, that summer when I was let go, I was made redundant. I was even though I took on these clients. I was also looking around for, like, other jobs, but sort of November rolled around and I was like, I haven't, like, been looking at jobs for a while. I think this is my job now, because in those few months, I had, like, started working with more clients on both a project basis and, like, a retainer, long term basis. So yeah, I was kind of like, yeah, I guess this is, this is my job now. So, like, I registered self employed. I did all the things to make sure HMRC wouldn't be mad at me.

And yeah, from then now, four years later, it's August 2024 as I record this, I'm still doing the thing, and obviously, like, it's, you know, it was accidental, it was a stroke of luck. But like, I also am good at what I do, which is why Mariella referred me in the first place. You know, she started working with me. She referred me to other people. Other people referred me to other people they knew. So, like, I don't want this to come across of, like, Oh, wow. I just like, stumbled into, stumbled into this business space with not really knowing what I'm doing. Like, you know, yeah, it sort of happened unintentionally, but I have put intentional work to, like, have it keep going. But yeah, that's like the sort of very, very short, succinct version of my story. I actually almost named this episode “I'm the nepo baby of business,” because, yeah, I just happened to know someone who hired me, and then it kind of escalated from there.

But yeah, and the thing about not intentionally starting a business is that I didn't really, like set up those stepping stones. I feel like a lot of business owners usually do, so like, I never sat down to be like, oh, you know what? Who do I want to work with? What do I want to do? What do I want to offer? Because basically, my offerings was just whatever people needed me for. Because, you know, at first it was just like, sort of like, catch all social media marketing, blogs stuff. And then I started getting referrals for, like, actual website copy. And then I got referrals for like, email funnels and like, you know, a few people being like, Hey, I've got this lead magnet, this freebie, I need to write, like, an email sequence for, can you do that for me? Kind of thing?

So I kind of, I had a website, but I've tinkered with my website dozens of times as I took on these new clients. And, you know, try to build out an offer suite, I guess. But I never, sort of intentionally thought like, what do I want to do? What do I want to offer? Who do I want to work with? Kind of thing. I've never asked myself these, like foundational questions, because I was also, like, really lucky to have been referred by all of these wonderful. People who liked working with me. So I never really had to try. I never really had to sit down and think about it really, which I guess is a very privileged position to be.

But I knew I had to sort of start doing this work like last year. So yeah, 2023 was difficult for many different reasons. I won't go into it, but like, for person, I had a lot of personal stuff going on. And, like, even though business was good, I was sort of, like, feeling like, I'll just say it, I was feeling bored, like I was doing a lot of the same stuff, working with a lot of the same people. And that's not to say I didn't like those people and I didn't love it, but I think because I had kind of just let myself go through the motions, and I wasn't really asking myself the questions of, like, Okay, who do I want to be and, like, Who do I want to work with? Like, what do I want my message to be? Then I kind of just let things get a bit stagnant. And I knew back in 2023 I needed to do this work. But because I was going through it emotionally, I kind of just didn't I was like, You know what the work is here? I'm still, like, getting referrals. The referrals had slowed down a bit, but which is why, like something in my mind went like, I need to do something to make sure that either that referrals stop slowing down, or that I'm putting myself out there enough to, you know, attract new people all the time.

Because, as well as referrals, I was attracting like new people back in 2021 I released a digital product called the inclusive hashtag collection, which was like a database of different hashtags, because a lot of the people I was working with were women of color, you know, black women, Latina women, South Asian women, they wanted, Like hashtags that pertained to them and their community. So I was sort of like curating these sort of, like hashtag buckets for them. And I kind of had this idea of, like, Well, why don't I do this for everyone? And, like, create, like, a little database of hashtags for like, yeah, like women of color, people of color, you know, queer people, people who work in sustainability and like stuff like that. These like, very like niched down hashtag groups and that aren't like generic and were very like community based to help people find their people. This was back when Instagram hashtags actually carried like a little bit of weight. They don't carry as much weight now, unfortunately, but at the time, it was a really useful product that a lot of people bought. I did, like, sort of like, one live launch for it, for when I first released it, which for me, was very successful, like, I obviously hadn't. This was like, the first, like, intentional thing I was doing for my business. Because, like, yeah, starting my business was accidental, but launching this digital product was very intentional, and I had a very like modest sales goal that I wanted to reach, which I ended up exceeding. And it was really great. And not only did it introduce me to, like, a bunch of new people, but I actually still work with some of the clients I got from, you know, putting myself out there in the world with the hashtag collection. So it was very good.

And last year I was like, I need to do something like that again. I don't know if it's necessarily creating another digital product, but I need to do something that will put me in front of people, get more eyes on me. And yeah, it was, it was difficult, and I did work with a coach last year. Shout out to Desiree Kaye “Des” Norwood. We had a little three-month little stint of business mentorship. And it's like, looking at, you know, how far my business has come, and like, who I want to, like, work with and in the future and stuff. And that was like, really, that was also like, the first, like, business coach I had hired. And I'm so glad it was Des, because she is wonderful and amazing, and she really did help me, kind of like, sit down and, like, reflect on, you know, what I had done up until that point, and what I sort of like, wanted to like work toward in the future. And that work was, like, really helpful in sort of getting the wheels turning of thinking about my business. And she's also a great therapist and perfectionism coach. So towards the end of our time together, we did a little work on perfectionism and stuff.

So that was really cool, yeah, but even with all that great stuff, I still wasn't really putting myself out there as much as I'd like to on social media. Because here's the thing, I’m a great copywriter, I know my shit. I know what to do for other people, so I was really great and like, sitting down with my clients and extracting their story and then translating that into, you know, copy and content, whether that's for websites or blogs or emails or social media captions, but like for me, doing that for me always, like, felt like a bit of a chore. And I never really knew what I wanted to talk about. That's something I really struggled over the years of being a business owner, and why I feel like I really missed from doing that initial, sort of foundational work of starting a business is, like, I didn't really know who I was for. I didn't really know what my niche was. I didn't really know, yeah, like, I didn't really know these things.

And it was only up until very recently, like this year, I invested in another business coach. Shout out, Lex Martinez in her One of One program where I really am sitting down and doing the work and thinking of like, what kind of leader I want to be, and like what message I want to put out there, and what makes me one of one. Really great native plug for your program here, Lex, and I highly recommend it, because even though I'm only halfway through it right now, it is gleaning some really great results.

God, where was I? So, yeah, this year really dived into this work of figuring out who I'm for, what I want to do, where I want to be in the future. And it's really, really helping. Like, sometimes you just need to find someone who asks the right questions. And Lex really has done that.

And yeah, and that's, that's it really like, I could probably yap about this forever, but I don't want to take up too much of your time. It is only the first episode. We have many future episodes to discuss career and business and stuff like that. I have so many ideas for this podcast, but, yeah, I just wanted to introduce you guys to me, to my journey. It's still evolving, and I'm excited to see where it goes and where I take it.

And, yeah, I hope you had a nice time listening to me ramble about how I got started. And yeah, I'd really love to hear from you.

And you know, if you have a business, how it got started. If you don't have a business what business ideas have you had? Because I always am interested to know what kind of paths you know, think like people go down when they think about, oh, this could be a good business idea, or this could be something. Because before I started my business, I did want to be like a freelance writer. I never imagined it as like copywriting. I was thinking more the journalism angle, but I can still say write for a living, because it's not a lie.

But yeah, have a little noodle. Have a think on what are some past business ventures you have thought about, or if you've never thought about it, what would you want to start a business for, even if you, you know, never start a business in your life, I would like to know, if you ,did in a hypothetical world where you were given a million pounds, a million dollars, whatever currency of wherever you live, what would you use that to start a business on?

Because I think that's a really great thought exercise. Yeah, again, thank you for listening, and I'll catch you in a couple of weeks.