Becoming Your Most Iconic Self with Megan Minns King

Welcome to The In Between Podcast. I'm Astrid.

And I'm Alexis. Join us as we explore the messy yet beautiful in-between seasons of life.

We'll discuss business, relationships, wellness, and everything in between to help you become the highest version of yourself.

Let's dive in. Welcome back to another episode of The In Between Pod. It is one half of the podcast, Alexis.

And the other half, Astrid. And we are so excited because today we get to have our first guest on the podcast.

Yes, her name is Megan Minns King. Welcome, Megan.

Thanks for having me. So excited for our chat today.

Literally so excited. So for those of you that don't know Megan, she is a mom of 3, all under the age of 4. You are truly an icon and a superhero. She's a business coach for online coaches. Service providers and creators. Her first business, she grew it to 6 figures in 2015 as a virtual assistant while working full-time in corporate HR. So for all of our side hustle girlies, Megan gets you, she sees you. Since then, she has successfully sold a variety of offerings, digital products. She also just hit $1 million in revenue in her business. And I cannot wait to talk about this. We're going to talk about this on the podcast. And I have known Megan for, let's see, I want to say 8 years. And we go way back. I feel like I've gotten to follow you and watch your journey through the last 8 years of your life, becoming your friend, just viewing you as an entrepreneur. And so, so excited to have you as like our first guest on The In Between Podcast. Could not think of a better woman to have on the show.

So welcome.

Thank you. I'm honored to be your first guest. And just excited to chat with you guys today. I feel like there's so many things we're going to talk about from fairy smut to money to motherhood and whatever else.

Fairy smut and motherhood, you heard it here first. And for those of you that know, Astrid and I love ACOTAR, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and that whole fairy universe. Megan is the beautiful soul that first introduced that whole series to me back in 2019. And so she has done me a service Which has now influenced Astrid. So thank you for your service here.

Thank you for your service.

Yes.

You're welcome. Anytime. Just read Throne of Glass next. We'll talk about it. You'll thank me again.

Amazing.

Okay. So I want to start with your journey from being full-time to side hustling. So you're working in corporate HR. You start a side business running a virtual assistant company. Walk us through that. Why did you decide to start a side hustle and when did you decide to leave the corporate job?

Yeah, that's a great question because I definitely went into my corporate career being like, I'm going to be a C-suite girly. We're climbing the corporate ladder, we're running this shit. That was the vision. And I very quickly realized I did not like asking for permission to take time off. This was back in 2012, 2013, 2014, like pre-COVID, you are in office working. You have to stay until your boss leaves, like real traditional corporate stuff. And I was like, my sisters are having babies across the country and I have to ask for permission to fly to go be there. Like, I have to be here on Thanksgiving because, or like the day before Thanksgiving because someone has to be here.

Mm-hmm.

I'm an HR assistant. Like, I don't know. And so I think I really quickly was like, I don't love this restricted vibe. And I've always been part, like I always say, I'm like right-brained and left-brained. There's always been a creative side of me. I was a huge artist growing up. Like I love creating with my hands. And I was into blogging, was like really loving the beginning era of blogging and was like, I could do that. And so even in college before I started my career, I kind of started blogging very casually. once I started my corporate job, I was like, okay, let's maybe do— I see people making money online. How do we get in on that? And I actually started my business as a graphic designer. And so I was doing brands and color palettes and fonts and handwritten wedding signs and started a stationery shop on Etsy. So that was kind of like the actual beginning when I made my LLC. It's Megan Minns Designs LLC because I was like, I'm a designer. We're going to put designs in our legal entity name. Great idea. And that's where it started. Then I was loving that, loved having something on the side. It was side hustling, like late nights, starting to be stressed out creating artwork for people and then they don't love it. And then it was like, I don't love creating art that then people say they don't like. That also sucks. And so yeah, Astrid, you're in the creative industry. You're like, yeah, I see that. Totally. Yeah. So anyways, that's when I discovered the world of virtual assistant. I think I stumbled upon it, saw people doing it and was like, you know, I'm really tech savvy. I'm really organized. I could do that. HR is an absolutely administrative organizational career. I was like, I can totally apply this and kind of stumbled into it and was amazed at how quickly my client roster booked out. I think because I was specializing. I wasn't just a general VA, I was a tech VA. Let me do your Squarespace. Let me do your Mailchimp. Let me make little graphics for you and upload them to Pinterest. Like, this is the very precipice of all of those things. And people were just starting to buy courses and like, how do I start an email list? And I was like, I can do that for you. So that transition, I think like the first 6 months of my business was the graphic design stuff, switched to VA, and things took off, got full client rosters, realized I could raise my rates, realized people really valued this, quickly became the tech expert and was able to quit my job by November of that year. And so it was a lovely experience, but very quick.

Wait, so how long were you in your full-time job while you were side hustling? Was it a total of 10 months before you were able to quit?

No, no, because I started my job in 2012. So I didn't really form my entity and take it seriously until the very, very beginning of 2014. Like January 2nd is like my founding date. So I'd kind of been dabbling in the blogging space haphazardly, doing some casual design work. And then it wasn't until I think February or March, actually I think it was March or April of 2014 where I was like, let's do the VA thing. So I kind of made that transition and then by November was able to quit my job.

That's incredible.

Within 6 months. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, it was just, it was a risk, but I was at the right age in life to take the risk. I was 24, renting, had a roommate, had very little financial responsibilities, didn't need a lot of money. And so matching my newbie HR salary was not that hard. We were very, little dollars at that time. And that was my metric was like, we just need to match. And I need to, since I had clients, I was also booking clients out in advance. So I was like, I know I have 6 months of matching my salary, not just 1 month. And so that was enough security for me. If I was making that transition now, 3 kids, a house, a whole thing, it would be a different game plan probably. But at that time it was the perfect timing.

Yeah.

So I'm curious, how did you go from your corporate job to deciding that you wanted to zero in on the tech industry? Were you already in the tech industry? Because we get a lot of listeners that want to pivot their career and are interested in doing that, but that switch into a whole different world feels very intimidating.

Yeah. It was one of those things where you realize you're good at something, but it feels really easy to you. So it's like, Oh, I didn't think I was that good at tech because it's come so natural to me. I don't know if you guys have experienced that where someone else reflects back to you how good you are at something and you're like, well, I thought everyone knew that. I thought everyone could do this. What? That's special. And I think in my corporate job was my first realization that I was like, not abnormally, but that I was like above average tech savvy because I'd have peers who were like, What's Asana? What do you mean we need a project management system to do things? What do you mean we should scan these papers into our computer? And it was like, yeah, we shouldn't run our entire business through paper. Literally paper files for thousands of employees when I started. And so that was the first glimpse that I was good at that. And then it was one of those things where, I don't know, I trust myself. So pivoting has never been a thing I waffle over. So when I had a moment of like, I could do this, I have a delusional amount of belief in myself. And that's my Pisces coming out where we're like, yeah, we can do anything. And so I just kind of saw an opportunity and took it. I think it helps that my family is very ambitious and always encouraged that. And so there was no, my parents think this is a dumb idea. It was like, Okay. Sure. They weren't helping me financially, but that certainly was in the back of my mind that if I really got in a pickle, I had a support system that would probably help me out. So all that to say, I don't ever waffle with pivoting. To this day, I've pivoted my business 10 other times. So it's just a thing for me. And I love helping my clients with that because I think for a lot of people, there's a lot of fear that comes up, fear of what people will think, fear Fear of failure, especially if you're pivoting in public. It can feel a little scary. So it's one of those things I'm really good at, and I love helping other people navigate those emotions and those fears and do it anyways.

Yeah.

I have a question around pivoting in public and pivoting in private. When do you decide when to let people into a transition, especially if you are Like building a personal brand or building anything online where people are following along. Like, have there been experiences in your life where you've kept some of those pivots more private as you've worked things out? And then other times where you have intentionally decided, I'm going to pivot very publicly and there's like a level of strategy and intentionality to it?

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like for me, there's a couple of times I will pivot in private when I I'm in the vortex is what I call it. When it's not quite settled, when I'm still like, I know something's changing, I know we're not staying here, but I don't quite know what we're transitioning or pivoting into, I will kind of do that privately. I don't share that level of uncertainty publicly. I tap into mentorship or friends for processing. And so that stage of like, this isn't working anymore, We're going to do that part privately or with a trusted group of mentors or peers. And then as soon as I hit that moment where I can no longer show up because this is so out of alignment, or I know what I'm doing next, is where I go public. And for me, I've noticed, especially in the past 2 to 3 months, the power of pivoting in public and not just telling the story, I'm pivoting because this isn't in alignment and yada, yada, which is what I've done in the past. This most recent pivot and uplevel was like, I'm going all the way. We're declaring how big we're going. We're setting our goals in public, which is a whole new level of like, okay, guess we're all going to find out. So that's been a new level of pivoting or upleveling in public. And I have loved it. And I've noticed every time I have shared the pivot or the transition, Everyone rallies. You really see your support system come out, even strangers on the internet who are like, oh my God. And I have people now who are like, your course in 2016 about Squarespace was the first course I ever bought. And I've been here through all the ups and downs. Or like, I bought your Asana course in 2015. And you're like, that's crazy and amazing. But you really start to see people who want you to succeed and people want to know you and want to rally with you. So I tend to recommend pivoting publicly as soon as you're out of that vortex area. That's beautiful.

I love hearing how you've shifted into each role and shifted in your business too, and being able to learn how to pivot as well. And so through your career, you've been in corporate, you've been a business owner, and then now you've pivoted to Primarily online coaching and you've really grown your business. So what have all those roles taught you and how has that come together now that you're specifically doing the online coaching?

And to tack onto that, there was a time where you were entrepreneur and then you went in-house and worked for Mariah Cause. And then you stepped back and did your own thing again. So there's like, again, to pivot the W-2 to the contractor to the entrepreneur. Back to W-2. So walk us through that.

And then taking a 2-year sabbatical and then coming back. Yeah, guys, we've pivoted for sure. There's been a journey here. And I think the number one thing I've learned through it, I mean, I've been in this space for 10 years and made 15 pivots along the way probably. It's to relentlessly trust yourself and release control of the journey at every point. When I decided to go in-house, when I decided to leave that and go back and do my own thing or take a sabbatical or pivot industries, At every point, I had to have just a radical amount of trust in myself. And it doesn't mean I had that with ease, but I had to decide to trust myself and I had to really trust the bigger journey. And I've really adopted a belief time and time again, it's been proven of just like, I don't need to know the full destination. I don't need to know where this is going. I just need to know the next step. And I need to trust that if that next step is clear, take it and trust that then the next step will appear. And so that has really been my mentality with business as a lover of planning, as a Virgo rising who wants to control everything around me. I've had to totally let go of a 10-year plan. I have a vision for where I'm going and I'm open to it absolutely being bigger than I can see right now. But here's what I can see. I'm going to act one step at a time in alignment with that. And then as it evolves, it's going to evolve and we'll take a sidestep.

See why we love Megan? Truly.

I feel like we were talking about this on the last podcast of how I'm learning what it looks like to be in your feminine as a business owner. And I feel like you completely embody that. You're really trusting your intuition. You're like, this is where I'm supposed to go next. And I don't need to know the 10-year plan, but I'm going to dive into that. And I feel very inspired Because as someone who does need the 10-year plan and has healing from not needing the 10-year plan, I've taken the risk but taken it so scared and like, oh my gosh, it feels like I am diving so deep into it. And then year after year, the more that I do that, I feel like the trust goes up as well. So what would you say are some things that have helped build your self-trust or knowing when it's actually your inner voice? And your true self compared to maybe your fears or what other people have said about you?

Yeah. Well, I think one part of it is absolutely what you said. It's almost you have to take the action and then see that it works out. And if you do that enough times, you start to really believe that it will work out. I'm resilient. I'm a problem solver. The worst case scenario can happen. And guess what? I'm going to figure it out. We're going to then take another step. And so I think adopting that belief helped me at the beginning. And then as I've done that more and more times, now it's just obvious to me that that's the truth. I no longer have to convince myself of that being true. It just is my truth. So that's tremendously easier. But then as far as knowing when you're debating a pivot, is this actually my intuition or is this influenced externally or whatever? There's a series of things I evaluate and I do this with my clients as well when they're in this situation. It's Number one, like, what initiated this? Like, did someone send you an email? Did you see a comment? Did you see someone else? Like, was the trigger of this thought process external? That doesn't mean it's not the right choice, but I want to evaluate, like, where did this come from? Sometimes we get something reflected back to us and we're like, oh my God, we're going to pivot way over here. And even if it's like a good thing, sometimes we still need to check in on like, well, that actually what I want to do next? And so always checking in the source of these things. And then secondarily, it's like, how would you feel if you were doing this and it didn't go perfectly to plan? Even if it's as simple as launching a membership, it's like, okay, if you're going to have 5 people in the membership, are you still satisfied with the pricing and what's in it and how you're helping people and how you're serving people? Because it might just start out with 5 people. And so even though that's a very specific business example, Applying that to a larger pivot, like, are you okay when this starts at ground zero? Like, are you okay if this is how it starts and does it still feel worth it to you? And the answer should be yes if you're going to make the pivot. And then I think the other thing is just like how, like, what my friend Mariah, who you mentioned earlier, reflected something back to me that's really helped my mindset when I'm making decisions right now. Where she's like, if you could snap your fingers, this is going to be like a business example for me. If you could snap your fingers and you're the 7-figure entrepreneur, like 7 figures in a year version of you, and it's already happened, what is that? What are the offers? How are you making decisions? How are you thinking? And so that has provided such a grounded knowing in my next move, whether it's a pivot in my offer suite or my branding or how I show up. It's like, Oh, well, if I didn't have to go through the fear and go through the maybe it doesn't work, here I actually do exactly know what I want at the end and I can then move forward with a lot more certainty. So those are kind of the different things I evaluate when I'm either working with a client or debating a change for myself.

I love that framework. It also gives you the clarity of not being distracted or sucked into the sometimes guilt of what you think you should be doing. So if you are like jumping ahead and thinking of one year from now, I'm the 7-figure me or whatever, insert whatever dream or goal that you have for that vision. I feel like this has helped you not get caught up. I mean, now I've just known you as your friend for so long, like it's helped you not do things that you don't give a shit about.

Oh, for sure.

There's a lot of things that you're like, yeah, cool. Not for me. Not going to focus on that. Can you give us a couple of examples of how, and this is like your intuitive execution side, how that gives you the freedom to scratch or cut things that really you don't need to waste your time on?

Yeah. Well, like you said, with the shoulds of it all, I've definitely even recently had to deal with that of, I have all this experience and so I could help people with A, B, and C. So an example for me is I have tons of online marketing experience. And so a lot of my clients want to work on an email sequence, for example. I can do that. Have done it a million times. Can do it. Good at it. And I don't want to do it. I can do it and in the right circumstances it can light me up. But as a general comparison of the things that Let's talk about it, right? Like that vibe of like, oh my God, I can't wait to help you with this. Email sequences, like, don't bring that for me. And so I've had a real moment recently where, um, like, that's not something I have to do. I don't have to originate that with you. So instead, with my clients, um, like, they can bring it to me and I will refine and edit and make it better, but I don't need to sit there and be like, okay, well, let's do 7 emails. and let's do it this many days apart and let's do this. And a big freeing moment for me was just being like, that's a thing I can do. And sometimes I have felt like I should offer as a business coach, but just being able to free myself of like, that's not serving anyone. That doesn't light me up. That doesn't— it's not going to be a bad experience, but it's just not my highest level of serving you. Whereas we could absolutely talk about 90 other things. that I can't shut up about that are my zone of genius, that are my gift. And honestly just had to have a conversation with my mentor about that where I kind of got this permission slip I didn't need, but kind of needed where it was just like, you don't have to do that. You don't have to meet everyone's needs across the board. You can really show up in your zone of genius and specialize in that. And that actually serves people so much better. so much better. And so I think having that reflected back to me was a huge ability for me to just release some of that. And then the other thing I was going to say too, I don't even know if I'm answering your actual question here, but we're trusting the intuition. We're answering things in my brain.

This is intuitive execution.

My intuition's like, they need to know this. So we're going to tell them. The other way I've been thinking about this, we talked about the snap your fingers, where are you in the future vibe? I'm my whole movement right now is being your most iconic self. And there's so much wrapped up into that, the self-trust, the audacity, the boldness, the being public and just having audacity is like my— just having the freaking audacity to do whatever you want to do shamelessly.

Yeah.

And so I'm always like, what would my most iconic self do? Would my most iconic self care about someone's perception? Like, okay, I'm changing my membership structure. Would my most iconic self be worried about how people are going to perceive that when I know it's in the highest good of everyone? No. No. She does it anyways because we also know it will work out.

Yeah.

So even if someone's unhappy, it's going to work out however it needs to work out because we will be a 7-figure business owner. This will be a big part of the business and it's just going to work out. And so I've been like, would my most iconic self hesitate about dyeing her hair back brown? No, she just dyes her hair brown. She just gets red nails. She just goes and does the thing. She just whips open her camera and records a reel while she's on a walk. Even if it's not the perfect piece of content, even if maybe it's not the most efficient hook or blah, blah, blah, right? She just does the damn thing. And that's the energy I'm super locked into right now. And it feels like a culmination of the entire journey. Like at every step, I've been increasing the confidence, learning how to tap into the feminine energy of it all and balance that with the masculine, which is the intuitive execution framework that you were talking about. And just finding that duality and embracing it instead of it being a point of tension.

Oh, I love this. I feel like so many entrepreneurs really struggle with imposter syndrome and what to do next and listening to a million podcasts on great input, but maybe not the right input for you. And this sounds like the perfect recipe for dealing with imposter syndrome is like, what would your most iconic self do in this position? How do we turn down the volume on some of those things and then up it in other ways? And something that I love is not just hearing that you are so intuitive with your business, but also how you have the proof that it's worked for you and that you've actually grown your business the point that you've dreamt of before, probably. So from your perspective, what did it take to grow your business from the 6 figures to $1 million in revenue? And what was that shift? What permissions did you have to give yourself to be able to get there and cross some maybe mental barriers as well?

Yeah.

Well, I want to tack onto this really quick because about 3 weeks ago, You shared on social media, I am X dollars away from $1 million in revenue. And you let people know. And then you drove like $60K in 2 weeks because people wanted to help you hit your $1 million in revenue. So it's like, tell us everything.

Well, it took me 10 years. You know, we've talked about all these pivots. And so I think that's a part of my story that at first I had a lot of like ego self-judgment around. You hear all these sexy stories on the internet of like, I made 7 figures in the first 3 days of starting my business. And you're like, cool. I didn't. Love that for people. And I totally think that's a possibility portal for all of us. But for me, it's taken 10 years. And so I've taken a 2-year sabbatical. I've joined teams full-time. I've made a lot of pivots. And so I really feel like my journey has been a lot of learning the lessons. Like getting caught up in the perfectionism, getting caught up in following the cookie-cutter formula of everyone else. And I feel like I spent the majority of my business career thinking that everyone had a magic pill secret that I didn't have. And I was buying course after course trying to find it, book after book trying to find the secret. What's that one thing I need to know that I'm missing? And literally feel like in the past year is when I've truly to my core let that go. But the whole journey up until now, I think the thing that really slowed me down or had all the rough patches where I did doubt myself or did whatever, it was all rooted in this, someone else knows more than me. Someone else has the secret that I don't have. And I think that's what disconnected me from my intuition for a very long time. It wasn't until I had my first miscarriage where I actually went through a whole spiritual journey reconnecting to that side of me. But even at the beginning of that, there was that fear, that thought, that always seeking, searching for some solution, I think really slowed me down and held me back in a lot of ways because I wasn't trusting myself. I was dealing with imposter syndrome on and off. And I think working through those things were key, just really starting to look around and be like, No one has some secret pill solution. The people who are out there doing the thing that you look up to, who, uh, that you want a business like, or that you want to have money like, or whatever, um, they are literally just winging it. And like, they are just making the best choice that they can make with what they have. And really, the difference isn't necessarily their strategy, it's that they're like fucking doing it.

Mm-hmm.

It's that they're actually consistently doing it, and they're doing it when it's hard, and they're doing it when there's crickets. And they have the resilience. And that's where I was like, I'm waffling. I'll launch something and have a great launch, but then I shift and do something else, or I don't turn that evergreen, or I wasn't really playing that level of a game. My commitment wasn't really as in it as it is now. And that's why now I can share publicly, oh, I'm $10K away from my first million, or I'm $1K away or whatever. And That's terrifying for sure to be that vulnerable. And also it's like an adrenaline rush, which is cool, but it's like, it's an embracing of my story, but it's also this like, I'm playing big. Like the people I look around me who have been in it for 10 years, like why am I not where they are? Whatever. All those thoughts you could dig into. It's like my journey's been different. And also I'm in it for real now. Like the commitment's really there. The level of commitment is like, oh yeah, I can have a 12-month program because obviously we're going to be doing this in 12 years or 12 months, not 12 years, 12 months. It's like, obviously we're in it. And so there's just been this really fundamental shift of not just hoping this is going to work, not just hoping people buy, not just like, I hope someone likes this or I hope this resonates. And into like, I know it will. I know that this is what's going to happen and I'm going to act like it now. And you mentioned the wave of sales that came in from it. I mean, 100%, the moment I declared what my goals were, I'm making $50K a month, I'm making a million in a year next year. Not only were people on board with it, but I found that it activated my people. It allowed everyone else who's been in business for a long time and either has become a mom and taken a step back or has pivoted a million times or hasn't had that skyrocket growth in 4 days journey to see it's still possible for them too. And really my story wouldn't be so impactful if it hadn't taken 10 years. And then now my new story gets to be like, yeah, we're 10x-ing it. We went 10 years for the first million and we're going to do the next million in one year. And that's ridiculous and we're doing it. So that's fun. It's a whole new level of audacity.

I think too, the common thread of this, and I love the transparency of it taking 10 years because Megan, you and I have been in this entrepreneurial world for a long time and in SaaS and working with 6, 7, 8, 9-figure entrepreneurs. And There is a normalization of making a lot of money in a very short time. And Astrid, even like now being a full-time entrepreneur, you and I see and talk about this all the time of like, we see ads, we see all these like, you can make money like this, like snap your fingers and you can make money.

Yeah.

And there's an interesting like bridge of like, yes, and I want that for everybody. And also the reality, and I love that you're bringing this into the conversation, Megan, is that it does take time. It does take knowing yourself, being audacious, being your most iconic self, putting and declaring your goals publicly. It takes so much more than just launching something and hoping people buy. And so I feel like your story is so important and it's the story of a lot of untold entrepreneurs who feel seen in your journey. And I'm so glad that you're telling it this way and that you feel confident to stand up and like, this is my experience and here's where we're blowing it up in the next year. And I know you and I have had lots of lunches over the last 2 years. I mean, you know a lot about stuff I've been going through and vice versa. And I think to see you step into this most iconic version of yourself is like such a gift to witness. But also like you're now pouring into us and you're now pouring into other women who are figuring out what their most iconic self is. So I'm just so fucking proud of you. And I know we're in the middle of the interview, but I was just like, I'm just so proud of you to be able to witness this in you.

Well, thank you. It means a lot. And I think it's been an interesting journey to be on, even recently just sharing these things, because there is a sense of like, oh, I'm talking about money. And I don't want to add to the whole dialogue that that can The whole thing that can make you feel bad sometimes. And so there's some of that resistance too of like, well, I don't want to add to that. But that's where I think it's equal parts important to acknowledge the journey it took to get here while then also simultaneously being a voice of activation that this is possible for you too. And I feel like one of the things I'm really proud of, that's one of my core values is I don't have the magic pill for you either. You have the magic pill in you. And my greatest service and my favorite thing to do as a coach is to pull it out of you, is to listen to your voice memo and be like, that right there that you just said, that was gold. And that's your thing. The thing you don't even realize that you've normalized internally is just like, obviously this is part of my way I do things. And you're like, whoa, that's incredible. That's so unique. That's what I love being able to pull out of people. It's not that I have some 10-part launch strategy that someone needs to know. You can launch a million ways. You can do podcasts, you can do YouTube, it can work. You can do Instagram, you can do TikTok, it can work. You can do none of it and do Pinterest and blogging, it can work. And the thing is, you just have to choose based on what you know and your own strengths and commit and then do it all the way and just let it ride its course and play the long game. And that's tough in today's day and age with TikTok and social media and seeing that it can happen fast. Sometimes it can make you feel like something's wrong if it's not happening that fast. In reality, it's just like, that's the journey you're on and it takes time for most people.

That's so good. From your experience coaching and your own experience with your business as well, if someone is listening and say they're a 6-figure entrepreneur, They're feeling burnt out. Their business is working, it's paying the bills and it's doing relatively good, but they want more work-life balance. They want to be able to peel back and they want to grow to a level to which you are now. What would be your biggest advice to them?

Yeah. Well, you're speaking about most of my clients who are working with me right now. They're moms doing the same thing. They don't want to sacrifice their quality time. They want to be there when the school calls and the kid is sick. They wanna be able to be there. They wanna be there at the International Day Parade like I was last week. And like, they wanna be doing both. Most of my clients are like, I'm working 10 hours a week or less. Like, we're 20 hours a week or less. Like, we're not just part-time, we're like very part-time. And I love that constraint. And I think that's how I like to view it is it's actually like a huge asset of constraint and like forced focus and forced intentionality. Because if you're going to come to me and things are working, but you're burned out and we want to make a change, well, guess what? We're making some changes and we have to first like, yes, we are making changes. And then we look at what's going on. We do a little bit of an audit. Where is our, I'm a big monthly recurring revenue gal. I think it's important to not start each month from zero if you're going to get out of burnout cycles. And so that would be my style is to work on where are your offers where we can bring in monthly recurring revenue? Is it high touch? Is it group coaching? Is it memberships? Where are we playing? So I'm always going to start with offers and making sure the offers— most people that come to me are overdelivering and undercharging. And so focusing on that for sure. But you just got to make the changes, I think, is the— a lot of people know coming to me what changes they want to make. And for some reason they've just been really resistant to making them. So sometimes we're working through that as well. But It's all a battle of not essentialism, like you can only do one thing, but it's like an analogy that's been really resonating with my people lately is this idea of when you go to the gym and you are working out for the first time, you can't just pick up a 50-pound weight and do bicep curls. You've got to pick up the 5-pound weights and you've got to do that a million times and then you pick up the 10-pound weights. And so with marketing, which is usually the biggest time suck for most people, where's our lightest weight that we can just start putting reps in with? Is it Instagram? Is it Threads? Is it whatever? Is it TikTok? Let's just do that and let's focus and build in the reps there. And then as you get better at that, we'll pick up a heavier weight and layer in something else or shift the strategy a bit. But it's a lot of just like, Okay. Let's do TikTok and start posting there. Let's just get the ball rolling.

I want to talk about, I love this too, by the way, really helpful analogy and visualization. I want to talk a little bit about offer strategy because for especially our side hustle girlies, maybe they're still working a career, building a career, but they want to earn extra income on the side, whether just to have an extra revenue stream or they want to Potentially go full-time. Similar to your clients who are moms that want to work like 10, 15, 20 hours. Again, that time constraint. How do you build an offer that you don't need a ton of clients? You don't need to work a ton of hours. The pricing has to be probably right. And there has to be something in the offer that makes it high quality. So just walk us through offer strategy for people who don't have a ton of time. But want to earn extra income?

Yeah, it's services. And that's going to maybe sound counterintuitive in today's day and age. Everyone's like, download Canva and make a workbook and sell it for $10 and you'll make millions.

You have to have volume though for that to work.

Exactly. That's the volume game. And so that's not the game I recommend people start playing with in this situation, side hustlers or not. I say you start with high ticket. And high ticket to you starting out may mean something different than high ticket means to you 6 months later. But services, one-on-one, high-touch services. The reason is you don't need volume. You can get 3 clients and replace your salary. You can do, and you can do that in whatever hours you got. If you're working from home, you have a lot more flexibility to do it on a lunch break or to work it in normal days. If you're working a corporate job like I was when I started, Your lunch break, you're in your car on the phone with a coaching client or a client doing a sales call. And then you go home and right at 5:30 you do one little client thing. But I think you're smart about how you structure it. When I did design services and virtual assistant, I was very transparent about like, this is when I'm available. And all my clients knew I was working a full-time job. So I wasn't like trying to pretend. that I was available 9 to 5. I'm not. I will be available 5 to 8 and cool, send me stuff whenever. That's when I'm working. And so I think just being transparent about that took off a lot of pressure for me. And then I was like, I can do one call during my lunch hour in my car. And it was a sales call sometimes or a kickoff call with a client, but I was structuring my service. And that's what I recommend too is where it didn't need a lot more than that. I could do most of the work asynchronously on my own time, whatever that looked like. And so for my clients who come to me now who maybe do things like coaching or teaching of some kind, or even done-for-you services, we're not going to do a ton of calls. You're going to have as little calls as we can make it make sense. And some of my clients were doing totally asynchronous high-ticket services. Some of my ongoing clients right now, we just talk in Telegram. And they might live in Australia or across the world or have a full-time job or just be a mom who doesn't want to be like at her computer at 10:00 AM. And so in today's day and age, it's really easy and a lot more normal, I think, to set up your services where you can do the work kind of on your own time. And so that's absolutely my recommendation because you don't need a lot of people. My first design clients were people I knew.

Hmm.

Like my sorority sister who was starting a business or my friend of a friend who needed website. And so sometimes it's just telling the people in your world, this is what I do. These are my prices. We're getting started. You get the ball rolling and you get testimonials and you keep increasing your prices and you go from there.

I like that there's not one, again, and you mentioned this earlier, there's no magic pill, but there's no right way to run a service business. There's no like, this is the one pricing strategy. This is what you have to offer. It's like, I love that even you're saying you coach clients through Telegram, sending voice notes back and forth, and you're not always getting on calls. Oh wow, I didn't even know that coaching could be like that. There's so many ways to structure a business, an offer, a package in a way that suits you and suits your client. And I love that.

Well, and that breeds the innovation. And this is something too, when it comes to your most iconic self, or a lot of the reasons people get stuck stuck is because they think something has to look a certain way. This is the box I'm supposed to play in. This is how people do it. And like, your biggest secret to success is innovating. And so if you are a long-form girly in a short-form world, guess what? Be a long-form girly. People will love it. It will make you stand out. Like, if you hate writing, stop fucking writing. Just do video. Like, get on a podcast. Like, do whatever, right? And so I think it's also Like allowing those things to be not only okay, but like your magic sauce and just being like, that thing that feels wrong is actually my greatest asset and my greatest secret to innovating and standing out. I could have a narrative that being a mom is making business so hard and I can't do it and it makes everything harder. But no, being a mom is actually amplifying what I'm really good at. It's making me a better business owner and it's making me show up way more powerfully in a shorter amount of time. And so are you looking at your full-time job as a detriment when really it's giving you the greatest source of focus and also financial, like no financial pressure, which is a huge gift? Sometimes people make the jump and are in a financial pickle, and that is a recipe for burnout and unsatisfaction. And so I think— Using your constraints and using what is unique to you as an actual secret to success is a huge, huge thing people should tap into.

You've really unlocked this for me because at one of our lunches, I was talking about wanting to share more online and you're like, why don't you just talk more about your job? Your job is interesting. People want to know more about it. And I'm like, oh, I guess I could. And I love it now. And I get like a lot of great engagement and people wanting to know more about my job. And you even just saying like, why don't you just share more about what you do? Like, oh, okay. Not just like lifestyle, not just travel, but like share your career self. People want to see that as well. And I think sometimes when you're starting out, you like want to hide or like, well, people won't find that as interesting. It's like, well, actually that thing that you thought people wouldn't want to know is the thing that people connect with most. So I love that you zero in on doing things differently. Any last business questions from you, Astrid, before we switch to a girly chat?

No, I actually wanted to ask one on motherhood, so this is perfect. Okay, great.

Go ahead.

Oh, I am just so curious because I am nearing 30 and I definitely see myself becoming a mom in hopefully the next 5 years or so. And I cannot imagine having kids with my workflow right now, to be completely transparent. And I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs probably have that workload. And I love your messaging around motherhood and still being very much a business owner. And you've grown your business to $1 million being a mom, which is so impressive. And so from your perspective, like, What has unlocked for you mentally, emotionally, and even tactically in what you do in your business to make both things happen to balance? Do you just do it by seasons or do you just cap at certain hours per day and then jump into motherhood? What has that all looked like? And for our entrepreneurs that are mothers, what are some of your tips for them?

Is that Peaches?

Is that Peaches and Honey?

Peaches and Honey, my old, my old little yappy dogs. They do the cliché mailman at the door, can't stop barking at him. Sorry. Okay, so I love this question because a lot of the women I work with are also either preparing for motherhood or trying to get pregnant or are pregnant or new moms. And it is 100% Transformation becoming a motherhood. There's actually a phrase for it called matrescence, which I did not learn until I was postpartum, and it was the most freeing word for me to ever learn because just like adolescence happens, matrescence is like a new stage of life and development that happens. And I think a lot of women feel it, and it feels like, why do I feel so different? And so just learning the word matrescence is like an actual thing that happens is very like empowering. empowering and freeing. And so number one, that happens. You will, you just change and it's a beautiful empowering transformation. I've never been more grounded in who I am and solid in my priorities than I have been as a mother. But it's also not uncommon for business stuff to have to evolve as well. And so I think some of those transitions for me is I have mom mode now that I— so I've had childcare, which makes a huge difference. There are a lot of moms out there who don't and Those days are hard when I've tried to do the working mom with no childcare thing. So please know I have childcare and that is key for me because it allows me to come into my business and be fully present and then step into mom mode and be fully present in mom mode. And so that structure works really well for me. So right now, my nanny's here taking care of my newborn. My 2 big kids are in Montessori and I'm able to just be here. If my school calls, guess what? Peace out. Interview's done. But we get to be here and then I'm a better mom when I'm in mom mode. So for me, I typically view it like I'm in mom mode or not. When I am in mom mode, sometimes I'll still Telegram with clients and stuff because that's part of why I love setting up my business the way it is where I can do that if I want to. But I have had to shift things. And so I think when it comes to what that's going to look like for you, it's Very specific based on do you have childcare or not, and what does your support system look like at home or not. My husband is absolutely an equal partner. If we're dealing with a lack of partnership support or a lack of childcare, the conversation looks a little different. We can still make it work, but we're, we're like very, very, very focused. If you have support, it gets a lot— I don't want to say easier, but easier to plan around and make changes. So like when you— To ask you a question. When you're thinking about how your workflow would have to change, what are some things that you're— do you have fears or hesitations or what would actually— tell me more.

Yeah. It just feels like right now I'm working a lot of hours in my business and it's pivoted to where now I have a team and I'm trying to grow the business to a point where 5 years from now, if I need to take a step back, then I can. I have that freedom to do so. But even the back end of it, of handling those clients that my team shoots, I still, it's very hands-on too. Yeah. So that makes it really challenging on my end.

Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense for you. If we were having a coaching session, we would go much deeper on this, but in general, I would be looking at like, what are, who's doing what, how is that working? How is the process working? Because usually there are some ways we can either Reset who's doing what, or even just reset the communication structure.

Mm-hmm.

So oftentimes I have clients who have team members where the process behind the scenes is, I don't wanna say overcomplicated, but it can be simplified and it can be done differently. And then a big lever we often pull is boundaries. A lot of times we need to reset timelines with clients, reset boundaries with team and clients. And there's a lot of different levers you can pull there that often when we kind of like let 'em slide, like, oh, my turnaround time is really, really fast. Or I'm like responding to clients or whoever in the middle of the night or whenever I want to. And it's often when we set in those boundaries, not only does it help from a time angle, but it also really positions you as like the authority. And people love boundaries. People love when you set them. So those would be some of the things we would look at. I think it's very different for what you do as a photographer than where you're traveling and doing things in person? Because that's really— you're talking about your photography business, right?

Yes, yes, yes.

Yeah. So that's like definitely something you'd have a deeper strategic conversation on. It's totally possible. So many women out there do both. And I think it's just about what are your shooting days? Are you willing to travel or not? What kind of support happens? And making those decisions in advance. And then for some of my women who do purely online remote stuff, The conversation looks a lot more like boundaries and communication style and tech and things like that.

Yeah.

But it's definitely a shift. And it's honestly though, like I've, I was afraid to become a mom and what influence it would have on my business. And I did take a sabbatical after becoming a mom because I felt like at that time I was hearing, and this isn't that no one was doing it, but no one in my world was an entrepreneur and a mom. And no one in my world was talking about how to do this.

Yeah.

I was either just seeing people were doing it and somehow doing it perfectly, or they were without children. And so I felt very isolated in my journey of becoming a mom as a business owner. And I felt like I had no idea how to navigate it. And so that's why when I came back to business last year, I was like, I'm going to really help moms do this. because I feel like there's a gap in the space of like just even having a place to dialogue about it is so— I didn't have that. I was like, I don't— is what I'm feeling normal or not? Like, no one can tell me. No one can help me brainstorm this. Um, and so I think when I look back, I think there were probably places I could have plugged in that could have helped that transformation for me, but I, I didn't know. So I plugged out. I unplugged. Um, And nowadays, all my clients who come into, whether it's the Iconic Mastermind or Legendary or whatever, they're like, so many people here have kids under 4. Wow. This feels incredible. We can just talk about it. Oh, I've got school pickup, or I've got to go breastfeed. Or what do you do when your kid's waking up in the middle of the night? And it's a normal conversation. So that's part of, I think, why I do what I do is To bridge that gap.

Yeah.

Wow. We need so much representation in that area because honestly, I don't think I realized that I, my brain was shifting to when I have kids, I will peel back in my business until I was prepping for this podcast and I was getting to know more about you as well. And I was like, wow, like your content was very inspiring and also kind of shine a light to an area of my life where We only see either the burnt out mom in business or the mom that quit her business because she wants to be a full-time mom. And those are all great options too. But I love having this representation of someone that scaled their business while being a mom, while still being intentional and present. And I think more women need to hear this because it's so inspiring.

Yeah. I'm so glad. I mean, I think that's part of what we were talking about of leaning into what makes you different. I was nervous. We just talked about how I started talking about money more recently in my business. I felt like when I came back to business, I was never doing the mothering is hard con. I was never plugging into that. But I definitely felt like I had to be relatable. And I had this moment a few months ago where I was like, well, my ambition isn't relatable. Not every mom entrepreneur— I see on the internet mom entrepreneurs who want to work 3 hours a week selling digital products or who don't want a big business. They want a small business that pays the bills. And again, totally great. But I was having a real transformation of like, I want it all. I want to make millions. It sounds so fun. Why would I not? Let's just do it. I always had this huge vision and ambition before kids. Why stop now? And I think I had a real moment a few months ago Where I was like, I no longer need— I don't need to be relatable. And I really was starting to talk about my goals thinking that people were going to be turned off by it. And I've been blown away by how many people have come out of the woodworks who are like, I feel seen now. I also want to make millions. I want to make hundreds of thousands of dollars a month and be a badass mom. And let's fucking do this.

Yeah.

And it's like, yeah, okay, that's what we're doing here. And So tapping into this is actually who I am and what I want and talking about it and risking being unrelatable was actually one of the biggest things that's kicked off a new wave of momentum for me. Wow. I'm so inspired. That was incredible.

Yes. Thank you.

This has been such a— I think both Astrid and I will reflect on this conversation a lot in the years to come. And just thank you for what Astrid said, the representation of there's a lot of different ways to be a business owner. A lot of different ways to be a mom and this beautiful blend of the two. I have just loved being your friend and watching your own metamorphosis over the last couple of years. Where can people follow you and hire you and work with you and learn from you?

Yeah, definitely follow me on Instagram @meghannminnsking. That's the lightweight I'm lifting right now is I'm big on Instagram. I'm always on Instagram stories. You're going to be in the loop on what I'm doing and what I'm working on if you follow me on Instagram. And you'll get to see little glimpses of my kids or me holding a baby recording a reel. So get to see it all.

I love it. We'll have that linked up in the show notes. Megan, you're a badass. We love you. Thank you for being on the In Between Pod. Um, yeah, well, I can't wait for this to come out and hear how this impacts women all around the world. So thank you so much.